Advent 2024 | A Life of Peace
Anyone make wish lists as a kid?
Back before the internet, you would get magazines, you would go through them and circle, dog ear the pages to make it clear to the powers that be that if we could have anything, it would be these things.
Many of us still do this. Instead of flipping through the latest JC Penney catalog, we flip through the infinite feeds of Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon, subconsciously making our wish lists.
You don’t stop having wish lists as adults, they just look different.
Desiring things like:
– Peace
– Wholeness
– Health
– Wellbeing
– Nothing lacking, nothing out of sorts
How many of you would say your wish list would include some of these words?
These are all words given as descriptions for the Hebrew word Shalom. In English translations it’s usually translated as peace.
Shalom
Hebrew understanding of peace
Peace: Hebrew “Shalom” — whole, complete
○ Ref (Joshua 8:31, Job 5:24, 1 Samuel 17:18; 1 Kings 9:25, Exodus 22:4, Proverbs 16:7)
○ Adjective
■ Joshua 8v31 – Joshua tells them to use a stone that is shalom (that’s whole, doesn’t have any cracks, that isn’t broken)
■ Job 5v24 – Job’s tents as being in a state of shalom. Nothing is missing.
■ 1 Sam 17v18 – David asking about the shalom or wellbeing of his brothers
○ Verb – to bring shalom means to make complete or restore.
■ 1 Kings 9v25 – Solomon when he finished the temple, shalom it. He completed it. Nothing was missing. It was in a state of wholeness.
■ Ex 22v4 When an animal of yours destroys a neighbor’s field, you are to shalom it. Make it right.
■ The same goes for relationships. To reconcile and heal a broken relationship is to bring shalom. Prov 16:7
Our world desperately needs this kind of peace. The earth hasn’t experienced the fullness of shalom since the garden. Humans were in right relationship with God, with each other. And then we had to go and mess it up by trying to do things our own way.
The undoing of shalom
○ What happened after sin entered God’s good world? Our relationship with God and with each other were no longer in a state of shalom.
Hostility and violence entered the world.
○ God didn’t leave us without hope. He told the serpent that there will come a seed or offspring of woman who will crush his head.
○ Generation after generation, the people of God waited and waited for the arrival of this snake crusher. The one who would set the world right.
Who would bring shalom back to the earth?
In the waiting, the prophet Isaiah looks into the future and prophesies the arrival of this long awaited snake-crushing king.
Isaiah 9v6-7
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.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
This is why the birth of Jesus in the New Testament is announced as the arrival of peace on earth.
The snake-crushing king the people of Israel have been waiting for has arrived. The one who will restore relationship between God and man (righteousness). The one who will restore relationship between humans (justice). This is happening and it’s happening in the person of Jesus. God is breaking into the world, and with it he will bring shalom. And nothing will be able to stop this kingdom from covering the earth. Not death, not division, nothing. The zeal, the passion, of God will do this.
And that’s exactly what Jesus does. He goes about healing
bodies and forgiving sins. What’s he doing he’s bringing shalom
to His people.
Jesus made peace with God
Ro 5v1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
● Jesus made peace, he restored the relationship
between creator and creation.
● What was damaged by sin, is restored in Jesus.
● God isn’t angry at you. He’s not punishing you.
● It’s not our good deeds. It’s our faith in Jesus.
● Your relationship with God is mended, restored,
complete, whole.
He was the whole, complete human that I am made to be but have failed to be, and now he gives me his life as a gift.
Jesus gives us the peace of God
● John 14v27 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.
○ His peace, not yours [My peace is conditional – shelf
life: driving, watching football. Here one minute
○ It’s not the world’s peace.
Here’s what we’re sold. You can have perfect peace apart from God. You just need to buy our product, then you’ll be happy. You need more freedom to express your true self… then you’ll be happy. Idk if there’s ever been a time that people have had more freedom for self-expression. But my question is simply, how’s that working out for us?
Peace doesn’t come from self-expression. It comes from self-sacrifice. We were made for worship. To worship is sacrifice… to give oneself to someone or something.
■ Everyone worships. Your career, your comfort, your children, your possessions.
■ The offer on the table is the life of Christ, but the cost is the laying down of our own life.
■ You’re not going to experience the peace of God, if out of control you can’t let go.
■ Ps 32v8 NLT 8 The Lord says,
“I will guide you along the
best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch
over you.
■ The path to peace begins with surrender, not self-help.
● Phil 4v6-7 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made
known to God.7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
○ This peace he gives will keep our hearts, our emotions and desires, minds, thoughts.
○ Instead of ignoring these emotions; see them as a signal that it’s time to pray.
○ “To feel worry and anxiety are normal parts of being
human; however, to feed worry and anxiety leads to
bondage.” ~Rich Villodas
Instead of feeding our worries or fears, we are going to bring them before God.
Why? Because He cares for you.
Easy for you to say with your perfect life, and perfect wife.
My life is in shambles, my spouse and I are just
roommates, I hate my job, i’m in a legal battle, don’t know
how I can afford christmas gifts, the diagnosis
You’re right. I don’t know what you’re going through.
But I do know this.
The peace of God isn’t found in the absence of problems.
It’s found in the presence of Christ.
There’s a story of a time Jesus brought peace to a chaotic situation
Mark 4
● Jesus and the disciples are in a boat together
crossing a sea.
● A great storm arose, the boat started taking on water.
Enough to cause career fishermen to fear for their life.
● Jesus is sleeping
● Have you ever been working while other people are
laying around?
● The thoughts running through their mind.
● Don’t you even care that we are about to die?
○ Jesus don’t you even care
○ Frantically trying to hold it all together.
● Jesus wakes up, “Peace be still!”
● The peace that calmed the storm, that’s the peace
that he gives us.
So what do we do with the things that try to rob us of
peace?
Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares for you ~ 1 Peter 5v7 NLT
No matter what happens, we can live free from the bondage of worry. Not because the seas are always calm. But because Jesus is always with you.
Isaiah 26v3
You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
And like a child on Christmas morning unwrapping a gift to find, in joy and delight, the arrival of their wish list… We too find the fulfillment of our desires. Not wrapped in paper placed under a tree. But wrapped in swaddling clothes
placed in a manger.
In this season, we join in heaven’s song proclaiming peace on earth, goodwill toward men. While we also live in the tension between the now and not
yet. Praying for God’s light to continue to fill the earth.