This week I didn’t do the preaching, John Usher did. John preached an excellent sermon tracing how ‘peace’ is portrayed in the Old Testament and how it is presented to us in the New Testament.

Particularly worth hearing is John’s description of his experience of the peace of God. Worth listening to.

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The God of Peace

I wanted to impart something that (1) Had the inner ‘yes’ from God (2) rooted in the Word and (3) rooted in my own experience.

I’m going to talk about peace.

Peace in the Bible

The OT

Unsurprisingly, ‘peace’ in the OT is primarily concerned with (1) an absence of war, (2) of harmful intent between individuals or groups or (3) an absence of personal anxiety i.e inner peace.

[1. Lev 26:6 I will grant p in the land; Jos 10:1 Made a treaty of p with Israel; Judges 3:11, 30 and 5:31 so the land had p for …. years; Jer 30:10 Jacob will again have p and prosperity.

2. Gen 44:17 The rest of you, go back to your father in p, 1 Sa 1:17 Eli answered “go in p”, 2 Ki 9:17,18 “Do you come in p”?

3.Nu 6:26 the Lord turn his face towards you and give you p; Ps 119:165 great p have they who love your law.]

There are however, sign posts, in the OT which point towards a time of peace to come.

Isa 9:1-7;

This is what we call a messianic prophesy. Whether Isaiah knew it or not he was prophesying about Jesus, 700 years before Jesus was born. He describes where Jesus would be born and some characteristics of Him and His Ministry end of v6 and v7

Another Messianic prophesy

Eze 37:24-28

A little nearer the time of Jesus now about 600 years before he was born. Sometimes Jesus is referred to as David because he was David’s descendent. David was a good King but Jesus is the perfect King. We have a covenant of peace with the Father through Jesus whom we have accepted as our Lord and Saviour. Only Jesus was good enough to be a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Jesus alone forever intercedes with the Father on our behalf. We are living under a covenant of peace now.

The NT

Peace in the NT is not really used so much to describe an absence of war.

Matt 10:34

When I say that at the last Prime Minister’s Question time, “Gordon Brown and David Cameron were at each other’s throats“. I don’t mean that they literally put their notes aside, got off their podiums and started to throttle each other’s necks.

If your mum or uncle or sister doesn’t want to come to church, I do not think for one second that Jesus is advocating that you stab them with a sword. But even here in our church, there are some who have experienced a difference of opinion with family members and friends, over Jesus, that is so sharp it cuts deeper than any sword.

If you are looking for a peace that glosses over differences just for the sake of superficial harmony you will not find Jesus advocating that in the Bible.

I’ve come into a bit of inheritance, it was left to me in a kind of will. In fact, it’s for everyone “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you…” John 14:27

I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

This is the peace that I really want to talk about. It is the peace, that (Philippians 4:7) “transcends all understanding”. That’s not a normal sense of peace. It’s not something that comes with walking through the Lake District or being by the sea. That sort of peace is nice but it’s available to everyone regardless of whether they are Christian or not. Natural peace comes from within and it is natural, supernatural peace comes from outside of ourselves and it is a gift of God reserved for His children.

This peace comes to me most often when I’m praying. It doesn’t happen every time but when it does it’s like a presence has entered the room. It’s like the dew of God has descended on my spirit. It’s like my heart has picked up the scent of the fragrance of the Lord. It’s the streams of living water flowing through the canals of my soul! I’m absolutely helpless when this peace descends on me, I’m not powerless I can move but I just absolutely cannot deny that something wonderful is happening to me. And I’m just compelled to praise God, sometimes quietly because I can hardly speak.

The fact that we don’t know when we will receive this peace is a good thing because it proves that it’s not just some sort of hypnotic formula that can be repeated by going through the same motions again and again. “This wind blows wherever it pleases” Jesus said John 3:8 “so it is with everyone born of the Spirit”.

Jesus is describing that the HS is not magic, not hypnosis, it’s not a formula the HS has a mind of His own, He makes choices, He has a personality.

The Benefits of ‘the peace that transcends all understanding’

1. It is a very affirming experience.

I am rich. I’m not wealthy in a wordly sense but I wear the glistening crown of a clean conscience. Not because I have no sin but because I am aware of my sin, I have confessed it before God, I have received forgiveness, it has been nailed to the cross and He knows I’m trying to stay on the narrow path. The peace that transcends all understanding is like a “well done” from heaven. When John baptised Jesus in Matthew 3, heaven opened and Jesus saw the Spirit of God descending on him like a dove and a voice from heaven saying “this is my son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” Peace is the heavenly assurance that you are God’s child and with you He is well pleased. It’s the heavenly “well done good and faithful servant”[Matt 25:23] repeated to us time and time again even before we leave this body and come into our heavenly inheritance.

The peace that transcends all understanding is the Spirit testifying with our spirit that we are God’s children. (Romans 8:16)

2 Cor 1:22 God set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Eph 1:13 Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory!

We are God’s possessions and with his Holy Spirit we are gloriously possessed.

