Transcript
This is going to be week four. In our advent series. We're talking about awaiting the king, and this morning we're going to cover the idea of peace. You may have noticed that it's almost unavoidable to sing a Christmas Carol without singing about the peace that God brings to bear through his son Jesus. One of the things that we are learning as we have gone through the book of Matthew together is that the values that compose the kingdom, things like love, peace, hope, joy, the things that compose the kingdom are associated with the presence of the king. You don't get to have peace, true peace without having the king. We live in a unique time culturally where many of the values in our culture align with values in God's kingdom. There's a desire for justice and equality. There's a desire for peace in the world. We are not living in a culture that just prizes war, at least here in the United States. We're hopefully lovers of peace.
There's these values that we have kind of as pillars within society, but the unique thing is that our culture wants the kingdom without the king. And what we're seeing as we go through the book of Matthew and what we're going to see again this morning is that you cannot have these values without having, in a true sense, in the way that our hearts long for. We cannot have these things without the presence of the king. You don't get perfect love without the king of love being present. You don't get true justice without the just judge of the whole earth being involved. So last week we talked about how there's this sense of anticipation that comes with advent for us. We have this reality where we have arrived and the first coming has arrived, but now we're waiting for the second advent. We call it the second coming of Christ.
We're living in this place of tension between a first coming that was very much historic and real, and there's realities that we inherit because of the first coming of Christ, but then there are things that we are living into hoping for with the second advent of Christ. That's very important as you live as a Christian, that you understand that you're between two way markers on a map, that there is a historic event that has happened in the past, and yet there are things that are yet in your reality that are unresolved because there is still a future coming of Christ. And so did you ever, when you were in first second grade in art class, make a fan by folding the paper back and forth? Yeah, I think as I was thinking about that this week, I think that the corrugation of those, the folded paper is the idea that I've been communicating a lot over the last couple years on Sundays in the text in that the Bible just kind of, it maps onto itself.
If you were to take that fan and to just collapse it down, you'd be able to drive a pin through it and it would touch all these different segments of that same piece of paper if you were to pierce it through. And that is in a sense how scripture is. So as we are in this place of tension, we are reenacting what the Jews lived in as they heard all these prophecies from Genesis three on through their history, there's this anticipation that a person is going to make it all better. A person is going to change reality. A kingdom is going to come through a king this morning. We're going to zero in on the promise of peace. The promise of peace. Let me set the stage for this a bit and just talk about the absence of peace on a global stage. There are currently at least 23 major armed conflicts that are occurring in the world right now.
One of the leading universities that studies global conflict is a university out of Sweden named Sula University, and they defined conflict. One of their definitions is this, an armed conflict is a contested incompatibility that concerns government and or territory where the use of armed force between two parties, of which at least one is a government of a state, results in at least 25 battle related deaths in one calendar year. So they have remember the covid charts tracking cases. Well, this university, they have a similar dashboard where they're tracking global conflicts. This is one of their charts. This is state-based conflict by level of intensity since the end of World War ii. And you see the rise in minor conflicts and this kind of the level degree of war.
They also have this map of current, this is at the end of 2022 current geographic areas that are experiencing conflict. It is the absence, the absence of peace. Many of these countries, people in these countries have lived with constant turmoil. It's an experience completely different from our own where the instability you live with instability, whether or not your government will be able to defend you, or maybe the government is not even the government that you chose or would have chosen to be underneath. And so there is this sense of global unrest that exists, but there is also internal turmoil. There is internal anxiety. There is again, another entity, I forget the body that tracks this, but their name will be on the next slide here. But they're looking at anxiety disorders, panic, generalized anxiety, agoraphobia specific phobias, social anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, separation anxiety disorder.
