December 22, 2024

The Peace We Receive

Pastor: Rev. Dr. Blake Altman Series: The Light We Long to See Verse: Isaiah 9:1–7

If you have a Bible, would you please open with me? You can take a seat for just a minute, but would you open with me to Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah chapter 9. Of course all of us are excited to be in this new place and uh, somebody asked me just a moment ago, did you, did you sleep at all last night? And the answer is yes, actually, because it is amazing how well you sleep when you don't have to worry.

about whether or not the darn trucks are going to start on a Sunday morning, or if the janitor is going to show up at the school to unlock it, or if the locks on the gate to the storage unit are going to be frozen, or if there's going to be a flat tire on the trailer, or if the diesel truck had been Okay, I'll stop.

And years ago, when we were setting up every week, Every week, um, I called Bill Ford. Bill, do you remember this? I called Bill and I said, Hey, uh, Bill Ford, uh, we have to set up every week. And, um, he said, you know what? You ought to call Cane's, Cane's Ballroom. And so we did. We called Cane's. And we met some people who have become dear friends to us.

And I saw Sam in here. Is he still in here? Sam Thompson, are you in here? He's out in the side. Will somebody go get Sam without I'm not bringing too much attention to him. He's coming. All right. Um, and we called Canes and they connected us with Sam Thompson. Hey Sam, welcome back in, brother. And, um, Sam gathered Robert and JJ.

And so for, for more than a decade, Sam, hey Sam, I didn't tell you to do this, but I just want you to know that there will always be seats in this church for you, my friend. And Sam has worked with us for over 10 years, setting us up. Every single Sunday. And so Sam, thank you brother. These people are grateful for you as I am.

And I praise God for you and for Robert and JJ and the whole team. Welcome to worship. If you have a Bible, please grab it and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 9.

We're in a series on Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6. This great passage in Isaiah 7 through 9 where Isaiah gives these prophecies of these children. Immanuel in chapter 7. And then you get to chapter 9, and in the historical context, this child was more than likely referring to Ahaz's child, who is Hezekiah.

But of course, we look through Hezekiah to see the ultimate king, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was prophesied 700 years before the birth of Christ. And so as we come to Isaiah 9, 6, now we see the Prince of Peace. And so if you're willing and able, let's stand together for the reading of God's Word in Isaiah 9, 6.

Chapter 9, I'll read verses 1 to 7. This is God's Word. It is given to you in love. Please give your attention to it. But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan.

Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them has light shown. You have multiplied the nation. You have increased its joy. They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

For the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder. The rod of his oppressor you have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the trampling warrior in battle tumult, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. The grass withers and the flowers fade but God's word stands forever.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Please, Father, would you take your word now, words on a page in our language, our mother tongue in English, and would you use it to transform us by your Spirit. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Walter McCartney was a young teenager in a local high school nearby whose family life, needless to say, was an absolute train wreck.

He didn't have a good relationship with his father. His mother and his relationship was on again, off again, and he met somebody in this church. His name has changed for obvious reasons. He was brought in, welcomed, cared for, fed, loved, and he got to see the beauty of the gospel. There's a woman named Sarah Isaacson She's a mother of three, recently divorced, lived in this city.

And it was three years before anybody ever invited her into a home. She lived in the suburbs of one of the friendliest places in the world, Oklahoma. And she was stunned and shocked by how lonely she felt. So many churches in this town, and yet, she was incredibly lonely. When we first moved here years and years ago, People said to us, you won't really be a church until you have a building.

And of course we all know that that's not true. And by the grace of God, we've been able to be a church. And the strength of the church is that we become a vehicle through which we recognize all of the distress and the chaos and the distraction of the world. We seek peace, we crave it in our hearts, we long for it, and yet we see it in our friends like Walter and like Sarah and even like some of you who are here because friends invited you to Trinity.

And we get the privilege of being able to be people who are marked by the good news of the peace that surpasses all understanding, and we get to extend it out into the world. And I wonder if you know it. How many of you get the Wall Street Journal as a You have to raise your hand. I shouldn't ask you to raise your hand.

