Peace
Jeremy MacDonald · Tidal Church Moncton · December 8, 2024 · The Advent of Jesus series
Jeremy MacDonald looks at the shepherds in Luke 2 and Jesus' words in John 14 to show that Christmas peace comes in the middle of life's stress, not after it. Jesus gives peace of mind and heart, and invites us to receive it and share it.
More from Jeremy MacDonald · The The Advent of Jesus series
Topics: Peace, Fear & Anxiety, Christmas
Transcript
[0:00] Well, how many of you were out shopping yesterday? There was more of you shopping yesterday. I promise you that, because I went shopping yesterday and the whole city of Moncton was shopping yesterday. Listen, I grew up in this place. I've gone shopping lots around this time of year. It's wild out there. Oh my goodness. You know, we talk about this being a season of peace. We read about it. There's giant letters that say "peace" on the platform. It was not peaceful yesterday, shopping. And here's the really embarrassing thing about this. So if we don't know each other, my name's Jeremy, teaching pastor here. I'm married to Chantel. We have three kids.
[0:48] One of ours, the cutest one, was actually singing up here earlier. The boys are under, they understand, but she is the cutest. We have this arrangement. I don't know if you're married, if you have this arrangement, gentleman. Where the only person I have to shop for is my wife. So I don't even do a lot of shopping, but yesterday was the day and we went out and it was really, really not peaceful. Does anybody else want to, you want to admit that's kind of your deal? Like, your wife is picked up the lion's share. Gentlemen, if that's your arrangement, you just need to know. You need to be very grateful for your spouse. She has upped your game with your family, with your friends, with all the people around you. My family routinely thanks me for marrying her because the gifts are much different. I used to give terrible gifts before I got married, and this is not the point of anything, but just, gentlemen, this is the season to appreciate your wives again, if that's your arrangement.
[1:38] Okay, so I'm out shopping yesterday and I'm looking around and I've got my kids. We're doing the thing, we're getting the presents, and I'm watching people because this is the season of also watching people. I don't know if you like to do that. I like to do that. And so if you're listening to this or you're watching this, you know, weeks after, at this time as I get a chance to speak to you, it is only 17 days until Christmas. So that's the zone. That's like the moment. This is the time we're kind of ready and waiting for this kind of thing. And there's all sorts of excitement that comes with Christmas. But there's all sorts of this, like, wild different craziness that comes with it. And I'm watching people, and I'm watching them as they go around and they're shopping for somebody, obviously, 'cause we're in stores, and I can't say the stores 'cause my wife's here. And again, she's the only one I was shopping for yesterday.
[2:25] But the point is that not everybody seems to be enjoying themselves in this particular season, right? And you know, you're here and it's cute 'cause we've got kids and it's decorated and you know, it's Christmas and we get it all pumped up because we do. It's really exciting and for lots of us it's wonderful and there's so many wonderful moments of hope and joy and peace. And for others though, there's so many moments in this season, there's so many moments for you that perhaps aren't quite there. Because what happens is everything gets amplified at Christmas time. Like, this is the season of wading into a lot of difficult things. And so I don't want to, like, drag all of this out here, but I know for some of you, you're already anticipating and experiencing it.
[3:11] For example, two weekends ago, not this weekend, but last weekend, we had our first family Christmas party, which means that about eight days ago we experienced a little bit of this family conflict. Does anybody, don't put your hands up, but is anybody anticipating a little family conflict this time of year? Yeah, probably. Right? Like, this is just the nature of it. All of a sudden we get back together, we see those people. Maybe you haven't seen them in an entire year and it's like nothing's happened in 12 months and the conversations restart. And the same frustrations over that person are sparked. And it's wild to think, as much as we're excited, we also carry these difficult burdens and these difficult situations.
