12/8/24 “Heavenly Peace”
“Heavenly Peace”
John 14:27
What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘Peace’?
Not being too far removed from Thanksgiving, some of you may be thinking of ‘peace’ as in “I’ll have another Piece of pie”…
Just for clarification, we are talking about the P-E-A-C-E peace today, not the P-I-E-C-E piece.
When you hear someone speak of peace, what are some things you think of:
…anyone want to volunteer an answer this morning?
(No War) (Tranquility) (Rest) (Quiet) (Contentment) (Kindness) (Tolerance) (Compassion) (Calm) (Seclusion) (Isolation)
Obviously, the word ‘Peace’ can mean many different things to many different people.
Typically, the most often heard meaning behind the word peace is the idea of there being no war or conflict – especially in a political sense.
It used to be standard operating procedure at beauty pageants (Do they even have those anymore?) during the ‘interview segment’ ….that if a contestant could somehow morph their answer into advocating for world peace, then they were successful in navigating the question.
It’s probably one of the very few answers that may garner close to 100% approval from everyone listening.
I mean, who doesn’t want world peace, right?...Well, maybe arms dealers and others who turn a profit from war…but hopefully that’s a relatively small percentage of the population.
World Peace…we all long for it…yet it has been a stranger to the history of humanity for as long as we’ve been around.
Historian Will Durant has famously calculated that over the past 3,500 years the world has seen only 268 years of peace…
…that’s only 8% of the time
It is estimated that over 14,000 wars have been waged over the time frame of recorded history totaling in the neighborhood of around 4 billion casualties….
…For reference, that’s half of the current population of our planet.
…or to put it another way, it’s the population of the entire metropolitan area of Chicago (10 million)…multiplied by 400!...400 Chicagos!
That’s a lot of people who had their lives cut short due to war
It’s been said that “Peace is that brief moment in history when everyone stands around re-loading”
If you ask the Google robots, they will tell you that there are currently 32 ongoing wars happening in the world right now…
…and Just in the hour and a half that we are here this morning, over 30 people will die somewhere in the world as a result of war.
As we can see, our world lacks peace.
…Our world lacks “Shalom”, the Hebrew word for ‘Peace.’
So, what does Jesus mean then when he tells us in our passage for today that he is giving us peace?...
…How can this be true when we see so much war, conflict, hatred, and discord in our world today…
…and over the past 2,000 years since those words were spoken?
Well…let’s take closer look at this vital verse in scripture and what Jesus is actually telling us about peace in this passage.
Let’s begin with the first 5 words of verse 27 (John 14:27)
“Peace I leave with you…”
Contrary to what one might think, Jesus is not talking about political peace here….
Nor is he referring to domestic peace…peace in the home
…Actually, he says in Matthew 10:34 that he did not come to bring domestic peace at all…
families will be split as to their allegiance or rejection of Jesus Christ – MANY of us see this happening in our own families today.
The peace to which Jesus is referring – and the peace we celebrate on this 2nd Sunday of Advent – is peace with God.
…and Peace with God is the most important kind of peace because it describes our objective, positional relationship to the Father.
You see, you and I are all born at war….we are born at war with God.
The minute you were conceived, you inherited a sin nature that made you naturally want to rebel against the moral principles and precepts of a holy God.
We are all born into a state of natural rebellion rather than one of natural obedience…
…this is why a 2-year-old doesn’t need to be taught to disobey his or her parents…in comes naturally – to some children, it comes VERY naturally!
Psalm 51:5 says “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”
Paul says in Romans 5:18 that the sin of Adam resulted in “Condemnation for all men…”
In other words, every human being is born under a curse of self-glorification rather than divine glorification…
We are built with the natural desire to supplant the God of the Universe with a god we would rather have on the throne of our lives…
…and that god (small g)has a name…his name also happens to be on your driver’s license…and your bank account…and your credit cards…
We are born with the unquenchable desire to put ourselves on the throne of our lives rather than placing our maker on that throne…
And when this is the situation…There can be no peace with God
Jesus tells us that it is impossible to serve 2 masters…we will either serve God, or we will serve someone – or something - other than God.
So…the peace that Jesus is initially speaking of here in the first 5 words of verse 27 is the peace with God that can only be acquired through faith in the person & atoning work of Jesus Christ…
This is the peace that the angels were referring to when they appeared before the shepherds in the hills outside of Bethlehem and said “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:14)
The angels weren’t conveying a message of political peace…they weren’t announcing a message of domestic peace…they weren’t even announcing a message of inner peace at that specific point in time…
..they were telling the shepherds that mankind would now be able to be at peace with God……through a tiny baby who had just been born in a feeding trough a few miles away.
