Jason Hensley - The Gospel of Peace - Class 2 - Interconnected Peace

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:01

   Brother Jason doesn’t have a reading as well, so we’ll get right to our introduction. So this is the 2023 Manitoulin Family Bible Camp. Our speaker for this session is Brother Jason Hensley from the Simi Hills, California Ecclesia. His theme this week is the Gospel of Peace. This is his second class and the subject for this class is interconnected Peace. Brother Jason.

2. 0:41

   Look at this. Here we go. All right, I’m free. Well, good morning, everyone. How are you today? You doing good. Good there. I’m doing good too. OK, all right, so here we go. So we’re talking about interconnected peace. Today. I wanted to show you our three sections. I labeled this Jews and Gentiles, but really this is kind of like historical background.

3. 1:18

   So it’s going to be looking at Jews and Gentiles, but not not totally. We’ll look at a few other things as well. Then we’re going to do a case study as we walk through the book of Romans and a case study in Ephesians. Now, I will tell you this is going to be a targeted case study because we’re looking at peace, right? So we’ll be thinking specifically about peace in these.

4. 1:35

   So if you’re looking at it and thinking, well, that’s not really what Romans is about. Well, yeah, you’re right. But it’s it’s specifically we’re tracing peace. Through. Romans and Ephesians. Here’s the main message. All shades of peace are interconnected. Now let me see if you remember. Do you remember the main message from yesterday?

5. 1:56

   Peace matters. Very good. OK, well, now you’ll see that I’m really challenging you today because that was only two words. Right now you get 6. So that’s I know whoo I didn’t, I didn’t do multiples, but you know, two up through. So we skipped 4 because I I believe in you. So here we go.

6. 2:13

   All shades of peace are interconnected. And what I mean by that is that we discussed these different kinds of peace yesterday, right? World Peace, inner peace, peace with God, interrelational peace, all of these are connected to each other. I don’t think that we can really have some of them without the others. They’re all linked together. And so that is why peace is so crucial. When we want peace with God, we need to learn to have peace with each other.

7. 2:50

   Here’s our why. Question Why should Christians live at peace with others? And what I mean by that is in the ecclesia and also outside, right, we are told to live at peace with all men. That means everybody. So why, why are we told to do that? So that’s what we’re going to be looking at really today.

8. 3:12

   This is the why of what we saw yesterday. We saw that peace was important. And now we’re really going to build up why it matters so much, why it is such a big deal for us, and in fact, how it is connected to the gospel. OK, so with that said, we’re going to jump in and we’re going to take a look at the historical ideas here.

9. 3:32

   Now, again, I said this is Jews and Gentiles, but we’re going to look at a few other things first. Generally when I give these classes, people will come to me. And I was actually, I was really intrigued that nobody came and said this to me yesterday. Maybe maybe you just thought I was crazy and you didn’t say it or something, but typically people will say to me, well wait a minute, you know you’re talking about being peaceful, but what about the Lord Jesus?

10. 4:00

    And you can just kind of think through your mind of all the times that the Lord was not peaceful, right There’s. Quite a few of them, you know, we know that he turned over the tables of the money changers twice, right? He does at the beginning of his ministry and at the end.

11. 4:17

    That’s not peaceful, you know, by any definition. I don’t think you could construe that in any kind of way to be a peaceful thing. When you look at Matthew 23 and he says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, those are not peaceful words. So I think that that’s something for us to consider. We need to kind of understand that first and, and that’s where this historical context can help us a little bit. So in order to understand some of that, first I want to give you a suggestion.

12. 4:46

    Now, we talked about Simon the Pharisee yesterday. Right you. Remember that, and with Simon the Pharisee, the Lord Jesus read his thoughts. Now I think that that’s a crucial thing to understanding who the Lord Jesus is, that he is consistently doing this. Like you’ll see that phrase and it comes up over and over, but he knowing their thoughts, said right, this is who the Lord Jesus is. It’s part of being the Son of God that you can read the thoughts of others.

13. 5:15

    And so therefore, when the Lord Jesus says to somebody you hypocrite, he does that on what basis? On the basis that he knows that they’re a hypocrite, right? He’s not just saying, well, I saw you do that. And that probably is hypocritical because maybe you said this or something like that. You know, that’s kind of what we would do, right?

14. 5:37

    We’d say, hey, that’s hypocritical or something along those lines. And we do it on the basis of, you know, some, some ideas that we piece together well the Lord. Jesus does it. On the fact that he just read your brain and he says I read your brain and what came out was hypocrisy. So you’re a hypocrite.

15. 5:52

    You know, when he calls them whitewashed tombs, he says I just read your brain and what I found was a whitewashed tomb. So he can do that. We can’t. So I think that that’s a crucial thing in understanding this. When we look at the way that the Lord Jesus speaks, the way that the apostle Paul speaks, when they have the Holy Spirit, that kind of changes things a lot. So that’s number one.

16. 6:17

    Number two, I think it’s also helpful for us coming at this in our North American perspective where, you know, people get really injured by things that other people say and are highly sensitive. It’s good. It’s good for us to recognize that in a lot of cases people weren’t that way. You know, and, and in fact, I, I remember just going to Israel and being like, wow, why are people so mean to me? And then you then you realize like, Oh no, that’s just how everybody talks.

17. 6:42

    And and you’re like, yeah, you know, and you and you give it back and, you know, whatever it’s like. And then you’re like in. So that’s the it’s, it’s how things are in different cultures, right? That’s just how it works. And I think that’s. Helpful for us to acknowledge that. Now, I’m not saying that Israeli culture today is the same as back then. My point is that.

18. 6:59

    We have to look at culture back then in order to understand how did people talk and in order to evaluate, right. We don’t want to go through the Gospels and say, Oh, look, see, that was, you know, one of the meaner things that Jesus says. Therefore, a lot of things that Jesus said we would construe as mean. So we should say mean things, right. I had somebody tell me that before and I was like, what? Like, no, that’s that’s not how it goes. Like we need to understand what was actually considered mean back then and thereby on those standards determine did Jesus say mean things?

