Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Find Peace | Christmas | Luke 2:8-21

Episode Date: December 7, 2021

What would bring you peace at this moment? Where do you normally look for peace? https://twitter.com/TanyaWillmeth (Tanya) continues our Christmas series in https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%202%3A8-21&version=NIV (Luke 2:8-21) as she explains how to find peace and joy in the midst of heartbreak, uncertainty and confusion. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/) Twitter: https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast (https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast) Passages https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%202%3A8-21&version=NIV (Luke 2:8-21) Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're in our Christmas series. We're exploring the stories around Jesus' birth and the prophecies pointing forward to it. What would bring you peace? Maybe a coworker getting fired or not having to live with your roommate anymore.

A spouse quitting a bad habit. A child to be mentally healthy? A more solid financial situation? Now, if I ask you that question and you were living in the Roman Empire, before the reign of Caesar Augustus, your answers might include being able to travel safely to pay your taxes or having a safe trade route so you could sell or receive the goods your family needed. Or just not living in fear of being captured and forced into exile.

Caesar Augustus is considered to be the most powerful ruler ever known in the entire Roman world. His reign ushered in what we call and what we know of as the Paxramana, a time of relative peace or comparative tranquility throughout the entire Roman world. If you were with us during the study of judges, you know how bad things were becoming and how poorly people were being mistreated in the process. Now, Caesar was treated like a god because his military tactics of combining the most powerful leaders and creating a unified empire did quiet the threats of civil war

and did make Rome a safer place to live and work. But this contrast in lifestyle and his ability to persuade and influence the most powerful people in the world made him appear like a savior and the Lord. His government propaganda certainly helped the cause also. The peace wasn't perfect, but it did allow for safer travel and trading,

which created a ripe environment for the spread of the gospel. It's fascinating how God works through the mere humans he creates. Now, if you were rich during the Pax-Ramana, you probably lived even more luxuriously than before. If you were middle-class during the Pax-Ramana, you probably lived comfortably. If you were lower-class, you were probably still lower-class. Now, right in the middle of all this, while Caesar Augustus enjoyed his palace and the hymn sung to him, and as he was being praised for being a savior, a real savior is proclaimed and real peace is promised to a group of lowly traveling shepherds in the middle of nowhere outside of a small town called

Bethlehem. Kids raise their hands to be shepherds in today's Christmas pageants because they get to carry a staff and use it like a weapon as they march down the aisle. But this wasn't an occupation to be esteemed in the ancient Roman world. Shepherds were outliers and thought of in a lowly way. They were considered rough, unclean, and maybe even dangerous. They lived outside and they had very little financial or situational freedom from their flocks. But these are the ones that God chose to deliver the first news about his son, our Savior. Luke 2.8. And they were shepherds. Living out in the fields nearby, keeping. keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the

Lord shone around them and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be assigned to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Now, Caesar Augustus and his team had spread propaganda that made the people feel more safe and secure as citizens of Rome. But the angel was delivering good news for all people, not just those that lived within Rome's borders. And it would cause not situational happiness, but great joy for all people. In other words, this good news and this joy wasn't limited to what we know and experience on this earth.

We're going to keep pulling out that thread, but let's finish listening to the rest of what Luke says. Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests. Caesar Augustus was so famous and powerful. there were choirs dedicated to singing his praise when he walked into a room and a national celebration on his birthday. But this, this is a choir of heaven,

praising and announcing the arrival, the birthday of a savior, the Messiah. Pax Romana or Roman peace had a beginning and an end. It lasted from about 27 BC to 180 AD. And the peace experienced during that time was comparatively better. but it was limited to certain people and to certain parts of their lives. Caesar Augustus wasn't able to provide a mother peace when her child was hurting. He wasn't able to give peace to her brother when he was betrayed.

He wasn't able to give comfort to a family when they lost a loved one. But the angels ushered in a better message about peace that surpasses what this earth can provide. They brought us very, very good news. See, the shepherds would still be shepherds, but they would be shepherds filled with great joy. The Pachshraman would come to an end, but there would still be peace on earth. For us, this is very good news, because we can have joy even when our situations are actually very heartbreaking. We can have peace even though we don't have resolution. We can lack situational peace because of unknowns, but we can claim true peace of the father because

we have a Savior that came to dwell with us. I know that might sound confusing, but it's far too easy to just say you can claim peace and joy and habit. That's the cultural message that you can get those things for yourself. But that wasn't the message of the angels. To find inner peace, to search for peace, to make room for peace, to claim peace, no, that is not what they said. The angel said,

Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests. See, the peace of God comes to those who put their trust in him. It comes to you as you abide in him. It comes upon you as you follow him and depend on him. It comes when you search for him. When the shepherds heard this message, they had a discussion amongst them and decided to go search for him. They arranged somehow to leave their flocks and get quickly to Bethlehem to find the baby. What they had heard surpassed their previous feelings of

responsibility. Luke says they hurried off and found the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw him, they spread the word about this child. And they returned to their fields, their lives, their flocks, their duties. And they glorify. and praise God for all they had heard and seen. They were still shepherds, but they were changed. How are you changing as you hear the good news about Jesus? How are you different than last week or last year because of Jesus? You don't need your situation to change to be a better person.

In fact, you don't need to be a better person at all. But you can be a person who's filled with joy and peace. and a person who tells others about what God has done for you, in you, because of Jesus. Because God fulfilled all promises, not through a good leader or a time of peace, but through his son. As we close today, I want to read you Paul's words from Romans chapter 5 in this beautiful promise that's ushered in through the celebration of the first Christmas. Paul says, Therefore, since we've been justified through faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand,

and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character hope. and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Lord, we are not put to shame in our hope for peace. Instead, we depend solely on you to bring peace into our lives no matter where we are because you have united us to the Father by grace. We praise you, Lord Jesus, for being the true Savior we long for. listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others

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