Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Christmas Peace

Episode Date: December 25, 2022

Of all the passages that are read at Christmas, Luke 2 is perhaps the most famous. And in this most famous passage, the most famous word is peace. What is Christmas all about? Peace on earth.    When Jesus Christ was born as a baby, he was born to bring this peace.   But what is this peace on earth? We’ll look at 1) what it is not, 2) what it is, and 3) how you receive it and live it out. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 22, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Luke 2:10-14. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If Jesus is who He says He is in the Bible, why is life full of so many bad things? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller continues to look at the gospels to discover who the real Jesus is and how we can know Him. Here's today's message. Let's read the passage of Scripture right there on in your bulletin, one that you may have heard before. This is Luke 2 verses 10 to 14. But the angel said to them,

Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ, the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly a great company of the heavenly host

appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, to men on whom his favor rests. This is God's Word. Now this is the most, I would think of all the passages that are read at Christmas. This is the most famous, the most familiar. And of all the passages, the verse that is the most famous and familiar Christmas verse is probably verse 14.

Glory to God in the highest. And in that most famous verse of the most famous passage, the most famous and key Christmas word is this word peace. In other words, what is Christmas all about? Interestingly enough, almost everybody knows. Peace on Earth. It's on the Christmas cards. Everybody knows it.

Everybody makes a beeline for this passage, makes a beeline for that verse, makes a beeline for that word, that phrase. Christmas is about peace on Earth. It's amazing. Everybody seems to know it. Everybody. But what is that peace? When Jesus Christ was born as a child, born as a baby, he was born to bring this peace.

That's what the angels are saying. But what is it? What did he come to bring? Now I think I've noticed that, and I know I do this too. At Christmas, devotionals and sermons and messages, Christmas talks and messages, are really designed for the emotions. I've noticed that I do it too, but everybody does it. If you're having to deliver any kind of devotional or message at Christmas time, you choose certain words that are evocative of feelings.

They create a mood. And it doesn't take much at Christmas time. That's the reason why anybody can be eloquent at Christmas. And so you have certain words that just immediately make you feel in a certain way. We have the words like peace, with child, gift, say, light, goodwill, and so forth. You have those words and they create an aura or feeling.

So let's be different today. I would like to be clear, not eloquent. I'm not going to work for eloquence. If it happens, it happens. I hope not. Actually, I want to be clear. And I want to be clear, what does this text mean? When Luke, the writer Luke, when he decided he was going to tell us,

he was going to report to us what the angel said, what did he understand, what did Jesus understand, what does the New Testament understand, is the peace on earth that Jesus was born to bring. And if we're absolutely clear, I think we'll find that it's a little uncomfortable to some degree. And nobody wants to be uncomfortable with Christmas. I mean, you come to feel good, you don't come to be uncomfortable, but let's be different. Let's not go along with the crowd. Let's be different. What is this peace on earth? Overite first. Since we're after clarity, only clarity today, you have to always start with what it is not. If you want to be

clear, say, well, what isn't peace on earth? What does the New Testament not mean by peace on earth? First of all, one thing that the New Testament, I think, very clearly is saying, is that the peace on earth that Jesus Christ was born to bring was not political or international peace. It wasn't political or international peace. Now, you know, you can have a debate. I mean, there are Christians who would make a case that Christianity has made the world a much more humane place to live, a safer place to live, a more peaceful place.

And there's others who would argue very, very, very, very strangely on the other side that it has not at all. But here's one thing we can all be agreed on. And that is that there's tremendous bloodshed, there's wars everywhere. You know, the most visible ones recently, there's always something that you know

you've been reading about recently, and you have these genocidal actions in Bosnia and in Rwanda, but that's just symptomatic. When we look back on the last 2,000 years since Jesus Christ came, we're gonna have to say that the 20th century, when it comes to warfare and bloodshed and violence has probably been the worst. And therefore, if this is what Luke meant, if this is what the angels meant, if this

is what the New Testament means, that Jesus Christ was born to get rid of war and disaster and oppression. Well, then, we probably have a right to say, Jesus, you and your followers have been here for 2,000 years, and the message been here for 2,000 years, and the message has been out 2,000 years, and it hasn't worked. But that's not what the New Testament is saying. Jesus Christ was not born to wipe out war. He wasn't.

