“Christian Resolutions_2020, Part 19” by Romans
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We are continuing in our Series, “Christian Resolutions,” and our related off-shoot focus on The Fruit of the Spirit, as both Foundational to and manifestation of those Resolutions. We have thus far examined two Fruit, namely Love and Joy. Tonight, it is time to move forward, and to review and examine Peace, the third named Fruit of the Spirit. Let me ask you all, first: What does Peace mean to you? How would you define Peace?
Meriam-Webster's Online Dictionary defines it as follows:
“1. a state of tranquility or quiet: as a freedom from civil disturbance; and a state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom;
2 freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions;
3 harmony in personal relations;
4a: a state or period of mutual concord between governments
4b a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity
5—used... to ask for silence or calm or as a greeting or farewell.”
Since fruit is an outward and unselfish manifestation, let's look first at the part of the last definition: “used as a greeting or farewell.” Peace, in this context, would be something we are extending to or wishing upon a hearer or reader: In every epistle that Paul wrote to the various Churches, his salutation included a variation of the words, “Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
As a greeting this time, notice, how Jesus greeted His fearful disciples when He first appeared to them after His resurrection. According to the Apostle John's Gospel, “Peace” was the very first word He spoke. Let's read the entire account in John 20:19 “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.”
Jesus' disciples had been assembled in a hiding place behind locked doors. They feared the Jews, and feared that an imprisonment or crucifixion might well be in the works for them as Jesus' followers when He appeared to them.
Jesus' first words to them, when He suddenly appeared in their midst , were: “Peace be unto you.” But the story has more to tell us: In verse 20, we read: “And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.” Verse 21 continues: “Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” When they realized Who it was, they were glad. And He told them He was sending them to be bearers of a Peace unlike any the world had ever known before.
Of this, Alexander MacClaren writes, “Peace be unto you.” Unnatural as it seems at first sight, if we think for a moment, the very simplicity and calm, and, I was going to say, the matter-of-factness, of such a greeting, as the first that escaped from lips that had passed through death and yet were red and vocal, is congruous with the deepest truths of His nature. He has come from that tremendous conflict, and He reappears, not flushed with triumph, nor bearing any trace of effort, but surrounded as by a nimbus {cloud} with that strange tranquility which evermore enwrapped Him.
So small does the awful scene which He has passed through seem to this divine-human Man, and so utterly are the old ties and bonds unaffected by it, that when He meets His followers, all He has to say to them as His first greeting is, ‘Peace be unto you!’-the well-worn salutation that was bandied to and fro in every market-place and scene where men were wont to meet. Thus He indicates the divine tranquillity of His nature; thus He minimises the fact of death; thus He reduces it to its true insignificance as a parenthesis across which may pass unaffected all sweet familiarities and loving friendships;
thus He reknits the broken ties, and, though the form of their intercourse is hereafter to be profoundly modified, the substance of it remains, whereof He giveth assurance unto them in these His first words from the dead. So, as to a man standing on some mountain plateau, the deep gorges which seam it become invisible, and the unbroken level runs right on.
So, there are a marvellous proof of the majesty and tranquillity of the divine Man, a glorious manifestation of His superiority over death; a blessed assurance of the reknitting of all ancient ties, after it as before it, coming to us from pondering on the trivial words-trivial from other lips, but profoundly significant on His-wherewith He greeted His servants when He rose again from the dead.
II. Then note, secondly, the universal destination of the greetings of the risen Lord. I have said that it is possibly a mere accident that we should have the two forms of salutation preserved for us here; and that it is quite conceivable that our Lord really spoke but one, which has been preserved unaltered from its Hebrew or Aramaic original in John, and rendered by its Greek equivalent by the Evangelist Matthew.
But be that as it may, I cannot help feeling that in this fact, that the one salutation is the common greeting among Greek-speaking peoples, and the other the common greeting amongst Easterns, we may permissibly find the thought of the universal aspect of the gifts and greetings of the risen Christ. He comes to all men, and each man hears Him, ‘in his own tongue wherein he was born,’ breathing forth to him greetings which are promises, and promises which are gifts.
