2024c Advent - Peace
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
You don’t have to look very far or dig very deep to find that one of the main themes of the Christmas season is Peace. How many cards will show up in people’s homes that will proclaim peace or have sayings like “Peace on Earth” or Peace, Joy, and Love.
When a card is sent that presents the idea of peace on earth, I really started to think about that this week. The questions that came to mind were “Has there ever been a time where this statement was true? What does peace look like? Do we have peace today?”
The simple definition of Peace is - Freedom from disturbance. To live without conflict or anything causing a disruption in a person’s life.
At the surface level there are many that would say that they are at peace. There are others that will say wow what an amazing concept. I long to have even a moment of peace. If we take a step back from our own perspective and views, are we in a time of peace? Has the world come to a place of peace. Has peace on earth been achieved.
So what does God say about peace and what does that mean to us as believers in 2024 in the Spokane Valley at Dishman Baptist Church.
We are going to look at the question today
Is Peace Possible?
Is Peace Possible?
In order to answer this question we are going to break it up into some conflicts that each and every person experiences. We will look at what the bible reveals to us about each of these conflicts and their affect on us.
The War With God
The War With God
The first conflict is the war with God. Why would the promised savior be called prince of peace if there wasn’t conflict.
6 For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Jesus was foretold to come, as a child. This child would be like no child that ever was or will be. He would be the true light. He would come into the world. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. He would come to give light to the world.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. 14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Baby Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the Son of God, the Word.
He came but he was not recieved. Jesus came to reconcile everything back to God. The bible uses words like alienated, hostile, enmity, rebellious, spiritually dead, and enemies to describe how the lost person views God. They are blinded to who he really is.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.
All of creation was created through him and for him. All of life is held together by Jesus. Every living being and thing is alive only because he wills it to be and sustains it to remain. But sinful men is separated from the holy God because of his sin and iniquity. Because of his transgression and rebellion. Men find themselves without the ability to come back to the father. So God sent his son to bring his people back to him.
18 He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
It is through Jesus that there is any hope of ending the conflict between men and God. He was the one sent to reconcile everything back to God through one and only one thing. Only one thing brings this peace. And that is the peace the come through the sacrifice on the cross. The shed blood of Jesus was what paid the penalty for all Christians. And why was it necessary?
21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions.
Every single Christian has the same story. Being alienated and hostile toward God. Fully against the things of God. This hostility and separation was demonstrated in each person’s own evil actions. In all of the activities of the person that are contrary to what God has expressed as good. But God did not leave those that believe there.
22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him—
Christians have been reconciled by the death of Jesus. For the purpose of presenting believers to God as holy, faultless, and blameless. This is the peace that a Christian has with God. The just penalty that we deserved had been paid for by the Son of God in full. That a believer is justified by faith.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
There isn’t a more frightening thing than to be add odds with one of power. Who here has found themselves at odds with a toddler before. There are really serious and they want things their own way but do you become scared. No. Why? Because they have no power. There isn’t any punishment that they can enact that would send you running for your life. But what about a person of authority? The more power a person has the more frightening it is to be at odds with them.
I had a coworker travel to central america one time and his flight had been delayed so he sat in the airport passing the time and he struck up a conversation with another person there. He was on his way home so he was at the end of his local currency so he made the mistake of paying his bill at a restaurant with $100 dollar bill.
After awhile the gentleman offered to give him a ride to the hotel. When he got into the car two gentlemen came on both sides of him and each one put a gun into his ribs. They drive off. He has no contacts, no help, in a country that they could kill him and no one would ever find him again. They have all of the power. All of the authority. His life hangs in their hands.
There are times that the fear of the Lord has become so low that people look to God as a simple stuffed animal that they can keep around or kick around at will but is that who God really is? It is a wise person who comes to understand the power of God. And that he is not one who we want to be at war with. One that we do not want to be enemies too.
We are the toddlers in the story of God. Helpless, deserving wrath, enemies, dead in sin.
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
Do you ever stop to ponder the power of God and the weakness of yourself? To stop and see yourself in the humility of the position that we are really in and recognize the highly exalted position of God. That we have any peace with God because he caused it. Because he wanted it, because he is the God of Peace.
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
There is no peace for a person who has not been saved and reconciled back to God. There is no hope of ever experiencing peace if you are an enemy to the creator of all that we know. The first conflict that can be resolved is the conflict between man and God.
The War Between Men
The War Between Men
The second conflict is the conflict among men. One of the common characteristics of life as we know it is conflict among people. Continuous wars where one group is willing to kill the other based things like ideals, race, nationality, power, or financial gain.
I spent a long time digging and looking for any reference that stated a time frame or a window in the recorded history of a time of “Peace on Earth” a time of no disturbances from any country to another.
As far as I can find, there has never been a time in recorded history of peace other than one. A single period of time, in a single country, in a single location, in a single marriage. The garden of Eden as recorded in the scriptures. It is the single time period that I could find where the definition of peace could be applied.
Since the fall of humanity into sin, there has been a continual stream of disturbance and conflict. It did not take long until the conflict of men became deadly. In Cain’s evil heart he kills his own brother.
Humanity as a whole has never come back to that place of Peace. But are we getting better. Is the world getting more peaceful?
Today there are 56 active conflicts around the world. The most since world war II. There are currently 21 wars in the world today. Though our generations have been free from disturbance from other countries, our country has been involved in war and conflict for all but 17 years.
It doesn’t look like peace between nations will come anytime soon, if ever. When you go from the world to our nation we see much conflict here at home. Whether it is political conflict, crime, abuse, marriage, parents and children. Disturbances to peace.
If this is the reality that we look at today and since the fall of man then is there any hope for peace? Is there any hope for humanity? And why during the Christmas season do we hear the call of peace on earth?
