WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.320 The disciples are clearly terrified. John chapter 20 verse 19. 00:00:09.560 --> 00:00:15.519 ! It's the evening, we're told, the first Lord's day, and they've gathered in a safe house. 00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:23.160 ! If the Jewish authorities find out where they are, they might end up on a cross the same way 00:00:23.160 --> 00:00:30.859 their Lord Jesus did. And so, they've decided to lie low. They've decided to gather behind 00:00:30.859 --> 00:00:40.400 locked doors. I can imagine if there's a knock at the door, somebody will go and look through the 00:00:40.400 --> 00:00:43.679 peephole. I imagine there's a peephole there. There'd have to be, wouldn't there, because the 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:51.560 film wouldn't work otherwise. And they might say, who is it? Or maybe they put on a fake voice. 00:00:51.560 --> 00:00:53.820 Who is it? That kind of thing. 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:01.440 And then the person identifies themselves, and they open the door, and they do that thing. They look 00:01:01.440 --> 00:01:05.439 up and down the street, and then say, come on in. They need to check the coast clear. They fear for 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:14.040 their lives. It is the great irony. On the greatest day in history, a day when God had defeated death 00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:21.340 itself, and brought in the new world that He had promised, that His closest followers weren't 00:01:21.340 --> 00:01:30.060 celebrating. They were hiding in fear. And then we're told Jesus appears to them. He'd promised 00:01:30.060 --> 00:01:36.800 to do that. Chapter 14, verse 18, that He would come to His disciples, and here He is. He's turned up. 00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:45.519 But it is what He then says when He's in their presence that is so important. 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:54.140 Just a few words. A few words that should transform the hearts and the minds of these fearful disciples. 00:01:55.979 --> 00:02:05.159 Verse 19, peace be with you. And so that they didn't miss it, He says it again, verse 21, 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:13.319 peace be with you. He then says it a third time in verse 26. It seems to be the thing that He needs the 00:02:13.319 --> 00:02:21.639 disciples to know when He comes into their presence, peace be with you. Now, peace to you 00:02:21.639 --> 00:02:27.259 is a traditional Jewish greeting. It would have been a common thing to say to wish someone well. 00:02:28.259 --> 00:02:36.319 But the way Jesus uses it here is more theological, more literal, and more significant. That's probably 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:42.039 why He repeated it. It's probably a refrain almost in the way that He engaged with the disciples. 00:02:42.039 --> 00:02:48.639 In the Old Testament, the word shalom referred to the fullness, the completeness of the blessings of 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:54.019 the kingdom of God. That was the vision of the prophets, and it's what God's people had been 00:02:54.019 --> 00:03:01.439 looking forward to throughout the Old Testament. One day His peace would reign. And here we have Jesus 00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:07.419 coming to this fearful group, and He says that all of that, all that the Old Testament looked forward 00:03:07.419 --> 00:03:13.239 to, that promise has now been fulfilled in His redemptive work. Jesus is not merely greeting 00:03:13.239 --> 00:03:17.500 the disciples. It's not just that He's doing something that would have been normal in the 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:25.319 course of life, peace be with you. No. He's saying, well, He's pronouncing a blessing over them, and He's 00:03:25.319 --> 00:03:32.319 saying that the peace of God, the end-time blessing that they have been waiting for, is now accessible to 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:39.819 them through the One who is here in their midst. He's saying the cross has worked. His wounds have 00:03:39.819 --> 00:03:47.199 brought peace. God has kept His Word. Now, the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord, verse 00:03:47.199 --> 00:03:52.139 20, we're told, but the reality of what He has just said, those words that He has just pronounced, 00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:58.000 they clearly haven't been as transformative as they should have been, because when we go to that next 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:05.520 Sunday, the subsequent Lord's Day, verse 26, they're still locking the doors. They're still fearful. 