I. HE WHO IS OUR PEACE IS THE PUBLISHER OF PEACE. "And came and preached peace." He came as the Prince of peace, spoke of peace before his death as his parting legacy to the Church, and after his ascension to heaven sent forth his ambassadors with the gospel of peace to say, "We pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20). What Christ does by the apostles he does by himself.

II. THE BURDEN OF THE GOSPEL - PEACE. The first word of the angelic annunciation was, "Peace on earth."

1. It is peace through the blood of Christ, which thus "speaketh better things than that of Abel."

2. It is peace through the righteousness of Christ: "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).

3. It is the staple of the gospel, which is a gospel of peace proclaimed by ministers who are the publishers of peace.

4. It introduces sinners into the covenant of peace, which cannot be removed.

5. It has peace for its fruits, for believers have "joy and peace in believing;" "Great peace, have they that love thy Law;" "To be spiritually minded is life and peace;" "They that trust in the Lord are kept in perfect peace;" "They dwell in peaceable habitations, in quiet resting-places."

III. THE PERSONS TO WHOM PEACE IS PREACHED. "To you that are afar off and to them that are nigh." There was peace for both Jew and Gentile. It was peace for the world. There is no restriction upon the message of peace. "The Lord shall bless his people with peace" (Psalm 29:11). "Great shall be the peace of thy children." The proof that the peace has this wide and blessed efficacy is our free access to the Father by Jesus Christ. - T.C.

This refers not merely to the time Christ lived as a Man upon earth, but also to His preaching through the Spirit in all after ages.

1. Christ is so absent from us, that He has not quite forsaken us. Whenever His Word is effectual, that is the entrance of Christ into the heart.

2. What Christ purchased for us on the Cross, He applies to us by the ministry of the Word. To enjoy Christ, make much of the gospel, which is news from heaven touching righteousness and life eternal.

3. Christ is present, and has a part in preaching even when men preach.

4. Christ preaches to all, whether Jew or Gentile, to the end of the world.

5. After the death of Christ all are preached to.

6. The gospel of Christ, which He and His ministers preach, is a gospel of peace.

(Paul Bayne.)

When after His death on the Cross, by which He made peace between God and man, and prepared the way for peace between man and God and man and man, did our blessed Saviour come and preach peace? He came by His Holy Spirit as on the day of Pentecost. So that we have within the limits of this text, with the light shed on it by the immediate context —

I. CHRIST THE PROCURER OF PEACE WITH THE FATHER. "He is our peace" (ver. 14).

1. By the removal of hindrances to our salvation. His atonement breaks down the middle wall of partition between God and man, and thus also between Jew and Gentile. Christ's reconciliation is a scriptural fact.

2. By the removal of the enmity of the carnal mind. if God is reconciled to man, man must be reconciled to God. The love of Christ effects this.

3. By the substitution of a new law for "the law of commandments in ordinances." This new law is the all-inclusive law of love.

II. THE SPIRIT THE PREACHER OF PEACE WITH GOD.

1. By His own immediate action on the soul of the child and of the man.

2. By His mediate action through the truths of the gospel. "We are witnesses of these things, and so also is the Holy Ghost."

III. MAN — WHETHER JEW OR GENTILE — THE OBTAINER OF PEACE WITH GOD. "We both have our access," etc.

1. By personal trust in the merits of Christ.

2. By daily approach through Christ by one Spirit. This describes the method of prayer.

(Clerical World.)

The peculiar force of this reference to the preaching of peace will be perceived as we mark who the Preacher was. The Preacher to whom Paul in these words referred was God.

I. First of all, let us notice how THE PURPOSE OF THE MESSAGE of the Great Preacher is here put — He "preached peace." The purpose of it was then what it is now, and will continue to be as long as there are ambassadors for Christ in the world. That peace which is the great need of earth is the actual possession of heaven. Yonder in the realms of bliss and order and perfection, there is, even amidst ceaseless activity, serene unbroken peace — the peace of those who have found their true centre and move in their proper orbits. It is what rests upon everlasting foundations. It stands out in contrast to all counterfeit appearances that raise men with bright expectations for a while, and then leave them in the end blasted with disappointment — as we are told was the experience of a great man, a German poet, who lived some years ago to old age, laden with honours and earthly blessings that rarely fall to the lot of men, but who confessed that, looking back on his past life, he could not remember a day in which he had found real happiness or true peace. That a mind wondrously gifted with the power of rising to some of the loftiest conceptions of what is noble and divine, should have been compelled at last to utter this terrible confession, is indeed striking evidence of the need of a Divine provision for man's peace.

