Prince of Peace

“Peace on earth, goodwill toward men!” What wonderful sounding words of idyllic eutopia! Words that seem further from reality than perhaps ever before.

In a world where peace of any kind seems so hard to come by, the promise of peace at Christmas might just be the hope we didn’t even realize we needed.

Hello, my name is Jeremiah Ramer and I wanna welcome you to Blue Oaks! I used to be on staff here in the early years and I have continued following this great church. I am blown away by how God has grown you from infancy to where you are today.

I became the Lead Pastor of Crossroads Church in West Texas in 2020 but Matt and I go way back, and I have a fondness and a love for your pastor. I am so proud of the man that he is. Through everything, his love for Jesus and people have never wavered.

I also worked closely with both Joe Hartley and Joe Honzik as well as Jordan Litvinchuk and many of you, I see a lot of familiar faces. I just love Blue Oaks and everything this church stands for and it’s an honor to be able to speak to you today.

Here we are only 4 days away from Christmas!

If you haven’t done your Christmas shopping yet…you are in serious trouble.

I think I saw a few husbands freak out just now.

There are probably a few women who are thinking, if my husband doesn’t come through this Christmas…he’s gonna spend the month of January sleepin’ on the couch!

I’m such a great husband that I wait until the very last minute to get my wife a Christmas gift.

I have my reasons! For example, I love the adrenaline rush of a near-death experience in the mall parking lot tryna get the very last parking space on planet earth.

In fact, you know what, raise your hand this morning if you’re willing to admit, “Hey, I have a little bit of road-rage during the holidays…”

Ok, thank you for honesty…

Nobody’s ridin’ with you again!

Yeah, it’s just crazy to go anywhere during the holiday season really.

You just don’t go to the mall after Thanksgiving if you’re lookin’ for peace on earth!

All this talk about crazy drivers and shopping malls and the gifts you still need to buy is causing your blood pressure to spike.

The parties you have between now and Christmas, the food you need to prepare this week, the fact that your in-laws are coming to stay with you for Christmas…

…and the fact that your husband only happened to mention the incoming in-laws to you this morning…on your way to church! All this has you more stressed than you’ve ever been in your entire life!

Many of us find ourselves overwhelmed…not with good tidings and holiday cheer, but with exhaustion, disappointment, and even depression.

All the traditions and celebrations can quickly turn into expectations and commitments. The financial burden is at its peak during the Christmas season.

Some of you have some very stressful family connections that blow up around the holidays. It’s supposed to be a very Merry Christmas but you find when your family get’s together it feels a lot more like a Jerry Springer Christmas.

It can feel impossible at times to find peace in a holiday world gone mad.

But what if I told you that one of the greatest gifts God has ever given is the gift of peace.

Christmas has become known as a time of giving and receiving gifts and God is actually at the center of that idea.

700 years before the birth of Jesus, the Prophet Isaiah uttered this beautiful promise in Isaiah 9:6: “For 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.”

These four names reflect the nature and character of the Messiah that was to come into the world that first Christmas over 2000 years ago, Jesus the Christ, Son of God, the Savior of the world.

When life feels confusing — He’s a Wonderful Counselor.

When we feel powerless — He’s a Mighty God.

When we feel alone — He’s an Everlasting Father.

When the world feels chaotic — He’s the Prince of Peace.

Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and he’s our Prince of Peace…but “Is Jesus your Prince of Peace?”

Christmas is a celebration of Jesus’ birthday, and our society has sort of turned it into something else. Christmas isn’t about the gifts, it’s not about the traditions, the parties, or even time with family.

“Christmas is a celebration of God’s gift of Jesus to the world.”

Christmas is a time when we celebrate the peace that God’s presence brings to our lives. But many of us are probably wondering, “Where’s that peace? I’m not really feelin it!”

My hope, my prayer for you this morning is that you’ll experience the peace that only the Prince of Peace can offer you.

Maybe right here in this moment in the comfort and the familiarity of one of the few church services you plan to attend this year, you feel more spiritual peace than at any other time in your life.

Maybe you’re wondering where this Prince of Peace has been during the rest of your year, during the craziness of every-day life?

We’re gonna look at Luke chapter 2 in a little bit, but when Jesus was born, the Angels filled the skies over the shepherds in the fields and declared, “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth goodwill toward men!”

In the craziness of this Christmas season, God wants us to find peace in His son Jesus.

Not just peace, like the absence of conflict or war, but true spiritual peace. The kind of peace you need to survive the challenges in your family and in your work.

The kind of peace the Apostle Paul talks about in his letter to the church in Philipi.

This guy Paul has a crazy life story. He wrote his letter to the Philippians from jail in Rome. He was thrown in prison for preaching about Jesus and spent most of the later years in his life in prison.

He wrote in Philippians 4:6-7: “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

“In the midst of the craziness of this world, God wants us to find peace in His son Jesus.”

