Prince of Peace

Scripture: Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Sermon Transcript:

Well, good morning to you again, everybody. if you want to take your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6. We actually sang some of these words just a few minutes ago. page 537. If you have one of these Bibles that you find in the seat in front of you there, you can turn to 537. God speaks in many different ways throughout the Bible.

One of those ways is through prophets. God choosing specific men and women to communicate to mankind. And Isaiah specifically prophesied 700 years before the birth of Christ. Messages that he shared full of terrifying warnings and judgment. of destruction, uplifting promises of future hope and prosperity.

If only God’s people would return to him, humble themselves, and allow God to be the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah is one of the most quoted prophets in the New Testament of the 260 chapters we find in the New Testament. Isaiah is either alluded to or quoted in, 235 of them. And so it is a significant prophecy that we find happening here in Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6.

Let’s read that together. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. And the government shall be on its way. His shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Jesus, we thank you for coming, coming to earth to dwell among us. God, we pray this morning, you know, I’ve gathered some thoughts here from your word, but Lord, it is only you as, as Paul prays, who can allow us to comprehend the things in the scriptures. How wide and how high and how deep is the love of Christ.

God, we’re. We’re just only able to scratch the surface on our own. You alone are the one that can open our minds and our hearts this morning. And so I pray Lord, as we gather around this passage and the hope that you are peace among us. that you would speak this morning, we pray these things in your name.

Amen. Okay, you just opened your eyes, but I’d like you to close your eyes again for a minute. I’m going to ask you to, just visualize for a minute here. What do you think of when you hear the word peace? When the, the idea of peace is talked about, what comes to your mind? Okay. So with your eyes closed, see if you can think of something that comes to mind, peace.

Okay, you can open your eyes. Let’s see if any of these match with, what your idea of peace looks like. Possibly, you visualize, or maybe you thought about, or maybe you’ve experienced before a serene lake reflecting the beauty of surrounding nature, maybe in such a way that the, the reflection of the bottom and the top, you can almost not tell the difference between the two.

Possibly for you, a piece is a certain kind of music, maybe an orchestra music or, or a symphony, all the pieces playing together in, in perfect harmony, each instrument contributing one to another. This is not my version of peace, this next one, but maybe it is for you. If you’re a puzzle person and you like putting puzzles together, this is absolute chaos to me.

I cannot stand puzzles. I don’t know why, they’re just not ever been a thing for me. But putting that last piece in Where everything as it was designed comes together. Possibly peace is the warm embrace among family, or friends together coming, one to another. Possibly for you, peace is the, the sense of cultures joining.

Where there is harmony among people of different backgrounds joining together in unity. I don’t know about for you, but gardening again, not typically my favorite thing, but after you’ve weeded the garden and things look really well and you’re, you’re able to put it all together. There’s a sense of peace.

If you’ve ever been to Longwood Gardens, that is like the Garden of Eden. It’s crazy there. it’s just incredible. Maybe for you, it’s the stage of life that you’re in, but peace is just your child sleeping at night, just to have a little bit of peace. Or for you, maybe the stage of life that you’re in, the, the idea of peace takes you back a few years and you remember peace, what it looked like on this, the second week of advent, we come in focusing on Jesus, the prince of peace.

And rather than looking to a dictionary definition, or maybe what we just did, developing concepts in our mind of what we thought peace looked like, we’re going to go to the scriptures this morning and have that kind of unpack some of the definitions of peace that we find in the scriptures. So how does the Bible define peace?

We’re gonna look at these different illustrations all the way from beginning to end. So from the beginning, we’re gonna start there in Genesis one. In the beginning, God created. The heavens and the earth, it was good. And in Genesis 1, 27, God created Adam and Eve, planted them in the Garden of Eden in a state of shalom.

This is the Hebrew word for peace, shalom. Comes with the idea of wholeness or completion, things functioning as they were designed to be. Genesis 1. 28, God gave plants and animals to Adam and to Eve, all created to enjoy those things. There was harmony among creation. Again, things functioning as they were designed.

