Tending the Garden for a Good Harvest: Peace
Isaiah 54:10 “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
Galatians 5:22-23: But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things there is no law.
As we’ve been looking at the Holy Spirit over these past three weeks, I wonder something: are you any more loving and any more filled with joy than you were before? Part of being filled with the Holy Spirit is when you are, He brings about the Fruit. He brings that love and joy that we talked about over the past couple of weeks.
One of the side effects of speaking on the Holy Spirit is that the devil doesn’t like it. He would rather you serve a distant impersonal God. He would rather you not know that your very body is a temple of the Holy Spirit – that the Spirit of God resides within you with power! He hates when you are growing more in love with the Holy Spirit. That is something that is horrifying to the devil and often not understood or truly believed by people.
When Jesus says things like, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), the devil wants us to think “that’s impossible.” Because in our own power, it is impossible. But remember that “What is impossible with men is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). And if God Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, lives within us, then these things are possible. If you are making strides toward the Holy Spirit, you’ve probably experienced difficulty even the past three weeks. I beg you to take heart; it’s not easy, but it’s absolutely worth it.
Today we are looking at the third aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit: peace. If I asked you to define peace, we would probably have as many definitions as we have people. In a time of war, most would probably define peace in terms of war – or, better, absence of war. In fact, this was a main thrust of Old Testament usage of the word peace. Israel was constantly at war, and they looked forward to a time when they wouldn’t be fighting. They expected a Messiah who would decimate Israel’s enemies in order to bring lasting peace to Jerusalem.
Who wouldn’t want this? Who wouldn’t want fighting to stop? I pray for our troops to come home safely from Iraq and Afghanistan, and I struggle with my personal feelings on those wars and admit that sometimes what I think our country ought to do does not match with what I believe the church is called to do. It’s one reason I pray for President Obama and his advisors to make wise decisions, especially with regard to foreign relations. I most definitely want peace in the world.
But what does this peace look like? In the time of the OT prophets, they looked for a Messiah who would bring Israel back to supremacy. They didn’t just want peace with their neighbors; they wanted to overrun them. Peace was peace through power. It was “peace for us” but what about “them”?
This kind of peace wasn’t God’s peace, however, because God loves “them” too. Thus the Messiah turned every notion upside-down with his talk of “love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.” God’s peace is bigger than all of this. God’s peace is best understood through the Jewish concept of Shalom which covers health, prosperity, security, friendship, and salvation. It could also be spoken of as “wholeness.” This peace is only present because of God’s own presence and his favor toward his people.
The pithy saying is this: No God, no peace. Know God, know peace. But it’s more than just knowing of God; we can only experience this kind of peace when God’s Holy Spirit fills us. This is the kind of peace that someone can experience when situations are at their worst. In Isaiah 54:10 we read the words of God: “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. This is one of those sayings that we should pick up on: God is using a rhetorical device; he’s using the ridiculous to prove a point. Though the mountains be shaken and hills be removed? They aren’t. But even if they were, God’s unfailing love and promise of peace will not.
What does this mean for us? Psalm 34:14 tells us to Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. We can’t just sit back and expect peace to happen. Much like repentance means turning 180 degrees and going the opposite direction, seeking peace doesn’t mean we sit passively. The psalmist tells us that we have to pursue peace. 1 Peter 3:10-11 likewise tells us Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.
This applies to every one of us. We are called to seek peace. This peace comes on various levels; we often focus on peace with others, (Romans 12:18: If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone) but before we can have peace with others, we have to first have peace with God. There is only one way to have peace with God. This is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:19-20 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
And Romans 5:1 tells us Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. God offers this peace to everyone, but it’s only through Jesus that we can have peace with God. This peace means we’ve been forgiven. Every wrong we’ve done in the past has been erased.
And as we seek inner peace, know that (Isaiah 32:17) The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. If we live in right relationship with God, which is only possible through Jesus’ gift on the cross, the natural fruit of this right relationship is peace.
