Will Work for Peace

What is it we work for the most in this life? For what do we plan and strive? What do we consider our life’s greatest pursuit? Perhaps we’re trying to be successful at work, trying to get that next kudos, striving for that next promotion. We may simply be working for the money. We might work to win arguments, wanting others to see our way, not understanding why others don’t want to see things the way I do. We might be working to protect others from harm. We might be fighting to protect liberties and freedoms as we see them. We might pursue the best sale we can find, or we could simply be working to put the next meal on the table.

Some of these pursuits are more noble than others. Some are born of greater necessity than others. I’d like to encourage us, though, to look at something else, something we think we value but often shunt aside for these other reasons, something we let get lost in the shuffle of our lives, and something upon which Jesus and His disciples placed a heavy emphasis. We should all be working for peace.

Will Work for Peace (Edited)

View more presentations from Robert Smelser.

Peace and the New Testament Christian

The story of peace under the New Covenant finds its roots in the Old. In speaking of God’s new kingdom in Isaiah 2:4, the prophet says that those who come to His mountain of worship will craft their implements of war into those of agriculture. He says they will no longer seek war between physical kingdoms and that they will learn war no more. Then, near the end of Jesus’ ministry in John 14:27, Jesus says to His disciples that He leaves them peace, and that this peace is beyond anything we can obtain in this word.

New Testament writers go on to emphasize peace time and again in their writings. In Romans 8:6 tells us that setting our minds on spiritual things brings forth life and peace, and Romans 14:9 tells us to pursue things that make for peace. In Ephesians 2:17, Paul says Jesus’ gospel is one of peace, and, in chapter 4:3 of the same book, we are told to be eager to maintain peace. II Timothy 2:22 also tells us to pursue peace as much as we would righteousness, faith, and love. Finally, I Peter 3:11 tells us to seek and pursue peace.

Despite the divisive nature God’s word can have (see Matthew 10:34), we cannot discount the fact that we are supposed to be peaceful and peaceable people. We serve the God of peace. We follow after the King of Peace (Hebrews 7:2). Just as we are to emulate God’s holiness, I believe we should be demonstrating His peace in our attitudes and in our conduct.

The Work of Peace

Peace is not something that is inactive. It is more than simply laying our physical and metaphorical arms down. Peace takes work. It takes effort. We’ve seen verbs in the previous verses such as “pursue,” “strive for,” “seek,” and “maintain.” It takes sustained effort to do these things. Contrary to popular punditry, peace takes effort. Take a look at Hebrews 12:14, the verse starts with “Follow peace” (NKJV), but the Greek word translates as “follow” there is διώκω (diṓkō), meaning to strive after, to pursue. Quite literally, the word could be translated, “to flee toward.” We are supposed to be actively fleeing toward peace.

The easy road is to attack to dehumanize, to engage, to argue, to express ourselves loudly or inconsiderately, to threaten, to slander in email or on the Internet, to let anger usurp reason. It takes little effort to release our bottled up energies and spend them on causes or arguments that do nothing to promote peace or the word of God. These negative outlets of our energy are not helping. Instead, we should be dedicating our energies to working for peace. It’s easy to retaliate when we feel wronged or affronted, but, as Mohandas Gandhi might say, “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” If we seek to correct violence with violence, where will the cycle end? It’s one thing to learn not to hit; it’s entirely another to learn not to hit back.

Harder is to swallow our injured pride and move on. Harder still is living peaceably toward those with whom we feel animosity. This is not a passive exercise. The peace of God requires active engagement. Remember the points Jesus was making during the sermon on the mount in Luke 6:27-36. Do we think those are hypotheticals? Do we think there are situations in which these do not apply?

Also, keep in mind the parable of the good Samaritan. Think of the nasty political, racial, cultural, and religious divisions that are in the world today. Think of a name that makes your stomach turn. Think of a group that always makes your blood boil, always makes you want to shout at the TV, or post angry Facebook updates. That’s how many Jews and Samaritans felt toward each other, but the Samaritan shelves those prejudices to meekly practice peace. When things get tough, the tough get meek. And it takes a tough person to get meek because being meek in our culture is tough work.

