Receiving Peace from Jesus
Like you, everyone is looking for peace. They are trying yoga and meditation techniques, minimalism, expensive Bose or Beats headphones, recreational drugs, Caribbean cruises, or a home in Pennsylvania, or anywhere outside New York City. But no matter where you look for peace you cannot find it apart from Jesus.When I consider recent events in the news, like the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, I realize that people are looking for peace from gun violence. Though improved precautionary measures may be helpful in this regard, nothing will provide ultimate peace from this horrible dilemma. Arming teachers, increasing security, changing reporting protocols, or restricting access to guns will not bring real peace to this dilemma.What has you nervous today? What has you frustrated, anxious, or afraid? Whatever it may be, you need to discover that the only source for real peace that meets your need is Jesus Christ.
The only source for real peace that meets your need is Jesus Christ.
Throughout John 14, Jesus is attempting to calm the hearts of his disciples. They were worried because he told them he was going away from them to die. Here in verse 27, he ends his discussion with a traditional farewell – “shalom.” But this was no ordinary farewell. This was more than being polite. This was more than wishful thinking. No other person but Jesus can say “shalom” (or “peace”) and actually give it.
I. Jesus gives peace.
He said, “Peace I leave with you.” This is a statement of departure. It is a traditional Jewish way of saying “goodbye.” Jesus is leaving them with peace.What does this word peace mean? It means an inner spirit that is calm, quiet and restful. Does this describe your spirit? Are you peaceful within? The disciples were not peaceful within. They were anxious, worried and afraid.As a child, I lived in Indiana. My family traveled to Pennsylvania one week every year to visit our grandparents and cousins. The worst part of the trip was leaving. When we said goodbye, we cried. To calm our hearts, my parents would remind us that we would see them again next year. They were trying to give us peace.No matter what causes your heart to be anxious, worried and afraid, Jesus gives you peace. He gives you the peace you need to calm your troubled heart. Do you remember what happened earlier in the ministry of Jesus that illustrates this truth (John 6:16-21)? He sent the disciples into a sea storm at midnight. Then he appeared to them when they are afraid and brought them peace. That is what Jesus offers to do for you as well.
II. He offers you peace with God.
Jesus said, “My peace I give to you.” Notice how he said this. He didn’t say, “I am giving you peace.” He said, “I am giving my peace to you.” “I am giving you my peace.” Jesus gives to anyone who believes on him the same peace he enjoyed throughout his earthly ministry. This is the peace that comes from a right relationship with God the Father.Your resistance to God disturbs your inner peace, replacing it with guilt, anxiety, restlessness, and spiritual and emotional pain.Since the Garden of Eden, people have been fighting against God. The Bible calls this sin. Romans 3:23 explains it this way: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” God made you to reflect his goodness, wisdom and creativity to the world. But instead of following his guidance, fulfilling your purpose, and living in harmony with his truth, you insist on going your own way. This resistance disturbs your inner peace, replacing it with guilt, anxiety, restlessness, and spiritual and emotional pain. It eventually brings death. Isaiah 57:21 observes: “The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’”
III. He offers you the peace of God.
Jesus said, “Not as the world gives do I give to you.” By saying this, Jesus turns the spotlight onto the way that he gives peace. He doesn’t give peace the way the world does.To be sure, the world gives peace in all kinds of ways. But when you look at all the ways the world offers peace, you see a common trend. The world tries to give you peace by changing your circumstances. If your neighborhood is too noisy, move out. If your commute is too noisy, wear some expensive headphones. If your spouse is hard to live with, file for divorce. If children bother you, don’t have any. If you don’t like a politician, remove him or her from office. If you don’t like your job, quit. If you have too much stress, escape your feelings by drinking alcohol or injecting some drugs.
The world tries to give you peace by changing your circumstances.
When the world claims to provide peace, it is a mirage, a delusion, and a lie. Jeremiah 6:14 describes the world’s prescriptions for peace this way: “They have…healed the hurt of my people slightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.”Your real problem is not the noise around you. It is the noise that exists in your heart between you and God. That is why the world wants to silence anyone who talks about the God of the Bible, about Creation, about the 10 Commandments, about Jesus, and the biblical values. These things remind us about God. We know we should have a peaceful relationship with God, but we don’t. So, we try to push God away, hoping that this will give us peace. Romans 1:18 says that we “suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” But God is the one great circumstance that no one can change. He is there, he made you, and you must answer to him. Do you have a right, peaceful relationship with him?
