“PEACE THAT PASSES UNDERSTANDING” PT. 2
“ADVENT 2021”
Phil. 4.6-7
One of the lasting, profound emotions that Christmas evokes in my life is that of peace; I’m not sure whether it’s the stillness of a late-night recounting of the Christmas story, the stillness of a cold, wintry night, or the peace and satisfaction of me getting our kid’s Christmas toys put together around midnight on Christmas Eve years ago!—whatever it is, peace is the feeling that I sense more than any other this time of year! Peace is also the Candle that we light this Second Sunday of Advent! To do that, I’ve asked my wife, Brenda, to come and to light this candle for us today.
This has been quite the year for Brenda, particularly the past 4 months; taking care of me after my accident(s); dealing with her sight issues following her detached retina surgery a few months ago; and dealing with a personal issue with our oldest daughter and granddaughter has left Brenda needing some peace to come to her life, and our lives! Whoever it was that said, “When your children turn 18, your responsibility as a parent ends!” obviously never had children! Brenda, much more than I, has been the “rock” for our family, dealing with each of these issues that I just mentioned, and many others over the past 45 years, and it so very fitting that she be the one to light the Candle of Peace for us today!
Peace; have we ever lived in a time when peace was needed more than today? Jesus told us, in Matt. 24.6-12:
6 “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must
take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are but the
beginning of the birth pains. 9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death,
and you will be hated by all nations for My Name's sake. 10 And then many will fall away and
betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many
astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”
I don’t know that there has ever been so much division, on so many different issues, or so much hatred being espoused over seemingly insignificant differences of opinion as there are in our world today! It used to be that whether you were a Democrat or Republican, a Conservative or a Liberal, a Catholic or a Protestant, an American or another nationality, there was at the very least a measure of respect for one another! That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore! In fact, today we are seeing instances of lives being taken for having such differences!
Which all of the above brings us to the desperate need of peace! The key “piece” that we must understand about “peace” is that it has already come; it’s not something or someone that will eventually one day make “peace” a possibility! It has already come, and it is a reality! In fact, that reality is Jesus Christ, and He is the only Source that will bring lasting peace to our lives, and to our world! The Apostle Paul tells us as much in Phil. 4.6-7; he says, “…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.” Would you like to know how important that is, right from the start of this message? Jesus followed up those ominous warnings of Matt. 24.6-12, with the words of v. 13: “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
The question then becomes, “How do we endure the violence, the hatred, the immorality, the shocking trend that this world has taken? How do we do it?” We do it by having a relationship with the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ! Jesus said, in John 14.1, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me.” He then followed that up with the words of v. 27: “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.” Do you want to have peace? Get connected to the Source of all lasting peace, Jesus Christ!
So, what is it about our world that seems so resistant, and in fact, so opposed to peace? Well, the obvious answer is that the prince of darkness, Satan, is hard at work trying his best to deceive the world, and to destroy the souls of its inhabitants in hell. Again, the Apostle Paul, talking about the spiritual blessings that we have in Christ in Ephesians 1, goes on to tell us at the beginning of ch. 2 of the one who seeks to destroy the work of Christ; he says, in v. 1-3, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 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— 3 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 this passage, Paul describes the prince of darkness, Satan, as a “prince” with power; John says, in I John 5.19, “…the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” This power has been given him by God; perhaps you recall that when Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, Satan told Jesus that his power and influence in the world had been “delivered to me [him]” by God. The reason Satan is called a prince rather than a king is that there is only one King—the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ! (I Tim. 6.15)
The “sons of disobedience” referred to in that passage from Ephesians are those who have not trusted Christ as Lord and Savior. Paul, in speaking of the ministry given to him by God, said that when Jesus appeared to him on that road to Damascus, he was told by Jesus that He was sending him “…to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me [Jesus].” Acts 26.18
Demons are also under the rule of Satan, and one of his titles is “prince of demons”; he has a kingdom (Matt. 12.26), and a throne (Rev. 2.13). Satan is called a prince because he is a ruler, possessing power to manifest evil in the world through influencing people and commanding demons to do his work. The “prince of the power of the air” refers to that invisible realm above the earth where Satan and his demons move and exist; this space, of course, is the location of the earth’s atmosphere or “air.” Paul writes of the ongoing struggle that we have against Satan in Eph. 6.12: “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
That evil realm called the “air” is synonymous with the “world” of John 12.31; there, Jesus said, “…the ruler of this world will be cast out,” so, this whole world is Satan’s domain! Although Satan has power and authority in the current world system in which we live, his power is limited, because it is always under the sovereign control of God!
God has not revealed all of the whys or whens concerning Satan’s rule, but He has made it clear that there is only one way to escape the power of Satan’s dominion, and that is through His Son, Jesus! The best news, however, is that Satan’s influence and power is temporary! Paul declared, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in Romans 16.20, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”
All that brings us back to the subject of peace; Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 9.6, “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.” The world into which Jesus came was not a peaceful place, particularly for the people of Israel, from whom Jesus was born. They were under the iron fist of the Roman government, which at that time, was the most evil Empire in the world! Luke, in sharing with us concerning the birth of Jesus in Luke 2, tells us “In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus (the first Roman Emperor), that all the world should be registered (taxed).” (Luke 2.1) We see the wisdom of God appears in this simple fact; the Jewish people were coming under the dominion and taxation of a foreign power. They no longer had an independent government of their own, so when the “fulness of time had come” for the promised Messiah to appear; Caesar taxes "the world," and at once, Jesus is born! It was also a time perfectly suited for the introduction of the Gospel, the entire civilized earth was governed by one master, Caesar, whose kingdom was identified by Daniel, in Daniel 2.40 as being a “…kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things.” At that time, there was nothing to prevent the preacher of a new faith going from city to city, and country to country. The rulers and religious practices of the non-Jewish world had been weighed in the balances and found lacking; Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome had all successively proven that “the world did not know God through its wisdom.” Even with all their mighty conquerors, like Pharaoh, and Nebuchadnezzar, and Alexander the Great, its poets, historians, architects, and philosophers, like Buddha, and Confucius, and Socrates, the kingdoms of the world were full of idolatry. It was, indeed, due time for God to intervene from Heaven, and send down an Almighty Savior! It was due time for Christ to be born!