If you are in Christ, you have waived the white flag of surrender on your natural war against God…
…and the beauty of the gospel message is that God accepts the surrender of any individual who puts their trust in His son Jesus Christ.
…This is amazing grace!
…The question for all of us today is this: Have you surrendered your entire life to Jesus Christ?...
…or are you still fighting?...are you still taking up arms against the God of the universe in a feeble attempt to circumvent His truth and replace it with your own self-indulgent, self-serving truth?
Maybe you’ve given God 90% of your life…but you’re fighting tooth and nail to hold on to that last 10% for yourself…
Jesus doesn’t ask for 90% of your life…or even 99% of your life…
He asks for 100%...because that’s what He deserves.
When we consider what He did for us on the cross, total submission to Him is the least we can do…Folks, this is your eternal salvation we are talking about!
The King is worthy to receive all the worship we can bring him…
…We need to stop holding on to those pet sins and unconfessed areas of our lives…they are poison to the soul.
If you’re still fighting that battle with God this morning, don’t feel like you are the only one…
…every person in this room was also fighting that same exact battle until they finally responded to the call to lay down their arms and surrender…
If you are still engaged in this battle, come see me up front after service today…and let’s talk about what surrendering to God looks like…
…and what peace with God looks like.
It’s time to lay down your weapons and come to Jesus – the only path to peace with God.
Now, let’s take a look at the next 5 words in verse 27 (John 14:27)
“…my peace I give you”
The key word here is “My”
Jesus not only leaves his followers with the ability to have an objective, positional peace with God…
…but He also provides for us the ability to experience His peace in our lives.
This is referred to as the peace of God.
The peace of God is the peace that keeps us calm in stressful situations…it allows us to experience serenity in the midst of chaos…
This is the kind of peace that the world does not know or understand…
This is the peace that Paul speaks of in Philippians 4:7 when he writes “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
This peace is literally from heaven…it is a heavenly peace.
It is a supernatural balm of contentment rubbed into the soul of any man or woman who has been justified through the blood of Jesus Christ.
It is the same peace that kept Jesus calm in the hours leading up to his crucifixion…
It’s the same peace that allowed Paul & Barnabus to joyfully sing hymns in a jail cell….
It’s the same peace that served as the foundation to Peter & John’s boldness before the Sanhedrin interrogation.
…And It’s the SAME PEACE that you and I can experience today as followers of Jesus in a hostile, chaotic world.
Jay Oswald Sanders once said, “Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God.”
A couple of chapters later in the gospel of John, Jesus says this “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
Isn’t that comforting?
Jesus provides His followers with the peace of God…
In certain passages of scripture, Jesus is referred to as the “Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6 (Another wonderful prophetic passage about the coming Messiah) says this: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Interesting that he isn’t referred to as the prince of hope…or joy…or even love – but the Prince of Peace.
The truth is, the experiential peace of Jesus needs to be set in place in our lives before hope, joy, or love are able to fully manifest themselves…
…If we are not experiencing God’s peace, we will also not be able to fully experience joy…or hope…or love.
Have you ever pictured Jesus as being worried about something?
Just full of anxiety about a life situation, or the events of the day?
No!...It’s laughable.
Jesus was never worried…He had peace at all times.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m honest, I find it difficult to always experience peace in life.
A number of years ago when our youngest daughter was facing a scary diagnosis of a tumor in her central nervous system, I found it difficult to stay completely at peace through that season of life…
I would read numerous medical journal articles about her specific brand of cancer until the wee hours of the morning…
…and, consequently, I was experiencing anxiety over Lexy’s situation to the point of it affecting my own physical health…
I learned a lot about the peace of God from my wife through that difficult year of our lives…
Lisa held it together way better than I did…
What did she do differently?...She simply allowed the peace of God to wash over her during that difficult season of our lives and – in so doing – she taught me a lot about what God’s serenity looks like in the face of a raging storm.
The biggest lesson I learned was that even though God’s peace is available to all of His children, we must actively appropriate that peace in our lives!
We can’t just sit back and expect to be calm in every storm of life without putting forth some spiritual effort of our own…
It’s like tending a garden…we must put time into cultivating the crops of trust and dependance – and at the same time – pulling up the weeds of trepidation, fear, and self-sufficiency.
