What is Peace?

As we continue our series on / / Advent, It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! I want you to not leave behind what we looked at last week, but carry it with you through these next few weeks still. Advent is both an anticipation toward the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, his incarnation, or God become human, 2000 years ago, but also, we are looking forward to the revealing of Jesus Christ the King of all the universe in what we call the Second Coming, which Jesus promised while he was on this earth.

So, last week we looked at hope, but we want to continue to carry that through these weeks as we continue to ask, "Do we truly understand what it is? Are we seeking God for it?”

I mentioned last week that the four things we look at through the 4 weeks of advent are / / Hope, Peace, Joy & Love, and in each of those we can put “Jesus is” in front of it to see one of the reasons that He came to earth in the first place.

/ / Jesus IS our hope. But we have to ask, what does that mean?

I think sometimes, even as Christians, we look at words like this, Hope, Peace, Joy & Love, and we can easily take a very worldly approach to them and fall into this trap of looking inward to find it.

There are four approaches to finding these things in our lives and there is only one that is going to provide what we are truly seeking for in this life.

/ / Objects

Objects, things, addictions, cravings, pleasures. We look to someTHING to provide a sense of peace, joy, hope, love…whatever it is in the moment we need. This is why addiction is such a strong and terrible problem in our world, because we get locked in to trying to meet a need through substance that will never be met by that. And trust me, the cycle of binge to shame, back to binge with a heaping of more shame is just absolutely devastating to the body, mind and heart.

But it’s not just for what we might classify as an addiction, or what we might think of someone as an addict. There are many levels of this. For some, the need for what we are looking for is not as strong as for others, and they don’t feel the need to go to such great lengths to meet that need. Everybody’s journey is completely different. We have different needs at different times. Depending on what we are going through we may need more peace, or more hope, more joy or more love in a particular moment. And we most definitely need all of these things all the time, but if you understand what I’m saying, what we go through in life sort of dictates what we need in the moment.

During a very busy and very hectic time where anxiety may be high and pressure and demand on us is higher than normal, joy would be good, but a sense of peace is going to bring much more of what we need. Love is wonderful, but right now, I need peace...

So, it might not the first thing we run to, but definitely people turn to things, substance, or expressions, maybe it’s spending more time at work, or escapism of some sort to try and build a sense of these things we need in our lives.

/ / People

The second thing we look to in trying to get these things met, which are really core needs - we look to the people in our lives.

I’ve said this before, it is 100% true. In my relationship with Kelley we both had to learn that we were not the source of these things for each other. As soon as I look to you as the source of love I need to be ok in my life, I have both set you up for a big failure and I’ve set myself up for a big disappointment. / / Your capacity to love can not fill the love shaped hole in someones life. Not 100%. Are you meant to be a part of the equation, most definitely. For me, Kelley is the best part this side of humanity, but not the whole part or even the most important part.

The same is true of our peace, our joy, our hope. Think of the things we hear people say...

“You used to make me happy...”

“You used to calm me down, now you just stress me out.”

“Being with you used to inspire me, now I just feel like we’re in a rut and I’m not sure this is working out anymore...”

When we look to our relationships to meet core needs in our lives we are eventually going to tap that relationship to the breaking point. No person, place or thing will ever meet the needs you have in your heart.

/ / Ourselves

This one makes less and less sense to me, and I think there’s a fine line to it, but some would suggest you have to just become so comfortable with who you are that you find these inner things within yourself. And I think there’s some really healthy aspects to knowing who you are and what you need and how you react to things.

But, think of how the world looks to find peace. Remove it all, clear your mind, remove distraction. And although there is some truth in that, you can’t find true peace within yourself. You might empty your mind of thoughts for a bit, but it won’t bring lasting peace, you’ll always start at the bottom trying to obtain something.

I’ve seen this in my struggle with recovery, the constant back and forth of falling into the mindset of will-power vs. finding peace and courage in God to overcome. I think our default setting as humans is to try and figure all the things out on our own. We don’t want to rely on anyone. We want to be self sufficient and self reliant.

