======================================================================== WHAT DOES JESUS MEAN？ MY PEACE I GIVE TO YOU by Tim Conway ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon delves into John 14, focusing on Jesus' promise of peace to His disciples before His crucifixion. It emphasizes how Jesus' peace surpasses the world's peace, which is often based on denial and ignorance. The sermon highlights the supernatural nature of Christ's peace, rooted in truth and the Gospel, offering a deep sense of tranquility and assurance even in the midst of trials and tribulations. Topics: "Peace of Christ", "Assurance in Trials" Scripture References: John 14:27, Ephesians 2:14, Philippians 4:6, Isaiah 26:3, Revelation 3:1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon delves into John 14, focusing on Jesus' promise of peace to His disciples before His crucifixion. It emphasizes how Jesus' peace surpasses the world's peace, which is often based on denial and ignorance. The sermon highlights the supernatural nature of Christ's peace, rooted in truth and the Gospel, offering a deep sense of tranquility and assurance even in the midst of trials and tribulations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ John 14. So I've been preaching through the Upper Room Discourse in Manchester. Just to bring everybody up to speed, basically what we have is the Lord's last words to His disciples before He goes to the cross. So we call this the Upper Room Discourse. Basically, John 13-17. It's unclear exactly when they leave the room, but that's not really important. The real issue is Jesus is going to leave His disciples. He's going away. So we dive in today. V. 27 of chapter 14. John 14-27 is where I want to read from. Peace I leave with you. 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. You heard Me say to you, I'm going away. See, there it is right there. He's going away. But then He says, I'll come to you. That almost seems contradictory. I'm going away. He doesn't mean I'm going away and then I'm going to come back to you and so I won't be away anymore. The real issue here is that He tells them He's back up in 18, I'm not going to leave you orphans. I will come to you. What's He going to do? He's going to send the Spirit. And when He sends the Spirit, then what's going to happen? Things like v. 21. We're going to be loved by the Father. Christ is going to love us. Christ is going to manifest Himself to us. V. 23, we have the Father is going to love us and the Father and the Son are going to come to us and make their home with us. And this is all going to happen by the Spirit. That's what Jesus means here when He says I'm going away. He's going away bodily. He's going away physically. He's going to be seated at the right hand of His Father. But when He goes to His Father, the Father's going to send the Spirit. And so this is how the Father and the Son are going to come to them. They're going to make their abode. But see, they're troubled. They're all messed up about this. You heard me say to you, I'm going away and I will come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I'm going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. Now look, obviously that verse does not say Jesus is not God. Some people, it's like that's what they see there. That's not what that says. Basically, that is saying that the Father is more prominent than the Son in a certain way. And look, all you have to do is read 1 Corinthians 15 and you find what? Everything is going to be put under Jesus' feet, and yet, not everything. It accepts the One who puts everything under His feet. There's obviously a prominence order here. That doesn't undo the fact that in another place, that Jesus says I and My Father are one. So we don't need to get all bent out of shape over that. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe. And notice, He's coming to the end here and there's finality. I'm no longer going to talk much with you. The ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me. So, these guys feel staggered. And you would too. Listen, we all are attracted to people who love us. No? We all are. There's something very attractive about that. And you just imagine if you walked three years with Christ, who loved His own to the end perfectly. Can you imagine? And now He says to you, I'm going away. And you're like, no! All their hopes and expectations are collapsing. What do you mean you're going away? You know they were asking Him. Is it now? You're going to set up your kingdom now? They thought just like everybody else, all the Jews, that He's come. He's going into Jerusalem. He's going to set up. What? You're not going to talk much with us anymore. What? And these guys are troubled. That's why He says something like He says in... basically, I'm preaching to you today, verse 27. That's why He says, let not your hearts be troubled. You know why? Because their hearts are greatly troubled. These guys are really troubled. And Jesus is basically saying to them, men, things are good. You guys are troubled, but things are good. Things are exactly on course. They're afraid. And you know what's remarkable? Is Jesus isn't. I mean, there's a steadiness in Him in the midst. He's facing the cross. These guys are facing the loss of Jesus, at least physically. Jesus is facing the wrath of God. Jesus is calm and cool and collected right here. They're afraid. He is not afraid. Listen to this. