Sermon Tone Analysis

Peace Is An Inner Reality

Acts 16:16-34

 

There once was a king who announced a painting contest.

He was building a new palace, and he wanted the main entrance hall to be decorated with a large work of art.

The king envisioned his kingdom as a peaceful land, so whoever’s painting best symbolized peace would win a large cash prize.

Over the next few months, hundreds of paintings arrived at the palace.

The king decided on the top two.

Before announcing a winner, he hung both paintings in the palace for public viewing.

The first painting was of a majestic lake, so tranquil and still that the lush hills behind it were perfectly mirrored in its reflection.

The sky was a brilliant blue with soft, puffy clouds floating above.

Wildflowers bursting with color outlined the lake, and a family of deer calmly grazed in a far meadow.

All who saw it felt peace and happiness.

\\ The second painting portrayed a tall mountain cliff, rugged and strong.

A few small trees grew out of the cracks of the face of the cliff, with gnarled roots clinging for life.

A foamy waterfall angrily crashed down the cliff and into the rocky land below.

Above, dark ominous clouds loomed, and in the distance lightning flashed.

Halfway up the cliff grew a small bush.

In its branches, a bird sat in a nest apparently warming her eggs.

\\ After several weeks, the king declared the second painting the winner.

Confused and upset, the people asked the king to explain his decision.

He said, “Peace is not the absence of conflict.

Peace is a state of mind.

Those who experience peace have love in their hearts even when turmoil surrounds them.”

Peace is an inner reality.

You can have a tranquility of heart, mind, and soul even when conflict and crisis is breaking out all around you.

When everyone else panics, you can be a person of peace.

Here in America we enjoy historically unprecedented security from warfare, but could be really say that the average person in the country enjoys personal peace?

Let’s figure out how to accomplish this by going to God’s word, the Bible.

We’re going to focus in on a story that provides …

\\ 1.

A Portrait of Peace

As we join the story we find Paul and Silas spreading the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ to the city of Philippi.

They had with them a young man by the name of Luke who provides us with a first hand eyewitness account of the incident.

Acts 16:16-24 (NLT) One day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a demon-possessed slave girl.

She was a fortune-teller who earned a lot of money for her masters.

She followed along behind us shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.”

This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and spoke to the demon within her. “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her,” he said.

And instantly it left her.

Her masters’ hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace.

“The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews!” they shouted.

“They are teaching the people to do things that are against Roman customs.”

A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods.

They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison.

The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape.

So he took no chances but put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.

If you were paying attention you probably noticed that, so far, this does not fit with what we’d think of as peace.

Just the opposite.

Stalked for days by a demon-possessed woman, unjustly arrested, falsely accused, attacked by a mob, beaten with wooden rods, thrown into a dark prison that smelled of urine, feces and sweat with your feet locked into stocks just to make sure you don’t get comfortable – take all this with the fact that in those days you didn’t go to jail to serve time, you waited for execution or release, and you don’t have the hallmarks of what our culture pictures as peace.

But remember my title.

Peace is an inner reality.

If you have peace on the inside it really doesn’t matter what’s going on around you. Paul and Silas had this peace.

You’ll see it clearly in just a moment.

Their circumstances were miserable, but they had peace because they were able to …

\\ 2. Flow in the Spirit of Peace.

Look what happened next: Acts 16:25-26 Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.

Suddenly, there was a great earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations.

All the doors flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off! (NLT)

Notice that they were enjoying peace before the chains fell off.

In the midst of awful circumstances, what did they do?

They prayed and sang hymns.

It is evident that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Peace himself was flowing through them.

Jesus promised his followers that because they believed in him, he’d send his Spirit to live in and through them.

He described the Holy Spirit’s presence as a refreshing experience like streams of living water flowing out of the heart.

What we see here is Paul and Silas enjoying that inner reality.

How else can you explain a revival service at midnight in the grime of stinking jailhouse?

Jesus said that all of his followers could expect this kind of peace because if flows from the Spirit of Peace who would indwell them.

[Jesus said]“The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

John 14:26-27 (NIV)

If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ the peace of the Holy Spirit is within you.

The problem is that many times we just don’t flow in it.

We let the circumstances build a dam and dry us out.

Sometimes you have to take active steps to tear down the worries and anxieties to get in touch with the peace of God again.

One way is through prayer.

That’s exactly what Paul and Silas did in that dark dungeon.

Some years later, Paul even wrote about the need to pray and get the flow of peace moving again.

He eventually established a church in Philippi and here’s what he wrote them: Philippians 4:6-7, Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

(NLT)

I can’t completely explain it, but simply going to God is a peace producing experience.

Recently there was a relationship problem that was causing me a lot of anxiety.

I didn’t know what to do, so I told Donna I needed to get away.

Anytime I say that it’s code for “I’m going to go and pray.”

I was seeking God and he answered me pretty clearly.

I came back home peaceful.

I’ve got to tell you though that I don’t always get an answer, but I do get peace even if I can’t see the solution clearly.

When circumstances disturb your peace follow Paul and Silas’ example.

Let prayer restore your peace.

What else did Paul and Silas do in that jail cell?

They sang to the Lord.

Praising God, thanking him, worshiping him also opens the flow of peace.

Again, I can’t comprehend, much less explain this mystery, but somehow lifting our praises to the Lord fills us more completely with God’s Spirit.

He, in turn, ratchets up the peace.

Look again at how Paul describes the process: … let the Holy Spirit fill and control you.

Then you will sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, making music to the Lord in your hearts.

Ephesians 5:18-19 (NLT)

He tells us to let the Holy Spirit fill us and then he tells us how – praising God.