This is an adaption from a sermon I preached to our congregation.
THINK ABOUT THIS…Peace on
Earth—Now? “No-Way!”
Christ’s 1st Coming brought a sword—Christ’s 2nd Coming will bring ultimate peace.
Christ’s 1st Coming brought a sword—Christ’s 2nd Coming will bring ultimate peace.
Supporting Scriptures:
Luke 2:13-14; Matthew 10:34…
“F. Y. I.
(Things You Need to Know about Peace…)
Opening Statement:
This message probably could have been entitled “War and
Peace.”
If you as a believer
have ever wondered why people very close to you that you love appears to hate
you—then this message is for you.
If you as a believer
can’t believe that folk very close to you that you love don’t love God like you
love God—then this message is for you.
If you as a believer
don’t understand why the place you live is more like a war zone, instead of a
peaceful home—then this message is for you
On last week I introduce us to the peace of God in [Philippians 4:7…Read it]…
That tells us that the supernatural
peace of God not only surpasses all comprehension but it transcends all
human intellectual powers, all human
analysis, all human insights, and all human understanding. So even if
you were smart enough to find the peace
of God you wouldn’t be smart enough to
figure out how to have the peace of God—apart from God.
So, today I want
us to look intently at this “peace” so that as believers we
can be certain that we have God’s peace and not the peace
that “Hallmark” and other Christmas card companies are promoting this time of
the year…
What we must know about God’s
peace is this; “Although it is not on earth now, it can be in us now.”
According to [Romans
5:1] there is peace in the heart of the ones who believes, but as far
as the world is concerned [as far as peace being on earth—now], this text will
show us that there is nothing but division on the earth—now…
The real truth of the matter is; if Christ had never come to
earth in the form of a man, the earth would have gone on in unity [gone
on in the pseudo peace/man-made peace] that doomed everyone for hell.
But when Christ came a war broke out.
Context:
What we have here in the verses in Matthew is known as a mashal;
a paradoxical saying, a religious allegory, which sounds unbelievable!
A mashal conveys a meaning other than
the literal obvious meaning.
What Jesus says here with this mashal causes the hearers
and readers to be startled and shocked into disbelief.
The natural and logical reaction to this mashal
would be; “How can this saying be true?”…Especially
since…
[Isaiah 9:6]
tells us that Christ is the ‘Prince of Peace’
[Matthew 5:9] tells
us that Christ is the One who pronounces a blessing on those who make “peace.”
[Romans 5:1, 8:6,
14:17] tells us about the peace that God gives believers.
[Luke 2:14 and a host
of other Scriptures] tell us in the strongest terms that Jesus is the ‘Bringer
of Peace.’
So how can this be
true? “That He didn’t come to
bring peace on earth,…but a sword.”
It’s true because the idea expressed here is the consequence not the primary intention…
[Let me make it Plainer…]
[Let me make it Plainer…]
In the Bible often consequences are expressed as if they
were the primary intention…
Let me make that a
little clearer: When my children were teenagers I would often express consequences
that were not my primary intentions… For instance, often I would tell them; “When
I get home I’m whooping everything with a behind—if the house was not
cleaned-up.” Now whooping every behind in my house was never my primary
intention—it was never my aim, but that would be the consequences
if my house was not cleaned when I got home.
Well, what Jesus
does here is describes the direct result/consequences of His
coming to earth as if it were His primary intention… The sword and war was not Jesus’ primary intention, but they would be the consequences.
The Lord was saying,
“On the one hand, I’m a Prince of
Peace, but on the other hand, there’s going to be war.”
Observation:
Jesus knew that His
intervention in history [His Birth and His public ministry] was going to split and fracture human
relationships, He knew that His discipling would paint a target not only on
Him, but on all who would truly be followers of Him, so in this text Jesus the
Son of God was preparing the disciples
and us [if you will] for those experiences …
Listen, being positive, successful, and sensitive to sinners
won’t give you the peace of God…
Just knowing verses in the Bible and not the God of the
Bible will create confusion and doubt about God’s intentions.
Because in [Matthew
5:9] Jesus not only promotes peace in a sense, but He pronounces that “peacemakers”
will be blessed. But in this verse in [Matthew
10:34], Jesus announces that His mission on earth would not cause peace,
but rather hostility (a sword)—even between the closest of
family members… [Matthew 10:21], But
Jesus was not saying that He would intentionally divide families. What Jesus
was saying was that loyalty/allegiance to Him would cause some of his followers
to be hated by their own family members, because of their disbelief of who God
is and what He demands.
Now the Jews in
Jesus’ day had things that contributed to their confusion… For the most
part, because of their oppression, they were looking for a political
deliverer; they were looking for a King that would usher them into the
eternal kingdom of righteousness and peace. Can I just ask a question here? “As
it pertains to Jesus; What Are You Looking For?”