[3:56] And for you, as you look to the next 17 days, you're thinking about the family conflicts that are already kind of brewing. And as much as the season is great, it includes a little bit of this. It also includes a little bit of this for some people: isolation and loneliness. And maybe this is you, like maybe as you think about this season, this is that first year where, as great as a season it is, it's the first one where they're not gonna be here. And so you feel like, even as we get to it, it just reminds you that not everybody is around on Christmas morning. And maybe it's not even that they're gone forever, it's just that they're gone for these moments and it just hurts your heart.
[4:44] You wish it was different, and maybe it's because of the conflict that all of a sudden there's a bit more loneliness or isolation, or maybe it's the lead-in, it's your first time being an empty nester and the kids are coming home and it's exciting, but it's just a little bit different until they're here. It just doesn't quite feel the same. This is the part of the season too, there's a lot that happens. How about this one? This is a classic. As I watch people swiping cards, financial stress, maybe not in this moment, but in January when you start looking back through and figuring out what actually happened in December. But there's that whole thing that Christmas has these expectations and for you, you're expected to experience a bunch of stress 'cause it's not gonna all match up.
[5:30] And you've got hopes and things you want people to experience. And the money that it takes creates the stress. This season also reveals all sorts of things around people's health concerns because they can't make it in the same way. Or you have to reschedule things a little bit or that person, we have to visit them in the hospital. And I know around this time of year, especially as a church, we talk, I talked, preached last week at our location in Miramichi and the amount of people that just have a list of people that they're praying for and concerns that they have. It just reminds us in this season of Christmas that there's still so many things that although we would love to experience the peace, we don't quite get there because of so much of life. Or how about this one? This is for the students, academic pressure.
[6:19] I'm also a university professor at Kingswood down in Sussex and we were chatting just two weeks ago about the challenges of getting a number of our students to the end of the semester and what that means and what it looks like and how many missing assignments there are. And so if you're sitting here and you've got homework left that's due tomorrow, it is a honest pressure. And as much as you wanna celebrate, you feel it. And then those, these are just like the personal things, but there's the big things too. And especially in this generation, we see global conflicts. You open the news, not on social media because we live in Canada, but you open the news sites and all of a sudden you realize there's a lot going on, and not only just global conflicts, but even the climate anxiety of, where is everything gonna end up for us? And all of this stuff weighs heavy, and in the midst of it all, Merry Christmas, peace on earth, right?
[7:10] Like it's kind of this weird sense of why is there so much at odds with what the message of Christmas seems to be, you know, and we, and for some people you just kind of try to like push it under the rug. And yet you can't push all of this under the rug. And when it fights against itself in your heart and your soul and your spirit, my hope for us today is that we could open up the Christmas story and realize and know that in the midst of all the realities of life, there's still an incredible story and an invitation to peace. And it's not in spite of all of this, it's actually in the midst of all of this.
[7:55] Because the very first Christmas, the very start to the good news came in a moment where all these kinds of things were swirling around for even the folks that were experiencing it for the first time. The story goes like this. Luke records it. Luke records it at the very beginning of his story. We get two of the classic Christmas narratives. The first in Matthew. The second in Luke. But they're both telling the account of the birth of Jesus. And Luke goes all the way to this enormous surprise, to a surprising group of people, actually. And this is the way that he gets into it. In Luke 2:8, we read this. That night, there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep, which we quickly move past because we just hear this, if you've heard the Christmas story before, this is natural.
[8:48] We hear about the shepherds. Aren't they so cool? They're cute 'cause they're usually kids. We give them the sticks and we like take pictures of them. We didn't this morning, like we didn't have shepherds this morning. But that's just kind of the image that we get. We forget though that shepherds were actually really different than that. They were not cute, they were very stinky and they were living outside with these weapons that they could attack all of the animals that came to eat their sheep. These guys were the blue collar workers of their day and kind of a little bit on the outskirts of society because of the way that they would have to live. I don't know about you, but the idea of tenting all year long isn't as exciting as, you know, for some people. Some people that's exciting. But these shepherds, they lived outside. Do you know how many bugs are outside? And like they just, that was their routine. That was their rhythm. They were there and this was a life for them.
