Sermon Tone Analysis

Did you have a good week?

Some of you probably had a share of bad days last week.

What is a bad day?

When you get home from a long day at work, ate dinner, after that you take a bowl of your favorite ice cream.

You turn on your TV, sit on your comfortable couch to relax.

Then all of a sudden an off-duty police officer enters your house, aims a gun at you and shoots you twice.

Sounds out of this world but this is a true story.

On September 6, 2018 a Dallas police officer shot Amber Guyger and killed her black neighbor inside his own Dallas apartment.

In the police report, the 30-year-old cop claims that she mistook 26-year-old Botham Jean’s apartment for her own and thought Jean was an intruder, leading her to shoot him twice.

Botham Jean was watching television eating a bowl of ice cream when he was shot by Guyger.

Last week on October 2, Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

During the sentencing, a rather strange scene unfolded as the victim’s brother, Brandt Jean took the stand.

Play video here.

Powerful video.

While this video that embodies the power of love and forgiveness may move many of us today, even to tears.

Not everyone was happy with the brother just forgiving the cop and not satisfied with the 10-year sentence that she got.

They called the cop’s punishment a “slap on the face”.

According to these people she deserves more years in prison, the prosecution actually asked for no less than 28 years.

Many are inciting racial strife out of this sentencing since the victim was black and the police office is white.

There is an outcry...

“Justice and Peace cannot truly be served the family of the victim until the police officer, Amber Guyger serves a full life sentence.”

The principle is this:

No Justice.

No Peace.

But here is the reality:

No punishment is severe enough for any man to serve the ultimate justice that will bring lasting peace.

Only Jesus is worthy to take the punishment that will satisfy God’s justice and give us everlasting peace.

The prophet Isaiah wrote about His vision of the suffering servant, the Messiah some 700 years before Jesus was born.

“The chastisement for our peace was brought upon Him.”

We are going to focus on this verse from today’s passage.

Chastisement = punishment.

What is this peace?

This peace is not just a state of mind.

This is not even a state of quietness.

This not just the removal of disturbance or stress.

Image here for the word Shalom.

Peace or Shalom in the Bible is the complete sense of wellness, welfare, safety, prosperity and success.

In other words: “All is well.”

Peace from God is the complete package.

You cannot manufacture this peace.

You cannot will this upon ourselves.

Have you ever found yourself repeating “happy thoughts, happy thoughts”.

you cannot will it upon yourself.

Are you in a broken relationship or at odds with someone?

Then you repeat to yourself, “I forgive him, I forgive him”

You come to that person and say, I forgive you and try to move on.

You realize that you have forgiven the person here (head) and not here (heart).

True forgiveness is not a human act it is the work of God.

It is the work of God in our hearts, it is Divine.

Forgiveness comes from a deep seated peace in our hearts.

Neither is peace something we get from the world.

A lot of people like watching feel good movies.

Why? because it feels good.

Sometimes when there is internal turmoil, we run to external sources to make us feel good.

Sometimes a friend from work, a song that we love or Hollywood.

This does not buy us peace.

Jesus bought us lasting peace.

He paid the price for it.

John 14:

This is why the world will not fully understand how Brandt Jean, Botham Jean’s brother can say “I forgive you” to his brother’s killer.

I believe it is the Shalom peace of God upon Him.

This is why the world will not fully understand how Brandt Jean, Botham Jean’s brother can say “I forgive you” to his brother’s killer.

I believe it is the Shalom peace of God upon Him.

True peace comes from God.

The New Testament has another take on the word Peace.

Image of the word Eirene here.

This peace is not a subjective experience, like a sensation of inner tranquility attained by sitting next to a quiet stream or the serenity one arrives at by engaging in meditation techniques; no, this peace is objective and entails the end of hostilities between warring parties.

Because God’s enemies are justified, it means that their enmity has been pacified.

“Our Lord Jesus Christ” is the source of our peace, just as much as he is the source of our righteousness.

Thus, God sends his Son to make peace between parties formerly at war.

Peace with God means we are no longer at war with Him.

“Give your life to Christ”.

The phrase “make peace with God” is actually spot on.

Apart from the finished work of Jesus you remain to be at war with God.

Peace within is a result of Peace with God.

Altar Call.

Ending:

What now?

He was crushed for our iniquities (misusing something

We are called to be peacemakers.

Japanese straggler:

The punishment that brought us our peace fell upon Him

After she finished her shift on Thursday evening, Guyger, then a four-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department who has since been fired, drove to South Side Flats apartment complex, where both she and Jean lived.

Around 10 p.m. that night, she entered Jean’s apartment and fired two bullets at him.

He died later at the hospital.

Jean, who was unarmed, lived the floor above Guyger.