Preaching of Peace

Please stand for the reading of God's word. Today's Old Testament reading is Isaiah 52, 7 to 15. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns.

The voice of your watchmen, they lift up their voice. Together they sing for joy. For eye to eye, they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing. You waste places of Jerusalem.

For the Lord has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations. And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Depart, depart.

Go out from here. Touch no unclean thing. Go out from the midst of her. Purify yourselves. You who bear the vessel to the Lord. For you shall not go out in haste. And you shall not go in flight. For the Lord will go before you.

And the God of Israel will be your rear guard. Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.

So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him. For that which has not been told them, they see. And that which they have not heard, they understand.

The New Testament reading comes from the book of Romans chapter 10, which is page 946. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandment shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven?

That is to bring Christ down. Or who will descend into the abyss? That is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim.

Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified. And with the mouth, one confesses and is saved.

For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they come? How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel.

For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed, they have, for their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.

But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation, I will make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me.

I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me. But of Israel, he says, all day long, I've held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.

Please be seated.

Opening Prayer for the Bereaved

With that being said, I ask that you would open up your Bibles to Ephesians chapter two. And in fact, before I even read, let me go ahead and pray for Calvin and Kara in that situation specifically that they're going through right now.

Oh God in heaven, you are a God of all comforts, Lord. You are not a God of just some comforts. You're not a God who lacks power to comfort us in all things. But God, it is clear from your word that you are a God of all comfort.

And that means even in the hardest of situations that we find ourselves in, you are a God who has declared himself able and you do comfort us in our affliction. And so God, I pray that this is the truth that both Calvin and Kara and those who are involved more closely with the situation, I'm praying that the whole family, everyone grabs hold of that truth.

I'm so thankful that the Pazma family is one in which they know the gospel. I'm thankful that Becca and Tim have been faithful to proclaim this gospel message to their children and that their children are walking obediently to the Lord because of their labors used as a means.

And so I pray God that this would prove to be a time in which Calvin, lead and his wife, would as a family look to Jesus in a time of distress and sadness. Oh God in heaven, we know that sadness is an emotion that you've given to us for proper use.

And so Lord, may they point their grief towards the cross, the hope of eternal life, the one Jesus Christ has came to conquer such death. So may there be tears, may there be sadness, but I pray God that they would be sad as those who are filled with hope because of what Jesus Christ has done.

And so may you surround both Calvin and Kara with these speakers of truth so that they can hear your truth in light of, they can hear the gospel in light of this situation and so that you will carry them through so that they know that their God is a God who can and does comfort them in all grief.

Thank you for being this kind of God for us. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so we will continue on in Ephesians chapter two. I'll begin reading for context in verse 11 and we'll end, I'll stop reading it at 22, but we'll really focus just on two verses on 17 and 18.

So let us read the word of the Lord together. Chapter two, verse 11 of Ephesians. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, you were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and so therefore you're strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through Jesus we both have access in one spirit to the father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but rather you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. Oh God in heaven, here's your word opened up to us. And we see the topic of discussion of this unity that Jesus has brought is that he has spread this kingdom by the preaching of his word of peace.

And so we continue that legacy even now with the preaching of peace. May we, Lord, hear it and listen. And may it be, Father, truth. And may it have its way in our hearts that draws us to Jesus in unity as it drew the Gentiles and Jews together in unity to create the church of Christ.

May it draw us in unity together as we see that this is exactly what Jesus Christ has come to do. So we thank you, Father, for this great kingdom at our disposal. May we not have hard hearts, may we not turn our backs to it, but may we respond in repentance and belief upon this king, this savior of the world.

The Kingdom of Christ Displayed in Daniel's Vision

He is good and rich and merciful. And his mercies is for all who call upon him. Also may we all be those who confess the name of Jesus together. And may he be praised in us. In Jesus' name, amen. I was reading through this week in my own study time, I was reading through the prophet Daniel.

And really, it's a really interesting way that that book starts with the prophet Daniel. Can you imagine he being over in Babylon and being one of the wise men, so to speak, one of the people there that were relied upon by the emperor, by the king, to interpret dreams, to interpret things that was hard for him to understand and to give him understanding.

