The Peace of Christ

As we finish up our advent season, we want to look at the subject of peace from the perspective of the Scriptures.

Luke 2:8–14 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. 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!”

Luke 2:8–20 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. 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!” When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Luke 2:

Our passage this morning is almost synonomous with Christmas. I’m sure that most of us have either seen a Christmas play or a nativity scene with the angels announcing to the shepherds that the Savior of the the world would be born this day. Usually, we will focus in on the proclamation of the angels in verse 14 regarding peace on earth. And somehow from this narrative, we get this notion of universal peace which becomes very popular during this season. But is that what this passage is telling us, that Jesus came to bring about universal peace here on earth? If that is the case, either He has failed or his followers have failed to make that a reality. Just think about the world that we live in today. With the impeachment of our president and the upcoming elections in 2020, I can see some very difficult times ahead for our nation. I don’t think this will a peaceful time for our country, politically speaking. And as we look at the current state of affairs, it is a time of great unrest all over the world with what is happening in Hong Kong, the ongoing riots in Chile, and the rise of nationalism in Europe, and that’s just a very small sample of the political turbulence that has been building up these past few years. And as we look more carefully at the Scriptures, you can see very clearly that Jesus never promised us universal peace in fact he proclaimed exactly the opposite.

Matthew 10:34 ESV

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

It has been noted by many mental health experts that the psychological and emotional disorder of our time is anxiety. Millions of people are diagnosed with this every year and probably millions more suffer to one degree or another with unhealthy levels of fear and worry. Before coming to San Francisco, I would have never considered myself to be an anxious person. My wife will tell you that I took a very akuna matata approach to life while we were in San Diego, at least in comparison to life here, I felt like I had no worries for the rest of my life. And then

Matthew 24:7–8 ESV

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

matthew 2

And so given these statements by Christ, where did we get this idea that we can actually find this political peace on earth? Well it largely comes from a mistranslation of this passage in the King James Version of the Bible, which was considered the only authorized translation of the Bible for many, many years.

Luke 2:14 KJV 1900

Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, Good will toward men.

Without getting into the Greek and the science of textual criticism, this is considered to be the wrong translation by Biblical scholars across the board. And what we have today in versions like the ESV is a far more accurate rendering of the original Greek. And so instead of universal political peace and good will towards all mankind, we read that Jesus came to bring peace specifically to those whom God is pleased with. In other words, not everyone will be a recipient of this peace that Jesus came to bring because not everyone is pleasing in the sight of God. This is a hard thing to hear on Christmas but it is the spiritual reality. So if we want to experience this peace that surpasses all understanding, we have to answer some fundamental questions surrounding the Christian faith.

What is the peace that Jesus came to bring?

2. What prevents us from experiencing that peace?

3. How do we live in that peace?

The answer to the first question can be found in the scene right before the birth of Christ. Last week, we saw that that John the Baptist was born right around the same time as Jesus and there was also a great deal of anticipation around his birth because his father, Zechariah, prophesied that his baby would play a unique role as the forerunner of Jesus’ ministry. In , Zechariah looks at his son and says:

Luke 1:76–79 ESV

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Luke 1:

The peace that Jesus came to bring is peace with God that comes from our salvation from sin, darkness, and death. Unfortunately, when people are presented with this pathway to peace, they often tend to reject it. To the average person dealing with the everyday worries like money, family, or career, the type of peace that Jesus seems to be offering doesn’t seem relevant. Who has time to think about things like sin, death, and darkness when you have bills to pay and deadlines to meet. But the fact of the matter is you cannot personal peace until you have worked out your peace with God.

The peace that Jesus came to bring is peace with God that is born out of our salvation from sin, darkness, and death. Unfortunately, when people are presented with this pathway to peace, they often tend to reject it. To the average person dealing with the everyday worries like money, family, or career, the type of peace that Jesus seems to be offering doesn’t seem relevant. Who has time to think about things like sin, death, and darkness when you have bills to pay and deadlines to meet. But the fact of the matter is you cannot have personal peace until you have worked out your peace with God.

