Well, we just had Valentine's Day this past week. We had sort of a new experience in our house. Case, for the first time, is able to actually write out and scribble some of his own Valentines. So Hannah, they went to the store and he got, of course, as a little boy, the Batman Valentines. You know, very romantic. And so he's putting these together and Hannah's diligently dividing up all the Swedish Fish in little baggies and stapling them to the Valentines. His job is to write his name, which is like quasi-legible on the Valentine, and then she writes who it's to. There's one Valentine in particular that wasn't just a Batman Valentine. This was the Valentine to his special friend. And so he made prints of his hands and he gave a lot of thought into what he wanted to say on that Valentine. This is a pretty serious deal when you're 5 years old. You never know where these relationships are going to end up. So he really thought about it and he was painting. I mean, I think it was like the other ones, it's like, "Oh, am I done writing my name?" It's like this one, it was like, "C." "Does my C look okay, Mommy?" "A." You know, it's just so intentional. But it got me thinking, when you send a Valentine like that, you're not just depositing in the boxes so you'll get a bunch of goodies back. But you're really giving one, or you're writing a letter that you really care about, you're intentional with the words you use, right? It's not just some email you're firing off to get it off the to-do list. It's one where you're communicating some real affection for someone. Or you're sitting down to write an encouraging note, so you think about the words you're going to use. You even give thought to the greeting that starts it.
We see that here. In Paul's letter. He writes this intentionally. We see in Colossians 1 the salutation of the letter. This part that we just kind of breeze by because you see it again and again and again. These words that Paul uses, they become really familiar and so you blow past them. But look with me again and let's pause and consider the salutation Paul uses as he writes a letter filled with affection. Filled with thoughtfulness, with care, choice given to the vocabulary. Hear God's holy and authoritative word. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. The Word of the Lord. May He write its truth upon our hearts. Short and sweet, right? Grace and peace. Every single time you pick up the New Testament, you pick up the Bible, and you turn to one of Paul's letters, those two words are found at the beginning. Grace and peace. Even Peter and John use them in some of their letters. It's this uniquely Christian greeting.
There was a period where I actually signed my name on emails, "Grace and peace, Matthew." And then I kind of felt like, "Ah, it just feels sort of cliché." So I stopped doing it. I didn't want to have this cliché ending. So I wanted to give more thought into how I— that was the wrong way to think. This isn't a clichéd thing Paul is putting out there. He doesn't want us to think that.
There's a reason why this greeting is pushed at the forefront every single time he pens a letter to a church of saints. He goes back to those words, "Grace and peace." All we're going to do this morning is to consider what is he conveying by those two words? Every single time, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father." So first, what does he mean by grace to you.
Well, actually, this week I was online and I ran into one. You know, you go online and you can't help but there's those ads that kind of bombard you on the sides. And now they've got like these like programmers who've developed ways where like the ad like oppressively comes up. And it used to be you just kind of like find like the hidden X where it's like really obscurely colored to kind of blend in with the background. Now sometimes you have to wait like 10 seconds before you can actually close the thing. Well, this was an ad that kind of came up, and so it forced my attention upon it, but it was for this sort of Wi-Fi hotspot. You know how those work, right? This is for the person who is online a lot. Maybe you travel a lot, and so you need to have internet access. So this was a Wi-Fi hotspot you carry with you. You just kind of put it in your bag. It's little, small, probably not much bigger than a cell phone, but the company, the product was called Karma Wi-Fi. Karma Wi-Fi. The way it works is you get 100 megs of data for the month that you get to use. You pay for those. But when you go sit in the coffee shop or you're sitting in the airport and, and you pull out your little hotspot and you fire it up, other people can see your little Wi-Fi hotspot. And because it's Karma Wi-Fi, if you allow them to join your network, you get a little boost and extra data. Right, if you're one of those people who sees it and you're searching for one to sign on to, you're in the airport, it's like, I don't want to pay their $10. Oh, here's Hank's Karma Wi-Fi. What's that? You click on it and you sign up, they immediately give you a free 100 megs of data. You see the way that Karma Wi-Fi works? It's built around the idea that the more you do to promote their product, to share their products, the more they will give you in internet access. It's tit for tat. That's why the name is Karma Wi-Fi. Whatever you do comes back to you. Do good, you'll receive good. Karma. Do bad, you'll receive bad. Karma.
