In the sermon titled 'Jesus Gives Peace', Peter Allison explores the account of Jesus' appearance to His disciples after His resurrection, focusing on Jesus' greeting of 'Peace to you.' This peace is central to Jesus' mission and is distinct from worldly peace, which relies on external circumstances. Instead, Jesus offers a peace that is independent of circumstances, rooted in faith, and central to the Gospel. The sermon delves into how Jesus' resurrection fulfills the scriptures, highlighting the continuity from the Old Testament promises to the New Testament's revelation of Jesus as the Messiah. It discusses the nature of Jesus' resurrected body, the misunderstandings of the disciples, and the broader implications for understanding God's kingdom. The peace Jesus brings is a core aspect of the Gospel, a sign of the kingdom, and part of the believers' inheritance as children of God, offering reconciliation with the Father. The sermon concludes with a call for believers to be instruments of peace, grounded in the faith of the risen Christ.

Luke chapter 24. I'd like to begin reading at verse 30. We pick up in the middle of this meeting that Jesus had with these two disciples on the way to Emmaus. They've been walking along. They've come to the city where they were going to Emmaus.

And they have constrained him to come in and to eat with them. And he does. Beginning in verse 30, Now it came to pass, as he sat at the table with them, that he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him, and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us.

So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven. Those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon. And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread. Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, Peace to you. But they were terrified and frightened and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

And He said to them, Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your heart? Behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I, myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.' And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. But while they still did not believe for joy and marveled, he said to them, Have you any food here?

So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb, and he took it and ate it in their presence. Then He said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me. And He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. How sweet are Christ's words to our taste, sweeter than honey to our mouths. Heavenly Father, indeed Your Word is precious to us, and we ask that You would open our eyes that we might behold wonderful truths in Your Word.

These words that You have spoken to us, Lord, grant us faith and sanctify my sinful lips to proclaim this gospel of peace. In Jesus' name, Amen. Peace in Jesus' name, Amen. When Jesus brings peace, This has been a long day. We're still in that first day Sabbath, the first of the Sabbaths that began when Christ physically arose from the grave.

When the angels came and rolled back the stone, they didn't need to roll it back for Christ to get out. They rolled it back for everyone else to see that it was empty. And the women came to that tomb and they saw it was empty, and they were very excited. Mary Magdalene ran back, remember, and told the disciples, and they didn't believe. She got Peter and John, and they came.

The women all came back with Mary Magdalene. They told the disciples and the disciples didn't believe. Jesus showed Himself to Mary Magdalene. He showed Himself to Simon Peter. We don't know any more about that showing to Simon Peter other than that it happened.

We know a little bit more about when he showed himself to Mary Magdalene. But he has never yet shown himself to his eleven disciples together. Until late that night. He's been walking on the road now, it's seven miles, we don't know how long, but part of that seven miles, talking to these two disciples on the way to Emmaus. It's now late in the day, this is the day of the resurrection day.

It's now late in the day, and he intends to go on further, but they constrain him to stay with him. So he does. He comes in, He sits down, he eats with them, and it's in the breaking of bread that their eyes are opened. They had been restrained before, so they didn't recognize who they were talking to. But their eyes are opened, and then Jesus vanishes.

Just gone. They don't see Him walk away. He's just gone. And they are so excited. They finally have realized and believed, They're so excited that they run the whole seven miles back to Jerusalem that they just spent walking.

And they run into this meeting where the eleven were gathered, and they very excitedly begin to relate everything that happened to them. And while they're in the middle of this exciting conversation, as they excitedly relate and recount, And the disciples and those who are there are also saying, yes, the Lord is risen indeed. In other words, we already knew that. And He's appeared to Simon, they tell them. But while they're having this conversation, and it's behind locked doors because they're afraid of the Jews.

This is dangerous to be talking about Jesus. This is the person that was just killed a few days ago. But while they're having this conversation behind locked doors, Jesus suddenly is standing in the midst of them. Just as suddenly as He disappeared from the disciples in Emmaus, He reappears before those same disciples and the eleven and others. The eleven minus Thomas.

