Sermon Tone Analysis

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The Angels Proclamation

Proclaiming Peace

During World War II on May 27th 1943, a B24 bomber called the “Green Hornet” left Hawaii with a crew of 11 soldiers for a search and rescue mission.

The bomber was notoriously known as a lemon, and many were critical that it was used at all, but the 11 followed orders and boarded the Green Hornet to search for a missing plane & crew in the South Pacific.

850 miles later mechanical difficulties forced the B24 down at sea.

Upon crashing, 8 of the 11 crew members were killed, leaving 3 alive; Lt. Louis Zamperini and his crew-mates, pilot Russell Allen Phillips and Rear gunner Francis McNamara, but help was nowhere to be found, and the men were stranded on a raft together for 47 days.

The month and a half at sea proved harrowing for the survivors, as they were subjected to the unrelenting sun, strafing runs by Japanese bombers, circling sharks and little drinking water.

To survive, they collected rainwater and killed birds that happened to land on the raft that they used as bait for fishing.

Francis McNamara died on day 33 at sea. 2 weeks later Zamperini and the plane’s pilot Phillips, were finally captured just off of the Marshall Islands by a Japanese Naval vessel.

Soon they found themselves on a Pacific island 2,000 miles from the crash site.

While saved from the ocean, the men were soon taken as prisoners of war by the Japanese, beginning the next leg of their horrific experience.

Soon Zamperini was taken to a Japanese POW camp that did not register their captives as prisoners of war.

Within a short time they were both reported missing at sea and 1 year and a day later Zamperini was listed as killed in action.

One heartbreaking day there was a knock at the door of the family home.

I would imagine their hearts sunk upon opening the door to an officer in his dress uniform.

The letter in his hand was from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the President of the United States, offering his condolences for the death of their son.

At that moment his family would have given anything to just hear from their son, to hear his voice, receive something, anything that would let them know he was alive.

But for over a year they heard nothing, the silence was like torture to them.

If you watched the 2014 movie “Unbroken”, or the sequel a year or so later “Unbroken, The Path To Redemption” You know the rest of the story.

That a little more than 2 years after his plane went down he was freed with all the other POW’s when the war ended in August 1945.

Silence had been broken when he returned to a heroes welcome.

Have you ever experienced the deafening pain of silence?

All you want is to hear from someone, but instead you wait in silence.

As we enter this Christmas season, that is exactly where we see the Nation of Israel.

actually, let me correct myself, that is where we see the entire world.

As a Nation Israel, as well as the rest of the world, had heard nothing from God in 400 years.

As a matter of fact, our study in the Old Testament books of Ezra Nehemiah, as well as the book of Malachi mark the last time the world had heard anything from God. 400 years of silence from God broken by the announcement from an angel proclaiming the birth of The Savior, the long awaited Messiah.

Here we are at the beginning of the Christmas Season and, much of the world takes a moment to pause for this special holiday—even though many people don’t really know why.

When we look at the first proclamation of Christmas that came from heaven to earth through the voices of angels speaking to the shepherds, we are reminded of the “why” behind all the things we are doing during this season: NEXT SLIDE

Luke 2:13-14

One angel explained this good news of great joy for all people: that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem.

It’s important to understand that the peace the angels proclaimed was not a proclamation of world peace or a declaration of the end of strife and war.

It was not a direct announcement that we can now get along with our neighbors.

It’s actually much bigger and much more important than any of that.

I was trying to think of a good way to illustrate the type of peace the Bible is talking about here in Luke chapter 2 and my mind went to another story, this one from the Old Testament.

It is the story of twin boys who grew to be arch enemies.

It is the story of Jacob and Esau and we have to go all the way back to the Book of Genesis to see this story unfold.

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Genesis 33

Jacob & Esau-Genesis 33, page 35 in the Pew Bibles.

The part we will look at this morning is found in Genesis 33 which is on page 35 of the Pew Bibles.

Now I am not going to go into all the details of this tragic story, but I will tell you some of what has lead up to chapter 33.

It was the custom in the Middle East in those days that the Eldest son received the fathers birthright as well as a special blessing from the father.

While these 2 were twins, Esau was the first one born.

