Introduction.

Jesus gave his people his peace to deeply influence the way that they think and experience life. The peace Jesus gives is to be enjoyed at all times, but particularly when the storms and troubles of life are raging against us. His peace gives us inner peace when the rest of our world seems to be falling apart. Our Saviour wants us to enjoy the peace he has given us.

Enjoying the wonderful peace Jesus gives to this people.

1. Most Christians think of Satan as the one who brings subtle temptations to believers in order to get them to fall. While this is true, it is only one of the many things Satan does to sour our relationship with the Lord so that we do not enjoy the benefits and privileges of the Covenant of Grace. We can all relate to how Satan seeks to distract us from enjoying our prayer time with the Lord. We all know how Satan makes it difficult for us to love one another as Christ has loved us. The devil knows that you have received the peace of Christ and that he can never take it away from you therefore he will seek to rob you of your enjoyment of the gift that Jesus has given you. Paul in Romans 12:2 says, ‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.' The renewing of your mind is one of the key issues of the Christian life, Satan will do all he can to make the transformation of the mind as difficult and as slow as possible. Believers in Corinth were called babes in Christ, because they were still conforming to the thinking of the world. All false teaching comes from Satan and is designed to lock your mind into conforming to the world rather than being transformed by God's truth. Satan has devised many false teachings that rob believers of the joy that comes from the peace given by Jesus.
   
   
2. The most popular error created by Satan to stop believers enjoying the peace Jesus gives is a false dichotomy between things spiritual and material. Spiritual and material things are placed in separate compartments and are kept separately. This false dichotomy would seek to limit the peace that Jesus gives to spiritual blessings with applications confined to your spiritual life. The peace Jesus gives is essentially peace with God, changing you from an enemy to a son, and guaranteeing that this peace is absolutely unshakeable. You have peace because you know you will never again be an enemy of God; never again will there be a state of enmity between God and yourself. This peace is factual and unchangeable. Now everything stated here is absolutely true, but it is only part of the truth. We all know that when part of the truth is set up as the whole truth it is a lie. The peace Jesus gives also has a massive application on the material world in which we live, worship, serve, and honour the Lord. In John 14:27 Jesus says, ‘Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let it be afraid.' This context in which these words are spoken is the night on which Jesus was betrayed. The disciples are on the threshold of experiencing dreadful, confusing, tragic, sad, and heartbreaking events. Can these words of comfort be confined only to the spiritual realm of the disciple's lives? Was Jesus reassuring them only of their salvation? Surely that would misrepresent the Saviour's purpose and intention. Jesus gives the disciples his peace to enable them to face the world which is, and will be hostile to Christ and those who belong to him. Jesus gives his disciple peace so that they can endure the future. What was that future? Jesus supplies that answer in John 16:1-4, ‘These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming  that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when  the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.' As they faced these difficult trials the peace Jesus gave them was to be very active in their hearts minds and souls stopping their hearts from being troubled and removing their fear.
   
   
3. Take note of Jesus' application of the peace that he gives, ‘Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let it be afraid.' Jesus is issuing an imperative, it could be translated as, ‘Stop your hearts from being troubled and stop them from being afraid.' The word troubled could also be translated by the words; agitated, upset, tempest-tossed, restless or by the phrase; thrown into confusion. Jesus would not have issued this imperative unless he saw the disciples sliding into a state of confusion and perplexity. Jesus calls his disciples to stop their hearts from being troubled. Listen to W. Hendriksen discussing the heart; ‘the heart is the fulcrum of feeling and faith as well as the mainspring of words and actions.' Jesus knew that their hearts were caught up in a whirlwind of emotions; they were sad because Jesus had told them he was leaving them, ashamed because of their self-centredness, pride and sense of self importance, perplexed by Jesus' statement that one of them would betray him, and wavering in faith as they tried to understand how Jesus was to be a suffering and crucified Messiah. We need to remind ourselves that the crucifixion of the Christ is a concept that the Jews found unacceptable. The Jews could not place the concept of a crucified Messiah alongside Deuteronomy 21:22-23 which says, ‘"If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.' Jesus was crucified therefore he was hanged on a tree and accursed of God. A man accused by God could never be the Christ. Jesus' disciples would have had their faith in Christ severely tested by the crucifixion. Knowing this Jesus says, ‘stop your hearts from being troubled.' The peace Jesus gave them was to be their mainstay as they faced his betrayal, and crucifixion, and then proclaimed the Gospel of the risen Christ.
   
