Peace be with you

A certain level of calmness always comes over me when I someone greets me with the term. "Peace be with you." Four simple words, but so powerful. What does peace mean to you?

John 20:19–23 NIV

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Peace by with you. After His death and resurrection, Jesus used this greeting three times when He met with His disciples (John 20:19-29). The first thing to notice is that Jesus used this greeting of peace after His resurrection. He did not use this greeting before His resurrection. By His resurrection, Jesus has defeated Satan and the power of sin. When we choose to walk by faith with Jesus Christ, Satan no longer has to have control over our emotions and thoughts.

The second thing to notice is that Jesus used this expression of peace with His disciples. And that holds true for you and I today. As God’s children, we too receive the peace that only God can provide for us. Take some time in the hours and days to come to consider your own relationship with Jesus. Do you consider yourself a child of God. Do you consider yourself a follower, a disciple of Jesus Christ? Perhaps you already consider yourself a Christian (and that is wonderful!) Many of us were born within a Christian family. Many of us attend a Christian church. More importantly though, consider how deep your personal relationship is with Jesus. We can truly feel at peace with daily encounters with Jesus, through prayer, worship, and reading the Word.

Consider this: who does Jesus consider to be a Christian? We need to go back to the Scriptures again. Those of us who consider ourselves Christian sometimes use the title, "Lord," to refer to Jesus. There was a time when Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter" (Matthew 7:21).

When we consider ourselves Christian and we use the title Lord to refer to Jesus, we need to understand who Jesus considers to be a Christian. Jesus said that the one who does the will of His Father will enter heaven. This is a Christian. Are we doing the will of the Father? This is the Christian who can say, "Peace be with you."

Now Jesus showed His disciples the holes in His hands and the wound in His side. Then He said, "Peace be with you" (John 20:21). But he added, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." The third thing to notice is that as a Christian, we are sent by Jesus Christ (John 20:21). So the question is, "Has Jesus sent you?"

Jesus adds that we are to receive the Holy Spirit and we are to forgive one another (John 20:22,23). Please understand that it is only as a Christian who has received the Holy Spirit that we can forgive one another from the heart. A Christian requires the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to be able to truly forgive. Then we can say to one another, "Peace be with you."

Acts 2:1–11 NIV

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

By receiving the Spirit, we truly receives Jesus into our hearts. We truly enter a personal relationship with God. Jesus lives not apart from us, but in and through us. My freinds, Jesus is alwasy present, always within in. Always offering peace to our weary lives. Peace be with you.

Psalm 104:23–35 NIV

Then people go out to their work, to their labor until evening. How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number— living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there. All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works— he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the Lord. But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the Lord, my soul. Praise the Lord.