Shalom

If you look at the, any news program these days, you will see that the reports are filled with peace talks. Bosnia, peace talks, peace talks, the Middle East, the Palestinians, peace talks, everywhere peace talks. And yet there never seems to be a lasting peace, because the minute one place kind of calms down, there's a war somewhere else in a country you've never even heard of, in a country that you even have trouble pronouncing its name. And all of a sudden, it's on the front page and all you hear about is the war going on in that country and the terrible atrocities being committed, and another round of efforts to make peace. It seems that nothing is talked about more and yet accomplished less in this world than peace.

I think the reason for this is that only God is the one who can give lasting peace. People by themselves can never accomplish perfect or lasting peace. In the verse that Bob just read in John 14:27a, and I focus on that this morning for my lesson, Jesus says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Jesus talks about the peace that he gives to mankind.

Today, I'd like to explain to you 2 major differences between the peace in the world that people seek after and achieve to a certain degree, and the peace that God gives to mankind through Jesus Christ. First of all, let's talk about the peace that goes on in this world. In the world, peace refers to usually an absence of violence or striving between various people and things. Different kinds of peace that people look for. There's peace between nations that is usually achieved through political or military might.

There's peace between humans and the environment, because mankind is at war with his environment. And people try to produce peace through ecological movements and education. There's also inward peace that people are trying to find through humanistic therapy or occult practices. Even various religious exercises to bring them some sort of peace. Now, all of these are successful to a degree and for a time.

But the common feature of each of these kinds of peace is that they must be maintained and renewed with great effort or the peace will be lost and usually is. Now the peace that John talks about, the peace that's in the Bible, the peace that Jesus refers to this morning in John chapter 14, is the end of the war or conflict that exists. Not between nations, not between nature and man, or not even between man and himself. When Jesus talks about the peace, he's talking about peace between God and man. That's the peace that he offers.

You know, whether you know it or not, there is a war going on between God and mankind. Mankind is disobeying and rebelling against God's laws, against God's will, against God's purpose. Mankind refuses over and over to recognize or to honor or to obey the living God. And that creates a war. And God, for his part, because of man's rebelliousness, because of man's, what we call sin, rejects mankind, and is preparing to punish man with an eternity in hell.

Now, Jesus stops this war, and he acts as a mediator between God and man. And Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 5 verse 1. He says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus becomes the mediator between God and man. Now, need to know something about a mediator.

A mediator is a person who seeks to bring peace by being a representative of both sides, not just one side. A mediator represents both sides of the warring faction. Jesus is the perfect mediator between God and man in the war that's going on between these two. Jesus serves as man's mediator, in that he lives a perfect life. No sin.

No rebellion. He does everything that man forgets or is not able or refuses to do. Jesus does. And so he serves well as man's mediator. Then on the side of God, Jesus serves as God's mediator in behalf of the Lord by providing a perfect sacrifice for sin.

You see, God requires that a perfect life be lived and offered to him in order to stop the war. You know, in a war, you have certain demands. One side says, well, you know, we want so much land and we want to stop the bombing and we want our gold back. And you know, they have certain demands. Well, God has certain demands if there's going to be peace.

If there's going to be peace, he says, he wants one, just one perfect life to be lived and offered to him. And Jesus comes along and says, Here I am. I'm ready to offer that perfect life without blemish, without spot, without rebellion, without disobedience. And I'm ready to offer it to you, God, without hesitation. So peace is now accomplished.

Jesus offers to God a perfect life and sacrifice from man's perspective. And God, through Jesus Christ, offers to man forgiveness for sin and restoration to fellowship and friendship with him. And so God and man make peace at the cross of Jesus Christ. Without this peace between God and man accomplished by Jesus, there can be no other kind of lasting peace. Because you see, sin, the thing that separates God and man, sin, is the thing that creates the war in every other area of life as well.

You see, men go to war with other men. Nation against nation, friend against friend, husband against wife, brother against brother, because of sin, because of pride, because of hatred. That's what causes war. And mankind is at war with the environment. Why?

Because mankind doesn't like trees, or fresh air, or clean water. No. Mankind is at war with the environment because of the sin of greed and neglect and selfishness. And mankind is at war with himself because he disobeys God's basic laws for what is good and right, and suffers the consequences of a guilty conscience and fear. And so therefore, is not at peace with himself.

