These are musical words, but the music is not of earth alone. They touch a strain above the world. In their Divine consciousness of vast spiritual power, in their farness from the strife and trouble of men, they are of that true supernatural which abides in the secret of God.
I. What was it? It was not peace from the outward pains that beset life. The Jewish and the Roman world, the Church and State, were alike against the disciples of Christ. They were driven into deserts, thrown to the beasts, stoned, butchered to make a Roman holiday. It was not then the peace of an easy life Christ left them. On the contrary, He bade them, would they follow Him, expose themselves to the tempest.
II. Was it freedom from the unrest of the heart freedom from sorrow and care, and bitter pain of thought and love? No, not that either; for it was My peace, said Christ, and He had not peace of heart. On Him the restlessness we know so well abided; He suffered as we suffer; and it is well. For were freedom from these things Hispeace, we should have no certainty of His sympathy. The consoler needs to have been the sufferer, and the conqueror of suffering.
III. What was the peace, then? It was a spiritual peace peace in the deep region of the human spirit peace in that inner life, which, striking its thoughts into eternity, is linked unbrokenly to God. Nay, which is a part of God. In that deep Life in Christ there was entire and perfect peace. It was (1) the peace that comes through fulfilment of duty. (2) It was peace that comes from the Triumph of Love. It is in the depth of God's love that His peace is rooted, and in the depth of that life of His which love makes for ever. (3) Christ's peace consisted in conscious union with God. "I and My Father are One." And because Christ had it, and was one of us, we will not despair, however grim and dim the battle in which we fight with phantoms. If one of us (our Brother in humanity) had this peace, if He was at home in the very truth of things, in the very Central Truth, then we also may win it. We, too, may be at one with God. "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you."
S. A. Brooke, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xvii., p. 337.
The Peace of Christ is
I. The peace of obedience. The submission which we owe to God is stripped from all servileness and obsequiousness by the fact that this submission is not only to a sovereign, but to a righteous and loving sovereign. It is submission of trust in God, and that knows what it trusts. This trust is also a large word when you think of it. It shuts out fear that it may shut in a perfect love. It means friendly confidence with the unseen, the boldness of a favoured child. It means, therefore, a joyful peace. When the soul has got this relation with the eternal God of utter submission to Him as a righteous sovereign, and love to Him as a loving parent then the heart has obtained the peace of Jesus.
II. This inward peace is what St. Paul calls peace with God. This phrase refers to the pacification of conscience. Faith accepts God's gift of His Son as a sincere gift; it seeks to be reconciled, to be justified, and forgiven in God's way, and thus bowing to the obedience of faith, the sinful man finds that He has recovered that peace with God which is the absence of all condemnation.
III. In this spiritual submission to God, Jesus, in His spiritual character, is our great example. To it His great atonement is our great compeller. To this real loving subjection let us strive continually to bring ourselves, that we may have peace and confidence in Him. There are many sorrows and disturbances to contend with; yet it will not do to give up. It will not do to relegate the hope of inward peace to a future life. Christ had it here. More profound submission to our Father's will, more childlike confidence in the Father and Son; and surely the Spirit, who is the Dove, will descend, and breathe sweet repose wherever His white wings brood? Surely He will make His nest within your spirit; and then, while storms surge and beat around your steps, you shall have the peace of Christ throughout the ages.
J. Oswald Dykes, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxii., p. 11.
Let us take the word "Peace" in at least some of the senses which our Saviour would give to it, and which are on our part fulfilled.
I. There is peace within ourselves. Everyone knows what it is to be at peace with ourselves, or not at peace. We may be perfectly prosperous, and yet there is a secret pang which makes us ill at ease. There is a something of which we do not like to speak, of which we do not like to hear, and of which, if possible, we would rather not think. "Keep innocency," says the Psalmist, "and do the thing that is right, for that will bring a man peace at the last."
