Peace With Whom?

Amen. You may be seated. I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the 2nd chapter of the Gospel of Luke, and find your way to verse 14. Last week we began the season known as Advent.

This is a time in the church year wherein we make preparations for the celebration of Christmas, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the babe in the manger. Advent means coming. So this is our celebration of the first coming of Christ, and it reminds us also to look forward to His second coming.

Four weeks leading up to Christmas are marked by four virtues, which I mentioned earlier in our service. These virtues are hope, peace, love, and joy. And today we are examining the virtue of peace. The question of the message, the title which is in question form, is peace with whom?

Peace is a paradoxical subject in the Bible. A paradox is something that comes when two ideas appear to contradict one another, but upon further examination you find that there really is no contradiction.

The Trinity is paradoxical. It seems to contradict itself at first glance. In fact, many religions who don't believe in the Trinity say, oh, it's a contradiction, but it's not. It's simply paradoxical because we know that when someone first examines the Trinity, we understand that we're saying God is one, but we're also saying that God is three.

But yet, when we look further, we understand that we're saying God is one in essence, or being, or nature, and that He's three in person, and that these three persons are eternal, and that these three persons relate to one another and have a relationship with one another, but they share the same essence, that which is God is one.

So this is a paradox, but yet it's a truthful thing, so it's not a contradiction. I say peace is paradoxical because of the various ways that Scripture puts forth the idea of peace. The Bible says that the Christian has peace which passes all understanding, and yet the same writer, the Apostle Paul, says that we must enter into the kingdom by many tribulations.

That's somewhat paradoxical. We have peace that passes understanding, and yet we have a life of tribulation. The Bible says Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and yet He Himself said by His own mouth, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Many a skeptic has pointed at these things, and looked at them as seemingly irreconcilable differences, and claimed, see here, the Bible can't get it right. It constantly contradicts itself. However, when we dig into these texts, when we dig into the truth of the Bible, we find that there is no contradiction at all.

This morning, that is our goal. Our goal is to examine the subject of peace, look at the announcement of peace which came with the birth of Jesus Christ to the shepherds there in Bethlehem, and ask ourselves, what is the peace that Christ brought, and with whom, and to whom is this peace meant?

So let's stand together and read. We're going to read but one verse, but we do stand to give God's Word its due reverence in our hearts and minds to know that this is the Word of God, and just as we would stand as a dignitary enters a room, or just as we would stand for any person of import, we will certainly stand for the Word of God, for this is His Word as He speaks to us today.

Verse 14 in chapter 2 says, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased. Father in heaven, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for Your truth. I pray that now that You would keep me from error as I seek to preach the truth.

I pray that Your Spirit would fill me, that He would speak through me, and Lord God that there be no error, for God, I know that I'm fallible and able to preach error, so keep me from it, O God. I pray also, Lord, for every person who's going to hear my voice.

I pray, O God, that You would open their hearts and minds to the truth. Lord, if there be unbelievers here, which I'm sure there always are, I pray that You would grant them the gift of regeneration, that they might have peace with You.

And for the believers that are here, I pray that You would grant them self-reflection and introspection, that if they are doing anything in their lives or living in such a way where they have not destroyed the peace that they have with You, God, but they are interrupting their fellowship with You, Father, I pray that You would give them repentance, and that this would be a day of renewal for us all.

In Christ's name we pray, Amen. When I use the word peace, what's the first thing to come into your mind? For some, if I say the word peace, it's an automatic reminder of a special place from their past, maybe a place where they felt safe or protected.

People talk about the peace of home or going home, and where they have peace is in their home. For others, if I say the word peace, it might remind you of a movement. Maybe you were a part of a movement that had a special little symbol and two extended fingers, and you were all about peace.

For others, the word peace conjures up thoughts of the opposite. That if you mention peace, the first thing they think of is war. We think about the wars which have ravaged the Middle East for so long.

We know that millions of prayers have gone up for peace for that land alone, and yet the people still live in turmoil, and the people cry out for peace. They say the greeting from one Jew to another in Israel is what?

Shalom, the idea that God would bring us peace because we have lived in turmoil. My point in this is simply to say that the word peace brings with it a lot of sociological baggage. We live in a nation that has experienced relative peace.

You realize you live in a nation that in your lifetime has never been occupied by a foreign military force? In fact, from its inception has never been successfully occupied by a foreign military force.

Though many of us have lived through wars, the wars are always something that happened where? Somewhere else. It's the war in Vietnam, or it's the war in Korea, or it's the war in Germany. The war was always going on elsewhere.

