Good
morning children and youth, thanks for telling us the story of Jesus’ birth! It was really
special, but just like you kept saying, there’s myrrh! In the Bible, Jesus is
called by many different names and they each give us a picture of who Jesus is.
There’s a prophet hundreds of years before Jesus was born who talked about him
coming as a baby. Isaiah told us, “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. 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. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” Remember in the play that the story teller told us
that Israel was waiting for a flashy Messiah, a king with a mean streak who
would kick out the Romans? Isaiah tells us that the baby is royalty, but
instead of a mean king, he’s the Prince of Peace.
The
angels praised God when Jesus was born, singing, “Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.”
The angels remind us that Jesus is all about peace, about peace with God and
peace on earth. What does peace mean? Another
pastor, Scott
Hoezee says that, “Peace means “peace and quiet.” Peace means a
lack of conflict.” Peace means that there’s no more fighting, and that’s
something we all hope for. Jesus comes to fight for peace, that sounds kind of
funny right, that Jesus fights for peace? Peace is more than just not fighting,
it’s about people living together and helping each other out all the time, it’s
about being people who encourage each other, who don’t tell unkind or mean
stories about others. Peace means always being kind to others so that they know
that we care about them, but even more importantly, so that they can know how
much Jesus loves them.
Nowadays,
we see that lots of people like talking about other people. We call that
gossip. Some people like saying mean things about other people and how they
aren’t very good at something. This makes them sad or even angry inside when
they hear this. We say that they don’t have peace in their hearts then. Peace
in our hearts comes from joy and hope, and that joy and hope comes from Jesus
and his love for us, a love that we’re called to show to others. In Jesus’
world of peace, people will talk about each other, but instead of gossiping,
they talk about how good other people are, they talk about all the things that
other people are really good at and where they did really well in helping
others feel peace inside. That’s an exciting place to live, knowing that we
never have to be afraid of people saying horrible things about us behind our
backs, instead knowing that they’re happy for us when things go well and
encourage each other when things don’t go the way he hoped!
But
wait! There’s myrrh! Jesus also comes to bring peace between us and God by washing away
our sins so that we can be children of God, part of God’s family with Jesus.
Jesus is so dedicated to creating peace between God and us that he even died so
that we can have peace with God our Father. This is why Jesus is the Prince of
Peace. Isaiah tells us that, “The zeal of the
LORD Almighty will accomplish this.” That’s the good news of Christmas:
love really did come down and Jesus is so excited about bringing us peace!
Jesus’
zeal for us, which means that he is super excited about us and making us his
brothers and sisters in God’s family showing just how much you are loved by the
God of the galaxies through Prince Jesus. As the Prince of Peace, Jesus has all
the power he needs to create a world of peace and harmony where we’re all able
to flourish together. Hallelujah!
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