What Will You Work For?

We sometimes sing a song called “Instruments of Your Peace,” but do we really man it? The song invokes God’s love to overcome hatred, and I don’t think it only means when hatred is directed toward you or me. In it we sing of putting away pride and prejudice, of shelving personal judgments, of bearing the grief and trials of others. We’re good at being peaceful towards those who agree with us in all things, but what of those that don’t? Can we put away our judgments, our prejudices, and our pride to share the peace of God with them.

We’ve studied before that we must go to the extreme in our faith, in our love, and in our obedience to God’s word. We must feel no differently toward peace. We should be aggressively peaceful. Strive for peace. Pursue peace. Maintain peace. Seek after peace. Work for peace. In all things, let our lives be characterized by peacefulness, and let all who meet us see us as a peaceable people. It takes effort. It takes work. It takes a tough sense of inner security and balance, but we can characterize our lives with peace.

lesson by Robert Smelser

The Battle of Personal Evangelism

II Timothy 2:2 records Paul encouraging Timothy to teach others who would then go on to spread that teaching themselves. He goes on to warn Timothy from becoming entangled in the affairs of this world while pursuing the work of the Lord. I Timothy 6:12 calls on us to fight the good fight of faith, and Ephesians 6:10 encourages us to be strong in the Lord, for our struggles are not against physical enemies but rather against the spiritual evil opposing us.

What battles do we engage in on a daily basis? We should be fighting for our souls and for the souls of those around us. These passages we just looked at all contain military imagery, and the inspired writers direct us to view our attention to a specific conflict. This is the challenge of personal evangelism, protecting our own souls or winning others over to the cause of Christ. Our fighting is against the influences of sin in our own lives and in the lives of others.

Preparing for Evangelical Warfare

We must never lose sight of that which is at stake in our battle – souls. How, then, do we prepare for spiritual warfare? Ephesians 6 describes armaments we have available to us for these battles.

Our only weapon is the sword of the spirit, the good news of the gospel. In I Timothy 1:18, Paul encourages Timothy to wage good warfare by the sound doctrine and the gospel he holds up in the preceding verses. Also, Romans 1:16 proclaims a lack of shame in this gospel, calling it God’s power to save, and II Corinthians 10:3-5 again asserts that our efforts are not against physical enemies but rather against arguments and attitudes that oppose Christ. The gospel message is the only force we should be wielding against such opposition.

I John 4:4 reminds us that those of God have overcome the world. Greater is He who in us than he who is in the world. Paul, in Philippians 4:13, reminds us that nothing is impossible for us in Christ. God’s will for us is to overcome our spiritual enemy. Compromising never accomplishes God’s will. If we truly believe He is with us, nothing can stop our spiritual progress.

Victory in the Gospel Message

• We need to let our lights shine. In Matthew 5:13, Jesus warns us against losing our savor in our role as the salt of Earth. He reminds us not to cover our light among others. Then, Philippians 2:14-16 reminds us that our light cannot shine if we are not living and practicing the word of life.
• We must also abstain from submitting to the desires of our body. I Peter 2:10-11 says exactly that. Jesus, during His life, asks the multitudes what it is worth for a man to fulfill his every desire but lose his own souls. Our bodies are temples of God, bought with a price so we can glorify God while in these bodies.
• We should be walking in wisdom. Colossians 4:5-6 says we do this so we may know how to give an answer to anyone with whom we come in contact. Philippians 4:8 then calls on us to dwell on virtuous and pure things.
• We have to remove self and enthrone Christ. I Peter 3:15 calls on us to sanctify Christ in our lives, and Galatians 2:20 reminds us that we crucified self when we let Christ into our lives.

