The secret to knowing PEACE
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PEACE. Everyone desires it. Inner peace. Peace in families. Peace within countries. Peace between countries. Americans on either side of the political and racial divide are divided, not at peace. There’s conflict between China and Hong Kong. According to the 2017 world economic forum’s global shapers survey, millennials (that’s those of us aged between 24 & 39), viewed large scale conflict/wars as the no 2 most serious issue affecting the world today.
I
I’m not a huge reader, but over the past 2 years I’ve been reading a book called the gulag arcapellago, and it’s been the most horrific book I’ve ever read. Alexandr Soljenitzen shares what happened in Russia during Joseph Stalin’s reign. What people can do to other people is astonishing.
And not just on large scale, when there’s conflict within my own family, it’s distressing.
I long for peace.
We
I’m sure you’ve read similar things that have deeply affected you. Maybe you’ve watched things. Maybe you’ve had things done to you that you can’t explain and find impossible to forgive. Maybe you’ve done things yourself that you can’t explain, and you’re horrified by.
It’s been said of us humans that we are both the glory & the garbage of the universe.
So much potential for good, and yet our history shows we tear each other apart.
And we genuinely ask, where is God? Does he care? Is peace possible?
God
The struggle for peace that we’re facing has always been an issue for humanity.
At the time of Jesus; Jew & Gentile. Slave & Master. Male & Female. Nation. Race. Class. Gender. Division. The struggle for peace.
And in comes Jesus.
The prince of peace.
And he does what no one expects him to do.
He doesn’t fight for nation, race, class or gender.
It’s way way bigger than that.
He fights for humanity.
For humans, all made in the image of God.
And Paul writes Ephesians to show that Christ’s life, death and resurrection makes him the founder of a new humanity, who have peace with one anther despite immense difference, and who love one another deeply.
1. We’re going to look at how we RECEIVE Jesus and the peace he came to bring.
2. How we REST & REVEL in him.
3. How we’re RENEWED in order to REFLECT him.
4. And finally, how we REMAIN in him.
RECEIVE, REST, REVEL, RENEW, REFLECT, REMAIN.
First, RECEIVE: his grace and love as a GIFT! Eph 1-3; 2:1-10
There are 3 main ways of justifying yourself. Of seeking peace with God. Of feeling accepted and valuable.
The religious way.
The secular way.
And the Gospel way.
To help explain this I want you to grab a bit of paper and draw 3 boxes.
In each box draw a horizontal line through it.
In the religious box right God above the line.
And draw a stick figure person below the line.
The religious way leads to pride or despair, and can lead to the religious conflicts we see today.
Here’s why.
A religious person believes that there is something wrong with us.
Humans are bad.
God is good.
And so in order for us to have peace with God and each other, you need to live a good life.
But think about this for a moment.
In order to see yourself as good, you have to compare yourself to others.
You have to look down on others, who aren’t as good as you are.
And this can only produce pride.
This pride can even lead to conflict and violence if others who you label as bad are stopping you achieving good.
It’s the I’m right, you’re wrong divide that religious creates.
God is just, but he’s not loving.
The second way to justify yourself is the secular approach.
This is the typical austrlian approach.
I already am good.
We hear it all the time, people are really good at heart.
But this leads to apathy.
It fails to recognise the seriousness of evil and the problem humans have.
We recently watched the social dilemma.
A very insightful documentary uncovering the addictive nature of social media apps.
And the makers of these programs were shocked.
Why?
Because they didn’t intend for their programs to be used for such evil by people.
They made them with good intentions.
But they failed to factor in just how wicked humans are, and so their programs are now causing huge division within humanity at a very fast rate.
For the secular person, if there is a God, God is loving, but he’s not just.
But there’s a third way, which the cross of Jesus shows us.
I want you to draw a line up the middle of the middle box.
On the cross, we see that we are so flawed that Jesus had to die, and yet so loved that he was willing to die.
God is both just & loving.
We are both flawed and loved.
And it’s this third way that is producing a peaceful humanity.
Please see what Ephesians 2 is saying,
You were dead in your sins. So flawed that Jesus had to die.
A person that’s trapped in a cave isn’t trying to save themselves.
They’re crying out for a rescue.
The reason our history is full of us hurting one another.
The reason we stuggle to have peace within our own families,
It’s because we’re spiritually dead, inside full of all kinds of evil and trapped by our sin.
And because of this we are by nature children under wrath.
