Peace on Earth?? You gotta be kidding!
The following message was preached on 8th December 2012 at the Allambie Heights Cerebral Palsy Alliance.
Reading: Isaiah 9:1-7
Peace on earth. It’s one of the things we celebrate at Christmas. But as we look at the world, and our relationships, and even within ourselves, we may start to wonder where is this ‘peace on earth’ we’re meant to be celebrating?
I looked at the world section in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, and saw stories about violent clashes in Egypt, people being killed by typhoons, spies being poisoned to death. Peace on earth? Are you serious?
Then in our lives, we so quickly find ourselves arguing and bickering with the people we love! I know I’m one who’s always up for a good argument, and I sometimes wonder why some people are still talking to me.
Then if we’re not arguing and bickering with other’s we’re getting frustrated with ourselves, and our limitations with trying to get things done! We’re now into the Christmas season, and my past three weeks has been anything but peaceful. I’ve been down to Melbourne, and I’m convinced that anyone who finds that flying is peaceful can’t be normal. Last weekend I was down in the Southern Highlands, preaching. Today I’m here. Tomorrow I’m at Turramurra Anglican. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I’m trying to re-write a major paper so I can graduate college. And then there’s the local shopping centre! Peace on earth? You’ve gotta be kidding! How can we as Christians seriously talk about peace on earth?
Well, I’ll tell you how. A long time a go – a REALLY long time ago, there was a guy called Isaiah. Isaiah was a prophet. Now, what prophets did was they spoke on the behalf of God. Isaiah was telling people what God was about to do. If you think things today are pretty wild, the kinds of things that Isaiah was talking about were ‘off the planet’. Because God’s own people were disobeying God, Isaiah was predicting a time when God’s people would loose their country and their city, and nothing of their city would be left. Absolutely nothing! They’d be forced to live in a foreign country where they spoke a foreign language. A time that was not peaceful in any sense.
Yet, Isaiah wasn’t all bad news. He also spoke about a time when these people, who had lived in this very dark time would also see a very bright light. A time when everyone and everything against them would be stopped. Because Isaiah also predict a time when a mighty ruler would be born – a King. A King whose kingdom would be world wide. The law of this land would be justice and peace, and will last for eternity. Forever!
Despite the turmoil that Isaiah saw coming, he could still talk about peace. Whether or not Isaiah knew it at the time, this Mighty King he was talking about was Jesus. Isaiah was talking about Jesus over 700 year before Jesus was born. Jesus would be the King of this everlasting kingdom and bring about this peace.
So how does Jesus bring about this peace? The problem God’s people had in Isaiah’s day was they had disobeyed God. And it’s the exact same problem we have today. As long as there’s sin, we can’t have peace with God. Unless someone takes our sin away. And guess what Jesus did? He took our sins away. This was the whole reason why Jesus was born. Jesus was born, he lived, he died, and he rose again so we could have peace with God. That in his very death, he took all of our sins, all that we’ve done, and ever will do, and they were destroyed, done away with, finished. Peace on earth starts when we have peace with God, by putting our faith in Jesus, trusting what he has done.
Isaiah says that people will rejoice over this, like at harvest time. Now, none of us are farmers, and we don’t know the joys of harvest time. But I take this is something to get excited about. So what do people get excited about around Christmas? They get excited about Santa, presents, decorations, shopping (unless you’re male). People get excited about food. My Bible study group had a Christmas dinner on Thursday night, and when the food came out, boy, did I get excited! That homemade dark chocolate cheesecake was something else! But here’s the question: how excited do we get about Jesus. How much do we praise Jesus, talk about Jesus, cherish the life Jesus has given us? Because as good as that cheesecake was on Thursday night, it pales into insignificance compared to the peace we have in Jesus. Jesus is worth getting excited about.
The world is messy, our relationships are messy, and our lives are messy, but when it comes to ‘peace on earth’, we are serious. We’re not kidding around. Because peace on earth starts when we have peace with God, and this is what Jesus has achieved for us now. As believers, we look forward to the time when Jesus return to establish his kingdom where we wont only have peace with God, but we’ll also have peace with everyone else. Now that is something to get excited about! Let’s spend Christmas praising Jesus and talking about him.
(c) The Student’s Desk, 2012
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