Providence

Our peace is not only shaped and molded by the thought of our death, but also by the many tiny deaths we experience between our first breath and our last. Small deaths such as broken relationships, job layoffs, evictions, losing a child, mass pandemics like the one we are in right now. So how, in a world of tiny deaths and moving towards our bodily death, can we find true peace?

“God Almighty knew this pandemic would take place, and He knew it would erode our peace.” – Brian Frost

We look to Jesus. On the cross, as His final breaths left His body, Jesus found peace. How can that be possible? He had just endured a sleepless night of anxiety and accusation, a morning of beatings and mockings, and an afternoon of carrying His cross up Calvary to be hung there, humiliated and killed. Jesus was able to find complete peace even on the cross because He rested fully in the Father’s peace. Peace is what we feel when we have adequate resources at hand to deal with the crisis in front of us, and this is just what Jesus had. We can only experience complete peace when we are in a relationship with The Father, just as Jesus was on the cross.

Jesus was able to find peace in The Father, knowing that His sovereign hands were at work. Jesus trusted The Father knowing that He was fulfilling the Scriptures, which prophesied the crushing of His Son. Jesus quotes the Psalm on the cross to showcase the full trust He had in His Father. If Jesus can trust the Father completely in a circumstance like the cross, then how much more should we be able to trust Him in our lives and find peace.

“This is when a biblical view of God matters most. Not to make up something about God to make us feel better, but to actually look in the Bible, see who He is, and rest in what we read.” – Brian Frost

Just like His sovereignty, Jesus rested in The Father’s mercy to find peace. To fully rest in His sovereignty, we have to see the mercy of God. When anxieties are high, fear is rampant, and uncertainty can be consuming, we look to the mercy of God in His Son Jesus on the cross. We know that even behind all our anxieties, there is sovereign, kingdom purpose, and in this, we can find true peace.

SERMON NOTES 

  1. Jesus rested in His Father’s peace. (Luke 23:46) 

    1. Mark 15:34 — In Mark, He felt alone. But moments after being forsaken, He commits His spirit to the Father.

    2. Matthew 6:6, 6:9, 6:14 — Who do we give to, who do we pray to, why should we forgive. Over and over, we find Jesus resting in His relationship with God the Father.

    3. 1 Timothy 2:5 — The only reason Jesus was on this cross is that the Father was merciful. Instead of directing all of His wrath towards us, He directed it towards His Son.

    4. John 1:12 — God the Father becomes our father through Christ.

  2. Jesus rested in His Father’s sovereignty for peace. (Luke 23:46) 

    1. Luke 22:42 — Jesus is saying that He is trusting the Father.

    2. Acts 4:27-28 — Sinful hands had beaten, tortured, mocked, and crucified Jesus. But there were also sovereign hands at work.

    3. Isaiah 45:7 — We struggle with the sovereignty of God.

    4. Ephesians 1:11 — If God is not sovereign, then the virus is. We hope in God who is sovereign to heal, and if He doesn’t, we keep our hope in God who ‘works all things according to the counsel of his will.’

  3. Jesus leaned on His Father’s mercy for peace. (Luke 23:46) 

    1. Psalm 103:13 — When we take our final breath or experience little deaths in this life, we will know that God is compassionate to His children. 

    2. Hebrews 4:15-16 — God in all of his sovereignty and strength has trustworthy hands that are open to us today.

 

INTROSPECTIVE QUESTIONS 

  • Have you trusted Christ and been reconciled to The Father? 

  • Are you resting in the sovereignty of God? 

  • When you are afraid, do you run to God’s mercy to find peace? 

 

CLOSING THOUGHTS 

It can sound like a broken record these days whenever we turn on the TV or open our phones. Fear, anxiety, and uncertainty at every corner. But we, through Christ’s death on the cross, are connected to the greatest giver of peace there ever was. We can trust in His sovereign hand over this virus, over our lives, and over everything. 

 

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