And can you imagine Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that really alerts him, that scares him, and he wants these wise men to tell him the interpretation. And that's pretty typical. But in Daniel, we have a situation where he says, no, not just tell me the interpretation, but I want you to tell me the dream itself.

And this is something that everyone around him was saying, no one can do this, no one expects this from us. But yet here, the emperor, the king, he was saying, no, I want you to tell me the dream itself so I know that you tell me the dream, I know that you can tell me the interpretation.

And of course, no one could, but there's a man named Daniel, who he says, and I find it fascinating, he says before he even receives this revelation by God, he says that, tell the king, tell him, that I'll talk to him about this and I'll tell the interpretation.

This is even before he has it. And of course, that night, after speaking with his friends and fellowshipping and asking for prayer, he has received this revelation of what this dream was. And this dream was of an image of a man who had a head of fine gold and chest and arms of silver, middle and thighs area of bronze and legs of iron and feet with iron and clay.

And this is the dream that he had. It was such a visual to Nebuchadnezzar that it frightened him. And that was the dream, and Daniel gives the interpretation of it, that these are empires. These are kingdoms that will come and rise.

The head of fine gold was Babylon, the one that was in power now. The chest and arms of silver were the Persians that were coming soon. The middle and thighs of bronze was Greece and the legs of iron would be Rome.

Of course, he doesn't say that explicitly, but he says these are kingdoms that were coming. But there's another thing that happens in the dream, and that is a stone cut out by no human hand would come and destroy it.

And the stone cut out with no human hand proved to be another kingdom that's like the other ones, but yet very different. And this kingdom was made without hands, without humanity, but rather it was a completely divine kingdom.

This is the kingdom of Christ. And it's very fascinating to see the kingdom of Christ displayed and how much similarity, yet different it is with the kingdom of man. And as we've seen in Ephesians 2, Christ, everything centers on the God-man, Jesus Christ.

He is the king and all things are to go to him and all things are going to be unified to him. And that kingdom is not different than the other kingdoms of man in which they desired to have power and to unify all things to themselves.

This is no different from other kingdoms of the world that Christ's kingdom will unify all things to himself. But what makes it different, what makes Christianity destroy the other kingdoms is that Christ does not spread his kingdom by a physical sword in the hand.

But instead, Christ spreads his kingdom by the sword coming forth from his mouth. The preaching of the word, as we'll see in verse 17. You see, all kingdoms have something in common that they have a power structure, right?

They have a powerful nucleus, whether it's a major city, rivers that make it resourceful, whatever it is, they have a powerful system that they have that they then exploit to then spread their kingdom by force with the sword by and large.

That's what we see throughout history. But this powerful nucleus of Christ is not two running rivers that flow with great resources. It's not anything of the physical in that realm, but we talked about the nucleus, the source of Christ's kingdom, is the fact that he did not come with such pomp and display and this great display of his power, but instead, in Philippians, the source of his power is found in Philippians 2, verse 6, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but rather he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

That's the power of Christ's kingdom, very much different from other kingdoms. Indeed, it has a power structure to it, but it's a different kind of power structure of one who is a servant who dies for his people.

And in his death for his people, these people are then unified, as we learned in Ephesians 2, to be unified or at peace with the Father. And so this kingdom is made of making people unified with the Father through his death.

That is the nucleus of the power of Jesus and his kingdom. If you remember, we read in Ephesians 2, verse 14, for he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments, expressing ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in the place of two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God, Jew and Gentile, all people to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

You see, this is the kingdom of Christ, that he has came and died for his people. And he would spread this and unify a people reconciled to the Father. This is the power nucleus of the kingdom of Christ.

This is there, centered. But you see, if there's no spread, there has to be a means for the spread to happen. You know, you can have all the power in the world just hanging up somewhere, but there's no ability for that to go forth throughout, then that power is useless.

Think about all the fruit we see raised up and ready to be taken by the farmers in the field. If there's no farmer to take that fruit, that produce, and bring it in, or the fruit from the field, then it becomes useless.

There can be all the power in the world, but if there's no means to spread that power throughout, then it becomes useless. Well, you see, the means that God has ordained to spread the power of Christ's kingdom that he has won by his blood is, verse 17, and he came and he preached.

I'm sorry, you guys are right there, spit just coming at you.

You just gotta dodge it.

