An old lady shared, that her grandson's favorite phrase is “Grandma, we’ve got a problem!” She makes it a point to remind him that we have an opportunity for God to find a solution. Problems do indeed arise, seemingly every day. But the choice of how we handle them is ours. We can either allow fear to well up on the inside, or we can take our problems to the Lord. The sooner we turn them over to God, the sooner we will feel God’s peace.
Human life is a combination of problems and solutions. Every need is a solution to a problem. Without problems, there is no life. When we have solutions we are at peace. When we cannot find solution, we get afraid and lose peace.
In John 14, Jesus said that he came to give us peace. Peace is not the absence of problems. If that is the case, peace will be elusive. If we plan on having peace after all these events are over, you will never find peace. Unlike the car wash, that will come to a stop, life’s storms are never ending. There is no time without problem. The Bible teaches that peace is the presence of God in the midst of trouble. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble.” Jesus promised that He will be with us in the middle of it. At the birth of Christ, the angels appeared to the shepherds and proclaimed the news of peace on earth to all. That is the good news of great joy. The message of advent is that the prince of peace has promised to bring peace in the middle of our troubles.
Peace with God
The most basic need we have is peace with God. This is the foundation to real peace in our lives. If we don’t have peace with God, we will never experience real peace that is lasting. The angels brought the news of peace to those whom God favors meaning, That means “to those whom God is the Lord” of their lives, have the promise of peace. The chapter before that he talks about the justification through Christ.
Paul says in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” When we accept Jesus as Lord in our lives by faith, we are freed from sin and peace enters into our lives. Faith is an important factor in experiencing peace. “He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.” (Romans 4: 25)
Justified means that God declares a person to be just in his sight by imputing the righteousness of Jesus. And he does that by faith alone: “Since we have been justified by faith.” Not by works. Not by tradition. Not by baptism. Not by church membership. Not by piety. Not by parentage. But by faith alone. When we believe in Jesus as the Savior and the Lord of our lives, we are united to him and his righteousness is counted by God as ours. We are justified by faith. And the result is peace with God. We are not under the punishment for sin because of our sin is put away. Our rebellion against him is overcome. God adopts us into his family. God is our Father, and our Friend. We have peace. We don’t need to be afraid any more. Jesus brings peace with God and man. The kind of peace that angel was talking about during the birth of Christ was a peace with God. Paul writes in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.”
He is talking about forgiveness and a right relationship with the Almighty. Peace comes from the forgiveness of our sins and guilt by a merciful God. When God forgives, then there’s no place for guilt. That is the peace we have within. Jesus said, “peace I give to you, unlike the world gives.” (John 14:27). Isaiah prophesied that the coming messiah would be as the ‘Prince of Peace.’ He would heal the broken relationship of mand and God. Then Isaiah continues, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end…” One day Jesus will return and establish a kingdome of peace which have endless peace.
There’s also a peace in knowing that no matter what dark valley we have to walk through, God is still there, like s shepherd with his sheep. He is there even when we can’t see him and he’s leading us in the path of his purpose. He favors those who seek him. "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." The angels promised peace with the birth of that Child, but it wasn’t the kind of peace that means the end of conflicts. If that’s the case, then there will never be peace. As long as man lives, there will be conflicts, and wars and battles. But in the midst of these, God brings and inner peace to those who seek after Him.
In Psalm 124 David sings “if the Lord had not been on our side the flood would have engulfed us,the torrent would have swept over us,5 the raging waters would have swept us away.” It is not clear what David was going through, but we know from his life stories that he had gone through many conflicts. King Saul was after his life, enemies have surrounded him, his own son had plotted against him once. David remembers that in all of these situations, God was on his side safely keeping him in peace. In Psalm 23, David writes, God is the one who takes me beside the still waters.
John 16:33 tells us, “In the world you will have trouble.” God’s children are not promised a life of ease, of prosperity, nor of good health always. Yet we are never alone in our trouble. Isaiah 43:2 reminds us that when we pass through deep waters, God is with us. Although we don’t always understand God’s purposes in the trials we experience, we can trust His heart because we know Him. Our God is a God of abundant love and “neither death nor life. . . nor things present nor things to come [will ever] separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39). When trouble comes, His presence is His promise. Faith is believing that God is present when all we hear is silence. He is Immanuel, “God with us.”
Peace with Ourselves
And because we have peace with God and because of being justified by faith, we can begin to grow in the enjoyment of peace with ourselves — and here I include any sense of guilt or anxiety that tends to paralyze us or make us hopeless. Here again believing the promises of God with a view to glorifying God in our lives is key. Our hearts and our minds are under constant assault with guilt, worries, threats, confusions, uncertainties that threaten our peace. And Paul says that the peace of God will “guard” your hearts and minds." He guards them with his peace. He guards them in a way that goes beyond what human understanding can fathom. Don’t limit the peace of God by what your understanding can see. He gives us inexplicable peace, supra-rational peace. And he does it when we take our anxieties to him in prayer and trust him, that he will carry them for us (1 Peter 5:7) and protect us.
When we do this, when we come to him — and remember we already have peace with him! — and trust him as our loving and almighty heavenly Father to help us, his peace comes to us and steadies us, and protects us from the disabling effects of fear and anxiety and guilt. Take our anxieties to God and be at peace with ourselves.
Peace with Others
The third relationship where God wants us to enjoy his peace is in our relationships with other people. This is the one we have least control over. So we need to say it carefully the way Paul does in Romans 12:18. He says, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”
For many of you when you get together with family for Christmas, there will be some awkward and painful relationships. Some of the pain is very old. And some of it is new. In some relationships you know what you have to do, no matter how hard it is. And in some of them you are baffled and don’t know what the path of peace calls for. In both cases the key is trusting the promises of God with heartfelt awareness of how he forgave us through Christ. I think the text that puts this together most powerfully for me again and again is Ephesians 4:31–32, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
The Holiday season is the most stressful season of the year for many people. The holidays present a dizzying array of demands — parties, shopping, baking, cleaning and entertaining, to name just a few. It often brings unwelcome and unhealthy guests — stress and depression. The celebration of the coming of the Prince of peace has become the season without peace for many. The scripture reminds us of the peace proclaimed in such times. "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” ( Isaiah52:7).
The scene in Luke’s Gospel of the birth of Jesus is a hectic situation. It’s not just because of the multitude of characters involved. It is also hectic because it involves the collision of multiple and diverse scenes into this singular moment in time: the census that caused a young couple to travel a great distance across deserts and mountains on the week of their child’s birth; the “no vacancy” sign at the only inn in town; the shepherds terrified by the angel of the Lord; the heavenly hosts praising God; and the child being born in a manger, surrounded by his parents, animals, and overwhelmed shepherds. It was probably more hectic and stressful than we can imagine.
The birth of Jesus brought a lot of different people from many different places and walks of life. These characters have no inherent connection to one another. But their lives intersect in a powerful encounter as together they bear witness to the birth of this extraordinary child. Their common experience and witness allow them to find unity, even in the midst of their very different circumstances of life. It allowed them to feel a momentary peace. It helped them see beyond the present and the past to catch a glimpse of a future that could be different from what they have known. They can see in this child’s face as the prince of peace, if only for a second.
We live in a hectic and turbulent time. We see violence and hatred on the increase around the globe. Nations are preparing for more war and not peace. Social concerns about our children's safety is at an all time high. There could be tension around the table in many households, tension in the wider community, and tension as we gather as congregations. And so right into the middle of this difficult situation of unresolved feelings, diverse opinions, religious and political differences, holiday tension, and friends sitting alongside foes — a sign of peace is born into the world.
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