Not Peace

 "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Matthew 10:34....

..."When twice-born people try to make their way through a world run by once-born people, trouble is sure to come." Vance Havner

There are many in the church today who have real problems with Jesus' words in Matthew 10:34. After all, didn't Jesus speak about the peace He promised to all who came to Him? He was never speaking of the kind of peace the world gives, and He said so. He told them He didn't give as the world did. The peace of the world is defined as a absence of outer conflict, something the flesh has convinced us we can have, even though the history of the human race proves that we have never been able to find it or have it. Christ's peace is of the spirit, the heart, and the mind. When the fullness of His Kingdom comes, we will have both inner and outer peace, but until then, as He warned, we will experience trouble. It comes with the package of being a Christian, a believer.

We go to great lengths, especially in the church, to keep the peace. Sometimes it seems as if our motto is "Peace at any cost." We don't want to rile up the flock, and neither do we wish to rile up the world. We have fallen to, in many places, of wanting the world to like us, accept us, and be attractive to them. This gave rise to the "seeker sensitive" movement of the 1980's and 90's. It seemed to "work." Crowds came to the churches who emphasized it. The deep problem was, admitted by many who were a part of it, that the majority of the crowd never demonstrated much spiritual growth. They were not deeply challenged in their hearts and spirit. We see the wreckage of that approach in many of those same churches today. We have forgotten what Jesus is telling us in the above Scripture. We cannot have a truce with the world system. The kingdom of this world must and will clash with the Kingdom of God. Each is totally alien to the other. The difference is, the Kingdom of God comes against the kingdom of the world in the power of His Spirit, Life, Presence and Love. The kingdom of the world will ever and always come against His Kingdom with naked opposition and open hate. We have always seen such to a degree. We are seeing it as never before in our culture right now. There is no room for compromise. Jesus the Gentle Shepherd is real, but so is Jesus the Warrior King. It is the Warrior King who is most needed right now.

This is no call for us to take up the weapons of the world. It is a time to take up the weapons of the Kingdom. The full armor of God as listed in Ephesians for sure, but none more so than wielding the Sword of the Spirit, His Holy Word. We must wield that Word from the pulpit, but also in our communities. Where we work, in the schools our children attend, with the government we elect, in short, in every corner of our culture. Such will not bring an outward peace. Such will not make us popular or acceptable. Such will surely put us in danger. God's Word is absolute, and the flesh hates absolutes. It will fight on every front, but if we are truly to be the people of God, we must not shrink back from the fight. We speak the truth in love, but we speak the truth...regardless of the cost.

This is daunting to all of us so used to a comfortable faith. I don't believe we will ever know such again. It was never real faith anyway. This is the time for courage in Christ, and that courage must first be found in the church. It will cost, but oh what we will gain......I close with this story of a 19th century missionary couple who embarked upon a ministry to the jungles of Africa. As they neared that great continent, the ship's captain told them,"You'll die in those jungles." The husband replied, "Captain, we died before we started." Such is the call of the Warrior King to a warrior people. When we have "died" to all that would keep us from His purpose and will, what is there left to fear? What is left that you and I still fear?

Blessings,

Pastor O