An Outbreak of Peace

A house blazing with lights can make a neighborhood glow, but it can’t quiet a restless heart. We open with holiday humor and then pivot to the angels’ proclamation over Bethlehem, drawing a straight line to a frostbitten night in 1914 when British and German soldiers climbed out of the trenches and sang the same carol on no man’s land. That fragile ceasefire feels like the world’s best effort—beautiful, brief, and gone by morning. So why does peace keep slipping through our fingers?

We trace the long arc of failed promises—from the Pax Romana to modern institutions that vowed to end war—and contrast them with Scripture’s claim that peace can be personal long before it becomes global. Romans 5:1 anchors the conversation: justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. Not a mood or a seasonal warmth, but a settled reality that doesn’t wobble with headlines or habits. We unpack the gospel’s blunt honesty about sin, the futility of self-salvation, and the staggering news that Christ made peace by the blood of His cross, offering a treaty we don’t negotiate—we accept.

Along the way, we share a gritty testimony from a Singapore prison, where a man literally smoked pages of a Gideon Bible until one verse cut through the haze and changed his life. That story reminds us that peace arrives like victory news from another battlefield: Jesus has already won. If you’re hungry for the kind of peace that lasts past December 25, this conversation offers clarity, hope, and an invitation to receive a gift you cannot earn.

