Sermon Tone Analysis
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We’ve come this morning to the topic of peace.
Hope, Love, Joy, Peace.
Hope could be summed up as expectation.
We didn’t go there, but one of my favorite passages in the Christmas narrative is the story of Simeon.
Here was a righteous man, a devout man, a faithful man.
Day in, day out, in the temple, in Jerusalem, waiting, expecting, hoping.
He had a great deal of hope, too, because he was privileged with a revelation from the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he saw the Messiah.
He was waiting, waiting for the Messiah, waiting for the Christ, and waiting, it said, for the “consolation” of Israel.
Now, that is not a consolation as in a star, but rather consolation as in comfort.
And for good reason, as there was much unrest in Israel at the time.
There were wars and uprisings.
There was the takeover by the Roman government, and then the counter-insurgencies of the Jewish Zealots.
There was, perhaps, most notably at the time, the rule of Herod the Great.
We see a glimpse of his character in the Christmas narrative concerning the wise men.
When Herod gets wind of this newborn “king of the Jews,” he has every recently born boy in the region of Bethlehem killed.
Surely, there wasn’t a lot of “comfort” in Israel at the time.
And that idea of comfort is closely related to another major theme in the mind of an Israelite, and another major theme in the Bible, and our theme for this morning: Peace.
In Hebrew, it is “shalom.”
It is a greeting, a prayer, a hope to be well, to be complete, to be whole.
It is the opposite of chaos, disorder, calamity, unrest.
It is sort of an ode and a hearkening back to the original creation, where God said all was good, all dwelt in harmony with no bloodshed, death, or decay.
That peace, of course, affects as much inwardly as outward.
As much as lack of peace can be seen in the physical realm, in the political world, in the world before us, it is also within us.
We all know what it is to be at unrest.
At lack of peace.
Back to Simeon, he knew what it was to experience unrest - in all these ways.
But he was hoping, waiting, longing for the comfort of Israel.
And one day, he finally saw it.
That unique and glorious scene, when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus into the temple, and then this old man comes up to them, takes the child into his arms, and starts to sing!
Now, think of that!
If you had a newborn baby, and you brought them to a public place, and someone you didn’t know just randomly takes your child and starts singing - you may have a surge of emotions at that time.
But here Simeon has seen what his soul had been longing for, and it was wrapped up in the flesh of a little baby.
And what does he sing?
“Noe you are letting your servant depart in peace.”
In other words, I can die now - i can go now - my time here has come to a joyful end, because I have seen the Shalom, the peace that I have been wishing, hoping, and longing for all these years.
Peace. it is a great Christmas theme, a great advent theme, a great theme for life - because it is something that almost everyone desires in one way or another.
Everyone desires for their world, their lives, their minds, their relationships, their emotions to be at rest, to be well-ordered, not chaotic, not in fear, not in dread.
We do not yet know a world that is totally at peace, but what about inner peace?
What about the kind of peace that Simeon had? Surely, the world had not yet changed drastically at the birth of Jesus, but Simeon found his peace?
What about that kind of peace?
Can we have it, can we know it?
And what would it do if we did have it and know it?
We read about the shepherds and the announcement made to them, and then after the announcement that great angelic host cried out,
And of course, that great prophecy in Isaiah 9 that says
So what about this peace?
Well, today I want to look at peace in the sense that it is a reality that we can experience.
I want to look at it in the sense that it is brought to us immediately because of the work of Jesus Christ.
Once we have this peace, it will effect the rest of our lives.
It will effect our relationships, it will effect our world.
But we must first know that it is real, it is available, and it has come to us because of Jesus.
One of the major places we learn about this peace is in Romans 5.
As we read the first five verses, look at what else we might spot in this passage that has to do with our Advent themes also.
Did you see it there?
Peace, of course, is in the first verse.
But we also see Hope, love, and rejoicing.
All these great advent themes are not relegated to Christmas greetings or Christmas carols.
They are part of our belonging and present reality in Christ Jesus, by faith in Him, because of His work.
Hope, love, rejoicing, peace.
All by faith, all because of Christ.
Peace, along with all the other blessings of Advent, is a present reality because Christ was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
1. Peace with God - 1-2
Now, we have spoken of many kinds of peace already, inner peace, world peace, political peace, emotional peace.
But there is one peace that comes through faith in Jesus Christ that is foundational to all these things, and that is peace with God.
This statement by Paul is powerful, and it can be read in two ways.
Both are valid ways to understand it, and both are transformational if we really apply them to our thinking.
The first is just how it is put here.
“we have peace with God...”
That is, peace with God is a present possession.
That is, we who were once enemies, as paul says later in this passage, and in other places like Colossians 1, we have peace with God.
That is, no more hostility.
No more fear or repercussion.
No more enmity.
No more worry of our standing before the judge.
It is one thing to stand before the judge innocent, and hope that you are proven innocent in the trial.
It is another thing entirely to stand before the judge guilty, knowing that whatever sentencing you receive you deserve.
But then to be taken from that place, and pronounced free - pronounced innocent - pronounced clean, that is a wonderful thing.
And that is what Paul is declaring here.
we have peace with God.
The other way that this could be read or translated, is “let us be at peace with God.”
This is more experiential than it is abstract.
Knowing that we have peace with God, let us live that way.
Let us live before God and others as those who have a right standing, and a right relationship, before the God of all the universe.
This is peace, both in knowledge and experience, because of Christ.
Through Faith
Paul begins this chapter with a clause of causality.
Or in other words, a “because of this you have that” statement.
He says, “since you have been justified by faith, you have peace...”
This is where the rubber meets the road in our experience with Christs blessings.
They come down to us first and foremost by faith.
In the previous chapter, Paul speaks mostly of Abraham.
That is where his whole argument is coming from.
Specifically speaking of the promise to Abraham that he would have a son, and become the father of many nations, we read this.
Do you see that?
Abraham is our prime example and touchstone of “justified by faith.”
As Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness.
And we read that it was not for his benefit alone, but for ours also.
We also, who believe in the one who raised Jesus from the dead, receive the benefits of his saving work by faith, because he was delivered up for our sins, and raised for our justification.
It is by faith, by faith alone, that we are justified in the sight of God.
And it is by faith that we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now yes, faith without works is dead - a saving faith is a living faith.
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