We’re in the series, "What Christ Came to Give."
In the first message of the series we talked about how Christ came to give us HOPE, and last week we saw that Christ came to bring us THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
Today we’re going to talk about how Christ came to give us PEACE and we’re going to see how His coming helps us overcome the difficulties that attempt to disturb our peace.
Let’s look again at the Scripture upon which our series is based.
"For a child is born to us, a son is GIVEN TO US. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6 (NLT)
This verse mentions a few of the things "given" to us through Christ, including the fact that He is the Prince of Peace. A Prince is a ruler. When Christ rules in a person’s life there is peace. Peace is one of the gifts Christ came to give.
Jesus Himself proclaimed peace as a gift He wants to give us.
"I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid." John 14:27 (NLT)
This is a fantastic promise! Peace of mind and heart is given through Christ. You can’t find the peace He gives anywhere else! It’s a peace that helps you effectively deal with your troubles and fears!
Nowhere is this gift of peace more evident than in the Christmas story.
"Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth." Luke 2:1-6 (NASB)
There were several circumstances that could have disturbed the peace that first Christmas. And we’re going to see how those difficulties we’re handled by Joseph and Mary so that we can apply those same principles to the things that try to disturb our peace today. We’re going to see how we can live in the peace Christ came to give.
Where is your peace taking a beating? At work, at school, at home? In a relationship, your finances, your health, worries about the future? God’s Word has great news for you! Christ came to give you peace. And the peace that Christ brings is a peace that is not disturbed by circumstances.
Here are three things that can disturb your peace coupled with three things you can do to appropriate Christ’s peace in your life.
PEACE DISTURBER #1: CHANGE
HOW I NEED TO RESPOND: If I’m going to have Christ’s peace in the midst of change, I’m going to have to resolve to let God "use" me.
Let’s see how this happens.
That first verse in Luke’s Good News account speaks of drastic CHANGE in Joseph and Mary’s life.
"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed." Luke 2:1 (KJV)
What a challenge! A pregnant woman and her fiancée are compelled to make a strenuous journey to be enrolled in the Roman tax system.
Joseph and Mary had to leave Nazareth in Galilee and go to Bethlehem in Judea. It was only sixty miles as the crow flies but the roads meandered around mountains and valleys making it closer to a hundred miles on foot.
Transportation in those days wasn’t as easy as it is today. Even though the Romans were noted for their road building, good roads didn’t exist everywhere, especially to small villages like Bethlehem. No cars, no busses, no planes or trains either. Most people traveled on foot, or maybe a camel or donkey if they were lucky.
Traveling wasn’t always safe. Robbers lurked in many places. Provisions were not as readily available as they are today. There weren’t any service stations with snacks and clean restrooms along the way.
And the reason for the journey was to sign up to pay taxes! I don’t mind taking a trip to see family or friends but taking a trip to sign up to pay taxes? That couldn’t have been fun!
To top it all off Joseph and Mary were going through a lot of CHANGE in their personal lives. They were engaged to be married AND expecting the birth of a child. Getting married and having a baby are two of life’s biggest CHANGES.
CHANGE can be difficult. CHANGE can be very inconvenient. CHANGE can be very stressful. Getting out of our comfort zone might be exciting sometimes but at other times it’s a pain.
And the world around them was CHANGING. The world is always CHANGING. The Roman Empire was at its zenith, and the work of the Empire - the construction of roads and buildings, the salary of the large army - had to be paid for. Those payments were met by taxing the people.
So Joseph and Mary had to do the responsible thing; not the convenient thing; the responsible thing. They had to CHANGE with the world around them and with the CHANGING relationships in their lives and go to Bethlehem to sign up to be taxed.
CHANGE can be one of the leading disturbers of our peace. And it can come at us from a thousand different directions.
What can you do to effectively keep CHANGE from disturbing your peace? What did Joseph and Mary do to keep their peace from being disturbed?
