Prince of Peace
Advent 2023 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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How many of you here today are only children?
Congratulations! Like me, your parents must have gotten everything right on their first try!
We had our grandchildren and great-grandchildren at the house yesterday for the family Christmas. And I was struck by how different Christmas is for them, compared to how it was for me when I was growing up.
Let me give you some examples:
Only children never have to share their new Christmas toys 10 seconds after opening them.
Only children don’t have to worry about a little brother who’s already finished opening his presents and now wants to “help” you with yours.
As an only child, Christmas morning is a great time to catch a few more winks, because you don’t have to worry about siblings stealing your presents.
When an only child opens something awesome, all progress on the rest of the presents stops while they examine every. single. piece.
Christmas morning in a one-child home can be a quiet, peaceful, leisurely affair. Try THAT with brothers and sisters.
When we have the whole family over for Christmas or other events, I’m always struck by the level of noise. There is no quiet setting for kindergarten-aged boys. At least not one that sticks.
And as much as we love having them visit, I will admit there’s something special about the peace that settles around the house when everybody’s gone and the noise of all that hollering has faded.
I was revelling in those peaceful moments as I sat in my recliner after everyone had left last night. Actually, I was dozing off.
But as I was dozing, it occurred to me that “peace” is our Advent theme this week and that I was already enjoying this wonderful gift.
And then, I was asleep in my chair and snoring. And the peace was broken for everyone else.
Throughout this Advent season, we’ve been studying the titles given for the Child of Promise in the familiar prophecy about the birth of Jesus that’s found in Isaiah, chapter 9. Let’s read it together:
6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God. Eternal Father. Prince of Peace.
You might recall that I’ve said this prophecy includes both near-term and long-term elements. In the near term, the birth of Jesus fulfills the prophecy of a son who would be given to us.
But the rest of the prophecy points to a king and His kingdom. And this part of the prophecy hasn’t yet come to pass.
Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah looks forward in time, past the birth of Jesus; past the crucifixion, the resurrection, and Jesus’ ascension back into heaven.
Isaiah looks past the still-to-come events of the Great Tribulation and into the Millennial Reign of Jesus and describes the kind of King Jesus will be.
He’ll be the Wonderful Counselor, whose perfect wisdom and love give Him perfect insight into the needs of His people.
He’ll be the Mighty King whose triumph over the unrighteous ushers in a time of abundance and contentment like the world has never known. And His government will grow continually in greatness and glory.
He’ll be the Eternal Father who is the very source of eternal life.
And He’ll be the Prince whose rule is characterized by “peace.”
But what does Isaiah mean by “peace”?
Well, the Hebrew word that’s translated as “peace” here is “shalom.” And shalom has a rich range of meanings.
To be sure, it means the absence of hostilities, which is probably the meaning most of us attach to the word, “peace.”
The Bible tells us that all who are lost in their sins are enemies of God. After all, sin is rebellion against God’s perfect righteousness.
When Adam and Eve ate from the one tree in the Garden of Eden whose fruit God had said was off limits, they were rebelling against His commandment. They wanted to be able to decide for themselves what was right and what was wrong.
When you or I gossip or lie or cheat or sin in any other way, great or small, we’re doing the same thing. We’re saying we don’t want to be constrained by the limitations of God’s good commandments. We’d rather decide for ourselves what’s right and what’s wrong, thank you very much.
And so, in the sinfulness of our lost lives, we set ourselves up as rebels against God’s righteous kingdom. In our sins, we declare war on God. We oppose what He calls good, and we embrace what He calls evil.
But Jesus came to reconcile mankind to God. He came to offer a treaty of peace between sinful man and His righteous Father.
It’s a treaty signed with His own blood, shed on a cross at Calvary.
There, the sinless Son of God took upon Himself the sins of all mankind — along with their just punishment — so that all who trust Him as their Lord and Savior can be saved unto eternal life.
For believers, there is no longer any need to fear God’s judgment, because He poured it out upon His own Son at the cross. Jesus was judged at the cross for your sins and mine. He paid the penalty that was rightfully yours and mine to bear.
And in Him, we who have placed our faith in Jesus now have peace with God. Our sins have been forgiven, and we have been welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven, not as servants, but as adopted sons and daughters of God.