Now, I'm going to try to be clear here. Why? Why do I say that? Well, for example, there's a great place in Luke. I'm just going to read from Luke just to make sure you see how important it is to keep these things in balance. In Luke chapter 21, Jesus says this to his disciples, he says, what will be the signs of the ends of the age they ask him? He says, when you hear of wars and revolutions, see to it you are not surprised, these things must happen. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Now this is Jesus saying, you should never expect warfare to cease.

This is Jesus saying to the very, very end, if anything, it's going to get worse. He's clearly saying that you don't expect international peace or political peace to be the result of my birth. Very clearly says that. Now, again, let me also quickly say that doesn't mean, for example, that Christians aren't supposed to be seeking peace between individuals and nations. Jesus has blessed up the peacemakers. We'll get back to that in a second.

Jesus Christ says that Christian work is to make peace. But what we seek here is that the peace on earth, that the angels are talking about, is not primarily a political or international peace. Jesus says, never expect that. Right? Secondly, what else is peace on earth not? It's not only not political or international peace, it's not psychological or internal peace.

See many people who've been pretty disappointed with the fact that Christ's coming has not gotten rid of war have said, well, no, no. Jesus came to bring a spiritual peace. And what they mean by that is usually this, that Jesus Christ comes to give you an internal equilibrium, a perfect poise, a placidity, you might say, of spirit. And if we have Jesus' peace, nothing will bother us, and we'll get along with all people and we'll be able to face the world. And therefore, we're not talking, Jesus is not saying peace on earth as a political

international peace. It is a psychological internal and inner peace. But we have another interesting passage. And again, I'm going to go to Luke. And this is a passage, I don't know why it's not read every single year at Christmas. Nobody wants to read this one. In Luke 12 verse 49, and I quote, Jesus says, do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No. I don't know why they don't ever read this. He says, Luke 12. I mean, it's only 10

verses, 10 chapters later, same gospel and everything. Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on, they will be divided. Father against Son, mother against daughter, I've come to bring fire on the earth. Now, be very careful. He does not say that my coming brings division between nations. And give me that 30 seconds to say something. Listen, when you ever see people going to war, nation against nation in the name of Christ, they're not going in the name of Christ. Whenever you see a nation saying, we're Christian, or Christian nation, you're Muslim, we're going to attack you.

Or we're a Protestant nation, you're a Catholic nation, we're going to attack you. Whenever people are going in the name of Christ, Jesus does not say he came to bring that. It's not the division he's talking about. Absolutely not. Those are political wars, they are not religious wars. It reminds me of the joke to get that point across that somewhere in Northern Ireland, a man jumps out of the shadows and puts a gun to somebody's head and says, are you a Protestant or a Catholic?

And the man says, I'm neither an atheist. He says, ah, yes, yes, yes, yes. What are you a Protestant or a Catholic atheist? And that gets across the point. Wars in the name of Christ are not something that he brought. Those are political wars, they're not in his name, they're in the name of economic, my economic wealth, power, accrual, and so on. But what Jesus does say is that if I come into your life, there's going to be disturbance. You're not going

to have this wonderful placidity all the time. He says, first of all, you're going to find that people that used to get along with you won't anymore. Father against Son, he's not talking about nations, he says, I came to bring fire on the earth. There will be conflict. There will be people mad at you. There will be disturbance. You'll have to say things that make people upset.

And Jesus, now, again, let me be clear, does not the Bible say that there is an internal piece that Christianity brings. Doesn't Paul say the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your hearts in mind of course. But Jesus says it's a relative peace because along with that there's a certain kind of inner peace that of course you get. And we'll talk about that in a second. But there's also a tremendous amount of warfare that comes, a tremendous amount of disturbance, a tremendous amount of conflict.

