SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE
There are times when it's hard to get to sleep. It can be because we had caffeine too late in the day or we had a snack too close to bedtime and now we're paying for it. Then there are other reasons-you have a deadline to meet and you're not ready. You have an appointment and you're anticipating a bad outcome.
I read an article where the writer posed a question: "what keeps you up at night?" He was referring to the things that consume our thoughts; issues, problems or situations where stress and anxiety cause us to get less sleep than we'd like.
I know it's way too early to think about Christmas songs but when I was thinking of a title for this sermon my mind went to this line in Silent Night and I thought, 'what better sleep could there be than to sleep in heavenly peace?' Let's see what the bible says about it.
1) Sleep despite turmoil.
The heading of Psalm 3 refers to when David fled from Absalom. David's son Absalom rebelled and wanted to rule Israel. He devised a conspiracy and began to gain a following until he was ready to make his move.
When Absalom wanted something he took extreme measures to get it. When he called for Joab, commander of David's army, to come see him he didn't come. He called a second time with the same result. What did he do then? He had Joab's fields set on fire. That got Joab to come.
David knew his son. When the report came that the hearts of the men of Israel were now with Absalom, David said this in
2nd Sam. 15:14, "Then David said to all his officials who were with him in Jerusalem, 'Come! We must flee, or none of us will escape from Absalom. We must leave immediately, or he will move quickly to overtake us and bring ruin upon us and put the city to the sword."
So the chase was on. But despite all this turmoil and chaos, David could sleep!
Psalm 3:1-6, "O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.” But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side."
I'm sure David was deeply sorrowful that his son had turned against him. He would be consumed with the fact that his own son was after him. Then there's the fear of the very real threat of him being able to follow through with his plan.
Add the fact that it wasn't only his son that turned against him it was all those who were once loyal to him who had joined Absalom. Then you have what was being said-'God will not deliver him'. That can get inside your head and cause you to doubt. How could anyone sleep with all this on their mind?
He knew that God was his shield; his protector. David knew he wasn't perfect but he also knew the Lord's glory was upon him. If you read on David cries out for deliverance and for God to deal with his enemies. Then he acknowledges that deliverance comes from the Lord.
As he laid his head to rest he might have recalled when the Lord delivered him from the hands of king Saul when he was hunting him down. God delivered him and he replaced Saul as king. He could draw from that experience. He lied down to sleep believing he would wake up the next morning because he knew the Lord sustained him; he kept him going.
We may not face anything like what David did but there are times when we are dealing with turmoil, chaos, maybe even betrayal, like David. We could easily lie awake at night, wondering how these tense situations are going to work out. David had a lot on his mind but he was able to quiet his mind and go to sleep because of his trust in the Lord. He trusted in God's protection and ability to hold him up as well as lift him up.
When we can't get to sleep because our minds are going a million miles an hour worrying about all our troubling situations, we can rest in the Lord's protection and love for us as his child. We rest in knowing he will deal with it and even if everything doesn't work out the way we think it should we'll be okay because we are sustained by the Lord. Sleep despite turmoil.
In the next Psalm, David said this in vs. 1: Ps. 4:1, "Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer." David was in distress and he cries out to God in prayer. But look how he ends the psalm. Vs. 7-8, "You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety."
He's in distress but his heart is filled with joy? In danger but yet he sleeps in peace? How? He trusted the Lord to keep him safe. He knew the danger he was in and how things could turn out, but his trust was in the Lord; he knew he would be okay as long as he continued to rely on him.
In the end, it was Absalom who was killed, not David. Not by David; he didn't want it to end this way, but God protected him and spared his life. David could sleep in peace because of the Lord. When our minds are troubled we can sleep in heavenly peace because our peace comes from the Lord.
2) We can sleep because the Lord doesn't.
It feels good to get a good night's sleep. Some people only need 4-6 hours of sleep a night and they wake up refreshed and ready to go while others need 8 or more. When I was a teenager, I could sleep twelve hours if you let me. Regardless of how many hours you need, the fact is we all need it. It's how our bodies refresh themselves.
During deep sleep your body works to repair muscle, organs, and other cells. Chemicals that strengthen your immune system start to circulate in your blood. A lack of sleep can lead to poor cognitive function, increased inflammation and reduced immune function.
When prolonged, sleep deprivation greatly increases the risk of developing health problems including high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack and diabetes. It's easy to see how important sleep is; we couldn't go without it. But that's not the case for God.
Psalm 121:1-4, "I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep."
Have you ever seen a movie or show where someone was being stalked or was at risk of being attacked and the police put an officer in the person's house to watch over them? The officer's duty was to stay awake and watch out for anyone who might try to break in. I'm sure the victim felt much safer knowing there was someone there watching over them and protecting them. This would allow the person to sleep more soundly.
This is the point David makes in the psalm. In ps. 3 David called the Lord his shield. He knew the Lord watched over him and protected him. Here in Ps. 121 we see the Lord watches over Israel. In the remaining four verses the idea of the Lord watching over them and protecting them is mentioned four more times. The repetition is meant for emphasis to communicate that we don't ever have to wonder if the Lord is watching over us.
David asks, 'where does my help come from?' Does it comes from my army? Can't depend on them-they can be fickle-as was the case when some turned and aligned with Absalom. Does my help come from horses or chariots? No, they're not totally dependable. What about weapons or machinery? No, these things can break or malfunction.
Although these things are helpful; our only ultimately reliable help comes from the Lord. The only truly dependable one to have watching over us is the one who never sleeps.
Remember when Jesus scolded his disciples for falling asleep in the garden of Gethsemane? He was like, "can't you guys stay awake for one hour?" They wanted to-their spirit was willing-but their flesh was weak. That's the problem-we humans are fallible-we get tired, we doze off.
