12.13.2015 What Makes for Peace?

12-13-2015 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

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Father, thank You for this morning – this opportunity to worship You – to put aside everything else and focus on You. To know we are loved by You and You can be trusted. It can be hard to trust – sometimes circumstances make it difficult to act in faith – so give us faith in You – vision of You – that can sustain us. It is only in understanding Your character – knowing You – that we can have peace and hope. Help us not to miss the point – the ultimate prize and treasure – which is You.
Luke 2: 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men [g]with whom He is pleased.”
Many of the Christmas carols that we sing – and the cards that we send – focus on PEACE! This concept of Peace on earth is almost cliché – Christmas comes around and people pray for peace – and we have heard the stories of cease-fires on Christmas eve during war-time. Peace is a rich word, full of deep meaning. For us, we have narrowed the word down in our language – even or especially in the church – in two ways – and ways that take sides in the Christian church when we are talking about peace – but there are those, when they think of peace, think of absence of violence, conflict, and war. For some, that is ALL this is about. The writers of the Scriptures talk about peace as that – the end of war, violence and conflict – but it is more than just that.
The other way we narrow it down – Peace with God. Someone coming into relationship with God – we had a broken relationship with God and when the Bible talks about peace, there are those who say it is just about having peace in our relationship with God.
When you study the word – it means BOTH of these things – AND MORE! Both ways of looking at peace are important. Crucial! But it means so much more. We need to unpack that – so that we can be people of peace in a time of conflict.
In the Old Testament – the word for Peace is Shalom – resolution of conflict and violence – resolution of broken relationships – Michael Gorman says – the establishment of … goodness, justice, physical and spiritual well-being.
NT: Love of God, neighbor, and enemy – faith hope, holiness in the corporate body – righteousness, justification – a divine gift that calls for human response.
Personal well-being and calm. Interpersonal harmony – social welfare – cessation of discord. In general – well-being, wholeness, health – this word speaks deeply to what we are to be as Christians. When we talk about being people of peace – it is all of that.
It is an essential character trait of God – the God of Peace! There are 3 components to Biblical peace – 1) vertical – our relationship with God. 2) Horizontal – relationships with others – both within and outside the family of God. It begins with peace those we are close to. But it must spread beyond that into this world. And the third component) is a cosmic component. It speaks of the final triumph of God and the restoration of the world – the lion lying down with the lamb.
For us – what this says – we need to be involved in being people of peace in all three areas – to say you have peace with God but conflict in all your relationships – there is a problem. You cannot do that. Peace with God will lead to peace with people.
If you are a person of conflict – you need to look at your relationship with God. There is something wrong – because that is where peace begins. Relational peace begins there. We must maintain a good quality relationship with God – it is the beginning of all things for us.
One thing I talk about when studying the Bible – CONTEXT. When we read the Christmas story – what is important? Context. Good news – great joy – savior – Christ the Lord!
30 years before Jesus was born – a gospel – a good news – was sent out from Rome. The gospel of Caesar Augustus – Born was the son of god the savior of the world who is the lord to all – there were writings that said that about Caesar! So the story of Christmas is subversive – undercutting the kingdom of the world. When Jesus gave the beatitudes – you have heard is said… - there are those who are strong, rich, and powerful – but God’s way turns it all upside down. That is what the Christmas story does. It is not a great powerful king but a helpless baby that is the true Lord. Caesar is not lord. So when it comes to peace – peace on earth with whom He is pleased… It is contrasted to the Roman Empire – Pax Romana - the peace of Rome– But Luke is saying no government can bring peace – peace can only come from God through the suffering of the Messiah on the cross. The only hope for peace is Jesus. It would be good to think of that today. This world will always be in conflict – and all the efforts to bring peace fail because peace is only found in the baby born in Bethlehem. People that Jesus came to failed to understand God’s way of peace.
Luke 19: 41 When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.
Jesus came proclaiming peace and the Israelites missed it. First – by missing the Messiah – they did not like the type of Messiah Jesus was – they were looking for a military leader to drive out the Romans. Think of how hard that must have been to hear – waiting for someone to end the oppression – and the Messiah comes and says love your enemy – the Roman who has destroyed your land! You can almost not blame them for rejecting Him. They did not understand what makes for peace. We are looking in all the wrong places today.