John tells us that Thomas was not present this time. He immediately stands in front of them. And his first words, His very first words to His entire set of disciples, the first time that He has seen them, the first time they have seen Him together since the betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane a few days earlier. His very first words to them are, Peace to you. Peace to you.

Now this is a greeting. This is a very common greeting in Hebrew. Their word for hello is the word peace. Shalom. It's the same in Aramaic.

Peace to you. But this is not just a greeting. This wasn't Jesus just saying, howdy, guys. How are you? He said, peace to you.

He's not engaging here in a meaningless greeting. And we shouldn't either, though we sometimes do. He's not engaging in a meaningless greeting. This is the very reason that He came to earth to bring peace. When the angels announced His birth, they proclaimed peace.

Remember that? Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to men. When Zacharias prophesied of Christ at his son John's circumcision, John the Baptist, the baby who grew up to become John the Baptizer, He said that the Messiah had come to give the knowledge of salvation through the remission of sins. He'd come to bring light to those who sat in darkness, and He came to guide our feet in the way of peace. Jesus himself often spoke of his peace.

Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest to your souls." Jesus wasn't just giving a throwaway greeting when He said, Peace to you. There's the very first words and He met His disciples. In the upper room, before His betrayal on the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus twice in the Gospel account of John speaks of peace, giving peace to his disciples. He said, in John 14, Peace, I leave with you.

My peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give peace. Let not your heart be troubled. Don't be afraid." He said a little later, these things I have spoken to you about Him in His office as the shepherd, as the vinedresser. He said, these things I have spoken to you that you may have peace.

You're going to have tribulation in the world. But I've spoken these things that you may have peace. You see, this is the central message. This is the reason Jesus came to earth, is to bring peace. And this is not a peace as the world gives peace.

When Jesus said peace to the disciples, this is not the peace of the world. The peace of the world is based on the circumstances around us. When the world speaks of peace, what they're thinking of is, well, I'd like to have a beautiful pastoral field in front of me with beautiful trees in the background and a stream running through it and a glass of wine in my hand, and an easy chair that I can relax in, and a fan above my head, and then I can have peace. Then I can have some peace and quiet. You see, the world gives us a peace that is based on what is happening around us.

That's how it seeks for peace. It wants peace by controlling the environment around us. Your children are too much noise. Don't want them around. I can't have any peace.

The neighbors' music is too loud. I can't have any peace. The neighbors are whatever. Shooting guns. I can't have any peace.

I feel troubled. See, the world gives peace by trying to control everything around it and make the circumstances peaceful. And they believe that then we can have peace. And in a sense, you can for a little while. But Nobody can control the world.

Nobody can control all the circumstances. Nobody can control what your neighbors will do or won't do or what people will say to you or do to you. And so, Jesus didn't come to give us that kind of peace. The peace that Jesus gives, this peace that He came to give, is independent of the circumstances that are around them. This was a troubling time for the Jews, for these disciples.

I mean, they were Jews. The Jews that were against Jesus had gained the upper hand. They had successfully, finally, after months of trying, gotten Jesus executed. They thought they had won. And they spent decades after, the years after that, remember arresting the Christians that believed in Jesus.

Putting Him to death. Paul said he went house to house putting people in chains before He was saved. Murdering people. These disciples are frightened. That's why they're in a locked room.

And Jesus comes into the middle of that circumstance and says, Peace to you. Peace is central to the Gospel. It is a gospel of peace. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace. Now may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

You see, God desires us to have peace because He loves us. He loves us. It is a part, Peace is a part of our inheritance as children of God. Jesus came to earth. He took the body of a human nature.

He took a human nature to Himself. He took a body and a soul. He was born. He lived under the law. He obeyed sinful parents.

He endured hunger. He endured thirst, all the sleeplessness, all the limitations of the flesh. He endured an unjust trial, six of them. An unjust sentence of condemnation. He endured all of that.

