| Where Can I Find Peace? |
Series: John: Answers to Life's Questions (Week 6 of 8) Woodrow Kroll: "Go in peace." "Just give peace a chance." "Peace on earth." "World peace." Popular phrases--even clichés--but is peace really possible in our troubled world today? If so, where can we find true peace? Hi, I'm Woodrow Kroll. This is Back to the Bible. Thank you for joining me today. This is an international ministry using multiple media to teach the Word and touch the world. Tami Weissert is here along with me, and we have our study group, assembled here as well. Now that you've joined us, we're all here. Welcome aboard. Glad to have you around. Tami Weissert: We're ready to jump into our study. I liked how you opened today--just driving home this point that we really kind of take that word peace and throw it around a lot. What are we really talking about today when you're talking about peace? Woodrow Kroll: Yesterday at the close of our study, I said there are really two kinds of peace in the Bible. One is peace like a peace treaty, because you're at war with someone. Jesus is our peace treaty. He came to help those of us who were at war with God, and that's the entire population of the human race. He came to bring that peace treaty. But once the peace treaty is signed in His own blood, then He gives us a kind of peace the world really doesn't know much about. That's really the kind of peace we want to talk about today. We're here in John 14. If you have a Bible and want to join us, please do, because it's important for us to see what the Bible says. That's the basis of everything we say and do here at Back to the Bible. Let me just remind you, if you weren't able to join us in the last couple of our studies together, in John 14 Jesus is promising His disciples that He is going away. He is actually weaning the disciples from Himself, because He is about to leave them. He is making this exclusivistic statement in verse 6: "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me." He makes another statement here in verse 16 that when He goes away, God is going to send another Helper--"that you may abide with Him, and He may abide with you forever." He is talking of course about the Holy Spirit of God. But then He has to warn His disciples that when He goes away and the Holy Spirit comes, someone else is coming as well. The someone else is more ominous--someone dark, someone detestable. Someone is going to make his presence even more known in the world than has been known in the past, and you see that someone down in verse 30 of John 14. He says, "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me." Obviously, He is talking about Satan. What He is saying here is this: "I'm going to go, and I'm going to leave peace with you, but Satan is going to do everything he can to disrupt that peace." You and I can expect that. I think this is the central teaching of the Lord Jesus. That's the backdrop. What Jesus is doing here is He is giving us His last will and testament--"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you." That's His legacy to us. Legacies are important. I think every Christian should have a will. I want to admonish you to have a Christian will. This is something that every believer needs to do. We need to be wise in death, just like we have been in life. I find a lot of Christians who were good stewards in life are not very good stewards in death. Every Christian needs a will. A will is a way for you to have your desires carried out beyond your days. That's why here at Back to the Bible we've been helping people know how to be wise in their giving through stewardship, through wills. Let me come back to the passage at hand, though. This is Jesus' will. John 14:27. He 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 heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." That's His will. That's His testimony. That's His last will and testimony, and that's quite a legacy. Today people try to buy peace. They try to negotiate peace. Sometimes they try to force peace. Legislatures try to legislate peace. Some people even try to manipulate peace. But Jesus says, "You get peace just because you belong to Me." It's a package deal. You take the Savior and you not only get salvation and heaven, but you get peace before you get there. So if peace is so important and it's the legacy of Jesus in this world, what should we expect to learn about peace? This is a word--peace--that is used more than 400 times in the Bible. It's a predominant theme in the Bible. Three hundred of them are in the Old Testament; one hundred in the New Testament. What the Bible has to say about peace always seems to relate to God and our relationship with God. Basically it says this: Know God; know peace. Don't know God; don't know peace. It's just that simple. God is said to be the God of peace (Romans 15; 1Corinthians 7; Philippians 4; Colossians 3, and many, many other places). Peace is said to come from God the Father through the person of the Lord Jesus. I'm not going to take the time to give you all the references. I notice on my little note card here I have 17 references listed here where it says, "You have peace