Peace on Earth

As we celebrate Christmas, this once in a worldtime occasion, the day that God came to earth as a human, it is important that we remember more than just the events. The events are of course important, but events in themselves are just history. These events are more than just history, for these events changed the course of History. These events are the pivotal point in all history. Our science books have gone to great lengths in the last 20 years to try to rewrite the history that has been known for quite some time, but almost 2006 years ago, time was restarted. All time in the Western world led up to this point and we remembered it by calling it the time BC, Before Christ. But did you ever notice that the time after Christ’s birth isn’t AC, but it is AD, because AD stands for Anno Domini which in Latin is a shortened form for they year of our Lord. Because once Christ has come, every year is a year of our Lord. We cannot mark time as After Christ, because Christ is not done. He is still our Lord, and he is still active. And it began in a stable over 2000 years ago.

Put yourself in this scene. It is late at night, you and your friends may be warming yourselves by a fire, you may be lying down with a rock as a pillow as your sheep have all retired for the night in the fields around you. You have already taken a roll call and you are sure they are all safe.
Luke 2:9-20 [9] Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

Suddenly an Angel appears, and they were frightened, no terrified. The Glory of the Lord shone around them. The glory of the Lord, this is what filled the tent of meeting when Moses led the people on the exodus; this is what surrounded Moses when he was up on mount Sinai. This is what filled the cloud that led the people across the Red Sea. This was considered the presence of God, and now it is surrounding you, as a shepherd in this field. Terrified. Frightened. Awestruck. [10] But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see--I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: [11] to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. [12] This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger."

Do not be afraid, says the angel. Why not? Because I am bringing you good news of Great Joy …for who? For all the people. For the savior has been born.
God showed up to make an announcement. I am Here. The I Am has come to earth to bring great joy for everybody. And he has come as a child. Do not be afraid; be joyful and hopeful, for God is Here.

[13] And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
[14] "Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"
Suddenly this one angel turned into a crowd, a multitude of angels all praising God. This loud host proclaiming Glory to God, Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward humanity. You see this is the proclamation that comes with Jesus. This is what he has come to do, to glorify God, to bring Peace on Earth, to bring goodwill to humanity. Have we forgotten this? When we remember the little baby who grew up to be a man, have we forgotten this glory to God, this peace on earth, this goodwill toward men? What ever happened to that? You know, some have said that Christmas is just another day; there is nothing special about it really. But apparently, it was special enough for a host of angels to shout Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, goodwill for humanity. This was a pretty special day. But have we forgotten.

Did Jesus fail in His mission? Did he not do what he was supposed to do? Well we know he glorified his father in heaven, we can check that off the list, but what about this Peace on Earth and this goodwill toward men stuff. Did he bring Peace on Earth?

We have just survived the bloodiest century this planet has ever seen with more wars on a global level than ever before. We have invented more ways to hurt people than probably ever conceived in the days of Jesus. How can we say we have Peace?

God is often misunderstood. Remember when Jesus was walking into Jerusalem for the last time and his disciples asked him if he was going to restore the Kingdom of Israel at this time. They misunderstood his mission and thought he would lead a revolt. Remember when Jesus said that if they destroy this temple he will raise it up in three days referring to his body being the temple of the Holy Spirit. He was misunderstood, and so too has this proclamation been misunderstood, for Jesus did not come to set down as an authority over the whole world… at least not yet…One day, that will be a reality as the rest of the Bible declares, but he has still brought peace to this world. It is a peace that is available to everyone, yet not everyone finds it. It is a peace that everyone needs, for it is a peace in your soul.

Peace from the restlessness that comes from trusting in yourself. Peace from the anxiety of never being good enough. Peace from the distress of a world where things never go right. Peace from a battle that wages between what we should do and what we do do. Peace that passes all understanding. Peace given by Christ to those who know him. It is available to all, but it is only available through him. For he is the Prince of Peace. He is the one that can calm your soul and give peace to your Spirit. This is the Peace he has brought. One day, he will bring another, but this is the peace you can have today.

How do you get this peace? Well, let’s consider a case in point. Consider again those shepherds who were just moments ago terrified. They were not at peace. So what did they do?
[15] When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us."
They decided to see for themselves if it was true. You see they needed to. Because they knew they could never get peace without it. They had just had an encounter with God that had terrified them, and they had to verify that it was true. [16] So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.
They found things just as it had been told to them. You see, this is how you can get peace also. Seek to find Jesus. Search him out and see if it is true. He has peace waiting for you if you want it. And if you want it bad enough you will seek it, and you will find Jesus, ready to give you Peace for your weary soul.

Now if you have already had this peace. If you know the truth of peace on earth in your life because you have verified the truth of Jesus, what’s next for you? As we continue our case study we see, [17] When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; [18] and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.

Now it's time to tell people. Tell them what God has done; how he has been real in your life; how you have experienced him, just as the shepherds told of their experience. And people will be amazed at what God has done. And then [20] The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Then, glorify God. This is a day to glorify God for he has done excellent things. He has come to earth to give us peace, let us give him praise! Hallelujah, Thank you Jesus!

Still in Need of a Savior

Here we are, 2000 years past the humble beginnings of the man born God. 2000 years since the birth of the one we call Savior, the Christ, the Messiah. But what has changed in those 2000 years? How much is different since that night in the stable in Bethlehem? Can we say we are better people now than we were 2000 years ago? Or are we still in need of a Savior?

