The Key to Finding Peace

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

A couple of months ago Mary and I attended a concert at the Tucson Arena, along with some of you. And as we were waiting to enter, we noticed several people wearing t-shirts that looked something like this:

{Photo of No Jesus, No Peace t-shirt]

I’ve also seen cars with a bumper sticker that has those same words.

Tension

Based on the passage that we’re going to look at this morning, I think that if there had been cars and t-shirts in Jesus’ day, He would have encouraged His disciples to put that bumper sticker on their cars or order a t-shirt with that slogan from Amazon. But as we’re going to see this morning, I’m not sure the disciples really understood the meaning of those words any better than we do.

I mean it’s a nice sounding cliche, right? But what does that really mean? If we really think about it deeply, it probably raises more questions than it answers. What is peace? What does it really mean to know Jesus?

Hopefully this morning, we can answer some of those questions.

Truth

Today we’re going to wrap up our current sermon series, which we’ve titled Abide. We’ve been studying what is commonly known as “The Upper Room Discourse” in John 14-16. This is the last teaching of Jesus which takes place just hours before His crucifixion.

Jesus is trying to prepare His disciples for the events that will occur in just a short time and to assure them that He is not going to leave them alone. He exhorts them to abide, or remain, in Him and He promises that He is going to send the Holy Spirit to enable them to do that.

As He closes the discourse He is going to warn them that they are about to enter into a time of testing and tribulation, but He promises that even in the midst of those difficulties, He is going to make it possible for them to have real peace. That certainly sounds like something I’d like to have in my life and I’m sure all of you want that, too.

So let’s go ahead and read our passage and see what we can learn:

John 16:25–33 ESV

25 “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” 29 His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! 30 Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” 31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. 33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

I’m going to begin with the main idea we’ll be developing this morning and then we’ll dig into the passage a little deeper to see how we can apply it to our lives.

Real peace is a matter of who I know, not what I know.

These disciples thought that their peace and hope rested on their ability to understand what Jesus was saying to them. You see that consistently throughout this entire discourse as they pepper Jesus with a bunch of questions. That’s not really surprising since Jesus reveals here that He has been speaking to them in “figures of speech” - things like vines and branches and a woman in childbirth.

But Jesus assures them that is about to change. There is a time coming soon when He will tell them plainly about the Father.

We’re a lot like those disciples, aren’t we. We want God to explain everything to us because we think that a more complete knowledge of what is happening to us will bring us peace.

But Jesus makes it clear to His disciples, and to us, that knowledge alone won’t produce peace. When the disciples claim that they know know “all things”, Jesus shows them that knowledge alone isn’t enough. If you’ll indulge me for a moment, I’ll paraphrase Jesus’ response:

You say you now know everything, but in just a few hours you’ll be running off like a bunch of frightened sheep. You’ll dessert me at my hour of greatest need. You’ll deny that you even know me and you’ll run and hide like a bunch of cowards.

But that’s okay because I won’t be alone. I’ll be at peace because my Father will be with me. And I want you to have that some kind of peace. Even though you are going to suffer tribulation, I want you to understand that your peace is not dependent on what happens, but on your trust in the One who controls what happens.

Or, as we’ve already said:

Real peace is a matter of who I know, not what I know.

While there is a lot that we could dig into in this passage, I’m going to keep this as simple and short as I can because I don’t want to pull our attention in all different directions and distract from the main idea.

I’m going to begin with a definition of peace, because the kind of peace that Jesus is talking about here is far different than the way we define peace in our culture. Then I’m going to share a few practical ways that we can transform our focus from what we know to who we know.

The definition of peace

I want you to think for a moment about how you would define peace. Maybe even write down a definition. Don’t try to come up with a definition that you think I want to hear. Just write down what first comes to your mind.

Perhaps you can up with something similar to these dictionary definitions:

freedom from disturbance; tranquility

a state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended

Those definitions are certainly consistent with how we normally view peace in our culture. And that would have even been consistent with the Greek mindset of Jesus’ day. But we need to remember that as Jews, both Jesus and most of His disciples ,would have had a more Hebrew mindset when it came to what the word “peace” means.