We see it in the crime of our nation. We see the consequences of right here at home when nearly 25% of homes in America are single parent homes.
Conflict is so ingrained in our way of thinking that, is it shocking to you that almost all entertainment is based on conflict. If you were to list all of the movies, books, and shows that you have watched in the last 10 years. How many of them would not have a major conflict as the core of the story, let alone many other conflicts.
Why is conflict so natural among people? Where does it come from. James writes
1 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you? 2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
James is speaking to Christian’s and the church.
Who here has been in a church that is just plagued with conflict? This should be a huge warning flag. Not that there is no conflict because there are a bunch sinners working out their salvation but to live in a state of perpetual and unresolved conflict is not what the church is called to be.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.
Is it possible to be at peace with other believers? Well what did Jesus say?
50 Salt is good, but if the salt should lose its flavor, how can you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
Paul tells Timothy to flee from youthful passions and to pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace.
The author of Hebrews states “Pursue peace with everyone”
James wrote “ And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those that cultivate peace.
Peter tells the church to seek peace and pursue it
Paul write to the Romans
18 If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
The scriptures reveal that the community of God, God’s household can and should be at peace with each other. This is something that does not happen by accident. It is something that must be sought after and pursued. Fueled by forgiveness and compassion. But it is possible to be at peace with other believers.
The church is the place where every division is overcome by the saving grace of God. All distinctions go away in the common love of the Lord. If we are to be at peace with each other, why does this seem so hard?
The War In Myself
The War In Myself
What is the source of the wars and fights? Passions, desires. When two people or groups of people are passionate about the things of God, conflict will tend to be less and less and removed. But when one or both parties elevate their own selfish desires over the other then conflict, wars, fight, disagreements, dissensions, factions and many other words to describe conflict arise.
16 I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.
A Christian has been freed from the bondage of sin but some of those fleshly sinful desires are still there in our minds and hearts. Without God this would be all that we have but through the spirit we are given new desires that are of righteousness. The desires of the flesh lead to conflict.
19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Look at that list. Tell me when you have any of these have not lead to conflict with other people. On the contrary the fruit of the spirit is
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
When have any of these lead to conflict but unity. (Expound)
The question is can we see this fruit in our life. Peter writes
3 His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.
God’s own divine power has given us what we need to live in this way. We need to live in this way. So that we may live in unity and harmony with each other. The conflict in our own hearts is something that must be pursued. We must put effort into it.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6 knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7 godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. 10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. 11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
Why must we make every effort to supplement our faith? Who wants to be useless, unfruitful or stumble? That is not our desire. But we must put in work. Increasing our faith and the fruit of the spirit in our life.
We can come to be at peace with God through faith, and we can come to be at peace with each other, and we can come to have peace in ourselves. Peace on earth has come. It can be experienced and lived out.
But we will never have peace with the world.
4 You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.
The Spiritual War
The Spiritual War
There is a battle raging. One we are called to join and be apart of.
10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
Satan is called the ruler of this world who is at work in the disobedient. The things of this world are fundamentally against God and the things of God.
16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world.
The enemy is raging war and we are called to suit up and get ready for battle.
13 For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. 14 Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, 15 and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. 16 In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God. 18 Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.
In John’s first letter he tells us that the world will pass away with its desires. That those that love the world demonstrate that God is not in them. That the world will not recognize us and we are not to be surprised when the world hates us.
3 For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden, 4 because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.
The battle that we fight today is one that has been decided. We have victory over all. It is just a matter of time before all of God’s enemies are brought under his feet. But until then we are to fight.
33 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
In the garden there was peace. A brief time with not conflict with God. No conflict between Adam and Eve. No internal struggle over the mind and the flesh. Complete peace a time without disturbance.
The question today that was asked at the beginning was “Is Peace Possible?”
War with God
To all who call on the Name of the Lord will be saved. All who confess Jesus and Lord and savior. Believe that The God of Peace raise him from the dead and by faith has raised you to new life in Christ. All who believe are at peace with God and reconciled. Through the baby born in the manger, the prince of peace arrived and through his sacrifice we are reconciled to God. This is a free gift of God. Not dependent on the will of man. Amen
The War between Men
We have been given everything required for life and godliness. We must believe that and we must pursue it, making every effort and we can live in peace with one another. Let us look around and know that we can be at peace in the church, and in our homes, if we pursue the things of God. This one we must work on, as we are guided and convicted by the spirit. This is not easy and takes time but this can be achieved. Even among imperfect people.
The War in Ourselves
God has given us new minds and new desires we must open the word and apply it to our lives. He promises that we to can have peace in our own minds and hearts. Let us grow in increasing measure of our faith and come to maturity in our own internal struggles with sin. Growing out of them. Leaving them behind, by the grace of God.
The Spiritual War
The spiritual war battles all around us and God calls us to fight the battle. To strive for truth. To take the message of reconciliation to the lost world. To put on the armor and to take up our sword and walk out into the battle. No longer are we to sit on the sideline. We are to fight. Fight for our children, our families, community and beyond all in the name of Christ for his glory.
For the Kingdom
We are to be used for his kingdom. The one we wait for. The one where the kind was born 2000 years ago and who reigns in heaven today. Let us walk up and while we are here let us be used for the kingdom. Because in the end Peace on earth will be a complete reality again.
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. 3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.
Without the birth of Christ, there is no peace on earth. Just conflict or postponed conflict. But he has come to bring peace to his people while we fight the battle until full peace is revealed.
Will you end your war with God today?
Will you end your war with others?
Will you end the war within yourself?
Will you join the was for the Kingdom?
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Communion
Warning
Children, Lost, Sin
19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Prayer
Song
Closing
Blessing/Benediction
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.