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Transcript

Lights, Laughter, And A Deeper Meaning

SPEAKER_00 0:27

My favorite Christmas themed commercial these days. I don't even know what it's advertising. You know, it's one of those commercials that overpowers the product. But it shows a house, you know, covered with Christmas lights, and the house is trimmed all along the porch and all the bushes and all the trees, and the guy plugs it in and illuminates the whole neighborhood. And the house next door has no lights, just a sign with an arrow that says ditto on the side. Love it. I love it. Well, regardless of what your traditions are or your decorations look like, for the believer, it goes much deeper than that, doesn't it? The season is a really it's a global reminder, isn't it? No matter where you go of the Lord's incarnation, when this eternally pre-existent God the Son entered time in the form of a baby, the possibility of lasting eternal peace was declared. You remember there were some lights, right? The angels lit up the sky there in Bethlehem, announcing that peace through Christ had come. I was reminded of a signature moment of peace, although brief, unusual. It had never happened in this way before. Of all things that took place during World War One, between the borders of Belgium and France, along both sides of the front, the soldiers dug trenches in the mud to give them protection. On one side in trenches were the British, and on the other side, in this particular locale, were the Germans. The ground in between those trenches was referred to as no man's land. It was December, both armies suffering, in addition to everything else, through these cold winter days. One author wrote that cold rain muddied, sometimes flooded those trenches. Crude platforms of wooden slats were formed to try and keep the soldiers dry. Many of them had learned how to sleep standing up, leaning against these trench walls of wet mud. One soldier described these trenches as, and I quote, home to rats, barbed wire, filth, bullets, corpses, fire and steel. This war was the work of the devil. The year was 1914, and Christmas Eve arrived. The rain had finally given way to flurries of snow, the ground packed hard as cement. The British people had sent their soldiers little boxes made of tin filled with treats to try to bring some cheer that Christmas. More than one million of those tin boxes made it to the front. They were worth their weight in gold to these soldiers, filled with Cadbury chocolates, butterscotch candy, plum pudding, along with a Christmas card. Queen Victoria had sent, her daughter had signed it, assuring them of her prayers. The Germans were also in the mood to celebrate this Christmas, and all of a sudden the sounds of gunfire and mortar shells, hand grenades faded and quiet. German soldiers lit candles, perched them on top of their trenches, stuck to the wooden rafters. British began singing carols, the sound wafting out and over no man's land. German soldiers replied with their own carols in their native tongue. Then the sound of an accordion was heard, and some harmonicas down the front lines began to play. Some kind of truce had been declared. Unofficial, unplanned, unexpected. Signs began popping up over the trench rafters with messages like, Happy Christmas, you know fight, we no fight. No one knows what started the next step, how it began. But soldiers from both sides climbed out of their trenches and approached one another in no man's land, tentatively, fearfully at first, no weapons in sight, and then joyfully they shook hands, learned each other's names, stood together, shared treats from their packages, and then in their language began to sing the same song that every country knew. Silent night, holy night. All is calm, all is bright. Round yon virgin, mother with child, holy infant, so tender and mild. Sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace. Peace. Campfires were lit out there on no man's land. They continued sharing food items. Harmonicas played and the men danced. Games began. And soldiers volunteered from both sides to referee. One soldier wrote, Not one call by a referee was ever contested. That was a Christmas miracle. Another soldier would later write, I will never forget that night. It became the highlight of my entire life. Instead of an outbreak of war, this event became known as, and I quote, an outbreak of peace. An outbreak of peace. Newspaper articles predicted that after the war was long forgotten, what would be remembered most by these soldiers would be that evening when they played football and sang together and shared Christmas treats and held this unofficial truce in the midst of a world war. Headquarters on both sides, I read reports, weren't happy at all. Declared that if this truce continued, soldiers would be court-martialed. And so this truce, one newspaper editor called it the truce of God, ended. Lasted only one night. One soldier wrote in his diary, as we parted, we said to one another, Today we have had peace. Tomorrow we shall have to fight again. And so they did. One of the most unique moments of peace ever experienced in the history of war. Never happened before, it has never happened since. Following World War I, the world was so troubled by the carnage and the loss of life it created the League of Nations in 1919. Determined to keep peace on planet Earth. Twenty years later, Adolf Hitler brought the world to war again. After that war, World War II, the United Nations was formed to maintain international peace. And well, we've lived long enough to know that hasn't worked all that well either. Go all the way back to the prophet Jeremiah, who's speaking for God, and God says, through him, man will say, peace, peace, but there is no peace. Maybe a moment or two. But not lasting peace. Our own capital, city, dotting the landscape of every country, are monuments built to peace. Monuments of peace, one author wrote tongue in cheek, we build one after every war. Was it any different in the first century? Not at all. The world longed for peace. Their hearts soared with hopes when Caesar Augustus declared the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome. Rome will bring it. The best hope the world had for peace rested on the Roman Empire, but in God's plan, there in that world at that time, the only hope for lasting peace was resting in a manger. Following the birth of Christ, the first song recorded those lyrics, and we've sung them already today. