SERMON: PEACE ON EARTH

PEACE ON EARTH
6 December 2009

I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Genesis 32

22. That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
24. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
25. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
26. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
27. The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered.
28. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."
29. Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.
30. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

-- in this passage, we read the story of Jacob wrestling with God -- this story comes as Jacob is preparing to go home and deal with his brother Esau, who Jacob had cheated out of his inheritance and birthright and blessing
-- going home and making amends with Esau is not something that Jacob wanted to do -- but God had brought about the circumstances and now Jacob is having to deal with his sin -- both his sin against Esau and his sin against God
-- Jacob had lied and cheated and stolen -- he had broken the law of his people and the law of God -- and no matter where he roamed on the earth, his sin was always there before him -- looking at Jacob's story as a whole, you can see how everything he did and all that he longed for can be explained as trying to deal with that sin -- as trying to put it behind him
-- first, he had tried to leave it behind by fleeing from Israel and settling in the land of Haran, where his mother's family was from -- but Jacob quickly found out you can't run from sin
-- next, he tried to work his sin off by paying penance -- by living with his uncle Laban and serving him in the fields in order to marry Laban's daughters and to increase Laban's wealth -- he thought he could work his way to righteousness, but of course, that didn't work -- and Jacob was now having to leave Laban's land and go back to Israel
-- finally, faced with the prospect of coming against Esau and his men, Jacob has decided to deal with his sin by bribing Esau -- by paying him off with flocks and herds of sheep and cattle and goats -- if righteousness and forgiveness can't be earned through hard labor, then perhaps it can be bought -- so he sends his family and his servants and his gifts across into the land ahead of him and he waits for the next day when he can come into Esau's presence after Esau had already received Jacob's bribe
-- and, so, there we find Jacob -- alone in his camp -- alone at night -- alone with his sin
-- and the Bible tells us that while Jacob was there alone that night, he wrestled with God -- he physically and spiritually fought with God throughout that whole night
-- what does that mean? -- what does it mean to wrestle with God?

-- well, this story of Jacob wrestling with God is a picture of all of our lives -- just like Jacob, all of us have been at odds with God in the past -- all of us have rebelled against Him -- as it says in Romans 3:23, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God
-- and just like Jacob, all of us have tried to deal with our sins on our own -- we've tried to run from them and hide from them and pretend they don't exist -- we've tried to do good works and to do good things so that our good might outweigh our bad -- we've tried to compare ourselves with others and justify ourselves for heaven because we're not as bad as them
-- but hiding from sin doesn't work any better for us than it did for Jacob -- and the Bible clearly tells us that we can never do enough good works to pay off our sin debt that we owe to God and to others
-- but the good news of this passage is that God doesn't leave us alone in our sin -- at some point in our lives -- at many points in our lives -- God comes to us in the still of the night and convicts us of our sin and offers another way out, just like He did with Jacob
-- He wrestles with us for control of our lives -- He offers us the chance to leave the past -- to put our old ways and our old name behind us -- He encourages us to repent and take a new path -- a path that leads to a new future and a new name -- a path that leads to peace with Him rather than continuing sin and rebellion and disobedience
-- Jacob wrestled with God and before the dawn breaks that day, Jacob has been changed forever -- the Jacob that leaves that place by the fords of the river Jabbok is not the same Jacob that set up camp there that night
-- because God came to him, Jacob found forgiveness -- because God came to him, Jacob found healing for the soul and restoration of relationships -- because God came to him, Jacob found peace

-- isn't this really what Christmas is all about? -- isn't this the message that God sent that first Christmas night so many years ago? -- J.I. Packer wrote that "the Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory" -- all because of Jesus -- all because God didn't give up on us, but sent His Son to wrestle with us in the silence of our souls
-- In Chapter 2 of the Gospel of Luke, we read that after Jesus was born, angels appeared to shepherds who were there in the fields outside of Jerusalem and proclaimed to them the birth of a Savior -- the birth of the Messiah -- and promised peace and good will to them from the Father above
-- it is that promise of peace through Jesus that I want us to spend a few moments thinking about together today

