Peace

Opening:

Perhaps you’ve heard of the famous Christmas Truce all the way back in 1914. If not it’s quite an interesting story. The scene unfolded on the Western front of the battlefields of WWI. This impromptu cease-fire happened December 24th-25th along two thirds of the front that spanned about 30 miles and was controlled by the British Expeditionary Force.

WWI started in the summer of 1914 and most countries thought the war would be over well before Christmas, but sadly the war was just beginning to ramp up and some of the bloodiest battles would happen after Christmas of 1914.

The story goes that late on Christmas Eve men of the the British Expeditionary Force heard German troops in the trenches opposite of them singing carols and patriotic songs. They saw small fir trees with lanterns along the trenches and began shouting messages back and forth between the trenches. Legend has it that the Germans were supplied with Christmas trees to boost moral. This led the British to start singing as well and it started this impromptu Christmas Truce.

The following day soldiers met in no man’s land and exchanged gifts, took photographs, and played some impromptu games of football (soccer). They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts. It wasn’t universal as casualties happened in other areas but across this stretch of the front there was this now famous Christmas truce. Pope Benedict 15th had ascended to the papacy a month after the war broke out and in early December called on the waring armies to have a Christmas Truce, but it seems that it truly was something more spontaneous among the soldiers.

There is a memorial in England’s National Memorial Arboretum that commemorates this even that was dedicated by Prince William on the 100th Anniversary of that day.

It’s hard to imagine Peace existing in the middle of a war if only for a day or two. Sadly not everyone thought this was a good idea. There is another legend that a 25 year old German soldier scolded his fellow soldiers saying: “Such a thing should not happen in wartime…Have you no German sense of honor left. That soldiers name was Adolf Hitler.

This is a really amazing piece of history to me that a Christmas Truce existed in WWI. In the Lexham Bible Dictionary peace or in Hebrew Shalom is described in the Old Testament primarily as welfare, prosperity, or wholeness as well of the absence of hostility. We see this word is used as the antithesis of harm and a synonym for what is good.

In today’s world we think of Peace mainly as the absence of war and think of the hippie movement that promoted peace or the hand gesture of putting up two fingers. Well absence of war or trouble is certainly true and fits the Christmas Truce example, but today we will look at Peace in light of a person, Jesus and how it’s actually his presence that is Peace.

The pervasive concept in the Bible of peace commonly relates to a relationship of love and loyalty with God and one another. Our passage of scripture in Isaiah will highlight this for us. In the ESV translation of the Bible we see Peace appear 375 times reminding us that Peace is an important topic to God and his desire is for all of mankind to experience Peace through a relationship with the “Prince of Peace” Jesus Christ. Our one big takeaway that will be that though the world thinks of peace as the absence of something, we believe that peace is the presence of someone and that someone is this Jesus who came to us as a baby in Bethlehem.

Scripture:

Isaiah 9:6–7 ESV

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. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, 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.

1. Heaven Meets Earth

In this famous passage in Isaiah we see a prophecy that predicts the coming Messiah entering into the world, with Isaiah sharing with the Israelites that this Savior ur will come from Galilee, he will be an heir to the throne of David, and come in the form of a baby being born into the world.

If we go back to verse two of this chapter in Isaiah we see him talk about how light would come into darkness. This theme of “Light into Darkness” continues over into the New Testament.

Theme of light into darkness in NT:

1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Romans 13:12 “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

One of the key theological truths we can pull from today’s text is that this gift of Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas is where we see heaven and earth collide through the incarnation of Christ. Light coming into darkness.

I love how Matt Smethurst put it in an article for The Gospel Coalition in one of their Advent series.

“The incarnation was an invasion, both a dawning of peace and a declaration of war.” He goes on to say “The baby in the manger didn’t stay there, after all—- he grew up and obeyed his Father to the point of death, even death on a cross. Suspended on Roman wood, he made peace between God and man.” (Ephesians 2:14-17)

This light that broke into the darkness of the world was on a mission and in this little baby boy born in Bethlehem had reconciliation between God and man as his single focus throughout his life that ended by dying for our sins & defeating death through his resurrection.

See Christianity is unique in this. Other religions teach that you must somehow achieve peace between us and god (lower case g god). It might be through good works or some type of mental ascend in meditation, but no matter what we have to make it happen.

Scripture teaches us that we receive peace from God through this breakthrough of light into dark, from this baby born in a manger. Peace is a gift from God and it manifests itself in the person of Jesus. Here are three quick truths that Smethurst lays out for us that I found helpful. If I was taking notes I’d write this down:

receive the peace of God, through trusting Jesus.

enjoy the peace of God, through following Jesus and

spread the peace of God, through proclaiming Jesus.

For us to find peace this Christmas season or any other time of the year for that matter, it all rests in our relationship to Jesus. This beautiful moment in history when heaven and earth collided and Jesus was sent to live among us made it possible for real peace to enter our lives. As Isaiah puts it “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given”. God gives us this gift of Jesus and in him we find this peace that we all long for.

Transition: So based on this amazing gift of Jesus entering our world… for God to dwell among us. We see Isaiah give us 4 titles that we attribute to Jesus. Let’s walk through those quickly.

2. Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace

In these names that Isaiah assigns to Jesus we learn that God himself will come to earth. It’s the idea we talked about in our first point. Heaven and earth collide in the coming of Jesus. God isn’t sending a messenger he is coming himself. God is intervening and thus he is the ultimate fulfillment of who Immanuel is.

