Jason Hensley - The Gospel of Peace - Class 1 - Shades of Peace

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1. 0:00

   Family Bible Camp speaker for this session is our brother Jason Hensley from this Simi Hills Eclesia in California. His theme this week is the Gospel of Peace and this is his first class and the subjects for his first class is Shades of Peace. There is no introductory reading, so I’ll ask her brother Jason to come.

2. 0:26

   There we go. Thanks for the David. Good morning, everyone. All right. I think I have like 10 foot, 10 feet of cord here, so there I can move a little bit. All right, very nice. It’s good to see you all. I hope that you are having a pleasant day, that things are going well.

3. 0:44

   The teens are great because I had a lot of fun with them. We are going to be talking about the gospel of peace. I gave a little bit of an introduction as to why we’re talking about that and. This is going to be an interesting study because it’s kind of. It’s like a blend of biblical and a little bit of historical.

4. 1:06

   So we’ll see. Kind of what what you think about that In addition, I want to I want to put out there again, I know I said it last night, but I’m totally happy to be interrupted so. If you feel. You know, really moved at some point you want to like jump up and say, but what about this or something like that?

5. 1:24

   That’s great. Like, you know, I, I teach middle schoolers, They interrupt me all the time. So like that’s, that’s the kind of thing where it, it makes me feel at home. So you want to do that. That’s good. And I think it’s good for us to, to talk through things. So I’m happy to happy to hear any, any ideas that you have or any disagreements you might have, anything like that. OK, this is where we’re going to go this week. We got five classes together.

6. 1:49

   This first class we’re going to talk about shades of peace. So that’s the types of peace and why peace matters. That’s really what we’ll be looking at for the first class tomorrow. We’re going to look at interconnected peace. So the idea is that once we’ve seen the different kinds of peace, let’s notice how they are related to each other. They’re all interconnected and you can’t really have one without the other.

7. 2:15

   For our third class on Wednesday, we’re going to then look at what’s the difference between peace and unity. And I think this is really interesting, This, this is a big deal for me because I’d never really thought about there possibly being a difference between the two. So we’re going to spend some time looking at what is peace biblically, what is unity biblically?

8. 2:35

   And what is the difference? Why does that matter? Then we will look at some of the instances on Thursday that we might see as unpeaceful. So I think sometimes we tend to to look at cases in the Bible. Like the destruction of the Canaanites, that sort of thing. And we say, well, look, see, there are clearly things that are unpeaceful in the Bible.

9. 2:59

   And so therefore we sometimes use them as an excuse. You know, we say like, well, see, we are supposed to, we’re supposed to be like that. I remember hearing before a brother saying, just like the Israelites went out and killed all the Canaanites, We’re supposed to do that. There’s just not enough bullets, right?

10. 3:15

    And I, and I was like, whoa, like that. You know, I don’t think that’s what that meant. And, and one of the one of the things that I think is important for us to look at is to understand that peace is a really big deal. And then to go back and say, so if God cares so much about peace, then why do we see so much violence in the Old Testament, right?

11. 3:37

    What’s going on there? So we’re going to try and re evaluate. That our last class together will be on making peace and unity. So now that we see that peace matters. What do you do about it, right? How? How do you bring that out? OK, so that’ll that’ll be again, looking at some biblical examples to bring out some principles there. So that’s the plan.

12. 3:56

    Our plan for today, we have 3. Sections here this is I don’t know why it’s one of those things I always think in threes, maybe you do too. I so I’m always going to have three sections in my classes. That’s that’s just how it goes so. Our first section will be a Kingdom of Peace so. We’re going to talk about how the Kingdom is connected to peace.

13. 4:18

    Then we’re going to see how the gospel is connected to peace. What I’m really trying to do in these two sections is just build out that peace really matters a lot. And as I talked about last night, for me that was just something that I didn’t think about that much. That peace didn’t seem like it was that important.

14. 4:35

    So I want to really lay that foundation that that peace biblically matters a lot. And then we’re going to talk about the different kinds of peace. So that will be the plan. Now in every class I give, I really like to have what I call a core message. And that’s because this is probably like my middle school teaching side, but. For the core.

15. 4:53

    Oh, that sound is going to bother me. Give me a second. Let me fix this. It’s like, yeah, that kind of worked. OK. So I really like to have, like, a main message because sometimes you hear classes and it’s a whole bunch of stuff and you write it down and you’re really excited, and then you don’t ever look at your notes again.

16. 5:16

    So like you don’t actually take anything from it. So for me, it was really nice to just have a distilled here’s the one sentence version of this class. All right, here’s the one sentence version. And in fact, I’ve tried to be really nice to you. I made it 2 words long. OK, I couldn’t just make it 1, right? You know, you can’t have a one word sentence. Well, maybe, I guess like stop, that’s probably a sentence. But that way that anyway, that’s not that’s not useful. So peace matters.

17. 5:44

    That’s the main message, right? Peace matters. So that’s what I really would like you to take from this. So we’re going to spend an hour together and hopefully you come out of that feeling like, yes, I agree, peace really matters. That was 3 words, but you get the idea. OK. I also like to ask why questions? You know, I feel like questions really power Bible study. So each each class I’ll try to give you why questions. If you have more why questions afterwards, you know, come and share them with me and.

18. 6:11

    We can see what we can come up with. This is something that I was thinking about as I was working through this class. Why didn’t Jesus come to bring peace? You remember that, He says. I did not come to bring peace, but a. Sword. What’s that mean? You know, why did why did he say that?

19. 6:33

    So here I am, you know, saying peace is really important, really important. And then Jesus, because, well, I didn’t come to bring peace. So, you know, I want us to think about that and I and we’ll try and talk. About it as we go, OK. So let’s talk about a Kingdom of peace here. So I’m going to ask you questions. I know that’s maybe a little untraditional, so don’t feel like you have to answer them, but if if you want to, that’s OK.

20. 6:55

    So here’s my question for you if somebody were to ask. You why did the Lord Jesus heal? What would you say? I think there’s multiple right answers, right? Multifactorial. What was that? To prove he had the spirit right now in fact that works. You might remember Nicodemus John chapter three. He says we know you are a teacher sent from God because no man can do these works. Unless God is with him, right?