00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:11.120 They're still fearful of what might happen to them because they belong to Jesus. He declares that the 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:16.699 peace, the shalom of God is in their midst. He breathes on them to enact the coming of the Holy Spirit 00:04:16.699 --> 00:04:23.839 who brings this peace, and He reminds them of their forgiveness. Verse 23, they should be delighted, 00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:31.959 but they're still caught in their fear. What's wrong with them? Well, what's wrong with them is the same 00:04:31.959 --> 00:04:37.739 thing that's wrong with you and me. Let's be honest. How often does being told something by Jesus 00:04:37.739 --> 00:04:45.500 immediately transform your life? We know that Jesus tells us things like, do not fear those who kill 00:04:45.500 --> 00:04:53.579 the body, Luke chapter 12, verse 4, but we're still controlled by the opinion of others. We know that He tells us, 00:04:53.579 --> 00:05:00.439 that our lives do not consist in the abundance of possessions, Luke 12, verse 15, but we still think 00:05:00.439 --> 00:05:09.539 that having money will constitute the good life. The disciples are like us all. They're slow to believe, 00:05:10.439 --> 00:05:16.279 and I wonder if here it's because these words that He is pronouncing actually sound too good to be true. 00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:23.719 You see, it's no exaggeration to say that if we grasp the implications of these words, peace be with you, 00:05:24.679 --> 00:05:31.059 they'll bring a freedom and a joy that I'm not sure that we even as Christians believe is real. 00:05:32.500 --> 00:05:37.799 So what I want to do this morning is take time to press this into the corners a bit more. We could say 00:05:37.799 --> 00:05:43.039 that this is one, the sermon is one long line of application. Six implications I want to point out 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:48.879 of what it means for us to have peace with God. When you hear those words, peace be with you, 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:56.480 they should transform your life right out into the corners. And here's why. Number one, 00:05:58.660 --> 00:06:06.379 peace be with you. Peace with God means that we are free from sin, free from sin. Here is really the 00:06:06.379 --> 00:06:11.800 theological heart of the matter. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John 1, 26. 00:06:12.159 --> 00:06:20.980 The perfect Lamb of God, chapter 19, 31. The one who sits between the angels, chapter 20, verse 12, 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:28.839 as the atonement seat, the ark of the new covenant. He has completed His work. His sacrifice was sufficient 00:06:28.839 --> 00:06:34.779 for every sin. Therefore, all who believe in Him are forgiven and have peace with God. 00:06:36.379 --> 00:06:44.779 By nature, that's not the case. By nature, we are at war with God. We deserve His wrath. But through the cross, 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:51.740 through all that Jesus has accomplished in chapter 19 of John's gospel, those hostilities have ceased 00:06:51.740 --> 00:07:02.939 because the penalty for sin has been paid in full. The self-improvement industry that is so popular in our day, 00:07:02.939 --> 00:07:09.240 whether it's health or wellness or therapy. And just to say these things where they cut with the grain of 00:07:09.240 --> 00:07:13.719 creation, where they cut with the grain of the wisdom of God, there is plenty that's good there. 00:07:13.899 --> 00:07:18.279 But the one thing that these things, the self-help industry, the one thing that they never mention 00:07:18.279 --> 00:07:26.399 is our need for forgiveness from the God who made us. And to the degree that this remains absent from 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:31.659 any attempts to address the human condition, it is a case of deck chairs on the Titanic. 00:07:33.039 --> 00:07:36.399 That is, any help that it offers is always superficial and short-term. 00:07:37.459 --> 00:07:44.959 Forgiveness for a life living our way in God's world is the human being's greatest need bar none. 00:07:46.259 --> 00:07:51.459 Forgiveness for a life of living our way in God's world, living according to our own desires, 00:07:51.459 --> 00:07:58.539 living in sin against God in His world, forgiveness for that is our greatest need bar none. 00:08:00.299 --> 00:08:10.060 But when we put our faith in Christ, every sin is forgiven. Every single one. Every single one. 00:08:10.219 --> 00:08:17.060 He drained the cup of God's wrath as He hung there on the cross. He drained it, which means that cup is 00:08:17.060 --> 00:08:25.139 empty. The cup of God's wrath is empty. There is now no wrath left for you. Your record is wiped clean. 00:08:25.259 --> 00:08:31.800 You are wiped clean. The cleansing effect of the cross of Christ runs so deep that the Apostle Paul 00:08:31.800 --> 00:08:39.159 can call us a new creation. This is the root of everything good because it goes to the very level 00:08:39.159 --> 00:08:46.620 of your identity. You are made new. You are now, whatever your name is, in Christ. 