Colossians 1:12-20 - ”Real Peace” - Advent Series

Good morning. We have some scripture

readings this morning from the Old

Testament. Psalm 37:es

21-4.

The wicked borrows but does not pay

back. But the righteous is generous and

gives. For those blessed by the Lord

shall inherit the land, but those cursed

by him shall be cut off. The steps of a

man are established by the Lord when he

delights in his way. Though he fall, he

shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord

upholds his hand. I have been young and

now am old, yet I have not seen the

righteous forsaken, or his children

begging for bread. He is ever lending

generously and his children become a

blessing. Turn away from evil and do

good so that you dwell forever. For the

Lord loves justice. He will not forsake

his saints. They are preserved forever.

But the children of the wicked shall be

cut off. The righteous shall inherit the

land and dwell upon it forever. The

mouth of the righteous utters wisdom,

and his tongue speaks justice. The law

of his God is in his heart. His steps do

not slip. The wicked watches for the

righteous and seeks to put him to death.

The Lord will not abandon him to his

power or let him be condemned when he is

brought to trial. Wait for the Lord and

keep his way, and he will exalt you to

inherit the land. You will look on when

the wicked are cut off. I have seen a

wicked, ruthless man spreading himself

like a green laurel tree. But he passed

away and behold, he was no more. Though

I sought him, he could not be found.

Mark the blameless, and behold the

upright, for there is a future for the

man of peace. But the transgressors

shall be altogether destroyed. The

future of the wicked shall be cut off.

The salvation of the righteous is from

the Lord. He is their stronghold in the

time of trouble. The Lord helps them and

delivers them. He delivers them from the

wicked and saves them because they take

refuge in him.

And our New Testament reading Colossians

1 12- 20.

Giving thanks to the Father who has

qualified you to share in the

inheritance of the saints in light. He

has delivered us from the domain of

darkness and transferred us to the

kingdom of his beloved son in whom we

have redemption, the forgiveness of

sins. He is the image of the invisible

God, the firstborn of all creation. For

by him all things were created, in

heaven and on earth, visible and

invisible, whether thrones or dominions

or rulers or authorities. All things

were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things, and in him

all things hold together. And he is the

head of the body, the church. He is the

beginning, the firstborn from the dead,

that in everything he might be

preeeminent.

For in him all the fullness of God was

pleased to dwell, and through him to

reconcile to himself all things, whether

on earth or in heaven, making peace by

the blood of his cross. This is the word

of the Lord.

>> Thanks be to God.

All right. So, it's Christmas time

coming and Christmas gifts are going to

start being given. And do you guys have

all your wish list

out there? Do you guys have one? Do you

still do that?

>> You guys are like so uninspired.

Do you at least Can you remember when

your kid you were a kid and you had a

big list?

my I remember like yesterday it was uh

there was a a small movie called Star

Wars that was out and I was about seven

or eight years old and a a pre a gift

that you could get was the Death Star.

Do you remember that? Any old Okay. Wow.

You do remember? Thanks Mike for saving

me. Yeah. and it was really expensive.

And I remember I was opening the gifts

and I saw and I was like, none of them

look like it. So I thought, well, I'm

going to start with a small one. Maybe

it'll be the instruction manuals for

this.

Turned out it wasn't. It was this.

Choose your own adventure books.

What

the simple reality is these books at

best are bad.

I think the idea when they came out,

this is before you had video games,

okay? So that's how old I am. And the

idea was most books, you're a passive

reader and you just have to go with

whatever the author tells you to do.

Okay? In this book, they put you into

dilemas and then you get to pick three

options. Okay? Do you remember these?

Anybody read these? And these three

options you could go and read and then

it would say if you decide now let's use

one I can remember where you had a

choice. You've run into a dragon.

If you fight the dragon turn to page

164. Remember that. If you run away,

pick page 101. And if you choose to go

look for friends to help fight, you go

to page 112 or 120. And the idea was is

they had developed this book so that it

had different possibilities based on

your choices. Now, I didn't do very good

at this book because I always ran to

fight the dragon cuz I was a 10-year-old

boy. And you die.