When a person breaks their promise, cheats on their spouse, peace can only come as a gift.
Peace with them is something you can’t pay them.
If that spouse is going to forgive them, they have to die.
Bear the pain, the hurt, the death in their soul, themselves.
You’re so flawed that Jesus had to die for you.
So if you’re here this morning and you’re working hard, striving.
To be accepted, to be successful, to make a name for yourself.
Because you believe that if you do, you’ll find acceptance and peace with God.
Can I urge you to give up.
Stop it.
It will get you nowhere and you’ll never find peace.
It’s offensive to God.
But God still wants you, he wants peace, and for you to be a peacemaker.
But it’s a gift only he can give.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!...You are saved by grace through faith (by RECEIVING the gift), and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
Have you received this gift?
Well when you receive it as it is; A GIFT, you find REST.
So let me ask you, do you have PEACEFUL REST deep in your soul?
Or are you RESTLESS?
Are you at REST in the arms of your creator? Your lover? Who gave himself for you?
Are are you still STRIVING to prove yourself?
Who’s seen chariots of fire?
Based on the 1924 olympics and two runners – eric liddell and Harold Abrahams.
Both are gifted and successful athletes who carry the hopes of their respective nations on their backs as they race.
Eric for Scotland.
Harold for Great Britain.
Eric has received the gift from Jesus.
He believes that God has called him to race and he races for the pleasure of his Father God.
Harold loves his country as well as aport and is obsessed with winning.
He studies it, throws himself completely into it. He makes running his overarching passion.
In the movie you see a clear contrast between Liddell and Abrahams.
They both run.
But they run for very different reasons.
In one scene Abrahams says, “And now in one hour’s time I will be out there again. I will raise my eyes and look down that corridor, 4 feet wide, with 10 lonely seconds to justify my whole existence. But will I?”
In a different scene Liddell says, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”
Tim Keller, in comparing the two runners as depicted in the movie, states: “Harold Abrahams was weary even when he rested, and Eric Liddell was rested even when he was exerting himself.
Why?
Because there’s a work underneath our work that we really need rest from. It’s the work of self-justification.”
Abrahams seeks satisfaction and joy in the race, and it always eludes him.
Liddell finds satisfaction in Christ and experiences His joy as he runs.
Two artists paint a similar picture.
One seeks joy in the painting and is never quenched.
The other seeks joy in God and feels His pleasure as he paints.
Two doctors perform surgery.
One performs surgery because she loves the feeling of being needed.
Another performs the surgery for the glory of God, and she senses God’s pleasure as she operates.
Two parents raise their kids.
One seeks joy in her children, and she builds her life on their success.
If they misbehave, she is crushed as her identity takes a blow.
Another parent finds her joy in God and offers her children to Him.
As she parents, she feels His pleasure.
In Psalm 16, David writes about the joy he has in God.
David says, “He sets the Lord always before him.”
Even in the regular and the mundane, we may sense His pleasure if we “set the Lord always before us.”
We can feel His pleasure when we sleep, rise, work and play.
Look at what Paul says in Eph 1:1-2, 2:5&8, 2:17-19, 2:22, 5:8, 3:12.
To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus. 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
You ARE saved, by grace! You ARE saved, by grace!
You ARE no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow CITIZENS with the saints, and MEMBERS of God’s household.
You WERE once darkness, but NOW you ARE light in the Lord.
YOU ARE JUSTIFIED. YOU ARE ACCEPTED. YOU ARE LOVED. When you received the gift. He justified you. He welcomed you. He clothed you. He wrapped his arms around you.
In him we have boldness and confident access through faith in him.
So if you’re here this morning and this rest is not your experience.
Let me challenge you to go back to the gospel, to look at the cross, and receive his arms open wide for you.
So we RECEIVE peace with God as a gift, which leads to REST & REVELLING.
We Rejoice, we Relish, we Revel, in him and in his incredible blessings.
I remember the first love letter I wrote to Ariel.
The more I was getting to know her, the more I was being overcome with delight and love for her.
I wrote a poem of all the things I loved about her, her beauty inside and out.
She drew a painting for me.
What were we doing?
Revelling in our relationship.
In marriage two people stand in front of each other.
In public.
And receive the unconditional promises of the other.
The rings go on.
We rest in them.
We rely on them.
And then we revel in them.
We celebrate.
Culminating in the wedding night where the ultimate human experience of revelling is experienced in the sexual union.