00:08:47.059 --> 00:08:54.259 When you realize that you're in Christ, it changes how you view yourself, how you view the world. It 00:08:54.259 --> 00:09:02.000 changes how you view everything and how you think about the future. What are the things that cause us 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:06.699 the most difficulty in life? There are things about we think about ourselves, things about how we view 00:09:06.699 --> 00:09:14.099 the world around us, and our fears about the future. When you are at peace with God, you are made new, 00:09:14.100 --> 00:09:21.560 and you are freed from sin. This means you are also, secondly, free from fear. 00:09:24.139 --> 00:09:31.460 There are lots of things that we fear in life. It might be sickness, poverty, uncertainty about the 00:09:31.460 --> 00:09:38.860 future. You might fear the political situation. Of course, fear is a great political tool. If you can 00:09:38.860 --> 00:09:44.240 generate anxiety in the nation, the people are more amenable to your proposed solutions. A content 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:50.759 polis, a content people is difficult to control. So, the news cycle is designed to keep us fearful. 00:09:52.060 --> 00:09:56.480 If it's the politics of the left, we're told to fear climate change. If it's the politics on the right, 00:09:56.639 --> 00:10:02.600 they tell us to fear something else. Maybe the left and they're fear-mongering. But fear is 00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:09.460 something that our wider culture wants to cultivate. But if Jesus' promise of peace, 00:10:10.980 --> 00:10:17.279 peace with God, if that promise takes hold in your heart, you don't need to fear any of these things. 00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:23.659 The reason we fear something, usually when you peel it back, comes down to two things, 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:32.440 discomfort or death. When the thing that you fear, when you drill down why it is that you fear that 00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:38.420 thing it will do with either of those two things, either discomfort or death. We fear things that 00:10:38.420 --> 00:10:44.500 make us uncomfortable, and then when that discomfort runs its course, we die, and none of us really wants 00:10:44.500 --> 00:10:53.920 to die. But if you know that God holds the whole world in His hands, if you know that everything that 00:10:53.920 --> 00:11:02.180 comes your way in life, even the hard bits, do so because God has allowed it, and you are at peace 00:11:02.179 --> 00:11:10.539 with this God, your relationship with Him is characterized by His love for you, well, you 00:11:10.539 --> 00:11:16.879 can trust Him. Your life might not be easy, but you don't have to fear. And then, when you know that 00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:23.379 being at peace with God means that death is no longer a threat, that death is now the doorway to 00:11:23.379 --> 00:11:29.559 the fullness of life because the Jesus who comes and says, peace be with you, has just walked out of 00:11:29.559 --> 00:11:37.319 the tomb that very day. Well, because if you know then that death is the doorway to the fullness of 00:11:37.319 --> 00:11:44.939 life, you no longer fear it. It's just a bump in the road on the way to glory. So can you see how peace 00:11:44.939 --> 00:11:51.519 with God leads to an inner peace, the peace of God that Christ gives to all who know Him? He said that 00:11:51.519 --> 00:11:58.379 again earlier on. He's promised that. 14 verse 27, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. 00:12:00.019 --> 00:12:06.600 And that peace, peace, the peace of God in Christ, it just keeps rippling out. Yes, you're free from fear, 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:16.699 but thirdly, you're also free from guilt and shame. Point number three, you're free from guilt and shame. 00:12:16.700 --> 00:12:23.360 But guilt and shame are big concepts in pop psychology, and the reason for that is that 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:29.740 they are both very powerful and universal emotions. That is, we all feel them at some point, 00:12:29.980 --> 00:12:38.400 and they can exert significant control. Guilt and shame have led many people into anxiety and depression 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:47.059 and even, especially among men, suicide. Very powerful, and they exert significant control. 00:12:47.159 --> 00:12:52.379 Now, what our culture gets wrong when it talks about guilt and shame is that they are actually 00:12:52.379 --> 00:12:56.439 legitimate emotions where people are living their lives without regard for God. 00:12:58.699 --> 00:13:05.480 Our sin renders us all guilty before God, and we should feel shame about the lives that we have 00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:16.500 lived apart from Him. But there's an answer to both of those. Not denying them, but accepting that they 00:13:16.500 --> 00:13:22.180 are real and realizing that God Himself has provided an answer, a solution, and it is the cross of Christ. 00:13:22.180 --> 00:13:29.860 The cross of Christ sets us free from both guilt and shame, and only the cross can do that. You can't 00:13:29.860 --> 00:13:37.800 actually think yourself out of this state. You can't remind yourself with however many tropes that you 00:13:37.800 --> 00:13:43.800 might use about how good a person you are in all kinds of different ways. Only forgiveness frees you 00:13:43.800 --> 00:13:53.680 from guilt and shame. Now, many Christians know this, and many Christians can explain how it works, and yet 00:13:53.680 --> 00:13:58.960 we still live like it's not true. If we're honest with ourselves, we still live like it's not true. 