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. I mean, Jesus has 10,000 times more reason to be afraid. And you can imagine. Imagine. Put yourself there. We don't know what He looked like. But as He's telling, when He says, My peace. Do you think His hand was shaking like He was all afraid? Do you think He was full of all sorts of nervousness and dread just engulfed Him? No. He's... Imagine. Imagine, men. My peace. And they're looking in His face. There was something staying just in His look, just in the tone in His voice. I give My peace to you. And brethren, the big thing is this. One of the things that ought to jump out of this is that Jesus does not count peace as a trivial aspect of the Gospel. This is a central issue. My peace I give to you. Now, let's think. My peace. Let's think of a definition. What does this mean? Peace. So, what's the opposite of peace? Problems? Anxiety? Fear? What else? Turmoil? War? Okay, so basically, peace is used two prominent ways. And it's the same in Scripture. It's basically used two different ways. On the one hand, we have things like, think about this, Ephesians. Now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off, you know the text? You were far off. We were far off. We've been brought near by the blood of Christ, for He Himself is what? Our peace. And you know what it says? It says that He got rid of the hostility. He's reconciled us both to God in one body through the cross. And what He's done is He's destroyed the hostility. You see, there's hostility. There was war. He is our peace. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to you who were near. That's the opposite of war. And then of course, you have that which is opposite of anxiety. And you know how it says in Philippians? What does it say? We're not to be anxious. See, there's not the opposite of war. There's the opposite of anxiety. And how do we avoid being anxious? By doing what? In all things? Through prayer and supplication? With thanksgiving? We make our requests known to God, right? Through Christ. Don't want to forget that part. It's our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So basically what you have here is you've got this first piece which is peace with God, and then you've got the second piece which is the peace of God or the peace of Christ. And that's what he says that he's giving them. Now, look, it's possible to have peace with God. You can be here today and be saved, and you actually have peace with God, but you feel anxiety in your heart. Is it possible to have the peace of Christ if you're at war with God? You see, there's two kinds of peace. And the reality is that one is outside of us. It's got to do with whether we're at war with God. One is inside us. One is subjective. One is objective. One is subjective. One is inside me. Whether I feel anxiety, it's got to do with my experience. One is outside. And the reality is that my subjective peace is built on and based on the subjective peace. You cannot have the peace of Christ if you're at war with God. It's as if it can't exist. The fact is that if you have any kind of peace whatsoever, then you know what? It ends up being in this category. What Jesus says, peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you, not as the world gives. You know, the world gives peace. If I'm at war with God, the only sort of peace that I can ever have, and you know what? People are fighting for it all the time. And when you were lost, you were too. And so was I. We fight for this peace when there is no peace. But you know, the world has this way of giving peace. And Jesus says I'm not giving it like that. Now, we're going to get back to that in just a second. But here's the thing. So often it's common to do exactly what I've just been doing. We talk about peace from the standpoint of the negative, like the opposite. War or anxiety. But the fact is, do you know what the positive aspect, the main aspect of peace is? It's not just an absence of war. Do you know what it is? It's in harmony with God. That's the positive. Or, when you think about the opposite of anxiety, I mean, what we really are talking about is this positive state of well- being, this tranquility of soul. Why? Because my sins are... I mean, I have this total salvation. It's just an assurance that resonates within me because of all that Christ has done. So, let's think about this. Christ calls it My peace. You want to learn something about this peace? Jump over to John 6.33 because Jesus references this again. Now, this is key. I mean, because this hits all of us right where we live. This peace. Jesus comes back at these guys in the next chapter and what you want to notice is there is such a massive essential characteristic of Jesus' peace that jumps out at us right here. Look at this. I have said these things to you, that in Me, there it is, His peace. In Him, you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart. I've overcome the world. Do you see what's happening here? Jesus' peace. You see what He's telling these guys? You guys are going to have My peace despite the circumstances that come in your life. Because what are the circumstances? You're going to have trials. You're going to have tribulations. You're going to have difficulty. But you know what? You're still going to have My peace. Guys, I'm going to go to a cross. I'm going to go to a Roman cross. I'm going to die like a criminal. I'm going to be scourged. I'm going to be spit on. I'm going to be mocked. No, I'm not going to go take a throne in Jerusalem. No, I'm not going to overcome the Romans right