Just as the mocking inscription on the Cross proclaimed, in ‘Hebrew and Greek and Latin,’ the three tongues known to its readers, the one kingdom of the crucified King-so in the greetings from the grave, the one declares that, to all the desires of eager, ardent, sensuous, joy-loving Westerns, and all the aspirations of repose-loving Easterns, who had had bitter experience of the pangs and pains of a state of warfare, Jesus Christ is ready to respond and to bring answering gifts. Whatsoever any community or individual has conceived as its highest ideal of blessedness and of good, that the risen Christ hath in His hands to bestow. He takes men’s ideals of blessedness, and deepens and purifies and refines them.
The Greek notion of joy as being the good to be most wished for those dear to us, is but a shallow one. They had to learn, and their philosophy and their poetry and their art came to corruption because they would not learn, that the corn of wheat must be cast into the ground and die before it bring forth fruit. They knew little of the blessing and meaning of sorrow, and therefore the false glitter passed away, and the pursuit of the ideal became gross and foul and sensuous.
And, on the other hand, the Jew, with his longing for peace, had an equally shallow and unworthy conception of what it meant, and what was needed to produce it. If he had only external concord with men, and a competency of outward good within his reach without too much trouble, he thought that because he ‘had much goods laid up for many years’ he might ‘take his ease; and eat, and drink, and be merry.’
But Jesus Christ comes to satisfy both aspirations by contradicting both, and to reveal to Greek and Jew how much deeper and diviner was his desire than he dreamed it to be; and, therefore, how impossible it was to find the joy that would last, in the dancing fireflies of external satisfactions or the delights of art and beauty; and how impossible it was to find the repose that ennobled and was wedded to action, in anything short of union with God.
The Lord Christ comes out of the grave in which He lay for every man, and brings to each man’s door, in a dialect intelligible to the man himself, the satisfaction of the single soul’s aspirations and ideals, as well as of the national desires. His gifts and greetings are of universal destination, meant for us all and adapted for us each.
III. Then, thirdly, notice the unfailing efficacy of the Lord’s greetings. Look at these people to whom He spoke. Remember what they were between the Friday and the Sunday morning; utterly cowed and beaten, the women, in accordance with the feminine nature, apparently more deeply touched by the personal loss of the Friend and Comforter; and the men apparently, whilst sharing that sorrow, also touched by despair at the going to water of all the hopes that they had been building upon His official character and position.
‘We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel,’ they said, ‘as they walked and were sad.’ They were on the point of parting. The Keystone withdrawn, the stones were ready to fall apart. Then came something-let us leave a blank for a moment-then came something; and those who had been cowards, dissolved in sorrow and relaxed by despair, in eight-and-forty hours became heroes.
From that time, when, by all reasonable logic and common sense applied to men’s motives, the Crucifixion should have crushed their dreams and dissolved their society, a precisely opposite effect ensues, and not only did the Church continue, but the men changed their characters, and became, somehow or other, full of these very two things which Christ wished for them-namely, joy and peace.
Now I want to know-what bridges that gulf? How do you get the Peter of the Acts of the Apostles out of the Peter of the Gospels? Is there any way of explaining that revolution of character, whilst yet its broad outlines remain identical, which befell him and all of them, except the old-fashioned one that the something which came in between was the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the consequent gift of joy and peace in Him, a joy that no troubles or persecutions could shake, a peace that no conflicts could for a moment disturb?
It seems to me that every theory of Christianity which boggles at accepting the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as a plain fact, is shattered to pieces on the sharp-pointed rock of this one demand-’Very well! If it is not a fact, account for the existence of the Church, and for the change in the characters of its members.’ You may wriggle as you like, but you will never get a reasonable theory of these two undeniable facts until you believe that He rose from the dead.
