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Prince of Peace . . .
A Sermon Preached
by Dr. James Flamming
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Jan. 1, 2006
Scripture: Isaiah 9:6; John 14:27
One of the most dehumanizing things about slavery is that
you do not have your own name. If you are sold, you take the name of your new
owner. One of the great joys that happened when slavery was abolished in our
country, was that former slaves got to pick their own names.
Eight centuries before he came to earth, Jesus picked his
own names. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he game them to Isaiah
and Isaiah announced them to all of us. This past Christmas season we have
looked at those four remarkable names, names which describe who Jesus was and
what he was about.
“Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and his
name shall be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.”
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Wonderful Counselor – the Messiah will be
approachable.
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Mighty God – our Christ will have the power to
change people.
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Everlasting Father – our Lord includes us in
his family.
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Prince of Peace – Anxiety rules our land.
Jesus rules anxiety. He is the Peace Bringer.
Prince. Prince in the Bible refers to one who knows about
and has the authority and power to bring change. For example, the next in line
to be King of England is the Prince of Wales. He knows about and has authority
over the British region called Wales.
When Isaiah speaks of the Christ who will come as the
Prince of peace, he is saying one who knows the geography of peace, and can
bring it into your heart. Early Christians called Jesus the Prince of Life.
(Acts 3:15) Two chapters later he is called, Prince and Savior.
Eight centuries after Isaiah lived, the Prince of Peace
arrived on the scene. What does our Christ have to say about peace? Turn to John
14:27: “Peace, I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as
the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Jesus says, peace is something he is going to leave with
us. “My peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.” Peace is a gift the
Lord leaves at the front door of our hearts. It is a present like a Christmas
present. But we have to open the present. After you celebrated your Christmas
tree, most likely all of the presents were opened. Suppose most of them were
left unopened, wouldn’t that be strange. But that is what happens with the gift
of peace our Lord lays at the doorsteps of our hearts.
Mark well that Jesus gives us a sharp distinction between
the peace the world gives and the peace he gives. “Not as the world gives, do I
give to you.”
Now the ancient Greeks thought of peace as tranquility, as
serenity, as the absence of turmoil. The ancient Hebrews, in contrast, thought
of peace as peace in the midst of turmoil. The word they used then and now is
Shalom. It means for things to be working toward God’s purpose. It is not escape
from difficulty. It is peace in the midst of difficulty. Jesus said, “In this
world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the
world.”
There is a huge difference between peace as the world sees
it and peace as the Prince of Peace gives it.
The Prince of the world would say, “Try harder.” The Prince
of Peace would say, “Trust more.”
The Prince of the world would say, “Control everything.”
The Prince of Peace would say, “Believe and let go.”
The Prince of the world sends a card that says, “Look for
the perfect situation.” The Prince of Peace sends one that says, “Be at peace
within an imperfect situation.”
Here, dear friend, is the issue. Will you live this year
primarily under the influence of the prince of the world, or will you live this
year under the influence of the Prince of Peace.
Jesus, the Prince of Peace, concludes, “Do not let your
hearts be troubled. Do not let them be afraid.”
We, dear friends, are the door-keepers of our hearts. Do
not let . . . We either let the patterns of the world rule us, or the patterns
of the Prince of Peace.
You say, “How?”
Let me give you the four letters word, STOP, to serve as a
reminder and a strategy for bringing peace into a stressful situation.
S – Let’s let S stand for s words like Stop, Slow Down,
Step Back.
Most of us when we find ourselves under great stress, and
anxiety is up to ear-lobe level, we keep doing what we’ve always done.
In Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey, Maya
Angelou tells the story of Annie Johnson, who reviewed her life journey and made
a change. She said, “I looked up the road I was going and back the way I come,
and since I wasn’t satisfied, I decided to step off the road and cut me a new
path.” S stands for stopping and stepping off the road. It can be anyplace, and
for any sliver of time. It is a one minute restoration time.
Marilyn Brown Oden, a Christian writer and speaker of some
renowned, was asked to write an article on solitude. She agreed but as the
deadline approached her creative juices dried up. Her brain seemed frozen. She
couldn’t get anything going. For two weeks failure was the total result.
One night she woke up thinking the words, “The time is
passing, the page is blank. The table is empty.” She tried to still the words
and get some calm instead of panic in her soul. Suddenly she realized that
during those past fifteen days she had worked on her article in the car, on a
plane, and in a bus. She had slept in ten different places and eaten at thirty
different tables. And she was writing an article on solitude!
It was stopping time. And in the subsequent days of silence
God’s grace surrounded her. She wrote later, “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit,
came like a warm quilt and wrapped my disheveled soul in loving silence.”
T – T stand for trust God. We need to trust the tempo of
God’s timing and the purpose behind our difficulties.
We all have the same amount of time. But for some of us it
becomes an enemy, and for others a place to work God in to our lives.
In her little book called the Power of Christmas Prayer,
Stormie Omartian gives us this prayer. “Lord, I know that things don’t always
turn out the way I think they will. Help me to trust your provision for my life,
just as Joseph and Mary trusted You in the stable. Help me to persevere and not
be dismayed or discouraged. . . Help me to trust your purpose for the
uncomfortable things I go through, even though I don’t understand it at the
time.”
For the new Year, Try Harder may not be your answer. Trust
God more, may be more on target. Turn to the person next to you and say, “I
can’t but God can.”
O – O stands for Opening to the Prince of Peace.
Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation, but
be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
I I know a top business man who every time tension and
stress completely overcame him, would rise from his desk, walk to a certain
place in his office where he had placed a Bible and a cross, and there would
stand in silence as he prayed “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength. Lord, I am waiting in your presence, for you are the only one who can
calm my mind and my spirit.” Then he would quote from Proverbs, “Trust in the
Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your
ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. Lord, help me to learn to
trust you. Direct my paths. Please Lord. I am completely dependent upon you.”
Each day that we live we spend a significant amount of time
opening and closing doors, literally and figuratively. What we don’t often
realize is that we are opening or closing our hearts to God constantly also.
Open the doors to God more often.
P – P stands for Presence and new Possibilities.
When we have opened our lives to the Prince of Peace to
stand quietly for a few seconds, or a few minutes, in his presence, an amazing
thing happens. We begin to see new possibilities. First the Presence, then the
Possibility.
A wonderful Old Testament passage illustrates this in
Judges 6. (380) It is the story of Gideon. The Israelites were in trouble. They
were outnumbered, had been conquered, were virtual slaves of the Midianites. God
comes to Gideon and asks him to lead. I love verse 15. It could be a verse for
many of us to describe our first response to God. “But Lord, how can I save
Israel? My clan is the weakest and I am the least in my family.” The Lord
answers him, “I will be with you.” Gideon asks for a sign and God gives it to
him. After Gideon is convinced he builds God an altar. Notice in verse 24 what
he calls it. “So Gideon built an altar to the Lord and called it, “The Lord is
Peace.”
In your heart the Lord is peace.
In your situation, the Lord
brings peace.
In your impatience, the Lord is
still working toward peace.
In your restlessness, the Lord is
putting things together.
Build an altar in your heart called, “The Lord is peace.”
How did God do it. Like in our lives, the answer came in a
totally unexpected manner. If you remember Gideon’s story the answer is
unpredictable and unrepeatable. With only 300 warriors, trumpets, pitchers, and
torches, he routed the Midianites.
Oh, by the way, Gideon was from the smallest of the 12
tribes – Benjamin. But so was the Apostle Paul. Don’t count yourself as
unimportant just because of your background or where you come from.
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