[9:36] But not just that they were there with this sheep, but they were there in the midst of life in the first century. They were living as Jews in an area that was controlled by the Roman empire. Their freedoms were capped. Their experiences of life were dictated by this overpowering authority that was stopping them from living as a culture, as a, as a people and all that they thought they were meant to live into. They had the stress of not knowing what the next year would look like. They had the conflict of being disconnected from family. And that night, as those shepherds gathered, all of a sudden there was this good news, but it came perhaps differently than sometimes we anticipate, or at least sometimes how we understand it.
[10:27] So an angel of the Lord appeared among them and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. And this is always interesting 'cause if you've had people that have told you that they had an experience with an angel and they saw an angel and an angel spoke to them, the follow up question should always be, how scared were you? Because every time in the Bible, this is exactly what happens when an angel shows up, this is what happens. They were terrified. They were terrified because the angel, whatever that looks like, whatever that experience was, is terrifying to show up and to be in their presence and to be in front of them and to be with them. They were terrified 'cause they didn't know what was about to happen. They're not used to this. It's not like, hey, every Tuesday morning we have the conversation with the angel. It's like this is something different and the angel is there.
[11:14] So they were terrified, but the angel reassured them and had to keep reassuring them. In fact, the angel says, and this is what Luke records that the angel says, "Don't be afraid. I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior, yes, the Messiah, the Lord has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David. And you'll recognize Him by this sign. You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth lying in a manger." Now, shortly at this moment for these shepherds is, as much as they were terrified, they're like, okay, but a baby, like we were expecting and kind of hoping that the Messiah would come and do something dramatic, like He would be able to take care of all of our enemies.
[12:04] That He would come riding on a horse triumphant, but a baby. Are you sure? Are you sure that's gonna do anything for us? And suddenly, though, the angel was joined by this vast host of others, the armies of heaven. And finally the power shows up. Surely this is gonna be the thing that takes over, praising God. And they say this, "Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace. Peace and peace on earth. Peace on earth with whom God is pleased." Peace. You know, it's kind of confusing because you would think, again, it's a takeover, but maybe there's a sense that the Roman peace that was kind of infused on their world was perhaps what they began thinking about.
[12:58] You see, in those days there was this understanding of this expectation that the Romans who occupied the area all around this spot where Jesus was born, Jerusalem, Judea area, all of this area, the Romans were in control. And if you look in history, and this is not just a Bible thing or a scripture thing, this is like an all of history thing. There's a sense that the Romans brought their peace. In fact, they would call it the Pax. Again, I might butcher this Romana, but it was this famed peace of Rome. And one of the commentators commentating on Matthew 'Cause we get a little bit of this, or the Gospel of Matthew as well. He kind of explains this. He says, "It was a surface condition imposed by Caesar Augustus and the Roman military might, but it did not bring freedom to all her subjects.
[13:45] Just below the surface swirl tides of discontent and insurrection." We read on. Matthew opens his gospel. And then Luke explaining a little bit of this piece by declaring that in one of the remote regions of the empire where a variety of disturbances repeatedly surface, the hope for freedom finally arrived in a most unexpected way. A rival to Augustus was born in Bethlehem. But this rival did not appear with fanfare, nor would He challenge directly the military and political might of Rome. Instead, the revolution was brought by Jesus, the long awaited Messiah of Israel. But throughout His life's mission, Jesus disappointed many of His own people because His was a revolution of the heart and not a revolution of swords or chariots.
[14:37] The peace that they were expecting, maybe it would come with a sword or maybe it would come with power, or maybe it would come with this massive authority to restructure their circumstances. But instead it's a baby and the heaven's armies are there and they're, you know, theoretically like God, could you not bring them and like defeat and destroy all our enemies and change everything in our lives. And God says peace is coming. And as much as it's difficult to reconcile our own lack of peace in our own journeys with the story of Christmas, that's exactly the sense that was happening in the first century. What do you do with the fact that it doesn't always seem to land where we wish it would land?
