Christ has come into the World

I want to tell you the story of a backpack. It is a picture of how I get through my day. Everything I need for the most part for the day is found in there. I know where it is. I know how to find it, I know it section of the bag in. I know that when I reach into the bag to find that cord or that item that it will be there.

This past week I was using my MacBook at the Burundian and someone came up to me and asked if I had an extra charger and charging block. Of course I did I responded. I reached in, grabbed the charger and charging block and he was able to use it and knew where it was. I knew it section it was in. I found it in five seconds and knew it was there.

That I’ll be at a strange one, is a picture of shalom. It is a picture of peace. Now I wanna give you that picture, because peace means completeness. It means that everything is where it should be

Now there have been times I am ashamed to admit, where I have reached into my bag for something, and the item that I had assumed would be there was not there. The shock the horror of the missing item throws me for a loop.

That is a picture of a lack of peace. The Bible understands peace, not of an ease of emotions or of a restful position, but it’s more substantial than that.

Peace, according to the scripture, is a completeness or a wholeness. To have peace is to be whole. Everything is where it should be. Do not have peace is to be fractured. Where things are not where they should be.

The consequence of those is rest or fear. We have thought that piece is just a person at rest, but it’s way better than that. Because you can be at rest in one moment and not at rest in another. Peace is a completeness, a wholeness, where everything is as it should be. Nothing is missing. From that place we can rest and we can rejoice.

This is why advent is a season of peace.

Because humanity looked around and found something significantly missing. Not like something in a backpack missing, but something significant missing. Humanity looked around and didn’t see wholeness, but rather saw fractures. Humanity looked around and didn’t see light, but saw darkness.

Peace can be hard to come by. It is difficult to manufacture, it is impossible to sustain. That’s why it is given to us, offered as a gift

Humanity looked around and saw that not everything is as it should be. This is a lack of shalom. We expect or hope for on thing and get another.

We woke up on New Years day about 2013, anticipating a great year. New year’s day is a day of new beginnings, a day where we get to start again. As we entered into the new year, nothing but potential and possibility, Robin walked into the garage and noticed something different, something that we weren’t expecting.

There was water pouring down through the cieling in the garage. Pooling on the floor. We had one primary room that was over the garage upstairs: a bathroom.

So we ran upstairs and found the source. Overnight somehow the toilet began to overflow that it not only poured over the bowl, but also kept pouring. So we went into the bathroom and stepped into a few inches of water that had filled the bathroom floor.

What we had started with, a day and year filled with hope, ended up being a day filled with cleaning floors and mopping up water.

Maybe for you it’s not that intense.

But maybe you went into a conversation expecting one thing and getting another.

Going to your checking account and expecting one number and seeing another

maybe it’s you expect hope and get anger

IT’s not that peace isn’t available in these situations it’s that often our focus is on the broken parts and not what can’t break.

We know by the Christmas story that God has entered the world through Christ. This morning we are looking at the God who has come into the world. And with His arrival we see that peace is now possible.

This morning’s proclamation of Christ coming into the world shows that when God enters into our space, He makes use of it. He brings peace

peace comes in the worst way.

Luke 2:8–9 ESV

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

The shepherds were a bit of a mangy group. Shepherds in the Nt weren’t the most welcome group of people. They existed on the margins, they existed outside of society. They weren’t well reputed. The had no power, no clout.

It is already a turn of events that the Shepherds were the first witnesses of the proclamation.

No one would have seen that coming.

He went to the people with nothing. The shepherds were the first hearers of the proclaimed Gospel, that God had come into our world to bring peace.

The shepherds weren’t ready. The shepherds were the last people to expect, the last people to carry such a message.

It’s in that sense, that peace comes in the worst way possible.

come to what or where we expect or to who we expect it comes in the way that we never would’ve thought.

And this is good news for us. Because we often think that we have to create peace on our own, that we have to clean up, or that we have to work our way toward, or that we have to present ourselves a certain way. And that’s not what is happening in the story this morning.

I love this image. That here are the shepherds living their lives on the margins. It’s night, it’s dark. There’s not much to do. This group is all but forgotten by society.

Then these angels show up and it freaks them out. They were “filled with great fear.” I would be too, I’d imagine you may be as well.

But these angels don’t come at a reasonable time to a reasonble people. They come to what feels like the wrong people at the wrong time.

But what is being proclaimed is not as much about the people to who it’s being proclaimed it is about the name that is being proclaimed for the people who need it

Peace we find, is not a state of mind, is not a posture, is not a place or a time.

