Peace Be with You

0:00The world is a scary place, isn't it? It's very easy to have a pessimistic outlook on life and situations when inflation is out of control, when eggs are the price of a kidney. Planes crash, bombs drop, sickness and hurt beat us down. Homes separate. Culture constantly degrades. It's not even a political thing, as many would like to claim, because either the progressive wokes are going to run the world, or the bad orange man is going to run the world. For very different reasons, every dinner table on any given evening, it can be heard uttered. I hope Jesus comes back soon because this is going to be the death of us. Whatever this is that is convincing you the end is surely near, is secondary really to the reality that we all live under this cloud of iminence. White knuckled, we clench our fists. Because we don't know what, but something is about to happen. And if that resonates with you, let me draw your attention to our first Christian fathers and their experience shortly after the crucifixion of Christ. Jesus was laid in the tomb on Friday evening, which we have already experienced this year, having been murdered, right? Essentially by an angry mob of Jewish people, and the prompting and the prodding of Jewish leaders at the hands of the Roman authorities under the leadership of Pontius Pilate. And for fear of their own lives, the followers of Christ scattered, didn't they? With the exception of at least John. We know that he was there at the resurrection, or sorry, at the crucifixion. The disciples then reconvened at some point, possibly that evening, and they gathered together. They locked themselves up in a room and they hid. It's possible, maybe even probable, there was some discrepancies as I was studying that the room that they locked themselves up in was the same upper room where the Last Supper was held on Thursday of that evening, Thursday of that week. Imagine the fear and the cloud of imminence that they were under that weekend. Their rabbi and their lord had been brutally killed by this mob, essentially, right? They felt certainly that they were going to be next. It's not even to mention the extreme sorrow that they were under facing the reality that their master and their friend was taken from them. He was killed. Just think about that. You spend years seeing all these unbelievable things from Christ. Your confidence grows that this really is the one who is going to save us, who is going to restore our kingdom. You're filled with hope and encouragement and excitement, and just as quickly as it started, he's gone. I don't know about you, but I've sat in those rooms after a loved one has passed. Everyone is sharing stories, right? Good times that they've had. We know that hurt. It's still there. And in this case, while there was perhaps a glimmer of hope, given that Peter and John had just this very morning, this Sunday morning, been to the empty tomb. Mary had reported that she had seen him. There was still much fear, much doubting, much sorrow. Maybe some have even reached that point of accepting defeat, right? Like we had a good run, we tried. Let's just wait and see what happens. How often is this us? Do you wake up, or did you come here this morning through experience or your observation of the world and feel as though you were just waiting or perhaps even hoping that the curtain would close? Have your past mistakes, your station in life, or your current circumstances brought you to the place where you just feel like locking yourself up in a room and white knuckling through to the end? Has pessimism, doom, and gloom overshadowed you? Or maybe you're just living. You're just serving the best you can, and you need encouragement to keep running this race, to keep pressing on to this upward call that we have been given. In either case, the resurrection of the Lord and the words to his disciples still speak to us very loudly and very clearly this morning. So that was a longer intro than normal, but please stand with me as we read the Gospel of John, chapter 20, starting in verse 19. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. This is the word of the Lord. Lord, as always, we thank you for your word. We pray and ask that your gospel is clear this morning and it is received. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen. So it is the evening of the resurrection. And the emotion that is used to best describe the disciples is fear. As I said, they had locked themselves in a room because they were afraid. And why wouldn't they be? Right? Everything that they had hoped for to that point had just come crashing down on them. They feared imminent danger. They feared the future. They feared unknown. What I want you to see is that this fear, or in this fear, that starts our passage this resurrection Sunday, this fear is a circumstantial fear. What I mean by that is the emotion was driven by their circumstance, their present circumstance. Not unlike the fear they experienced when they were in the boat with Christ and a windstorm swelled up, and they cried out, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And I think it's easy to chastise them then and even perhaps now, after the fact, saying things like, Come on, didn't you know you were in a boat with God? Even here in the upper room, with the doors locked, fearing for their lives, with many questions, very likely still mourning. We should look upon this situation with compassion. I point to the compassion we should have for these men and the circumstantial nature of that fear to bring it forward again to our day today, and say again that the world is a scary place, isn't it? Everyone in this room has come to Resurrection Sunday with some fear. We fear sickness, some other life-threatening thing. We fear wars and tariff wars. We fear bills, relationships, death, we fear