And the world’s viewpoint of finding these things, again looking for peace, making a habit of meditation and taking breaks from social media, practicing breathing and mindfulness, taking a walk in nature, finding ways to express yourself, none of those things in of themselves are bad. And we don’t have to run away from those things. But, I think this is a pendulum swing sometimes. The world tries to do it all without God, and the Christians are trying to not do it at all because they just think God will do it, when where we are supposed to live is in the last place we are to look to find these things.

/ / God

True Hope, Peace, Joy & Love, these core things we need in our lives come from God. But not always in a way that is just, “I sit back and do nothing and God does it all.”

I find, when I sit back and do nothing, and just wait for God to do it, I feel like I’m lacking something. I know God loves me, but something is missing. I don’t feel overwhelmed, but something is missing. I’m happy, but I know there’s a sense of Joy I’m missing here.

That is because God leads us into these things for a purpose, and that purpose is more than just us experiencing these things for us.

This past week as I was thinking about Hope, I realized that at least for me, I would look to the completed scenario as the place of hope. I would look to the thing I was waiting for to be the source of hope. Even though I was confidently hoping in God for the outcome, I was hoping in God to complete the thing. And I realize / / hope ultimately isn’t in the accomplished work of the moment, but it’s the accomplished work for eternity. God is my source of hope, regardless of whether the thing in my life is removed or completely or not.

This is why the ultimate expression of hope is what we read in Titus 2:11-13 last week, a bit of a recap, / / For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people…waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.

We have received salvation by grace through faith, yet we have this hope. It’s not a hope that all things in this life will turn out, it’s a hope that regardless of whether all things in this life turn out, we know the end result is us in Christ for all eternity.

But I realized that in my humanity, if I am hoping for an outcome in the here and now, and I don’t receive that outcome, I can end up feeling weakened by that. And I realized, when we talk about hope, we have to remember what we truly mean.

/ / Hope by definition is a confident expectation in a positive outcome.

But, if I am hoping for change in my life, and that change never comes, will that effect my sense of hope? It will if that’s where I’ve placed my hope.

Proverbs 13:12 says, / / Hope deferred makes the heart sick.

And / / if I place my hope in the outcome of my temporal life rather than in the eternal salvation of Jesus Christ, then I run the very real risk of my heart becoming sick.

This is why we see people say, “But why didn’t God do this?”

Again, I’m reminded of Bill Johnson’s message after his wife passed this last summer. And this isn’t a direct quote, I didn’t look it up again, but he basically said this… The heart of the atheist will always ask “why?”, but it is not ours to know why. Yes, God wants to be our friend, and He is our Father, but He is still God and I don’t get to demand an answer from the Almighty God like he’s some sort of genie waiting to make my every wish come true.

God is God, He is sovereign and He is mighty, and although I don’t understand all the ins and outs of why things happen on this earth. Why I struggle with addiction to food, why we lose loved ones to cancer, why we suffer loss, brokenness, financial difficulty. I was talking to my brother who was over in Ft Myers, and he was in Best Buy, the sales associate helping him lost everything in Hurricane Ian. He still can’t go home because they had to completely clear it out, cut out half the drywall and rebuild… And of course, something in me wants to ask, “Why?” But there are things in this world I won’t have answers to. So the question is, does that ruin or damage, or steal my hope?

Not if my hope is not in an outcome I can see, but in an outcome I can’t see!

This is why Paul says in Philippians 4:11-13, / / …I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Notice the focus, it is not I will receive everything through Christ. Not, when I have little, I know God will give me abundance, but when I have little, I’m STILL OK, because I can live with nothing through Christ, or I can live with everything through Christ. Why? Because it is CHRIST who is my everything, not what I have in my hands.

This changed my perspective on Hope this past week. This is why I encourage you on a weekly basis, don’t just take what we’re saying here and stop, but reflect and bring God into the conversation in your heart and life. Wrestle with the word, work through the revelation God is giving YOU. He is a personal God that wants to bring these things directly to you.

And so our source, the true source of these things is God. This is why I said earlier, we can say of these things. / / Jesus is our Hope. Jesus is our Peace. Jesus is our Joy, Jesus is the very love of God expressed to us.

And I think this might be the greatest part. God doesn’t just give us these things for us, but he gives us these things with a purpose.