There was total satisfaction. Genesis 2. 25, man and his wife were naked and had no shame. They were vulnerable and without fear. God walked among his precious creation. There was peace, shalom, at the beginning. I want to go to the end because that was just the very first page of our scriptures. And if you go all the way to the very last page in the last few chapters of Revelation, here is kind of the vision that John describes as we have recorded in the book of Revelation 21.

John is describing a vision from God of a, a new heavens and a new earth. The dwelling place of God is again with men. There’s no more tears, no more suffering, no more pain or mourning death. The old order of life has passed away. Revelation 22, Eden will be restored. The, this whole idea in the new Testament, the Greek word for peace is Irenaeus.

There is no more curse. We will see God’s face. The Lord will be our light. This is recorded the last page of the Bible that we have this morning. He will reign forever and ever and there will be rest, restoration, well being, peace. But if you’re like me, there’s a couple of pages between the beginning and the end and where is the peace in between?

Well, let’s look at what illustrations are some peace in, in between. The first and the last page of our scriptures in the middle in Deuteronomy chapter 20 verses 10 through 12 It says this when you draw near to a city to fight against it offer terms of shalom That’s the Hebrew word peace And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you then all the people who are found in it shall do Labor and you shall and shall serve you but if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you Then you shall besiege it.

We’re building out this definition of peace. It is the opposite of war, as we have here in the scriptures. 1 Kings 5, we’ll look here in verse 12. And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom. As he promised him and there was Shalom again, peace between Hiram and Solomon and the two of them made a treaty, not just again the absence of war, but also there is a sense that we’re coming together to agree among two people this treaty of peace.

Maybe you’re familiar with the passage in Ecclesiastes 3, as Solomon is writing. There’s a time for this, a time for that, a time to love, and a time to hate, a time for war, and a time for peace. So what is peace? All relationships at rest. Relationships at rest among people, civilizations, cultures.

Relationships at rest. Maybe you have, have seen or walked through the nativity or maybe you’ve been in the scene where, you know, the words spoken by Jesus in the New Testament when he is there with his disciples and Mark 4 39, there’s a great storm that is happening and Jesus stands up and rebukes the wind and the waves and says, peace, peace, hey, peace.

Be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm, peace, calm Leviticus 26 6 I will give shalom, God says, peace in the land and you shall lie down and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. This idea of Shalom, peace, the creation is come.

Isaiah 55, 12, For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace. Again, this is the prophet Isaiah. The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress. Instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle.

And it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not. Be cut off peace. Instead of these thorns and thistles, things are growing and flourishing designed and operating as intended creation at rest in john chapter 14. We continue this idea of peace all throughout the scriptures. 14 27.

Jesus is teaching his disciples right before he is about to go and be crucified Betrayed. Well, actually first arrested and then crucified and among people, among the people that are there, the gathering of the brothers there, he wants to give them an anchor, an anchor for their souls. And he says this, my peace.

I leave with you my peace. I give to you not as the world gives. Do I give to you? Let not your hearts.

So that the sense of fear and the sense of our hearts being troubled, Jesus brings a peace to even our inner sense of our, our turmoil and conflict in our world. Philippians 4, 6 through 7. Paul’s writing here, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, the peace of God. That’s that Greek word again, which surpasses all of our understanding. We’ll guard your hearts and your minds in Christ. Jesus again. What is this sense of peace? Our internal world again at rest God in the midst of our chaos.

So this is a really robust sense of peace. Maybe we flip back through those pictures. Some of those things might be peace in one area or a sense of peace, but not in total like we’re seeing here. Shalom. Everything working as it was designed. Creation at rest. Relationships at rest. Our internal conflict.

No more. If we could bottle this up and sell it, I bet we’d be rich. If we could give out this kind of peace, wouldn’t we want to offer it to others? But where’s all the peace, right? Because we live in the tension that this is not always how life operates, at least for me. Maybe you’re here and you’ve, you’ve heard this argument before.

It’s why people can’t stand Christianity, right? They bury their heads in the sand and they talk about peace as if it’s something that we can even achieve. I mean, if God defines peace, if God created humanity in peace, And seeks to bring a peaceful end. That’s the last page of the scriptures. Why all the chaos right now?

