Safety consists not in the absence of danger but in the presence of God.
John 16:33
33"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."
NIV
Peace that Jesus gives is not the absence of trouble, but is rather the confidence that He is there with you always.
Intro: In Europe, 1934, Hitler’s plague if anti-Semitism was infecting a continent. Some would escape it. Some would die from it. But eleven-year-old Heinz would learn from it. He would learn the power of sowing seeds of peace.
Heinz was a Jew. The Bavarian village of Fourth, where Heinz lived, was being overrun by Hitler’s young thugs. Heinz’s father, a schoolteacher, lost his job. Recreational activities ceased. Tension mounted on the streets. The Jewish families clutched the traditions that held them together-the observance of the Sabbath, of Posh Hashanah, of Yom Kippur. Old ways took on new significance. As the clouds of persecution swelled and blackened, these ancient precepts were a precious cleft in a mighty rock. And as the streets became a battleground, such security meant survival.
Hitler’s youth roamed the neighborhoods looking for trouble. Young Heinz learned to keep his eyes open. When he saw a band of troublemakers, he would step to the other side of the street. Sometimes he would escape a fight – sometimes not.
One day, in 1934, a pivotal confrontation occurred. Heinz found himself face-to-face with a Hitler bully. A beating appeared inevitable. This tome, however, he walked away unhurt – not because of what he did, but because of what he said. He didn’t fight back; he spoke up. He convinced the troublemakers that a fight was not necessary. His words kept battle at bay.
And Heinz saw first hand how the tongue can create peace. He learned the skill of using words to avoid conflict. And for a young Jew in Hitler-ridden Europe, that skill had many opportunities to be honed.
Fortunately, Heinz’s family escaped from Bavaria and made their way to America. Later in life, he would downplay the impact those adolescent experiences had on his development. But one has to wonder. For after Heinz grew up, his name became synonymous with peace negotiations. His legacy became that of a bridge builder. Somewhere he had learned the power of the properly placed word of peace. And one has to wonder if his training didn’t come on the streets of Bavaria.
You don’t know his as Heinz. You know him by his Anglicized name, Henry. Henry Kissinger. Paul Harvey’s ‘The Rest of the Story (New York, NY: Bantam, 1977), pg49
Before we face death we want to “make our peace with God.” The Bible refers to God as “the God of peace” (Rom 15:33; 2 Cor. 13:11; Phil. 4:9). The Bible opens with peace in the Garden of Eden and closes with peace in eternity. Although the peace on earth in the garden was interrupted when man sinned, at the cross Jesus Christ made peace a reality again, and He becomes the peace of all who place their faith in Him. Peace can now reign in the hearts of those who are His. Someday He will come as Prince of Peace and establish a worldwide kingdom of peace, which will eventuate in ultimate peace, the eternal age of peace.
There is not peace now for two reasons: the opposition of Satan and the disobedience of man. The fall of the angels and the fall of man established a world without peace. We live in a culture that does not respect peace. We as Americans thrive on conflict. Our daily T.V. shows are being taken over by Judges who set and listen to senseless people who are at war with one another. We have made Jerry Springer a rich man for bringing the battles of the galacticly stupid into our homes. We even have people in our churches that thrive on conflict, and I’m not just talking about members, I’m talking about pastors and other church leaders. Some preachers feel that the only way they can preach is on the emotional charge of anger. So if there isn’t anything before them that stirs them up, they’ll take matters into their hands and stir something up.
The popular philosophy of the world, bolstered by the teaching of many psychologists and counselors, is to put self first. But when self is first, peace is last. Self precipitates strife, division, hatred, resentment, and war. It is the great ally of sin and the great enemy of righteousness and, consequently, of peace.
Remember playing “King of the Hill” as a kid? The object of the game is to get high on the heap and stay there. You push, claw, and climb until you get to the top. And once you get there, you fight to hold your position. Don’t even think about sitting down. Forget enjoying the view. Slack up for even a minute, and you’ll be slapped down to the bottom of the hill. And then you’ll have to start all over again.
This game we play as children somehow rolls over into our adult life. It takes many forms.
It’s the boss who won’t compliment his employees. After all, workers need to be kept in their place.
It’s the husband who refuses to be kind to his wife. He knows if he does he will lose his most powerful weapon – her fear of his rejection.
It’s the employee who places personal ambition over personal integrity.
It might be the taking of someone’s life or the taking of someone’s turn. It might be manipulation with a pistol, or it might be manipulation with a pout. It might be the take over of a nation by a politician, or the take over of a church by a preacher.
Illustration: In an April, 1988 edition of Sports Illustrated, their was a story titled “Ali and His Entourage”. Sports writer Gary Smith went to Ali’s farmhouse to interview the three-time world champion. On the floor leaning against the walls, were mementos of Ali in his prime. Photos and portraits of the champ punching and dancing. Sculpted body. Fist punching the air. Championship belt held high in triumph. “The thrilla in Manila.”
But on the pictures were white steaks – bird droppings. Ali looked into the rafters at the pigeons who had made his gym their home. And then he did something significant. Perhaps it was a gesture of closure. Maybe it was a statement of despair. Whatever the reason, he walked over to the row of pictures and turned them, one by one, toward the wall. He then walked to the door, stared at the countryside, and mumbled something so low that Smith had to ask him to repeat it. Ali did.
“I had the world,” he said, “and it wasn’t nothin’. Look now.”
