Peace is for Everyone
Notes
Transcript
Last week we spent some time looking at how hope has come for everyone.
This week we are looking at how peace has come for everyone!
We talked last week about how Jesus came as a hope for the gentiles.
Michele Ivans brought up a point after the message that I really didn’t drive home as sometimes we just make assumptions that people know things.
The gentiles are the non-isrealite nations.
Meaning, that you and I, unless we are Jewish by heritage, are considered gentiles as well.
This message is super important as it means that we have a way of coming to Christ as well!
So, as Jesus came and brought hope to both the Jews and the gentiles, the peace that He brings is available for everyone as well.
As we read a minute ago in our reading, the plan of God was for the Jews to be the ones who would share the good news of the coming Jesus to the world.
But, now in Christ, we all have access to God!
Paul calls us, gentiles,
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,
So, Jesus came and preached peace to us, who were far off and brought us near!
Romans 5 1 tells us
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
and
6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
What is this peace that comes with Christ through the Spirit?
Greek - I-ray-nae– quiet, rest - the state of well being
It would be the equivalent of the Hebrew word Shalom which means: safe, well, good health
Old Testament Hebrew Word “Shalom”
“According to the Hebrews' understanding, peace was a state of well-being that included good health, prosperity, contentment, security and harmonious relationships.” - Bridgeway Bible Dictionary
Peace was more than just this idea of calmness
Dealt with health, wealth, situation, security, and relationships
In Jewish context, it was a bit different than our understanding
If you were Jewish, they would say Shalom commonly in prayer and discussion
Peace was understood to be a greeting, form of inquiry, and a wish for a person's well being
According to the:
Lexham Theological Wordbook (εἰρήνη)
It can also be used of harmonious relationships between governments (Luke 14:32) or between individuals (Heb 12:14). Paul regularly opens his letters with a formula offering grace and peace (eirēnē) to the recipients (e.g., 1 Cor 1:2).
Christ brought peace between humans and God, and between Jews and Gentiles, uniting them in his Church (Eph 2:14–17); thus, the Christian message is the gospel of peace (Eph 6:15).
The christian idea of peace is not simply that we will not experience difficult things, but that Jesus will be with us through them
He tells His disciples in John 14 that He was leaving them and He says
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
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. 28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
Notice that the promise of Jesus here was not that he was going to stay with them. No, He said that He is going to leave them…but as He does, He is providing a means of peace for them, the coming Spirit!
You see, Jesus doesn’t promise to change the situation for them, but He does promise to be with them in the situation!
The christian understanding of peace is not that everything will go the way that we want it to, but that Jesus will meet us right there in our situations!
In this same context a few chapters later, Jesus says:
32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. 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.”
So, again, the situation wasn’t going to change for the disciples, but He promises that the ultimate outcome would be that He is victorious!
He also tells them the key to peace here in verse 32…you will all leave me, but that He is not alone, the Father is with Him!
The key to having peace is knowing that we are not alone!
One of the most fascinating stories to me is the story of Stephen.
Stephen was one of the first christians and was not an apostle, yet had a pretty significant role among the early church
8 Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen.
10 But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke. 11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.”
12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. 13 They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.
14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” 15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
So, this dude was on fire! And they question him and begins to preach to them…for time sake we won’t read it all!
But he ends with this
51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
This doesn’t make them happy!
54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Stephen didn’t lose focus…he literally kept his eyes on Jesus!
56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him,
58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Now, only a person in complete peace could possibly pray for the Lord not to hold their sin against them as he’s being stoned to death.
So, here we see, Stephen preached the Lord Jesus in the face of his enemies!
God didn’t change his situation….he could have…he could have had him escape or wipe out all in the sanhedrin..or possibly a million other things…
But instead, God allowed this horrible death…and yet he provided something so much greater maybe than changing Stephen’s circumstances…
He allowed Stephen to see Him! And He filled Stephen with His Spirit and with peace!
But the one thing that Stephen did not do was to lose focus on Jesus! And he saw the bigger picture!
So, in my mind, Stephen is a guy to look up to when it comes to resting in the presence of the Spirit while standing in the face of difficult circumstances…
Stephen knew all too well that he was facing trouble, but that Jesus has overcome the world!
So, how do we find peace?
We rest and we trust in the power and presence of Jesus!
I Colossians 3 gives us a good idea of how to have peace
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
The extreme of the challenges of the world is death! But we, have already died. Stephen understood this! You can’t kill what he had already given away.
Now sure, our flesh will die…but again, the point is on the things above!
and now Paul tells us how to shift our focus
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.
8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
The word rule here is so interesting. It is only used once in the NT. It means literally to control, like a judge or umpire
So, the thing that should be in control of our heart, the thing making the decision in our heart, like a judge or an umpire makes a decision, is peace!
The thing that controls our hearts, should be the peace of Christ!
And be thankful!
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
How do we have peace? It all comes down to setting our focus on Jesus! Knowing Him! Loving Him! Letting Him rule our hearts! Allowing the word to dwell in us richly!
Jesus is the prince of Peace!
And His peace is for the Jew and gentile!
His peace is for everyone!
