Episode Transcript
[00:00:21] Speaker A: Welcome to Roots of Faith, where we delve into the profound truths of Scripture and explore how they guide us through life's challenges. Today we unwrap the true meaning of peace, a peace far deeper than the absence of conflict or a fleeting sense of calm.
Drawing from Isaiah 9, 6, 7, we reflect on the Prince of Peace, whose reign brings perfect shalom and what that means for us. Today you will hear a powerful testimony of grace amidst trials, insights into biblical peace, and an invitation to experience Christ's perfect peace in your life. Whether you're wrestling with tough decisions, navigating storms, or longing for rest, this episode is a beacon of hope. Let's journey together from the promises of Scripture to the peace that surpasses all understanding.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: You know, we have a. A lot of things we think about and we sing about the peace at Christmas.
But I wonder, what is peace?
Is it no war?
Is it being in a time of prosperity?
Maybe it's peace in relationships, the family gets together.
Maybe peace is just being able to live in contentment.
Or maybe it's just peace of mind.
But all those, to me are anemic to what really the term peace means.
Last week we were looking at the Book of Isaiah. We were looking at chapter nine and verse six, verse six and seven.
It says, for to us a child is born, and to us a son is given.
And the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
And then it says in verse 7 of the Greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
And notice what it says at the very end.
It says, the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish it.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish it.
As I shared with you last week, there wasn't peace in Judah in the southern two tribes, the 10 tribes, had already been taken away into captivity.
The Assyrian king was not a nice guy, a rather violent guy.
And the practice of that day was to take the people that were taken captive.
If they weren't killed, they were carried away.
And then he would take other people that he had had captive or people that he wanted to move, and he moved them into the place where those other people were.
We can think of different times when there hasn't been peace.
I'm going to make a suggestion to you this morning because it just keeps running through my mind.
I didn't want to Put it up on the screen this morning.
But I want you, if you have gotten your access to right now media or if you just have access to, what is it? YouTube.
Search for Gracia G R A C I A Gracia Burnham.
If you're looking in right now media, the title, it's just a short five minute testimony and it's called when the War on Terror hits home.
In 2001, she and her husband were working for New Tribes Mission.
He was a pilot who would fly into the jungle to take supplies, do various things for the missionaries that were in outer parts of the area in the Philippines.
And she said they had never done anything touristy.
So for their 18th anniversary, they decided to fly to this resort and celebrate their 18th anniversary.
They had three children and this was a time to get away.
On one morning when they were there, there was a pounding on the door.
Her husband quick got up, put his clothes on, and by the time he got to the door, the door burst open and there were men standing there with rifles and machine guns.
They told him to get. Come on, get going, move.
And there were a radical Islamic group and they took them hostage. She and her husband were held hostage for one full year.
The kids had been transported back to the United States, were living with their grandparents and they were constantly being moved by this radical group and constant skirmishes between them and the Philippine army.
And finally she said one night they had sat there and every night he would be shackled so that I guess he just couldn't defeat them. At night they would put him in shackles and they sat there and they went over Psalm 100.
Can you imagine what it is to live in peace in captivity?
That's only 21 years ago, 22 years ago, 23 years ago, I can't count.
It's not that long after that night they would constantly be moving and so they started to move. And just then the Philippine army came into attack again.
And as the story goes, they were being laid down in the ground and she was shot in the leg and her husband beside her was shot in the chest.
The army prevailed.
She was taken to the hospital, but her husband was killed.
How do you live in peace when you're held in captivity?
I will tell you, when you look at that, you'll see her with tears saying the first thing that came to her mind is her husband was no longer in shackles.
Peace.
What kind of peace?
When we went through the names, the title names, the king title names wonderful. Means that a power displayed that causes awe and Godly fear, counselor, is the one who gives guidance and leading someone mighty God.
That's the power of control, the God of armies, everlasting father.
And that is the unfailing love and concern and correction of children.
Correction out of love.
And I told you last week I was going to stop on Prince of Peace because the word prince of Peace, if you want to learn Hebrew, it's sar Shalom. You've heard the word shalom before. It's a common word in Hebrew and it is the word for peace. And it can be used as hello shalom, or it can be the way you say goodbye shalom.
But it's the idea of peace.
And what it says in that verse seven, I want you to pay close attention to that to see where this keeps coming up. It says of the greatness of his government and peace, the shalom of the government.
There will be no end.
It's not going to stop.
He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord will accomplish it.
Now, obviously, verse seven is looking forward in time.
But we, Dave, as you said so well, there are different kingdoms. We are in the kingdom.
We are in a kingdom of those who are the sons of God.
So Christ is king.