Romans 8:6 tells us that The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. This is the key to peace. A mind controlled by the Spirit. This is why peace is one aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit; true peace only comes by the Spirit. This is why we see this scene in John 20 where Jesus has risen from the dead and appears to his disciples. (John 20:19-22). On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”
These two events are one in the same: Jesus pronouncing “Peace be with you!” and his giving them the Holy Spirit. This is how they received peace. He had already told them that he didn’t give the same kind of peace that the world gives (John 14:27: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.). He had already told them that they would have troubles in this world (John 16:33 I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.). But in giving the Holy Spirit, he gives a peace that is beyond anything of this world.
He doesn’t force this on us, however. He made it clear that our response to him makes a huge impact. In Matthew 10:32-33 he says this: “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
This means that our lives here have a huge impact on the peace we experience. And before we can have this peace, we must accept that He is the source of all peace. In our hymnal is a song called Let There Be Peace on Earth. Its main chorus says “let it begin with me.” Peace never begins with me. Peace begins with God. I know this isn’t the real meaning behind the song’s lyrics; they were meant to point us toward ourselves – if we want peace in the world, we can’t just hope that someone else makes that peace. We have to actively be peacemakers. But to do that, we can’t start with ourselves. We must start with the Holy Spirit, because He is the one who makes peace.
That said, it’s important to recognize that our peace brings peace to others.
In Romans 15:13, we read this benediction: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. I love that word: overflow. It means that it just pours out. And who really controls where something overflows? It pours out all over the place. Just like we don’t choose who to love – God’s overflowing love pours out on us and fills us to the point where it overflows to all others, so too does His peace overflow. We don’t get to choose who to make peace with. Peace is a gift of God that must be experienced and shared in human relationships. Jesus called his followers to live at peace with one another (Mk. 9:50b) and he empowered them to bestow peace on those who are worthy (Mt 10:13).
This is important, because now we don’t just have peace, but we give it, too. Jesus calls us to be peacemakers, calling the peacemakers blessed, and declaring peacemakers “sons of God” (Matt 5:9), but even He admits that peacemaking is sometimes unsuccessful (Mt 10:34-36). Jesus said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'”
We have to remember that peace is more than just an absence of fighting and that true peace only really comes from the Holy Spirit; often there is much more going on than what we can see on the surface. We can never be fully at peace with those who are actively fighting against the Holy Spirit. When someone has allowed Satan to have a stronghold in their lives, often it will demonstrate itself through ones’ relationships. And if you are in relationship with people who do not have the Holy Spirit, you can be certain that they don’t have the Holy Spirit’s peace. Therefore, they cannot be expected to live fully at peace with you if you are a vessel of the Spirit.
Paul reminds us, however, that our enemy is not that person. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 5:12). We’re not fighting against them; we’re fighting spiritual battles. Remember that when you have conflict with someone; that it might be something bigger. Putting on the full armor of God is key – I just don’t have time to dwell on it, but for details you can go back and check out my previous sermons ( on the left column, go down to where you see “armor of God” as a heading and click on it; that will take you to all of the sermons on this topic).
Truth is what holds it all together, and we must acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. A right relationship with Him guards our hearts. The Good News of peace makes our feet ready to share. Faith protects us from Satan, extinguishing his flaming arrows. Our salvation through Jesus Christ protects our head, and our main offensive weapon is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
Strange to be talking about fighting when our goal is peace, but remember that we are in a fight, not only for our lives, but for the lives of others as well. And remember that our fight is against Satan and his minions.
This is a good time to remind you that Peacemaking is costly. It involved a cross for Jesus and it involves a cross for us (Mt. 10:37-39). “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
This is something none of us should take lightly. To have His peace, we must follow Him. To do so, we have to be all in. No “partial” followers or “Sunday-only” Christians allowed. You have to be willing to go to your death for him, to give everything up for him. This is not for the faint of heart. But Matthew 11 follows Matthew 10, and in Matthew 11, we read these words from Jesus: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
So, how do we experience this peace? Philippians 4:4-9 tells us to
Galatians 5:22-23: But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things there is no law.
