This week Luke continues the series 'Here Comes Heaven' as we look at something that everyone want, but finds really hard to attain.......Peace. Join Luke as he dives into Isaiah 61 at a look at one of God's great promises
This week Luke continues the series 'Here Comes Heaven' as we look at something that everyone want, but finds really hard to attain.......Peace. Join Luke as he dives into Isaiah 61 at a look at one of God's great promises
Hello and welcome to the Luke Miller Podcast. I'm glad that you're able to join me today on this week's episode, we're continuing our series here comes Heaven. In this week, we're looking at something that is so evasive in our culture, peace. And it's not just in the culture we live right now it's throughout history. It's something that has been tough to attain. And we're going to look at it from a biblical perspective today. I hope you're excited I know I am. So grab your Bibles and let's dive in is we continue our series we find ourselves taking a look at Pease and, and at Christmas in general, I think it's, it's safe to say that it's not easy keeping all the facts straight about Christmas. If you watch enough Hallmark movies, you're not sure what Christmas is ever anymore. And it's also not easy keeping our faith and our feelings lined up either. And just Christmas really bring joy and peace and forgiveness and hope. According to most studies that that I was reading, this is a season of stress. It is a season where people are many people are sad. And in there's a lot of anxieties that come with this type of year. And NBC actually conducted a poll and found out that 41% of people feel that they are just maxed out right now. Whether it's finances, whether it was just emotionally and it's tough, right. And yet today we find ourselves talking about peace. Last week we took a look at hope and understanding hope in the future. And day we're taking are turning our attention to peace. And we find ourselves in chapter two verse 10. And where after one angel it appeared to the shepherds in in verse 10, announcing good news of great joy that will be for all people. Suddenly an entire army of Angel messengers fill the sky with an outpouring of adoration and said in verse 14, Glory to God in the highest. And while angels do sing in other instances, this time, they say these words of worship specifically, the word suddenly means that the heavenly house appeared unexpectedly. It is if one angel announcing the news was no longer enough, and suddenly the sky filled with a multitude of messengers, a great company of warriors. And I don't want us to think that this was like an 80 person choir, we're probably talking about the 10s, of 1000s of, of angels appearing, appearing to them singing praise in the highest possible way. They couldn't help but praise Christ, because he had been born that First Peter chapter 112 tells us that angels long to look into these things. And this has the idea of angels peering into the idea of redemption, knowing what is coming next. And these angels were waiting a long time for the birth of a baby and now they are just filled with adoration. And this is the song that comes out of it. The this doxology that we hear by the angels at the end of the message was God centered. It was focused on the glory of God, which is what we know angels sing about. And can you imagine how loud this must be? Their the funny part in this is that their praise then led them to declare a proclamation of peace in on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. Now it seems hard for us to imagine a bunch of shepherds out in the fields, minding their own business in the quiet nights outside of Bethlehem when all of a sudden a host of angels appear and start singing and then say hey, peace. Yeah, it doesn't seem like a peaceful night. And I think that's where even today as we look at this, we'll see that our definition of peace is a lot different than what the sometimes a biblical or the world definition or the world sorry, I should say that again. The world's definition of peace is much different than what the biblical definition of peace is. I kind of if I'm translating this, it would really be on earth peace among many And who are the objects of his pleasure? Saying God cares so much and he's for you. And He's declaring peace is cuz the wording is slightly different when, when we read, when we read this now, the idea that we have here, in fact, one Greek scholar renders it like this peace among men who are the recipients of God's goodness. And, and you'll notice that the peace comes only after praising. I think that's an important step that we have to focus on here is that we must put God first in his glory first, then peace will be the outflow of that. Not I'm living in chaos, I want peace now. It is really the order in which we we do this, we put God first we give glory to God first. And that natural outcome of that will be peace. And while this is a great time of year, there's also nothing magic about the season if if someone doesn't know Christ, and I think that's the other the other focus that we have. When we take a look at at peace, and and what it means the word peace actually occurs about 400 times in Scripture. And in the Old Testament, peace is the word shalom, which we've often heard. In fact, if you're talking to someone on the streets in Jerusalem, you the way you say hello is you say Muslim, ha, what's your peace, and that's the greeting. And in, when used as a greeting, Shalom was a wish for outward freedom from disturbance, as well as an inward sense of well being for the Jewish people, to people constantly harassed by enemies, peace was the premier blessing. In fact, in Numbers chapter 624, to 26, God gave Moses these words to use when