Advent 2019: PEACE

Romans 16.20

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

[Transcript]

Let's bow our heads to pray now. Our heavenly father, we're thankful that we have gathered as you have prescribed us to come together to worship the death and the resurrection of Jesus and in the church calendar season for peace. We're thankful that you God, are the God of peace, that you dispense peace to your church, your people. Lord, we would certainly pray for the troubled soul that doesn't have peace or for the one that's sending under a false peace. It's not derived from the God of peace.

And yet Lord, for those that you have dispensed and given peace to your people, your church, perhaps they might be in a season of life that finds a great deal of stress, a great deal of problem, Lord and may be even for them. They need to confess their sin because in a very unwise way, they're not keeping the peace of God for their life. So I pray for them, Lord, that you will use our thoughts together, collected from your word and from who you are to encourage all of us in the condition that we find ourselves in so that we can move out of here and leave and go into our week knowing the God of peace. We pray and ask these things in the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy spirit. Amen.

Most of you know this about me. I like golf.

And a few months ago in the fall, early fall, I was playing golf and hit a ball to an area as you know, I can do, it's not supposed to go. And it happened to be in an area of grass that was about thigh high on me, but it wasn't thick that as you could go in though the grass was thigh high and you could see areas that cause it was, it was somewhat sparse so you could find your golf ball. And so I went into there and was looking for my golf ball. Looking to my right down and I hear this, this rustling in the grass. And I look over to my left where that rustling I thought was and there was a five foot black snake. And so I step on the back of that snake's head with a heel and I, and I crush it. You don't believe that part of the story, no. Scares me to death. I could not believe it. And I screamed and ran out of the grass in fright.

I lost the golf ball and I didn't care at the time for about the next four or five, maybe six holes. The mere thought of going back to deep grasps, scared the daylight side of me. Cause you know, my, my family was raised in the South. I remember as a kid, you know, we would go down South and undoubtedly, you know, they'd want to torment the city kid. And my dad's add ain't nothing but a gardener. What? It's a snake. Snakes are, well, quite honestly I'm afraid of him. I don't care if they're poisonous or not either. They just, they just create fear for me. And you know, in the, in the, in the word Satan is often referred to as a serpent, a snake or, or a dragons. You can't help but read this text. Pay close attention to this with me so you don't miss this. Verse 20, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. He says, the God of peace, Paul says, will soon crush Satan under your feet. That language should ring a bell for you. It causes our minds to want to go back. And so we want to go back to where that language was derived from. Turn back with me to the book of Genesis chapter three.

When we think of peace, we think of peace for ourselves. And so for ourselves as, as, as God's people, we think of peace in two ways. Prior to there is no peace with God. Romans chapter five says, we're at enmity, warfare with God. But therefore being justified by faith, now we have peace with God. So when we think about peace for ourselves, we think the first primary spot is that we as God's people have had peace with God, where our sin divided us from a Holy God, by faith trusting in the gospel and, and the death and resurrection and the forgiveness of sin by what Jesus did. We now have peace with God. So our souls have found peace with God. The fear of death is removed, but yet even as a Christian in this life, there's a second aspect of this. When we think of peace, and usually at least in my case, perhaps this is true for you, we only think of peace as it relates to us, but you think of the peace of God. Paul will tell the church at Philippi the peace of God, which passes all understanding. And so you can have peace with God in a right salvation relationship. But there is an exercise on our part to maintain the peace of God.

And what I mean by that is if, if we live in sin and a type of sin, God will go after. And I think one of the places he goes after is he'll go after our peace, a sense of unsaddling to nurture us back to the way if we're holding the sense. So we think of peace in that regard. We think of peace with God. We think of peace of God for the moments though, I want to take a step back from that and I want you to think about our God is a God of peace. Who soon crush Satan under your feet? Our God is a God of peace. What that means is in God's very being, the father, the son and the spirit, they possess peace.