II. Scripture Lesson
-- if you would, please turn over to Colossians 1 and we'll finish up there

-- verse 1

1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2. To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

-- Paul begins this letter to the saints in Colosse -- the holy and faithful brothers there who had received the Savior of Christmas as their own -- in the same way he begins most of his epistles
-- he prays on them grace and peace -- and always in that order -- for Paul had wrestled with God in his own life -- he knew what it meant to be at war with God -- he knew what it meant to try to follow the law and do good things and pay for sin in your own strength -- and he knew it wasn't possible
-- Paul knew that the only path to salvation -- the only path to forgiveness -- was through grace -- through the free, unearned and unmerited, gift of God -- grace has to come first -- God has to come first -- before you can know peace with Him
-- that is something that Jacob could identify with -- that is something that Paul knew -- and so that is how he starts each of his epistles to the churches that he is ministering to

-- now, what is peace? -- what is this peace that Paul is referring to here in verse 2?
-- the word "peace" here is the Greek word "eiriene" -- it is a translation of the Hebrew word, "shalom" -- and it brings with it an entirely different understanding than what most of the world knew at that time
-- traditionally, the word "peace" was a negative term -- not in the sense that it was a bad thing -- but in the sense that it was defined in the negative -- as the absence of something -- so, for the Greeks and Romans, peace was simply the absence of war or hostilities
-- this is the main way that we have continued to use this word today -- when the President talked last week about achieving peace in Afghanistan, he was referring to the absence of war in that country -- he was pointing to the time when all hostilities would end there and we could bring our military men and women home
-- however, the word "peace" as Paul uses it here and as the Bible traditionally uses it is not just defined in the negative -- yes, it is the absence of war and hostility -- but the Hebrew word, "Shalom," also is defined in the positive, because this peace that comes from God not only removes war and hostility but brings with it serenity and harmony and restoration
-- in other words, when Paul uses the word "peace," he doesn't just mean the war is over -- he means that all has been made right again -- that the scars of war have been healed -- that the wounds of war have been erased -- and all is right with the world and with God
-- this peace is what Jacob experienced after his wrestling match with God -- this peace is what the angels sang about to the shepherds -- this peace is what Jesus came to bring

-- earlier this year, in our series on Holiness through the fruit of the Spirit, we talked about peace and I pointed out that the Bible actually mentions three types of peace
-- the first was peace among men -- the traditional definition of peace as the absence of war and hostility
-- the second type of peace was peace from God -- that internal feeling of comfort and support that lets you survive daily in the chaos and the struggles of life -- that is the peace that we discussed in that sermon series on the fruit of the Spirit
-- the third type of peace is peace with God -- this is the peace of Christmas -- this is the peace of the cross -- this is the peace that only Jesus can bring -- this is the peace that Paul is talking about in this passage

-- if you would, skip down to verse 15

15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
17. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
18. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
19. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
20. and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

-- here Paul reminds us of who Jesus really is -- for a lot of people, the only Jesus they know is the Jesus of Christmas -- the only Jesus they want to know is the baby who was born in the manger
-- they don't want to know Jesus as the Lord God Almighty -- as the Creator of heaven and earth -- they don't want to know Jesus as the One who has all authority and supremacy on earth -- they don't want to know Jesus as King and ruler
-- they want a Jesus they can put on their mantle -- they want a Jesus they can put in a box and just bring out at Christmas -- they don't want a Jesus who demands their heart and their soul and their obedience -- they don't want a Jesus who comes to them at night and wrestles with their consciences
-- but, Paul says, this is who Jesus is -- He came as both Savior and Lord -- He came to bring peace to those who were at odds with God -- with those who had sinned and fallen short of His glory
-- Jesus came to die -- to offer Himself on the cross so that through His blood we might experience peace -- shalom -- with Him
-- this type of peace not only brings an end to our hostility with God -- but it brings reconciliation and a restoration of our relationship with God -- it makes us right with God again -- it makes us like we had never sinned in the first place
-- peace with God only comes through Jesus -- there is no other way -- you can't get this peace of God through Buddha or Mohammed or any of the other religions that are out there -- this peace with God is something that we can only receive when we turn our lives over to Jesus because this peace was bought with His blood and His blood alone -- we can only get it from Him

