Advent 2: Peace | Luke 2:8-14
Good morning, Main Street Church. It's good to be with you all this morning. My name is Jack. I serve on staff here, and a quick question right away.
Has anyone here ever experienced an airport delay? Especially around the holidays or when you really want to go somewhere, airport delays, or being stuck in traffic can be the absolute worst! I remember the worst delay that I ever had was coming back from a mission trip in the Philippines. I was 18, had just graduated from high school, and had literally left for this trip 2 days earlier.
We were there for three and a half weeks, and we had to take three flights: our island to Manila, the capital, Manila to Taiwan, and Taiwan to Seattle. We were finally leaving. It was a fantastic trip, but I definitely wanted to be home. We were on our first flight to Manila when a tropical storm was approaching the Philippines. When we landed, our Manila-Taiwan flight was canceled.
I have this vivid memory of 40 of us lying down in the Manila airport for 5-6 hours, only two people over 22 on the trip, tired, hungry, and cranky, waiting for that flight. We ended up having to stay two extra nights and spend 15 more hours waiting in that airport to get everyone home and back to Seattle, finally.
That feeling of being stuck in the airport:
You're not where you want to be. You don't feel at peace. Nothing around you looks stable or predictable. But you have the promise and hope of a new flight, which says you are going somewhere. This is not the end. There is a destination ahead.
That is kind of like the picture of Advent. We're living in the in–between. We have the promise. We're just not home yet. And the world around us can feel very chaotic.
Everyone is searching for this feeling of peace, and we usually are looking for it in the wrong places. We could be looking for it in relationships, in comfort, in financial stability, and this can become hard at Christmas time. There is stress, grief, pressure, loneliness, conflict, exhaustion, you name it. The Christmas season, while it can be very exciting, fun, and joyful, can also be anything but peaceful.
But we often treat peace as a feeling, the moment where everything becomes calm, that warm cup of coffee on a cold morning.
But that is not the type of Peace the Bible talks about; that type of peace is the Hebrew word shalom, meaning that everything is made complete or whole.
Shalom comes when everything is rightly ordered under God's good rule. It's harmony with God, with others, and within ourselves. But humanity rejected God's authority and wanted control instead. We wanted to be sovereign. We wanted to rule ourselves. And when we stepped out from under God's authority, peace shattered in every direction:
conflict with God,
conflict within ourselves
conflict with one another
conflict with creation.
That is why Jesus came.
He came to end the war between humanity and God.
He came to heal the relational fractures between people.
He came to calm the internal storms of fear, guilt, or restlessness we carry.
He doesn't just bring peace… He is Peace.
And yet, even now, we do not experience perfect peace.
Just as Israel longed for the first coming of the Messiah, we long for His return. We live in the Advent tension, the "in-between", where peace has already come through Christ's cross and resurrection, but the fullness of peace in the world is still on its way.
So peace is not just something we receive, it's something we embody. Those who have experienced God's Peace extend forgiveness, pursue unity, and show the world what peace looks like in real relationships.
This matters because most of us aren't lacking momentary calm; we're lacking wholeness. We don't need a peaceful moment; we need a peace that can hold our entire lives together.
Before we dive into the shepherds and angels, we need to understand what the angels actually meant when they said, "peace on earth." Because we often hear that phrase and think it means a peaceful life, a peaceful feeling, or the end of conflict. But the Bible is talking about something much deeper.
When the angels announced "peace on earth," they weren't talking about political peace or emotional calm. They were announcing a Person.
Jesus Himself is our Peace. We see in Ephesians 2:13-14
But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace
Ephesians 2:13-14
And in Micah 5:4-5
And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
And he shall be their peace.
Micah 5:4-5
Because peace is something only He can create.
First, He brings Peace with God.
Humanity is naturally separated from Him, unable to repair that relationship. We can't negotiate Peace with God or earn it. Romans 5:1 summarizes this well, saying:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1
Jesus, fully God and fully man, is the only one who can stand in the gap and bring us back to a relationship with God through His life, death, and resurrection.
Second, He brings peace between divided people.
The ancient world was torn apart by hostility, Jew vs. Gentile, group vs. group. Jesus breaks down the dividing wall and creates a new, united people. Any real unity is rooted in Him.
And because He is our Peace, He is also the source of any inner peace we experience now, and the eternal peace we will enjoy forever.
But here's the surprising part: when God's Peace enters the world, it doesn't start by calming us. It starts by confronting us. And that's exactly what we see with the shepherds…
Which brings us to the first point today about peace…
Peace disturbs before it calms
I feel like everyone had some kind of major, irrational fear growing up, right? Maybe you were terrified of what lived under your bed, or the dark hallway, or the nightmare fuel that is a giant mascot. Maybe it was clowns (understandable) or the classic baby crying on Santa's lap Christmas photo, because nothing says "Merry Christmas" like placing a child on the lap of a stranger in a red suit and hoping for the best.