When Jesus Christ comes into your life, things get messy, that's what he says. And so that's not the peace on earth, the primarily that we're talking about here. And in fact, in fact, when people say, well, maybe peace on earth is just a symbol. Jesus is just a general ideal about peace. No, because it's peace on earth.

Jesus came to bring us something that is concrete and is specific. It's not pie in the sky, buy and buy. It's something you get now here, earth. Well, what is it? Well, let me give you the clues. What is the peace on earth? Here's a couple of clues. First of all, in Luke itself, again, since I'm trying to stick with it,

I'm trying to show you, Luke himself certainly had an understanding that he was trying to get across. The New Testament does. But when Zachariah, who's the father of John the Baptist, when his mouth is open and he begins to praise God, he turns to his son who's not born yet and says, you my child shall be called a prophet of the most high for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way for him to give his people the knowledge of salvation

through the forgiveness of their sins to guide our feet into the way of peace. Wait a minute, he's talking about something objective, he's talking about something specific, he calls it peace and he calls it forgiveness of sins. Now, a second clue, the text itself, surely some of you when you read it in the new international version, that we just read, a modern translation, something didn't click. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, we did it twice today, to those on whom

is favor rest, and you say, now wait a minute, that's, I didn't remember it growing up, I thought it was peace on earth goodwill toward men, isn't that why you've always heard? to those on whom his favor rests and you say, now wait a minute, that's, I didn't remember it growing up. I thought it was peace on earth, goodwill toward men. Isn't that what you've always heard? And that comes from the King James translation, the old King James translation. And it is universally understood now, almost universally by all translators

that the King James took a word, which is translated goodwill or favor. And they read it as, here's time for your Greek lesson, they read it as an accusative instead of a genitive case. And let me not get into that any further, but what it means is it's instead of being translated goodwill toward men, it should be translated peace toward men to whom God has goodwill,

on whom His favor rests. And what it is saying is that there was ill will. And now, with some people, there's good will. And what John is getting, at part of what Luke is getting at, with Zechariah, what Luke is getting at here, what the angels are getting at, is that the peace we're talking about

is not a peace between us or a peace within us, it's a peace between God and us. And you know what, if anybody here is lost now because of my circumlocuities discussion, which is my want, let me put it to you perfectly in a way that you know, in a way that can never be beaten, in Hark to Harold Angels sing that great him by Charles Wesley. The very first line says, peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled, and there it is. What is this peace on earth? It's mercy mild, it's God and sinners at war, now at peace reconciled, that's the peace. And this is a peace, let me show you why this is the peace. This is a peace, which is absolute, objective, absolutely perfect, and something that you have

to receive on earth. You can't receive it later. See, for example, the reason that Jesus is not talking about political pieces, that piece that's in Christianity can definitely bring peace between warring people and factions, but it's always a relative peace. It's always a partial peace. And Christianity also brings tremendous peace in heart. Of course, absolutely.

Peace like a river, but it's always, always relative and partial. Jesus says so. All sorts of places. New Testament again and again says so. There's no such thing as a peace. See, the Christian internal peace is really a peace that's born of love. The Bible says it takes your heart and turns it from stone into flesh. And anybody who's getting a soft, tender, loving heart will experience a lot of peace.

But if you live in a world like this, you're going to be continually in anguish. And therefore, the internal peace is always a partial peace. It's never absolute. But if you want to understand this piece, the peace with God. Peace with God is absolute forgiveness. It's absolute objective and has to be gotten here. There's two other peace forms, peace making and peace experiencing, peace making and peace experiencing, which are always partial,

flow out of peace with God, which is absolute. Paul talks about it in Romans 5. He says, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. For when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son. And I'll tell you, here's another one. In Colossians 1-21, Paul says, once you were salinated from God and were enemies in your minds, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you wholly in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. There it is. First of all, why did Jesus become physical?