Death, the wrath of God, He endured that so that we might have peace. We have all sinned and broken the law of God and are under God's wrath and condemnation. And Jesus came to reconcile us to the Father, To deliver us from that just and holy wrath and to give us peace, to make peace. To reconcile us to the Father means that we are at peace. See, this peace that Jesus brings is not only the essence of the Gospel, that there is now no condemnation to us, that we are at peace with God, But it's also the sign of the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of peace. The Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, Paul told the Romans. But what? But righteousness, and joy, and peace. Or righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Those who are armed with the armor of God have on their feet the preparation of the gospel of peace. So Jesus comes to His disciples bringing peace. Peace to you, He said to them. But they were terrified and frightened. What are the things that keep us from having peace, that steal our peace?

Unbelief, ignorance, and inability to comprehend the Scriptures. Our hindrances to peace. Unbelief, ignorance, and an inability to comprehend the Scriptures. See these disciples, they don't have peace when Jesus suddenly appears before them. Before them.

Jesus, they are terrified, frightened, and they suppose that they'd seen a ghost. A spirit. And it's understandable. If you just saw somebody just materialize in front of you, they didn't walk in, they didn't open the door, they just were there, You and I would probably be frightened too. But they didn't understand.

Ignorance and unbelief keep these disciples from peace. The first thing is faith, right? You will keep Him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because He trusts in you. He trusts in you. Faith.

You can't have peace without faith in God. The disciples still can't believe that Jesus has risen from the dead. They haven't quite believed that yet. And now Jesus is standing in front of them in the flesh. And that's the first thing to see.

Jesus rose in the flesh. The risen Savior, the risen Jesus Christ is the guarantee and source of our peace. And He rose in the flesh. And He stood before these disciples in the flesh. And when they doubt Him, and they're terrified, what is His first response to them?

Why are you troubled? Why are there doubts in your heart? Look at My hands. Look at My hands. Look at My feet.

And see for yourself. Handle Me, Jesus says. Handle Me. Palpitate. Feel Me.

He said I have a physical body. It's a real human fleshly body. Touch it. Feel it. Look at it.

See, here are the scars from my crucifixion. He was not just a spirit. He rose physically in the flesh. And so we see all these signs of this human nature. The body was in the tomb, and then it's no longer in the tomb.

It's gone, right? That's what you would expect for a physical body. His body had scars. Real scars. From the nail wounds in his hands and feet, from the spear wound in his side.

And he called the disciples to look at those wounds and to see that he had a body of flesh. He called for them to touch him. You could palpitate Him. He proved to them that He had a real physical body. But He also had a glorified resurrected body.

It wasn't the same as the one before. Now, the Mount of Transfiguration showed that Jesus didn't have to go through death in order to have a glorified body. He was glorified for a moment there on that mountain. But now he has a glorified, resurrected body. And even though it's still a body of flesh that can eat, and he eats in front of them, he eats food, spirits can't eat food, Jesus said his spirit doesn't have flesh and bones.

Like you see I have. A spirit can't eat food like I'm doing. But it's a glorified body. He can pass through doors just like that that are locked without opening them. He can just vanish or appear without any physical effort or sign.

And so these disciples, and they see this objective evidence in front of them, they believe. Of course, they still didn't believe initially then for joy, though. It's a little different than for fear. They now realize He's risen, but it's so amazing, this realization that has dawned on them is so amazing on them is so amazing that Luke says they still can't believe for joy. And so he takes it and eats in their presence.

So how does faith come? Faith, well, Paul said, we can't call on Him whom we haven't believed. And we can't believe in Him of whom we haven't heard, and they can't hear without a preacher. So in this passage, we see each of these elements is supplied. Jesus comes to them and shows to them His physical body that is physically raised from the dead.

He gives to them the objective evidence. He gives to them faith. And our faith, faith is the evidence of things that is not seen. But that faith is always based upon the Word of God, upon the objective truth of the Word of God, which is validated and confirmed by eyewitnesses. And that's why to be an apostle required one to be an eyewitness of Jesus Christ's earthly ministry, of His death and His resurrection.

And so you'll see a little later on, probably won't get to it this week, but he commissions these disciples to be his witnesses. To testify to what they've seen. And he says that blessed are those who believe that have not seen the things that you've seen. Tells that to Thomas. But we also read that Jesus then said to them after He'd shown them His hands and feet and they are filled with joy and they marvel.