-- verse 21

21. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
22. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--
23. if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

-- here Paul tells us what we used to be like before we were saved -- before we came to know Christ -- we were alienated from God -- we were dead in our transgressions and our sins
-- Paul says that we were God's enemies -- we were willfully disobedient and hostile to the God who created us -- we followed the ways of the world and of the flesh and of Satan -- our very nature was evil from the inside out
-- in other words, we were at war with God -- you may not have thought about it in those terms, but that was what was going on -- before you came to Christ, you were actively working against God -- you were actively living against God -- you were opposing His attempts to lead you in your life
-- that's why Jesus came -- that's why He wrestles with us in the night -- that's why His prevenient grace calls to us in the stillness of our souls -- Jesus wants to reconcile us to God -- He wants to restore our relationship with the Father
-- Jesus came to bring peace with God -- the baby who was born at Christmas came to die in our place -- to offer up His life and His righteousness in place of our own, so that we might no longer be at war with God, but be at peace with Him instead

III. Closing
-- On July 25, 2000, Air France Concorde Flight 4590 crashed on take off in Paris killing one hundred passengers and nine crew on the aircraft and four people on the ground
-- The cause of the crash was a 16-inch strip of metal found on the runway -- during takeoff, the plane had run over that strip of metal and punctured a tire, sending up debris that ruptured a fuel tank in the aircraft's wing
-- With the plane on fire and already hurtling down the runway at a great speed, the pilot realized he couldn't stop the plane without causing a catastrophe -- his only chance was to get the plane in the air to help suppress the flames and to make an emergency landing at Le Bourget airport, which was only one minute of flying time away -- but, despite his best efforts, when the plane left the ground, it went into a stall and plunged to the ground, exploding into a massive fireball
-- As investigators sought to discover the reason for the accident, they listened to the tapes of the pilot's conversations with the control tower -- His last words as he fought to save his stricken craft were, "Too late."
-- We only have one life to live on Earth -- and if we fail to make our peace with God before our life ends, it will be "too late" for us, too [adapted from an illustration by Owen Bourgaize, Guernsey, United Kingdom]

-- however, the good news of Christmas is that Jesus has come to wrestle with our souls and to bring us His peace and forgiveness so that we might experience reconciliation and restoration of our relationship with God
-- you know, when Jacob had reached rock-bottom -- when he had no options left -- he wrestled with God over the sin in his life -- he quit trying to solve his sin problem on his own -- he turned to the only One who could deal with it once and for all -- then, and only then, did Jacob experience true and lasting peace with the Father
-- as we continue in this advent season -- as we continue to look forward to the coming of Christ -- let us not forget to seek the peace that He offers before it is too late for us to do so

-- Paul tells us here that Jesus came to pay the price for our sin -- all we have to do is accept the forgiveness that He so readily offers and we will be saved
-- if you have never done so, then I urge you this morning to offer your life to Jesus -- to ask Him to forgive you of your sins and to ask Him to be your Lord and your Savior -- you don't have to make yourself right first -- you don't have to clean yourself up or to do any good works -- Jesus wants you just as you are
-- all you have to do is repent -- to turn from your sins -- and to turn to Him -- believe in Jesus and ask Him to forgive you and you will know the peace that He offers -- the peace that the angels sang about -- the peace that came at Christmas
-- let us pray