You realize fairly quickly once you

worked it out that there's a formula to

this and you had to do what they thought

was wise, but ultimately you were just

eventually not reading a book. You were

doing their story eventually and with

much pain, but it's their story still

that you couldn't change to win. You

really weren't in control, right?

I think, and you're going to think this

is a weird analogy. Oh, I did get the

Death Star, by the way.

My father in his evil nature made sure

he didn't put it out beforehand. So, he

because it was huge. He brought it out.

Yeah. Anyways, that was a good

Christmas.

never read the choose your own adventure

books for a long time.

But I think a lot of people look at life

like choose your adventure books. I

think that see life is yeah, there's a

story going on and I'm part of it and if

I make the right choice here or if I

make the right choice there, in the end

I'll win, right? I'll go see a counselor

to get some right ideas. Maybe a life

coach. Maybe I'll talk to my family and

friends. maybe my teachers and they'll

give me some things so that when I get

to that point where it says you can

either go and yell at your teacher or go

and give them a hug, go to page 118 or

172, somebody will help you on that

journey, right? But that's how people

see life as a story they're living in

with some choices where they can go

from one place to another.

[snorts]

And yet so many people are disappointed

because even when they make good choices

or at least choices they're given, it

doesn't end in peace.

Often times they think they're making

the best decisions

and it comes out the worst.

Well, I think the Bible helps us a lot

with this. And I think this scripture

today helps us to understand why

Christmas is here and how Christmas

helps us to deal with the story of life

and who we are within it. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your

amazing grace. We thank you for the fact

that you have breathed upon the apostle

that he could give us this wisdom, this

incredible truth that blows our minds

and helps us to understand what

Christmas really is about

in Jesus' name. Amen.

I'm going to take you back to a little

church called Colass, the Colossians.

Paul is writing to them. They are full

of lots of superstitions, pagan

ideology, the ideas of the pagan gods

controlling their lives.

And the Jews themselves, they were under

the illusion that if they obeyed the

Torah for a certain amount of time, all

things would go well. And that's how

they looked at the world. They had hope,

but their hope was for a peace that came

through actions they did. That's how it

worked. For the Jews, that peace with

God would mean that the Gentiles would

finally lose and we would get our land.

And for the pagans, that peace with the

gods was always fickle. And as long as

they had it, they would get prosperity.

Sounds like a lot of expressions of

Christianity in the church today,

frankly.

And it's completely unbiblical.

Paul does not hold this view. He would

have held the view as a Jew, but now

he's living himself and he has met the

resurrected Jesus and his whole world

gets torn upside down.

You see, Paul believed the Messiah was

going to come, but he was a very human

person, a David, a Moses, somebody like

that was going to come. That's who he

longed for as a Pharisee. That's who all

Jews did back then. and he runs into

this gentleman who's resurrected on the

side of the road when he's on his way to

Damascus to kill his followers.

And out of that, he has to re-evaluate

what's going on. And I can't explain

this to you enough. What Paul writes

here today was apocalyptic. And when I

say that, I mean it in the pure sense of

the word. It was re revelationary.

It was a revelation.

What they saw in this text was something

that no one had seen before, though that

it was true. No one expected what Paul's

going to say here, but it has changed

the world. And it's the reason we sit

here today.

He starts off with giving thanks to the

father. Anytime he begins with giving

thanks to the father, that's his

beginning of a section.

And then he says, "Who has qualified

you?" When he says you, it's the y'all.

He's talking about the church, not, you

know, not Betsy or Phil or somebody

else. I hope there's no Betsy or Phil

here

who have qualified y'all to share in the

inheritance of the saints.

What does that mean? See, obviously

there's something here that's an

inheritance. There's there's kingly

language. And back then to have an

inheritance, you had to have someone

empowered to give it to you.

What is this inheritance of the saints?

Obviously, it was there before. Well,

he's using language right out of the Old

Testament.

You see, in when he uses the word

saints, it means holy ones literally.

And in the Old Testament, who were the

holy ones? The people of e of the Exodus

who were going to the promised lands.