So, what is it about Jesus that is able to bring lasting peace, in spite of all the efforts of the many before Him, and the many since He came to this earth to bring their own “version” of peace? What may seem like a highly complex question, really has a very simple answer: Jesus is the only One who can reconcile mankind to God!
Regardless of what the world and its wisdom try to make us believe, God is the One who was in the beginning, the One who created all that is, and the One who will reign in the end! A skeptic may want to reply to that statement by saying, “That’s just what you believe, and what you believe is based on faith!” My reply to such a skeptic would be, “You’re exactly right! But I don’t have enough faith to believe that a beautiful sunrise/sunset is just a product of a big bang somewhere in the Universe! I believe that there was a big bang, however, and it happened when God said, ‘Let there be light!’ Boom!!” I don’t have enough faith to believe that we just evolved from an amoeba crawling out of an ocean somewhere, eventually becoming an ape, that eventually became me! (No laughing allowed!) I don’t have enough faith to believe that there wasn’t someone, somewhere, at some point in time, that didn’t design all of this, with a purpose to all of this! I don’t have enough faith to believe that someone would willingly come to this planet, live a perfect and sinless life, only to be put to death at the hands of sinful man, and do all of that for any other reason other than His great love for me!—and even the most skeptical don’t deny that Jesus did come to this Earth, lived an exemplary life, and was put to death because of the life He lived!
The skeptics just don’t have the faith to believe that Someone would do that out of love! Neither do they believe that He rose from the dead, and for me, that doesn’t require as much faith as believing that a Higher Power such as God, doesn’t exist! They say they trust in science; well, as time goes by, science is proving the reality of God’s Word!! They likelihood, or probability of all that the Bible has said would happen, happening, is overwhelmingly against all odds, but it continues to happen! It’s coming to pass before our very eyes! Science itself comes from the One who is omniscient; science is knowledge, and all knowledge comes from God! I don’t have enough faith to believe that I can break four bones in my neck, and four more in my back, and two weeks later have no pain whatsoever just as a result of positive thinking on my behalf! God’s healing power touched me!
I don’t have faith to believe that a person can change their entire character, their entire focus in life, put their entire past behind them, and live a completely changed life, solely on willpower to do so!
So, let me tell you what I do believe: I believe that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life!” I believe that “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” I believe that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”—and that “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth!” I believe that “In the fulness of time, God sent His Son, Jesus, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” I believe that “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; and behold, the new has come!” The importance of that word, “behold” in that verse cannot be understated! It means, “check it out and see if the old isn’t in the past, and that the new life I’m now living isn’t genuine and real!”
You’ve heard a lot of Scripture in this message; George has done his best to keep up with all the different Scripture passages he has had to post on the video screen! There’s a reason why you’ve heard so much Scripture: the Living Word, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, was sent by God so that through Him, we could be reconciled to God! Our sin, the sins of mankind, had created an irreparable breach between us and a holy God; our righteousness, our strict observance of the Law, none of that could reconcile us to God! Our godly heritage, the blessing of being borne in a place where we are free to worship as we please, that couldn’t reconcile us to God! We could even be converted into Judaism, the Jewish faith, and be adopted into God’s chosen people, and that wouldn’t reconcile us to God!
It’s “…the love of Christ that compels [controls] us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all, then all died. 15 And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised. 16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone in a purely human way. Even if we have known Christ in a purely human way, yet now we no longer know Him in this way. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. 18 Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in [Christ].” (II Cor. 5.14-21) What is the role of an ambassador? An ambassador represents the values and goals of his/her homeland in another land! In other words, an U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, for example, represents the values and goals of the United States, in regard to the nation of Pakistan; the goal is to maintain a peaceful, working relationship with Pakistan without compromising our values as people of the United States of America! As heavenly ambassadors, our goal as the people of God is to represent God’s values and goals to a hostile, anti-God world in which we live, with the goal of bringing peace and satisfactory relationships between the God whom we represent, and this world in which we live!
Jesus was God’s Ambassador to the world; He and He alone makes it possible for the world to be at peace with God, and to have a mutually satisfying relationship with Him! Now that Jesus has returned to Heaven, He has appointed you and me as His ambassadors in His absence; our goal is to represent God’s values in a world controlled by the prince of the power of the air, to bring lasting peace and contentment between God and mankind! As difficult as that may seem to even fathom, that’s why Paul could identify the peace that comes from God as being “…peace, which surpasses all understanding!” That’s why the Prince of Peace, Jesus, came into this world! That’s why we celebrate this Second Sunday of Advent as being a preparation for the possibility of peace to come to our world, because the Prince of Peace makes it possible! That’s why Christmas feels more like peace to me than any other emotion! I know where my peace that passes understanding comes from! Will you be reconciled to God today? I’m pleading with you to allow Christ to do that for you today! The result will be eternal, lasting peace that passes all earthly understanding! I promise you, you’ll never regret it!
