Sermon - Jeff Raines - People of Peace [Luke 1:67-79]

First Baptist Shreveport

People of Peace - Luke 1:67-79 - Dr. Jeff Raines

How are you doing with peace today? Is peace hard for you to find? Our world is bombarded by elements that are designed to take away our peace - all kinds of barriers for us to REALLY experience Gods peace.

It’s ironic that in this very season of Christmas where we celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace that we often feel WITHOUT peace.

In our text today, we are looking at the first chapter of Luke where he tells the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Although we are told that they walked closely with God, they were old and had no children and were thus looked at as “less than”.

When Zechariah enters the holy of holies to perform his priestly duties, the angel Gabriel appears to him and tells him about the coming birth of his son, John the Baptist, who will serve as a forerunner to the promised Messiah. Zechariah doubts Gabriels words and Gabriel tells him he will not be able to speak until his son John is born.

When Elizabeth gives birth to John, Zechariah explodes in song about John’s role of announcing Jesus and the path of peace he will bring to the whole world.

What is Peace? The absence of war? Time on a beach?

Peace is a way of life - It’s things being made whole. Peace is NOT something to be experience in a retreat from life, by escape, but it is lived in the practice of everyday life.

Peace is connected to God’s Salvation. We long for our life of wholeness that we had with God before the fall. God has given us a way to experience this wholeness again through the gift of his Son Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

In this season of Advent, we wait in hope for the light of Christ breaking into the darkness of our world. He alone offers us TRUE peace.