Latest / Reformed Thinking / Not as the World Gives: Christ’s Bequest of Peace (John 14:27)

Transcript

Not as the World Gives: Christ’s Bequest of Peace (John 14:27) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to reform thinking, it is really good to be back with
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  you. Yeah, thanks for having me.
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  I think we have a pretty incredible topic today.
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  We really do. We are shifting gears today.
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  Usually we take this massive wide angle lens to the world,
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  looking at culture, history, big trends, but today we are doing
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  the inverse. Right, we are pulling out a
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  microscope. We are taking a microscope to a
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  single sentence, one specific promise, and we are going to
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  drill down until we hit the absolute bottom.
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  And honestly, sometimes the macro is best understood through
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  the micro. We found in the research for
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  this deep dive that this one specific point actually holds up
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  the entire structure of a Christian's life.
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  It really does. We aren't just looking at a
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  verse today. We are analyzing a quest, a
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  legal legacy left by a king to his people.
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  A literal last will and testament kind of situation.
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  Spot on. The topic is peace, and we have
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  to start by reading the room. The sources we pulled together
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  for this discussion start with a pretty jarring observation.
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  They say we are living through an epidemic of terror.
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  Which is hard to argue with. You look at the geopolitical
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  landscape, the economic volatility, the cultural
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  fragmentation. People aren't just stressed,
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  they are frightened. It feels like the floor is
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  constantly shiking underneath you.
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  Yeah, the observation goes deeper than just saying times
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  are hard. The sources argued that the
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  modern world treats peace as a commodity.
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  Like a product. Yes, it is viewed as a product,
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  something you procure like buying insurance or picking out
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  a new mattress. That stood out to me
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  immediately, this concept of therapeutic deism or secular
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  psychology that the text mentions, the idea that peace is
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  something you just buy at the pharmacy or download from the
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  App Store, right? It is totally transactional.
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  The mindset is if I buy the premium noise cancelling
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  headphones, if I curate my social media feed just right, if
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  I hit that magic number in the 401K, then I purchase the right
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  to be calm. Is entirely circumstantial,
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  right? Which is the fatal flaw in that
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  logic. Our theological sources point
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  out that this commodified piece is what we might call a fragile
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  piece. Fragile is the perfect word for
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  it. Because it is contingent on 1000
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  spinning plates not falling, it relies on your health holding
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  up, the stock market behaving and the political landscape
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  remaining stable. Which is a fantasy.
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  It is statistical impossibility. The moment one of those
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  variables shifts, and they always shift, that piece doesn't
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  just crack, it evaporates. Totally gone.
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  It suggests that peace is an accident of favorable
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  circumstances. And it evaporates because the
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  world isn't offering a cure for the structural instability of
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  the human condition, it is offering sedation.
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  Just numbing the pain. Yes, distraction.
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  It renames anxiety as normal, or it frames moral compromise as
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  self-care. One of the commentators used a
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  really striking medical analogy. Oh, the compound fracture 1.
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  That is the one. It is like a doctor treating a
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  compound fracture with a painkiller, but never actually
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  setting the bone. So the pain subsides for an
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  hour. You feel a little woozy, but the
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  structural integrity of the leg is still totally gone.
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  You can't walk on it. And you certainly cannot run the
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  race set before you. The world can distract you, but
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  it cannot cure the fundamental restlessness of a human heart
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  that is alienated from its creator.
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  That is the baseline problem. We are trying to find peace in a
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  burning building without putting out the fire.
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  This is a great way to put it. So that is the landscape we are
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  operating in a marketplace of fragile temporary cease fires.
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  And into that mess we are dropping our primary text for
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  this deep dive. John 14.27.
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  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.
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  Not as the world gives do I give to you.
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  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
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  It is so ubiquitous you see it on coffee mugs, greeting cards,
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  wall art. But I think it's familiarity is
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  actually bred a kind of deafness in us.
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  We miss the shock of it. We totally do.
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  So our mission today is to unpack what one source calls the
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  Three arched Bridge of Jesus argument.
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  Here we need to distinguish between the fragile ceasefire of
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  the world and the covenantal Shalom of Christ.
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  And we are going to get into the weeds of Reformed theology here,
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  specifically the distinction between justification and
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  sanctification when it comes to anxiety.
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  Because if you mix those two up, which I think most of us do on a
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  daily basis, you end up in a spiral of spiritual despair.