We live in a karma-driven world. We live in a world driven by karma. If you could illustrate how people think about this, it's really kind of— people have the mentality, if you could visibly see it, it's like there's little plus and minus signs above people's heads. And they operate with this thinking like there's certain things I do that make the plus sign bigger, right? Or they make it brighter. And there's certain things I do, it's like when I cut somebody off in traffic, the minus sign gets bigger. And that affects my day. When I get all the green lights, it's because I'm, I'm driving politely. So my karma is getting better, right? People think that way. Bad things are happening to me, must be because I've done bad things. A karma-driven world. The better we are, the larger the plus sign, the easier the life, the less the trouble. There's a constant tab running, a constant account being kept. But nothing's ever free. The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct we have. And that's exactly why Paul constantly repeats the phrase, "Grace to you." Grace to you. The nature of grace. He wants to drive the nature of grace to us and to the forefront of our minds because he knows we exist in a world that doesn't operate in our relationships with each other based on grace.
6 · The pastor unpacks the word 'grace' (charis) by explaining Paul's wordplay with the standard Greek greeting, defining grace as unmerited favor and favored status given solely because of God's goodwill, not human performance
It's actually a play on words. The typical Greek letter would have used a word that just meant greeting, but that word, "kairēn," sounds a lot like the Greek word "charis" for grace. He's intentionally taking the word that you would expect, the "Dear John" part, he's switching it out. He's using this substantive, theologically significant word. Grace. What's the nature of grace? It's unmerited favor. It's built back into a Hebrew word that has this idea of favored status. It's this idea that you enjoy favored status with a superior. You're in the boss's good graces, right? You know how that phrase goes. You receive praise from the boss. But here's the thing about grace: you get the praise not because you're the best, not because you're the hardest or the smartest worker. It's not because you bring in the biggest dividends. No, you receive favored status only and solely because of the boss's goodwill. That's the nature of grace. It speaks about the fact that God treats us in a way we have not earned. In fact, He treats us in Christ, Paul says, the opposite of the way we deserve. Instead of just wrath and condemnation because we're rebelling against Him, we receive blessing. We receive a privileged status. Just before this, Paul says, "You're the saints. You're the holy ones. You are set apart for His possession." Grace to you. You didn't earn that. You didn't earn that.
7 · The pastor constructs a hypothetical scenario of an embezzler receiving a promotion instead of punishment to make vivid the scandalous nature of grace—receiving the opposite of what we deserve
It's like the boss saying, "I'm going to promote you." He calls you into his office and says, "Steve, big news." I'm going to promote you. I'm going to give you a permanent position in the company. It's going to have an incredible pension plan. It's going to set you up for the rest of your life. You have nothing to worry about financially, materially. The health benefits are way better. I mean, it's an amazing package, Steve, and I'm giving it to you. I also want you to know that I know that you've been embezzling millions of dollars from my company. That's what grace is. The opposite of what we deserve. You know that awful feeling you have when it's like you're caught with something? Imagine the guy who gets caught embezzling. He knows he's busted. He's waiting for the other shoe to drop. Just that hollow feeling in your gut. It just gnaws at you. It's a horrible feeling, right? We know what that's like. You walk into that office expecting if he confronts you that there's gonna be cops waiting to cuff you and walk you out. Instead, he looks you in the eye, takes you by the arm, and he embraces you, and he promotes you. He walks you out from all the other employees and says, "This is my man." My favor rests on him. That's grace.
