Everlasting Peace on Earth

Joseph Mohr was a young Austrian priest in the mid to late 1800’s. One winter night he was walking on a snow laden path in the woods. It was unusually quiet. Napoleon’s war effort had taken a toll on much of Europe. As he was walking he looked over a knoll and saw a little town lit up in the distance. He was struck by how peaceful it appeared. For the first time in a long time he felt at peace with the world and it moved him to reflect on God’s everlasting peace on earth through His Son Jesus the Christ. if it were me, i might have pondered the cross. maybe because of the time of year, Mohr was inclined to reflect on the birth of Christ. As he reflected on that peaceful evening he wrote , ‘Silent Night, Holy Night, All is calm all is bright.”

Just as Joseph Mohr did over two hundred years ago, tonight I want to reflect on four insights of the birth of Christ and God’s plan for everlasting peace on earth. What does the birth of Jesus reveal about God’s plan to bring everlasting peace on earth?

The birth of Christ reveals that God’s plan for peace on earth is in His sovereign hands (Matthew 2:1-23).

The word sovereignty means that God is free and able to do whatever he wants whenever he wants. The Psalmist says,

Psalm 115:3 HCSB

Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases.

There are three ways God tells the world that he is sovereign with the birth of Jesus.

God is sovereign over the womb.

God is free and able to use the womb for His good purpose. The angel told Mary that she would conceive and bear a child. Mary asks, “How can this be? I am a virgin. I do not have a husband.” The angel says the Holy Spirit will come upon her and she will have a son. How? The psalmist says God is in control of every pregnancy.

Psalm 139:13–16 HCSB

For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.

God is able to take a barren womb like Sarah’s and give it life. He is also able to take a virgin and conceive a child. “What is impossible with man is possible with God” the angle tells Mary. Every child ever born is a work of God’s sovereign goodness. God chose to send His Son down to earth as a baby. God ensure th baby would b born and grow to be the promised Prince of Peace.

God is sovereign over ancestry (Matthew 1:2-14)

God is free and able to use anyone for his good pleasure. Matthew opens his gospel with a long list of genealogies. He is proving to the Jews that Jesus is of the line of David. He is the long awaited Messiah. You will notice in Jesus’s ancestry, there are all kinds of broken people. For starters, there is Ruth the Moabite. Moabites were Lot’s grandchildren and were often in conflict with Israel. Then there is Rehab the prostitute. She is the young lady who believed God was with Israel in the battle of Jericho. Then there is King David, a man after God’s own heart. A good man, however, very flawed. He commits adultery and then murders to hide that fact.

Jesus’ ancestral line is made up of all kinds of broken people from all walks of life; misfits to kings. How does a Moabite find herself in the family line of Israels Messiah? How is a Canaanite prostitute connected to one of Israel's greatest kings and in the genealogy of the Christ? Only a sovereign God who saves a prostitute from Jericho and gives her a son named Boaz, who marries Ruth the Moabite and has a son named Jesse, who bears a son named David who God called to be king of Israel, and promised him his family line will bring Jesus, the Messiah into the world.

Go is sovereign over the decisions of men.

God is free and able to intervene and use the thoughts, intentions and decision of men whenever he wants to do it. When Joseph was contemplating leaving Mary because he thought she had committed adultery, God sent an angel to set the record straight (Matthew 1:16-15). When Herod tried to have Jesus killed, God ensured the child would be safe until his hour would come (Matthew 2:1-18). God sent an angel to warn Joseph and Mary to leave fulfilling prophecy that the Messiah would come out of Nazareth (2:13-23). God is sovereign over the will of mankind.

Proverbs 21:1 HCSB

A king’s heart is like streams of water in the Lord’s hand: He directs it wherever He chooses.

The birth of Jesus reveals that God is in complete and absolute control of everything. Christmas is a time to remember how God is working all things toward everlasting peace on earth. There is no power on earth or in hell that can stop god from His mission of peace on earth.

The birth of Christ reveals that God’s plan for peace on earth is full of mercy (Matthew 1:21).