II. Observe, in the second place, where lay the special force and efficacy of the Preacher's message; it was in this — that HE HIMSELF EMBODIED HIS OWN MESSAGE. His own Person and work were its theme. This gave it a reality and power which characterise the preaching of no other messenger ever heard on earth. "He came and preached." And from whence, over what vast distance did He come? If a narrative of travel from one who has explored an unknown country brings before you the scenes through which he has passed with a vivid effect which it is impossible for any other person to convey, how much more should the testimony of one who has come from another world arrest your attention, and be in awful power and import (as the words of Jesus were) unparalleled and alone. He preached peace because He was — as He is — "our peace." The angels at His birth had so proclaimed Him in their song. But let us notice a little more closely that Jesus embodied His own message by being Himself "our peace" with God. Not only was He God's peace with us, but from what He is, and by what He did for us, there is exactly that which can make the peace already on God's side available to us.

III. This brings us to notice, in the third place, the prominence here given to preaching, AS THE CHANNEL THROUGH WHICH GOD'S PEACE REACHES us. The Saviour has not deemed it enough for Him to do His work, and then allow it to speak for itself, and appeal in silence to the consciences of men. No. He accompanies His work with words — with a message designed to bring out His work in all His bearings; to interpret the signs, and trace the issues of it; to unfold its preciousness, and make unceasing application of it to the heart, according to the daily wants, and the endless variety of the different circumstances of man's lot. Preaching, therefore, is the necessary accompaniment of God's work. "He came and preached peace."

IV. THE URGENT NEED OF THOSE TO WHOM THE MESSAGE WAS ADDRESSED — "to you which were afar off," "and to them that were nigh."

1. "To you which were afar off." And "afar off" indeed were these Ephesians when the message reached them, even in such hopeless estrangements from God, as described in verses 11 and 12. The change was something much more than a social transformation, a mere improvement in outward aspect and manners. Even their escape from all the fascinations and enchantments of idol worship at Ephesus would have availed them nothing had they not also been brought "nigh" to God "by the blood of Christ." To them the vastness of the change was m a changed eternity — a glorious futurity "as fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God." It was marked at the same time by such a change of heart as had turned their desires toward Him who had come near to save, and had set their affections and hopes on things above. But not merely to heathen converts do these words apply. To converted souls in every age — to you, believing Christians, this message comes with the same force now as it conveyed in the days of Paul.

2. It was preached also "to them that were nigh" — to Israel whom the ancient psalm called "a people near unto Him." So nigh in virtue of external privilege, that., to them belonged "the adoption" and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of' God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever." And yet when He came, where were they? He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. He was "near in their mouth, but far from their reins."

3. Preached "to them that were nigh," the message must have included the true Israel of God, who were "nigh" in the real and vital sense of the term. Is it then to be preached still to those who are now at peace with God? Is there any point in their journey at which they can afford to let this part of the gospel drop in order to "go on unto perfection" through other truths, or by the use, it may be, of other means than those of the gospel? Never with safety or continued health to their own souls. Never, but by some subtle wile of the enemy, who, as an angel of light, would seduce them from the continuance of their faith in this one secret of their true peace in which their great strength lies.

(R. S. Muir.)

Abraham Lincoln's doorkeeper had standing orders from him, that no matter how great might be the throng, if either senators or representatives had to wait, or to be turned away without an audience, he must see, before the day closed, every messenger who came to him with a petition for the saving of life.

(Little's Historical Lights.)

A band of missionaries and native teachers spent a night on Darnley Island, when a project was formed to establish a mission on Murray Island. Some of the natives of this island seemed specially intent on intimidating the teachers, and convincing them that a mission there was perfectly hopeless. "There are alligators there," said they, "and snakes and centipedes." "Hold!" said Tepeso, one of the teachers, "are there men there?" "Oh yes," was the reply, "there are men, but they are such dreadful savages that it is no use your thinking of living among them." "That will do," responded Tepeso. "Wherever there are men missionaries are bound to go."