They were the ones called saints. They

were the people of God. They were the

ones delivered by God. And yet now he

says to these Jews and Gentiles, he has

qualified you.

What did I just say earlier? You

qualified yourself by doing right

actions. You qualified yourself by

obeying TRA. Paul doesn't believe that

anymore. Paul says he qualified you. You

had nothing to do with the

qualifications here. And he has through

that given you a share in the

inheritance of the people of God in

light. What does that in light mean?

Well, they lives in a world of light and

darkness. It's hard for us to understand

this in a western materialist world, but

Paul understands the truth that there is

good and there is evil in the world.

Do we all agree that there is some evil

in this world?

>> Thank you.

This is always blows my mind when people

are like, "Well, yeah, people are all

generally good." Really? Have you opened

a history book?

What he believes though is that the

option now of whether you're going to be

on the side of light and goods

or the side the sign of the domain of

darkness as he is is based now on Jesus

Christ.

Now, this is not dualism. It doesn't

mean evil and good are equal. God is

above everything in creation. What he is

saying is that in our world with the

spiritual physical reality of our world

and there is an unseen realm for Paul,

you are either living in the light

or you're living in the darkness. That's

the two. It's no longer based on race or

gender or whatever. It's based on where

you are in relationship with Jesus

Christ.

So he says, "You all have been qualified

to share in the inheritance of the

saints of light. He has delivered us

from the doain of darkness and

transferred us to the kingdom of his

beloved son." Well, you can only be

transferred and qualified if you were

once living in that spot. Do you see

that?

So there's no place for anyone who's

following Jesus to say, "Oh, I'm so much

better than the unbeliever."

because you were in that. You lived it.

You liked it.

But he through his son has qualified you

out. You get to live in his beloved

kingdom of his son. What do what do we

say in the Lord's prayer? Your what

come?

Your kingdom come. Who are we praying to

there? Our

what does he say? The kingdom. Who owns

this kingdom?

The son. In our prayer, it's God the

father. What is that saying about Jesus

Christ?

That Jesus Christ is as much God as the

father.

Okay? And we're going to have to get our

head around that.

In whom

who transformed us to to the kingdom of

his beloved son in whom we have

redemption, the forgiveness of sins. You

know, he rarely talks about forgiveness

of sins. I find this interesting. He

talks about the forgiveness of sin, the

power.

But now he talks in particular that not

only does the power of sin forgiven over

us. All that stuff you've done,

including what you did in the last 24

hours because of the cross, he's

forgiven you.

There is no place for a Christian to

live in guilt and shame.

Now, there might be conviction and get

on your knees and confess. Absolutely.

But once you've done, son, it's already

been paid.

He's not sitting in heaven going, "Geez,

M, that was the third time."

Checking out his thing there. Okay, one

more.

Cuz you know what's going to happen?

There's going to be four.

In whom we have redemption, the

forgiveness of sin. And then he stops

and he starts talking about who Jesus

is. And it's the most beautiful powerful

thing that if this doesn't blow your

mind, nothing will. In the person of

Jesus Christ, including the baby, we

have

the image of the invisible God.

Now, before you stop and think, "Oh,

yeah, of course he's God. I've been to

church for 70 years." I want you to

think of all of those space shows you

see with all the multiple

incalculable black holes,

all of those incredible galaxies,

everything things that we can't even

make sense of dimensions, black matter.

He is the God of all of that. He made

that.

That baby that you're seeing there is

the one who put it all together. Now, if

that doesn't challenge your moment when

you're looking at that sweet nativity

scene

with a strange looking guys behind him

and the odd goat, there was a I saw a

pig at one of them. I was like, "Okay,

I want you to take a risk and do what

they were trying to do, trying to get

your mind around the fact that there is

a baby that has that." Have you seen a

baby in your life?

I've seen a couple. I have one rule when

somebody has a baby and people can

testify. Do I don't want to touch it

till a head can hold up itself

cuz those things are delicate

when they're like

I'm like no thank you. I don't want

anything to do with that. Right.

