John 14:27a - The Peace of Christ (Part 1)

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon. We pray that as we declare the Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who Christ is.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you. One of the most influential.

Conservative.

Commentators in the 20th century was a man named Andrew Breitbart. And I have to confess I know nothing about this man at all. The only thing that I actually know about Andrew Breitbart is I haven't read any of his books.

I don't know whether he was a good conservative. I don't know what he actually thought he wanted to conserve. If conservatives do such thing anymore. But I do know his most famous quote because that quote is quoted by everybody.

Andrew Breitbart purportedly, I don't know this for sure. But everybody says that he said that politics is downstream from culture. If politics is downstream from culture, which means that that culture is further upriver than politics.

Now that's a pretty fascinating claim because if he's right then what he's saying is that politics do not shape culture. Culture shapes politics which is a fascinating thing to think about. Which means that you can't begin with elections when we look at the the crazy world that we live in.

You know, I remember I'm a child of the 80s. This world is crazy. It's crazy when 20 year olds are saying when I was a kid I remember, you know, my grandpa saying things like that when he was when I was a kid.

Now 20 year olds are saying it. This world's crazy. But we cannot look at the next election as the thing that's gonna fix it. It's not politics that fixes culture. It is culture that changes politics.

Go back one more further if you want to go to the source of the river, it's families that change culture and culture that change politics so that if godly families would focus on the Word of God they would revitalize their community.

And if communities that once they're revitalized would work on their neighborhoods and if neighborhoods then would band together and Revitalize their towns and if reformed towns that have gone through Reformation would get together and change Counties.

And if counties would change commonwealths and if commonwealths would change countries. You'd have Reformation in a country and you would have the political candidate that you want. Yet we tend to think that this top-down approach is gonna create godly culture.

We can just get the right guy in office. Then everything will be better. How many cycles of elections do we need to go through to realize that that's not true at.

Best.

Eight years and. Then it's with one stroke of a pen. The next despot will wipe away everything with executive order. Top down doesn't work. It's politics that are downstream from culture.

Now.

That is one way I think That we can work to see change in this cultures by revitalizing families communities towns countries commons. Well, it's in building from the ground up. But that's an important point for a different sermon.

My point is to show that there are such things that are downstream from other things and those things matter so for instance. What about consequences. Consequences are downstream of action. You don't have consequences until you do something.

Because it's downstream of that once you've done something. There's a consequence of that because it's downstream. I hope that makes sense as you're looking at something. There's one thing that's causal and then one thing that follows it today.

We're gonna be looking at an action that God did in our life By his power and his power alone that caused the greatest Blessings to ever be poured into your life. And the reason why this is important is because we don't go trying to chase after the blessings the blessings flow into us because of What God did his action is up river from the blessings and today we're gonna look at how his blessings His blessings all of them are downstream from peace.

Peace, I don't know if you know this or not is one of the most consequential topics in all of Scripture the peace of God. Every blessing that you've ever received is because you're downstream of the peace of God.

Every one of God's good gifts that you've ever received is because it flowed out of peace and into your life.

So today.

We need to understand what the peace of God is. We need to understand not only what the peace of God is but we need to understand what the peace of God will do for us as individuals. And we also need to understand what the peace of God will do for us as a church now.

I started writing this sermon as Verses 27 through the end of John chapter 14 today. We're gonna do half a verse. Because peace is that important? So if you will turn with me to John 14 27 a is. That's all we're gonna cover this morning.

John 14. Half of verse 27 the text says this. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you let's pray Lord Jesus one of the most all-encompassing Glorious promises. The most astounding blessings that you ever declared to your people is right here in 27.

That you will give us peace. Lord I pray today that we would understand why that's so shocking. Why that's so amazing and Lord I pray that we would understand exactly what that means. To have peace with God for us as individuals.

But also Lord for us as a church. Lord help us to see that and it's in Christ's name. We pray. Amen. Now we need to know what peace is because when we learn words in English. It's not always the same as what that word means in Hebrew.