A lot of you do. And you notice on the Wall Street Journal, have you ever looked and they, like, give you the news of the week? Like, do you ever read that and go, Oh, so much peace in the world. Of course, week after week after week, what is it? It's called the chaos section. You read The Economist, chaos section.

You read The Wall Street Journal, chaos section. Even though, it's chaos. Why? Because our world craves to be regulated and to find peace. I wonder if you know that kind of peace. In the 7th, 8th century B. C., Judah, which was the southern kingdom, Watched as their brothers to the north, the ten tribes of Israel, were taken captive by the Assyrians.

And they are making alliances with Syria and trying to make alliances with the Assyrians so that they wouldn't take the last two tribes, the southern kingdom of Judah, captive as well. And here they are in a land of deep darkness, seeing Assyria say, We've come for your brothers in the north. We're coming for you too.

And into the midst, Isaiah is crying out, Would you walk in holiness? King Ahaz, would you turn your stubborn heart to believe the one true God and obey His rules? And yet, King Ahaz wanted nothing to do with God. And he led his people astray, year after year after year. And Isaiah says, There will be one who comes, and he will become, he will be, he will be a wonderful counselor.

He will be a mighty God. He will be an everlasting Father, and He will be the Prince of Peace who will deliver us. And in the near referent, He was talking about King Hezekiah, but in the far referent, of course, He is looking to the Messiah. And so this morning, what I want us to do in the moments we have together, is I want us to have a little Bible study, and I want you to open to chapter 9, and look at the words, and follow along, and I want you to notice that in these beautiful, beautiful words in Hebrew, P L A Y U S.

Wonderful Counselor, El Gabor, Mighty God, Avi Ad, Sar Shalom. And I wonder if you'll know the meaning, the message, and I wonder if you've ever met the Man of Peace. Let's look together. First, the meaning of the Prince of Peace. Let's just jump right to the point. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. And He restores what sin has broken.

Hallelujah. He brings wholeness and He brings reconciliation. He brings eternal hope through His reign. He brings wholeness. He brings reconciliation. And He brings eternal hope through His reign. When the Bible talks about peace, shalom, or Irenae in Greek. It's so much more than just the absence of conflict.

It's the concept of peace, which means that there is the presence of something so palpable. It is the presence of a holistic peace, presence, flourishing, joy, delight, consummation. Peace in the Bible is not just the absence of conflict. It's the presence of human flourishing. It is not just relational. But it is also cosmic.

It is not just vertical between us and God, but it is cosmic and that the whole creation is coming under his rule and reign. The meaning of the prince of peace, the word prince, sar in Hebrew, means an administrator. He's one who will execute it. He will demonstrate it and he will execute it for the world to see.

And so when you see the word Prince of Peace, it is not just your own little personal Jesus. It is a cosmic, glorious, crucified yet resurrected and ascended Father in heaven. The Son who sits at the right hand of the Father and holds everything together by the word of His power. Amen? And He is coming again to make everything new.

The administrator of human flourishing, the Prince of Peace. And the vision of this piece is rooted in King David, the Davidic idea that there will be one who will come who will be anointed king and whose throne will be from everlasting to everlasting. What was hinted at in the near context of Isaiah chapter 9 of Hezekiah, of course, points us ultimately to the ultimate king, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the true Davidic king whose rule will have No end.

And if you think about the biblical theology of peace in scripture, it runs you through the whole course of the Bible, doesn't it? In shalom, in the garden, we had peace. Or we dwelt secure in a relationship with God, but God gave us boundaries and Adam chose to break those boundaries and he sinned against them.

And thorns and thistles grew up from the world and sin entered the world and Has been passed down ever since to us so that we are without excuse. But God didn't leave us in our own state of sin. He came to us and said, I will provide for you a way of peace. I will make a covenant of grace with you. He killed an animal.

