The Peace of Jesus (Advent 2007)

December 23, 2007 6:03 pm admin Luke, Sermon-Texts

An exegetical treatment of Luke 2:8-20 during the fourth week of Advent addressing the theme of peace in the angels candle. This sermon was originally preached December 23rd of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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December 23rd, 2007
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Advent: The Angels Candle
Luke 2:8-20 - “The Peace of Jesus”

Luke 2:8-20 8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Introduction
I. The Angels and their Message
II. Why there is not Peace on Earth
III. Peace in Jesus Forevermore
Conclusion

Introduction

Good morning everyone. This is Christmas Sunday, so Merry Christmas. We are in the fourth and final week of Advent when we celebrate the coming of God into the world, Jesus Christ. God is truly everwhere, there is nothing which escapes his eye, yet in Jesus he made himself known in a very unique way, by taking on humanity into himself and becoming a little baby. God becoming a baby is a big deal. The biggest deal on the news the other night was that Britney Spear’s little sister, who is 15, is pregnant. That’s not a big deal! Mary was probably 14 and she was pregnant with God!

The candle in this week of Advent is called the “Angel’s Candle” and it is the week when we focus on the peace of the gospel in Christmas. So let me read our passage and pray for our time studying God’s Word.

I. The Angels and their Message

Right off the bat the most striking thing to me about this passage are the angels. When we just read it were there any of you who found your curiosity fixiating most on these angels? Angels are interesting, personally I’ve never seen an angel, I’m not sure how many people even really believe angels exist. But one thing is for sure, angels are super popular in our culture.

There are a ton of movies with angels in them…there are love movies with angels like “City of Angels” with Meg Ryan and Nicoloas Cage, there are scary movies with angels like “The Prophecy I, II, & III,” there are action movies with angels like “Constantine,” there are kid movies with angels like “Angels in the Outfield” and there are philosophical and comedy movies with angels like “Dogma.”

Angels are big stars in TV too. Here is a list of TV series which all have angel in their name: “Angel,” “Dark Angel,” “Touched by an Angel,” “Fallen Angel,” “Galaxy Angel,” “Charlies Angels,” and there is a even a whole anti-cutlure super-Christian network with shows that mostly suck called “Angel TV.”

If you want to talk about music it’s insane…the list goes on and on just with artists who have album titles mentioning angels, not even considering songs that talk about angels. Here is a small sample of artists who are apparently into angels in some way or another, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Depeche Mode, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, Judas Priest, Fuel, Faith No More, Foo Fighters, Gwen Stefani, Dido, K.D. Lang, Sarah Brightman, Lindsey Lohan, Papa Roach, DMX, Tupac, and T-Bone.

So angels are evidently pretty common…I just wouldn’t expect to learn to much about what angels really are from any of these sources. If there really is such thing as angels then we would need something outside of any individual’s personal experience to tell us who they are and what they are about…which is why I am glad God gave us a Bible. We are always listening to what someone says or thinks, the probably is that people are often times wrong. So if we are to know anything at all about anything we need God to tell us. That’s why God gave us a book, the Bible…40 different authors, 66 different books, written over a period of 1500…and the whole thing bearing his divine fingerprint: one view of God and the gospel, archeological and historical precision, a truly God inspired book.

So I want to give you a brief survey of angels in the Bible and then we’ll talk about their message, what they said when Jesus was born. We can’t take time to go to all the passages in the Bible that mention them, so if you want the Scripture references just look up my blog later this week and you’ll find the notes there. So here is a brief summary of angels in the Bible:

1. They are a class of being created by God (Neh. 9:6), also called the “heavenly host,” “holy ones,” “cheribim,” “seraphim” or called by their indivudal names, like “Michael” or “Gabriel.”

2. There are ranks among them somewhat like what you would have in an army…the angel Michael is identified as an arc angel (Jd 9) among their clan.

3. All angels are immortal (Ez. 1:5-14) and unredeemable (Job 1:7-2:7; 1 Pet 1:12). The unredeemable angels are bad angels called demons, whose chief leader is Satan, also called “Lucifer.”

4. Angels can only be in one place at a time, can travel very fast, and can appear in different ways and forms (Dan 10:12-14; Heb 13:2).

5. Angels are guardians of God’s people, though not every person is assigned their own individual angel (Ps. 91:11-12)

6. Angels don’t marry according to Jesus (Mt.22:30).

7. Angels are very, very, powerful (2 Pet. 2:11). One time an evil king from Assyria came up against Judah, camped outside the main city and vowed to wipe them off the face of the earth. Judah’s king, Hezekiah, prayed to God and God sent one of his angels and that angel killed 185,000 soliders single handedly in one night (2 Kings 19:35)!

8. The job of good angels is to worship God, which sometimes involves singing praise, sometimes sending messages, and sometimes performing some specific task (Ps. 103:20; Is. 6:2-3).