So as people, especially people of my generation, we've lived with relative peace unless you're a man who went off to war. You know very little about the subject except for maybe what you've seen in film or in documentaries.

We know very little of what it's like to live in places like Israel where if a teacher wants to take more than a certain number of kids out of the school for some type of a trip, if she wants to take them somewhere in Israel, she has to carry a rifle with her.

That's part of the rules. And I have a friend who lives in Israel, and he very much affirmed this, confirmed that if, I think it was 20 students, if 20 students are taken out of the school for anything, I don't know why that's the magic number, but it seems to be, she has to be armed.

Compared to people who live in other lands, most of us, as I've said, have lived in relative peace, and it can be difficult to fully understand the desire for peace, the longing for peace, the value of peace, if we've never been fully acquainted with the terrors of war.

Well, in the first century, the nation of Israel was occupied by a foreign government. There was a war going on, but it was a war of occupation. The Romans had come in, and they had overtaken the land.

There was not a sense of peace among the people, because there was always this looming shadow of Rome. Think about how much the people hated the tax collectors. Why did they hate the tax collectors? Because they were in league with Rome, they were in league with the oppressors, they were in league with the shadow, the government, that which was over them, which they hated.

There was a yearning among the people for peace. That's why there was such a longing for Messiah right there at that time in history. There was a looking forward to Messiah, because there was a belief that Messiah was going to come and obliterate that shadow, that He was going to come and break the back of that government, that He would come as a fighter, a warrior, a soldier, and that He would bring peace with a sword.

Yet, there was a war which was far more dire than any political struggle, which many of the people had not yet even considered. There was a war going in the heart of every man with his Creator. That was the war that God was concerned about.

You see, men in the first century, just like today, were living in perpetual enmity with their Creator. They needed reconciliation, not just one with the other. They needed reconciliation with God. So God sent a peacemaker, one who would be called the Prince of Peace, and He came not to bring sociological peace, He came not to bring political peace, He came not to break the back of the Romans, but to break the heart of sinners.

And that is the peace that matters most. And we read of His entrance into the world in Luke's Gospel. We go to chapter 2 of Luke's Gospel, and we find at the very beginning the entrance of Christ into the world.

And though I know you know this story well, I want to read just a few of these verses leading up to our verse for today, just to provide context. It's always important to text without a context as a pretext.

We need to know what the text is saying, so we look at the context. And even though, like I said, many of you know this story, it's the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. It says in verse 2, In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all went to be registered, each one to his own hometown. Now, stop right there. It's always my pleasure to point this out to people.

When I read this verse, the word decree is in this passage. Caesar decreed a registration at a very particular time in history. But he did so because a higher sovereign, an ultimate authority, had decreed from the foundation of the world that in the fullness of time He would send forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He would fulfill the law on our behalf, and that He would be born where?

In Bethlehem. See, Joseph and Mary were not from Bethlehem. Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth. And yet, to fulfill the prophecy, it's Micah chapter 5 and verse 2, that from Bethlehem would come the Messiah.

This decree went out from Caesar, but this decree was under the authority of Almighty God, who had decreed from the foundation of the world where His Son would be born. And as a result, the earthly parents of Jesus made the trek to Bethlehem.

We see here what's called compatibilism. And I don't want to chase a rabbit too far. But what we see is that God's will is being brought about, even in the will of men, even when they don't know that it's being brought about in their will.

Caesar didn't do this because God appeared to him in a dream and said, hey, you need to do this at this time. Caesar's doing what he wants to do. But God is in charge. God is sovereign over this, and He's ensuring that His will is being worked out, even in the will of men.

That's important for us to understand. It's important for us to understand that God is the one who's sovereign, not us. As R .C. Sproul said, you're free, but God is more free. And when your freedom runs into His freedom, you lose.

We need to understand God is the one who's going to bring about His will. And that's what we see happening here. God is bringing about His will. Did Caesar make a decree? Oh, yeah. The Scripture tells us.

But did God make a decree? Oh, yes. God's decree was that His Son would be born at this time, in this place, and in this way. So we go on to verse 4. It says,. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was born of the house and lineage of David.

Just stop very quick. Bethlehem means house of bread. That's just an interesting little side note. Jesus is the bread of life. He's born in the house of bread. I just always thought that was kind of neat.

Verse 5. To be registered with Mary, His betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room or no place for them in the inn.

It's amazing how little is said here. This is the most important event up until this point in the history of the world. And the only point I would say that maybe supersedes this point is the cross, which would come later.

