Becoming Peacemakers

I was blessed to give this message today at Community of Hope Church in Sidney, Ohio.

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)

This is the Word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Jesus was prophesied as being The Prince of Peace. Sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it? In fact, Jesus actually brought us perfection, didn’t He? God’s perfect lamb, brought to earth 2000 years ago on the first Christmas. And what did we do? We killed Him, didn’t we? Man, fallen from perfection ourselves (since we were made in the image of God), killed the Prince of Peace when He came to earth. We only let Him live here 33 years in fact. Incredible, isn’t it? Man is so fallen in our depravity that we could not let perfection live amongst us for even the tiniest blip of time – not even 34 years.

But what is peace? The answer to what is peace goes back to Creation and the Garden of Eden.

If you look at the story of Creation from Genesis, we’re told that as God created, He looked at His creation, and what did He say? He said that things were good, didn’t He? Genesis tells us that He saw the light and then proclaimed that it was good. He gathered the waters that covered the globe, and made land, He looked at it and said that it was good. He brought forth grass and trees, and other plants that we could eat and He said that they were good. He put stars in the sky and divided our days up with light and darkness and He saw that that was all good. He created animals and fish and birds and proclaimed that, when He looked at them, they were good. He created man and woman, He gave them dominion over all the earth and animals and that first chapter of Genesis says “indeed, it was very good.”

But, we must ask ourselves, if this is all “good,” where did evil enter in? Anything good, I would think, would also be peaceful, but yet we do not know peace, do we?

All of those things that God created, we’re told in Genesis, He looked at them and said they were good. Except for one thing.  In verses 1 and 2 of Genesis chapter 1, here’s what we’re told:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

He created the heavens and the earth first – these are things He created -- and yet He didn’t look at them and say that they were good. God created the universe and that is the one thing that He did not look up and proclaim it as good. Interesting, isn’t it?

When God created man, what did He give us? He gave us free will. The ability to choose between right and wrong, between good and evil. The universe that God created allowed for that potential of darkness to enter – of the evil one to slither and creep about and wreak his havoc. And so, of all things God created, He did not proclaim the universe as being “good” because there existed the opportunity for darkness and evil to spread.

When God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden of Eden, we can see that the garden of Eden was good. It was beyond good. In many respects, it was perfect. It was at peace. There was food. There was no illness. There was no fighting. There was no shame meaning Adam and Eve had no inner turmoil. None of that inner squabbling between good and bad was going on in their minds, was it?

And then the free will with which God had blessed them led them astray, right? And they ate from the one tree, the one tree in the middle of the garden that God specifically told them to not eat from and suddenly, perfection was lost. Suddenly, they had turmoil in their minds and turmoil between each other.  Illness and other problems entered the garden and their lives. Everything changed. The peace and goodness with which God had created everything and then placed Adam and Eve in the midst of was gone.

So, let me ask you this again, what is peace? I recently listened to a sermon by theologian and pastor John  Piper and he pulled scripture out that really defines what peace is.

Deuteronomy 20:10 tells us this:

When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace.

Psalm 120:7 says:

“I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.”

Ecclesiastes chapter 3 tells us there will be a time for war and a time for peace.

So, clearly one type of peace is peace between people. The opposite of peace is fighting and war. So, the absence of fighting amongst people or groups of people is peace.

But there’s another type of peace, too. When Jesus and the disciples were in the boat and winds and a storm came up, the disciples woke Jesus and what did He say to the storm? “Peace, be still!”

In Leviticus 26, God talks of giving peace in the land – no more evil. No more evil beasts. Peace. “I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country.”

So, now, in addition to peace between people, we have being at peace with the earth and with animals. Complete peace of this type would mean no more storms, no more lions, tigers, and bears that want to attack us and kill us and eat us. No more illness that can ravage our bodies and take our lives.

But then we have a third type of peace and that is the peace within our own minds and hearts. John 14:27 has Jesus saying this:

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Oh, if only we truly allowed ourselves to experience that day in and day out, right? If only we didn’t have minds and hearts that tear us in different directions. If only this peace Jesus talks about truly ruled every moment in our hearts and souls. Hopefully we all experience times when it does – but it doesn’t all the time, does it? I want it to, don’t you? But yet man’s fallenness tears me in different directions. And so often my mind and my wishes leave me in turmoil, pulled in different directions.