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  You absolutely do. If you confuse your legal
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  standing with your daily emotional experience, you either
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  become complacent because you think you are safe regardless of
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  how you live, or you become neurotic because you think a bad
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  mood means you're damned. And the Westminster Confession
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  gives us the exact categories to fix this.
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  It does. Let's start with the first arch
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  of the bridge, the context, the when.
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  I think there is a tendency, maybe because of Sunday school
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  flannel graphs, to picture Jesus saying these words in this
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  really pastoral setting. Like a grassy hillside.
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  Yeah, a grassy hillside sunset, maybe a light breeze, a very Bob
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  Ross happy little clouds moment. But the historical reality is
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  radically different. It couldn't be further from a
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  pastoral scene. No, not at all.
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  If you look at the chronology, we are in the upper room.
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  This is the night of betrayal. The text tells us.
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  Judas has just left. He literally walked out into the
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  dark to sell Jesus to the authorities.
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  The shadow of the cross isn't just approaching, it is in the
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  room. The atmosphere is thick with
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  tension. The disciples are confused.
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  They're terrified. They sense that the wheels are
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  coming off. They left everything to follow
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  him. And now he is talking about
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  leaving, about dying. It is the eye of the hurricane.
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  That is the critical insight. Jesus speaks of peace at the
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  precise moment when every single earthly support is being
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  stripped away. Right.
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  If peace were just the absence of conflict, John 14.27 would be
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  a lie. He's about to be arrested,
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  beaten, and crucified. The disciples are about to be
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  scattered like sheep. If peace means safety and quiet,
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  Jesus is gaslighting them. But he isn't, which means his
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  definition of peace must be categorically different from
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  Mars. He is talking about a piece that
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  is compatible with a war zone. Yes, he is Speaking of a piece
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  that exists inside the storm, not one that requires the storm
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  to stop. One of our sources, a
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  dispensational commentary, points out an interesting
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  distinction here regarding the wider biblical context.
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  Oh, about the geopolitical piece.
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  Yeah, it notes that the ultimate geopolitical Shalom, actual
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  World Peace, cessation of war, awaits the premillennial return
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  of the king. Right.
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  The distinction between the Kingdom offered and the Kingdom
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  postponed, but the application they make is that while the
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  physical peace is future, the spiritual reality is present.
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  That is the key for us. We don't have to wait for the
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  Millennium to have peace with God.
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  The New Covenant, which Jesus is about to ratify with his blood,
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  secures that vertical peace right now.
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  It is a present tense possession for the church.
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  It's the already of the already, but not yet.
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  OK, so we have the setting. Impending death, Betrayal.
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  The establishment of a new covenant.
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  Now let's look at the bequest itself.
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  Section 2 of our deep dive. The Nature of the Gift.
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  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.
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  The source material refers to this as a divine donation.
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  It is a beautiful phrase and the linguistics back it up.
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  There are two distinct verbs used here in the Greek.
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  The 1st is leave Afimi. That is testamentary language,
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  isn't it? That is the language of a last
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  will and testament. It is.
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  It is the language of a parting inheritance.
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  Picture a wealthy father on his deathbed.
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  He is signing over the estate, the assets to his children.
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  So Jesus is the Savior King, and before he departs to the Father,
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  he is making a legal provision. He is saying I'm going away, but
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  I'm not leaving you as orphans. I am leaving you the family
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  fortune. And the fortune is peace.
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  It's not money, it's not land. It's this spiritual reality.
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  Then there's the second verb give did to me.
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  The notes highlight the use of the performative present tense
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  here. That sounds like academic
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  jargon. It does sound like jargon, but
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  in this context it is actually electric.
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  It changes everything. How so?
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  A performative speech act is 1 where the action happens in the
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  Speaking of it. Think of a judge saying I
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  declare you innocent. He isn't describing a state of
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  affairs. His words create the state of
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  innocence. Or a minister saying I pronounce
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  you husband and wife. Yes, so when Jesus says my peace
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  I give to you, he isn't just wishing them well.
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  He isn't saying. I hope you guys find some calm.
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  He is effectively transferring the reality of peace to them in
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  that moment. It is a transaction.
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  It is a supernatural transfer of funds and notice the proprietary
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  nature of what is transferred. He doesn't say peace.
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  I give you, he says, my peace. That stopped me cold when I was
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  reading through the notes. My peace.
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  It implies that he isn't dispensing a generic drug from
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  the pharmacy, he is sharing his own internal state.