through the Son of God because God the Father gives it to you." If you'd like those references, come to our Web site. They'll be posted there on our Web site. But here's the point. Real, legitimate peace in this world is not going to be found in the places that most people go looking for peace. Jesus, on the other hand, says, "The legacy I give to you as followers of Me is exactly what the world is looking for and cannot find. Peace I leave with you; My peace give I unto you." Then He makes this dramatic comment: "Not as the world gives do I give you." In other words, the way the world sees peace is not what you should expect to come from Jesus. But here's the good news: What you get from Jesus is not at all like what the world expects. Anymore if you read the newspaper or watch the TV news or get your news on the Internet or wherever you get it, peace is a pretty illusive quality in our world today. How is it that we can have this kind of peace? Where is this peace going to come from? How will we know when we have found it? All good questions. Bob. Bob: Dr. Kroll, you've hit a significant issue with me. I often read the verse, "Come unto Me and I will give you rest." I've come to Him many, many times saying, "I don't need rest; I need peace." So you're dealing with what I've had to deal with. Woodrow Kroll: The interesting thing, Bob, is when we pray to God, we want answers. Give me a yes or a no; a definitive answer. Sometimes that doesn't come. That's where the rest comes in knowing that even if He doesn't answer us, He knows what our situation is and He has an answer. Moving from rest to peace is when we trust Him to be exercising the answer even if we don't see the results. Lots of people today say, "Lord, if I can't see it, I can't believe it." The fact of the matter is if you believe it, you don't need to see it. That's where peace comes in just simply trusting God. Tami Weissert: The Gospel of John takes us, well, face-to-face with Jesus. So it's written pretty simply and to the point. Even so, it does contain some deep theology. So to help you get the most out of it, Dr. Kroll put together a Bible study and it's called John: Face to Face With Jesus. The 22 lessons in this study will help you work through the Gospel and develop a clear understanding of the life, the ministry and the love of Jesus. So whether you're a seasoned Christian or a brand-new believer, you'll love the way that John: Face to Face With Jesus engages you and makes you think through the passages and apply what Jesus said to your life. Hey, it also works well in a group setting, so think ahead for your small group as well as yourself. To order John: Face to Face With Jesus just call our toll-free number. It's 1-800-759-2425. Ask for the Bible study on John. To order online, go to backtothebible.org. As we come to know the Lord, we want to our lives to be at peace and we don't necessarily understand that it's not our circumstances. It's inside. Woodrow Kroll: Exactly. I think the key here is what we're looking at here in the second half of our study today, and that is "Where does this peace come from?" Where should we expect to find this peace? Let's come back to this passage. I want to explain specifically what Jesus has in mind when He says, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you." It's evident from the words of Jesus and also evident from the rest of Scripture that peace is to be found in a person, not in a movement, not in an organization and not in a building, place or thing. That was true in the Old Testament. There are many promises in the Old Testament in which the person--the Messiah--would come to Israel and the Messiah would bring to Israel peace. For example, Psalm 72:1,7 says:
"Give the king Your judgments, O God, Now where was this peace coming from? It was coming through God's Son, Messiah. So Jesus when He comes as Messiah, as He did, brought with Him the potential for peace for all of us. That was a promise from the Old Testament. But it was found in a person, not in a country, not in a movement, not in a thing. The prophet Haggai in the Old Testament agrees. Haggai 2:7, "'And I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations [that's a reference of course to the Messiah] And in this place I will give peace,' says the LORD of hosts." When does peace come to the nations? When the Desire of All Nations comes. So who is it that brings peace? It's a person who brings peace, not a movement or a building. So peace was expected not in an army. Peace was not expected in a treaty. Peace was to be expected in a person. Now the person of God, the Messiah of Israel, comes in the person of the Lord Jesus. Even the predictions of His coming are associated with peace. Listen to this. This is Micah 5:2,
"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, This One shall be peace; this person born in Bethlehem of Judea. Do you know anybody who was born in Bethlehem of Judea? Listen to this. This is Micah 5:5: "And this One shall be peace." Not just bring peace. This One actually shall be peace. This person born in Bethlehem Ephrathah will be the One who brings and is everlasting peace to you and me.