Illustration: The Roman emperor Charlemagne has an interesting story surrounding his burial. This famous king asked to be entombed sitting upright in his throne. He asked that his crown be placed on his head and his scepter in his hand. He requested that the royal cape be draped around his shoulders and an open book be placed in his lap.
That was A.D. 814. Nearly two hundred years later, Emperor Othello determined to see if the burial request had been carried out. He allegedly sent a team of men to open the tomb and make a report. They found the body just as Charlemagne had requested. Only now, nearly two centuries later, the scene was gruesome. The crown was tilted, the mantle moth-eaten, the body disfigured. But open on the skeletal thighs was the book Charlemagne had requested – the Bible. One bony finger pointed to Matthew 16:26: “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations (Rockville, MD: Assurance Publishers, 1979)
James 3:13-18
13If you are wise, live a life of steady goodness so that only good deeds will pour forth. And if you don’t brag about them, then you will be truly wise! 14And by all means don’t brag about being wise and good if you are bitter and jealous and selfish; that is the worst sort of lie. 15For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, inspired by the devil. 16For wherever there is jealousy or selfish ambition, there will be disorder and every other kind of evil.
17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure and full of quiet gentleness. Then it is peace-loving and courteous. It allows discussion and is willing to yield to others; it is full of mercy and good deeds. It is wholehearted and straightforward and sincere. 18And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.
TLB
Sinful men cannot create peace, either within themselves or among themselves. Sin can produce nothing but strife and conflict. Regardless of what the circumstances might be, where there is conflict it is because of sin. If you separate the conflicting parties from each other but do not separate them from sin, at best you will succeed only in making a truce. Peacemaking cannot come by circumventing sin, because sin is the source of every conflict.
The bad news of the gospel comes before the good news. A person who does not first mourn over his own sin will never be satisfied with God’s righteousness. Like the surgeon’s scalpel, it must cut before it heals, because peace cannot come where sin remains. Until a person confronts his sin, it makes no sense to offer him a Savior. Until a person faces his false notions, it makes no sense to offer him the truth. Until a person acknowledges his enmity with God, it makes no sense to offer him peace with God.
Believers cannot avoid facing truth, or avoid facing others with the truth, for the sake of harmony. If someone is in serious error about a part of God’s truth, he cannot have a right, peaceful relationship with others until the error is confronted and corrected. Jesus never evaded the issue of wrong doctrine or behavior. The person who is not willing to disrupt and disturb in God’s name cannot be a peacemaker. To come to terms on anything less than God’s truth and righteousness is to settle for a truce- which confirms sinners in their sin and may leave them even further from the kingdom. Those who in the name of love or kindness or compassion try to witness by appeasement and compromise of God’s Word will find that their witness leads away from Him, no to Him. God’s peacemakers will not let a sleeping dog lie if it is opposed to God’s truth; they will not protect the statues quo if it is ungodly and unrighteous. They are not willing to make peace at any price. God’s peace comes only in God’s way. A peacemaker is concerned with leading others to make peace with God.
Illustration: Don Robinson was a missionary to the cannibalistic, headhunting Sawi tribe of Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Try as he would, he could not find a way to make the people understand the gospel message, especially the significance of Christ’s atoning death on the cross.
Sawi villages were constantly fighting among themselves, and because treachery revenge, and murder were highly honored there seemed no hope of peace. The tribe, however, had a legendary custom that if one village gave a baby boy to another village, peace would prevail between the two villages as long as the child lived. The baby was called a “peace child”.
The missionary seized on that story as an analogy of the reconciling work of Christ. Christ, he said, is God’s divine Peace Child that He has offered to man, and because Christ lives eternally His peace will never end. That analogy was the key that unlocked the gospel for the Sawis. In a miraculous working of the Holy Spirit many of them believed in Christ, and a strong, evangelistic church soon developed – and peace came to the Sawis. Peace Child (Glendale, Calif.:Regal, 1979)
Gal 5:22-23
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control.
NIV
The God of peace sent the Prince of Peace who sends the Spirit of peace to give the fruit of peace. Peace being a fruit of the Spirit is a product of the Holy Spirit. The believer who is under the control of the Holy Spirit will personify a life of peace with God.
Illustration: Some of the earth’s most violent weather occurs on the seas. But the deeper one goes the more serene and tranquil the water becomes. Oceanographers report that the deepest parts of the sea are absolutely still. When those areas are dredged they produce remnants of plant and animal life that have remained undisturbed for thousands of years.
That is a picture of the Christian’s peace. The world around him, including his own circumstances, may be in great turmoil and strife, but in his deepest being he has peace that passes understanding. Those who are in the best of circumstances but without God can never find peace, but those in the worst of circumstances but with God need never lack peace.
Conclusion: Which would you prefer? To be king of the mountain for a day? Or to be a child of God for eternity? Answer this: A thousand years from now, will it matter what title the world gave you? NO, but it will make a lateral hell of a difference whose child you are. God’s peacemakers will not always have peace in the world. As Jesus makes clear by the last beatitude, persecution follows peacemaking. In Christ we have forsaken the false peace of the world, and consequently we often will not have peace with the world. But as God’s children we may always have peace even while we are in the world – the peace of God, which the world cannot give and the world cannot take away.
Illustration: In 1555, Nicholas Ridley was burned at the stake because of his witness for Christ. On the night before Ridley’s execution, his brother offered to remain with him in the prison chamber to be of assistance and comfort. Nicholas declined the offer and replied that he meant to go to bed and sleep as quietly as ever he did in his life. Because he knew the peace of God, he could rest in the strength of the everlasting arms of his Lord to meet his need. So can we!