The Jews in Jesus’ day being human—they wanted to see
what they thought they had understood about their coming king, they wanted
a
peacemaker… they wanted what Isaiah had called Jesus [the Prince
of Peace]. They wanted what Solomon had said about Jesus’ [worldwide
peace and abundance…Psalm 72]…
And because at this point of Jesus’ ministry some of the
disciples had begun to experience inner peace like never
before—they no doubt expected their peace to grow in intensity as long as they
were with Jesus…
[Now that shouldn’t
seem foreign to any of us, because there are people even today, who are under
the delusion that because they profess Christ they shouldn’t have any problems
as long as they professed Christ.] Well,
this text is going to prove to us today just how wrong that type of thinking
is. Also, this text is going to show us that when we preach the truth about
Christ and the truth about His kingdom, and the truth about just how lost
people are, people are not going to fall at our feet and say they love it and
that they want more. In other words,
when people are told the true cost of
discipleship they will more than likely initially reject it… Jesus knew
that this would be the disciple’s situation and He knows it will be our
situation so just like with the disciples Jesus wants to prepare them/us for
the rejection and suffering that we will encounter as we live as true disciples
of Christ…
So, notice how Jesus prepares them/us as believers;
“He tells them/us that our enemies [because
of our willingness to openly identify with Christ] will be members of our own household…
Now it’s not that we don’t’ like them or that they don’t
like us, what causes this conflict in even the most intimate of human relations
[family] is one has received the peace
of God, while the other continues to reject God’s offer of peace.
Listen, a
believer’s commitment to Christ should be so profound and far-reaching that
any relationship that endangers that relationship must be
sacrificed if necessary. [Note that
husbands and wives are not included here]
Folk may not want
to hear this, but true genuine faith not only creates division between one race
and another, one person and another, one church and another, true genuine faith
when it is being lived out even brings
division in a family, if there is a family member [are someone like family to you] who
refuses to believe the Bible and fully accept Jesus as both Lord and
Savior—there is going to be a division between you and them. [It’s unavoidable]…
In other words, in
order to cling to Christ, it may mean that you have to let go of family
members who reject you because you won’t reject the gospel.
*You do remember the
story of Cain and Abel right? Well, the
“sword” fell between them, and the cleavage was so great that Cain
couldn’t stand it—so he murdered his righteous brother Abel…
Look at the word “A
sword” I believe the word sword is used to emphasize the gravity of our persecution…
The word sword tells us that in addition to having bitter opponents
here “on earth,” as true followers of Christ, we must expect “the sword.”
The very opposite of peace and a symbol
of war…
We must expect to be lied on…
We must expect to be talked about…
We must expect to be cheated…
We must expect to be mistreated…
We must expect troubles and trials; even from folk within
our own household…
But you say Pastor I’m not built like that—to which I would
respond neither am I, but since I’ve been born again,
Since I’ve been crucified with Christ and it’s no longer I
who live, but Christ lives in me, when someone in my family or, church family,
or just someone like family does me wrong I don’t look to get even, I look for
the peace of God… [Philippians 4:5-8]
Because in all those things God gets all the glory…
Speaking of Glory… Let’s See The Connection….
*[Luke 2:14] tells
us that when God gets glory from His people [believers], they in return get
God’s peace—not on earth but within
themselves…
Not peace like any other, but a peace that surpasses all
human comprehension…
A peace that offers reconciliation between God and man…
A peace that offers a pleasing parallelism as to what
happens in the highest with God and on earth with men…
Summation:
So don’t be discouraged by wars and rumors of wars…
Don’t be discouraged by what you see and don’t see…
Don’t be discouraged if when you tell someone the truth
about Christ if they still reject His offer of salvation…
Don’t be discouraged by the fact that God forces people to
make decisions that separate them one from another…
…Because at the 2nd coming of Christ [guess
what] a perfect king who
rules a perfect kingdom will
establish perfect peace on earth—and
that perfect King who rules a perfect kingdom who will establish perfect peace on earth—will not do it
Himself, but the perfect peace that
will be established on earth will be ushered in and sovereign-ly sustained by
the Prince of Peace…
But for now, during
the intervals of His two comings, the gospel
that brings inner peace not world peace…
For now, during
the intervals of His two comings, the gospel
that brings individual peace, not international peace…
For now, the
gospel that gives all believers a peace that surpasses all comprehension that
guards our hearts and mind in Christ Jesus—will also be the cause of us being misunderstood,
maligned, and mistreated by anybody who does not believe—including
those nearest and dearest to us…
Do you see where I’m
going with this point?
If you’ve ever wondered how someone who claimed to love
you—could openly mistreat you, maligned you, besmirge you and they claim to
love you… I’m not saying this, but
Jesus is saying this; “If someone near to you or dear to you, or even
if someone is in the church with you, is
at war with you and regularly mistreats you or talks bad about you, because of your faithfulness—maybe, just maybe they are not a
believer and if they are not a believer that’s
the best you can expect from them…”
Conclusion:
I want to close this message with looking at Luke 2:13—prior to verse 14…
What I like about verse
13 is that it tells us that just as
soon as one angel began to make his announcement, about Jesus—all of a sudden an entire army of angels
descended and stood with the one…
I like to think this shows us just how we should be as it
relates to talking about our Savior…
If folk of all races can come together and stand together
for a local high-school sport team that won a State Championship and say
nothing but wonderful things about them…
Then as church we should be standing together and saying
wonderful things about our Wonderful Savior…
We should be looking for opportunities to go and show, and to go and tell others about God’s goodness and
not looking for opportunities to stay away or at home and enjoy His goodness
alone…
My last point is
this:
Listen, if somebody is going to speak for you—make sure whoever speaks for you—knows you….
See, God sent angels
to speak for Christ—because they had been associated with Christ in heaven before He ever came to earth…. They knew of His, glory, His
riches, and His majesty… This is why they could say what they said with
confidence…
Do you see where I’m
going with this?…
When I get to heaven
I only want One Person speaking for me:…Etc…Etc…
Because Jesus who died for me, and set me free is the only One who will have both the knowledge and confidence that I
belong in heaven…
