Scripture: Mark 14 v 60 - 62: "And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?
61 But He held His peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked Him, and said unto Him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
62 And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."
The peace that Jesus has is far beyond any Earthly peace. He is known as the Prince of Peace, which is the highest authority on peace in the universe. That is the peace He gives to His followers - the ultimate peace experience. That was the peace that was upon Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego in the Book of Daniel, when they defied an Emperor.
Daniel 3 v 16 - 19: "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
19 Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated."
And Jesus met those 3 in the furnace and they emerged without a single blister causing the astonished Emperor to accept that their God was greater!
That same peace was on Daniel when he was thrown into the lion's den. It affected the lions causing them to sleep the night away. Our God is awesome. His peace is far beyond our ability to understand.
Luke 10 v 5 - 6: "And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.
6 And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again."
Jesus in us, the hope of glory, allows us to transmit His Peace into a home that may be in crisis, or even into unrest in your area, to calm things down. Do we know that we have this weapon of PEACE? Christ in us the hope of glory. Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
When He releases His peace, demons are defeated and total calm comes down. While He was on trial before the High Priest for blasphemy, He knew His hour of sacrifice had come. He could easily have stopped it by releasing the power of His peace to them. He chose to hold His peace in.
On this day in history His arrest took place. It was just after the Passover Seder in which Holy Communion first took place as Jesus introduced it as the New Covenant. The broken bread and the blood coloured wine indicating His Body and His shed Blood.
Judas Iscariot had sold the information of where Jesus could be found that evening to the Jewish High Priest for 30 silver coins. He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane after praying so intensely that blood was sweated out of his face. The power on Him was so great that His disciples were overcome with sleep.
On trial before Pontius Pilate He had to consciously rein in His very nature or He would never have been condemned to death. He had a quality that was valuable and which could be transmitted, it was His perfect peace. The Governor would have been caught up in His peace and been unable to do violence to Him. Like Daniel's lion's.
At His birth, 33 years before, the angels sang, Peace on Earth, goodwill to all men". The Prince of Peace had arrived. When we make Him Lord of our lives we feel the peace that bypasses our minds into our hearts as our sins are forgiven. The stress of guilt, fear and shame is dissolved by the peace of Godly acceptance.
We do not have to hold this peace in! We can transmit the peace of Jesus into troubled minds by laying hands upon those people and allowing His peace to touch them so they can be calmed and helped.
Into all kinds of chaos we can project peace through prayer. The more peace we have, the more it can flow outwards and will be replaced by even deeper peace. Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall see God. They shall see God in action by the results.
Jesus calmed the turbulent sea through His peace. Through releasing His peace the thief on the cross next to His was saved and went to paradise. Paradise was also called Abraham's Bosom, a place close to Hell, where believers went to await the Messiah.
My fertile imagination sees that born again thief bouncing into Paradise announcing with absolute joy "Guess who is coming right behind me!" He was the necessary trumpet sounding the arrival of The King!
The One they had patiently waited for was coming. He had not wanted to be crowned King of Israel to fight against Rome but when He got to Paradise He unleashed His kingly power and utter anger against Satan and utterly overthrew him.
In Corinthians it is written, He made a show of him openly. He beat the Devil to a pulp in front of all his demons, and those sinners in hell. Jesus stripped them of their power, weapons and took the keys of hell and death away from Satan. In 1 Corinthians 2 it says, if the princes of this world (the demonic ruling spirits over the nations) had known God's plan, they would never have let Jesus be crucified.
They did not factor in that God could resurrect Him in all His kingly glory, and get themselves defeated by Him so soon after they had gloated over His death. He gave them hell. So all those who follow the devil and his evil ways should realise their ultimate end. They have all been deceived into thinking they will have eternal power with their Master the winner. An eternal party. Hoodwinked into eternal fire.
But we who follow the Lamb have everlasting peace in us already. If you do not have peace, find out why not! Jesus conquered death and hell so you would have His peace, His sinless life, His love and joy. It is His legacy for us to inherit.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, the inner peace that comes from Jesus is so profound and powerful. No tranquilliser can ever equal it. Lord fill us with Your peace so we may transmit it into troubled lives and see them transformed. Your peace in us can calm storms and stop wars. Help us to use it correctly. In Jesus' name. Amen.