Audio Transcript

Happy Monday and Merry Christmas! In this last episode before the holiday, we’re coming in with a Christmas meditation on happiness and anxiety, all spurred by this question from a listener named Derek: “Hello, Pastor John, and Merry Christmas to you! During the Advent season each year, I love to sing the hymn ‘Joy to the World.’ But the more I read my Bible, the more I wonder if Jesus came to bring world peace or not. It seems like the world is becoming more unstable and less happy. It has certainly never felt more fractured to me.

“Yet at his birth, a multitude of angels praised God by saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’ That’s Luke 2:13–14, and it’s carefully qualified — not joy to the whole world, but joy to those who please God. And then of course later in his ministry, Jesus said of himself, ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.’ Those are his recorded words in Matthew 10:34. As we prepare to celebrate our Savior’s birth again, I have to ask: Does Christmas signal peace or war? It seems to be both. If so, what kind of war did he start on earth? And what kind of peace did he bring to earth?”

I think Derek is right, absolutely right, in everything he just said. And what I would add is that the dominant note that needs to be struck at Christmas time, at Easter time, and every other time in the Christian life is the note of God-exalting happiness. “Happiness” because the first thing the angel says to the shepherds in Luke 2:10 is “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy” — huge happiness, big happiness, God-sized happiness. That was the first word out of the angel’s mouth. And I say “God-exalting happiness” because the first thing out of the army of angels when they start talking in Luke 2:14 is “Glory to God in the highest.”

Big Joy in High Glory

So, the birth of this baby is about your big happiness and God’s heaven-sized glory. That’s the summary of what Christmas is about — your big, big happiness in God’s high, high glory. That’s the message of the angels at the birth of Jesus — God-exalting happiness. That’s the dominant note that I think needs to be struck at Christmas. Not the only note — Derek makes that plain in his question — but the dominant note.

The other note that needs to be struck, and comes a few verses later, is Luke 2:34–35, where Simeon says to Mary, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” So, the dominant note of Christmas: God-exalting happiness. The subordinate note of Christmas: many will reject this happiness and perish. We won’t have this God-exalting happiness if we prefer another kind of happiness.

So, the dominant note of Christmas, to use John 3:17–18: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned.” That’s the dominant note of Christmas. The subordinate note is, to keep reading in John, “But whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

“Jesus is the Prince of Peace for those who love him more than they love other paths to peace.”

Again, the dominant note of Christmas, using Isaiah 9:6: “His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” — peace. And the subordinate note, using Matthew 10:34, 37: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. . . . Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” In other words, he’s the Prince of Peace for those who love him more than they love other paths to peace.

So, Derek is right. Christmas brings peace, and Christmas brings war. And what I’m stressing is that when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world, his dominant mission was to glorify God by making peace with rebel human beings and giving God-exalting happiness to everyone who would welcome the terms of his amnesty. So, the dominant note is that Christ brought peace, and the subordinate note is that, for those who will not receive this peace as their treasure, there will be war.

What Kind of Peace?

So, what kind of peace and what kind of war? That’s his basic question. When the angel armies said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased,” I think that peace had at least three dimensions.

1. First and foremost, it meant peace with God. God himself was creating in Christ a way for him to be reconciled with a rebellious world. Second Corinthians 5:19: “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” When rebel human beings lay down the arms of their rebellion and embrace the terms of God’s reconciliation, it’s amnesty. Here’s what Paul says: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). That is a sweet, sweet phrase: “peace with God.” That’s the first and greatest dimension of peace that the angels announced.

2. The second dimension of the peace that Christmas brings is between hostile groups of people. Ephesians 2:14–16: “He [Christ] himself is our peace, who has made us both [Jew and Gentile, and all other factions in Christ] one . . . that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God . . . through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” That’s amazing in a world like ours. This is not getting along with each other without Christ. That’s not the point. This is Christ at the cost of his life enabling hostile camps to get along — because of Christ, in Christ. That’s the second glory of Christmas peace.

3. The third dimension of peace that Christmas brings is relief from anxiety. 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.” If conscience troubles us, we preach peace to ourselves because of Christ. He paid for our sins. They can’t condemn us. And if circumstances make us anxious, we preach peace to ourselves because God promised that he’s going to give us everything we need for every situation — because he didn’t spare his own Son but gave him up for us all.

What Kind of War?

The dominant note of the angels at Christmas is peace to those with whom he is pleased — that is, to those who comply with the terms of his amnesty. They lay down the arms of their rebellion, and they trust him. They treasure him. And the peculiar war that Christmas brings doesn’t aim at the destruction of people but at the destruction of what destroys people.

We don’t wage war against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and demonic forces (Ephesians 6:12), or as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:3–5, “Though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh” — that is, not merely natural and human — “but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” This is a war in which we are trying to rescue prisoners. We are trying to defeat God-diminishing unbelief, and therefore we make war using the weapons of the gospel of peace.

So, yes, Christmas brought both peace and war. But oh, how dominant is the note that the angels strike — God-exalting happiness through peace with God, and merciful warfare against everything that destroys people’s God-exalting happiness.