8 · The pastor argues that Paul's greeting functions as an intercessory prayer—not a perfunctory hello but a pastoral plea that believers would experientially know and live in the good of grace in every area of life
The sense is Paul is praying for us to experience it. That's the sense of the way this flows in the Greek. There's this sense of Paul interceding. It's not just, hey, grace to you. No. Grace. Grace. To you. He's praying that the Colossians, that the Kansans experience grace. I want you to know grace. I want you to live in the good of grace. That means you're not constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Grace, we know, is what initially turns our heart to Christ, right? We don't come to Christ because we're smart enough. We don't come to Christ because we're spiritual enough. We don't come to Christ because we've just got it all figured out and those people who haven't come to Christ don't. No, we have faith in Christ because God's grace has acted upon us. And Paul's prayer is that we would sense grace, that we'd be aware of grace, that we would savor grace in everything that we would do.
9 · The pastor recounts the famous candlesticks scene from Les Misérables to illustrate the power of grace to transform—showing Jean Valjean receiving unmerited favor from the bishop and being radically changed by it
I've said this before, my favorite book of all time is Les Misérables, Victor Hugo's classic. Wanna know what that book's all about? Candlesticks. The book is all about candlesticks, that huge, thick, intimidating— like, there's the abridged version. You know it's a big book when the abridged version is like 400 pages. There's like the full-blown big daddy You put it on your shelf to impress people. Maybe you've actually opened it, and it's like 1,300 pages. It's big, it's thick, it's immense. That whole book really comes down to the role of candlesticks. That main character, Jean Valjean, is a criminal. He's a convicted felon. He's out on parole, and in French society, that meant for the rest of his life, he would carry this yellow piece of paper. They'd ask, "Where's your identification paper?" Everybody else just hands out a normal piece. The police ask him, he pulls out the yellow piece, and they know he's a convicted felon. Our eye is on you. You go to apply for a job, where are your papers? Convicted felon. Traveling from city to city, you enter the new city, who are you, where are you from, let's see your papers. Convicted felon. So Jean Valjean lives in the darkness of that, this inescapable reality. He lives in the reality of a karma-driven world. And then there's that scene. He meets the bishop. The bishop invites him into his home. He feeds him. He lays out a table in front of him. Extends grace to him. The bishop and the nuns go to bed. They go to sleep. And in the middle of the night, Jean Valjean gets up And he creeps into the bishop's room. He's seen the beautiful silver they use at the table for dinner. He's seen the beautiful candles and he decides he's going to steal them. There's only one way in a karma-driven world to get ahead. He has to steal these valuables, take the money, take the proceeds and get a new life, get an alias, buy the illegal papers he can't afford so he can finally start over. And he goes in and he steals the candles. You know the story. He attempts to make his getaway and he's caught and he's captured and they bring him back. And here he is, dragged before the bishop, police holding him by the arm. And the bishop stunningly says, my friend, I'm surprised to see you back. I gave you the silverware, but you forgot the candles. There's more silver left. And Jean Valjean is stunned by it. He's stunned by the grace, the unmerited favor of the bishop. We see there the power of grace in Hugo's masterpiece. We see what Paul is alluding to here. Grace has the power to change us, not just the power to turn us to Christ, the power to keep us in Christ, to transform us, to reflect Christ. Paul is praying that grace would become the melody of our lives. Remember what the bishop says to him? Pulls him aside and whispers, "Now go and live differently."
