Perfect Peace for Anxious Souls

From Gospel Translations

Audio Transcript

John 14:27, “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 them be afraid.” So in the last hour of his life, Jesus is helping you not be anxious. “Let not your hearts be troubled.” The peace he has in mind might include global, national, political, intra-ethnic or inter-ethnic peace. Those aren’t at the front of his mind, though, and I know it isn’t because of what 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 hearts be troubled.”

That’s what he has in mind. Of course, there are a thousand fruits. This is the root of a new world order, but on his mind is: “You look troubled. Your faces look trouble. I love you. I don’t like it when you look that way. I don’t want to leave you that way.” It’s that simple. It’s that precious. It’s that personal. It is. He says, “Heart — don’t let your heart be troubled. Not your globe, but don’t let your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. I want you to be fearless, Peter. I want you to be a rock.”

“Not as the world gives.” How does the world give peace? It does. The world gives peace with retirement accounts. The world gives peace with health insurance. The world gives peace with bomb shelters. The world gives peace with safety nets in the society. The world gives peace with police. The world gives peace of mind in a hundred ways, which I’m thankful for and I’m glad they exist. And Jesus says, “I’m not giving that way. That’s not what I’m doing.” “What do you mean, Jesus, that you’re not doing it that way?”

And Jesus responds, “I’m not giving you the kind of peace that can be taken away when the police go away. I’m not giving you the kind of peace that can be taken away in India no matter what. That is not what I’m about.” How do I know that he means that the world’s peace of mind is circumstantially based? Like, get health insurance, get a nice retirement account, live in the right neighborhood, get the right locks on your doors, and then you can have some peace of mind.

“That’s not what I’m giving you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. I’m giving you peace so that when the locks come off, the police go away, the mob comes, and your cross is on the horizon, you’ve still got it.” I know he has all this in mind because in John 16:33, he says the same thing, only he makes it explicit: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

The peace that Jesus gives is not circumstantially based. It is peace in bad circumstances, in tribulation, in no health insurance, and in police breakdown — in societal breakdown. It’s in these things we have peace — the peace that passes all human comprehension. Why did Paul call it that in Philippians 4:7? What does that mean? That means human beings can’t grasp it, and they can’t make it happen. God makes it happen.

Does he give us any clue as to how? Yes, he does. He calls it, “My peace.” “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.” “I gave you my joy,” meaning, “I love the Father. I delight in the Father. The Father loves me. Come on in and have our love — our joy. I have a peace with the Father that is unrivaled,” Jesus says. “My peace is unrivaled in the universe. Would you like some of mine? Come on in.”

How do you get in? How do you get into the peace that Jesus enjoys with the Father? There’s no sin between the Son and the Father. The Son looks on the Father and he sees infinite original righteousness. The Father looks on the Son and sees infinite reflected righteousness. They love each other infinitely. They delight in what they see.

How are you going to get in on that? Because he says, “Let us go. I’m going to the cross tomorrow, and I’m going to purchase your forgiveness. I’m going to satisfy the Father’s wrath against all your unrighteousness and I’m going to provide a completed righteousness, so that if you would rest in me, trust me, you will now not just have a peace that I make, but a peace that I have with my Father. I’m making a way for you into the very experience, by the Spirit reigning in your heart, pouring out the peace that exists between the Father and the Son. I’m going to pour it out into your life, so that now you will have my faith and my joy and my peace.” We have a great Savior and a great salvation.

Right now, you can receive Jesus’s faith. Jesus was totally confident in his Father, in his cross-work, that Satan would be defeated, and all his saving work would be accomplished. And he invites you: “I’m showing these things to you so that you can believe with me,” and receive his joy, displayed most fully by enduring the cross to show the world, “I love the Father that much. I’m satisfied that much in the Father.”

And you can come on into this infinite, this Vesuvius, this volcanic love between the Son and the Father. Come on in. Receive this. Spend the rest of your life swimming in this ocean. If this sounds unusual to you — like you’ve never even heard anybody talk about inviting you into the very love that the Son has, the Father has, the joy between them, the peace between them — just enjoy the next thirty years of discovery. It’s very deep. It’s worthy of all your life.

Don’t walk out of here saying, “Oh, that’s heavy. They do heavy stuff at Bethlehem.” We don’t do heavy stuff. We swim. We just frolic in mystery and talk about it a little bit. Nobody knows anything, comparatively speaking. Receive his peace. “My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives.” Don’t let your heart be troubled. Don’t let it be afraid. Trust him.