He wants us to have a peace that transcends understanding. A peace that marks us and sets us apart in a world full of worry and stress.

Let’s start reading in Luke 1:26-31: In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.”

Can you even imagine what Mary must’ve felt in this moment?

I mean if you look through the scriptures you’ll see that whenever an angel of God shows up people are scared to death.

Angles aren’t like the tree-topper your grandma put on top of her Christmas tree. Angels in the Bible are scary and they’re overwhelming.

Notice Gabriel shows up with a message for Mary, but she was terrified and so he had to ease her fears, he told her, “Don’t be afraid!”

That’s because normally when an angel shows up something crazy happens, someone dies, or someone get’s hurt.

These guys are powerful and their presence wasn’t just beautiful, but it was shocking and humbling, to the point that you felt your life was in danger when an angel showed up.

But no worries Mary, this angel isn’t here to kill you…just to tell you that you’re gonna become pregnant.

And…good news, it’s gonna be a boy! Oh, and it’s God’s baby!

Look at Mary’s response in Luke 1:34: “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

I love it. Mary’s like, ummm, Mr. Gabriel, I’m not sure about that, you see, it’s not possible for me to be pregnant, if you catch my drift.

“How is this gonna happen?”

Gabriel says in Luke 1:35: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

Mary was aware of the prophecy about the birth of the Messiah to a virgin.

She would have made the connection immediately to prophecies like the one made by the Prophet in Isaiah in Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

Can you imagine how a humble teenage girl might be shocked or surprised by this news. That somehow God had chosen her to serve in this way.

And then immediately following her surprise and shock, I’m sure terror followed. This was big news.

Anybody try to quietly take back un-wanted Christmas gifts?

Everyone has that one extended family member right?

They’re always gonna get you something that you would NEVER ever wear and so before you even open up their gift you already know that you’re gonna be heading back to the mall to make a return or an exchange.

I sorta wonder if Mary might’ve felt a little bit like that in this moment.

Like, “Wow God, this is a great gift,” but then thinking to herself, “I wonder what the return policy is? Can I give this gift back somehow? I’m just not sure this is something I can handle.”

But Mary doesn’t shy away from this big moment. She responds to Gabriel and to God in Luke 1:38: “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.”

I hope you’re starting to see that Mary didn’t have an easy road to the first Christmas. Even though I’m sure she was wrestling with some serious doubts and worries she didn’t let them keep her from accepting God’s assignment for her.

Worry is anxiousness about an uncertain future. Worry is the opposite of peace. James Bryan Smith defines worry in his book “The Good and Beautiful Life.” He says, “Worry is what happens when we go beyond concern and caution and begin to fear what we can’t control.”

He goes on to say that worry is the root of anxiety and stress. It’s impossible to feel anxious or stressed without the presence of worry in your life.

Proverbs is a book of wise sayings in the Bible and Proverbs 12:25 says, “Anxiety weighs down the heart.”

We now know that worry is one of the worst things for your heart. It’s not just a spiritual weighing down of the heart, but worry will eventually kill you.

Living life without peace is a recipe for a life of pain and sickness, both physically and spiritually.

Peace, on the other hand, is confidence in the face of an uncertain future.

Mary can’t see the future; she’s just going off of what she knows about this Prince of Peace and his track record in her life. She chooses to trust God even in the midst of uncertainty about her future.

She could’ve let her concerns about how her family and her community would treat her cause her to doubt God’s control over her future.

Mary could have easily started predicting the outcomes of this situation for her life. She would be found out, scorned and rejected by the community and then probably stoned to death because of her pregnancy.

But she doesn’t let those uncertainties about her future keep her from trusting God’s plan.

Let’s look at Joseph in Matthew chapter 1 for a second. Starting in verse 19, it says:

Matthew 1:19-21; 24: Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Then Matthew tells us: When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

So obviously the cat is outta the bag at this point. We can’t be sure if Mary went to Joseph first and tried to make her case or if she just started showing a little bit and so then Joseph had a pretty good idea of what was going on.

Can you imagine what that conversation must’ve been like? I mean Mary was trying to tell her fiancé that she didn’t cheat on him and that the baby growing inside of her was God’s Son.

No wonder Joseph felt compassion for Mary, he probably thought she was bonkers! I can just imagine Joseph thinking, “Wow, Mary has totally lost her mind!”

You can just imagine all the emotion he would’ve felt towards her. He was ready to get rid of her quietly so she wouldn’t be disgraced because he still loved her.

You think Joseph was feeling some worry on his journey toward the very first Christmas?

I bet he was more stressed than he’d ever been before.

But when God sent the angel to him in a dream he didn’t ask for a second opinion, he didn’t second guess what God had told him.

Sure, his future seemed uncertain and he was probably still not 100% clear about how all of this was gonna work out but that didn’t matter.