10 · The pastor traces Paul's pattern of opening and closing with grace, arguing that Scripture itself is a conduit of grace—God's living Word that multiplies grace to us through knowledge of Him, transforming us into partakers of the divine nature
It's why this concept of grace doesn't just open Paul's letters, it also concludes them. He starts out time and time again, "Grace to you." You know how he ends? Look at the back of his letters towards the end, the last paragraph or two, maybe the last verse. There's always the phrase then, "Grace with you." Grace to you to start out, grace with you to end. Grace and peace together at the beginning, but grace with you at the conclusion. By starting out grace to you, Paul is pointing to the power of grace that's present in the letter itself. I'm writing this letter. You're receiving this letter. And this letter is grace to you. These words are grace to you. God's Word is a conduit of grace to us. And grace, it's not just some static thing. We can kind of have like, do you know what grace is? Well, yes, it's unmerited favor. It's getting what I don't deserve. No. Do you know what grace is. It's living. It's organic. Through God's Word, grace is extended to God's people. That's why we talk about the Scriptures being a means of grace. You see the connection in 1 Peter 1:2. Another letter starting out this way: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. How? In the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord. May grace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His glory and excellence. How do you get that knowledge? His Word. The power of grace is multiplied to us through the conduit of God's Word. Our knowledge of Jesus grows deeper. Divine power— divine power Paul talks about in Colossians— is going to be imparted to us. Godliness begins to take root in our lives. We begin to reflect the glory we've been called to. We'll see as this letter goes on the nature of the glory of the risen Christ. Grace is a call. Live in the good of it and reflect it. And then Peter completes what Paul alludes to. He says all that and then in verse 4 he says, he has granted to us his precious and very great promise promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature. That through the promises of God, through a letter like 1 Peter, through a letter like Colossians, through the words of this this book, you would be transformed to reflect the very image and likeness of God without taint of sin. That's what Paul's praying for. Grace to you through the precious, the very great promises of God's word. Grace to you. May you bathe in it. May you become partakers of it.
11 · The pastor distinguishes 'grace to you' (grace mediated through the Word) from 'grace with you' (grace abiding in us after we set the Word down), arguing that grace accompanies believers into all of life's situations
And then at the end of the letter, again and again, Paul says, "Not grace to you, but grace with us." It talks about the power of grace after we set the Word down. We don't go about our day— I hope you don't read with the Word like on the steering wheel in front of you, right? Paul, an apostle of Christ— whoa! Lost my place. That's not how we go through the day, right? We read it, we absorb it, we set it down. We're going to hear the Word preached this morning, we're going to go back to our homes, we're going to eat lunch, you're going to take a Sunday nap. Maybe you're going to watch the Olympics. You set the Word down. But Paul has this notion of grace that goes with us. It doesn't leave us though we set it down. It abides in us. So the grace goes with us when we go home. It goes with us and it seasons our parenting. It goes with us when we go home. And there's that relationship that's just hard. And it's been hard for months. Or it's been hard for years. Grace with you. You're not alone in it. It goes with us when we go to the office and there's an ethical dilemma. That's the way to get ahead and that's not right. The Gospel doesn't lower the bar of business ethics, it raises the bar. Grace with us as I interact with people. Grace with us when we interact with the people we enjoy. And grace with us when we interact with the people that we have a hard time being around.
12 · The pastor expounds Colossians 4:6 and Ephesians 4:29 to show that believers are called to be conduits of grace through their speech—giving unmerited favor to others, building them up, and filtering all words through the purpose of extending grace
Paul is a conduit of grace to us through the written word. But his vision is that we would all be conduits of grace as well. That we would extend grace with us. We take the grace with us and it spills out. It flows out. We give it to others as we interact with them. Colossians 4:6, "Let your speech always be gracious." Ephesians 4:29, the sister letter of Colossians, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion." that it may give grace to those who hear. You ever think about that? What you do with your mouth has the power to give grace. Not karma. Not, they've been really nice to me, so I'll give them encouragement. I'll say some nice things. No, grace, unmerited favor. The person who hasn't been kind to me. It's going to receive grace from my mouth, both to their face and when they're not there. How Christians speak to each other, how we interact, it should be edifying. Paul said it should build us up. It should build up the body. It should be mindful of the needs that are around us. And it should always have the intention that when we open our mouths, we're thinking, there's a grace filter. When I open my mouth, it's for the purpose of giving grace. My words are filled with spiritual benefit. I think this is just a way of saying— Paul is saying, when you go out, when you hang out, when you interact, wherever you're going, your words should drip grace. The source of grace is always God, but He gives us the privilege of being conduits of grace. Think of it this way: of being conduits of of gospel power to others.
