Preaching

‘The Gift Of Peace’

Ephesians 2:12 – 17 Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ Jesus, excluded from the promises, without hope and without God, but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the cross of Christ.
For he himself is our peace, who has made all equal and has destroyed the barriers, and dividing walls by abolishing in his humanity, the law with its regulations and ceremonies. His purpose was to make in himself a new creation, so making peace, and in His body reconcile all to God through the cross, by which he put to death antagonism and contention. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

Peace, the sixth of the seven gifts given by Jesus to His church recorded in John’s gospel. Why in only John’s gospel? Because John’ gospel is the gospel that reveals the Lords grace more than any other. The name John means ‘God is gracious’. Grace is part of God’s nature.
Each of the 7 gifts are given to us freely by Jesus, we cannot do anything to earn any of them.

In tonight’s reading the apostle Paul reveals the peace Jesus gives us. Paul says, 1. that Jesus ‘Himself is our peace’ 2. Jesus made peace by the work of the cross, and 3. Jesus preached peace. This peace is a from a deep knowing that no matter what is happening in our lives we are ALWAYS right with God and always fully acceptable and always loved by Him.

In Judges chapter 6 we find Gideon who was a farmer in a time occupied by a foreign army The story of his life is about him beginning in fear of the invaders. Receiving supernatural peace as a gift from God and then leading his people by trusting, having faith in how God would guide him. Gideon built a monument, a pile of stones in the place where he first received God’s peace, the peace he needed to fulfil his God given destiny. Every time he passed by it, he was reminded of that first encounter. His monument, which Gideon named ‘God is my peace’ is there to this day according to scripture.

Paul writes that Jesus Himself is our peace. By His Spirit Jesus gives us his peace but due to our humanity we don’t always experience it. Even Jesus didn’t always experience perfect peace, He was deeply troubled when praying in the garden of Gethsemane pleading with God to take away the suffering He knew he had to face. Jesus was in great distress, yet in His suffering, after expressing his fears to God he found the strength within Him to trust in God and said, ‘Not my will but yours.’ He was Deeply disturbed in His humanity, yet despite that, in his spirituality He found peace through his trust in God His Father which had grown over the years. Being able to trust and put His life in God’s hands and submitting to God’s will, He found relief in His spirituality and trusting in doing the will of God. But how long did peace last; it lasted till the next time the pain came too much, the adversity became to deep.

On the cross He cried out to God, ‘Why have you forsaken me?’ It sounds like His peace had deserted Him. Isn’t this life in the real world, a world where Jesus said there’d always be trouble. But Jesus also told us to take heart because he has overcome the world Joh 16:33. Sometimes when we are in great distress those words seem hollow. For those times when life is totally overwhelming, our prayers seemingly not answered and we can’t find peace, remember that Jesus experienced that despair as well.

Some of us knew Kayleigh, a gay woman who loved the Lord. Kayleigh who had suffered every kind of abuse as a child. Abuse that drove her to a failed suicide that ultimately led her to be paralysed from the waist down. Yet it was while in hospital that she met Jesus. She attended Liberty for some years till the physical pain stopped her leaving her home, but when she felt up to it we used to take Liberty to her and held several Wednesday evening meetings at a large Community Room in her block of supported flats.

The suffering though got worse, it was distressing to see her in so much pain. Many times the pain would cause her to vomit for hours even days on end. It was distressing to see her retch for hours, when there was nothing left in her stomach to vomit. Yet through it all, the adversity and pain, Kayleigh’s faith never wavered. Even in the worst circumstances she would say, ‘I know God loves me’. Kayleigh experienced the worse distress I’d ever seen, yet I witnessed first hand, the peace of God that passes all understanding. This peace was not because of great mental effort on Kayleigh’s part, It was a gift from Jesus.

Kayleigh knew she was deeply loved, and as the person she was, fully accepted by God, the gospel of grace had brought harmony with her Lord and she loved Jesus with all her heart.
Yes she could still get anxious and frustrated by the ups and downs of life, but under it all in her relationship with God she had a deep peace. This made her troubles in this world very much secondary, there’s no doubt Jesus was her peace. To this day when I occasionally look at her picture she is one of my monuments that reminds me, Jesus is our peace. Isaiah wrote; Isa 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace those whose mind is steadfast, because they trust in you.

It is only through the faith God gives us, because of His grace, that we receive that perfect peace, the peace that Jesus made perfect on the cross. Jesus preached peace through his words, his actions, his life and his death, His peace was ‘Shalom peace’ complete peace, for body, soul and spirit. A peace He gave to the deaf and the blind, to lepers and the mentally unwell, to the paralysed and the palsied, to the old and young, to poor women and to rich men, to the immigrant and the religious.

The Father is the King of peace, the Son is the Prince of Peace, the Spirit is the reproductive life of peace. The seed He plants within us is peace, found only in the gospel of grace. The gospel that brings brings perfect peace with God, not the gospel of fear so many of us are familiar with. Due to our human nature, the adversities we experience, the peace we feel goes up and down with life’s ups and downs. But in our spirits peace with God is always there because Jesus has made us right with our Father God, for ever, no matter what we are going through in life.

Before Nina became a Christian she had seen peace in a Christian work colleague called Penny, unknown by either of them this peace was the reproductive life of peace. Because of seeing and sensing that peace in Penny, Nina too came to know God. And though Nina didn’t acknowledge it, it was peace that Nina saw in Sandra’s relationship with God that confirmed to her the truth in the gospel of grace.

Jesus our peace has given us peace and is still giving peace to others through us, though we may not know it. Just being ourselves we can be witnesses of Jesus. Just getting on with our lives, even through adversity, when God chooses to reveal it people can see the peace in us as Jesus our peace shines through.