Christmas Eve

Introduction

Hello everyone! So glad that I get to be up here and speaking to you guys about peace.

The most peaceful person that I can think of is my dad. I remember this one time late into a winter, we were driving as a family to visit a museum in New Hampshire. We had just gotten a GPS and my dad set it so that we would avoid highways. Apparently avoid highways meant avoid roads all together. We found ourselves on a dirt road in the backwoods of NH. Well on our drive on these “roads” we ended up not quite making a turn and colliding with a snow bank. Now of course everyone is a little panicked. We are in the middle of nowhere, cell signal is awful, and my brother and I were pretty hungry. But my dad, instead of panicking had a plan. He walked a mile back to a house he saw that had a tow truck outside and asked the man to let us out, which he did happily.

My dad just wasn’t a man to panic. He always seemed to have peace. He always believed things would work out and for the most part, they did. That only grew more, the more he grew in Christ.

Jesus offers a perfect peace, and that started on Christmas.

Main Body

When you know Jesus you find peace

The night that Jesus was born, angels appeared to some shepherds near by. After explaining to them that they shouldn’t be afraid the Bible says this happened in Luke 2:13-14 . . .

Luke 2:13–14 NIV

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

I think that all of us can agree that the world needs a little peace right now. I think we can all agree that we individually need peace today.

On the night that Jesus was born, one of the first promises made by the angels was that the Savior coming into the world would introduce peace. That because of what this baby boy was going to do on this Earth, peace would be given freely to all people that would request it.

Keep in mind angels were messengers for God. That means the angels are sharing a message from God saying that peace has arrived!

They were delivering a message to an Israel that had been waiting for their Christ for hundreds of years. An Israel who had been captured and recaptured more times than I have time to go through. An Israel that needed peace.

The truth is there has always been a need for peace In the world. In fact, there was a first century pagan writer named Epictetus who summed up exactly what made Jesus’ peace unique:

“While the emperor may give peace from war on land and sea, he is unable to give peace from passion, grief, and envy; he cannot give peace of heart, for which man yearns for more than even outward peace.

The peace that Jesus offers is an inward peace that can’t be given by man.

Though how do we know? How do we know that we can find peace in Jesus? Well here is what Jesus would have to say in Matt. 6:24-34

Matthew 6:24–34 NIV

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Conclusion

It is so easy for us to get be filled with anxiety about the world around us. Though we find here in Scripture that Jesus is the perfect representation of God’s love for us. It is in this love that we can see how much God cares for you and me.

He cared enough to send His one and only Son, to save your soul. Why should we worry when we have a God that loves you that much?

This is a God that wants to provide for you! A God that not only wants to provide for your physical needs, but wants to provide for your spiritual needs. We all have a need for freedom from sin.

Because of Jesus and what He did in His life, death and resurrection we can have that freedom. Freedom started that one night, in a manger and with this freedom, why worry?

Luke 2:14 NIV

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”