Well, my fear when I was younger was… angels.
Not the soft, glowing Christmas card versions, but the real biblical ones. The ones who show up in the Bible and the first words out of their mouths are always: "Do not be afraid."
Which tells you one thing: Everyone who sees them is absolutely terrified.
I had this spot in the house growing up, maybe you had something like this too. It was this dark space between the staircase and the door to the garage, and for some reason, I became convinced that this would be the perfect place for an angel to appear to me. So anytime I had to walk past it, late at night, early in the morning, I would SPRINT. Full speed. Eyes probably closed. Just sheer survival mode.
And that's actually exactly what we see in the shepherds' story.
It says in Luke, "And they were filled with great fear."
This is not a quiet reverence. This isn't the "fear of the Lord" as worshipful awe. This is panic. This is fear.
Why?
Because when God draws near… everything hidden gets exposed. God doesn't expose to condemn, He exposes to restore. His presence shows us how far we are from the peace we pretend we have.
This is a consistent pattern throughout Scripture.
Whenever God breaks into someone's life, the reaction is rarely calm.
Cornelius, in Acts, says, "he stared at him in terror" - Acts 10:4
Zechariah in Luke 11: And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.
The women at Jesus' tomb in Matthew 28:2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
Before peace comforts, peace confronts.
Before God calms us, He wakes us up.
Before His presence brings rest, it exposes what's unrestful in us.
Why does he do this?
Because the Peace that Jesus offers is not the absence of conflict, peace is the presence of God. And the presence of God reveals our need before it brings relief.
If we're honest, this is why most of the world doesn't have peace.
Not because God is absent, but because we want the blessings of God without the rule of God. We want the comfort of God while staying in control of our own lives. We want a God who helps us, not a God who leads us.
So here's the real question of this first point:
Are you actually okay with God's authority over your life?
Or do you prefer to run your own life and just keep God as a backup plan, a safety net for when things fall apart?
Peace begins when we stop sprinting past the places where God might show up… and instead say,
"Lord, whatever You reveal, whatever You confront,
I want your presence more than my illusion of control."
That is the first thing we see with the shepherds and the angels in the Christmas story: peace disturbs before it calms.
Peace… Declared before it is fully seen
The angels announce: "Peace on earth…" but nothing externally changes. Peace is announced in the world that looks far from peaceful
Rome still dominates with its oppressive rule
Herod still murders and continues his violent reign
Mary and Joseph are still poor, vulnerable, and socially marginalized
Sin and injustice still infect the world.
The angelic announcement was not about political peace, emotional calm, or even the completed work of Jesus (that would come later at the cross). It was about a Person, Jesus Himself. He is the Peacemaker, the one who reconciles humanity with God and begins the restoration of relationships among people. Peace is not a feeling; Peace is Jesus.
This is the already / not yet reality
Already
Jesus has come.
Peace with God is available now.
The kingdom has broken in.
Jesus has ended the war between God and humanity.
Not Yet
The world is still broken.
Full peace awaits His return.
Pain, conflict, and injustice still remain.
This is the Christian life: We live in the tension of God's promises declared before they're fully realized. Just as Israel waited centuries for the Messiah, we wait for the world to be fully restored. This is the in-between of Advent: rejoicing in the good news while still longing for completion.
Even in this "already" phase, Jesus has accomplished real change:
Peace with God (Vertical Reconciliation):
Through Jesus, humanity can be reconciled with God. We cannot fix the separation caused by sin ourselves. Only Jesus, fully God and fully man, bridges that gap we read in Isaiah
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
He was crushed for our iniquities;
Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
Peace between people (Horizontal Reconciliation):
Colossians 3:11-15 shows that Jesus breaks down walls of hostility, creating one new humanity. It says
Here, there is no Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Colossians 3:11-15
He reconciles groups once against each other, Jews and Gentiles, and all others in Christ. The church is the visible community of peace, called to model what reconciliation looks like.
Inner Peace:
Through Jesus, we can also experience internal peace, a guarding of heart and mind by the holy Spirit in Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
This peace is present, experiential, and transformative, even in the middle of anxiety or chaos.
