Sermon for 4/7/2002
2 Thessalonians 3:16
Introduction:
Consider the sad story of Wilmer McLean. Prior to the Civil War, McLean owned a house on the Bull Run in Northern Virginia. In 1861, during action at Manassas, an artillery shell fell down McLean’s chimney and into a stew being prepared for CSA Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard.
Seeking a more tranquil place to live, McLean bought a farmhouse in — of all places — Appomattox County. McLean’s house was chosen for the surrender meeting between Grant and Lee. The two military leaders met in McLean’s parlor, after which Union officers stripped the room for souvenirs.
The McLeans left Appomattox Court House and returned to Mrs. McLean’s Prince William County, Virginia estate in the fall of 1867. When Wilmer McLean defaulted on repayment of loans, the banking house of "Harrison, Goddin, and Apperson" of Richmond, Virginia brought a judgement against him, and the "Surrender House" was sold at public auction on November 29, 1869.
WBTU:
Peace is a stranger to us. Wars we have had in abundance. We have had two world wars. The last half of the last century was peppered with between 60 to 100 other wars, depending on how we define the word "war." Individual lives have been equally chaotic. Homes and marriage torn apart, civil strife, crime on the street and in politics; where can there be peace? The beginning years of this century do not seem to offer much hope for future.
The world describes peace by thinking of the opposite of peace and says what peace isn’t; it isn’t war.
The peace that Jesus came to bring was not just peace for one nation, but for all the nations of the world. This peace would not be brought about through political force or conquest of war, but through the humble Jesus.
The question being asked today from all walks of life is, "Where does world peace begin?" World peace does not start way over there somewhere. It begins in our hearts and minds.
When there is peace in the heart, there is peace in the family; when there is peace in the family, there is peace in the community; when there is peace in the community; there is peace in the nation; when there is peace in the nation, there is peace in the world.
World works on outward peace, starts there. Christ works on inward peace and then attempts to bring that peace to others, Christ starts on the heart and works his way outward.
Thesis: Let’s talk about the nature, the source, the channel, the duration, and then the absence of peace.
For instances:
** The Wonderful Word edited by Leon Tucker, I came upon a tremendous sermon by W.H. Griffith entitled "The Power of Peace." He gave an exposition of 2 Thess. 3:16, "Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always by all means."
I. The Nature of Peace
1. Peace of a quiet conscience (Rom. 8:33-35; three questions)
a. Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
1) Even when mankind brings some charge against us, we know that through Jesus Christ we are fine.
2) If we are guilty, we know that the blood has covered us.
3) If we are not guilty, we know that God will judge and bring vengeance against the slanderer.
4) We do not have to worry or fret over false or true charges.
5) Legal dramas where the lawyers are scrambling to find solutions or answers. Don’t have to worry.
b. Who is he that condemns?
1) Jesus Christ is going to judge the world. (John 5:22 NIV) Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,
2) We should fear the condemnation of the Son. Do we know the Son? Are we under the blood? Have we made him our Lord and Savior?
3) No hard questions on the Day of Judgment. Do you know my Son? Is he a friend of yours?
c. Who or what shall separate us from the love of Christ?
1) Vs. 37
2) If we have a good relationship with Jesus Christ, our consciences should be clear.
3) (Heb 13:18 NIV) Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.
4) Many people’s consciences condemn them. Keep playing the tapes over and over.
d. Reminds me of some Catholic convents. They look for young women who eat, laugh and sleep well. If they eat well, they physically can endure any hardship and any living condition. If they laugh well, they have a joyful spirit and can bear their cross easily and with gladness. If they sleep well, they have no serious sins and have a healthy spiritual life.
e. Do you have a healthy spiritual life?
f. Granted some people’s consciences condemn them when it is not justified. Have a warped sense of right and wrong. Some people’s consciences exonerate them when they have committed heinous crimes.
g. However, how is your conscience? Does it condemn you? You and Jesus need to have a talk about that.
h. How does it feel when you know you’re all right when you lay your head on your pillow at night?
i. Chris Edwards.
2. Peace of a restful mind (Phil. 4:7)
a. Distrustful anxiety. Unusual concern betrays a lack of trust in God’s care. Mind is never at rest. Need to do more, need to be more. Give it a rest.
b. Pray about everything. Peter says cast all your care upon God, because he cares for you.
c. O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer!
d. Be thankful for everything. Count your blessings. Seeing how many we have makes us grateful, increases our love for God and reduces needless worry.