The angel told Joseph that “he will save his people from their sins.” Sin is lawlessness against God. Sin is rebellion against God’s moral standard. God revealed his moral standard to Moses in the form of Ten Commandments. Because of Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden, when they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil against God’s wishes. God curse the earth. Sin entered the world.

God’s word says that all of have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That is, all of Adam’s children are born with sinful natures.

Romans 5:12 HCSB

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned.

The death Paul is speaking of is both physical death and spiritual death. The bibles says it is appointed from man to die once (physical death) and then face God’s judgement (spiritual death). God’s judgment on sinners is not very pleasant. It is his condemnation for all eternity. We are not at peace with God. God’s condemnation of sinners for all eternity clues us in to two things: how bad our sin is, 2) how great the gift of his son really is to us.

The gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ. The child born on Christmas day would one day offer himself up on a cross t take your sin and give you his righteousness so that you can be at peace with God forever. If you will confess your sin, repent of it, and ask Jesus to come into your heart, he will forgive your sin and give you new life, and a peace that surpasses all understanding.

“The birth of Christ is about celebrating the mercy of God. God knew you could not come to Him, so he came to you. He knew if He had not intervened, you would perish forever. He poured out his mercy on you by providing a way, sending his best-loved Son into the world. This is the greatest gift you can receive for Christmas. It is free for you to take tonight.

The birth of Christ reveals that God’s plan for peace on earth is full of humility (Luke 2:7; John 1:14-15)

They will call this child “Immanuel” which means “God with us.”

What did it mean for God to dwell with us?

The Almighty, Majestic, Sovereign God of all the universe subjected himself to live inside the womb of a teenage girl. He took on flesh becoming fully human. But he didn't do it n a flash or a laboratory like you would see in the Marvel Universe. He started at conception. He then grew into a 6-8-pound baby. When Mary's water broke, He made his way through a birth canal, and he chose to do it in antiquity. There was no St. John’s Children’s Hospital. There were no doctors or nurses or heart monitors or NIC Units. There were donkeys and cattle and lots of hay. The stable was not sanitary. He was wrapped in dirty cloth not sterile warm blankets. His first bed was a feeding trough. The Almighty, Majestic, Sovereign God came down to earth not in pompous and pageantry like we would expect from our president or the Queen of England. He came as a peasant of sorts, humble, vulnerable, dependent, and weak. He came as a human baby so he could completely sympathize with our weaknesses (Hebrews 2:14-17).

2 Corinthians 8:9 HCSB

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though He was rich, for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.

The birth of Jesus is about recognizing the humility God took upon himself in order to ensure you can have everlasting peace.

The birth of Christ reveals that God’s plan for peace on earth is already/not yet (Luke 2:1-12; Revelation 21:3-4)

It does nto take long to realize we live in an already/not yet time. When Jesus was born, the angels sang “peace on earth to all whom God favors.” How can the entire world have peace? Jesus is you peace now. His life, death, resurrection, and ascension ensure you can have peace that surpasses all understanding today. Those whom God favors are those who by faith place their trust in Jesus for eternal life. If you have not done that then you are still at war with God. Surrender tonight and be at peace with your Creator.

However, The birth of Christ reveals to us that God always keeps his promises. He promised one day he would send his son into the world to die for sinners and redeem them as his people. Jesus birth and death are fulfillments of that promsie. God made another promsie. One day he will return to earth, not as a humble baby, but as a warrior king who will administer justice and bring everlasting peace earth. Satan and everyone who rejected God’s gift of salvation will perish in the lake of fire. He will rid the earth of wickedness and will make a new heavens and new earth for his people. He describes what it will be like when God and his children live at peace with him and each other forever.

Revelation 21:3–4 HCSB

Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away.

Joseph Mohr wrote six verses to Silent Night. The fifth verse sings,

Silent Night, Holy Night Mindful of mankind's plight The Lord in Heav'n on high decreed From earthly woes we would be freed Jesus, God's promise for peace. Jesus, God's promise for peace.

The birth of Jesus is about God revealing that one day the Prince of Peace will ensure an everlasting peace for everyone who loves him. Jesus is God’s promsie for peace.