Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

The experience of peace in the Bible includes within its meaning inward and outward harmony. Outwardly, there should be reconciliation with God and with other people. Inwardly, there should be contentment and satisfaction, and an absence of worry and fear. It does not mean that there will not be difficult situations or problems.    Obviously, the basic condition for a person to know this peace is to have a personal relationship with Jesus through the gospel. It is impossible to have the peace  of  God without first having peace  with  God. When a sinner embraces Jesus by faith, he or she comes into personal union with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The consequence is that the forgiven sinner can know the blessings promised by Christ, and one of them is his peace.   The challenges to peace When someone believes in Jesus he or she may experience a period in which nothing troubles their minds and hearts. Eventually, something will happen which will distur...

God has many titles in the Bible. Studying his names is one way by which we can understand who he is and what his intentions are. One of his titles is the God of peace. Peace itself is a major topic in the Bible. Sometimes, the writers refer to God’s peace; at other times, they refer to the peace that his people know. This occurs in both the Old and New Testaments. It is wise to begin with God’s peace because when we understand what it is we will appreciate better the peace that we can have.   Where do we begin when thinking about God’s peace? No doubt there never was any loss of peace within the Trinity. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit know peace constantly and fully. But we can also think of their peace regarding others. One way to consider their peace is to look at what is often termed ‘the covenant of peace’, which is a reference to the pre-temporal covenant of redemption.   In that covenant, the three divine persons agreed to provide peace with and for sinners. Ob...

Peter had told his readers to live honourably among the Gentiles (2:12). He now proceeds to explain how they should do so, and he mentions three specific areas before giving a general picture. The three specific areas are the government, the workplace and the home. In each of the three areas he says more about the weaker persons: he says more about the subjects than the government (2:13-17); he says more about the servants than the masters (2:18-25); and he says more about the wives than the husbands (3:1-7). The general section (3:8-22) describes how the believers should live with everyone. Sometimes, as in the general section, he mentions the example of Christ, which he also does in the section on servants.   We may find it surprising that Peter tells his readers to submit to the government of the time, the Roman Empire, because it was that government that was persecuting them. Yet we also know that Paul gave the same kind of instruction to his readers, even although he personall...

Peter addresses his readers as those he loves. He has a pastor’s heart and cares for them. He knows that they are facing difficult circumstances in which external and internal opposition will take place. The opposition is unavoidable, but submission to it is. So while the opposition is powerful, there is no necessity for failure. Even in the most difficult of circumstances, Peter wants them to flourish as Christians. He has no idea how long their external circumstances will last, but he knows that what is required of them is holiness. And he wants them to be the best that they can be as God’s people.   The abstaining The inward opposition comes from the passions of the flesh. Passions are uncontrolled emotions, the enjoyment of wrong things. The flesh is our sinful tendencies and the number of them is large. By flesh, he has in mind the part of our inner life that wants to sin, that is attracted to sin, and every Christian is affected by the flesh. It can show itself in pride, in i...

One of the striking instructions of the apostle Paul occurs when he urges the Philippian believers to rejoice in the Lord always. Indeed, he is so eager that they will do so that he repeats his exhortation immediately. Why was he so eager? His letter to them makes clear that it was not because the Philippians were not joyful at the time, although it was possible for them to become less joyful. Nor was it because he himself was struggling with becoming joyful; Paul states several times in this letter that he possessed joy. Rather he was eager for all God’s people to be joyful because God himself is full of joy.   The joy of God How do we know that God is joyful? Recall what Nehemiah said to encourage the Israelites: ‘The joy of the L ord  is your strength’ (Neh. 8:10). That statement indicates that the Lord is joyful and that he gives of his joy to his people. Similarly, Jesus told a parable about himself and his servants where the reward for the servants is described as ‘enter...

Paul and his team had been prevented by the Holy Spirit from going to the provinces of Asia and Bithynia, so they went to Troas (Acts 16:6-8), which was a harbour city, waiting for them to be told what to do next. There Paul received special divine direction to go to Macedonia through a vision he received of a man of Macedonia asking him to come and help them. Macedonia covered quite a wide area, and the guidance was not more specific than that. So Paul and his friends decided to go to the point of entry into Macedonia, which was Philippi.  Philippi was a special city as far as the Roman Empire was concerned because its citizens were given the same rights as people living in Rome, which was an indication that it was a privileged city indeed. It was an important location; a Roman colony, as Luke says. We should note that Luke has joined Paul, Silas and Timothy in Troas (as we can see from the pronouns ‘we’ and ‘us’ found from Acts 16:10-15). Was this to be a longterm connection or a...