blessing his people, may the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you, the Lord turn his face towards you, and give you peace. And, and so, so we see that there's this importance in the Old Testament, specifically about how much of a value is put on peace. And, and I wanted to jump in today a little bit in Isaiah 61, written 700 years before Jesus was born in and then we'll move to a scene in the synagogue where Jesus applies the words from Isaiah chapter 61, to himself in Luke chapter four. And we're going to be linking these two passages together by drawing from the Christmas Christmas narratives that we find in Luke chapter two in Matthew chapter one. So we're kind of bouncing around. But the idea is to show the natural flow of not only what was declared as a promise in the Old Testament, as it is fulfilled in the New Testament with Jesus. And I hope you are picking up on the fact that, that last week we talked about hope and that past hope based on promises that will be fulfilled. And so here we see hope realized, and it's actually coming in the form of peace, which is a promise of God as well. So Isaiah 61 says, The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach the Good News to the poor, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. Jesus came to bring joy and he came to bind up the brokenhearted and this echo some for 147 Three, which says he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Now, I think it's important for us to understand yes, what pieces but also what is not peaceful, or what is broken hearted, because this is a key component of attaining peace is understanding what it is not. And this can cover all sorts of things, this is people who are crushed by a loss in life, circumstances are are weighing on them, people who are broken, people who are abused people who have disappointment, people who have physical ailments, who have loneliness, who are victimized by aggressors, who are rejected by those they love, paralyzed, have made bad decisions, in many ways summed up destitute because of sin, and sin has taken over their lives. So brokenhearted covers a lot of areas in the biblical world. So so that message of Jesus coming to bind up the brokenhearted you know, brokenness hits us physically relationally emotionally, financially and spiritually. And in times like this, it's good for us to take comfort in the knowledge that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. I mean, it makes us glad that Jesus binds us The brokenhearted and. And Isaiah nine six tells us that one of the name one of His Names is Prince of Peace. In fact, if if you drive into the parking lot at Sunrise community church, you'll see that our Christmas banners are up. And on one side it says in His name shall be called. And we go through all of the different names of that Isaiah six Prince of peace, the prince who comes brings peace is a literal Li, the declaration that that it has, and even more so verse seven adds Of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end. Isaiah 53 Three says that Jesus is a man of sorrows, and an each of us and gives each of us personal attention, soothing, pain, healing and restoring us to wholeness. In short, he brings peace, where there is no peace. And again, that's kind of this theme that we're going to start to see as we look at these key components of of Advent, with hope, it's, it was realizing that, that we can put our hope in Christ, and that we shouldn't put our hope, in our own lose hope, in our own circumstances, because Christ Himself is more than the sum of all of our circumstances, it allows us to focus our hope, Christ again allows us to focus our peace. So So continuing on with this, the piece in the New Testament means to join together to set at one again. And there's several dimensions to this that I want to just talk about today. The first is, I mean, it all has to go in order. The first is peace with God. That's that vertical dimension, that we have to have peace with God. Before understanding how we have peace with others is we have to put God first, we must come to grips with our state of our relationship with God apart from Christ. And while God loves us and cherishes us, he's filled with indignation because of our sinfulness. Romans chapter 118, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and the wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. And so we see here that there's something about making yourself right with God. Therefore, since we've been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter five, one, so there is that recognition that God has to come first, in order for us to attain peace with others, we got to be at peace with God. And that sometimes is, is the tougher part of it, right? Because we find ourselves in a place where we want to see relationships healed, or our relationships with others restored. And we want peace and other areas of our life. But to have that we can't just go straight to the end outcome, right, we need to go first and have that peace with God. Peace only sounds wonderful when we recognize that we've been at war, I think is sometimes a good way of putting it. It's it's a radical thought that God's anger is satisfied because of the sacrifice of His Son. God's Fury is fully absorbed by the death of Jesus. Once we are justified by faith, peace is a primary reality for the believer. And the word with God points in a personal relationship with God. And I need us to understand this, we don't deserve this piece to men on whom his favor rest that is talked about. In fact, we deserve much, much worse. But because of God's great love, he has provided a way for us to be set at one again with God, God's joy and his justice converge on the cross