And I'm thinking you don't want me to

look at I'm 6'4. Like I look like a

Sasquatch. Like you don't want me

touching your baby.

But the point being is all of this

power, all of this amazing truth is in

this baby.

And I don't think we can get our minds

around it.

We should every Christmas just sit there

in awe. Like honestly, you should just

be like, "What?"

Unfortunately, we domesticate it.

So in this person is everything. He is

the imi im image of the invisible God.

And it says the firstborn of all

creation. Be careful with that language

because some people have used that as

Jesus was the firstborn in creation. So

he was created but he was the firstborn.

But that's not what firstborn means. Not

in their language. Firstborn meant

preeminence not chronological birth.

when you had the firstborn in their

culture, no matter what, you were the

preeminent child, right? We know that if

you were the firstborn in that culture.

So when he says he is the firstborn of

all creation means he's the preeminent

one. He's the ultimate expression. He is

it

not his birth order because we know he

was begotten, not made.

So he is the one whose above he

proceeds. There's nothing like him in

creation.

But it goes further.

For by him all things were created on

heaven and on earth, visible and

invisible. Here's where we have to get

out of our western minds. There is a

spiritual realm where you cannot see.

Okay?

There just is.

And it's active.

And it's some of it's against God and

his people and some of it isn't. And I

can explain it no more than that except

that's what the Bible says. But don't

worry because God created it. It's not

like it's independently powerful.

And who did? That little baby in the

manger did all that.

For all things were created in heaven

and earth, visible and invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or rulers

or authorities. Okay, for you who are

really into politics. Guess what? God

made it all.

Yeah, but what about the horn orange

man? He made him, too.

Sorry, I didn't write this.

You have to take it up with God.

What I'm trying to say to you is we get

so wrapped up in the things of this age,

God made it. And you ready for this?

All things were created through him and

for him.

Everything we see in this world is

created for Jesus Christ.

By Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ,

he is the living God. Sorry folks,

that's what it says. That should blow

your minds. And yet he comes in a

manger. Why in any good world would

somebody who has that go into a manger?

All things were created through him and

for him.

And he is before all things. And in him

all things hold together. It doesn't get

more dramatic. In other words, if

there's no Jesus, there's no us. We just

disappear.

You know why you're breathing right now?

If all things are held together by him,

it's because he's willed it in his good

grace.

that baby in that manger.

Anybody else being a little bit shocked?

I love I loved what one of my prefer

professors at Regent said. He goes, "If

you've looked at the incarnation and you

are not yet had the experience of going,

this is overwhelming. You probably

haven't really understood it."

And yet this story says he has all of

these things and all of them are held

together.

That's incredible testimony of Jesus

Christ.

And then he flips. He goes from the

original creation to the new creation.

He says, "And he is the head of the

body, the church." Wow. All of a sudden,

he brings us into it. All, you know,

people say to me, "The church is

pathetic." Yep. I'm part of it.

And yet Jesus Christ sees us so

important, he makes us his body on

earth.

Do you think going to church matters?

Seriously, he sees the church and gives

us way more cache than we deserve.

But he does give it to us. He is the

head of the church, the body. And when I

say church, I'm not talking a

denomination, but the gathering

believers.

And then it says he is the beginning.

And then there's that firstborn. Again,

same thing. He's the primacy from the

dead.

So this is the new creation because we

died in the second. Now we have the new

and he's preeminent in the first

creation. And in the new creation, he's

pre preeminent. For God, for in him all

the fullness of God was pleased to

dwell.

So he's the firstborn from the dead, the

preeminent resurrection.

Everything he is preeminent now. In him

all the fullness of God was fully was

pleased to dwell and through him to

reconcile to himself all things.

This is incredible. This little baby

that you're going to be celebrating had

all of this. The God of the old, the God

of the new creation, the God who's

preeminent in all things, the God who's

done all things, who has all things, and

everything is bound together by him.

That is incredible. Aren't you glad he

was good? Could you imagine someone with

that power who was malevolent

was pleased to dwell and through him and

this is why he came. You want to know

why we celebrate Christmas? It's this

line right here.

And through him to reconcile to himself

all things.