It has been noted by many mental health experts that the psychological and emotional disorder of our time is anxiety. Millions of people are diagnosed with this every year and probably millions more suffer to one degree or another with unhealthy levels of fear and worry. Before coming to San Francisco, I would have never considered myself to be an anxious person. My wife will tell you that I took a very akuna matata approach to life while we were in San Diego, I felt like I had no worries for the rest of my life. And then I came here, started this church, surrounded myself with a bunch of overachievers, and about two years ago, I had a severe panic attack that led me to the emergency room. It felt like years of repressing all my fears and anxieties came exploding out and I realized that there was something wrong not only emotionally but spiritually.

I began to do some research on anxiety disorders and I realized that I had been dealing with the classic manifestations of anxiety beginning with:

Constant intrusive thoughts - What if I fail in life? What if people don’t approve of me? What if I don’t have enough money? What if I damage my children? These are some of the nagging thoughts that I couldn’t get out of my mind. There are countless unwanted thoughts that plaque the minds of those who are struggling with anxiety. Should I walk out on my marriage? Will I always be alone and lonely? What is the point of living?

From there, you begin to develop physical symptoms that are largely psychosomatic, meaning that the physical pain you are feeling is coming from what is going on in your mind. Symptoms like headaches, tightness in the chest, insomnia, rapid changes in your heart rate, unknown muscle aches, and digestions problems are all linked to a mind that is never at rest.

Finally, you develop behavioral patterns to cope with your hidden anxiety. Addictions, compulsive rituals, perfectionism, and even issues with anger are simply unhealthy behavioral mechanisms that give us the illusion of control but clearly don’t provide the peace that we are all looking for.

The peace that Jesus came to bring is peace with God that is born out of our salvation from sin, darkness, and death. Unfortunately, when people are presented with this pathway to peace, they often tend to reject it. To the average person dealing with the everyday worries like money, family, or career, the type of peace that Jesus seems to be offering doesn’t seem relevant. Who has time to think about things like sin, death, and darkness when you have bills to pay and deadlines to meet. But the fact of the matter is you cannot have personal peace until you have worked out your peace with God.

The reason why our worries don’t seem to disappear is the fact every one of our anxieties are built upon three fundamental anxieties that we may not even be aware of. You can see them as the root cause of all our fears:

1. The anxiety of death. Death is the permanent horizon within which all of us have to operate. It is the one variable in life that does not change. Whether you are educated or uneducated, poor or rich, black or white, death is what defines our common human experience. There are many ways that we try to deal with our fear of death. We ignore it, we glamorize it, or for many Christians we try to defy it. Seldom do we accept it and live our lives in accordance with it. True peace comes as you learn to accept death as a part of life. Many Christians bypass this human experience by mistaking immortality with resurrection. We are not immortal because we will all face the first death. But for those of us who have put our faith in Christ, the sting of death is gone!

2. The anxiety of meaninglessness. The question of purpose is one that is often asked. This anxiety comes out as we become frustrated about losing passion and energy for the purposes that we once affirmed. When that happens, we are driven from one object to devotion to another and again to another, because the meaning of each of them vanishes. The peace of God comes as you overcome these ambiguous feelings by taking hold of God’s purpose for our lives. Without the vision of God, people throw off restraint. Peace often comes as you are able to find meaning even in what seems like the meaningless things of life especially the suffering that all of us experience.

2. The anxiety of meaninglessness. What if my life doesn’t matter?

3. The anxiety of guilt. We devise many ways to skirt the issue of the moral law and the guilt that we feel as we fail to live it out. In places like San Francisco, we simply try to devise a different system of morality in an attempt to bypass these anxious feelings. But it’s really too no avail. In days past, it was believed that human morality was governed by natural law. If you kill someone, if you lie, if you steal, these are wrong not simply because the Bible says so but it’s woven into the very fabric of our existence just like the law of gravity. Just because someone says that right and wrong, good and evil don’t exist doesn’t mean it’s true. And the consequence of unforgiven sin will bear out in your life eventually most likely in the form of anxiety. We all wrestle with the problem of whether we are good enough before a holy and just God. And deep inside, we all know that the answer is a definitive no. Peace in the deepest parts of our souls can only be found in the personal, total, and immediate certainty of divine forgiveness which arises from tender mercy of God.