The Greek word that John uses in his gospel account here is the equivalent of the Hebrew word “shalom”. Since we’ve talked about this frequently before, some of you may have a pretty good idea about the meaning of that word, but it won’t hurt to review it again.

In Hebrew thought, peace is not just the absence of conflict, it is a wholeness of life, both individually and corporately. It is about relationships rather than a state of being because right relationships impact every area of our lives.

We see this illustrated every day in our lives. Let me give you a few illustrations:

Let’s say that in school you have a conflict with one of your classmates. So you figure that the way to have peace is to just change your circumstances. So you ask your teacher to move you to a different seat or even move you to a different class. That might work for a while, but if you don’t do everything you can to repair that relationship, you won’t have lasting peace.

You might have a similar situation in your job. You have a conflict with your boss or another employee. So you go find another job. But then you get to that new job and the same thing happens all over again, because you haven’t really addressed the underlying relationship issues.

Or how about your marriage. Let’s suppose you have some financial problems. While it’s true that improving your relationship with your spouse is also going to help with those financial issues, it’s not true that just fixing your finances will make your marriage better.

Biblical peace always flows out of relationship and not out of knowledge or even something I do.

It is also important to note that real peace is a gift from Jesus. It is not something that we can manufacture on our own. Earlier in this Upper Room Discourse, Jesus said this:

John 14:27 ESV

27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Notice that Jesus “gives” His peace. It is a gift for us to enjoy both now and for eternity. But He only gives it to those who choose to have a relationship with Him through faith. As we’ve said Biblical peace is rooted in relationship. Which is why we’ve been saying that...

Real peace is a matter of who I know, not what I know.

But we know that not everyone receives this gift. Notice what Jesus says in verse 33:

…that in me you may have peace...

Not everyone receives the peace that Jesus offers. Only those who are “in Him” have the opportunity to receive that gift and even then we have to choose to accept and use that gift before it has any impact in our lives.

Application

So let’s close our time by talking about...

HOW TO APPROPRIATE THE PEACE OF JESUS

Expect problems, but don’t dwell on them

Since we’ve talked about this on many occasions before I won’t dwell here, but the key word in verse 33 is the word “will” - “...in the world you will have tribulation”. Jesus didn’t say that His disciples “might” have tribulation. He knew the persecution and hardship that they were going to suffer after His crucifixion and resurrection. As Ryan reminded us a few weeks ago, Jesus told His disciples that if the world hated Him, they would hate them, too.

Sometimes, in a desire to see people come into a relationship with Jesus, I think the church has done a great disservice by telling people that if they put their faith in Jesus, all their problems will go away. Not only is that not true, but as we’ve seen in this series, if we really live out our faith in this world it may lead to more problems, not less.

That being said, we need to be careful not to dwell too much on the problems themselves. We need to avoid the tendency most of us have to try to figure out every detail. Certainly it’s healthy to evaluate the trial to see if God is trying to teach us something or to discipline us. And it’s also okay to go ahead and get ourselves out of that situation if it’s within our power to do so.

If I’m struggling in a certain class in school, maybe I do need to study more or find a tutor.

If I’m having financial difficulties, I should develop a budget and pay off my debts.

If I’m struggling in my marriage, perhaps I need to seek out some counseling

But what I do need to avoid is to try and find peace by trying to figure everything out.

When my dad died at the age of 52, I had a lot of questions about why God allowed that to happen. I was especially focused on the fact that I wasn’t sure whether or not my dad was a disciple of Jesus, even though he was one of the best men I’ve ever known. But the more I focused on all my questions, the less peace I had.

Finally one day, it was one of those times in my life where I knew God was speaking directly to me. And here is what I sensed God saying to me:

“Your dad is dead. There is nothing you can do to change that. But there are a lot of other people who in your life who are still alive and who need to hear about Jesus.”