They are the makers of peace. They are the ones who dispense peace to God's people. And the Trinity itself enjoy a relationship of peace. They're the source of peace. They're the only ones that can give peace. And truly there's no sense of lasting peace that's or real, that's outside of a right relationship with Jesus. It's not derived. When we think about God being the God of peace, we go back to the book of beginnings. We go back to God creating, he creating everything that was made and we know that God created things in peace. As we move through chapters one and two and as we come to the apex of God's creation, that is Adam being made in the image of God and there his wife after Eve. The picture that you and I have of the garden is this God of ours. This God of peace has given to his creation. He has given to his people this incredible sense of peace and serenity and they enjoyed it. And then chapter three happens.

Satan is the opposite of peace. Satan loves disorder. Satan loves chaos. Satan desires confusion upon those people who are created in the image of God. He's a disruptor and we know this is true of him because Satan is a, is a liar and he's a, he's a thief and he's a murderer and so he does not want peace. In fact, Satan hates the God of peace and yet in humanity's most difficult spot when peace and serenity glitched and it stopped for SLOs. Moments when Adam and Eve fell as God himself is, is, is giving the pronounced judgment or consequence of sin. It is the God of peace and I believe that verse 15 derives from the fact that that now sin, Satan, dish row are disrupted in his creation. He gives us this. I will put MDT verse 15 warfare between you and the woman, between he's talking to the serpent, between your offspring and her offspring, there are two offspring of people. There are the people of God and there are the people who are not of the people of God there of Satan's lineage

And it says of this relationship of this offspring, he shall bruise your head. That is the seed of the woman. Jesus would crush the serpent's head and you the serpent will bruise his heel. You will cause him to suffer. It is the God of peace in this moment. I read something this week I thought was really beautiful. Justin martyr and Iranian. Think about this. Iranian would have been like the apostle John's grandson that is in a fatherly type relationship. The apostle John had relationship to Polycarp and Polycarp had a relationship to Iranian, so you know, they're passing on actual conversations that they had. Justin martyr and Iranian is called this the prodo evangelism. Genesis three 15 the first gospel, the God of peace, as soon as his peaceful creation in the serenity that they enjoyed when that was disrupted and destroyed for the moment, he promises that the God of peace will send one to make things right. One would come a Messiah, a Christ would come, who would crush the serpent's head.

You know, we're going through the gospel of Mark together and we see this through Jesus ministry as as the God of peace. He inaugurate his kingdom, right? He, he comes forth and he pronounces in his in his mission of to repent and to believe the gospel for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven has been fulfilled through the ministry and the mission of who Jesus is and Jesus as part of the Trinity who is the God of peace. We are witnessing it literally every week in the sermons. It is Jesus who heals. He brings up peace to those who have been destroyed by sickness and damaged by sickness, lepers and, and all sorts of people. People who can't see, who can't hear. We are witnessing that. We are seeing the God of peace. Go in and bring peace to those who are possessed of demons.

He's restoring. He is, he is showing us. Jesus is that he is the God of peace. We are witnessing Jesus comb storms, right? Because now get this, this is a, this is a very beautiful thing. Peace extends certainly to us as God's people, but dear friends, peace is going to be extended past us to all of God's creation. And it is Jesus's ministry that is pointing us to that people are being healed, people are being set free from demons, disasters are, are coming to nut storms. Listen to the voice of its creator. Why? Because our God is a God of peace man. And he's promised to make it run.

And there is for us as we look back to what was, there was peace and serenity and creation. It gets disrupted. Yet it is the God of peace. Who makes a promise of a Messiah and a Christ one who would crush the serpent's head. Turn with me back to our text in Romans chapter 16 Jesus, the Prince of peace heals. He cast out demons. He feeds people. You know, we move through those texts about feeding people, and it's not like us where we skip a meal and we say, man, I'm starving. And the people were hungry. People prayed for rain. So crops would be nourished. What is God showing that Jesus is the God of peace? He is. He is showing his creation that he is the God of peace. He doesn't want them to miss that. It is Jesus who raises the dead. It is Jesus, the God of peace who pays for sin.

So that relationship wouldn't remain at enmity at warfare for us. And then I find this interesting, it's in a closing instruction where Paul is giving instruction to the church where there's divisiveness going on and chaos going on. Look at verse 17 I appeal to your brothers to watch out for those who cause the vision and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught. Well, what are they doing? Even if they're Christians, they're, they're paying attention to the, to the serpent, to the dragon they are causing, and they're there. They're creating chaos in the church. God hates that. And he says to the encouragement, to God's people that verse 20, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Well, he already had. You already had it. The cross. Genesis three 15 was as real then when it was stated, and as sure as when Jesus would fulfill it on the cross. It was inaugurated then, and it has yet in its tote total aspect of God being the God of peace will be fully realized when the God of peace, Jesus returns because he's not gonna just leave his creation in behind which he created in peace and in serenity.