now. I'm going to suffer and you guys are going to suffer. But guess what? His peace trumps all of that. It rises above. That's the idea here. You're not going to somehow fall prey to being victimized by your circumstances. And that's the beauty of being a Christian. I mean, one of the things we can face whatever is coming at us. And oh, brethren, you've lived long enough. Such things come at us that we did not want to come at us. I did not want my daughter Charity to fall away. I mean, things come that tear us deep, but you know what? In the midst of it, He's promising there is a peace. My peace. I'm going to give you a tranquility of soul that is going to fill you no matter what events come into your life. No matter what you face. John MacArthur, I don't know if this was original with him or not, but he basically said, the heart's calm. This Christ's peace is the heart's calm after Calvary's storm. And that is so good. Imagine the storm of the wrath of God. He's crushed His soul, poured out like water, and you come take refuge in the shadow of that cross and there is peace no matter what happens in your life. And you know what the question is for all of us? Do we know it? Do we experience this? Do you enjoy this very peace that Jesus Christ is talking about in John 14? That's the question. What's it like in your life? What's it like in your heart when a trial comes? When difficulty comes? When there's a crisis? You know what the question is? Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I mean, this hits us right where we live. What does your Christianity do for you when things get really, really, really tough? I mean, that is a question to ask, folks. Because when Jesus says, My peace I give to you, He means for our Christianity to carry us through the darkest hour. That's what He's saying here. Brethren, are you able? You can kind of look at it like the tyranny of circumstances. Like these things are just some terrorizing thing that comes. Are you able to escape this? Or does worry, despair? This is such a practical test. Such a practical. It's so far removed from just this abstract realm of theory. I mean, this hits us right where we live, folks. Things are happening to you. You're in this place. You're in this position. You didn't ask to be here. And this is happening to you. And it hurts. It's not comfortable. This is the issue. What's your faith worth at that point right there? Are you different from everybody else? You know what I read? I mean, we read across these things. Sometimes you have to stop and you have to think. You know what you read about David and you can hear about his sorrows and his difficulties and his struggles. But you just think about this. Psalm 3, O Lord, how many are My foes? Now, think about this. If you have one guy in your life that's really difficult to you, you feel like he's against you, he's attacking you. I mean, you've got that neighbor, right? Barking dog and he throws junk in your yard. Whatever! Whoever you have in your life. If you had one guy like that, that can be difficult. He has foes. And listen to this. How many are My foes? Many are rising against Me. Many say there's no salvation for Him and His God. I cried aloud to the Lord. He answered me from His holy hill. And listen to David. I lay down and slept. I will not be afraid. There it is. It's that peace in the midst. You know this. Wesley, he was part of the holy club and he thought everything was good with his soul until he got on a ship and went to Georgia. You know what happened to him? They got in a storm. Can you imagine one of those? I mean, you were talking early 1700's? You remember the kind of ships they had in that day and they're going across the Atlantic and they get in a storm. Guess who was on the ship? Moravians. And you know what he saw in the storm? His own heart was panicked. He saw these Moravians, even the children, they're over there singing psalms. And you know what? God used that to convict him. He did not have the peace of Christ. He was lost. Maybe some of you know the story. And then I read the story about a guy, there was a Christian man that was on the Titanic. And I came across this story years ago. He found a piece of debris that he was able to get his body up out of the water. If they couldn't get their bodies up out of the water, they succumbed very quickly. The people that made it generally were in the boats or they were able to climb up on top of something. And this guy was able to do that. And so he's on this piece of debris. And you know what? His words there in the dark, North Atlantic, going up and down in the waves. He said, Lord, there's no reason for both of us to stay awake. And he went to sleep. He balanced on that. But that is the peace of Christ. It is the peace of God that passes understanding. And Jesus said, I give that to My people. I give that to you. My peace. And I would just say, I mean, you can probably go on and on with the list, but I would say it's His peace for at least three reasons. He gives it. He earned it. And He had it. Has it. The fact is, He gives it. He says, My peace, I give to you. It's His for that reason. He gives it. Listen, we're talking about something supernatural. This is a supernatural gift. This is not just something anybody can conjure up in the power of His flesh. This is a supernatural present of being one of Christ's people. And then there's this. He earned it. I mean, my inner peace is based on the fact that we know Romans 5.1. We know that we're justified