Luke 2
14 Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!
Putting it altogether, you can read it like this. May God, the Glorious One receive all glory and honor and praise and splendor because He is more real than Herod, He is stronger than Satan, He is higher than any power in heaven or on earth. His name is to be lifted to the highest heaven. And those who are able to see God for who He is and worship Him accordingly, there is peace for you. There is eternal peace for you because God favors you, He has chosen you, He saved you before the foundation of the world that you might glorify His name. This kind of peace is reserved for born again believers whose life is a continuous worship unto Jesus, who is Lord of all.
While there is so much chaos and unrest in the world and warfare in the spiritual realm, there is a pocket of people, the favored ones, the saved ones, the people of God who demonstrate a remarkable peace. And what is a common practice of those who display the peace of God? They were all worshipers of God. Peace flows from worship.
If you worship anything other than God, there is no peace. You might have temporary, shallow, emotional peace. But true, deep, lasting peace is reserved for the people of God who consistently worship Him. Let’s end by looking at a few worshipers.
First, let’s look at the wise men and the shepherds.
Matt 2:9-12 [READ]
Luke 2:15-20 [READ]
For both the wise men and the shepherds, their worship was preceded by obedience. Their goal was worship. They wanted to get to where Jesus was so that they could worship him. But in order to get to the place where the baby Jesus lay, they had put their plans on hold, gather the gifts and then embark on the journey. For us, we may have good intentions to get to where Jesus is and worship Him, but unless we are willing to obey concretely in the day-to-day decisions of life, we may never get there. Do you want to worship Jesus? If so, what are you doing to prepare yourself to get to the place where Jesus is? If not, what is preventing you from worshiping? Have you made time in your schedule to prioritize your relationship with Him? What concrete adjustments do you have to make to free up time and energy so that you can give Jesus the kind of consistent worship He deserves?
Lastly, we have Mary.
Luke 2
19 But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her heart and meditating on them.
What is she treasuring in her heart? To answer that, we have to go back a chapter to Mary’s Magnificat.
Luke 1:46-55 [READ]
These verses sound very much like Luke 2:14, don’t they?
Luke 2
14 Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!
What is Mary treasuring in her heart? She is treasuring the Lord. v46 – my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. v47 – my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. This is worship. She is treasuring Christ. She is also treasuring the Lord’s favor upon her. The reason why she is glorifying the Lord is because v48 – the Lord has looked with favor upon her. The Lord has chosen her, the Lord has saved her. She is treasuring the fact that v49 – the Mighty One has done great things for me. She is saying this BEFORE she became the mother of Jesus. So what great things has the Lord done for her? She is glorifying God for saving her and bringing her into a relationship with the living God. Basically, she treasures God and she treasures her salvation.
Examine your heart. What are you treasuring? Whatever your treasure is, that’s the thing you worship. Let’s commit to being worshipers of the living God. Begin each day saying, Lord, I give you my life. I want to worship you today. I want YOU to receive glory through my life today. I want you, Jesus, to be what I treasure most in my heart. I want to treasure the gospel because through Jesus’ death and resurrection, my sins were paid for and I was forgiven. This is what Christmas is all about.
Glorify God and watch the peace of God that transcends understanding wash over you. Life can throw you curveballs, people can be nasty to you, your circumstances may not be that great, but if you are a worshiper of God, you will be at peace no matter what is happening around you and to you. When things are going wrong and everyone else is panicking, you can remain grounded if you make worshiping God your priority. If you give glory to God consistently, you will be at peace consistently. You can thank the Lord in all circumstances because your goal is not to have everything go well. Your goal is to worship the Lord. Your goal is giving glory to the Lord in every circumstance. You want nothing more than to stay close to the Lord.
If you are a child of God, rejoice! You are favored by the Lord! Rejoice because the Prince of Peace has come. God has saved you in Christ. His peace is upon you. When you feel the peace of God starting to wane, get on your knees and give glory to God. Start each day by giving your life to Jesus. Let’s be consistent worshipers of King Jesus in 2014.