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Bill Smith; Isaiah 9:6-7 Knowing the Prince of Peace
You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan.
Prince of Peace, teach us who you are, and may we see you in a new way today, Amen. So just a little history, 49 years ago, I was 20 years old, and I had a very troubled.
Heart.
I did not know the Prince of Peace. I had addictions in my life, drugs, alcohol. In a period of five years, my life had become a wreck, to the point where I would often think that maybe I would be better off if I wasn't alive.
And my life was full of fear. I was in trouble in many ways, in trouble with the law, and I had no hope. And then I met the Prince of Peace, and he came into my troubled, troubled, troubled life, and I experienced a peace that I had never known in my entire life.
And people, you know, the kids that I work with will often say, how do you know that Jesus is real? I know he's real, he's the Prince of Peace. He brought a peace into my heart that nothing else could ever give.
And he healed me up, and he set me free, and he changed my life forever. He is so amazing, how he enters into our mess, into our troubled hearts, and he speaks those words, peace be still. And there's a great calm.
Open your Bibles with me to Isaiah, back to Isaiah, chapter 9. And I want to examine this name, Prince of Peace, and then I want to look at a story that demonstrates the Prince of Peace in action, and what he can do.
So, in Isaiah 9, 6, we find this beautiful name for Jesus, and he is called the Prince of Peace. This word, Prince, probably maybe here is not the best translation, actually, as I studied this word out, but I'll explain maybe why they chose that name.
The Hebrew word is Sar, and again, I tell you guys this every time I teach, I don't know Hebrew, and I don't know Greek, but I have some really, really good tools that help me learn what these words are, and even how to pronounce them properly.
And so, we would spell this word S-A-R, but it's the word that's translated Prince here. And it has the idea, as far as, it comes from a word Sarar, which means the head person, or the chief, and then it carries the meaning to have dominion.
It's translated in the Old Testament as Captain, Chief, General, Governor, Keeper, Lord, Master, Prince, Ruler, Steward. And really, the idea of this word is not that of a prince, the child, the son of a king, but it's the Sar as far as you are the best in your field.
You are the best of the best. You are the highest. If you were the best computer technician on this earth, you would be the Sar of the computer industry. If you were the best football player in the entire world, you would be the Sar of the NFL, or whatever.
But it means the chief, the best of the best, that Jesus is the Sar. He is the Sar of peace. He is the best source of peace. He's the best at bringing peace. He's the best in his field when it comes to peace.
He is the authority on peace. He is the commander of peace. He is the Sar of Shalom. He is the best. There is no better source of peace than this Prince of Peace. And people are looking for peace in so many of the wrong places today.
And that was part of my escape into drugs and alcohol, was I was looking for peace. And it only caused more turmoil in my life. This word for peace is Shalom. Oh, what a beautiful word in Hebrew. And you've probably heard that word before, I'm guessing.
Shalom. If you were, you know, if you were Jewish, you might even use it as a greeting. And it's used as a prayer. It was used to greet people and to say goodbye. But it was really, you know, hoping to the blessing of Shalom.
And this word means so much more than just no conflict. We think of peace as not being at war or not fighting, right? Just quietness. But this word is so much deeper than that. It comes from a word that implies safety, being safe, being protected.
And it carries the idea of being well and happy. And then it speaks of one's welfare and health, prosperity and peace. I just want to share with you a few ways that this word Shalom is translated in the Bible.
And that it helps us to see and understand that it means so much more than just peace. It's actually translated health in Genesis 44. Your servant, our Father, is in good health. He is in good Shalom.
It's the same word here for peace, only it's translated health. It's translated 14 times by the word well. In Genesis 29 .6, it says, Joseph was asking about how his father was doing. Is it well with him?
They said, it is well. He said, is it Shalom with him? Is it Shalom with him? And they said, it is Shalom. He is well. It's translated five times in our English Bible by the word welfare. Genesis 43 .27, and he inquired about their welfare, their well-being, their Shalom.
Again, it's the same word speaking of our well-being. How are we doing? And now I want to look at a verse and show you this word Shalom, how it's used. Turn to Jeremiah 33. And if you don't have a Bible this morning, we would love for you to be able to look at God's word with us.
So if you need a Bible to follow along, just raise your hands and Jason will bring one to you if you need that. Anybody need a Bible to follow along? Well, it looks like we're good. All right, look at Jeremiah 33.
This is God speaking. It's a promise to his people. We'll pick it up in verse 8 of Jeremiah 33. And God says, This word Shalom is in this verse, verse 9. Look at it and see which word you think it might be.
There's some good words in there. It's the word prosperity. That's the word for Shalom here. So you can see that it has much more meaning than just absence of conflict. It means health and completeness and wellness.