19. 7:30

    And the answer is no. By the way. OK. So let’s go back and look historically at this. So I’m going to show you some quotes from the Talmud. Now, can I just get a show of hands on who is familiar with the Talmud? OK, All right, I’ll give you a definition then. So let’s let’s talk a little bit about what this is.

20. 7:49

    Now #1 I want to make this incredibly clear. The Talmud is not the Bible. It is not inspired. It is culturally Jewish material. All right, I’m not saying it’s right. I’m not endorsing it. So please don’t like go home and be like, I’m going to start reading the Talmud or something like that. And I found this cool book in class. No, that’s, that’s not what I’m doing. I’m just trying to show this is historically what things were like.

21. 8:13

    So it’s important to know. Here’s how the Talmud comes together. So there are two major dates that Christadelphian should know in addition to their anniversary. So the dates are the 9th of of 586 BCE, 9th of off 5. 86 BCE, What happened on that day?

22. 8:36

    Babylon destroys the first temple, right? We all, we often talk about 70 AD, right? Or AD 70. Well, we should also be aware of the destruction of the first temple. So that’s 586 BCE, 9th of off. Now what’s interesting is they happen on the same day traditionally, so 9th of off, 586 BCE. And then you also have the 9th of off 70 CE, right? That’s the destruction of the Second Temple. So you have the.

23. 9:00

    Destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians 586 You have the destruction of the Second Temple. 70 OK, now with that said, you get the destruction of the First Temple in 586. Jews are carried off into exile, and I think here’s something that we often miss. Can you imagine being a Jewish person and attempting to follow the law or the Torah in Babylon?

24. 9:29

    Just think about what would happen. Right, you’d you’d. Be going along with your normal life and you’d realize, oh, I just committed an unintentional sin that means I need to go to the temple and offer a sacrifice. And then you think, oh wait, the temple is thousands of miles away. Sorry, I don’t know kilometers. It’s probably thousands of kilometers too. Thousands of kilometers away and. Yet it doesn’t actually exist.

25. 9:58

    Right. So how are you going to offer your sin offering? How’s that supposed to work? And suddenly you realize, oh, wait a minute, we were supposed to be offering a sacrifice in the morning and at night. We were supposed like our lives were supposed to revolve. Around this temple. We were supposed to go there three times a year. When the feast of Passover shows up, you’re sitting there in Babylon and you think, well, where do I go, right? What am I?

26. 10:21

    What am I supposed to do here? And you suddenly realize, I just can’t follow the law at all. And that was the point, right? In 586, the people were supposed to realize it wasn’t actually about the law, right? It was about the principles. God was trying to teach the principles beneath. What’s interesting is there were a number of people who did realize, oh, it’s about the principles.

27. 10:40

    The problem is this was the scribes, by the way. So a group of scribes come together, 586 they’re in exile in Babylon, and they say, what do we do about the law? We can’t follow it. So they say, well, how about we look at the principles and we try and understand what the principles were, and then we create a way to follow those principles. In other words, we make a new law that follows the same principles.

28. 11:05

    That was their idea. Now you can see maybe how this is starting to go wrong, right? The principles are good. You’re supposed to follow the principles. That’s what God was teaching them. The issue is, is that you don’t create new laws to follow the same principles. But this is what takes place. These scribes come together and they say, well, we want to follow the principles. So this is actually them saying we’re going to follow the spirit of the law, right?

29. 11:28

    We’re going to follow the spirit of the law. But to do it, they make more laws. So that’s the issue. This group of scribes eventually morphs into who are called the Pharisees. So these scribes become the Pharisees. They’re the early predecessors of the Pharisees, and they put together what is known as the Oral Torah.

30. 11:48

    The Oral Torah is what the Pharisees push, and they say this is how the law applies today, right? So it’s things that were not written in the Torah, but it was. Supposed to be the principles of the Torah that end up as like the the laws that they’re following. Well, I mean, they, they weren’t right, but that was the idea behind them.

31. 12:08

    So this is what Jesus is referring to when he talks about the tradition of the elders, like Matthew 15, Mark 7. Those are the things that he’s talking about. Those are the traditions. So the Pharisees followed those, the Sadducees don’t. And what ends up happening? Is the Pharisees say these are the words of God, so they create this whole history for them. This is why they call them the Oral Torah. So you had the written Torah, which was the first five books, right?

32. 12:33

    And then you had the Oral Torah, which they claimed was given to Moses on Mount Sinai by God. God just decided not to write it conveniently and instead he spoke it. And it just so happened that he spoke it to Moses, who gave it to Joshua, who then gave it to their family members.

33. 12:51

    And those family members were the scribes. So they say, we have this, you know, new secret information that we’re now revealing to you now that we’re in exile in Babylon. And it’s all about how you follow the law in exile. It’s called the Oral Torah. It’s actually the words of God. You can see why this made the Lord Jesus so mad, right? Like this is totally claiming to know like new information about God and putting words in God’s mouth. So they claim all this and then.

34. 13:21

    The Pharisee movement takes hold of it. The Temple is destroyed 70 CE, the second Temple, right. So therefore the Sadducees disappear because the Sadducees were the priests. And so the only people who are left are Pharisees, which then become the people called rabbis. So that’s sort of the, you know, that’s, that’s a very brief history of how this all works. They then decide the rabbis do because they say, you know, this whole temple destroying thing, this is not so good. So why don’t we actually write down the Oral Torah? So they write it down.

35. 13:49

    So the Oral Torah becomes written and that is what’s called the Mishnah. A bunch of rabbis get together. There’s some in Jerusalem, there’s some in Babylon. They get together and they create commentaries on the Mishnah. That’s called the Gomorrah. So you have the Mishnah and the Gomorrah, and then the Mishnah and the Gomorrah get put together into one book, and that is the Talmud. So that’s all the history.

