Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men
This is the text of a message I preached at Roswell Alliance Church in Roswell, GA on December 10, 2023. Click on the link for the online service if you prefer to watch or listen. The sermon begins at about the 14th minute.
Video: 29 minutes
Reading time: 7 minutes
Online service – Roswell Alliance Church
Scripture: Luke 2:8-14
Text: Luke 2:14 “on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
In the early hours of Thursday morning, February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Missiles flew, troops rushed in, and heavy armor plowed through the country.
You know all too well the devastation we have seen in the news for the past 22 months.
But I want you to imagine with me this morning a change of events.
Imagine if President Zelensky went on international television this evening with a major announcement.
“Beginning tonight,” he says, “I am declaring peace. For Ukraine, the war with Russia is over. We have always had, and will continue to have, nothing but goodwill toward our neighbors. Tonight, we put our goodwill into action. The terms of this peace will be revealed but, for now, I call upon President Putin and the people of Russia to set aside the hostilities. Join us in bringing peace to our countries, and to the rest of the world.”
This would be astounding. The offended party is extending peace to the aggressor.
Now, I want us to consider an even more astonishing announcement. On a night 2,000 years ago, God sent a host of angels to a countryside in Israel with good tidings of great joy. They brought news of international importance, because this was for all people.
“Glory to God in the highest!” they shouted. “And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
What a holy night! Ever since Adam and Eve had disobeyed God, long lay the world in sin and error pining. Every person has lived in the valley of the shadow of death; every man, woman and child has labored under the curse God pronounced in Eden: “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
As God had foretold, man died that day, and God declared, “I am not the God of the dead, but of the living.” The walls went up. God exiled us from The Garden. The man and woman who had walked with God, walked away.
“Your iniquities have separated you from your God,” said the prophet Isaiah. “And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).
What an amazing night this is when God,
Whom we sinned against
Whom we rejected
Whom we grieved
announces “Peace on earth, and goodwill toward men.”
This raises three questions:
What are this peace and goodwill? What good are this peace and goodwill? Who are they for?
What are this peace and goodwill?
Peace translates the Greek word that means to join, to come together. It applies especially to the harmony in relationships: the peace between nations, the calm within an organization, the lack of friction between individuals.
Peace translates the Greek word that means to join, to come together. It applies especially to the harmony in relationships: the peace between nations, the calm within an organization, the lack of friction between individuals.
If there is peace, you don’t need to declare it. But this night, the angels declare, “Peace on earth.” Something is changing. Sin has separated us from God, but God is saying, “Tonight, we come together. You and I are brought together again In this baby that is born in Bethlehem. Peace on earth.”
An illustration may help us get our minds around this.
Paul tells us in First Corinthians, “You are God’s building.” He adds that a building contains many materials: gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw. Today we would include concrete, tile, sheet rock, shingles, and plastic.
The problem is: these materials are different from each other; they are incompatible, they don’t fit together. Unless I can join them somehow, the building will fall apart. I need something to bind the two together.
Construction solves this by introducing a third component. There are fasteners, mortar, caulk, adhesives, and so forth.
To Paul’s point, we are God’s building.
Here is God in heaven, and here we are on earth. God is Holy, we are sinful. God is Sovereign, we want to run the show. God is Almighty, we are weak. God is the truth, we live the lie. God is faithful, we are full of doubt and unbelief. God is life, and we live in the valley of the shadow of death.
How do I join these, God and man? What is the third component that binds us together?
The bonding is the Holy Spirit, and begins in Jesus.
This baby born in Bethlehem is the Son of God and the Son of Man. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was led by the Spirit. He was anointed by the Spirit.
In Jesus, the Spirit infused human nature with the divine nature.
Jesus said that we, too, must be born of God; we must be born of the Spirit. The Spirit who brought Christ to mankind is the Spirit who brings us to God.
We have God. We have man. And we have the Spirit joining them together in the birth of Christ and our new birth.
The peace of Christmas begins with the birth of Jesus, and continues when each of us is born again.
Goodwill
Next, the heavenly host proclaim, “Goodwill toward men.”
Goodwill means: to think well of. It includes the ideas of satisfaction, delight, and kindness.
This is different from speaking well of someone. God spoke well of us in the beginning, when He looked at His creation and man and said, “It is very good.”
We do not hear God speak well of someone like this again until the baptism of Jesus. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
And He continues to speak well of those who obey the Gospel and are in Christ. Paul tells us, “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). God has blessed us in Christ means He speaks well of us.
The point is, God went a long time not speaking well of us, but He never stopped thinking well of us.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jesus told a parable that explains the goodwill of His Father.
He tells about a man who planted a vineyard and rented it out. When the harvest came, he sent servants to collect the fruit, but the tenants hoarded it. They stoned some of the servants, killed others, beat many, and drove them away. At last, He resolved to send his son—His beloved son.
Listen carefully. Hear His goodwill toward these tenants, in spite of all they have done to his servants.
“They will respect my son.”
God, who hadn’t spoken well of us since Adam, had not stopped thinking well of us. “They will respect my son.”
Of course, we know what happened. “Jesus came to His own, and His own received Him not.” We crucified Him.
Do you want to know what God thinks of you? Look at Jesus. He is the expression of God’s goodwill. God sent Jesus, expecting “You will respect my Son. I will send Him, and you will receive Him.”
What good are the peace and goodwill of Christmas?
We come to the second question: What good are the peace and goodwill of Christmas?
Christmas was celebrated as usual in 2021, then Russia invaded two months later. We will be celebrating Christmas in a few days, and here we are with another war in the Middle East. How long before we read about another mass shooting? Some of us dread this Christmas because of a family feud that began years ago and will cast its shadow over another holiday.
Can the peace and goodwill that God announced that night be more enduring?
It can. The Apostle Paul gives us the practical application of this message.
“My beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13)
This good pleasure is the same as the goodwill of Luke 2:14. God works in you to will and to do for His good pleasure; God works in you to will and to do for His goodwill.
In Paul’s mind, the goodwill of God toward men is His goodwill worked out in men.
He goes on to say when this happens, we “become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life” (Philippians 2:15-16).
Blameless.
Harmless.
Shining as lights.
Holding fast the word of life.
What a difference from the way we are without Jesus. This is the peace and goodwill of God brought to life in us, in 2023.
And the final question:
Who are this peace and goodwill for?
The answer is in the proclamation. The angel said these are, “good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.”
The Gospel proclaims God’s peace and goodwill are for each of us.
God sent Jesus for your peace, to join you to Himself.
God sent Jesus to assure you He thinks well of you, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil.”
“I have come that you might have life,” said Jesus.
“In Me you may have peace,” He added.
God has declared, not a truce, but peace.
Have you received His peace and goodwill?
Have you made peace with Him?
Are you expressing His goodwill and peace?
Photo Credit: Photo by Neale LaSalle | Pexels