Why did Jesus get a body? To reconcile us, to end the war, to make us instead of enemies, put us at peace? Well, what is this peace? Well, he says that you would be wholly without blemish and free from accusation in God's sight. Now, that is not subject to degrees. Once you're free from accusation, you can't get freer from accusation.

Once you're blemishless in a sight, you can't get more blemishless. Once you're holy, you can't get more holy. Once you're perfect, you can't get more perfect. If you can get more perfect, then you weren't perfect to start with. And this means that whatever this is, and we'll talk about this in a second, whatever this is, Christianity we'll talk about this in a second, whatever this is, Christianity holds out something. It calls peace with God, Romans 1, Romans 5.

Peace with God, reconciliation, second Corinthians 5, Colossians 1, if you want to know where those places are. And this peace with God is absolute and perfect. It's received at one point. You get it. And this means, it's perfect. Since you can't get more blemishless, that means that the moment you receive this peace, you are as beautiful in God's sight now as you will ever be,

a billion years from now, a trillion years from now. It is not subject to degrees. It is not admitted to degrees. It is absolutely perfect. And this is the reason why anybody who's actually thought about this realizes the Christianity is unique. You might hate this, you might reject this, but you have to at least have your breath taken away or you don't know enough to even reject it intelligently. This is utterly different that not only what most religions,

what any other religion offers, this is peace with God, this perfect, absolute, specific thing, objective thing that you receive here on earth and you have to receive it here on earth. Not only does no other religion offer it, but the average person in a church pew or whatever doesn't understand it either. Because the average person in the world thinks of religion

as trying harder to be good. That's it. I mean, that's the average person and the average person in a Christian church this morning. Believes that religion is trying hard to be good and hoping that you're being good enough for God to favor you. Hoping that you're being good enough for God to favor you, hoping that you're being good enough for God to have enough favor. And if you have a good day, then you feel a little bit more peace and if you have a bad

day, you feel a little bit less peace. But you don't expect to have perfect peace with God until you get to heaven. Meanwhile we're just trying and we're in a process, you see. In not but Christianity, the gospel offers peace on earth. Absolute peace, perfect peace, peace with God, reconciliation, without spotter blemish. And it's got to be received right now. This is unique. There's nothing else like this anywhere. Peace on earth, mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.

Now, in this room, on Christmas, at this Christmas time, there's two kinds of people in the room, and only two. There's people either who have not received this. They're trying to go to international peace and they're trying to go to internal peace without going through peace with God. They're trying to go for the subjective peace without going through the objective.

There's either people who do not have never received this piece on earth, had no idea that it was even available or also maybe in a very general way. You haven't received it in the other kind of person in this room or people who've received it and you're not living out of it the way you should. And that's the only two kinds of people here. You're not letting your objective piece lead you into the depth of piece experiencing that you should have, and into the effectiveness in piece making that you should have. And in a certain sense, it's ridiculous to continue the sermon, but I do have a little time.

Because, I mean, you say, well, what are you going to say about those two things? How do you receive peace? How do you live out of it? Frankly, all of your life boils down to those two things, you know? I mean, that's what everything in life boils down to. Getting that peace, recognizing it, and then living out of it. That's it.

So I certainly am not going to tell you everything you need to know, but I will say something to both groups. As we near the end of another year of ministry, we want to pause and thank everyone who is graciously and generously supported this ministry in 2022. We are so grateful for your support. We also thank God for all the ways he is working through Gospel and Life and through you to bring Gospel renewal to people all over the world and it is our privilege to serve you through this ministry. As we come to the end of this year, we ask you to peripherally consider making a year-end gift

to help Gospel and Life finish the year strong and start 2023 ready to share the beauty of the Gospel with more people. To make a year-end gift today, go to gospelandlife.com slash give. That website again is gospelandlife.com slash give because the Gospel truly changes everything. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's message. First of all, the real secret to receiving this piece is you've got to admit you're at

war. I mentioned last week to a great deal of laughter, the theory, or not the theory, the principle, that you can only receive a gift if you admit you need it. In other words, if you're having trouble gaining weight, if you're just eating like crazy to gain weight, you need to gain weight, and you open a Christmas gift, and it's a huge book on dieting,

you just put it back in the box. I don't need this, you see. If you have a full head of hair and you open a box of rogan, you just put it back in the box. I don't need this." You see, if you have a full head of hair and you open a box of rogane, you just put it back in the box. I don't need this, you see. And the reason that most people don't have peace with God is because they don't believe that they're at war. The Bible repeatedly says that there's a hostility toward God.