There is yet to be a time which in theology we say when the Lord comes back, he will establish his kingdom for a thousand years.
After the seven years of tribulation, he will come back. He will establish a kingdom and it will be for the Jewish nation.
He will rule with absolute justice and righteousness.
Can you imagine a judgment system, a penal system that is perfect.
There will be no more need for.
What do they call it? It is for people that have been wrongly accused. There is a whole group that goes trying to correct those things. We have got a flawed system. We know it because we are imperfect.
But for over a millennium, there will be an absolutely just and righteous king ruling over all of the earth.
There will be no more elections. There will be no more striving to find the right leader.
You have Christ sitting on the throne as the rightful king in the line of David.
Now, when you think about that, what is a prince?
The word sar in Hebrew simply means the one who has the authority to act.
Christ will have the full authority to act on earth. He has the full authority now.
He is the one who has the full authority to make peace happen.
He has the full authority to bring peace into reality.
He is the Prince of Shalom.
Now if you're looking in your Bible, you might turn to Isaiah, chapter 26, and a very, very familiar verse that in the King James, we probably could quote it right off the top of our head, but I'm reading out of the NIV. In verse three of chapter 26, it says of the Lord, you will keep imperfect peace, those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you.
Verse 4 says, Trust in the Lord forever.
For the Lord, the Lord himself, is the rock eternal.
Now, I had to look at this twice because I was looking at the Old Testament and I wondered where was the word perfect in that verse? How did they come to the term, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you?
When the translators were opening up that book and they were looking at the Hebrew, they saw the same thing I did.
And I will tell you that my Grammarly tried to correct me when I was writing it, because very literally, the text says the shalom shalom.
It's not stuttering.
It was the Hebrew way of expressing perfect peace.
It was the peace of peace.
Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.
When it says he will keep you, the word means to guard, to keep, to observe.
And I love it because another form of that word.
All right, I'm going to be very grammatical here. The participle form is actually applied to a watchman.
It says that he will keep you like a watchman guards the city in peace.
In shalom shalom.
In perfect peace.
Now, we already saw in chapter nine that this is not just applied to Judah, but this is applied to the reign of Christ.
And Christ will be our peace.
So where do I find perfect peace?
Well, I went through my mental index and I started looking at Christ in the first coming.
And when you look at it, if you look in Luke 1:76, this is Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist.
And if you remember the story, Zechariah was struck dumb when the angel appeared to him in the temple. And so when he finally got his mouth opened, he predicted about John the Baptist. And he says, and you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him.
Then, skipping down to verse 79, it says, to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, people that are in chains under constant threat of death, to guide our feet in the path of peace.
Now, as we get close to Christmas, we all realize that there's lots of things that we know And I think it's next week is the shepherd's candle Advent.
And one of the things that happened at that point is back in Luke chapter 2, in verse 13 and 14, where at that time it says that the angels came and proclaimed to the shepherds.
And in that it says in verse 2, in chapter 2, verse 13 and 14, suddenly a great company of heavenly hosts appeared with the angel.
There was a great choir, and it says that they were praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests.
That's one of the places where King James English kind of has lost its flavor to us. And we have to go back and explain it a little bit.
Fast forward to the time in the life of Christ when he has been with the disciples.
And he comes down from the Mount of Olives riding into the city of Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, on the back of a colt.
And it says that there was a crowd of disciples that stood around.
And as they came down, it says, Luke 19:38, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.
The Pharisees really wanted very quickly to stop that. And they said, tell your disciples to be quiet. Don't let them say that.
The Lord's answer to them was, if I tell them to be quiet, the rocks are going to cry out, the stones will cry out.
And I look at that phrase and I'm just amazed because it says at this point, when Christ is coming to Jerusalem, prior to Passover, it says, peace in heaven and glory in the highest.
I find that highly predictive.
I find that highly predictive.
I want to turn to John's Gospel. If you turn with me, please, to John 14.
And as we know from chapter 13 on, that is Christ in the upper room with the disciples.
This is just before they go out to the garden of Gethsemane.
Christ knows what's going to happen.
And in chapter 14, I want you to turn to the 27th verse.
Now, the whole paragraph begins at verse 25. And it says, all this I have spoken while still with you. But the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Now notice verse 27.
It says, 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.
I wish we had the time to totally dissect that Verse. I'm going to try and do it rather quickly because the first thing that I noticed in the original text, when it says verse 27, Peace, I leave, it's just two words. In the original language, it's the noun peace and the verb.
And what it does, he's saying.
And this is what is interesting to me.
In the original language, if there was something that was being pointed out as a particular thing, you would put an article in front of it.
If it didn't have an article in front of it, it's what we call an an arthurous noun. In other words, it's a big way of saying there wasn't an article in front of it.