by faith. We have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, He earned the very basis for our peace. And the other thing is, He had it. And what I mean by that is, when you watch in the pages of Scripture, watch Jesus. When He's confronted by His enemies, He is so calm. It's just like they throw stones at Him. He just disappears into the crowd. He's so calm and cool and collected. He's faced by the cross. Do you recognize in that upper room? He's instructing these guys. He's preparing them. He's faced with the cross. And He's so calm. There's this extraordinary calm that just held Him absolutely steady. Well, one of the things that popped in my mind when I preached this in the UK was just the account with Pilate. Pilate had him scourged. Look up on the internet about Romans scourging. Anybody that's looked into it, you know it had a wooden handle. It had these leather straps. They tied wire and metal and glass and stone fragments in there. And when they hit, guys, it didn't just leave a mark like a rod. It ripped flesh to pieces down to sinew, exposed bone, ripped open. I mean, your bowels basically were exposed or even fell out. These Roman soldiers, let me just ask you, what if you got hauled into a court situation where you were dealing with the man who was basically your judge and you knew that he could have you scourged? Pilate, what accusation do you bring? And the Jews said, if this man were not doing evil, we'd not have delivered him. Pilate called Jesus and said, are You the King of the Jews? And you know, the thing about Jesus is He was not uncertain about what was going to happen. He knew what was going to happen. There's a steadiness for Jesus to answer. Think with me. To answer this way, do you say this of your own accord? Or did others say it to you about me? I mean, that's the way a man answers when he is at peace. Pilate says, am I a Jew? Your own nation and chief priests delivered you over me. What have you done? Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants, they would fight. But my kingdom's not of this world. Pilate said, so you're a king. Jesus said, you say I'm a king for this purpose. I was born for this purpose. I've come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who's of the truth listens to my voice. Pilate says, what is truth? He's mocking. Pilate went out to the Jews and he told them, I don't find any guilt with him. You have a custom I should release one man at Passover. Do you want the king of the Jews? They cried, no, Barabbas. Pilate took Jesus and flogged Him. Scourged Him. His back is shredded. The soldiers twist together, crown of thorns, put it on His head, arrayed Him in purple robe, saying, hail, King of the Jews. They struck Him with their hands. Pilate, see? I'm bringing Him out to you that you may know that I don't find any guilt in Him. Jesus came out wearing crown of thorns, purple robe. Pilate said, behold the man. They cried, crucify Him. Pilate said, take Him yourselves. I don't find any guilt in Him. Jews said, we have a law. According to that law, He ought to die because He's made Himself the Son of God. Listen to Pilate. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. You know what that sounds like? He was afraid, and now he's even more afraid. Wait, we expect that from Jesus who's being flogged and about to be crucified. Why is Pilate the one afraid? It's like Jesus is just exuding stability in the midst of this. Pilate entered the headquarters, said to Jesus, where are You from? See, now he's concerned. Of course, you remember the account where Matthew, his wife says, don't have anything to do with that righteous man. Jesus gave no answer. Mark says, Pilate was amazed. Pilate says, You'll not speak to me? Don't you know I have authority to release You? Authority to crucify You? So Jesus just goes silent. He's not pleading for it. You know what condemned criminals are like? I'm guilty. I didn't do it. Jesus said, You'd have no authority over Me unless it had been given You from above. And so the idea here is just so calm, so controlled, Pilate's disturbed. You just have this serenity about Christ. This is Jesus' peace. This is what He's talking about in John 14.27 when He says, My peace I give to you. Like I not only give it to you, I not only earned it, I have it Myself. Like I'm able to face the cross for the joy set before Me. Like I'm stable here, guys, and I'm giving that to you. Supernaturally endowing that. And you know what? You can look in Scripture and you find things where there's an absence of that peace. And just a place that maybe it doesn't jump right out at you that would be obvious where that takes place. But remember this. Parable of the soils. You have in Luke's account, Sorah went out to sow his seed. Some fell on the rock. As it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. Jesus explains that. He says the ones on the rock are those who when they hear the Word, they receive it with joy, but these have no root. They believe for a while, but in a time of testing, they fall away. Well, how does this have to do with peace? Just this, testing. You see, ladies and gentlemen, when you get into a really difficult place and all of a sudden, you find the peace of Christ, that carries you through. You see, it's testing. Because the guy that gets into the difficulty in life, the test. What is the test? Testing. The test is testing what exactly happens to you when you get in the test. Does that peace grip you? Are you stable? Is your faith locked