June 27, 2004 The Peace that Passes Understanding
Asaph once wrote, I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. 5 They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills. (Ps 73:3-5) When we talk about peace, it sometimes appears that some of the most peaceful people are pagans. They don’t often think about hell or damnation. The law doesn’t scare them. They think in their minds, “I’m pretty good.” Paul once said, Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. (Ro 7:9) As an unbeliever, Paul used to enjoy his life. Then the law that he enjoyed started putting him to death and making him miserable. That’s the way unbelievers often are. They don’t pay much attention to their consciences. They love their sports, their riches, and their wines and beers. They have nice homes and enjoy nice jobs, often times they even have seemingly happy families. But in the long run, their peace runs out. Even if all their bills are paid, they may have health problems. Even if their families are running smoothly, sooner or later someone will get in trouble or something will go wrong. Paul also reminds us that, While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (1 Th 5:3) This kind of peace is not the kind of peace that lasts forever.
As a matter of fact, Jesus warns Christians that life isn’t about that kind of peace. When you are brought to faith in Christ, you are put into the middle of a war. Jesus said, “I haven’t come to bring peace but a sword.” He then went on to explain that mothers would be turned against daughters, fathers against sons, and so on.” Jesus also said that “you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Mt 24:9-14) That doesn’t sound like peace to me. So if we expect a physical and mental peace to happen on this earth, we’re only fooling ourselves. This is no better than the peace of Neville Chamberlain, who after trying to negotiate peace with Hitler assured everyone that there would be, “Peace in our time.” He was living in a dream world. So are you if you think as Christians you’ll never have any unrest.
When we look at the life of God’s people in the Scriptures - we don’t find them sitting around and enjoying the quiet life all too often. Consider David for instance. Nathan told him that as a result of his sin that, the sword will never depart from your house. (2 Samuel 12:10) For the rest of his life, David had to endure the results of sin.
• His son that was born of Bathsheba died.
• Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar and was murdered by Absalom.
• Absalom led a rebellion against him and died in that rebellion.
• Adonijah tried to steal the kingdom from Solomon and was put to death.
• David had to continually fight against the guilt of his sin for the rest of his life.
Just because David was Christian, he still struggled with sin and had to suffer the results of his own sins. He didn’t have much peace in his lifetime because of his own sexual problems.
A more modern example would be Luther. Here God had revealed the pure Gospel to this little monk. Yet what happened as a result? He was declared a heretic. His books were burned. The Catholic Church attempted to put him to death. He had to live through a Peasant War. He often had to live with terrible stomach problems. He rarely had a moments rest. He had to struggle against his own anger and tendencies to vulgarity. In many ways, Luther didn’t know what peace was, even though he was God’s tool for the Reformation.
Yet when Christ was born, the angels sang "On earth, peace to men on whom his favor rests" (Luke 2:14). When Simeon finally held Jesus in his arms he said to the Lord, “let your servant depart in peace.” As Jesus grew older, He promised His disciples - "My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives" (John 14:27). Jesus promised to give us peace. This isn’t the peace of having a security system or having money in the bank or a clean bill of health from the doctor. It’s different from that. Paul describes it this way - Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. You see, whenever things don’t go “right” in our world - when our health gets all messed up, we lose our jobs, whatever it is that makes you lose sleep - it’s easy to automatically think, “this is happening because God is mad at me. I must have done something wrong.” But when you go back to this promise in Christ - that we have been justified - we have been declared not guilty - then we realize and say to ourselves, “God can’t be punishing me for my sins. God can’t be angry with me, because God already punished Christ. I stand in God’s grace” This is the peace that Jesus gives us. Not peace with men, but peace with God.
Even when we have this straight in our minds as Christians, don’t we still often live anxious and troubled lives? Isn’t that because we don’t really take comfort in the fact that the God who loves us is in control? Isn’t because we too often like to play God? When Asaph - the Psalmist I quoted at the beginning of the sermon - started getting worked up over the carefreeness of the heathens - he then came back to his senses. He later on said, When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Ps 73:21-26) Asaph didn’t especially like the fact that the wicked seemed to be getting away with murder, but then he realized he was just ignorant. In the end he knew that God would work it all out. He knew he’d go to heaven, and that’s what put him at peace.
This fruit of the Spirit - this peace is evident throughout the Bible. Think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, for instance. King Nebuchadnezzar had demanded that they bow down to the statue he had made, but when they didn’t, he was FURIOUS with them. Yet listen to the calmness in their voice. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” They were as peaceful as could be, which just made Nebuchadnezzar all the more furious. So he had the fire stoked up seven times hotter. But when he looked in the fire He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” The men weren’t freaking out, they just went walking on a leisurely stroll.
Another example is Stephen. God had called him to preach the law to the Jews. So Stephen called them stiff-necked people - a bunch of stubborn donkeys. They too, were furious with Stephen and decided to stone him. Yet note the Fruit of the Spirit in Stephen throughout their anger - While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep. (Ac 7:59-60) Luke wrote that Stephen prayed to Jesus and for the very people murdering him and just “fell asleep.” What a peaceful picture - in the midst of a stoning!
The ultimate picture of peace in the midst of war is Jesus Himself - hanging on the cross. Luke writes that Jesus said to the thief next to him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” He then goes on to say, It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. (Lk 23:43-46) In the midst of the darkness, Jesus seemed to be at peace. He prayed for the forgiveness of his enemies. He confidently cried out to the Father - leaving His spirit in God’s hands. He had the peace of knowing He was in GOOD hands.
