Have You Seen Your Peace? -- 12/13/2020

The Time of God's Favor  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  40:52
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Have we seen our peace lately?

Stress often washes over our peace at Christmas time. If you think you are stressed a work, just consider Santa Clauses workload.
Santa workload illustration: Someone figured out that if Santa only serviced the 526 million Christian children in the world who are under that age 14 it would me that: Santa has to deliver presents to almost 22 million kids an hour, every hour, on the night before Christmas. That's about 365,000 kids a minute; about 6,100 a second. Of course, Santa’s actual workload is much heavier, because these numbers do not include the children of non-Christian families, to whom Santa also makes deliveries. Then when throw in the fact that when flying over the United States Santa must avoid being detected. and shot down by the North American Areospace Defense Command, while driving large flying sleigh whose lead reindeer has a “very shinny nose.” [1] Santa’s workload stress boggles the mind. When you consider the facts, its easy to see why Santa only makes one run a year - it takes the 364 to recover from the stress of that one night’s work.
transition: in previous years we have had workload stress, hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping and attending parties and events that left us weary. But this year is different. Parties, shopping, baking, cleaning, family meals and gift swapping, the persistent checklist of demands which may have caused you stress and anxiety last year has been replaced by the fear of the novel coronavirus – or giving it to someone you love.[2] Welcome to . . .
Christmas with COVID. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation's October health tracking poll, two-thirds of the public are worried they or their family will get sick from the coronavirus . . . . the hustle and bustle of having too much to do during the holiday season with uncertainty, isolation and the loss of routine and tradition.[3] The feeling of trouble and disappointment are common this Christmas season.
Christmas trouble and disappointment are nothing new. In fact, the first Christmas began with trouble and disappointment. After a long, weary journey, there was no room in the Inn for Joseph and ready-to-give-birth Mary. Joseph and Mary obviously were expecting a decent place to rest and sleep. Do you think they might have felt troubled, a bit worried about how they would make do. Do you think Mary might have been disappointed - maybe troubled about giving birth to her first child in a stable. The first Christmas was not near as romantic as we make it out to be - it was not all sweetness and light. The good stuff did not happen until Joseph and Mary navigated together the trauma of the birth of their first child when they were bone tired, alone - isolated by themselves - no family, no friends where their to help. Beyond that, giving birth in the best of conditions was dangerous, much less in the natural filth of a stable. I expect Joseph and Mary experienced their fair share of trouble and disappointment on that first Christmas.
transition: Should our troubles surprise us?
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Jesus told us that we would have trouble in this world. Jesus promised us peace in our trouble (John 16:33). Jesus is holds as existing together as the reality of our humanness trouble, joy, and peace - and some of our favorite Christmas hymns reflect that truth.
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.”
“Joy to the World the Lord has come! He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. “It came upon the midnight clear that glorious song of old, yet with the woes of sin and strife the world has suffered long, beneath the angel strain have rolled two thousand years of wrong.” “O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” If we will open ourselves to the promise of Jesus, we can have peace in our COVID Christmas - we can have peace in our troubles and disappointments when ever they come to us.
transition: In our passage this morning Jesus promises us peace. Jesus tells us who can expect to have peace. Jesus tells us what is necessary to have peace. We begin with

The Promise of Peace

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John 14:28 NIV
“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
What is peace?
Grounded in the Hebrew concept of shalom: wholeness and wellbeing in every area of lives.
The word translated leave - is translated 45 times as forgive, forgives, or forgiven. Jesus choice of words may allude to the quality of forgiveness that is the basis of real peace, which Jesus leaves with us. Without God’s forgiveness their can be no genuine peace for us in this life or the next. Which set us the special nature of our peace. The peace we have is . . .
Peace that is only Christ’s to give. Jesus said, “My peace I give you.” J.C. Ryle wrote, [Peace] is specially [Christ’s] own to give, because He bought it by His own blood, purchased it by His own substitution, and is appointed by the Father to dispense it to a perishing world. [1]
Peace is only found “in Christ.”
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Jesus said in John 16:33 “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.”
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.”
To be “in Jesus” is to believe in as our Lord and Savior and to be fully devoted to Him. Those of us who are “in Jesus” have the promise of peace. Those who are “in the world” have only the world’s promise of peace.
John 14:27
John 14:27 NIV
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
The world cannot give us peace. The peace this world wants to give and what it sets before us what we should expect from life is peace that is the absence of trouble and suffering. But, it is fool’s offering and a fool’s quest to seek that kind of peace, because in this world we will have trouble. Built upon the quality and uniqueness of the peace that Jesus gives all who are “in him”, Jesus can then give us this command.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” The sense of this Greek is “Do let your identity be shaped and formed by distress, affliction, danger, or need and do not be lacking conviction or boldness, or courage.” [2] Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.” The reason we can take heart is that because we are “in Christ” and Christ lives in us, the quality of the life we live does have to be defined by the real and sometimes horrible things we suffer.
Tim
Pastor Tim
Other friends, family, and acquaintances
transition: We have said that this kind of peace is only given to those who are “in Christ.” How do we know we are in Christ?
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John 14:23 NIV
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
Jesus tells us how we now we are in Him. How we know that we believe in Him and are fully devoted to Him.
We love him. How do we know that we love Jesus?
We obey his teaching.
When we love Jesus by obeying his teaching, the Father loves us.
When we love Jesus and the Father loves us then a miracle happens.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit move into our lives to take up permanent residence in us. Verse 27, makes it clear that the Father and Son live in us. In earlier in John 14 Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:15–17, NIV). Now we see that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in us. And we see that in all cases, this dwelling of Holy Trinity in us is rests on us loving Jesus by obeying his teaching which contains his commands.
The miracle of all miracles is that living in each true believer in Jesus is the God who is called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [4]
Those who love Jesus by obeying his teaching and who, by consequent, have the God who is peace living in them can expect to enjoy the peace that Jesus’ alone to give.

