Peace on Earth

Scripture

The Way it ought to be introduction....Control and Calendar. I have this great structure on my calendar.

Isaiah 9:1–7 NIV

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan— The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:1-

Introduction

One day my mom got home expecting to arrive like a normal day and find my brother and I playing outside or watching tv in the care of a babysitter…however, what she found was our babysitter waiting on the curb with her keys in her hand. When my mom pulled up this babysitter informed my mom she quits and got in the car without explanation and left. Afraid to imagine what this was all about she crept slowly to the house and what she began to find was an absolute warzone.

I had one chore that day and it was to mow the yard....

My brother taunting me about how much trouble I was going to be in caused a huge fight.

We got in a little fisticuffs that ended with a bloody nose and some bruises. His last effort to wound me was kicking his cowboy boots in my direction. Over my shoulder and through the garage door window. shatter. So I closed the garage and told him to clean up the glass while i removed the batteries from the clicker and locked the door to the house. Locking him in the garage. After about 20 minutes he took a baseball bat to the door.

That was the last straw for babysitter so she locked us in our rooms.

phone line prank with boyfriend got us out of the rooms but she still took away our freedom.

The last prank was the straw that broke the camels back. Honey in the shampoo, flour in the hair dryer....kids do as I say, not as i do. This was circa b.c. in my life....before Christ.

Everything blew up. we were all yelling at each other. Until we decided on peace to wait for my mom to come home.

Peace, a seize fire was called but everything was still a war zone.

Now a lot of times that is what we think of when we think of peace. Two countries laying down arms. Two people stopping some bitter back and forth…two coworkers agreeing to just avoid each other.

This is a sense of peace here but the biblical testimony will say more…

Biblical Peace

Essentially today we will be doing a word study of peace in the Bible.

Hebrew = Shalom

Hebrew = Shalom

Greek = Eirene

It is more than just a ceasefire. In Hebrew my professor taught us a phrase. Shalom Alochem....Peace Yall! It is more than that. It is not just an absence of conflict but a replacement of something in its place. The most basic meaning is completeness or wholeness...

This is why Job says that his tent is in a state of shalom because no sheep are missing

Job 5:24 ESV

You shall know that your tent is at peace, and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.

This is why shalom can refer to well being. David visits brothers on the battle field in 1 Samuel and bring them food he asks how is your shalom....

The core idea is that life is complex, full of moving parts, relationships, etc.

Shalom breaks down when something is missing. To bring Shalom is to complete something or make something whole

For example: In , Solomon brings peace to the Temple, when he completes it.

1 Kings 9:25 NRSV

Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and sacrifices of well-being on the altar that he built for the Lord, offering incense before the Lord. So he completed the house.

Shalom breaks down when something is missing.

We see in proverbs that when people are reconciled there is shalom.

Proverbs 16:7 NRSV

When the ways of people please the Lord, he causes even their enemies to be at peace with them.

If you accidentally kill neighbors cattle and then repay them, that is shalom. or if rival kingdoms quit fighting AND work together....this is shalom

This is talking about complex circumstances and situations with lots of pieces made whole.

Israel’s kings were meant to bring this and they failed....Isaiah’s promise of a prince of peace is huge.

Biblical peace:

Peace is God’s restoration that heals all wounds and makes right all wrongs

Peace is a present and future reality of healing and justice for God’s people; this reality is both deeply personal and cosmic.

Light comes into the Darkness

Before we jump into this there is a reality that we have to acknowledge. Before we understand the peace found in Christ, we need to agree that there is not peace. Before we understand the light that is coming into the world, we must wake up and realize we are sitting in the dark...

Isaiah 8:20–22 NIV

Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.

Isaiah

Truth is we want to be God, we want to control, we want to believe that we can clean ourselves up. Think about it….both individually, but also as a culture. If we all just pull together. If we vote a certain person into office, if we just pass this bill or if we just conquer these peoples.

This has been the truth from the beginning. This is the first verse of our text and it applies even today. Scripture that applies to the context of the Israelites but it also speaks into our context. “The people walking in darkness…”

Band Group....I have literally chosen not to share something right away.

But there is a coming light, Tim Keller writes this about .

“The Bible never counsels indifference to the forces of darkness, only resistance, but it supports no illusions that we can defeat them ourselves. Christianity does not agree with the optimistic thinkers who say, ‘We can fix things if we try hard enough.’ Nor does it agree with the pessimists who see only a dystropian future. The message of Christianity is, instead, ‘things really are this bad, and we can’t heal or save ourselves. Things really are this darn -- nevertheless, there is hope.’ The Christmas message is that ‘on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” - Tim Keller in Hidden Christmas

This morning we will consider what the Bible says about the What, Where and When of Peace.

