The Prince of Peace | December 10th, 2023
Call To Worship: From Psalm 46
God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! …“Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.” ____________________________
Advent 2023 The Return of the King
The Prince of Peace
Micah 5.2-5 & John 14.23-27
December 10, 2023
Second Sunday in Advent
Big Idea: Jesus is the only source of lasting peace
INTRO: There are 15 days until Christmas. That means you have only two weeks left to buy presents. For those of you who have not finished, or started your shopping, I’m can help you this morning with some suggestions.
Every year Neiman Marcus compiles their ultimate Fantasy Christmas Gift catalogue. It is deliberately outrageous, and their 2023 catalog is no exception. So, if you still need to shop for a loved one, consider one of these modest gifts:
How about the most technologically advanced sedan ever made? The Cadillac Celestiq offers Super Cruise hands-free driver assistance technology, advanced HD interactive displays, an individualized four-zone microclimate system and a SmartGlass panoramic roof that can be customized to suit each passenger’s distinct preference. It will only set you back $975,000
Is your loved one creative? Disney is offering an opportunity for your recipient to star in a short animated video and voice their own character, enjoy a private tour of the studios in Burbank and receive an invitation to a Disney film premiere in Hollywood. $510,000
How about Yachting in Indonesia for nine days and a $150,000 voucher for jewelry from Neiman Marcus $485,000
Me, I like the simple things. For only $210,000 You’ll can enjoy two tickets to the Opening Ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games in Paris plus two additional events. You’ll also receive signed Ralph Lauren Team USA clothing and enjoy exclusive access to Team USA House.
As amazing as the Ultimate Fantasy Gifts may be, they pale in comparison to the real Ultimate Gift we celebrate at Christmas. As followers of Jesus Christ, the ultimate gift is not found on the glossy pages of the Neiman Marcus catalog, rather, it is a gift of peace and life forever with the one whom God sent, as promised long ago.
READ Micah 5.2-5
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past. The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the woman in labor gives birth. Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land. And he will stand to lead his flock with the Lord’s strength, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored around the world. And he will be the source of peace. (NLT)
Read John 14.23-27
Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. 24 Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. 25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. (NLT)
Which would you rather have: your choice of anything in the Neiman Marcus Catalog OR peace of mind and heart?
Some of you may be thinking, that self driving car just might give me peace of mind.
This time of year our culture hyper-focuses on gift giving. We are always looking for the perfect gift for those on our list. But, what if the gift they need most, is the easiest to find, and the price was already paid for you?
In verse 27 Jesus said, “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
We all know there is a lot of stress and unrest in the world right now. Even though we are removed from much of the global and political turmoil in our little nook of the world, many people here still struggle with finding true, lasting peace. Maybe they are looking in the wrong places.
It was no different in past generations.
Consider the situation surrounding the writing of our first passage from Micah—It was 701 B.C. on the Eve of the Assyrian invasion. God’s people have ignored God once again and now find themselves in a situation they can’t fix. The mighty Assyrians are about to wage war against them. Everything they know and love is about to be destroyed. The Assyrians attack Jerusalem by obliterating the Temple and destroying most of the buildings in the Holy city. The majority of the people are killed, and the remainder are taken prisoner and forced into slavery.
A few years later, the Babylonians go to war against Assyria. They win and take the Jewish slaves as their own. For 70 years the Jews will live in exile in Babylon. Can you imagine the stress God’s people were under?
As Micah proclaims the prophecy of oncoming destruction, the people listen in fear. God seems to be abandoning them, yet it was their arrogance that got them into their mess.
The Assyrians who brag of what they are going to do to Jerusalem think it is by their own cunning and power that they will rule the world.
Micah prophecy proclaims God’s reality: God is gathering the enemies of Israel and Judah and allowing them to be victorious. God’s people have turned away from God and now they are facing the consequences of their pride. But even in that pride, God gives a glimpse of the hope for peace that is to come in Micah 5: But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past…
Bethlehem—home of Boaz, Jesse and David.
God had promised King David that one from his line will reign forever, and Micah reminds God’s people of that incredible promise: A deliverer will come: Hebrew-Messiah, Greek-Christ. One from the distant past: the line of David—with the Lord’s majesty. Highly honored around the world—the source of Peace.
Fast forward 700-years.
Jesus is talking with His disciples. It is getting near the end of His ministry and He tells them what is coming, and it is amazing: Jesus must leave, but He is going to give them two things: the Holy Spirit to guide His followers, and a Gift: Peace.
