Let's turn together to the Gospel of John. We are very near to finishing up this chapter in our Scriptures, John chapter 14 John 14 Again, I'm reading from the English standard version, which is a literal translation of The original languages. I answered a question very recently from someone I assume Not new to the faith, but certainly new to the study of the word and the question was how in the world Can we know what God actually said with so many translations out there and the answer is actually quite simple Translation does not necessarily build on translation We have a translation before us that was taken from the original scripts That is the Hebrew and the Greek and so we have a translation of the scripture that is not third generation or fourth generation But is itself a first-generation translation of the original scriptures as old-addated scripture as we can Receive anyway, and so we do have a great deal of confidence in these Translations that are literal taken from the originals John chapter 14 Beginning at verse 27 if you'll join me there and Follow along as I read to the end of this chapter Listen for it is God who speaks to us Peace I leave with you my peace I give to you Not as the world gives do I give to you let not your hearts be troubled Neither let them be afraid You heard me say to you I am going away and I will come to you if you loved me You would have rejoiced because I am going to the Father for the Father is greater than I and Now I have told you before it takes place so that when it does take place you may believe I Will no longer talk much with you for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me But I do as the Father has commanded me so that the world may know that I love the Father Rise let us go from here May the Lord bless the reading of his word and the hearing of his people peace Peace I leave with you my peace I Give to you Jesus is now changing the tone and the subject of his discourse with his disciples nearing the end of their time Whether it is their remaining in the upper room or whether they have already left the upper room and are already Journeying here It would seem they are still in the upper room because at the end he says to them rise Let us go from here. It's really not necessarily of consequence Whether they remain in the room or whether they traveled at this point just that they are still together and he is still Essentially in the same conversation which he began all the way back when they first went into the upper room and he began Washing their feet talking to them about the servant who had disposition of a believer of a Christian of one who follows Christ that we should be humble as He is humble as he's been going through dealing with their anxieties and remember the source Of this anxiety first that was the disturbing scene what to them where he took the basin of water to wash their feet Then as they celebrated the Lord's supper just prior to that actually he had predicted that one would betray him Then as they celebrated the Lord's supper He announced that the bread would be as his body and that the drink was his blood which was to be poured out and then the Prediction of Peter's denial of him three times and the scattering of the rest of the disciples Followed was his announcement that he would be leaving them and that they would no longer be able to commune with him So you can see how anxiety is building upon anxiety and we are now coming to the conclusion of that where Jesus is telling them peace peace I give to you my peace I Give to you This is basically what Martin Luther called a good night blessing It's a legacy that he's leaving behind and a treasure which he is giving Peace I leave with you the legacy that he's leaving behind my peace I give to you the treasure which he is promising That is still ahead So the question before us as we begin an examination of this today is Is this piece a theoretical piece is it a utopian piece is it a piece that we would look forward to? Post-resurrection of our own bodies when the Lord returns and all sin is eradicated and Satan has been thrown into the pit and every Tear has been wiped from every eye Is that when we will know this piece or is there peace which is available to us now a piece which perhaps in your Christian Walt thus far has escaped you Is there in fact a piece now as well as a piece that we look forward to in the future is it simply a Horizontal dimension a piece between peoples is it a piece between people is it peace with God is it peace or Subjugation to some feeling that we might have inside a a peaceful feeling What is it that we are to experience in the Christian life what sort of peace should we expect? Christ here is actually giving them peace in the present tense a piece Is this a hope for peace only in this life to come or the one to come here? It seems it is a piece in the present as well as in the life to come the answer really should have come to us rather quickly We've already studied together the work of the Holy Spirit Jesus has been discussing the promise and the work of the Holy Spirit with them And we know from Paul's teaching in Galatians 5 22 that peace is a promise of that coming of the Holy Spirit the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control For those who were in possession of the Holy Spirit or should we say or possess by God by the through the Holy Spirit peace is a fruit of the Spirit and So the absence of peace in our lives should disturb us because the presence of