OPEN: I love to sing Christmas Carols, so this morning I want you to stand and sing 3 verses of “Silent Night” with me.
1. “Silent night, holy night! All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child. Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace
2. Silent night, holy night! Shepherds quake at the sight.
Glories stream from heaven afar; Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia,
Christ the Savior is born! Christ the Savior is born
3. Silent night, holy night! Son of God love's pure light.
Radiant beams from Thy holy face - with dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth, Jesus Lord, at Thy birth”
The first verse of that carol tells of the Christ Child sleeping in “heavenly peace”, but in our text this morning the angels were declaring that somebody else would be at peace: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth PEACE among those with whom he is pleased!" Luke 2:14
The message of the angelic chorus was – there was something about the birth of THIS baby that was going to bring us peace.
ILLUS: Have you ever heard of Travis Tritt? Most of you have. He is a famous Country & Western singer - but he hasn’t always been famous. Back before he was well-known he spent years playing in small out of the way places, and he spent a lot of time performing in bars. He said that the bars were dangerous. Lots of drunks starting lots of bar fights. But he found a unique way to keep the peace in such situations. He said “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…Sometimes they'd even start crying" ("Twang! The Ultimate Book of Country Music Quotations," compiled by Raymond Obstfeld and Sheila Burgener [New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1997], 47.)
There’s something about "Silent Night" (a song that tells about Jesus in the manger) that brings peace even to bikers, and rednecks and drunks. But when the angels declared there would be peace were they talking about Jesus stopping bar fights?
Well there IS something to that. Proverbs 16:7 “When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be AT PEACE with him.” So you could argue that singing about Jesus pleases the LORD and therefore - God rewarded Tritt for singing about Jesus in bars. I mean, you could argue that. But that would miss the point of what the angels were ACTUALLY saying.
Notice how their declaration begins: “Glory to God in the highest…” Now I have to admit I’ve heard that part of the angel chorus practically every year since I was a baby, but I’ve never given it a 2nd thought. It always seemed kind of like a “throw-a-way” line. Kind of like saying “In Jesus name Amen” at the end of a prayer – there are lots of folks say that at the end of their prayers without giving a thought to what it means. And that’s how this phrase the angels sang always struck me. But when the angels sang “Glory to God in the highest” that was NOT a throwaway line. Oh no. Instead it was the KEY to the whole message they are singing about.
You see, the peace the angels promised was NOT a promise that there’d be no more conflict or war. I mean - it’s pretty obvious that the birth of Christ didn’t bring an end to those things. In fact Jesus himself warned that there’d be wars and rumors of wars and that they’d go on and on until the end of the world. So the angels weren’t talking about the absence of wars and conflicts.
What they were talking about was a peace that only Jesus could bring. And the peace Jesus was born to give us was peace with God.
The Bible tells us that, because of our sin and our tendency to rebel against God “you… were once were alienated and enemies (of God) (NKJV) Col. 1:21
And Ephesians 2:1-3 declared “you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
In short, the root of our problem with God is our sin. And our sin made us objects of wrath and enemies of God.
Or another way of looking at this is that God is so pure and so holy that He cannot stand to be around sin.
Psalms 5:4 tells us “you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you”
And Habakkuk 1:13 declares of God “You are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong”
So literally, our sins had cut us off from God. And without God in our lives… we were without peace. One person put it this way:
NO GOD – NO PEACE.
KNOW GOD – KNOW PEACE.
But, when the angels declared to the shepherds (who were watching over their flocks by night) “Glory to God in the highest”, what they were saying was this: “God is on HIGH; He is PURE; He is HOLY; and He is soooo far above us. And yet this mighty and holy God wants to be close to us. He wants to give us peace. That's nice, but how’s He going to do that? How was God going to get past the sin that we had in our lives that had separated us from Him?
Well…it’s all about Jesus. It’s about the baby lying in the manger.