He covered Adam and Eve's shame, their nakedness, and later he made a covenant with Abraham and said, Abraham, I'm gonna bring peace. I'm going to call you out to be special among the nations, and I'm going to make you a people of peace for the nations of the world. And he made a covenant with Abraham. And later after that, he made a covenant with Moses and said, I'm going to give you not just a people, not just a land, but I'm going to give you laws to live by.

And I'm going to expect you to walk in light of those laws. So that you might be a demonstration to the nation of what true peace looks like in a society under me as your true king. But people, of course, didn't like God being the king, and so they asked for their own king. And so then came Saul, and then David, and then Solomon, and, of course, ultimately, as Israel disobeyed, they lost their peace of having a place of their own and a temple where they could worship once again, and God sent them into exile.

And prophet after prophet and preacher after preacher said there is a way of peace. It's called repentance and faith. Do you know it? And finally, King Cyrus said you can go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the city. And so they went and rebuilt the city of peace. Jerusalem. They rebuilt the city of peace so that it might be a beautiful picture to the world of what peace is like.

But of course, ultimately, If the good news is not in a geographic place in the Middle East, it's in a person, isn't it? And God sent his only son to die for us, born to the Virgin Mary, to suffer under Pontius Pilate crucified, dead, and buried to be for us, the prince, A peace. The whole story of the Bible is about peace lost and peace regained, and Jesus took upon himself all the brokenness of the world, all of our sin, all of our shame, everything that we've ever done, even in the darkness of our own hearts.

He took it upon himself on the cross. And He died for you. It's as though Jesus consumed all of the chaos, even today, upon the cross. And it bruised, cut, beat, made Him bleed for you. Perfectly righteous. And on the third day again, He rose from the dead as though He were to say, Even death cannot keep me from bringing peace to the world.

And He brought us peace by being for us a sign that He has conquered our great enemies of sin and of death. Amen. And not only that, but in His grace, He gave us the presence of His Spirit at Pentecost to be for us the presence of His peace amongst the people, so that we, as a local body, in this year, in this place, in this time, we might be not just plain church, but you might be the church.

And you might extend the good news of this peace to the world. Why? Because you see that the meaning of peace is that it's a human flourishing. The message of peace is all throughout Scripture, and it points us to the end, when the lion will lay down with the lamb, and we will dwell secure in the new heavens and the new earth, when heaven comes down to us, and the earth is remade in His glory and splendor and righteousness, and we will finally, finally come, heavy laden, and we will find rest for our souls.

And the meaning of peace is this. And the message of peace is what God has been trying to communicate to His people from the very, very beginning. I wonder if you know that kind of peace. Walter and Sarah and many of you have friends and have experienced the radical lack of peace because of the sin in your own heart.

The way that you argue with your spouse, the way that you one up your friends, the way that you continually make sure that you have the last word. So that you might somehow, just subtly, just subtly, try to gain a peace for yourself because we are really good at trying to pursue peace. There's no end to our imagination and our creativity when it comes to sin.

We are really good at it by nature. And yet the good news is that peace is not found in a philosophy to be cherished. It is not found in a political movement to be embraced. It is not found even in some religion out there. To be obeyed dutifully, the Prince of Peace is found ultimately and finally in a person.

And that is the utterly unique thing about Christianity. It is that we place our hope in a person who is for us the Prince of Peace. Do you know Him as your Prince of Peace? The Lord Jesus Christ, when He came, He came in the midst of chaos. Broken peace, a broken world, born of a teenage mother, and he came into the world immediately destined to be killed by Herod.

And Jesus has known what it's like to be on the run. He knows what it's like to be a refugee because there were refugees in Egypt. He knows what it's like to not have a home because he didn't have a pillow to lay his head. He knows what it's like to be somebody who struggles like you struggle with your eating disorder.

He knows what it's like to struggle as you struggle with your anxiety about where your retirement is. Jesus knows what it's like. He was tempted in every way as you are and as I am and yet He was without sin. And what the most beautiful thing is about what God calls us to be as a church is that we understand the meaning of true peace.

