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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Becoming a Peaceful Person |
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John
14:27 Third
Sunday after Trinity June
28, 2009 The central theme of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the salvation of God’s people. The Bible is the story of salvation. So I have spent much time over the past weeks talking about what it means to be saved. I have spoken about regeneration, which is the change Christ made in our lives to make us want to be saved in the first place. I recall to your minds that without Christ we were utterly dead toward God. We were sinners living in the fast lane to hell, and we liked it. I keep repeating this because it is an essential part of the Good News. Why do people sin? Because they like it. Why don’t people stop sinning and come to Jesus? Because they don’t want to. So, before we can come to God, He has to do something deep in our souls to enable us to want to be saved. He has to make us alive so we are able to eat of the Holy Manna He has set before us in Christ (John 6:51). This change is called, “regeneration” and it is the first jewel in this treasure we call “salvation.” I have spoken about justification. We who call upon Christ, or, as the Bible puts it, we who “believe in” Christ in biblical faith receive a Divine pardon that freely delivers us from the penalty of our sins. All our sins have been crucified with Christ. Our sins were placed upon Christ and nailed to the cross. When the nails pierced His hands and feet, it was our sins that were punished. When he cried out, “It is finished,” it was our sins that died. And we are forgiven. The sentence of hell no longer looms over us. We have been pardoned. We have been set free. “There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ.” This is what I mean by “justification.” Next, I spoke about our new life in Christ. Christ didn’t die to leave us in our old sinful ways. He died to give us a new life. In Christ, God continues to renew our inward being and to enable us to become more of the person we were created to be and less of the person we had become by our own sin. This change is what the Bible calls, growing in Christ, or, “sanctification.” Today I want to talk about something very profound and deep that becomes a part of the life of every true child of God. What I am talking about here is called by several names in Scripture. Paul called it contentment in Philippians 4:11. In Romans 15:13 it is called joy, and in I Peter 3:15 it is called hope. I think the very best word for it is the word used by Christ Himself when He said, “My peace give I unto you.” Today I want to talk to you about our peace in Christ. The peace Jesus gives is solidly based upon regeneration, justification, and sanctification. We are at peace in this world because we have been regenerated, justified, and are being sanctified. In other words, we have peace in this world only because we have peace with God. God is for us and Heaven is our home. What are the trials and tribulations of earth compared to this? I am loved. I am bound for a land of perfection and I will dwell there forever with my very best Friend who gave his life to get me there. Having this faith I can face life’s daily battles in confidence and peace. The peace Jesus gives is based upon His conquest of our greatest fear. What is our greatest fear? Isn’t it the fear of death? And why? Because we don’t want to give up life? Because we don’t want to give up beautiful sunsets and music and love and laughter? Yes, that’s part of it, but the biggest part of the fear of death is the fear of Hell. We know we are sinners. We spend a great part of our time and energy trying to deny it. We try to convince ourselves it is O.K. to “thou shalt” when the Bible says “thou shalt not.” But deep down we know we are wrong, and have been wrong so much that wrongness is a habit of our lives and an attitude of our minds. What makes this fearful is that we know we must answer to God for it, and we are afraid that we will be banished from His presence to a place of everlasting sorrow so horrible we can’t even imagine it. Isn’t that why we fear death? But in Christ that fear is dead. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where grave is thy victory? Christ has overcome death and the grave for us. “Death is swallowed up in victory” because we know it is merely the doorway to Heaven. Therefore, we have peace (I Cor. 15:55-57). Jesus gives peace because He causes us to live for happiness rather than pleasure. Most people spend their lives in the pursuit of pleasure because they believe pleasure is happiness. But they find pleasure, rather than satisfying them, always leaves them wanting more. You have probably noticed there is a “let down” after every big event in life. We go to sports events, or movies, or vacations or family Christmas gatherings, and while we are there we experience a kind of euphoria. But then we have to return to normal life, the euphoria leaves us, and we experience the let down. If we are not careful, we can pine away for the euphoria of the special events so much that we are spoiled for normal life. Even “church” has become a source of this euphoria for many people today because they go, not to worship God, but because they “feel so good” while they are there. Rather than giving peace, these special events, then, cause unrest and discontent. As Christians we know our happiness is Christ, not euphoric events or feelings. Feelings pass, but Christ is forever. The peace Jesus gives comes from the knowledge that we have been delivered from the despair of life without God. When I was a teen-ager the hippie movement was getting started. The hippie movement was a complicated movement because many hippies simultaneously held two opposing views as foundational articles of faith. First, they held to the perfectibility of humanity and society. Second, they held to the belief that life is meaningless; therefore, there is no compelling reason to create a perfect world. Based on secular humanism, hippies believed people have in ourselves everything we need to create a perfect world. We can eliminate war and crime and oppression and hate and everything that deprives people of happiness if we just put the right system in place. This, by the way, is the basis of most of the political thought that is out there today, and it is the reason why people flock from one political “messiah” to another, as long as he promises to bring in a perfect world. But, the hippies’ humanism failed to see that people are flawed, and that flawed people always create flawed cultures and cultural systems. So, in any system we create, flawed people will simply perpetuate the same evils and inequities that have always existed. When their communes and utopian dreams and gurus failed to create a perfect world, many of the hippies turned to the pursuit of their own pleasure. Many of them became corporate giants driving Jags with bumper stickers that say “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Others “dropped out” and gave themselves to “sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” They are the sixty-to-seventy year old men you see today with tattoos and pony tails smoking pot and trying to recapture their “glory days.” Some hippies turned to religion. I do not mean they turned to Christ as Lord and Saviour. They embraced religion as a diversion and a thrill. Some turned to helping others or “giving back” as defined by the secularist/humanist agenda. Usually their “help” is destructive of the true needs of the people they have decided to help, but the outcome is not the point here. The point is that they do these things in an attempt to create some kind of meaning for their lives. They are trying to escape from the dreaded hopelessness and despair that imprisons their souls. They are looking for peace. Christians have peace because we have been delivered from all of this. We realize that the life we lived without God was a soul killing life. The sins of the flesh others think will bring happiness we have found to be grief rather than joy. The toys they seek so greedily we have found to be empty trinkets whose pleasures are brief and shallow. These things “promise life,” but the life they give is a living death. By contrast, Christ gives us something worth living for. Only in Him can we find meaning and purpose in life. Only in Him does life make sense and only in Him do all the other things of life assume their proper perspective so they can actually become blessings instead of curses. And so, in Christ, we have found rest from the striving after things and meaning. In Christ we have found rest from the seeming despair and hopelessness of life. In Christ we have found the answer to all our questions and all our hope for all eternity. We have peace. Finally, in Christ we have peace the world cannot take from us. Our peace does not depend on circumstances or feelings in this world. We know the world is a dangerous place, filled with insurmountable problems that will eventually kill us and all our family and friends. We know about sickness, loneliness, suffering, and death, yet we have peace. Why? Because we know that One greater than we is in control, and that He is guiding this world according to His own purpose and plan. In Christ we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). We know He will guide us through this troubled world, and will bring us safe at last to that Land where all the troubles and dangers and fears and questions will be put behind us forever. This gives us a deep and abiding peace in our souls. This is the peace Christ brings. Let us pray. For Thy peace, O Christ, which the world cannot give, take away, or even understand; which enable us to face the trials and hardships of life with confidence and hope, we give Thee thanks, through Him who is our Peace; Thy Son our Saviour, Christ the Lord. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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