An Unfathomable Peace

Let me begin by making the ultimate understatement: We live in troubled times. Isn’t it the best when some one points out the obvious to you? “Oh look, you got a haircut.” “Did you know you spilled coffee all over your shirt?” “You’ve gained weight in the pandemic, haven’t you tubby?” It’s the best.

But in this case, while painfully obvious, it is true. These are troubled times. The last few years have caused a significant jump in mental health struggles around the world. According to a CTV news article, researchers calculated that in 2020, the pandemic led to an additional 53 million cases of major depressive disorder and 76 million cases of anxiety disorder, representing an increase of 28 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively. That’s a huge increase and although the research was from 2020, I’m not convinced that two years later, we are in any better of a state.

The constant changing of what we can do and can’t do socially, the short notice of the closure of schools, the hope of “this is the last wave” being repeatedly dashed has left many of us somewhere on a scale with jittery bundle of fear and anxiety on one end and emotionally numb and unable to feel on the end. In fact, let me ask you a question if on that scale, with full blown anxiety and depression representing a one, healthy emotional state with healthy coping mechanisms are a five and emotionally shut down and numb at a ten, where would you be? Can I be honest with you? I may be closer to a ten than I would like to admit. An honest evaluation might place me closer to an eight or eight and a half. Where would you scale yourself?

I want to affirm that wherever you scale yourself, that’s okay. I get it. If you scale yourself closer to a one, with all the fears and anxieties bubbling on the surface and spilling out in ways that affect your job, your relationships and your sense of self, that’s normal for the times we are in. If you scale, closer to a ten, and you find yourself unsympathetic, emotionally numb and not feeling much of anything lately, that’s also normal for the times we are in. If you land right in the middle and you are feeling emotionally healthy then that’s awesome. God wants to use people like you to help those who are struggling mentally.

Galatians 6:2 NLT

Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

But no matter where on the scale between anxiety and numbness you may find yourself, there is peace to be found in the gospel. The gospel is the good news that God has made a way for us to have intimate relationship with him through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. What’s amazing is that through what Jesus did and because the Holy Spirit now lives in us, we can not only have peace with God, but we can also experience peace in our souls. For those who range closer to a one, God gives us peace through the gospel which can help allay our anxieties and give us hope. For those who range closer to a ten, numbness is not the same as peace. Peace is found when we are emotionally or spiritually disconnected but when we are connected to God and we experience wholeness.

We are in a series called Fresh Air: How the Gospel Renews and Revives. And today, I want us to look at how, through the gospel, we can have peace despite the overwhelming circumstances that we are in. Before we get into our passage let’s take a minute to understand what peace is and to help us is this video from The Bible Project.

Play Video (3:49)

With that understanding of peace in minds, let’s take a look at our Bible passage today and see what God wants to say to us through it. We are going to read two passages from the gospel of John, chapter 14.

John 14:1-7 ““Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!””

John 14:26-28 “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am.”

Pray.

Just before Jesus says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled” some deeply troubling things happened. This discussion happens at what we often call the “Last Supper.” It’s the final Passover celebration that Jesus would observe in his life. This meal, meant to remind people of the freedom from slavery in Egypt that God gave them, would be his last. Just a few minutes before he says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled,” Judas left to go betray Jesus and Jesus knew it. He knew that soon he would be arrested and killed. So, just after Judas leaves, Jesus tells his remaining disciples that, “the time has come for the son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him.” What Jesus means, is that it is time for him to die and that through his death, many would praise God.

So Jesus knows that Judas has gone to betray him, that he will be soon beaten and killed and what does he tell his followers? “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” He is saying “don’t be anxious,” “don’t worry,” “don’t despair” even though it looks like it’s all falling apart, know that it’s going to be okay. God wants you to experience peace and he gives us in these passages two ways to experience peace:

1. We experience peace through the hope of heaven

Jesus is inviting us to have peace in the midst of calamity by keeping an eye on the endgame. He is calling us to remember that our hope is not found in this world, but in the presence of God, which we will fully experience in Heaven. We often think of heaven as “that place we go after we die.” We associate it with Philadelphia Cream Cheese, with beautiful white people with feathery wings who play harps, with being the reunion of our family that has died before us. But the main thrust of Heaven isn’t it’s location or even who else is there. Heaven is the presence of God. Here on earth, we may sometimes catch filtered glimpses of Heaven, like looking through a faded window pain. But when when we see miracles, or when our souls have those moments of deep connection with God, or we experience moments of spiritual breakthrough we are seeing faded snapshots of heaven.

Jesus, in our passage, tells us “Don’t be troubled.” He says this on the most troubling day of his earthly life, not long before his death on the cross and the reason he can say that, the reason he can invite us to have peace during difficult circumstances is because there is a better day coming for those of us who have put our faith in Jesus. There is an end to the pain and the strife that does result in oblivion but in healing and restoration.

Maybe not everyone agrees with me, but I know that there is no earthly pain, no tragedy, no struggle that is more bitter than heaven is sweet. Heaven is the unfiltered presence of God and in God’s presence, all our tears are wiped away. In God’s presence, all our cancers are removed, none of our hips ache with the cold and we trade our wheelchairs for dancing shoes. In heaven there is no more sin that breaks hearts, that hurts relationships, and that causes us guilt and shame. In heaven there is no more sense of being alienated and alone, but we live in perfect holy communion with God and with each other. In heaven, there is no more racism, no more sexism, no inequality and there is joy everlasting for all.

