Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Well, everything in me wants to say good morning. And I will probably say that a couple times. This is it afternoon or evening? What do you. What is good evening? Good evening. If I have not had the opportunity to meet you, my name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the Village Church. I have the joy of opening God's word with you tonight. Also, I want to just give a very special welcome. I know some of you, you are family that is in town, some of you, you live.
[00:00:32] And this might even be your first time coming to Village church. And at every Christmas, some of you have been dragged here. You do not want to be here. And so I'm gonna give the longest sermon that I've ever. I'm kidding. I'm not going to do that. But I just want to say also special welcome to all of our kiddos. So kiddos, at the last service, they were incredible. Incredible. No pressure, no pressure. But I believe in you. All right, if you have a Bible, open up to the book of Luke. We're gonna be in chapter two this evening. That is correct. Evening in Luke chapter two, as you open up there and if you don't have a Bible, you can open up your phone. I'll also have it on the screen for you here. But in Luke chapter two, the angels find themselves on the very first Christmas morning given the privilege to announce that the long multi centuries, multi millennia in the way Messiah has finally arrived. And they have the joy to give this message to a group of nobod.
[00:01:36] What I want to do on the front end is I want to ask you if you would be willing to.
[00:01:40] I want you to consider this from the angels perspective just for a moment.
[00:01:45] I want you to consider how the angels related to Jesus. So for example, Jesus is the angel's personal creator, Jesus, this God in the flesh, this baby chose each of these angels names. What they would look like. All angels, contrary to popular belief, do not look the same.
[00:02:10] Their unique personalities, what they would be called.
[00:02:14] This was Jesus, the one who created them and spoke. And by his words, these angels came into existence.
[00:02:22] Jesus is also their commander in chief in heaven. He gives them their daily marching orders and if you will, more than that, Jesus is their God, whom they have devoted every second of every day to exalting, to serving, to worshiping, to glorifying him. They were made and designed for this and they love the privilege that they have to be servants of Jesus.
[00:02:52] Everything for their entire existence has revolved around Jesus.
[00:03:00] And there are a few brief exceptions in the old Testament when Jesus would come to earth for a mission. But beyond that, their default experience with Jesus has been in heaven. And now I want you to consider this, that these shepherds or these angels, as they announce this to these shepherds, Jesus has been out of heaven, if you will, for nine long months. I guess if you've been pregnant, nine months is a long time to be pregnant, ladies. Can I get an amen on that one? Okay.
[00:03:27] But heaven's normal way of functioning had changed. So here's the normal way. Normally Jesus is in heaven on his throne, sitting at the right hand of God the Father. And he is ruling and he is leading and he is commanding and he is being worshiped. And so the entire rhythm of heaven has been flipped upside down. And so nine months prior to this, he left. And then for 33 plus years, the normal angelic rhythms of heaven and had changed. And what you need to know if you're new to the Bible, is that everything in the Old Testament, every story, every law, every promise, every prophecy ultimately leads us to this stable, to this man Joseph, to this very young woman Mary, to this baby, to this Jesus, to this night.
[00:04:20] And look at Luke chapter 2, verse 10. With me, one angel shares an earth shattering message with this group of shepherds.
[00:04:28] And he says, and the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I will bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
[00:04:39] For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord.
[00:04:46] And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. Then in verse 13, the scene changes actually very quickly. In fact, the verse says suddenly.
[00:05:00] And suddenly there was with the singular angel. Now there is a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God. Okay, my guess is the majority of us have never seen an angel. Rumor has it when you see them, they are so gloriously petrifying that people typ because of their beauty, their glory and their majesty. And they are struck with great fear. So we go from one to a multitude, which I, when I get to heaven, I just want to see the video of the shepherd's face. That's what I want to see. I just want to see how they responded. I want to see what went down.
[00:05:33] But multitude doesn't mean in scriptures like 3 or 10. We're talking hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands. We're talking in an enormously large group. And what's interesting is that the Bible uses a very specific word to describe the angels, if you didn't know, there are different kinds of angels. And here there is a certain kind of angel that is being described. And the word is host.
[00:05:59] Now, when we hear heavenly host, we tend to just go, oh yeah, a group of angels. But actually host is a group of warrior angels.
[00:06:11] So when you're thinking about the angels coming to the shepherds on Christmas morning, what goes through most people's mind? Well, I'll tell you.
[00:06:20] Usually a group of effeminate men dressed in robes with long flowing blonde hair. Why not brown? I don't know why, but most people have blonde hair in their heads and they're singing a perfectly contrived choral piece, et cetera. And that's what goes through most people's head, probably because that's the way it's portrayed in like every TV show, movie and nativity set on the planet. But the word here is a different kind of angel. This is a.