36. 14:16

    Talmud creation happens right around 200 BCE. You might be wondering why we’re talking all about all this, but it’s an important piece of just kind of understanding the historical context of all of these things, right? When these things happen, because the Talmud gives us a huge insight into what 1st century Jewish life was like, right? It is the writings of the Pharisees. So that’s important.

37. 14:38

    Now, as we look at that, I just want to show you some of the things that show up in the Talmud. So I have a very small sampling here. This is how people talk all the time in the Talmud. So the Talmud is these collections of here’s what the law is, here’s what the Oral Torah is, and then it’s a bunch of debates about them. So here’s just a little sample from one of the debates. It says Rava said to him.

38. 14:58

    So this is Rava. He’s one of the rabbis. He’s talking to another rabbi. He says, fool, when that verita is taught, it’s referring to a case dot, dot, dot. And he goes on and he talks about something else. Here’s another example, Raba, that’s not the same as Rava. Raba said to him, fool, we learned in the Mishnah that this that this halakha applies and then he goes and he explains what the halakha is, etcetera. Holakha is one of the commandments on how you’re. Supposed to live.

39. 15:23

    Now do you notice how the rabbis address one another? Fool. Now I will tell you this is actually a nice translation that the Talmud is written in Aramaic and the Aramaic there. Is actually idiot. So this is, this is what they call each other all the time, you know, and they just, they go back and forth on all of this.

40. 15:42

    And in fact, this is one of the things that like the Talmud loves about it and it, and it’s still in modern Jewish culture. Like, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the phrase three Jews 4 opinions, right? Like that’s, and I’m not, I’m not trying to be, you know, like anti-Semitic or anything along those lines. That’s, that’s like a phrase that Jews use. I’ve had it told to me many times when I’ve gone to synagogues or whatnot.

41. 16:04

    And they use it as like a thing of pride. You know, they’re like 3 Jews, 4 opinions. Like that’s who we are. Like we argue, we debate, we call each other idiots, like, and then we go out for coffee. You know, it’s, it’s like that’s, that’s how they do things and they love it. So I just, I think it’s helpful to recognize this. Here’s another example.

42. 16:22

    This is Rabbi Eliezer versus Akiva or Rabbi Akiva. So, Rabbi Akiva. Was one of the the big deal rabbis. So if you hear something, you know that he wrote, it’s usually like, whoa, people, people really pay attention to it. He was just. Historical interest. He was the rabbi that supported Barkokba in the Barkokba. Rebellion, if that means anything to you. OK, so here’s here’s.

43. 16:46

    This just listen to this. Conversation. OK, Rabbi Eliezer said to him. That’s Akiva. About this Akiva, you have light heartedly responded to me with a faulty, a fortatory inference with regard to slaughter. His death, that is, Akiva’s death, will be with slaughter, meaning as punishment for this disrespect, you will be slaughtered by other people. So Eliezer is just like, well, Akiva, I didn’t like how you responded to me there.

44. 17:12

    So I just want you to know that when you die, people are going to not treat. You very well. And Akiva’s like, OK, thanks. And then they like just move on, You know, there’s no, there’s no like issue here. There’s no Akiva saying like, I hate you or anything like that. Like this is just normal. This is normal talk.

45. 17:32

    In fact, this is important for us particularly because we will see things like in John chapter 8, when the Lord Jesus is talking to a group of Jews. He says you were of your father the devil. You remember that you’re of your father the devil. And that phrase became terrible in Christian history. It was taken to mean that Jews are actually demonic and that they have horns.

46. 17:52

    In fact, I have met Jewish people today who say that Christians will still come to them and ask to feel their head, to see if they have horns. Yeah. Multiple Jewish people. Have come and talk to me about that. So that verse was misunderstood because this historical context wasn’t understood, but in fact that was a thing that Jews said to each other back then.

47. 18:13

    So here’s another example from the Talmud. This is Dosa Ben Harkinas, and he’s talking about his brother Johannitan Ben Harkinas. So he that’s Dosa said to them. Did you hear that Dosa Ben Harkinas issued this? Ruling. Or did you hear that it was stated by Ben Harkinas? Because he wants to know, was this my ruling or was it just by somebody in my family?

48. 18:34

    They said to him, on your life, Rabbi, we simply heard Ben Harkiness. He said to them, if so, it is no wonder, as I have a younger brother who is the first born of the Satan, IE, he’s extremely sharp and as brazen as a demon. And his name is Johannatan, and he’s among the disciples of Shamai, which, you know, in the Talmud being a disciple of Shamai, that kind of, you know, that’s you don’t want to be that it is he who issued this ruling. OK, So what you got again here is this is just how people talk about each other now.

49. 19:00

    This is his brother, right? It’s not like he’s not saying I hate my brother. He’s just saying, oh, you know, like my brother. Yeah, we have. We spar, right? Like, this is this is the kind of thing that happens. I totally disagree with him. He doesn’t ever know what he’s talking about. But then he’ll say, brother, you know, the next time he sees him.

50. 19:15

    And that’s how things will be like. This is how the Talmud is. This was the historical context back then. This was how Jews, particularly rabbis, spoke to each other. In fact, there is one story. I’ll tell you about it just because it’s so strange to us. There’s one story in the Talmud in which these rabbis are arguing with each other and they can’t figure out what the correct ruling on this law in the Torah is.

51. 19:38

    So one rabbi says, well, if I am right, I will use my mind powers and move this one tree from there to there. And then all the rabbis watch and he goes, you know, any the tree starts to float and the tree moves and everyone’s like, whoa, you know, he must be right.