13 · The pastor expounds Colossians 3:16 to show that the Word dwelling richly in us leads to teaching, admonishing, and prompting one another with grace—giving a concrete example from his care group's Scripture-sharing texts
What does grace do? It turns our hearts to Christ. You get to be that kind of grace. How does faith come? It comes by hearing. Blessed are the feet of those who bring good news. Grace— you can expel grace. What does grace do? It keeps us in Christ. You, by your words and what you do, get to help, to assist, to keep the saints in the gospel flourishing and growing, being conformed into Christ's likeness. I love how Colossians 3:16 puts this: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. That's a pregnant phrase. Let the word of Christ dwell in you, reside in you, become incarnate with you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Prompt one another with the grace of Christ. We got this little group text thing for our care group. James Beecher found some app and sent it out, and we'll send texts. You know, sometimes it's just silly guy stuff, Sometimes it's not. But since the devoted series, we as a group, we said we want to be devoted to God's Word, we want to be devoted to fellowship. Let's put these two things together. So periodically throughout the week, you get a text from a guy seeking to be diligent in his devotion to God's Word and wanting to spur others on. And so this last week, there's a text popping up, a passage of Scripture. A conduit of grace.
14 · The pastor returns to Les Misérables to illustrate the transformative power of grace-as-conduit, showing how Bishop Welcome (whose name means 'welcome') passed on grace to Jean Valjean through the candlesticks, which become a lifelong token of grace that transforms him
The bishop in Les Misérables, his name, if you actually translate it, means Bishop Welcome. That's what it means in the French. Bishop Welcome. He shows us how we can be a conduit of grace to others. Hugo describes before Jean Valjean steals the candlesticks, the bishop is laying in bed. He's asleep. He's oblivious. And Jean Valjean walks in and he's hiding in the shadows. And there's a sense of he's hiding in the shadows. He's this fugitive. He's a felon. He's this dark character. And he looks and he sees Bishop Welcome laying. And there's just this look of total serenity on his face. And through the window, he's just encompassed in moonlight. Here's Jean Valjean in the shadows, in the darkness. And here's Bishop Welcome. And there's just light resting on his face. It's a vision of a life marked by grace. Though John is in the shadows dominated by sin, when Bishop Welcome gives him the candlesticks, Hugo is showing us he's passing on the light. He's passing on the the grace. He's a conduit of grace. When he gives Valjean the extra silver, Valjean goes and he sells most of it, but you remember, he keeps the candlesticks. This is a guy that needs every penny he can get, but he knows, I have to keep these candlesticks. Why? Because they're a testament to grace. It's a token. It's a constant reminder. And they keep coming back up again again and again and again in the book. The very end of the book, when Jean Valjean dies, Hugo very intentionally has him sitting at a table. And he dies and he breathes his last. Listen to how he describes it. Valjean had fallen back and the light from the candlesticks fell across him. His white face looked looked up towards heaven. Through Bishop Welcome, a conduit of grace transforms Jean Valjean. Grace to you from the bishop. Grace with you. He's been transformed by grace. That's the power of grace.
15 · The pastor pivots from the exposition of grace to the exposition of peace
Grace to you and peace, and peace from God our Father.
16 · The pastor clears away two inadequate understandings of peace—peace as mere absence of war (geopolitical peace) and peace as Eastern spirituality's emptied tranquility—to prepare for the biblical definition
When we first hear the word peace, what probably comes to mind? The opposite of war, right? You got war on one hand, peace on the other. The famous Russian book that people talk about and nobody reads, War and Peace. I'm going to talk about a really long book. The Greek word actually has this connotation. That's what it fundamentally means. Peace, this word, is just really the cessation of war. It's the end of hostilities. We think of peace in this way, we're thinking of like the ditzy beauty queen, Miss USA pageant. What do you wish for? I wish for world peace. That's kind of what you think of when you think of peace, right? In the Iraq, you know, that YouTube video, that's what you're thinking of right now, is that really dumb one. That's not totally what Paul has in mind though. Maybe you think of like the Eastern influences that have kind of come into today. You think of kind of Eastern spirituality. So what is peace? Well, peace is like peace of mind. It's this emptied tranquility. It's like this Zen-like freedom from anxiety because You empty yourself of all the bad energy. Paul's not implying that God sent us a care package of crystals filled with good energy. That's not what he's saying. Peace from God. God sent us more crystals. That's not what he's saying. That assumes the bad energy is outside of us. And it's easily emptied. You want to talk about just nonsensical stuff? These people that buy these crystals and put them in their home and talk like there's really good stuff coming out of them.
