You can take out your Bibles,
and we'll start this morning in Isaiah. I forgot my glasses, so I might
be doing this. Isaiah 9, and we'll start in
verse 6. As you probably noticed, Jeff
especially has noticed that we've had bulletins lately. And it's
been such an amazing blessing that Joe emailed those out every
year, every week for years. So I have hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of bulletins and he sent them in word format so
I can alter and change and copy and paste and it's a blessing.
It feels like he's still here in a way, like he wrote those
words this morning. And they're perfect. The title of my message
this morning is called Prince of Peace. And all those names, and we'll
talk a little bit in Isaiah about it, but we're gonna specifically
focus on the title Prince of Peace this morning. But all those
names given to a newborn. The wondrous counselor, mighty
God, prince of peace, the everlasting father, just simply does not
make sense to us. It doesn't make sense to the
natural mind. How can a child be a mighty God? But how can
a man be a mighty God? How can he be fully man and fully
God at the exact same time? It is not possible in our minds. It is only possible in Christ.
And I just, I don't know, I'm really thankful for what Joe
left behind. He left a lot behind for us, and I just wanted to
mention that. So Isaiah 9, chapter, or chapter
nine, verse six. I should have been turning to
it while I talked. All right. 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 increase 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. So as a family, Katie and I and
the kids, every Christmas season have kind of a tradition. One
weekend, usually in December, we go downtown, we have dinner,
and then we go see a play at the Orpheum. And usually it is,
they do an annual showing of Christmas Carol, Scrooge. Well,
we've gone three years in a row, and after seeing Scrooge a couple
times, that's enough. So we decided to try a different
show this year. And we saw that Prince of Peace was showing at
the Orpheum in early December. It was a musical story telling
the birth of Christ. And I am, well we called me,
quite often we call me an old crotchety guy. I tend to leer
away from those things. Anytime anything about our Lord
is turned into entertainment, I just don't feel, I just feel
uncomfortable. Even when it's got good intentions,
and sometimes it's perfectly fine, but it makes me a little
bit uncomfortable. But we went, and most of the
show was not that bad. I was just hoping they wouldn't
incorporate some strange theology or modern twists, and for the
most part, they didn't. And that's not what I'm here
to talk about today. It's just kind of the setting up how I got here. The show was actually not bad
at all. It was pretty talented people and it was pretty good
until the end when a guy came out and asked everyone there
if anybody wanted to give their heart to Jesus and accept Him
and stand up at the moment and that's when we left. But the
title of the show was Prince of Peace and I was thinking about
that. And so many things in the Bible you
hear over and over and over, especially if you're raised in
a home where you hear about the Bible. And you hear so many of
these aspects, whether it's Bible stories or common phrases like
Prince of Peace, and you hear them, and I, for me, almost stop
thinking about it. I just take it for what it is,
Prince of Peace, mighty counselor, or wonderful counselor. And I
started thinking about that, Prince of Peace, what an interesting
title. It's said quite often, especially
Christmas time of year, you hear it all the time. But what does
it mean? What does Prince of Peace mean? Why does Christ have the title
Prince of Peace? I mean, it's given him, it's
one of the first things mentioned about him. I mean, he was just
born. One of the first things mentioned
is that he's the Prince of Peace. Why the Prince of Peace? Because
peace is needed, desperately. If peace is needed, that's proof
of a conflict. If there is no conflict, you
already have peace. So if peace is needed, there's
a reason it is needed. There's a conflict of some kind.
What is that conflict? For what reason is peace needed? Almost all of modern day Christianity
is focused so much on this world. on our lives here. What God can do for your life.
You hear a lot of, I was awful and then I found Christ and now
I'm this much better. Or my life was so hard and then
I accepted Christ into my heart and now my life is this much
better. That is not the peace of which
Christ is the Prince. There is no guarantee anywhere
in the scriptures that you will be a better person or that your
life will be better in really any way on this earth, as a believer
or not. Matter of fact, it's quite the
opposite. You will never become a better
person. That's what it tells us. and life will not get easier. It says that specifically, you
will have trouble. So that is not the peace of which
Christ is the prince. Now don't get me wrong, knowing
Christ and him crucified can give you a certain level of peace
when things aren't peaceful in your life. But it won't make
things peaceful I spoke on this a few weeks ago,
and actually Bernie talked about it last week too, that knowing
God is sovereign in every way will give you a level of peace
when times are difficult. Comfort in knowing that even
in times of hardship, sadness, brokenness, the plain truth that
God is in control gives us a kind of peace that only God's people
can have. But that is not the peace of
which Christ is the prince. What is the conflict? What needs
to be resolved? Why is peace so desperately needed
that God had to come to earth to be the prince of peace? The war, the conflict, is between
us and God. And that is the one place you
never want to be, is at war with the Lord of all things. But that's exactly where we are
naturally. That's what we're born into. We are the bloodline of Adam
and Eve back in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve sinned against God
and it set into motion the condemnation and cursedness of every human
to ever live. They were cursed and separated
from God, literally sent out of the Garden of Eden. Separated
from God. Think about that. Adam and Eve
were with God. Something we can't Describe or
it's unspeakable. We can't imagine that they were
with God They to be with him the source of every good thing
The source of all life the source of all love the only source of
light in the world they were with him they experienced that
and Then it was taken away I would imagine there couldn't
be anything worse than that. To be with God and to fully experience
being with the creator of the world on a daily basis and to
have that taken away. All of life and love and light
was taken away from them, separated from God. The conflict had begun. The conflict for which peace
is needed started right there. At that moment, mankind's natural
state was at war with God. We naturally love sin and we
naturally hate God. And only God can change that. Separated from God, the conflict
from which we need peace. Are you at war with God? In your natural state, in your
flesh? Yes, you are. And believers are shown that. It's like the very first thing
that happens when God opens someone's eyes or softens someone's heart,
is to see their position, their natural state inside of God,
and to know they need a Savior. So in your human nature, in your
flesh, you are an enemy of God. That is the war. That is the
conflict. There's a separation between
man and God, a barrier, a dividing wall of hostility. Peace was
needed, but our despicable, sinful state of anger towards God and
internal filth, along with God's perfection in being justice,
in being just, there could be no peace. There can be no peace when someone
is so filthy and God demands perfection. We needed a prince of peace. We are the definition of hopeless.