And so the rest of the things we just looked at, although we don’t get these core needs met through them, objects or substance, the people around us, or internal searching, BUT, when we have our core needs met in God first, then all of these external things enhance, or add to the experience we have in Christ. When we are in Christ, and loving like He does, filled with His Joy and Peace and Hope, then we begin to be a beacon of those things in each others lives.

Peter writes in his first letter in 1 Peter 4:8, / / Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.

He’s making a connection here that our love for each other can have an impact in our lives of following Jesus, in our pursuit of living a holy and righteous life before God. And it’s true, community is central to living a life of following Jesus in fullness. Why do you think going to meetings is still and will forever be a central and core part of people’s recovery from addictions? Because community encourages us in these things. Although the message is it is only in the power of God that you can be free, the community becomes an integral part of the outworking of that .

Think of it this way. If you take a lit match, and put it next to one that isn’t lit, or maybe was lit, but has gone out, what happens? It lights the other match. And if you keep those matches together, what happens? The flame gets bigger.

We often read from 1 John 4, because it is just full of encouragement about God’s love and our love for each other. vs 18 is, / / Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. That’s a favorite of mine, for sure.

But listen to what it says about our love for each other once we’ve encountered the love of God. So, remember, these core needs we find in God that we’re talking about through advent, but then how does that translate into community?

1 John 4:11-12, / / Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

That might be the greatest verse advocating for healthy community in the bible. That the love of God HAS to be expressed in community for it to come to full expression in us.

The ESV and other translations say it this way, …if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Now, watch this, I just find this absolutely wild.

First we see this verse, that it is only in our community of living in and expressing our love for each other that God prefects that love in us. …his love is perfected in us. That word perfected is teleioo, which means to complete, or accomplish, to finish, or bring to an end, to make perfect. Basically saying, All of what you do in love, comes to an end or to completeness, not when you find God’s love for your life, but when you find God’s love for your life and turn around and love each other in the same way!

That’s Jesus command to his disciples, isn’t it? Jesus says to his disciples in John 13:34, / / “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

Just as God has loved us. That means we have to know how God loves us by being loved by Him. And then, we love each other in the same way.

But here’s the crazy connection, when we jump down to vs 18, which is one of the best verses in the bible, we have to read this in the context of the whole message. John writes in vs 17-21, / / By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in the world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

The perfect love that casts out fear is not solely the love of God, but it is the love that is perfected in us by way of us receiving God’s love AND THEN loving those around us with that same kind of love.

You can’t pull the two apart. It’s all the same conversation.

Same word throughout each of those scriptures.

We saw in / / vs 12, …if we love one another…his love is perfected in us… teleioo

/ / vs 17 - By this is love perfected in us… teleioo

/ / vs 18 - There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear… teleios

teleioo is the perfecting of love, the act of it being perfected. teleios is that love which has been perfected.

teleioo - we are accomplishing and completing, making perfect...

teleios - the thing in which has been accomplished, completed, made perfect.

Same word.

The work that God does in us through our following of his instruction to love each other AS HE has loved us, is part of love being fulfilled, perfected in us that first, as Peter says, helps us maintain a life of holiness and righteousness, and as John says, drives out fear and is brought to completion in us.

All of that to say, these things start in God, but don’t stop there, we become a conduit, or an expression of these things for those around us as we continue to grow and develop healthy community.

So, continuing on this week we are looking at / / Peace.

We read part of the story of Mary last week, she has Gabriel the angel come to her and tell her she’s going to have a baby, but not by human means, but by God’s Spirit overshadowing her and placing this life inside of her.

She goes to her cousin Elizabeth who is also pregnant. But with Elizabeth, although through normal human pregnancy, it is also a miracle, because she is past the age of child bearing and has been barren her whole life. She has had no children. The bible doesn’t tell us her exact age, but Luke 1:7 says of Elizabeth and Zechariah, / / They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and they were both very old.

And I can’t speak to it’s credibility, but there is a non-biblical text that follows the life of John the Baptist that says Zechariah was 99 and Elizabeth 88 when she gave birth.

Either way, well advanced in years, and unable to have children, yet, here she is, pregnant.

