And came and preached peace to you which were afar off.
Christ preaching peace
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.)
Peace with God
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” (Ephesians 2:14).
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 Great Preacher
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.)
Mercy waiting for applicants
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.)
The gospel preached
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.)
Peace through Christ
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.
True peace only in Christ
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.)