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Peace on Earth
By Pastor Andrew J. Webb
Preached 02/16/03
Luke 2:8-10
8 Now there were in
the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch
over their flock by night.
9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory
of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
10 Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I
bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
11 "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior,
who is Christ the Lord.
12 "And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped
in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly
host praising God and saying:
14 "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward
men!"
15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven,
that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem
and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made
known to us."
16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe
lying in a manger.
17 Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying
which was told them concerning this Child.
18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were
told them by the shepherds.
19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
20 Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all
the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.
As we look at these verses, I want you to notice three things in
particular:
1)The Message
2)The People to Whom the Message came
3)And what those people did with the Message.
1)THE MESSAGE:
On the night on which Jesus was born, Angels appeared to shepherds
tending their flocks in the hill country around Bethlehem. These
messengers of God came bringing the greatest and most important news
that has ever been communicated. Namely, that Christ the Lord had
been born in Bethlehem.
The word "Christ" which we read for the first time in this Gospel
here in verse 11, would have had profound meaning to the Shepherds
who heard it that night. The word literally means "the annointed
one" or Messiah. They knew that this was the promised redeemer of
Old Testament prophecy. They would have heard those promises again
and again as the scriptures of the Old Testament were read every
week in the Synagogue. And now, the one spoken of, the Son of David,
the long-awaited Messiah had been born in their lifetime. Now
Immanuel, God with us, for whom they waited and prayed had come. The
Lord God had become incarnate, and had come to dwell amongst men.
The message is not only that Christ is born in Bethlehem, which
would have been good tidings in and of itself. But also as we read
in verses 11 and 12, this shall be a cause of great joy to all the
nations and races and peoples of the earth, for He shall be a
Savior.
"Savior" or Soter in Greek, means deliverer. Jesus the Savior has
come to deliver not only the Jews, but men from every time and
place, from their real enemies, sin and death. He it is who will
interpose his precious blood on behalf of His people, and by His
atoning death, pay the price for the sins of all the Elect. He is
the suffering servant of Isaiah 53:4:
"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His
stripes we are healed."
But in order to be the Savior, Christ had to do more than just make
atonement for the sins of His people through His sacrifice on the
cross. For even if all your sins were purged, being washed away by
His blood, shed on your behalf, yet you would still have nothing to
recommend to you God. You would still not have that perfect
righteousness that can only come through flawless obedience to God's
Law.
Let me give you an example to explain what I mean. Let us say that
you are wise and you desire to purchase an eternal home in heaven.
Those who desire to pay for this dwelling outside of Christ, by
their own efforts can never do so. All they have in their bank
account, are debts upon debts. Its not just that they are bankrupt,
they have an ever-growing mountain of sins, and every day they are,
as the song goes, another day older and deeper in debt. Now, I know
you are wiser than that, so you flee to Christ for forgiveness of
your sins and your sin-debt, past, present, and future is forever
wiped out.
You have that assurance from the last word of Jesus Christ prior to
His death on the Cross, in that moment we read in John 19:30 that
Jesus cried out – "tetelestai!" Meaning "it is finished" or "PAID IN
FULL" Merchants in the ancient world would actually wrote that word
over an account that had been paid off. "TETELESTAI"
But, having your sin-debt paid in full is only half the equation
isn't it? What do you still need? You need a positive balance in
your bank account! You need the purchase price! And God has told us,
that the required price is perfect righteousness, and my friends,
that is not something that anyone except Christ has. Therefore, if
you are ever going to be able to afford that dwelling in heaven, you
must have the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to you -
credited to your account.
And that is what happens in Justification. When we are united to
Christ our Savior by Faith, not only are our sins imputed to Him,
and paid for in full, his perfect righteousness is imputed to us. We
do nothing to purchase that eternal home, rather, it is Jesus Christ
who has purchased it on our behalf. And through faith in Him, we
obtain that blessed inheritance.
Jesus Christ is the Savior not only because he died for the
transgressions of his sheep, but also because He has provided the
righteousness of God. He has become righteousness for those who had
no righteousness of their own. That too, was prophesied:
Jer. 23:5 " Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I
will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign
and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
6 In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now
this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR
RIGHTEOUSNESS.
And the message that the Angels delivered surrounded by the Glory of
God and the host of heaven, was not only that Jesus had come to be
the Savior, the Messiah. The message was that through this saving
work, he has also come to bring PEACE ON EARTH.
Whatever you do, do not confuse the peace that Jesus brings with the
simple absence of War. The peace that Jesus brings is not the same
fleeting, illusory peace that angry people march around demanding so
often these days. Not at all. When Christ was born, the world was
enjoying an unprecedented period of the absence of war. That world
at that time was living in the era of the Pax Romana or Roman Peace.
The Roman emperor had created peace within the empire by crushing
any force that opposed them, and the continued presence of the
mighty Roman legions assured that the peace would continue for some
time. But even then in the first century, the pagan philosopher
Epictetus wrote some striking words about just how shallow that
peace really was:
"while the emperor may give peace from war on land and sea, he is
unable to give peace from passion, grief and envy. He cannot give
peace of heart, for which man yearns more than even for outward
peace."