Now, the story of Zechariah is amazing. He’s a priest serving in the Temple, and Luke says that an angel of the Lord appears to him while he’s in the sanctuary of the temple by himself. The angel, we will find out is Gabriel, the same angel that goes to Mary, and he says that Elizabeth is going to have a baby and this baby is going to be the prophet who comes before the Messiah, preparing his way as the prophets of old had written. And he specifically tells him that he has to call his son’s name, John.

Zechariah, so full of faith, says, “Not gonna happen, I’m old and so is my wife. How am I supposed to believe this?”

And as a sign to Zechariah, and maybe a bit of a slap on the wrist, Gabriel says that he won’t be able to speak until the baby is born. He comes out of the temple, all the other priests are standing there saying, “What happened? Why did you take so long?” and he can’t speak.

He goes home, sure enough Elizabeth gets pregnant, and then all of what we read last week happened in her 6th - 9th month of pregnancy and we are going to pick up the story at the birth of John the Baptist and the opening again of his father’s mouth.

Luke 1:57-80, / / When it was time for Elizabeth’s baby to be born, she gave birth to a son. And when her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had been very merciful to her, everyone rejoiced with her.

When the baby was eight days old, they all came for the circumcision ceremony. They wanted to name him Zechariah, after his father...

Remember, Gabriel told Zechariah that the boy must be called John, so here’s a moment of redemption. Where Zechariah’s previous unbelief landed him unable to talk for the last 9 months...

/ / But Elizabeth said, “No! His name is John!”

“What?” they explained. “There is no one in all your family by that name.” So they used gestures to ask the baby’s father what he wanted to name him. He motioned for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is John.” Instantly Zechariah could speak again, and he began praising God.

Awe fell upon the whole neighborhood, and the news of what had happened spread throughout the Judean hills. Everyone who heard about it reflected on these events and asked, “What will this child turn out to be?” For the hand of the Lord was surely upon him in a special way.

And here we get to a portion of scripture called Zechariah’s prophecy, where he reflects on what God has done, but is really speaking to the call that John has on his life to be the one who prepares the way of Jesus as the Messiah. And we’re starting here this morning because of what Zechariah prophecies that connects what was spoken of Jesus by the Old Testament prophets to this moment of John’s birth who will prepare the way.

/ / Then his father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and gave this prophecy:

“Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited and redeemed his people.

He has sent us a might Savior from the royal line of his servant David,

just as he promised through his holy prophets long ago.

Now we will be saved from our enemies and from all who hate us.

He has been merciful to our ancestors by remembering his sacred covenant -

the covenant he swore with an oath to our ancestor Abraham.

We have been rescued from our enemies so we can serve God without fear,

in holiness and righteousness for as long as we live.

“And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord.

You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins.

Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us,

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.”

John grew up and became strong in spirit. And he lived in the wilderness until he began his public ministry to Israel.

They make that leap from John being born straight to his public ministry. I wonder how many times Zechariah spoke this over him? Speaking into the destiny of his son. I think there is so much to be said about what we say to our children about who they are. Don’t wait for them to figure it out on their own. Speak into their destiny. Speak into what God has said to you that they are meant to be.

That doesn’t mean forcing them to be something you want, it means to speak life into them, to call them into something. You don’t have to have a concrete word like, “Your son will be the prophet of the Messiah, make sure you tell him that.”

But I’ll never forget when Kaylee was born a good friend of ours, who is an incredibly accurate prophetic voice said of her, She will be the perfect mix of the two of you, full of wisdom and creativity. Make sure she comes and interns with me when she’s old enough.

Do you know how many times we’ve prayed that and spoke that over Kaylee’s life? That God has gifted her. That she has talent and she’s smart.

Listen, the world is going to tell our kids all kinds of hurtful, hateful and misguided things. We have to be a consistent voice of God’s truth into their hearts. Your children need you to tell them who God created them to be. And if it simply starts with what you know to be true, You are loved. You are precious. You are courageous. God is for you, not against you. God has good plans for you.

So, Zechariah does this. You, my son, this is who you are and this is who you will be and this is what you will do, all for the glory of God...

And finishes this prophecy with what? / / “…to guide us to the path of peace.”

And that’s the connection point I want to bring this morning.