In fact, Paul says in Romans 8 verse 7, he says, the natural mind is enmity against God. It will not submit to God, indeed it cannot. But I mean, very pete that. The natural mind is enmity toward God. It will not submit to God, indeed it cannot. Now that is one of the most radical statements in the New Testament. A statement that people do not want to come to grips with.

It is saying, let me put it to you this way. It is saying that your most primary and natural condition of your heart toward God is not one of ignorance, not ignorance of God, so that your main need is education or information. And the natural condition is not one of indifference to God so that your main need is motivation, but the natural condition of your heart is hostility to God so your main need is reconciliation. Hear all that? The main problem is not ignorance so you need information or indifference so you need motivation, but it is hostility, that that's the basic fundamental attitude

of our hearts toward God, and we need reconciliation. Now you say, well, people are very, very, very, how do I say this? People by and large are at least cool if not hostile to this idea. And yet you can never experience this objective piece. You're gonna try to go toward internal subjective piece

and peacemaking, you're trying to go to those things without getting this. And it's usually because you don't realize you're at war. You think that you need help from God, but you don't think you need peace with God. You think you need more guidance from God. You don't think you need peace from God, but you see, to a great degree,

the problems you have with God are because of that warfare. Think about an estranged couple. Now, one thing most of us have some awareness of. Most of us, either have experienced this, or we've known someone very, very well who's gone through this. Two people who were in love, marriage, husband and wife, they were in love and they are estranged.

I'm gonna use that word, because I think it's a helpful word, estranged. It's a good English word. because I think it's a helpful word, as strange. It's a good English word. And it means we used to be in love, but we've become strangers. And if you ever watch how that works, this is what happens. You were in love and what made you in love with that person was certain characteristics that you loved about them.

But when you decide to get angry and when you get angry and you pull away, in order to justify your lack of reconciliation, in order to justify you're trying to get away from them, you take all of the strengths that person had that you loved and you read them through your anger and turn them into flaws. You read the things that you used to love, the very same traits as imperfections and weaknesses.

So, for example, she used to really like the fact that he was unflappable and poised, and now she sees it as emotional coldness. She'll read the very same thing, which is a good thing in many ways, but she'll read it in as a way of justifying her alienation from him. And he looked at her and he liked the fact when he was in love with her that she was a detail person. That's why she's done so well in her accounting firm. She's a detail person, always checking out, always checking out.

Now he sees it as a lack of trust. Now he sees it as a critical spirit. Now, the Bible says that you have enmity in your heart, so that the infinity of God, the mystery of God, is now obscurity, the sovereignty of God, where he can do what he wants. You see it as an accountability. Even the grace of God, when I talk people about the grace of God, what do people say?

It's too easy. You can't just accept that. You have to work for it. You will look at everything, all of the perfections of God, through a filter of enmity and you will just complain. You will say, I don't understand why he does the things he does. How can I believe in a God that let this happen? How can I believe in a God that let this happen?

Let this happen. In other words, he is so great and so sovereign, but I'm going to see that as a lack of accountability to me. I can't believe in a God that let these terrible things happen in sovereign, but I'm going to see that as a lack of accountability to me. I can't believe in a guy that let these terrible things happen in life, but here we have a God who came into this world. That's what Christmas means, and let the most terrible things happen to him. But instead of looking at his pain, and the fact that the suffering and evil of this world is something he hates so much that he was willing to come into it and be part of it, in order to save us from it, instead we just think about our pain and say, well, why in the world couldn't he do it exactly the way I want?

