Peace for the New Year Colossians 3:15
The motto of the Apollo 11 flight was "We come in peace for all mankind."
This motto was on the plaque which was deposited on the face of the moon.
The landing was on the Sea of Tranquility. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin found a tranquil and peaceful scene on the moon.
Why?
There had never been any human beings there to disturb the peace!
We live in a world of unrest, a world of war and conflict where there is no peace, anywhere.
• Professor Quincy Wright, in his book, "A Study of War", shows that in the 461 years from 1480 to 1941 the various nations experienced wars as follows: Great Britain 78 wars, France 71, Spain 64, Russia 61, Austria 52, Germany 23, China 11, Japan 9, the United States 13. And in addition, 110 wars were fought, often ruthlessly, against the Indians within the United States.
Conflict is not good for us. Conflict in any form is unfriendly to spiritual growth.
Our entire being is dislocated and thrown off balance when there is conflict.
Conflict causes rumblings and disharmony down to the very core of our being.
Have you ever noticed how grumpy we get we are in conflict with someone?
We become fixed on the conflict and life becomes filled with turmoil and discontent.
We all know what causes conflict.
Conflict erupts when we don’t get our way.
If you want to do something your way, and I want to do it mine, and we can’t agree, we have a conflict.
We have conflict because we do not have inner peace.
We are not content with who we are, what we do, or what we have.
Peace is not the absence of war or conflict.
Peace is an inner attitude that has its roots in thanksgiving.
Galatians 5:22 lists it as a fruit of the spirit.
A Christian definition of peace would be "the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is".
• The Academy-Award-winning movie, Patoon, was about the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. It depicted not only the cruel and inhumane way some of our soldiers treated the enemy, but also how brutally they treated one another. In the closing scene, one of the American soldiers who survived the war was reflecting on his experiences in Vietnam, and he said, "I think now, as I look back, we didn’t fight the enemy, we fought ourselves. The real enemy was within us."
Isn’t that how it most often is?
The greatest enemy we have is ourselves, and the biggest battles we fight are within.
We struggle with conflicts that rage within our own hearts.
We try to provide our own peace.
We weigh the pros and cons of any given situation, and seek within ourselves to provide a reasonable and logical solution to the conflict.
In this one verse of Scripture we are encouraged to "let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts".
Real and lasting peace can only come from Jesus Christ.
Why? Because:
I. Peace is created by Christ
• In an article in the "Moscow Gazette", a reporter by the name of Gustave Valbert in his day could report that "From the year 1496 B. C. to A. D. 1861 in 3358 years there were 227 years of peace and 3,130 years of war, or 13 years of war to every year of peace. Within the last three centuries, there have been 286 wars in Europe alone. He added that from the year 1500 B. C. to A. D. 1860 more than 8000 treaties of peace, meant to remain in force forever, were concluded. The average time they remained in force was two years."
Who knows how many more years of war can be added in the 137 years from 1861 to 1998.
And we can only guess how many more treaties have been broken.
Mankind does not create peace.
We might attempt to stop war or conflict, but the results are always temporary.
It’s been said that peace is a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.
The only way to end war and conflict on a global level; on an national level; on a local level; or on a personal level is to let the creator of peace decide all matters of difference among us.
We need an umpire.
The word "rule" is actually a sports term borrowed from the Greeks.
It can be translated "umpire" and describes the duty of an arbiter who held the prize in his hand while the contest proceeded in the stadium.
It was this umpire who conferred the prize on the victor at the close of the games.
He exercised a peculiar kind of rule over the atheletes.
He would always keep the prize in the sight of the athletes.
Motivated by the sight of the prize, they would put everything they had into the contest.
So, in contending in the race of life, the peace of Christ, which contains all the blessings God has promised, is to exercise supreme authority in our lives.
The prize has been set before us.
The apostle Paul uses the analogy of a race in 1 Corinthians 9:24 with these words of admonition, " Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize."
Paul’s point is not that there is only one prize.
What he is saying is that we need to live our lives in such a way that we will get the prize.
He’s saying, "Give all you have to living the Christian life so you will get the prize."
And what is the prize?
First and foremost, it’s a restored relationship with God that allows us to enter into eternal life with Jesus Christ.
Second, but just as important, the prize is the peace of Christ that enables and empowers us to live in the world around us.
It’s the peace of Christ that answers the questions in life that cause conflict.
It is the peace of Christ that gives us the right anwers as opposed to popular opinion. Christians have historically searched for those right answers and have often been the targets of destructive criticism and, in some instances, persecution.
Jesus said he was sending us out "like sheep among the wolves."
Sheep are wolves’ targets.
Wolves try to devour sheep and chew them up.
Are we confronted by any wolves today?
Let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts to empower us to resist the attacks of evil from wherever they come from.
II. Let the peace of Christ bind us together as one body.
The peace of Christ binds the hearts of God’s people together.
We are called to be a people of peace. Churches in conflict are actively and openly sinning against God.