2. It gives you confidence in your relationship with God so you don’t have to compete.

Some people, in an effort to assert how Christian they are, seem to treat spirituality like some kind of competition. Now, I am quite a competitive guy in some spheres of life for example if you want a game of chess, then I would say to you, “bring it on”. I will relish the competition and I will be disappointed if I lose. But in the sphere of spirituality, of relationship with God and the exercise of spiritual gifts I’m not in competition with anyone.

The Spirit of peace descends on me like a dove. When that happens it’s just me and my saviour in precious relationship. Why should I be competing with anyone? If you pray 3 hours a day God bless you but don’t look down on those who don’t. Some people, in group prayer, they go on too long…sometimes they’re preaching a three point sermon. Spirituality is not measured by the length of our prayers. Or have you ever been having a conversation with someone, then prayed with them and they use the prayer to get the last word in!

If you read and memorise the bible more than anyone then God bless you but it’s not a competition. If you know the bible then bless people with your knowledge build them up, don’t beat them down.

It gives you confidence in your relationship with God so you don’t have to compete, I’m not saying complacency. 3 hours of prayer, that’s still 3 hours of mighty intercession.

3. This peace of God that descends on us, protects us from constructing a false theology based on inexperience.

Which brings me to my next point which is really about the limits of theology without experience. The peace of God as I have experienced it compels me to believe that God’s Spirit is tangible but also that God heals in the church today.

My story of being instantaneously healed of throat infection.

Some intelligent, scholarly, Christian men and women have never experienced God’s healing in a miraculous way and I dare say they have never (really) encountered the peace that transcends all understanding. Otherwise their minds would be open. So they have decided that it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t exist. The rest of us who have experienced healing and powerful peaceful presence of God are deceived or liars or delusional.

Which is more valuable, a theology based on the bible and inexperience or a theology based on the bible and experience? If you ever meet someone like that please don’t get all argumentative with them but please just show them sympathy. We who know the presence and power of God can’t deny it but they have made a choice. In some ways, quite an understandable one. Some may have been attending church for years, they may know the bible and theology very well yet some new convert who knows very little about the bible or theology is talking about an experience that they’ve never had. I don’t envy the decision that that person then has to make, either construct a theology that accommodates his own inexperience and invalidates the experiences of others or he has to swallow an almighty portion of pride. Be sympathetic to these poor people.

The peace of God that descends on us protects us from constructing a false theology based on inexperience and reinforces in us a strong theology based on the bible and grounded in experience.

How to get this peace

This is the hardest part of this sermon because there are no simple answers. “This wind blows wherever it pleases”…we just can’t tell when or who God will give a tangible experience of his Spirit. But I think there are certain things we can do to prepare the ground as it were. These things will depend on what stage of your Christian walk you are on.

If you are not a Christian and you want to experience this peace, the peace that transcends all understanding the spring of living water that wells up within you to eternal life, the seal of approval from God that speaks to our spirit and says yes you are my child and you have an inheritance in heaven. If you want to come into the richness of these experiences then you need to claim Jesus as your Lord and saviour. You don’t need to know the whole bible, you’ve got the rest of your life to do that. For now you can just go with your gut instinct, if you believe Christians have something different then you can pray to Jesus and ask him to make you different as well. You can ask a Christian friend to pray for you. You may or may not come into an experience of God’s presence immediately but believe me something will happen sooner or later as surely as Jesus lives something will happen.

If you are a new Christian, why not come and ask for prayer. Ask me or Graham the pastor or an elder to lay hands on you and pray for you. My first experiences of peace, really came with the laying on of hands of God’s church leaders.

Ok, perhaps you’re not a new Christian. You’ve been a christian for a while or for many years and you’ve never experienced the peace of God as I have described it this morning. Perhaps you feel like you are at that cross roads, where you’re thinking about going with a theology that invalidates these experiences because you’ve never had them and that’s humiliating for you.

Well, it doesn’t mean that God is not please with you. You’re justified by faith, not by works but don’t wait until you die and go to heaven to experience the nearness of God. You should be experiencing it now. Maybe He needs you to draw nearer to him in spiritual discipline. I can recommend a really good book, “Celebration of Discipline” by Richard Foster.

All of us. We’ve got to at least aspire to have some sort of devotional routine. There’s no way we can walk closely with God if we’re just Sunday Christians and we spend the rest of the week watching TV. Students, I know how hard it is to fit in “quiet times” when you’re studying but it is possible. You will benefit from it and your studies will too. I don’t think anyone should pray or study the bible to the detriment of their degree but neither should someone prioritise their degree over any form of daily devotion. God will not settle for being second in line. Maybe you can only find 5 minutes after breakfast everyday, well that’s fine be still and rest in the presence of God for 5 minutes. It’s a start.

To conclude, this morning I wanted to celebrate peace and encourage those who lack it. It’s a wonderful thing, seek after it, it will add great quality to your life.

“Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.” (2 Thessalonians 3:16)