21. 7:26

    So yes. So to prove that he has the Spirit, Why else do you think Jesus healed? Yeah. It’s hard to make your receptive of things when you’re in pain. Oh yeah. So you might not listen, you know, if you’re hurting. Yeah, that’s good, Steve. To prove he had the.

22. 7:43

    Authority to forgive sins. Oh. That’s a good one. Yeah. To prove that he had the authority to forgive sins. That’s mark two, right? Paralytic comes down through the roof. He forgives sins. Yeah. Phil, glorify God. That’s a big one. Right? So that that was one of the big goals. OK, Paul. He has compassion so we know when, when the feeding the 5000, feeding the 4000.

23. 8:07

    He has compassion on the multitude, it says. And he heals their sick Laurie A. Foreshadowing of the Kingdom too, right? Oh, oh, that’s that’s good. Yeah. OK, I’m going to end it there because that’s actually the segue here that I’m going to that I’m going to go towards. So yes, I think all of these things.

24. 8:25

    These are all reasons for what he was doing right. He wants to glorify God. He wants to prove that he has the Spirit. He has compassion.

25. 8:34

    He wants people to be able to listen, right? He doesn’t. He doesn’t want them to be hurting during all of this. So you can see the Lord Jesus is healing for a number of different reasons. Now, what’s intriguing about that is that you will notice that he did not heal everyone, right? We know that the Lord had the power to heal.

26. 8:59

    By distance right, he had distance healing power. He heals the centurion servant, He heals the nobleman’s son. He very easily can speak the word and he can heal people. So theoretically, Robert Roberts talks about this and Nazareth revisited. Theoretically, he could have just said, you’re all well, and then boom, there’s nobody sick in Israel anymore, right? He could have done that, but he doesn’t do it. And in fact, we’re told a couple of reasons why. In Matthew 1358, we read that he did not heal a number of people in that area because anyone remember why? Because of their unbelief.

27. 9:40

    That’s right. So he specifically links his healing with belief. So that’s one thing. And then in addition to that, where it gets really, really intriguing, that’s two reallys. In John 5, you get the story of the man at the pool of Bethesda. Remember that? Now, we know that there were a lot of people there who wanted to be healed. We know that because Bethesda was a place where you would go to be healed.

28. 10:08

    And what happens is the Lord Jesus specifically walks by all of these sick people. Have you ever pictured that, right? He walks by all of these sick people and He goes up to one specific person, a person who remember what He says to him. Do you want to be healed? Have you ever thought about that?

29. 10:30

    How long have the man been sick? 3838 years. OK, Now what do you think? What kind of reaction do you think you’re going to get if you walk into somebody who’s been sick for 38 years and you say, hey, would you like to get better? You’re probably going to get a well. Yeah, Right.

30. 10:47

    Or like a, I’m at a pool where you get healed. Like, don’t you know, don’t you think that indicates I want to get better or something like that? But you know, again, clearly the Lord Jesus, he’s the Lord Jesus, right? So he knows what he’s doing. So he’s not just walking up to somebody and asking a dumb question or something like that. Like he has something going on.

31. 11:07

    He knows what the man is thinking, right? He’s the Lord. So what I would suggest to you is based on the fact that he asked this question is it’s not just a, oh, you know, do you want to be better? Because I don’t really know. Like that’s not what he’s saying. He’s he’s saying to the person, look, you’ve been here 38 years, why have you not gotten in this pool yet, right? Like what’s going on?

32. 11:26

    Do you actually want to be better? And that’s why the man answers. You remember his answer? Well, Sir, someone gets in front of me every time. There’s nobody to help me, right? Hey, the man gives an excuse. He says, oh, well, here’s why I’m not better right now. I bring that up because when we’re looking at why did the Lord Jesus heal, number one, we find out he didn’t heal a lot of people because of their unbelief. In addition to that, we see somebody who appears to not believe, right?

33. 11:56

    He’s there. He’s, he’s not, you know, really doing what he should do. And even after Jesus heals him, do you remember? What he says, Jesus says go and sin no more, lest something worse come on you, right. So this is not, you know, a story of a guy who was really awesome or something like that. Like Jesus says, go and sin no more or something worse will come on will happen to you.

34. 12:17

    And what does the man do? He goes and he tells the Pharisees that it was Jesus who healed him. Like that was probably like the worst thing you could do in that situation. And yet that’s what the man does. So here we see somebody who apparently doesn’t seem to believe, and yet Jesus heals him anyway. So what’s going on there?

35. 12:35

    Interesting. Right. So what I want to put to you is that, you know, the healings that Jesus does, they’re nuanced. It’s not, it’s not as though Jesus just comes and we can say, oh, here, here it is. He’s really nice and he wants to be nice to everybody and he wants to help them all.

36. 12:53

    Like clearly Jesus is somebody full of compassion. So he does want to help everybody, but there’s certain things that he’s looking for first and certain things that he’s doing. So let’s try and understand this a little bit better. Now. What I find very intriguing is that when you start looking specifically at the healing miracles, you will notice that very often they are connected to two other things.

37. 13:15

    So let’s take a look. Matthew 4, verse 23, Matthew 423 says Jesus went throughout Galilee. So look at look for the things that He does before He heals. Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. So you can see it there, right? When He goes to heal, He does two other things. First, before he heals the people, he teaches them and he talks about the Kingdom.

38. 13:47

    Now you’ll see that same pattern in Matthew 935 and in Luke 9 verses two and six. This is not just something that happens once, but you can see this isn’t a general verse on just this is what Jesus does when he goes places. He teaches, He preaches about the Kingdom and then he heals.

39. 14:07

    Now the reason that I’m bringing this. Out is because I think this really helps us understand what the Lord Jesus was doing and this is going to connect us to peace. In case you’re wondering now yesterday when we talked about the transfiguration we talked about how the Lord went around from city to city preaching the Kingdom of God is at hand, right?

