He is the Prince of Peace
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Title: He Is the Prince of Peace
What this is all about: Peace within
What I want you to know: Peace is only found within Christ
Series: Who Is Jesus #4
Text:
Date: December 17, 2017
Pastor Mike Ellis
Introduction:
- Today we are going to continue in our “Who is Jesus” series that is based on .
- We have up to this point seen Jesus in three other ways.
- To recap, we have looked at Him as the Wonderful Counselor, and our need for His wonderful counsel.
- We have seen how mighty He is, with a quick look at His creation.
- Last week we looked at Christ as the father of eternity and how we are loved for all time.
- Today we are going to see Christ as He is the Prince of Peace, which is the title of today's sermon.
- Today's sermon is going to focus on real peace and where it comes from.
- What I want you to take away from this sermon is an understanding that peace only comes through Christ.
Read
For a child will be born for us,
a son will be given to us,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
He will be named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
- The word peace has many sides
- Personal fulfilment
o
‘Therefore, I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster that I am bringing on this place.’ ”
Then they reported to the king.
- Personal well-being
o
“Is he well?” Jacob asked.
“Yes,” they said, “and here is his daughter Rachel, coming with his sheep.”
- Personal harmony
o
Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me return to my relatives in Egypt and see if they are still living.”
Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
- Peace with God
o
may the Lord look with favor on you
and give you peace.” ’
o
Therefore declare: I grant him my covenant of peace.
o
But he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds.
- Peace is another word that we find in Scripture that is a verb, it is a word of action.
- Šālēm is the Hebrew form.
- It means “to be whole or complete.”
- It was and still is used a form of greeting within the Jewish world.
- We might recognize this in the English as Salem.
- We can find the word Salem in
Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; he was a priest to God Most High.
o We find the King of Salem as Melchizedek.
o The King of Peace if you will.
- I mention this because Salem was located where Jerusalem is now located.
- Jerusalem means new peace.
- Jerusalem is also known as the City of God.
- It was the site of Jewish temple
- It was the City in which David reigned as well as Solomon and all the other Kings of Judah.
- And just six miles from there in a little town called Bethlehem the Prince of Peace would be born.
- And it is from Jerusalem that He will rule as King for a thousand years.
-
I. Christ Made Peace
and through him to reconcile
everything to himself,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.
a. Everyone wants peace
i. World leaders,
ii. Church leaders,
iii. Church congregations,
iv. Parents,
v. Children
b. People strive for peace in any way possible.
i. They use all sorts of worldly ways find what can only be found in Christ.
ii. It may be religion, exercise, work, etc.
iii. How do you seek peace?
c. Christ made peace by His death on the cross.
i. All who accept Him by repentance and faith will receive His peace.
II. Christ Preached Peace
He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
a. The message that Christ preached was to the Jew first, and then also to the Gentile.
i. We will discuss this further when we start the book of Acts in a couple of weeks.
ii. From the beginning it was always God’s will that all come to Him.
iii. It was also in His will that this would come to fruition through His chosen people, Israel.
iv. But generation after generation they rejected Yahweh.
v. Even after the death of Christ on a cross, the Jews refused the truth.
vi. Even with the promise of the Holy Spirit happening before their eyes, most Jews still refused to believe.
vii. Within the book of Acts, we will see the invitation being extended to all ends of the earth.
III. Christ Gives Peace
- Can’t find a reason to be loved
How do you see yourself at times?
Do you see yourself in the mirror, and think why would anybody even bother liking me, let alone love me?
This is exactly what Satan wants you to think.
This kind of thinking and living brings out the worldly warrior that lives in each and every one of us.
A warrior that is hell bent on destroying anything good that comes in its path.
A warrior that will destroy not only you but all who love you as well.
This warrior has a name, and it is called hate.
Hate is the exact opposite of peace.
This is interesting, because I had always thought of war being the opposite of peace.
What I have heard of this world, is people wishing for peace, but in turn screaming and practicing hate.
- Think back in history to the 60’s when the Vietnam war was being protested.
- Protesters were labeling soldiers as murders.
- They were spitting at them, and shouting death threats towards them and their family.
- All of this was being done in the name of peace.
-
- Even recently, during the last presidential campaign we saw protests.
- People from both sides stating that they only want peace and what is best for all.
- But in their actions, they would scream and practice hate.
- They would rob and lute people, destroy property, and seek out to physically hurt people.
- All in the name of peace.
What I have heard of the church, is pastors preaching peace, but pastors and congregations alike screaming and practicing hate.
- So called churches and Christians standing outside of abortion clinics, shouting claims of murder.
o Yes, abortion is murder, but so is hate according to Christ.
- What good does it do for one murderer to condemn another?
- How about Westboro Baptist church in Kansas?
- They are now well known for protesting homosexuality at the funerals of soldiers.
o Yes, homosexuality is a sin and is wrong,
- But again, according to Christ, so is hate.
- So, I ask again what good is done when a murderer condemns a homosexual.