Despite the Peace Jesus brings, suffering persists. Death, injustice, oppression, and personal sin remain realities. The full effects of the Peace Jesus brings us are not yet fully visible. The Christian walk is about living faithfully in the tension, working for reconciliation, justice, and mercy while awaiting the day God will make all things new. I love the way Paul says it in Romans 8:22-23
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Romans 8:22-23
So the angels cried: "Peace on earth." But they were not promising an immediate end to all the world's evils. They were announcing that the Prince of Peace has come, that God's decisive act has begun, that reconciliation with God and among people is now possible, and that we live between the promise and its total fulfillment. Therefore, we mourn with hope, work for justice with patience, and trust God's promise even when the world still groans.
It kind of reminds me of that post-Christmas morning feeling. Right, you have done all the songs and celebrations throughout December, hopefully November too, watched all the movies, looked at all the lights, seen all the family, gone to Christmas Eve service, or in our case this year, Christmas Eve Eve at the Depot!! Gifts were exchanged on Christmas morning; maybe you have some fun family traditions. But then the house is messy, kids are fighting, bored with the toys already, you head back to work, decorations are torn down, we enter the cold dark months of January and February, and the world feels normal again. Life hasn't all of a sudden become perfect. This mirrors Advent: Jesus has come, peace is available, but the world still groans. We live in the "already" of God's promise and the "not yet" of its completion.
The angels don't just announce peace; they announce a new humanity that will live that peace out loud.
And that leads us to Point 3.
Point 3: Peace displayed to the world through God's people
Finally, we get to verse 14, the angel's closing words that say
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth PEACE among those with whom he is pleased!"
You might remember hearing this statement in movies or retellings of the Christmas story, but I think it is very important for us to understand what the angels are declaring here.
This is not a generic blanket statement. This isn't the peace that is declared at the end of a Hallmark Christmas movie, where the snow is falling down softly, and the guy realizes the mistake he made and comes back to the girl, and now they get to celebrate Christmas together.
No, the angels are announcing something far more precise, far more disruptive, and far more massive:
God is forming a people in which His Peace will dwell and through which His Peace will spread.
Peace is not only something Christ gives, but it is also something Christ forms in community and in us for the sake of the world.
A People Re-created by Peace
From the moment sin entered the world, humanity fractured horizontally because we were first fractured vertically.
Conflict with God always produces conflict with people.
So when Jesus comes, He doesn't just fix the first fracture (Peace with God). He begins the lifelong work of healing all the fractures within us, between us, and around us.
This is why Paul says in Ephesians 2:14,
For he himself is our peace,
Ephesians 2:14
Not:
"He gives peace" (even though He does).
Not:
"He teaches peace" (He certainly does).
But:
"He is our peace."
Meaning: Peace is not a principle, it's a Person.
And whoever is united to that Person becomes a participant in the very Peace God is restoring to the world.
Paul goes on in Ephesians 2:15 and says
By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
Ephesians 2:15
Instead of letting the old Jew-Gentile divide keep defining God's people, the gospel announces something radically different. God wasn't building a community around ethnic identity, or the law, or circumcision. He was building a new family centered on Christ and formed by His salvation. And the fruit of that new family was peace.
You can hear it in the way Paul writes to the Ephesians. He opens with Peace (Eph. 1:2), he keeps circling back to Peace (Eph. 2:14, 15, 17; 4:3; 6:15), and he closes with Peace (Eph. 6:23). It's everywhere. And that's intentional. Paul is a Jewish man preaching to Gentiles in a city marked by centuries of conflict, spiritual confusion, and social tension. Everyone wanted peace… but no one could produce it.
So Paul keeps reminding them: the peace humanity has spent generations searching for is found in one place, in one Person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So when the angels sing "peace on earth," they aren't predicting instant global harmony. They are declaring that in Jesus, God has begun to bring us back into a relationship with him!! And in that we have a job:
To display to the world what God's future looks like right now in the present.
How does the world see God's Peace?
Not by osmosis.
Not by accident.
Not by vague religious sentiment.
The world sees God's Peace in the relationships of God's people.
In the ways we forgive others and refuse bitterness.
In the ways we confront gently, not violently.
In the ways we move toward people, not away.
In the ways we stay at the table with each other when the world would've walked out.
In the ways we carry the burdens of others because Christ carried ours.
It is the Spirit forming the life of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, inside his people.
This is why Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount,
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."
Not "peacekeepers" - those avoid conflict.
Not "peace-lovers" - everyone loves the idea of peace.
But peacemakers - which requires sacrifice, vulnerability, humility, and a willingness to absorb pain instead of returning it.
This is what we are called to do as sons and daughters of God, just like loving others. Being peacemakers is a clear sign that we belong to the Father.
This matters deeply for Advent.
We live between the comings of Christ: We remember the anticipation for his birth while we are waiting currently and anticipating his second coming!
Today, God places His church as a community shaped by the future that has not yet arrived.
