Peace: Fruit of the Spirit and Advent #2
Gal 5:13-26; December 4, 2004
Intro:
There once was a King who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The King looked at all the pictures, but there were only two he really liked and he had to choose between them. One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains that were all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.
The other picture had mountains too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky from which rain fell, and in which lightening played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all. But when the King looked, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest ........... perfect peace.
The King chose the second picture. Do you know why? "Because," explained the King, "peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace."
Context:
Today is the second week in Advent, where we focus our attention on the theme of peace. Peace is also the third character quality that Paul lists in Gal 5, in the passage of Scripture where we have a list of the characteristics that God desires to produce in us as we allow the Holy Spirit to be in control of our lives.
Wouldn’t it be great to really be at peace? To close your eyes and be alone with your heart and feel not scattered, not hectic, not hurried, not stretched – but rather to feel calm, to feel solid, to feel centered, to feel that “it is well”. Wouldn’t it be great to wake up in the morning and smile, welcoming the day ahead because deep in your soul you are at peace with yourself and your life. Wouldn’t it be great to have something difficult or painful come hurtling toward you and be able to react – not with panic or fear but with a calm assurance that whatever the problem, you know God is going to walk with you through it and even bring good out of it. Wouldn’t it be great to really, truly, honestly be at peace.
That is the peace that Jesus came to bring. That is what God promises will be our experience if we will walk with Jesus and allow Him to be our Saviour and the Lord of our lives. Doesn’t that sound good?
Christmas Peace:
Talking about peace at Christmas seems like a good idea, but then it starts to seem really out of place with what is actually happening. Celebrating Jesus’ birth has turned into such a big, busy, hectic deal that it seems like the concept of peace is about as far from reality as we can possibly imagine. So much to do, so many things to buy and bake and be a part of. If we look around, it isn’t peace we see, but frantic, stressed out, overburdened people rushing around everywhere, creating conflict as they strive for some ideal version of the holiday. Peace? Nice idea; certainly not a part of most of our lives during the Christmas season.
I recognize that isn’t true for all of us, but for those of us for whom it is true, how do we reconcile this simple fact: Paul tells us that when we live by the Spirit, God produces peace in us. Jesus came to bring peace, but in this season of celebrating Jesus’ birth peace seems like a long way off.
It is almost ironic that Jesus chose to enter the world without fanfare, without extensive preparation, without any of the trappings that we would expect to accompany a royal visit. And yet today the fanfare, extensive preparation, and all the trappings threaten to overwhelm the basic truth: Jesus came to earth. God became human. A baby boy, born to an unwed mother in an obscure village and laid in an animal feeding trough, is the King of the Universe. God with us, to save us, forgive us, love us, and bring us peace.
Do you want that peace? An end to the painful, stressful, hectic uncertainty?? The only place we will find it is through Jesus, the child in the manger who would grow into the man who died on the cross.
I’ve Found Jesus, So Why Don’t I Have Peace?
Many of us long to know the peace of God – that deep, inner conviction that in our very souls, it is well. That centeredness, that solid ground for our spirits. We know it comes through Jesus, we believe that the Holy Spirit produces it within us, yet if we are honest many of us do not relate personally. We are lacking the peace we desire. What has gone wrong, and how might we fix it?
As far as I can see, there are only three options: God isn’t keeping His word, Satan has somehow stolen our peace, or we have made choices that keep God from growing that peace within us. I can safely reject the first one – that God isn’t doing His part, even though we sometimes feel that way. That leaves the other two.
Stolen Peace:
The Bible is very clear that there is an evil opposition to God and to God’s Kingdom, and the center of the battleground is in our hearts. Did you realize that that is the center of the battle – your heart? You are so valuable to God that He would enter into an incredibly costly battle to win your heart, and your love. John Eldredge, in Waking the Dead, says, “The birth of Christ was an act of war, an invasion. The Enemy knew it and tried to kill him as a babe (Matt 2:13)” There is lots of teaching in the Bible about what to expect in the battle, and how to protect ourselves, and a constant assurance that the evil has already been defeated. Yet we continue to fight until the day when that victory is finished, and in the meantime we expect that our peace will have to be fought for. We understand that we are in a Spiritual battle fought for the hearts and souls of people.
That almost sounds like the opposite of peace, doesn’t it? If we are at war, then how can we be at peace? Because of this: the peace which Jesus brings is not, at least in this age, an external peace: it is an internal peace. It is not an absence of the external battle, it is the depth of our souls knowing who God is and who we are as God’s Children and thus knowing peace in whatever situations we find ourselves in. It is not the picture of the calm, glassy lake – it is the bird on its nest in the midst of the storm and the waterfall.
Epictetus, a philosopher of the first century, wrote in reference to the Pax Romania - the Roman peace that existed in the civilized world at the time and about which the Caesar boasted - “While the emperor may give peace from war on land and sea, he is unable to give peace from passion, grief and envy. He cannot give peace of heart, for which man yearns more than even for outward peace”.