Joseph knew what God wanted him to do next and he didn’t hesitate, he obeyed.

Jesus is called the Prince of Peace and the angels in the fields over the shepherds were saying, “Peace on earth,” but for some reason when I think about that first Christmas, when I think about the birth of Jesus, I don’t get a super peaceful vibe.

I mean a teenage girl named Mary who is already engaged learns that she’s pregnant with God’s Son.

You can just imagine how that went down in the nail salon right? I mean that’s not an easy thing to explain. Like, “Oh, congrats on your little one Mary, you and Joseph must be so excited!”

“Well ummm, actually, it’s not Joseph’s baby, it’s God’s baby.”

“Oh, wow well isn’t that exciting! Congratulations.”

You get what I’m saying. This isn’t a very peaceful story.

Let’s pick up the story back in Luke 2:1-7: In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

Well Mary is ready to pop like any day and they have to make a 100+ mile trip to Bethlehem. They didn’t have a minivan, not even a motorcycle…they had a donkey.

Yes, Mary rode for 100+ miles on the back of a donkey while 9 months pregnant! I can’t think of anything peaceful about that trip. Not one thing.

So they pull into Bethlehem and you know Mary is just chewing Joseph out right? Like, “Joseph, get us a place to stay and hurry before I have this baby while riding on this donkey!”

So Joseph like ties Mary’s donkey to the post and just starts running from hotel to hotel to hotel and there’s nothing, everything is booked solid. Looks like everyone else’s donkey was a lot faster than their donkey.

Joseph comes back to check on Mary and she’s having none of it, “Get me a room Joseph, I mean really, do I have to get the room myself and have the baby?”

Finally, just when Joseph is about to lose hope, one generous inn-keeper offers up his stable…

I’m sure Mary was thrilled!

“Oh, that’s great Joseph, our child, God’s Son, is gonna come into the world in a barn. It’s what I’ve always dreamed about, ya know, with the animals and the animal poop, ya know all the stuff that dreams are made of!”

It’s interesting to think about though isn’t it? Why do you think God in all of his power and incredible wisdom decided that all of the rooms were gonna be sold out that night?

Maybe it was to teach us something about the presence of Jesus in our lives. Follow me here: If you have no room in your heart, in your life for Jesus this Christmas then you’re not gonna be able to experience peace.

If the worries of your life have cluttered your heart and you mind, your soul; with anxiety then there’s no room for the peace that Jesus offers.

And you might be thinking in this moment, ok well, if my heart is full of worry and the stresses of life have crowded Jesus out of my heart and life…what do I do?

That’s a great question. I think the first thing you have to do is ask, “Who is this Jesus guy?” Well Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

“Yeah, but what does that mean?”

The Hebrew for Prince of Peace is Sar Shalom. “Jesus is the Sar Shalom.” Say it with me: “Sar Shalom.”

The Hebrew word Sar is a reference to the one who is in control. It means the Lord, the chief, the general.

The Romans grabbed Sar and it became C-z-a-r and then it morphed into Caesar, like Julius Caesar.

Well Jesus, Jesus is the Sar. He’s the one who’s in charge, he’s the captain, the chief, the master, the Lord.

The Hebrew word Shalom is probably more familiar to you. Shalom is a greeting people would offer one another, and it means rest or peace.

Shalom has an air of completeness or wholeness about it. It has a sort of satisfying feeling to it.

So Jesus is the Sar Shalom, he’s the Lord of rest, the chief of tranquility and serenity. He’s in charge and he offers satisfaction. Jesus is the Sar Shalom, He’s the Prince of Peace!!!

So what you have to do is give the Sar Shalom, the Prince of Peace back his rightful place of Lordship in your life.

You can’t live according to the old life, the old way of thinking. Now you live according to the desire of the Sar Shalom in your life.

Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Galatia in Galatians 5:16: “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

He goes on to say in Galatians 5: 22: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy and peace.”

So if you wanna experience the peace that the Sar Shalom, that Jesus, the Prince of Peace offers then you will have to let the Holy Spirit guide your life.

When we begin to allow the Holy Spirit to guide our lives Jesus gives us a supernatural peace that transcends understanding.

When the Holy Spirit takes over in our lives we begin to experience a peace even in the midst of the worst trials and the greatest pains. Jesus offers us peace in the face of an uncertain future.

In John 14:27 Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Jesus doesn’t offer us peace that we can get anywhere else, he said, “My peace I give you.”

And just like we see in the lives of Mary and Joseph that first Christmas, the Sar Shalom doesn’t bring peace in the way the world defines peace. The Prince of Peace offers you peace that isn’t affected by your circumstances. The Sar Shalom offers you peace that’s immune to the troubles of this life. It’s not some shallow temporary type of peace that comes and goes at the whims of the storms raging both around and within us.