These 2 literally battled inside their mothers womb and when Esau was born Jacob was grasping his heel as if to say, “Not so fast, I want to be born first.”

The battle didn’t end that day.

One day, Esau had been out working in the field, he came home to the smell of his brothers stew.

He asked Jacob to give him some of the stew and Jacob refused to give him so much as a bite until Esau sold him the family birth-right.

Famished Esau agreed.

From that day forward Esau grew to despise his brother and the birth-right.

Fast forward several years.

By now there father, Issac, was old and blind.

One day he was talking to Esau in his tent.

Knowing he was soon to knock on deaths door, he asked Esau to go out and kill some game, prepare it as a meal and bring it to him and at that time he would give him the father’s blessing.

What neither realized was Rebekah, Isaac’s wife and the mother of the 2 boys was listening.

One of the many tragedies of their home was that Isaac favored Esau and Rebekah favored Jacob.

Well she wanted Jacob to receive the blessing, so she quickly called Jacob and the 2 of them then came up with an elaborate plan to deceive Isaac and for Jacob to receive the blessing.

The plan worked and when Esau found out about it he determined to kill his brother as soon as their father died.

Rebekah was informed of Esau’s plan and as a result she had her son Jacob flee.

Moving ahead once again, now around 20 years to where we are in Genesis 33.

In chapter 31, we see God direct Jacob to return to the land of his father.

This put Jacob in quite the dilemma, you see Jacob was pretty sure that if he returned home he would run into his brother Esau and last he had heard Esau wanted him dead.

He had no reason to believe that there was any change in his heart.

He sent some messages ahead to where Esau now lived to make peace with him and arrange a meeting.

When they returned, they warned Jacob that Esau was coming to meet him but was brining with him 400 men.

Certain this was an army, Jacob then broke his caravan into several groups.

Well by now Jacob had become very wealthy with sheep and goats and all sorts of livestock.

He sent some servants ahead with a significant gift for his brother.

“two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.”

He sent therm ahead rationalizing in his mind that if Esau was angry he would kill them and he could flee.

That didn’t happen.

After Esau passed by the gift, Jacob saw his brother, and his 400 men approaching.

By the way, by now Jacob was walking with a significant limp from a wrestling match he had with an angel of God the night before, that is a story for another time.

Needless to say, he was quite lame and scared for his life.

He put his wives and children behind him and approached Esau by himself.

As he approached, every few feet he would bow with his face low to the ground.

He did this seven times.

After the 7th time, Esau was overcome with deep emotion and ran to Jacob and embraced him, the 2 brothers embraced, wept and kissed one another.

There was, at last peace between them.

The story of Jacob and Esau is a vivid picture of what is taking place when the angel announced “peace on earth”.

You see the Nation of Israel and the world as a whole had made themselves enemies, as it were of God.

Their continual disobedience to the commands of God had brought about 400 years of silence, silence broken first by the announcement from an angel of God, but more important, by the cry of a little Baby, born in a manger and laying in an animals feeding trough.

Through the baby Jesus, the barrier of sin has been removed.

Now we can have a relationship and peace with God!

The peace on earth Jesus brings is foremost the peace that we can have with God through Christ.

This peace comes from faith in Jesus and the forgiveness that follows.

The Lord’s favor rests on those who receive the truth and forgiveness of Jesus.

As a result, they pass that truth along to others.

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Passing the Peace-We Become Peacemakers.

Because Jesus brought us peace with God, one of the greatest responses we can have to the amazing news is to become peace proclaimers in all our Christmas traditions, preparations, and celebrations.

The truth is, most families experience relational pressure and difficulties during this season.

Nearly every family gathering has at least one relative who requires extra grace.

If you don’t know which relative that is, it’s probably you!

For many families, Advent and Christmas actually bring more strife and conflict rather than less.

As the ones who have received peace with God through Jesus, we have a special opportunity to proclaim peace in our families in a similar way to how the angels proclaimed peace to us.

In Matthew 5:9, Jesus tells us, NEXT SLIDE

Matthew 5:9

This passage shows us that those who count themselves to be children of God join Him in the work of proclaiming His peace and making peace with others.