52. 19:53

    He has mind powers. And the other rabbi then he’s talking says, Oh yeah, Well, if I am right then. The walls of this house that we are in will cave in on us and the walls bend down, you know, on on top of them. And so you have this like contest of not only like the rabbis like their, their understanding of the Torah, but like their mental power, right? Like this guy has so much mind power. One guy can move a tree, but the other guy can like move a house. You know, so like they’re trying to show I have a bigger brain than you kind of thing.

53. 20:23

    So they’re like going back and forth and like arguing over all this and then finally get this. This is the weirdest part. God comes and God says to them, I don’t want to see my children quarreling with one another, right? So you actually have this intervention in the story of saying you need to treat each other nicer.

54. 20:40

    And the rabbis say no, like, it’s actually OK. Like this is just how we talk, no big deal. Don’t worry about it. And so they say to God, they quote him one of the verses from Proverbs, I don’t remember which it is. They quote him a verse from the Old Testament that says like, you know, something along the lines of. Like you should be right about things or something like that. And so they quote this verse to God, and God says, I’ve been bested by my own children.

55. 21:04

    And he starts laughing and he says, I love that my children will argue over these things. And he leaves. So like, that’s that just gives you an idea of the cultural context. And I say that and I wanted to spend, you know, a lot of time looking at this just because it’s so important for us to understand when we talk about peace, like this is a big deal context because we can completely misunderstand what’s going on and completely misunderstand how people are treating each other unless we recognize the way that they talked.

56. 21:33

    So that’s that’s the big thing. I would suggest to you a lot of those times when we read Jesus’s words and we think, wow, that was harsh. Most people probably heard those and didn’t think. That right, that’s that’s now there are times right where, you know, the lawyer and Luke 11 says like you’re offending us. But think about that.

57. 21:52

    Like Jesus was saying things that we’d be like, well, obviously he’s offending them, right? But the lawyer actually felt the need to say, hey, you know, like, just want you to know this is not like bro talk anymore. Like I’m feeling a little like, I don’t feel good about this, right? That shows us there were different standards at that time.

58. 22:11

    I think that that’s important to recognize. OK, so that’s the first thing that’s historical. Now, in addition, as we talk about Romans and Ephesians. I think it’s helpful for us to also understand some historical perspective as far as how Jews. Worked. With Gentiles. So let’s just take a look at this. So this is the letter of Aristius. This is the letter that tells us about how the Septuagint supposedly came into being.

59. 22:36

    And I say supposedly because it says that the 70 scholars who put together Septuagint were put in 70 different rooms, and they all translated at the same time, and they came up with word for word the same translation. That. Seems highly unlikely. I don’t even come up with the same translation when I translate something twice, so you know, I can’t imagine that taking place.

60. 22:57

    But anyway, what this is saying is. This is just giving us a little bit of a a background as far as Jews and Gentiles and some of the the ways that the Jews interacted with them. So for instance, we won’t read through it, but you can if you want. It says that when those Jews came down to translate the Septuagint version that Ptolemy the second says to them, hey, you know, rabbis, I want to eat a meal together.

61. 23:20

    And the rabbis are kind of like, well, you know, it sounds nice. And the reason is because they. Can’t eat with gentiles right there it’s. A real awkward moment because they can’t eat with gentiles because maybe the food was offered to idols. All of this. And so he says, oh, right. You know, I got to make.

62. 23:38

    I have to make preparations for your banquet. I got to, you know, make it everything OK for you. I got to do it all kosher. I get it. So Jews just didn’t normally eat with Gentiles, right. So that’s, that’s the thing to note. Here’s an instance of just what a big deal this was.

63. 23:53

    So this is from the book of Second Maccabees. Again, this is not biblical unless you’re a Catholic, which we aren’t. But this is this is from Second Maccabees. And it again is just sort of historical, some of the the stories that Jews see as history. So this is between the testaments, between the two testaments.

64. 24:10

    And this shows you an example of what a big deal it was to avoid eating with gentiles. So listen to this. Eleazar, one of the scribes in high position, a man now advanced in age and a noble presence, was being forced to open his mouth to eat swine’s flesh. OK. But he welcoming death with honor rather than life with pollution.

65. 24:31

    So what’s life with pollution? It’s eating. Pig went up to the rack of his own accord, spitting out the flesh as all ought to go who have the courage to refuse things that it is not right to taste, even for the natural love of life. Now you will notice this is definitely not an unbiased source.

66. 24:50

    Right. This is saying, you know, look at Eliezer like the man, right? You can imagine like if they had trading cards back then, it would be like Eliezer the man. And you know, he has big muscles and like. Here he is because he didn’t eat pork, right? So this is this is the big thing.

67. 25:04

    So what he did is instead he says, I will not eat pork, Instead put me on the rack. And he walks up to the rack and goes, right, like, I won’t do that pork and Maccabees is like, that’s what everyone should do. Eliezer was a man, right? OK, so there you go. You get that?

68. 25:21

    You get that sense. And in fact, you even still see this in New Testament times after Christianity has entered the scene. So here’s Peter. And after he goes to preach to Cornelius, the ecclesia confronts him and says, you ate with Gentiles.

69. 25:43

    This is how strong the culture was at that time, right? Even in a collegial life, Peter was confronted. With this, what were you? Thinking don’t you remember Eleazar Right? Like like. How could you not do that? You ate with gentiles. In addition, they weren’t supposed to marry. Now, I think we’re fairly familiar with that idea, so I’m not going to go into these quotes.

70. 26:08

    They weren’t supposed to marry. That comes out of the the Old Testament, out of the Torah. So we don’t need to get into that. But just, again, historically, this was a big thing. Like the only way that you could marry is if the person became a Jew, right? They had to. Accept Judaism.

71. 26:23

    They had to accept everything that came with it, including circumcision, all of that in addition to that, so you couldn’t eat with gentiles, you couldn’t marry them. You also saw them as impure. Now I want to just step back and talk a little bit about the marriage piece, because we’re looking at this in terms of 1st century, right?