I want to look at another prophecy, but this one is a bit older, by a man named Isaiah, who lived roughly 700 years before Jesus was born. And he writes this prophecy about the coming Messiah. 700 years is a long time! But listen to this prophecy from Isaiah 9:2-7 and hear how it connects to what Zechariah has been praying over his son, John and speaking of the coming Messiah.

/ / The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.

For those who life in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.

You will enlarge the nation of Israel, and its people will rejoice.

They will rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest and like warriors dividing the plunder.

For you will break the yoke of their slavery and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders.

You will break the oppressor’s rod, just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian.

The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned.

They will be fuel for the fire.

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us.

The government will rest on his shoulders.

And he will be called:

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

His government and its peace will never end.

He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity.

The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen.

So, first we see that connection between what Zechariah is saying is NOW happening and what Isaiah has said WILL happen sometime in the future.

Isaiah is saying, the people who walk in darkness / / ...WILL see a great light. the people WILL rejoice. You WILL break the yoke of slavery. You WILL break the oppressor’s rod. Why? / / Because a child will be born...

Then Zechariah, knowing that the miracle of John’s birth and the miracle in Mary’s belly are the confirmation that the time has come, so he speaks from a, THIS IS HAPPENING point of view...

/ / Praise the Lord, he HAS visited and redeemed his people.

He HAS sent us a mighty Savior.

NOW we will be saved.

We HAVE been rescued.

He’s like, John is here, Jesus is here....this is happening!!!!!

And then the second connection I want you to see this morning is in this idea of Peace.

Zechariah finishes his prophecy, now speaking over his son, John, he says, “Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.”

And when we look back at what Isaiah prophecies that this Messiah will be, he mentions peace a couple times and each time is significant.

/ / 1. His NAME is Peace

Isaiah 9:6 says that this savior will be called, / / Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

This would be what we call an / / Epithet. When someone is given a title that explains or defines the way that particular person rules or governs, or it’s a quality of something that they did. Think of names like Catherine the Great. Richard the Lion-Heart. Abraham Lincoln was called the Great Emancipator. It can be used the other ways as well, Ivan the Terrible. Vlad the Impaler, who was given his name literally because he was impaling people after he would take them captive.

And we see this in scripture a lot, actually. Every time you read “Jesus Christ” you are reading an epithet. / / Jesus is his name, Christ is who He is. Christ, or the greek word Christos means the anointed one, the Messiah.

/ / Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Christ / the anointed one. Jesus, the Messiah. it is who he is.

But, when we read Isaiah 9, we get all these other wonderful names that define who this child that is to be born, who is Jesus - they tell us about who He is and what He has done and will do in our lives.

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

And I like how these names, these epithets really define God in the trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, because you can read those and maybe think, some of those don’t sound right. Do we call Jesus the Everlasting Father? What about Wonderful Counselor? Jesus himself said that he would ask the Father to send us the Holy Spirit, who he called the Helper, or the greek word / / parakletos, which means a comforter, or someone who consoles someone, an advocate.

Some translations actually translate John 14:26 as, / / …the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name...

The Amplified version of the bible says, / / But the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor - Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit...

So, we should read that list in Isaiah 9 and truly ask, Is that all speaking of Jesus?

And my answer to that question is, Yes, most definitely.

Because it is speaking to the experience we will have when we come face to face with this baby Isaiah is saying is going to be born to us - Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

Speaking of the Holy Spirit in John 14, where we just read that he is called the counselor, Jesus says in vs 17, / / He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.

Jesus is identifying the Holy Spirit IN HIM. He’s saying that when the Spirit comes it’s going to feel familiar because they’ve already experience the Spirit THROUGH the life of Jesus Christ.

And an even greater expression of this connection we’re seeing between the names used in Isaiah 9 and who Jesus represents on earth is this term Everlasting Father. Same chapter, John 14, Jesus has just said that he’s the way, the truth and the life, and no one can come to the Father except through him. Philip, one of the twelve disciples says, / / “…show us the Father, and we will be satisfied...” And Jesus responds by saying this.

/ / “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me HAS seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but the Father who lives in me does his work through me.”

This is an echo of something he had said previously in John 10:30 where he flat out says, / / “The Father and I are one.”

So, you see, these names not only speak of Jesus, but the fact that Jesus represents the Godhead entirely.