pain, we fear persecution. Insert any number of things in there. Because everyone has something this morning that they fear. Something this morning that is burdening them. Something that's weighing on them. Something that's potentially pushing them to the point of saying, I'm just going to lock myself in a room, and I'll see y'all next year. At least today. I want to approach these things with the utmost compassion. There will be days and situations throughout the year where it will be appropriate to respond, as the Lord responded to the disciples in the boat that evening when the wind was blowing, and he says, Why are you so afraid? Today, though, when he meets with us on the day he walked out of the grave, on the day that he defeated death. This situation calls for something else that is presented to us in the text. I've said it once and I've said it a hundred times. If we don't consider the original language to help inform our reading, we miss, we run into interpretive issues, obviously, but we risk missing the actual fullness of what's being communicated. So in doing that, we want to consider this word peace when our Lord says, peace be with you. For reference, let me give you a couple other times that this same word in this same form was used in the New Testament. There are many examples of this, but here's two, 1 Thessalonians 5, 23. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13, 20 and 21. Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with every good that you may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. To use the definition pulled directly from the Greek English lexicon of the New Testament, peace means this: a conception distinctly peculiar to Christianity, the tranquil state of a soul, assured of its salvation through Christ. And so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot of whatsoever sort that is. So when Christ arrived in their midst, the peace that he gives them is not some hippie peace, for lack of a better word. Or a complete resolution from all trouble or trial. Or rather, he gives them the most important peace we need. The greatest peace that he can offer. Peace with God. He gives them peace with God. It's an objective peace that transcends circumstances. And it grounds it with a right standing with God. The magnitude of this cannot be overstated. As I have said, we all come here today fearing something. Burdened by something. And despite everything that I say this morning, almost assuredly you will wake up tomorrow with at least some of the same burdens that you had today. Because in the resurrection, we were never promised that all of our troubles just magically go away. What we were given, though, is that even if everything and everyone in the whole world is against us, if everyone is coming after us, because Christ has come out of the grave, because Christ has secured our reconciliation by defeating sin and by defeating death, we have peace with God. Romans 8, 31. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give to us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. I don't know about you, but that's the peace that I need this morning. That's the transcendent peace that I need to keep walking, to keep trusting, to keep living. That's the peace that the disciples needed for the rest of their lives, right? Because we all know that their lives just kept getting better and better after Christ showed up. Right? Consider Paul. 2 Corinthians 11. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once stone, three times I was shiftwrecked, a day and a night I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys, and dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights and hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure, and apart from other things there was daily pressure on me and of my anxiety for all the churches. But this is the same man who also said, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So what is he saying? What is Christ saying this morning when he says, peace be with you? The message is that this peace which surpasses all understanding, this peace that guards our hearts and our minds despite our circumstances, this peace that shows up when we are locked away in fear and frustration, is the reality that in Christ, and because of Christ, you are at peace with God? That's really the only peace that we need or that we should want. And how often have we heard the stories of so many people spending their whole lives in pursuit of circumstantial peace? What do they always say after having grabbed everything that they were after? Something's still missing. I thought all this or all that would make me happy. I thought if I could just get past this, just get through this, just make it to this level, then I would be at peace. It doesn't come. And the tragedy is, and why compassion is in order this morning, is that the peace that we need. The peace that we seek is not far off from us. As Paul tells the men of Athens that when we seek God, when we in the dark feel our way towards him, we find that he's actually not far from each of us. What assurance do we have that this peace and this nearness of God is available? Paul says in that same section that God has given assurance to us all by raising Christ from the dead. The reality of the resurrection is the assurance of the peace that we have with God. It is the assurance that whatever we do today or tomorrow or next week, whatever it brings, we will get through it. We will persevere. We will arrive with our Lord in glory because in Him, the one who lives. We live. And we move and have our being. Because He lives. I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future. And life is worth the living just because He lives. We, though, much like Thomas, will say, sure, that sounds good. I like what you're saying. But unless I