72. 26:43

    Like we knew those things that Jews and Gentiles wouldn’t get married. But I want you to think about it in regard to the 1st century. Just imagine how complicated that would make things. If you’re in an ecclesia and you have a Jew and a Gentile who want to get married, some people would be saying, well, is that guy going to get circumcised?

73. 27:03

    Right. You have, you have this question of trying to figure out, you know, are you going to, he’s going to keep kosher, right? And you have to try and try and piece this together because when you work through the New Testament, it appears as though there were a number of Jewish Christians who continued to hold to the Torah, continue to hold to sometimes even some of the oral traditions up until the destruction of the Second Temple.

74. 27:26

    We talk about how the destruction of the Second Temple was to show that Judaism was done. And I agree with that. I think it was, but I think it was additionally to show the Jewish Christians, right? We’ve we’ve moved on, right? This is this is the end. But up before that there were a bunch of them who were still doing all this stuff. And so I want us to put ourselves into that situation in the 1st century to understand how hard this would be as you try and bring together not just two cultures, right? We have that happen in marriages today, but it’s two cultures in which one of the cultures says no way, right? I can’t have anything to do with you. So this gives you an idea of a little bit of that. No way.

75. 28:08

    Peace. This is the gentile impurity. So this is from the Talmud says it was said of Rabbi Ishmael, the son of Kim Hith. It once happened on the Day of Atonement. He spoke in a public place with an Arab whose saliva was sprinkled on the high priest clothes, right. So they were talking, you know, getting really excited and maybe he said a lot of peas or something and and you know, the saliva came out, got on the high priest clothes. And because he got saliva on him, look at this, he became unclean because the Arab might be unclean. It’s possible that the Arab was unclean because he didn’t know the laws of cleanness and whatnot. So therefore the high priest was unclean. And because of that, he could not perform his duties as a high priest on the Day of Atonement.

76. 28:46

    So he has to step back and his brother takes his spot. So that’s what that story is all about. You might be familiar with the layout of the second temple. So this portion here that I’ve outlined in blue, that was referred to as the Court of the Gentiles. So you have there on the bottom left, that’s the Royal Stoa.

77. 29:05

    That’s where the money changers would have been. That’s where the Sanhedrin met. And then you have the Court of the Gentiles in that blue section. So if you were a Gentile, you were allowed to go into the Court of the Gentiles. However, you had to stop right there at that green marking that is referred to as the Sorag.

78. 29:24

    It was a a fabric covering and it was blocked off. You could not as a Gentile go in here is what Josephus says about it. He says, When you go through these first cloisters unto the 2nd court of the temple. There was a partition made of stone all around, so there’s stones and the fabric whose height was 3 cubits.

79. 29:44

    Its construction was very elegant. Upon it stood pillars at equal distances from one another, declaring the law of purity. Some in Greek, some in Roman. Letters that quote no foreigners should go within that sanctuary. For the 2nd court of the temple was called the sanctuary. And was ascended to by 14 steps from the 1st court.

80. 30:01

    This court was four square and had a wall about it peculiar to itself. So what Josephus is saying is that this portion here was blocked off from gentiles. So if you were a gentile, you could only go in that outside area. In fact, archaeologists have now discovered the markings that have that say what Josephus wrote about. So this is in the Istanbul Museum and there’s a like 1/2 version in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Here’s what it says.

81. 30:33

    No stranger is to enter within the balustrade round about the temple enclosure. Whoever is caught will be responsible to himself for his death, which will ensue. You know, pretty straightforward if you if you are a gentile and you go into this section. Well, you will die and it’s your own fault, but that again gives you that sense of this was the feeling about Gentiles right. It was there is this uncleanness. The Gentile could be unclean and so then that would make the temple unclean.

82. 31:03

    And I don’t this I don’t know why this verse is on here. I meant to change it in in between the break. That’s not what it’s supposed to have. It’s supposed to have Acts 21 in Acts chapter 21, the apostle Paul goes into the temple. You remember he shaves his head because he he has this vow. He goes in the temple and the people get really upset about it because they say what he brought Trophimus the Ephesian into the temple and they can’t believe it. And what do they do?

83. 31:30

    They grab Paul and they start beating him up. So that gives us again, this is some of the historical cultural understanding that we need to have when we approach the New Testament, right? There are no people that will walk into like a Christadelphian ecclesia and get beat up because of it. So it’s an important thing, hopefully. So it’s, it’s an important thing for us to understand, right? When we try and understand, you know, what was happening back then, OK, so this is not how everybody felt, but it was how a lot of people felt.

84. 32:02

    So when we start looking at peace, right, when we try and understand peace, I think we need to recognize that the 1st century ecclesia was probably one of the most unpeaceful places because you have this natural division that has been in place for hundreds of years that a number of Jewish people felt was created by God, right? And they would turn to your passages in the Old Testament to prove that Jews and Gentiles, that Moabites, that foreigners, right, Moabites and Ammonites cannot answer to the 10th generation.

85. 32:37

    And they would say look like, you know, if they’re not going to get circumcised, what do you do about this verse, right? Like it would have been a major challenge. And Can you imagine when people tried to break bread? Well, there would be I can’t sit over there with him because look like he’s a gentile. We can’t eat with gentiles.

86. 32:58

    Don’t you know that, right? Like this is this is a meal. It can’t happen. So you could you could picture Jews coming along and saying, well, OK, you know, we’re going to have the Jewish like morning service and we’ll have the Gentile afternoon service, you know, or something like that. And what’s fascinating is the Apostle Paul comes along and Paul says, absolutely not. And I think that that’s one of the amazing things to see that when you look at how difficult.

87. 33:25

    This would have been. When they’re trying to piece this together and when you have one side pulling out their Bibles and saying this is what’s right and the other side saying this is what’s right, it’s a major challenge. And yet the apostle Paul in fact says, well, guess what guys? We’re going to figure it out, right?