"For unto us a Child is born, His name shall be called Prince of Peace. Again, I want you to see this very clearly. The expectation of peace in the Bible has never been in a movement, never been in legislation, never been in a treaty, never been in a government. It's always been in a person. Peace comes through a person. The person here is the One who is a Child who is born. Does that sound like anybody you know? We have Bethlehem. We have the Child being born. There's only one person I think these prophecies can refer to, and that's the Lord Jesus Himself. So when Jesus finally comes to this earth, when He is born as a babe in a stable in Bethlehem and He is laid in a manger--it isn't Christmas, but you remember the Christmas story. The shepherds were out tending their flocks at night. An angel comes to them and says, "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth, peace." When Jesus came, the announcement was that peace came. Why? Because all the Old Testament prophets who spoke about peace spoke about peace coming in a person. Jesus comes, and the announcement from heaven is that peace has come. You and I should not be surprised then when Jesus says in chapter 14, verse 27, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you," because peace was always anticipated as coming in a person. When you get that person, Jesus says, you get the peace that comes with that person. The legacy of Jesus is the legacy of peace. It's extremely appropriate for Jesus to make reference to peace and make reference to Him bringing peace that is extremely uncommon. Now God prepared a way for peace for us. He prepared a way for His people Israel in the Old Testament. He said, "I'm going to clear out the land before you. I'm going to bring you into a land flowing with milk and honey." But they didn't have peace in the land because they failed to fully obey God. Jesus, on the other hand, said, "I will come and I will do the will of the Father. The will of the Father is for Me to go to the cross and die to pay the penalty for your sin and bring peace to you." The apostle Paul picks up on this. He talks about the presence of peace being a lack of anxiety in our lives. Philippians 4, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." I challenge you to find verses in the Bible where peace is promised to you and they're not related to a person. We have this concept that peace has to come through government, through legislation, through warfare, through all the variety of things that sinful people do who are looking for peace. Yet the Bible is so very, very clear. Peace was always promised in a person. Peace was provided the night a particular person came and was born in Bethlehem. Now that same person says, "I'm going to leave My peace with you. If you want peace in the world, you have to get it through Me." Tami Weissert: So today if we want peace, what I hear you saying is that we're only going to find that if we come to a personal relationship in Jesus Christ. Is that correct? Woodrow Kroll: Absolutely correct. That doesn't mean if I come (which I have) to an understanding of salvation in my own life and I am at peace with God and I am no longer warring against God--in fact, I'm at peace with the world--that doesn't mean that my presence in the world, having personal peace, is going to change the situation in the world. God doesn't promise that. He says there's going to be war and rumors of war. But in the midst of all that, you and I can be at peace. One of my favorite hymns written by Francis Ridley Havergal, an old hymn we hardly ever sing anymore, is the hymn "Like a River Glorious." Listen to the words of this hymn:
Like a river glorious is God's perfect peace What tremendous truth that is! God brings peace into our lives like a river, and it gets deeper all the time and flows faster all the time. Then she says:
Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand Those in the hollow of the hand of God--those who have come to know salvation in Jesus Christ--have a peace the world has no concept of. Allen. Allen: It's not unusual for a new Christian to experience a lack of peace once they've accepted Christ. Sometimes it seems like the world falls apart around them. It seems to kind of contradict the idea of peace coming as you receive Christ as your Savior. Woodrow Kroll: Yet the promise of peace is not the promise of changed circumstances. It's the promise of a quiet heart in the midst of circumstances. When I became a believer, my circumstances in this world didn't automatically become rosy and non-threatening. But what happened was in the normal circumstances of life, I now can deal with those without being anxious, without being worrisome, because God has given me a peace that He knows what He is doing. He is in charge. I think there are two great lessons in life to be learned. Number one, there is a God. Number two, you aren't Him. You learn those two lessons, and the rest is pretty easy. What I've had to learn, and you and I have to learn together, is when we know God is in control, we know peace in our hearts. Allison. Allison: Dr. Kroll, you talk about peace being a person. There