Sermon Tone Analysis

Do you have peace in your life?

So many people in our culture today live with a complete lack of peace in their lives.

They have to manufacture a pretense of peace, through busyness, through drugs, through alcohol, through medication, etc. but they do not have true peace.

This can be true of believers as well as unbelievers.

True peace is a spiritual blessing that is given to us through Jesus.

One of those spiritual blessings that is ours in Christ is the biblical idea of peace.

What is biblical peace?

OT Concept of Peace

The noun εἰρήνη occurs c. 280× in the LXX; it is esp.

common in Isaiah (29×), Psalms (24×), Jeremiah (24×), and 2 Kings (19×).

Where it renders a Heb.

term, this is almost always שָׁלוֹם

1.

The term שָׁלוֹם can certainly indicate the opp. of war (e.g., 1 Sam 7:14)

2. the dominant sense of שָׁלוֹם is clearly “prosperity, welfare” (e.g., Isa 48:18; NIV, “well-being”)

This general sense of well being occurs in a wide variety of contexts:

As a greeting formula

For prosperity- even for the ungodly

For bodily health

For inner contentment when going to sleep

For peace at the time of death

3.

In the light of such usage, it is easy to understand why שָׁלוֹם (and thus εἰρήνη) became a prominent theological term.

As you study the Scriptures it becomes clear that the true source and giver of well-being (of peace) is Yahweh alone.

It follows that “peace,” coming as it does from God, is closely related to the idea of salvation

NT Concept of Peace

The noun εἰρήνη occurs over 90× in the NT, and in every book except 1 John; it is common in Luke (14×), Romans (10×), and esp.

Ephesians (8× in only 6 chapters).

1.

The concept of peace in the NT centers on, is surrounded by, and issues forth from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Peace is throughly connected to Jesus as our Messiah and His work of salvation

Peace can summarize the content and goal of all Christian preaching

Soteriologically, peace is grounded in God’s work of redemption; eschatologically, it is a sign of God’s new creation, which has already begun; teleologically, it will be fully realized when the work of new creation is complete.

The starting place of possessing peace is through a relationship with God Himself, through Jesus Christ as our Savior

The primary sense of peace is a the idea of being in a right relationship to the God of peace through the Son of God- Jesus Christ who is our peace.

You must start here!

Do you know Christ?

Have you been reconciled to the Father?

Is there peace between you and God? Peace is only possible once your sins have been removed and forgiven, and your sin debt has been paid!

Christ has already done this for you, but have you received this gift?

Are you reconciled to God the Father through faith in Jesus Christ?

This is the primary sense of peace in the Scriptures!

Only in a secondary sense does peace refer to a psychological state consequent upon sharing in the all-embracing peace of God

What is the this secondary sense of peace?

It is the idea of well-being, it is the opposite of affliction or tribulation, it is the idea of a person’s well-fare.

It is the divine, spiritual gift of God- given through Christ- that enables us to lie down and sleep at night.

It is that feeling of safety, of rest, or reassurance, or calm.

“The great problem in life is, in a sense, how to lay oneself down to rest and sleep … Anybody can lie down, but the question is, can you sleep?”

I recognize that there are physical miladies that can hinder this kind of peace (if you drink three pots of coffee a day you probably are not going to be able to sleep very well).

But there is this spiritual sense of being free from brooding anxiety, of having a settling well-being in your soul- so that even if you are surrounded by enemies and by difficulties and trials, because of your trust and relationship to the Lord, you can be at peace and even go to sleep at night and wake safe and sound in the morning.

Do you have this kind of peace?

Citizens of heaven have lives distinguished by peace

Citizens of heaven have a personal relationship with the God of peace.

Their salvation forms the basis of their peace with God.

But, more than that- citizens of heaven can experience the spiritual gift of peace or well-being or rest.

So how do we receive Jesus’ gift of peace?

How do we, as citizens of heaven, have lives distinguished by peace?

3 ways:

1.

We receive the spiritual gift of peace through prayer

6μηδὲν μεριμνᾶτε,

You must not be anxious / worry about anything

Anxious- Do not be over-anxious, do not brood and ponder, do not meditate overmuch upon, do not have this nervous attitude of worry about the thing.

Paul does not mean that we should never think ahead.

He is not talking about wise forethought, but the kind of thinking that produces anxiety.

Do not allow yourself to be overcome by this harassing, wearying, wearing care or worry about the circumstances in your life.

Paul also tells us how we tend to get into this state of nervous, morbid, brooding anxiety.

Jump down to v. 7- “the peace of God … will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

It is the heart and the mind that tend to produce this state of anxiety and unceasing worry.

Illustration: laying down to sleep at night, you are exhausted and tired, and the moment your head hits the pillow your mind starts racing at 100 mph.

You mind would not let your sleep, your heart would not let you sleep.

There are times when they seem beyond our control.

What did the Philippians have to worry about?

So how do you overcome worry?

How do you deal with anxiety.

The Christian has a wonderful way of dealing with anxiety that is completely different from the world’s method.

What Paul is advocating for in these verses is not a bit of psychology.

The Apostle does not say, “Stop worrying!”

He does not say, “Pull yourself together!”

He does not say, “Don’t waste your energy.

The fact that you are worrying is not going to affect the position in any way.”

Instead, what does Paul say?

Don’t be anxious about anything… but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

The main command here is at the end of the verse- let your requests be made known to God.

But, how we go about doing that is very important.

Some of you might be thinking- I have heard this before.

I have tried praying before and it didn’t work.

Let me encourage you to think about the rest of this verse.

How you go about praying is very important!

ἀλλʼ ἐν παντὶ

BUT in everything

τῇ προσευχῇ

through prayer

General term- it means to simply speak to God- the idea is addressing words to deity.

prayer is something very personal and specific, a genuine conversation with God.

Moreover, since NT believers know God as their Father—with much greater clarity than anything their OT counterparts could have enjoyed—their praying proceeds from a childlike trust, as expressed in the typical NT form of address, “Father,” which Jesus taught his disciples to use

If you are struggling with anxiety, if you are plagued by worry and you think to yourself, “I need to pray,” do not rush to making your petitions of God.

That is not the way Paul tells us to pray.

“Before you make your requests known unto God, pray, worship, adore.

Come into the presence of God and for the time being forget your problems.

Do not start with them.

Just realize that you are face to face with God.”

“You come into the presence of God and you realize the presence and you recollect that presence—that is the first step always.

Even before you make your requests known unto God you realize that you are face to face with God, that you are in his presence and you pour out your heart in adoration.

That is the beginning.”

καὶ τῇ δεήσει

and through supplication / most earnest petitions (c.f.

Heb 5.7)