Skip to main content

Peace On Earth



          
Experiencing sound quality issues?  Please Click here Peace on Earth 
    

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. 





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Puzzle pieces or work of art?

Is life a puzzle or work of art? Life can look like a puzzle. Some get the prizes they expected, and some get suprised at what they get. What is the most exciting time in the process of solving a puzzle? the beginning? or as we get each piece? or is it at the end when all pieces are complete? Regardless of what excites you, the potential beauty that it can become is rewarding. When we first open the box, the puzzle looks nothing like the picture on the outside; it is simply jumbled pieces in a bag. If life is compared to a puzzle, it may be a simple puzzle with a hundred different pieces, or it may be a more complicated thousand-piece puzzle with a picture that’s rather tricky to put together. There may be unpleasant and uncomfortable pieces in life that you feel like not fitting in well. You have been able to put together everything well for years, and all of a sudden find yourself confused as to how to fit in the next event. But whatever the size of the challenge, those events can

In Defense of a Disreputable Woman

Buy my book   " Joy in the Journey " on Amazon now 20% goes to missions               Experiencing sound quality issues?  Please Click here   In Defense of a Disreputable Woman      A woman in the Bible who has no name but being portrayed as deplorable and has been a victim of bad reputation. She has seen her life collapse - she has lost ten children, seen the family fortune disappear, and her husband has a rather disgusting disease with bad smells and slimy sores all over his body. There are only three verses in the Book of Job in reference to Job's wife; they are Job 2:9 (curse God and die), Job 19:17 (My breath is offensive to my wife}  and Job 31:10 (may my wife grind another man's grain). She is not looked upon as a good person. I've heard many preachers and theologians who use Job's wife as an example of a lousy wife. She is the one who told Job to deny God and die. Many Bible commentators have demonized her. Augustine labeled her &q

Fathers Day

A father was hiking a mountain with his 3 year old son on his shoulders. After some time the dad said he was tired and asked the son to get down, to which the boy replied, “You can’t be tired. You’re my daddy!” We all have stories to tell about our fathers, or about being fathers. Mark Twain said, "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in 7 years." Our famiies are facing a great crisis today. More and more fathers are disappearing from the scenes. It is now common to meet young people in our big city schools, foster homes and juvenile centers who do not know their dads. Most of those children have come face-to-face with their father at some point; but most have little regular contact with the man, or have any faith that he loves or cares about them. Statistics show 1 in 4 children live without a father figure in the household in t

The Ugly child Economics

The Bible is a book that is brutally honest and unsentimentally realistic. We can read about the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the characters. We read about Abraham's strong faith, but also his weakness when lies about Sarah being his sister. We read about David's successes, but we cannot ignore the sins he committed including murder. We read about Jacob who seemed to delight in trickery and deceit to achieve success until he meets Laban. The one who cheated his own father now gets cheated by his father-in-law; not once, not twice, but ten times!!! (Gen 31:7). Jacob and Laban are portrayed as two shrewd business men in the story. Jacob negotiated seven years for Rachel, but ended up working for Laban fourteen years and ended up with two wives which was nowhere in in his business plan. Laban used the 'ugly child hostage' economics here. He thought that chances of Leah getting married was slim, may due to her 'cross or weak' eyes. So he used the princ

God of Jacob

Buy my book   " Joy in the Journey " on Amazon now 20% goes to missions  There are several Psalms in the Bible that are attributed to the 'Sons of Korah' as the author. We dont know the writer of specific chapters because there were more than one sons to Korah. The Korahites in the Bible were that portion of the Kohathites that descended from the Sons of Korah. They were an important branch of the singers of the Kohathite division (2 Chronicles 20:19). The Sons of Korah were the sons of Moses' cousin Korah. The story of Korah is found in Numbers 16. Korah led a revolt against Moses; he died, along with all his co-conspirators, when God caused "the earth to open her mouth and swallow him and all that appertained to them" (Numbers 16:31-33). However, "the children of Korah did not die" (Numbers 26:11). Several psalms are described in their opening verses as being by the Sons of Korah: numbers 42, 44–49, 84, 85, 87 and 88. It i

Where is God when it hurts?