(W. Baxendale.)

In the reign of Henry VIII there was a young student at Cambridge, named Bilney. He became deeply anxious about his soul. The priests prescribed fast, penance, and other observances, but he grew worse and worse. He ultimately became possessed of a copy of the New Testament, and shut himself up in his room to study it. As he read the book he came to the words, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." He laid down the book, to think on what he had read. He thus states the result: — This one sentence, through God's inward teaching, did so rejoice my heart, being before almost in despair, that I soon found peace. "Jesus Christ saves!" he cried; "yes, Jesus Christ saves!" From that time he became a preacher of those "glad tidings," and at last he suffered martyrdom.

Your peace, sinner, is that terribly prophetic calm which the traveller occasionally perceives upon the higher Alps. Everything is still. The birds suspend their notes, fly low, and cower down with fear. The hum of bees among the flowers is hushed. A horrible stillness rules the hour, as if death had silenced all things by stretching over them his awful sceptre. Perceive ye not what is surely at hand? The tempest is preparing, the lightning will soon cast abroad its flames of fire. Earth will rock with thunder blasts; granite peaks will be dissolved; all nature will tremble beneath the fury of the storm. Yours is that solemn calm today, sinner. Rejoice not in it, for the hurricane of wrath is coming, the whirlwind and the tribulation which shall sweep you away and utterly destroy you.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

Ephesians, PaulEphesusAfar, Far-off, Glad, News, Nigh, Peace, Preached, Preaching, Proclaim, Proclaimed, Tidings1. By comparing what we were by nature, with what we are by grace,
10. he declares that we are made for good works: and being brought near by Christ,
19. should not live as Gentiles and foreigners, but as citizens with the saints, and the family of God.

Ephesians 2:17

     6028   sin, deliverance from
     6700   peace
     7754   preaching
     7755   preaching, importance

Ephesians 2:11-18

     5467   promises, divine

Ephesians 2:11-19

     7031   unity, God's goal

Ephesians 2:12-19

     6717   reconciliation, world to God

Ephesians 2:13-17

     2525   Christ, cross of
     6511   salvation
     6704   peace, divine NT

Ephesians 2:13-22

     5005   human race, and redemption

Ephesians 2:14-18

     5030   knowledge, of Christ
     7025   church, unity

Ephesians 2:14-22

     6718   reconciliation, believers

Ephesians 2:16-22

     7923   fellowship, in gospel

Ephesians 2:17-18

     6670   grace, and Holy Spirit
     8425   evangelism, nature of

Ephesians 2:17-19

     7032   unity, God's people
     7950   mission, of Christ

March 14. "We are his Workmanship" (Eph. Ii. 10).
"We are His workmanship" (Eph. ii. 10). Christ sends us to serve Him, not in our own strength, but in His resources and might. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them." We do not have to prepare them; but to wear them as garments, made to order for every occasion of our life. We must receive them by faith and go forth in His work, believing that He is with us, and in us, as our all sufficiency for wisdom, faith, love, prayer, …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

July 2. "And Hath Raised us up Together" (Eph. Ii. 6).
"And hath raised us up together" (Eph. ii. 6). Ascension is more than resurrection. Much is said of it in the New Testament. Christ riseth above all things. We see Him in the very act of ascending as we do not in the actual resurrection, as, with hands and lips engaged in blessing, He gently parts from their side, so simply, so unostentatiously, with so little imposing ceremony as to make heaven so near to our common life that we can just whisper through. And we, too, must ascend, even here. "If …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

October 1. "That in the Ages to Come He Might Show the Exceeding Riches of his Grace" (Eph. Ii. 7).
"That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace" (Eph. ii. 7). Christ's great purpose for His people is to train them up to know the hope of their calling, and the riches of the glory of their inheritance and what the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. Let us prove, in all our varied walks of life, and scenes of conflict, the fulness of His power and grace and thus shall we know "In the ages to come the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness to …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