This is what the fruit of the Spirit is all about. In Philippians 4:7, Paul said to the Christians in Philippi, the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Luther described this fruit of the Spirit in this way -
Luther: When a man is poor, he thinks his poverty is causing him great trouble and plans how to remove the poverty; he imagines that when it is gone, he will have peace and be rich. Christ does not give such peace. He lets the evil remain to oppress a man; he does not take it away. However, He uses another art and changes the person, taking the person from the evil, not the evil from the person. When you are deep in trouble, He so turns you away from it and gives you such courage that you think you are sitting in a garden of roses. So you find life in the midst of death, and in the midst of discord you find peace and joy. This is the peace which soars above all senses.
When you have this peace of forgiveness and eternal life, it effects the way you live. Consider, for example, Abigail. If you remember the story, David and his men were living in the desert to escape from Saul, they asked Nabal for some extra meat in return for an earlier kindness David had shown him. But Nabal said, Who is this David? . . . Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?” (1 Sa 25:10-11) He acted like a fool. So David had his men put on his swords and get ready to slaughter Nabal. This was not the right response either. David was acting in pride and Nabal was acting in selfishness. So what did Abigail, the wife of Nabal the fool do? She played the peacemaker. She secretly used her husbands food and appeased David - 100 raisin cakes, 200 fig cakes, 200 loaves of bread, 40 quarts of roasted grain, 5 dressed sheep, and gallons of wine. With her words and deeds she was able to appease David, but not her husband. Several days later, she finally went and told Nabal what she had done. She tried to be the peacemaker, but nonetheless he was furious with her. She did what she could.
Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers" (Matthew 5:9). God encourages us to "Live in peace with each other" (1 Thessalonians 5:13). and to "Make every effort to live in peace with all men" (Hebrews 12:14). Paul told the Romans, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Ro 12:18) Before you point the blame at your spouse or your child or your boss, the first thing you need to do is ask yourself, “am I going to all lengths possible to live at peace with this person? Or am I in fact doing things that I know will irritate him or her? Am I purposely ignoring her to get under her skin?” All too often we tend to hold grudges and be the last one to extend the hand of friendship to people who have wronged us. It’s our own sense of justice to the person who wronged us - I’ll show him - I’ll ignore him. We actually enjoy life when someone is angry with us or we have someone to hate. The sad thing is that we most often do this to fellow Christians - people we worship with and say that we’re in fellowship. My friends, this is not right. It’s not a fruit of the Spirit. It’s a fruit of the sinful nature.
Thank God that He didn’t respond that way. He wasn’t too proud, too full of Himself to be the first One to extend His hand. He made the effort to make peace with us, in spite of the fact that the war was OUR fault. Instead of ignoring us, He ignored His Son as He was calling out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He put Jesus through hell for us. On that cross, Jesus came to make peace between people and God, AND he came to bring peace between people. That peace may also cost us something. Abigail risked her life to make peace with David. Jesus paid for His life to make peace with God and man. We may have to risk pride, reputation, and endure short-term conflict, for long term peace. If we, having the peace of God in Christ, can’t manage to be more peaceable and forgiving toward one another - much less our enemies - than who will be? What kind of witness for Christ will we give if we turn into vengeful fools? What kind of fruits and blessings can we expect in our marriages if we can’t learn to live in peace with one another?
In a back yard there once lived an apple tree and a thorn bush. The apple tree produced nice juicy apples that everyone liked to eat. Kids would climb up the tree and pluck the apples. Worms would eat the ones that fell on the ground. Birds would peck away at the fruit from the top. The owner would also prune and spray the tree to make sure it produced lots of fruit for the neighborhood. In the corner, about 50 yards from the apple tree stood a thorn bush. Nobody messed with the thorn bush. One day old Jimmy Johnson ran his bike into it, but after he got all cut up, he never made the same mistake again. Nobody picked any fruit off of it, everyone left it alone. At first the apple tree liked all the attention. But after about ten years, it started becoming envious of the thorn bush. It said to the thorn bush, “you know, I’m sick of everyone always climbing on me and picking my fruit. The master is always trimming me, putting smelly manure around my trunk, and making a fuss over me. I wish they’d go somewhere else. Better yet, I wish I was a thorn bush, then everyone would leave me alone.” The thorn bush then looked at the apple tree and said, “don’t be a fool! Bite your bark! Look at me! I don’t do anyone a bit of good. I feed nobody. I look ugly. All I do is harm. The master didn’t plant me here, I’m just a wild weed. The only good I do is to fill up some space in the yard. I would trade all the thorns in the world to have one child climb my branches - to have the Master trim my branches - and produce some fruit.”
As Christians, we are sometimes like the apple tree. It seems like we’re taken advantage of by the world. People ask us for our fruit, and then walk away without saying thanks. People climb us, abuse us, and do all sorts of things to us, and expect us just to take it all the time. The Master even removes our thorns by saying, “the fruit of the Spirit is peace.” But that’s part of being a fruit tree. That’s what God planted us here for - to produce fruit! Sometimes people don’t appreciate us. Sometimes people take advantage of us. Sometimes people don’t like us. In the end, however, we have the peace of knowing that we are producing good fruit - the type that God wants out of us. He have the pleasure of knowing that God cares for us. We know that God is using us for good. So forget about what you can understand and what you can feel, and just have the peace of knowing that God loves you and He is using Him for His purpose. That is the fruit of the Spirit - the fruit of peace - that passes all understanding. Amen.