II. Peace with one another. Christ Himself was the great Peacemaker. In Him Jew and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian, came together and were one. We must differ. We cannot make all men to be of the same character, of the same pursuits, of the same tastes, and of the same opinions. But here, as in the natural world, we can and we ought to prevent any difference, except the difference of sin, from becoming a separation. Always open the door wide for repentance. Always make the return as easy and as pleasant as it is possible to be made. There are, no doubt, occasions when truth and justice must be preferred to peace, whether in nations, churches, or private life. There are, no doubt, differences which are widened instead of smoothed by saying, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace." But these are the exceptions, and we must be very careful not to multiply the exceptions lest we should make them the rule of life. The peace of the Holy Spirit of Christ is something much wider and deeper than outward diversities or likenesses. "Not as the world giveth," not as outward appearance giveth, not as the mere letter giveth, but as the Spirit, speaking to our inmost spirits, so is the peace which Christ gives to His disciples.
III. Peace with God. Dwell for a moment on the thought of God of God in His threefold essence as it were, completed for us. Think of God, the one Eternal Judge, perfectly just and perfectly merciful, who sees not as man sees, who knows whereof we are made, who knows our ignorance and our blindness, who sees us exactly as we are, and not as the unjust, capricious world sees us. That thought is the peace of God the Father. Truly in the Spirit of God is the everlasting peace which broods over the face of the waters, whether of chaos or of cosmos the peace which lies not on the ruffled outward outward surface, but in the silent depths below.
A. P. Stanley, Penny Pulpit,No. 154 (new series).
References: John 14:27. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vi., No. 300; vol. v., No. 247; C. Stanford, Evening of our Lord's Ministry,p. 112; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 93; Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 327; W. T. Bull, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 133; R. A. Bertram, Ibid.,vol. iv., p. 234; G. W. Conder, Ibid.,vol. vii., p. 196; A. P. Peabody, Ibid.,vol. xi., p. 358; J. Oswald Dykes, Ibid.,vol. xxii., p. 11; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 394; vol. xviii., p. 127; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,2nd series, p. 181; W. G. Blaikie, Glimpses of the Inner Life of our Lord,p. 178; S. Baring Gould, Literary Churchman Sermons,p. 145; J. H. Thorn, Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ,2nd series, p. 152; Homilist,3rd series, vol. viii., p. 259.
I. These words imply (1) the possession of a power of control over our own hearts. (2) Responsibility as to the exercise of such control. (3) They do not require that we should harden our hearts against the due influences of grievous circumstances, or shut our eyes to danger or to threatening sorrow. (4) Fear is here distinctly and separately condemned.
II. The disciple of Christ has sources of joy counteractive of his sorrows, and he has no ground for fear. (1) The Christian disciple is in the keeping of the Saviour personally. The Saviour has charge of us individually. He has charge of the Church; but He takes care of the Church by taking care of us personally, and He takes as much care of us personally as though He had only one of us to look after. (2) Then, the Father in heaven loves the disciple of Christ. Christ tries to comfort His sorrowing ones by reminding them of this very love. He tells them, in the words that follow, "The Father Himself loveth you." (3) Again, a place is prepared in heaven as the eternal home of Christ's disciples, and they are moving to that place continually. (4) Farther, a Comforter is sent to the followers of Christ, to abide with them for ever. (5) Moreover, Jesus Christ gives peace to His disciples a sure and immoveable foundation of reliance; a trust and confidence which loving intercourse with the Almighty Father is calculated to give. To seek, then, and to cherish this peace, to yield ourselves to the ministrations of the Comforter to look up unto the heavenly home which the Saviour has in readiness for us to think of our Father in heaven as really loving us to realise the fact that we are in Christ's holy keeping is to prevent fear or to quench fear, and to reduce the stream of sorrow which flows through our souls, and prevent its overflowing its appointed channels and overwhelming our spirit.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Sermons,3rd series, p. 91.