88. 33:42

    And that’s that’s what we have to do. So I want us to see that as we talk about peace. So we’re going to work. Through Romans, and we’re going to see Romans as a little bit of a case study here because the ecclesia in Rome was built out of Gentiles and Jews, right?

89. 33:59

    So you’re going to have this, this fighting together of trying to bring these two groups together, so. Let’s just first. Take a look at an outline of Romans. And then after that, we’re going to see how this relates to peace. So let’s look at the well, we won’t turn these up. You can write them down and turn them up if you want.

90. 34:15

    I’ll, I’ll talk to you about what they say. But Romans chapter one verses one through 17. That’s really our introduction, right? It’s kind of it’s like Paul saying hi, right? That’s kind of how he starts his letters. When you move on, you basically get the human condition. So he brings out Gentiles are condemned.

91. 34:31

    You remember the part where he says they should know, right? The the invisible things of God are known. By nature, by his creation. So the Gentiles should know God based on creation. He then goes on in chapter 2 to condemn the Jews because he says just like the Gentiles should have understood God from nature, the Jews should have understood God from the law. So the Gentiles had nature, the Jews had the law, and nobody got it.

92. 35:00

    He says. So therefore he sums it all up in Romans chapter three. He has this big litany of Psalms that he strings together and he says, look, everyone has been condemned. Therefore, he says in chapters three and four, we needed something else, right? We had to be justified through faith. And so God creates justification through faith and he brings out peace in chapter 5 through the Lord Jesus Christ.

93. 35:28

    That means of salvation, Paul goes on to argue, means a complete transformation of our lives. So that’s what chapter 6 is about. This is why we read it at baptisms, right? Because we are then associating ourselves with the Lord Jesus and we are saying our life will go in a different direction. So he brings out this is the meaning of baptism, this is the meaning of the law. This is life in the Spirit.

94. 35:49

    Of God. Now again, I, I don’t want to sound like I’m saying, you know, that we, we live with the Holy Spirit or something like that. This is just, these are Paul’s words, right? This is he talks about those led by the Spirit in Romans 8. He then explains, OK, so now you might be confused, right? I thought that Israel was God’s special people. So if God is justifying all through faith and if God is calling people who believe to then live different lives, well, where does Israel actually fit in? So then he explains, well here’s Israel’s portion. That’s Romans 9 through 11 and he stops at that point and he introduces the word.

95. 36:27

    You may be noticed it before Romans 12 verse one. He starts with the word, therefore, so he’s now laid out all the theology. Right, Romans one through 11. Here’s the theology. So Romans chapter 12 verse one, he says therefore, if you understand all these things, if you understand that there’s condemnation, but there doesn’t have to be condemnation because we are justified through Christ and you understand that this impacts.

96. 36:53

    Who we are as people. If all of this makes sense to you, therefore, here’s how you live. And that’s what chapter 12 is about. Chapter 12131415. They’re all about how to live a new life, and it shouldn’t be surprising then, that when we work through chapters 12. 13 and 14 and 15. Guess what the emphasis is? It’s on learning to work with each other. So he says, if you understand what the death of the Lord Jesus means, that means that even though you’re a Jew and even though you’re a Gentile, you’re going to figure it out. So that’s the big emphasis here.

97. 37:33

    And then he closes up the letter. So that’s kind of like his climax. It’s like his crowning point here. That he says. You have to understand the theology, and when you have that theological base and it makes sense to you, you understand what the Lord Jesus did for you and how He conquered death. Then you learn to create peace.

98. 37:53

    So here’s the progression of thought. Here’s the quick summary. You have the first section, everybody’s in trouble. Second section, but God has a plan. Third, the complaint. The plan completely overhauls your life, 4th it doesn’t exclude Israel and 5th as a result of that plan, the ecclesia. Has to work at its differences, so. That’s what he’s saying to the people in Rome. Jews, Gentiles.

99. 38:15

    It’s time to work this out. So let’s just. Look at this in a little bit more detail because what I want to suggest to you, and this really struck me when I saw this, is that each of these sections is actually based on peace. I want to, I want to suggest to you that the apostle Paul is using peace as sort of like the the theme as he works through this letter and he crowns it with chapters 14 and 15. Is that a bird?

100. 38:47

     Wow, that’s really unfortunate for that bird. Oh, well, I don’t know what to do. I guess it can listen to the class. OK, so here’s here’s how this goes. Right you have you have Section 1 and the first section is about how everybody’s in trouble. Now I don’t think it’s an accident that as we read through this in Romans chapter 3.

101. 39:09

     Just listen to this says as it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands there’s no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one quote. Their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit.

102. 39:27

     The poison of Vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. So at the end of this section the apostle Paul says, look, I show that everybody is under condemnation. And what that means is that you have no peace. There is no peace before the work of the Lord Jesus, so he says no peace.

103. 39:55

     So then you move on into the second section and surprisingly or perhaps not, you then see that when this plan gets implemented through the Lord Jesus Christ, well, look at what it brings out says Romans 5 verse one. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

104. 40:17

     So you start out in this position of having no peace and the apostle Paul says, but don’t worry because. There’s a plan to bring peace. That’s what this is about. There’s no peace. And then there’s the plan to bring about peace and it completely overhauls your individual life. So you have, on one hand, you have peace with God, right? That’s what we saw in the last section. And what we’re seeing is, in fact, all these pieces of peace are connected, right?

105. 40:44

     So you have peace with God in the last section. That’s Romans 5 verse one. And then when you have that peace with God and you start to live differently, what you will experience then wow, Romans 8 verse six says the mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. You then begin to experience that individual peace, that inner peace.

106. 41:10

     So you start to understand what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, how He conquered death, and through that you join it and you have peace with God. And as you develop that peace with God, you start to realize who He really is. You start to understand grace and forgiveness. And as you understand those things, then you feel.