40. 14:33

    The Kingdom of God is at hand. Now we know that had to be true because the Lord Jesus spoke things that were true, right? His words were truth. So the question becomes, well, how is that true? How is it true that the Kingdom of God was at hand? And I think we’re starting to see the answer here. Just picture what this would be like. Can you imagine what it would be like if somebody came and started talking about the Kingdom, started to say, here’s what the Kingdom is going to be like. This is going to happen.

41. 15:10

    The blind will see, the deaf will hear. And oh, by the way, let me show you, right? And then all of a sudden the people that could never walk can now walk. When he says the dead will be raised and he raises the dead, right? When the Lord Jesus says the Kingdom is at hand.

42. 15:28

    I think, you know, sometimes it gets a little cliche when we say, oh, well, he was the Kingdom. But I think that’s really the case. It’s not just. It’s not just that he was the Kingdom because he was the king, but it’s that he was the Kingdom because being with Jesus was like living in the Kingdom of God, right? You had the word made flesh with you. Every single thing that was said was perfect, right? If you got a cough and you were like, Oh no, I don’t think I can preach today.

43. 15:56

    You go to the Lord Jesus and you say, well, I was supposed to go preach in that city and he’s like, oh, I got it right. And you know, then you’re not coughing anymore. Like it’s. It’s the kind of thing where you didn’t have to worry about that kind of stuff, right? Even when they were afraid of getting captured.

44. 16:10

    Jesus says, oh, don’t worry, my hour has not yet come, right? Owe you a little faith. You think the boat’s going to collapse? Come on. Like living with the Lord Jesus was. Living in the Kingdom, right? That’s what it was like. And so when he heals, I think he’s giving a taste of here’s Kingdom life. And I want you to see this.

45. 16:32

    I want you to experience it. So that then is why we often see him say these words. So you see it there in Matthew 9/22. He says your faith has healed you, right? He doesn’t just heal. All over the place, heal at random. But he tells people, here’s what the Kingdom is going to be like.

46. 16:54

    And if they don’t believe that the Kingdom is at hand, then he says, oh, well, never mind, right? We looked at that in Matthew 13. He says never mind then you won’t experience the Kingdom. But if you do believe it, if you do believe that the Kingdom is at hand, that I have this power, then you will. So he constantly says your faith has healed you. Matthew 1528.

47. 17:16

    Great is your faith. Mark 1052, your faith has healed you. So we see that he’s constantly connecting faith healing and this Kingdom idea. So he’s bringing it all together. Now, where it gets really interesting is when we actually start to look at the Greek, and some of you are in my Greek class. Yeah.

48. 17:35

    So there you go now, so you’ll be able to read that. But I put the English translation on the right, so don’t worry. It’s OK. I’ve underlined in this in these two verses here the word healed right. So this is the same word three times. It’s it’s conjugated slightly differently the different times, but it’s the same root word.

49. 17:53

    So Matthew 9, verses 21 to 22, take a look at this word healed. It says she said to herself, this is the woman with the issue of blood. She said to herself, if I only touch his cloak, I will be healed. Jesus turned and saw her take heart, daughter. He said, your faith has healed you and the woman was healed at that moment. Now we read that and it makes sense, right? The woman’s healed.

50. 18:13

    OK, got it. Her faith has healed her and at that moment she’s made whole or she’s healed. Well, what’s interesting about it is in the Greek, it doesn’t actually say healed. It’s your Greek word sozo. Which, yeah, you could say it could mean made whole, but it literally means saved. And that’s a really interesting spin on these healings. Now, in fact, I put down there on the bottom of the screen. So mark 656, Mark 1052.

51. 18:45

    Luke 836. Luke 850. Luke 17. 19 Those are all healings where the people are, according to the Greek. Saved when they’re healed. Now I’m not trying to say some kind of thing of like the Lord Jesus came along and he gave them eternal salvation, right? I’m not not like teaching once saved, always saved anything along those lines. I’m just trying to explain.

52. 19:08

    Here’s here’s what the Greek says, and I think it’s important for us to notice. That the Greek says this because we’re supposed to see a relationship between the healings here and salvation. Because when the Lord Jesus was healing, he was giving a picture of the Kingdom. So this is all intertwined. He wanted people to be experiencing the Kingdom of God when they were with him.

53. 19:35

    And so when he heals them, he says your faith has saved you because he wants them to connect. This healing is not just, oh, I can walk again, but this is a new experience. This is something you could not have achieved on your own, something totally different.

54. 19:56

    You’ve been saved. And there’s just a couple verses that give you an idea of, of how this word is used, right? It means saved. So Luke 1910 for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost, right? He didn’t come to heal the lost. He came to seek and to save the lost. Same thing John 316 to 17, right? Most famous verse in the history of time you have for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. And so you see that connection with saving and healing. Now, in addition to that, then

55. 20:34

    that’s why when the Lord Jesus heals, He forgives sins. Have you ever wondered about that? Like it’s kind of a funny story when the paralytic man is let down through the roof, right? And he’s laying there and Can you imagine what he would have been thinking? He would be so excited like there was a.

56. 20:53

    Big long line and finally here’s somebody who heals sickness and he’s laying there in front of the Lord Jesus. He found out a way, you know, his friends figured out bring him down through the roof and all of this. And so he’s laying there and he’s waiting to be healed. And Jesus says your sins are forgiven.

57. 21:06

    And the man would be like. Oh. Well, that’s good. You know, I’m, I’m glad to not have sins anymore. That’s that’s good. But could I also walk, you know, like that’s kind of what I was hoping for, right? Like and yet the Lord Jesus does it because I think he wants the man to realize.

58. 21:31

    This is. All connected, all of what he was doing is he’s showing a picture of the Kingdom of God and he wants them to realize this is bigger than walking, right? This is bigger than being able to see. Because what he is doing is he wants to show, yes, there’s not going to be these diseases, there’s not going to be sickness, that kind of thing in the Kingdom of God. But the Kingdom of God is more than that. It’s about the sickness of sin going away and you will be saved for real.

59. 22:05

    Right, this is what he’s showing. And so he’s giving this picture of here is the Kingdom of God. Come and experience it with me. Your sins are forgiven. That’s what it feels like now. This is why the Lord is constantly expressing this idea that wherever he goes, it is the Kingdom of God. So when he’s accused of casting out demons by Beelzebub, he says to them, he doesn’t say look like Beelzebub is a false God, right?

