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Jesus Is…Prince of Peace
Introduction
When Jesus was born, there were some shepherds working the fields outside of Bethlehem.
An angel of the Lord appeared to this lowly group to announce the Savior’s arrival.
Then a vast group of angels appeared and declared this great truth:
- 14 “Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
According to Heaven, one of the effects of the birth of Jesus was that peace would come to the earth.
Here is the problem…one of the last words we could use to describe our world, or even our lives, is the word 'peace.'
We have nations warring against nation.
Kingdoms rising and falling.
Military regimes change.
Nations join into “peace” treaties, but they never seem to actually last.
Social issues divide us as a nation.
We continue to polarize and fight about who is right and wrong.
Political divisiveness threatens to cripple us as our leaders cannot get along long enough to fix the nation's problems.
Individuals struggle with copious amounts of stress, high blood pressure, ulcers.
Families are characterized by chaos.
Very few people I know could be described as being at peace.
How many do we know who are truly content in life?
Who don’t worry?
Who don’t experience relational brokenness?
And I think it is ironic that the Christmas season, supposedly designed to bring peace, is usually one of the most stressful and chaotic times of the year.
TS - Yet the message of Christmas is one of peace.
The angel announced it as fact in .
But there is even more to this peace thing at Christmas.
- 6 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.
As we lead up to Christmas by looking at these four titles given for Jesus, we are seeing who He is and what He does.
Jesus is the Prince of Peace.
His domain is characterized by peace.
Biblically, this peace is not just an absence of conflict, but the presence of wholeness.
Completion.
Nothing lacking.
Shalom.
Jesus' kingdom is marked by peace.
TS - The odd message of the New Testament is that peace is not only possible to attain, but is a dominant reality of the Christian.
So what does this life of peace look like?
How does the Prince of Peace establish that peace in our lives?
Jesus establishes 3 types of peace:
1. PEACE WITH GOD
Something within us alerts us to the truth that we don't have peace with God.
We feel this inherent need to appease him.
Regardless of the religion, culture, time period - this is the story of humanity.
We know something is lacking, so we try to make up for it.
Whether it is sacrificing children (as some cultures/religions still do), cutting yourself, killing animals, offering incense, living morally upright, we intuitively understand we are at odds with God(s).
The bible declares this is absolutely true.
It tells us we are not worthy of God and that we have set ourselves at war with Him.
Then, to add insult to injury, we discover that the God of the bible, the one true God, demands absolute perfection from us.
Well…I'm out.
So now I need to work to get into his good favor.
I need to devote my life to paying off this debt of imperfection that I owe.
And this is how a lot of religious people live out their existence, across the spectrum of the world’s religions, and in some flavors of Christianity.
God demands me to be perfect.
I'm not perfect.
So now God is mad.
Now what?
Well, some have simply given up and walked away from God.
They believe he isn't worth pleasing, perhaps impossible to please, so why bother.
Isn’t life more enjoyable and freeing if we don’t have to worry about making up some perceived debt to some perceived deity?
Others however devote their lives to appeasing God.
So they work.
They serve.
They steep themselves in guilt over their sin, because guilt makes us feel holy.
They attend religious services.
The live moral lives.
All in an effort to make sure that God isn't mad at them.
But here is the problem...it is never enough.
The bible says we fall short of the glory of God (that’s the standard!).
The bible says our righteousness is like filthy rags to God.
The bible says that even the most impressive of resumes is rubbish in God's sight.
God does not accept the currency of our morality to pay the debt we owe him.
The bad news of the Old Testament is that there is nothing you can do to have peace with God.
But here is this great ironic twist…The good news of the New Testament is that there is nothing you can do to have peace with God.
God himself will come down to provide the peace.
Mighty God will be our Prince of Peace.
He will come down to personally pay the debt.
To provide peace with God.
- 19 For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
21 This includes you who were once far away from God.
You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.
22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.
As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
2. PEACE REGARDING THE FUTURE
- 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.”
This verse is a crescendo on a long discourse that Jesus has just given to his disciples.
He says he told them "all this" so they may have peace.
What is the "all this" he tells them that supposedly brings peace?
-He is leaving to prepare heaven for them.
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