Listen to Eph 1:3-14,
3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him…to be holy and blameless in love before him. 5 He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace…11 In him we have also received an inheritance…
13 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. 14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
And in 5:18-20 he says be filled with the Holy Spirit, revel in his love by spilling over, speaking psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to each other about our great lover, singing and making music with our hearts to our Lord, & giving thanks always for everything to our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And in 3:14-19
14 I pray that that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that being rooted and firmly established in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, 19 and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Do you look forward to your dates with God?
When’s your next one?
Can I encourage you over the summer break to read a book of the Bible; 1 John.
And revel.
So receiving Christ leads to peaceful rest and joyful revelling.
Then he RENEWS US so we can REFLECT him.
For those of you who are married, when did the honeymoon end? I’m not meaning the date you came back from your holiday.
No.
The first argument on your honeymoon. Was it the next day? Maybe 3 days in.
We all know the receiving, resting, revelling is for the purpose of renewing.
As our spouse gets to know us, and we them, we’re exposed, naked and wide open.
Nothing is hidden anymore.
We have to be renewed in our minds!
A guy can’t still think he can live as a bachelor, only thinking about himself.
He has to listen to his wife.
A girl can’t think the same way, only thinking about herself, she has to listen to her husband!
Many of us bring a lot of baggage into our relationship with Jesus.
We come in with expectations about what we want Jesus to do for us maybe…
People can come in for all kinds of reasons.
But we got to start listening to his reasons for the marriage.
Why did he die and rise for us?
Why did he marry us?
The answer in Ephesians is that he might create one new human family united under Christ, who live at peace with one another and love one another deeply.
Becoming a Christian means putting off our old identities that separated us from others.
Whether that be race, politics, sex, age, whatever.
God’s plan has always been to bring peace to the human race.
Our world is divided over many things.
I work with an international student group at La Trobe University.
And in our group are people that would have nothing in common if it wasn’t for Christ.
Students who would be considered political enemies from Hong Kong and China for example, learning to love one another as brothers and sisters.
Different races.
Male and Female
Young and Old together
Rich and Poor together
Who recognise that our mutual identity as Sons of the living God, as the bride of Christ, trumps every other identity.
Have you got distracted from your core business because you’ve lost sight of your core identity?
Our core business is to love one another, as Christ has loved us.
So let me make it very practical.
If there’s a brother or sister that is different to you on any one of these issues; political views, race, sex, class, age. Reach out to them.
And ask them what they believe on one of these divisive topics at the moment.
And genuinely listen.
Seek to understand.
Share back to them their viewpoint and see if it correctly represents their position.
Then ask them if you can share what you think.
Look at Eph 2:14.
14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility… so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death.
4 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to Walk worthy of the calling you have received, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit.
Our resting and revelling leads to RENEWING: Eph 4:22-24;
Take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
And is we allow ourselves to be renewed by Christ in the spirit of our minds, putting on the new self, we reflect our spouse to the world.
RECEIVING Christ, leads to RESTING in Christ, REVELLING in Christ, being renewed in Christ, to Reflecting Christ.
IN our marriages, in our families, in our workplaces, in our world, we reflect the grace and love of Christ by living lives of grace and love.
Think of the moon. A full moon on a dark night is glorious.
It lights up the night, draws people’s attention.
But of course everyone knows, it’s radiance isn’t due to itself.
It’s ability to shine comes from the Sun.
So too with us.
When the moon isn’t seen by us, it’s still basking in the sun, but the half of it that’s reflecting the sun is facing the sun, not the world, so we can’t see it.
However, when the moon has the earth in view it reflects the sun on to it.
Why did Christ marry us?
Not just to bask in the light of his love, but to reflect that white hot love to those around us.
Look at Eph 4:32-5:1.
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. 5 Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, 2 and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us.
Eph 5:8-14.
you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light—…Therefore it is said:
Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.
And stunningly look at 5:25-27.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 26 to make her holy…27 He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. 28 In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies.
Your new identity as a holy lover loved by your husband, by building bridges within the body of Christ: Eph 5:25-27
Where is God?
On a cross paying the price for our adultery.
Does he care?
To the point of death.
Is peace possible?
Yes, by receiving the truth that you are so flawed that jesus had to die, yet so loved that he was willing to die.
By resting and revelling in his finished work and his love for you.
Letting him renew you so that you reflect his love and peace to the world.
I need this peace. You need this peace. Our families need this peace. our world desperately needs this peace.
In Christ we have it.
Let’s pray.