I think the key here is expressed in the attitude Joseph and Mary had. Their attitude in the midst of CHANGE is the kind we should all have.
When the angel of the Lord informed Mary that she would give birth even though she was a virgin - she didn’t complain. She was filled with wonder, sure. Who wouldn’t have been? But she didn’t balk at God’s plan to use her.
Can you imagine the ridicule for being pregnant and claiming to be a virgin? People would think she was naïve, a liar, or some sort of lunatic. But in spite of this tough situation God handed her, look at what she said to the pronouncement of the angel.
Then Mary said, "I am willing to be USED of the Lord. Let it happen to me as you have said." Luke 1:38 (NLV) Circle that word "used."
There’s the attitude you and I must have if we don’t want CHANGE to disturb our peace. "I am willing to be used of the Lord.’
Being "used" has a negative connotation in our culture. We try to do everything we can to keep from being used. When we feel "used" we feel demeaned and degraded, embarrassed and put out. We get angry when someone "uses" us. We say things like, "I feel like my boss just uses me. I feel like my friends just use me."
Those are the kinds of things we say when people take advantage of us.
Being used is generally not any fun at all.
But Mary said, "God, if you want to USE me, go ahead. People may think I’m crazy. They may think I’m naive. They may think I’m a liar. But that’s okay Lord, you have a plan and it includes CHANGE in my life so I’m going to trust you!"
If we’re going to have success at navigating life’s CHANGES we may need an attitude adjustment. We need to allow ourselves to be "used" by God. We need to learn to trust His plans.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take." Proverbs 3:5,6 (NLT)
So #1, I must resolve to let God use me in order to keep CHANGE from disturbing my peace.
PEACE DISTURBER #2: DIFFICULT PEOPLE
HOW I NEED TO RESPOND: If I am going to enjoy Christ’s peace when dealing with DIFFICULT PEOPLE, I’m going to have to follow God’s instructions.
Where do we see this in the Christmas story?
We see it in the second journey that Joseph and Mary had to make - the journey into Egypt.
In Matthew’s account of Christ’s birth he mentions how Joseph and Mary had to flee Judea for Egypt because of Herod’s threat on the baby’s life.
"After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ’Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,’ the angel said. ’Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’" Matthew 2:13 (NLT)
Herod was a pitiful person. Sadly there are a lot of paranoid and insecure people like him in the world today.
There are some DIFFICULT PEOPLE similar to Herod in your life. You work with some. Some live in your neighborhood. You meet some out on the highway. Some of your relatives are DIFFICULT PEOPLE. Some of you even live with some DIFFICULT PEOPLE. They can really do a number on your peace of mind.
What can you do about it? You say, "well I can leave town like Joseph and Mary did."
That’s not really the answer the Bible is trying to give us. Most of the DIFFICULT PEOPLE in our lives are not trying to kill us. If you have somebody trying to kill you then by all means run.
The point we need to see from the example of Joseph and Mary is this: they followed God’s instructions.
What you and I need to do with DIFFICULT PEOPLE in our lives is to follow God’s instructions. We know God’s instructions with DIFFICULT PEOPLE. We just don’t like following them sometimes.
When people are mean to us we need to love and forgive them anyway. We are to pray for them and live a good example in response to their ill intentions toward us. We don’t have to sanction their bad behavior but we do have to love them. The Bible makes that very clear. We’ve covered that plenty of times here at Pathway.
Take some of the things Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.
"You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow."
God certainly knew what He was doing in choosing Joseph and Mary to raise Jesus. Through the whole Christmas story you see them struggling, first with the weight of handling the news of the virgin birth, and then the wickedness of Herod, but you always see them choosing to follow God’s instructions - always ready to do His will!
God says to Joseph, "Take Mary to be your wife, even though she’s pregnant and you know you’re not the baby’s daddy." And Joseph says, "God if you say so it’s good enough for me."
The serious problems you and I get into in life will not come from the DIFFICULT PEOPLE in our lives. Our serious problems will come when we do our own thing, when we go our own way and make selfish choices. If you want to have peace you don’t have to run from DIFFICULT PEOPLE – you just have to follow God’s instructions.