Sometimes there's overlap. But sometimes there's there's a richness to one language and a concept that is trying to communicate. That doesn't show up in another language and peace shalom in the Hebrew is.

Certainly one of those concepts there is a depth and a beauty to the word shalom that English does not Convey that I think we have to understand if we're gonna understand one of the central tenets of our faith.

That we have peace with God. The Hebrew word for peace, of course is shalom and it's distinguished from its from its English counterparts because Peace does not just mean in Hebrew the cessation of war.

When a country has peace, it's not fighting. When a country has peace, maybe it's written a peace treaty. When a hippie has peace he goes, hey, man. Pastor Derrick's rolling his eyes at me already. The Hebrew word is so much deeper than than the cessation of conflict.

That's the secondary meaning of the term. The primary meaning of the term is wholeness completeness order unity. Integration where every single part is. Working together in harmony harmony and into integrity are two synonyms that I think are much better for shalom than the word peace.

For instance, I buy my son a 10 ,000 piece Lego set and he comes home. What's the first thing that my budding engineer does? He dumps it all over the floor so that there is no peace. There's lots of pieces but there's no peace.

We come in and we look and we're like Graham. This is a mess. And with a glimmer in his eye, he says just wait. And he gets his little instructions out. He follows them and he builds according to the plan and he puts one piece together another piece together.

And then it starts to take shape. What Graham is doing is he's bringing shalom to the pieces. He's bringing order and unity he's bringing coherence and integrity to the block so that when he's finished that Completed thing that he's made has shalom in the Hebrew sense of the term.

Now that Lego little thing that he made whatever it is that we bought him. It's not in any conflict as far as war. But it's in conflict with its purpose when it's out of alignment when it's not put together when it's put together though.

It has shalom as Integrity, it's integrated has unity and as wholeness. It's complete. That it gets really close to the idea of what shalom actually means. It means something that is organized. Something that has purpose that's finished.

That's complete so a working definition of the word shalom could be when all of the complex pieces come together and Unity and harmony and coherence a thing has shalom. For instance, here's a biblical example.

God.

Hovering over the waters. The waters are chaotic. The waters are disorganized. They have no form and they're void. That's the opposite of shalom. That's disintegration. That's disunity. That's a lack of coherence.

What does God do one day after another day one day two day three? He takes the chaos and he subdues it. He takes the chaos and he orders it. He takes the pieces of matter and he puts them together. One by one until it creates something with beauty and coherence.

So that when God rests on the seventh day God has shalom. Creation has shalom and has integrity unity harmony coherence. Here's a couple other examples. This one is fascinating because you've heard this story differently that I'm getting ready to tell you Joseph.

You remember Joseph. Old Testament Joseph. His brothers sell him into slavery the Midianite travelers take him down to Egypt and one thing after another He has these tragedies in his life. He rises up to be the number one servant in Potiphar's house and then BAM he's thrown in prison.

Then he becomes the most trustworthy.

Prisoner there and then they forget about him and they leave him for dead and then finally after all this time God elevates him out of the prison and brings him into the palace and makes him the second in power in all of the land of Egypt.

And Then we have this conversation when Joseph's brothers come and Joseph is pretending to be someone that he's not. They don't recognize him and look at the conversation that they have. Then he asked.

Joseph asked them. It's Genesis 43 27 and 28. Then he asked them about their welfare and Said is your old father? Well of whom you spoke is he still alive. And they said your servant our father is well.

He's still alive and they bowed down to him in homage. Now if I were gonna translate this verse according to the actual words that are there and give you a Hebrew glimpse of what it. Here's what it says.

Then Joseph asked them about their Shalom and Then he said is your father having Shalom. Of Whom you spoke is he alive. And they said your servant our father is having Shalom. And he is still alive and they bowed down in homage to him.

Joseph is asking them an astonishing question. He's saying is your life put together? Are you missing any pieces? Is there something about you that's disintegrated and Guess what? It was. The brothers had 12 brothers and now there's only 11.