What is it for us?

Where is this peace?

When will this peace take place?

What peace?

Remember peace is about restoration and healing. It is about completion and wholeness. Setting things right. We need to understand the fullness of peace. There are three aspects the restoration peace brings.....

1. Restored to God

The chaos begins in our relationship with God. From very early on we are guilty of trying to control everything. Of trying to be God. There is something off in the relationship. The first place of restoration is in our relationship with God. Paul puts it this way...

Romans 5:1–2 NIV

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

This is not just a cease fire, but a putting back together. The chaos that took place when sin entered into the world is set right.

2. Restored with each other

Not only is peace a restoration of our relationship with God but it pours over into the restoration we have with each other. God’s redemption in the giving of himself becomes our peace to share together… Paul puts it this way.

Ephesians 2:14 NIV

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,

Ephesians

Jesus himself is our peace who made us one.

At seminary, daily Eucharist. Someone in my family who had really hurt me. I was receiving communion and saw them in a vision.

Dang it.

How many of us receive freely of the grace of God and then walk away and harbour ill will to others around us.... friend, family, enemy.

Sermon on the mount…if you are worshipping and remember you need to be reconciled then go and do it.

3. World Restored

Jesus, the prince of peace came for the restoration of His people and also the world. Our Isaiah text is a comparison of war to peace and even in the text it is not just taking away the war…it is setting things right so that there is no need for war.

Isaiah 9:5 NIV

Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.

Isaiah 9:

The warriors boot is no longer needed...

Let me give you an example. Premarital counseling. Time does not heal all wounds....time does not fix problems. You might have a huge fight and you decide to lay down your arms, right maybe you sleep on it and then the next day you are not as mad…so you just decide to do the easy thing and leave it be

2 weeks later, BOOM.

Peace is not just an absence of conflict. Peace is the setting right of things so that conflict is no longer the potential.

Jesus is not a band aid, He is the healer.

Jesus is not a band aid, He

Where is there peace?

So we know WHAT it is....Where, then, is this peace? It is hard to imagine this in our world with all that is going on. In the day of the internet we can see injustice and brokenness all over. This promise of peace is both big and small. Grand and specific.

Peace is Cosmic

First, Peace is so much bigger than just us. Jesus came for the world. This is important because when we understand this we become activated in the world to participate in this peace.

Isaiah 9:7 NIV

Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9

The promise from the prophet is that there is one who is coming to rule and reign and He will bring justice and righteousness over the whole world.

Implications: Well let’s get political for a second. Uh oh, I know its Christmas time. This will only sting for a second and we can move on. Hear me…no impeachment trial or presidential election will bring peace on earth apart from God restoring act in the world. No president will set things right, bringing justice and righteousness. Some of us talk about politics like we are talking about this light dawning in a new day and it is off the mark.

Let’s get political

Peace is personal

At the same time, the promise of restoration is for you personally today.

I know that this season of life for many can feel like it is just too much. We feel like we are on the verge of teetering.

Teetering on the edge.

Maybe someone is missing from the table, maybe you are walking through something crazy hard. There is healing and restoration available for you. , they are freaking out because he says he is leaving. He is preparing them for hardship

John 16:23 NIV

In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

John 16:33 NIV

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

I know that you might want restoration to look a certain way and maybe it cant, but in Him, the one who has overcome the world, there is peace.

This isnt like Lebron James came to your team and so now your team is good because he is on it.

Jesus is not just a teammate....he is wrapping your life with his. His love is yours.

and finally, when?

When? How Long O’ Lord

So when does this happen, because I am having a hard time understanding this now. Well we live in this time of already and not yet. That God’s peace is breaking through and yet we still have a ways to go.

Future peace

Peace is a future promise that is sealed in the victory of Jesus. We look expectant to that day when he will return because all things will be set right. We battle for this peace in the world and we know it will only fully come when he returns

Peace breaking through

And yet, peace is a promise that is already here. I close with this image. Jesus has been gone three days. The one who was supposed to take David’s throne for all time. The promised one of , and all these other places of hopeful expectancy. All these “The way it ought to be’s” had found emptiness when Jesus was humiliated and killed. Chaos ensued…literally as the followers of Jesus probably experienced a significant persecution. And spiritually as they felt all of their hopes dashed aside. Things were not just teetering, they had crumbled...

John 20:26–27 NIV

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

John 20:

This is Jesus saying, look....touch the scars, I am setting things right. Death is gone, the injustice did not win. Evil did not win. Hate did not win.

Today, what if that presence is here for you too. Inside our locked doors....where we are trying to control everything. “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”