But the meaning of that is it is not pointing to a thing, but it is pointing to the whole quality.
And in both places where it says peace, here in verse 27, there is no article in front of the noun. It is the very quality of peace.
And what he says is, peace, I leave you.
It has the idea of passing it down as an inheritance.
He's leaving it to you. You want to see what somebody leaves you in their will.
Nobody's left me anything, so that's okay.
But you see, what it does mean is the person of Christ, knowing that he would die, he would be mocked, scourged, fulfilling all the things that we see in Isaiah 53.
And Isaiah 53 says, he was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our sins was upon him for our peace.
Not only does it say that that is the inheritance that he gives, but the other thing that it says, notice very carefully what it says in that verse. Verse 27 says, Peace I leave with you, or to you, my peace I give to you.
And this is the idea of handing over.
But I want you to notice what goes right in front there. That pronoun, he says, my peace. As a matter of fact, in the original language, that is emphatic.
It's not just the peace of me, but uses a word that very strongly says, this is my personal possession, and I am giving it out of me to you.
Peace.
Isaiah 53, 5 says, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. And the punishment that brought us peace was upon him.
And by his wounds we are healed.
I want to explain to you the full meaning of the word shalom, because again, we treat it as a very anemic word.
The word shalom is translated best by the idea of completeness, the totality of making something right, making it whole.
It also has with it the idea of completing a relationship.
The concept that comes to mind here is when he says, I leave peace, my personal peace I give to you.
He was saying, for those who put their trust in Christ, he was bringing them back into a walking relationship.
Because we have been so separated by sin, dear Christian, that's exactly where we are.
We are sinners, saved by grace.
I still, in my mind, it still draws that picture of what it must have been like in the garden before Adam and Eve sinned.
It says that God came down and walked with them as it was his habit.
If the peace that is the Lord's possession is given to us, and the word peace has the idea of a restored relationship, that means we have the potential of walking, talking with the Lord day or night.
In Colossians 1:20, Paul records and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.
And I came back to Ephesians and Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 14 and 15 we find written for he himself.
And that is emphatic in the original language because it puts that Himself in prominent place in the original text.
For He Himself is our peace.
Who has made the two groups one, has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law and its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace.
We sing peace on earth, Good will to men.
We love to sing about the peace of Christmas, but that's anemic because all too often we as Christians miss the experience of that peace, his peace that he has given as an inheritance.
He's leaving to us that peace that he has given to us.
When I look at this, there are three things that come to my mind from verses that talk about how we apply this in our lives, how we should be applying it.
The first one I've already referred to, and that is that he has given us a restored relationship.
He has come that we might have peace.
He has come and shed his blood so that we might have peace.
Matthew 28, 18:20 say, Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
You recognize the next verses very quickly.
Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything. I commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.
Literally, it says in the original language to the age of ages, Hebrews 13:5 says, Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.
Because God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.
That's part of a restored relationship.
In the Old Testament, you had to go to the temple, you had to go to the tabernacle, because that's where the presence of God dwelt.
But when Christ died and rose again, he told the disciples, go and wait. After 40 days, go and wait, because I'm going to send the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is going to come and reside in you.
When you think about that, that's the piece that Christ illustrated in the one parable about the shepherd and the sheep. He says, suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.
Doesn't he leave the 90 and 9 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.
Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, rejoice with me. I have found my lost sheep.
I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the 90 and nine righteous persons who did not need to repent.
I want to say this to you very quickly.
We may falter, fail, and the Spirit of the Lord comes and convicts in a life because he's the everlasting Father. He doesn't sit there and say, boy, you screwed up.
No. He comes lovingly and said, my prodigal son has come home. I've drawn you in by that love, and it brings peace.
And I can tell you that's the testimony. I even know of how the Lord has dealt with me over the years. And there's times that I know I have failed.
Yet he constantly draws, draws us to be at peace with him in a restored relationship. The second thing I found in Philippians 4, 6, 7. I'm going to read out the ESV here because I find the ESV sometimes is a little bit more exact to the original text.
It says in Philippians 4, 6, 7, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Notice, there's three conditions.
Prayer, supplication and thanksgiving.
That does not mean turkeys, but it's a heart that's thankful before God.
And he says, you're to make your requests known to God. If there wasn't a restored relationship Then how can we go to him as the Father and pray? But it says he's ever living at the right hand of the Father. To what? To make intercession for us to plead our case.
There's nothing too big or too small that we can't bring to Him. And it says that when we do this in verse seven.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
So not only is there a restored relationship, there is also the resource that we have for peace.
In Luke 10:38, 42, Jesus disciples were on their way and they came to a village where Martha lived. Martha opened up her home and she had a sister, Mary.