Joseph is the missing piece. He's asking them Is your life fractured in any way. Tell me about it and they're like, no, everything's good Joseph. He's like, oh really? I don't think so. How's your father's your father having Shalom?

Yeah, he's great he lost his blessed son. The brothers don't have Shalom. The father doesn't have Shalom. Joseph is asking him a very pointed question. Is your life broken in any way and then they very ignorantly say no, we're all good here.

It's the same thing we do today when the missing piece that would have integrated their family was standing right in front of them. Joseph is pointing to the fact That a life cannot have Shalom if there's a piece missing to it.

Their family can't have Shalom because he's not there. Their father cannot have Shalom because he lost his son. So why does Joseph do what he does when he he reveals himself to them and he brings them all to Egypt.

To live with him in peace and harmony. He's bringing them Shalom. Which is a picture of the gospel that we will look at in just a moment. Shalom is when a family is restored in reconciliation. It's when it was broken, but now it's fixed.

That's Shalom. It's not just peace. Lots of families can have peace. Because there's the absence of conflict, but are they whole? Are they well?

It's a very different thought.

A man named Eliphaz who was Job's friend and if you've read the book of Job, he was no friend indeed. He said this about Shalom. You will know that your tent is secure. For you will visit your abode and you will fear no loss.

The word secure their Shalom. You will know that your tent has Shalom. For you will visit your abode and you will fear no loss. He's saying when your tent has integrity and there's no rips in your tent and there's no holes in your tent.

The sheep can't get out. Do you see what he's saying about Shalom? Shalom is where there's nothing ripped. Nothing broken. Nothing missing.

Integrity.

It's not just peace. A brick wall in Hebrew is Said to have Shalom if there's no holes in it. And if there are holes in it, then it has no Shalom. It needs to be fixed and mended in the same way a life That has brokenness.

Does not have Shalom does not have peace.

And.

As we look at what the scripture actually says about this We realize that no life no person when we get past Genesis 3 Has gotten where they've gotten without some measure of brokenness. All of us are broken in some way or another which means that we have no peace.

We are born without.

Peace.

God created the world to have this integrity and this harmony in this unity and sin.

Is.

Anti peace. And What I mean by that is not that sin is just war like although it is Sin is chaos. God made everything with harmony. So what's the opposite of that chaos? God made everything with integrity.

What's the opposite of that? Disunity. God made everything fixed now. It's broken and What's interesting to me is? The very first work that God does is he binds the chaos and Shapes the chaos. And then what a sin do when we send we unleash the chaos back on his creation.

So that now the the skies the land The waters are all crying out in pain because of the sin that we unleashed upon it. Earthquakes tidal waves Thunderstorms droughts famines all of it our lives. Look at our Disintegration that we have in our thinking in our feelings in our hearts in our wills.

Every single thing now outside of Genesis 3 is broken. Our bodies break apart. There better be so many years as amen. Our mind has become fractured our heart shattered in a thousand different directions.

Our soul Fragmented and all different kinds of idolatry. Our will cracked and chipped in all kinds of sins. Marriages severed families splintered nations crumbling. Brokenness is in is a disease of the fall.

That tax the fundamental integrity of God's good design after the fall. There is no peace. It's just brokenness. Now there's seasons in the Old Testament worth without war. Which means that peace is much bigger than just war.

Their seasons where the Israelites had a lot of things going good for them. You think about David? David had this wonderful kingdom where he reunified the twelve tribes of Israel. And then what does David do.

He unleashes chaos on? His court. With the sin of Bathsheba it rips his entire family apart. You look at Solomon the height of the Jewish experiment. You go through all the pages of the Old Testament.

The best years of Israel was under the reign of Solomon. When everybody from all over the world was coming to celebrate the grandeur of this Empire. And then what does he do by the end of his life? He's bowing down to every idol.

He has 700 wives 300 or something concubines. He is bowing down to different idols. He is unleashing chaos upon his Empire so that his son within the first three days of his reign the whole thing falls apart into disunity and disintegration.