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:04.740 We think about how much of what motivates what we say and do in life, what motivates how we carry 00:14:04.740 --> 00:14:10.800 ourselves in the world, how that flows from a desire to cover up what we're really like. 00:14:13.060 --> 00:14:18.220 We've said and done things in our lives that haunt us, and we just want to make sure that they stay 00:14:18.220 --> 00:14:23.560 covered up. We do things from time to time that we're ashamed of, and we want to cover them up. 00:14:24.500 --> 00:14:28.740 If you don't believe me, think honestly about how you would feel if the thoughts that you 00:14:28.740 --> 00:14:33.940 entertained over the last 48 hours were broadcast up there. Just the thoughts, never mind the things 00:14:33.940 --> 00:14:39.139 that you've done, the words that you've said, your thoughts alone. You'd be ashamed, 00:14:39.379 --> 00:14:47.299 because you don't want people to know those things about you. We try to protect a good reputation. 00:14:48.259 --> 00:14:50.379 You have an angry outburst at home, and you say, 00:14:50.379 --> 00:14:57.639 calm down, and you say, look, I'm sorry, mom was tired. She didn't mean it, and don't mention this 00:14:57.639 --> 00:15:05.340 to anybody. You say you don't care what people think about you. You say, people take me as they 00:15:05.340 --> 00:15:11.939 find me. I am who I am. But then, when you get one of those spam emails that claims that they've 00:15:11.939 --> 00:15:16.899 hacked your search history and footage from your computer camera, and they demand that you give them 00:15:16.899 --> 00:15:22.840 five thousand pounds, or they'll send it to your contacts list, well, you pay them, or you leave 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:31.600 the country. Why does that happen? Because on the one hand, we want to project an image of respectability 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:36.579 whilst there is a reality inside us that we don't want people to know. This even happens when people 00:15:36.579 --> 00:15:42.000 say things about us that aren't true. Things that we, when we know people are lying about us, there's 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:47.000 something in what they say that gets traction in our heart with things that are true because we're 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:54.120 sinners, and we feel guilty, and we panic because if it gets out, our reputation could be trashed. 00:15:55.419 --> 00:16:03.320 The words, peace be with you from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ, have power to set you free from 00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:11.600 all of that. The God who accepts you in His Son, the God whose opinion of you is the only one that 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:20.560 matters in the end, and that that opinion is love and delight. He knows every thought. He knows every 00:16:20.560 --> 00:16:26.660 word. He knows every deed, the secret and the hidden, and He loves you anyway. 00:16:26.659 --> 00:16:37.659 Do you know that? Guilt gets no traction. Shame has no purchase. That is freedom. 00:16:40.179 --> 00:16:44.740 If even what is true about you, the worst of you, is known to God and He loves you, 00:16:45.839 --> 00:16:51.519 you can walk in the world with a lightness. It might be painful that others know it, 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:58.100 and you bear their reproach. But when the last day comes, you will receive a welcome from God. 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:06.819 Can I say, if you're enslaved in a particular sin and you feel terribly guilty, but you also feel stuck, 00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:14.240 you feel like to confess that sin is going to have implications that are going to reach beyond what 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:19.900 is comfortable for you, well, here's your way out. Confess it to the Lord, and probably a good idea to 00:17:19.900 --> 00:17:23.880 confess it to an elder as well so that there's accountability and so that you can hear them 00:17:23.880 --> 00:17:29.480 remind you of this forgiveness that is yours in Christ. I want to encourage you, plead with you, 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:34.840 if that's the case. Get it into the light because God will forgive you, and you can be set free. 00:17:37.940 --> 00:17:41.700 And there's no other escape, by the way, so don't wait about to do it. 00:17:41.700 --> 00:17:49.640 Peace be with you. Peace be with you. Free from sin. Free from fear. Free from guilt and shame. 00:17:50.580 --> 00:17:57.580 Peace with God also sets us, number four, free from striving. Free from striving. And what do I mean? 00:17:57.640 --> 00:18:04.519 Well, when God loves you and accepts you, you don't need to prove yourself. If your identity rests on the 00:18:04.519 --> 00:18:14.379 approval and the acceptance of others, if you're a people pleaser, well, you better perform. You better 00:18:14.379 --> 00:18:20.839 be good enough. You better meet those people's standards, and you better keep meeting their standards. 