Then he said, these are the things that I've been speaking to you while I was with you. These are all the things that I said had to be fulfilled. I was telling you, this shouldn't have been a surprise to you. These are the things that were written that must be fulfilled in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning Me. And He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

He showed to them that the entire Scriptures, the entire Old Testament, because that's what they had at that time. And that's what it means by the law of Moses, the prophets, and the writings. The Hebrew Bible had three divisions. The Pentateuch, Genesis through Deuteronomy, that's the law of Moses. Had the prophets, those are all the prophets and the histories that they wrote.

Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles were written by prophets, as well as what we think of as the prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and so on. And then the Psalms, it is a reference to the writings. The Psalms wasn't the only book there, but it's the biggest book in the writings. And so Jesus is saying that all of the Scriptures spoke of Christ.

That everything that was written pointed toward this moment when He would rise from the dead as the victor over death and over sin. And so Jesus teaches his disciples how in Genesis, God made man perfect without sin and placed him in a garden that was beautiful, that was luscious, verdant green plants with plenty of water, where the food just grew on trees and all you had to do was pick it and eat it. And they could eat of any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It never even rained there. Never had a thunderstorm.

Never had lightning. Never had, let alone, snow or blizzards or hurricanes. It was never too cold or too hot. They didn't even need clothes. The weather was just perfect.

The humidity was just right. You didn't get chapped lips from the dry or the cold. They had everything they could ever want and nothing that they didn't want Or wouldn't want. They had perfect liberty because they were able to perfectly obey the law of God. And God's commandments were not burdensome to them.

God entered into this covenant with Adam, we call the covenant of works, and God graciously promised to Adam his life if he obeyed. It's gracious because God wasn't obligated to enter into a covenant with Adam and promise him life if he obeyed. But he promised him death if he disobeyed his covenant. If Adam obeyed, He would have merited life. Merit is what is owed, it's wages.

Adam would have earned that. It would have been owed to him for his obedience. Why? Because God obligated Himself in that covenant to give Adam life if He obeyed. But what happened?

All of this perfect, pristine beauty and glory and perfection, Adam and Eve lost it. They fell. They had perfect liberty to obey the law of God, but they fell. They could not hold onto it. They disobeyed God.

They ate the fruit of the tree that God had forbidden them to eat. And God brought shame to them as a result of their disobedience. What had been good and beautiful now became the means of exposing their shame. Shame that was rooted in their sin but exposed in their nakedness. Nakenness before God.

Shame before God because of their sin. Alienation from God because they had sinned against Him. They had broken His covenant. They had transgressed His law. They had broken that fellowship, and God cut them off.

Adam and Eve hid from God in their shame, And man has been trying to hide from God ever since. Satan enslaved man, but God promised to deliver man through the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent. Adam and Eve had believed Satan's lie and followed Satan, But God promised to reverse that and God promised to put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. You see, in this promise, it's God that takes the initiative. It's God that promised to put that enmity there.

It's God who promised to bring this salvation and to reverse and undo and to bring Adam and Eve's loyalty back to Himself. In this first promise of salvation, the Messiah isn't directly identified. It's only the seed of the woman. And in the judgment on women, which was an increase of sorrow and an increase in conception, Both of those were parts of the judgment. But you see, in that very judgment of an increase in conception, God preserves the human race.

And in His judgment on man, which was to curse the ground and causes labor to be toil, God feeds the human race. And so Genesis, creation and the fall point to Jesus. But very quickly, murder is committed. One brother murders another brother. And though there is a godly line that arises that begins to call on God, that line is nearly extinguished so that by the time we come to Noah, we see that man without a Savior and without restraint becomes very evil such that their thoughts are only evil continually.

And God is sorry that He made man. And in His just wrath, He wipes out the entire human race. He regretted. He said, I regret that I made man. And he wipes out everything.

Every person, every creeping animal, every bird of the air killed except for eight souls that are saved through water in a salvation that typified baptism, where our consciences are washed with a water of regeneration and cleansed from dead works. God covenants Never to destroy the earth by a flood again. He doesn't do that by changing His standard of justice. He doesn't say, well, I'm going to not be so righteous and just, I'm going to overlook sin. No, God cannot do that.