17 · The pastor refutes a third inadequate view of peace—carefree irresponsibility—by pointing to Paul's own experience of internal conflict (Romans 7), pastoral burden, physical suffering, and imprisonment
Paul's agony in Romans 7 screams against this notion that there's just bad energy out there. His own sinful heart brings agony as this war is waged in his inner man. His flesh, his former man against the Spirit. Paul's heart is not tranquil. It's a battlefield. Peace is not Hakuna Matata. What a wonderful phrase. No worries. Hakuna Matata is just kind of this stoner laziness. When you look at it. That's what it is. It's this idea of just sort of, "Hey man, it's all good. I'm stoked, man. Today's going great." "What have you done?" "Well, I got out of bed and walked to the couch. I'm slothful. So man, hakuna matata, everything's going well." I don't take responsibility for anything, man. Life is peaceful. It's all going great. No. Paul has real hardships. He feels this massive pastoral weight. He calls it a burden for all the churches. I carry a burden for these people purchased by the blood of Christ. He tells Corinth, I got a thorn in my flesh. I got this physical malady, and I've had it for years. 3 times I've specifically pleaded with God to take it away, and he hasn't. And he's actually revealed to me it's from Satan. He's writing the letter from where? Remember what we said last week? From a Roman prison. And he tells us we will face difficulties. It's not Hakuna Matata.
18 · The pastor introduces the first layer of biblical peace—reconciliation with God through Christ's blood (Colossians 1:19-20)—but clarifies that Paul's greeting goes beyond peace *with* God to peace *from* God
So what is peace? Well, there's a real sense where peace means there is no more enmity with God, right? There is a cessation to hostilities. We're going to see that later in the letter. Colossians 1:19, "For in Him"—in Christ—"all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross." There's a real sense where peace is a sense of you were at war with God whether you wanted to recognize it or not, And now, because of Jesus having died, having spent His blood, you're no longer at war with him. The battle lines aren't drawn anymore because God expelled his arsenal on Jesus. But that's not fully what Paul is talking about here. Notice, he doesn't say we have peace with God. Does he? We have peace from God.
19 · The pastor uses the USA-Russia relationship to illustrate the difference between peace *with* (treaty) and peace *from* (active love)—showing that ceasing hostilities doesn't necessarily mean love
Peace with God means the war is over, the treaty is signed. But it's possible to be at peace and still loathe someone, right? Think of the USA and Russia. Kind of at the forefront of our minds with the Olympics. The Cold War is over. The peace treaties are signed, right? Technically, we're at peace. There's no love lost between the two countries. There's no love lost between the two heads of state. They harbor our fugitives, right? When Obama and Putin meet, there's this sense of like a chill in the room. They're not even pretending they like each other.
20 · The pastor defines experiential peace as God actively promoting internal quiet, a stilled conscience, and rested assurance that anchors us in hardship—not driven by circumstances but sustained by God
Paul's talking about something more than that. He's talking about an experiential peace. Peace. Not just the lack of hostility, not just that God is no longer throwing haymakers our way because we deserve to be punished for our sins, not just that He stopped doing that, but that God is actively promoting a peace that affects us in our daily lives. It's a peace of conscience. My conscience is still. The torment of the guilt of my sins has been taken away. It's an internal quiet. In the midst of the tumultuous sea of life, there's a rested assurance. And that's really the key. When Paul prays for our experience of peace from God, he realizes it's not all roses. It's probably helpful to think of what peace isn't. The peace that Paul claims for us isn't anxious. It isn't doubt-filled. It's not troubled. It's not terrified. It's not driven by our circumstances. Circumstances. In fact, Paul says it anchors us in the midst of our hardships.