The Lord made us to have Shalom unity harmony peace and. After sin everything broke apart. It's like a million-dollar Ming vase. I actually looked this up. $42 ,000 ,000 was the highest one that got sold and it can be shattered by a $2 hammer.

That's what sin is done. We were made precious. With great order and unity and net sin so cheap and so trifle. The thing has shattered us into a million pieces so that we cannot heal ourself from our own brokenness and we cannot know the God of Peace with perfect Shalom perfect integrity perfect unity.

We can't know him by our own strength of our own will because we're irreparably broken. We're kind of like the spiritual Humpty Dumpty. We had a great fall. And all the king's horses and all the king's men.

They can't put you and I back together again. That brings us to today's text. Because nobody in their own strength can put themselves back together.

I.

Could tell you I could stand up here and say just try harder. Just go out from here and pick yourself up by your bootstraps. Just try. Quit being so lazy. That will work, right? How hard have we tried before and failed and failed and failed because we're broken and we can't fix.

The disease it goes too deep. So if that were the end of the Bible if that were it you're broken, I'm broken we can't fix ourselves. That would be the most unhopeful message that has ever been given and it just the right time.

After thousands of years of human beings trying to fix themselves. The true and perfect man the God man came and he said I will give you Shalom. I will give you unity and harmony all the broken pieces.

I'll put back together again. That's what John 14 is attesting. Let's look at the text again. Peace. Shalom. I leave you my peace. I give to you not as the world gives. Do I give to you? He's not given to us like the world gives.

I remember as a kid on the playground. Somebody broke a bottle in the sand and I didn't see it. I was crawling on the ground and my leg was getting cut open by the by the glass. And the and and I was like what is going on?

My leg feels moist. Well, and then I look down and there's this glass. That's the very best that you and I can do in our sin is drag ourself through the broken pieces of our life and do nothing but rip ourself further apart and Yet Christ comes and offers true.

Peace. He said I'm bringing you peace that's the Greek word Irene a which is the the Greek cognate equivalent for the Hebrew word Shalom. He's saying I'm gonna put you back together again. I Was thinking about an example of this.

Let's say someone is driving. There's a car at the elementary school not far from here that's sitting out there. You ever seen these they sit out there and it's sort of a warning on why not to speed? Why not to drive drunk.

This car is mutilated. There's no way that this car could ever drive again. Let's say that a good mechanic Came along and towed that car away and Then he decided to replace the engine because it was broken.

Put a new transmission a new drivetrain he decided to put a new bumper and fender and quarter panel and Then piece by piece by piece by piece. He puts that car back together again better than it was originally.

So that it now functions according to its purpose. You can look at the car and say Hey cheer up car. Start driving start up and the car be as lifeless and as dead as you could imagine. But under the hand of a wise mechanic It can be brought back to life in the same way God has taken you in your total Brokenness you were totaled.

In your sin you crashed you were totaled. And he put you back together again piece by piece by piece. So that now at the sound of his voice You come alive.

He.

Is the author of peace who has brought you peace and he's brought you peace out of many things. He's promised to heal you of your brokenness. How many stories have we heard of people who are stuck and trapped in addictions that God healed that Christ healed?

Addictions to sex and pornography. Addictions to substances and alcohol. Addictions to all kinds of things like control. We don't like to talk about that addiction, but Addicted to that one.

God healed.

Anxiety and depression. I've struggled with anxiety depression and what I found this is not pharmaceutical advice for you. You can work that out for yourself. With an open Bible and a commitment to prayer the Lord heals my heart.

When it is sick. Broken marriages, he's put back together broken minds hearts wills and souls he remedies. But the greatest thing That Christ has remedied the the biggest. That could not have a superficial fix.

It's not like Jesus came up to us and fixed us with bubblegum and Elmer's glue. He let our brokenness shatter him. He let our brokenness fracture him. Pierce him nail him to the cross. He shows how deep the brokenness actually went and the fact that he was ripped apart for our idolatry on the cross.

He got wrath from God when you and I got grace. He got the chaos poured out on top of him when we got God's peace. That is the greatest brokenness that he healed in us is our disunity with God. And When we talk about what the peace of God has done for us, we have to begin with salvation.