[00:06:45] A large group, a multitude of warrior angels. Now, I've never seen angels, but I'm confident that if you saw these angels, you would become very quickly aware that they are always battle ready.
[00:06:58] Now, most people also think it was a choral piece.
[00:07:03] In fact, given the kind of angels that are here, it seems actually far more likely that this was not a.
[00:07:13] But a battle cry.
[00:07:16] This kind of shifts the way you understand warrior angels. Now, if we could just for a very brief moment, I want to take you to one of the most unfamiliar Christmas passages. It's one that most people are not going to put on their Christmas card. You know, in fact, here's the challenge. If you go to village church, put this in your Christmas card next year, it's going to be awesome. This will start a conversation. Revelation, chapter 12, verses 4 and 5. And what they do, what John does is he pulls back the curtain in the spiritual realm and he shows you around the birth of Jesus, what was happening in the spirit realm. It says this and the dragon, and we know that is Satan.
[00:07:55] And the dragon stood before the woman. You'll see that's Mary, who's about to give birth. So that when she bore her child, Jesus.
[00:08:03] What did the dragon want to do to Jesus that he might devour it?
[00:08:08] In verse five, she gave birth to a male child. One who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. His name is. It's Church Jesus. Good job. But her child was caught up to God and to his throne.
[00:08:23] So in the physical realm, the birth of Jesus was not a loud public matter. And that was by design on purpose to protect Jesus, at least temporarily. Anonymity. Why?
[00:08:38] Well, the scriptures pull back the curtain for us and they actually tell us why. Because what we actually know is all the way back in the garden in Genesis chapter three, God made a promise to Satan that one of his offspring was going to end up killing and destroying him. And Satan has been hunting down this Messiah, this Christ, this offspring, this promised one, and the lineage of, of Adam and Eve. And he has been hunting this child down, has been unable to find him. And so this dragon is on the search for the child to destroy the child before the child can destroy him.
[00:09:13] So in the physical realm it's a normal night with a baby being born and the ways that babies are being born. And it was probably loud for a bit and it was calm and there was crying and there was joy and all of the other things.
[00:09:26] But in the spirit realm there's actually a hunt for this baby. And it's not a surprise that shortly after this an angel comes to them in a dream and says, you need to get out of here, you need to go to Egypt because Herod is going to kill all of the babies in Bethlehem. You need to leave.
[00:09:40] And so you see behind the scenes this war that is going on now. Come back to verse 14 in Luke chapter 2.
[00:09:49] Here is the angelic battle cry.
[00:09:52] One verse, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.
[00:10:03] Two of the most precious important things to God in the whole world.
[00:10:08] Number one, his glory.
[00:10:11] Nobody takes his glory.
[00:10:13] Number two, image bearers, that's you and me.
[00:10:18] And Satan has been on a just with an agenda to destroy God's good name and to destroy God's people. Now I don't know whether or not the demonic realm heard this battle cry or not. Maybe they heard it as the stories were told over and over. What I just love is that every single time somebody reads this passage or studies this passage or a preacher preaches this passage, we, we get to reiterate this 2000 year old battle cry declaring God's victory. You know, nice try Satan. God is going to get all the glory and the peace that you've been trying to destroy with all of your chaos and your anxiety and flipping the world upside down and war. Guess what? You're not gonna be able to stop the peace that Jesus is going to give his people.
[00:11:07] You can mess it up for a little while here and there, but I'm telling you, he is going to win. This is the ultimate trump card. This is the ultimate play in the chess game. Nobody can stop this baby because he's not just any other baby. He is God in the flesh, the promised Messiah. Good luck. Nice try. Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.
[00:11:33] So despite the spiritual war all around us, despite the chaos and actual war and anxiety and all the relational brokenness, the angels make a declaration that this Jesus has a gift for you and me.
[00:11:53] God's gonna get the glory. And the gift for you and me is peace.
[00:11:58] And then he says in verse 14, on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.
[00:12:07] Okay, so if I were to look at most people, non Christians or Christians, and if I were to look at most people and say, if I could give you God's peace, whatever it is, without even defining it, if I could give you God's peace, supernatural peace, would you want it?
[00:12:24] And I think 99% of people would say, whatever God's peace is, it's better than this chaos.
[00:12:34] And what I just absolutely love is that God, Jesus is offering humanity actual, supernatural, real peace. Jesus is going to bring a new level of peace. That is a special gift just. And I want you to catch the way this is written just for God's people, just for those who trust in.
[00:12:59] And briefly, I just want to show you how this peace works.
[00:13:04] First, the gift of peace.
[00:13:06] It is first with God.
[00:13:09] No one, and I mean no one on planet earth gets access to God's peace without first having your broken relationship with God reconciled.
