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Silent Night
Luke 2:12-14
If you are visiting with us today I want to thank you for honoring us
with your presence. Today we are finishing our look at hymns that
unfortunately we only sing at one season of the year. There are some of
you here who were raised as I was with the view that even though we do
not know the actual date of Christ’s Birth December 25th and Jesus go
hand and hand. Then there are some who were raised like my wife and love
Christmas in July.
Over the past few weeks we have looked at different hymns and today we
will look at a hymn that next to Jingle Bells this is probably the first
Christmas Song that you learned.
In the first verse we sing those beautiful phrase Heavenly peace. Now
while I believe that the most misunderstood word in the English Language
is the word love I believe that Peace comes in a close second. You see
we all long for peace but in man there is no peace. I believe that we
cannot have peace within because we don’t have peace with God.
We were created to worship our Creator, and when we reject our Creator
and go our way, then we also reject peace. Turn with me to our text
today and lets read from Luke 2:12-14
Epictetus, a philosopher of the first century, wrote in reference to
peace felt in Rome that Caesar boasted about - “While the emperor may
give peace from war on land and sea, he is unable to give peace from
passion, grief and envy. He cannot give peace of heart, for which man
yearns more than even for outward peace”.
I believe he has struck the heart of the problem. How do we today
reconcile this angel’s announcement of peace, with the turmoil that
exists in our lives, the strife and turmoil between governments, between
people, and in men’s own personal lives?
Well look back at how our text for this morning began. Verse 12 "And
this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and
lying in a manger."
God’s glory and man’s peace rests in that manger. The angels are saying
that through the birth of Christ, true peace will come to the earth. His
coming means peace with God, and peace given by God through Christ. It
is the work of Christ to bring peace into all human relations - in man’s
relation to God, to himself (his own feelings, desires, etc), to his
life’s circumstances (calamities and trials), and to his fellow-men.
This is not the type of peace that is written on a Christmas card, “may
you have peace in this season”.
It is an announcement that true and lasting peace will come on earth to
the hearts of those who are redeemed in Christ...who through faith
become the sons of God. For those who remain outside of Him, the earth
and their own lives remain in a state of disorder and strife.
Now some of your bibles say this peace is offered to those “peace among
those with whom God is pleased”, and some of your bibles say “and on
earth peace, goodwill toward men!" but if I were translating this
passage from the Greek I would say, “on earth peace, among men who are
the objects of His pleasure”.
I tend to like that translation because it lines up best with Biblical
doctrine. You see the object of my pleasure is the one or the thing that
gives me pleasure to serve. If you love someone with an unselfish love,
they are the object of your pleasure.
I love my Trista. It gives me great pleasure to do for her; to provide
for her; to protect her. Nothing angers me deeper or faster, than when I
learn that someone has disparaged her character, treated her wrongly,
accused her wrongly. I am quick to jump to the defense of her honor and
her person. That quickness to defend and protect comes entirely from the
source of my love for her. It is not at all dependent on how I feel
about her at the moment.
We may have just had a disagreement. We may be like some of you who have
fought all the way to the building because some one was late, or forgot
to put the roast in the oven, and for the moment I am irritated with
her. Yet in that very moment if I saw her in sudden danger, or if
someone was saying or doing something to hurt her or insult her, my love
for her would issue in acts of defense.
When a person loves another person, that love is expressed in noble acts
of servitude and sacrifice. Love takes pleasure in that service, and
even in that sacrifice.
If I can understand that in my own life then we must also understand
that with God. It is God’s love for us as His creation that is expressed
in His pleasure to pour out blessings upon us. We in no way deserve it,
but His pleasure is not in our worthiness, but the fulfilling of His
desire toward us.
Let’s look very quickly today how God shows us His pleasure
First, it pleased the Father to send His Son.
John records in John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish,
but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to
judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.”
The 53rd chapter of Isaiah describes the suffering of the Messiah. His
piercing paid for our transgressions. His crushing was for our
iniquities. His scourging was for our healing, and His divine shoulders
bore the weight of our chastening.