the Holy Spirit will have peace as one of its fruits as we Was re we were I'm sorry as we were reading this morning from Micah chapter 7 We find that the prophet goes out and he looks for fruit in the people's lives and he says I find nothing but leaves We need to consider in our own lives the fruit of the Spirit is being evidence of the presence of the Spirit Not necessarily that we would question that we have the Spirit, but that we might wonder What is it about our understanding of the work of the Spirit and of our place in life that causes us to neglect those gifts and to take advantage of Those fruits of the Holy Spirit Boyce illustrates peace James Montgomery boys. He illustrates it wonderfully when he talks about a contest that they had Were artists were to to offer paintings for competition and in those paintings. They were to represent peace They were supposed to somehow Communicate the idea of peace and there were beautiful paintings that were submitted paintings of sunsets paintings of tranquil lakes paintings of mountains The winter of the contest was unusual in that it was the painting of a bird's nest Ona limb which was protruding from the middle of a raging waterfall a Birds nest with tiny birds hatched waiting for a mother to come and feed them protruding from a raging waterfall Why would that be the picture of peace? Because as chaos and as Destructive forces raged all around there was complete peace as that nest sat firmly and stable on the limb protruding from the midst of the waterfall It's one thing to acknowledge that the Scripture teaches that we should have peace which we would all affirm I doubt if I was to take a poll now and said is there anyone that believes that the Scripture doesn't teach us that we are to have peace I'm sure there would be no hands raised that all of us would agree The Scripture teaches it's quite one thing to acknowledge the Scripture teaching it and that Jesus Himself teaches it as another thing all together to find it in our own lives, however If I was to take another poll and say how many of you can say honestly that you know this piece and you don't long for a piece Understanding the peace which is to come and we long for that but as much as you can have peace in this life That you feel that you were on target with the peace promised in the Scripture I would question anyone that actually would raise their hand and say yes I've arrived and I have no issues regarding peace We look at the world we see division strive plotting politics schism war But in the church What do we see there? We see division strive plotting politics schism war no matter how large no matter how small the church Even in the household of faith even in the household of God we see the way of the world More often than we see the way of Christ as Jesus tells his disciples He's leaving them peace. He does so With a bit of an air of a bequifel or it's almost as if as he's leaving he's going to bequeath them peace again Martin Luther who is I love to read Martin Luther. You've probably gathered. He's so pastoral and he's so He's so devotional in his interpretation of the Scriptures He said he's not bequeathing critics or rather cities or castles or silver or gold It is peace the greatest treasure on earth as Jesus leads his disciples He's not promising them those things that usually are accompanied with a last will and testament He's promising them peace and in leaving them peace He was identifying a fundamental character trait of the Christian life When I say fundamental I choose that word on purpose I mean that in the fullest and most exclusive sense of the term it is a fundamental characteristic of an authentic Christian life It's what Christ left his people peace In his parting comments to the disciples He said to them I give you my peace Our willingness to not be a people at peace in our soul But to be disturbed bitter and at war with Christ-owned people is distinctively uncharacteristic of a Christian In other words, it is not characteristic of a Christian to be going after one another or to be Unpeaceable with one another, but it is characteristic of a Christian to be at peace with one another We should leave the politics and we should leave the strife and we should leave the schism and we should leave the Warring to the world Because Jesus said my peace I leave with you and it is not the peace of the world It is something entirely different Rather than sending an order that grace may abound and Continuing our ways we should every one of us seek the peace of Christ Colossians 315 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful I would repeat it again, but instead let me just emphasize the word rule Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart It's not simply some add-on or some footnote or something that the really mature Christian who's learned not to care so much about the things Of the world has it is a command of scripture that peace will be indicative or peace will be descriptive of the Christian life and where it is absent We do not have to go to seminary to understand the implications We must be careful to make close examination of peace Jesus says to them, peace I Leave with you my peace. I give to you after the resurrection in John chapter 20 Jesus again addresses the issue of peace Jesus in John 2019 Jesus appeared to the disciples saying again peace be with you in verse 21 Jesus said to them again peace be with you in verse 26 eight days later when Thomas was in the room Jesus again