are people out there who struggle to find peace, whether it be through drugs or sex or whatever it may be. They're looking for that peace because they feel that people have failed them so many times. It's hard to trust a person as peace. Woodrow Kroll: You're right. People look for peace in the bottom of a bottle, the end of a needle, meaningless relationships that bring sex but don't bring love. We look for peace in people and places and things. Well, peace doesn't come in places. It doesn't come in things. It doesn't come in all people. In fact, it doesn't come in any person except one. That's why Jesus' promise here is so important. It's either a promise that is believable or not. For those of you who are struggling with peace in your life, the promise is not that your circumstances will be different. The promise is that in those circumstances, God will give you peace. That's the peace, He says, "I leave with you; the peace I, only I, can give unto you." Tami Weissert: So Wood, if you've been a Christian for a long time, you would think that you would be really good at having peace or maybe be more peaceful. But that's not always the case. In just looking at my own life, there are times when I don't have peace. So how do we deal with that? Woodrow Kroll: Sometimes we're overwhelmed by our circumstances. Our peace meter is a little bit weak. But that doesn't change the peace that Jesus gives to us. The way to strengthen peace is to get more of the person who gives us peace and apply that to the world, rather than being so concerned about what's happening in the world that we forget about the promise of peace that Jesus gives to us. Again, my encouragement to you is that the more time you spend with God in His Word, the more peace you have. So if you're worried today, don't read the newspaper. Read the Bible. Tami Weissert: The Gospel of John provides the answers to so many of life's questions. Some of them you may have kept in your heart for years. But the thing about questions is that eventually they just have to come out and be answered. So we want to answer as many of those questions as possible in this series, not with what we think, but with what the Bible says. So here's the thing: There are actually eight weeks of this radio series. Now that's a lot of studies--40 to be exact. And chances are you might miss one. Not only that, there is so much good material here, you'll definitely want to share it. And you'll want a chance to go back and review it too. So to help you do that, we're offering this entire eight-week series on CD. Get all 40 of Dr. Kroll's verse-by-verse studies on the Gospel of John. It is a practical way to study the Bible. Listen to the lesson when and wherever you want. Play it. Pause it. Go back and review it any time. But first, you've got to order it. You can do that very easily by giving us a call. Our phone number here at Back to the Bible is 1-800-759-2425. Or if you prefer, you can send us your order. Here's our address: It's Back to the Bible, Box 82808, Lincoln, NE 68501. Here's the big question of the day. How do we know if we've found peace? Woodrow Kroll: Well, I don't have a checklist. "If you see these ten things, you know you're at peace with God." I do know that when you're experiencing the peace of the Lord Jesus, you're less stressed about life. It doesn't mean life isn't stressful; you are less stressed about the things in life. You're not so concerned about the future because you know Who is in charge of the future and you can trust Him. You can face the troubles of life with a new confidence and a different attitude and with a hope that others can only dream of. When you and I do that, it gives us some evidence that there is peace in us that other people don't find in them. Tami Weissert: One of the things I notice is that when I really have peace, I also feel very strong in the Lord. Woodrow Kroll: They're tied together. The strength that comes from the presence of the Lord Jesus in our lives is the strength that brings peace to us. The peace we have gives us the opportunity to do things in His strength we wouldn't ordinarily be able to do. People who are worried about their own future can never be worried about your future. I've never met a person who was worried about whether or not his or her salvation was good who was ever concerned about sharing salvation with anybody else. Tomorrow here on our study, we're going to look at strength. We're moving into chapter 15 tomorrow, the story of Jesus and the vine. Great, great passage. I hope you'll plan to be with us, because this is where the whole passage really gets exciting. We're going to look at the source of strength. What is your true source of strength? That's the discussion we'll have tomorrow here in our personal Bible study. This is Back to the Bible. I want to thank you for joining us--the group here, and thank you for joining us in your car or your home or wherever you are. God bless you. I'm Woodrow Kroll. Have a good and godly day. Scripture used in today's program was taken from the New King James Version of the Bible. |
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