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:27.680 We all care about different things, so it affects us in different areas. Needing to be regarded as 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:32.379 clever will involve different behavior to someone who needs to be accepted in the world of 00:18:32.380 --> 00:18:37.740 fitness, fashion, whatever it looks, whatever it might be. No one at the gym cares about your grip 00:18:37.740 --> 00:18:44.140 of Tolstoy, and vice versa. The way you're striving is expressed depends on who it is you want to 00:18:44.140 --> 00:18:52.920 impress. But if you have peace with God, if you are in Christ the Beloved through faith, 00:18:54.360 --> 00:19:00.120 if you therefore exist within the unshakable love of God, with all your faults and all your failures, 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:05.479 all your shortcomings and quirks, all your ordinariness, weakness, and plainness, 00:19:05.699 --> 00:19:08.159 you're free to be yourself. 00:19:11.479 --> 00:19:17.759 It's incredibly liberating. Imagine not having to fuss over your appearance and retake a photograph 00:19:17.759 --> 00:19:23.359 six times so that it's acceptable for Instagram. Imagine not needing Instagram. 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:29.459 Imagine not feeling the pressure to post on social media because you're locked in the relentless 00:19:29.459 --> 00:19:32.219 vortex of the approval feedback loop. 00:19:34.719 --> 00:19:41.179 When the truth that you have peace with God hits your heart, that is, when it travels, 00:19:41.559 --> 00:19:46.740 that news, when it travels the furthest distance in the world, which is the distance from our head 00:19:46.740 --> 00:19:53.139 to our heart, we can know these things, and yet our hearts remain unchanged. But when the truth, 00:19:53.140 --> 00:19:58.240 that in Christ, you have peace with the God of all the earth, when that hits your heart, 00:19:58.759 --> 00:20:05.300 you can truly live without filters. And I don't mean that, by the way, in the equally performative 00:20:05.300 --> 00:20:10.700 way that some people use the hashtag on social media. In Christ, you are free from the opinion of 00:20:10.700 --> 00:20:17.180 others. You're actually free from the opinion of others. So you're free from striving. You're free 00:20:17.180 --> 00:20:21.460 from the need to perform to the standards that those people's opinions set for you. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:28.360 And number five, these all overlap a little bit, don't they? Of course they do. But number five, 00:20:28.420 --> 00:20:36.519 that means you're also free from what I'll call the tyranny of self, the tyranny of self. 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:44.000 This could be the control that a negative view of yourself has over you. Maybe because of how other 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:50.980 people have treated you or because of bad decisions that you've made. But when the Lord Jesus says to 00:20:50.980 --> 00:21:01.440 you, peace be with you, peace be with you, peace be with you, when he says that to the person whose 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:12.960 operating view of themselves is, I'm bad, I'm unlovely, I'm worthless, those words release those shackles. 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:22.039 Because what you realize is when you hear those words, when peace be with you hits your heart, 00:21:22.420 --> 00:21:29.079 I'm bad, I'm worthless, I'm unlovable or unlovely, they're not true. They're just not true. 00:21:31.039 --> 00:21:40.200 In Christ, remember, you're a new creation. You've been forgiven your badness. Your dignity and value 00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:48.960 are restored. You're loved by the King of the universe. In Jesus, we are free from every version 00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:56.340 of negative self-image. But the truth is we're also free from the need to create a positive identity 00:21:56.340 --> 00:22:05.500 for ourselves as well. When we have to present a self that we want people to see, it's a whole tyranny 00:22:05.500 --> 00:22:12.559 of its own. There isn't just the tyranny of negative view of yourself, but the tyranny of always having 00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:23.839 to appear to be impressive or good or whatever way other people's opinions control how we feel. 00:22:24.279 --> 00:22:30.619 To always be promoting or always protecting your image. It's exhausting. Think about self-promotion. 