The Gift Of His Peace Series

OPEN: How many of you have ever heard of a singer named Travis Tritt?

Now he’s a famous Country singer, but before he made it big, Tritt spent years playing in small out-of-the-way bars and taverns. He said that (as you might expect) these were dangerous places. His fans were mostly drunks who had a hard time controlling their tempers. Thus… bar fights would break out, and even entertainers were in danger. How did he handle those risky crowds? (He wrote:)

“Just when [bar fights] started getting out of hand, when bikers were reaching for their pool cues and rednecks were heading for the gun rack, I'd start playing 'Silent Night.'

It could be the middle of July -- I didn't care. Sometimes they'd even start crying, standing there watching me sweat and play Christmas carols."

The singing of a few Christmas carols brought peace to a bunch of drunken men in a tavern. And you know, Christmas Carols can do that, because original Carol promised exactly that: “Peace to men.”

Luke 2:14 tells us the angels sang a carol nearly 2000 yrs ago. And that carol declared: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Peace To Men - that was the promise of that first carol.

And without God’s peace, the world can be a very violent place

About 27 years before Jesus was born Rome experienced something unique that history has called Pax Romana = the peace of Rome. Beginning with the reign of Augustine, Emperor of Rome and lasting till about 180 A.D. (a period of 200 years) Rome was at peace.

They had few internal conflicts and their nation rarely went to war.

Their Pax Romana offered something the world hadn’t known for centuries: a nation at peace from war.

But that peace (pax romana) was only yours if you were Roman. If you weren’t Roman, you could have peace with Rome… but it was often a peace enforced at the point of a sword. You did things their way, or there was no peace

And even for the Romans this Pax Romana was a time of violence and uncertainty. During this period MOST of the Emperors of Rome died by assassination.

· One of those emperors – Caligula - was an insane and cruel tyrant who engaged in various drunken parties and orgies.

· Then there was another Emperor named Nero who (some believe) burned Rome to the ground and then blamed the Christians for his deed, sending them to die in the Coliseum to amuse the crowds by their deaths.

· Then there was Titus – an emperor who had once been an infamous General. He was the commander of the Roman army who had the inhabitants of Jerusalem slaughtered and the city demolished in 70 A.D.

This was a time of great national security for Rome.

But it was also a time when people were filled with uncertainty and violence.

There was peace from war in Rome… but there was no real peace within the hearts of men.

So, when the angels sang that the Messiah had come, they were declaring that God was offering something Rome could not give. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

At the height of Rome’s Pax Romana, the angels of God declaring that a newborn baby was going to offer a new and different kind of peace. Something better than the world could offer.

During His earthly ministry Jesus told His followers He had come to offer us a peace that was different than what the world could give. Jesus said: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27

Jesus said He’d come to give us a peace world couldn’t give.

So – it’s worth asking - what kind of peace does this world offer?

Well, one of the most prominent gifts of peace this world offers is from the mouth of a bottle, or the filter of a cigarette, or the needle of a syringe, or a pill from a bottle.

The world offers to calm our fears through drugs.

In fact LEGAL drugs are so important to peoples’ peace of mind that these drugs make up multi-million dollar industries. And ILLEGAL drugs probably account for more than that. People buy these drugs by the truckload - because it’s in these drugs they find peace.

But these drugs are just short-term fixes, because when the booze/nicotine/ and the drugs quit covering their pain… the pain is still there

After the drugs are gone, peoples’ hearts are still troubled. And they are still afraid. And so they need more and more of the drugs to mask the pain.