We cannot overcome these spiritual battles through compromising ourselves. We must let our lights shine, control our conduct, walk in wisdom, and enthrone Christ in our lives. All of this is accomplished through the power of the gospel. We are at war with an adversary who wants to claim our souls for eternity. We are of God, and He is greater than the prince of this world. We have to prepare ourselves, however, trusting in Him and Him alone to guide the footsteps of our lives.

lesson by Tim Smelser

Christianity is Not a Detour

What do we do when we come up on detours in our daily commutes? Do we ignore them and get stuck in a position where we have to turn around? Do we follow them? Have you ever been on a detour where you’ve been unquestionably lost? We might have missed a sign while following other cars; a marker may have been misplaced or marked incorrectly; and we unquestioningly ended up in entirely the wrong place. We not only completely avoided the dangerous area of road, but we also managed to accidentally avoid our destination.

A Road, Not a Detour

In John 17:15, Jesus prays for the well-being of His disciples, and He prays that they might have the protection they need to keep them from evil. See, our faith is not a detour around the trials and temptations of this world. Instead, it is a path right through the dangers of our world to lead us to a safe destination in the end. In this same prayer, Jesus prays that His disciples not be “of the world,” in verse 14, even while they live “in the world” (verse 11). Where our faith is the road we travel, the things of this world can serve as detours themselves, distracting us from our chosen path.

In Luke 6:12-13, when Jesus chooses his disciples, He does not conduct interviews, check references, or cite popular opinion polls. No, instead He prays to God for guidance. When we seek out these other things – popular opinion, following others – we are easily detoured. Only by trusting in God and living prayerfully can we hope to keep on the correct path without diversion. Then we can be in the world without being of the world, just as a ship must be in the sea without the sea being in the ship.

Remembering Our Surroundings

Staying on God’s path does not mean disregarding this world He created. In fact, the deeper our connection with God, the deeper our connection with the world around us. Knowing Christ awakens a more powerful concern for those around us. Even though it’s a pain, road construction usually makes our commutes a little better when it is finished. Can we say the same about ourselves? Do we leave this world a better place when we pass by?

Roads always have to be torn up before they can be rebuilt, and we will have disagreements and moments or stress with our fellow workers in Christ. We might feel torn up, or we might tear into another. We can, however, learn from those times and work toward building each other up, reconstructing ourselves into a stronger church. The problem comes when a road is torn up and forgotten. Sometimes we might hurt a brother or sister, tear them down unintentionally even, and be negligent in our responsibility to build them back up.

Bringing Others to God’s Road (And Keeping Ourselves On Too)

Remember Saul of I Samuel 17:11. All he did was complain about Goliath, looking to man for the solution instead of to God. What about Paul and Silas in prison. Instead of dealing with their situation as ones with no hope, they lived the path they followed and brought another along with them in the end. WHen we’re working with others, are we trying to bring them to God’s highway or to our own?

When we come to a crisis in our spiritual path, how do we respond? In Genesis 22, Abraham responds to a crisis presented by God with faith and obedience. We will be tested in this life. We will come to forks in our road. When we hit these rough spots, we should be relying on God’s directions more than man’s. We can scour all over our Bibles and see people who have responded to crisis in faith (Paul, Apollos, Timothy) versus those who were detoured by roadblocks in their paths (Demas, John Mark, Ananias and Sapphira). Who will we be more like?

What road are you on? Have you chosen broader and easier paths, or have you chosen to walk in Jesus footsteps up the narrow way of salvation? Only one will take you to a final destination with God, but, in striving toward that goal, we cannot be derailed by the detours in our lives. If we place our faith and hope in Him, if He is the source of our strength and hope, then we can find our way home, even when they way seems dark.

lesson by Mike Mahoney

God My Rock

We live in an unstable world. Economy, disease, politics – these factors and more create unsettling circumstances around us. Good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people. Jesus says, in John 16:33, that we will have trouble as long as we are part of this world. Where then do we turn in a life of uncertainty and troubles? Where do we take refuge when the storms of this life assault us?

