Advent Week 3_Increase of Peace
Passage: Ephesians 2:14-18
Sections, Scripture References, Quotes:
The Problem – Conflict (2:11-12)
“I will put enmity between you and the women, between your offspring and her offspring” – Genesis 3:15
The Bible says the most fundamental and important peace is peace with God. The natural human heart wants to be king, and so it is hostile to God’s claims of lordship over us. Until we see our instinctive hostility to God’s authority, we can’t understand one of the great, deep mainsprings of all human behavior. We are committed to the idea that the only way we will be happy is if we are wholly in charge of our lives. Of course, this self-centered desire to command and control leads to conflict with other human beings. So hostilities with God lead to hostilities with others. There is no peace on earth because there is no peace with God. The proclamation of Christmas, however, is “God and sinners reconciled.” – Tim Keller, Hidden Christmas
The Promise of Christmas – Peace (2:14-18
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives* do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” – John 14:27
Impact of Christmas – Increase of Peace
Christmas means that, through the grace of God, and the incarnation, peace with God is available; and if you make peace with God, then you can go out and make peace with everybody else. And the more people who embrace the Gospel and do that, the better off the world is. Christmas, therefore, means the increase of peace —both with God and between people—across the face of the world. – Tim Keller, Hidden Christmas