Peace
The Gifts of Christmas Advent Series
Sermon 4: The Gift of Peace
When you see these symbols, what do you think of?
Show
- circle peace symbol,
- two fingers V peace sign, and
- an image of a dove with an olive branch.
These three images are very different, but they all are very recognizable as signs of peace. Interestingly, not one was developed out of an abundance of peace but rather out of the need for peace.
What we know as the peace sign was first developed by a British artist and activist named Gerald Holtom in 1958. The emblem was based on flag semaphore movements for the two letters: N & D; N (two flags pointed down at angles) and D (one flag straight up, the other straight down). The letters stood for nuclear disarmament.
Holtom also said the design was personal as it represented a person with hands outstretched in despair. The symbol was used in Britain to protest the making of nuclear weapons. When it was brought to America, it was used for broader purposes in the civil rights movement and later as an antiwar symbol by those who opposed the Vietnam War.
And what about the two fingers raised in a V shape?
This symbol actually started as a sign of victory, not peace. Resistance fighters in German-occupied territories used it as a symbol of strength during World War II. The British prime minister Winston Churchill adopted it to stand for the English victory, and it eventually came to stand for the end of the conflict. Later, in the 1960s, it was adopted as an antiwar symbol by Americans who opposed war.
As for the dove and the olive branch?
This image was used in many traditions throughout history, but the Christian symbolism comes from the Old Testament account of Noah, who sent a dove in search of land after the great flood. The dove returned holding an olive branch, indicating that the waters were receding and land was near. It was a sign of the promise of peace after the storm of God’s judgment.
While we immediately associate peace with these symbols, none were born out of peace. All these images came about because of a desperate need for peace in the midst of conflict and unrest.
Peace is defined as “freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility.” But it is often in situations that are exactly the opposite that we most recognize our need for peace and the power of the peace God provides.
We see peace most clearly not in the absence of noise, suffering, and conflict but in the midst of it.
If you have been able to join us the past three weeks, you know that we have been on a journey through the season of Advent as we’ve unwrapped the gifts of hope, love, and joy. The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and the season is marked by expectation, waiting, anticipation, and longing. Advent is not just an extension of Christmas, it is a season that links the past, present, and future. Advent offers us the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, to celebrate His birth, and to be alert for His second coming.
During Advent we light candles on a wreath, which represent aspects of Jesus’s coming to a world lost in darkness. As we celebrate with our own Advent wreath this season, we have lit an additional candle each week. Each flame brings us closer to the arrival of the true Light of the world, born in Bethlehem.
Can you feel the excitement building? We’re almost there! Soon we will mark the day that Christ has come. He is among us and in us—Immanuel, God with us!
Today we lit the fourth candle, the candle of peace. Advent is a season for allowing God’s peace to infiltrate our hearts and minds as we prepare for His coming at Christmas and His return someday.
One of the iconic hymns we choose to sing on Christmas Eve is “Silent Night,” which conjures calm, soothing, peaceful images in our mind, and it’s often a worshipful three-minute respite in the midst of our hectic holiday preparations. But that original silent night, at the time of Christ’s birth, was not actually very silent. The world was not at peace.
There was a divide between God and people.
There was conflict among families and nations.
There was political tumult and Roman oppression in Israel.
There was demanding physical travel forced on Mary and Joseph by Roman politicians.
And there was unrest in the hearts of many.
But in the midst of all this, Jesus came as the Prince of Peace.
Jesus the Messiah was and is many things that the prophet Isaiah foretold He would be: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
But it’s important to remember that Jesus is not just a symbol of peace, He is peace. And the Prince of Peace offers us the gift of peace this Advent season. This was part of His original birth announcement made by the angels: “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests’” (Luke 2:13–14).
What an appropriate time and season to recognize Jesus as our peace! Really, our world is not much different from the one Jesus stepped into a couple thousand years ago. We are certainly more technologically advanced, but our fast-paced, high-tech capabilities in many ways have added to anxiety, stress, and fatigue with a relentless pace of life.
Our scenery and process of daily life looks very different, but still we strive and struggle to subsist and exist, while our world rages with wars and violence. Governments and politicians rage and clamor. We certainly have so very much to be thankful for in our lives and community and country, however, peace can and does get squeezed out of our ongoing lives easily and often.
Think about this: Have you ever been somewhere that suddenly got very quiet?
Perhaps you’ve been in a building when the electricity goes out, and the buzz of the lights and computers and appliances is silenced. Or maybe you’ve been outdoors on a summer night when the song of the crickets stops abruptly. Sometimes we don’t even recognize the noise all around us until it suddenly stops and we hear the silence. The same can be true for peace in our lives. Sometimes we are so used to the hustle and bustle that we don’t even notice the noise, chaos, and unrest until it is gone—until we take the time to experience peace and allow God to silence the other noises in our life.
During this Advent, we are recognizing a season that helps us take that time to reset our hearts and minds to be still and listen as we wait. Peace is the gift we unwrap today. Let’s look at several ways that peace reveals itself in our lives.
- Peace with God
There is a bumper sticker that says,
No God, No Peace.
Know God, Know Peace.
You’ve probably seen it. Placed on the back of a car, it can sound trite and cliché. But there is actually truth there. When we know God, we can experience peace because of who Christ is and what He did
in coming to earth,
living among us,
dying on the cross, and
resurrecting to defeat sin and death.