appeared to them and he was among them and he said peace be with you What significance is that isn't that just a cultural greeting? Well, it is for us and it certainly has a Jewish flavor to it Which we put to being a Old Testament or a Jewish way of greeting one another, but it's much more than that Because the Old Testament there is a thread that runs through the Old Testament where peace is characteristic of the kingdom of God It's what the Jews were longing for They were a people in a hostile land remember the wilderness Remember as they came into the promised land the wars they had to fight remember the time of the judges and the Palestinians are they a Philistines remember how they were always at war even being carried off and dispersed away from their land They longed to be a people at peace and they wanted God to bring them peace peace is an eternal Fundamental expectation of the kingdom of God when we talk about the kingdom of God Don't we expect peace with the kingdom of God? At the in that the Old Testament times they were longing for the establishment of the kingdom and it was seen as a kingdom of righteousness and peace Isaiah 9, 6 and 7 I want to survey a few scriptures Because it doesn't do simply for me simply to say it is I want you to hear just a few scriptures and there's many many more But I want you to get a flavor of the Jewish mind when it comes to this idea of peace and the association with the kingdom And see what conclusion you draw after these Isaiah 9, 6 and 7 for to us a child is born to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder And his name shall be called wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father prince of peace Of the increase of his government and of his peace There will be no end and Isaiah 52 How beautiful upon the mountains or the feet of him who brings good news who publishes peace Who brings good news of happiness and publishes salvation who says desire on your God reigns 54 13 still in Isaiah all your children shall be taught by the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children Going to Ezekiel 37 verse 26. I will make a covenant of peace with them It will be an everlasting covenant with them and lastly and haggai chapter 2 verse 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former says the Lord of hosts and in this place. I will give peace Declare's the Lord of hosts It was this prophecy of the kingdom of peace that Jesus signaled as fulfilled after the resurrection When he arrived with the disciples and announced to them peace and he told them I'm going to give you my peace He's declaring these prophecies are fulfilled in him He is the prince of peace and the kingdom has been inaugurated Peace of Christ is available Just as is is promised Isn't this what Luke is explaining in Acts 1036 when he talks about preaching the good news of peace Through Jesus Christ and which Paul continues to elaborate on in Romans 14 17 for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness peace and joy In the Holy Spirit So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding If we want to know something of the flavor of the kingdom of God if we want to know something experientially of the kingdom of God then all of our ministries and all of our efforts in every word that comes from our mouth Should be according to righteousness peace and joy It should be that we are pursuing peace with one another and mutual upbuilding Because those are the characteristics of the kingdom and of the kingdom people And if they're not the characteristics of the ministries of a church then the ministries of the church are not conducive to the building of the kingdom of God If we desire to be used of God and the building up of the kingdom then we ought to be aligning ourselves to those ministries and those expressions which are complementary to the kingdom itself So we've established by the scriptures that peace is an indispensable fruit Of those who are in the kingdom who belong to the kingdom because it is an indispensable fruit of the kingdom itself The kingdom people will share the characteristics of the kingdom that peace is founded or grounded in the finished work of Christ To give us peace with God and eternity and granted by the indwelling of the spirit to give peace in our soul now peace and eternity peace in our soul now I love again the way d a Carson puts this Jesus displays transcendent peace his own peace transcendent meaning Above all the peace of this world a transcendent peace throughout his perilous hour of suffering and death As Jesus was facing the cross and his own spirit was anxious because of the weight of the cross Which is falling upon him upon the weight of the sin of man which would be upon his shoulders What are the words that Jesus are saying now peace? I leave with you my peace. I give to you In the face of all that Jesus had before him he was a man at peace Now he also in the garden would sweat great droplets of blood We're not to say that he was carefree about the cross He understood the suffering that was before him But his soul was at peace because it was in harmony with God's will And he himself was the perfect manifestation of the kingdom Carson goes on And by that death he absorbs in himself the malice of others The sin of the world and introduces the promised messianic peace and a way none of his contemporaries had envisaged The malice of others is absorbed in Christ What's left to express but peace in the kingdom of God For all that is not