[00:13:20] If you want the maybe inner peace that God offers, no one gets supernatural inner peace from Jesus until you are first reconciled to God. And because here's what the scriptures teach, and I think our lived experience also tells us this, we are sinners and we have sinned against a holy God. There is never gonna be a time where God has sinned against us. God has never been the one to break the relationship with us. It has been 100% US breaking the relationship with God.
[00:13:49] In fact, the Bible says that if we have never told God we're sorry and believed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, that we don't just not have peace, but we are actually at hostility with God. We are at war with God. And so here's what we need. We need our hostile relationship with God reconciled. We need forgiveness. And he wasn't the one that broke it. We are the ones that broke it. And so if you want, if anybody wants access to God's peace, first and foremost, you need to be at peace relationally with God. We're going to come Back to this second, the gift of peace that God offers just for Christians is peace within ourselves.
[00:14:30] John 14:27.
[00:14:32] Jesus says, this peace, I leave you, my peace I give you.
[00:14:39] Let me say it this way. Inner peace is the deep confidence that God has everything under control.
[00:14:46] Despite what I see and what I feel, I'm never going to make a promise, nor does the scripture promise that all of your intrusive thoughts and all of your anxiety and all of the terrifying emotions that you have are going to go away if you become a Christian. I can't think of a single Christian who's going to look at you and say, my emotions have been perfectly level and completely under control the day I came to Christ.
[00:15:10] God does not promise emotional regulation for all those who come to Christ.
[00:15:16] What he does offer is, despite what you feel and despite what you think, and despite the intrusive thoughts and despite the chaos, is something deeper and more supernatural. And it is this confidence that despite how out of control this world is, he is completely in control.
[00:15:34] That even when you lay your head down at night and again, there are thoughts that come into your brain and you go to bed and you go unconscious for. For eight whole hours. Right? Eight whole hours, Right. Some of you are like, who are you?
[00:15:49] Nine hours. I'm kidding. You go unconscious for eight hours or whatever it is four for some of you. And you know that while you are unconscious, the Lord has everything under control.
[00:16:01] There are so many things you can't control, but you know that he is good. He is the sovereign of the universe, and truly in the deepest parts of your bones. And it's not a cliche that actually all things work out for the good of those who love Him.
[00:16:18] Third, the gift of peace first starts with God, then it's internal. The gift of peace is peace with one another. Okay, I'm going to say this bluntly. I think most of you will agree with me. Unless it's you. Then you probably won't. Okay, a general rule.
[00:16:36] People with chaotic and conflicted souls usually have chaotic and conflicted relationships.
[00:16:47] Can we agree?
[00:16:50] But people with a calm, reasonable, peaceful soul tend to have statistically more often relationships that are calm and reasonable and peaceful.
[00:17:09] You can't control what they do. But generally, people who are at peace with God and who are given supernatural peace inside are more likely, by the way, when you don't have the chaos in your heart and your soul, they're more likely to have a peaceful relationship with people in their life.
[00:17:30] And this is one of the great, unbelievably shocking things that God does, He gives you peace with Himself.
[00:17:37] And then for those who are willing, and I think this is important because you know, the inner peace that all of us want, you know that you can throw that away temporarily, right? You can just disobey God's word, live in rebellion to him, and that inner peace is going to just go away.
[00:17:53] But for those who will obey God's word and stay close to him like that, peace is something that actually does grow this deep confidence. And then out of that, actually you have more peaceful relationships in your life.
[00:18:09] And I think most people want this. All of it, though, everything that you want God to do in your own heart, in your own mind, and in your relationships, all of it begins with your personal relationship with God. All the peace that God wants to give amongst his people, as Luke 2:14 says, all of that hinges on whether or not we are at peace with God Himself. Now, you need to know this.
[00:18:34] If you have ever come to Christ and you have trusted in Jesus and you have been reconciled to God, you've been made at peace with God, nothing can ever take that away, ever. It is the most permanent, secure thing in your life. But I can tell you this.
[00:18:51] The world, the culture, the demonic realm, they want to take away your inner peace, and they want to break your peace with other Christians. That's what they want. But you don't have to do that. God is offering you peace with himself.
[00:19:04] He's offering you the opportunity to have inner peace and also peace within his people. Now, I don't know about y', all, but I would much rather have the peace of God than the chaos, anxiety, and fretting of this world.
[00:19:19] Amen.
[00:19:20] Now, at Vil Church, we end our messages really in the same way. We ask the question, so what? And I usually have a handful of so what's between 3 and 30. Today we have just one singular so what?
[00:19:34] This Christmas, if you have not already received the free gift, the angels are declaring peace with God.
