Peace Lesson 1: What is Peace?

Introduction

Welcome back to the Anchor!

*hand out Bibles*

Tonight we are going to be starting a new series: focusing on the word PEACE.

Now the Bible has a lot to say on this, and it is important we understand where in the Bible we can learn what this word means.

When you hear the word Peace, what are some words or phrases that come to mind?

*write them down*

Alright we are going to watch a video that captures well what peace is in the Bible, and then we are going to break it down by looking at passages

The Definition of Peace

In the video we see two different words used for peace:

in the Hebrew: Shalom

and in the Greek: Eirene

Here are a few things that go into the word peace:

soundness, the state of being whole (ex: we saw the stone in the wall)

to be complete; make complete

to settle down, rest

to be quiet

Relational harmony (with God and others)

This last element of peace we see is the one we are going to be focusing in on the next few weeks:

The question we will be asking is:

How do we have peace with God?

How do we have peace with others?

Peace isn’t just the absence of hostile conflict, but the presence of positive relationship.

How do we have peace with God?

Well we have to begin this question by asking another, what does peace with God look like?

Genesis 1:28–31 “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

God created us, and as we see in Genesis 2 and 3, God had peace with man.

Everything was complete/whole.

But then something happened:

What happened? Man was to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But then:

Genesis 3:6–7 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

There no longer remained relational harmony, man rebelled against God, choosing to disobey Him.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Because man sinned, death came into the world.

Romans 5:12 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Every single one of us here has sinned, we have broken the ten commandments. Once again we shift to the question how can we have peace with God now?

Maybe if we do enough good things, like helping people, that would be good right?

No, not enough, the Bible says this:

Isaiah 64:6 (ESV)

We have all become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

We all fade like a leaf,

and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

It’s not enough! The punishment for our actions is death and separation from God!!! What will we do?!?

Jesus: the Prince of Peace

Hope is not lost! For the Bible promises one who can restore our peace with God, who can bring us back into a relationship with Him.

Isaiah 9:6 ESV

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Prince of Peace, someone who can restore what was broken.

His name is Jesus. He is the Christ. Can someone tell me what Christ means: chosen one/anointed one.

Jesus is truly God and truly man.

John 3:16 ESV

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

So Jesus came 2,000 years ago. He lived the perfect life, did everything God told Him to. And then we get to the cross.

Here Jesus took on our sin Col 2:13-14

Colossians 2:13–14 ESV

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Jesus took on our sin, and He died the death we deserve to die. All of us here deserve to be hung on the cross. Because whenever we do wrong, we hurt a purely good God, who is Just.

Jesus came in love to take our place, so we wouldn’t have to die that way, so we wouldn’t have to be separated from God. So Jesus died.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

However, the story doesn’t end there, what happens three days later?

Jesus rises from the grave, conquering death. And He invites you back into relationship with God, to know God on a personal level. Because of Jesus’s obedience God exalted Him:

Philippians 2:8–11 ESV

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus Christ is Lord, and King. So how can we be saved?

Romans 10:9 ESV

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Saved and brought back into peace with God. You can have a relationship with Him again, talk with Him, get to know Him.

So how can we have peace with God?

through Jesus His Son.

Peace is not just the absence of conflict, but the presence of positive relationship

We can have peace with God through Jesus His Son

So we looked tonight at how our sin puts us in conflict with God, next week we are going to look at reasons for why we are in conflict with other people.