A man looked agitated during Sunday School. When he got out and and started pacing up and down the hallway, a friend asked him, “What’s the trouble?”. He replied, “The trouble is, I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t.” It is not uncommon to feel like God is taking a long time or not even paying attention. Silence of God can be scary and frustrating for a believer. David wrote a number of Psalms including Psalm 13 when 'God seemed to be distant in his life. We can see Asaph in Psalm 79 and Elihu in the book of Job asking similar questions. Most of us believe that where God is, there is no misery. We think that all is well when we have faith. But Jesus came to this world to turn that around when He said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst and mourn". As believers in Christ, we can rest assured that ‘Where there is misery, there is God’. Jesus voluntarily embraced misery in order to share ours. A great author puts it like this, "Where misery is, there is the Messi

Baptism

Mile markers are stones buried on the sides of highways that help us to determine direction and distance when we travel. In the USA, they generally increase from the South to the North,and from the West towards East. The exit numbers are generally lined up with mile markers so that you can calculate how long you have travelled and how much distance is left to the destination. Without them, we become lost and vulnerable. If you call for emergency help, they will ask your location about your mile marker or exit number to get to you quickly. These exit numbers give us a sense of comfort and peace in knowing where we are and what direction we are heading. The prophet Samuel set up a stone to commemorate the victory over the Philistines at Mizpah (1 Samuel 7:12). He called it Ebenezer which means 'thus far the Lord has helped us.' It is a mile marker in his life and the peoples' lives. We all have mile markers like birthday, firstday of school, sweet 16, graduation, marr

Raging Waters

"Faith rests on a firmer basis, and is not to be moved by swelling seas" (Charles Spurgeon). 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, the raging waters would have swept us away.” A mother got paid to nurse and care for her own son. Jochebed, the mother of Moses was the lucky woman to make history (Exodus 2). Her story is a message of a heartbroken woman who turned over her dreams to God. You may have desired a happy marriage, a successful career, developing their talent, or some other worthwhile goal, yet circumstances prevented it. We can only get through that kind of disappointment by turning it over to God. Whenever I passed through raging waters my Redeemer had been with me, sheltering me against the rising tide (Isa. 43:2, Psal 124). When I came out on the other side, which I always did, I was able to say with joy and confidence, “He is a faithful God!” Are you in the middle

A touch of faith

A man went to see a psychiatrist because he was extremely depressed. The psychiatrist just could not get him to snap out of it. So he said to the man, “Tonight I want you to go to the circus in town because they have a clown named the Great Rinaldi, he is the funniest clown I have ever seen. Whenever I go to see the Great Rinaldi it always lifts my spirits.” The man responded. “You don’t understand doctor, I am the Great Rinaldi.” Life is made of joys and sorrows. The saying is that misery loves company and, if that’s true, there’s plenty of company. But the Bible teaches that you don’t have to be a victim. God wants you to have victory over them. We read in all the synoptic gospels about Jesus healing a woman with the issue of bleeding (Matthew 9:20–22, Mark 5:25–34, Luke 8:43–48). She had been in pain for a long 12 years, physially, emotionally and spiritually. She must have been under a lot of physical pain with the loss of blood feeling pale and tired. She definitely had a lo

Song in the night

"It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but the skillful singer is he who can sing when there is not a ray of light to read by" Charles Spurgeon. We all go through difficulties and hardships: illness, broken relationships, loss of loved ones, conflicts, stress, and many other challenges. Sometimes we may feel overwhelmed and discouraged. But as Christians, we can go through these dark times like the saints of old, who sang in the darkness of their lives. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we can live with the assurance that the best is yet to come. We can look forward to an eternal life of joy and peace with our Lord and Savior. Asaph, the song writer sings in Psalm 77, "in the time of trouble, I remembered my song in the night".  To brood on sorrow is to be broken and disheartened. We can see the light of God's hope in the songs we sing in the dark. Full sermon: Mathew Philip Blessings Mathew Philip