God has promised us that He will be our refuge. He is our sheltering rock in the time of storms. He is our fortress against the battles of this life. Nahum 1:7, Psalm 18:2, Psalm 94:22, Deuteronomy 32:30, Isaiah 44:8 – these passages and many more call God our shelter, our rock, our refuge. He is the certainty we can have in a world of uncertainty.

Our Trust in God

We can trust in God even when friends and family fail us. The imagery of God as our refuge comes largely from the writings of David, one whose best friend’s father wanted him dead, whose wife and son turned against him on more than one occasion. David knew what it was to have friends and family turn on him. In Psalm 41:9 and Psalm 55:12-14 speaks of friends abandoning him. Likewise, Job saw his wife and friends turn on him in his strife, but, in Job 42:2, he turns his trust to God, expressing confidence in God’s deliverance. We will have friends and family fail us in this life, but we can be assured our God will never forsake us.

We can also trust in our God when the things in this life fail us, when we see the unfairness, crime, and injustice in this world. We ourselves have been victims of these things, and we cannot find shelter in the things of this world as long as injustice and unfairness continue. In the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, Moses contrasts the injustice of man versus the fairness of God, and Isaiah 26:4-7 calls God an eternal rock, the upright one who directs the path of the just. He alone is just and fair, and we can place our trust in the fact that His ways are right. He plays no favorites. We are all equal in His eyes, and we can trust Him to deal fairly with us in a way the world never could.

Finally, we can trust God to ultimately save us. Psalm 44:6 records the sons of Korah saying they would trust in nothing but God to save them. A strong military, a strong government, a strong stock market, our right to bear arms, strong foreign policy – these things will not save us in this life or the one to come. Jeremiah 11:12 criticizes the people of Judah for trusting their idols; we make idols of our investments, of our military, of our favorite politicians, of our savings. These are where we so often place our greatest trust and efforts, but they cannot save us. Only God can shelter our souls.

The Lord of Our Strength

Psalm 18, one of David’s later writings, proclaims God as our strength, fortress, deliverer. He is the horn of our salvation, our stronghold, worthy of praises. He is the living rock, the God of our salvation. Psalm 62:5-7 expresses confidence that God can be our only source of strength and salvation. This is the confidence we can have in our God.

We can look to Him for comfort, shelter, and strength. This comfort and security is open to all who would know Him and come to Him in humility and obedience. David, in Psalm 18, expressed a very personal relationship with his God, and David knows, in Psalm 18:20-26, that he is blameless before God, and he knows the relationship they have together. When we draw toward God, He draws toward us. We can have that same relationship, that same hope, that same security, even in the face of friends, family, and the securities of this world failing us.

lesson by Tim Smelser

To Be with Jesus

Matthew 14 records the events surrounding Peter walking on the water. Peter and the other apostles are on a boat without Jesus in verse 22. The waters become rough; the weather begins to storm; and Jesus appears upon the water. Peter calls out to Him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Unfortunately, when Peter see the wind kicking up the water, his faith falters and Jesus must save Him.

What possessed Peter to say to himself, “I want to get out of this boat and walk to Jesus,” in the middle of this storm? We speak of Peter’s rashness, of his impulsivity, of his good intentions. How many of us would have simply stayed in the boat? More important than these factors though may have been his desire to be like Jesus and to be with Jesus.

Remember Jesus washing the apostles’ feet in John 13. At first Peter resists, but, when Jesus says Peter could have no part with Him without this washing, Peter then requests his whole body to be washed. Also, in John 21, when Peter realizes Jesus’ identity, he again leaps into the sea to get to Jesus. Whatever the cost, Peter wants to be like Jesus, and he wants to be with Jesus.

Like Peter, we occasionally act and speak before thinking. More than these, we should be like Peter in our desire to be like and with the Lord. Philippians 2:5 calls on us to be like Christ in humility and obedience. I Peter 2:21 instructs us to follow in His steps. In John 14:3, Jesus promises we can be with Him one day, and Matthew 11:28 extends an invitation to come and be close to Christ, laying our burdens at his feet.