Immanuel—God with us in our nature, in our sorrow, in our daily work, in our punishment, in our death, and now with us, or rather we with Him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph and Second Advent splendor.

Charles Spurgeon

As we celebrate the birth of Christ we are reminded that even in the form of a little baby in that manger scene we see so often this season, Jesus is stronger than any powers of the world.

So let’s look at this different names given by Isaiah for this coming Messiah:

Wonderful Counselor

Another way of thinking about this term that I really liked from my study was “Wonder Counselor” as in the supernatural. The thought here is that he is able to make wise plans, a ruler who has wisdom, but also one who can tap into power beyond human capabilities.

We have to remember that this was written to people in a specific time and place. This Wonderful Counselor that Isaiah describes supersedes Ahaz, who was an intelligent man but ultimately foolish in the way he ruled during Isaiah’s time.

Our takeaway here is a reminder that Jesus rules with wisdom, because of his divinity. He doesn’t just possess wisdom he is wisdom.

Mighty God

In the modern hymn “In Christ Alone” by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty that we just sang…there is a line that states “fulness of God in helpless babe”. The idea with this title is that the coming Messiah, we know as Jesus, came to earth fully divine. That is the fulness the hymn references.

The baby himself is God. This is really hard for us to comprehend, but as we focus our attention this Advent season on Jesus born as a baby, we are reminded that even at his birth, Jesus was, and continued to be, the mighty God.

Everlasting Father

The name Everlasting Father also speaks to divine nature of Jesus. While ancient kings would claim to be fathers to their people none of them would ever rule eternally. This coming Messiah, Jesus, would reign eternally.

Along with the reality of Jesus being the eternal father, the term shows us his care for his people. The term father was used in the Old Testament for someone who cares and is gentle. Our takeaway here is that Jesus will rule eternally, yet at the same time loves us deeply just as a good father does.

Prince of Peace

When we speak of Jesus as the Prince of Peace we think about how peace was broken due to human sin, but yet through Jesus Christ atoning death and resurrection we have the hope that he will return one day for the ultimate restoration by God, bringing peace back to mankind.

One commentary captured it beautifully when it stated:

“Prince of Peace is a fitting climax to a passage that has spoken of the horrors of war. Peace is more than the absence of war, although the ending of violence is necessary condition for its establishment. Peace with God and humans is the wholesome, perfectly reconciled and loving community that new creation brings, which can be enjoyed partially on earth.”

We see this theme of peace through Christ expressed in the New Testament.

Philippians 4:7 ESV

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:14–17 ESV

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

Romans 5:1 ESV

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I hope today has been encouraging to you. What hope we find in that fact that we can experience Peace through Jesus Christ. That last passage out of Romans if fundamental to how we experience peace. It is through our relationship with Jesus that we are justified- to be declared righteous. This is the only way we can experience true peace and why Isaiah can confidently proclaim that the coming Messiah is the Prince of Peace…it’s because it’s through him that this peace can exist.

One aspect of this text is that it was a prophetic message from God for the Israelites, as they were be divinely judged by God through the foreign power Assyria.

For them peace seemed like a really far fetched idea at this moment in history. The fact was it wasn’t until about 700 years later that baby Jesus would arrive in Bethlehem. We benefit from knowing God fulfilled his promise through sending Jesus to earth.

We can have confidence that God indeed would provide peace because we celebrate that very fact at Christmas time. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was born and we can have confidence that through a relationship with Jesus we can have peace with God. Not only that but one day he will return to make all things right and establish his reign, of peace, on earth.

What a glorious truth to celebrate this Advent season.

Closing:

If you haven’t trusted in Jesus as your Saviour and experienced the peace that comes through this relationship…what are you waiting for? What a perfect time of the year to trust in Jesus as your Saviour. This incarnate Jesus who left heaven to come and live here on earth to ultimately die for your and my sins and make a way for us to have peace with God. I promise you this…you won’t find a better present than that underneath a Christmas tree this year.

If you are a already a believer my prayer for you this Advent and Christmas is that you rest in the fact that you have peace with God through Jesus. Rest in the fact that one day this same Jesus will return to make all things right and usher in true peace on earth.

This Christmas don’t look for satisfaction in traditions or presents under the tree as fun and sweet as those moments with family and friends might be. Instead look to enjoy the greatest gift of all. Enjoy Jesus this Christmas. Marvel at his glory and how he humbly came to earth. Sing songs that praise Jesus for being the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Here is a reminder of the three ways we are to respond to peace:

receive the peace of God, through trusting Jesus.

enjoy the peace of God, through following Jesus and

spread the peace of God, through proclaiming Jesus.

Today you might feel God prompting you to respond during our time of invitation. Shane and I will be up front as Bruce and Mr. David lead us in this final song. If you need to trust in this Jesus that God sent to us in the form of a baby that one day would take on the sins of the world and make it possible to have peace with God we would love nothing more than to meet with you and pray with you. Receive peace by trusting Jesus.

Maybe you’ve made that decision but in obedience to scripture you need to get baptized…we would love to talk to you about that or maybe you’ve been visiting here, but God is calling you to put down some roots and make this your church home for this season of you life. We would love to meet with you and talk to you about that this morning. Let’s go ahead and stand and I’ll pray for us and then we will close in song.