of Calvary, His love and His law, find full satisfaction through the death of his son of his son, God is both just and the justifier. But I didn't want to get ahead and talk about love and joy, because we haven't done that in our series yet. So I think the main component, like I said, is, is asking ourselves, do we have peace with God today? Or are we far away from him? Are we disconnected? If so, the first part of our mission is, as a church and as individuals is to be connected with Jesus. And our second part is to connect others with Jesus. I think of Isaiah 57, nine to wash over, says we think of this as peace, peace to those far and near says the Lord, and I will heal them. What a great passage when we when we think of our primary spot of being in a place where we are right with God. But then the secondary which is doing everything we can to make other people right with God. The second part is, is the outflow of the first which is we will achieve peace, the peace of God, in order to have the peace of God eternally, we must first experience peace with God. And so it's now moving from that relationship to that gift that he gives us. We will experience this peace in proportion to the room that we I think we give the Holy Spirit in our lives as well, and what that looks like and where we if we're willing to go where God calls us. And so, that really, is that the one? Well, the one key component of this peace with God leads to the peace of God. The second part, of course, is understanding peace with others. When we're at peace with God, and we have our own internal peace, then we can be at peace with others. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the famous German pastors slash theologian once said, The followers of Jesus had been called to peace. When he called them they found their peace, for he is their peace. Now they are told that they must not only have peace, but make it themselves. And this is where Jesus comes with this. Matthew five, nine, Blessed are the peacemakers, right? And it's not blessed are the peacekeepers, but the peacemakers, or peace workers and people who work actively worked for peace. Now, there's a big difference, right? Because there's a difference between, bless it are the peacekeepers in those who are actively making peace. The peacekeepers, as many ways as we see it with, for example, the United Nations, they send peacekeepers over to areas to make sure that war doesn't break out. They're doing everything in their power to prevent something bad from happening. The Peacemaker is actually trying to stop the scenario, itself, create peace, so war is never even an option. It so much of it is about restoration. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification. So the question that we have, as we asked, try and figure out what peace with others looks like is, are we planting peace with others? Or are we sowing, maybe seeds of strife, and we have to determine whether we want to be that planter of peace or not. Our goal is to see people restored in Christ. But we also want to see relationships restored. Because Because peace with others brings the same thing. As we experience peace with God, we experienced the peace of God. And as we seek to make peace with others, our goal is that others experience peace as well. The only way for people to have peace with God is to have inner that inside peace, that relationship with him. And to be at peace with others is for people like us to tell them about the gospel of peace, the gospel of God, which brings that true peace. Acts, chapter 30, verse 36, is really great in this, where it says, you know, the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of all, just as the shepherds hurried off to tell the good news, we also have to go and share peace with others as well. I want us to think of it in a sense, as weird as it may be is, you know, we think of those angels, declaring peace to all men within with whom his favor rests, to the shepherds out in the fields of Bethlehem that day, and that message that Jesus has been born. Now, if you're listening to this, and your Christ follower, you have heard that message, maybe not with a host of angels declaring it to you, but you've heard the saving grace of the gospel. And now it's time for us to do exactly what those shepherds did that day in Bethlehem, which is go and share the news of the gospel share so people can experience the peace that you experience. Now, as we finish, I want to make it clear, right? Just because, you know, the peace that maybe the world determines is saying peace and quiet. Right? It's that that moment after you've been, Oh, I remember I would ride when I was a youth pastor, I would work and we would go on retreats and you would ride on a school bus for four hours with 40 kids, and you get out and you're just like I just I just want a quiet room, you know, I just want peace. And while people are looking for that type of peace, the realization is, is that there's going to be chaos, you can experience peace in chaos. And it's not in the form of just silence. It's the form of God's peace and in a world that is so filled with chaos, that is so filled with hurt. Our hope is that we can deliver that true gospel of peace, that Gospel Jesus Christ to those around us. I think that's a great place for me to leave it today. So I'm just going to stop right there. As we finish up in peace. We're gonna continue on in our admin series next week, and I'm looking forward to that. But I want to thank you for joining me today and joining me with this podcast as we take a deeper look into Advent. I hope you're enjoying it. I know I am. So take care. Have a great week, and I'll talk to you next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai