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December 24/25, 2016
Jason Meyer | Isaiah 9:6-7
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 with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.—Isaiah 9:6–7
Introduction
What are some of your favorite symbols for the Christmas season? I don’t even have to think twice about my answer. Perhaps my favorite symbol for Christmas is Christmas lights. I love the way that they light up the darkness. What does that symbolize? Isaiah 9:1–2 gives the answer.
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 shone.—Isaiah 9:1–2
Notice that the light in verse 1 that is coming shines “on them.” The light of the world does not come from somewhere within this world. The world is already called “dark.” This light is an otherworldly light. It is a light from heaven, not earth. Sometimes heaven is called the realm of light. No person, place, institution, or political party is the source of light—they are part of the darkness in need of the light.
Here is the question: What is this light? But that is the wrong question. The right question is “Who is this light?” Isaiah 9:1 was quoted in Matthew 4:15–16. Matthew is clear that the shining light refers to the coming of Christ. You didn’t need the New Testament to make that connection. Isaiah does it for us. Look at our text in verses 6–7. Notice that they begin with the word “for.” Verse six says the light is the Son that is given: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9:6). The gospel of Luke (2:11) makes the link between the birth of Jesus and Isaiah 9:6. Notice that heavenly beings herald the fulfillment of the promise:
“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”
Luke made the earlier link between the birth of Jesus and Isaiah’s prophesy (Isaiah 9:7) in the angel’s announcement to Mary (Luke 1:31–33) in saying that the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David (“on the throne of David,” Isaiah 9:7) and of his kingdom there will be no end (“of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,” Isaiah 9:7)
What kind of king could have a kingdom that lasts forever? One that not only lasts forever, but keeps getting better forever—increasing the government and peace— and justice and righteousness? What child is this?
Main Point: What child is this?
The child in the manger is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.
I want to devote about 5 minutes to each name and then bring the wonder of the Christmas message home to our hearts. I pray that there will be room in your heart when we come to that moment.
1. Wonderful Counselor
God’s King will not join in the folly of everyone else—they have been foolish, not wise. They have been wise in their own eyes (Isaiah 5:21) and trusted their own sense of direction, and they have only succeeded in getting more lost (not closer to God). They sought earthly solutions for their problems (if powerful foreign nations like the Babylonians are against us, we will find another powerful nation like Egypt to protect us), and they set out for Egypt without asking for my direction. Their counsel dealt with their sin problem by adding sin to sin (Isaiah 30:1–3).
The wonders that the Lord will do will put the wisdom of the wise to shame. It will perish and be hidden. “Behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden” (Isaiah 29:14).
This king will give wonderful counsel—unsurpassed in its heights and depths. He can give God’s counsel because He is God. Listen to Isaiah 55:6–9.
“Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Jesus didn’t just speak the word of God; he is the word of God. He is the word of God made flesh. This baby in the manger, who could not yet say a word, was the Word. You can see it as he speaks throughout the gospels. Even his enemies have to acknowledge: “Never did a man speak the way this man speaks” (John 7:46).
He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.—John 3:31–36.
What counsel are you receiving this Christmas? I was listening to a song on a Christmas cd and the message was “its up to us to bring the change.” He is making a list and checking it twice, and he’s going to find out who’s naughty and nice. That message fits better on the Pharisee’s Christmas album. Along with other hits like “Have you done what I’ve done?” (their version of “Do You Hear What I Hear”?) or “Great is my faithfulness” (instead of “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”).
2. Mighty God
This same exact phrase appears again in Isaiah 10:21 “A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.” How does this child in the manger show He is the Mighty God in our salvation? Listen to Isaiah 59:15–17 ...
Truth is lacking,
and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
The LORD saw it, and it displeased him
that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no one to intercede;
then his own arm brought him salvation,
and his righteousness upheld him.
He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.
3. Everlasting Father (Father of eternity or father of all time.)
This child that will be born in about 700 years is the Father of time! That is a clear reference to the biblical truth that Christ is Creator of heaven and earth. Hebrews 1:10–12 has God the Father say to Christ the Son: “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; and they all will become old like a garment, and like a mantle you will roll them up; like a garment they will also be changed. But you are the same, and your years will not come to an end.”
Nothing is too complex for the Creator and Sustainer of everything. Infinity and all its intricacies are nothing to him who is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
This name confuses many people. Isaiah is not confusing the persons of the Blessed Holy Trinity: The Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father. Isaiah is saying that the child to be born (the child there in the manger) has a certain character or quality. Namely, he has a Father’s heart for his people. He has a heart that treats us like beloved children. Isaiah is not saying Jesus is the Father, he is saying that Jesus is like a father in his tender love and affection.
The word “father” for some of you means the opposite of what it means here. In your experience, perhaps father means “distant, passive, absent, unreliable, uncaring, unkind, controlling, cruel.” But “Everlasting Father” does not mean emotionally distant. God does not neglect his children! For many of you that word “Father” needs to be redeemed. Jesus came to do it. He came down from heaven to earth to show us the Father.