00:22:30.619 --> 00:22:35.079 We do it in all kinds of ways. We're always thinking, what'll make me look good here? 00:22:35.699 --> 00:22:39.099 What'll make me look good? What can I say that'll make me look good here? It might be 00:22:39.099 --> 00:22:44.219 the humble brag. That's a thing, isn't it? Say to people, oh, I'm exhausted. I've just been so busy 00:22:44.219 --> 00:22:51.459 being a great bloke. Or it might be the straight flex. You say, look, when you operate at my level 00:22:51.459 --> 00:22:55.759 around the centers of excellence that I operate in, I mean, I don't mean to talk, you know, but 00:22:55.759 --> 00:23:02.160 we do that kind of thing as well. Those are the more noticeable, but fake humility. Fake humility 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:08.519 is just as self-centered. I can't think of the number of people. Well, one person in particular 00:23:08.519 --> 00:23:13.019 I think of who keeps referring to himself when we talk as being a bear of little brain. He got a 00:23:13.019 --> 00:23:22.519 double first at Oxford. When you're talking to someone, listen to how often and in what ways you 00:23:22.519 --> 00:23:28.139 refer to yourself. And I bet some of it is just making sure that that person knows that you're 00:23:28.139 --> 00:23:34.639 competent or you're impressive, or at least you're not a loser, or you're doing it because it means 00:23:34.639 --> 00:23:40.980 that you're just in the conversation. We do the same thing in the way we dress, the car we drive, 00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:45.240 the way we speak, and we do it in both directions. We do it so that people will think we're impressive, 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:50.759 and we do it so people think we're humble. We choose a kind of reverse snobbery about those 00:23:50.759 --> 00:23:57.039 things, but it's just to project ourselves in a particular light so that people will think of us 00:23:57.039 --> 00:24:04.200 in a particular way. If you really get that your life is lived in the love and acceptance of God, 00:24:04.279 --> 00:24:10.539 you have peace with God, you don't need to curate your image. You can actually get yourself completely 00:24:10.539 --> 00:24:17.500 out of the way so that your conversations are genuine and your relationships aren't fake. 00:24:17.500 --> 00:24:23.799 That's self-promotion, but we do it with self-protection as well. See, this is how it works. 00:24:24.039 --> 00:24:30.680 If we have created our identity, that is, the image that we portray to people, if we have created that, 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:34.839 we know in our heart that that's fragile, and fragile things need to be protected. 00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:38.859 This is what we're doing in so much of our interaction with others. 00:24:38.859 --> 00:24:47.240 Why are you defensive when you get criticized? Why do you take it so personally? Why are you happy 00:24:47.240 --> 00:24:51.859 to make jokes at other people's expense, but when it comes back at you, well, you have a sense of humor 00:24:51.859 --> 00:25:00.359 failure? Why do you lie to cover your mistakes? Why can't you lose at board games in your family? 00:25:00.359 --> 00:25:08.740 Oh, I'm just competitive. No, you're fragile. Because you think something of who you are, 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:16.279 something of who you are will be lost if you lose. It's a crushing weight to carry through life. 00:25:18.019 --> 00:25:25.500 Well, listen, peace be with you. That is what Jesus says to you. 00:25:25.500 --> 00:25:32.859 And these words can set you free from the tyranny of self. You can let people think what they like 00:25:32.859 --> 00:25:38.019 about you, because in the end, their opinion doesn't define your identity, and it doesn't 00:25:38.019 --> 00:25:46.259 change your eternity. You can even be wronged and not worry about it, just like the Lord Jesus Himself. 00:25:47.539 --> 00:25:52.960 You can trust yourself to the God who has allowed you to be treated in this way and is working at all 00:25:52.960 --> 00:26:01.140 in order to bring you to glory. Peace be with you. These are words that really set you free, 00:26:02.100 --> 00:26:07.819 words that transform how you think about everything. And so, finally, point number six, 00:26:07.940 --> 00:26:14.860 they are words that set you free to live to the glory of God. Free to live to the glory of God. 00:26:15.740 --> 00:26:18.940 These disciples were given this blessing as they were sent out into the world, 00:26:18.940 --> 00:26:23.220 and they were given the Spirit to enable them in their mission. That's the important thing. He says, 00:26:23.320 --> 00:26:28.400 peace be with you. You have peace with God, and you can go and live in this freedom in the power of 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:36.480 the Spirit that He gives. So, the church of God in every age is equipped in the same way. You are truly 00:26:36.480 --> 00:26:44.059 free in Christ. You are empowered by the Holy Spirit to go and bear the fruit of life in Him. So, 00:26:44.059 --> 00:26:50.759 go and live the life that He has called you to live without fear. Share the gospel of this glorious 00:26:50.759 --> 00:26:58.379 salvation with anybody without fear. Raise your children in a counter-cultural Christian way 00:26:58.379 --> 00:27:03.460 without fear. Wasn't it wonderful as we witnessed Victor's baptism this morning, a great reminder of 00:27:03.460 --> 00:27:12.379 God's promises for our children? Raise them to live for Christ without fear. And children, 00:27:12.380 --> 00:27:18.640 you can live in this counter-cultural way without fear as well. His promises are for you. He says, 00:27:18.800 --> 00:27:26.760 peace be with you as well. Be faithful in whatever God has given you to do. Do it to His glory. 00:27:27.280 --> 00:27:32.640 Do it without fear. Peace be with you. Let's pray.