Finding PEACE In Our Struggles

REFLECTION / ADVENT READING: Isaiah 9:6

SERMON: Luke 2:8-21

BENEDICTION: 2 Thes 3:16

INTRODUCTION

“Shalom Y’all”

When Ashlie and I were in Israel a few years ago, there were quite a few gift shop opportunities. I couldn’t help but notice some t-shirts, mugs, cups, hats, etc. with the phrase SHALOM Y’ALL on it.

I’m sure in the moment I was pleased that a bit of "Southern Charm” had made it to the Holy Land. But the more I looked at it…the more I thought it was a little “light” in the way it treated that word. I don’t want to overspiritualize a descriptive word…or say that it was on the level of misusing the Lord’s name, but I was a bit put off nonetheless...

When the Bible talks about PEACE…it isn’t something cute or trite...

Lexham Theological Wordbook Peace

Peace denotes the wholeness, soundness, and well-being that characterizes God and that God created in the world. As peace was broken due to human sin, such well-being constitutes the hope for ultimate restoration by God.

Shalom is one of the most common expressions this…it’s a way to say “go in peace” or “be well”.

Shalom can be a result of the peace mentioned by the angels in our text…This beautiful, almost poetic passage of Scripture that we just read a few moments ago.

It’s the passage Linus would recite in A Charlie Brown Christmas when he tells Charlie Brown, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

TRANSITION

This is like God’s birth announcement to the world. And what a way to announce a long-awaited event that happened in such an unexpected way. Suddenly in the middle of a dark and ordinary night in the Bethlehem countryside, an angel appears in the sky and is then joined by a sky full of angels.

The New Living Translation calls them “the armies of heaven,” and it’s hard to imagine just how magnificent and bright and terrifying and glorious a sight this must have been.

The heavens open and another world comes into view!

That’s the sight…then the sound. A message from beyond…CELESTIAL HOSTS chanting GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST! AND ON EARTH PEACE AMONG THOSE WITH WHOM HE IS PLEASED!”

…On Earth. Earth, the shepherds knew too well...

The EARTH BELOW and the HEAVENS ABOVE blend into a majestic scene that will forever mark history - and right at the center of this landscape - SHEPHERDS.

Not the most important VIPs, not the rich and famous and powerful, not the high capacity or influencers, not kings, not queens, not movers not shakers - Shepherds.

Those completely ordinary, average-Joe, night shift–working animal tenders who are the unlikely, unexpected recipients of this message of peace, wholeness, and God’s favor.

It’s yet another scene in how God is perfectly flipping the script on what we humans would expect and plan and do if it were up to us to save the world.

But the whole experience certainly leaves us asking, “Why shepherds? Why these completely unexpecting and unassuming guys?”

Last year, we spent some considerable time looking at the shepherds…I won’t repeat that this morning (if you really want to NERD OUT over these shepherds, go grab that message online).

This morning, let me suggest an answer to that question, “Why shepherds?” - that they tie many biblical threads together.

1. Shepherds remind us that the patriarchs of Israel were shepherds and nomadic animal tenders, roaming ranchers of the ancient world. Abraham was the original recipient of God’s covenant that He would bless all nations of the world. And this promise was carried on through Abraham’s ancestors Isaac, Jacob, and beyond. David, Israel’s greatest king, was first a shepherd as well.

2. Shepherds were the everyman. They were nothing special. They had no entitlement. No pride or arrogance. No religious bloating. They fit right into this process of introducing God’s Messiah: a humble carpenter and a peasant girl as parents for the Son of God, a birth in a lowly stable surrounded by animals, rough and rugged shepherds out in the fields on the edge of the more refined civilization. They were examples of God (in his grace) raising and using the humble and turning the world as we know it on its head.

3. They point to Jesus future ministry and teaching! Sheep might have been lowly animals, but they were very special animals in Jewish culture. The Passover lamb was the sacrifice an ancient Jew would make during the most important holiday. Its blood was the atonement for a person’s sins, the cost that had to be paid to restore a person with God. And each time it was done, this sacrifice was a reminder of the original Passover and God’s rescue and exodus of His people from Egypt. (Also, Jesus would say of Himself, “I am the good shepherd…(who) lays down his life for the sheep.”

4. Jesus was entering our world to fulfill His identity as the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world. He was the ultimate sacrifice and payment for our sins.

- His death did away with the need for these sacrificial lambs.

- His resurrection made it possible for us to be fully restored in our relationship with God.

- His life made it possible to experience true peace, shalom in the Hebrew language and culture, the word and concept that encapsulate the completeness and wholeness of God’s original creation.

“Nice threads Pastor” (said no-one)…but what does that have to do with me finding peace in my struggles?

A lot actually. It reminds us that the peace that God gives is NOT based on class or position or occupation but on God’s purpose and design to bring good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

The shepherds teach us about our own intersection with God’s peace...