in? Is there something foundational underneath you? That's what a test is. It proves the very character and nature of your Christianity. What's going on? People who fall away when they're tested, they can't find this peace. What happens? They get in the midst of the trial and they're unhappy. They're frustrated. They're uncertain. They're fearful. And you know what they want to do? They want to control things. You get the person, oh yeah, when everything looked really good, when everything about Christianity, yeah, this is really good. But you see, it's like they want it on their own terms. Oh no, I didn't sign up for this. Well, if God's going to do this, I'm checking out of here. Folks, what about you and your walk? I mean, this is what we need to ask. What's it like in a crisis? Because the thing is we all have these theories. We all have these systems. We all have these ideologies. I mean, it's great when the birds are singing, the sun's shining out there, and you've got money in the bank account, and everything is good. Then we have all of our theories about Christianity. Yeah, what happens when it gets hard? And I'm talking really hard. Like God comes and takes something away from you that you just don't feel like you can live without. Your health, your spouse, your child. What happens when things get really hard? What happens when you lose your job? Difficult. What then? This is the test. Are you able in the midst of it to find a comfort, to remain untroubled? Do you know a peace that passes understanding? That's how the Scripture talks about it. Are you helped by your form of Christianity? That's what we're asking. I mean, you feel like there's very little that provides such a thorough test of our faith. It's one thing to say we believe. It's another thing in the midst of the trial to see our faith triumphant and victorious and we come out in a state of joy. I mean, look, if you've been a Christian the amount of time, I'm not talking about something you don't relate to here. You get in that difficulty and it's like, wow, God is real in the midst of this. I can lay my head down. I can go to sleep. I'm not going to be afraid. I mean, didn't we see something with COVID? That like shook. I was amazed at the number of professing Christians that it just seemed like in the midst of that, they had no steadiness and peace. They were just gripped by fear and anxiety. I mean, listen, we want to be honest. Is there a sense of security? Is it an anchor for our soul? Or when we get into difficulties, is there a foreboding? There's no rest? Listen, we used to have a guy in this church that every time he would approach overpasses, he got nervous because he thought they were going to fall on him. You can look at that. Listen, I'll tell you that we live in a world today that is riddled by all these phobias. It seems like there's just all this demonic stuff and people unrest. And is there a peace? Do you know this peace? You know what happened to Melody Green? You know who she is? Keith Green's wife. You know what happened when her husband and two children crashed up in North Texas? If you ever watch her testimony, you know what? She had no peace. After that crash, she said, I was very troubled. She said, I thought that if I had been in that plane, I'm not sure I would have gone to heaven. You see, no peace is absent. I remember Ruby talking about the prospect of her mom dying. And she didn't know how she was going to weather that storm. And you know what? It came. Her mom died. And it was like this great big tidal wave that she was expecting to hit her. It never came. It's like peace just carried her through. Brethren, this is one of the most glorious, it's one of the glories of the Gospel. This peace. The peace of God that passes all understanding. You can't understand this peace. You can't imagine it. Yet it takes you. You experience it. It's real. I mean, do you see what this means? That the Gospel is not mainly concerned about your circumstances. You are going to have tribulation. And it's like the Gospel doesn't even care about that. It cares about you weathering, going through it. Peace. That's the issue. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I heard Ryan Fullerton talk about just all the problems. Being in the ministry, all the problems in the church, and then being able to go home at the end of the day and play with his kids. Just peace. I remember some of you probably heard this. He talked about his wife. And his wife had these little Tibetan girls. Amma, Amma. And it describes how if the lamas took those girls back, they were going to do unspeakable things to them. And how his wife would be in tears, and he would come back, and that peace just had a hold of her. Resolute, at peace, going to walk before the Lord. Brethren, this is real. I mean, we have this triumph here. And no matter what our circumstances, we're kept right, we're kept peaceful in the midst. The thing we fear, it might or might not come. A lot of things we fear don't come. But you know what? Some of them do. And whether it does or doesn't isn't even the issue. Not the issue. Because in the midst of whatever does come, in fact, you know what you find? Is typically you tend to know this peace much more strongly when things are difficult. It's like God, He very uniquely, just I remember again, Ruby talking about her sister when she was going through chemotherapy and she had cancer. And just how difficult a season that was. And yet, the hardest day of the two-week cycle, it's