The Nature of Preaching Peace

This preaching is the God-ordained means to spread this powerful nucleus of forgiveness of sins unified in the Father to everyone, Jew and Gentile alike. You see, the spread of Christ's kingdom, again, similar to other kingdoms, right?

Every kingdom has a desire to spread. We see that, and it's typically, in fact, always by a sword coming out, ready to physically destroy anyone who gets in the way. But you see, Jesus spreads his kingdom by a sword as well, but it's not one coming out of the sheath, but it's one coming out of the mouth of our blessed Savior, the one of preaching the word of peace.

In verse 17, the means of the spread of the kingdom is that he has came, not just to die on the cross, although that is the nucleus of the power of this kingdom, this death that reconciles the people to the Father.

This is a nucleus, but he also came, and it says in verse 17, and preached peace. This is the spread of the kingdom. Jesus established a kingdom in power, and its spread was with the sword too, coming out of his mouth.

Have you ever noticed, have you ever noticed the emphasis, the emphasis on preaching Jesus showed when he came? When Jesus came to earth, and he established his kingdom, what was the first thing he did, right?

He gets baptized, he gets tempted to show that he's a greater Adam, right? And then what is the first thing he goes and he preaches? He goes and he preaches the word of peace. Now, whenever we hear that he preached peace, in our own day and age, when we hear words like peace, love, unity, it gets liberalized, it gets turned into an ugly monster that's not actually biblical.

And so when we hear preach peace, we can hear Jesus was kind of not very powerful in his preaching, he didn't want to ruffle any feathers, he didn't want to offend anyone, he just wanted to be a peaceful guy, kind of like a hippie Jesus.

That's what he means by what it means to preach peace, so that anytime a preacher goes up and offends someone, they say, well, you're not being like Jesus, he preached peace. But we gotta understand what it means to preach peace.

Preach, by its very definition, is authoritative proclamation. It's not weak, it's not loosey-goosey, it is authoritative, it is a proclamation for all to hear, and it's with authority. But the authority doesn't come from the speaker, it comes from the fact that it is the word of truth, it is the word of God, it is the word of peace.

It is authoritative because the source of it is not humanity, but the source of it is divinity. And so we gotta understand that preaching peace is not some kind of let you go as you please, just I wanna make you feel good about yourself, but it's authoritative proclamation of God's word.

But of course, in that word preach, it has eugelion in there, which means good news. And so the idea is, there's that peace, it's authoritative, it's that bold proclamation, but mixed in that is the good news of God that you can be at peace with him.

And so the eye that the preacher has on preaching is not to make people feel bad of itself, but to preach the good news that you can be with the Father in heaven. But what's stopping that from happening is your sin.

God deals with sin always, and he is not happy with sin ever. And so when we're talking about the peace you can have with the Father, we must talk about the fact that your sin keeps you from the Father.

Yes, the thing that you want to cuddle up with because you are convinced in your deception that it is good for you. You must turn away from that. You see, this peace that we preach is not a, well, just be comfortable with yourself.

It is no, you must repent of your sin and look to the Father who he has made a way through the Son. You see, preaching peace is offensive to our flesh. It is an authoritative proclamation of the good news that you have a way to turn away from the sin that you love so much by turning to Jesus instead.

This is exactly, again, Matthew 4, 17. Remember, this is how Jesus opens up his ministry. In chapter 4, 17, you have, you have the word of God says, from that time Jesus began his ministry and he began to preach, saying what?

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven, good news, is at hand. You see, the good news mixed in with, but you need to turn from your sin. And so the good news is only available for the people that take it as good news, and we'll get to later, the spirit working in them.

But the spirit who's not working in them to be told to repent from the sin that you love, oh, that's deeply offensive. But you gotta understand that this is what the peace that the Bible has in mind. Peace does not mean a total ceasing of conflict.

Peace does not mean a total ceasing from conflict, of conflict. And so therefore, if you're preaching peace and someone responds in their sin, there's not gonna be a ceasing of conflict. Or if someone does respond to the preaching of the good news in repenting of their sins, there's now going to be conflict with their sin.

It does not mean a ceasing of conflict. Why do you think Jesus said in Matthew 10, 34, do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. Because he came to end sin in you and in the world, and he will not be satisfied until all is done in eternity.