[15:25] And this was the nature of Jesus's story. This is the Christmas story, but it's the story of Jesus's ministry. So the baby grows up and continues this message and story and preaching peace. And to understand really what He was inviting us into or what He invites you into and what you can experience today, even in the midst of the circumstances is perhaps part of what we need to do is we need to kind of paint the picture of where He talks about this peace and how He talks about it and what He's trying to, what He's really trying to do for you and for me. 'Cause here's the thing, like I've been, I've been a Christian like pretty much my whole life, you know, I've shared this before if you've been around, but like I grew up in church world, some of you like this is your first Sunday or it's your first time listening and like this is all pretty new for you.
[16:14] So I just want to own the fact that, hey, when you show up in this kind of way and you're trying to reconcile all of these things, it can be a little confusing. But one of the things that we like to do is we take these words of Jesus, these invitations of Jesus, and we kind of wrestle with them, we talk about them, you know, for many people, we actually take this into groups throughout this week. We start a conversation here today, but then later this week you'll be in a small group, and the idea of peace will come up as a conversation because we want these words of Jesus to reframe and reshape our hearts as we continue to hope and pray that they may change our lives. And so this is what happens. And John, we read this earlier, beautiful reading, the classic reading for this week of Advent, the expectation of Jesus coming.
[17:00] But the start to the peace passage, just so you are aware, is a question just a couple of verses earlier. I wanna read you the question from John's Gospel, chapter 14: Judas. Now, not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name, which is just an interesting reminder that the Bible is true. Because surely if you were writing this after the fact and your name was Judas, you're like, can you just change my name to like John, there's John, people he likes. John's like, let's just, he changes people's names. Let's just swap it out like it's fine. I'll stop going because Judas is obviously, anyways, you'll read about that if you don't know. But he's not Judas Iscariot. It's a different one. And he said to Him, and some people think this is actually one of Jesus's half brothers, half brother because, and there's more to that. But anyways, point being, Judas said to Him, and this is the question, the real point, "Lord, why are You going to reveal Yourself only to us and not to the world at large?"
[17:52] And this was the constant, it seemed, because Jesus showed up in that wonderful Christmas narrative. But it was, seemed as much as it was large and it was with the shepherds and there was impressive, and there's the three kings. And but there wasn't three, maybe there was, there were wise men, maybe there was more. We don't know. But there were three gifts. It wasn't the same kind of entrance that people were hoping for. And even as Jesus journeyed with the disciples that He wasn't meeting their expectations of what they hoped for from the Messiah, even right up until the moment of His death. In fact, there's this, the story of Jesus going into Jerusalem the week before He would die on the cross, He rides into Jerusalem on an animal.
[18:37] Do you remember what the animal was? It was a donkey. And they bring the palm branches and they praise Him. Hosanna, interestingly enough, a generation before there was this revolt amongst the Jews because of the Roman occupation. And somebody rode into Jerusalem and they brought the palm branches in the same kind of way. And they praised him and sang Hosanna, but he rode into Jerusalem on a horse. And in those days, a horse was the sign of war. A donkey is a sign of peace. And so Jesus, throughout His ministry, defied all expectations and invited people to experience peace when they had hoped for something much different. And so for Judas and for His disciples, Jesus, why wouldn't You transform everything in front of us, destroy the Roman empire?
[19:29] Why don't You reveal Yourself to everybody in a profound kind of way? This was their expectation. Why don't You take our circumstances and change them? And Jesus says, and this is the verse that we read. This is what He invites us to experience. This is what He says to them and to us. I am leaving you with a gift, a Christmas gift, the gift of peace of mind and heart. I don't know about you, but like in the midst of some of the most difficult circumstances, peace of mind and heart is way more valuable than I would've ever known growing up.
