Seeking Peace
Notes
Transcript
Mission and Vision
Today marks the second week of Advent
We are continuing our ADvent series on Seeking
Say seeking
WE see in the the narrative of Jesus’s birth, the people were seeking for something
They had been preparing and waiting and seeking
Last week we talked about how people of that day were seeking hope and how we are seeking hope now. The only place that Hope is ultimately found is in Christ Jesus!
Today we are Seeking Peace
Say Peace
In our context, peace has to do with freedom from conflict right
When we talk about things being peaceful we are meaning that there is calmness and tranquility.
That there is no arguements and no issues
I’m sure a lot of people are praying for a peaceful Holiday season
A season devoid of drama
A CHristmas where we don’t have to worry about people gettin upset at stupid things or starting pointless arguements
WE are praying for a peace!
This season is also a time when we hear Jesus being called the prince of peace.
Which is sort of an issue when you look at Jesus’ life and words
During Jesus’ ministry we didn’t see him avoiding conflict or even bringing global peace. We didn’t see him mediate between the religious and the prostitutes…
Jesus actually stirred up so much conflict, internal mostly, but there were those that were so challanged by what Jesus said that they murdered him
Even by his own words… Jesus didn’t come to bring the type of peace that we are used to
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.
The word in the Greek here is Eiraynay
Say eiraynay
This is the type of peace that we are used to . Tranquility
But if that’s the case… what were the Angels talking about in our text from today
Before we get into that.. we have to do a little history
Remember that our hope is found not in magic but in the real life person of Jesus Christ and how his birth fulfilled the prophecy of God through REAL LIFE people, the hebrews
First Century Palestine. Where Jesus was born was a cornicopia of cultures
The Jewish people were occupied by the Romans who brought Greek culture by way of Roman warfare. The people mostly spoke Hebrew or Aramaic as their subcultural language whereas greek was the language that was common in writing over the entire empire
So the writers of the New Testament took the eye witness account of hebrew people that spoke aramaic and put them into Greek words so that an entire empire could understand the truth of Jesus Christ
So we have hebrew culture being described by greek words
As in most translations, some things carry different weight in their original language
This is the case here
The hebrew word for peace is Shalom
Say shalom
Shalom is different then Eirene
Shalom, the hebrew word for peace is a more holistic word
The concept of shalom (the Hebrew word usually translated “peace” in the Bible) implies much more than mere absence of conflict. At root shalom means wholeness or well-being, and the word can be used in both religious and secular contexts. It is also used as a general greeting and as a farewell. In those cases, it seems to express good wishes for the people addressed and friendly intentions on the part of the speaker. The term comes to mean peace in the more conventional sense of the English word by extension; shalom implies absence of conflict due to an absence of those things that cause conflict
Shalom has to do with holeness
The concept of shalom (the Hebrew word usually translated “peace” in the Bible) implies much more than mere absence of conflict. At root shalom means wholeness or well-being, and the word can be used in both religious and secular contexts. It is also used as a general greeting and as a farewell. In those cases, it seems to express good wishes for the people addressed and friendly intentions on the part of the speaker. The term comes to mean peace in the more conventional sense of the English word by extension; shalom implies absence of conflict due to an absence of those things that cause conflict
Dewey, J. (2011). peace. In M. A. Powell (Ed.), The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated) (Third Edition, p. 763). New York: HarperCollins.
Dewey, J. (2011). peace. In M. A. Powell (Ed.), The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated) (Third Edition, p. 763). New York: HarperCollins.
The concept of Shalom is a lifestyle.
Shalom is living in tune with God the father in such a way that the inner life, the fleshly life of self disappears.
those things that cause striving. THose desires for control, the desire for stuff, the desire for power or to be right
Those things are consumed by the Holy fire of the God of all love who calls us into his Shalom
Who calls us to be whole and filled and set on the things that truly matter
What we see is that when the people of the world seek worldly peace… they miss Shalom
Because worldly peace leads to conflict. That’s what the ROman Peace was the Pax Romana was Peace by way of superior firepower
THey would subjugate by force any uprising and cause a lack of conflict because there were no more people to have conflict with
If someone stepped out of line they were killed
Seeking worldly peace looks like seeking to yell people into submission
seeking to punch people into submission
Looking to be the biggest and the baddest or the meanest so that no one messes with you.
Wanting to be the curator of peace by force
Seeking Worldly peace leads us to codepency
Leads us to be peace keepers and not peace makers
It leads us to try to please man in order to have peace… that is to avoid conflict
Seeking Worldly peace looks like
Not speaking up for those who are oppressed because you don’t want to ruffle feathers
Not prioritizing the Lord because you don’t want to inconvenience others
Not speaking to your Christian brothers and sisters about holiness because you don’t want them to not like you
Avoiding loving people because you know how they are and you just don’t want to get into it… whatever it is
We catagorize Jesus as a man of peace or devoid of conflict who never ruffled any feathers… But Jesus was a man of Shalom. And that Shalom that deeper God centered peace is what the world actually needs
What the angels are saying to the Hebrew shepherds is that the shalom of God is on earth in the form of Jesus Christ
And the misquoted phrase peace on earth is not true
The wording of scripture says peace on earth on whom his favor dwells
Who does the favor of God dwell on?
Those who call on the name of Jesus as Lord!
Us, believers, Christians should be people of Shalom
We should be the people who, by seeking peace in Jesus and only Jesus, are lead to a type of internal security that isn’t reliant on situational conflict
This is why Paul says in Philipians 4 that God will give us a peace that surpasses all understanding
That’s not saying that God will allow your life to be somehow conflict free, but in the midst of conflict you will reside in the shalom of God
That you will not seek and settle for conflict avoidance or resolution but you will be the type of person that lives in peace with the Lord and therefore doesn’t get caught up in the trivial conflicts of the world. T
That you will be seeking your peace in Christ and therefore not in people pleasing, not in other’s opinions of you, not in wealth or status, not in who you cut out of your life…
Your peace will surpass all understanding because it will be a shalom that brings wholeness and healing and becomes a way of life
In this the passage from
Jesus is actually challanging the roman understanding of peace
He is saying that he didn’t come to bring lack of conflict but to actually cause conflict all while truly being the prince of shalom
It is through calling people to deny themselves… to actually die to self that he is calling us to be at conflict with the things that fight for our allegence. The things that fight for our heart and to actually allow any relationship that wants priority over Jesus to die
The way that we seek for peace in this world will have to die when we find our shalom in Christ
This will mean that the lack of conflict will not rest on the entire world… in fact only on those who seek peace in the favor of God … that is in the presnece and power ofJesus Christ will find thier lives filled with the shalom that comes from the Spirit of God that resides in his people.
Time to Respond