And Mary sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.
Now, Martha was the typical housewife.
She was going around, I got to make this, I do this. I got to go clean up. Did you ever see, you know, what do you do when someone's coming to your house?
I remember even when our kids were coming, they've seen us sloppy.
But what do we do? Oh, we got to clean the house. We got to clean up.
Don't want them to see a dirty house.
That was Martha. Martha was running around going, oh, we got to clean. The Lord's here. Oh, no, I got to go do this. And then she finally complained.
She went to the Lord and she said, don't you care?
I'm this busy.
And she said, my sister has left me to do the work by myself.
Oh, isn't that wonderful? Blame it on your sister.
Verse 41 says, Martha, Martha. The Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed only one.
Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.
Peace, peace is at the feet of Jesus.
And I want to go to the third very quickly because it's a verse that has meant an awful lot to me.
When I was graduating from college, we were thinking of going to the mission field, getting all ready to start going out, candidating, raising money to go to the mission field for two years.
I was going to go to a place that I'd always read about as a child, heard the missionaries talk about. As a matter of fact, it was friends of ours who was the field chairman for Rhodesia, for Southern Rhodesia. And I was so excited to think about going out there and teaching biology in the high school because Roy and Lydia would be there and it would be like coming home to them.
And there was just this unsettled nature.
It didn't really feel settled.
And I remember going to Dr. Showers, who had become very much of a mentor to me, And I said, Dr. Schauers, how do I know what is the will of God?
And he chose one verse from Colossians 3:15.
And this should be what we use every day to know what is the will of the Lord, to know what we're supposed to do.
I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do when I grow up.
But you see, it says here, verse 15 says, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body, you were called to peace and be thankful.
And I remember Dr. Showers pointing out to me that that word rule is the word that's also used for an umpire.
You're to let the peace of the Lord umpire your life.
I don't want to make a decision where I'm still disturbed or upset or not clear of what the Lord wants me to do or any decision until the peace of Christ umpires my heart.
We so many times miss totally miss.
What is the provision that Christ has made?
Peace I leave to you.
My very own peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you.
You see, that's what he gives to us.
And how far are we from peace?
Gracie Abernum, that I mentioned at the beginning, has spent 23 years now totally at peace with what the Lord has given her to do.
Raising her children, now being a grandparent, because they were there. And that was one of the things that her husband kept saying to her during that entire year of captivity.
He says, the Lord has us here to serve.
It doesn't matter the things that come into our lives that want to disturb us.
When Donna gave me the hymns for this week a while ago, she said, now you can change any one that you want.
And that's normally an invitation to me to make things difficult.
But there was a hymn that, as I was preparing for this, I told her a couple weeks ago, I said, I want to change the hymn, the last hymn.
It's a hymn by Edward H. Beckersteth, Jr. I always stumble over that last name. I'm glad I got a name like Gimme. It's easier.
The story is told that when he was out visiting a dying relative, and he had read Isaiah 26:3, Peace, perfect peace.
And as he read that to his relative, he sat down and he started writing the words.
Now, he didn't write it down with the hymn notes. That was. Somebody else wrote the hymn notes, but the words was what he actually sat down at dinnertime then with the family. This was in mid-1800s.
He sat there and he said to them at the dinner table, he read the words that he had written and I think it just so perfectly captures that. Shalom Shalom the perfect peace of a believer it's peace, perfect peace in this dark world of sin the blood of Jesus whispers peace within Peace, perfect peace by thronging duties pressed to do the will of Jesus this is rest Peace perfect peace with sorrows surging around on Jesus bosom naught but calm is found Peace, perfect peace Our future all unknown Jesus we know and he is on the throne do you have perfect peace?
Do you know the experience of that peace that he has given as an inheritance?
It begins with when we claim Christ as Savior.
There's no peace until we start at the foot of the cross.
Maybe you've been stalled and you're content to just know your salvation and that's where you're stuck.
But he invites you to the shalom Shalom, the perfect peace.
And maybe right now you're facing some important decision in your life. Maybe nobody else around you, even your own spouse, does not know what's in your mind, what's bothering you. You haven't had the chance or the opportunity to sit there and share it.
But in that place of decision, there is a peace that surpasses understanding where you want the peace of Christ to umpire in your life.
[00:55:03] Speaker A: Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Roots of Faith, a ministry of law and Evangelical Congregational Church in Law in Pennsylvania. We hope today's message has uplifted you and deepened your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, whether you're new in the faith or have walked with him for years, God's Word is always fresh and powerful to transform. If you were blessed by this episode, share it with a friend. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an update. Until next time, stay rooted in the Word, stand firm in faith and keep growing in Christ.
