Advent: Peace

There was a husband and wife who dearly loved Christmas. Every year, they told themselves, “This year will be peaceful.” They pictured the same beautiful scene: a quiet home, soft Christmas music, kids behaving, no arguments, warm lights twinkling on the tree, and a sense of calm that would finally make everything feel right.

They longed for peace— real peace.

And so, like many of us, they tried to create it.

They rearranged their schedules to keep things simple. They planned family gatherings down to the minute so nothing would get out of hand. They decorated their house early, hoping the Christmas atmosphere might settle their hearts. They promised each other they wouldn’t argue this year, no matter what. And they agreed that this would be the year they finally got it right.

But no matter how hard they tried, peace always seemed to slip through their fingers.

Just when things looked calm, something would shake the house, a financial surprise, a stressful work week, the kids fighting, a misunderstanding between them, or even just the pressure of trying to make the season perfect.

It seemed like the harder they tried to control everything around them, the more unsettled everything inside them felt.

They wanted peace so badly. And outwardly, everything looked peaceful, the tree was lit, the home was festive, the calendar was full of good things…

But inside? Inside they were tired. Inside they were anxious. Inside they felt like something was missing.

Until finally, one evening, after another long day, the wife sat down and sighed, “I just want things to feel whole.”

And her husband quietly replied, “Me too… but I don’t think anything we’re doing can give us that.”

And he was right.

Their problem wasn’t the noise around them— it was the emptiness within them.

They didn’t need a perfectly decorated house; they needed hearts restored.

They didn’t need a picture-perfect holiday; they needed Shalom.

A peace that wasn’t dependent on controlled circumstances. A peace that didn’t fall apart when life did. A peace that came not from effort, but from God Himself.

Church, that couple reflects so many of us.

We chase peace by controlling our surroundings— but biblical peace is not something we build from the outside in. It’s something God builds from the inside out. Amen? Amen!

Before we jump into today’s message join me in prayer.

Last week, Pastor Tony opened our Advent series by preaching on Hope—and he reminded us that biblical hope is not wishful thinking or crossing our fingers that things might work out someday. Biblical hope is a confident expectation—a steady, unshakable trust that God will do exactly what He has promised.

Hope is the anchor that holds us steady while we wait. And this week, as we move into the second theme of Advent—Peace—we see how beautifully these two truths fit together. Because when your hope is anchored in Christ, peace begins to take root in your heart. Hope fuels peace, and peace strengthens hope.

During Advent, we often talk about peace on earth—and because of the Christmas season around us, we imagine the softer things of life: silent nights, gentle snowfall, candlelight services, a quiet living room with the tree glowing in the dark. Those images are beautiful, and they capture a sense of calm… but they are not the fullness of biblical peace.

The peace the Bible speaks about goes far deeper than a quiet evening or a moment where nothing is bothering us. It is something richer, stronger, and more sustaining.

Scripture uses two powerful words to describe this peace:

Shalom in Hebrew

Eirene in Greek

Today I’ll be using Shalom a lot because it’s much easier to pronounce.

Both these words reveal that peace is not merely the absence of conflict or the silence that comes when arguments stop. No—biblical peace means wholeness, completeness, everything in its right place, life functioning as God designed it to be.

It is the peace humanity once had with God in the garden. It is the peace we long for deep in our bones. And it is the peace Jesus came to restore.

So as we turn our eyes to the Advent theme of Peace today, we’re not talking about seasonal calm or emotional quiet. We are talking about the supernatural, soul-restoring Shalom of God—the kind of peace that doesn’t depend on circumstances, the kind of peace that remains when life shakes, the kind of peace that only Christ Himself can give.

The psalmist writes in...

Psalm 119:165 ESV

165 Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.

And Paul declares, in...

Philippians 4:9 ESV

9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

This is more than a feeling of tranquility. It is a state of being where nothing is missing and nothing is broken. This is the peace humanity was created for—peace with God, peace within, and peace with one another.

So today I want to look at some of those definitions of peace and what they look like in our lives.

Let’s start with...