You take these things, you put 'em on a chart and you match it up against GDP, and you have this interesting kind of J curve where some of the lowest experiences of anxiety are in countries with low GDP. You also have some countries with high GDP with low levels of anxiety. But it's interesting how you have this curve that goes up as GDP increases. There is this turmoil that is not resolved with money, and it is a epidemic that is the anxiety of epidemic is ever increasing. Just a few quotes from characters. Prince Harry says, I've been to the very darkest of places, but I'm here now. I'm here because I've learned that life is about finding peace within yourself and then can truly share that piece with others. Amanda Gorham, who shared a poem at the presidential inauguration, she said in 2022, there is so much noise in the world.
It can be hard to find your own inner peace, but it's there and it's worth searching for. Lynn Manuel Miranda says, I'm constantly striving for peace, but I don't always achieve it. It's a journey, not a destination. And Emma Watson, I've had times in my life where I've felt very lost and very uncertain, but I've learned that those are often the times when we grow the most we live. Our human experience is an experience of external conflict and internal conflict. Our world longs to be at peace to have its internal and internal conflicts resolved. We long to have peace within and with the rest of the world.
This morning, we're going to look at a text from Isaiah chapter nine, verses six through seven. This is a very famous text that is oftentimes quoted at Christmas time because it prophesies of his son. So if you have the book of Isaiah in front of you, we're going to be in chapter nine. Isaiah chapter nine, verses six and seven. It says this, 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 dominion will be vast and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness. From now on and forever, the zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. Let's pray.
Let's ask the Lord to speak to us through this text. Lord, this is a famous prophecy from Isaiah, and you said through Isaiah that this son who's born one of his titles would be the prince of peace and that he would reign and be present. We just thank you, God, that you came and that you are present and that your presence remains with us by the Spirit, and you want to bring about peace in our life that this is a real thing that we can experience as followers of Jesus. So teach us this morning about peace. We pray this in your name. Amen. Amen. So Isaiah chapter nine, this promise of a son. Again, just to review, there are a few names here, titles that Jesus has given. Notice, this expanse of the names that are given that we have. Wonderful counselor, your therapist, he's the wonderful therapist, but then he's also the mighty God.
He's the eternal father. So this family identity, the ongoing never ending eternal father and then a royal term, the prince of peace. And then he says a couple of things about what he's going to accomplish. He's going to have this vast domain, comprehensive authority. It says in verse seven. In verse seven, it says that he will have this endless, he will bring in endless prosperity. I know that there is a bad teaching, a heretical teaching in the church that we call it the prosperity gospel or the health and wealth gospel. It's easy in the critique of that heresy to think or to take that and think God's opposed to prosperity. But no God's Jesus's reign. When he comes in with his second coming, he's present. He's going to bring about eternal everlasting prosperity and ambition. A personal ambition to be prosperous is not something that God is opposed to.
What is he opposed to? He's opposed to greed. The misuse of money, the process of getting means in a manipulative. The means would be manipulative to gain wealth using dishonesty, unbalanced scales, but yet the presence of Jesus is going to bring endless prosperity. There's going to be a revived Davidic throne, right? Again, here's our little second grade fan that's folded up. It's like we had the throne back there of David and David's coming back, but as Jesus and Jesus is royal, just expanding all of Israel's borders to the greatest expanse that they ever had. Geographically, Jesus is going to come and embody that, but it's going to be Jesus doing it from that throne, and then there's going to be justice and righteousness. The people that have been wronged, all of the wrongs done to you will be righted. There will not be a imbalanced justice. There will be a righteousness. At the time that Isaiah wrote this, Israel's peace was fleeting. So Isaiah who writes, who's the writer of this prophecy? God spoke through him. They're under Assyrian threat. The prophecy likely arose during the reign of King Ahaz of Judah. We talked about him last week. He was the king from 7 42 to 7 27, and at this time, the powerful Assyrian empire posed a significant threat to Judah. Maybe if you're here last week, you remember that map.