[20:15] Like as you think about that awful list of stuff that you're dealing with and that's a part of your journey or maybe it's somebody else that's in your life, like peace of mind and heart. What a gift that is, because when people have it and when they experience it, and you see those people where just they're so peaceful, it's profound. It's sometimes annoying, but it's profound and annoying just because you're so confused. How can you be at peace even though you're living with that pain? How can you be at peace even though the walls are crumbling in around you? How can you be at peace even though so many people might be against you?
[21:02] But this is the peace that Jesus is talking about. And when people actually have it, the whole world takes note. Because do you know what our world is missing? At least one of the things is peace of mind and peace of heart. How many young people, how many old people wrestle with the stress and anxiety, depression, depressive symptoms, things that weigh them down? And here's a Jesus who's saying, "I want to give the peace of mind and heart, and the peace," He says, "I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled and don't be afraid." And when we look throughout His entire ministry, we find all these examples of this peace coming into focus and Him talking about it.
[21:50] In fact, we go back to Luke at the very beginning, and there's this prophecy, Zechariah actually prophesied about the life of Jesus and what God was about to do. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. He gave this prophecy because of God's tender mercy. "The morning light from heaven is about to break upon us," speaking about the birth of Jesus, "to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide us into the path of peace." How compelling is that? How inviting is that? How is that so much more than what we would hope for if it's true? And Jesus would say, Jesus would say this to people when He interacted with them in the midst of their circumstances. There was the time when the woman brought the oil, and she poured it on Him. And then He had this interaction with her where He said, in Mark, chapter 5, He said to her daughter, "Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.
[22:44] Your suffering is over." And then another woman who had reached out to Him, who had a bleeding disorder, and she reaches out in the crowd and she touches the edge of His robe. And Jesus says to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace." This is Him. This is Jesus. This is the story of Christmas, the birth of something different, the start of a new kingdom, a new experience. He would say this in Matthew, Jesus describing what it means to look to Him and to follow Him. He says, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens." And some of you are carrying heavy burdens today. And Jesus says, if you are, "Come to Me and I will give you rest," peace.
[23:31] "Take My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light." He would say this in the peace passage from John 16. A little later in that conversation with His disciples around Him, John records these words. "I've told you all this so that you may have peace in Me here on this earth. You will have many trials and sorrows, but take heart 'cause I have overcome the world." And so at Christmas time, the peace that we're talking about, the peace that we want people to know about is the peace of Jesus, this gift that He gives.
[24:21] And so for you, if you're here and you need a little bit of that kind of peace, the thing that you need to know and the thing you need to do is to refix your eyes on Jesus, because it's easy to get distracted in our day and age and in our culture. And if we were having coffee together and we talked about this, likely there is a possibility that as much as you know all these things to be true, that in this season or in this stretch or in this part of life or this part of your circumstances, your eyes have gotten a little bit unfocused off of Jesus. Not unfocused, that's the wrong way to say it. They're not focused on Jesus, you're distracted. And so when you hear these kinds of things, the call is that we have to put our eyes back on Him and invite Him to bring that peace that He's promised us and to bring it into our lives.
[25:07] But the second thing is that for those that understand this, could we be the kinds of people that would be so profoundly impacted by this peace that the world around us, that the world around us would take note, that we would be the odd ones because we have the peace of mind and heart that so many people are desperate for? And would we have a response to be able to point to this Jesus when those ask us and wanna know, how can you live with that kind of peace? You know, Don Carson is one of the commentators in particular on the Gospel of John. And I've read his commentary on John through, and I've loved the way that the Gospel of John kind of invites and explains these kinds of things.