60. 22:42

    You know that that probably would be a tactic that, you know, I might want to take you, you get out your Bible and you’re like, all right, you know, let me whack you with this Bible and show you, you know, what you’re saying is totally wrong. But that’s not what he does. It’s interesting. He goes and he says, no, you don’t understand the point of what I’m doing.

61. 23:01

    This has nothing to do with Beelzebub or whatever. He says I’m bringing the Kingdom like that’s the point. So he says to them, this is his big, you know, crowning conclusion here in this story. He says, But if I’m driving out demons by the finger of God, the Kingdom of God has come to you.

62. 23:18

    Right. You’re, I mean, forget, forget like Beelzebub, forget the demons, all of that kind of thing, he says. What really matters here is the fact that you are in the presence of the Kingdom of God. OK. So we’ve established that. Now you might be wondering. What’s the relation of all of this to peace? Why are we talking about this?

63. 23:42

    Well, because there’s another phrase that the Lord Jesus uses when he heals. Maybe you remember it, but it’s one of those phrases that I think we often just don’t notice because He says a number of things when he heals people and we’re used to reading them. But look at this, he says in Mark 534. This is the parallel record of the woman with the issue with blood.

64. 24:03

    He says to her daughter, your faith has healed you go in peace. Have you ever noticed that? Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.

65. 24:20

    Now, what I want to suggest to you is that the Lord is now associating the Kingdom of God with peace. Now you might say, well, that’s obvious, right? Like we, we expect there to be peace, But I, I think this is a little bit different kind of peace, right? He’s not, he’s not saying, oh, and by the way, I’ll bring World Peace or something like that, right?

66. 24:46

    We, we always, we’re constantly associating the Kingdom of God with the time when the swords are beaten into plowshares. And that’s good. We should do that, right? So I’m not saying that’s bad in any kind of way. We should, but in addition to that. What I want us to notice here is that the Lord Jesus is bringing out a different shade of peace. This isn’t World Peace that he’s talking about. He’s talking about some kind of peace that this woman was experiencing individually because at this point she was feeling something that she hadn’t felt for 12 years, right? And he says, go in peace.

67. 25:20

    I’m giving you this experience of the Kingdom of God. This is what it will feel like. Here is something that you could not do for yourself. Here is something that you haven’t felt before, and now I’m doing that for you. Go in peace. Experience this. So is this. Experience of peace. Now you see the same thing. This isn’t necessarily healing, but I think it’s the same idea. This is the.

68. 25:45

    Story when the Lord is invited into Simon the Pharisees house, do you remember that? It’s like one of my favorites. So he he gets invited into Simon the Pharisees house and he sits down. Simon doesn’t give him anything to drink. Simon doesn’t give him any water for his feet. He doesn’t anoint his head.

69. 26:02

    And the Lord is sitting there and this woman who was a Sinner. Now I think that was Mary. You can come and talk to me later about that if you want. I also think it was a relative of Simon. That’s a different story.

70. 26:13

    She comes in, she washes his feet right with her tears. She anoints his head and Simon Says, if this man were a prophet, he would know who and what manner of woman this was, for she is a Sinner, right? Well, this, this is just the best part of the story, right? Because Simon thinks it and he says, oh, he can’t be a prophet. You know, he’s thinking that in his head. And the Lord Jesus says, well, actually, Simon, you know, let me show you that I’m more than a prophet because not only do I know who this woman is, but I actually just read your thoughts.

71. 26:55

    So he turns to Simon and he says, Simon, I have a parable for you and. He tells the parable of the two debtors. And so then he says, therefore I tell you this is Luke 747 to 48. Therefore I tell you her many sins, right? She was the great debtor who had a number of sins that were forgiven.

72. 27:12

    Her many sins have been forgiven, as her great love has shown, but whosoever has been forgiven, little loves little. Then Jesus said to her, your sins are forgiven. So you will notice again, there’s this idea of healing and now we have forgiveness being brought out, right? Because this is a. Picture of receiving that forgiveness in the Kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus.

73. 27:32

    Says the same things as he brings as he culminates this this work with this woman. He says your faith has saved you. Same thing that he said to people when he healed them. And then he ends it with go in peace. There was this individual experience of peace that she was having as the Lord Jesus forgave her sins. So we often think about World Peace, but this is something different.

74. 27:59

    This is a kind of association between the Kingdom of God and peace that I think we sometimes miss. So let’s just put that on pause now. So what we’ve. Seen is that there’s this sense of peace that’s connected to the Kingdom of God. Sometimes we might not often notice. Now with that said, let’s talk a little bit about the new creation. So we’re still building out the Kingdom and and peace. OK, so take a look at John 11 up there, right. This is one of those verses that sometimes we try to avoid when we’re talking to people.

75. 28:38

    And I I recognize, you know, I’m going to say this. I recognize that this is that there’s multiple interpretations of how this works. I’m going to present one to you see what you think about this. So John one one starts with our words in the beginning. Now I have the Greek up there for you. It’s NRK.

76. 28:51

    And the reason this is significant is because it’s missing the definite article. So it does not say the IT just says in a beginning. Now that’s helpful for us, by the way, when we’re talking to Trinitarians, right, Because we can say, oh, look, this doesn’t necessarily have to be the Genesis beginning. The other reason that it’s interesting is because it’s actually a quote of Genesis.

77. 29:14

    So in Genesis 11, the Hebrew reads Barashit, which also doesn’t have the definite article. So this really is in a beginning as well. That’s very intriguing. I’m not going to say anything else about that, but but you see, you can look at the two of those and what we can see is that John is quoting Genesis, right? And we can tell that because he specifically leaves out the definite article.

78. 29:42

    OK, Septuagint, by the way, in case you’re wondering, you know, you’re thinking, oh, that’s Greek and Hebrew. Well, the Septuagint says anarchy says Septuagint, Genesis 11. John is probably quoting that. OK, well, the first thing then that gets created in the physical creation, right? So John, John is trying to get us to think, I think about the Genesis creation.