It speaks of prospering. It speaks of being healthy in spirit, soul and body. It's a beautiful word. In Job 21 .9, it's translated safe. Their houses are safe from fear. Their houses are Shalom from fear.
Shalom. It means may you be well and healthy and happy and prospering. It carries the idea of being healed up. Jesus is the Prince of Shalom. He is the Prince of healing. We work with these troubled kids at Youth for Christ.
At young ages, their lives are a wreck. And we see Jesus come into their hearts and begin to bring peace and healing and transformation. Because he is the Tsar of Shalom. He is the ultimate Prince of Peace.
I want to show you the power of this Prince of Peace. And this is a story that I love to share. I share it all the time with the young people I work with. Turn with me to Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter 4.
Short little beautiful story. You know, the beautiful thing about Jesus is that he always backed up his word. When he said, I'm the resurrection and the life, he raised somebody from the dead. When he said, I'm the light of the world, he healed somebody.
A blindness. I mean, he backs up what he says. And we find Jesus at the end of a very busy day. If you pick up the story in verse 35 of Mark chapter 4. And we'll get the context here of this story by reading verses 35 and verse 36.
It said, So this had been a very long day in the life of Jesus. I think many days were long days for him as far as physical exhaustion. And you know, we know that when they cut Jesus, he bled. Even though he was the divine son of God, he was human and he slept.
And he had been teaching all day and helping people and healing people. And now he's ready because he's got, if we read in, if we kept reading into Mark chapter 5. He's got to go set free a crazy demon man whose life is a tempest.
And so they're getting in the boat and they're heading over into that direction. It is nighttime. I think it's evening. I think it's dusk when they set sail. And you know, I guarantee at this point, the weather's pretty decent, right?
Because you're not going to get in a small wooden fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee if it's storming. There's just, they're not going to do that. And so they get in the boat and it's smooth sailing at first.
And you know, when I read this story, I think of life as being like the weather. The weather is always changing, isn't it? And life is kind of like that. We have the sunny days, the happy days, the good days.
Then we have the cloudy days where things aren't looking so good and things are becoming bleak. Maybe a loved one you found out has cancer. Or maybe you've got a bad diagnosis. Or one of your children is taking a bad path.
And those dark clouds come. And then we have the storms of life where crisis hits. Been through some of those storms? Most of us adults have. And some of the young people have been through those as well.
So they set sail. And you know, just like life, sometimes the storms come, don't they? Look at what's happening in verse 37. And a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling.
So they're on a journey. And all of a sudden this storm hits. Now, if you're outside, can you usually tell if a storm's coming? You can see it coming, right? You might see the thunder and lightning in the distance and then it seems to get closer and closer.
Maybe the wind picks up. Even at night, you can tell if a storm's coming if you're outside. You can almost feel it. And you know, these men, at least four of them were professional fishermen. They knew how to sail a boat on the sea.
They knew what to do if the waves got big. They knew that you didn't want to get your boat parallel with the waves or it's going to swamp. I mean, these guys were good at what they did. You might say they were the tsars of sailing.
They were really, really good sailors. And when this storm came in, we find them doing everything in their own power, in their own strength to make it through this storm. But we're quickly going to see that it's not enough because this storm is desperate.
This storm, well, we know what happens when water fills up a boat, right? It says the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. Makes me think of the Titanic, right? You know that story?
Said it was unsinkable. It's maiden voyage. It hits an iceberg. What's the boat do? It sinks and people die. Sometimes the storms of life can be really dangerous in that they can cause us to do desperate things in the midst of the storm.
And typically what we do as human beings is we try to do what works. And we try to handle it in our own strength. And oftentimes it's not adequate, at least when the big storms of life hit. It says it was a great storm.
And this word for great here is the Greek word megas. And maybe it reminds you of an English word, mega. You could say this was a mega storm. And for this wind storm, it's a word that means whirlwind.
Makes me think of a tornado. This is a wicked, wicked storm. Things are desperate. They've tried everything that they know how to do, but they still haven't done everything they can do to make it through this storm.
They're still lacking one thing. Look at verse 38. But he, Jesus, okay, now here we find Jesus. He was in the stern asleep on a cushion. And they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care? We are perishing.
All of a sudden they remembered Jesus is in the boat.
Jesus.
They had never seen Jesus do anything about the weather before. They had seen him do some powerful things. But in their desperation, maybe Jesus can do something. And they go and they find Jesus in the boat.
Now, do you really think at this point he was sleeping? This is a wooden fishing boat. It doesn't have a cabin. Okay, it's not a luxury sailing yacht. He is laying in a wet boat. The waves are coming in.
Yes, Jesus, I think he fell asleep. But who's going to sleep through this, right?
Okay.