see Him, unless I touch Him, unless I place my finger in the marks of His hands, I won't believe. We stubbornly reject the notion that peace. With God confirmed the resurrection is even sufficient for us. Maybe even like Paul, we plead with the Lord to fix everything. Lord, take away all of that. Lord, why is all of this or why is all of that happening? To which the Lord replies. My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. We see then in the cross the grandest display of God's power made complete in weakness. A power that offers to us peace today, tomorrow, and every day after until the end of time. Because through that weakness, and in and through the resurrection, we have the full and final remedy to the only problem we ever had. Enmity with God. Because it was our sin that fractured our peace. You can name anything and everything wrong with the world and with our present lives and with our present situations, and it can all be traced back to sin and the effects of a sinful and fallen world. Everything not perfect and not good comes from sin, the effects of sin. And the separation from God. It stands to reason then that the only remedy and hope in the midst of all that which sin has caused is to deal with the root, i.e., the sin that put us there. That is why Christ went to the cross. That's the whole point of the Bible. The whole point of the whole of redemptive history. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away everyone's problems and makes our lives better. Is that what John said? Behold the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world. Psalm 32. Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Please behold the Lamb of God this morning. And receive the peace. The eternal security of salvation that is offered to us through his death, confirmed in his resurrection. That and only that will bring you peace. And according to our text, it will bring us something else as well. This is verse 20 of chapter 20. When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. The wonderful thing this morning is that just like the peace of God that transcends our circumstances, the gladness given to us through that peace also transcends our circumstances. I read this week the last words of a number of Christian martyrs. I will spare you the emotional roller coaster. But I will say this. Every one of them that I read, having been given the peace of God and knowing they were truly at peace with God, left this world rejoicing. They displayed a gladness that can only be described as supernatural. In the most dire and imminently terrible circumstances, they leave us with an example of glad rejoicing in the surety of salvation in Christ. I pray for a peaceful year for us, church. I pray that the Lord grants us, you, blessing, favor, that you are healed from any and all ailments, kept free from anything further. I pray that the Lord protects us all. I pray that he protects our work. Pray that he protects our family. Pray that he protects our church. I pray that he keeps us in unity and harmony. And even, dare I say, I pray that he prospers us financially as churches and households. Pray that in his grace he sees fit to do all of those things for us. But we must know that those things in and of themselves will not make us glad. True gladness, true rejoicing only comes when we see the Lord. When we behold the Lamb of God who takes away our sins, when we experience the peace that comes from having been made right with God, when we rest in our reconciliation, and trust that our God will supply every need according to his riches and the glory of Christ Jesus. So is the world a scary place? Are we often filled with burdens and fears? Of course. But believe it or not, and I hope you believe it this morning, the Lord has fully and finally dealt with all of that on the cross. And through the resurrection, he has assured us that we indeed have peace with God. So what do I want to leave you then with today? I want you to close your eyes and bow your heads. Take a deep breath. Peace be with you. May you know and believe and receive this morning that because Christ lives, you are at peace with the Holy God for all eternity. We may not see him visually, but may we be blessed to believe and to be glad and rejoice in that belief. Hear this Puritan prayer this morning as we close. O God, most high and most glorious, the thought of thine infinite serenity cheers me. For I am toiling, troubled, and distressed. But thou art forever at perfect peace. Thy designs cause thee no fear or care of unfulfillment. They stand fast as the eternal hills. Thy power knows no bound, thy goodness no stint. Thou bringest order out of confusion, and my defeats are thy victories. The Lord God, omnipotent, reigneth. I come to thee as a sinner with cares and sorrows. To leave every concern entirely to thee. Every sin calling for Christ's precious blood. Revive deep spirituality in my heart. Let me live near the great shepherd. Hear his voice, know its tones, follow its calls. Keep me from deception by causing me to abide in the truth, from harm by helping me to walk in the power of the Spirit. Give me intense faith in the eternal verities, burning into me by experience the things I know. Let me never be ashamed of the truth of the gospel, that I might bear its reproach. Vindicate it. See Jesus as its essence, and know in it the power of the Spirit. Lord help me. For I am often lukewarm. Unbelief mars my confidence. Sin makes me forget thee. Let the weeds that grow in my soul be cut at their roots. Grant me to know that I truly live only when I live to thee, that all else is trifling. Thy presence alone can make me holy, devout, strong, and happy. Abide in me, gracious God. In the name of our resurrected Lord and King Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. Peace be with you.