And so, the first difference between the peace sought after in the world and the peace that we have through Jesus Christ is that Jesus manages to make peace between man and God, which is necessary to create a lasting peace in every other area of life. The second difference is that the peace that Jesus obtains is maintained through the Holy Spirit. That's an important difference. You know, remember I told you about the wars and everything in Bosnia? You know, in the world, peace is often obtained and maintained by the gun.

And if you follow this Bosnia thing, man, they were bombing, shooting each other, snipers, lobbing mortar shells into the marketplace, killing children, women, anybody. It didn't matter, you know. And United Nations was saying, Oh, come on you guys, let's talk it over. Let's talk, you know, let's be friends, blah blah blah. You know, year after year, sure, sure, we'll be friends.

They kept killing each other, right? And then all of a sudden, NATO decided to send jets over to Serbia and start to bomb them. And when they had a trillion tons of bombs laid on them, all of a sudden they said, Well, maybe we should talk about peace. Maybe it'd be a good idea. Because we're being blown to bits.

When somebody comes up and sticks a gun in your mouth and says, You wanna settle our differences? Usually you say, Well, I think I'm ready to talk now. And that's how we solve it in the world. Bruteforce. Bruteforce.

A gazillion tons of nuclear weapons guarantees the peace. You bomb us, we annihilate you. I mean that has been the philosophy of peace for the last 50 years. But the peace that Jesus obtains is maintained by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that maintains the bond of peace between God and man.

And he does it in two ways. First of all, the Holy Spirit provides man with God's word. In John, chapter 14, verse 26, Jesus says, But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. The Holy Spirit gives to man the words of God. And what does that do for us?

How does that maintain the peace? Well, it teaches us Jesus' commands and promises. In other words, how to be a disciple. How to do the things that God wants us to do to maintain that peace. It also guides us away from potential trouble.

David says in Psalm 119, Those who love thy law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble. The word of God given to man by the Holy Spirit enables a person to avoid the pitfalls in life. Road signs, danger, warning. Things to avoid in order to maintain the peace. And the word also builds our confidence that we really are God's children through Jesus Christ.

In Romans chapter 8, verse 15 and 16, Paul says it this way, he says, For you have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. How do we know that we are children of God? We could have never figured it out on our own. We could have guessed at it, we could have invented it, but only God's word confirms it. Every time we doubt that maybe God doesn't love us, that maybe we're not gonna make it, that maybe it's not okay, that maybe the grave is the final thing, that maybe the war is still on.

The word of God given to us by the Holy Spirit reminds us that everything is at peace. That the shooting is over. Through God's word, provided by the holy spirit, we are continually assured that the war is over and that the peace that Jesus has obtained for us will last forever. You see, the gospel is our peace treaty. And the Holy Spirit is the messenger that brings the good news of peace.

And so I said, the Holy Spirit maintains peace by, first of all, providing man with God's word. Secondly, the Holy Spirit maintains the peace by providing God with man's word. You see how it works? He maintains the peace by bringing the word of God down to man. And he also maintains the peace by bringing the words of man up to God.

In verse 26 of Romans chapter 8, Paul explains this work of the Spirit. He says, And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. What does the Bible say?

The Bible says, we don't know how to bring our words before God. We don't know how to do it. You've got these seminars that say, learn how to pray. The Bible says, We don't know. We don't know how to do that.

I mean, we don't completely know the mind of God. Because He's a spirit being and we are human, we're flesh. We don't pray with great understanding. Oh, we have some understanding, but we don't pray with great understanding. We're in the dark a lot, we're in the fog a lot, we use formulas a lot because we don't understand.

We don't pray at all times. We gotta eat, we gotta sleep, we gotta go for a walk, we've got jobs, we, you know, we got things to do. We can't pray all the time. And we don't pray for the necessary things, and we don't pray with strong faith. A lot of times our prayers, you know, what comes out of our mouths is not the same thing that's in our hearts.

In our hearts we're afraid and we doubt. What comes out of our mouth is, Oh, sure God, you're up there. Yeah, I think I believe. I hope I believe. We are weak.

That's why we don't pray very well. Now, don't get me wrong, we're forgiven, but we're weak. You can be forgiven and weak at the same time. It's okay. For that reason, we need help.

And Paul tells us, this is where the Holy Spirit helps us, at the place where we are weak, and we are weak in prayer. He helps us with intercessory prayers that can't always be put into words. We're human. We need words, logic, you know. There's got to be words for us to understand.