3. Peace of a surrendered will
a. What am I going to do? How am I going to do it? Where should I go? When should I do it? For what reasons should I do it?
b. Most of this is relieved when we have a surrendered will to Jesus Christ. He is our Lord, our leader, our Master. We don’t have to worry about those things because he will reveal it to us.
c. God is my Co-Pilot. If God is you Co-Pilot, you need to change seats. Let him be in control so you don’t have to worry about it.
d. Give up and let Jesus take over and he’ll make a way for you. We’ll if you’ve got mountains that you can’t climb, and if you got rivers that you can’t cross, oh and if you’ve got valley’s that you can’t span, let Jesus hold to your hand. We’ll if you’ve got burdens to hard to bear, and if your load is more than your share, kneel down and talk to Jesus because I know that he cares. I want you to know that he’ll make a way somehow.
e. Resignation is peace.
4. Peace of a hopeful heart (Isaiah 50:7)
a. Hope keeps us going. Without hope, we despair and quit.
b. Like flint. I shall not be, shall not be moved. Just like a tree that’s planted by the water.
c. How do they do that? They know where they are going and nothing will be able to disgrace them because they are in God’s will.
d. God will always help those who are Christians. May not be exactly the kind of help we were looking for but God is always in it and he will get us through. A lot of hope there.
e. People who are at peace on the direction or course of action they have taken. Going in God’s direction.
5. Peace of loving fellowship
a. Fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ is so important.
b. (Acts 2:42 NIV) They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.(Acts 2:46 NIV) Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
c. We do not experience that like the 1st century Christians did. Why? If there is trouble in the church, it is because there is trouble in somebody’s heart.
d. Give us peace when we are with those who love us and we love them.
e. Contrast Christian fellowship with the fellowship in the world. At the workplace. At clubs. In some families. Sports. Not the same.
f. (1 John 1:6 NIV) If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.(1 John 1:7 NIV) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
g. We have fellowship, communion, with God. God is the friend who sticks closer than any brother. He is always there and if we have God in our lives we can feel his presence.
II. The Source of Peace
1. Peace with God (Rom. 5:1)
a. We are in rebellion, war, and enmity with God. This is our problem. When we sin, we sin against God. We need to make peace with God. God has made the peace treaty possible through Jesus Christ.
b. Lot of issues with God. Make your peace with God before it’s too late.
c. In God is peace. In us is trouble and war and hatred, etc.
d. God is a God of peace. He wants to come and bring peace and rest.
2. The God of peace (Rom. 15:33)
3. The peace of God (Phil. 4:7) which passes all understanding. Something that mankind does not understand.
4. The Lord of peace (2 Thess. 3:16)
5. Think about Jesus. He is the example of peace. Peace is not apathy, or indifference, or self-absorption. In Jesus we see sorrow, weeping, anger, love, all the human emotions. Yet he was filled with a calm which marked his whole life.
6. Only through Jesus can we be calm in our relations with people and calm in situations, and make all things work together for the good.
III. The Channel of Peace
"The Lord of peace Himself give you peace always by all means" (2 Thess. 3:16)
1. A channel is a course or passage through which something may be moved or directed.
2. In this case God wants to move his peace into our lives.
3. God has unclogged the channel on his end by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
4. We need to unclog the channel on our end. How? The plan of salvation.
IV. The Duration of Peace
"...give you peace always."
A. God has not promised an easy life. No, God has promised peace in the midst of the trials and troubles.
B. (John 16:33 NIV) "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
C. His peace is perpetual, unbroken in time and all the changing circumstances of life.
D. What is being said here is that there is a peace available that can experienced through disasters, calamities, sorrows, and losses.
E. The peace of God may be permanent, but to be that there must be a permanent communion and permanent obedience to God.
F. God gives peace by giving his presence. Last part of verse.
G. When Jesus is in the boat, the waves calm. When Jesus is in a life, He speaks peace to our souls.
H. If he in your life?
I. The Lord be with us all. Then the peace of the Lord shall clothe and fill our hearts in Christ Jesus.
Conclusion:
The absence of peace.
A. No peace in hell.
1. No clear conscience. Always guilty.
2. No restful mind. always disturbed, full of anxiety and stress
3. Full of regrets. Nothing but regrets. Did not surrender. Your will be done.
4. No hope. Nothing but despair.
5. No fellowship with others or with God.
6. No presence of God.
7. On this earth we can block out pain, the fire. However, this pain is probably worse than any fire.
8. A tortured heart is a terrible thing.
9. On a scale of 1 (blissfully peaceful) to 10 (high anxiety), where would you rate your sense of God’s peace right now?
10. Hell is nothing but one big panic attack forever.
B. Come to the Lord of peace. If we come, he himself will give us peace at all times and in every way. No God, no peace. Know God, know peace.