Psalm 103:12 ESV

as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Now I assume that most of us know that God is the answer to these three fundamental anxieties of life. The gospel of Jesus Christ tell us that through faith in His death and resurrection, we have the forgiveness of sin, the promise of eternal life, and the present power to live for the purposes of God. But why is it so hard for us to accept this and what’s keeping us from experiencing this peace with God? I believe one of the main reasons is that we are not honest about our hidden hostility towards God.

Most people I ask will usually deny their enmity against God but their actions speak much louder than their words. The natural inclination of the human heart is to be in opposition to God. This is why we don’t naturally want to spend time in prayer, we don’t naturally want to obey what we read in the Scriptures, we don’t always delight in serving God, and even coming together to worship can feel like a burden. In , we read how our hostility towards God manifests itself in our day to day.

Romans 8:6–8 ESV

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Isaiah 59:2–3 ESV

but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.

Isaiah 59:2 ESV

but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Romans 6:

We generally don’t question the things that we think the most about, the thoughts that occupy our mind. We assume that this has little effect on our lives but what we read here completely contradicts that. What we think about means everything. Either we can set our minds on the Spirit or we can set on our minds on things that our flesh desires. And its so easy to slip into spending all of our waking hours thinking about the things we need to live in the flesh. We need money, power, sex, recognition, success, control, pleasure. When our minds become fixed on these things, we will eventually find ourselves living in opposition to God and the tell tale sign of that hostility will be a lack of peace in your life.

Let’s remember what the angels proclaimed in the second part of verse 14, peace on earth is given to those whom God is pleased with and you cannot please God as long as the primary motivation of your life is to fulfill your own selfish desires apart from a relationship with God. Tim Keller tells us that the fundamental problem in our relationship with God isn’t ignorance so that can be fixed by more information, it’s not indifference which can be fixed by more motivation. The fundamental problem that the Scriptures point out over and over again is our hostility towards God, which can only be solved by reconciliation. You need to reconcile your relationship with God and more than being just a one time event, reconciling your relationship with God has to be your life’s passion.

Let’s remember what the angels proclaimed in the second part of verse 14, peace on earth is given to those whom God is pleased with.

This leads us to the question of how do we now live in the peace that comes through this reconciled relationship with God. Two steps: reject thoughts that are not good and replace them with with what is good. As a short exercise, if you want to know what your mind is set on, find a moment when you don’t have anything to think about, and see where your mind naturally drifts. Is it filled with anxious thoughts or does the Spirit begin to guide you into thoughts of God’s love and provision and grace?

Categories of Peace destroying thoughts

1. Sinful thoughts like lust, anger, bitterness, jealousy.

As a short exercise, if you want to know what your mind is set on, find a moment when you don’t have anything to think about, and see where your mind naturally drifts. Is it filled with anxious thoughts or does the Spirit begin to guide you into thoughts of God’s love and provision and grace.

2. Self-limiting thoughts rooted in deep feelings of rejection, lack of worth, or lack of love.

3. Rebellious thoughts that disregard the clear guidance and instructions from the Lord.

4. Obsessive thoughts that do not allow room for God to enter into your mind.

5. Erroneous thoughts that don’t take into account all the facts or the truth especially in our thinking of God.

Essential Beliefs that guard your peace

God is sovereign and in control of every situation.

God will provide for all your needs.

God has a purpose for every event in your life.

God is for you and not against you.

God has a plan to bless you.

The main way, perhaps the only way to replace our anxiety filled thoughts with those thoughts that bring the peace of God is through prayer. This is what we read in .

Philippians 4:6–8 ESV

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

It’s ironic that we have taken Christmas which was meant to bring peace and we’ve turned it into this stress filled, anxiety producing commercialized holiday. In the midst of our celebrations, I pray that we will all find some time away from the busyness of the season in order to seek the peace of God that surpasses all understanding!