9. The Bible is very clear about how our relationship as humans to angels should be. Angels remind of the unseen spiritual world, but we are not to seek them and if we encounter them we are not to worship them (Rev. 19:10). Instead we are to listen and judge them because bad angels can pose as an angel of light and deliver false messages (Gal 1:6). The way we judge is by the Bible and if everything lines up we need to do what they say.

So that is angels in the Bible. Now let’s go back to our passage, with this information and ask the question “why angels?” Angels are all over the story of Jesus’ birth. Angels appear to Mary, Joseph, Zechariah, the shepherds and could have even been the “star” which guided the wise men to Jesus two years after he was born. So why did God send his angels to mark the birth of his son coming into the world? We don’t know exactly how many angels there are, but when Jesus was on the cross he said he could call down “twelve legions” of angels to fight for him if he wanted. Twelve legions is about 60,000 angels. So here in our passage, this “host” could have at least been 60,000 angels. That’s about the number of people you can fit into qualcomm stadium…a lot of angels to be sent just to announce that Jesus is being born…

Here is what I think. I think there is no greater thing that has ever happened in all of history, even the beginning of creation itself, no bigger thing then when God came into the world! Jesus is the most significant thing to have ever happened. And if you are God, then becoming a little baby is a huge deal and you would expect it to be an occasion to be marked by all kinds of supernatural and glorious things…like angels. The divine glory of Jesus may have been hidden underneath the rags covering the fresh baby skin newly welded to the being of God, but it was not hidden from the angels, no they saw it and they rejoiced! “Glory to God in the highest!”

II. Why there is not Peace on Earth

And the angels rejoiced not just because of the suberb nature of this miracle God had just performed, for indeed it was one of God’s greatest feats yet…becoming a God-man! But they also rejoiced because they knew why God did it, what his purpose was. Look at the what they angels say while they are rejoicing. Verse 14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.”

Peace. What a weighty, weighty word. It is difficult to read this and not hear U2’s song “Peace on Earth” in my head. Maybe you know it: “Heaven on Earth, We need it now, I’m sick of all of this hanging around, Sick of sorrow, I’m sick of the pain, I’m sick of hearing Again and again, That there’s gonna be, Peace on Earth. Where I grew up, There weren’t many trees, Where there was we’d tear them down, And use them on our enemies… Jesus can you take the time, To throw a drowning man a line, Peace on Earth. Tell the ones who hear no sound, Whose sons are living in the ground, Peace on Earth. No whos or whys, No one cries like a mother cries, For peace on Earth. She never got to say goodbye, To see the color in his eyes, Now he’s in the dirt. Peace on Earth…Jesus can you take the time, To throw a drowning man a line, Peace on Earth. To tell the ones who hear no sound, Whose sons are living in the ground, Peace on Earth. Jesus in this song you wrote, The words are sticking in my throat, Peace on Earth. Hear it every Christmas time, But hope and history won’t rhyme, So what’s it worth, This peace on Earth.”

Peace…a weighty, weighty word. Peace, the absence of violence, the presence of justice, peace. Our world longs for it. Years and years and decades and decades and centuries and centuries of violence and wars. According to Wikipedia there are currently 30 wars happening right now across the world with an estimated death toll of over 1,787,794. There are over 54 organizations like Amnesty International, The Peaceforce, and the World Peace Council who are dedicated to trying to bring peace to the world. Over the years there have been several peace summits, peace rallys, and peace declarations. We have a Nobel Peace Prize, a World Peace Day, and our peace hand gesture… But somehow all attempts at peace fail and have failed.

Why is there not peace? What’s going on? What is it going to take? What is the answer? Why is there not peace? You hear all these people talk about world issues on talk shows or radio programs. They talk about what is happening and how it happened and what they think needs to happen. But you never hear anyone ask, why is there not peace on earth? Were the angels wrong? Didn’t the angels say with Jesus coming there would be “peace on earth?” Why is there not peace?

The Bible asks this question. Turn with me in your Bible to James chapter 4, verse 1, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?” “Why is there not peace among you?” Read the next line with me, “Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions (Js 4:1-3).”

This is such a telling verse…one of those verses where it seems the Bible reads us rather than we who read the Bible. It not only answers the question of why sometimes it seems that God doesn’t answer prayer but it goes to the heart of what is wrong with the human race…why there are wars and strife among us. It goes to the heart of things, our desires, our motives. It is the reason for every conflict and every dissatisfaction that ever occurs. Desire, passion, want…for something we don’t have or are not getting which we think we need. Sin manifests itself in our motives, where we move toward something that is not God in place of God or we try to use or appease God to get something else other than God.

Let me give you some examples. A kid on the basketball court gets mad at another kid because the kid blocks him and he trips and falls, instantly he is angry, partly because he is hurt and partly because he thinks kid was out to get him. He feels disrespected and embarrassed in front of his peers and now feels he must fight. What is the motive? The praise and approval of peers.

It doesn’t change with adults. The desire for praise, for people to think good of us, so we try hard to earn their favor and we get frustrated when we can’t. You might be a people pleaser, where you never want someone to be disappointed in you so you try so hard to say and do all the right things. So you stress over a Christmas gift and spend 5 hours at fashion valley just trying to get the right gift so that they’ll like you. Or you could be on the other end, where you want people to think you are so important and better than them, so you don’t give people the time of day and figure if you blow them off it doesn’t matter…but then, when you need something you get angry and frustrated if they don’t respond right away.

