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The Peace of God
What is Peace?
Sounds like a philosophical question, doesn’t it?
People have all kinds of ideas concerning peace, but ideally in most cultures, peace is the absence of trouble, danger, or sorrow.
In other words, most people in the world don’t understand peace as a positive concept, but in a negative.
To them, it’s the absence of trouble or adversity.
For Example:
The Quechua people of the central Andes in Ecuador and Bolivia — their word for peace literally translates — “to sit down in one’s heart.”
For them, peace is the opposite of running around in the midst of constant anxieties.
The Ch’ol people of Mexico define peace as “a quiet heart.”
Sounds good, but it’s really the absence of care or agitation.
The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom, which is a greeting meaning — “Peace unto you.”
It doesn’t mean “I hope you don’t have any trouble;” rather — it means, “I hope you have all the highest good coming your way.”
And that means even in the worst of circumstances.
The Biblical concept of peace doesn’t focus on the absences of trouble, but is unrelated to the circumstances.
Philip Bliss captured the biblical concept of peace in his hymn, It is Well with My Soul:
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, “It is well, it is well with my soul.”
That’s Peace!
That’s true peace.
You may be in the midst of the greatest trials, persecutions, adversity, suffering, affliction of your life and still have Biblical peace.
Do you remember Paul and Silas in jail?
— sitting in the dark prison — What were they doing?
Singing!
Paul wrote
Rejoice in my sufferings?
James exhorts the dispersed Jewish Christians:
Where does a person find that kind of peace that is not just absent of trouble, but unaffected even in the midst of it?
Well, our text is the iconic verse for such peace.
This is the peace He knew His disciples would need.
He knew what they were facing.
This peace is that which gives a calm spirit in the most wildly fearful circumstances.
It affords them joy in the pain and trial, the song in the suffering, the hush in the riot.
This peace overrules every kind of adversity.
This peace thrives in the trouble.
I.
The Nature of Peace
“Peace I leave with you.”
The NT speaks of 2 kinds of peace:
Objective Peace
Subjective Peace
Objective Peace
Objective peace in the Bible is Peace with God.
The unregenerate person has no peace with God because he is at war with God, enemies of God.
But through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, God brings the war to an end.
This is objective peace and has nothing to do with our feelings or what we think.
It’s an accomplished fact.
We are justified by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ — redeemed, totally forgiven, declared righteous by God, our sins forgiven, rebellion ceased, the war is over — We have peace with God.
This is the only way a sinful, vile, wicked, enemy of God can be reconciled to this Holy, holy, holy God.
God through Christ paved the way to peace.
This is Objective Peace.
Subjective Peace
But in , this is not what Jesus is talking about.
He is speaking of subjective, experiential peace here — the tranquility of the soul, settled peace like a river — a peace that thrives — regardless of the billows that roll.
But this is not a peace that is victimized by the events or is gobbled up by their attackers.
It’s a supernatural, permanent, positive peace.
One that rests in the conviction that
This is the peace of
It’s a peace impervious to the conflict, a peace so supernaturally powerful that it surpassing all human comprehension and understanding.
Even as believers, we cannot fully understand such peace, but we experience it.
It guards our hearts and minds.
Guard is a term that means “to watch” or “keep imprisoned.”
It holds the military connotation of “standing a post and guarding against the aggressive attack of the enemy.”
The Peace of God stands guard and keeps us from worries that burden our hearts.
It stops unworthy thoughts from overtaking our minds.
This is the kind of peace we desperately need.
It’s the kind of peace that deals with the corrosive poison of pasts sins that have been washed away.
It’s the kind of peace that governs the present unsatisfied desires gnawing at our hearts.
It’s the kind of peace that holds sure the promises of God for the future where no unknown of tomorrow can threaten.
This is the promise Jesus leaves with His disciples.
The guilt of their past sins had been forgiven.
They can be assured they would overcome all their present trials.
They can be sure that they are secured for all eternity and their destiny is sure.
What a rich gift!
II.
The Source of Peace
“My peace I give to you.”
It’s the Peace of God subjective and experiential peace that has it’s foundation in the objective, factual peace — Peace with God.
The Peace of God is only obtainable by those who have Peace with God.
Notice what Jesus says, “My Peace.”
Here’s the key to the supernatural nature of peace — It’s Jesus’ own personal peace.
It’s the same deep, rich peace that stilled His heart in the midst of the mockers, the murderers, the haters and everything He faced.
How is it He doesn’t answer His accusers?
When He faced Herod, He answered not a word.
When He faced Pilate, He stood in fearless peace.
Listen to this exchange:
That’s the kind of Peace Jesus gives His disciples.
It’s really stunning that that Lord Jesus Christ would give us His own personal peace.
Think about this: His peace Has already been tested and found to be a serenity in the danger, a calm in the storm, the freedom from worry.
III.
The Giver of Peace
“My peace I give to you.”
He is the Source of this Peace and the Giver of this peace.
And He does it through the agent of the Holy Spirit.
Christ’s Peace given to us through His Holy Spirit.
This is really what sanctification is.
He makes us to be partakers of the same peace that kept guard over the heart and mind of Christ.
So, every promise Christ made to His disciples that night was rooted in the coming of the Holy Spirit.
This is why Jesus told His troubled disciples.
John 16:7
The Holy Spirit’s coming brought to full fruition every promise of Christ.
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