Peace in the Promise of Heaven

Last week we introduced our Covenant Sunday theme (Peace), so I’m going to talk about peace for the next several weeks. The Christian life should be marked by peace. It is a fruit of the Spirit. Peace should be expected when we have a relationship with God and as we come to in him better and better.

I proposed a definition of biblical peace:

Peace - The capacity to maintain focus and identity despite troubles and, in doing so, experiencing a calmness of heart and mind pursuing a worthwhile purpose with the confident assurance of a favorable destination.

We saw this promise of peace in two passages:

John 14:27 (NIV) — 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 16:33 (NIV) — 33 “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.”

These passages are part of a larger context – John 14-16. This is commonly referred to as the Upper Room Discourse.

Jesus is in the upper room the night of his betrayal and it is a tense situation. Jesus has revealed that he is going to die and the apostles, naturally are struggling with this. Jesus sits down with them and gives this speech. One of the themes of this speech is peace, peace even in troubled times.

In these two passages I want to point out:

(1) Jesus is giving out peace.

We need to be convinced that he is the one who will lead us to that place of calmness of mind and heart. Unfortunately, we often look for peace from other people or other things. Your spouse is not the source of peace. Your children are not the source of peace. Your friends are not the source of peace. Your job is not your source of peace. Your health, your finances, your home, your hobbies … are not the source of peace. Now peace may flow through these people and things but they are not the source. Jesus is the source.

So a question we need to ask is whether or not we are seeking peace in Jesus or someone/something else? Or ask yourselves are we in the line that is giving out peace?

Have you ever been in the wrong line? You wait and when you get to the window or counter you are told that this is the wrong line. How frustrating!! I think this is one of the themes of the book of Ecclesiastes – Solomon was seeking peace in everything else and when we got to the counter peace wasn’t there.

Are you convinced that Jesus is the source of peace?

(2) What are “these things” in John 16:33?

Jesus says he has told us “these things” so that we may have peace. We want to look through these three chapters and find out what are “these things.” Read John 14-16.

Let’s start today by looking at the introduction to this discourse:

John 14:1–4 (NIV) — 1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus starts this speech with the end in mind – he reminds them of heaven. He reminds them of their destination and the certainty of it. These verses are full of certainty. This is one thing that we know is true. This passage is often read at funerals, appropriately so, but this idea needs to be on our minds our whole life. We need to be people who live our lives with the end in mind.

I was surprised as I read through several books on peace, that heaven is not more prominent. But it’s where Jesus starts. Do we talk about heaven enough? Do we think about heaven enough? Are we excited about going to heaven? Does the thought of living eternally with God bring peace to our lives? Shouldn’t it.

We get obsessed with vacations. We get obsessed with holidays. We get obsessed about weekends! Why aren’t we more obsessed with heaven?

When is the last time we said anything remotely like what David says:

Psalm 16:9–11 (NLT) — 9 No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety. 10 For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. 11 You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.

Psalm 16:9–11 (MSG) — 9 I’m happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed. 10 You canceled my ticket to hell— that’s not my destination! 11 Now you’ve got my feet on the life path, all radiant from the shining of your face. Ever since you took my hand, I’m on the right way.

Why is that so? Am I hungry for heaven. Some of you even as you listen are wondering what you are going to eat for lunch. I am! We advertise our men’s retreat and we make much out of the good food we will have. Are hungry for heaven?

Matt Carter and Josh Wredberg offer these two threats to our appetite for heaven.

Two things that threaten our appetite for heaven:

1. An unhealthy attachment to earthly things.

2. A wrong perspective on Jesus.

An argument may be that if we are so obsessed with heaven we will not be the salt and light in this world. You may have heard the phrase, “He is so heavenly minded he is of no earthly good.” Is that necessarily the case? Will we be useless here if we are obsessed with heaven?

Consider these thoughts from some great spiritual men:

A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do.

It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is.

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.

The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.”

- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Yes, I know. It is possible to be so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use. My problem is: I’ve never met one of those people. And I suspect, if I met one, the problem would not be that his mind is full of the glories of heaven, but that his mind is empty and his mouth is full of platitudes.

I suspect that for every professing believer who is useless in this world because of other-worldliness, there are a hundred who are useless because of this-worldliness.

- John Piper

“It has been cited as a flaw in Christianity that it is more concerned with the world to come than with the world that now is, and some have been fluttering about trying to defend the faith of Christ against this accusation. Both the attack and the defense are wasted. No one who knows what the New Testament is about will worry over the charge that Christianity is other-worldly. Of course it is, and that is precisely where its power lies.

“Let no one apologize for the powerful emphasis Christianity lays upon the doctrine of the world to come. Right there lies its immense superiority to everything else within the whole sphere of human thought or experience. When Christ arose from death and ascended into heaven He established forever three important facts, namely, that this world has been condemned to ultimate dissolution, that the human spirit persists beyond the grave and that there is indeed a world to come.

“The church is constantly being tempted to accept this world as her home, and sometimes she has listened to those who would woo her away and use her for their own ends. But if she is wise she will consider that she stands in the valley between the mountain peaks of eternity past and eternity to come. The past is gone forever and the present is passing as swift as the shadow on the sun dial of Ahaz. Even if the earth should continue a million years not one of us could stay to enjoy it. We do well to think of the long tomorrow.”

- A. W. Tozer

Jesus tells them it’s all going to be okay because it will all end well. And shouldn’t that bring peace?

I know you have loved being with me these three years and even though things will change you can be assured that we will be together again. While I’m gone I will be preparing a place for you. Keep that ever close to your heart and in good times and bad times let that bring you peace.

We are going to sing a song “I Know that My Redeemer Lives.” That sounds like Peter or Paul, but actually this song is inspired by an unlikely God follower - Job. You know his story. He suffered mightily. And I can’t say that he was at peace. Maybe a good question to ask him. Or maybe you won’t want to talk about it. Whether or not he is at peace, these words sound like he has some measure of it:

Job 19:25–27 (NLT) — 25 “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. 26And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! 27 I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!”