1. SHALOM AS COMPLETENESS

In Scripture, Shalom is not an abstract idea. God gives us pictures—tangible, everyday images—that help us see what true peace really looks like.

One of those images is a stone without cracks. In the ancient world, a stone used for building had to be solid, stable, and perfectly intact. If there was even the smallest fracture, even a hairline weakness, it could compromise an entire structure. But a stone described as Shalom was completely whole—nothing missing, nothing damaged, nothing weakened. It could bear weight. It could support what was placed upon it.

Another image Scripture gives is a flock of sheep where not one is missing. A shepherd would count his sheep in the evening, running his staff along their backs, checking each one. If every sheep was present—none wandering, none injured, none stolen, none lost—the shepherd would say the flock was in Shalom. It wasn’t just about numbers. It meant the entire community was intact. Every life mattered. Every one belonged.

These images help us understand that Shalom means fullness and completion, the way things ought to be.

Shalom is the state in which every part of something is present, aligned, and functioning as it was intended by its Designer. Nothing is out of order. Nothing is broken. Nothing is missing. Everything fits. Everything works.

When we talk about Shalom, we are talking about the original condition of creation.

Think about the Garden of Eden before sin entered the world:

God and humanity walked together in unhindered fellowship.

Adam and Eve lived in perfect unity—not just with each other, but within themselves.

Work was meaningful, not exhausting.

Creation responded with harmony, not resistance.

There was no shame, no fear, no anxiety, no death, no fracture of any kind.

It was life as God designed it. A world in which every relationship, every emotion, every purpose, and every part of creation was whole.

That was Shalom.

It was not simply a peaceful feeling— it was the structural integrity of creation itself. A world with no missing pieces. A humanity fully aligned with God’s goodness.

But sin shattered that Shalom. It introduced cracks into the stone and missing sheep into the flock. It fractured our relationship with God, with each other, with ourselves, and with the world around us.

This is why our hearts long for something we can’t seem to name. This is why even good moments feel incomplete. This is why we sense that something is off even when everything appears fine.

We were created for Shalom— and deep down, our souls remember it.

ILLUSTRATION: Imagine a 1,000-piece puzzle. The colors are vivid, the scene is beautiful—but one piece is missing. It could be 999 pieces of perfection, but your eye will always go to the gap. No matter how close it looks to complete, it is not whole.

That is what sin has done to humanity. It has knocked out essential pieces of our souls—pieces of righteousness, purity, purpose, relationship, and harmony with God.

Paul tells us plainly:

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Sin did not just make us bad—it made us broken. Humanity is a puzzle with missing pieces, and no amount of effort or morality can glue those pieces back in place. We were created for Shalom, but we cannot restore our own Shalom.

2. SHALOM AS WELL-BEING

Shalom in Scripture does not stop with the idea of structural wholeness—like an uncracked stone or a complete flock. Shalom also describes the wholeness of a person’s life, inside and out. It points to a condition where every dimension of your being is aligned with God’s design.

Shalom includes:

emotional stability

relational harmony

physical provision and safety

being spiritually grounded

mental clarity

a sense of purpose and meaning

It is the flourishing of the entire person.

Proverbs tells us,

Proverbs 14:30 ESV

30 A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.

Meaning: when your inner world is right, your outer world feels lighter. When your soul is settled, your life steadies.

Think about how many areas of life affect our sense of peace:

What about when relationships are strained, peace is disrupted.

What about when finances are uncertain, peace is shaken.

Or when guilt or shame lingers, peace is clouded.

When our identity feels unstable, peace feels impossible.

When we carry anxiety or fear, peace feels distant.

And this is because human beings were created to live with integrated wholeness—all the moving parts of our lives in sync with God and with each other.

ILLUSTRATION: Imagine the human heart—emotionally, spiritually, mentally— now imagine it like the engine of a vehicle. When that engine is tuned, oiled, and functioning as designed, it hums with strength and reliability. But if one part is misaligned—a belt loose, a spark plug fouled, a hose leaking—the entire engine feels the strain. It may still run, but it struggles, labors, and performs far below what it was created to do.

