Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : June 26, 2005

Theme: The Fruit of the Spirit -- Peace

Church year occasion: Pentecost 6

You're late for your appointment, the kids are fighting, you're stuck in traffic, you left home arguing with your spouse, the U.S. is at war with the world, you personally feel like you're at war with the world, your life savings could disappear at the slightest word from Allen Greenspan and, to top it all off, you just rear-ended the car in front of you. Calgon, take me away! That's a normal day for some of us. In such a world, how is peace possible? If you're thinking of peace as the absence of problems or the absence of conflict, then you might have peace for a time, but the moment someone challenges you or some difficulty rears its ugly head in your life, peace runs out the door, and it won't return until the conflict or problem is settled. That kind of peace depends on the things of this world and how we relate to them. But the kind of peace that the Apostle Paul talks about in Galatians 5 as a fruit of the Spirit depends on only one person -- Jesus, and our relationship with him.

Peace is the fruit of the Spirit we will discuss this week. It has a lot of different meanings, depending on the kind of peace you're talking about. There are people looking for peace of mind. Nations all over the world claim they are searching and working for peace. Mothers the world over are searching for a little peace and quiet. Everybody wants peace in the world, their families and at their work -- but very few find it. That's obvious when we see all the turmoil, fighting and quarreling going on. So why is peace so hard to find, or once you find it, why is it so hard to hold on to, like water running through your fingers?

The answer becomes evident when we look at the kind of peace most people are looking for. Jimi Hendrix, the great rock guitarist of the 60's, led a promiscuous life, indulging in drugs and behaving outrageously, on and off stage. Reportedly at the end of a concert in 1970 he smashed his guitar to pieces. That wasn't unusual -- he did it all the time. The audience screamed and applauded. That wasn't unusual either. But suddenly there was complete silence. Hendrix had dropped to his knees and remained motionless. That was unusual. He broke the silence by saying, "If anyone knows real peace, I want to visit with you backstage." Apparently no one responded to his invitation. Several days later he died from a drug overdose. Peace, real peace, had eluded Jimi Hendrix.

Fame doesn't bring peace. Money doesn't bring peace. Self-indulgence doesn't, either. Most people can't find real peace because they're looking for it in all the wrong places. Even though the Bible is by far the best-selling book of all time, people must not be reading it. More likely, they are rejecting what the Bible clearly tells them. The Bible tells us that if we want to find real peace, we need to find out more about our God. The Bible says God is our peace.

That became evident when God the Son entered the world in human flesh. The message from God through the angels was, "Don't be afraid." The shepherds were afraid. They were scared to death. We would have been, too, as those who are not holy in the presence of God's holy angels. But the rest of the message told them why they and we don't have to be afraid -- the Savior was born. And it's almost as if the angels couldn't contain their joy and amazement. The heavens rang with their song: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Usually when people talk about "peace on earth," especially at Christmas time, they talk about peace between people or nations or a general good-will toward others. I've heard of several stories during World War 2 when both sides would stop shooting at each other on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day to remember Christ's birth. But the next day, the shooting and killing and dieing continued.

But the Bible speaks of a lasting "peace on earth." It's a different kind of peace -- not peace among nations, not peace between individuals. But real peace comes when there is peace between God and man, and it's what everyone needs. Such a peace is something that we don't have when we are born into this world. We are born and even conceived in sin. The Bible tells us that as a result our sinful mind is hostile to God, it doesn't submit to God's law nor can it do so. As a result of us not being able to submit to God's law, we are dead spiritually in our sins. By nature, we have no peace with God, but instead we are at war with him.

And that shows in our lives, doesn't it? Whenever we do something we know we shouldn't be doing, our conscience gets to us and condemns us, makes us feel rotten. That's a reflection of our relationship with our God. It shows that we've been doing things that our God doesn't like, and we know it. You can think of some things right now that have bothered your conscience in the past and might still be bothering it right now.