Why is God allowing an incredibly broken world? To exist in the middle. It must mean he is either not real in questions of his existence or that he doesn’t care. Possibly he’s just indifferent to humanity, or he’s really not able to keep the peace. Maybe he exists, but Sovereignty, not so much. Colonialism and imperialism displacing indigenous people, wiping out empires.

World wars claiming the lives of millions over time. Hate fueled genocide wiping out entire people groups. Terroristic organizations sweeping our world with agendas to conquer people. That they don’t agree with families living at odds struggles among coworkers and violence among neighbors, tremendous upheaval in human relationships on every front.

This is far from Shalom. This is far from peace that we are described here in the scriptures. Natural disasters happening all the time, creation in turmoil. We are contributing in the way that we treat creation. Thorns and thistles and weeds in droves choking out things that are healthy and growing.

Animals fighting for their lives in, in less than perfect environments all the time. Creation longs, cries out. For peace and what incredible counsel Paul right from the scriptures. Don’t be anxious about anything easy for you to say, yeah, right, don’t be anxious about anything. How many of us lie awake late into the evening or in the middle of the night with anxious thoughts that just keep spinning around and around and around?

We can’t allow this inner world to come. Sometimes those fears are irrational. Sometimes it’s just a fear that we know. An endless battle of the mind. Don’t feel trouble. Don’t feel chaos. I wish. Maybe you’re a person who hasn’t ever really known any sense of the word peace. Life has been chaotic from beginning even now.

You see, there’s this thing that’s happened. Between the first page and the last page, a cosmic interruption to peace back in the garden, Adam and Eve were there, and in the first two chapters, things are going okay. And by Chapter three, there’s a problem. Satan, the enemy of God, slithers into the garden, tempting God’s precious creation.

And sin entered the world through Adam and Eve’s disobedience. And what did they do? They first covered themselves in shame and hid from God. Listen to the account in Genesis chapter three, verse 14 and following the Lord. God said to the serpent, because you have done this cursed. Are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field on your belly?

You shall go all. The days of your life, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring, he will crush your head and you shall bruise his heel to the woman. He said, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing in pain. You shall bring forth Children, your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.

It’s conflict and to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded to you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground before you because of you, sorry, in pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face.

You shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken. For you are dust and to dust you shall return. There’s this rift between God and mankind and the fig leaves. All the fig leaves in the world could not cover the brokenness and shame and sin that they felt disconnected from the source of life.

Destined to die and everything is off. Conflict among husband and wife. Creation in turmoil. Pain in childbirth. The ground is cursed. Thorns and thistles. Shame, secrecy, failure, plague their internal lives. Romans 5. 12 illustrates this dismal picture here even more. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, Adam, and death through sin, so death spread to all mankind.

Where’s all the peace? It’s gone. There’s no hope. There’s no life. There’s only conflict. Conflict existing between us and God today, filled with sin. Mankind is without hope. We cannot save ourselves. So we zero in on Jesus. The prince of peace to answer the question, how in the world are we to have peace?

The answer is why we celebrate Christmas, the banner outside that we have hung for many years. Hope has come. This is Jesus. This is the glory of Emmanuel, God with us. Isaiah prophesied, and we read this earlier, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God.

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. This is who we celebrate at Christmas time. Jesus, the Prince of Peace. I want to look to another part of Isaiah’s prophecy this morning. As we think about how we have this peace. Because Isaiah 53 is a passage, that we’ll look to here in a second. That is really Fulfilled in the life of Jesus in the book of Acts and even beyond in many of Isaiah’s prophecies.

We see Jesus coming out here. Look at Isaiah chapter 53 verse four. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

And with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yeah, he opened not his mouth like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent.

So he opened not his mouth. Verse 9. And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet, it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When a soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring.

He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. And he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with the strong.

Because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. This, this passage, tells the whole gospel story. Tells the picture of who we have fulfilled in Jesus. The first part here, we have all gone astray.

Verse six. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, full of sin, iniquity, transgression, unrighteous. We, like Adam and Eve, have missed this mark. God’s holy standard, our mess, laid upon Him. We also find here in Isaiah 53 that this separates us from God. God loves us. But must punish sin. He is a just God. After all, the punishment is death.