At that moment, I realized I needed to get my mind off of all the questions I had and focus on my relationship with God and how I could share that relationship with others. And as soon as I did that I experienced a tremendous peace in my life.

Read the Bible to know God

You knew that somewhere in this message I was probably going to talk about reading your Bible. But frankly, we all already know we need to do that. But what I want to do is to encourage you to consider reading your Bible in a different way or at least to supplement your reading with another perspective.

I know for a long time in my life, I primarily read the Bible for information as well as application. And honestly whenever I was engaged in some difficulty or struggling with some sin, I was often looking for some guidance on how to deal with that situation. And there is certainly nothing wrong with any of that.

But one thing that has transformed my Bible reading as I’ve matured in my relationship with Jesus is to really focus on how what I’m reading can help me deepen my relationship with God. So one of the things I pray before I read the Bible is something like this:

God reveal yourself to me in Your Word. Show me Your Heart. Help me to know You better.

This may seem a bit revolutionary, but if we think about it, this is how we operate when it comes to our other important relationships:

When Mary and I were dating, I didn’t ask for her resume. I really wasn’t concerned about just knowing more information about her. I wanted to really get to know her. And over the years, our relationship has become more and more intimate not only because we know more about each other but because we spend time together and because we genuinely try to treat each other in a way that is consistent with who we are deep inside.

The same thing is usually true with a job interview. When I was in a position where I had to hire someone, I’d usually start with an application or resume that gave me all kinds of facts about that person. But it wasn’t until I sat down with that person and talked to them and got to know them better that I could get a good feel about whether they would make a good employee.

So why wouldn’t the same be true in my relationship with God? So don’t read the Bible just to fulfill an obligation or out of duty, or even to get more information. None of those things will ultimately produce peace in your life. Read it to get to know God better.

Pray

Again, all of us know we should pray. But I want to focus on how we should pray. Let’s look at verses 26 again:

John 16:26 ESV

26 In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf;

Up until now, the disciples had relied upon Jesus to pray for them. They would bring their needs to Jesus and ask Him to pray to the Father on their behalf.

But after the resurrection, they would be able to be pray in a whole new way. They would be able to take their prayers directly to the Father as long as they prayed “in the name of Jesus”. As we’ve talked about before, that doesn’t merely mean tacking on the words “in Jesus’ name” to the end of our prayers, although there is certainly nothing wrong with that.

So what does it mean to pray “in Jesus’ name”? I think there are two important elements:

It means that I ask the Father to act on my prayers based on the authority of Jesus. It’s like saying to God, “I’m here because Jesus told me I could come talk to you about this.”

It means that I pray for things that will honor and glorify Jesus.

When I pray like that I will usually do a lot more listening than talking. I’ll wait for the Holy Spirit to reveal to me the heart of Jesus and the heart of the Father. Again the focus is on relationship - on the who and not the what.

Trust God for the outcome

Verse 27 is a great place for us to finish today:

John 16:27 ESV

27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

This is an amazing statement! There is a sense in which God loves the whole word, just as Jesus proclaimed to Nicodemus:

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

God does love the world. But He has a special kind of love for those who love His Son and who have placed their faith in Him. And because He loves us, we can trust Him for the outcome. I’m reminded here of the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 7:11 ESV

11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

A good God will always do what is best for His children because He loves them so much. So we find peace in the midst of our difficulties not by having all the answers but by trusting that God does.

Action

We have seen this morning that...

Real peace is a matter of who I know, not what I know.

I’m pretty sure that all of us want peace in our lives. We want that wholeness that flows out of our relationship with the God who loves us so much. But are we willing to do what it takes to receive that gift? Are we willing to let go of our need to understand everything and just trust that out of His love for us that God will always do what is best for us?

Inspiration

For many of us, that is not an easy thing to do. But I can promise you, based on the words of Jesus, that it is worth it because that is how you receive His peace - a peace that passes all understanding.