God's Workmanship and Our Works
'We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.'--Eph. ii. 10. The metal is molten as it runs out of the blast furnace, but it soon cools and hardens. Paul's teaching about salvation by grace and by faith came in a hot stream from his heart, but to this generation his words are apt to sound coldly, and hardly theological. But they only need to be reflected upon in connection with our own experience, to become vivid and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

'The Chief Corner-Stone'
'Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner-stone.'--Eph. ii. 20 (R.V.). The Roman Empire had in Paul's time gathered into a great unity the Asiatics of Ephesus, the Greeks of Corinth, the Jews of Palestine, and men of many another race, but grand and imposing as that great unity was, it was to Paul a poor thing compared with the oneness of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Asiatics of Ephesus, Greeks of Corinth, Jews of Palestine and members of …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

'The Riches of Grace'
'That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.'--Eph. ii. 7. One very striking characteristic of this epistle is its frequent reference to God's purposes, and what, for want of a better word, we must call His motives, in giving us Jesus Christ. The Apostle seems to rise even higher than his ordinary height, while he gazes up to the inaccessible light, and with calm certainty proclaims not only what God has done, but why He has done …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

Salvation: Grace: Faith
'By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.'--Eph. ii. 8 (R.V.). Here are three of the key-words of the New Testament--'grace,' 'saved,' 'faith.' Once these terms were strange and new; now they are old and threadbare. Once they were like lava, glowing and cast up from the central depths; but it is a long while since the eruption, and the blocks have got cold, and the corners have been rubbed off them. I am afraid that some people, when they read …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

The Resurrection of Dead Souls
'God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.'--Eph. ii. 4, 5. Scripture paints man as he is, in darker tints, and man as he may become, in brighter ones, than are elsewhere found. The range of this portrait painter's palette is from pitchiest black to most dazzling white, as of snow smitten by sunlight. Nowhere else are there such sad, stern words about the actualities of human nature; nowhere else such …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

The Scripture Way of Salvation
"Ye are saved through faith." Ephesians 2:8. 1. Nothing can be more intricate, complex, and hard to be understood, than religion, as it has been often described. And this is not only true concerning the religion of the Heathens, even many of the wisest of them, but concerning the religion of those also who were, in some sense, Christians; yea, and men of great name in the Christian world; men who seemed to be pillars thereof. Yet how easy to be understood, how plain and simple a thing, is the genuine …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Spiritual Resurrection
The apostle is here speaking, you will observe, of the church at Ephesus, and, indeed, of all those who were chosen in Christ Jesus, accepted in him, and redeemed with his blood; and he says of them, "You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." What a solemn sight is presented to us by a dead body! When last evening trying to realize the thought, it utterly overcame me. The thought is overwhelming, that soon this body of mine must be a carnival for worms; that in and out of these …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

The Agreement of Salvation by Grace with Walking in Good Works
I shall call your attention to the near neighborhood of these two phrases, "Not of works," and "Created in Christ Jesus unto good works." The text reads with a singular sound; for it seems strange to the ear that good works should be negatived as the cause of salvation, and then should be spoken of as the great end of it. You may put it down among what the Puritans called "Orthodox Paradoxes," if you please; though it is hardly so difficult a matter as to deserve the name. Not long ago, I tried …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

Life from the Dead
"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins."--Ephesians 2:1. OUR TRANSLATORS, as you observe, have put in the words "hath he quickened", because Paul had thrown the sense a little farther on, and it was possible for the reader not to catch it. The have but anticipated the statement of the fourth and fifth verses: "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." Here is the point. God …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 38: 1892

The Tabernacle of the Most High
When men talk of holy places they seem to be ignorant of the use of language. Can holiness dwell in bricks and mortar? Can there be such a thing as a sanctified steeple? Can it possibly happen that there can be such a thing in the world as a moral window or a godly door post? I am lost in amazement, utterly lost, when I think how addled men's brains must be when they impute moral virtues to bricks and mortar, and stones, and stained glass. Pray how deep Doth this consecration go, and how high? Is …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

A Solemn Deprival
WE SHALL have two things to consider this evening--the misery of our past estate, and the great deliverance which God has wrought for us. As for:-- I. THE MISERY OF OUR PAST ESTATE, be it known unto you that, in common with the rest of mankind, believers were once without Christ. No tongue can tell the depth of wretchedness that lies in those two words. There is no poverty like it, no want like it, and for those who die so, there is no ruin like that it will bring. Without Christ! If this be the …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915