But here we have them – three types of peace. 

Peace between individuals and groups of individuals. With this peace, there are no more wars, no more fighting, not even any squabbling.

Peace between man and nature. No more storms that destroy and wreak havoc. No more wild animals that want to make us their lunch. No more concern of disease that ravages our bodies.

And finally peace within our own minds. With this peace, no longer are we pulled toward mean or greedy thoughts. No more are we pulled toward evil desires.

This is the peace that God created things with – and He looked at those things and proclaimed them as good. But yet the universe allowed evil to slither its way in and our free will – the free will that God blessed us with – allowed us to choose those evil things.

This is also the peace that Jesus, born in that lowly manger, brought to earth. This is the peace that His perfection could have inspired us all to achieve as well. And yet we killed Him. Man looked at that perfection – that peace – and said, no, I’d rather wallow in my own muck and ugly desires. I’d rather choose evil and sinfulness than submit myself totally to Jesus. And here we are.

And that is why we needed and still need a Savior so badly. A Savior who would die for our sins. A Savior who would take our iniquities and our transgressions upon Himself so that we might be forgiven. A Savior who would make peace with God on our behalf. So that, despite our free will and despite that tugging we sometimes submit to that causes us to do wrong, we can still be with Jesus for eternity in heaven.

And so it is man’s conflict with God – Adam and Eve choosing to disobey God – that has brought us to a lack of peace today. No peace between individuals and groups, no peace with nature, no peace in our own minds.

It’s not because of God that we don’t have peace, it’s because of our own sinful nature.

And yet God still reached out to us, right? He sent us His Son so that Jesus would die on the cross for our sins. We’d be forgiven and our sins would be forgotten. We have to accept the forgiveness that is offered to us but it’s already done.

So, I don’t know about you but in the face of such amazing grace as what God extends to us, I have to think about what my response should be. How can I help to spread the peace that God originally gifted us with and we messed up? In fact, He’s extended it to us twice – right? At creation and then again when Jesus was born and both times we – mankind – messed it up.

And yet we have His promise that Jesus is coming back and, if we choose to accept His salvation now, we can’t mess it up the next time, can we? We will be amongst those that God saves and brings into eternity with Him. That is already done.

So, what’s the lesson for us here? We can spread His grace, can’t we? We can be the ones to extend peace and love to others.

There are certain types of peace that our free will can’t choose. For example, we can’t choose that we will never get old or sick, can we? We can’t choose that if we jumped into a pit with an angry lion on a snowy day, that lion won’t attack us, can we? Yes, God can save us from those things but our free will can’t choose them into never happening?

Well, we can certainly choose to not jump into that pit with the angry lion. But what if that angry lion jumps out of the pit and still takes us down? Those are types of peace we have no control over.

But we can choose peace when it comes to our relationships with each other, can’t we? No, peace doesn’t mean that we aren’t honest, does it? In fact, rational honesty can often lead to peace. But we have the free will to love one another. To care for one another.

Just as God is the one who initiated peace with us through the gift of His Son – that pure and blameless baby who grew into the man who would be our Savior – we can be the ones to extend grace and peace and love to others in the world. God became Christ at Christmas in order to make peace with us. We don’t make peace with Him, He makes peace with us. And then we can make peace with those around us.

Matthew 5:9 – such a beautiful verse that really should be our key for this Christmas season and all year long says this: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

And, someday, when Jesus returns or calls us home, we will know and experience peace in all of its forms, right? Peace within society. Peace with nature – no more illness and no more storms and no more angry lions. And Peace in our hearts, minds and souls.

But, today, let’s all ask ourselves, what is God calling me to do in order to put His peace at work in the world? Where am I being called to be a peacemaker? He gave me this amazing gift of Jesus so that I might have peace with God. What can I do to extend peace to my fellow man and then hopefully they, too, can know peace with Jesus?

May we, this Christmas season and always be the peacemakers. It is our calling and our putting that gift of Jesus’ son into action. Go forth this Christmas season and love the way that God loves us all.

“Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” (II Thessalonians 3:16, 18)

Let us pray.