Because that is what has reconciled us fixed our brokenness. That is what more than anything has fixed the greatest problem that you and I have ever faced the greatest problem we have ever faced is that we are separated from God.

That we are broken in our sin that we That we're that we need to be saved. Paul says in Romans 5 1 what is this peace done for you having been justified by faith? We have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

He not only tackled our personal brokenness, but he mended our brokenness with God. You and I had a chasm between us and the Lord that could not be repaired by our own effort and our own strength of Our own will and by our own ingenuity.

God in his grace mended together the only relationship in your life that matters to the now you have shalom with God. Not just that that God is no longer pointing his howitzer at you. Howitzer's a really big gun.

It's not only that. It's that now you've been brought into unity with him. You've been brought into harmony with him. Your soul has been brought into alignment with him. Do you see why knowing what the words mean matter so much?

If salvation is just God is no longer at war with you. There's a lot that is still left unsaid. There's a lot of people. I'm not at war with that. I don't like. There's a lot of people that I'm not actively fighting who really get on my nerves.

That's not how God feels about us. It's not that the war has stopped. It's not that that the bow of his wrath is now no longer pulled. It's that you've been brought in unity with him in Union with Christ so that now he loves you the same way that he loves Jesus.

He's brought peace between you and him. Not the kind of dull peace where you look at each other and you're like at a family reunion. You're like I have to see this person again this year. It's joyful.

It's beautiful. It's authentic. It's real. God loves you in the same ferocious affection that he loves Christ because you've been united to Christ. You are in Christ. Therefore he loves you. That peace that you have with God is not superficial.

It goes down to the depths of your bones to your cellular level. He loves you. This is why Joseph as we said earlier is a picture of Christ. Because he pointed out the fact that your family is broken and Then he worked in order to restore his family to bring them back in.

What do you think Christ has done? He's the Joseph that we threw away. He's the one that was thrown into the prison of a tomb. He was the one who was elevated to the throne and he's the one who brought us back into the family through his own through his own payment.

He's the true Joseph who brought Shalom to the people of God. He's the one who brought us off the battlefield. We had our weapons pointed at the father. We were God haters when we were born in our iniquity.

Every action that we ever committed was in hatred and opposition of God and He rescued us off the battlefield and he made us sons and daughters and friends. Shalom that reality Has been permanently Paid for by Christ and you can't improve upon it.

The standing you have with God can't be improved upon and it can't be reduced so when you leave here today and You go do some good deed. God is not more pleased with you than he was when you first came in and When you go out of here today and you say something utterly foolish.

Or you get angry. Are you yell at somebody or you say something? You shouldn't have said whatever it is. God is not more displeased with you. This peace that Christ is talking about is permanent perpetual and forever.

It can't be improved upon or lost. You have peace with God. There's other kinds of peace that we receive After that after you've been saved that aren't Permanent perpetual and perfect, but they're growing in that direction.

The peace that Christ gave us with God that's finished. But there's other things that are growing in peace that aren't perfect yet. Like Paul says, you know, I struggle from day to day. I do the things that I don't want to do.

Sometimes I don't do the things I want to do. That's called sanctification. God is working in us more and more peace. Even for those of us who have perfect peace. Does that make sense? Our souls have perfect peace, but our sanctification is growing.

Look at what he says in Romans 8 6 about a mind. Our souls have been perfectly set at peace with God, but our minds are still jacked up. Live a day in my head. I think you'd say the same for you, right?

Romans 8 6 for the mind set upon the flesh is death. But the mind set upon the Spirit is life and peace through our life. Through every day of walking with Christ through the power of the Spirit. He is reintegrating our mind.

Back to the gospel so that so that our mind is being shaped and sharpened according to the peace of God. Not that it's tranquil. Not that it's some sort of meditative Eastern Buddhist peace. It's being reintegrated to the scripture.

Over the course of our life. Our mind is being set upon the things of God more fully. So that next year when you come in here I hope that your mind is more conformed to God than it is this year. And over the next decade that you're thinking the thoughts of God more fiercely more ardently more passionately than you are today.