like God would come in and just smother her with this peace. This is real. One of the things I would never want to do is I would never want to see a man in the ministry who hadn't gone through difficulties and see how he's tried and tested. I would never want a guy to marry one of my daughters who hadn't gone through some kind of testing like this, or either that I can see firsthand or at least hear about. Why? Jesus promises peace to His people. And so the question is this, are you helped by your Christianity? Do you know this? I remember, I tried to look this up. Don't you hate when you read? James, you read all the time. Don't you hate when you read something and then you think about it later and you want to find it and you can't find it? Anyway, I remember this story. It comes from the Scottish Covenanters. And I remember that the Dragoons, the English, and the Scottish Covenanters, they had a battle and the Scottish lost and they were captured. Many of them were killed, but some of them were captured and they're thrown in the dungeon. And one of the guys, it said he had like seven mortal wounds. Any one of which was going to kill him. This guy was dying. He was bleeding to death. They just took his broken body and they threw it on the floor in the dungeon and they took a pile of chains and just threw them on top of him. And as he was laying there, the guys that weren't so broken, they were chained to the walls. He said to his buddies around there that I don't know that I'm going to bear this much longer. And you know, if I remember the story correctly, the issue was his face was beaming. And it wasn't that he couldn't bear the wounds. He said, I don't know that I can bear the glory of God much longer than I'm feeling. It's like that piece of Christ just multiplied how many ever fold and just lavished upon him. We sang that. Here's Horatio Spafford. The captain says to him, this is where the ship went down that took the lives of your four daughters. Lost them all. You remember the story. The telegram. All lost. I alone am saved. The captain said, here's the spot, Mr. Spafford. He stood out there on the railing of the ship when peace like a river. There is a peace. And Jesus promises us to His people. I just kind of mark my own life. I remember one situation where I had to go to a funeral. A situation with a will. You just watch how people fight and wrangle over wills. And I remember something happened with my dad's will. And it was like I wasn't going to get something. And it was like that morning, I sat down and I read Hebrews 13. And I am with you. I'll never leave you or forsake you. And it was like this peace came over me. And you know what? Nothing in this world matters. I remember the first time I ever took a pulpit, I was absolutely terrified. My legs barely carried me. And I came up and I stood right here. And I looked out at the people. And a peace. I was immersed in. I remember when I was in turmoil over my daughter, Grace. And I walked out on the front porch at the house over there in Rosary. And just peace. I mean, these things are real. I mean, I remember when Ruby, she has a lump in the breast. And it's just peace. Peace. Peace. You get in this situation where you have this sense, you're aware of this curious calm. Martin Lee Jones tells the story about this Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter. Their daughter was sick. And you know what? When they prayed, they could not pray that God would heal her. Neither the father or the mother. And she was obviously very critically sick. All they could pray is that, Lord, You can heal her. You're able. They never asked Him to do it because they never felt liberty. Six weeks and she died. And they both said exactly the same thing. That we were aware of this strange, curious calm within. Look, we can't explain these things. It's a peace that overpowers us. It's God overpowering our circumstances with this peace that passes understanding. And you know what Jesus says? Not as the world gives. We probably should think a little bit about that. How does the world give peace? Nothing the world does. Jesus is saying, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives. Do I give to you? The Lord is emphatically stressing here that His peace is not like the world's. And did you know, the world does make its attempts at giving peace. That's what Jesus says. So it ought not to surprise us when we look around and what do we see? What do we see all around us? We see a world that's out there. This whole world is given to try to construct this peace. Is it not? When you were lost, did you not do that? Some kind of security. Something to put you at rest. The world is constantly offering you substitutes for the Prince of Peace. Constantly. And what's one of the big ones? Denial. Peace, peace when there is no peace. It's just flat out denial. I mean, I will never forget. Now you can ask me why I went to this. I can tell you another time. But Ruby and I went to my mom's Episcopalian church that has a female priestess. Anyway, there's a whole story that goes with that. But she preaches this message for like 15 minutes on Winnie the Pooh. That's another part of the story too. But she stood up and she said, like one or two people had died in the church. It was an old church in the mountains of North Carolina. And in the end, there were people that were sick. And you know what she did? You know what her approach to bringing comfort to the church was? She just declared, these things need