It’s easy for us to associate His life and work on earth with salvation, but the apostle Paul made an important note in Romans that we are wise not to overlook.
Romans 5:1–2 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.”
Jesus brings and allows us peace with God, our Creator. Our first and greatest need for peace is to be at peace with God.
Our sin naturally separates us from God.
From the time sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden, humans have been at odds with God. Our sin and His holiness are not compatible. They are not at peace—they are at conflict with each other. That’s why no conflict on earth can compare to this need for peace between God and His creation—us humans especially—and it is the reason God sent Jesus to earth that first Christmas. Through Jesus we can be justified by grace through faith. And when we believe in Jesus and accept His salvation and forgiveness the barriers of conflict and sin are removed. This allows us to be at peace with God. We become right with Him in unity, identity, and purpose.
This eternal peace with the Creator is the greatest gift we can receive this season. It is available to us all.
We start with receiving Christ’s gift. It is where we all must abide and return—we belong to God in Christ. We are unified with Him. We are His. May we all lean into and experience the peace of this reality throughout Advent and beyond.
Not only do we need to accept the gift of Christ to receive peace with God, we also need…
- Peace Within
As I mentioned earlier, there is so much to draw us or drag us away from the peace of Christ. Fortunately, God also knows the unrest we feel within ourselves. He made you and knows your deepest thoughts, hurts, joys, and desires. He knows your need for peace within.
And He knows the broken world surrounding us and all the unrest clamoring around and against us.
Paul offered us these appropriate words in Philippians 4:6–7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
What a beautiful promise! What a rich practice! What a powerful peace that we can experience!
Look at these phrases: God’s peace “transcends all understanding.” It defies our world and our circumstances.
It fills us when everything going on around us is not conducive to peace. In other words, it shows itself most strongly in circumstances where peace just does not make sense.
Maybe that’s in the midst of a tragedy or an illness or a conflict or a heartache. No matter how bad your situation, God is there . . . with you . . . offering the gift of His peace that is stronger than whatever difficulty you face.
Notice too that while this peace is calm and restorative, it is also strong and active. It has the power to “guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” It is strong enough to defy our worst nightmares.
I think one thing that’s interesting about this verse is that we often take it as a type of formula.
If we can just manage to pray and thank God and
ask Him about everything, then we’ll get God’s peace.
While Paul was describing those actions as part of a practice of peace, we should remember that this is not an automatic formula.
We must remember that God gave the gift of peace in the form of a person—Jesus, the Prince of Peace. The verse just before this passage says, “The Lord is near” (verse 5). And that’s an important starting point.
Jesus’s presence with us is the reason we do not need to be anxious.
He is the reason we have peace within.
He is Immanuel, God with us, who offers us the gift of peace beyond understanding that guards our hearts and minds in Him.
And as we practice the actions of prayer and petition and thanksgiving, we do so
to connect with Him.
Peace comes as a result of the transformation we experience as the Holy Spirit shapes our perspective and realigns our heart. Our troubles may rage on, but the Spirit gives us new eyes to see and the peace of Christ guards us and calms us and changes our outlook.
May this be the practice and power of peace that we experience in Advent and beyond.
[3. Peace to Come]
So we have looked together at the gift of peace with God and peace within. But what about peace without? What about the situations we can’t change, the relationships that are broken, the chaos we can’t calm, the hurt we can’t heal, the violence we can’t understand? What do we do with the need for peace in our world?
This again is where we recognize the two-pronged nature of the Advent season. We wait for Christ’s coming at Christmas, and at the same time we wait for His return. The peace we long for in our world is a peace that is still to come. It is a final restoration promised but not yet realized. In the meantime, we wait with longing for the day when God’s peace will reign in all the earth.
Until then, we can turn to the words that Jesus spoke to His disciples. We can hold onto them closely until we see Him face-to-face. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Again, we see God’s recognition of the brokenness we live in and among. He knows. He understands how and why we can become discouraged, but here He encourages us to remember the person of peace, the Prince of Peace. In Him, we have and find and remember peace for our present and future.
There is a peace today, and there is a complete peace that is yet to come. In the time between, we trust in Jesus’s promise that He has indeed overcome the world.
And in the meantime, we return to Jesus. It’s a similar process to what Paul described in Philippians 4. It’s a continual returning and renewing with our Lord and our God. It’s the deepening of our relationship with Him, and it shapes us and holds us and carries us to all that we are and all we can experience because of Him.
Where is your chaos today?
Where is your warfare and unrest?
Let me encourage you that the Prince of Peace is greater. His peace is more powerful.
This is the peace I long for.
As we celebrate the Advent season of waiting, let’s recognize that we wait with longing for God’s peace to be made perfect in our world.
Let’s also remember that the peace of Christ is also here and now and waiting to fill us all.
Let’s pray.
God, thank You that in this season of Advent we can unwrap Your gift of peace.
Help us to live in the peace You provided through Jesus, rest in the peace You give in the midst of life, and
trust in the peace of knowing You have overcome the world.
Fill us and hold us with Your peace as we encounter You and experience the depth and richness of life You provide both now and forever.
Benediction:
“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.” (2 Thessalonians 3:16)