   
4. Jesus not only commands them to stop their hearts from being troubled, but also to stop being fearful. The usual word for fear is ‘phobos', but Jesus uses the word ‘deiliao'. This is the only place in the New Testament where this verb is used and so the dictionary meaning of the word together with the context must be used to explain it. Deiliao is fear of the worst kind, it is fear that makes a person timid and leads them to act in a cowardly way. This is fear that brings out the worst in a person. Jesus commands his disciples to stop it from taking hold of their hearts. They can do this because they have received Jesus' peace. I do not believe that Peter exercised the gift of peace given to him by the Lord and out of fear (Deiliao) denied that he knew Jesus.
   
   
5. The peace Jesus gave to his disciples was the same peace that was burning in his own heart. It was this peace which gave him the strength to face his betrayal and crucifixion. The pressure Jesus was under is very obvious in the report of Jesus in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Listen to Luke 22:44, ‘And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.' Jesus was carrying a huge load of pressure, but he was at peace and met his betrayal and crucifixion with great courage. Cowardice found no place in Jesus' heart as he faced wicked and cruel men totally committed to crucifying him. The peace of Christ enables believers to exercise true courage as they face dreadful trials. It was the peace that Jesus gives that enabled martyrs to die peacefully often giving glory to God. In Acts 7 Stephen died with Christ's peace in his heart.
   
   
6. What essentially is the peace that Jesus gives to believers? The peace Jesus gives is the unshakable conviction of the Holy Spirit that you are fully accepted and greatly loved as a son by the Father because God the Son has dealt comprehensively with all your sins and fully reconciled you to God. God who greatly loves you is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, and absolutely sovereign and guarantees you good in all things according to the covenant of grace. Peace is knowing personally the loving commitment of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to you for the glory of God, and also trusting the Lord to be faithful to the promises of the covenant. The peace Jesus gives rests on the attributes of God and trusting God's covenantal commitment to you. Practically this means that you know your God is completely and totally in control of all that happens to you. Nobody can do anything to you, and  nothing can happen to you unless it is according to the will and purpose of God. We can see this ‘peace' at work in the lives of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego.  Nebuchadnezzar had threatened to cast them into a fiery furnace if they did not worship the golden image he set up, listen to the answer they give him. "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we  worship the gold image which you have set up." (Daniel 3:16-17) In a very real way Nebuchadnezzar is being told that he is not in control, and cannot do anything to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego unless it is the will God. We see this peace at work in our Saviour when he is questioned by Pontius Pilate; listen to the discussion recorded in John 19:10-11, ‘Then Pilate said to Him, "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?" Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin." Jesus tells Pontius Pilate that he is not in control, and cannot do anything to him unless it is the will and purpose of God. The peace of God means that you are totally convinced that God is always in total control and absolutely nothing can happen to you unless it is God's will, and that God who is in control loves you and counts you very precious. This is a Biblical promise and pledge; you can take it as an indisputable fact, the true reality of your life.
   
   
7. Enjoying the peace that Christ gives means living according to this indisputable fact. We find the theory easy to understand biblically, but struggle to enjoy the reality of the peace Jesus has given us. If we really believe that our heavenly Father who loves us greatly is in total control we would not be prone to being anxious about things, we would not be terrified by the unknown and not give in to panic, we would not be driven by fear to act in a cowardly way. We would face every trial in life by resting in the fact that God is Sovereign and that we are precious sons to him therefore we have nothing to fear. This really brings us to the reason we do not enjoy the peace Jesus gives us. Our enjoyment of the peace Jesus gives is stopped by our lack of faith/belief/trust in the Lord. In John 14:1 Jesus says, ‘Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.' A troubled heart indicates a lack of trusting God. You trust the Lord, but do not trust him sufficiently to rest confidently in the knowledge that he is in control and that he loves you. We are like the father of the boy who had an unclean spirit and wanted Jesus to heal his son. Listen to what Jesus says to him in Mark 9:23, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" We believe God loves us greatly and is in total control, but somehow there is a nagging unbelief that stops us from trusting implicitly, unreservedly, absolutely, unconditionally, completely and utterly. We need to pray with all sincerity and desire, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" The unbelief we fight is in essence a wrong way of thinking. We read our circumstance and forget about God's sovereignty and his commitment to us, and therefore we act as if he is not in control. We do not think about who is in control, we simply respond in a way that puts our survival first. This happened to Elijah when he heard that Jezebel had pledged to kill him, he run a days journey and sat under a broom tree and asked the Lord to end his life. (1 Kings 19:1-4.) If Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego read the circumstances and forgot God's sovereignty they would have bowed down and worshipped the Golden image in order to save their lives. The fact of who God is and what our relationship to him is must always be in our minds. This does not mean that it's all you think about, but that the concept is ready for recall. Keep the file on the desk of your mind, do not lock it away in the archives of the mind.
   