1. Peace comes in the midst of our storms.

In the middle of Israel’s dark night of Roman oppression and centuries of suffering and wondering, “Where is God?” In the middle of a world turned upside down for a young Jewish couple who have found themselves at the center of cosmic events—while at the same time trying to navigate the normal life realities of paying their dues by traveling by foot across the country to be counted by the government. And having to experience childbirth for the first time far from home without the support and care of the women and midwives who would have guided Mary through this painful process. And then being first-time parents, not only with the joys and wonder and fear and responsibility of having their first son, but God’s Son.

You new parents out there know what I mean? We think it’s hard becoming new parents now?

In all of these circumstances, in all of these struggles—this is where God showed up.

And this is where God continues to show up for us.

In our pain.

In our fears.

In our confusion.

In our grief.

In our loss.

In our uncertainty.

I don’t know every hardship you are facing today, or every wince of pain you are feeling. But God does. He is there, offering peace to calm your the troubled waters of your soul, heal your broken heart and make you whole. He will stand on the bow of the storm-tossed ship of your life and speak PEACE…and HIS PEACE defies your circumstances.

The angel that startled the Shepherds…struck fear into them said, FEAR NOT

Luke 2:10 ESV

10 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.

If you are in the midst of a storm this morning…you are in a perfect position to KNOW THE PEACE OF GOD!

The Shepherds would bring our attention to that in such a way, they might even think it’s a good second point to the sermon...

2. Peace defies our circumstances.

Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the overwhelming presence of God in the midst of it.

This is not a “get out of jail free” kind of peace…but a “sing while you’re in the jail” gift from the LORD and it was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger some 2000+ years ago.

I get it, in the face of what you are feeling right now and all you have gone through, God’s peace seems elusive...just doesn’t make sense—but it is REAL. And I could walk you around the room this morning from pew to pew; I could take you to the hospital beds that I’ve laid in at the Morris Cancer Clinic at Duke University…we could walk by a casket or two and we find iron-clad evidence that peace from GOD and peace with GOD IS A HEALING BALM. And it can guard your heart from continuing wounds. And it can protect your mind from the onslaught of anxiety.

The Apostle Paul lays it out for us so beautifully in Philippians 4 (TURN THERE).

Philippians 4:4–7 ESV

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

There is a power in prayer.

There is a transformation that grows from gratitude.

It’s not the power of getting what we want or convincing God to see things our way. We can try, and He will listen.

What I’m talking about, what Paul is pointing to here is this experience of peace as our perspective changes and finds an understanding that God is with us, no matter what. It’s an acknowledgment and acceptance that He’s got this, He can be trusted, He is enough.

God is enough!

Peace comes in the midst of our storms…because that how this works.

Peace defies our circumstances…because it is supernatural by design.

The shepherds invite to that cradle of discovery to find that...

3. Peace Is A Person

Hope has a name.

Peace has a name.

His name is Jesus…our precious LORD and Savior!

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

Long before His arrival, the prophet Isaiah calls him the PRINCE OF PEACE:

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.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer remind us...

This is about the birth of a child, not of the astonishing work of a strong man, not of the bold discovery of a wise man, not of the pious work of a saint. It really is beyond all our understanding: the birth of a child shall bring about the great change, shall bring to all mankind salvation and deliverance.

This child that is born, this Son that is given to us, brings the power and rule of His peace into our personal lives.

He is the bringer of peace between us and God, the sacrificial lamb, the giver of life.

He is the embodiment of shalom, wholeness, that we find in relationship with Him.

You can experience Shalom…but not without Peace WITH God. The word used by angels here was not Shalom, but “Eirene”. This has to do with warfare/conflict - a settling of the battle.

Lest we forget, before we come to the LORD Jesus Christ in repentance and submission, we are rebels at war with this Holy God!

The angels are pointing to the only HOPE of PEACE…Jesus!

Remember Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and the season is marked by expectation, waiting, anticipation, and longing. It’s not just an extension of Christmas.

This Jesus is the GOD who is come to be WITH US. He is inviting us…me AND YOU this season to...

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

What an offer of peace!

Take a moment…while I read that passage again. Let those words wash over you.

It’s week 2 of Advent.

Let me encourage you to look for the Prince of Peace, even when the winds blow and the storms swirl.

Let me encourage us all to come to Him and worship like the shepherds, even when we find ourselves in the darkness or the storms.

Let me remind us to come to Him. Because He is here. The Prince of Peace is with us.

Logos Digital Hymnal ’Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

Yes ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,

Just from sin and self to cease;

Just from Jesus simply taking

Life and rest, and joy and peace.

Logos Digital Hymnal It Is Well with My Soul

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like the sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

‘It is well with my soul.’

STRONG INVITATION TO HOPE & PEACE

- “RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE SEATED THIS MORNING”

LET’S PRAY

TRANSITION TO SINGING THEN COMMUNION

----BENEDICTION

May Jesus be your peace this week, guarding your soul with peace, filling your spirit with the wholeness of shalom, and ruling as the Prince of Peace in your heart.

2 Thessalonians 3:16 ESV

16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.