[00:19:45] The Christmas story is a declaration that your greatest problem, our greatest problem, it's not war. It's not our anxiety. It's not our intrusive thoughts. It's not our broken marriage. It's not our broken friendships. The greatest problem in our life is that our sin, the sin we committed, has separated us from our Creator, who loves us and his hand is extended always until your very last breath, offering you peace right now. If you've never come to Christ, if you've never told him you're sorry, you and God, the scriptures say, are actually at war. If you ever pray to God and you're like, I feel like he's just not hearing me. I feel like he doesn't answer my prayers. It might be because you and God aren't at peace with each other.
[00:20:31] If you have never come to God and said, I need forgiveness, I want to be at peace with you. I want you to be my God. I'm done being my own God or having these other people be my God. I want you to be my God. If you have never done that, I just have awesome news. At any moment of any time, as long as there's breath in your lungs, you can reach your hand out to God because his is already extended to you. All he wants, like a father with an estranged child, is peace.
[00:20:59] It's relationship. And so you have this opportunity today, and maybe you're like, nice try, Pastor. Not gonna do it. You might be, 10 years from now, God reveals the truth of who Jesus actually is at any moment. As long as you have breath, you can tell him you are sorry and ask him to save you and forgive you guys. That is awesome news. Now you might be saying to yourself, pastor Michael, that feels more like a Good Friday message and an Easter message. Okay, if you're here with us sometimes Sunday, here's what we said.
[00:21:30] The incarnation, God becoming flesh, Jesus being born is meaningless without the crucifixion. Babies are born all the time.
[00:21:38] And the crucifixion, it's meaningless without the resurrection. Why? Because people die all the time and they're killed all the time for good causes. But the resurrection, what we celebrate on Easter Sunday, Christmas morning, culminates on Easter Sunday. Because if the resurrection is true and all of history and the scriptures tell us that it is, then Jesus isn't just a random other baby. He's God in the flesh. And the things that he said about himself are actually true. And his death wasn't just any death, but it was the death that would take the punishment for your sins in your place.
[00:22:11] And so this Christmas, the best gift you could receive is peace with God. Not by being a good person, not by going to church, but by coming to God, apologizing and asking him to save you. Because you believe in Jesus Christ.
[00:22:28] Now, maybe you are dragged here by your family and you're like, listen, I'm not even open to any of this. Or maybe you're here and you're like, listen, I'm not ready probably to trust in Christ, but I've got a lot of questions. And so I just wanted to give A quick plug for something that's really near and dear to my heart that we're launching in January, January 11, at Village Church. It's called Alpha, and it's an opportunity on Sunday night. And you. We basically come together and look at God's word and we ask some of the biggest questions and we dig into God's word to see what it says. It's for people who have. Who are not Christians, people who are searching, people who are maybe new to the faith. Or if you just want to go deep in your relationship with God, it's a really awesome opportunity. And so there's a little red card right in front of you. In fact, I have one in my pocket. Feel free to take it. And it says maybe there's more. And then on the back is all the information. So I would just encourage you, if you've got questions and you want to go deeper, take an opportunity to check that out. Because if Jesus actually is who he says he is, you have to deal with him before you die.
[00:23:34] If he really is who he says he is, what you do with Jesus, this baby who grew to be a man who died for your sins and was raised from the dead, you have to deal with with him.
[00:23:46] Finally, this Christmas, I think it's the majority of us. To those of you who've trusted in Christ, you've experienced salvation through faith.
[00:23:55] You and God are at peace.
[00:23:58] May you savor the fact that you have been reconciled to God through the blood of Christ and your peace with God has been restored.
[00:24:09] May the peace of Jesus fill you. May your anxious mind be settled. May your chaotic emotions be calmed.
[00:24:16] May your soul rest in God's good oversight of your life.
[00:24:22] May you be filled with gratitude to Jesus, who willingly humbled himself, laying aside the privileges of deity and taking on flesh. May you open up God's word. May you pass on the history of our people revealed in Scripture, to your children and your children's children.
[00:24:38] And may you not let the season distract you from our greatest focus.
[00:24:42] Who is Jesus? Let me pray for us.
[00:24:45] Father, I want to thank you that you have once and for all given us the antidote to inner chaos and broken relationships. And not just that, but the antidote to our greatest problem, our sin that has separated us from you.
[00:25:01] Jesus, you were not joking or exaggerating when you said that you have left us your peace. And for those of us who have trusted in you, we affirm that nothing can take away our salvation.
[00:25:12] God, over the next 36 or 48 hours, we have the privilege to celebrate you, your incarnation, your plan of salvation with gifts and lights and food and family and so many other symbols.
[00:25:23] May these symbols fulfill their ultimate purpose. May they draw our hearts to Christ.
[00:25:29] And finally, as we remember the first coming, would you prepare us for the second coming, which will surely come, because you have never broken a single promise. As we wait, fill us with your true peace. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:25:48] Amen.