This is the most important thing in the history of the world. This literally split time in half. Why is this 2015? Anno Domini. In the year of our Lord. Everything before Christ we call BC. Before Christ.

And we live now in the year of our Lord. This split time in half is the most important event in history. And it's four verses. Most important thing in history. Four verses. Tells us that He was born, and He was born, and He was put in a feeding trough.

What's interesting is how much stuff this doesn't say. It doesn't mention a lot. There's a lot of traditions that we have about Christmas. Every Christmas play you've ever seen has had a nasty old mean innkeeper, right?

There's no innkeeper here. Not in the story. Every time you've ever seen this story played out in a movie, she came on a donkey. There's no donkey in the story. There's a lot that's not here. But we've sort of superimposed this because of our imagination.

We don't know what's happening. There's so little said about such a monumentous event that it causes our imaginations to take over and sort of try to fill in the gaps. The one thing that I think that has been incorrectly interposed on this text is the sterility of the manger.

Often times you see the picture of the manger, and what do you see? Mary with a halo. Joseph with a halo. And Jesus with a halo. This scene is anything but sterile. Anyone who has ever participated in a birth knows that while it is a beautiful and powerful moment, it is also very chaotic and very painful.

And you all probably did it in a hospital. Maybe you had a home birth, I don't know. But you did something that required other people coming in and participating in a very sterile, clean place. They're in a barn, y 'all.

This is just a powerful thought for me because there's beautiful humility here. The God of the universe, the second person of the Trinity, He who formed the world in His own hand, comes to earth and is laid not in a crib adorned with jewels, but a trough that probably just hours, maybe minutes before, was used to feed the animals of the farm.

I love Philippians 2 .5. It says, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. That means while He was here in human form, He didn't take His position as God and rule over men, but He emptied Himself.

By taking the form of a servant, by being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient, even to the point of death on the cross. It's a beautiful thing.

The humility of Christ and coming in the way that He did. And that humility is extended out to who receives the announcement as well. Look at verse 8. And in that same region, there were shepherds in the field, keeping watch over their flocks 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. Now reformed theologians and reformed pastors are often accused of finding God's election in every verse of the Bible.

And sometimes that is an appropriate attack. Sometimes we can be overzealous in our attempts at finding certain things. But I would be remiss if I didn't say that what we see here is God's election on display because God is choosing to whom to show this miraculous event.

And He chooses these shepherds out in a field watching their flocks by night. He did not choose to give the announcement of Jesus' birth to the theologians. He did not choose to give the announcement of Jesus' birth to the men of renown or the men of social importance.

He did not choose to go to the bedroom of the king or to the throne room of the emperor and say my son has been born. No, He sent a host of angels to a bunch of common men. A bunch of normal, regular shepherds so that they, by His grace, would be the ones who go and worship His Son.

And I always liked the fact that they were afraid. I hear these guys on television, these charlatans who claim to have visions of Jesus and visions of the angels and visions of God, and they say, yeah, I was up there walking around on Hallelujah Boulevard eating ice cream with Jesus.

They are nuts. If you are in the presence of God, it is a fearful thing. Isaiah, the most righteous man of his day, put his hand over his mouth and said, woe is me, for I am undone. And these shepherds saw these angels and they were fearful.

And if you look at some of the descriptions of angels in the Old Testament, you know why they were fearful. Because they weren't nice, beautiful women with wings and halos. At least, I don't believe so, because the text describes them as very different, very powerful beings.

And they came with one message and we find it in verse 14, and this is where we are going to focus on as we are now done with the introduction and finally get to the text. They say, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased.

That song has two parts. The hymn has two parts. First, it's the hymn of praise to God. And the second, it is the announcement of peace to men. The first portion should not be overlooked. God's glory is our chief concern.

Isn't that what the Catechism says? That God's glory is our chief concern. It's our focus. It's the very reason why we exist to glorify God. So when we see the angels crying out, glory to God in the highest, we know that that's valuable and important and something we should not overlook.

That is the song we will sing in eternity. Glory to God in the highest. But the second portion does turn its attention to people. The angels pronounce a promise of peace that accompanies the coming of the Savior.

And I have to make a point here, and I don't know which Bible you're reading out of. I read out of the ESV and I preach out of the ESV. Some of you have New American Bibles. Some of you have New King James.

King James. Some of you maybe even have an NIV out there somewhere. So we have a few different kinds of Bibles. This will read differently in different translations. In fact, most of you are probably familiar mostly with the King James Translation.

The King James Translation says this, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. You guys are probably familiar with that. That's how a lot of the songs are written. When we hear this phrase, good will toward men, it's a very common phrase.