In His right hand He carried peace, and in His left joy. He gave these to them, and therefore ‘out of weakness they were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens,’ and when the time came, ‘were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.’ There is omnipotent efficacy in Christ’s greetings.
The one instance opens up the general law, that His wishes are gifts, that all His words are acts, that He speaks and it is done, and that when He desires for us joy, it is a deed of conveyance and gift, and invests us with the joy that He desires if we observe the conditions.
Christ’s wishes are omnipotent, ours are powerless. We wish for our friends many good things, and the event turns wishes to mockery, and the garlands which we prepared for their birthdays have sometimes to be hung on their tombs. The limitations of human friendship and of our deepest and sincerest wishes, like a dark background, enhance the boundless efficacy of the greetings of the Master, which are not only wishes but bestowments of the thing wished, and therein given, by Him.
IV. So, lastly, notice our share in this twofold greeting. When it was first heard, I suppose that the disciples and the women apprehended the salutation only in its most outward form, and that all other thoughts were lost in the mere rapture of the sudden change from the desolate sense of loss to the glad consciousness of renewed possession. When the women clung to His feet on that Easter morning, they had no thought of anything but-’we clasp Thee again, O Soul of our souls.’
But then, as time went on, the meaning and blessedness and far-reaching issues of the Resurrection became more plain to them. And I think we can see traces of the process, in the development of Christian teaching as presented in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles. Peter in his early sermons dwells on the Resurrection all but exclusively from one point of view-viz., as being the great proof of Christ’s Messiahship.
Then there came by degrees, as is represented in the same Peter’s letter, and abundantly in the Apostle Paul’s, the recognition of the light which the Resurrection of Jesus Christ threw upon immortality; as a prophecy and a pattern thereof. Then, when the historical fact had become fully accepted and universally diffused, and its bearings upon men’s future had been as fully apprehended as is possible here, there came, finally, the thought that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was the symbol of the new life, which from that risen Lord passed into all those who loved and trusted Him.
Now, in all these three aspects-as proof of Messiahship, as the pattern and prophecy of immortality, and as the symbol of the better life which is accessible for us, here and now-the Resurrection of Jesus Christ stands for us even more truly than for the rapturous women who caught His feet, or for the thankful men who looked upon Him in the upper chamber, as the source of peace and of joy. For, dear brethren, therein is set forth for us the Christ whose work is thereby declared to be finished and acceptable to God, and all sorrow of sin, all guilt, all disturbance of heart and mind by reason of evil passions and burning memories of former iniquity, and all disturbance of our concord with God, are at once and for ever swept away.
If Jesus Christ was ‘declared to be the Son of God with power by His Resurrection from the dead,’ and if in that Resurrection, as is most surely the case, the broad seal of the divine acceptance is set to the charter of our forgiveness and sonship by the blood of the Cross, then joy and peace come to us from Him and from it. Again, the resurrection of Jesus Christ sets Him forth before us as the pattern and the prophecy of immortal life.
This Samson has taken the gates of the prison-house on His broad shoulders and carried them away, and now no man is kept imprisoned evermore in that darkness. The earthquake has opened the doors and loosened every man’s bonds. Jesus Christ hath risen from the dead, and therein not only demonstrated the certainty that life subsists through death, and that a bodily life is possible thereafter, but hath set before all those who give the keeping of their souls into His hands the glorious belief that ‘the body of their humiliation shall be’ ‘changed into the likeness of the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.’
Therefore the sorrows of death, for ourselves and for our dear ones, the agitation which it causes, and all its darkness into which we shrink from passing, are swept away when He comes forth from the grave, serene, radiant, and victorious, to die no more, but to dispense amongst us His peace and His joy. And, again, the risen Christ is the source of a new life drawn from Him and received into the heart by faith in His sacrifice and Resurrection and glory.
And if I have, deep-seated in my soul, though it may be in imperfect maturity, that life which is hid with Christ in God, an inward fountain of gladness, far better than the effervescent, and therefore soon flat, waters of Greek or earthly joy, is mine; and in my inmost being dwells a depth of calm peace which no outward disturbance can touch, any more than the winds that rave along the surface of the ocean affect its unmoved and unsounded abysses.