But the Holy Spirit can make plain even the deep feelings that have no words. And I want to tell you something, you are really praying when you get to the deep feelings. Those of you who have children, little children, and you're at the park or at the zoo, and you just turned around just for a minute, and you went and got the hotdog and the drink, and you said, Now don't move. And you turn around, and you know what I'm talking about, right? And you turn around and little Billy or little Susie is not there.

How long does it take for a parent to fall into a panic? Well, she's around here somewhere now. I know she may have just gone over here. She may have just gone over there. And pretty soon, you know, your heart starts to beat.

And what comes out? Now, Dear Lord, thank you so much for this day. It's a wonderful day. Thank you for the lovely animals in the zoo. We'd like to pray now.

And I've lost my child. That's not how you pray. You say, Oh God. Oh, please please please please please please please please please please please please please. Alright?

Isn't that how you pray? Does it make a lot of sense? Not a lot of sense. You are scared to death. The Holy Spirit understands that.

How about for the nth time so and so, a child, a husband, or whatever, for the nth time so and so has messed up. And all you do is just go. That's all you do. You look at the situation and you just do that. The Holy Spirit understands that prayer and translates that sigh into something meaningful to God.

That's why we need the Holy Spirit. He prays with intelligence because he knows God's will and our will. He prays for what is needed because he knows what we need before we know what we need. He prays constantly. You know why?

Because the devil never sleeps and neither does the Holy Spirit. We sleep, but the Holy Spirit never sleeps. He prays with complete faith in God because he is God. I can be at peace when I realize that before God's throne, on my behalf, there is God's own Son as the mediator for all of my sins, atoning for my sins on one hand. And then on the other hand, there is the Holy Spirit offering all of my prayers.

When the entire Godhead is at work, guaranteeing my salvation. I want to tell you something, if this doesn't bring peace between me and God, nothing else can. In the Hebrew language, there's a word. It says, shalom. Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace.

The Jews would greet each other with it. It meant well-being or prosperity. In John chapter 20 verse 26, after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to the apostles and the first thing he said to them was, Shalom. He didn't say, well, here I am. I told you so.

I said I'd be back. He didn't say that. He promised them in John 14, he said, my peace I give to you. And then after the cross and the resurrection, he appears to them and the first word he says is, Peace. Peace.

Peace. Peace was the fulfillment of the promise that he had made to them before his death. The promise that there was now and forever peace between God and every person who believed in his son, Jesus Christ. The promise that for all those who would follow Jesus, the holy spirit would maintain that peace in a believers heart by providing communication from God and guaranteeing that your communication would finally reach God through your prayers. It's the same today.

For everyone who believes that Jesus is God's son, for everyone who repents of sin and is buried in the waters of baptism, Jesus guarantees that they will experience a lasting peace that cannot be taken away. If you have peace with God through Jesus Christ and if that peace is maintained by the Holy Spirit, you can be at peace with everyone and everything, because that's where it starts. You can be at peace with other people because you can now forgive. That's how you maintain peace with other people. Those who have experienced the forgiveness of Jesus Christ understand that forgiveness is the only way to truly resolve conflict and to create peace.

You think they're going to solve that war in Bosnia? Do you really think so? Do you really think that their 300 page peace document with all the little, you know, details, you really think that's going to guarantee peace? Boy, the minute the foreigners are gone, these people are going to slash each other again. You know why?

Because the word forgiveness was never mentioned one time as a as a part of their negotiation. No one had to say, I forgive you for blowing up my brother. I forgive you for raping my sister. I forgive you for destroying my village and imprisoning me. I forgive you.

There's nothing you can give me to make up for that, but I forgive you. Without forgiveness, there can be no peace. Peace also with the environment, because God's child understands his or her role as a manager of the creation, and not simply user or exploiter of this world. And peace, of course, within oneself. Because I tell you, if God has forgiven you, you now have the divine permission to forgive yourself for all your failures and weaknesses.

A lot of people, they say, well, just forgive yourself. And they say, well, I can't. If God hasn't forgiven you, you have no right to forgive yourself. And even if you try to, there will not be any satisfaction. But if you know that God has forgiven you, along with that forgiveness is the permission to forgive yourself for all the dumb, stupid, selfish things you've ever done.

But first, comes God's forgiveness. Then, your forgiveness of yourself. I invite you this morning to be at peace with God. I encourage you to come to the prince of peace, Jesus Christ and wash away your sins in baptism. Or if you have fallen away, be restored to Christ through prayer.

We encourage anyone who needs peace to come now, as we stand, and as we sing.