But in the ESV, you'll notice it reads differently. It says, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased. That's quite a difference. That is different. And now I don't have a lot of time to get into the subject of textual variation, but just know that it's not just a difference of interpretation.

There is a variant here between the older manuscripts and the later manuscripts. It is the addition of one letter, the Greek letter, the sigma, and it changes it from a genitive to a nominative. And it changes the meaning slightly.

That's an important thing to understand because that's why you will see a variation in how it reads. The difference is not just interpretive, it is underlying the interpretation. And regarding this variant, Bruce Metzger, a preeminent Greek scholar, says this, the meaning seems to be that at the birth of the Savior, God's peace rests on those whom He has chosen in accord with His good pleasure.

You see, the meaning is not one of universality. It is one of particularity. The peace of God has come to the earth, but this peace of God is not a universal peace. It is not a familial peace. It's not a political peace.

It's not a sociological peace. And it's not a generic peace. This peace is peace with God for those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who experience this peace. If this were a universal peace or general peace or generic peace, we could say it's failed.

Because the world doesn't have universal peace. It doesn't have sociological peace. It does not have general peace or generic peace anywhere. Where is the one place where there is true peace? In the heart of every person who truly trusts in Jesus Christ.

That's where peace is. And that's the peace that's promised. It has to be understood. And based on that, I want to make a few points about this peace. And if you look at your worship folder, you'll notice I've given you the outline of our application.

Because I want to make a few points of application on the type of peace that Christ brings. Number one, and this is the simplest thing, but we need to understand it. It's most important. Jesus Christ came to bring us peace with God.

That may seem simple, but that's the truth of truth for the Christians. We can have peace with God. We who were rebels, we who hated God, the Bible says, we who chose to rebel against Him and thought word and deed can now be made reconciled with Him.

That is the Gospel. How can a sinful man be made right with a holy God? Through Jesus Christ. That's the Gospel. The Gospel tells us how we who were born dead in our trespasses and sins can be made alive with Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul was driven by this truth. He was driven by the truth of the peace of God. In the first three chapters of Romans, he tells us about how man is dead in his sin. He tells us about how man doesn't seek after God and how this sin and this deadness has permeated every single man on the planet.

And yet, in chapter 4, he tells us that we can be justified through faith in Jesus Christ. In chapter 5, he tells us, therefore having been justified, we have what? Peace with God. Then later in Romans 5, 10 and 11, he says, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have received the reconciliation. Spend some time this week. Go home. Open up your concordances. Open up your computer.

Look at your concordance and find the word reconciliation. See how Paul uses it in Scripture. It's over and over and over. It's the ministry of reconciliation. Why does there need to be reconciliation?

Because there was war between us and God and Christ brought peace. Ephesians 2, 14 says, for He Himself is our peace. 2 Corinthians 5, 18 tells us all of this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That's what it's all about, folks. This is really what it's all about. Peace with God. Peace with God. But number two reminds us of something else. Peace with God often brings enmity with men. I don't want to spend a lot of time on this.

I actually preached recently on this subject, but I wanted to remind you again because if you have peace with God, it is a true and living and abiding peace with God, but it won't always bring you peace with other people.

Matthew 10, 34, I mentioned earlier, do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but what? A sword. According to Luke 12, He says if there will be divided father against son, and son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law, there's going to be divisions even in one house.

You ever seen a house divided over the Gospel? It's not peaceful. It's not peaceful. It's constant turmoil. And yet that person has peace with God. Peace with God brings enmity with men. It's a tough thing.

It's a difficult thing. That's part of the tribulation that God says we will live in. In this world you will have troubles, but take heart, I have what? Overcome the world. Number three. Men who pronounce false peace with God are a danger to the soul.

The Old Testament is replete with warnings to false prophets who lie about peace. Ezekiel 13 .10. This is in the middle of the sentence, so it's kind of going to sound funny, but I want you to hear what he's saying.

He says, Precisely because they, that being the false prophets, have misled my people saying peace when there is no peace. And because when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash.

What is he saying? They're out there living in sin. The prophets come along and say, Yes, you have peace. And they whitewash all of their sinfulness. They whitewash all the sinful things they're doing.

They simply cover it over. They put a nice veneer on it. And they say, Peace. All is well. God is happy with you. Everything's fine. But there's no peace. Jeremiah 6 .14. They have healed the wound of my people lightly saying, Peace.

Peace. But there is no peace. Know what he means when he says they've healed the wound lightly? It means they have not properly healed the wound. They've not properly covered the wound. They've simply put a little veneer over it and said, Peace.