Then in verse 10 the prophet says;
“But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He
would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He
will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in
His hand”.
This is a hard passage for some of us to get our minds around. But His
pleasure in us is the very reason that it pleased the Lord to crush Him.
His mercy toward us, His justice against sin, and His grace which,
flowing out from His love, says, “I love you enough to make the greatest
sacrifice of all for your sakes”
Paul says in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Secondly, it pleased Christ to take our sins upon Him.
The Hebrew writes says in Hebrews 12:2 “...who for the joy set before
Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God.”
Was it the cross that was the joy that was set before Him? NO! The joy
set before Him was the prospect of bringing many sons to glory through
the sufferings of that cross.
Speaking of both the Father’s and the Son’s parts in our salvation, the
Hebrew writes says two verses earlier in verse 10: “For it was fitting
for Him (the Father), for Whom are all things, and through Whom are all
things, in bringing many sons to glory, to PERFECT THE AUTHOR (JESUS) OF
THEIR SALVATION THROUGH SUFFERINGS.”
The King of glory, for His great and pure love, left His throne, lay
aside His crown, and became an infant in a feeding trough. From that
moment on He began to bear the sin of the world. Here was perfect,
divine sinlessness, walking through a sin darkened world, surrounded by
sin-enslaved men, seeing the manifestation and the effects of sin around
Him daily. If we could understand how vile sin is to God, we may get a
clue of the trial He endured every day of His earthly life.
In addition to its presence, He constantly felt its onslaught. In sin,
men called Him a liar, a deceiver, a devil, a glutton, a drunkard; they
called Him illegitimate, demented,...and then they finally subjected Him
to all the physical tortures that we reiterate so often when talking
about the day of His arrest, trials and crucifixion.
He knew what was coming, being the eternal, omniscient God, from
eternity past. Yet it was His joy and His pleasure to make that
sacrifice for us, the objects of His love, therefore the objects of His
pleasure.
Paul writes in Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, WE
HAVE PEACE WITH GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST”.
Not by any merit of our own, but entirely by God’s grace;
Not by any effort of our own, but in spite of our sinful efforts;
Not by any desire of ours, but according to His pleasure;
God sent His Son, and in so doing and through the completed life and
death and resurrection of Christ, made peace, Heavenly peace with us.
Through the sending of His Son God made peace with us, even as we were
at war against Him. He loved us so much even when we were helpless,
sinful, enemies that divine grace flowed out of the unfathomable
reservoir of His love and provided for our salvation.
We talk about that a lot but I have to ask you today if you understand
that, even in your mind, if not your heart, then how can you take for
granted that love by continuing in conscious sin?
How can you spit in the face of that kind of love by continuing to
follow your own will and not His?
How can you continue to trample under foot the Son of God, by living as
though you don’t believe He can fully forgive you, or make you new, or
lead you in paths of righteousness?
Church the gospel is not something which we add to our lives, it is
something which should entirely dominate them. The Christian life is not
merely a adjustment of the natural life, it is a new life, and
Christians do not merely add something to their lives, they are people
who have been changed at the center, they are entirely different.
God has made the way for you to have peace with Him, through the One He
sent to save you. That’s what Paul was talking about in Romans 5.
God made the way for you to enjoy the peace of God in your daily walk,
as you walk in obedience to the One Who sacrificed all for you...and did
so with pleasure.
On that holy night in Bethlehem, God gave us peace with Himself, and
through Him, peace with each other and ourselves. Peace with God...the
peace of God.
Having peace WITH God is so simple that many miss it. The work has been
done and it comes all from God. It comes simply by faith in the shed
blood of Christ and His resurrection. That is what Paul called
Justification. You know what it means to be Justified don’t you. It is
Just as If I’d Done It Right To Start With. Church that’s peace with
God.
Of all the gifts you have at home under the tree, the greatest Christmas
Present you will ever receive is Heavenly Peace
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