“The Peace of Christ” Colossians
Intro.: There is
nothing as heart-warming, nothing that brings such a since of peace and
hopefulness as holding an infant in ones arms and to look into their face. Imagine then, the surpassing warmth, peace
and hope which Simeon experienced when He took in His arms the infant child,
Jesus. What a wonderful peace must have
come over him when He looked into the face of the Son of God who had united Himself
with His creation and humbled Himself to be carried to the
I.
A. As we see the events of our
Gospel lesson unfold it is important to remember that Christ was not chosen by
Simeon. It is not as if God said to Him,
“Hey, bud, why don’t you hang around the
The same hold’s true for all of us. We did not choose Christ nor by our own
strength and reason claim Him as our Savior.
This would be impossible since by virtue of our fallen natures we do not
have in mind the things of God or understand His ways, as the prophet
announces, “ ‘my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.” (Is. 55:8) Because we are conceived and born in sin
everything that we do and every choice we make on our own, is rebellion against
God. By nature we are all enemies of God
and objects of His wrath; unable to discern God’s will, incapable of making God
pleasing choices, and powerless to choose Christ as our Savior and live in
peace.
When we have no peace with God, peace with
ourselves and peace with one another is simply not something within our
grasp. Already in the Garden, as soon as
their peace with God was shattered, Adam and Eve lost their inner peace and
their pure and peaceful relationship as husband and wife. With the knowledge of evil their hearts were
filled with shame, guilt and fear. They
no longer perceived, nor desired God’s love but tried to run away from Him and
hide. The Lord and His will was no
longer foremost in their minds, but with great hostility and for the sake of
self-preservation they turned on one another, blaming each other for all their
problems. There was no longer peace in
paradise.
The same war against God and against one
another continues in our world and to some degree in each of us according to
our sinful nature. Driven by Satan, the
knowledge of evil, and our own sin, can leave us without peace in our hearts
and without peace between us. Left to
ourselves we would not know or want God’s love, but would only run and
hide. Still today husbands and wives
filled with shame, guilt and fear turn on one another. Without God’s love and His will at the center
of their marriage they think only of themselves, and begin to blame and attack
one another without mercy. But it is not
only husbands and wives who seem unable to choose peace, entire families
explode, friendships crash and burn, nations and people groups declare war on
one another, and even within the visible Church there is division and
discord. According to our sinful nature
we cannot choose peace with God or with one another, because as Paul notes in
the verses preceding our epistle the way of the earthly nature is, “anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy
language” (Col. 3:8)
B. We may not be able to choose
the peace of Christ for ourselves, but praise God we have been chosen to
receive it. As Jesus said to His
disciples, “You did not choose me, but I
chose you..” (Jn. 15:16)
Simeon did not choose His Savior at the temple that day, but was himself
chosen by God to receive the peace he had been waiting for. Simeon, who had been waiting for the
consolation of
Brothers and sisters, do you want to know what
I see when I look out at you today/tonight.
Though you are sinners one and all, I see you as blessed Simeons and Annas, people who
have been chosen by God to receive peace in Christ. With
the believers of Colossae you, the believers who
gather here today, are “God’s chosen
people, holy and dearly loved,” (v.12) God chose you
and me, since before the creation of the world to be made holy through our
trust in Christ’s righteousness and sacrifice, as the apostle writes in Romans
8: “Those
God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also
justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say in response to
this? If God is for us
who can be against us.” (
Did you hear those last words, if God is
for us who can be against us? And truly
God is for us, isn’t He? He was born of
Mary for us. He was presented at the
temple as a Savior for us. He lived a
holy life for us. He died under the
Father’s wrath for us. He rose again in
victory for us. He ascended into heaven
where he rules all things for us. And on
the last day He will return in glory for us.