What is Necessary to Have Peace?

Well, of course it is necessary to be “in Christ.” To love Jesus by obeying his teaching and as a result having the life of God with in us. But there is yet one thing that must happen before all of that can be our reality.
Earlier in chapter 14, Jesus had a conversation with Phillip that went like this:
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” (John 14:8–10, NIV)
The point of Jesus is making here is that we have to believe that Jesus is God and that his words are God’s words. We must believe Father’s words and the Son’s words are the same words, they are the same message. This opens the door for us to experience the peace of forgiveness of Jesus that was made possible for us in Jesus’ death for our sins and in his Resurrection ensuring our victory over sin and death. Before we can love Jesus by obeying his teaching, we have to trust and receive Jesus’ teaching that He is God and that his words are God’s words.
Beyond this, as believers within whom the God of Peace lives, we must still receive and trust Jesus’ words as they are taught to us by the Holy Spirit if we want to experience peace within our trouble.
In our passage this morning Jesus said,
John 14:26 NIV
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Because the Holy Spirit who lives in us teaches us and reminds of the words of the Father and the Son, which is the same message this is . .

How the Prayer of Dwelling Can Help Us Experience Peace?

As we sit with the word of God as we did this morning, the Holy Spirit takes the written Word of God that He knows we need to grasp, brings to our attention and give us the opportunity to allow Him to begin applying to our heart. As we sit with the Word of God in this way, our intention is not to read it to making meaning of the text. Rather, we trust the Holy Spirit to use the text to read us, to show us our hearts, to show us how we can love Jesus by obeying his teachings. As the Holy Spirit, highlights for us certain words or phrases, we can allow the Holy Spirit to shape our prayers flowing from God’s own words. In this way, we come to experience in our lives the reality of Jesus’s teaching in John 15:7-8:
John 15:7–8 NIV
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
The Prayer of Dwelling helps us learn how to pray according to will of God, because through the Holy Spirit we are praying reflecting the words of the Father and the Son. Our wishes, our desires, become aligned with the will of God and we begin to experience more of those wishes and desires being done in our lives.
This advent we have prayed for our light using the Prayer of Reflection. We prayed for our hearts using the Prayer of Being, and for our peace using the Prayer of Dwelling. Next Sunday, we will conclude advent praying for our wholeness using the Lord’s Supper as our Prayer of Action.

References

[1] Expert Calculates Santa's Christmas Eve Workload | Preaching Today. Retrieved December 12, 2020 from https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2012/december/7120312.html
[2] How to cope with stress during 2020 holiday season amid COVID-19 (usatoday.com). Retrieved December 12, 2020 from https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2012/december/7120312.html
[3] Ibid.
[1] Ryle, J. C. (1880). Expository Thoughts on John (Vol. 3, p. 87). New York: Robert Carter & Brothers.
[2] Faithlife Corporation. “To Be Troubled.” Logos Bible Software, Computer software. Logos Bible Software Bible Sense Lexicon. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife Corporation, December 13, 2020. https://ref.ly/logos4/Senses?KeyId=ws.be+troubled.v.01.
[3] Faithlife Corporation. “To Be Timid.” Logos Bible Software, Computer software. Logos Bible Software Bible Sense Lexicon. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife Corporation, December 13, 2020. https://ref.ly/logos4/Senses?KeyId=ws.be+timid.v.01.
[4] The New International Version. (2011). (Is 9:6). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
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