I know best. I know how this world ought to be going. That's enmity. That's despising him. That's looking at him and saying, I don't think enough of his infinite wisdom to really believe that he could be doing things far beyond my wisdom. All I can see is these things shouldn't be happening.

That's despising him. That's finding something wrong with everything. His holiness, his love, his mercy, his mercy. Oh, I don't believe Christianity should be just, you just can't just receive Christ and suddenly have all your sins forgiven. I think you have to work at it. His mercy, it's too easy. His mercy, it's too easy. His holiness, it's too hard.

His sovereignty, it's too unaccountable. And you know, I'll continually working with people who say, well, I've never really hated God. I believe in Him. In fact, of course, I've always believed in God. I don't have any hostility. If you ever met the real God, you would never say, of course, there fact, of course I've always believed in God. I don't have any hostility. If you ever met the real God, you would never say, of course, there's no of coarseness, there's no of course about knowing the real God.

If you read in the Bible, you'll see people are terrified of God or else they say in your face is fullness of joy, in your right hand, pleasure forever more. When people say, of course I believe in God, but they're never terrified by Him and they're never lifted to the heights of joy and beauty, that means when most people say, of course I believe in God, but they're never terrified by Him and they're never lifted to the heights of joy and beauty, that means when most people say, I believe in God, but I don't have any hatred of God, what they've done is they've created a God, not the God of the Bible.

They've created a God of their own making, who's neither really that holy or really that loving, and they're hiding the hatred they have in their heart for the real God. By saying, well, I don't have any problem with God because they're looking at a figment of their imagination, but when they get near the real one. Years ago, Madeleine Muriel Hare, remember the famous atheist lady was on the David Frost show, and she was arguing with him about God. He was trying to say there is a God, and she was making mincemeat of him. mean, she was just much smarter than he was.

And finally, he turned to the studio audience for help and he said, how many of you believe in God? And they all raised their hand, just about everybody. You know, and that was his way of, you know, putting it down. And Madeleine Murrow here had this terrific opportunity. She could have turned to the audience and said, wait a minute, put your hands down. Let me ask you this question a little differently. How many of you believe in the God of the Bible? How many believe in the God who when he came down a Mount Sin,

I say anything that touches the mountain must be put to death? How many of you believe in the God of the Bible who comes down on the ark of the covenant and when Azza touches it, he's thrown to the ground and he's dead? How many of you believe in the God who appears to joke and say, I'm not going to tell you why I've brought all these horrible things in your life. I want you to accept them because of who I am and who you are. How many of you believe in the God of the Bible?

She could have, she could have skunk David for us, because when people get near the real God, they hate him. They don't want a God of extreme mercy so that you have to be saved, sharely by grace, not because of anything you can do. They don't want a God of extreme holiness who says, I will know why it's clear that guilty, I will never let evil go. They don't want to go out of extreme holiness who says, I will know why it's clear that guilty. I will never let evil go.

They don't want a real God. They want a nambi-pambi-moderate God. They want a God in the middle. And of course anybody can look at a God like that and not see that you're at war with the real God, but you are. And until you admit it, you will never see what Jesus has done.

Jesus Christ came and lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. He came and he took our punishment. He took our penalty. In fact, what is the book of Isaiah say? He says, by his stripes we are healed, his chastisement is our peace. That when I receive him, when you receive him, you receive his record and you become without spotter blemish and you are utterly at peace with God.

You have to receive it in a moment. You have to receive it on earth. And it is perfect. And it is absolutely and from it everything else goes. Now, the other thing I have to say is to those of you who say, sure, I believe this, I'm a Christian, I believe that I have peace with God, I believe that I'm justified by faith alone, but look at yourselves.