79. 30:02

    So he quotes Genesis. He says think the Genesis creation. So you’re thinking about the Genesis creation. You then get the same thing created first. Right. First thing created in the Genesis creation is separation of light and darkness, right? Let there be light, light and darkness and then separated. Well, John 1 verses four and five. They say in him was life, that life was the light of all mankind.

80. 30:24

    The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it. Same thing, right? Light and then separation of light and darkness. So you have the same ideas. So you can see that in John 1/4 and five, and then Genesis 1 verses three and four. OK, well here’s where this gets interesting.

81. 30:41

    John has been basing this exposition so far on Genesis, and then he diverges. Take a look. All of a sudden so you have light, and then the next thing that shows up in John One is yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or of a husband’s will, but born of God. So now you have the creation of humanity right now. Did you notice what John is emphasizing here? By the way, it’s not what I underlined. So you don’t have any hints.

82. 31:28

    I feel like there’s something there that John could not say. More times, he says, he gave them the right to become children of God. And by the way, they were children born not of natural descent, nor of a human decision or of a husband’s will, but born of God, right? John is. Trying to say here, I want it to be extremely clear that this is not natural birth.

83. 31:52

    And he’s saying this is not the same thing as the Genesis creation, right? In Genesis, you have Adam and Eve, they have Cain, who then has more children, more children, right? And So what John is saying is it’s not like that, right? Everyone here, God is creating children of God. He’s making a family.

84. 32:10

    And it’s not through a lineage here. It’s not through a natural lineage, but it’s through all of those who receive the Lord Jesus Christ.

85. 32:21

    It’s different. He’s diverging, right? He has some of the same ideas, right? God creating. Mankind being in his image, they’re the children of God, like a family resemblance kind of idea, right? They’re some of the same thoughts, but it’s different. So you have this divergent. So John starts with Genesis, right? And then he starts to break off and he shows a new creation, something different, which is very interesting.

86. 32:42

    I don’t know if you ever noticed, but in the Gospel of John, you actually have the first seven days as well of Jesus’s ministry, which is very cool and it culminates in the wedding of Cana. So I, I find that to be very exciting. OK, Now the reason that all of that is significant for us, right?

87. 33:00

    Again, we’re talking about peace. The reason that’s significant for us is because when we come to the end of the Gospel of John, you have this record that maybe maybe you’ve read this before and, and wondered about it, or maybe you just kind of read it and skipped over it. But it it’s one of those kind of funny like.

88. 33:16

    Stories Listen to this on the evening of that first day of the week. It’s John 2019 to 22. When the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord again. Jesus said, peace be with you.

89. 33:36

    As the Father has sent me, I’m sending you. So you know, you read that part and that, that all sounds really nice, right? He’s with his disciples. That’s, that’s wonderful. He says, peace be with you. Then have you ever noticed this next sentence? And with that, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. Now it’s one of those things that you read that and you’re like, huh, Like especially post COVID, right? You read it and you’re like, oh, like, I don’t want people to breathe on me.

90. 34:07

    You know, like that’s not very nice. Like, but but what’s going on here? Like this makes complete sense when we recognize John sets up the gospel so that you see the Lord Jesus as the beginning of a new creation. And here he is the beginning of that creation, the first born from the dead, right?

91. 34:26

    The first born from the dead. And he says, now I’m starting the new creation. And it’s not just with people that he’s healing, but now we see it’s expanding. To everyone and it starts with the disciples and he does it by breathing in the breath of life, which for the new creation was the Holy Spirit, right? So that’s, that’s what he’s doing. That’s why he is doing these things. So what we see then is that you have this new creation. The Lord Jesus is setting the foundation for his Kingdom. Now don’t, don’t start to feel all weird. I’m not saying the Kingdom came anything like that. He’s studying the foundation for his Kingdom as he begins this new creation, right?

92. 35:08

    It’s it’s the beginning of it all, and that new creation will be fully realized when everyone else is born from the grave and given immortality. So this is how he starts now. This is significant for us. Because I think it’s crucial we talk about the new creation, right? But have you ever thought that the new creation begins with the words peace be with you, right? The, the, the original creation started with let there be light, right?

93. 35:40

    The Lord Jesus begins the new creation with peace. I think that’s crucial. You know, we’re, we’re looking at this idea that peace is highly connected to the experience of the Kingdom of God. And the Lord Jesus shows us that as he starts his new creation, which eventually becomes the Kingdom of God. At his second coming. And he starts it with the words peace. So it shouldn’t.

94. 36:06

    Surprise us then that as we start to look at the New Testament and we ask ourselves, OK, So what then is the gospel? What is it that the disciples preached that we see peace consistently associated with the gospel, right. Now, if somebody were to ask you what is the gospel, you’d probably take them to Acts 8 verse 12.

95. 36:23

    Yeah, I and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, right? It’s a very good one sentence definition. So the gospel is the gospel of the Kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ. So there you go. So that’s good. What’s interesting is that when we go along and we take a look and we see what did the disciples actually preach, right? Let’s expand our definition a little bit. When we look at what the disciples actually preach, you will notice that they are constantly referencing that forgiveness that Jesus offered as he healed people. They’re showing here’s the peace, right? Here’s that.

96. 36:56

    Experience of peace. So they are constantly saying that Acts 238, Acts 319, Acts 5 verses 30 to 31. They’re over and over expressing. That the gospel is connected to forgiveness of sins. Acts 1043, Acts 1338 to 39, Acts 2618, forgiveness of sins.

97. 37:16

    And so peace is interwoven into the gospel. This is part of what the gospel is. So if I were to ask you, what is the gospel called throughout the Bible? Right. There’s a handful of times that it’s called the gospel of God, handful of times that it’s called the gospel of Christ. Paul sometimes refers to it as my gospel.

98. 37:41

    I can, I can give you these, by the way, if you want them later. Paul sometimes calls them my gospel. You’ll also see the gospel of glory, the gospel of grace, gospel of your salvation, gospel of the Kingdom. And you know, I gave it away by this title, the title of the series and. You’ll also notice two times it’s referred to as the Gospel of Peace.