He will not be satisfied until all sin is done in you, beloved. As he works that repentance of that going away from sin through the sword that comes forth from his mouth, the word of peace. So peace does not mean a ceasing of conflict, but it means conflict directed at an appropriate area.

You see, without Christ, you are in conflict because of sin against God. But through the Lord Jesus Christ, the conflict now gets reorganized or reoriented towards sin because it keeps you from the Father.

And nothing will keep you from the Father when you are in Christ. So it doesn't mean the peace that we see here is not just everything just goes and just make everyone feel good about themselves and there shouldn't be any kind of offense.

No, the nature of preaching peace is that you're at peace with the Father and so at conflict with sin. The world will tell you Jesus is all about peace and love. Let me be comfortable in my sin is basically what they're saying.

But the sword that comes forth from the mouth of Jesus and spreads his kingdom is a preaching of peace with God. War with sin. It doesn't kill the physical flesh, but it certainly kills your spiritual flesh.

So again, the kingdom of man, of the nations, they spread by the sword killing physically. But the kingdom of Christ comes forth from the sword of his mouth with a preaching of peace that kills your physical flesh or your spiritual flesh, the sinful flesh.

So just a quick, as we leave this part here, let's have a few words of application just with this doctrine here. That preaching is highly valued by Jesus. This is the tool he uses to spread his kingdom is preaching the word of peace.

Is it so highly valued by you? Do you come forth to live here? This is what Jesus has determined will spread his kingdom in myself and those around. Do you value such preaching of the word? Do you ask, oh God, open my heart to this so that the word of truth will pierce my heart and destroy the wickedness and bring me unto greater conformity to Jesus Christ.

Is that on your mind as you're coming into worship service or is your mind on many other things? Do you value preaching as much as Jesus values his preaching to spread the kingdom? And I know many times I come into church not doing that.

And so this proves to be faithful and are a good repentance on my end. We need to value preaching as Jesus values preaching. And another application we need to grab hold of this is preaching peace is meant to offend the flesh.

Its purpose is to offend you. Its purpose is to offend me. It's not like, well, maybe it will offend. If you are applying the preaching of the word properly to your own individual life, you will find some kind of disobedience that you are displaying towards Christ that it will be in Christ your glory to take hold of it and chop it down with that word of truth.

The word of truth is meant, the word of peace is meant to be offensive to the thing that causes a lack of peace between you and the father. And so it is his good pleasure and his kingdom for the sword to come forth from his mouth and to destroy the wickedness in your heart and mind and practice.

So it should be offensive. We need to be people that are used to being offended. Now, not purposefully. If I'm up here just purposely trying to offend you,.

It's a shame on me.

But let the word of God be and we need to learn to be offended by it. Have you ever noticed how the kingdom of man always goes contrary to these things? The things that we see in society today, they hate being offended.

You better not offend me, that's actually you being, what's the word? I think someone just said it. Literally, it's the same thing as if I punched you in the face, right? That's their understanding of it.

You cannot offend people. But you see, the kingdom of Christ works by offending the flesh. And so we must come in valuing preaching and valuing being offended where it makes sense, where it's rubbing up against our sin.

This is what we must value because Jesus values it. And so do you listen to preaching yearning for conflict for the sake of peace with God? And again, you know, this isn't just, of course, it's a preaching involved here is Jesus preaching and spreading his kingdom.

It's in that more formal sense of proclaiming the word. But preaching happens also, especially if we're looking at sin ending in our individual Christian life, it happens as you preach the gospel to yourself, you preach the word of peace to yourself.

And so if you're not being willing to value it in the church service and be offended in the church service, you certainly won't be doing it in your private practice of proclaiming or preaching the word of peace to yourself.

And this is why Bible study, this is why your own personal time do usually get stale and boring because you have failed to repent, you have failed to be offended by the word which produces eternal life.

So we need a value preaching. We need a value that thus saith the Lord. We need a value that peace with God means enmity with the flesh. And we need to cuddle up with this, with this offense for the sake of getting more of a view of Jesus.

The Scope of Christ's Kingdom: Near and Far

And look at going on, look how far reaching, look how far reaching this kingdom is. You look at verse 17, verse 17, and he came and preached peace to you who are far off, oops, I forgot something, sorry, far off in those who are near.

