For All People

SUMMARY

Jeremy Smith delivers an Advent sermon focusing on how we prepare for Christ's second coming by understanding his first arrival. Smith explains that the Biblical concept of peace (shalom) differs significantly from our modern understanding—it's not merely inner tranquility or absence of conflict, but rather wholeness, completeness, and right relationships as God intended.

Using Exodus 22:3-4 and Isaiah 9:6-7, Smith illustrates how shalom means making things whole and right. When angels announced "peace on earth" to the shepherds in Luke 2, they were proclaiming that God's wholeness had entered our broken world. The shepherds' response—abandoning everything to see Jesus, then spreading the news with joy—demonstrated shalom in action. Smith concludes that Jesus himself is our peace, our shalom, who brings wholeness wherever he goes and will return to complete what he started.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Today we, like I said, we're continuing in our Advent series. And one of the things about Advent, if you are like me, I grew up in a church that didn't talk about Advent very often. And it wasn't actually until college that I even heard that word, Advent. And so for me, the first time I went to an Advent service, it was really, really strange because I wasn't sure what to expect. We had celebrated Christmas, we did all the classic Christmas things, but the whole leading up to it was not something that's common to me.

And so you may be in a similar situation where you're like, what is the whole thing that we're doing here? Why are we talking about Advent? And Advent just simply means the coming. The idea behind it is really simple, that we need to prepare for the second coming of Jesus. And one of the ways that we can do that is by looking back at the first coming of Jesus and seeing what is going on.

Because whenever you really study the first coming of Jesus, one of the things that becomes very, very obvious and very clear to you is that nobody was ready for Jesus to show up in the way that he did. And there's this. The prophets warned about this. They talked about this, how the way that Jesus is going to show up creates all these imageries, and they use all these metaphors. And nobody really fully understood what to expect whenever the Son of God came and returned to Israel.

And there, Jesus himself picks up on this in the Gospels as the same kind of warning that the second coming of Jesus may be just as, just as much of a surprise as his first coming. Take a look here at Luke, chapter 12, which says, Luke writes, be dressed and ready. This is Jesus speaking for service and keeping your lamps burning like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the doors for him. It'll be good for those servants who the Master finds them watching whenever he comes. There is this warning, this calling to people to be ready and to be alert, to be prepared for the coming of Jesus, for the kingdom of God to come.

And this is something that is echoed all throughout Scripture. There's multiple stories about people who don't have the sight to see, who don't have the ears to hear, who are not prepared to receive. And whenever you look at the story of Jesus, there's a lot of people who don't recognize that God himself is in their midst. And so the idea behind Advent is this, preparing ourselves. And a key question is, how do we Prepare for the second coming of Jesus.

This is not one of those evangelical hellfire and brimstone type approaches to prepare. It's not like what you classically hear about. Like, you know, if you were to die today, where would you go? Are you prepared? Are you ready?

That's not what's going on here. What's going on here is a spiritual preparedness, a readiness and an excitedness. A willingness to understand and to seek out and to look and to be ready for when Jesus shows back up. And one of the things that Advent teaches us about how to prepare is all these different words that we're rooted on, and one of them is the word peace. There is something intentional about peace that helps us prepare for the coming of Jesus to get ourselves ready.

And it's something that we just read about. The angels show up in the first story of Jesus, and they say that there will be peace on earth. That something in connection with when Jesus shows up, when God returns to his people, there is peace. But there's a problem with this. And the problem is, I think that we do not understand the concept of peace.

I mean, think about it. If I use that word, peace, imagine in your mind right now what that. Like, what are the images that kind of come to your mind when you think about peace? The first thing that comes to my mind is kind of this idea, you know, peace, the symbol right here. You know, everybody's talking about peace.

And then you get some other ideas, like maybe some of these books that come to your mind, like about having inner peace. Or maybe if you're thinking, if you're kind of like me and you hear the word peace, you really kind of think about hippies who show up, right? Carl, if you're watching, then this is what you get for, you know, leaving. So these are all the different types of images that can come to your mind whenever you think about the concept of peace. I actually think that in our culture, we have a more Buddhist concept of peace than we do a Biblical concept of peace.

And so when the angels show up and they say, glory be to God, there will be peace on earth on whom God's favor rests. What does that mean? Does it mean that I'm just gonna have this inner kind of peace? Does it mean, like, no war, dude? You know, Is that what it means?