I believe he's just laying there waiting for them to come. Is he in a panic? Of course not. He knows what he's going to do. He's the Prince of Peace. And finally they come to him. I want to look. Just keep your finger here and flip to Psalm 121 just for a minute.
Psalm 121. It's easy to ask the question sometimes in the midst of suffering and heartache, God, where are you?
Don't you care?
And that was their question. Don't you care if we drown? Don't you care if we perish? Look at Psalm 121, verses 4 and 5. The Lord, Yahweh, is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. No, he doesn't sleep or slumber.
Jesus was fully aware of what's going on in this boat. He's fully aware of what's going on in our lives. He is there. If he's in your life, he's waiting for you to come to him in the midst of that storm.
He's waiting for you to come to him with your troubled heart. And they said, Jesus, don't you care that we are perishing? So easy to ask that question in the midst of our pain. God, don't you care? Why are you doing?
Sometimes people will go as far as saying, God, why are you doing this to me? And I think that breaks the heart of the father. And the father says, my child, I'm not doing this to you. In fact, it's not my will.
But you live in a fallen world full of selfish and sinful human beings who are hurting one another in all kinds of tragedy comes into our world because of human failure. The same hands that were about to stretch out against the storm would soon be nailed to the cross.
Jesus, of course, he cares. We know that. If you know anything about Jesus, you know that he cares. But he's not going to preach a sermon right now. Look at what he does in verse 39. He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still.
And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. Picture yourself in a boat in Lake Michigan. It's not a big boat. It's a smaller boat. It doesn't have a cabin either. And you go out and it's pretty nice.
And then all of a sudden, man, this crazy storm hits and the waves are coming up over the boat and you know that this boat's going down. And all of a sudden somebody stands up and they shout to the storm, Quiet, be still.
Peace, be still. And instantly there's a great calm. That would be something, wouldn't it? I mean, you've got to put yourself in this boat, in this situation. These guys thought they were going to die.
They thought they were going to drown. And Jesus stands up and he takes action. I love this word where it says that he rebuked the wind. I looked it up and basically it means knock it off.
I like that.
He told the storm to knock it off, to stop. And the storm obeys the voice of our Prince of Peace. He says to the waves, Quiet, be still. These two words, peace, be still, means to stop and to be muzzled.
And so Jesus tells the waves, Stop. And everything calms down. This is the power of Jesus. This is the power of our Prince of Peace. Look at Psalm 89, verses 8 and 9 with me. I read a psalm every day.
A couple of times a year I read through the psalms. It's one of my favorite books of the Bible. I find so much comfort through the book of Psalms. I found this in my reading, and it was when I was going through a stormy time in my life, and my heart was troubled.
Psalm 89, verses 8 and 9. O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you, you rule the raging of the sea. When its waves rise, you still them. He is sovereign.
He is control. And he can bring peace in the midst of the storm. You know, you think about this story. What did they have to do to find peace in this situation? It's pretty simple, isn't it? They came to the Prince of Peace, and they said, Look, Lord, we're about to die here.
They showed him what the fear was, what the trouble was. They came to the feet of Jesus. And what did Jesus do? He took action. What if they wouldn't have come to him? I wonder how that story would have ended.
Knowing Jesus, he probably still would have took action, right? But it makes me think of what would have happened if they would have come to him when they first saw the storm coming. Jesus, look, look, it's coming our way.
If he could calm the storm in the midst of its rage, couldn't he have turned it a different direction, right? I'm sure he would have said, Hey, guys, don't worry. I'm going to take care of you through this.
Don't be afraid. But they waited until it was desperate. And that's typical human nature when it comes as far as sometimes turning to God. But this brings up a really important principle as far as the way God works in our lives.
The primary way that God works in our lives is through invitation. He waits for us to come to him. He is ready to do. He's ready to work. He loves us. But because God doesn't violate our human will, he waits for us to come.
He encourages us to come. Now, God works in amazing ways. I believe sometimes he takes actions when we don't come to him because somebody else is praying for us. But we need to come to him. Look at Psalm 107, verses 28 and 29.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. There it is. They came to him. One thing I've learned is that he doesn't always take the storm immediately away.
But what he can do is speak peace to your troubled heart and give you strength and grace to make it through that storm and wisdom. So don't ever give up when you're praying against that storm. Keep praying against it, but pray for strength and grace and peace for you to be able to endure and make it through that storm.
Look at Psalm 65, verses 5 through 7. This is our God. This is our Sar Shalom, our Prince of Peace. By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness. O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and the farthest seas, the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might, who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples.
He is the one who stills the roaring of the seas and the roaring of their waves because he is the Prince of Peace. Because he is the Prince of Peace, we don't have to live in fear. Turn back to our story and we'll wrap this up.