Jesus tells us to remember that when we are going through the hard seasons here, remembering what’s to come can give us peace.

John 16:33 NLT

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

Jesus tells us that we can experience peace through the hope of heaven. He also says that we experience peace through the presences of the Holy Spirit

2. We experience peace through the presence of the Holy Spirit

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” - Galatians 5:22-23. The gospel tells us that after Jesus ascended to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in each person who would confess Jesus as their Lord. The Holy Spirit illuminates the scriptures, connects our hearts to God and transforms us to be like Jesus in our character and our cause.

Jesus, who was filled with the Holy Spirit, lived in peace, even though there was conflict all around him, always. One of my favourite stories in the New Testament is found in Mark 4 where Jesus and the disciples are in a boat and a brutal storm hits them. Many of the disciples are experienced fishermen who grew up on the water and are acutely aware of how dangerous it can be and they are freaking out. But Jesus, he’s asleep at the back of the boat. They are fighting and straining trying to stay alive and Jesus takes a nap.

And in that, I think there is something for us. So many of us are so busy, fighting and trying to get ahead in life. So many of us are bustling away like Martha in the kitchen when we should be like Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus and soaking in his presence. We should be like Jesus, who was filled with the Holy Spirit and who trusted God and could rest in the middle of the storm. What’s your default reaction when you are in the metaphorical storm of life? Do you try harder, work more, try to be better, which usually just leaves us feeling more exhausted and more discouraged or do you trust God so much that you have peace in the storm?

Jesus had peace because he had the Holy Spirit in him. If you have put your faith in Jesus, then you have the Holy Spirit living in you and the Spirit wants to produce peace in your hearts and minds. In our passage in John 14, Jesus says, “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” -John 14:26-27

There are lots of ways that you can gain peace in our world. You can go for a massage at a spa, a quiet walk by the Avon River, or go sit on a beach in Mexico. And those are great but the kind of peace that is available from our world is a different kind of peace than what God offers. God doesn’t offer us a break from the struggles like those things do, but God helps us have peace through the problems we encounter.

In his book, A Wardrobe From The King, Berit Kjos tells a story about a man who sought the perfect picture of peace. Not finding one that satisfied, he announced a contest to produce this masterpiece. The challenge stirred the imagination of artists everywhere, and paintings arrived from far and wide. Finally the great day of revelation arrived. The judges uncovered one peaceful scene after another, while the viewers clapped and cheered.

The tensions grew. Only two pictures remained veiled. As a judge pulled the cover from one, a hush fell over the crowd. A mirror-smooth lake reflected lacy, green birches under the soft blush of the evening sky. Along the grassy shore, a flock of sheep grazed undisturbed. Surely this was the winner.

Then the man who started this all uncovered the last painting himself, and the crowd gasped in surprise. This couldn’t be peace, could it?

The painting showed a tumultuous waterfall cascading down a rocky precipice; the crowd could almost feel its cold, penetrating spray. Stormy-gray clouds threatened to explode with lightning, wind and rain. In the midst of the thundering noises and bitter chill, a spindly tree clung to the rocks at the edge of the falls. One of its branches reached out in front of the torrential waters as if foolishly seeking to experience its full power.

A little bird had built a nest in the elbow of that branch. Content and undisturbed in her stormy surroundings, she rested on her eggs. With her eyes closed and her wings ready to cover her little ones, she manifested peace that transcends all earthly turmoil.

There is a peace from negative circumstances that will come one day when Jesus comes back and makes the world right again. But until then, Jesus has left us a type of peace that this world can’t offer: the peace that comes from knowing our God, by the Holy Spirit who lives in us, is with us through the storm and that God will see us to the other side.

But how does the Holy Spirit lead us to peace you may ask:

The Spirit reminds us of how Jesus saved us through his death and resurrection, showing us that we don’t have to earn God’s love and approval because he has given it to us in Jesus.

The Spirit convicts us of our sin. John 16:8 says of the Holy Spirit, “... when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.” - John 16:8 The Spirit pricks our conscience to let us know when we aren’t right with our selves, with others or we aren’t walking according to God’s ways.

The Spirit guarantees our salvation, giving us a peace that comes from knowing our future is secure.

Conclusion

There is an old and beautifully hymn called “It Is Well with My Soul.” It was written by Horatio Spafford, a wealthy businessman in Chicago, who lost most of his real estate holdings in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. After the fire, he sent his wife and four daughters on a ship to Europe, intending to join them later, for a time of rest as well as to assist with a revival in Great Britain. But the voyage was struck by disaster, and Spafford received a cable from his wife with the painful message, “Saved alone.”

Spafford quickly made arrangements to join his wife. When they reached the spot where all four of his daughters had drowned, Spafford marked that sad event with words of hope: “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.’”

These powerful words written in the midst of such pain are a reminder to us today that, even though we may be enduring great suffering and hardship, it is not the end of God’s plan for us. No matter what you have been through, or what you are going through, God’s eternal and perfect love for you can give you a peace that passes all understanding as you remember the hope of heaven and you experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Pray.

Benediction

Next week, we continue our series by looking at what real love looks like. So join us for our services either in person or online. Yes, we will have kids church happening next week so go to northpark.ca/stratford to register for our in-person services. If God has been moving in your life lately, or you have some questions about God, life or church I would love to talk with you about that. Reach out to me through email at [e-mail] and let’s begin that conversation. Let me close with this benediction from the Apostle Paul:

2 Thessalonians 3:16 NLT

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all.

Have a great week everyone and we will see you next time.