Introduction:
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.
~Isaiah 9:6
Luke 2:14 - "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"
When Jesus is My Prince of Peace:
- I am at peace with God .
Romans 5:1, 10 - Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ… For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
- I am at peace in my Heart .
John 14:27 - 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 be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Philippians 4:6-7 - 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, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
- I am at peace with Others .
Romans 16:20 - The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
Romans 12:18 - If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:20-01:23
We're going to focus our attention on one verse, verse 6.
01:25-01:29
We just heard on the video, and we're going to read it again.
01:31-01:34
It says, "For to us, a child is born.
01:35-01:37
To us, a son is given.
01:40-01:42
And the government shall be upon his shoulder.
01:45-01:47
And his name shall be called.
01:49-01:51
Wonderful Counselor.
01:53-01:54
Mighty God.
01:55-01:57
Everlasting Father.
01:59-02:00
Prince of Peace.
02:02-02:11
We've been going through each of these four names for Jesus over the past several weeks.
02:14-02:18
Tonight, very simply, we're going to focus on this last one.
02:18-02:21
purpose of peace.
02:23-02:24
Let's talk about peace.
02:27-02:37
You know, Adam and Eve's kids, the first generation born, one brother murdered the other brother.
02:37-02:38
Cain killed Abel.
02:39-02:54
And from that day, you can trace, through human history, you can go through the Bible, and you can go through the last couple thousand years of human history and trace mankind's treatment towards one another.
02:58-02:59
It's been anything but peace.
03:02-03:03
Can't we all just get along?
03:05-03:06
No.
03:08-03:13
No, apparently we cannot all get along.
03:14-03:18
You understand that man really has no concept of total peace.
03:20-03:28
Because mankind has always been at war with someone to some scale, to some degree, throughout all of history.
03:32-03:48
And then, every Christmas, we put on our good clothes, usually red, and we shuffle off to church and some guy gets up in front or maybe we have a kid read it, right Jesse?
03:48-04:20
Or Luke chapter 2, somebody reads it. And especially the part where the angels announced Jesus' birth to the shepherds and they praise God saying, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased." And we We read that verse and in church our hearts just swell and we think, "Oh, oh yes.
04:22-04:23
Peace on earth.
04:24-05:01
Peace on earth." Then on the way home, we yell at the kids, we argue with our spouse, and we turn on the news and we go, "Oh yes, peace on earth." And I just want to ask you tonight, where's the peace? Right? If that's the thing that the angels showed up to announce and that's the name that is given to Jesus, not just peace, the Prince of Peace, where's the peace?
05:03-05:04
Were the angels mistaken?
05:08-05:09
Or are we?
05:11-05:17
Maybe we need to sort of circle back and take a look at what is meant by peace.
05:20-05:31
Because peace means so much more than "the kids are finally asleep." It means so much more than I made up with the neighbors.
05:33-05:36
And it means so much more than merely the absence of war.
05:36-05:41
In the Hebrew, the word peace means fulfillment or wholeness or harmony.
05:42-06:20
Literally, the Hebrew concept of peace was imagine all of these loose ends hanging off of like a garment or a blanket, all these threads, all these strands, all these loose loose ends unraveled, hanging from a garment, and somebody comes along and takes all of these loose ends and they weave them back together into the whole. That's the Hebrew concept of peace. And as we've been studying for the past several weeks, Isaiah lived in a time of darkness. He lived in a time of political corruption.
06:20-06:21
Does that sound familiar?
06:24-06:26
He lived in a time of immorality.
06:26-06:27
Does that sound familiar?
06:29-06:31
He lived in a time of incredible fear.
06:32-06:33
Does that sound familiar?
06:34-06:35
Are we hitting a nerve yet?
06:38-06:42
In Isaiah's day, just as to our day, God sent a message.
06:44-06:46
The message was this, a baby's going to be born.
06:49-06:58
This baby that's born is going to take this unraveled mess that you see before you and he's going to weave it all back together.
06:58-07:00
He's going to put everything right.
07:01-07:06
Because this baby is going to be known as the Prince of Peace.
07:07-07:09
He's going to make it all right.
07:13-07:24
But I need to point out to you that peace isn't going to come in some automatic or passive or gradual or eventual way.
