Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Merry Christmas everybody. We’re so glad you’ve made time on your Christmas Eve to be with us. It’s been an amazing night, and we’re just getting started because we’re about to hear an amazing Word from God tonight.

This is a season that is all about searching. You search and search and search for the perfect gift. Some of you started that search over a month ago. By the time you flipped the calendar from November to December, your Christmas shopping was done.

Others of you finished it today. I did that one year when I was younger. I started my Christmas shopping on December 24. I had no plan. No ideas. No list. I just wandered aimlessly into the mall. And that’s when I saw the sign. This was a sign from the Lord. The sign said, “Free gift wrapping.” If I bought my gifts here, this mall would wrap them all for free. I knew then and there that I was going to buy every single gift in that mall. If somebody wanted something that I couldn’t buy in this mall, then that was just too bad.

But seriously, this is a season that is all about the search. Some of you like it. It’s retail therapy to you. You love the search for the perfect gift.

Others of you, you’d rather electrocute yourself with Christmas lights than go Christmas shopping. That search is pure torture for you.

But we all do it. We all go to great lengths in this search. We all search for that gift that is just right. You search for that gift that is just perfect for grandpa. Or that gift that you already know your mother-in-law is going to hate because she hates all your gifts but you’ve got to buy for her anyway. We all do it. We all go through this search.

But while we’re all searching for these gifts, a lot of us are secretly searching for something much more important. And it’s not a search that is tied to any particular season. It’s a search that is ongoing everyday of our lives.

That’s why I’ve been preaching this series called Searching through the month of December. Because there are some very real things that people are constantly searching for.

We kicked off this series by talking about the search for direction. We’ve talked about the search for hope. And we’ve explored the search for acceptance.

Tonight, as we wrap up this series, we’re going to talk about one of the most important and most elusive searches that we ever do…the search for peace.

This series comes from Isaiah 9:6. This book was written 700 years before Jesus was born. It contains amazing prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus.

Isaiah 9:6 is a prophecy about the birth of Jesus. The Bible says, “For to us a child is born, 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.” (Isaiah 9:6, NIV)

In this series, we’ve really keyed in on the four titles given to Jesus in this verse. Tonight, we’re wrapping up with the last one. This child that would be born…this son that would be given…would be the Prince of Peace.

People are on a frantic search for peace. And when they can’t find it, they try to manufacture it. Think of all the ways that we try to manufacture peace.

Some try to eat their way to peace.

Some try to shop their way to peace.

Some try to medicate their way to peace.

Some try to exercise, lose weight, and use health as their way to peace.

Some try to have plastic surgery as the road to peace. I have no peace on the inside, so I’ll rearrange the outside.

Some try to sex their way to peace. They look to physical relationships to fill their need for peace.

When we chase after all these things…when we try to manufacture peace…we end up worse than we were when we started. We end up more confused. More discouraged. More hopeless.

Here’s what you’ve got to hear tonight. You cannot manufacture peace. You can’t make it. You can’t create it. It can’t be faked. It’s got to be real. And real peace comes from the Prince of Peace.

We get so caught up in trying to manufacture peace. We get so caught up in trying to create this perfect little world. But you will never have true, deep, abiding peace if you keep trying to create it. We try to manufacture this perfect little world where there is no trouble. No pain. No suffering. No loss.

But here’s what we have to understand. Peace is not the absence of something. It’s the presence of Someone. Peace is not something that can be made or manufactured. Peace comes from the Prince of Peace.

Peace is not the absence of crisis. Peace is the presence of Christ.

“But you don’t understand everything that is going on in my life. I’ve experienced so much hurt and pain and loss…I’m under so much anxiety and stress…I have so much uncertainty about the future…I can never have peace.”

Peace is not the absence of crisis. Peace is the presence of Christ.

If you know the Christmas story in the Bible, you know that God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary. Gabriel was sent to tell Mary that, even though she was a virgin, she was going to be pregnant.

In Luke 1, the Bible says, “The angel answered, “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.” (Luke 1:35, NIV 1984)

Mary had plenty of reasons to worry. Think about her situation. Mary was a poor peasant girl. She was a teenager, perhaps as young as 13. She was probably illiterate. Very few women in this culture were formally educated. Most likely, she couldn’t read or write.

She was a poor peasant girl, collecting water, gathering wood, dirty clothes, unable to read or write. That was Mary.

Don’t let all the romanticized images that you see cloud you from the truth about Mary. Mary was a dirt poor farm girl from a nowhere town.

But it’s not all bad for her, because she is now engaged. She’s preparing to marry the man of her dreams. We’ve all been around girls in this season of life. They are giddy. They are fantasizing about the wedding. Their wedding is going to be better than William and Kate’s wedding. Life is just peaches and cream for them.

But for Mary, things are going to turn out very differently. The wedding dress that she bought probably isn’t going to fit because she’s going to be pregnant. In this culture, pregnancy outside of marriage was not only taboo…it was criminal. Mary could be dressed in rags, tied up in the middle of town, beaten, and then left for days as a warning to the other young women of the town.

Not to mention the fact that Joseph would leave her. We know he didn’t, but she didn’t know that at the time. She had to think that he was going to walk away.

Mary’s reputation would be ruined because nobody is going to believe the whole thing about a virgin birth. Joseph would probably leave her. She could even be punished as a criminal. And by the way, she’s going to be the mother of God. A young girl…possibly as young as 13 years old…is now going to be the mother of God. There’s a little bit of pressure there, don’t you think?

Mary had every reason worry. She had every reason to allow anxiety to just take over. If Mary had absolutely freaked out, no one would have blamed her.