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace. Among men with whom God is pleased. Oh, that's the clue. The world has never been able to achieve peace. God has promised the possibility of it. In fact, the promise, the prediction of it, we know one day the peace of God will cover this globe in the kingdom of Christ. The prophet says, like the waters of the sea cover. On that day, the peace of God will be global. Until then, the peace of God will not be global, but it can be personal. It won't be national, but it can be internal. I want to break this down very simply. I thought we'd go back to 2 Peter, but I just sense the Lord's leading differently. Let me, if you know Christ today, then spend this morning as I rehearse what you know and have believed, and pray for those around you that may not know him. Pray for those who are going to show up on Christmas Eve by the hundreds. Let me make it as simple as I can, this idea of peace. The Apostle Paul, writing in Romans chapter 5 and verse 1, puts it this way. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith. Justified, the simple definition is made right with God. That's it. Made right with God. How do you get right with God? Here it is. By faith, that's in Christ, of course, we have peace with God, peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me make two very simple observations from this text, this promise, this possibility of peace. First, peace with God is something you personally must receive. John writes in chapter 1 of his gospel account, but as many as received him, accepted him, believed in him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. Made right with God. Now in his family, receiving Christ is the same thing as believing that you're a sinner and you need saving. I mean a lot of people who are, you know, they kind of believe in the Lord, but they're also trying to save themselves. Got this list of things I'm doing, and yeah, yeah, Jesus, too. No. The gospel is not two saviors, it's one. We cannot save ourselves. Paul writes later in chapter 6, the wages of sin is death. That's what we're good at. Sinning. And if you doubt that, well, you're going to die. Proof. The wages of sin. The wages of being a sinner is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So the possibility of peace, eternal life, exists, but you have to receive this gift yourself. A few weeks ago I met a couple in my office, shared with them the good news. It became clear after a while that they were trying to work their way in, and not sure at all, of course, because you could always do better. They thought it was up to them. Good news from God's word was shared with them, and within the hour they both prayed to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. They received this gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. You know, it's kind of like these gifts under our Christmas tree for our grandchildren. My wife has been busy. I rarely see her. I just give her the card. And these grandchildren, I think we're up to eight now, if I'm correct, she would know. They're perfect, I do know that, but undeserving of everything she's doing for them. I also know that. There are gifts now, and she's purchased them and she's wrapped them and she's tagged them. But those gifts are theirs potentially. If they stay under that tree, what is theirs potentially will never be enjoyed by them in reality. They gotta open them. It's my name. Thank you, Gigi. Thank you, Papa. They gotta open them. The reason the average person out there on the street that I talk to believes they can earn their way into heaven is because they think they can. They think they can. The average person thinks in their heart of hearts that one day God's gonna say, Well, I don't care how you came, but you're here and heaven's really not complete without you. Come on in. Mankind doesn't believe that he does anything other than deserve heaven. Yet the Bible tells us there is a war going on between mankind and God. It isn't neutral, it's a war, a state of war. Every sin you commit is a missile fired against the holiness of God. Every evil thought is an attack on the righteousness of God. Every immoral thought or deed is an offensive maneuver against the purity of God. That's why the Bible says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 5 that the unbeliever is hostile toward God, having set their minds on the flesh that is on themselves. The word translated hostile is a word that can be translated hateful. The mind and heart of an unbeliever is hateful toward God. Now, if you ask the average person on the street, if he is hateful toward God, they would say quickly, no, I don't hate God. I'm not an enemy of God. But describe to them the God of the Bible as a holy God. A God that at this point is storing up his wrath against the unrighteousness of mankind, who will one day judge unrepentant sinners, or they will be hateful toward that God. Take them to the end of the Bible and show them the revelation of Jesus Christ, who sits on this great throne, and all of the unredeemed human race who denied the creation of God and instead came up with an origin where they could worship Mother Nature, creatures of what God had created. They denied their conscience and knowingly sinned. They heard the gospel and refused it. The Bible tells us that their names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and after the verdict of the judge, angels will literally scoop them up and throw them into a lake of fire. The world will hate that God. And along the way in life, what's forfeited is internal peace with God, their Creator. A sense of insecurity, a desire to maybe turn over a new leaf and fail yet again. Not understanding that every sin we've committed, past, present, and future, was placed on Christ on that cross, who can now offer to you a free gift of eternal life. I've had people tell me, Stephen, I'm not in trouble with God. I feel at peace with God. In fact, I wasn't having any trouble with him until I came in here this morning and started listening to you. Well, your peace is temporary. It's like that truce in World War I. Might be a feeling of momentary bliss, beautiful sunset, a piece of music, love shared. But that's part of Satan's deception to lead you to believe that that momentary peaceful feeling is peace with God. It isn't. Let me illustrate it this way. One author provoked my thinking when he wrote, you know, if somebody breaks the law in this country and flees to another