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  He is carving off a piece of his own psychology, his own
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  spiritual reality, and grafting it into them.
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  And think about the quality of that peace.
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  It is the peace of the second Adam.
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  Yes, it is the peace anchored in His eternal, unbroken communion
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  with the Father. It is a peace maintained by
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  perfect obedience. And most staggeringly, it is a
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  peace that is unshaken by the approaching cross.
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  Jesus is about to face the wrath of God.
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  He is about to sweat drops of blood and Gethsemane.
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  And yet, deep down, he possesses a peace so structural, so
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  absolute, that he can share it with his friends.
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  That is the paradox of the hypostatic union, isn't it?
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  True God and true man. Absolutely.
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  As a man he feels the horror of death, but as the son he has the
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  peace of perfect trust. He knows he is doing the
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  father's will. He knows the outcome is secure.
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  He says this confidence, this communion I have, I'm giving
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  that to you. In Reformed theology, this is
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  the doctrine of union with Christ.
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  Yeah. We don't just get his gifts, we
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  get him. We participate in his life.
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  So if that is the nature of Christ's peace, structural,
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  proprietary, eternal, we have to contrast it with what we touched
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  on earlier, which brings us to Section 3, the great contrast.
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  Not as the world gives. The contrast is total.
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  We define the world's peace as circumstantial and conditional,
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  but the source uses a metaphor that I think really nails it.
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  The world's peace is like a sailor trying to calm the sea by
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  rearranging the deck chairs. It is the ostrich strategy.
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  It looks industrious, moving the chairs, polishing the brass, but
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  the ship is still sinking. It is a truce with reality, not
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  a solution to it. It solves nothing because it
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  cannot stop the storm, The world says.
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  I will ignore the fact that I am mortal.
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  I will ignore the fact that I have a guilty conscience.
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  I will ignore the fact that the universe is broken.
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  I will manifest positive vibes or I will just watch Netflix
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  until the feeling goes away. And in that ignorance you find a
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  little quiet, but Christ's peace.
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  The Greek word is ironano, which corresponds to the Hebrew.
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  Shalom is fundamentally different.
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  It isn't just Hisykia. Right.
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  Hisykia just means silence. You can have silence in a
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  mausoleum. That is not peace.
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  Shalom is wholeness. It is reconciliation.
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  It is everything being put right.
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  The notes point out that Christ's peace is tethered to
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  truth. It doesn't deny the negative
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  facts. It doesn't say there is no
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  death. No, it looks death in the face
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  and says you are an enemy and I am going to destroy you.
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  The world says you don't have any sins.
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  Don't be so hard on yourself. Christ says you have many sins,
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  more than you know, and I am. I'm going to pay for every
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  single one of them. Real Peace deals with the
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  objective problems of the human condition, guilt and death.
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  Which leads us directly into the engine room of this promise.
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  Section 4, the Theological Foundation.
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  How can he give this? You can't just wave a magic wand
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  and remove cosmic guilt. There is a cost.
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  And here's where we get to the heart of the gospel.
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  Jesus can leave peace only because he is going to make
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  peace. And peace is made in blood, it
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  is made of the cross. Isaiah 53.5 is the citation
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  here. The chastisement that brought us
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  peace was upon him. That is the transaction cost.
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  We call it penal substitutionary atonement.
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  It is the great exchange. He takes the trouble, the
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  Taurasia. Yes, He takes the agitation, the
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  wrath of God, so that we get the ironano.
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  He takes the turmoil, we get the tranquility.
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  You cannot have the bequest of John 14 without the sacrifice of
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  John 19. Now this is where that reformed
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  distinction we teased earlier becomes critical.
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  The source talks about objective peace versus subjective peace.
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  We need to break this down carefully.
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  I agree because I think this is where the rubber meets the road
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  for a listener who is dealing with panic attacks or chronic
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  anxiety. This distinction is the life
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  raft. Objective peace is
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  justification. It is your legal standing.
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  Romans 5.1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we
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  have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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  That is a legal verdict. The more is over, The judge has
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  banged the gavel. You are declared righteous.
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  And that verdict is external to us.
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  It doesn't change based on my mood, my blood sugar, or my
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  serotonin. Levels it is fixed, frozen and
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  granite. It is a status you are at peace
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  with the Kingdom of Heaven. Then there is is subjective
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  peace or peace of conscience. This falls under the category of
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  sanctification. Specifically Chapter 13 of the
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  Westminster Confession if you want the reference.