And we understand that we place ourselves in the midst of a message of peace to the world in His Holy Word. And we place our faith not in a program to renew the world, but in a person who has come to be the Prince of Peace. Hallelujah. And He intends to change your heart and He intends for us to continue to send out churches to become little places of peace called church plants.

And He's going to do it again out of us. And again and again and again. And He's going to use you to do it. I wonder what it would be like if we really believed the good news of the gospel. And that we really did see that God doesn't just call us to believe and place our faith in the man of peace, but He actually, by His Spirit, if you really believe, that He now uses you to go out into the world, friends, and to be a demonstration of His peace.

Do you know what that's like with your co workers? Let me encourage you out of Isaiah 9, 6, for you to rekindle an awe and wonder in the midst of worship. Because it is your place of peace. It is meant to be the place where God, through His Word, rejuvenates, restores you in corporate worship to then be sent out into the world to be His hands and feet of peace.

For those of you who struggle. With insecurity complexes, and of course we all do. The Father in heaven has chosen you to be His hands and feet in the world by His Spirit. To be His agent of reconciliation. Would you be open to being used by Him? Rekindle awe and wonder in worship that you might be used of Him for the world.

Not only rekindle worship, but would you seek peace with others in your family and in your community? Listen, for some of you, there is broken peace in your home. And one of the things that I will die with, there's the stories, the intimate stories that you've shared with me about things in your family.

And I know you think you're unique, but you're not. But only you can tell those stories to others. And for some of you, the ball is in your court, quite frankly. And you've pointed your fingers at others who have harmed you and have hurt you, and it's their fault. But you have the ball. And so would you be the agent of peace?

And would you, knowing the meaning and the message and trusting in the man of peace, the Lord Jesus Christ, would you take the initiative to be reconciled with others? I wonder if there's somebody whom you even now know that you need to be reconciled with, but you're afraid of it. The Lord doesn't give you a spirit of fear.

Or of timidity, but of love, and of power, and of a sound mind. Would you step out in faith, and move, and be reconciled to them for your own sake, for their sake, and for the sake of our body as a church? Because we are knit together. I would encourage you not just to seek, wander, and worship, not just to be reconciled to those even in your family or your community, but I would encourage you to find rest amidst the chaos of life.

To be spiritually formed by the liturgies and the habits of your life. One of these days, Rob tells me we can't have the keys quite yet, but one of these days we'll have the keys to this church, and you can come and you can just sit in here and rest. And if you need to come in here and rest, then just come rest.

There's a fireplace behind me, not because it's cool, although it is pretty cool, isn't it? Because it is a place of rest. It is to be a place where you feel like you're at home. And you can come unto Him, all you who are heavy laden, and find rest.

I pray that you'll be able to raise your children amidst the peace of Christ. That you will fight, pray, ask questions, observe how others do it. But don't you dare compare yourself to other people in this church because every family is unique and different. And every cadence is different. Sometime, a couple was in my office this week, and they were asking me like, how do you and your wife pray?

And I said, that's a great question. I'll tell you how we do it, but I don't want you to compare because every couple is different. Some people pray at night when they put their heads on the pillow and they just grab each other's hands and they pray together for their children. Some people get up in the dawn of, early dawn and they read the Bible together.

They follow a very strict and beautiful way to read scripture together as a couple. Some couples do it in the evening. Some couples do it before meals. Listen, don't compare yourself. It's the thief of your joy. But it is a beautiful thing to be spiritually formed by God's word. And I wonder if you'd have the courage to develop those practices of allowing peace to mark your home.

Do you talk about the gospel with your family? When you rise up and when you lie down. Do your children know that underneath all of the frenetic activity of what you do for your careers, they know that ultimately your identity is rooted in the one who is. The Prince of Peace. And friends, I pray that we can look forward, and all of architecture, even this building, is just a foretaste of that.