But this only begins to scratch the surface of what’s bound up in Isaiah’s prophetic promise of the advent of the Prince of Peace, the Prince of Shalom.
Actually, my little story about the great-grandchildren reveals that we have a pretty wide range of meanings for the English word, “peace,” as well.
There were no hostilities during our Christmas gathering, but the quiet that settled on our house once everyone was gone could certainly be called peaceful.
But shalom encompasses an even wider variety of meanings.
The word “shalom” appears more than 250 times in the Old Testament in more than 200 separate verses.
About 10 percent of those appearances are greetings or farewells. Another 25 percent or so are references to the absence of hostilities, whether physical or mental.
But in fully 65 percent of the other appearances — well over 125 verses — what seems to be meant by “shalom” is fulfillment.
In these cases, shalom “describes a completeness, a success, a maturity, a situation which is both prosperous and secure — a state of well-being which is a direct result of the beneficent presence of God.” [John I Durham, “Shalom and the Presence of God, in Proclamation and Presence: Old Testament Essays (Richmond: John Knox Press, 1970), 276-277.]
In Genesis, chapter 15, for example, God tells Abraham:
“As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.
What God is promising Abraham here is that when he dies, he will have accomplished his divine purpose. He will be complete and fulfilled.
Similarly, when King David sends 10 young men to visit Nabal and greet him in David’s name, he directs them to bless every part of Nabal’s life with wishes of shalom.
and thus you shall say, ‘Have a long life, peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.
The idea is that David is wishing for Nabal to experience the completeness, fulfillment, and contentment of shalom in the presence of God.
And what you need to understand is that the Bible never pictures shalom in this sense apart from God.
Indeed, God says through the prophet Isaiah that the people of Judah had failed to experience that shalom because of their disobedience. Look at the verse in Isaiah, chapter 48.
“If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
The word that’s translated as “:well-being” there is shalom.
And what God’s saying through Isaiah is that it was the people’s disobedience to God that kept them from experiencing the fullness of life and the abundance of blessing that they COULD have experienced in the Promised Land.
True shalom — true peace — is only available in the presence of God.
Nowhere is this more clear in Scripture than in the Aaronic blessing. You’ll recognize this blessing, because I use it as my benediction most weeks. It comes from Numbers, chapter 6.
22 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
23 “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:
24 The Lord bless you, and keep you;
25 The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you;
26 The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’
27 “So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”
Each line of this blessing is longer than the one before it, and the whole blessing builds to a crescendo culminating in the word “shalom.” God is the subject of each line, and each line has two verbs, with the second expanding on the first. [Cole, R. Dennis. Numbers. Vol. 3B. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000, quoting Wenham, p. 129]
In each line, we see God moving toward His people and then acting on their behalf.
The Lord bless you, and keep you;
So, in the first line — “The Lord bless you and keep you” — we see that blessings — whether children, health, welfare, protection, or whatever — all come from God.
And the greatest of blessings for the people of Israel were God’s presence with them and the fact that they were kept by Him. That they belonged to Him.
The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you;
Here, in the second line of this blessing, we see the beginning of a movement from the general blessing of verse 24 to something more personal and specific.
Here, the picture is God turning His face toward us so we can experience the glory of His presence, so we can experience the fullness of His grace.
And note that grace isn’t something we can earn. Otherwise, it would be compensation. “God extends his graciousness out of his steadfast covenant love and self-determined will to bless whom he desires.” [R. Dennis Cole, Numbers, vol. 3B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 131.]
So, we have a picture here of the God who blesses and keeps those who are His. It’s a picture of the creator of the universe turning His attention — and His grace — toward those who love Him.
And then, in the third line of the blessing, we see the most personal picture of life in the presence of God.
The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’
When the Lord lifts up His countenance, His face, to us, it’s a picture of His love and affection. Think of it as God smiling at you.
But the promise isn’t that God will smile on us. The promise is that God’s love and affection for those who live in His presence will bring them fulfillment and contentment. That they’ll experience the life for which they were created.
For the nation of Israel, God made His presence among them known through a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day as they wandered in the wilderness.
Later, He would be present among them at the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle and then the temple.
And so, when the prophet Ezekiel describes watching God’s glory departing the temple and then leaving Jerusalem completely, what we should understand is that God has withdrawn from them any chance of experiencing shalom.