07:26-07:34
This mighty warrior God, this Prince of Peace, He's going to come, and He's going to establish peace.
07:35-07:43
You're like, "Well, what does that look like?" When I was in high school, we had this gym teacher.
07:45-07:46
His name was Mel Simanko.
07:48-07:53
"Kristen, you remember Simanko?" "Yeah, yeah." On a scale of 1 to 10, how scary was he?
07:55-07:56
Off the charts, right?
07:57-08:12
If you can imagine, like, stereotypical, like, 80s movie gym teacher, This gym teacher made those characters look like strawberry shortcake, okay?
08:12-08:14
He was scary.
08:17-08:18
And...
08:22-08:27
He would say things like, "Yeah, you know, he's got a really kind face.
08:28-08:42
The kind I'd like to punch." I think at one point, what was it Aaron? He was like, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated as like Canada's meanest man or something like that. I mean this guy was so scary.
08:44-09:11
And I had him for gym class. Well, we would get dressed and go into the into the gym before he would come in. He'd be in his office, you know, hanging out, taking a nap, I don't know, doing a cross from whatever he did in the in the in the office. But all the boys would be in the gym before he would. Now let me ask you what happens when you get a group of about 30 or 40 teenage boys in the same room? What happens?
09:14-09:35
Choir practice, right? Look, I have a 15 year old and a 14 year old. I see what happens. Left unsupervised, teenage boys, you say, don't always make the best decisions, all So, you get all these kids in the gym, and you know what we used to do?
09:35-09:41
We used to take the basketballs and play dodgeball with them, just pelting each other with the basketballs.
09:41-09:47
Then one day, I remember, somebody found the jump ropes, and we took the jump ropes out, and we hogtied this dude, okay?
09:48-09:49
Like, completely hogtied.
09:49-09:54
And we'd be jumping off the bleachers, or climbing the ropes, or all kinds of hijinks.
09:58-10:04
But then when Mr. Semenko walked in, What do you think happened?
10:06-10:11
Everybody immediately on their spot, stone quiet, it looked like a military camp.
10:14-10:15
Like, why are you telling us this story?
10:17-10:25
I just simply want to illustrate that when you're in the presence of someone powerful, that certainly establishes peace in a hurry, doesn't it?
10:27-10:31
The Bible says that Jesus Christ is going to come and reign on the earth.
10:32-10:43
So if this gym teacher was able to establish peace in a room full of rowdy teenagers, what do you think is going to happen when God Almighty is ruling over this earth?
10:43-10:46
What do you think His presence is going to do to establish peace?
10:49-10:53
When the Prince of Peace is present, there will be peace.
10:55-10:57
Tonight I want to ask you, is He present in you?
10:59-11:00
Is He present in you?
11:00-11:03
If you're taking notes, three things I want you to jot down.
11:04-11:11
When Jesus is my Prince of Peace, number one, when Jesus is my Prince of Peace, I am at peace with God.
11:13-11:14
I am at peace with God.
11:18-11:27
This may come as a shock to some of you, Do you realize mankind's natural state is not peace with God?
11:28-11:36
That's why sometimes I cringe when somebody who doesn't know the Lord refers to God as "the big man upstairs." Well, He ain't a man and He ain't upstairs, okay?
11:38-11:43
He is the holy sovereign of the universe, and He's not your buddy by nature.
11:45-11:49
In fact, the Bible says that we're enemies of God.
11:51-11:53
We're born with this sin nature.
11:53-11:57
We're born with this nature that we inherited from Adam and Eve.
11:58-12:01
It's completely self-centered and rebellious.
12:01-12:08
And we insist on bowing down to our own will instead of to the will of the One who created us.
12:11-12:16
That's our natural state as rebellion towards Holy God.
12:17-12:23
And it is here where the work of the Prince of Peace begins, to bring the peace that matters the most.
12:24-12:26
It's peace between God and man.
12:27-12:47
Romans 5, verse 1, look at this, it says, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Then verse 10 says, "For while we were enemies, We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
12:47-12:56
Much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life." We were God's enemies.
12:58-13:04
But when you receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you are no longer an enemy of God.
13:04-13:06
You are at peace with God.
13:07-13:10
I heard somebody say one time that peace always comes at a price.
13:11-13:16
and the price of this peace was the death of the Son of God.