Meaning:
The church doesn't just talk about peace.
The church embodies peace.
We are the preview of a world where creation is restored and where every tear is wiped away.
And here's the beautiful, challenging truth:
The world will often learn the character of God by watching the character of God's people.
If we are anxious, divisive, bitter, always offended, always retaliating, the world will simply assume that the Christian message has no power to heal the fractures of humanity.
But when we demonstrate unity in diversity, reconciliation where the world expects revenge, and sacrificial love where the world expects self-protection, the world sees something it cannot produce.
It sees shalom. Peace
Not the full thing yet, but a true foretaste of what is to come and the Peace that Jesus embodies.
So what does this mean for us?
It means the most evangelistic thing some of us can do this Advent is not to share a post, or debate a friend, or defend a position… but to reconcile with someone.
To apologize first.
To forgive even when it is hard.
To let go of a grudge.
To sit at a table we've avoided.
To refuse the world's instinct toward division.
Because peace is not a Christmas theme.
Peace is the kingdom of God breaking through.
When the church lives in reconciled relationships, not perfect, but honest, sacrificial, Christ-centered relationships, we become a living preview and a living demonstration of the King we belong to.
Main Street, we are the people that the world will see, the peace it longs for.
I want to read this quote from an article by David Turner on Luke 2:14:
This verse tells us that God, for his own praise and glory, promises peace to those he takes pleasure in. People he takes pleasure in are those who lay aside all human pride, pretense, and position, and take a knee before the baby Jesus. In your mind right now, are you there with them, kneeling around the manger?
Christmas isn't about overspending to get material things because you have warm, sentimental feelings about the world getting better. I pray you are not satisfied with a sugary snippet, snatched out of the Bible, and stripped of its true meaning. God isn't really looking down on us with impotent benevolence, telling us to be nice and have a blessed day. That God exists only in the mind of wishful thinkers on earth, not in heaven.
I pray that you think of this Christmas as a Christmas you don't deserve. I hope you are praising God in heaven because you have received His peace on earth through Jesus the Savior, who is Christ the Lord. The God of Heaven, praise him forever, has sent his Son to save us from sin and fill us with his peace, so that we may become agents of reconciliation who live in peace and tell others about how they can experience Peace through Christ.
Conclusion
At the center of Advent stands a simple but life-altering truth: we cannot produce peace on our own. We don't climb our way into peace, behave our way into peace, or discipline our way into peace. Peace had to come down to us. Peace had to put on flesh. Peace had to take our place. The gospel is the announcement that the King Himself stepped into our conflict, entered our chaos, bore our sin, absorbed our judgment, and reconciled us to God. Before peace could ever be something we experience or embody, it had to first be accomplished for us at the cross. Jesus doesn't just teach Peace, He purchases it. He doesn't just model Peace, He becomes it for us. The gospel is the story of a Savior who brought peace to his people, a truly amazing act of grace and mercy.
And now, as people who have been reconciled to God, we live this tension-filled life. We live in the "in between." Peace has already broken into the world through Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection. But we still ache. We still groan. We still long for the day when perfect shalom covers the earth like the waters cover the sea. Our circumstances may still be chaotic, but our foundation is not. Our world may still be violent, but our hope is not. Even in the unresolved spaces of life, we anchor ourselves in the One who has already secured our future. Advent reminds us that waiting is not passive; it is worshipful. It is trusting the Prince of Peace in a world still learning His name.
And while we wait, God has entrusted us with something profound: His Peace is now visible through His people. We are the first fruits of the kingdom. We are the preview of the world to come. We are the people who forgive when the world holds grudges, who reconcile when the world retaliates, who pursue unity when the world cancels, who remain patient when the world grows anxious, who love sacrificially because Christ loved us first. The church doesn't just speak a message of peace; we embody it. In our relationships, in our homes, in our conflicts, in our suffering, in our disappointments, in our waiting, we carry the Peace of the One who carried us.
I pray that we remember that Peace: Disturbs before it calms, is declared before it is fully seen, and now we are charged to display this peace to the world as God's people.
Peace came down to us, peace works through us, and peace will one day be completed by Him.
Because Jesus alone has made peace for us, we can now live as people shaped by that victory. Even as we wait for all things to be restored, our confidence rests in Jesus and Him alone.
The band is going to come up . Let's enter into a time of prayer and reflection, and then we'll worship and celebrate the peace we have through Jesus.
Reflection Questions
Where is God inviting you to stop trying to manufacture peace and instead surrender to the One who is your peace?
What would it look like for you, in this Advent season, to actively display the Peace of Christ in one specific relationship, situation, or place of tension this week?