You see, the birth of Jesus was prophesied hundreds of years before, and one of those prophecies had declared: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, PRINCE OF PEACE. Isaiah 9:6
Jesus was born to be our Prince of Peace. He came to give us peace with God. In fact, at one point in Jesus’ ministry He says: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27
So how did Jesus give us peace? What did He do that would make remove the barrier between ourselves and God? Well, another prophecy from Isaiah tells us: “… he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement (punishment) that BROUGHT US PEACE and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5
He was wounded, crushed, punished… all to heal us of our sins and bring us peace. When did this all happen? It all happened at the cross!!! It was Jesus dying on the cross to pay the price of our sins that healed us and brought us peace with God.
One person described it like this (we showed two meme’s that showed a chasm between a holy God and sinful man).
1. We have a problem. OUR SIN (http://images.slideplayer.com/25/7726853/slides/slide_15.jpg) and because of our sin, there’s a chasm that separates us from God. Our sin robbed us of peace and sentenced us to eternal punishment.
2. BUT God has offered us a solution to our problem. (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaP_PYxWwAQHXhv.jpg)
The solution was Jesus on the cross. His cross allowed us to pass over to God so that we could be close to God and have PEACE with Him.
God makes the offer, and Jesus supplies the path to PEACE with God. And yet we still need to make a choice… we need to accept God’s offer. We’ll come back to that in just a minute, but first I want to look a little more at the peace we have with God. How can we know whether we have this peace or not? Well, one of the best ways to know whether you have the peace of God is by knowing what life looks like without that peace.
ILLUS: The famous writer H.G. Wells rejected Christianity, and at age 61 he wrote: "I have no peace. All life is at the end of the tether."
The atheist poet Byron said, "My days are in yellow leaf, the flowers and fruits of life are gone, the worm and the canker, and the grief are mine alone."
The American philosopher Henry David Thoreau (who wasn’t a Christian) summed up life without peace with God: "Most men live lives of quiet desperation."
People without God’s peace in their lives sense an EMPTINESS in their lives. They are filled with UNHAPPINESS; plagued with WORRY; filled with ANGER; and experience a constant GUILT over past sins.
Now, there are a lot of Christians who struggle with these same emotions. Have you ever met them? Of course you have. There’s a lot of Christians who live empty lives, who are unhappy all the time, who are constantly plagued with worry… etc. etc. In short, there are too many Christians who live lives of quiet desperation. But they don’t have to.
All it takes for Christians to lay hold of God’s peace is to simply BELIEVE. Hebrews 11 tells us that “…without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
A lot of Christians struggle with that concept. They believe God exists, but they don’t believe He cares enough to be involved in their lives and reward those who seek Him… and so they are robbed of their peace.
By contrast, Paul tells us that our faith should lead us to do one thing: “REJOICE in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. THE LORD IS AT HAND; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by PRAYER and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:4-7
If we do what Paul tells us to do we will have the promise that the peace of God. This is a peace that “surpasses all understanding” – it’s a peace that doesn’t even seem to make sense, a peace that is totally illogical. God has promised that if we obey Him in this, His peace will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
So what do we need to do?
1. BELIEVE that the Lord is at hand. Lots of church goers think of God as “over there” and uninterested in their lives. But God has promised to never leave us or forsake us. Because of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, He promises to always be there for us.
2. PRAY - believing He hears and cares about you. Believing it matters to Him what happens in your life.
3. And REJOICE ALWAYS - in what the LORD has given you. Too many people focus on what they don’t have and what they wish had been different in their lives. But God’s people are commanded to focus on their blessings instead.
If we do this – believe, pray and rejoice – then we will have God’s promise of Peace.
Now, one last thing – do you remember what story about Travis Tritt at the beginning of the sermon? Of course you remember that things quieted down when Tritt sang “Silent Night”, but do you remember what those Bikers, Rednecks, and Drunks did when they heard that Christmas Carol?
That’s right - they cried! These were hard bitten “manly” men. Men who were prepared to get into a bar fight and beat on each other just to prove how manly they were. And yet… they cried. Why on earth would they cry? I mean, it’s just a Christmas Carol!
Well I think I know why they cried. I think they knew what the words of the song were saying. For them it wasn’t just a pretty little Christmas song. They knew what the words meant!!! Let’s take one more at the 3rd verse:
“Silent night, holy night! SON OF GOD love's pure light.