Jesus says something really important to the disciples after the storm, after the calm comes. We'll pick it up in verse 40 of Mark chapter 4. He said to them, his disciples, Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?
Why are you fearful? My child, God says, I am with you. I love you. I'll take care of you. You don't have to live in fear. I know what you're going through. I know what you're struggling with and I love you.
He says, why are you guys so afraid? You've been with me for a while now. You should know that I will take care of you. You should know that you can trust me with what's going on in your life. Why are you so afraid?
Have you still no faith? They almost failed in their faith. They almost didn't come to him, but finally they did. But he's just saying, you can trust me. I'll take care of you. He is the Prince of Peace.
This made me think as I was putting this together, I've seen it on a bumper sticker before. Know Jesus, know peace. Know Jesus, know peace. N-O Jesus, N-O peace. K-N-O-W, K-N-O peace. Know Jesus.
Without Jesus, no peace. But if I know Jesus, I have peace. Because he is the Prince of Peace. One more scripture, and then we'll close this in prayer. Turn to John chapter 16. Jesus repeatedly makes promises of peace to his disciples, and we find one in verse 33.
This is the night before he's going to the cross. He knows he's about to be arrested, and Jesus speaks the truth. In verse 33 he says, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.
Jesus said, in the world you will have tribulation. You will have troubles. He knows the reality of our troubled human race. He didn't promise us a bed of roses. He didn't say you would never have any problems.
That's part of being a human being. And then part of the problems too is depending on how we are connecting with the world. If we immerse ourselves in the world, the result is going to be a troubled heart.
There's just no other outcome. Because the world brings trouble. But Jesus says, I bring peace. And this word peace, it has the idea of being joined together. It's a word eirene. And one of the ways it's translated is by these words set at one again.
What this clues us into is that Jesus is our peace. When we separate from him, if we're not connected in a right relationship, we are going to have a troubled heart. That's natural. That's the only other option.
We have Jesus. We're connected. He brings us peace. Apart from him, we don't have peace. This word overcome, it actually comes from the Greek word Nike, which means conquer, overcomer. It's translated victory in the New Testament.
That the victories are through Jesus. That he is the ultimate healer. He is our source of peace, our source of strength, our source of hope, our source of joy. Just a couple quick applications. Number one, realize that Jesus is Sar Shalom.
That he is the Prince of Peace. That he is the true source of peace. And that I must come to him with my heartaches and my troubles. Know that true peace and healing and wholeness are found in him. Number two, we must be constantly coming to him.
He says, come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest for your souls. And I need to repeatedly keep coming to him daily, because we are in this world and we are going to encounter troubles and a troubled heart.
And we need to believe his promises. And really it comes down to walking daily with the Prince of Peace. One of Jesus' common words to his disciples is, follow me. And that word follow doesn't mean walk behind me.
It means literally walk beside me in the road. And that's how Jesus wants us to live our lives in constant communion, in constant friendship, in constant connection. He is the Prince of Peace. And whatever trouble you're going through, whatever heartache you have, just keep bringing it to him.
And let him find that quiet time, those quiet places, where he can speak peace into your troubled heart, because he is the Tsar Shalom. He is the best of all peace. He is Shalom. With that, someone is going to come and lead us in communion?
Or am I supposed to do that this morning? All right. I think, okay. Sure, absolutely. Sometimes one of the elders come and just didn't get that communicated. But, you know, they said, don't you care if we perish?
He proved it, didn't he? He shed his blood for us, his broken body. And that's what the bread and the juice represent. Jesus' ultimate sacrifice for us. And every week, I love that our church does this every week, because to me, it's a reminder of his beautiful forgiveness, that that's what he did for me, and his sacrifice.
And I'm always reminded of his amazing love. And so he tells us, take this bread which was broken for you, take this juice, this represents my blood that was shed for you. And this was for believers, people who have decided to follow Jesus.
And so if you haven't made that decision yet to follow Jesus, then, you know, it would make sense for you to just reflect and maybe just do some talking to him or whatever. But the communion tables are front, corners in the back.
So I'm going to pray, and then Dave is going to play a little music, and you can get communion and reflect on Jesus' sacrifice this morning. All right? Let me pray. Father, just thank you for your amazing peace, your shalom.
Thank you that you love us. Thank you for the sacrifice that was paid so that we could know you and be your sons and daughters. Father, if there's anyone here this morning that does not know you, does not know your peace, I pray today would be the day where they would open their heart to the Prince of Peace, that they would cry out to you, Lord, and that you would rescue and speak to their troubled heart, peace be still.
Thank you that you love us and teach us to trust you in the storms of life and know you as our Prince of Peace. And thank you for your body that was broken for us, Lord Jesus, and your precious blood that was shed.
We praise you and thank you today. Amen.