to stop! It's like, I'm sure that helped everybody. It's just denial. We get that all the time. We're surrounded by that kind of thing. Craig and I worked over here at a company called Miller Curtin. We were in the engineering department there. There was a guy that was in the fabrication department. He was sitting next to me at lunch one day. We had a cafeteria over there, probably seated, I don't know, 500 maybe. The place was packed. And I just said to Steve, I said, just think, in a hundred years, all these people will be dead. Now, Steve was no believer. He just looked at me like I had three heads. He said, I try not to think about that. Yeah, that's what we do. You know what? We try to protect our circumstances and couple it with massive amounts of ignorance. That's what the world does. Protect the circumstances. Got to put locks on the door. Can't have the thief come in and take the thing that makes me really happy here. So we try to protect it all. You know, as we get older, we start to eat right. We exercise right. These people are trying to extend it. They've got to extend it further, further, further. You've got to go as long as you can. And you're trying to protect everything. Just denial. Ungodly. They just try to surround themselves with all these positive things and get the negative out of there. Just keep me ignorant. I don't want to know. Bury my head in the sand. That's how the world gives peace. Were any of you like me and my buddies? I mean, somebody dies and you go to the funeral. I mean, this is how my family was too. It's like you come out, you want to shake yourself like Samson shook himself. You just want to get out of there. Let's go get drunk. Why? Because we don't want to deal with death. We don't want to think about it. Let's go get drunk. Let's change our circumstances. Like what? That's going to go on forever? Like none of us actually sit down and think, well, you know guys, if we go get drunk, we still can't escape this thing. But no, we don't want to think that. I try not to think about it. And that's what the world does. That's where it comes. Refuse to face the facts. As I was thinking about this, I just thought about the Simon and Garfunkel song, Hello Darkness, My Old Friend. Now whatever darkness meant in that song to those guys isn't the issue. But that's how the world reacts. Darkness is their friend. You've got entertainment. You've got fun. You've got laughter. You've got pleasure. I pulled this off the Internet. How movies got us through the Great Depression. The movie industry's triumph in the 1930's lay in giving the public what it wanted to see. Its product was therapeutic diversion for millions of Americans who needed to get away from their troubles by providing this crucial relief American film reached a pinnacle of influence. You see what's implied here? People need to get away from their troubles. And so movies actually succeeded in helping people get away from their troubles. That was back in the 1930's. They're all dead now. What's happened? They've met God in judgment. Yet, did they get away from their troubles? I mean, this is what the world does. You've got drugs. You've got alcohol. Man just trying to create his own euphoria all the time. And you know the thing about the truth or the thing about the peace of Christ is the fact that it's always based on truth. The peace that the world gives, it's based on ignorance. It's based on lies. Peace, peace when there is no peace. That's just a lie. You know how people say to each other, oh, it'll be okay. The world says that to people and you look at it and it's like, it's not going to be okay. You know, but the world doesn't have an answer. That's why they say, like the priest that standed there in that church building, we call it that. That's why she says, just stop! You know, you say foolish things. Why? Because you don't know what to say. Because you don't really have an answer for anything that's really going to help. And the fact is that if people face the facts, I mean, we go down evangelizing Friday night in the city here. The fact is these people are going around and you know all the clubs are open and they're going to eat and they've got all these things, all the pleasure and all the worldly things, but do you recognize what would have happened to all the people in the city if suddenly there was a big screen right there and they saw what was going to happen to them when they get thrown into the lake of fire? Which by the way, that's where we're all headed aside from the grace of God rescuing us from it. And do you recognize how that just bursts their bubble? Nobody runs around saying peace, peace. If you suddenly come face to face with that reality, they're just blasted into oblivion. This idea. People just waltz around all the time trying to construct this peace. You know, we've got to get our retirement in place and we've got to have our health insurance and our life insurance. We've got to have it all constructed just right. Why? So that we're safe. So that we keep this whole thing protected. Entertainment. Oh, Ruby and I, our kids chipped in and they got us a 25th anniversary cruise. Now, think what you want about the cruise. We read. We had a balcony. We could look out over the water. There are many things on that thing that we didn't do, but we ate. But you know what? It's like these people save up for these kinds of things. When we first got on that ship, everybody was happy, excited. I remember this guy, he got this, it was just some