Radiant beams from Thy holy face - with dawn of redeeming grace,
JESUS LORD, AT THY BIRTH, Jesus Lord, at Thy birth"
This is all about Jesus, the Son of God, born in a manger. And just like the shepherds that came to the manger that night long ago…these hardened men in the bars knew who exactly who He was… and they’re pretty sure Jesus wouldn’t have anything to do with them.
Did you catch that part of the verse in Luke where it told what the chorus of angels sang? “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those WITH WHOM HE IS PLEASED!" (see appendix) Well, these men in the bar were pretty sure God was not real pleased with them. They’re hard cases. They’re sinners. They’re losers. That’s often why they were in the bars to begin with. And they’re convinced God doesn’t want them.
(I leaned forward on the pulpit and softly said)
Well, DOES God want them? Yes, He does, doesn’t He? “For God so loved THE WORLD…” John 3:16. God didn’t send His only begotten Son into the world just for a select few, He was sent to offer God's peace to ALL the world. Jesus came for anyone who would believe in Him. During His earthly ministry Jesus said “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Luke 19:10
These men at the bar were just the kind of folks Jesus came and died for. Jesus came and died for the neighbor you have down the street who has those noisy drinking parties. He came to die for those folks in Logansport who are doing Meth or Heroin. He came to die for that couple down the street who are “living together” or who are engaged in any number of activities that you and I know are condemned in Scripture.
Too often we think the people “with whom God is pleased” are the folks who know all their Bible verses, who attend church regularly, or tithe all the time. Or we tend to think He’s pleased with those who are clean-cut, prosperous and well liked in the community. Those folks may very well be pleasing to God… but the ones who REALLY please God are the ones who realize
1. They have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
2. They need to repent/change their lives.
3. They need to confess Jesus as the Lord and Master of their lives.
4. And they’re willing to be buried with Christ in the waters of baptism and rise to newness of life.
Lots of folks don’t realize it… but this is what Christmas is all about. It’s not about Santa, or reindeer or pretty lights in the park. It’s all about God sending His only begotten Son into the world to save us.
CLOSE: Take one more look at this meme we saw earlier (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaP_PYxWwAQHXhv.jpg). Notice that one phrase toward the top of picture: “Each Person Must Make A Choice.” I can’t make that choice for you. I can try to convince you of the need to give your life to Christ, but only you can make the choice give your life to Him.
INVITATION
APPENDIX: There is a difference in translation regarding the phrase in Luke 2:14. The KJV and NKJV say "Good will to men", whereas the NASV and others echo the translation found in the ESV (which we presently use as our pew Bible) "and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased". The following article addresses the reason for this difference. Instead of trying to address the issue from the pulpit, I sought to use the phrase as found in the ESV to address the fear many people have of not being "pleasing" to God. The following words are from my online source to explain the differences found in the translations:
"The reason why we have two possible translations is because there is a difference of one letter in the sentence, the letter ‘s’, or sigma if you want to use the Greek alphabet. And this is what creates the entire difference. Whether you decide for the presence or the absence of this letter ‘s’ depends on which Greek manuscript you use to translate this verse. In some manuscripts of the Greek NT, the letter ‘s’ is present. In other manuscripts, it is not there.
Coming back to our verse in Luke 2:14, we have then a difference of one letter in the Greek, the letter ‘s’. And this affects the word that is translated in English by the word ‘pleasure’. The difference that it makes, is that by adding on the letter ‘s’, you change a nominative into a genitive. And here I have to be somewhat technical because I want you to understand exactly what is happening here when we try to translate Luke 2:14.
If it is a nominative, then you would have the reading, ‘Good will among men’, or ‘men of good will’. That is to say, the word explains the men. These men are people of good will. That’s the translation that you will find if you have the NKJV.
But if we have a genitive, we are saying, ‘men of God’s good pleasure’. And we would read, ‘men with whom God is pleased’. That is what we find in the NASV for example. I have to say that this last reading is the preferred one for most scholars of our time."
(http://www.meetingwithchrist.com/E001%20Peace%20toward%20men%20of%20good%20will%20(1)%20-%20Lk%202(14).htm)