And today is, in some ways, a real foretaste, because next Sunday, we're going to be back in Barnes, but it is nevertheless a foretaste, a Holy Spirit wrought foretaste of the day when we experience the joy and the peace and the beauty of consummation. When one day everything will be made new. Hallelujah.

Can you taste it? Show me by the way you live in light of the one who is the Prince of Peace. Don't beat yourself up over your sin. You come because grace changes everything and we run with faith and repentance to find our hope in Christ. One of my goals in 2025 is to read through the church history of Philip Schaaf.

It's eight volumes, and so you can pray for me. It's very long. Each volume is long, and I was starting to read the first volume, and I came across this paragraph that I want to read for you, and I just want to challenge you and help you recognize that you stand on the shoulders of giants, of those who walk by faith and repentance, day after day after day after day.

Christianity is not, despite whatever Elon Musk says, is not just something culturally to be embraced. It is a truth to be believed because it is rooted in a person who came and he died for you on the cross. And he rose again on the third day so that by your faith in him, and if you don't believe in him, that today is the day of salvation.

The 50 cent word is called propitiation. That Jesus took our place on the cross. And he, by virtue of taking our place, Allah does. The expiation of God's wrath. He bore God's wrath. He directed it away from us, and He absorbed it so that we might not experience it forever. And Philip Schaff, in writing about the history of the church, writes this, that during the long succession of centuries that has come to us as people who believe in this One who is the embodiment of peace and the things for which we most ardently long, this faith upon this One who is the man of peace, Has outlived the destruction of Jerusalem, the dissolution of the Roman Empire, fierce persecution from without, and heretical corruptions from within.

It has outlived the barbarian invasion, the confusion of the dark ages, the papal tyranny, the shock of infidelity, the ravages of revolution, the attack of enemies, and the error of friends. The rise and fall of proud kingdoms and empires and republics and philosophical systems and social organizations without number.

And behold, it still lives, this gospel. I wonder if you know it. And it lives with greater strength in and through the lives of God's people in a wider extent than ever, controlling the progress of civilization and the destinies of the world, marching over the ruins of human wisdom and folly, ever forward and onward, spreading silently its heavenly blessings of peace from generation to generation and from country to country, to the ends of the earth.

It will never die. This gospel will never see the decrepitude of old age, but like its divine founder, our man, the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus, it will live an unfading fullness of self renewing youth and the unbroken vigor of manhood to the end of time, and it will in fact outlive time itself.

Hallelujah! This is the story that you've been invited into because you understand the meaning, you find yourself in the midst of the message of God's redemptive story, and you place your faith In the man of peace, the Lord Jesus Christ, Sar Shalom, the one who came to give his life for you. Amen. Let's pray.

Father, in this world filled with conflict, Oh, Lord, in the lives of people like Walter and Sarah and thousands of others in Tulsa, I pray, Lord, that you might allow us to be your hands and feet of peace. That You might allow us to be people who know You, who are reconciled to You, through the finished work of the Son.

And that we might even this very morning place our faith in You. It is not by our good works. We cannot earn Your holy standard. It must be given. And so, Lord Christ, we pray that You would even now open the hearts of Your people who don't yet believe to believe and help those who do to come now to this table With joy and faith, and as we give of our tithes and offerings this morning, we pray that you would shape and mold us to be stewards of everything that you've given us, and empower us by your spirit to be your hands and feet in this, your world, over which you reign as king.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen

*Audio transcript is computer generated

other sermons in this series

Dec 29

2024

Conflict of Grace

Pastor: Rev. Mark Kuiper Verse: Acts 19:23–27 Series: The Light We Long to See

Dec 15

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The Love We Crave

Pastor: Rev. Dr. Blake Altman Verse: Isaiah 9:1–7 Series: The Light We Long to See

Dec 8

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The Strength We Trust

Pastor: Rev. Mark Kuiper Verse: Isaiah 9:1–7 Series: The Light We Long to See