You are God’s friend! Jesus died and rose to make that true! Then, He sends us as His representatives to the world.

April 7-8, 2018

Introduction:

Over the next several weeks, we are going to talk about the reconciling work of Jesus, that He reconciles us to God and to each other, and then sends us as agents of His reconciliation. I’m calling this series, “He is Our Peace,” which is taken from:

Ephesians 2:14 For He is our peace, who has made the two groups one, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.

Jesus is our peace. He is our peace with God, and our peace with each other. Jesus breaks down the barriers between us and God, and the walls between us. Both are important:

Peace with God ︎

Peace with each other ︎

Jesus died for both: to reconcile you to God and to each other. The gospel includes both peace with God and peace with each other.

ILL: How many of you want to fly in this plane? (This one is in the air courtesy of Photoshop!) A one-wing plane is doomed! It won’t get off the ground.

And a one-wing gospel won’t go far either. There is a spiritual wing and a social wing on the Jesus-plane! We need both wings.

Love God and love people.

Be reconciled to God; be reconciled to people.

Jesus died for both—to bring us back to God and back to each other. Too often churches focus only on one wing and ignore the other. Some churches only preach reconciliation with God, and ignore the social implications of the gospel—they are trying to fly with one wing. Other churches only preach a social gospel and ignore the spiritual—that we need Jesus to bring us back to God—they are trying to fly with one wing. We need both wings to fly, and the gospel of reconciliation includes both.

I am neck deep in racial reconciliation work in our community, and I’ll tell you why in one word: Jesus. I believe that Jesus is the great reconciler, and as we’ll see today, He sends us into the world as His ambassadors of reconciliation. The gos