So when you're looking at verse 20 of chapter 16 we're looking at what God promises because even though you have peace with God in a right relationship with God through Jesus, even though you may enjoy the peace of God and in maintaining short Senate counts, or you are enjoying God's peace that he dispenses to his people, we look around us and there's a sense of mourning for them because we know that the world we live in is not right. It's not at peace and it's never been at peace, and I don't think it'll ever be at peace until the Prince of peace comes, because there is no real sense of peace outside of God. There is no real sense of peace outside of Jesus who made peace for us.

He promises him here we have the hope of peace that soon here, Jesus, as this divine warrior will come and he will crush the dragon, he will crush the serpent. He will put to not the disruption of his creation. Jesus has crushed the dragon. This is true, and yet there's a sense for us, isn't it? That we're real long, that everything will really be made right. The Jesus will genuinely, as the God of peace will make everything new. Turn to revelation chapter 20 this is peace realized in the hope of the consummation in Jesus' return. Revelation chapter 20 verse one then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand, the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain, and he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent, the one who was in the garden, the one who attacked the creation of the God of peace to bring disruption, to bring chaos, to bring confusion

Who is the devil and Satan and bound him a thousand years and threw him into the pit and shut it up and sealed it over him. So he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended for after that, he must be released a little while. Jump to verse seven when ultimately this promise will be realized and when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his president, will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth. Gog and Magog to gather them for the battle and their number is like the sand of the sea, and they marched over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them. Look at this with me and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the Lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever and never again.

Well, God's creation, those who belong to God will be disrupted. When Jesus returns, he will make everything new. Revelation chapter 21 says, and when he comes in making everything new, dear friends, peace will be restored to his creation and a new heaven and a new earth. A turn with me to Luke as we kind of pull some of this together to wrap up that our God is a God of peace. I want to give you some things to consider. Look what Luther writes concerning the birth of Jesus in his first advent. Verse 14 Luke chapter two verse 14

Glory to God in the highest and on earth. Catch this peace among those with whom he is pleased among those who he's pleased. Something for us to consider. Peace is given to those who belong to God. It's given to those who belong to God. If you were to get Martin Luther's commentary in the book of Galatians, he mentions in the book of Galatians that you'll see in the new Testament epistles. It's often offered by the apostle Paul grace and peace. You see this little couplet everywhere, grace and peace, and what Martin Luther would say about that grace and peace is that grace covers our sin. Peace Combs the soul. Fred is your soul combed.

What you want to wrestle with is do you belong to Jesus? Because there is no true sense of peace outside of Jesus. Do peace and comfort come over your soul. When you think about what's ahead in the future, when you think about what's past your career, what's past your retirement, what's truly truly ahead for all of us, which is death, only the God of peace can give you the comfort of your soul that your soul longs for, but because it wants to worship, it will gravitate to things of false peace. It'll only get fined or get and find its rest in Jesus. Do you belong to Jesus?

How do I belong to Jesus? Well, Jesus inaugurated this whole message in Mark chapter one verse 15 when he announced the gospel of the kingdom, the God of peace offered, repent and believe the gospel, and it will bring you peace to your soul. Now church, and this makes up most of us, that that that know the savior and you know deep down that you have made peace with God. You have repented, you have believed the gospel, but the truth is you're nurturing some sin and you're nurturing that sin in such a way. The God of peace is troubling you over it for that piece to, to, to have it's enjoyment to God's intention for his people. Make that right. Just simply make that right. Allow the table to make that right. If you need to make that right with another person, please make it right. It is the God of peace who is troubling your heart over it. For you to enjoy this God of peace whom he is the dispenser. He is the source. He's the giver of peace.

Make things right. And church, I pray that you will leave this table thanking God for the peace he's given you. And we'll go into the world because we live in a world that doesn't have peace and they desperately need what you possess.