What's going on here? Whenever we study scripture and we look deeply at it, there is a theme about peace that runs through the entire Old Testament that I believe is coming into this conversation. That when the Bible, especially New Testament, and in connection with Jesus talks about the concept of peace. It's not this no worries, no anxiety type approach of peace. I think the word could be summed up in the word shalom that whenever.

Whenever the Bible talks about peace, it talks about shalom. And you've probably heard of the word shalom. It maybe is one of the most common Hebrew words that we would know. But I don't think that we fully, as you know, gentiles and the 21st century Christians, that we fully understand what the concept of shalom is. And we have to understand this concept if we want to know what peace actually is.

And the best way I can think of to describe the concept of shalom is a brick. Whenever the Bible talks about shalom, it imagines a brick and it is a perfect brick. A brick that is not cracked, a brick that is not chipped on different sides, and more than that, a brick that is set in place of a wall. The word and the concept for shalom is wholeness, completeness. A wall that doesn't have any gaps in it, a brick that doesn't have any cracks in it.

This is the basic concept of the idea of shalom that's found in scripture. This fullness, this completeness. And that's why whenever you read some of these weirder stories, you see the word shalom show up in ways that you wouldn't expect. Like take for this one, for example, Exodus 22:3 4, which says, Anyone who steals must certainly make restitution. If the stolen animal is found alive in their possession, they must pay back double.

Now, if you had to guess what word in this passage is the word for shalom, you might get pretty close. But the truth is, is that the word shalom, or at least the verb version of it, shalem, is actually in here three times. And here is my very poorly transliterated version of this to where it will show you where shalom shows up. Anyone who stills must shalomly make shalom. If the stolen animal is found alive in their possession, they must shalom double right.

Now, Brandon, I know you're in here, and I'm sorry for this, all right? But you're a Greek teacher, so I don't know, but this is a terrible way. But I just want to highlight this idea of. The idea behind this is that if anyone stills, then they must make amends. They must make whole.

And in fact, they must make whole double as much. The idea behind shalom is putting things complete, making things right, wholeness, the way God intended to be. And the basic Idea behind it is in human relationships, human relationship with God, human relationship with each other, human relationship with all of creation. When the Bible talks about shalom, it talks about this idea of everything being as it should be. Correct relationships, wholeness, rightness between each other, the way God intended it to be.

In Isaiah, whenever he prophesies about the coming of Jesus, this is what he says. For to us a child is born. To us a son is given. And the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Shalom.

For the greatness of his government and shalom, there will be no end. It's not just this idea of that. Whenever Jesus comes, there's going to be. He's going to be the prince of not having anxiety. That's not the concept that's here.

He's going to be the prince of having inner stillness and quietness and peace in your life. That's not what's going on here. When Isaiah is prophesying about Jesus, he is prophesying about something much, much bigger. He is prophesying that when Jesus shows up, when the Son of God comes, there will be completeness, there will be wholeness. And that wholeness, that rightness, that right relationship, there will be no end to it.

It'll never disappear. That is what's going on. So with that playing in the background of our minds, let's look at this story from Luke, chapter two. When the angels show up and they predict, they announce the coming of Jesus with this concept of shalom. Now, there's been a lot of people that have had us throughout history that have helped us kind of imagine what this moment would be like.

Now. For you and I, we have the disadvantage of. Of hearing the story too much. And the disadvantage of that is that we have become familiar with it and maybe forgotten just how amazing this story is. I mean, think about this story.

Try to picture this story in your mind for the first time. This is an insane story about shepherds asleep in the field, tending to their flocks. And then all of a sudden, an angel shows up proclaiming this message that they've been waiting for for years. And then a whole heavenly host of angels show up. Can you imagine this?

There's been different artwork throughout history which has predicted, tried to help us imagine what this moment would be like where the skies have opened up and the angels come out and they predict to them. I like this one. It's all gold. I think it's really interesting. I'm not really sure what it is about medieval artwork and angels always being naked babies, right?

Maybe Ask Michelle Craft. Maybe she can answer that. I think this is interesting. I mean, can you imagine this moment? Pretend you're a shepherd, right?