Jesus Christ comes to thee, my brother, weary, distracted, care-laden, sin-laden, sorrowful and fearful. And He says to each of us from the throne what He said in the upper room before the Cross, and on leaving the grave after it, ‘My joy will remain in you, and your joy shall be full. My peace I leave to you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.’”
On the article, Peace, the Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible says this: "In classical Greek, the word (peace) is used to describe the cessation or absence of hostilities between rival groups. In the New Testament, however, the word carries a far wider range of meaning. This is partly because it was used in the context of Christian faith and experience, and partly because of the influence of the Hebrew word, Shalom."
The kind of Peace that Jesus is the Prince of, is not merely the absence of, or cessation of war. Are any of you familiar with the term, Pax Romana? When translated, Pax Romana means Roman Peace. It was the “peace,” or end of fighting, that was experienced throughout the Roman Empire by the nations that had just been completely crushed by the brutal armies of the Empire. The Pax Romana or “Roman Peace” occurred when the swords, catapults and other engines of destruction of Rome became idle when the Empire subjugated yet another nation, or put down yet another insurrection. This is the “peace” the world gives.
In a more modern example, At the end of World War II, when Germany surrendered, there was “peace:” an end of hostilities after the war. Headlines screamed that a Peace Treaty had been signed. But England was bankrupt, Europe lay in smoldering ruins, and 50 million people had lost their lives during the 12 years of Nazi tyranny, conquest and attempted genocide. This is another example of the peace that the world gives. But to us, His followers, Jesus says in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” Isaiah 48:22 adds this for us, “There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.”
Philippians 4:7 “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Of this, Matthew Henry writes, “Let believers be of one mind, and ready to help each other. As the apostle had found the benefit of their assistance, he knew how comfortable it would be to his fellow-labourers to have the help of others. Let us seek to give assurance that our names are written in the book of life. Joy in God is of great consequence in the Christian life; and Christians need to be again and again called to it. It more than outweighs all causes for sorrow. Let their enemies perceive how moderate they were as to outward things, and how composedly they suffered loss and hardships. The day of judgment will soon arrive, with full redemption to believers, and destruction to ungodly men.
There is a care of diligence which is our duty, and agrees with a wise forecast and due concern; but there is a care of fear and distrust, which is sin and folly, and only perplexes and distracts the mind. As a remedy against perplexing care, constant prayer is recommended. Not only stated times for prayer, but in every thing by prayer. We must join thanksgivings with prayers and supplications; not only seek supplies of good, but own the mercies we have received. God needs not to be told our wants or desires; he knows them better than we do;
but he will have us show that we value the mercy, and feel our dependence on him. The peace of God, the comfortable sense of being reconciled to God, and having a part in his favour, and the hope of the heavenly blessedness, are a greater good than can be fully expressed. This peace will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus; it will keep us from sinning under troubles, and from sinking under them; keep us calm and with inward satisfaction. Believers are to get and to keep a good name; a name for good things with God and good men.
We should walk in all the ways of virtue, and abide therein; then, whether our praise is of men or not, it will be of God. The apostle is for an example. His doctrine and life agreed together. The way to have the God of peace with us, is to keep close to our duty. All our privileges and salvation arise in the free mercy of God; yet the enjoyment of them depends on our sincere and holy conduct. These are works of God, pertaining to God, and to him only are they to be ascribed, and to no other, neither men, words, nor deeds.”
How would you explain the concept of “the peace that passes all understanding,” to someone who may be an unbeliever or who is “unchurched”? I have defined it to other Small Groups I have taught, as “a peace that doesn't even make sense... Sometimes to even to believers!” It cannot be put into words that can be intelligibly spoken or fully received. It can only be experienced. And that experience happens when Christ gives us that Peace that the world knows nothing about.