99. 38:00

    There’s also the potential, by the way, that it’s referred to as the Gospel of peace in Romans 10. There’s a manuscript difference there. And so there’s a question, you know whether or not it should be there, but. It could be three, could be 3. So we have multiple times where it’s referred to as the gospel of peace. And I think that’s really helpful because I don’t know if this was your experience, but I never thought of the gospel that way, right?

100. 38:22

     Like when I went to go preach the gospel, I was ready to be anything but peaceful. Like I, I was ready to say, like, you know, here’s my 50 verses. Oh, you only have 5. Like, you know who won like sort of thing like that was? That was my feeling about it. And yet I was supposed to be preaching the gospel of peace, right? Like this is it.

101. 38:42

     It’s something that I think we, we don’t think about all that often. Now. It shouldn’t surprise us, though, because that is the Lord’s mission. You know, when Zechariah prophecies about John the Baptist’s role, he says that John the Baptist Luke 179 would shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide their feet into the path of peace. Simeon says of the Lord Jesus, glory to God in the highest heaven.

102. 39:13

     Sorry, that’s not Simeon, that’s the angels. Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth. Peace to those on whom his favor rests. Now this is an interesting in case you’ve ever wondered about this, here’s here’s a little bit of Greek fun Greek trivia. If you’ve ever noticed, right? Different versions say different things for this verse. So you’ll get glory to God in the highest heaven on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rest. Other versions will say on earth peace, goodwill towards men, right?

103. 39:41

     Well, the question is actually one letter. One letter changes that whole thing, which is sort of funny. Probably this is likely the more accurate one, in case you’re wondering, because I mean really, like, do you really think the angels would proclaim, you know, goodwill towards everybody, including the ones who would kill the Lord Jesus, right? It’s not just goodwill to everyone, but it’s goodwill specifically on those whom the Lord was sent to bring peace to, OK.

104. 40:14

     And so we know the Lord Jesus was sent to bring peace. I won’t go through those verses. You know them. So the question then becomes, OK, if we’ve seen that peace is so central to all of this, well, what do we do with these verses, right? How do how do we explain this?

105. 40:29

     If it’s the gospel of peace, if the Lord Jesus was trying to show people this experience of the Kingdom and he gives them individual peace, then why does he say in Matthew 10, as he’s preparing his disciples to go out and preach, why does he say to them, Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth? I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Luke 1251 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.

106. 40:50

     Why does he say that? Well, I’ll give you my thought. And you can come and talk to me later about this or you know, right now if you want. But my thought here is I think we see it really in Luke chapter 2 when we see peace on whom his favor rests at the Lord Jesus did bring peace.

107. 41:10

     And we see that in those other verses. Peace I give to you, right? He’s not contradicting himself. He’s in different contexts. And So what he’s saying here is he gives peace to his disciples. His disciples do have peace, he says. By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for each other, right?

108. 41:28

     He’s saying. When you when you are peaceful, people will know. That you’re the ones right? And so his point is my message is going to bring division. People aren’t going to like it. They’re going to divide from you. But I’ve given you peace amongst yourselves, right? That’s that’s what the Lord Jesus is bringing. He brings us peace with each other and other people might not want to have peace with us, but we are people of peace. So you’ll see.

109. 42:06

     That as you continue reading in the passages, right? He goes on and he says, look, here’s what’s going to happen. You know, your your father might not want to talk to you anymore because of this, or your mother might not want to associate with you anymore, but you are the people of peace.

110. 42:24

     OK, so with that said, let’s get to our last section here in our last 15 minutes. So the question then becomes, well, before you talk about anything, it’s always really important to get a standardized definition right. So we’ve seen that peace is important, but there’s a lot of different aspects of peace. So let’s just try and define this a little bit. Well, peace is the word Irene in Greek. So if you’ve ever met somebody named Irene. There you go.

111. 42:49

     That’s where Irene comes from, Greek word for peace. And that’s actually it’s what I named my hamster. So now you all, now you all know that it. You know, it’s the kind of thing that you want to like, remember when you’re working with a hamster, I guess. OK, so that’s Irene. Peace, so tranquility, harmony.

112. 43:07

     That’s. That’s really what it means. It’s a very simple word, right? It’s not like a, it’s not super complex. You don’t have to go through the root word or anything like that. It just means getting along, right? It’s being at peace. So it’s a pretty easy word to define what’s interesting about this, and this was my experience and maybe it will resonate with you. We’ve just associated it with healings and the gospel, which I think is connected to the idea of peace with God. Right.

113. 43:31

     That was the experience that people were having. When Jesus heals them and says go in peace, he’s saying, now I’ve given you this opportunity to again have peace with God. So we recognize, I think, as a community, the idea of peace with God. Sometimes we might describe it as inner peace, right? You know, depending on who you talk to, maybe you’re into yoga or something, whatever you might, you might talk about inner peace or think about it like that. Yeah, sometimes we talk about World Peace, right? We have that in, in a lot of our books where we, we talk about the Kingdom coming, that there’s going to be years of peace after destruction, right.

114. 44:08

     So we have that in in a number of our our community’s works, our references. We also talk about the peaceful. Time of like the the wolf with the lamb, right? OK, so I think we talk about peace a lot as a group, and I think that’s good. So these are just a few quotes from various Christadelphian works to bring out how peace shows up in our literature. And so we have people coming to the Lord Jesus to be healed, and they leave with that inward peace. Right.

115. 44:38

     Go in peace. You have that from the life of Jesus Nazareth revisited. You have him talking about again the the peace that they get. When they know the Lord Jesus Christ and he says being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So he’s showing how we have that sort of inner peace, the peace with God. So we talk about that as a community. Now, what was interesting for me is I felt in my experience, while we talk a lot about inner peace, we talk about peace with God.

116. 45:11

     Peace with each other was something that was not brought out a lot to me. Maybe it was the same for you, maybe it was different, I don’t know. But for me, peace with other people. It was kind of like, oh, well, those are like those people that all get along. Those are the weak people that aren’t contending, right? Like, you know, the, the people who are really tough, who know their Bibles, well, they’ll be the ones there fighting over, you know, what’s true and that sort of thing. That, that was what I thought.