We sometimes joke about the way church business meetings go, don’t we.
You know some of the "traditional" fights in churches: where to put the piano, what color carpet to get, what color to paint the walls, how much money to pay the pastor (after all, everyone knows he only works on Sunday).
The list could go on and on.
Churches are called to unity, not conflict. If the peace of Christ rules in our hearts, there can’t be conflict.
There can only be unity.
How can there be conflict if Jesus Christ is the umpire?
The umpire calls the shots based on the "approved" rules.
It’s God’s world and God’s universe, so who makes the rules?
God does. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
Do you think he knows the rules?
You bet he does.
So, if the peace of Christ rules in our hearts, how could we be anything else but unified?
It’s because even as Christians, we do not always allow the peace of Christ to rule in our hearts.
We have this uncanny, but dangerous, ability to combine the things of God with the things of man within the church.
And, you know, most of the time we don’t even know we are doing it!
What I mean is this: we bring the secular world’s concept of how to do things in our churches rather than let the peace of Christ bind us together as one body.
We have become a democracy rather than a theocracy.
If we spent as much time praying as we do fussing and fighting within the church we would have the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts.
There would be no conflict.
There are lots of books written on conflict resolution.
You won’t find any of them telling you to pray about the conflict to see God’s perspective.
You won’t find any of them telling you to concede.
You will find them telling you to compromise, but you won’t find any of them telling you to let the other person have his way entirely.
• There was a dispute which had grown into a lawsuit between two farmers as to just where the line between them was and where a fence should be. Finally one of the farmers sold out, and the purchaser moved in. Soon he met Farmer Smith, who was agitated and said to his new neighbor, "They tell me you have bought this farm, and I just want to inform you that you have bought a lawsuit." He was asked to explain, and said, "Well, the fence, being located where it is, cheats me out of two feet of my land." "Then," said the newcomer kindly, "we will move it back four feet." "No," said Farmer Smith, "that is more than I ask." "But," said the new neighbor, "I would rather have peace with my neighbors than a few feet of earth!" "Then," said Farmer Smith very quietly, "if that is the way you feel, the fence stays just where it is and the lawsuit is all off."
Was that compromise?
No, it was concession.
When the peace of Christ rules in our hearts, peace with our neighbors is more important than getting our way.
Isn’t that what causes conflict and disunity in the church?
It certainly what causes conflict in the secular world.
You can disagree with me, but I don’t think "agreeing to disagree" is a Biblical concept.
I believe in the "God’s way or no way" system of conflict resolution.
I believe that if we are sincere and serious about resolving conflicts, either with others or within our own hearts, that we should strive to be unified with God’s thought on a particular matter.
If we agree with what God says, we will never "agree to disagree."
We will just agree.
If we don’t agree with what God says, we need to be on our knees before him in prayer until we do agree.
III. And be thankful
You know, when we are really thankful for what we have, and when we spend time thanking God for all he has given us, we don’t have time to complain about what we don’t have or what we aren’t getting.
If we spend most of our time trying to get our own way or complaining about our lot in life, we aren’t thankful for what we have.
The peace of Christ does not rule in our lives.
Do you want the peace of Christ to rule in you life?
Be thankful.
List all of the things you have to be thankful for.
Do you have a job? Be thankful.
Do you have a home? Be thankful.
Do you get to eat at least once a day? Be thankful.
Are things going well for you? Be thankful.
Do you think life is rotten? Be thankful.
At any given point in life, things could be better, or things could be worse.
What we perceive as bad might be for our protection.
Paul tells us "in everything we should give thanks.
• Corrie Ten Boom in "The Hiding Place" relates an incident which taught her this principle. She and her sister, Betsy, had just been transferred to the worst German prison camp they had seen yet, Ravensbruck. Upon entering the barracks, they found them extremely overcrowded and flea-infested. Their Scripture reading that morning in 1 Thessalonians had reminded them to rejoice always, pray constantly, and give thanks in all circumstances. Betsy told Corrie to stop and thank the Lord for every detail of their new living quarters. Corrie at first flatly refused to give thanks for the fleas, but Betsy persisted. She finally succumbed. During the months spent at that camp, they were surprised to find how openly they could hold Bible study and prayer meetings without guard interference. It was several months later when they learned that the guards would not enter the barracks because of the fleas.
Conclusion:
Real and lasting peace is found in Jesus Christ.
There is power when the peace of Christ rules in our hearts.
Power to overcome adversity and conflict.
Power to protect us from all sorts of evil.
Power to help us make the right decisions in life.
Thanksgiving is a direct result of the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts.
• A young lady was dying, and one Scripture which she had often heard came to her at this time: "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." A friend said to her one day, "You suffer much, I fear." "Yes," she said, "but," pointing to her hand, "there is no nail there. He had the nails; I have the peace." Laying her hand on her brow, she said, "There are no thorns here. He had the thorns; I have the peace," Touching her side she said, "There is no spear here. He had the spear; I have the peace."
Does the peace of Christ rule in your heart?