[25:57] I wanna read you this, because the peace of God is so profound in the story of our Scriptures that when you take note of it, you actually get a chance to see how God's been inviting us to experience His peace throughout more than just throughout, more than just these passages for sure. So if I can read you from his commentary on John in this particular section, he says, "Peace is one of the fundamental characteristics of the messianic kingdom, which was anticipated in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New." It's been talked about and hoped for, for people for thousands of years. "At the individual level, this peace secures composure in the midst of trouble." This is what we often articulate it as. "And it dissolves fear." But there's even more to it than that.
[26:42] He goes on, "This is the peace which garrisons our hearts and our minds against the invasion of anxiety." And I don't mean like anxiety disorders that, you know, you might talk to a doctor about. I mean the anxiousness that grips us so often, the anxiousness that grips you so often about all the different things. And instead this peace comes and lives within us and comes and speaks and ministers to us and rules or arbitrates in the hearts of God's people to maintain harmony amongst them. And so when we go to this passage in John, this one that we started off this whole service by reading, my invitation to you and to me, as the team comes, they're gonna lead us in one final song, is that these words of Jesus in John 14, if we can take a look at it, "I'm leaving you with a gift.
[27:36] This peace of heart and this mind and heart." Have we actually received it? Have you actually taken the time to receive it from God? Or do you put up a wall in this kind of season because your focus is away from Christ and on all those circumstances? And so all I'm saying is, would you, would you take a moment, perhaps, wherever you're at in your faith journey, again, you can believe none of this stuff is real and true, and yet still take a shot, even in these moments, and saying, "Well, God, if You're really there, with the gift that You've left us through the power of the Holy Spirit, would You let me experience that peace today?" And I think for each and every one of us, if we would be honest enough to open ourselves up to God speaking in that kind of way to our hearts, I think, because of Jesus' words, He wants that to be your experience.
[28:38] And just like the shepherds went back to tending sheep, you're gonna go back to the same issues financially. And there's the same conflict with the family and, and yeah, they may still not show up this year. And it's odd. I can't explain it fully, but there's just something different, that when the peace of Jesus is in your heart, that things change and the things are just different. So I wanna pray for us, and I wanna pray for you, because for some of you, that is exactly what you need. And then for some of us, we know people that desperately need this peace, and we have to bring it to them. We have to be the people that are willing to show up and to offer that peace and tell that story and draw them in and help them see and experience what God has done in our lives so that they can experience it.
[29:29] 'Cause the world is so gripped by anxiousness and fear, and they don't have to be. The freedom of this peace is available to all. Would we be the kinds of people that would be the holders and bearers of that peace for those around us? So would you close your eyes here in this space? And maybe if there's just a few people, and there's nothing miraculous about this, but I would love to just pray, and maybe just the honest flag more between you and God than it is between you and me, that even today, that you would like to experience more of this gift of peace, this peace of mind and heart. If you need that today or if you want that today and you would ask, you ask Jesus, would You bring that today?
[30:17] Would you just kinda slip your hand up? I'd just like to pray for you. There's a few people, yeah. Again, it's not between you and me, this is between you and God, but recognizing just that honest acknowledgement of need. I wanna pray for you, and I pray, heavenly Father, that for all of us, this is a gift that You give to us. And yet, for some of us, today's a day that we need it, like we feel it in our bones. And so would You do what You have said You would do and give that gift of peace of mind and heart? Would You actually bring Your Spirit even in this room, in this moment, for those that are wanting it and needing it? Would they feel Your Spirit at work even right now, that they wouldn't leave this place without just experiencing You in a new and maybe even more profound way than they have before, recognizing that it's because of Your power that we get to experience this.
[31:15] We look to You for this. It's not anything what I have said, but God, it's You. Would You bring Your peace? And then God, for all of us, peace in this season would be so profound for our world today. And so would You give us opportunities to step into situations, either with family or with friends, with loved ones? Could we be the embodiment of Your love and peace so that the world may know they don't have to be gripped by fear, they don't have to be gripped by anxiousness, but instead they can receive from You the peace that passes all understanding. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.