at peace and all that is not edifying and all that is not uplifting has been absorbed by Christ at the cross So where those expressions are manifest They are not indicative of the presence of the kingdom Because those have been absorbed by Christ at the cross What what sort of peace what sort of messianic peace that his contemporaries envisage Again Carson the packs of Romana. That is the peace of Rome was one and maintained by a brutal sword not Not a few Jews thought that the messianic peace would involve conquest by a larger sword secured by a still mightier sword instead And was secured by an innocent man who suffered and died at the hands of the Romans of the Jews and all of us And by his death he affected for his own followers peace with God and therefore the peace of God who surpasses all Understanding what does this mean? This means that there is a way of the world in which the world seeks to produce peace It seeks to produce peace either by the might of the sword or by political maneuvering It seeks to enforce peace by force But that's not peace as Christ would give peace That's not the peace of Christ which surpasses his understanding and it is not the peace of the kingdom It is an enforced will Which means a lack of war the packs Romana was peace in the land, but it was peace over a conquered people It was not the peace of Christ So then let's ask what is the practical that is this worldly nature of peace If we are not to know peace as the world Has its peace Then while we are living in this world What does this peace look like for us? What is our experience of the peace of Christ? There's a wonderful story in the scriptures of Jesus Came to the disciples in the midst of a storm walking on the water as they were out in the boat afraid for their lives Jesus is walking across the water to them Peter Caused out to him and he wants to go to Christ and Christ offers him the opportunity to come out of the boat and to come and Peter begins By walking on the water Keeping his eyes upon Christ, but then as the sea billows kept Folding around him and as the waves kept crashing him around him as the storm continued unabated all around him Peter becomes distracted and he begins to sink into the water a peace Is a stable balance between two opposing forces for us in this life For the world still exists and we still must live in the world and like the storm and the sea billows raging around Peter It will continue around us unabated until the end of time There will always be wars and rumors of wars. There will always be plots and schemes and whispers There will always be these things that go on around us at all times There will be financial insecurities. There will be vocational insecurities There will be splits and divisions among people and God forbid even God's people And yet if we keep our eyes upon Christ and Christ alone We will not sink How do we do that? How how do we keep our eyes on Christ? Is it through a personal devotional life? Certainly personal devotional life is a significant part of our keeping our eyes on Christ But the Lord has not left us without devices He gave us his word He's given us the sacraments. He's given us the church itself And through these means of God's grace and through personal devotional life translated as prayer Through prayer the celebration of the sacraments through meditation and study of God's word we keep our eyes on Christ And the peace of Christ which surpasses understanding is made to be ours It's not the absence of threat or discomfort but the strength to check it which gives us peace Because just when we eliminate one thorn in our side There will be another thorn which comes As long as we are in this life there will always be a thorn in our side always Whether it's here whether it's in your work whether it's driving in five o'clock traffic Whether it's in your home There will always be an issue as soon as you eliminate one there will be another The quest for happiness does not begin through the eradication of those around us It begins with the possession of Christ in our soul And if we keep our mind on Christ and we keep our eye on Christ We won't be so concerned about the destruction of the waves which are around us because it's not the waves Which actually have caused our disquiet anyway Because the waves will always be there one wave will be replaced by another wave It's the absence of Christ which disquiets our soul A Christian knows the tension of peace in this life and the difference between peace and paradise We long for paradise But we understand peace now A Christian knows what it means to live in a bird's nest on a limb protruding from a thundering waterfall Because that's where we always remain as the world rages around us A Christian knows that the peace of this world is temporary and deceptive Every time there's an election and a particular party wins the election There's a day or a week or a month or a hundred days of celebration And then the reality sinks in that no, it's not perfect And no, things are not going to always go the way we thought that they would go Even when it's a charismatic leader or a soft touch or financial gains or smooth handshakes or a wink with the eye None of those things give you peace Because hatred, divisions, plotting, envy, selfishness And the sin of the world will trump world peace every time There is no guarantee of world peace because this world is dying And the Christian knows that God condemns every prophet or every priest That would lead people