   
8. We are tempted to think that men like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were extraordinary people, very different to ourselves and so we convince ourselves that we could never exercise the kind of trust in the Lord as they did. We need to remember that the faith that dwelt in the hearts and minds of these men was given to them by God and the faith that dwells in our hearts has also been given by the Lord. The faith that God gives you is to enable you to believe and trust the Lord fully as Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel, Stephen, Paul and John did. Never think to yourself that the faith God has given you will not allow you to trust God fully and enjoy every benefit and blessing secured by Christ in the covenant of grace. The Hymn writer Fanny Crosby knew the peace of Christ and enjoyed it through her very difficult trial of losing her sight. After an operation Fanny suffered permanent blindness. In a letter to a friend she wrote, "I have heard that this physician never ceased expressing his regret at the occurrence; and that it was one of the sorrows of his life. But if I could meet him now, I would say, ‘Thank you, thank you, over and over again for making me blind.' .. Although it may have been a blunder on the physician's part, it was no mistake on God's. I verily believe it was His intention that I should live my days in physical darkness, so as to be a better prepared to sing His praises and incite others to do so.' Fanny Crosby trusted God and rested in the perfect sovereign rule of God.
   
   
1. How do you stop your lack of trust from robbing you of the peace that Christ has given you? There are four things I believe are absolutely crucial
   
   
1. Make your lack of trust or unbelief a matter of serious prayer. You need to ask the Lord to give you a deep desire and a longing to trust him completely, to make you restless in your unbelief. Ask the Holy Spirit to make you aware of the distrust you have for the Lord, and how this distrust manifests itself in your life. Pray that he will convict you about your distrust, and make you grasp that not to trust the Lord totally is irrational and offensive to God. You will need wisdom to enable you to trace the source of your fear and anxiety back to distrust in the Lord. When you pray about this problem the request you bring to the Lord needs to be specific rather than vague and general.
   
   
2. Make a deliberate choice to trust God when you feel trouble brewing in your heart. Ask yourself the question; ‘Why can't I trust God in his Sovereignty and enjoy his peace? Do not let your feelings dictate the agenda, be deliberate in focussing your mind on the facts about your situation and circumstances and the facts about the God who is sovereign and loves you greatly. Talk to yourself and ask, ‘Why are you so distrusting o my soul.' Stop giving your heart and mind free-range to feel and think as they please, bring them under control. Be deliberate and think about the solid-rock of Christ upon which your life is built. Go to the Scriptures and meditate on passages that proclaim God's faithfulness and trustworthiness. Take God's promises and print them indelibly on your heart and mind.
   
    
3. Look to the Holy Spirit to help you. Ask the Holy Spirit to witness to your heart from the Scriptures the truth about God's faithfulness. Ask him to bring convicting power to the truth of God's promises. Paul in Galatians 5:22-23
   
   
4. Give yourself purposely and deliberately to obeying all that Christ has commanded you. In Ephesians 4:30 Paul urges believers not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Disobedience to Christ's commands grieves the Spirit and deeply affects the joy of your relationship with the Lord. Express your love for the Lord Jesus by deliberately obeying him. details the fruit of the Holy Spirit's work in believers; ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,  faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.' Notice that two aspects of the fruit of the Spirit are peace and self-control. Part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to stimulate the gift of Christ's peace in your heart, expect him to help you rest in that peace that Christ gives. Self-control will help you fight against the feelings of fear that so easily invade your heart and mind. You need self-control to be deliberate in your thinking and action. The Christian life does not come with an auto-pilot facility, it is a deliberate life.

Conclusion.

If you are a Christian, Jesus has given you the gift of his peace, he has given this to you to enjoy, providing you with security, stability and courage so that you can serve him. Do not allow yourself to read outward circumstances without the reality of God's presence and his commitment to you, Trust the Lord and look to him to fulfil his promises.