As we’ve been looking at the Holy Spirit over these past three weeks, I wonder something: are you any more loving and any more filled with joy than you were before? Part of being filled with the Holy Spirit is when you are, He brings about the Fruit. He brings that love and joy that we talked about over the past couple of weeks.
One of the side effects of speaking on the Holy Spirit is that the devil doesn’t like it. He would rather you serve a distant impersonal God. He would rather you not know that your very body is a temple of the Holy Spirit – that the Spirit of God resides within you with power! He hates when you are growing more in love with the Holy Spirit. That is something that is horrifying to the devil and often not understood or truly believed by people.
When Jesus says things like, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), the devil wants us to think “that’s impossible.” Because in our own power, it is impossible. But remember that “What is impossible with men is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). And if God Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, lives within us, then these things are possible. If you are making strides toward the Holy Spirit, you’ve probably experienced difficulty even the past three weeks. I beg you to take heart; it’s not easy, but it’s absolutely worth it.
Today we are looking at the third aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit: peace. If I asked you to define peace, we would probably have as many definitions as we have people. In a time of war, most would probably define peace in terms of war – or, better, absence of war. In fact, this was a main thrust of Old Testament usage of the word peace. Israel was constantly at war, and they looked forward to a time when they wouldn’t be fighting. They expected a Messiah who would decimate Israel’s enemies in order to bring lasting peace to Jerusalem.
Who wouldn’t want this? Who wouldn’t want fighting to stop? I pray for our troops to come home safely from Iraq and Afghanistan, and I struggle with my personal feelings on those wars and admit that sometimes what I think our country ought to do does not match with what I believe the church is called to do. It’s one reason I pray for President Obama and his advisors to make wise decisions, especially with regard to foreign relations. I most definitely want peace in the world.
But what does this peace look like? In the time of the OT prophets, they looked for a Messiah who would bring Israel back to supremacy. They didn’t just want peace with their neighbors; they wanted to overrun them. Peace was peace through power. It was “peace for us” but what about “them”?
This kind of peace wasn’t God’s peace, however, because God loves “them” too. Thus the Messiah turned every notion upside-down with his talk of “love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.” God’s peace is bigger than all of this. God’s peace is best understood through the Jewish concept of Shalom which covers health, prosperity, security, friendship, and salvation. It could also be spoken of as “wholeness.” This peace is only present because of God’s own presence and his favor toward his people.
The pithy saying is this: No God, no peace. Know God, know peace. But it’s more than just knowing of God; we can only experience this kind of peace when God’s Holy Spirit fills us. This is the kind of peace that someone can experience when situations are at their worst. In Isaiah 54:10 we read the words of God: “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. This is one of those sayings that we should pick up on: God is using a rhetorical device; he’s using the ridiculous to prove a point. Though the mountains be shaken and hills be removed? They aren’t. But even if they were, God’s unfailing love and promise of peace will not.
What does this mean for us? Psalm 34:14 tells us to Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. We can’t just sit back and expect peace to happen. Much like repentance means turning 180 degrees and going the opposite direction, seeking peace doesn’t mean we sit passively. The psalmist tells us that we have to pursue peace. 1 Peter 3:10-11 likewise tells us Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.
This applies to every one of us. We are called to seek peace. This peace comes on various levels; we often focus on peace with others, (Romans 12:18: If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone) but before we can have peace with others, we have to first have peace with God. There is only one way to have peace with God. This is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:19-20 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
And Romans 5:1 tells us Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. God offers this peace to everyone, but it’s only through Jesus that we can have peace with God. This peace means we’ve been forgiven. Every wrong we’ve done in the past has been erased.
And as we seek inner peace, know that (Isaiah 32:17) The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. If we live in right relationship with God, which is only possible through Jesus’ gift on the cross, the natural fruit of this right relationship is peace.
Romans 8:6 tells us that The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. This is the key to peace. A mind controlled by the Spirit. This is why peace is one aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit; true peace only comes by the Spirit. This is why we see this scene in John 20 where Jesus has risen from the dead and appears to his disciples. (John 20:19-22). On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”
These two events are one in the same: Jesus pronouncing “Peace be with you!” and his giving them the Holy Spirit. This is how they received peace. He had already told them that he didn’t give the same kind of peace that the world gives (John 14:27: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.). He had already told them that they would have troubles in this world (John 16:33 I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.). But in giving the Holy Spirit, he gives a peace that is beyond anything of this world.