In the same way, many people sit in church each week feeling like an engine that isn’t firing right. Something inside is misaligned. Something is out of place. Something is missing. And no matter how hard they try to push through it, they can’t seem to fix it themselves.

Shalom speaks into that reality. It tells us that God not only desires to forgive our sins—He desires to heal our inner fragmentation. To bring wholeness to the emotional, relational, and mental parts of our lives that are running rough.

Not the peace of avoidance. Not the peace of distraction. But the peace that comes when God begins to restore the heart from the inside out like mentioned in...

Ezekiel 36:26 ESV

26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Now let’s look at the restoration aspect of Shalom.

3. SHALOM AS RESTORATION

Shalom does not stay at the level of description—it becomes action. To bring Shalom means to restore what is broken, repair what is damaged, and make whole what has fallen apart.

We see this in Scripture when Shalom refers to repairing a temple, restoring damaged property, or healing a fractured relationship. It means taking something that is incomplete and returning it to its intended purpose.

David declares in...

Psalm 23:3 ESV

3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

ILLUSTRATION: Picture a beautiful historic home. Once full of charm and glory—now weathered, cracking, and sagging with age. A home like that does not need to be ignored; it needs to be restored. There is an old house and barn I see every time I go to Tony and Jen’s house and it’s being restored. Its beauty is still there—it just needed a master builder.

The same is true of our lives. God does not offer peace by overlooking our brokenness; He brings peace by entering our brokenness and restoring us piece by piece. Shalom is God’s commitment to rebuilding what sin has damaged—our hearts, our identity, our relationships, and our purpose.

4. SHALOM AS COOPERATION

Shalom is also used to describe unity between people. It is not merely an end to hostility—it is a beginning of cooperation. Two groups or two people may stop fighting, but Shalom means they begin to work together for each other’s good.

Paul says in...

Romans 12:18 ESV

18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

And Jesus says in... Matthew 5:9

Matthew 5:9 ESV

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

This is a challenge especially important in a small, close-knit community like ours. True peace is often seen in the way we choose humility, unity, patience, and sacrificial love. Shalom calls us not just to avoid conflict, but to actively pursue reconciliation, healing, and shared purpose.

“But as beautiful as God’s vision of Shalom is, Israel’s story shows us something sobering: people are not very good at creating this kind of peace on their own. And that brings us to the next chapter in God’s story—Israel’s longing for a King who could finally restore what they could not.”

5. ISRAEL’S FAILURE AND THE LONGING FOR A PRINCE OF PEACE

Israel’s kings were meant to be shepherds who brought Shalom to God’s people. But time after time, they failed. They led the nation into idolatry, injustice, division, and chaos. Their leadership fractured the Shalom God intended.

Yet in the middle of failure, God gave a promise through Isaiah:

Isaiah 9:6–7 ESV

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

God promised a King unlike any other—a King who would not just administer peace but would embody peace. A King who would restore what sin broke and bring an unending kingdom of wholeness.

That King is Jesus.

6. JESUS — THE FULFILLMENT OF SHALOM

Up to this point, we’ve painted a picture of Shalom— wholeness, restoration, completeness, harmony, unity, flourishing. A world with nothing missing and nothing broken.

But when we look at history, at Israel, and even at our own lives, one truth becomes undeniable:

Humanity cannot restore its own Shalom.

Kings couldn’t create it. Prophets couldn’t sustain it. Sacrifices couldn’t secure it. Human effort couldn’t achieve it.

Every glimpse of peace in the Old Testament was temporary, fragile, and incomplete. Israel kept longing for Someone greater— Someone who wouldn’t just teach peace but would embody peace. Someone who could restore God’s Shalom from the inside out.

And then, in the quiet town of Bethlehem, in the form of a baby laid in a manger, Shalom Himself entered the world.

The angels announced it with clarity:

Luke 2:11–12 ESV

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.”

Luke 2:13–14 ESV

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!”

They were not announcing the start of a peaceful season. They were announcing the arrival of the Prince of Peace. The One who would fulfill everything Israel’s kings failed to do. The One who would bring the peace every human heart aches for.