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  Yes, this is our experimental enjoyment of that standing.
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  And that fluctuates wildly. It does.
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  It goes up and down based on our faith, our obedience, our focus,
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  even our physical health. The error, the trap, is thinking
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  that if my feelings of peace are low, my standing of peace is
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  gone. That is the lie of the enemy.
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  So I can be having a panic attack, I can feel like the
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  walls are closing in, and yet objectively, at that exact
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  moment, I have a perfect peace with God.
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  Yes, your standing is bought by the blood of Christ, not
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  sustained by your ability to stay calm.
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  That is incredibly freeing. If my peace with God depended on
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  my ability to feel peaceful, I would be lost every other
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  Tuesday. We all would be and the
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  guarantee that this objective peace is real.
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  The receipt for the transaction is the resurrection.
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  Right. Think about it.
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  When Jesus rises from the dead, what is the first thing he says
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  to the disciples in the locked room?
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  Peace be with you. It is a vindication.
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  He's showing the wounds. He is saying I paid the debt, I
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  took the wrath. I am alive, therefore the peace
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  is legally secured. The resurrection is the proof
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  that the check cleared. So the foundation is the cross
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  in the empty tomb. But Jesus doesn't just leave us
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  with the theological fact sheet. He gives us a means to maintain
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  this peace in our subjective experience.
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  Which brings us to Section 5, the Holy Spirit, John 14.26, the
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  verse immediately preceding our text.
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  You cannot separate verse 26 from verse 27.
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  Jesus promises the Helper, the parakletos.
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  This is the Holy Spirit. And look at the Spirit's method.
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  Jesus says he will teach you and bring to your remembrance all
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  that I have said to you. This is a crucial check against
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  mysticism, isn't it? A lot of people seek peace
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  through emptying their minds or looking for a ZAP from heaven.
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  There is a real danger in seeking peace through unmediated
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  spiritual experience. People sit in silence, waiting
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  for a feeling to wash over them. But Jesus says the Spirit works
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  through the Word. He brings to remembrance what
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  Jesus said. So the Spirit is the spotlight,
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  and the Word is the object he eliminates.
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  Yes, he drives home the truth of Christ.
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  This is why the Reformed tradition puts so much weight on
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  the ordinary means of grace. Peace doesn't come from a new
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  private revelation. It comes from the old revelation
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  sinking deeper into your heart. It grows through scripture
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  reading, through prayer to the sacraments.
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  The source used an analogy I really liked.
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  A believer neglecting the word while chasing peace is like a
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  man refusing bread while begging for strength.
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  It is completely illogical. You cannot have the peace of
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  Christ without the mind of Christ, and you cannot have the
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  mind of Christ without the word of Christ.
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  The Spirit takes the black and white text of Scripture, those
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  objective promises, and turns them into Technicolor reality in
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  your heart. That is how the subjective
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  feeling of peace is maintained. So we have the gift, the
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  contrast, the foundation and the means.
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  Now we get to the command. Section 6, the imperative.
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  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
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  And we must see the logic here in the New Testament.
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  The indicative what is true always leads to the imperative,
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  what we must do. Because peace is given the
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  indicative, therefore do not be troubled the imperative.
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  It isn't. Stop being troubled so that I
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  will give you peace. Right.
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  That is religion, that is moralism.
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  That is clean yourself up and then come to me.
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  The gospel is I have cleansed you, now live clean.
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  I've given you peace, now live in it.
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  Let's look at these prohibitions.
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  Troubled comes from the Greek taurasu.
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  It means agitated water, restless churning like a washing
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  machine on the spin cycle. The source identifies this as
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  the sin of trying to control what belongs to God.
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  It is a Providence issue. Chapter 5 of the Confession.
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  When my heart is churning, it is usually because I am trying to
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  determine the outcome of something I cannot control.
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  That hits close to home, the idol of control.
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  We want to be God. We want to be omniscient.
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  We want to know the future. We want to be omnipotent.
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  We want to fix the future. And when we realize we can't, we
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  churn, we spin. And the second word is afraid
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  del Yatuk. This is a rare word.
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  It doesn't just mean the sensation of fear.
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  It implies cowardice or timidity.
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  It implies shrinking back. Like a soldier dropping his
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  rifle and running away from the post.
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  That is a harsh word for someone who is struggling.
