Peace and Joy
About this series:
The title of our teaching series throughout 2023 is The Kingdom Of God. The essential goal is to help people understand the Bible’s teaching on the kingdom of God and raise confidence in God’s plans for his kingdom’s expansion / multiplication.
Teaching about The Kingdom Of God is a great way to address life as a church community - this is how life together under God’s reign should look like. And to address our lives in the world - demonstrating to those in our sphere of influence the reality of God and what life looks like when God is your king.
The second part of our teaching on the Kingdom is called “Kingdom Priorities.” Here we look at some familiar biblical themes, and bring an emphasis on how they are a feature of God’s kingly reign.
About this talk:
Scripture: Romans 14:17
Peace is more than the absence of strife, but a positive wellbeing, as reflected by the Jewish understanding of shalom in the Old Testament. True peace begins with knowing that we are at peace with God - “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). And this then becomes the fuel for being at peace with ourselves and with others - “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way” (2 Thessalonians 3:16).
Peace and joy are listed in Galatians 5 as evidence of the Holy Spirit’s activity in someone’s life. Paul mentions them again here as the fruit of the Spirit’s work by stating that all three qualities are, “in the Holy Spirit” (see Romans 5:1-5 for another example of Paul grouping these terms together). He is, after all, “the God of peace” (Romans 15:33).
And peace / peacefulness is also the result of both human decisions. We’re told here, “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” and in Ephesians 4:3 to, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
Joy is clearly related to peace, a deep-seated gladness that finds delight in God whatever one’s circumstances. Jesus himself was said to be anointed, “with the oil of joy” (Hebrews 1:9, quoting Psalm 45:7) and joy is a characteristic of the Trinity who are continually delighted in the perfections of their life together. Joy, then, becomes a characteristic of the person filled with God’s life as is made clear through the Psalms and the New Testament.
Peace and joy are therefore marks of God’s reign, of his kingdom having come to bear upon individuals, families, churches and communities. Even in the midst of trouble, peace and joy remain because they originate in God, not in our circumstances (see, for example, 2 Corinthians 7:4; 8:2). He is the source of our peace and joy: “Rejoice in the Lord…And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:4,7).
Peacefulness and joy are evidence that God’s reign is bearing fruit in someone’s life, a foretaste of the perfect peace and endless joy we will experience forever in his eternal kingdom.
How can we keep full of “peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”?
Can you give some examples of how people can be peacemakers and joy-bringers?
What opportunities do you have to be a peacemaker and a joy-bringer in the places God has placed you, being thermostats instead of thermometers?
Audio only