But that’s not the end of the story, because 700 years after Isaiah’s prophecy, Jesus Christ was born. He is Emmanuel — God with us.
Jesus is God’s ultimate expression of shalom for mankind. Indeed, the angels announced His birth as a message of peace. Speaking to the shepherds, they said:
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
Jesus fulfilled the promise of God with us. He brings peace with God through His suffering on the cross. He promises fulfillment and completeness through the Holy Spirit to all who follow Him in faithful obedience. Listen to what He said to His disciples at the Last Supper:
26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
27 “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
Jesus knew He would be crucified, that He would be raised from the dead, and that He would ascend back into heaven. But He also knew that His Father would be sending the Holy Spirit to indwell those who had turned to Him in faith.
And at least part of His promise here about peace is that the presence of the Holy Spirit in the disciples’ lives will enable them to accomplish what God has planned for them. They’ll be fulfilled and complete.
Yes, peace is the absence of hostilities. And that’s a wonderful promise for we who were enemies of God.
We who deserve God’s wrath and judgment can now, through faith in Jesus, experience life in the very presence of God by the Spirit who dwells within us.
No longer God’s enemies, we can now experience the fullness of His grace, His love, and His affection as He turns His face toward us and smiles.
And in the arms of His grace — in fact, ONLY in the arms of His grace — we find fulfillment. We find contentment. We find completeness.
There — even in the midst of this broken world — we find the blessings of this relationship for which we were made. There, we find a kind of peace that the world can’t offer. There, we find a peace that can only be found in the Prince of Peace.
He came to us in the most unassuming manner we could have imagined. As a baby born to a poor, young virgin in a stable in Bethlehem.
As He lay there in the manger, I wonder if He caught young Mary’s eye. And I wonder whether she remembered the Aaronic blessing when He lifted up His countenance to her.
On this night, when heaven came to earth, when God broke into our history in the person of His incarnated Son, Mary looked into the face of God. And I’m certain she felt peace.
Do you know this peace? Do you know this Prince of Peace?
If you’ve never confessed your sins and turned to Him in faith that He alone can bring peace between you and God, then you’ll never find true fulfillment and true contentment.
You’ll never experience the satisfaction of being made complete in the presence of God.
But these things CAN be yours today. Come on up during this next song, and let’s talk about how true peace can be yours. Come on up and let me introduce you to my Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Now, today is Lord’s Supper Sunday. This observance is important to the fellowship of the church. It brings us together in a unique way and reminds us that we belong to one another in Christ Jesus.
It reminds us of the love that He has for us and the love we are called to have for one another.
Jesus commanded us to observe the Lord’s Supper as an act of obedience to Him, as a way of proclaiming that we who follow Him in faith belong to Him, and as a way of reminding us what He did for us.
The Lord’s Supper reminds us that our hope for salvation rests entirely on the sacrifice He made on our behalf at the cross. It reminds us that our life is in Him.
And the fact that we share bread from one loaf reminds us that we are, together, the one body of Christ. It reminds us that we’re called to unity of faith, unity of purpose, and unity of love.
And it reminds us that, just as He gave up the glory He had in heaven, we who’ve followed Him in faith are called to give up any claims we might think we have to our own lives and follow Him.
It reminds us that, as we’ve been given the testimony of the Holy Spirit within us, we are to share OUR testimony of salvation by grace through faith.
If you’re a baptized believer who is walking in obedience to Christ, I would like to invite you to join us today as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
Now, this sacred meal dates all the way back to when Jesus shared it with His disciples at the Last Supper on the night before He was crucified.
The conditions during the Last Supper were different than the conditions we have here today, but the significance was the same as it is today.
Jesus told His disciples that the bread represented His body, which would be broken for our transgressions.
Let us pray.
26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
As Jesus suffered and died on that cross, his blood poured out with His life. This was always God’s plan to reconcile mankind to Himself.
“In [Jesus] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.”
Let us pray.
27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you;
28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.
Take and drink.
“Now, as often as we eat this bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
Maranatha! Lord, come!
Here at Liberty Spring, we have a tradition following our commemoration of the Lord’s Supper.
Please gather around in a circle, and let us sing together “Blest Be the Tie that Binds.”