IF YOU WANT COMPLETE PEACE
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: "As jy volkome vrede wil hé"
I want to start today with a question:
Why are so many of us dissatisfied?
Why do so many of us not have real peace?
Why do many of us have such misfortunes as Blue Mondays?
I think the answer is the following:
We don't look spiritually and because we don't look right, we don't see right, and because we don't see right, we fall into despair.
Now I speak spiritually.
I want to encourage you today to lift your head spiritually and look in the spirit and see Jesus, because you see, it is possible to see Jesus and what is more, if you focus on Jesus, life becomes a celebration.
It doesn't matter how big, what you might call, the 'mess' is around you.
It doesn't even matter how poor your circumstances are. If you look up in your spirit, you will be able to see Jesus and have complete peace.
Maybe it just sounds too good to be true to you. So let me tell you about one of the best examples, of someone who was in the most extreme circumstances, in which one can certainly end up – and he looked up and saw Jesus with his spiritual eyes – and had complete peace.
We read in the Word:
ACTS 7:54-60 Stephen Put to Death
54Now when they heard this [accusation and understood its implication], they were cut to the heart, and they began grinding their teeth [in rage] at him. 55But he, being full of the Holy Spirit and led by Him, gazed into heaven and saw the glory [the great splendor and majesty] of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; 56and he said, “Look! I see the heavens opened up [in welcome] and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57But they shouted with loud voices, and covered their ears and together rushed at him [considering him guilty of blasphemy]. 58Then they drove him out of the city and began stoning him; and the witnesses placed their outer robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59They continued stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive and accept and welcome my spirit!” 60Then falling on his knees [in worship], he cried out loudly, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them [do not charge them]!” When he had said this, he fell asleep [in death].
What a tremendous, humanly speaking, hopeless condition Stephen had been in.
There he stands and he knows these people will settle for nothing less than his death. He knew, as they would say:
"He was a dead man walking."
Now let's be honest. Your circumstances have never been as bad as Stephen’s.
What did Stephen do in these dreadful circumstances?
He looked up and, in the spirit, he sees Jesus and receive complete peace.
See again how complete his peace was:
ACTS 7:59-60 They continued stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive and accept and welcome my spirit!” 60Then falling on his knees [in worship], he cried out loudly, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them [do not charge them]!” When he had said this, he fell asleep [in death].
Now let's be realistic.
Only divine peace can make you look at people, and see the stones coming and feel how they hit your head and body, and know that these people will not stop until you are dead – and then pray:
ACTS 7:60 60Then falling on his knees [in worship], he cried out loudly, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them [do not charge them]!” When he had said this, he fell asleep [in death].
You and I sometimes think we have problems. Read what Paul writes about his life:
2COR 11:23-27…
Are they [self-proclaimed] servants of Christ?—I am speaking as if I were out of my mind—I am more so [for I exceed them]; with far more labors, with far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, and often in danger of death. 24Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent adrift on the sea; 26many times on journeys, [exposed to] danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own countrymen, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger on the sea, danger among those posing as believers; 27in labor and hardship, often unable to sleep, in hunger and thirst, often [driven to] fasting [for lack of food], in cold and exposure [without adequate clothing].
If I now compare it with many of the people who come to me to complain about, for example, a blue Monday, then Paul's year consisted of 52 blue weeks.
However, Paul saw Jesus and kept his eyes on Jesus and therefore he was also able to write full of divine peace:
2 COR 4:6-9 6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give us the Light of the knowledge of the glory and majesty of God [clearly revealed] in the face of Christ.
7But we have this precious treasure [the good news about salvation] in [unworthy] earthen vessels [of human frailty], so that the grandeur and surpassing greatness of the power will be [shown to be] from God [His sufficiency] and not from ourselves. 8We are pressured in every way [hedged in], but not crushed; perplexed [unsure of finding a way out], but not driven to despair; 9hunted down and persecuted, but not deserted [to stand alone]; struck down, but never destroyed;
Physically, I am blind and cannot see – but in 1973 and I speak spiritually now, a man came to stand next to me and put his hand on my shoulder with Christian love, while he gestured with the other hand where I should look to see Jesus and I looked and saw Jesus and accepted Him as My Lord and Saviour.
In 1981, a tragedy struck me. It seemed to me that all joy had disappeared from my life, but I lifted my head and looked into the eyes of Jesus and life again became a celebration.
In 1997 the doctor told me and my wife that I had Melanoma cancer and when I asked him how bad it was, he told me that if they couldn't stop it, I had three months to live and if I am lucky, maybe six months – and I looked up into the eyes of Jesus and life again becomes a joyful celebration.
So much so, that with all the other wonderful things that I could have enjoyed in life, I also ended up in third place in 1998 as ‘sportsman of the year’ in my company – even though I spent the whole of 1998 and a slight part of 1999 with cancer treatment.
In 2012 a neurologist told me, after telling me that my wife had dementia, when I asked how long I would be able to take care of my wife with her being with me, that it could be a year or maybe 2, and she was almost exactly right.
After that, my guide dog and I visited her every day in the age care centre, even though she didn't recognized me later, until April 26, 2019, which was the most terrible and most dreadful time in my life.
She left to be with Jesus on April 27, 2019 and I looked up into the eyes of Jesus and I was able to continue with my life again. Because I looked to Jesus, I could see how He show me the meaning in my life, and again life became a celebration.
So, what I'm telling you, I didn't get from hearsay, I was there.
Therefore, if you want complete peace in your life, just look up and see Jesus, standing with arms wide open waiting to wrap you with His peace that surpasses all understanding.
PHIL 4:6-7
6Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your [specific] requests known to God. 7And the peace of God [that peace which reassures the heart, that peace] which transcends all understanding, [that peace which] stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus [is yours].
If you don't know Jesus yet, read here what He is saying to you today:
MATTHEW 11:28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation].
REV. 3:20 ‘Behold, I stand at the door [of the church] and continually knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him (restore him), and he with Me.
COL 1:15 He is the exact living image [the essential manifestation] of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible], the firstborn [the preeminent one, the sovereign, and the originator] of all creation.
COL 1:20-23 20and through [the intervention of] the Son to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace [with believers] through the blood of His cross; through Him, [I say,] whether things on earth or things in heaven.
21And although you were at one time estranged and alienated and hostile-minded [toward Him], participating in evil things, 22yet Christ has now reconciled you [to God] in His physical body through death, in order to present you before the Father holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23[and He will do this] if you continue in the faith, well-grounded and steadfast, and not shifting away from the [confident] hope [that is a result] of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which [gospel] I, Paul, was made a minister.
Greetings,
Sakkie