ridiculously huge drink and he's running up the stairs and he's all excited. The last day, it was like a week-long deal. The last day, everybody was so depressed. I mean, it was visible. It was on everybody's face. Ruby and I are all happy. I mean, our life wasn't based around that thing. We go on and we live our life and we're on the way to glory with Christ. We're going to be with Him in paradise. I mean, why are we going to be upset at the end of that? But man just trying to create all this euphoria and all these different things. He's just living for this world, depending on it all for happiness. And all the things in this world that he just feels like he has to just keep it how it is for as long as he possibly can. Folks, the thing is we just can't keep it going. We were in Wales just recently. We were having breakfast in this restaurant and there was this lady sitting over there. She had a picture of her husband on the table. And we just hear, she's close to us, so we just hear these sighs and she's wiping the tears away. Just the emptiness of this world. But you see, Jesus' peace, it brings us face to face with the facts. Jesus' peace, He confronts us with the true cause of man's unrest. Just being found in sin and death and judgment and this holiness of God, this holy God who throws body and soul into hell. It deals with all these things. If we go to Christ, we confess our sins. We ask Him to have mercy upon us, not deal with us according to our sins. He stands ready to wash it all away and then impart this peace to us. It's just a miracle of grace that I can have that after the things that I have done, for Him to speak peace in my ears. And this is what Jesus does. He confronts us with the cause of all this disquiet and unrest of soul. Well, listen, I just end with this. If you don't know Christ, and we have people, listen, you don't want the fake thing. You don't want fake Christianity. You don't want the kind of Christianity that isn't accompanied by this rest, by this peace. That's no good. You know what? It's like the church in the Revelation that has a name that is alive, but it's dead. That's no good. And you can sit here and you can try to hide behind that, but you know what the Proverbs says? What the wicked dreads will come upon Him. There's no place to be passive here. Just think with me here. He says, let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Or Isaiah 26 says, you keep Him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you. Or Philippians, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. You see, it's not passivity. What we really want to do is flood our minds with the very truths that are calculated to really affirm and bolster this truth. And I leave this thought with you. But I imagine, like Peter and Thomas, after they go through all of this, I just imagine these guys, they didn't really realize what was happening right at the moment there in the upper room, but you know in years that followed, when they look back, they could say, Thomas, do you realize that night, that time there in the upper room, Jesus was about to be scourged, put on trial. He was about to be crucified and bear the wrath of God for His people. Thomas, do you remember how when He said, My peace I give to you, do you remember how He just exuded peace and He knew everything that was going to happen to Him? Do you remember how He loved us? How He spoke to us? Just His face was this peaceful Jesus. He took the Passover with us. He sought to comfort us. Do you remember the expression? Do you remember the tone? Just untroubled, full of love. He had joy set before Him. He was at peace with God. Just passes understanding. And then He comes. And there they are. They're locked in. They're still all troubled, afraid. And Jesus appears to them. And He says, Peace be with you. And then it says, Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. And then eight days later, Peace be with you. And this is how He leads us today. Peace be with you. Father, I pray that You would just communicate the reality of this to Your people. Lord, I know there are brethren, there are brethren in this room, their path before they get to glory, it has some sore trials, some deep suffering that You're going to call some of us in this room to go through. And oh Lord, I pray that Christ will be very good to these words and give His peace to us. Lord, we need this peace. We want this peace. We see it as one of the central elements of the Gospel. And we want that kind of Christianity that is accompanied by this very thing. Lord, let us know the sweetness. Let us know the fullness. Let us know this. Lord, we don't ask You to deliver us from difficulty. We just ask that our Christianity be real and vibrant and full of all the glories that we read about in the Scriptures. We want the supernatural kind that's spoken about in Scripture. Accompanied by all the peace. Accompanied by the visitation Accompanied by the manifestations. Accompanied by the Father and the Son making their home with us. Accompanied by a real sense of Your presence drawing near to God and You will draw near to us. Oh, we want the vitality of it. We want the living juice of the real thing resonating through our veins and through our spiritual selves. Lord, we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/raVZlKH3bqU.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/tim-conway/what-does-jesus-mean-my-peace-i-give-to-you/ ========================================================================