That's why this incredible God who did

not need us,

who created us,

came.

This is why the one that holds you

together came and went through what he

did to reconcile to himself all things

whether on earth or in the heavens. In

other words, he's trying to reconcile

not only us but the spiritual realm.

Think of that

crazy

making peace.

And this word peace is not inner peace.

It's not feel-good peace. It's not like,

"Oh, I love you. Let's have a hug."

This means genuine relational peace. And

how does he do it? By the blood of the

cross.

through a sense of sacrifice that we

will never comprehend.

So in this story,

the author has come in.

Instead of us having a few choices,

the author has come in to a world where

we don't really have choice. I'll

explain.

But the first thing you must get around

your mind

is that Jesus is the creator God.

When we use the word God, we're talking

about Jesus Christ.

When everything we mention when we read

Genesis, everything we do when we study

science, every wonderful truth that we

find as we watch like I do are nerdy

shows about space.

is because of God and Jesus Christ.

He did it all. Full stop. If you don't

get your mind around that, you'll never

understand Christianity. Okay?

He is not a copy or likeness of God, but

the projection of God on the canvas of

our humanity and the embodiment of the

divine in the world of men and women.

I'm telling you that person who walked

though he was fully human was fully God

and did all of this. So next time you

read about Jesus remind yourself of who

you're reading about.

But he came into our story, didn't he?

And the question is how and why and what

would that look like? Did you ever read

CS Lewis? Surprised by Joy?

Anybody? tells a story about the best

analogy he could have of the

incarnation.

And he talked about how it would be like

if Shakespeare was writing Hamlet

and all of a sudden he wrote Shakespeare

into the play.

He says when you see this well actually

quote him because that'd be better than

me using my words.

Shakespeare Shakespeare could in

principle make himself appear an author

within the play and write a dialogue

between Hamlet and himself.

The Shakespeare within the play would of

course be at once Shakespeare and at one

and and also one of Shakespeare's

creatures.

It would bear some analogy to the

incarnation. the author of creation came

in

and he made himself there and he is the

author that's walking along just as if

Shakespeare came into one of his plays.

But why?

Why do that?

It would seem odd if you were watching a

play and the author just decided to hop

on stage and change the story, don't you

think?

Well, here's the thing.

He talks about it right from the

beginning and he ends this section.

There is a reality of conflict.

This is something Western nice

Christians do not like to face.

I'm not saying this crowd, but it's

really hard for us to recognize that

scripture says there is a war.

There is something in the heavenlies and

definitely something in the physical

where human beings are torn away from

God are and are hellbent against them.

So the characters in this story that God

has written in

have now decided to try and make their

own cho choices. They've tried to go

through the book and find which page was

their next decision. Here was the

problem though. They no longer trusted

in the author.

So they tried to make their lives their

own choices. And here was the problem.

They were always going to only work if

they were in right relationship with

God, listening to the author of the

story.

So when they got their little book where

you could go around, the problem was

because they had lost touch with the

author, every time they made a choice,

they made a choice that dehumanized

themselves and killed them in the story.

There was no peace. That's the story

that once they moved themselves away

from the author who made them, who

somehow they created the self- autonomy,

they began only to destroy themselves.

Peter Creef said it this way, we are all

insane. That is what original sin means.

Sin is insanity. It is preferring finite

joy to an infinite joy. creatures to the

creator, an unhappy, an unhappy, godless

self to a happily god-filled self. Only

God can save us from this disease.

That's why the name Jesus means God

saves.

We must remember there's no hope for

humanity outside of God coming in.

Think about that for a sec.

We are so hellbent at self- worship and

taking the story over ourselves that we

are bound by destruction as humanity.

And I challenge you to go back and read

some history and to tell me how much

hope by the end of that you have that

humanity itself will get out of our

pickle.

You see, we seek peace. Anybody around

the 60s? Some of you were 60s people. I

only get to see movies of this. And

everyone was like, "Peace, dude." And

they were peace symbols. And they're

always looking for inner peace. And I

remember reading a story about the

Beatles. I'm dating myself here. And

they went off to India to become peace.