But God is the one great circumstance that no one can change. He is there, he made you, and you must answer to him.
Jesus does not offer to change your circumstances. He offers to change your heart instead. By dying on the cross, he removed your hostility to God by taking the full punishment for your sins for you. Instead of changing your circumstances, he changed the root cause for your broken relationship with God. If you will bow to him in full surrender and trust in him alone, he will place you in a right relationship with God. You will be just as right with God the Father as he is. Reminders about Creation, the 10 Commandments, Jesus, and biblical values will no longer cause you to be angry or afraid. They will encourage you and bring you joy instead. Romans 5;1 explains it this way: “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”When you have a right relationship with God, you have perfect peace with God forever. This does not mean that Jesus will take away your hardships and difficulties in life. You still live in a fallen, messed up world filled with people who are fighting against God. That’s why Jesus says this later in John 16:33: “These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Like Jesus, you may have the inner peace with God that enables you to face all kinds of difficult circumstances. You can look at something as terrible as dying on a cross and still have peace within your heart because you are right with God. When you have peace like this, you can focus on helping other worried people find this same peace with God.
IV. He makes this peace available to you.
Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” This is the same thing that he said at the beginning of this conversation (John 14:1). He has come full circle. The first word troubled means to be in a state of panic, distress or confusion. The second word afraid means to be timid, cowardly and fearful. But the way that Jesus talks about these mental and emotional conditions, he uses a command. He says, “Don’t let your heart and mind be like this.” It is also a passive command, which means that you should not let the things you are facing in life cause your heart and mind to be like this.So, you cannot change the circumstances. Things are going to happen around you and to you that will pressure you to become panicked, distressed or confused. They will pressure you to become timid, cowardly and afraid. But Jesus doesn’t promise to take these things away. Instead, he promises to give you the kind of inner peace with God that enables you to face these pressures without becoming distressed. But this is a choice you must make.
Jesus promises to give you the kind of inner peace with God that enables you to face the pressures of life without becoming distressed.
Having peace with God through sins forgiven doesn’t automatically mean that you will never worry or be afraid. You must learn to rely on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God within you. But when you are at peace with the God of the universe, he places himself within you. The Holy Spirit gives you peace and joy from within. He makes it possible for your peace with God to become the peace of God. You will experience God’s peace in a real and personal way no matter what is going on around you.
The Holy Spirit gives you peace and joy from within.
Here’s what God says about how the Holy Spirit makes the peace of God possible in your life. Paul wrote, “The kingdom of God is…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:7). Later in Romans Paul said: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (15:13). Paul gave a similar benediction at the end of 2 Thessalonians: “May the Lord of peace himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance” (2 Thess 3:16). Peace is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). And this peace not only is something for your personal life, but it should give you harmony with other believers as well (Mark 9:50; Rom 14:19; 2 Cor 13:11; Eph 4:3; 1 Thess 5:13; 1 Tim 3:3; Titus 3:2).This peace is available to you today in at least three ways.
Peace with God
Turn away from your sins, your religious behavior, and your false gods. Abandon that wrong kind of living that pushes God to the margins of your life and place him at the center of your heart. Trust completely in Jesus alone as God and Savior, as the lover and leader of your life. When you make this choice, Jesus will give you his peace forever. It will be the same kind of peace with God that he has always enjoyed
Peace from a Bad Conscience.
When you make this choice, you become a child of God. But a child of God can choose to do things that do not match his new relationship with God. When you do this, you feel guilty inside. You are still God’s child and you still have peace with God. But you are not able to experience that peace in a meaningful, personal way when you go back and make choices that displease him. You go to bed feeling guilty and you walk around feeling guilty. If this is you, then confess your sin and God will restore the inner experience of a peaceful relationship with him. In 1 John 1:9, we read, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” You will be able to pray and know that God is hearing you. You will enjoy being at church with God’s people. God will replace your feelings of guilt with feelings of love and joy. You will have a love for his Word again.
Peace in Difficult Circumstances
A child of God can choose to experience the peace of God from the Holy Spirit by meditating on the truth of the Word of God. Like the first disciples, you will experience difficult circumstances in your life. But when anything threatens to disturb your peaceful heart and mind, God will keep your heart and mind at peace when you remember what the Bible says about that situation and you choose to depend on that.As you consider these thoughts, take note of these similar and appropriate words from Paul when he said “goodbye” at the end of two of his letters. Near the end of his letter called Romans, he said: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:13). And at the end of his letter called Philippians, he said: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:16-17).