country, there exists between that individual and this country a state of enmity, hostility. Laws have been broken. That must be paid for. There is enmity between that person and the American judicial system. It doesn't matter how peaceful this individual feels in his place of foreign refuge. If he should assume it's been thirty years now, forty years, I'm going back. As soon as he touches down in the United States, the standard of American law can immediately initiate action against him for his crimes. Likewise, an unbeliever today might take their peace. There's no problem. One day they will arrive and stand before God, and the standard of God's law will immediately initiate action against them for their crimes. Unpardoned. Unforgiven. Peace with God is not a temporary feeling, it's an eternal fact. It's a gift. Paul wrote to the Colossians this wonderful text. He said, Jesus Christ made peace for us by the blood of his cross. His death effectively offers you a peace treaty. It's written in blood red. But you've got to sign it. You have to personally receive this gift of salvation as you repent of your sin and follow him. The Apostle Paul puts it this way: the wages of sin is death. Look at it again. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. I love the redundancy, but the free gift. You don't need to say free if it's a gift. But he wants to make sure you don't miss it. It's a free gift. Eternal life, peace with God. You're no longer at war. You have entered into by means of Christ forgiving you a permanent truce with Almighty God. Peace with God is something you must personally receive. Secondly, peace with God is something you must personally share. Share it with others. Paul wrote, again, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, notice we have, I love that. We have peace with God. He didn't say, you know, do your best, and over time you'll earn it. No, you haven't. You're not going to get it as soon as you're good enough, or you'll get it as soon as you know you're baptized and catechized and sanitized, whatever. You have it now. You accept Christ, and the struggle is over between you and God. How we need to tell our world this message. I think of H. G. Wells, the famous author, who opened up himself transparently to one reporter when he said, I need to reorganize my life. I've talked, by the way, to many unbelievers who say, you know, I need to get things straightened out first. Then I'll deal with God. Oh, no, no, no. He said that. I need to reorganize my life. I can't seem to adjust my life to secure peace. Here I am at 64, and I'm still seeking peace. It is a hopeless dream. I wonder if anybody told them how to secure peace. It wasn't hopeless after all. We have a number of men and auxiliaries with them in the Gideon ministry here in our church. Wonderful ministry. They meet here to pray, and even from other churches. They're committed to putting Bibles everywhere, handing Bibles, college students, witnessing. I have gone out to lunch at times with a member of the Gideon's, and they're going to witness to that waitress, and they're going to give a new testament to anybody near them. One faithful Gideon made sure there were Bibles available to inmates in a Singapore prison. I came across this some time ago. One of the notorious inmates was a man by the name of Jacob Coshi. He'd grown up in Singapore with one driving ambition to be a success in life. And what that meant to him was getting all the money and possessions he could. So that led him to finding a way to make money quicker, which led him to making it illegally. He eventually became the leader of an international smuggling network. In 1980, he was caught, arrested, sentenced, placed in a tiny cell for several decades. His heart grew more and more filled with hatred, most of it against God. He'd heard the gospel as a child, had rejected it. He now blamed God for where he was. But cigarettes weren't allowed in prison. So his friends smuggled in some tobacco, and he would tear out one of the pages of the Gideon Bible and roll the tobacco in it and light it up. One day he fell asleep while smoking, and he awoke to find that the cigarette had almost burned out completely. All that remained was a scrap of charred paper. So he unrolled it because he wanted to use it again. And he unrolled it, and staring back at it was this little phrase that simply read, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Well, he wanted to find out where that was. So he asked for another Bible. And starting in Genesis, he began to read. He had to read a long time to get to the book of Acts. Finally, he found it. The Spirit of God convicted his heart and knew the gospel, read it clearly in the Word of God, began to cry. He couldn't stop. He bowed his head there in this tiny little cell and asked Christ to save him. He just began to tell all the other inmates. He was eventually released, and in the latter part of his life, would never stop telling people. He would often tell people with a laugh, a big laugh, and I quote, I would say to people, Can you believe that I discovered the truth of God by smoking the word of God? What a testimony, huh? I couldn't know but think. Here's an enemy of God who recognized it and became a friend of God at peace. At peace. Do you know that? I knew that personally at 17. I know what that means. The war stopped. Therefore, being justified by faith in Christ, not what you're doing. Not what you're trying. By faith in Christ. Paul writes, we have peace with God. Let me tell you, peace with God cannot come to your heart without the Prince of Peace. That's why the world can't have it. They can sing about it out there. They can have some good feelings during the season. But they know nothing of that internal peace with God that comes by surrendering their heart, admitting their sin to the Savior. Did you know that the word gospel comes out of the context of war? In its origins, it came as a message of victory in battle. Whenever one side won, they would dispatch a messenger to go back to their village or their nation and deliver the gospel. It was the good news, is how you could translate it, of victory. And I can't help but think we've been given this incredible gospel message that Jesus Christ was born to die so that he could become victorious over sin, death, and the grave. And now offer mankind, you and me, a truce, an outbreak of peace. When you ask Jesus Christ to become your Lord and Savior, peace with God can be yours.