And so Ahaz is terrified and God raises up this man who is filled with God's spirit speaking on God's behalf, speaking, speaking this reality about this future 700 years down the road, this sun being given, it's beautiful how you think of just the turmoil that A has was experiencing and how the promise that's matched up with that from God, even though it's not for that moment, it is this government. He's like, Isaiah's like I got to tell you about this government that's going to happen through Jesus, this reign, this prince of peace that's going to come in and he's just going to be so good when he comes. So there's this exterior threat from Assyria, but then there's also these internal divisions that Israel and Judah was experiencing. Judah itself was experiencing internal divisions with some that were advocating for submission. Hey, let's just submit to Usy and others.
Were seeking alliance with other powers. Maybe we should go down to Egypt. Maybe we should just defend ourselves and just repent and turn back to God. This division weakened Judas position and further fueled the fear and uncertainty. Isaiah comes along and he talks about the prince of peace. There would be this anticipation that the Jewish people would have if they were listening to their scriptures. But then you fast forward 750 years, Israel had been repopulated. Israel had gone captivity then been delivered and been living back in the land. They had repopulated the land, but the land was under Roman occupation. So there were still open-ended promises from God that were not yet fulfilled. It was like, God, you made these promises. You said this was going to happen, but the promises were not yet fulfilled, and yet one of the promises hanging out there is that a virgin would conceive and give birth to a baby, and then this promise of that there's going to be this reign and this rule.
So if you're a Jew at the time, you're just wondering how does this all go together? Again, setting the stage for this scene in Luke, this idea of peace, the prince of peace, it comes up on the night of Jesus's birth earth. So we have these shepherds. The shepherds are in the same region. This is Luke two in the same regions. Shepherds were staying in the fields and they're keeping a watch at night over their flock. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, don't be afraid for, look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all people. So angels talking to shepherds the night of Jesus's birth, and they say, today in the city of David, a savior was born for you. Who is the Messiah? The Lord. This will be the sign for you. You're going to find the baby wrapped tightly in cloth, laying in a manger or the feeding trough of animals. Suddenly there was a multitude of heavenly hosts with angels praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest heavens, and do you see it there? Peace on earth to people he favors.
When the angels came, angels, God's messengers, angels come to shepherds and say, this baby's born and a part of the message is peace on earth, peace on earth Again. Do you see here the thing that is long for being peace? It comes with a person. Now, I don't know your relationship with anxiety. I know I felt anxious about different things this week. It seems like it's a human condition, some more debilitating than others, and yet here is the Bible, which is God's revelation to us saying, I'm about peace. I'm about your peace. I'm invested. The thing you long for of having peace. That's what I want for you. But you need to understand that it comes through a person. Now, you can go to therapy. There's nothing wrong with therapy. You can change your circumstances. You can have your prescriptions. These things are not bad.
Those things are graces that God provides for us. But you need to at the same time understand that when the Bible talks about peace, the Bible hitches that solution to a person. You cannot have the solution without a person. You can adapt, you can cope. Medication is awesome. It oftentimes helps you get your head above water. If you're in that debilitating place of anxiety, all that stuff is great, but you need to understand that Jesus came to give you this peace that is well, it says in the Bible that it passes understanding a lot of therapy is here's what you understand here. Let's get into why is your peace disturbed? Why are you feeling anxious? And the Bible is not opposed to that, but it says that God can provide a peace that goes beyond our understanding. But you have to understand, you don't get to have it without Jesus.
Later on in Jesus's ministry, he talked to his disciples who dealt with a lot of anxiety in their life, and these guys were a panicky mess and you would be a panicky mess if you had seen John the Baptist get beheaded. He's this outsider. He's causing problems and the guy doesn't seem to want to avoid problems like he's happily turning over tables in the temple and raising Lazarus from the dead and rebuking the spiritual leaders of the day, like Jesus is not avoiding scary situations, and yet you're following him. And it's like, yeah, that would kind of be an anxious setting. And so in John 14, here's one of the things that Jesus says. He says, don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. Later on in that same chapter, he says, peace I leave with you because remember, this is the night.
