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Christmas Eve, 2007, Luke 2:14
*The Peace of God Born in Bethlehem Luke 2:14*
When God finished his work of creation on the sixth day, the first book of the Bible says, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Gen 1:31).
Man was at peace with himself, and at peace with the world around him.
Man and woman were at peace with God and at peace with each other.
But that peace was short-lived.
The last book of the Bible records, “And there was war in heaven.
As the angles also had free will, Satan chose to appose God.
Satan determined to take the place of God, at least in his own eyes.
As a result there was a war in heaven.
In the end Satan and those angels, now called demons, were cast out of God’s presence.
They lost their place in heaven.
Then war came to the earth.
Think of it, war, brought right into the middle of Paradise.
Satan invited the first man and the first woman to join in that war by tempting them to join his side.
“You shall be like gods,” he told them, “if you eat of the forbidden fruit.”
Man listened.
He ate.
And at that moment, he went to war too.
That is man as he is now by birth.
He is at war with God.
He wants to dethrone God.
He will be his own god.
For this God cast humans out of Paradise and if man remain in his sin God has decreed that man should be cast out of God’s presence forever.
He will not give his honor and glory to anyone or anything else.
And the sin and rebellion of his creatures must be punished.
God is known not for His justice or His judgment.
He is known for His mercy, grace and love.
He is known because He offers peace.
He offers peace through the forgiveness of sin.
The angels on the fields of Bethlehem sing of peace.
They sing of peace at the birth of a new born baby.
Why, because it is he who is to bring peace to the world.
He will bring peace between God and man.
He will bring peace between heaven and earth.
He will repave the road to God and to eternal life that had been blown apart by man’s disobedience.
He will build the bridge that will span the abyss between heaven and hell.
Do you remember the titles that Isaiah gave to this Baby in the manger?
The last one was “Prince of Peace” (Is 9:6).
Prince of Peace!
And how did Peter sum up the Christian message to Cornelius and his household?
He spoke of “the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ” (Acts 10:36).
This is the mission of this Child: to make peace…
But just how can this little Baby accomplish such a task?
Not by negotiation or sitting around a table where each person must give a little and take a little.
This is an all-out war, and there can be peace only if the sin that caused the war in the first place is removed.
The Christ Child is the Second Adam, who is to make good what the First Adam made wrong.
And that is why he had to be just like us, that is, he had to be a true human being.
So he was “born of woman, born under the law” (Gal 4:4 ESV).
He was a flesh and blood child.
He could suffer and feel pain.
He could die and indeed would die for the sins of the whole world.
The prophet Isaiah speaks; “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities . . .
and with his stripes we are healed” (Is 53:5 ESV).
Jesus Christ came and took our place in the judgment of God, suffered our punishment, and so removed once and for all every remembrance of our rebellion from the sight of a holy God.
And this is what St. Paul meant when he said that Jesus made “peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col 1:20).
How, though, could one mere man put an end to the war that has shaken this earth for all the centuries?
He can do it because He is not mere man.
The angel tells us, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:11 KJV).
It is the /Word/ who was made flesh, the Word, who is God and by whom all things were made.
He is the immortal eternal all powerful God that became fully man, made of flesh and blood just like you and me.
Only the God-man can keep the Law in our place.
Only the God-man can bear the awful wrath and judgment of God for us.
Only the God-man can make peace.
That is why we do not stand when we enter the stable on this Christmas Eve.
We kneel.
We kneel before the crib of him who is our Lord, our Maker and our God.
And now there is peace.
“Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1).
God’s anger has been put away, and we, who have been led to believe the promise and to confess this Child as our Savior, we, too, are at peace with God.
No longer do we see God as a stern and harsh Judge, but rather as a kind and loving heavenly Father, whose hands are stretched out to receive penitent sinners into the joy of their Lord.
This is the peace that the world of our day needs to hear about and know about and rejoice about.
So much of what is happening in our world today is people shaking their fist at God.
Many are still in revolt, and they need to know that Bethlehem is God’s “cease-fire” order.
And our task, also in this congregation, is to plead with people to be reconciled to God through this Christ Child.
It is our privilege to approach them and to say, “Why will you die?
Accept God’s terms for peace.
He who lies seemingly helpless at his mother’s breast is truly your God, your Savior, and your Friend.
He came for you.
Turn to him and find peace with God.”
The angels do not only sing of a heavenly peace, they also proclaim peace on earth.
They proclaim that there is peace even in the midst of the on-going war.
They proclaim that we can have peace within ourselves, a peace that surpasses all understanding.
When a person believes in God’s offer of peace through Jesus Christ, there is peace of mind, peace in the heart.
There is the peace of sins forgiven.
Oh, yes, there are plenty of people on the road to hell who feel no sweat.
They are completely satisfied with themselves just the way they are.
Yet they will have a rude awakening when they stand before the judgment seat of God.
But in the minds of millions of people today there is a desperate search for peace.
They are not satisfied with their lives, but they don’t know what to do about it.
There is no sense of fulfillment, no real meaning for their lives.
They are like a person desperately looking for a cool cup of refreshing water, yet wander out into the desert to find an eternal spring.
We know where true meaning for human life is found.
It is found in a manger.
It is found in a cross.
It is found in an empty tomb.
Will we tell them?
Jesus Christ alone satisfies.
Jesus Christ brings peace!
Yes, we are sinners, but also through Jesus Christ we have been declared free from all sin by the blood of the cross.
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