Well 2000 years is a lot of history to cover in one short night, so I will simply try to summarize and draw some comparisons. First off, 2000 years ago people were sinners. I say this because I have heard the report from John the Baptist calling people to repent of their sins. I say this because I know that the Jews had an annual Day of Atonement festival where the sins of the people where covered for another year. I say this because of the outrage against Jesus when he said to the paralytic your sins have been forgiven. They were ready to stone him for they said who can forgive sins but God alone. Indeed, it is only God who can forgive sins, because sin by definition is a moral lapse, a falling short. The question would be falling short of what, and the answer is falling short of the righteousness of God. You see, in a sense, sin is a failure to be perfect like God, therefore all sin is against God. So to sum it up, 2000 years ago people weren’t perfect. They needed a Savior.

But how about us. We are 2000 years on the receiving end of God’s Greatest gift. Have we as a people changed? Have we finally conquered that sin demon? Well, I feel that I can speak for everyone when I say that we are not perfect. Maybe some of us are better than others… or at least we think so, but seriously, we are all in the same boat. We still make mistakes. We still do not live as God would have us to. We still do not put others above ourselves, we still do not care for the hurting and the needy, we still do not love others as Christ loved the Church, we still do not love God above everything else in this world. We put a host of other things ahead of God. It may be our family, or our job, our hobbies, like hunting or fishing, or our sports; it may be our money or even simply put, it may be our rest that has more standing than God, for we put all these things ahead of him, and then if there is time, maybe we’ll squeeze him in there, just for good measure. You know, we are still in need of a savior.

Secondly 2000 years ago, people had a wrong conception of God. The Greeks and Romans had a multiplicity of Gods, including their own Emperors from time to time. Many smaller nations thought they could make a God out of wood, or metal, or stone and it could exert some type of influence on the surrounding culture. Some cultures including many native Americans believed that the earth itself was God, while the Israelites thought that God was a bean counter, counting up all the good versus all the bad. They thought they could work their way to heaven. They developed a whole class of people whose main function, whether intentional or not was to make the rest of the Jews feel like they would never be good enough to get to heaven. They were sure that they could live a life that was pleasing to God by setting up such stringent legalistic rules that yoked a nation into bondage. It was into all of these different views of God that Jesus came, because they needed a savior.

How about now, now that we have seen the God of love in action, dying on the cross. Have we understood God well enough that we can no longer say we need a savior? Consider the pluralism that has invaded this world such that many believe you may believe in whatever you like and it is fine. You can choose any road you want to get to God. If that was true, then all the roads they followed 2000 years ago would have worked. But they didn’t and they don’t. Jesus said, “no-one comes to father but through me.” He is the only road. Our world is still so lost on this point. Even the Church has come up with tons of different theologies and ideologies trying to devise a Christless way to God. Because we know that if we accept his way, we have to submit, and humility is not our strongest suit. In the 2000 years since Christ came the roads to God have not become fewer, but more, which means more and more people are missing the truth about God. We are still so much in need of a savior.

Although there are many points I could make on this topic, let me make just one more. 2000 years ago people didn’t realize that they could know God. God was something to know about, to fear, to honor and respect, but not to know. Perhaps a few people, like David, or Moses could know him, but most people could not. God was so distant, and that was okay. Most people were too afraid to know God. This might be because Biblically speaking everyone that God knew, he gave them something to do. He told Abraham to move, he told Moses to lead his people out, He told Gideon to fight, He told the prophets to speak and sometimes do ridiculous things. Yet it was clear that not everyone could know God, only those select few. Then Jesus came, God made man. God came to earth so that people could know him and touch him and talk and walk and eat with him. He came to earth to laugh and to cry with them, to heal and to bless them. Jesus came not so that he could know them, but so that they….so that we could know him. Remember, that was how it started in the garden, man and God having fellowship together. Once we messed it up, he kicked us out of the garden, but he didn’t cut off the fellowship, we did. And he came to restore it. Because they needed a savior.

So how are we doing on this project? Do we understand God better, do we know him. Surely some of us do, yet look at our world. Most of Europe and a growing number in America believe that we can never know God, because they believe there is no God! We have gone in the wrong direction! Countless other religions try to teach you how to tap into the God potential because “God is in you”. They make God to be nothing more than a part of the human spirit. They misunderstand that God is a person who wants you to know him, not simply a special part of your soul. He is the creator of the universe who created you to know him. He created you to so that you could know his love and love him back. He created you for the purpose of being in a love relationship with him. And yet we fail to know him. We think we cannot. We may be able to do some of the right things. We may be able to say the right prayers or go to the right services, or pay the right tithes but the best well get is “ I hope to see him in heaven someday.” I hope so. Jesus came so that you can know so. He came so that you can know him. And yes that may mean he asks you to do something. But the first thing he asks you to do is to love him. But listen, it’s not something that he hasn’t already done for you. He leads by example and he wants you to see how much he loves you. That is why he came down off his throne in heaven and took the form of a little baby. And the child grew, God grew as a man, experiencing all that we experience just to show you he could understand what we go through. He can say he has been there. And then to show you how much he loved you, he died in your place. He thinks you’re something to die for. You mean that much to him. That is his level of love for you. He wants you to know him. Because after 2000 years, we are still in need of a savior.

But listen to these words from Titus chapter 2

2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.

Thanks be to God, he has given us Jesus Christ the Lord. Oh that we may know the savior, God in flesh and trust him to truly save us from ourselves. Thank you Jesus.