13:17-13:19
We don't like to talk about that much tonight.
13:21-13:36
As at Christmas Eve, we like to think of little baby Jesus in the manger, but the reality is the purpose for Him coming, the reason He laid on that manger, is so He could grow up to be a man and lay down on a cross on our behalf to make peace with God.
13:37-13:38
That's why He came.
13:39-13:40
That's why He's the Prince of Peace.
13:41-13:46
So believing in Jesus, receiving Him means we're no longer enemies with God.
13:46-13:48
God's no longer mad at you.
13:52-13:53
How can that be?
13:55-13:59
When Jesus Christ was on the cross, He took your sin on Himself.
14:01-14:07
And while Jesus was on the cross, God poured His wrath out on Jesus.
14:08-14:11
The wrath for your sin, Jesus took it.
14:13-14:23
Every wrong thing you've ever said, done, every horrible attitude, nasty thought you've ever had, every sin you've ever committed was laid on Jesus.
14:23-14:28
And God punished Jesus the way that I deserve.
14:32-14:37
So if you're a believer in Christ, you never have to worry about the wrath of God.
14:38-14:41
Because you see, Jesus experienced it for you.
14:42-14:46
The Bible says God is satisfied with the payment that Jesus made.
14:48-15:04
But I know some people, even Christians, that think, you know, someday when I stand before God, God's going to be mad at me, and I've got a lot to answer for, and I've got a lot of explaining to do, God's really going to scold me?" Not if you're a believer in Jesus Christ.
15:05-15:14
Because you see, God's not going to punish Jesus for your sin, and then turn around and look at you and say, "Well, I'm still mad about it, so I'm going to punish you too." No.
15:16-15:20
Jesus Christ brought perfect peace between God and man.
15:20-15:32
God, when He sees you, He looks at you through the lens of His Son, It says, "The payment's been made." That's how I'm at peace with God.
15:34-15:38
When Jesus is my Prince of Peace, number two, I'm at peace in my heart.
15:41-15:45
Because we have peace with God, we can have peace in our hearts.
15:49-15:52
It's just too easy to not feel peace right now. Right?
15:53-16:00
We got COVID. We got all this talk about the safety of the vaccine.
16:01-16:09
We got the economy. We got government lockdowns. We got family. We got all of these issues.
16:12-16:14
It's real easy not to feel the peace.
16:17-16:22
But I need to remind us that peace doesn't mean that life is easy.
16:22-16:34
"I heard what he was saying about peace, but my life is a wreck." Peace doesn't mean your life is easy.
16:36-16:42
You're like, "Well, what does it mean?" Peace means I have the calm assurance that God is in control.
16:45-16:50
I have the assurance that God not only is in control, but He's doing what is best.
16:52-16:53
Do you believe that?
16:56-17:01
No matter how things look, God can be trusted.
17:04-17:07
You're like, "Well, how can I have peace at a time like this?
17:08-17:11
I hear what you're saying, but I'm going to be honest with you.
17:11-17:14
I still lie awake a lot at night.
17:14-17:16
I'm still worried about a lot of things.
17:16-17:20
How can I have this peace?" Well, here's the thing.
17:22-17:23
Peace is given.
17:24-17:26
You have to receive peace.
17:27-17:34
Jesus said in John 14.27, "Peace I leave with you." Look at this, "My peace I give to you.
17:34-17:36
Not as the world gives do I give to you.
17:36-17:42
Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." Peace can't be achieved.
17:44-17:46
You can't muster up peace.
17:47-17:49
You can't create peace in your heart.
17:49-17:57
You can't wake up some morning and say, "You know what, today I decided I'm going to be at peace." It has to be something that you receive.
18:00-18:05
You can't make it happen, but you can block it from happening.
18:08-18:11
You can refuse to receive peace.
18:12-18:12
Like how?
18:14-18:16
in some ways, unrepentant sin.
18:17-18:22
If you're living a sinful lifestyle, you're not going to feel peace because God's trying to get your attention.
18:25-18:25
Unforgiveness.
18:26-18:30
If you have hard feelings towards someone and you know the Lord is like, "Hey, make it right.
18:31-18:32
Make that phone call.
18:32-18:33
Send that message.
18:33-18:36
Make it right." And I'm not doing it. I refuse.
