Sermon Central
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God's Receipe For Peace Series
Contributed by Jon Miller on Mar 1, 2011 (message contributor)
Summary: The message is part of a series on the Gospel of John and shows from the scripture what is necessary in order to have peace.
God's recipe for Peace
Many of you are familiar with the name Ted Tuner, he is the founder of the cable news network and controls most of the media in this country, which is one of the reasons I choose to get more information from other sources than the nightly news. Ted is strongly opposed to Christianity and has even said that mankind has no need for Bible teaching.
A few years ago Ted Turner wanted to see if anyone had the answer to world peace so he financed a competition to see if anyone could come up with a plan which he agreed to purchase and print in book form.
10,000 people from all around the world submitted manuscripts for Ted Turner to review, which he reported that none of them presented a workable plan for world peace. Turner went on to say without a plan, the possibility of world peace is at the best grim,
While I do not believe that there will ever be world peace until Jesus Christ rules and reigns supreme from the Throne of David in Israel for a 1000 years I do believe that it is possible to have peace and be at peace with God in your soul.
I believe there are some here today who if they were honest would say, I need to have peace in my life, I would love to have a tranquility in my soul!
For the past few weeks we have been looking into this passage of John, the last few moments of Jesus' life before his arrest and death on the cross
As more and more of what is about to take place is starting to make sense to the disciples they are very upset, scared and visibility saddened. Their hopes and dreams of reigning with Christ is his kingdom is coming to an end.
They have given up family, friends and occupations to follow Jesus and now he about to leave them.
Because of that Jesus has been encouraging them with the news that they Holy Spirit was going to come after he goes into heaven. And Last week we looked at how Jesus said that the same event that was going to bring them sorrow, his death, was also to bring them joy when they discovered that it also bought their salvation.
Today in this passage that we just read together Jesus gives them the recipe for peace, inward peace in a world that is full of trouble and tribulation.
A peace that the angels knew what possible when at the birth of our Lord they proclaimed in Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those whom he is pleased!”
many of you know that I love to cook and I like to try new recipes. One of the differences between my wife and I is when she cooks she seasons to taste and I follow the recipe like its the Ten Commandments. If it calls for 1/2tsp thats what it gets, it it calls for a spice we don't have, Wal-mart is only a ¼ mile a way so I go get it.
Jesus, knowing his disciples are upset and knowing that after his resurrection they are going to face even more persecution gives them the recipe for the peace they would need to sustain them in difficult days. The days he was talking about in verse 33 when he said, “in the world you will have tribulation but take heart, I have overcome the world.
The Greek word for peace used in this scripture is “I'ra'na”eirēnē “ it means “Harmony, security, safety,
the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, having nothing to fear and perfectly content with its lot in life.”
That's where Jesus wanted his disciples, and where he wants us to get in our spiritual growth. Just like when I cook, I refuse to use cookbooks without pictures because I want to see the finish product and what its suppose to look like where I'm trying to get
the place that we are going today in our walk through this passage is to that state of peace the tranquil state of the soul. That is safe and secure in its relationship to God the, the creator of all things
I'm not talking about living in harmony with nature or with animals but with God almighty, the one who controls every breath that we take who hold the world and our eternal destiny in his hands
Jesus begins by telling them that it would all very soon make sense to them. In verse 25, “I have said these things to you in figures of speech, the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.”