But look at how she responds to all this. When the angel tells her, “You’re going to be pregnant with the Son of God,” here’s how she responds in Luke 1:38. “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” (Luke 1:38, NIV 1984)

A lot of us would have said, “Please God…anything but this.” Mary said, “May it be to me as you have said. This whole thing could ruin my life. I could lose all my hopes and dreams because of this, but my God is in charge. I’m at peace knowing that He is with me and He is in control.”

And because of her faithfulness, Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was born. He grew into a man. He preached and taught about the Kingdom of God. He lived the sinless life that we couldn’t live. He died the death that we should have died. He died to pay the price for our sin so we would never have to. And then He rose again. He defeated death. He bridged the gap between God and us.

We don’t ever have to be separated from God again. Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross and in His resurrection, we can have peace because we know what Mary knew. God is with me. God loves me. God is in control. Finally, I can have peace.

Anything that offers you peace apart from Jesus is a sham and a scam. It might look promising, but it will eventually discourage and disappoint you because it’s promising something it can’t deliver. Jesus has cornered the market on peace because He is the Prince of Peace. But that’s not just a title. It’s not just words. It’s not just what the Bible says about Jesus. It’s what Jesus does. It’s who Jesus is.

Being the Prince of Peace forced Jesus to leave His throne in Heaven and come here. He came into the mess of our world to rescue us.

Clayton King tells this story. A friend of his in the military verified that this story is absolutely true.

Eight Americans went to another country…a country that America does not have diplomatic ties with. They went to this country to do some business, but since America has no diplomatic ties with this country, they had to use some back channels to get in there.

When they arrived, the government in that country declared that they were American spies. They weren’t spies, but that didn’t matter. These eight Americans were taken hostage. The government held them prisoner for several years. And they not only imprisoned them…they tortured them.

They put them in this dark basement. They only fed them a couple of times a week. This basement was so dark that their eyes lost the ability to filter light, which severely damaged their ability to see.

Every couple of months, soldiers would bring them out of the basement and they would tell these hostages, “The American government has paid for your release. You are now free to go.”

They would bring them out into the sunlight, which was totally blinding to them. They would open up a gate and tell them, “If you walk through this gate, you’ll find the Americans are waiting for you. They’re waiting to take you to safety and freedom.”

They walked through the gate, and as soon as they walked through the gate, the soldiers who had tortured them would release attack dogs. The dogs would attack them and drag them to the ground. Or they would shoot guns. They would aim at the ground beneath their feet or right over their heads. They did this for years.

On top of this, they shocked them. They burned them with their cigarettes. Their bodies developed open sores that wouldn’t heal. They left them in a dungeon with no running water. They had to use the bathroom on the floor. They lived in the most disgusting, awful conditions you could ever imagine.

They were there for years. Finally, some American special forces found out where they were. An elite team of four Navy SEALs was sent to rescue them.

The SEALs jumped out of a helicopter. They landed in the middle of the night at this compound, knowing that they had only minutes to complete this mission. They had to get in, get these Americans out, and rendezvous with their airlift or the whole mission will be blown and they would be captured as well.

So the SEALs go to the basement, open the door, and the stench of human waste and these deplorable conditions overwhelms them. They walk in and they see eight Americans lying on the floor, completely lifeless.

The commander of the team said, “We’re American soldiers. We’re here to rescue you. We’ve got five minutes. Get up and follow us out and we’ll get you to safety.”

But the hostages wouldn’t move. Of course they wouldn’t move! They didn’t believe these guys were the good guys. They didn’t believe these guys would set them free. They had fallen for this trick before. These guys were sent by their captors to taunt them and torture them. So they didn’t move.

The commander pleaded with them. “Please, get up now. We’re here to help you, but we’ve got to go now. We’ve only got four minutes left. The chopper is on its way. We’ve got to go now. This is your only chance to be free.”

They wouldn’t move. One of the other SEALs went to the commander and said, “Sir, we’ve got to go. We can’t carry them out. We’d have to make two trips. We’ll blow the mission. We’ve got to go. They’re going to get us caught.”

But the commander had incredible instincts. He took off his night vision goggles. He stripped off his Kevlar vest. He took off his belt with his pistol, his knife, and his explosives. And the commander of that elite Navy SEAL team got down on the ground with the hostages.

He laid down flat in the waste and the excrement. He put his arm around one of them and said, “I’m so sorry for what they’ve done to you. I’m so sorry for how they’ve hurt you. We did not come to hurt you. We came to help you.”

And that hostage looked at the other seven and said, “Get up. We’re getting out of here. I know these are the good guys because the men who have tortured us for three years would have never gotten down in this filth with us. Let’s go.” And they got up and they went to freedom.

In Matthew 1, the Bible says, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).” (Matthew 1:22-23, NIV)

Jesus is Immanuel. He is God. And He is with us. He got into the mess with us. He came from heaven. He came into the filth and the stench and the brokenness and the cruelty and the sin of our world. He got in the mess with us. And He is still with us.

Whatever you’re facing in your life, you are not facing it alone. Whatever pain you’re feeling in your life, you’re not feeling it alone. Jesus is Immanuel. He is God with you.

And He brings peace because He is the Prince of Peace. The word “Prince” indicates royalty. So the only question left is has Jesus been crowned in your life? If Jesus is not crowned in your life, you’ll have no peace.

Tonight you have the chance to crown Jesus the King of your life. You have a chance to respond to His love. You have a chance to accept the free gift of grace that He offers. You have a chance to know His peace.

When God brings us peace, He doesn’t give it in a possession. He gives it in a Person. The person of Jesus Christ. Immanuel. God With Us. The Prince of Peace.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: Christmas, Isaiah 9, Jesus, peace, Searching...,