This whole part of the Bible is when Jesus is his. He's the night before he's crucified, so he's giving final instructions to his disciples and he's talking to them about peace right before he's arrested and then crucified, and he's saying, peace, I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give you as the world gives, don't let your heart be troubled or fearful. A little bit later, same, same setting, Jesus is having that last supper with his disciples. Here's another thing that he says. He says, I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace. Where is the peace located in me? You may have peace in me. You'll have suffering in this world.
Be courageous. I've conquered the world. Isn't that interesting that the peace Jesus is talking about is not absent from a promised suffering? You're going to have suffering, but you're going to have peace in me, peace in me, the follower of Jesus, the citizen of the kingdom. They can experience peace because Jesus resolves the conflicts. Jesus resolves the conflicts. Jesus brings with him peace, and he accomplishes, accomplishes a reconciling work so that peace can be experienced. Can you just do a mental exercise with me for a second? Tune back in here for just a second. Genesis three, go with me back to the beginning, right? God creates the heavens in the earth. Adam and Eve, they're in perfect relationship with God. They're at peace. God loves them. They're best friends with God. They would walk together with God in the cool of the day. They're in this beautiful garden.
They're completely naked and they're stoked about it. They don't even know anything's wrong. Nothing is wrong. They're completely naked and they're happy, right? But they disobey God and all of a sudden peace gets sucked out. All of a sudden, what does it say? They see that they are naked and they start taking fig leaves. Have you ever read a fig tree? I had a fig tree in California. They're these giant, giant leaves, but they're not very strong. Can you imagine trying to sow a fig leaf together to cover up your nakedness? That is not a sustainable outfit at all. They must've been freaking out, right? It's like, oh, here's some big leaves. Let's cover up. So they're covering their nakedness, then they're hiding. It says, the humans hid from the Lord. When they hear God approaching like the normal time to walk with God, they hear God coming and they go and hide.
They're not at peace with God. The relationship that beautiful. God's okay with me. I'm okay with God, no sense of guilt, no shame. All that's gone. They're running away from God's presence. And you see a little bit later as God's talking to them, what have you done? Why have you done this? God's inviting them to confess their sins and they confess a little bit, but then they start blaming each other. Adam's like, well, this is the fault of the woman you gave me. She, she's the one that told me to take the fruit. And then she's like, well, it's the serpent. He tricked me and I ate the fruit. There's just this. It's just conflict. It's a mess. You go one chapter later, you have two. Adam and Eve, they have two boys, and they get into a conflict and one kills the other. Can you get a clearer picture of peace is gone out of the picture?
It's a mess because there's no peace, and yet there is in every human this longing, Emma Watson is saying, and Lin Manuel is saying, and like Prince Harry is saying, is like, I want inner peace. And the Bible over and over again is saying, there is peace that's available and Jesus is telling his disciples the night before he's killed, peace, my peace. I'm going to give you my peace. I'm going to leave with you. Peace. I have it for you, but you need me. I have to be your king. You have to be willing to see that the peace that you long for is hitched to me. Again, Jesus brings with him peace. He accomplishes a reconciling work so that peace can be experienced, peace can be experienced.
Jesus fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah as the prince of peace, bringing not just an absence of conflict, but a deep reconciling peace between you and God and between humanity and the people that they are around. There is this now and not yet that we live in. I spoke about this at the beginning, and again, we live in this tension between the present reality of Jesus's peace in our lives, and yet a future hope of complete peace in his second coming, the already of Christians first advent and the not yet of his return. Let me give you four pieces just of practical application and how you can experience God's peace in your life. The first is this. You need to be at peace in your relationship with God. You are designed to be a friend of God. You are designed to receive God's love. And so I would invite you to embrace the peace that from a reconciled relationship with God.
How do you do that? Well, it's through Jesus. You trust that Jesus paid for the junk that you've done, that stuff that has broken your relationship with God. Jesus paid for it. And so you're just invited into a relationship with God by leaning on Jesus, leaning into what Jesus has done for you, accepting what he has done on your behalf. It's a step of faith that God, I'm ready to trust in you. It says literally that at that point you are reconciled with God. Think of these warring nations, Russia against Ukraine, Hamas against Israel. What's lacking there is reconciliation. They are killing each other. There is animosity that exists there, and the Bible says that you are an enemy of God through your actions. You may wish that your actions didn't make you an enemy of God, but they do. And God's love overcomes your and my disobedience.