They'd find inner peace there. Do you

remember that? I don't know if you read

the rest of the Beatles story. They

didn't find it.

And it was a whole thing that people

were looking for peace and inner peace

because we became more self-absorbed.

But this problem within us we couldn't

cure.

So all of this seeking for peace ended

up just leading to nowhere. Carl Bart

says it only halfserious and

superficially penetrating things can

result from a lack of peace with God or

from a supposed peace that we have or

think we have in some other way than

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Christian message is peace on earth

to men of God's goodwill.

And what is meant is the peace with God

which is which is included for all the

children of men in the children in the

child that was born there. And then what

he's saying in that

is it's all kind of a joke when we seek

peace in and of ourselves. Whatever we

do it anyways outside of this one peace

that's offered through God because we

are so messed up we will never find it.

Sorry folks, that's the bad news

of our condition.

But there is good news.

When Jesus came and was born, he was on

a mission.

He was on a one mission actually and

that was to reconcile.

We who wanted nothing but to worship

ourselves with him.

He came for a great reconciliation.

He came for a great peace

and he knew one thing

that was going to be costly.

The God that I just told you fills

everything and holds you together knew

that you were not at peace with him and

that there was no harmony,

no eternity,

just hatred.

And he came and he was born amongst the

people he thought were his people.

Remember that? And they didn't know him.

And he came to make and do all of that

for one purpose.

The God of heaven and earth did it for

one purpose. He wants to hang out with

us. Think about that.

God likes you.

God is for you.

God really wants to spend his life with

you now and forever.

And so when we are celebrating the birth

narrative, it's saying to us, not just,

oh, a savior came, not just, oh, a nice

cute little story about a baby, not just

a nice little story about gold,

frankincense, and myrrh, and three

reindeers, and a man in a red suit. Oh,

and I'm getting mixed up.

It's a story that says,

"I want you.

I want you to be my child."

St. Irenaeus in the second century I

mean we're talking within one generation

of Jesus' death said for this is why the

word Jesus became man and the son of God

became the son of man so that man by

entering into communion with the word

and thus receiving divine sunship might

become a son of God.

That's the only reason he came.

He wanted to set you to write with him.

And what he does is he does the

unbelievable and he becomes one of us

and he brings the author into the story

and somehow the author can then redeem

the characters that he made by giving up

his own self for them. That's

incredible.

Amen.

You tell me another religion that even

comes close to that story.

There's none. I promise you I've read

them all.

Well, maybe some pagan one in Africa I

haven't read, but the big ones,

they don't dare make a comment like

that.

And he did it so that you and I by his

grace alone would stop turning our story

and destroying ourselves like in that

book and have his story overtake it so

we could follow the author. And the only

way we could do that is the author said,

"I'm here with you

and I'm going to keep being here with

you by the Holy Spirit."

That's what Christmas is about.

That's the kind of peace he's talking.

Not a little peace, oh, we didn't fight

with the family over Christmas. Good.

I'm glad you didn't. That has nothing to

do with the peace he's talking about

here.

He's talking about the peace between

himself and God and for you forever.

Another classic. You notice I've been

quoting these old classic Yan Hus who

was killed because of his belief in

Jesus. Rejoice that the immortal God is

born that mortal men may live in

eternity. That's why he did it.

And guess what, folks? He did do it.

And I can tell you right now, if you

want to go home today and you want to

spend time with that God that was

described by Paul and you want to hang

out with him and you want to pray to him

and learn from him, he is alive and

listening

because of the cross.

That's incredible.

And he did one other thing. He made us

a new creation.

We weren't just redeemed Adams. We were

new creations and we are now in Christ.

The new creation means we are part of

eternity and our relationship has

changed. Now our God is here, right? You

know what's crazy? The God that he

described is in this room right now.

The God who made all those black holes

and everything else is here right now.

Does this blow your mind? And he's

sitting there go, "No, no, no. Please,

Laura, tell me what's on your mind.

That's incredible."

And he has made us new creations. But

you say to me, Emry, if we're new

creations, why aren't we living in

Nirvana? Well, number one, Nirvana is a

Hindu thing.