The deepest fracture caused by sin was not political, emotional, or relational. The deepest fracture was between humanity and God.

We were created to walk in unhindered fellowship with Him. But sin separated us, alienated us, cut us off from the very Source of life and Shalom.

But Jesus came to heal that fracture through His cross.

Paul says:

Romans 5:1 ESV

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

On the cross, Jesus absorbed the hostility. He took the wrath. He carried the judgment. He bore the separation we deserved— so that we could be reconciled to God once and for all.

This is the foundation of all true peace: You cannot have the peace OF God until you have peace WITH God.

And Jesus secured that peace forever.

Many people live with internal chaos:

anxious minds

restless hearts

guilty consciences

wounded emotions

unstable identities

But Jesus says something astonishing in John 14:

John 14:27 ESV

27 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.

The world can give momentary calm, temporary distraction, emotional numbing, or a short-lived sense of control. But Jesus gives His own peace—the perfect, unbroken, unwavering Shalom He possesses within Himself.

Jesus is the only human who ever lived with complete:

alignment

wholeness

righteousness

inner harmony with the Father

And by the Holy Spirit, Jesus imparts His Shalom into our fractured souls.

This means:

your anxiety does not have the final word

your failures do not define you

your shame has been addressed

your identity is secure

your soul has an anchor

your heart has a Shepherd

Jesus restores the broken inner world of the human heart.

One of the other things we notice is that shalom is always relational. It always moves outward. It always seeks reconciliation.

And Jesus came to dismantle the hostility that divides people.

Paul says:

Ephesians 2:14 ESV

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

The picture of peace in Christ is beautiful:

Jew and Gentile become one family

enemies become brothers

strangers become saints

outcasts become embraced

divisions dissolve

The church is not simply a gathering of forgiven people. The church is the community of restored relationships—the family of Shalom.

Think again of that verse we just read in it Paul makes one of the most profound statements in the New Testament:

“He Himself is our peace.” — Ephesians 2:14

Jesus does not merely offer Shalom. He is Shalom.

He is the perfect image of God. He is the embodiment of wholeness. He is the restoration of humanity. He is the presence of God dwelling among us. He is the peace this world cannot manufacture, imitate, or sustain.

Everything broken in creation finds repair in Him. Everything lost is recovered in Him. Everything incomplete finds fulfillment in Him. Everything fractured is mended in Him. Everything chaotic is calmed in Him. Everything divided is united in Him.

Jesus is the restoration of Eden. Jesus is the peace humanity lost. Jesus is the Shalom our hearts remember and our souls crave.

So If I Could Break Down The Gospel Into One Sentence It Would Be This:

Jesus didn’t come to give you a peaceful feeling— He came to rebuild everything sin broke.

Because Jesus has restored us, He now sends us to be instruments of His peace. Paul urges the church:

Ephesians 4:1–3 ESV

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Peace is not passive. Peace is not avoidance. Peace is the active work of restoration, forgiveness, patience, and love.

APPLICATION FOR GOSPEL COMMUNITY CHURCH:

Are you helping heal relationships or adding fuel to division?

Are you bringing restoration where something is broken, or walking past it?

Are you pursuing unity in your marriage, workplace, and church?

Are you forgiving as Christ forgave you, or holding on to bitterness?

Advent is not just about celebrating the peace Christ brings— It is about participating in the peace Christ spreads.

So to sum up the advent topic of Peace I would say Peace isn’t a topic at all. Advent Peace is a person and that person is Jesus.

So that means true biblical peace is not:

the absence of problems

the quietness of Christmas

or a momentary calm

True peace is a Person.

“For He Himself is our peace.” — Ephesians 2:14

Jesus doesn’t simply give Shalom— He is Shalom.

In Jesus:

what is broken is restored

what is missing is supplied

what is fractured is mended

what is anxious is calmed

what is sinful is forgiven

what is separated is reconciled

what is incomplete is made whole

This Advent season, may we not only receive the peace of Christ— but live as people who carry His Shalom into our community, our families, our schools, our work places, and into the world.

Amen? Amen!

Let’s Pray.

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