Look at me, I look at myself in the morning, I say, I'm preaching about this. Is my life as remarkable as it ought to be? I mean, at Christmas time, you ought to say this, is this the wonder of my life, peace with God? Do I think about it all the time? You know the place in 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 12, where Peter is talking about the gospel, and then he says, just a side, just an off-handed comment,

he says the gospel into which angels long to look. Now dear friends, angels are smarter than us. Angels have, are wiser than us, they're richer than us, they're deeper than us. They could, you know, angels are great beings. And yet we're told that angels relentlessly, passionately, never, ever tire of looking at rejoicing in, studying, reflecting on the gospel. You'll never see an angel say, gospel, sure, I understand the gospel, hey, become a Christian,

let's get on to deeper things, you'll never hear an angel say that. There is nothing deeper than a gospel. The gospel is the wonder of their lives and if the angels can never stop thinking about it. This peace with God, peace on earth and mercy mild God and sinners reconcile, they can't get over it. Your problems all come because you have gotten over it. The reason that you're having trouble forgiving somebody is you got over your peace with God. The reason that you're having trouble for giving somebody is you got over your peace with God. The reason you're having trouble worrying about something going on in your life, and here's God, the one who did this for you, and he's in charge of the world, and you're worried.

You got over it. Don't get over it. Never get over it. But here's one more thing. I want it to be absolutely clear. If you understand this piece with God, then it does lead to both peace-making and peace-experiencing. See, one of the things that's so great about peace on earth is that we know that very, very literally, there will someday be political peace, there will someday be economic peace, there will someday be restoration.

Jesus Christ hates sickness, He hates suffering, he hates poverty, he hates warfare, and he's gonna come back not once, he came once, but he's gonna come back a second time, and then there will be peace on earth in every way. And you know what that means? That means Christians on the one hand, this is the reason why Jesus can say there will never ever ever cease war until I come back,

but I want you to be peacemakers. And anybody else that I've ever met who was big on taking care of poverty and taking and being a diplomat and trying to deal with peace on every person I've ever met besides a Christian who was flat out for peacemaking in this world was for peacemaking because they had a utopian dream. They believed that they could achieve political peace on earth through economic or social policy. And they were working against poverty, and they were working against international terrorists,

and they were working against warfare because of that. Now the 20th century has disabused us of these notions. The 20th century has taken our hopes that through social and government and economic policies, we can get rid of war and we can get rid of poverty when we get rid of oppression. We've gotten rid of those utopian dreams, but it doesn't change a Christian a bit. Why should a Christian be a diplomat?

Because peace will win. And peace making is the Lord's work, and that's the reason why Jesus says, blessed are the peacemakers, they will be called children of God. And why should you move in with the poor and lay out your life to help the poor? Why rehab a house? Why do that? Hasn't the 20th century disabused us of these notions that we can get rid of poverty? Those utopian dreams, let them go. That's fine. They were based on the idea

that human beings or our economic units are the result of social conditioning and not moral agents. Let them get rid of it. When those utopian dreams die, that doesn't change a Christian, because why does a Christian do that? Because peace will win.

Peace will win. And helping the poor is the Lord's work. And that's the reason why John the Baptist said, how do we know you the Messiah? He says, look, the lame walk, the blind sea, the lepers are cleansed and the poor have good news preached to them. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. Let's pray.

Thank you, Father, for showing us what this great peace is. When we look at it clearly, we know that it's a gift that insults us. When we look at it clearly, we see that the reason that we need your peace is because there's ill will between us and we need your grace. us and we need your grace. But we pray that some people in this room will either today or very soon because of this insight actually take, actually take, take up this peace with God that can be received on earth. And Father, I pray that the rest of us who are here who have taken it up might see that we've gotten over it.

Why is there people, angels, who we hear so much about at Christmas, never get over God and sinners reconcile? And maybe that's the reason why they're so beautiful and so radiant and so great. Make us as beautiful and radiant as great as our big brothers and sisters, the angels. And we ask that you would enable us to never stop singing this song that the angels taught us. Make us great through it. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller on the Real Jesus. We pray that it challenged you and encouraged you.

To find more Gospel-centered resources like today's teaching, we invite you to sign up for email updates at gospelonlife.com. This month's sermons were recorded in 1996. The sermons and talks you here on the Gospel-on-life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. 89-2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.