Instead of spending countless hours researching my child’s condition, I should have spent those same hours in prayer…
Spending more time in consulting with the God of the universe rather than consulting Dr. Google…
…I definitely would have experienced more peace of mind in a difficult time.
Maybe some of you have gone through something similar…and maybe you learned the same lesson I did…
In order to fully experience heavenly peace, we need to draw all the closer to the provider of this heavenly peace.
Look with me at the next 10 words of verse 27 (John 14:27)…
They provide a contrast between heavenly peace and worldly peace.
Jesus says “…I do not give to you as the world gives.”
The world tries to deliver peace, but it can never truly deliver on its promise.
There are things in this world that can provide fleeting, temporary peace…
…things like a new car…or a new relationship…or a vacation…or a good cup of coffee – Many people tell me that their morning coffee provides a certain level of peace in their day.
But all of these things are temporary…they are all based on emotion and momentary experientialism…
Heavenly peace, however, is a permanent peace…
Like biblical joy, it doesn’t come and go depending on the situation at hand.
Many people are stuck in what one commentator calls “The bliss of spiritual ignorance”
…A kind of chronic state of unconvicting uncertainty regarding their future beyond the grave…
…Have you ever heard someone say something like “God understands me, so I’ll be fine when I come before him at the final judgement”…
…or “If there is a God, he’ll see that I did the best I could do, and he’ll welcome me into heaven.”
Folks, statements like this are saturated with a counterfeit form of blissful spiritual ignorance.
If people only knew how desperately they need Jesus – and Jesus alone - to escape an eternity of damnation and destruction…
…If people only knew the destructiveness of their own sin – and how the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is their only way to eternal life…
….Then they would be much more attentive to considering the merits of the gospel message.
The peace of this world is like the message of the false prophets in the book of Jeremiah who kept telling the Israelites that their exiled position was not because of God’s wrath…
…but that there was complete peace and that God really wasn’t angry with their idolatry and disobedience.
…that was blissful spiritual ignorance….and that’s what the world preaches today as well.
Lastly, Jesus tells us in verse 27 (John 14:27) to “…not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Now Jesus has moved from a promise to that of a command.
We are commanded to put the fearlessness of God into practice in our own lives.
We are given the responsibility of acting upon the power provided to us through the Holy Spirit in staying free from anxiety and fear.
Remember…Having the ability to do something…and actually doing that thing are two different concepts….
…and if we don’t appropriate God’s peace in our lives, it’s not doing us any good.
Think of it this way: If you had 10 million dollars in the bank, that money would be useless to you…unless you actually went down to the bank, withdrew it, and used it in some way…
…like maybe buying your pastor a lifetime supply of butter burgers – I think that would be a fantastic way to spend 10 million dollars! 😊
…or if you have a cabinet in your shop full of every tool known to man, you still need to make the effort to go and get the tool out of the cabinet in order to complete the project.
The command here to not let our hearts be troubled is written as a present passive imperative.
It can also be translated as “Let not your heart continue to be agitated.”
In other words, we will always experience trouble – but we have been given the power by the Holy Spirit to live in such a way as to be cushioned from the storms around us.
Sailors will often talk of a place called the “Cushion of the Sea”
It refers to the area far enough below the surface of the sea that nothing is disturbed by anything going on at the surface…
There could be a typhoon or a hurricane going on at the surface, but you wouldn’t know it if you’re down in the cushion of the sea…
…as everything in that realm is always still and calm.
This is how we are to navigate this world of chaos and stress as we appropriate the peace of God in our lives.
To live in anguish over the past, anxiety concerning the present, or apprehension about the future is to fail to appropriate that peace.
Paul’s salutation in Romans 15:13 reminds us of our responsibility of trusting God for His peace in our lives when it says: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Peter also tells us to “…Seek peace and pursue it” (1 Peter 3:11)
Today – this 2nd Sunday of Advent – let us meditate upon our peace with God…and the peace of God…both made available through the life of Jesus…
…a life that began in the midst of farm animals in a dark, smelly, dirty cave-like structure in the cleft of a rock.
Allow that same Jesus to hide your life in the cleft of the rock of salvation.
I’ll end with the lyrics of the hymn: “He Hideth my Soul”
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock, that shadows a dry thirsty land; He hideth my life in the depths of His love, and covers me there with His hand…and covers me there with His hand.
Allow the heavenly peace of God to shelter you in whatever storm is currently raging in your life…
Let’s Pray.