Sermon Tone Analysis

Advent

This time of year we are remembering and celebrating God with us, Emmanuel.

We are remembering God becoming flesh, dwelling among us.

It is one of the biggest times to celebrate.

Regardless if you believe Jesus was born in August or September, choose to celebrate in December, the fact remains that Christ appearing, His coming was the most significant birth to happen in all of history.

Let’s take a look at some of the most famous captions and paintings of this historic event!

FAMOUS NATIVITY PAINTINGS

Image 1: Fra Angelico, Convent of San Marco, Florence

Image 2: Philippe de Champaigne, National Gallery, London

Image 3: Peter Bruegel the Elder, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels

Image 4: Benozo Gozzoli, Medici Riccardi palace, Florence

FAMOUS NATIVITY CARTOONS

Image 5: Charlie Brown

Image 6: Little People

Image 7: Pop Culture

Image 8: Hipster

Last week, Rick kicked off our season for Advent, and he mentioned that Advent simply means coming or appearing in Latin.

The word in Greek is parousia.

You may remember me mentioning this idea before that oftentimes prophecy has multiple layers of fulfillment.

There is often a present state of fulfillment, along with a future understanding of how it will again come to pass, and there even remains the possibilities of multiple layers of fulfillment (giving credence and remembrance to God’s Word to us).

A final fulfillment is most often understood in relationship to the reign and rule that Christ will bring to earth with His final appearing.

Listen to how Paul places supreme importance upon the notion of Christ appearing to us:

Part of our story of what Jesus has done for us is how He has appeared to us.

This is why in our Mission and Vision you hear us say: ENCOUNTER, CONNECT, GROW.

We believe God appears to us; we have a life-changing encounter with Him.

We taste and see that the Lord is good.

We experience His kindness, which as Romans tells us leads us toward change, transformation, and repentance.

John Wesley, one of my heroes in the faith, talks about after knowing so much about God, even keeping rules and regulations he self imposed, that he encountered the Lord in a real and meaningful way.

He was attending a meeting in Aldersgate, England (latter of which this experience would be called his Aldersgate Experience).

It was there, while someone was reading from Martin Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, that he felt that his heart was "strangely warmed".

He describes it as:

I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

There is part of our story, testimony, that incorporates Christ revealing Himself to us.

And over 2,000 years ago, humanity experience this most epic moment in history.

Let’s ready what Isaiah prophesied about Christ coming.

Jesus was anticipated for centuries before His arrival.

The common Jew believed that a Messiah would arrive on the scene and put an end to their slavery once again, establishing a kingdom that would bring stability and rest for the people of Israel.

One of the things these verses highlight is the unique nature with which God would establish His kingdom.

It would be established with justice and righteousness.

His government and peace would be everlasting.

The common interpretation was a physical kingdom established through the Christ, freeing and leading the people into peace and rest.

The word peace is repeated in both of these verses describing the nature of this Savior as well as the type of reign and rule He would bring.

This morning I want us to look at who this coming One was and is...

As well as, some of the barriers of peace we experience in our lives.

I want us to consider for a few minutes this morning the great truth that He, the Messiah Jesus Christ, is peace.

Christ is the peace of advent.

Peace defines His person or character; and it defines the work He came to do.

One of the Messianic titles declared by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 9 is that He will be called the Prince of Peace.

Jesus Christ is peace and He came to bring peace.

What is this peace that He came to bring us on that first Christmas?

Our experiential understanding of “peace” is that it is always temporary at best.

Think about how peaceful the tiny baby looks in his or her mother’s arms, yet only a matter of minutes later, when the crying starts, there is no peace – for the baby, or for the entire household – perfect calm one minute; perfect chaos the next.

This illustrates for us the nature of peace on earth.

We start crying at the beginning of our lives; and the crying never fully ends until the end of our life.

In between we look for peace, and during our lives we find different degrees of peace.

STORY: As many of you know we have had quite a few foster children through our home over the past few years.

We have had more babies than anything.

Part of this is due to the ages of our own kids, but also has to do with the nature and disposition of my wife, Candi.

In addition to our 2 biological kids, we have had 6 other babies in the past 3 years.

Each of these kids came from different families with different genetic makeups and dispositions.

What we began to notice was how important environment was to their stability and success in our home.

Candi is a baby wearer, partially out of necessity but partially out of desire to bond and create a soothing environment for the child.

As a result of her calm demeanor and ability to create a soothing aurora each child we had was significantly happier and good natured.

This isn’t to say if you have fussy babies there is something wrong with you.

Instead, it is to recognize that we absorb and even imitate the atmospheres we are most often around.

The Lord is the Prince of Peace, and, as Scripture would remind us, we benefit from this peace when we remain fixed on Him.

Listen to this verse out of Isaiah:

The Hebrew words translated “perfect peace” are a duplication of one word for emphasis.

It says, “You will keep in PEACE PEACE (SHALOM SHALOM) whose mind is stayed or kept on you...”

The peace we experience in this life has less to do with mindfulness and more to do with the One with whom we become mindful of.

What do I mean?

It is has more to do with the object of our thoughts and attention that brings us this eternal peace.

It has to do with His very nature as the Peace-maker, that brings us peace when we fix our thoughts on Him.

Have you ever been anxious about something?

For me, it consumes my thoughts.

I realize that I can’t do anything about it; I can’t change it, but it doesn’t keep me from becoming obsessed with dwelling on it.

My mind is not on the Lord, but rather on the situation or problem.

Rather than keeping my thoughts and mind on the Problem Solver, the Peace Maker…I allow myself to go down every rabbit trail that leads to my own emotional destruction.

God reminds us to fix our thoughts on Him.

Trust Him.

Trust in Him forever…because he is the Rock eternal (vs.

4).

Remember, just a couple of weeks ago we talked about how Scripture teaches us how pride keeps God’s grace at bay from operating in our lives.

Pride says, “I can handle this on my own; I don’t need You (GOD) or anyone else for that matter.”

It has less to do with God removing His grace form our lives and more to do with our position to no longer receive His enabling.

“He gives grace to the humble, but abhors the proud.”

TRANSITION

Paul begins his letters with a twist on the ancient greeting custom of his day.

He would often begin each letter with “grace and peace to you in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Grace always brings benefits and one of these benefits is reflected in the word “peace” which the Apostle always associates with God’s grace.

In fact, the order is significant.

First grace and then peace.

Until we know and appropriate grace, we can’t experience peace.

“Peace” was a typical Jewish greeting (cf.

Judges 19:20), but for the Christian, it carries a much deeper meaning than it did among the ancient Hebrews

(1) Grace stresses God’s character and man’s sinfulness while mercy stresses God’s strength and man’s helplessness.

Grace finds its necessity in (a) the fact of God’s holiness and in the sinfulness of man, and (b) in the nature of God as the Creator and man as the creature.

(2) Grace is opposed to and excludes any idea of works for merit, works done as a means of blessing or as payment for what is done.

Grace means you never deserve it nor can you earn it even by the old fashion method of working for it.

Once we understand and know the God we are approaching, coming to His throne of grace (as the author of Hebrews would write), we can know Him in truth and experience the full benefits of both being known and knowing Him fully.

John Wesley, like us at times, found himself trying to earn God’s good grace.