DIFFICULT PEOPLE can’t disturb God’s peace in my life! I’m the only one who can disturb the peace by not following God’s instructions!
You may object, "I’m not sure I can follow God’s instructions. God tells me to forgive a certain person or love that DIFFICULT PERSON and I’m not able to do that." In your own strength you’re not able – but God will provide the strength if you follow His instructions. God always provides what we need to do His will – to follow His instructions.
God says to Joseph, "Get up! Flee to Egypt!" Joseph could have said, "God, Egypt is 350 miles away! Can’t I just take my new family back home to Nazareth? Anyway, I don’t have the money for a trip to Egypt."
It just may be that the gifts of the Magi provided the traveling money! Gold, frankincense and myrrh were all valuable items that could have bartered for traveling expenses.
God knows what you need to do His will and He will provide it if you trust Him.
Speaking of this reminds us of the third disturber of the peace in the Christmas story and in our lives.
PEACE DISTURBER #3: NEED
HOW I NEED TO RESPOND: If I’m going to enjoy Christ’s peace when NEED tries to disturb it, I must learn to look for God to do the unusual, the unexpected, the unique thing.
The Christmas story clearly teaches this.
Joseph and Mary NEEDED a place to stay while in Bethlehem. But there wasn’t any room for lodging in Bethlehem so God provided a very unique solution, Jesus would be born in a stable. In fact, the uniqueness of the stable helped the shepherds authenticate Jesus as Messiah!
The Christmas angel said to the shepherds, "You will find the Baby with cloth around Him, lying in a place where cattle are fed." Luke 2:12 (NLV)
This was a very specific sign. With people coming and going in the overcrowded small town of Bethlehem and all the inns filled to capacity, how could the shepherds have found Jesus with confidence without a very unique circumstance associated with His birth? How many babies do you suppose there were, "lying in a place where cattle are fed," on the night the angels appeared to the shepherds? Only One!
Sometimes God is doing something in your life to meet your NEED that may seem like a hardship when in fact it is a part of His overall plan to direct your life to the place of blessing for you and glory for Him!
We’ve got to stop imposing our small ideas on God. God has ways of meeting our NEEDS we never even dreamed of!
No room but a stable in which Christ would be born? You know how sterile delivery rooms are today. Can you imagine anything less sterile than an animal stall? The Son of God’s first cradle was an animal feeding trough.
Why would God allow this?
Why does he allow your NEEDS to be met in ways you didn’t envision?
You’re tempted to complain and feel sorry for yourself and doubt God’s sovereignty and His love for you. But don’t be afraid. Don’t doubt God just because your NEEDS aren’t being met in the way you envisioned.
If Christ has not been born in a stable would the humble shepherds have been able to illustrate the truth that the Good News is for the common man?
Don’t limit God to your expectations. He’s so great a God that He cannot be contained by all of our expectations! Don’t try to make Him fit inside your little box. Think outside the box!
Realize that GOD INVENTED THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX!
What are your NEEDS today? Expect God to do the unique thing! Don’t let your peace get disturbed because God didn’t do what you thought He was going to do. God has something better for you that what you can dream up!
#1, I must resolve to let God use me in order to keep CHANGE from disturbing my peace.
#2, If I am going to enjoy Christ’s peace when dealing with DIFFICULT PEOPLE, I’m going to have to follow God’s instructions.
#3, If I’m going to enjoy Christ’s peace when NEED tries to disturb it, I must learn to look for God to do the unusual, the unexpected, the unique thing.
Are you enjoying Christ’s peace today? If not, there are only two possible reasons why not:
Either you have yet to make a personal faith commitment to the Prince of Peace, or you aren’t letting God "use" you, you’re not following His instructions, or letting for Him to do the unique thing in your life.
Decide before you leave today, right now, as we pray, to claim Christ’s gift of peace this Christmas!