And that was laid upon Jesus. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him. Innocent Him. Guilty us. By His death, we are saved. He’s made intercession between us and God. The, the peace that we once had that was interrupted by sin. Jesus cancelling our debt of sin, healing us totally, giving us the righteous record that he had.

And we find something else that maybe, if this interrupts your theology, I’ll say this. It’s because your theology is wrong, not God’s theology. This was God’s plan. Jesus coming to die in our place is on purpose. There wasn’t some accident that happened. It was the Lord’s will, it says in Isaiah 53, to crush the Son.

It pleased Him to pour out all of the sin onto Jesus. Remember, in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve, sin entered the world, but there would be a promise that one day a rescuer would come and through Satan, I’m sorry, and though Satan would strike in the death of Jesus, Satan’s plan would ultimately be crushed in the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus came willingly. Humbly, knowing that he would not just preach about the need for a sacrifice for sins. He would come to be. himself, that sacrifice, a substitute, justifying, forgiving, reconciling, setting everything right again, restoring, renewing. That is the sacrifice of Jesus. In Romans chapter five, we, we find that therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God.

We have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, by grace, through faith is the way. How do we have ultimate peace? What does peace look like? By grace, through faith, we trust in Jesus. Our vertical relationship with God can be restored, making peace between us and our maker, our creator. By faith in Jesus, our horizontal relationships with others can be restored peace with others.

By faith in Jesus, the turmoil within us that is carried can be made whole. We are filled with the peace that surpasses all understanding. C. S. Lewis, says a quote that, I love. We put first things first, and we get second things thrown in. But should we put second things first, we lose both the first and second things.

You see, we cannot go on a search for peace, chasing after things, to embrace in this world that maybe only offer peace for a moment. We can’t do that without embracing the maker of peace. We cannot find lasting peace in this world without the one who is eternal peace. We cannot muster up peace filled lives in our internal world without knowing the rescuer who is the prince.

I want to take us on a journey this morning as we close our time because oftentimes we hear good thoughts. We read God’s word, but we don’t actively go and do anything with it. And so this morning in a few areas, I want to guide us through a time to just offer your heart before the Lord. And so I’ll ask you to pray with me as we embrace Jesus.

As our peace this morning,

Jesus, we come to you, we come to you as the one who is the prince of peace. And this morning, maybe Jesus, you know, gathered here today are, are those who first and foremost don’t have peace between you and God. We don’t have peace because our sin has separated us from the father. So we ask this morning, Jesus, would you make yourself known to those here this morning who do not know you as Savior rescuer?

And if that’s you, take the space just for a few minutes to talk and reach out to the one who came to be your substitute. If you do know Christ, take this moment to celebrate. The way that Jesus stood in your place and thank him for that. Now,

Lord, we confess our inability to live as peacemakers. Apart from you, you ask us to live as people of peace, build one another up, forgive, show grace. We can’t do this apart from you, Jesus, the prince of peace. And so now, Lord, we take this moment to offer the relationships in our lives. Where there is no peace, but conflict,

Lord, our vision of what you will do is clouded our ability to, to mend so weak, but Jesus, you, the prince of peace and your spirit among us, you alone can rescue pray this morning. Lord, for those relationships just came to mind for us. God, the people who we need to reach out to, might your peace allow us to have peace in our relationships?

Finally, Lord, we offer you our internal world, often the thoughts that plague our minds in the middle of the day or at the middle of the night. Lord, we know this world is in turmoil and one day for those that love you, the story culminates in a new heavens and a new earth, all things restored. And God, we long for that peace, not just a sense of it, but that you would be our anchor amidst the anxieties and fears that you ask us to cast upon you.

So, Lord, the things coming in our week, the things even in our world that cause internal strife and struggle, Lord, we offer them to you now in this time,

Lord, I thank you that you came to make peace between us and God, that you would be the prince of peace, that it was on purpose, your plan, your way. To deliver us from our world, God, this morning, as we gather to worship you, we want to surrender our hearts, knowing that you come to bring peace, make in us a home where you might live and be a peacemaker, that we could God represent you in our world as ambassadors of that peace, ministers of reconciliation in our relationships.

With our neighbors, our friends, our family. God, we ask these things in your name. Amen.