During Advent we focus on the Peace Jesus offers. You hear it in our Christmas music: Songs of peace, Peace on Earth, Good will towards men. Peace, Peace, Peace, Messiah- Wonderful, Counselor, the everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Jesus promises peace, yet we are living in difficult times with wars, conflicts, economic failure, social unrest and despair.
ILLUS: Thursday Next to Zabars Jewish deli and market. Posters of Israeli hostages covered in red paint and ripped. Spray pain Death to Israel. Police guarding the corner.
Latter after a show Times Square. All lit up for Christmas and Hanukkah. Three protesters turned into hundreds shouting anti-Israeli chants and glued themselves to Times Square.
Where is the peace Jesus promised?
Where was it for the Jews who were about to be taken as slaves by the Assyrians?
The Peace of Christ that we sing of at Christmas is a peace that is born in hope not in ourselves or our circumstances, but in God.
When the Assyrians were marching up to Jerusalem with their massive armies and fierce warriors, the citizens of Judah thought they could control the situation, plan their counter-attack, reinforce the walls, put warriors at the gates and troops in the villages.
They failed to seek God and God’s will. The only One who could change the situation was not sought.
It is a lesson for us in what NOT to do.
When times are tough, Jesus is here.
God is sovereign—meaning He reigns supreme. We struggle to look beyond our time and circumstance to see the bigger picture of God’s actions to bring about His ultimate Gift—lasting peace.
We look at our situation and think that means the absence of wars—the absence of war is not the definition of peace.
Think of the periods of time when our country was not at war—was there lasting peace?
No- we had and still have Social unrest, racial discrimination, economic uncertainty.
The peace God promises, and the gift Jesus gives to His followers is both now as we struggle with daily life, and also future, to the coming Kingdom when Jesus will return and God’s Kingdom will have no end. This is the source for our peace today, having faith that God’s promises will come true as they have in the past for what God promises for the future.
The foundation of our Peace is not based on our circumstances or our ability to keep a stiff upper lip and work through it. Our peace is squarely on the promises of God.
Here is one of the great promises of Jesus that remind us that even our current troubles will pass away, yet nothing rob of us peace we have in Jesus. This is the beginning of the conversation that we read from John 14
John 14.1-4 Jesus says this:
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”
5 “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7 If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”
And then Jesus ends with the promise we read earlier: 27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
Jesus' peace is not the absence of conflict, rather it is God's peace covering usin the midst of conflict.
Sometimes we don’t live in the peace of Jesus because we get anxious or impatient. We wonder why God is taking so long to fix the situation. Sometimes it is in the waiting that God is doing His best work in us to reach us patience, obedience, trust, and peace.
We think a few weeks or months is too long. Over 700-years passed between Micah’s prophecy and the fulfillment in Jesus’ birth.
God’s people once again cried out for the Messiah to deliver them from Roman occupation. They could only focus on the present. They could not see the fulfillment of the promise of David, the One who would bring God’s peace to all people, Jew and Gentile. A kingdom without borders, without conflict, whose common language centers on the one who created the Heavens and Earth.
700-years after near annihilation, the hope of the world was given to a young unmarried girl.
Though a virgin, she was to have a child and name Him Jesus.
Luke 1.29-33: Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
People look for peace in many places, but what they find is not lasting. It can’t be found in the ultimate car, or the ultimate trip, it can only be found in the ultimate gift from God, Himself, given as sacrifice to cover our debt of sin.
Jesus’ redemption gives us lasting peace, now and forever. It doesn’t rust, or break, or wear out or go out of style.
As followers of Jesus and recipients of His peace, we work for peace in the world on where we can. Because we have God’s peace in belonging to Him through Jesus, our peace is not dependent on time frames or politics. In fact, we are able to work for peaceful solutions in conflict because we can see beyond the current crisis to the hope of what is to come. We can continue to work for peace among people because we know that conflict will come and go, but our peace is eternal.
Most importantly, we can point others to the peace we find in Jesus.
The promise of the Peace of Jesus Christ gives us hope to work for peace on Earth and proclaim to the world everlasting peace.
Matthew 1.23 Reminds us of God’s promise peace from Isaiah:
23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’ ”
Our peace is found in Immanuel—God with us, and in us, and through us.
Immanuel is the gift of Peace God promised to send to a desperate people.
Immanuel is the gift of peace revealed in the birth of Jesus.
Immanuel is the gift of peace Jesus continues to give through the Holy Spirit.
The peace of Jesus Christ is the ultimate Gift of Christmas. God is with us.
What are you going to do in the 15 days until Christmas to give the gift of Jesus’ peace to others?
PRAY
BENEDICTION: 2 Thessalonians 3.16 & 18
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all… May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.