God, in Christ, is for us, the people he loves and has chosen to be holy
through faith in Christ. In God’s love
shown us in His Son we can now live at peace with God, with ourselves, and with
one another. He robes us with a new
nature which covers the old self of anger, rage, and malice. He clothes us with His “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience”, so that
we may “bear with each other” and “forgive as [He] forgave us”. Over all of this He gives us His love to wear
to bind us to Him and to one another in perfect unity. This is the life of peace for which you and I
have been chosen as God’s holy and beloved people. And it is the life to which we are all
called.
II. Called To Peace.
In our Gospel Simeon did not just wander
into the
A. In the same way none of us just
simply stumbled upon the peace of Christ for which we were chosen. It is the Holy Spirit who has called us to
receive it.
Just as He called Simeon to His house of
prayer, the Holy Spirit has called us by the Gospel to receive peace in this
place. He draws us where the Gospel is
preached in its truth and purity and the sacraments are administered according
to Christ’s command so that we may receive peace.
The
apostle reminds us that we were called as one body and united with Christ to
have peace rule in our hearts. In the
waters of baptism we died with Christ, and were raised with Him to a new life,
a life in which we are united with one another as fellow members of Christ’s body. In hearing the Word and confessing our faith
the Holy Spirit continues to knit us together.
And in the Lord’s Supper in a mystical and wonderful way Christ comes to
us in His body and blood and makes us one with Himself
and with one another.
As one body we have been called here so
that peace will rule in our hearts as with Simeon we receive Christ in our arms
and see our salvation. Through the
Gospel God reveals to us time and again His glorious, saving grace in the face
of Christ. In the sacrament of the Altar
we are able to touch, feel, and see our salvation. By the calling of the Holy Spirit we are
again able to perceive and desire the love of God for us, as He teaches us“this is love, not that we loved God, but that He
loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (I Jn. 4:10) Through the Gospel we are transformed from
enemies of God into children of our Heavenly Father. Seeing Christ, and seeing the love of God
through Him, we have peace, peace with God and with ourselves through the
forgiveness that comes through Jesus.
B. And now we, the people whom God
has chosen and upon whom His favor rests, have been called to live in peace.
With the peace of Christ ruling in our
hearts, we are thoroughly equipped to love and forgive as Christ does us. We who have been clothed with Christ in our
baptism are enabled by the Holy Spirit to bear with one another, forgive one
another, and love one another even as the Lord has shown long-suffering,
forgiveness and love for us. It is the
love of Christ which compels and empowers us for this.
Living in peace we are also called to share
our faith and sing God’s praises even as Simeon did in the temple that
day. Because we have, together, seen our
salvation, and because the Word of Christ dwells in us, we are able to teach
and admonish one another with all wisdom in our Bible Studies and daily
conversations with one another. Here in
our worship we can encourage, instruct, and edify one another as we sing
psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in our hearts toward
God. We can be the Simeon’s and Anna’s
who share our faith with one another, and even with the unbelieving world. Because we have peace with God through Christ
our Savior, we are set free to do all that God wants us to do and be all that
God wants us to be to bring glory to Him.
Now, all that we do, in word or deed can be done not
in the hope of reward or out of fear of punishment but in thankfulness to our
Heavenly Father and in the Name of Jesus.
This is the life, the eternal life, to which
we have been called. Because the peace
of Christ rules our hearts we can live every day without fear. We live our lives at peace with God, with
ourselves and with one another as the holy, beloved, forgiven people whom God
has chosen to be His own.
And with Simeon we can confidently say, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you
now dismiss your servant in peace. For
my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all
people” Even now we are dismissed
or freed from our slavery to sin, and the day is coming when we can depart this
life in peace, because we have seen our salvation, and on that day when the
Lord calls us to our heavenly home we will see Him who is our salvation again
in all His glory. Any of us who have
been at the side of one of God’s chosen, beloved, holy ones, know that this is
true. We have seen the peace of Christ
working in their hearts, and the joy of knowing that they have departed in
peace, because their eyes have seen Him!
What a blessing it is for them and for us, to live and die with the
peace of Christ.
Concl.: Dear brothers and sisters, this is the life
for which you have been chosen and to which you have been called. So now, the peace of Christ which surpasses
all understanding…