117. 45:47

     So I was like ready to run people over. And I probably ran over a lot of people, unfortunately. So I decided now I’m a, I’m a historian, right? So I’m a historian by trade. So I tend to do certain things when it comes to history that’s maybe slightly obsessive. So I have attempted to purchase every Christadelphian book that exists. I think I’m missing maybe like 10 or 12, but I don’t, I don’t know for sure, but I, I buy a lot of books and I scan them all.

118. 46:20

     OK, Now I, I take this, the books, I cut off their spines, I scan them. So I have 7000 books on my laptop. Now, the reason I’m mentioning this, you might be wondering like, where is this going? Well, I mentioned that because I decided to do a little bit of an experiment. I wanted to know what do Christadelphian works? What have we historically published about Peace right now? I didn’t look at the magazines, although I have all those too, but I didn’t look at the magazines. I wanted to specifically look at, you know what, what are in our books because the magazines would be too much. But it was really interesting to me to just to take a look at this.

119. 46:58

     Now, before I say these things, I want to give a disclaimer. Obviously, if I have 7000 books, I like them, OK? So I think that’s important to notice. Like Christadelphian books I think are wonderful. I think if we don’t read them, that’s a huge mistake. OK, so in no way am I trying to make fun of our literature or anything like that, but I think it’s really important for us to know where we come from, right? Like if you don’t, then there are certain things you just take for granted as this is normal and maybe it’s not necessarily biblical.

120. 47:29

     So I think it’s important for us to look back at that. So with that said, right, that’s my disclaimer. I love Christadelphian books. I love the people that were quoting, right? I’ve learned a ton of things from them. So please don’t take this in any way like I’m saying that they’re bad or.

121. 47:42

     Anything like that, but I thought that this was really interesting. So in Romans 12 verse 18, you have this verse. So brother John Carter here quotes it in the second-half of what I have on the screen. It says if it be possible as much as in you Liath be at peace with all men. And so this is what the apostle Paul says. And in fact, he he talks about peace twice there in Romans chapter 12.

122. 48:04

     So what I wanted to do is I said, well, let me get my books that are on Romans, right, Christopher, books on Romans and let’s take a look and see. What do we write? About these verses, right? What do we say about them? And what really intrigued me is that this is what the whole book says. So when it says live at peace with everybody, the entire book says this and half of it is quoting the verse, right? It says peace depends on two parties being agreeable. The Christian must be sure to do his part. Now brother John Carter writes things that are very helpful. I don’t feel like this is part of that just because. Yeah, I mean, the first sentence, that’s good, right? It depends on two parties being agreeable, but the rest is really just a quote of the verse. And so I was really struck by wow, like, you know, the next verse he goes on to write like a paragraph about this one gets that.

123. 48:58

     So that was intriguing to me. Now then I said, huh, like, I wonder what we do about some of the other verses. So I started to look at Hebrews, right. And in Hebrews we have the same commandment to live at peace with all men. So it says here it were unwise. This is again John Carter in his book the letter to the Hebrews, it were unwise to provoke persecution.

124. 49:17

     The aim should be to promote peace, right? So he says that promote peace. That’s good, right? But peace can be purchased at too great a price. Now what really struck me was as soon as he says the peace is good, he hedges it right. He then quotes the verse follow after peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Now, there’s multiple ways to read this. You could read it as though it’s saying follow peace, but you can’t have peace and holiness at the same time. So there’s like this, you know, tension right between the two and you have to try and figure out how to have both. Or you could read this as saying peace and holiness go together. A way that you are holy is by being peaceful. So what I found interesting is he takes the first approach. He says follow after peace, right? So again, he encourages us to do that. He says, for it’s not something to be easily grasped. It has to be pursued.

125. 50:10

     As this psalmist said, seek peace and pursue it. But this pursuit of peace is governed by the larger trait of holiness, which the next verse is in force. So notice that he takes it and he says so yes, you need to have peace. But be holy. 1st and then if you’ve figured out holiness, then have peace.

126. 50:31

     So I thought, wow, that’s, that’s very interesting. Like it’s interesting to see how perhaps you know that that could have colored the way that we approach things. Now, just in case you’re wondering, there’s the verse in Greek, and I’ve underlined the word up there, Kai. Which is just your word and but the reason I underlined it is because he presents these two things add as adversative, right, you have peace versus holiness.

127. 50:57

     And I want to just. Put to you. The Greek doesn’t say that. So there’s multiple words that you can use in Greek to say and and there is an adversative and it’s day, in case you’re wondering, doesn’t that sound adversative day or something like that? So chi is not that way. Chi is just saying, hey, we’re linking these things together. So here’s, you know, a fancy book called Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament.

128. 51:20

     And here’s what he says. He says Chi does not mark a distinction of semantic continuity or discontinuity. I think I should have said semantic continuity or discontinuity. There we go. It connects 2 items of equal status, constraining them to be closely related to one another. So the idea is, is that what this is telling us is that we pursue peace and holiness together. These two ideas work together.

129. 51:45

     They’re not adversative. And so you’ll see that in newer translations. That’s the idea that you have brought out. Strive for. Peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord right? You do this as one thing.

130. 52:00

     I found this one really interesting. This is by Frank Janaway. Now he he had to do with the Berean split. So you know, you might say he’s a little biased, but here’s here’s what he wrote. This is this is very intriguing. I will tell you before we read this that what I underlined there peace with all men Biblical quote, right? Listen to how he uses it and you I don’t know, right? I don’t know if he was using this. As a quote.

131. 52:25

     Or if it just, you know, if he just wrote it. I don’t know if this was on purpose or not, he says. No, nearly half a century’s experience has taught us that the corrupters who have done the most mischief have been the kind, broad minded, liberal hearted leaders who invariably have an eye to a seat on the fence.

132. 52:42

     Leaders not because they possess the qualities of leaders, but because their followers are made-up of non thinkers who loving to be at peace with all men, choose the easiest route there too. And therefore needing a leader, select one after their own heart and invariably have as their motto, let sleeping dogs lie, which is the reverse of the Apostolic one of contender earnestly for the faith.