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  So staying in a state of terror is actually a form of spiritual
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  desertion. It is a hard truth, but a
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  necessary 1. To remain in a state of dominant
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  fear is to call God a liar regarding His promises.
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  If he said I will never leave if you nor forsake you, and I live
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  as if I'm abandoned, I am questioning his veracity.
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  I am acting as if the throne is empty.
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  That reframes anxiety completely.
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  It isn't just a bad feeling or mental health struggle, though
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  it can certainly be those things.
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  It is also a theological problem.
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  It is a trust problem. It is repenting of the lie that
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  we are alone. It was repenting of the lie that
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  God is incompetent or indifferent.
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  So how do we actually do this? We move to Section 7 application
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  head, heart and hands. We start with the use of the
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  law. We use the first use of the law
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  to expose our sin. We have to admit, Lord, my worry
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  is not just a weakness, it is unbelief.
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  We have to own it. You cannot kill a sin you are
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  cuddling. That is uncomfortable, but it is
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  the only way to get to the cure. And then we use the third use of
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  the law, which is the guide for our gratitude.
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  Because you love me, I will fight this fear.
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  Let's get specific application to the head.
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  To the head. You must believe the objective
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  promise. You have to know your theology.
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  You need to know that justification is real.
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  You need to know that God is sovereign.
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  You cannot feel right if you do not think right.
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  You have to preach the gospel to yourself every morning.
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  Application to the heart. Cultivate affection for the
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  Prince of Peace. You have to love him more than
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  you love your safety. We often fear man because we
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  love man's approval too much. We fear loss because we love our
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  stuff too much. We replace the fear of man with
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  the fear of the Lord. If God is big in your heart,
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  people become small. And application to the hands.
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  The work of mortification. That sounds so medieval.
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  It is active warfare. It means when the thought comes,
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  what if I lose my job? You don't invite that thought in
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  for tea. You don't let it crash on the
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  couch. You kill it, you cut it off with
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  the sword of the Spirit. You say the Lord is my shepherd,
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  I shall not want. Prayer is the instrument here.
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  The source talks about converting anxious meditation
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  into believing petition. That is such a practical tip.
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  Most of us are expert meditators.
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  We just meditate on the wrong things.
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  We worry. Worry is just negative
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  meditator, it is talking to yourself about your problems.
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  Prayer is taking that same mental energy and talking to God
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  about his promises. Instead of saying to yourself,
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  What if this happens? You say to Godfather, You
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  promised that if this happens, you will be with me.
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  It is turning the monologue into a dialogue.
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  Spot on. I want to address 2 specific
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  listeners before we wrap up, just like our notes suggest.
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  First the Weary St. The person who has been fighting
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  this battle for decades. Maybe they are sick.
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  Maybe they are just tired. To that person I would say this.
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  The peace Christ gives outlasts the body.
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  Your body is failing. Your chemistry might be failing,
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  but the peace of justification, the peace of the covenant, is
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  stronger than death. You are safe.
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  You are held, even if your hands are shaking.
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  His hands are steady. Your grip on him is not what
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  saves you. His grip on you is what saves
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  you. That is a vital distinction.
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  And secondly, the unbeliever, the person listening who thinks
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  this sounds nice but I don't buy the Jesus stuff.
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  To you, I must be honest, the eace you have right now, the
• 20:42
  eace of a good job or a healthy family or a distraction, is a
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  delusion. It is a temporary lull before an
• 20:48
  eternal storm. You are currently at war with
• 20:51
  your Creator and there is no peace for the wicked, says the
• 20:55
  Lord. You cannot manufacture this
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  peace. You must surrender.
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  You must come to the Mediator who made peace by the blood of
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  his cross. That is the sober reality.
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  There is no third option. It is really isn't.
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  As we close, let's summarize this legacy, the sovereign
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  bequest. It is a peace purchased by
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  blood. It is insured by the
• 21:13
  Resurrection. It is applied by the Spirit.
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  It is a fortress that stands when the world burns down.
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  It is the only thing that isn't nailed down to this crumbling
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  earth. And our final thought for the
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  listener? The world says peace comes when
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  danger disappears. Christ says peace remains
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  because he will never depart, and that calls us to courage.
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  Not the stoicism of a statue, but the quiet confidence of a
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  child who knows their father owns the house.
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  The war is over, rest in that. Thank you for joining us on this
• 21:43
  deep dive into John 14.27. We hope this analysis has given
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  you solid ground to stand. On grace and peace to you.
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  See you next time.