In Ephesians, the word peace is used a lot – there is so much there about the peace of God. And there is much about the armor of God. It fits in – Rome proclaimed peace through power. That is how the world does it – and what does Paul write? Engaging in the battle – it is not about flesh and blood – but there is only one weapon – the Sword of the Spirit – the word of God. Shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel and peace.
The world thinks you can bring peace through power – but it comes only through this message – the Christmas message – the only hope for peace.
Matthew 5: 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
When we become peacemakers, we share God’s DNA – we are children of God – you are a peacemaker.
In the beatitudes, He is talking about what it looks like – the people of the kingdom ought to be known as peace makers – if they are not making peace – they are not the people of the kingdom – if they are inciting conflict – they are not the people of the kingdom. If you are in the kingdom of God – your heart will long for peace – vertically, horizontally – and cosmic peace.
We need to learn HOW to enter into conflict to bring peace. Be the initiator of peacemaking. We can say – it was their fault – they need to bring peace. A peacemaker doesn’t care whose fault it was.
It is hard to enter into conflict – isn’t it? You get in the middle of the shots! So it takes courage – but God calls us to that. We have so many opportunities.
We won’t solve the problems of the Middle East – but we have opportunities to be peacemakers – wherever we are.
What we need to learn to do – it is an engagement. Part of it is bringing people to God. It doesn’t stop there. But it begins by entering in and seeing our responsibility to bring peace to people and people to God.
It is the church’s responsibility to bring peace. But so often, the church is the opposite! We are to be peacemakers in conflict. We need to be real – peacemakers in a world filled with conflict – whether racial tension – refugees – terrorism – police conflict – does the rhetoric/speech/action of the church create an attitude of peace among the warring parties? What is coming out of the media and most politicians is doing nothing to create peace. There voice of peace must be the church.
Eph. 4:1b walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
…within the church.
Do you make every effort to make the unity of the spirit and bond of peace? Do you give it all you’ve got to make sure there is peace in all your relationships? To let go of the past – let go of the offense – we all get offended. There is plenty of offence and hurt out there. There is a sense of justice – like we have a right to be offended. Jesus gave up His right to be offended.
As far as it depends on you…
I understand there are people we may never get peace with – because of THEM – we have responsibilities as Christians – and our role is to be peacemakers. Now the government has other roles – but …
Eph. 2: 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, 15 when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace, 16 and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, 18 so that through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. (NET)
What we see- God is all about reconciliation – bringing peace! As God’s people – we are to be all about bringing peace.
“The church that does not practice peace will not be a credible witness”
If God is about reconciling enemies to himself – if we are not about that – we are not representing God – because that is what He is all about.
Final practical way to do this:
Romans 12: 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil; consider what is good before all people. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people. 19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head. 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Very simple way of practicing peace – loving our enemy. Jesus did it in such a way to make it clear that enemies come in all shapes and sizes. Some have enemies at work -others right in their family. This may apply to terrorism – but we need to apply this first to our own personal lives. There is a sense of enmity – and He tells us how to approach that. Give a blessing in return.
Matthew 5: 44 But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
These verses are written in a time of a terrorist roman empire.
Romans 12: 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
The final challenge – for me – watching all that is going on in the world – it is easy to be overcome by evil – to cause us to not act like Jesus would toward our enemies – that is what it means – to allow our attitudes and actions toward our enemies to be the opposite of what Jesus would do. Jesus forgave those who hung him on the cross right as they were doing it.
I fear for myself – I watch the news – and the boiling up comes – we want to respond in a certain way – and we must ask – am I being overcome by evil?
We allow the evil to enter in and consume our response and attitude.
I’ve been reading through Matthew in my quiet time – you are the salt of the earth – open your Bible –
Matt. 5: 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people.
When we are overcome by evil – and our response to it – in these trying times – we lose our saltiness – and all we are good for is to be thrown out and trampled. The gospel of the kingdom is trampled when we allow the evil to overcome us and control our responses to it.
“Loving your enemies is the ideal – it is no wonder this command became the most often quoted verse during the first four centuries of the church. Enemy love was the hallmark of believing in Jesus – o how things have changed “– Preston Sprinkle
Let’s pray…