133. 53:09

     So do you see what he did here? He’s talking about leaders that are coming up, and he says the problem with these leaders is that they love to be at peace with all men instead of contending. Earnestly for the faith. So again, you have this adversative relationship that he creates here. He says being at peace with everyone is not the same as contending earnestly for the faith. Now the problem with that is in fact, at peace with all men is from Hebrews 1214, where we are told follow peace with all men. Now, the way that I thought for a long time was like this, right?

134. 53:45

     I, I looked at people that were at peace and I said, well, you know, their issue is they just want to get along with everybody. They want to sing kumbaya, you know, all that kind of thing. Like they don’t really know what the Bible says. And that’s what he calls them. He calls them non thinkers, right?

135. 53:58

     They’re not contending, you know, they need to be out fighting. But the problem is, is that it’s the same Bible that tells us to be at peace with all men and to contendernessly for the faith. It’s not contradicting itself. We can’t take one and ignore the other or take one and say that the other is wrong, right? We are supposed to do both.

136. 54:18

     And so my suggestion is that contending for the faith does not mean hitting people with your Bible, right? Like, we should know this stuff. We should be able to quote verses, but we don’t come up and say, what? You didn’t know that. That’s so ridiculous. You know, I remember saying to a pastor, oh, you’re a teacher in Israel, and you don’t know these things, right?

137. 54:38

     Like, I mean, come on, That was rude, right? Like. Anyway, I won’t, I won’t say anything more on that now, OK? This is this is how I’m. Going to end. I know I got 3 minutes left. Again, I want to give a disclaimer. I think people should read Elvis Israel right? I think this is really important.

138. 54:59

     Elvis Israel is an incredible exposition of the Bible. However, I think there are takeaways from Alexander Campbell that influenced our community through some of the things that ended up influencing John Thomas. So take a look at this and I just have a couple more quotes that I want to end with. This is my historian portion coming out. But I think it’s helpful to just again, see kind of where we came from.

139. 55:27

     These are the kind of things that I would say to people. Because I thought they were biblical. Type of things to say so it. Says here the keys were promised to Peter and not to successors of Peter if it were possible for him to have them in such an office, which none but the most stupidly ignorant of the scriptures would venture to affirm. The custody the keys by successor of Peter is the most farcical assumption that ever poor crazy mortals were guilty of.

140. 55:50

     Now, you know, it’s kind of fun to read them, right? Because we’re like, yeah, those dumb people, right? But the problem is, is that this could very nicely be expressed, right? You could very nicely say you could take out that whole section which none but the most stupidly ignorant of the scripture would venture to affirm, right? You can assert the same purpose without having those things. You don’t have to say that now if you look at the. Christadelphian’s version of Elpis Israel, you will notice that they put a disclaimer in, right? And what’s interesting is, is that I, I took this for a long time and I said, oh, OK, so that’s the deal. You know, everybody just talked that way, right? That’s what they say, the forthrightness of the writer seen in the vigor of his words.

141. 56:30

     And modern readers must make some allowance for that because that’s just how people talk. The problem is, is that that’s just not true, right? People did not talk that way. So I will just show you Horace Bushnell. He was a major theologian at the same time, here’s what he’s writing about people he disagrees with.

142. 56:45

     He does not say that they are stupidly ignorant, right? Like he says, do not teach them that they can never pray or do anything acceptable to God. Till after they converted or regenerated. This with many is a great point of orthodoxy and I would not speak of it with severity. That’s the total opposite right? Because it is a very natural mistake. This is Charles Hodge.

143. 57:10

     He was AI believe he was president of one of the Ivy Leagues. Again, he was a major theologian. He says the same kind of thing. These big deal theologians did not write that way. You know who did? Not Robert Roberts. Come on. Oh, no, I didn’t put my Alexander Campbell quote in. Oh, no.

144. 57:33

     OK. Well, anyway, Alexander Campbell wrote that way and it’s really fascinating if you, if you ever take the chance and I, I recommend it because it’s just again, interesting as far as history is concerned, Alexander Campbell and John Thomas wrote this way to each other, right? They would, they would say, I can’t believe you are so dumb to be thinking this. Like, you know, nobody who reads their Bible would ever believe these things that you believe.

145. 57:53

     And they would. This is how they would write. And it’s just, it’s interesting to to hear these kind of things and to realize. That they have. Come down into, I think how we talked today. This is from a recent class. I’m not going to tell you who it is, OK? Because that’s weird.

146. 58:10

     But these these kind of things are still said right? He tells Joshua, look, you better take your shoes off for the place where on thus stand as is holy. And Joshua would know by that comment, brothers and sisters, he’d have to be blind, deaf, dumb and stupid not to know by that comment who he was talking to, because that statement is a monumental statement. Here’s another one.

147. 58:27

     So the host of the Midianites, these are two separate brothers, says verse one we could read. Now you’ve got to use the idea we’re in the arena of a divine type. There’s no argument about that. You’d be stupid to argue this is not designed by God to be a type of the judgment seat.

148. 58:39

     Now, when we just throw these things out, when we talk like this, right, we really, we make a big mistake. And I want us to emphasize that because I’ve had people say this to me, you know, I’ve gone up to somebody to share an idea and they’ve said only people who are idiots would agree with you.

149. 58:53

     And I’ve said, OK, well, that’s fine. But I got it from John Thomas, right? Like and that made them really mad. But but like, it was one of those things of like, why do we say that? Right? The Kingdom is about peace. We don’t need to say those things. We can talk about, look, I think you’re wrong and that’s fine. And we can say here’s why I think you’re wrong. Let me show you this first and this first and let’s chat about it.

150. 59:18

     And that’s good. But to to go around and say only the stupidly ignorant and the dumb, I think that’s just that’s part of that legacy that we have. That’s probably a good idea to step back and say, Oh, you know, he talks that way probably because he was really excited, right? Like he was discovering things that nobody had seen for hundreds of years.

151. 59:37

     And so he felt like, come on, like, how could you not be pumped by this? But let’s put that stuff aside, and let’s learn to embrace. The peace that the gospel of peace really is, and I think we’re going to see as we go on that as we learn more about the gospel, we recognize that it’s not just something that God wants, but peace amongst ourselves is an imperative.