God covenants never to destroy the earth again and He does that by restraining sin. In His grace, God institutes civil magistrates to rule and to restrain evil by bringing His wrath on the wicked. See, this too points to Christ who would be King, who would rule over us. God gave a sign of that covenant in His rainbow. But still, We don't have the Messiah particularly identified by name yet, do we?

Well, not only is the preaching of Noah about God's coming wrath insufficient to bring any obedience, Not only is the fearful sight of seeing the entire population of the earth destroyed and every creeping animal and every bird of the air. That would be overwhelming if you ever thought about that. What if you saw your whole neighborhood killed? That would be life changing, wouldn't it? What if you saw the whole city of Conroe destroyed?

That would be pretty horrific. But this is every single person on the face of the earth is destroyed. But that was insufficient to bring man to obey the law of God. Noah quickly falls into sin. His sons fall into sin.

Ham is cursed. What's the message of Genesis? That man is unable to live in obedience to the law of God still. And even a terrifying judgment as the flood is insufficient to secure anything. Then God appears to the patriarchs with further revelation of His plan of salvation.

He made a covenant with Abraham separating to himself a people, a people he called his own, a people who would be zealous for good works. Leviticus 20 says, "'But I have said to you, you shall inherit the land, and I will give it to you to possess a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who has separated you from the peoples. You shall therefore distinguish between clean animals and unclean, between unclean birds and clean. And you shall not make yourself abominable by beast or by bird or by any kind of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.

And you shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine." God separated this people to be a peculiar people to Himself. And He gave them a law, and Moses said, what other nation in the earth has a God so gracious as a law so good as what the Lord has given you in His grace? God gave Abraham a sign of that covenant in circumcision. It was a seal. It was a seal of the righteousness that Abraham had by faith.

But there's still no identification of the Messiah. There's just this message that without the Messiah, man is lost. Man is unable to obey the law of God. Man is unable to have peace. But that people that God separated to Himself sinned again and again.

Every man did what was right in his own eyes. And they sold themselves into bondage again and again. Having their own special, this own people that God had preserved miraculously, delivering them from Egypt, bringing them through the Red Sea, the sea thousands of feet deep, bringing them into the land of Canaan, miraculously giving to them a land flowing with milk and honey where they didn't have to plant the vineyards, they didn't have to plant the fields, they just moved in and took over all the harvest because they came in the harvest time. That wasn't sufficient. And again and again, God's people fall into sin.

And so God raises up a king. A king to lead the people. And under David, God's people conquer all of their enemies. David was a mighty warrior. He was never defeated in battle.

He had setbacks from time to time, but he was never defeated. There was no nation that ever defeated David. He always won the war. There was no nation that could ever withstand David. He was a mighty king.

God taught his fingers to make war. And David was a man after God's own heart. And through Him, God did bring peace. 1 Chronicles 22 says, Is not the Lord your God with you? As David said this near the end of his life, And has He not given you rest on every side?

For He has given the inhabitants of the land into My hand, and the land is subdued before the Lord and before His people." God did bring a measure of peace, but it didn't last. Solomon turned away. David's own children rebelled at him, staged coups, tried to take over the kingdom and kill their own father. David himself fell into sin. The nation fell into great wickedness and under Manasseh and other kings, they were even offering human sacrifice, offering their own children as human sacrifices.

Just like the pagans. There was a great kingdom under David, but David can't save Israel. He can't even save himself. He's a sinner himself, and his sin brought God's judgment on the people. Time and time again.

And so David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, longs for God's anointed, the Messiah, who would reign with perfect justice. He longs for God's salvation. The prophets came. You see, in David was a further revelation of God's plan of redemption. David was a type of Christ.

David was a king. And Christ was said to be the king who would reign on David's throne. He was a priest, and he's a prophet. But he's greater than all of these Old Testament types and shadows. This whole story, though, you see, is the whole Old Testament, from Genesis to our book Malachi.

Chronicles would be the last book in the Hebrew Bible. All of these scriptures point toward Christ. They all were his story of redemption. And I think we error when we expect what God did in the past in His plan of redemption, what He had for that, what He did unique to that time to do it again. You see, the Jews in Jesus' day and these disciples as well, they thought the kingdom would go back to the way it was in David's day.