21 · The pastor expounds 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 to show that peace is visible in believers' steadiness amid hardship—not because of their own strength but because God's surpassing power effects peace in them
In 2 Corinthians 4:8, same correspondence where he's talking about the thorn, right? We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. You know what he's saying in v. 10? You see the peace that we have in Christ because it isn't all tranquility. You see the peace because there's these people, these Christians, these believers, these people like Paul who in the midst of a life filled with ups and downs, highs and lows, difficulties, hardships, and blessings, there's a steadiness of peace about them. Carrying in their bodies the death of Jesus. We're going through hardships and persecutions because of His name. People hate us because of His name. People persecute us because of our allegiance to this Word. So that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies. They might observe the gospel of peace in how we live in light of all these circumstances. And here's the really good news. Those reactions, those products of peace, all those things Paul described in 2 Corinthians they don't happen because we are strong. They don't happen because we dig deep. Right before Paul says all that, he says the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. It's peace from God. God affects it in us.
22 · The pastor asserts that God actively sends peace to believers because of Jesus—not merely withholding punishment but actively loving and helping us, working to instill peace in our souls
The picture is that God, because of Jesus Christ, is actively affecting peace in our souls. Because of Jesus, God looks at us and says it's not just that I'm not angry anymore. It's not just that I'm not looking to punish anymore. I'm actively— because of Jesus, I look to My Son Jesus, and in Jesus, I send them peace. I send them help. I send them assurance in the midst of the storms of life. It means God is nothing like Vladimir Putin. We might be at peace with Russia, but nobody is getting warm fuzzies when they look at Vlad, right? It's actually kind of tragic. I mean, I think he has a physical malady. I think he has a birth defect, like all the muscles that actually allow a person to smile are not existing in his body. I don't know that— I think there's like a— there may be a million-dollar prize if you can find the picture of Vlad smiling. He's just perpetually scowling in everything that he does, right? He's just perpetually angry. He might not be pushing the button to launch the nukes at you, But he sure looks like he wants to, doesn't he? That's not how it is with God. Peace is this experience of spiritual prosperity, and God sends it to us. By trusting in Christ, Colossians 1:20 is true. Reconciliation has taken place. That doesn't mean God's not just going to destroy us. He's not withholding the destruction. It doesn't just mean He's not angry. It means He loves us. In Christ, Paul says, there's nothing— nothing in Christ that can separate us from that love. There's nothing that can separate us that can cause God to stop wanting and desiring to send peace to us. So He's actively working to instill in us peace.
23 · The pastor returns to 2 Corinthians 4:8 and adds Philippians 4 to show that God's peace guards our hearts and minds precisely because we face hardships—God understands our assaults because Jesus does
So we go back to that 2 Corinthians passage: afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Why? Because in Christ, God has maintained— nothing will separate us from His love. God will maintain the peace of our souls. Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Why? Because the power of God is being activated on our behalf. Paul says in Philippians 4, peace He'll give us in the midst of anxieties— what's the famous phrase?— that transcends all understandings in our hearts despite the circumstances of life in a fallen world. That's why he goes on to say this peace guards our hearts and minds. You don't need to be guarded if you have taken up residence at Disney World for the rest of your life. No, you have to be guarded because there are hardships. It protects us because God understands how we are assaulted. And He understands because Jesus does.