All of Grace
OF THE THINGS which I have spoken unto you these many years, this is the sum. Within the circle of these words my theology is contained, so far as it refers to the salvation of men. I rejoice also to remember that those of my family who were ministers of Christ before me preached this doctrine, and none other. My father, who is still able to bear his personal testimony for his Lord, knows no other doctrine, neither did his father before him. I am led to remember this by the fact that a somewhat singular …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915

Our Glorious Transforming
"But now in Christ Jesus, ye, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ."--Ephesians 2:13. I DO not want you to feel at this time as if you were listening to a sermon, or to any sort of set discourse, but rather I should like, if it were possible, that you should feel as if you were alone with the Saviour, and were engaged in calm and quiet meditation; and I will try to be the prompter, standing at the elbow of your contemplation, suggesting one thought and then another; and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 62: 1916

"There is Therefore Now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
Rom. viii. 1.--"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, &c." All the promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus; they meet all in him and from him are derived unto us. When man was in integrity, he was with God, and in God, and that immediately, without the intervention of a Mediator. But our falling from God hath made us without God, and the distance is so great, as Abraham speaks to the rich man, that neither can those above go down to him, nor he come up to them. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"Who Walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. "
Rom. viii. 1.--"Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is no wonder that we cannot speak any thing to purpose of this subject, and that you do not bear with fruit, because it is indeed a mystery to our judgments, and a great stranger to our practice. There is so little of the Spirit, both in teachers and those that come to be taught, that we can but speak of it as an unknown thing, and cannot make you to conceive it, in the living notion of it as it is. Only we may say in general,--it …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Hath Made Me Free from the Law of Sin and Death. "
Rom. viii. 2.--"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." That whereabout the thoughts and discourses of men now run, is freedom and liberty, or bondage and slavery. All men are afraid to lose their liberties, and be made servants to strangers. And indeed liberty, whether national or personal, even in civil respects, is a great mercy and privilege. But alas! men know not, neither do they consider, what is the ground and reason of such changes, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Scriptures Reveal Eternal Life through Jesus Christ
John v. 39--"Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." Eph. ii. 20--"And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." As in darkness there is need of a lantern without and the light of the eyes within--for neither can we see in darkness without some lamp though we have never so good eyes, nor yet see without eyes, though in never so clear a sunshine--so there is absolute need for the guiding of our feet in the dangerous …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"For what the Law could not Do, in that it was Weak through the Flesh, God Sending his Own Son in the Likeness of Sinful Flesh,
Rom. viii. 3.--"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh." For what purpose do we meet thus together? I would we knew it,--then it might be to some better purpose. In all other things we are rational, and do nothing of moment without some end and purpose. But, alas! in this matter of greatest moment, our going about divine ordinances, we have scarce any distinct or deliberate …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners Or, a Brief Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ, to his Poor Servant, John Bunyan
In this my relation of the merciful working of God upon my soul, it will not be amiss, if in the first place, I do in a few words give you a hint of my pedigree, and manner of bringing up; that thereby the goodness and bounty of God towards me, may be the more advanced and magnified before the sons of men. 2. For my descent then, it was, as is well known by many, of a low and inconsiderable generation; my father's house being of that rank that is meanest, and most despised of all the families in …
John Bunyan—Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Sovereign Grace
Sovereign Grace Its Source, Its Nature and Its Effects By D. L. Moody "By Grace are ye saved."--Ephesians ii. 8 With Three Gospel Dialogues Chicago New York Toronto FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY London and Edinburgh Copyrighted 1891 by Fleming H. Revell Company. …
Dwight L. Moody—Sovereign Grace

Our Death.
"You who were dead in trespasses and sin."--Ephes. ii. 1. Next in order comes the discussion of death. There is sin, which is deviation from and resistance against the law. There is guilt, which is withholding from God that which, as the Giver and Upholder of that law, is due to Him. But there is also punishment, which is the Lawgiver's act of upholding His law against the lawbreaker. The Sacred Scripture calls this punishment "death." To understand what death is, we must first ask: "What is life?" …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

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