Peace Through the Spirit
John 16:12-15; Romans 5:1-8
June 6, 2004
"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
CCI: Discipleship begins with Peace with God through the Holy Spirit.
Intro: Several years ago, Steve and I went on a fishing trip to Fletcher’s Floodwater in Alpena County. The lake is wonderful for bass and pike and bluegill. However, the average depth is only 5-6 feet, and it seemed the entire lake was filled with fallen trees and big stumps. Because my foot was in a cast at the time, Steve did all the driving of the boat. And we moved slowly. We never knew where we would find submerged dangers. We fished for 2 days and I don’t think we created more than a trolling wake the whole time.
The last afternoon we were at the pond, a man launched in an 18' fiberglass bass boat with a 200 hp outboard. As soon as he was away from the dock he did something that made me gasp. He opened the engine up and flew away down the lake. I could not believe it. Did he know nothing of the lake? As I watched with my mouth open, a man from the landing came down to the dock. I asked him who that was and if we would need to go out and pull him back. That is when I learned that he had automated gps navigation and his navigation system was guiding him through that lake.
I could not see it, but his guidance was there and because it was there, he was relatively safe despite the speed.
Our lives are a lot like that lake. There are many dangers hidden from view. These dangers can be temptations which often rise quickly and unexpectedly. There are dangers from the baggage that we carry with us, much like an anchor that drags behind a boat. The baggage can be false guilt or feelings of inferiority or voices of failure. There are dangers that rise up from the system of this world in which we live.
Without a guidance system, we will have to feel our way through life little by little. But guidance is what Jesus promised his disciples in this passage.
When we think about the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we often think about how we deal with the decisions we face. Who we will marry, where we will live, what house to buy, and how to raise our children are often the things for which we seek the guidance of God. However, I believe the passage that was read this morning from Romans 5 teaches us that the process of discipleship requires the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who guides us, not only when we are making decisions, but we need the Spirit if we are going to grow in faith and be Jesus’ disciples.
The process of discipleship in each of our lives began while we were yet sinners, for that is when Christ died for us. God reached out to us to show us he love, not when we got cleaned up, not when we put on our best, but while we were God’s enemies, while we were wearing the rags of sin. That is when the Holy Spirit drew us to the Father and God declared us not guilty in his eyes. That is what it means when the Bible says God justified us. He declared us not guilty. We have been drawn into a right relationship with God, no longer need we fear the wrath of God, or arbitrary attacks from God. And that is the beginning of discipleship. God initiates this new relationship through the Holy Spirit.
Look at what he says in verse 2, “ we have gained access by faith into this grace.” The word translated “gained access” is often translated “introduction” and it was used when a person was introduced to royalty, by faith, we are introduced to God’s wonderful Grace. That is marvelous, however Barclay tells us there is another translation for this word, it is the word for the place where ships enter the harbor. It means, God has opened a way for us to escape the terrifying storms of the open sea. And He guides us into a safe harbor.
The guidance of the Holy Spirit opens the door to peace with God, this is a peace that brings rejoicing. But that does not mean suddenly the way is free from problems, we do not suddenly run around with a silly grin on our faces laughing and telling jokes. Paul knew that for the Christian in Rome, life was hard. And for believers today, living faithfully for Christ means we will face constant temptations. There will be challenges to compromise our standards. There will be testing of our relationships. So Paul takes this reality on directly by challenging us to “rejoice in sufferings.” The word sufferings here means “pressure.” Do any of you know what it is like to live under pressure? Of course, we deal with it each day. Pressure from family, from work, from school, it is all there and it keeps growing. Time pressures and financial pressures weigh down on us. But even more there are pressures on our spiritual lives. Is there anyone who has not felt they had no time to go to worship this week? Have you ever thought financial pressures were too great to give to the Lord’s work. There are pressures, but Paul tells us to rejoice in them, because the pressures will have a good effect, they will produce perseverance, or fortitude.
Perseverance is not simply enduring a difficult situation. It is the spirit that overcomes the troubles and pressures and temptations we face. Billy Sunday, the baseball player/evangelist said, "Listen, I'm against sin. I'll kick it as long as I've got a foot. I'll fight it as long as I've got a fist. I'll butt it as long as I've got a head. And I'll bite it as long as I've got a tooth, and when I'm old, fistless, footless and toothless, I'll gum it till I go home to glory and it goes home to perdition." That is perseverance. If, when we are under pressure, we will follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit who is leading into discipleship, then perseverance will grow in our lives and we too, will be able to battle sin.
Standing up under pressure results in perseverance and perseverance, Paul says, produces character. The word here translated character was used by metal workers to describe metal that has been passed through the fire so that all the impurities have been removed.
Yesterday we were saddened to hear of the death of former President Ronald Reagan. In his first inaugural address, he wonderfully illustrated the nature of proven character. He referenced the simple white grave markers in Arlington Memorial Cemetery. He said:
Under one such marker lies a young man—Martin Treptow—who left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire.
We are told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading, "My Pledge," he had written these words: "America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone."
That is character. As the Holy Spirit guides us to be disciples, he will produce in us the character we need. And that character will result in hope. Can you hear the hope in the pledge of Treptow? “I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure. . .” Yes, our lives are filled with battles, but though the battles hope emerges. Sometimes the hope is fulfilled, sometimes we are disappointed, but the hope that comes from the Holy Spirit will not disappoint because it does not rest on our character, or on our perseverance. Rather our hope rests in God himself. And that is the hope that will give us peace even when the battles rage.
Eugene Peterson writes: “The Christian life is going to God. In going to God, Christians travel the same ground that everyone else walks on, breathe the same air, drink the same water, shop in the same stores, read the same newspapers, are citizens under the same government, pay the same prices for groceries and gasoline, fear the same dangers, are subject to the same pressures, get the same distresses, are buried in the same ground.
The difference is that each step we walk, each breath we breathe, we know we are preserved by God, we know we are accompanied by God, we know we are ruled by God.” And that is our hope which does not disappoint but gives us peace.