It is important to point out, here, that the Peace that follows repentance and conversion is something that fills and radiates from the believer. And it is immediately noticeable to those who knew them before they were accepted Christ as their Savior. One of my favorite authors, Lee Strobel, is such an example of this. He and his wife were both atheists when they met. Well into their marriage, Lee's wife got saved.
The positive bearing of the Fruit of the Spirit on her part was the spark that caused Lee to re-think his whole approach to Christianity. After a thorough re-examination of his own atheistic belief system, in comparison to all that the Bible offers, he accepted Jesus as his Saviour. Here we have the perfect example of Peace as a Fruit being born to the outward benefit of someone. The changes and the Peace that Lee Strobel's wife experienced and displayed, which had such a profound affect on her, resulted in a positive and infectious shift in her whole demeanor.
When Isaiah foretold His birth, he wrote in Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Of Jesus' Title, “The Prince of Peace,” Matthew Henry wrote this in his Commentary: “As the Prince of Peace, he reconciles us to God; he is the Giver of peace in the heart and conscience; and when his kingdom is fully established, men shall learn war no more.”
Within a very short time following the “peace” that Europe declared, the Soviet Union sealed off the Eastern half the continent, serving as a buffer zone to keep away from Mainland Russia any future invasions from Western Europe. Under that repressive and godless regime, millions of people were subjugated, terrorized and brutalized under its merciless heel for some 50 long years. In stark contrast to the cruel yoke of “peace” which Eastern Europe endured, after describing the coming Messiah as the Prince of Peace, Isaiah writes this in the next verse: Isaiah 9:7 “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.”
Of the increase of peace there shall be no end. Eternal Life, Eternal Joy, Eternal Peace. And we are all a part of it through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. But our part is not merely a future part in Eternity. We have an active part today, here and now. On the world scene, what is the role of an ambassador? An ambassador represents the government of his citizenship, while living and working on the soil of another country. Notice in Philippians 3:20 what Paul writes about Christians: “For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (ASV). Since, as Paul declares, “our citizenship is in Heaven,” that means that as Christians, we are ambassadors for Christ, and for His Government here on the foreign soil of earth.
In fact, Paul says so and in so many words: 2 Corinthians 5:20 “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.” As Christ's ambassadors, we are privileged to bring a Gospel message of hope and peace and a future unlike any and every other religion, philosophy and ideology: “... as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:15 ),
Peace is one of the Fruit of the Spirit, flowing through us and from us as a manifestation of God's having intervened in our lives to save us, forgive us, renew us and reconcile us to Himself. And that intervention is perfectly depicted in a beautiful verse in the Psalms that I happened upon while preparing this discussion on Peace: Psalms 85:10 “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”
As we get to know God more deeply through prayer and studying His word, we find that, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them” (Psalms 119:165). When one is in an intimate relationship with his Creator and Saviour, what situation or person could offend such an one? I can think of no better final verse than: 2 Thessalonians 3:16: “Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all.”
And I can think of no better commentator than Matthew Henry to give us his insight into that verse. He writes, “The apostle prays for the Thessalonians. And let us desire the same blessings for ourselves and our friends. Peace with God. This peace is desired for them always, or in every thing. Peace by all means; in every way; that, as they enjoyed the means of grace, they might use all methods to secure peace.
We need nothing more to make us safe and happy, nor can we desire any thing better for ourselves and our friends, than to have God's gracious presence with us and them. No matter where we are, if God be with us; nor who is absent, if God be present. It is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we hope to have peace with God, and to enjoy the presence of God. This grace is all in all to make us happy; though we wish ever so much to others, there remains enough for ourselves.”
This concludes tonight's Discussion, “Christian Resolutions_2020, Part 19.”
I fully plan at least one more Installment in which to review and examine Peace, the third Fruit of the Spirit. God willing I will bring you that to you next week. I hope as many of you as are hearing my voice, or reading my words in the 4G Forum will join me for that.
This Discussion was presented "live" on May 13th, 2020
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