You Need Peace

My friend, you need peace. You and I live in a world that has suffered turbulence since it began, and we desperately need genuine peace as we walk through life. We need peace because a heart that lacks peace is filled with anxiety and fear. A heart that lacks peace is inwardly shaken when it faces real trouble.

Now listen, I hate to break it to you, but you are not the source of the peace that you need. No amount of yoga, or meditation, or beach vacation, or quiet coffee in the morning, or finally getting a moment to yourself to think - can actually create the kind of peace that you need. In that sense, you really are bankrupt.

That’s the bad news. But the good news is that Jesus came to make you rich. 

• "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich"
  (2 Corinthians 8:9)

How does Jesus make us rich? Well, he doesn’t just give us cash. No, He gives us something far more valuable. Jesus gives us treasures that cash simply cannot buy. One of those treasures is peace.

JESUS GIVES PEACE

You are not the source of the peace you need, but there is a source! Jesus came to give peace to people. Isaiah refers to Jesus as the "prince of peace" (Isaiah 9:6). Zechariah said that Jesus came “To guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:76). In the New Testament, I counted 7 times where God is referred to as the “God of peace.” Listen to just one of those verses:

• “Now may the God of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance.” (2 Thess. 3:16)

God is a God of peace and He actually fills people up with peace. 

• “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.”
  (Romans 15:13)

Are you lacking peace? Here is what you need to realize. You will never find peace until you go to the right source for peace. Lasting, soul-level peace comes from only one source.

3 WAYS GOD GIVES US PEACE

1. Peace with God

By far, the single most important kind of peace that God offers, is peace between sinners and Himself. There are only two categories of people on earth. There are those who are enemies of God and there are those who are at peace with God. I’m afraid that when it comes to our relationship with God, there are no neutral parties! Since God is supreme and sovereign and holy, you may either rebel or submit. This is a stark choice, and one that turns many people away. But the beauty of the Gospel is that God offers peace to His enemies. Those who submit to Christ through faith and repentance find peace with God! Romans 5:1 puts it this way:

• Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Since your eternal destiny rides on finding peace with God, this is by far the most important peace offered to you. Jesus offers you a treasure that money could never buy - Peace with God!

2. Peace with other people.

Jesus also enables us to have peace with others. You may think that it is impossible to have peace with certain people, but it is not impossible! In fact, one of the reasons Jesus died, was to make peace with other people possible. Paul wrote of the peace that Jesus offers between Jew and Gentile enemies in Ephesians 2:14-15:

• ¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, ¹⁵ by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace

Notice two things.

1. When it comes to peace between two enemies, Jesus is our peace “He Himself is our peace".
2. Jesus abolished the Jew/Gentile enmity “in His Flesh” that is to say, on the cross. So the cross brings vertical (Man/God) peace, but it also makes possible horizontal (man to man) peace! Verse 15 says that Jesus, through the cross, was “establishing peace.”

So through the cross, Jesus makes it possible to establish peace between human enemies. When two human enemies find peace with God, they suddenly find themselves fighting side by side under the same flag! Jesus offers something money could never buy – peace with other people.

3. Inner Peace

Jesus offers profound inner peace. By this I do not mean that Jesus will ensure that you always sail through peaceful waters! No, I mean that Jesus gives us peace as we sail through the storm. A man or woman who has received this kind of soul-level peace can sail through a hurricane and yet face trouble and fear with astounding inner peace. I know this because Jesus possessed this kind of peace on the night before He died, and He promised to give the peace that he experienced to his followers. Just hours before Jesus died he said this to his disciples

• “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27)

Jesus offers to give His disciples his own peace, that is to say, the peace that He had in His own heart. Think about the peace that Jesus had on this of all nights. Jesus is hours away from being arrested, beaten, and tortured to death. What’s more, He knows that this is about to happen. At this precarious hour, what does Jesus have in His heart? Peace!
Jesus says “My peace I give to you” This Jesus-level peace is what He offers to give to His followers. 

Listen, you simply can’t find this anywhere except through Jesus. In fact, that’s exactly what Jesus says next: “Not as the world gives do I give to you.” The peace that Jesus gives is unique – it’s a peace that the world cannot offer, it is a peace you simply cannot find by taking a nice vacation or listening to relaxing music. As good as those things are, they can’t compare to the peace that Jesus gives. The kind of peace Jesus gives results is a heart that, as verse 27 says, is not troubled, and is not fearful.

Jesus sums it up nicely two chapters later when He says this

• ^“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

My friend, Jesus came to make you rich. He came to offer you treasures that money could never hope to buy. Jesus came to give you peace.