Peace has a name. Peace is found in a person.

Peace has a name

There is a link here that we can’t pass up quickly.

The shepherds were given a name and a place.

Luke 2:10–14 ESV

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

The angels don’t say, peace is available. They don’t say seek peace. They don’t say, look for peace. They give a name. They make one person responsible. Peace is not pursued it is given. Peace has an address. We know where to go to find it.

Peace is not found in a position, or in a possession or in a principle (if I do this I get this) peace is found in a person.

Christ broke through every layer against Him to bring peace into the world.

God has broken through eternity into time

God has broken into history

He has broken into culture

God has broken into every idea or obstacle that would keep us distant and fractured from Him.

Look at Jesus’ promise in John 14:27

John 14:27 ESV

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

That is the word of peace to us.

That’s why this piece is different. Because this is not the piece that comes from manufacturing it, it comes from a piece that is offered. It is given.

We see that God breaks through the human experience.

I love the truth of the Scripture that when the angels showed up, the shepherd were afraid.

I would be too.

Fear is intended to protect us from danger. It is a part of us, it is actually rather helpful. want be afraid of some things. You should be afraid of some things. But what we have done is made fear a superpower. We are dominated by fear

But this honest reaction is good news for us. Fear is not too much for peace. We can often think, I am afraid, and if I am afraid there is no peace

We see that not to be the case at all. In fact, when there is peace, fear eventually bows to it.

There is no obstacle that God cannot and has not attended to. That is the promise of Advent. God has come into the world. And His coming into the world changes everything.

If God is near then peace is possible.

He entered into our world. In our way. To take on the violence and sin of the world. To take on the brokenness of the world.

You have been made whole in the person of Jesus. Every other thing that tries to fragment and break or crack or separate, is a secondary issue.

It may not feel like a secondary issue, the Christ ability to peace back together Through his peace is always stronger than anyone’s attempt to break apart.

That means that God speaks through his word, God speaks through his church. God speaks in interacts in your life.

Part of peace is not just an internal reckoning with what has been previously broken, pieces also about Wholeness with the world around you. We have church as an expression of the peace of Christ. We gather we connect we talk we pray we laugh we cry as an expression of the piece of Christ. We are exemplars, we are a witness, of what wholeness looks like.

Peace is not fleeting, it does not budge.

You can trust God’s declaration of peace over you. That can be essential tenant of your life.

Romans 5:1 ESV

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the Apostle Paul’s take on The Advent proclamation. God is pleased with us through being justified in Christ. If we trust Christ then we are made just, all the violence and sin and brokenness that has led our lives is now gone.

We are renewed in God, given new life. And because of that we have peace. We are made whole.

The entire Advent is tied together with the promise of peace. That what has previously been broken is now whole.

God comes into the world as the prince of Peace.

There is peace for those on whom God is pleased.

We have seen that God’s comes near to bring hope. That there is entire possibility of something more.

We see this morning that God comes near to bring peace. That there is wholeness even when life feels fractured.

This morning name the fractured place in your life. Address it. But then ask Christ to bring the proclamation of peace in it. You may even feel like a shepherd this morning, like you are in the margins of society. Christ breaks through to bring peace. He has called you in. Trust His peace.

The angels don’t wait until everything is peaceful, in the right place, to declare God’s peace. they come into the mess and chaos, and say peace is possible.

Find the fractures and begin to pray for God’s peace. His joy through Christ and Christ alone.

1. The Concept of Shalom:

How does the illustration of the backpack help explain the biblical concept of shalom as completeness or wholeness? Can you think of other everyday analogies that similarly represent peace?

2. Peace vs. Rest:

The sermon differentiates between peace as completeness and peace as mere rest. How do these distinctions challenge or expand your understanding of peace in your own life?

3. The Role of Brokenness:

The sermon highlights moments of brokenness (e.g., the missing charger, the overflowing toilet) as contrasts to peace. How does focusing on “what can’t break” shift our response to these moments of fracture in life?

4. Shepherds and the Advent of Peace:

The shepherds, described as marginalized and unlikely witnesses, are chosen to proclaim peace. What does this tell us about God’s priorities and the nature of divine peace? How does this challenge societal expectations?

5. Personal Application of Peace:

The sermon encourages people to identify fractures in their lives and pray for Christ’s peace. What are some practical ways to incorporate this process of seeking peace into your daily Christian practice?