That's what they were looking for, this return to what they thought was the glory of David's day. But you see, in God's plan of redemption, God isn't going back to David's day. God's plan of redemption, He's moving forward, and that kingdom always grows. It always is more glorious. It always is closer to the heavenly ideal to which history is marching.

And so the disciples misunderstood this plan of redemption if they expected that Jesus would be the Messiah that would take them back to the glory of David's day. And so, Jesus' death and resurrection and the work of the apostles and the prophets in establishing the foundation of the New Testament church was the further development of God's plan of redemption. And if we want those things that are in that past to be repeated, then we don't understand God's plan of redemption either. See, the unbelieving Bible teachers look back and they see, well, people aren't rising from the dead, like Jesus raised people from the dead. And so they think the Gospel is just a myth that maybe has some truth in it.

Or on the other side, people see speaking in tongues and all of these signs that were a part of the foundation, laying of the foundation of the church, and They want us to do that and go back to that. And I think they're making the same mistake the disciples did when they wanted to go back to the kingdom in David's day. God has a plan and a purpose in history. And that purpose is that he would be glorified, and his manifold wisdom would be revealed through his church to the hosts of heaven. And he's glorified in the salvation of His people.

He's glorified as a people is brought to Him who are zealous for good works. A people, a precious, a peculiar people. He's glorified as His will is done progressively more and more here on earth, even as it is in heaven. He's glorified when peace and joy reign in our hearts." Because that's what he said his kingdom is. He said the kingdom isn't out there.

The kingdom is within you. When the people were looking for this external king, the kingdom he said is within you. And it doesn't consist in outward things. It consists in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men." Paul then says, Therefore, in light of this knowledge that the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, it's not these external things, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

For He who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another." That's the heart of Christ's kingdom. And yes, he is reigning. And of the increase of his government, there is no end. And he will reign until he has put all things under His feet.

And that's what we are to pray for. And that's what we are to work for. But how do we summarize this kingdom? Yes, it has external aspects to it. Yes, What is in us will govern what flows out of us, and what flows out of us will shape and affect the things that we do.

And so I'm not in any way saying that the work that we do externally is insignificant or not really kingdom work. It is. But we have to remember that all the things that we do externally have to come from the peace that we have within and the faith that we have in the risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that the kingdom begins with righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And that it's worked out as we pursue those things which make for peace and which may edify one another.

And so Jesus brings us peace. His work was to make peace between us and the Father. And to bring peace upon this earth. A rain that's far greater than David's rain. Through a sacrifice that was far greater than any sacrifice any Levitical priest could offer.

Through a message of His Word that is far greater than any prophet of the Old Testament could ever give. He is the prophet who reveals to us by His word and spirit, the will of God for our salvation. Christ came to bring us peace. May the Lord open our eyes, your eyes and my eyes, that we might comprehend the Scriptures, God's plan of salvation, the redemption that He is accomplishing in history and now and in the future. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, all of Your Word speaks of you. It tells us of your great and glorious plan to redeem a people who were in bondage to sin and to Satan, who were consumed with lusts and envy, fighting at war with one another, killing our own brothers, raping our own sisters. You, Lord, have come that we might have peace. And that we might walk in that perfect law of liberty and delight in your commandments. That we might have fellowship with you.

And because we are in you, we are members of one another and have fellowship with one another and can have peace with one another well father may you make us as instruments of Father, may you make us instruments of peace. May we be peacemakers, for you have called those blessed. May we speak peace to one another. And may our greetings, Lord, of peace be spoken in sincerity of heart and mind and not in a meaningless and trivial way But Lord as we greet one another may it be with that sincere and genuine desire for your peace to reign in our lives. To know your peace, to live at peace, to have a mind that is stayed upon you and trusts in you, and that is not afraid to have a peace that is independent of any of the circumstances outside of us.

Lord, though host should encamp against us, though war should come against us, though all of our property and our wealth be taken away, Lord, may we have that peace of a heart that has stayed on you. A heart that has been buried with you and risen with you and dwelling with you. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.