Hebrews 1:3 says, / / The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God...

The ESV says, / / And he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.

or the NASB says, ...the exact representation of His nature.

/ / If you want to know what God is like, look at the life, the character and the works of Jesus Christ, and you have seen God in all His expressed forms.

Now we get to / / Prince of Peace.

First, the word Peace, it’s the Hebrew word shalom and speaks of much more than just what we would think in the word peace, that we would define as there being no conflict. / / Peace is defined as freedom from disturbance; tranquility, or a state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended.

/ / Shalom on the other hand ranges over several spheres and in a Biblical sense is most commonly used to refer to a state of affairs, one of well being, tranquility, prosperity, and security, circumstances unblemished by any sort of defect. / / Shalom is a blessing, a manifestation of divine grace. Something we can not come up with on our own but something we must receive from God.

And this is the word that is used to define how Jesus will lead us. He is the Prince of Peace, the Prince who brings shalom.

So, when you read that, what I want you to hear this morning is.

/ / Where Jesus goes, there is peace / shalom.

Where Jesus rules, there is peace / shalom.

/ / Where Jesus is invited, peace / shalom follow him into that time and space.

This is a characteristic of who He is. It is inseparable. It’s how he rules and what happens when he arrives. He is the Prince of Peace. He is the Ruler who brings his peace to the lives of the people he rules.

This brings in the idea of our giving of our lives to Him as well, right? If I want the shalom of Christ, I must place myself under the rule of the Prince of Peace.

I can’t expect to live how I want, do what I want, that may be contrary to the ways of Jesus and expect to experience his peace. But, the closer I am to Jesus, the more I will experience His peace.

This is why we go to certain places, hang out with certain people, do certain things, right? Because they aid in our experience of certain feelings. A sunset, a beach, a coffee with a friend that leaves you feeling encouraged, a bike ride or walk that brings you energy. We do certain things to obtain certain results.

/ / In the wake of Jesus Christ is the Peace he embodies, and the closer I am to him the more I experience that peace!

/ / 2. His peace will never end.

The second part I want to look at this morning is that Isaiah says this of the baby that will be born to us, His government and its peace will never end.

The ESV says it this way, / / Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.

The word increase there means both the act of increasing, but also abundance. So, we can read into it this, / / The government of Jesus Christ, who is the Prince of Peace, is ever increasing and ever expanding in its abundance.

And this is the very nature of God’s Kingdom. He doesn’t take control of us. He doesn’t force us to follow him. He is consistently inviting us to follow him and be changed by his love as we allow him to love us.

That means two things. First, the expansion of Jesus’ government, his kingdom of peace, is ongoing, or increasing / / every time someone says “yes” to the free gift of salvation and relationship with him.

And second, that the more I give my life to Him, the more areas of my life I submit to his authority and obedience, the more I will experience the rule and reign of His peace in my life. So, / / Jesus’ Kingdom increases in my life the more I submit to his authority and obedience. Paul says in Romans 6:16, / / Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.

And I personally have experienced in my life that this is a sliding scale. I can be more free in some areas of my life than others. I can continue, unfortunately, to be a slave to the sin I have yet to remove from my life, while also enjoying the freedom I have received in Christ. Yes, it’s possible. You can be 100% saved, set free by Jesus Christ, yet struggle in areas of your life. You encounter people like that everyday of your life. Have you met a perfect person? No, of course not. Why? Paul says in Philippians 2:12, / / Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

The closer I follow Jesus the more I will experience the rule and reign of the Prince of Peace in my life.

The more I find in my life that I need to submit to His authority, the more peace I will experience.

That is the ever increasing, ever expanding government and peace of God. That every person who decides, Yes, I want to follow Jesus, instantly steps under that authority and into that shalom, and in our lives as we continue to understand the areas that we need to, as Jesus says in Matthew 16, deny ourselves, take up our cross, and then follow him… Every denial I make to do my own thing matched with the commitment to follow His will, leads me into more of an experience of His peace.

Oh that Jesus would win our whole hearts!