THAT peace in the heart is what Jesus came to bring, and only He can
truly provide it. Until we are reconciled to God we will never know
true peace. As Augustine said "Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and
our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee." And only Jesus
Christ can effect that reconciliation. We will never be reconciled
to our fellow men, until and unless we are reconciled to our
creator. That is an enormous part of the message, and that is what
the apostles conveyed. As Paul put it in Romans 5:1
"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ,"
To the extent that we know Christ, we know God, to the extent that
we know Christ, we know peace. Our sin and rebellion separates us
from God, and part of the bitter harvest of that separation is the
disorder, strife, and turmoil we see in the world. Merely attempting
to deal with the symptoms of our sinfulness, will never ever effect
real change, it is only if we embrace Christ that we will experience
the true peace that He brings.
That then is the message that Angels delivered, the message of the
Gospel, the Good news of Jesus Christ born to Save Sinners and
Reconcile them to God. That is the same Gospel Message that all
Christ's faithful messengers, whether they were Angels, or Prophets,
or Apostles, or Evangelists, or simply faithful Christians from
almost every walk of life, have delivered, and that I pray will be
the Message you receive from me, till the day I die.
2) Now let us see to whom that Message came.
The message was delivered to Shepherds, watching over their flocks
as they did in those parts in every season, except the winter. Now
much is made of the fact that God chose to deliver this most
important of all messages not to Kings or Emperors or High Priests,
but to humble Shepherds, and it is true indeed as James says in
James 4:6 that "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the
humble."
But I tend to think that the Lord chose to give this magnificent
announcement to Shepherds in particular for a reason. After all, He
could have given the message to farmers or fishermen or weavers or
some other humble tradesmen, but He chose Shepherds in particular.
And I tend to think it was not merely because they were standing
around outside at the time.
Now you remember of course, that God had blessed another humble
shepherd from Bethlehem beyond measure many years ago. God called
David the Shepherd from tending his father's flocks, to become David
the king, and to shepherd a much larger flock. He called David to be
the shepherd of His people Israel, and to lead them according to His
will. And David, of course was a type of Christ, that is in his
kingship, he foreshadowed the eternal King of kings, his descendent
Jesus. And now we see God calling other Shepherds to be witnesses of
this great event.
Throughout the Old Testament but most especially in the Messianic
sections of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, we see the image of Shepherds
being used by God to indicate spiritual leaders. Bad Shepherds exalt
themselves and lead the people away from God and to their
destruction. Good Shepherds exalt the name of the Lord, and lead the
wandering people back to God. Jesus is of course the ultimate Good
Shepherd, as He himself says in John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
It was to shepherds that the Gospel message of the Angels came that
night.
So that fact brings us to consideration #3 "What did those Shepherds
do with the Message?"
They heard the Good News of the birth of Jesus and the Gospel
message that His birth ushered in that night, just as you have heard
the Gospel Message yourselves. Now do we read that on hearing that
message the Shepherds said to one another "Now wasn't that nice. Man
what a singing voice those angels have." and then got back to
tending their flocks.
No, the things they did, are exactly the same things you should do.
1)On hearing the Gospel Message, they believed these Good tidings of
Great Joy.
2)On hearing the Gospel Message, they, as the Puritans put it,
closed with Jesus Christ. In their case, They went to see the savior
As William Guthrie put it "We say, then, it is a most necessary duty
thus to close with Christ Jesus, as the blessed relief appointed for
sinners. Every one who is come to years of understanding, and hearth
this gospel, is obliged to take to heart his own lost condition, and
God’s gracious offer of peace and salvation through Christ Jesus,
and speedily to flee from the wrath to come, by accepting and
closing with this offer, heartily acquiescing therein as a
satisfying way for the salvation of perishing sinners."
Ok well, perhaps you are saying to yourself, well that was easy for
the Shepherds to do, Jesus Christ, was right there in Bethlehem. All
they had to do was go and see Him. How can I do that? First,
remember that those Shepherds believed prior to actually seeing
Jesus for they saw Him already by the eyes of faith. You must do the
same. As Jesus Himself said to doubting Thomas in John 20:29
""Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are
those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Secondly, go to Him, throw yourself upon His mercy and the promises
of the Gospel by entering into a Covenant relationship with Him. You
throw yourself upon Christ when by faith you give up all possibility
of saving yourself and commit yourself to Him confessing that faith
openly before all the world. As Romans 10:8-10 puts it.
8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in
your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we
preach):
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in
your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation.
As we will be celebrating the Lord's Supper next week it is
appropriate to quote something profound on this subject that
M'Cheyne wrote: He said
"To take that bread and that wine is declaring that you do close
with Christ—that you take Him to be your Savior—that God has opened
your heart to believe. In marriage, the acceptance of the right hand
is a solemn declaration, by sign, that you accept the bride or
bridegroom; and so in the Lord’s Supper. If it is not so with you,
then it is a lie; and it is a lie to the Holy Ghost."
3) Finally, the Shepherds did not close with Christ and then keep
the things they had seen and heard to themselves. They like all good
shepherds, made this Gospel message that they received known to
others and then glorified and praised God. You too should follow
their lead! How can you receive this mercy and keep it to yourself.
If you truly believe all that has been said on this subject, then
you will be a good shepherd to others – most especially those whom
you love and those whom you are responsible for. There is no other
message as profitable to you as this Gospel Message of Good Tidings
of Great Joy is, and there is no message that you can give to others
that will do them greater good. Shepherds lead other sheep to safety
in Christ, just as they have been lead.
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