Matthew 16:24-26 tells us how we can have a part with Him, how we can be with Him and like Him. We must put self and self-interest to death, and fix our gaze firmly on Him. We have to get out of that boat if we are going to draw closer to Him. This involves getting outside our comfort zone and make sacrifices. Yes, when Peter took his eyes off the Lord, however, he began to sink beneath the waves. We need to keep Jesus firmly in our sights, but it begins with that first step.

Like Paul in Philippians 3:13-15, we should be continually pressing forward. Colossians 3:1 calls on us to set our minds on things above. We need to determine that, wherever we are spiritually, it’s time to get out of the boat and approach Jesus, striving always to be like Him and with Him.

lesson by Tim Smelser

Lord God Almighty

There’s a book called America’s Four Gods that points out that, while some 90% of Americans claim a belief in God, we view God in diverse ways. We may view Him as authoritative, critical, distant, or benevolent. We might see God as judgmental being who loves His creation but intercedes and punishes actively based on our choices. In contrast, we might see God’s handiwork in everything but be reluctant to see Him willing to condemn individuals. We may imagine a God who looks upon us judgmentally but don’t believe He intercedes in this life, or we might view God as a cosmic force that set the universe in motion and now is largely uninvolved and unknowable.

How we view God impacts how we view world events, how we approach politics, how we participate in society. The problem lies in trying to make God fit into a neat little box. We limit God by defining Him with human concepts. Our concepts of Him are too small in comparison to what we see in scripture.

Genesis 17:1 records God appearing to Abraham, proclaiming Himself as “God Almighty.” Appearing to Jacob in Genesis 35:11, God again calls Himself El Shaddai – God Almighty. Revelation 1:8, God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the everlasting, the almighty. These are the terms with which we should view God. He is the almighty God.

Nothing Too Hard

Jeremiah 32:17 records the prophet proclaiming that nothing is too hard for God, and God reinforces the point rhetorically in verse 27. Why is nothing too hard for Him? He is God Almighty. Only one for which nothing is too hard could mold us and shape us from our imperfections and impurities into sinless and spotless souls.

This power is seen in Isaiah 7:10-14 when God prophecies the virgin birth of Emmanuel, God with Us. What is impossible for man is possible for God. Outside the laws of nature, outside biological impossibilities, Mary brings forth Jesus in Matthew 1:18-25 having never been with a man. Luke 1:35 calls this child holy and the Son of God. Only the Almighty could accomplish this.

In Romans 1, Paul calls the gospel God’s power unto salvation, and he echoes this in I Corinthians 1:18. In John 6, after the feeding of the thousands, Jesus makes an object lesson, drawing parallel between the bread and His own body. In verse 63-38, after many turn from Him, Jesus explains this power is not in the body but in His words, those words Peter calls eternal life. I Peter 1:23 says we have been born again through God’s imperishable word. The Almighty saves us through His imperishable word.

Finally, in Acts 2, we see Peter preaching to the people at Pentecost that God has raised up Christ they murdered, and God has exalted Him as king. Ephesians 1:20-23 reiterates this – that God raised Christ, exalted Him, and has given Him all authority. This same Christ humbled Himself, according to Philippians 2, even unto physical death, but now every knee will bow before Him. Only the Almighty could bring Christ back from the dead and exalt His name above all others.

Conclusion

There are two things only deity can do – speak of things to come as if they already happened and give life to the dead. Christ was raised to die no more, and I Corinthians 15:20 tells us He sets a precedent for His people. II Corinthians 4:14 assures us that He who could raise Christ can raise us as well. Our God Almighty can defeat death, can clothe our corruptible and mortal selves with the incorruptible and immortal (I Corinthians 15:54). That is what our God is capable of.

We can define God in numerous ways. We can try to categorize or limit Him in our own ways, but He is Lord God Almighty. For Him, nothing is too hard, and in Him we place our faith, hope, and trust.

lesson by Tim Smelser