24 · The pastor expounds John 14 and John 16:33 to show that Christ gives His own peace—His right relationship with the Father, His assurance, His ability to rest in the storm—to anchor believers in the hardest circumstances (cancer, loss, unemployment)
Listen to Jesus in John 14. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you, Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 16:33, I have said these things to you that in Me you may have peace. I have said these things to you. I have given you My words. Remember? Conduit of grace. I have said these things to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome. The world. Christ affects His peace, His own peace, to rule our minds and hearts. What does that mean? John 14: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give with you. My right relationship with the Father I give to you. My sense of assurance I give to you. My ability to sleep in the boat in the midst of the storm, I give to you. To anchor you when things are hard, to stir up love and brotherly affection in the body. To ensure we rest securely. So when a child gets cancer, parents have peace because they pray to a cosmic Christ, the one Colossians says holds all things together. When they lose a child, they have peace because He intercedes for us as one who knows what loss is. When a man gets laid off and the last unemployment check was 3 months ago, and the savings are fully depleted. Peace reigns because God, who clothes the lilies of the field, promises provision.
25 · The pastor acknowledges that peace doesn't come automatically—our natural response to trouble is anxiety, as seen in the disciples during the storm—and poses the urgent question: How do we let Christ's peace rule in our hearts?
But that doesn't just happen. There's no pill God sends us in the mail to take when we need peace. When troubles come, our natural disposition isn't peace of mind and rest, is it? That's not what the disciples are doing during the storm. They are freaking out. And then they're freaking out more when they're like, what is his problem? He's sleeping! We're gonna die and he's sleeping! They don't get it. They don't get it at all. No, not our natural disposition. And so Paul exhorts us later in Colossians exhorts is like a nice way of saying he commands us. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. But how, Paul? How do I do that? What does that look like? Because when stuff gets bad, it's hard to do that. I really struggle to find that like happy spot of peace.
26 · The pastor expounds Colossians 3:15-16 to answer his own question: the peace of Christ rules in our hearts when the Word of Christ dwells richly there—connecting back to the opening greeting
Well, he tells us in the very next verse. Colossians 3:15, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts." Colossians 3:16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thanksgiving to God in your hearts." The peace of Christ rules in our hearts, Paul says, when the word of God, when the word of Christ dwells there. See the connection? Grace to you and peace from God our Father. Peace comes when we rest in His promises. Anxiety is silenced when the nearness of God is recalled. Doubts diminish when they encounter the living and active Word. The fear of death is crushed when we gaze upon the testimony of a resurrected Christ.
27 · The pastor calls believers to experiential knowledge of peace through resting in Christ, who is Himself our peace, and urges those who lack peace to throw themselves on grace, remind themselves of God's promises, and seek help from others
Do you know that peace? Have you experienced it? Do you know what it's like to set down striving, to lay down the labor of trying to earn God's favor? Have you ever diligently called upon his name in the midst of distress and been filled with the comfort of his Spirit? Paul promises us in Ephesians 2:14, Christ himself is our peace. Peace from God. You know what that is? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ Himself, Jesus, is ready to apply Himself like a balm to our souls. He suffered reproach so we wouldn't have to. He was cut off from God. He was hung on a cross. He was executed. In lonely agony so that we would know peace. If you don't know that peace, you haven't known it for a long time. You can taste it again. Throw yourselves upon His grace. Believe in the gospel of grace. Remind yourselves of the promises of God that are yours in Christ Jesus. Tell other people that I'm suffering from not sensing peace. I need your help to lay hold of that peace. And apply those promises to your heart. Let peace rule.
28 · The pastor issues an evangelistic invitation to unbelievers, using the Les Misérables motif (Bishop Welcome) to present Jesus as the Eternal Lord of Welcome who offers rest and peace to those who repent and believe
And if you've never known Christ, you've never known Him, no relationship with Him, just a word from the history books, much less known as peace, He welcomes moves you right now. Jean Valjean met the Bishop of Welcome. Jesus Christ is the Eternal Lord of Welcome. His arms are open to you. Come and rest in Him. Cast off your burdens. Lay your fears at His feet. Flee to Him. He will give you rest. Repent and believe the gospel that you might experience the blessings of peace.
29 · The pastor transitions to a closing prayer
Would you bow your heads?