The thing is we know how we are supposed to be. Especially if we are Christians. We know God is God and that he is good and that he will take care of us and provide for us just as he takes care of and provides for the birds in the air. We know we should be content with what we have and not always wanting more…more money, more things, nicer things (the materialism and consumerism at Christmas is crazy!)…but we just can’t seem to help it. We know he knows the future and because he does we don’t have to…but we just can’t seem to stop worrying about it. We know we should be kind to everyone and forgiving and not reacting so hard when people hurt us or if they disrespect us. We know we should care more about what God thinks than anyone else.

We know these things…but we are in conflict, conflict with ourselves. And all too often it leads to some sort of outward war. It just eats and eats away at you until you do something like send the silent but mean text, or the nasty voice mail or email…or you decide you’re going to do the Christian thing and go and confront the person and you just end up blowing up at them and cussing them out. Or the maybe you go the passive aggressive route, where you just don’t do anything, ignore whats going on, hoping it will go away…or you figure that you’re just gonna to give that person the silent treatment, not do anything but just check out, that’ll show ‘em how much they hurt you…none at all, hah!

Whether you are young or old it’s the same. For you kids, think about the last time you got into a fight with your brother or sister. For adults, think about the last time you got in a fight with your spouse. If you’re not married think about the last time you got in a fight with a friend or maybe more likely your parents or a ex-boyfriend or girlfriend.

There is no peace on earth and it is because there is a problem with our hearts, we don’t love God or his people like we should. And that puts us in a mess. A mess at home, a mess with our neighbors, a mess with the people we work with, a mess with our government and a mess with other countries.

III. Peace in Jesus Forevermore

This is what the angels knew. They knew the problem with humanity was bigger than just some countries not getting along. They knew that things couldn’t be fixed with a peace treaty between political leaders. They knew that social justice and activism alone would not be enough. They knew that religious tolerance and just mixing all beliefs together couldn’t solve anything. They knew we needed a savior and that’s why they rejoiced because they knew who that little baby Jesus was…he was God, come into the world to live and to die in order to go to the root of all war and violence, the human heart.

The angels knew that the little baby Jesus tightly bound in that swaddling cloths would later be bound to a cross to die for the sin and wickedness of our hearts. Glory, glory, glory to God in the highest peace, peace at last, peace on earth among men for whom Jesus came to die for and save!

This is the gospel my friends, peace in Jesus. If we put our faith in Jesus as our savior we will have peace. We need to accept his love and forgiveness for our lack of peace….a lack of peace for not being satisified in God alone. A lack of peace in seeking the praise of other people. A lack of peace for lashing out against others. Jesus peace is practical. It works for the kid on the basketball court and it works for the adult in the shopping mall or the parent trying to raise their children in the ways of the Lord.

Peace is in Jesus. Only Jesus can give peace because he paid the price for our peace, he took his life to the cross to put an end to the war. Colossians 1:14-15 says Jesus took our trespasses and nailed them to the cross, disarming the rulers and principalities, putting them to shame and triumphing over them. Jesus died for sin and its consequence of hell and because of that we can have peace.

That’s the real war. The real war which every war flows out of is the war for our souls. The inner turmoil between us and God. Our lack of peace is not just because there is bad energy against us. It’s not that we don’t have good feng shui and just need to rearrange our furiture. It’s not that we just need to work off some bad karma. Our lack of peace, is peace with God and the only answer is to turn to Jesus Christ. In him we can live a life of peace. In him we can follow God and love him and love our friends and family and the people we work with. In him a stop can be put to the things which turn our motives away from God. In him salvation is found, a salvation from ourselves and a salvation forevermore…a peace that one day will never end.

Conclusion

I’ll conclude with this, Jesus birth was announced by thousands of angels, “peace on earth!” Jesus death was announced by thousands of sinners, “crucify him!” Jesus rose from the dead and his victory was announced by his disciples “he is risen!” When all those who are his have embraced his peace and received him, the Bible says Jesus will return to earth. And when he does he will return with all the host of his angels, they will blow a trumpet, and he will set up his kingdom. He will put a physical stop to all human violence and take those who have had the root of violence dealt with in their heart by the gospel and we will live in a city with him as king together. My question today is, will you be in that number?

Christmas is a wonderful time. It is wonderful because of Jesus. The savior, who is Christ the Lord, born to bring peace on earth. I urge you today, put your faith in Jesus. Find peace in him. We fail at peace on our own, but by believing in him his life gets imparted and it’s a life of peace and joy in his Holy Spirit. In so far as we embrace the gospel, the peace of Jesus will permeate our lives. Kids, adults, families, friends…put your faith and trust in the peace of Jesus. and celebrate and love him this Christmas. May every gift you give and receive remind you of the great gift of Jesus.

Let’s pray.