Because over the course of your life, he not only gave you perfect peace in your salvation. But he's given you peace upon peace and more peace in your mind. So your mind will be set upon the things of Christ.

Your heart is also growing in peace Philippians 4 7 and the peace of God which surpasses all. Comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I love this passage because it says the God of peace.

Which means that he's the author of peace is the one who gives you peace the one who is.

Peace.

Has limitless shalom to pour out on you. And over the course of your life, it's not automatic. When you first became a Christian and now whether that was one day ago or ten years ago.

You should look a little different.

But over the course of time he is giving us peace that regenerates our hearts and our minds so that our hearts no longer are bothered by the same things that they used to be bothered by so that the sins that we once struggled with now are being.

Are being laid down at the foot of the cross so that our walk looks different our anxieties look different. So that so that this heart of ours that used to be like a little leaf shaking in the wind now is becoming this mighty.

Thing that's much difficult, which we're difficult to budge. And as our mind and ours our heart are being conformed to the peace of God It changes our outlook. Romans 15 13. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace all joy and all peace and.

Believing.

So that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. He's saying that as a Christian there's two realities for you. You have all peace when it comes to your relationship with God in your soul and yet in your life and in your actions and in Your walk you don't have all peace.

But may the God who is all peace continue to give you all peace so that you will abound in hope. So that you will grow in.

Hope.

One of the things this is a little bit off topic, but it's it's it's tangential. One of the great things I think the church has got to work on these days is hope. How discouraged are we? How much in despair are we.

How beaten down are we. How frustrated are we and Yet as the peace of God that surpasses all understanding comes into our hearts and full. Where's the abounding of hope dear brother and sister? Why are we not singing with great joy that That we're here today that we that he lives and that when we walk out into the world we see their madness.

Why did we let it affect us like we do? Why do we let it poison our hope? If he's given us all pieces united us and knit us to Christ. So there's no more division. There's no more dividing line. We are in him.

Why is our joy so easily taken? Why is our hope so easily stolen away from us, this is my prayer for me that that I would abound in hope. This is my prayer for you. That is the peace of God becomes fuller and fuller and fuller in your life that you would have bound and hope.

There's no doom and gloomers and negative Nancy's in the kingdom. Let us be a joyful Excited happy people because we serve a joyful happy God. No matter what happens to us we can abound and hope. One of my favorite books.

I was telling my sister Wanda about it earlier is the rare jewel of Christian of Christian contentment. Other than the Bible, I think it's the best book ever written. The reason why that book is so good is because it tells you plainly.

I'm gonna summarize the first hundred pages for you in it in my own way if Everything that could possibly happen to you does if every negative event that you ever dreamed of becomes your reality if Everyone turns on you and if everyone hates you and if you're abandoned by everyone that you love.

Then you have it better than you deserved. Because you deserved hell and for a fleeting moment Christ has given you a little suffering to polish you and to perfect you. So be joyful. The only hell that you will ever face is the life that you live today and you will be with Christ forever.

The world can only experience heaven here on earth. We can only experience hell on earth. Do not let your joy fade because of temporary circumstances. You have 80 years for the young ones. For the rest of us.

We have something less than that. Do not let your joy fade because of circumstances because you have been given the peace of God and You know This is number four. That you will be preserved by that peace first.

Thessalonians 5 23 through 24. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and May your spirit and your soul and your body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The God who is peace is preserving you. If You're his he will not drop you leave you forsake you abandon you or let you slip through any crack. Because of Jesus he will hold you in the palm of his hand.

He will not lose you and You will be his preserved until the day of the Lord. And this these truths also apply corporately. His peace affects us as a church. 2nd Corinthians 13 11. Finally brethren receive or rejoice be made complete be comforted be like-minded live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Paul is promising through the Holy Spirit that not only will our minds and our hearts and our outlooks and our perseverance and our Preparation all be Be made through this peace that God has given us through this this harmony that he has brought in us.