It is better to be known as people who love others the same way Christ loves us.
But this is the life of hate.
says
“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.
Peace comes from Christ alone.
He is the one that can make us whole.
But back to the mirror!
We think that it would be easier for Him to just let us go.
It’s easier for you to let me go.
Let’s shift the focus from outward to inward for a moment.
If you do in fact have a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ than something else starts to happen with hate.
Hate causes us to at times see deep into our own soul, this is not so that we can decided against it, but instead listen to it.
Self-hate causes thoughts of wondering about if it would just be easier if Jesus let you go.
The thought of the being so bad, so ugly, so fat, so skinny, so short, so tall, so… fill in the blank.
What do you think?
Would it be easier for Jesus to let you go?
Do you allow hate to dwell inside of you, do you allow it to lead where you go, what you say, how you respond?
Would it be easier if everyone just let you go?
A couple thousand years ago a child was born into this dark and fallen world.
A child that was a promise of better days.
A child that was going to have a reigning power that would cast a shadow so great, that all others before Him and after Him could never compare.
A child that was going to be so great that He would be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace.
This child would grow into a life that was sinless but not without its tests.
He would grow into a perfect man, a man that above all else sought peace for not just His time and people but for all time and all people before Him as well as all people after Him and for all of eternity.
Because of His perfection, because of His will, because He looked at you and saw all that you are capable of, because He looked at you and saw something so valuable, because He looked at you and saw the pinnacle of His creation, He chose peace.
A peace that would cost Him His life on this earth.
A peace that was immensely needed because there was so much hate from the world around Him.
A peace that would cause Him so much pain, so much shame, so much humiliation, and He knew it was coming.
Yes, perhaps from our own understanding, it might have been easier for Him to let all of us go.
After all it was the sin inside of all people from all times in all places that was the root cause of all that was coming to Him.
But He chose you anyway.
God saw and still sees something in each and everyone us that causes Him to say that we are worth it.
This desire that He has for peace goes beyond anything that I could ever imagine.
This love is beyond anything that I have ever experienced.
tells us that Jesus by becoming human, emptied Himself and became fully human and fully God.
Instead he emptied himself
by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity.
And when he had come as a man,
He stepped off His throne and said to Father, I will take this for them, because I love them.
So, the answer is, NO, it is not easier for Jesus to let go of us.
Love looks past easy and hard and says I choose you.
That’s peace.
IV. Christ Is Our Peace
Who is holding your heart?
Hate vs Peace
One will prevail over the other and the choice is yours.
For those that choose peace, choose a better way.
A way that puts others above themselves, because they are worth it.
A way that according to brings about a promise, that God being peace brings about sanctification, and blamelessness.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
A way according to may come with the following of God’s standard.
May peace come to all those who follow this standard, and mercy even to the Israel of God!
Understand that Christ is the Prince of Peace.
It all comes from Him.
Peace comes from trusting in His ways, listening to His ways, living out His ways.
I can’t decide if I will let you save my life or if I will burn.
This peace that is offered by God and found in right living through Him is superseded by accepting His gift of Salvation.
You will only be in the pool of life for just a little longer.
For this life is short and but a vapor.
You must decide if you are going to let Him save your life, or if you are going to burn.
I promise you that someday your body will give up the life that God has breathed into it.
Will you remain standing in the fire or are you going to let God save you.
The life that Jesus chose to live, and the death He chose to accept was all for your benefit.
It was and His way running into the burning building and offering a way out.
It is your choice on rather you reach out take hold of His hand.
I must warn you however, there will come a point when His hand is gone.
As well as running to the window and looking out at freedom is not the same as being saved from it.
It is not enough to know that it is out there.
You must defeat the hate inside of you.
The way of thinking that you will never let a love get that close will destroy you.
The love being offered, the peace being offered is beyond our ability to understand, allow yourself to be loved, let Him get so close to you that you can feel His presence in your every breath.
He sees through the walls you have built up.
They may be able to hold out others but not Him.
He knows what is happening in your heart, He has experienced it all.
He has felt what you feel, He is the Great God that knows you, He did after all create you.
Christ is our peace.
For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh,
For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace.
For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh,
You want to be made whole, you want to be complete?
Look to Christ.
Conclusion:
Your arms around me.
Let go of the hate.
Don’t allow it to say that you are not good enough.
Don’t allow any power over you.
Hate can cause you to look at your life and say that you are not good enough.
That there is no possible way that you will ever be able clean up that mess that you have created.
I tell you though, that is not what Peace says.
No, the Prince of Peace does not stand on the other side of the chasm that is your life and say, ok, fix all of this and then I will pull you from the burning building.
That chasm is so deep and so wide that you will never be able to fill it in, so get that idea out of your mind right now.
If this could be done in your own power, then I ask you why did Christ have to die?
You see Jesus, the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father and the Prince of Peace comes along side of you, puts His arm around you, looks out at the chasm and says I can fix this.
Give your life to Him, all of it.
He is the Prince of Peace.