His kingdom is for those who are far off and those who are near, far off and those who are near. You remember the context of what we're looking at here is the far off people are the Gentiles, right? The far off, at one time, the commandments of the Old Testament separated these people.

And so the Gentiles were far off, right? Far off location wise, but also far off covenantal wise, far off from the covenants of God. And there's those who are near. And notice the preaching of Jesus Christ and his kingdom is a unifying factor.

It brings people together. It's for those who are far off and for those who are near. This is how far reaching his kingdom is meant to be. As we said earlier, kingdom of men love to spread, right? They love to spread with the sword.

They love to conquer. They love to bring people under their sway. And the kingdom of Christ is no different. The kingdom of Christ must spread. That's the nature of it. But it comes forth from the sword of the mouth, which brings together people far off and near.

Now, there's something very interesting that if you're not careful, you'll miss in this half verse right here, that he came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who were near. Is that Jesus certainly did preach to those who were near.

As we just said in Matthew and in the gospels, he came and he valued preaching to those who were near. That is the Israelites, the Jews. He valued that. He preached to those who were near. But what's interesting as you look in the gospels is he preached to those who were near at the expense of those who were far off.

And when we look at the text and it says he preached to those who were far off, our minds could be like, wait a minute. He preached to those who were near, but it was at the expense of those who were far off.

What do I mean by that? Well, look at Matthew 10. Go to Matthew 10 with me. Matthew chapter 10, verse five. Remember, this is in the middle of the ministry of Jesus and part of that ministry was to send out his disciples and to have them proclaim or preach the word of peace, the gospel, the kingdom.

And he says in verse five to these disciples, he says in Matthew 10, verse five, these 12 Jesus sent out, instructing them, go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

So it can be kind of difficult to understand what Paul's meaning in Ephesians when he says that he preached to those who were near, we see that, but also to those who are far off where he purposely says don't go to those far off.

In fact, he says in Matthew 15 in verses 21 through 24, look at what he says in Matthew 15, 21. And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. They were in the north of Israel where Gentile people.

And behold, a Canaanite woman from the region came out and was crying, have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely pressed by a demon. But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him saying, send her away for she is crying out after us.

In other words, she's being annoying. He answered, I was not sent, I was, he said, he answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now we know eventually he does help her because of her faith.

And that shows that once it will come to the Gentiles. But nevertheless, the purpose I'm driving at here is that Jesus was very clear that he came to preach peace to the Israelites, to the Jews, to those who were near.

That was his purpose. He didn't want to get lost or distracted with the far off people. So it can be kind of interesting when Paul here says that he preached peace to those who were far off. But it's very fascinating as you look in the gospel, once Jesus did his work, remember that work that secured the power of Christ, of death, resurrection, of bringing unity with the father, once that was secure, all of a sudden we see the exclusivity of, don't go to the Gentiles, to now go to the Gentiles, talking to the people, the Jews who believed upon him.

Look at Matthew 28. Look at Matthew 28, how this language shifts in the gospel in Matthew 28, 18 through 20. He says, and Jesus came, his last words to his people before he goes back to be with the father, after he died and he's about to rise again, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of, just the Jews, just Israel, no, just the 12 tribes, no, all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit, which we got to witness today, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I'll be with you always to the end of the age. So we see, and even in Acts 1, we could belabor the point and see that Jesus, he tells them in Acts 1, that once you receive the spirit of power, you will go out to all of Israel, to all of the nations and proclaim this word of peace.

And so we got to understand that there was a goal here by Jesus, that Jesus had an emphasis for the Israelites of himself. But once he saved the elect of Israel, he then told them to go out to all the nations and save the Gentiles.

In fact, this has always been the promise of scripture. You remember in Genesis 12, three, what is promised to Abraham? Genesis 12, three, I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse.

And in you, Abraham, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So there's a promise given to Abraham, you will have a nation, Israel, and from that nation, Israel, will come the blessings to all the nations.

And we see in Isaiah 49, it's worth going there and seeing the same promise of scripture that the renewed Israel will one day bless the nations. And this is what was in Jesus's mind as he told them, don't go to the Gentiles yet.

In Isaiah 49, one through six, listen to me, O coast lands, I give attention you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother. He named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword.

In the shadow of his hand, he hid me. He made me a polished arrow in his quiver. He hid me away. And he said to me, you are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. But I said, I have labored in vain.