18:36-18:43
If you're carrying around that unforgiveness, you're blocking the peace that Jesus Christ wants to give you.
18:46-18:48
You can block peace by choosing to worry.
18:50-18:55
Instead of saying, "I'm going to fix my mind on what God said," you're going to fix your mind on what CNN said.
18:58-18:58
You're choosing to worry.
19:01-19:09
And one of the biggest ways, according to God, that we can block peace, that we can refuse to receive peace, is prayerlessness.
19:11-19:12
What are we doing there?
19:14-19:26
Philippians 4 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." Look at this next statement.
19:27-19:38
"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." How's your prayer life right now?
19:41-19:41
Let's do a little exercise.
19:43-19:45
We're not gonna check your papers when you leave, by the way.
19:46-19:47
But just write it down.
19:47-19:50
Your prayer life, on a scale of one to ten, how are we doing?
19:50-19:55
One is, "I don't pray at all." And ten is, "I pray without ceasing." Give yourself a number.
19:56-19:57
How are you doing in your prayer life?
20:00-20:04
And then below that, I want you to write your level of peace.
20:06-20:14
One is, "I am a nervous wreck all the time." That's ten, as I am calm.
20:15-20:16
Cool as a cucumber, Daddy.
20:18-20:19
That's ten.
20:21-20:23
What's the correlation between the numbers?
20:24-20:32
According to God, and I've experienced this personally, the more you pray, the more peace you have.
20:35-20:45
Or to state it in the negative, Maybe you aren't experiencing peace right now because you won't come into the presence of the Prince of Peace.
20:46-20:47
Maybe that's your problem.
20:49-20:52
But this peace of God surpasses all understanding.
20:55-21:05
You know you have the peace of God when the whole world is crashing around you and your response is, "Everything's going to be okay.
21:06-21:07
God's got this.
21:09-21:10
It just doesn't make any sense.
21:11-21:16
The Bible says the peace of God surpasses all understanding.
21:16-21:19
And you're like, "Jeff, can you explain that to me?" No!
21:19-21:23
I can't explain that to anyone because it passes understanding.
21:24-21:33
All I can tell you is this, when you know Jesus Christ and you're spending that time commuting with Him in prayer, and trusting His Word.
21:33-21:38
When you do that, you know exactly what I'm talking about right now.
21:41-21:44
You get it, or you don't.
21:45-21:50
But when you do, you realize Jesus Christ isn't just the Prince of Peace.
21:50-22:08
You say, "He's my Prince of Peace. He's the reason I keep going." And finally for tonight, when Jesus is my Prince of Peace, not only am I at peace with God, and I'm at peace in my heart, number three, I'm at peace with others.
22:12-22:13
I'm at peace with others.
22:15-22:18
We've been spending so much time on Isaiah 9.6.
22:18-22:19
I want to look at the next verse for a second.
22:20-22:29
It says, verse 7, "Of the increase of His government and of peace, There will be no end.
22:31-22:33
Can you just let that marinate for a second?
22:35-22:39
How big and awesome and specifically here, peaceful.
22:39-22:43
How peaceful is His government going to be when He's ruling over the earth?
22:44-22:45
How peaceful is that going to be?
22:46-22:48
He says you can't put a cap on it.
22:49-22:50
There's no end to it.
22:51-22:51
It's eternal.
22:54-23:12
He says, "On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness, from this time forth and forevermore." The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
23:14-23:16
This verse is obviously looking forward to His return.
23:19-23:24
After the tribulation, Jesus will reign on the earth for a thousand years.
23:24-23:26
Revelation 20 talks about that.
23:27-23:30
And this verse describes what His reign is going to be like.
23:31-23:33
It's going to be permanent, and it's going to be perfect.
23:33-23:38
It's going to be total righteousness and justice.
23:40-23:44
I've got to tell you, the day is coming.
23:46-23:47
Today's coming.
23:50-23:58
I don't know if Jesus is sitting on that white horse yet, but there are days that I think I can hear Him opening the barn door to go in and get it.
24:00-24:00
Because it's coming, people.
24:01-24:02
It's coming.
24:02-24:04
It's coming soon.
24:07-24:08
What's coming soon?
24:08-24:17
Well, when Jesus Christ reigns on the earth, Do you realize injustice is going to be a thing of the past?