Peace. But there is no peace. Let me tell you something. My friends, my beloved friends. The world is filled with preachers who will tell you you are fine and you are right with God even though you may be living in the most sinful of conditions.

And they are lying to you. There's a very popular, famous pastor. If I was to say his name, every one of you would know him. He was asked to speak to a group of businessmen. Not Christian businessmen.

It wasn't a Christian conference or anything like that. He was simply asked to be the motivational speaker at a businessman's conference. And so he goes and he tells a story. And as he's there, he's talking about his son.

And he said his son was so precious to him he would go into his room at night and he would simply listen to his son breathe and watch him sleep. And those of you who are parents know what he's talking about.

We've all had moments where we go into our children's rooms and we look at them and we're thankful for them and we're praying and asking God to bless them and we're watching them sleep and watching their little chest come up, watching it go down.

It's a great story. But this is what he says. This is how he applies that story to these businessmen, many of whom are unsaved. He says, that's the way God sees you. God sees you and He's happy with you.

God sees you and He's pleased with you. He looks at you and He says, that's my boy. Just the way you are. Peace, peace, when there is no peace. It's scary. But you see, that's what people crave today.

That's the type of preaching that fills the auditoriums. The preaching of peace when there is no peace. I will tell you this, there is no peace outside of Jesus Christ. And if you are living for yourself, if you're living for your sin, if you're living for your sinful pride and possessions and power, whatever else you're living for, you are living outside of peace.

The only true peace which comes through our Lord Jesus Christ. Finally and fourthly, true peace with God surpasses our comprehension. Philippians 4 .7 says, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I've had people tell me before, they've come to me concerned in their hearts. Pastor, I don't feel this peace. I see where Philippians 4 tells me I'm supposed to have peace, but I don't feel it. Here's my answer.

In case you ever come with that, you're going to get it too. Everybody gets the same answer. It's not a feeling. It's a position and a proclamation. Peace is not a feeling. It's not just a tranquil mind or a position of happiness of the mind.

It's reconciliation with your Creator. And that's why it goes outside of our comprehension. Because we've never had a peace with anyone else like we have with God. That confronted my heart this week. I thought about that.

I really put a lot of thought into this. Just thinking about the fact that we've never had a peace with anybody else like we have with God. Do you realize that the peace that you have with God cannot be undone?

Because you didn't set the terms, you didn't fulfill the terms, and you didn't meet the requirements. It was all done by Him, so it's all Him and not you. You are not the cause of peace. He is. Because of this, your peace abides forever.

You don't have that peace with anybody else. Even the closest relationships you have can be divided. I've seen it happen. I've seen friendships of 50 years divided over one bad decision. I've seen marriages of years and decades divided over one irreconcilable failure.

I've seen families torn apart by one foolish action. Peace between people is always at potential for destruction, but peace with God is the only peace that is absolutely unshakable. That's why we can't understand it.

Because our peace with everyone else and everything else is always dependent on us at some level. But our peace with God is irrevocable and immutable. Because of that, it does provide us a spiritual comfort.

I want to get back to where I said earlier it's not a feeling. It isn't a feeling, but it does provide a comfort when you understand it. And it does allow you to overcome life's struggles when you understand it.

I've seen parents lose children. I've seen children lose parents. I've seen spouses lose one another, and I've seen yet the grace of God's peace see them through it all. Just this last two weeks ago, I stood beside a friend, a man, a fellow pastor.

His wife went to a Bible conference. She was 43 years old and went to a Bible conference to sing songs and read Scripture and be with other ladies. She laid her head down on the pillow and never woke up.

And yet, by God's grace, that man preached his own wife's funeral. I don't know if I could speak. I don't know if I could breathe. And yet, God's peace gave that man everything he needed in the moment that he needed it.

When he had lost everything, Job said this, he said, naked I came into this world and naked I shall return. The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's a peace which passes understanding.

Later in that same book, Job would say this, Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. That's peace. It's the peace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you have that peace today? Do you have peace with God that's not a feeling but a position?

I pray that you do. And if you don't, I pray that God would give it to you today. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, I thank You for the peace which passes all understanding. I thank You for the peace that You gave my friend.

I thank You for the peace that You gave him to speak Your Gospel in the most painful moment of his life. I pray for that same peace. I pray for that same power and love for Your truth. And I pray for those here who have come today without peace with God that You would break their hearts.

Show them that there is peace in no one else. For there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in His name we pray. Amen.

Let's stand together and sing our song of reflection and prepare our hearts to receive God's table.