Not God-he never gets tired. God never needs a nap; he never needs his beauty sleep. He's awake 24/7 which means he's on the job 24/7. When you read about Greek and Roman gods, they're depicted as needing sleep.
Elijah used this reality to tease the prophets of Baal. They built an alter, sacrificed a bull and laid him on it. The stage was set, whichever god sent fire to consume the sacrifice was the true god. Elijah let the prophets of Baal go first. They chanted for hours but nothing happened. That's when Elijah teased them.
1 Kings 18:27-29, "At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention."
If you read on you'll see that when the alter was rebuilt Elijah doused it with water several times and then called on God once and the fire came down and consumed the alter, the water and the sacrifice, showing who the real God was.
But it occurred to me that the prophets of Baal must've believed in the possibility that their god could be asleep in order for them to do what they did in response. They believed in a god that was more humanlike than god-like.
I don't want a god who has limitations-I want a God who can do the impossible-like never needing to sleep. Knowing God has these impossible characteristics and capabilities helps me to have more assurance that there's nothing to worry about.
There's a Greek god of sleep-Hypnos, which is where we get the word hypnotize from. Supposedly, he helps people sleep soundly. We don't need a Greek god to help us sleep-we have Jesus. Where does my help come from to be able to sleep in heavenly peace? Jesus-because he never sleeps; and that is a comforting reality for us.
3) The sleep of faith.
Matt. 8:23-27, "Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
We talk about taking a leap of faith but what about the sleep of faith? That's what Jesus had; David too. He was able to sleep despite the turmoil in his life because of his faith and trust in the Lord. He knew he had nothing to worry about. Jesus also knew there was nothing to worry about.
The disciples were freaking out; it was a sudden, turbulent storm. They came to Jesus and he was sleeping. They woke him up and frantically yelled, "save us, we're going to drown". In Mark's version it has them saying, "don't you care if we drown?!" I could see them saying, "how could you be sleeping at a time like this? We're out there fighting against this massive storm and we're losing! Our lives are in danger and you're in here sleeping!"
Can you relate to how the disciples feel? Have you ever been there? You're going through a storm and you're wondering where Jesus is? You're panicking, feeling like you're fighting a losing battle, feeling like you're going to drown. You may even cry out, 'Jesus wake up! I need some help over here!'
What if the issue isn't so much that Jesus isn't helping us, it's that we're reacting to our situation all wrong? I'm sure the disciples thought that Jesus sleeping was a bad thing; he was in dream land while the storm was raging. The disciples thought Jesus didn't care.
We might think that of people who have a calm approach to precarious situations. "How can you be calm at a time like this? Don't you care?" Yet we would do better to approach the situation like they are-calm, cool and collected.
Not that we notice there's a tornado headed for our house and our reaction is, "I'm going to go lay down for a while and catch some ZZZs", but God doesn't want us to panic either. Panicked minds make poor decisions under pressure.
And Jesus did come to the rescue; he calmed the wind and the waves and no one drowned. He showed his disciples there was nothing to worry about. He's showing us the same thing.
Jesus said they had little faith. This tells me they should've had more faith than what they did. Perhaps they didn't know he had control over nature but they did know he could perform miracles. They had already seen Jesus do things that were humanly impossible so they should've been able to have the faith that knew Jesus could and would do something about the storm.
They did cry, 'save us' so they did have some faith but apparently not very much. I'm thinking their panicked and frantic demeanor showed their level of faith. It works that way for us too. I'm not knocking the disciples. Being experienced fishermen, that storm must've been a doozy. I'm sure I wouldn't have been approaching it like it was no big deal.
But maybe the problem was they tried too long to handle it themselves. Then, when it got out of hand and panic set in, that's when they decide to go get Jesus. The key is to go to Jesus before it gets to that point. But sometimes we don't know when something is coming.
The storms on Galilee could come suddenly too. So I don't know how much time they spent trying to fight that losing battle but my thought is that they thought they could handle it until it became clear they couldn't.
Even if we think we can handle it we should go to Jesus first. Regardless, we need to pray for strengthened faith so we can sleep in heavenly peace like Jesus did, despite the storm.
But wait, Jesus slept in peace because he knew he had command over the wind and the waves. But we don't, so how can we be expected to sleep in peace when we can't tell the wind and the waves to be still?
David didn't have control over those who were after him yet he was able to sleep in peace because he knew and trusted in the ability of God who loved him and could do something about the ones who were after him.
The Jesus who calmed the wind and waves is the same Jesus who enabled Peter to walk on water despite the wind and the waves. The Jesus who slept on a cushion during the storm is the same Jesus who will enable us to sleep despite the storm.
We can panic like the disciples. We can wonder if Jesus cares whether or not we drown. Or, we can be calm and address the storm with faith not fear. We can face it being sure of the Lord's love and grace upon us. We can be sure that he cares about what we're going through and what happens to us.
We can be sure that the God who brought us to it is the same God who will bring us through it. The sleep of faith comes when we realize there's no reason to fear because Jesus is watching over us and he will calm the wind and waves. We sleep in heavenly peace because of Jesus.
In 1555, Nicholas Ridley was burned at the stake because of his witness for Christ. On the night before his execution, Ridley’s brother offered to stay with him in the prison chamber to assist and comfort him. Nicholas declined the offer and replied that he meant to go to bed and sleep as quietly as ever he did in his life. Because he knew the peace of God, Ridley could rest in the strength of the everlasting arms of his Lord.
Wow, can you imagine being able to sleep the night before your execution?! Talk about sleeping in heavenly peace! Faith and trust enabled Mr. Ridley to sleep on the eve of his execution. Having faith and trust in God will enable us to be able to sleep in heavenly peace despite whatever it is we're facing.