So how do we find peace with God? Try to live better? That won't work because we'll never know if what we've done is enough. In fact, the Bible says it will never be enough because God wants -- no, demands -- that we be perfect in every thought, word and action our whole lives through. Can we have peace with God by going into total seclusion from this world and trying to commune with God? Nope. You can't find God that way -- you'll only find your own ideas, which will never bring you peace.

The more we discover about God in the Bible, the more we realize that real peace comes only from God through Jesus. When his Son came to this earth, he came to be the substitute for man in living and dying. He always showed that there was perfect peace between him and his Father because there was no sin to come between them. But he came to make peace between God and man. For there to be peace between God and man, all the sins that separate us from him had to be paid for. When Jesus died on the cross, with his last breath he cried out, "It is finished!" That word literally means, "Paid in full." Our sins, every last one of them, are forgiven, paid in full. As Isaiah said, "The punishment that brought us peace was upon him." Now there are no sins that separate us from God. As the angels said, we don't have to be afraid because Jesus came to give us his perfect life, to credit it to us in God's eyes. Now instead of God hauling us before his throne and declaring us to be thoroughly guilty of sin and worthy of death, we see that Jesus allowed himself to be hauled before God instead of us and declared guilty instead of us and punished with the wrath of the almighty God against every sin ever committed and ever to be committed instead of us. Now, through faith in Jesus, God is not our enemy, but our friend, an ally, one who listens to our every prayer, who cares for us physically and spiritually, who's always there to hear how bad our day or week or year or life has been, and is always there to comfort us in sorrow. It's all because of what Jesus did for us. Now we have eternal life as our inheritance, and right now peace with God, as Paul says in Romans 5, "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand."

How's that for a God of peace? The Bible talks about three main kinds of peace -- we can call them the Three Pieces of the Peace Pie --

1) having peace between God and man
2) being at peace with ourselves
3) showing peace to others

God took care of the first piece of the pie -- peace between God and man. God forgave the sins of the world in Christ and gives it to all who believe in him as their Savior.

As a result of God taking care of piece #1, piece #2 naturally happens. King David talked about how his sins gave him no peace. He said that "day and night God's hand was heavy upon" him. His conscience gave him no peace. But then, when he repented of his sins, his whole life changed. He confessed his sins before God, and God forgave the guilt of his sins. Because he was at peace with God, he was at peace with himself -- he had a clear conscience.

Then, when we have peace with God, and with our conscience no longer accusing us, piece #3 naturally follows. We exhibit peace to those around us. It is just the opposite of the works of the flesh that Paul lists earlier in Galatians 5: "hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy." These things will rule a person's life if they aren't controlled by the Spirit. They will resent others when someone else is more successful than they are. They will be jealous of them. They will try to cause divisions and factions between people for their own best interest. Just look at any soap opera and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. But when the love and peace of Jesus rules a person's heart, those things are pushed out. As God takes control of our lives, he can change us dramatically. Peace, good will, cheer and calm replace anger, animosity, bitterness and quarreling. As our text says, "The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace." So if you want true peace, you need to know Jesus and be controlled by the Spirit. As one bumper sticker says, "Know Jesus, know peace. No Jesus, no peace."

Anyone can be nice to someone if that other person is nice to them first. But real peace shows when you show your care for someone who hasn't done anything nice to you -- even someone who wrongs you and you can still forgive them. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a famous Russian author, was carted off to a Siberian labor camp under Stalin. While he was there, he noticed that when he tried to stand up for his rights and defend himself, his life was terribly difficult and he had no peace. But when he did everything his guards told him to do, he found that they couldn't touch him and he actually found life to be rather peaceful, all things considered. Solomon in Proverbs 25:21-22 said, "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you." The point is this: It takes two to tangle, or quarrel. When the peace of Jesus rules your heart, you won't have to get even with someone, you won't have to get in the last word, if someone harms you, you won't have to get them back even worse. Instead, with the peace of Jesus in our hearts we can react with peace and calm.

So how can you deal with the kids arguing, cars honking, people aggravating and in general everything driving you crazy? Think of the fruit of the Spirit that every child of God has -- peace. Now think of the many different situations and relationships in your life that you can let that peace of God, which goes beyond all understanding, guard and guide your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.