If you want to know what God the Father is like, look at Jesus. He is the perfect image of God. The exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus alone makes the Father known. “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (John 14:9–10).
4. Prince of Peace
He is the Prince of Peace because he alone can bring about both vertical (peace between God and humanity) and horizontal peace (peace between man and man). In fact, he is the Prince of Peace because the peace he brings is infinite like himself. Isaiah 9:7 continues, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.” In other words, his government and peace will keep expanding, widening, deepening, lengthening. The familiar hymn “Like a River Glorious” accurately speaks of peace that is “perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day, perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.”
We have a hard time understanding how anything perfect can improve. It is not as if it becomes more perfect—it is that we see more and more of its perfect fullness—we are too limited to see it all and so it takes forever for finite people to see infinite perfection. It is as C.S. Lewis says in Prince Caspian …
“Aslan," said Lucy, "you're bigger."
"That is because you are older, little one," answered he.
"Not because you are?"
"I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger."
Conclusion: Christmas Is Not a Religious Holiday
As the Everlasting Father, the child in the manger left heaven and came to earth to show us the Father. He also came to show us the way to the Father. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This is no religion. All the religions of this world rely upon the wisdom of the world. They are the same in the sense that they have a religious leader that shares with us a way to get to God. Religions and religious leaders are like salvation coaches. They give us a map to get to God and then tell us to get going. They show us a ladder to climb to God and say “start climbing.” They give us a religious route to run to God and then say, “run faster.”
Jesus is different. Jesus is not a salvation coach—He is the Savior. He did not come to tell us the way. He came to be the way. He did not come to tell you how to climb up—he came down to take you up. Christmas is not a religious holiday. Religion is man’s pursuit of God; Christmas is God’s pursuit of man. Religions give good religious advice to be accomplished by you; Christmas is good news accomplished for you. Don’t forget about the last verse of our text: “The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this” (Isaiah 9:7). What did he accomplish for us as Savior?
His name says it all: “You shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). The book of Isaiah tells us what God is going to do with the sins of those who receive his promised salvation.
1. Our sins that stain us, will be cleansed:
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).
2. Our sins that are in front of God’s face, will be cast behind his back:
“In love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back” (Isaiah 38:17).
3. Our sins that cry out for punishment, he erases and then refuses to remember:
“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25). How?
4. The Son of God comes as the Lamb of God and dies as a sacrifice for our sins.
Jesus came to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. How does he take them away from us? By putting them on him: “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
I fear that sometimes we fail to see the might of the Mighty God in the work of forgiveness. Sam Storms shared a devotional at a meeting recently where he talked about God removing our sin as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). The Hubble Telescope has given us breathtaking pictures of a galaxy some 13 billion light years from earth. Remember that a light year is 6,000,000,000,000 (six trillion) miles. That put this galaxy at 78,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles from earth! In case you were wondering, we count from million, to billion, to quadrillion, to quintillion, to sextillion. So, this galaxy is 78 sextillion miles from earth.
If you traveled 500 mph non-stop, literally 60 minutes of every hour, 24 hours in every day, seven days in every week, 52 weeks in every year, with not a moment’s pause or delay, it would take you 20,000,000,000,000,000 years (that’s 20 quadrillion years) to get there! And that would only get you to the farthest point that our best telescopes have yet been able to detect. Still, this would be the mere fringe of what lies beyond.
My point—and the point of the psalmist—is that the magnitude of such a distance is a pathetically small comparison to the likelihood that you will ever be dealt with according to your sin or repaid for your iniquities! If you were ever inclined to pursue your transgressions so that you might place yourself beneath their condemning power, 78,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles is an infinitesimally small fraction of the distance you must travel to find them! (Sam Storms, "A Dozen Things God Did With Our Sin," devotional on 12/8/16).
Charles Blondin was the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope, a 3” hemp rope, 1,100 feet long. In 1859 and 1860 he walked across it 160 feet above the Niagara River, just below the falls, several times, each time with a different, daring feat: dressed in a sack, walking on stilts, pushing a wheelbarrow full of potatoes, riding a bicycle. One time he stopped in mid-section and cooked an omelet on a small portable stove.
The story is told that then he asked if people really believed that he could push people across Niagara Falls in this wheelbarrow. Everyone had seen him do it. They all said “yes.” But then he asked, “ok, any volunteers?” We are talking about “believe” in two different ways. I am not asking you if you intellectually and casually believe that Christ can save you from your sins. I am not asking you if you believe that Christ can take across the great divide between earth and heaven. You have heard him say that he can. Will you come to him? Will you give yourself to him? Abandon yourself to him? Confess him as your only hope of salvation? Say to him, “Yes” carry my across! You alone can save!
The only people that really adore a Savior are those who come to him for salvation. Come to him.
Sermon Discussion Questions
Main Point: What child is this? Answer: The child in the manger is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.
Outline
Discussion Questions
Application Questions
Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to adore Christ this Christmas above all earthly powers and earthly treasures.