24:19-24:28
Do you realize during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, people are going to be talking about injustice the way we talk about Y2K?
24:29-24:31
Do you remember Y2K? Do you remember Y2K?
24:31-24:36
Everyone else, "Do you remember Y2K?" We're like, "Oh yeah, that was crazy." We're all scared like the computers were going to, whatever.
24:39-24:42
millennial reign is going to be like.
24:42-25:06
People are going to be sitting around going, "Do you remember back in the day when people would just sin and hurt people and get away with it? Do you remember that?" And people are going to be like, "Yeah, man, that was crazy, wasn't it?" And like, "Whew, I'm glad that stopped happening forever and will never start up again." Two, the day's coming. It's coming.
25:09-25:11
It's going to be awesome, isn't it?
25:12-25:14
Like what about until then?
25:15-25:16
What about until that day?
25:18-25:31
Well, Romans 12.18 says, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." So perhaps not yet can you be a part of world peace, but today you can have peace in your world.
25:33-25:43
I want to commend this to you, an area where the Lord is still teaching me, as far as it depends on you be at peace with those you encounter.
25:46-25:49
Church, we are in such a volatile situation right now.
25:50-25:55
People are ready to jump at each other's throats for all kinds of reasons.
25:56-26:02
And it's easy for me to feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
26:02-26:08
"Oh, you want to fight?" That's not what God's called us to.
26:10-26:18
As much as it's up to me, and as much as it's up to you, live peaceably with all.
26:20-26:25
You see, we have the privilege in His church to live out the peace that's coming.
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We have this awesome opportunity as a church to show the world, When you come in here, you're going to get a preview.
26:34-26:35
You're going to get a sampler.
26:35-26:44
This is like the teaser trailer of what glory is going to be like, the way that we interact and love and live at peace with one another.
26:47-26:56
We can show the world, "Hey, this is what it's like to have a wonderful counselor guiding and instructing us perfectly.
26:56-27:01
Hey, look, this is what it's like to have a mighty God who fights all our battles for us.
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This is what it's like to have an everlasting Father who's always with us.
27:06-27:16
And look, this is what it's like to have the Prince of Peace who provides harmony by His very presence.
27:20-27:21
Peace on earth, huh?
27:25-27:26
There's more fighting right now than ever.
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It just seems like more and more people are divided into camps, right?
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And these camps are all at war.
27:38-27:40
The Democrats versus the Republicans.
27:41-27:44
The mask wearers versus the no-mask wearers.
27:45-27:49
Racial tensions. I could go on and on and on.
27:52-27:57
The peace out there, it's coming. It's coming.
28:01-28:08
But as people who bow to the Prince of Peace, we have peace with God.
28:10-28:11
And we have peace in here.
28:14-28:18
Therefore, we're going to have peace in here. Amen?
28:19-28:20
Bow your heads and pray with me, please.
28:21-28:28
Our Father in Heaven is such a hard concept to grasp right now.
28:30-28:37
This whole idea of peace, because it just seems like there's a powder keg everywhere.
28:40-28:42
People are literally burning cities to the ground.
28:44-28:49
People are literally murdering people in the streets over nothing!
28:53-28:55
Nations against nations.
28:59-29:02
And even so much in America right now, a nation against itself.
29:05-29:21
You've provided something better for your people, God, so I pray That is, we are a people who embrace the peace that You brought us with Yourself through Jesus Christ, as we're a people who live according to the peace that passes understanding that guards our hearts.
29:21-29:29
As we're a people that live at peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and live peaceably with those outside the church.
29:32-29:41
Now more than ever, Father, we need to show people what this concept of peace is all about.
29:43-30:02
By Your grace, Father, in Your power, by the guidance of Your Spirit and Word, Father, let this church be the preview of glory as we bow our knees to the Prince of Peace.
30:04-30:08
In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, we pray. Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Isaiah 9:6
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Give a Biblical definition of peace. What does the Bible mean when God speaks of peace?
Explain how the peace Jesus gives is different from the peace the world gives (John 14:27).
Tell of a time you experienced the “peace that passes understanding” during a personal crisis (Philippians 4:6-7). How would you encourage another believer to experience this during their crisis?
Breakout
Pray for one another.