Second Sunday in Advent
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Be Prepared for Christ’s Coming With Peace
1. Peace to be believed.
2. Peace to be shared.
Fellow Christians preparing for the celebration of our Savior’s birth:
Not far from Pittsburg Landing in southern Tennessee was a small rural church building. It was called Shiloh Church. On Sunday, April 6, 1862 it was impossible to conduct worship services in this church. A bloody Civil War battle raged for days in and around the area of this church. The name given to this encounter between the North and the South was the Battle of Shiloh. Since the word "Shiloh" means peace, this was the Battle of Peace. Sounds rather strange, doesn’t it? Peace and war are opposites.
Just as strange is the fact that even though Christmas is the time when we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, many children will receive gifts of toy guns and tanks and GI Joe characters for playing war. Stranger yet is the fact that many gather to celebrate Christmas when they are at war with family members, fellow-workers, neighbors, or others.
Peace and war are not compatible. With this thought in mind, let’s now examine PEACE as a fruit of the spirit, so that with the Lord’s blessing we will be able to celebrate Christmas at peace with God and others. We now are reminded to BE PREPARED FOR CHRIST’S COMING WITH PEACE.
1. Peace to be believed.
First, we need to understand what the angel meant when he announced to the shepherds that, due to Jesus’ birth, there would be "peace on earth.” Since there have been wars after wars from the time that Jesus was born until the present, obviously the peace of Christmas isn’t dealing with outward matters. In fact, referring to outward peace, Jesus said "Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division” (Luke 12:51). At first glance this sounds like a contradiction to the angel’s message to the shepherds. If peace and war aren’t compatible, how can Jesus, the Prince of Peace, cause division?
It is true that Christ came to bring peace—peace between the believer and God, and peace among people. Yet the inevitable result of Christ’s coming is conflict—conflict between Christ’s followers and the devil’s followers. This spiritual conflict becomes more evident with each passing Christmas as unbelievers seek to take Christ out of Christmas as much as possible.
Similar conflicts can erupt between members of the same family. Some see the importance of spending time in God’s house during the holidays. Others will only reluctantly be dragged into church on Christmas Eve or simply refuse to pay tribute of any kind to the birth of the Savior. Some will even ridicule their fellow family members who profess their faith in Christ.
The true peace of Christmas, by its very nature, is limited to Christians only. 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). People of the world dream and scheme for peace. But the only real peace is in the heart of the Christian, and this is provided by the presence of the Prince of Peace, the Savior born at Bethlehem. As the apostle Paul said, “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). All who have been led to accept Jesus as Savior have peace for their souls—peace with God through the forgiveness of sins which Christ won for the world at his cross.
This peace is yours through faith. When we believe in Jesus, we have true peace. The world’s definition of peace is “when I have no conflicts in my life and all is going as I want it to.” This is not true peace; this is not the peace of Christ. His peace comes only through a proper relationship with God which then carries over into a proper relationship with our neighbors.
2. Peace to be shared.
The other day I saw a poster that said, “Peace is not a season. It is a way of life.” Christians aren’t at peace only during the time of Christmas. Christians aren’t at peace only when everything is going well. Christians are at peace always. Why then do we so often feel as though we are at war? The reason is simple. We have lost our focus during those times. We are to “seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to us as well” (Matthew 6:33). God’s promises are clear. Make him your first priority, and he will bless you with a life of peace.
Outwardly, pain, problems, and conflicts might surround us, but they can’t take away our peace. Along with Paul we can confidently say that we are “convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that Is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38, 39). Faith in Christ gives us such confidence; it allows us to be at peace inwardly even if outwardly we are in a world gone mad in the quest for power.
Remember back a few years when our United States troops were sent to Somalia to help bring peace to that region so that starving people could be fed. A thousand people a day were dying of starvation. Help was desperately needed because a few warlords had disturbed the peace and caused untold suffering.
In spite of how bad things were in Somalia, do you know that people in that nation aren’t the only ones who have been and are starving due to a lack of peace? Many of us have next-door neighbors or family members who may look well-fed and may seem outwardly at peace, but spiritually they are starving to death. Untold numbers in our city, state, country, and world will celebrate Christmas without being at peace. They don’t know that the child born in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago was the “Prince of Peace.” They are basing their future lives on their own attempts to do good. And we, too, often let them continue on their merry old way, a way that results in losing the spiritual war and never being at peace.
For their sake, share the peace that we have in Christ. Direct them to the Prince of Peace and the forgiveness of sins that he earned for them. Make them aware that the war was won by this Prince of Peace and that a lasting peace treaty is guaranteed to all who believe in him. Probably none of us will be sent overseas to keep the peace in some distant country, but all of us are sent into our own areas of influence to share the peace of Christmas with others. And where we can’t personally go, we use our money and our prayers to help others go in our place as ambassadors of the Prince of Peace.
As far as we know, it was a quiet, peaceful night In Bethlehem when Jesus was born. The peace that this Child brought remains for you, for me, and for all who believe. But bringing peace to the world was costly. It cost Mary and Joseph a lot of comforts. It cost mothers in and around Bethlehem the massacre of their babies by the cruel order of King Herod. It cost the shepherds time to go to the manger and to tell others what they saw. It cost the wisemen a long journey and expensive gifts. More than all of this, it cost God the Father his own Son, and it cost God the Son a life of sacrifice and service, and a death cruel and unmatched in history.
We give thanks to God for the peace of Christmas. May we be willing to pay a price to keep and share this peace. May the angel’s message of peace to the world through Jesus be a message that we echo as often as we can during this Christmas season and always. Amen.
