Let There Be Peace | 1 John 2:1-2
How many of you have peace in your life? We live in a world desperate for peace. Peace in their homes, peace in the world, and ultimately peace in their souls. Robin Williams(suicide at 63) said, “I have no peace, no quietness. I have no rest but only turmoil.” Many people have the same mental health struggles as Robin Williams; they just don’t have peace. Some people are angry at God over it. Didn’t the angels say that the good news of Jesus is that He came to bring “peace on earth?” If Jesus is the Prince of Peace, where is all the peace? Is Jesus a fraud? Instead of bringing peace to this world, it seems more divided than ever before. We live in a world full of hatred, conflict, abuse, violence, strife, turmoil, crime, racism, anger, war, and division. If you do not believe me, turn on the news, get on social media or just talk to someone on the street. It seems like things have not gotten better but worse. Bart Ehrman, famous agnostic scholar and professor at UNC was asked, “What would it take for you to believe in Jesus?” His answer was, “If Jesus had fulfilled his promise to bring peace on the earth.” What if all our problems in life came from a broken relationship with God? Down deep inside of everyone is a sense of restlessness. We know that something is not right. We know that there is something missing in our lives, but we do not know exactly what it is. We have this void. We are anxious, restless, and dissatisfied. We have a God-sized hole in our hearts, and we are always going to be restless and fearful until we find our rest in Him.
John is a 90-year-old Apostle who is concerned about the next generation of believers. He wants them to have assurance of their salvation and to experience the joy, peace, hope, love, and life that he is experiencing. In chapter one, we learned that joy comes from having a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We have joy when we know who Jesus is and when we share Jesus with others. In Chapter two, we see that although sin separates us from God, Jesus came to provide peace with God so that we can experience the peace of God.