But why are we not living in this

perfect place? Because there is still

the battle.

There still are forces that he has

beaten, but they still exist. I want you

to hear that.

It says he destroyed the forces against

him in this spiritual realm. But here's

the truth of what that means. And I'm

going to quote one of the best

theologians out here on this, Peter

O'Brien. I think he might be Irish.

These are certainly these forces not

depicted as gladly surrendering to God's

grace but as submitting against their

wills to a power which they can't

resist.

In other words, they have been pacified.

A notion that was not strange to those

living in the Mediter Mediterranean

region under Roman world of the first

century.

Yet pacification

of our victory over these powers

presumes to be hostile towards God or

Christ does not mean that they are done

away with or finally destroyed.

It is evident that they continue to

exist immin enimical to man and his

interests. Nonetheless, they cannot

finally harm the person who is in

Christ. and their ultimate overthrow in

the future is a is assured.

What I'm saying, the sad truth is even

though this Christ came and did set us

to rights, there's still a battle.

Sorry.

But we're safe because he's already won.

Many years ago, Cory Cory Corey Tenion

Boom, how do I say her name? Cory.

>> Thank you.

She was a German girl.

>> Dutch. I I Isn't that the same thing?

[laughter]

Okay, you can burn me an effigy later.

[laughter]

I'm glad that the other church wasn't

here for that. Um,

anyways,

they avoided and they opposed the Nazis.

And the war came to the end and she kept

hearing, "You are the post-war

generation."

I kept telling her that, "You're the

post-war generation." You guys heard

that before, right?

And she thought about it prayerfully and

she thought, "No,

the war has already been won. at least

the ultimate war of Jesus.

But we're not there yet. I rather think

of us, and I'm going to quote her here.

We are not a post-war generation, but a

pe pre- peace generation.

Jesus is coming.

You and I going, I'm letting you know,

he has reconciled us. We're at peace

with God. We live in a world of war, but

we are the pre- peace generation. And

the good news now, and here's my point

today, is we get to live like that's

true. In a world that hates each other,

we get to live the truth by faith.

In a world that wants you to be hated,

to offer peace. That's what we're given.

We're in invited to boast about this God

and share peace to our brothers and

sisters who don't know him. Peace to our

family members who are antagonistic.

Peace to our neighbors

who are living in anger in vitriel

because we have already tasted that

peace and we get to share it.

You may not find success in that.

At least they may not stop hating you.

But you will find success in God because

you're living out the character of God.

And clearly the character of God is to

bring peace and reconciliation.

So this Christmas, I don't I pray I

always pray this and I pray it for

myself. I don't just go through the

motions.

I really pray that you alongside me when

we face these miniature

images of a manger that are done poorly,

when we hear these stories that we've

heard again and again and again

that we become blown away again

about how much God loves us, about who

God is in this story. and we let the

reconciliation

make us so

inundated with it that we can't help but

praise and be changed.

John Piper, who I don't always agree

with, did give one of the best quotes on

this.

Look to Jesus this Christmas.

receive the reconciliation

reconciliation that he bought. Don't put

it on the shelf unopened.

And don't open it and then make it a

means to all your other pleasures.

Open it and enjoy the gift. Rejoice in

him. Make him your pleasure. Make him

your treasure. Dare I say, make him your

peace.

We have an incredible gospel.

We have an incredible story.

We have the God of heaven and earth that

became human, was born, and died for our

sins

so he could be reconciled. So that you

right now could be right with God. We

should be the most joyous people

walking out of this room that ever

existed

because our future's paid for. Peace has

been given and we are an eternal people.

And boy, when you face a funeral,

how much more important is that?

Amen. Amen.

>> Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your

amazing grace to us

that you have come amongst us and done

those incredible things.

Help us to put our minds around

ourselves that God is everything. He has

created everything

and yet he still loves us.

Help us in our bad days and our

depression when we wonder if God has

left us to remind ourselves how far he

came to get us.

And help us be the children of God who

this Christmas worship in awe and wonder

the God you are.