The peace of God, just like his never ending kingdom, could be a never ending sermon. There is such a depth of His goodness here to dive into. I want to encourage you again, as we did last week, take time this coming week to meditate and think on and ask God for His peace in your life, and allow him to search your heart and show you where you are actively denying His peace by choosing your own way, and that maybe just maybe He is pointing these things out so you can deny your self, take up your cross and follow him into the ever expanding ever increasing abundance of His peace as you submit to the rule and reign of the Prince of Peace in your life.

I want to pray for you this morning. Because just like we saw last week, Hope isn’t always easy. Peace isn’t always easy. And if you don’t feel peace, it may be because of some simple reasons. Maybe God is inviting you to turn from the way you are going because it is not producing peace. Whether that is because of our own decisions, or because the enemy is at work trying to steal your peace, the solution is the same - God is inviting you to turn toward him to follow Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to be covered by His Kingdom.

1 Corinthians 14:33 says this, / / For God is not a God of disorder [ESV confusion] but of peace.

And Paul also says in Romans 16:19-20, / /I want you to be wise in doing right and to stay innocent of any wrong. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

Again a connection in being led out of what would steal the peace of God from our lives, to following him into the covering of peace, and the protection that his kingdom brings us.

So, I want to pray for you this morning and I want you to hear again the words of Zechariah, not the words of Isaiah.

Isaiah was prophesying that these things WOULD happen. Zechariah was rightfully seeing that the time is NOW.

We’ve talked about John 14-17 being the closing statements of Jesus between the last supper and his arrest in the garden of Gethsemane, and in the middle of this, he says to his disciples that he’s been sharing all of these things with. He says in John 16:33, / / “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

He doesn’t say, because he WILL overcome, but that he already has overcome.

Regardless of the trial and the sorrow we may experience, we can find peace in God because he has already set up his Kingdom, we are not waiting. I said last week, Even though we are celebrating Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, we have to remember that happened 2000 years ago - we are not waiting for our Messiah to come, He already has. He has already established his kingdom, He has already overcome.

And so I want to pray what Zechariah prophesied. If you are lacking peace in your life. If you are restless, unsure, unconfident in what is going on, either in you, or immediately around you, or in the world around you, I am asking for the shalom of the Prince of Peace to overtake you and bring you to a place of confidence in His rule and reign in your life. And if that means that there are things that He points out to you that need to change, things that are taking the place of His peace, then I pray for the courage to face those things head on.

Paul prayed in 2 Thessalonians 3:16, / / …may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation.

And Isaiah said of God in Isaiah 26:3 says, / / You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

So Jesus, we turn to you, we fix our eyes on you this morning. Prince of Peace. We thank you for your ever expanding and ever increasing Kingdom. And I pray now what Paul prayed, that you, the Lord of peace would give each one here, each one online, each one who would listen or watch this later, your peace in their situations right now. That at all times and in every situation we face, we would feel your peace. Just as you declared to your disciples in John 14:27, my prayer is that you would speak this to our hearts this morning, / / I am leaving you with a gift - peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

And so I pray the promise of Zechariah’s prophecy that speaks of a NOW moment, not a moment to come in the future, but a realized and fulfilled prophecy of old, that Jesus is the Prince of Peace and He HAS come to rule in our hearts and lives.

So I speak this over you, over your families, over any and all of the situations you are going through:

Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited and redeemed you.

He has sent you a mighty Savior from the royal line of his servant David, just as he promised long ago.

NOW you will be saved from all that has come against you.

God has been merciful to you by remembering the promise he made to Abraham.

You have been rescued from all that has come against you, so you can serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness for as long as you live.

You have been told of salvation and forgiveness of sins and because of God’s tender mercy, his morning light from heaven is breaking upon you.

For God is light, and in him there is no darkness, and this Savior, Jesus Christ, is the light of the world, and as you follow him you will no longer walk in darkness, but will be brought into the light of life.

Because this is why He has come, to give light to those who sit in darkness, and who have faced the shadow of death.

He has come to lead you and guide you to the path of peace.

So, May the peace of God, which goes far beyond all of our earthly understanding, guard your heart and your mind in Jesus Christ your Savior.

May the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. That you would be kept in that place of perfect peace as you fix your heart and your mind and your trust in Him.

In Jesus name, the name that is above every other name, the name that includes Prince of Peace, amen.