Your and my disobedience has been absolved through the work of Jesus on the cross. So be reconciled to God. Let Jesus's work. Be effective on your behalf. Don't let Jesus just hang out there on the cross and then be resurrected not to your own benefit like he did it for you. Benefit. Let it be meaningful and purposeful because you just open up your life and say, I receive that. I surrender to that awesome reality. The second thing though is having done that, cultivate this inner peace daily spiritual disciplines like prayer. Have a conversation with God through prayer, like talk to God. He loves the things you want to talk to him about. You can be so honest with him. Read the Bible, meditate on the Bible. Take a little section of the Bible. You don't have to understand the whole thing. Yeah, it's daunting, but just read a little bit of Bible and quiet time.
Cultivate that inner peace where you're letting God be present through his spirit in your life. And then the third thing is peace. In the midst of trials. Recognize there are some things in your life where there are trials. There are some people that disrupt your peace regularly, and it might be something where, and you need to step out of that relationship. But there's some stuff that's unavoidable, right? Money just causes anxiety sometimes, right? Sickness can cause anxiety. Work the future. All of these things can just disrupt peace. And in a sense that's a trial. And I want to encourage you to find peace. Walk with Jesus the midst of those personal struggles and those uncertainties draw strength from his promise. This is John 16. Three is like I give you peace. You're going to suffer, John 1633, you will suffer, but I have peace for you.
Access it. Lean into that promise that he wants to give you peace. And the final thing here is as God is authoring peace in your life. Become an agent of peace to the people around you. Help people be reconciled. Be reconciled to others. Walk in forgiveness, understanding in conflicts and situations. This isn't sloppy forgiveness where people wrong you and you're just like, oh, yeah, it's no big deal. It means that you say, just like a judge who's kind of close to a case and they say, I'm going to recuse myself from the case. I'm going to pass it off to another courtroom. We're called as Christians, to not be the courtroom for the world. We can recuse ourself from all cases and say, I'm not designed. My heart is not designed to be a good judge. I'm going to let you be judged by God.
And God. It says in Romans chapter 12 that he takes vengeance sometimes and he needs space to take vengeance. And if you're going to be the one taking vengeance, you're not leaving space for God to deal with other people. And so the call of scripture is to be a person of peace. Sometimes there's just broken relationships and you can stand in the middle there and you can just help people get along, help people see each other's perspective, help mend relationships. The Bible says that if you're a peacemaker, you're a son of God. You're just being like God by stepping into a setting. It's an art form to be a peacemaker. Sometimes. There's these ambassadors that aren't just ambassadors. They donate a lot of money to the President, but they're ambassadors because they're just gifted at making peace. They're really good at knowing all these moving pieces, these geopolitical pieces.
They're not emotionally driven. They can just kind of step into the space and they can help warring factions be at peace that's bearing out the image of God in your human space. So let me encourage you in those four ways to experience God's presence, this peace of God, the prince of peace, bearing his image or bearing upon you, his kingdom, his reign, and his experience. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for your word and thank you for sending your son Jesus into the world as the prince of peace. And God, we just bring before you our anxiety, and
We wish that we could just flip a switch and turn off those feelings. And so many times we can't even outthink the anxiety. But yet, Lord, when we read the Bible here, it seems like you're about peace and that it's a part of one of your names. It's your title. You're like the prince of peace. You don't just stop wars, but you give internal peace. And I pray for everyone here that you would do that, that you would give us peace in our life, that this would become a living experience. It's this kind of invading peace that just comes in from the outside and just takes a hold of our hearts as you're there and as we're in relationship with you, help us, God, to be peacemakers as well. We want to honor you as we do life this week. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.