In the midst of the external battle, the devil is going to do everything possible to upset us, knock our feet out from underneath us, cause us to question God and be suspicious and negative and difficult with one another. To turn our focus away from God and onto anything else. To steal our peace, to upset us and hurt us. Next we are going to consider the possibility that we have made choices that keep God from growing peace in us, but if nothing in the next section applies to you and you do not have peace then perhaps peace is something you need to claim back from the devil and stand on in faith. James 4:7 tells us simply, “resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
No Peace Because of Poor Choices:
We are in the middle of the battle, yet more often I think our lack of peace comes from us having made choices that keep God from growing peace within us. I don’t say that to be harsh or condemning at all, but because it is true. We cannot create any of the fruits, but we can prevent God from creating them. The truth will set us free, even if we don’t like to hear it. What kind of choices am I talking about?
Top of that list is choosing to spend time in lots of ways except allowing God to mold us and create all the fruits of the Spirit in us. We’ve gotten busy, and squeezed God out of our lives, shoved Him down the priority list, and then we wonder where God is or why we aren’t seeing more of His power and goodness in our lives.
Also close to the top of that list is how we have reacted to the pain that comes from living in this world. We have been hurt – wounded – sometimes crushed. That is an unfortunate part of our lives here on earth, which we cannot avoid. God’s great desire is to come and comfort, to come and heal, to come and perform surgery to get out the poison and make us whole and healthy, and at peace again. More often than not, however, we don’t run to God to heal us – sometimes instead we turn away from God, bury the pain, or we try to learn to cope with the pain instead of allowing God to heal us of the pain. And we don’t have peace because we have a deep hurt that we haven’t let God into.
Sometimes, we have made deliberate choices that reject God. He has called, and we’ve said no. We have known an act was wrong, but cheated anyway. Lied anyway. Gossiped anyway. In Paul’s words (NLT), we have given in to “hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, and drunkenness”, among the others. So we don’t have inner peace, because we are not right with God. And if you are not right with God, you shouldn’t have peace – the lack of peace helps us to recognize that something is wrong, something needs to be forgiven, something needs to be saved.
On March 10, 1974, Lt. Hiroo Onada was the last World War II Japanese soldier to surrender. Onada had been left on the island Lubang in the Philippines on December 25, 1944, with the command to "carry on the mission even if Japan surrenders." Four other Japanese soldiers were left on the island as Japan evacuated Lubang. One soldier surrendered in 1950. Another was killed in a skirmish with local police in 1954. Another was killed in 1972. Onada continued his war alone. All efforts to convince him to surrender or to capture him failed.
Over the years he lived off the land and raided the fields and gardens of local citizens. He was responsible for killing at least 30 nationals during his 29 year personal war. Almost a half million dollars was spent trying to locate and convince him to surrender. 13,000 men were used to try to locate him.
Finally, on March 10, 1974, almost 30 years after World War II ended, Onada surrendered his rusty sword after receiving a personal command from his former superior officer. Onada handed his sword to President Marcos, who pardoned him. The war was over. Onada stated, "Nothing pleasant happened in the 29 years in the jungle."
Like Onada, many people are fighting a lonely battle against the God who is offering reconciliation and peace. It is time to stop fighting. You see, spiritual peace is within our grasp and it is essential. Being at peace with God precedes all other peace. And as a result, we will never know peace on earth, until we realize that sin has separated us from God and we repent.
Back to Jesus:
That brings us right back to baby Jesus. Born to die, born so that our sin might be forgiven and so that we might be filled with the peace of God through God’s act of forgiveness and restoration.
That is what we remember, that is what we claim around this communion table. I know I have spoken more strongly this morning than normal, but the root of it is that I want to fight for peace for each of us. Here is what I want you to remember and act on: God is passionate about you. God loves you deeply, so deeply that He would send His Son to die in your place so that you could be forgiven and set free. The truth is that as we live in Jesus, as we live in the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be filled with good things, including peace. Living in the Spirit means standing firm against the devil, and it means each of us continually choosing to let God in – to give God space and time and priority. To give God our pain and hurt. And to confess our sin and receive God’s incredible forgiveness.
Conclusion: Gal 5:16-26 (NLT)
“16So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict. 18But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject to the law.
19When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, 20idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, 21envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.
24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26Let us not become conceited, or irritate one another, or be jealous of one another.
Praying For Gifts
Two young boys were spending the night at their grandparents the week before Christmas. At bedtime, the two boys knelt beside their beds to say their prayers when the youngest one began praying at the top of his lungs. "I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE..." "I PRAY FOR A NEW NINTENDO..." "I PRAY FOR A NEW VCR..." His older brother leaned over and nudged the younger brother and said, "Why are you shouting your prayers? God isn’t deaf." To which the little brother replied, "No, but Grandma is!"
Saint Francis Of Assisi
"Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life."