107. 41:30

     That peace, that inner peace, and you start to live according to the Spirit. Now you’ll notice here I’m quoting the KJV again. I mentioned this yesterday that some manuscripts don’t have it. It clearly fits nicely with my framework here. But maybe it’s not there, right? So this is Romans 1015. Even in the section about Israel, you will notice it mentions peace.

108. 41:52

     And I think it’s fascinating that it says, he says, look, Israel hasn’t been excluded, and so the gospel of peace will be. Brought to them too. So then you get in Romans 12 verse one, you get the Therefore therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

109. 42:17

     This is your true. And proper worship now. I always understood this verse to mean get out there and work in the ecclesia, and I think that’s good. So I don’t don’t understand this, please, as me saying like work in the ecclesia is bad or something like that. I think we should be getting out there and doing everything we can, but I think that’s taking the verse out of context.

110. 42:38

     Because if we continue to read, you will notice that the next few verses are all about being one body. They’re all about working together. And then if you keep reading, he says it again, if it is possible as far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone, right? So he keeps bringing this out over and over that you’re 1 body live at peace with each other. And the reason he brings this up is he says like this is the major thing he wants to work on with them. He says you have to understand this because you are Jews, you are gentiles.

111. 43:10

     And I know it’s hard. I know that when you come together on Sunday, you don’t want to sit with these people, right? I know that you don’t want your daughter talking to him. I, I know that this is a cultural thing that you are struggling with and that some of you, you know, you’re probably arguing biblically about Jews and Gentiles bringing being together.

112. 43:29

     And I get that. But he says, if you understand what the Lord Jesus did, if you understand that you had no peace and that the Lord Jesus is bringing peace and that you can have inner peace through him, he says how could you not have peace with each other, right? Because that’s what this is all about. He’s bringing out in Romans that the plan of God is about peace. So therefore, if we believe Romans 5, if we believe Romans 8, and we believe that we’ve been given that peace with God, the apostle Paul.

113. 44:05

     Emphasizes this peace because. He’s saying we therefore have to have peace with each other. So the next few chapters go on. To stress that now I want to just bring this out because I think to me this is one of the most powerful things that comes out here. Romans 14 if you, if you ever get the chance, I, I completely recommend doing a study just of that chapter 14 and 15. And maybe you already have.

114. 44:35

     Sometimes I think it gets a little bit confused with First Corinthians 8, which is also about eating food offered to idols. But I think we need to just look at the context a little bit. So let’s let’s go ahead and open up here to Romans 14. And I want us to look first at verse 2. So just to help us understand, because this was a different thing in Corinth and I think we need to. Really recognize what the problem was here. So Romans 14 verse two, it says there verse 2 for one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs.

115. 45:16

     So this is a similar situation to what was going on at Corinth in that you had somebody who decided to become a vegetarian and the reason they were being a vegetarian was because they figured that that way they could avoid food that. Was offered to idols, right? But that wasn’t the only thing, right? And This is why I say this is different than First Corinthians.

116. 45:34

     So in this case. You have people who are acting as vegetarians. But then in addition to that, look at verse 5, verse five says one man esteemeth one day above another. Another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. What do you think Paul’s talking about there? That’s the Sabbath, right?

117. 45:54

     There’s, there’s Jews in the ecclesia who are saying, look, you got it. What do you, why are you not following Shabbat? Like, what are you thinking? You know, clearly, let’s look at Genesis, right? This is a holy day. God sanctifies the 7th day. He rests on the 7th day. Like you’re just acting like it’s normal, right? And you can you can imagine this problem and you can imagine them going back.

118. 46:17

     To the old. Testament and saying we have biblical reasons for feeling this way. So what you have going on here is this is very much in the context of Jew and Gentile. In fact, just just to really bring it out, you can see it in verse 14 that the apostles talks about nothing being unclean of itself, right?

119. 46:38

     So this is about cleanness and uncleanness. So what we’re looking at is Jews and Gentiles learning to get along based on the fact that for centuries Jews have had a different understanding of Scripture because Gentiles haven’t even read it, right? And then they come along and now they’re saying, well, actually all those things that you’re clearly showing me are commandments.

120. 47:00

     We don’t actually have to follow those, right? And the Jews are like. But that’s what it says. Right. Like, what do you mean? You’re telling me that the words of the Bible don’t matter, you know, or something like that? Like that’s it. You can picture this is this would be a serious debate.

121. 47:17

     This would be a big problem. So they’re going. Back and forth. And I think it’s astonishing then to see what the apostle writes here in Romans 14 verse 14, he says, I am convinced. Being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus now. We often miss this, I think, because we just, we don’t notice Paul’s emphasis.

122. 47:40

     We just say like, you know, OK, so he’s really convinced of this. That’s not, that’s not what’s going on here. The apostle triple emphasizes what he’s about to say. He says, I am convinced, I’m persuaded and I am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, right? There’s there’s those 3 emphasis. So convinced, persuaded, and then in the Lord Jesus, or if you have the KJV, it’s by the Lord Jesus.

123. 48:05

     Now the reason that this matters for us is if you search these phrases in the Greek, here’s what you’ll find. You’ll find that occasionally Paul will say I’m convinced and persuaded. Occasionally he’ll say I’m convinced in the Lord Jesus. Sometimes he’ll say I’m persuaded in the Lord Jesus. But you will never find any other instance where he says I am convinced being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus. In other words, this is the only time that the apostle is triple emphasizing something like this now, I think. That, that is huge.

124. 48:38

     For us, because what that tells us is that this is the most emphatic verse that the apostle ever writes. Now that’s amazing to me because it is not about theology, right? It is not about him, you know, saying here’s how you need to understand the atonement. Or here’s how you need to be ready for the Kingdom of God. Or something like that.

125. 49:03

     His most emphatic verse is about getting along with each other. So in his most emphatic verse he says this, I am convinced, fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. So he says you need to understand that, right? Understand this basis that this is OK, It’s OK that you disagree on this. And he says with that understanding, consider this. If anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person, it is unclean.