You're asleep on the ground, and you wake up and you look up above you and there is a whole bunch of naked babies floating above you. Not one of them's wearing a diaper, right? I mean, I would probably move hastily too out of there to go see what's going on, because I don't know what's going on, right? These are some medieval paintings. Here's a modern painting.

This is from ChatGPT GPT. Right? Okay. Now, I like this one, even though it's terrible. I like this one because I think it gets something right that most of the other paintings missed.

Look at the sheep in this photo. They are absolutely terrified. And if I. I don't know much about sheep, but I do know that they are very, very skittish, okay, Animals. And so they're terrified. I think this is a good representation.

So can you imagine this? You're asleep on the ground, all of a sudden you wake up, there's a bunch of naked babies flying above you, and your sheep are just kind of like (goat scream), right? They're just screaming right in the background, not knowing what to do. Can you imagine this moment?

It's pretty crazy. It's a pretty crazy story when you think about it right now. Unfortunately, none of this does a good idea of helping us understand what shalom is. So let's look at the Chosen's version of this when the angels show up. And let's see how they help us imagine this story.

Maybe a better example of shalom, the coming of God into the world. Look at their response. This is what Luke says about how they respond. When the angel had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go into Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about. So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and.

And the baby who was lying in the manger when they had seen him. They spread the word concerning him at what had been told about them, about this child. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen which were just as the Lord had told them.

The shepherd's response is a response of shalom. It's not just a response of joy. They hurry off in wonder and amazement. They go to sea, they leave. They literally abandon their sole purpose, which is to protect the sheep.

They abandon them, run to Christ, leaving their life behind to move, to see this wonderful thing that has happened. They go and they tell people about it, essentially becoming the first evangelist of the good news. They spread it and they have joy and amazement. They represent shalom, things coming together. The angels show up and promise them peace.

And that promise was not just an abstract idea. Instead, it was physically present as they experienced joy and wonder. They literally witness the peace between heaven and earth being reconciled together, just as Jesus would go on to pray. What the shepherds realized is that peace that was proclaimed to them was not a concept or an inner stance of the heart. It wasn't political or circumstantial.

It wasn't something that they had to understand, achieve, be enlightened about, or grow into through personal development or spiritual techniques. It wasn't found through a good book or a better government. Peace wasn't discovered through emotional or physical detachment, by silencing these external noises. It wasn't a product of comfort, security, or having all of their questions answered. The peace that they were offered was wholeness and rightness.

It was shalom. They discovered on that first Christmas night that shalom has a name, and its name is Jesus. Isaiah calls him the Prince of wholeness, wonderful counselor, mighty God. Micah claimed that there would come one who would be our shalom, be our wholeness. And the angels announced his coming as wholeness on earth.

Jesus himself says, this completeness, I leave with you. My wholeness I give to you. This shalom, this wholeness, this making things right. It followed him everywhere that he went. He touches the blind and they see.

He touches the leopard and they are made clean. He speaks to the storm, saying, peace, be still, and the storm obeys. He speaks to the paralyzed man and says, you, sins are forgiven. He looks at the adulterer and says, neither do I condemn you. He calls the weary to himself and says, come to me and you will find rest.

He rebukes the violence and says, put away your sword. He welcomes the stranger, blesses the poor, comforts the grieving and restores the broken. He is called the good shepherd and at the same time goes to the cross as the Lamb of God, praying, father, forgive them. Scripture calls him Emmanuel, God with us. He is the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end.

He was here before time, he will be here after time. He is the word which made all things new.

Do you think that in our world we need wholeness? We need rightness do you feel like I do that in this life things are just a little bit off, a little bit skewed, not going the way that they are intended to go? Well, I've got good news for you. In fact, I have the good news. The completeness of God has come into this world to begin a movement.

And it will return again to finish what it started. Because the shalom of God has a name and its name is Jesus. Let's pray. Father. God, you are a good God and we love you.

God, we thank you for your son who has been a sacrifice for us, who has come into this world. We thank you for the peace that he has brought. God. We want to be whole. We want our lives to be whole.

We want this world to be as you intended it to be. God. And we see brokenness and things going not the way you intended, all around us, God. And so in this moment where we think about the first coming and prepare ourselves for the second coming, God, we ask that you make us people of shalom. That where there is discord among us, that you draw us closer, that where there is brokenness, that you make us a church that restores all this for your glory and your kingdom.

It's in your son's name that we pray. Amen.