He doesn’t force this on us, however. He made it clear that our response to him makes a huge impact. In Matthew 10:32-33 he says this: “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
This means that our lives here have a huge impact on the peace we experience. And before we can have this peace, we must accept that He is the source of all peace. In our hymnal is a song called Let There Be Peace on Earth. Its main chorus says “let it begin with me.” Peace never begins with me. Peace begins with God. I know this isn’t the real meaning behind the song’s lyrics; they were meant to point us toward ourselves – if we want peace in the world, we can’t just hope that someone else makes that peace. We have to actively be peacemakers. But to do that, we can’t start with ourselves. We must start with the Holy Spirit, because He is the one who makes peace.
That said, it’s important to recognize that our peace brings peace to others.
In Romans 15:13, we read this benediction: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. I love that word: overflow. It means that it just pours out. And who really controls where something overflows? It pours out all over the place. Just like we don’t choose who to love – God’s overflowing love pours out on us and fills us to the point where it overflows to all others, so too does His peace overflow. We don’t get to choose who to make peace with. Peace is a gift of God that must be experienced and shared in human relationships. Jesus called his followers to live at peace with one another (Mk. 9:50b) and he empowered them to bestow peace on those who are worthy (Mt 10:13).
This is important, because now we don’t just have peace, but we give it, too. Jesus calls us to be peacemakers, calling the peacemakers blessed, and declaring peacemakers “sons of God” (Matt 5:9), but even He admits that peacemaking is sometimes unsuccessful (Mt 10:34-36). Jesus said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'”
We have to remember that peace is more than just an absence of fighting and that true peace only really comes from the Holy Spirit; often there is much more going on than what we can see on the surface. We can never be fully at peace with those who are actively fighting against the Holy Spirit. When someone has allowed Satan to have a stronghold in their lives, often it will demonstrate itself through ones’ relationships. And if you are in relationship with people who do not have the Holy Spirit, you can be certain that they don’t have the Holy Spirit’s peace. Therefore, they cannot be expected to live fully at peace with you if you are a vessel of the Spirit.
Paul reminds us, however, that our enemy is not that person. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 5:12). We’re not fighting against them; we’re fighting spiritual battles. Remember that when you have conflict with someone; that it might be something bigger. Putting on the full armor of God is key – I just don’t have time to dwell on it, but for details you can go back and check out my previous sermons ( on the left column, go down to where you see “armor of God” as a heading and click on it; that will take you to all of the sermons on this topic).
Truth is what holds it all together, and we must acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. A right relationship with Him guards our hearts. The Good News of peace makes our feet ready to share. Faith protects us from Satan, extinguishing his flaming arrows. Our salvation through Jesus Christ protects our head, and our main offensive weapon is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
Strange to be talking about fighting when our goal is peace, but remember that we are in a fight, not only for our lives, but for the lives of others as well. And remember that our fight is against Satan and his minions.
This is a good time to remind you that Peacemaking is costly. It involved a cross for Jesus and it involves a cross for us (Mt. 10:37-39). “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
This is something none of us should take lightly. To have His peace, we must follow Him. To do so, we have to be all in. No “partial” followers or “Sunday-only” Christians allowed. You have to be willing to go to your death for him, to give everything up for him. This is not for the faint of heart. But Matthew 11 follows Matthew 10, and in Matthew 11, we read these words from Jesus: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
So, how do we experience this peace? Philippians 4:4-9 tells us to
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.Here are the keys to peace: First accept that it only comes from the Holy Spirit. Then we accept His peace by rejoicing, even in times of difficulty. Keep your eyes on Him. Look for reasons to give thanks, thinking about and meditating on scripture, on Truth and goodness. Do not be anxious, but give everything to God, and God will give you peace as He guards your hearts and minds.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
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