126. 49:34

     If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Now this is one of those instances. I was just talking about how I’m quoting the NIV up here. I actually I’m, I should, I should tell you this, I, I, I like to change my translation every year that I do the readings from. So I put together the study when I was using the NIV and I actually don’t like how the NIV handles a number of passages. So in case you’re thinking like, oh, you know, Jason likes the NIV.

127. 50:02

     I, I, it’s not really one of my favorites, but I, but I didn’t want to change all the verses, right? So anyway, what it says up here is it says you are no longer acting in love. Well, that’s one of those instances where unfortunately that the NI VS emphasis on trying to be more readable, which makes it nice to read when you’re doing the readings right. I felt like it really made some of the stuff that Paul writes make more sense, but unfortunately it’s not as literal as it could be there.

128. 50:27

     Says you are no longer acting in love. What that really says in the Greek is you are no longer walking in love. Now that’s really interesting because the apostle Paul will go on later in Ephesians to. Quote that phrase, and in Ephesians chapter five he tells us what it means to walk in love.

129. 50:54

     So Ephesians chapter 5. Verse two, listen to this Ephesians 5 verse two he uses that same phrase of walking in love. Listen to what walking in love is. Ephesians 5 verse two says and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. So what Paul is emphasizing here is he says walking in love. That’s the fact that the Lord Jesus gave his life for you. So he says, if you can’t figure out how to get along, right, if you’re if you’re looking at this and say, oh, well, you know, I’m going to eat whatever I want, even though that bothers that person.

130. 51:38

     Or if you’re looking at that other person and judging them and saying, well, they’re not a good believer because they eat whatever they want, right. And you know, you have these scriptural basis for feeling this way yet, Paul says. If you look at that person and feel that way, he says you missed the point of the sacrifice of Christ.

131. 51:57

     That’s why this is his most emphatic verse, right? Like he, he says this, the Lord Jesus walked in love and how did he do that? He gave his life for you and he gave his life for them. So that’s why this is such a big deal. And so in fact, when he brings it all together, he says. Do not buy your eating.

132. 52:22

     Destroy someone for whom Christ died. Now it’s interesting that he’s talking about the strong and the weak in Romans 14, right? I don’t think it’s an accident that, yes, the weak are the ones who are wanting to become vegetarian, right? And and, you know, wanting to follow the Sabbath and all that. And the strong are the ones who recognize that you don’t need that.

133. 52:46

     But I don’t think it’s an accident then in Romans 5. Paul wrote this Romans 5 verse six For when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly when we were without strength. Now that word without strength in the Greek is the word weak. Same word as Romans 14 verse one and and two. So that’s Romans 5 verse 6 and Romans 14-1 and two. In other words, what Paul is saying is that everyone in some sense is the weak.

134. 53:23

     And that’s the basis on which we learn to work together to recognize that, you know, I this is what I think it says, here’s why. And you say, well, this is what I think it says, here’s why. And we can sit down together and we can say, OK, well, you know, let’s, let’s talk through this.

135. 53:41

     Let’s try and figure it out. In some cases, maybe. You know, I’m not. I’m not. Talking on 1st principles, don’t worry. But in some cases maybe you’ll have to compromise. I know sometimes that people feel like that’s a bad word, but you know, I, I think that that’s an important thing for us to consider. Right, that’s how we get along.

136. 54:00

     Now I put my remote somewhere. I got all excited. There it is. OK, I got 5 more minutes. So let’s really quickly walk through Ephesians because Ephesians is. Wow. Yeah, OK, four. So Ephesians is the same thing. But I think you’ll notice that same point that what the apostle does is he gives us the sacrifice of the Lord, and he says this sacrifice was about peace.

137. 54:27

     So you have the same problem, Jews and Gentiles, and it’s again revolved around peace. Ephesians 2 verses 11 to 13 says Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision, which is done in the body by human hands. Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope, without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

138. 54:54

     Now I’ve underlined it on there, that’s an illusion. He says you were once far away and you’ve been brought near by the blood of Christ. Now that’s an illusion. I would suggest you to Isaiah 57 because that whole section is quoting Isaiah 57 and we’ll we’ll look at it maybe as we go, depending on how fast they talk, but being far away.

139. 55:14

     Isaiah 57 talks about those who are far, and the reason we need to recognize that illusion is because look at what it’s saying to those who are far. It says peace to those who are far. And that’s Paul’s point. He says you once were strangers from the covenant, you once were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, and he says, but now you have peace because of what the Lord Jesus did.

140. 55:38

     So he explains that He Himself is our peace. How not just peace with God, not just inner peace, but he says the Lord Jesus has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. And he doesn’t say it’s going to be easy to figure out the peace, but he says that peace has to happen right?

141. 56:02

     Because that’s the sacrifice of Christ. He says uniting those two groups, making you one, is what the Lord Jesus did. And if you aren’t? That. Then you’ve missed it. That’s when he quotes Isaiah 57. He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who are near.

142. 56:28

     So what we see? Is that when it comes to the story of the gospel, it’s the gospel of peace. And all of these aspects of peace are connected. In fact, ultimately I would put to you, I think really peace with each other is probably the hardest kind of peace to bring about, right? Because you know, you, you have to bring together all these different kinds of people.

143. 56:56

     And, and even though we’re not dealing with Jews and Gentiles today, right? There’s still a lot of different opinions and a lot of different feelings about stuff, right? And it’s it’s hard to make it work. And yet what we see when we come to Romans, when we come to Ephesians, is the apostle Paul acknowledges, yes, it’s hard.

144. 57:13

     But he says when you understand what God is doing and how God is bringing out peace with God, how he’s bringing out your inner peace, and that all of these things together link and should inspire you to be at peace with each other, he says how can you not strive for that peace?