Jesus doesn’t offer us peace that the world is capable of offering us. He says don’t be troubled or anxious, don’t be afraid or worried.

When we allow the presence of Jesus into our lives and the Holy Spirit is in control then and only then can we experience true peace.

Or you might be thinking to yourself, “Well, what if I feel like I don’t have this peace you’re talking about?”

You might be thinking, “I’ve been a follower of Jesus for my whole life but for some reason I don’t have this peace you’re talking about.”

I have this sneaking suspicion that many of you are a lot like me. You want to receive the gift of God’s peace, and you want to live in His peace, but you have a hard time knowing how to do that.

More often than not I will try and pull myself up by my own spiritual bootstraps to see if I can just do better. You know what I mean right?

Well, you’ve probably figured out by now that that will never work.

But here’s the thing, even if you feel like that will never work, you still keep trying the “do-it-yourself” method of finding peace.

We read earlier in the message what Paul tells us in Philippians 4:6: “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”

So when we realize that we’re trying to find our own version of peace we simply go to God and make our request to Him. We literally talk to God about every situation, about every challenge, about every worry, every concern, everything that’s keeping us from experiencing His peace.

This is the first step to finding peace. Maybe you need to ask God to bring peace in the midst of your worries.

And then, watch what happens in the next verse in Philippians 4:7: “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

So when life starts to spiral out of control or we feel worry starting to creep into our lives, what do we do?

We go and we take our requests, and we present them to God and we just admit to Him, “I can’t do this, I’ve tried, and I can’t manage this. You are the Sar Shalom, the Prince of Peace and I’m trusting you with this worry with this anxiety.”

“I’m exchanging my worry for your peace,” and then you let go of that worry. And when another worry comes, then you repeat the process.

And then as you grow and become more mature, don’t fall into the trap of thinking, “Oh I got this, I should be able to carry myself through this one on my own.”

I’m sure that Mary and Joseph were asking God for peace in the midst of their worries on that first Christmas night.

I love how the manger scene has become so popular. We sort of look at the manger scene and our first response is, “Awe, isn’t that just so precious!”

We have this sort of idyllic feeling about that night.

Maybe you have this sort of emotional connection to the manger scene because it’s the same one that you grew up with at your house as a kid.

And so when you see the manger scene on the table in your entry way it reminds you of all those wonderful Christmas memories.

When my daughters were little they LOVED playing with the beautiful, expensive manger scene my mother-in-law gave us.

They loved it so much we had to buy a cheap “non-breakable” version that they could carry around, drop, chew on, and try to break; so that they don’t break the fancy one.

In fact, if the Ramer’s are coming to your place during the Christmas holiday, you should hide your manger scene!

I think our little manger scene decorations have done a lot to misconstrue what that “holy night” was really like.

Can you imagine what it must have been like that night? The night Jesus was born?

I have four daughters and that means that I’ve been in the hospital room during the birth of 4 children…

This may come as a shock to you, but it was no walk in the holiday park, let me tell ya!

And I didn’t even actually give birth to any of my daughters and yet my life has been forever changed by the experience of just being in the room when my wife gave birth to my girls.

So Mary gives birth to Jesus, in the stable of all places, with the animals. No epidural, no drugs, no nurses, no doctors, just the stable, the animals and Joseph.

And finally, the Prince of Peace was born! O holy night, the night when Christ was born!

We read in Luke chapter 2 verse 8:

Luke 2:8-14: And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth goodwill toward men!”

The shepherds are an interesting part of the Christmas story. I think they help tie the story together for all people everywhere. They sort of represent the masses.

The angel calms their fears and announces the birth of Jesus, the Messiah and a host…I have no idea how many it takes to make a host but I bet it’s a lot. A host of angels appear and they start praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth goodwill toward men!”

I love what the shepherds do next. It says in Luke 2:16-18: They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished.

Shepherds at this point in history were sort of the second-class citizens of the community. But God in an incredible picture of his love for all humanity, for the lowly and the humble sent angels to announce to shepherds the birth of Jesus.

They packed up and went looking for Jesus. That’s right, they didn’t wait around for something else to happen. They heard God speaking to them and they went on a search right away for the greatest gift the world has ever been given, they went looking for Jesus.

Here’s my favorite thing about the Shepherds…when they met Jesus, they didn’t keep that experience to themselves. I think it’s so important that we follow the example of the Shepherds and to share Jesus with our families, our friends, and our neighbors.

Christmas Eve is only 4 days away and here at Blue Oaks you have 4 services on Wednesday at 1:00, 2:30, 4:00, and 5:30pm and you have no idea what just 1 invite from you to the family that lives down the street to a Christmas Eve service might do to transform their lives, their entire family.

The best way to celebrate the birth of Jesus is tell others about Him. I am praying that you will see many new faces on Christmas Eve here at Blue Oaks.

PRAYER