to look anywhere but to him for peace Anyone who would preach or teach that there is another place to fix your gaze that that will give you peace Either fixing this issue, investing in this place, getting rid of this individual or changing this Idea or program or job, if that's going to give you peace The scriptures indict that in Jeremiah 6 For from the least to the greatest of them everyone is greedy for unjust gain And from prophet to priest everyone deals falsely They have healed the wound of my people lightly saying peace Peace when there is no peace The indictment is that where a prophet or a priest has opportunity To train the people's vision on Christ instead he's deflected it to something else For his own reputation he's told them they'll be peace if you just do this When there is no peace by doing that And lost is the opportunity to say turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face So what's the ground then for real peace? Jesus told the disciples let not your heart be troubled In other words do not be terrified do not shrink back in the day in which you live Because he had reminded them all of the proof of his ability to make peace That's what he's reflecting on that's what he's reminding them of He said I'm telling you to have peace but it's not empty I've already proven to you that I can give you peace They could shake off their fear and timidity Because he was making many mansions for them and recall them to himself Because he himself is the way to the Father Because they know God as they know him Because their work will have continuity with his own work Because they will labor in the power of the Holy Spirit Because the Spirit will come and teach them all things Because in the giving of the Spirit the Father and the Son will reside And the heart of every believer Harry Ironside tells this story as we draw this to close At the end of the Civil War or the War of Northern Aggression as it's more properly called The federal cavalry were riding on a road between Richmond and Washington Suddenly from out of the bushes comes a Confederate soldier He was ragged and starving and he calls to the Captain of the Calvary Of the Union Calvary and he calls him to come over The Captain does in fact come over and he walks up to him Essentially surrendering to the Captain and he says I'm starving to death Do you have any food? Well the Union Captain is perplexed and he says why don't you just go to Richmond and eat Why don't you go there and get what you need And the Confederate soldier explains to him I can't because I'll be arrested You see three weeks ago I deserted from the army and if I'm caught I'll be shot as a as a deserter The Captain asked him will haven't you heard the news? He goes what news? He said well the war is over Peace was made at Appomattox two weeks ago The Confederacy is ended and there's no longer a conflict between us The Confederate looks at him in amazement He goes what he says I've been starving and hiding for two weeks Just because I didn't know it Jesus has bequeathed to us a great legacy of peace He's given to us a peace and promised us a perfect peace and eternity But have we entered into that peace? Has unbelief, rebellion, vice, hatred, ignorance, willful sins? Have these things kept us from that peace? This is a good picture of our peace with God as we contemplate the condition of that soldier Peace was available, peace was there but for two weeks he was starving to death Christ went to Calvary and accepted our surrender The war is over rebellion is ended Peace is available for those who have an ear to hear it And this has been the love and the treasure of the church through the ages We have hymns which speak of the people's love and understanding of this peace of Christ They've even named their children words for peace such as Irene which means simply peace During services people used to greet one another with peace be with you If you go to the catacombs in Rome you'll still find and scribe there on many of the tombs Simply in peace And if you go to many of the cemeteries I hope all of the cemeteries in America You will find their tombstones with the epithet on their rest in peace Do we simply mean when we put you in the ground may it be quiet? No, we are saying may your soul be at peace And then finally there are hymns which we sing that give great expression to the theology Which we have just discussed concerning peace You know them When peace like a river attendeth my way When sorrows like sea below's roll whatever my lot that was taught me to say It is well, it is well with my soul One we have it saying in quite a while Like a river glorious is God's perfect peace Overall, victorious in its bright increase Perfect yet it bloweth fuller every day Perfect yet it groweth deeper all the way State upon Jehovah hearts are fully blessed Finding as he promised perfect peace and rest How has this idea of peace escaped us How is it that we have been so focused on all things and missed peace if we have missed it The peace of Christ which surpasses his understanding as he finished teaching all things else What did Jesus want for his disciples? Peace and through peace strength not timidity Through peace unity not division Through peace hope not despair through peace Possession of Christ in his Holy Spirit Rather than belonging to the world Peace is the way of the kingdom Peace will be the defining mark of the kingdom when we are in the presence of God Peace should be a character of God's people now