We have no hope in ourselves. The scriptures point out on multiple
occasions calling us dead in our transgressions and sins.
Not sick, not wounded, not in need of help, dead. Of no help
to ourselves, what can a dead man do to make himself alive? We needed a prince of peace.
One who could break the barrier. One who could cross the divide. One who could satisfy God's wrath
and justice. One who could reconcile us with
God. One who could give us atonement.
Atonement is, as Joseph said multiple times, at one meant.
Bring them back together. God and his people separated
with an uncrossable divide. And there is only one who could
do these unimaginable, unspeakable acts of love and sacrifice, and
that's Jesus Christ. Turn to Ephesians 2, verse 14. It is spelled out so clearly
here. Ephesians 2, 14. for he himself is our peace. He who has made the two one and
has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. By
abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations,
his purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the
two and thus making peace. and in this, one body to reconcile
both of them to God through the cross by which he was put to
death, or put to death their hostility. Making one man out of the two,
placing us in him so that we can approach God in Christ. It
is the only way to break that barrier. to break that wall. The only peace that can be given
to heal that conflict. Why is Christ the Prince of Peace?
Because there is no way to have peace with God without Christ. The only true peace that matters
is peace with God. Peace in this world means absolutely
nothing. It's fleeting, it's fickle, and
it will come to an end, as does everything in this world. Peace
with God is eternal. Peace with God the Judge. Peace
with God the Father. And there is no way to have peace
with God without Jesus Christ. It is such a blessing to call
him our Prince of Peace, to have a small understanding, to be
given a small understanding of what he's done for us. We were
separated from every good thing. We were separated from God. We'd
become enemies to God with no hope of fixing that ourselves. If you turn to Romans 5 verse
1. Romans 5 verse 1. Therefore,
since we have been justified through faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God. We are no longer His enemy. Instead,
we are adopted as His children, including every good blessing
that has ever been. God, who is by nature our enemy
and judge, is now by the Spirit our Father, who loves us immeasurably because of the peace that our
Prince has purchased for us. But peace isn't free. How was this peace obtained?
In a way that only the Word of God, the Son of God, could have
done it. He laid down his rightful place
above all things to become a lowly man. He lived a life teaching, a life
of persecution, all with the ultimate goal of receiving the
indescribable judgment and punishment from God that we deserve. That is our Prince of Peace. He says in John 14, 27, he says,
peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. Not as the world
gives do I give you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. I give you my peace, peace with
God. Which is what we desperately
need. God's people have peace with
God. That peace has been fully earned
and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
That peace cannot be lost. That peace cannot be added to. That peace cannot be changed.
If you go back into Isaiah where we started, it says in verse
seven, of the greatness of his government and peace, there will
be no end. The peace that he has earned,
he has earned forever. The peace that he paid for is
ours forever. We have a complete and perfect
peace with God. All the conflict is gone. We
belong to him. In Isaiah, it says, you are mine.
Just like the way a loving father would say to his beloved child,
you are mine. And I will do everything to put
you where I want you to be, to take care of you. As a father
here, there's only so much I can do. But as a father, the orchestrator of everything,
he can do everything. So that peace we have is perfect,
flawless, and never-ending. So when Christmastime rolls around
and the title of Prince of Peace starts being used, remember,
he is literally our Prince of Peace. Only he, our Prince of Peace,
has made it so God can be just and we can be justified. He alone
has guaranteed that there is no more conflict, no more war, no more enemies
with God, no more sin to be punished. He alone has created peace between
God and His people. Jesus Christ alone is our Prince
of Peace. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you so much.
We thank you for being our Prince of Peace. For paying for our peace with
God. For guaranteeing a place with
you. Even though we have earned no
place, we deserve no place. And in our nature, probably wouldn't
even want that place. But because of you and your love
for us, we love you back. Because of you, we have peace. Because of you, we are able to
approach God in our time with confidence in the name of Christ. We thank you, Jesus, for this
above all things. We pray it in your name, amen.