Isaiah 9:1–7
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So in just a few minutes, we're going to sing our final song, I think, of the Christmas season. You know what it is? You already looked forward in the bulletin. It's Joy to the World. Iconic Christmas hymn. At least we sing it at Christmas. It's actually a second coming hymn, but we can talk about that later. It's about joy. Joy to the world. The Lord is come. Let earth receive her king. I wonder how many times over the Christmas season you've seen the word joy in some form or fashion. Some of you have some, you know, wooden plaques that you hang around your house, above your TV, or on your mantel, and they say joy, you know, and calligraphic writing.
Or maybe you sent out a Christmas card this year that had joy written on it. Christmas is a, it's a season of joy. There's even a song that I used to listen to as a teenager that was called Christmas, the season of joy. It's not a word that we use a ton any other time of the year, but at Christmas, we use it all the time. Christmas joy, joy to the world. Why is that? Why do we think of Christmas as a season of joy? There's a certain theory that runs around that Christians and people in the Middle Ages just kind of invented this holiday right at the beginning of the winter season as a way of just kind of saying to the winds and to the snow and to the ice, you can't get us down.
So we're just going to place this holiday about joy and lights and merriment right in the middle of the deepest part of winter. And we're going to be happy come what may. And is that it? I wonder if that's kind of all the world around us thinks about it, to be honest with you. It's all about elves and reindeer with shiny red noses that can cut through the fog. A fat man in a red suit and a funny hat that brings toys to children right in the middle of winter.
But is that what it's all about? Most of you who are gathered here today with us know that, no, that's not what Christmas is all about. Christmas is about a deeper, more real joy than just that red elf from the North Pole. You know that Christmas is about your Savior, Jesus Christ, who became man for you. We're going to be looking this morning at a very famous passage of Scripture. One that comes up very often at Christmas time.
We read it in Christmas Eve services. We see it on Hallmark cards. We put it on the front of our bulletins at Christmas. At least a few lines of it anyway. You don't normally find the whole thing on Hallmark cards. Just a few lines or maybe one line unto us a child is born. It's one of the most beautiful of the Old Testament's prophecies about Jesus. And I think it's so beautiful and it's so striking. not only because it is so specific about who Jesus is going to be and what he's going to do, but because it also shows us in a kind of unique way of the prophecies of the Old Testament who Jesus is.
Like not just in his titles. I mean, it talks about him being king. It talks about him being wonderful counselor, mighty God. We're going to talk about all those things today. But it shows us not just in his titles who he is, but in his character who he is. And more clearly than any other place in the Old Testament, this one helps us get to know, really know, the Messiah 700 years before he was born. So take a Bible if you've got one. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 9. That's where we're going to be this morning.
If you are using one of these red pew Bibles in front of you, down here they're going to be in the pew racks. Upstairs and on the sides, I think they're going to be underneath your chairs. But if you're using one of these red pew Bibles, you'll find Isaiah chapter 9 on page 573. Before we get to chapter 9, let me just give you a kind of running start because obviously we're dropping down into the middle of Isaiah. I don't particularly like to do that. It is Christmas and that's why we're doing it. But I don't particularly like to drop into books right in the middle, especially Old Testament books of prophecy because our general thought about Old Testament books of prophecy to begin with is that they're just like big bowls of judgment spaghetti and you've got this messianic meatball stuck in there every once in a while.
And basically the way we tend to treat the prophets is that we skip the spaghetti and we go right for the meatballs at the particular time of year, you know, that they're called for. And, you know, that's kind of what we're doing this morning, but I want you to know that I know that's what we're doing and I don't really prefer it. So let me give you a kind of overview of the book of Isaiah. At the highest, the book was written by the prophet Isaiah, the whole thing. We don't have three Isaiahs, don't have two Isaiahs. There's no Deutero Isaiah. You might have heard that from academics. It's just not true. There's one Isaiah he wrote the whole thing. And the book, big book, Isaiah, is divided into three smaller books. So you've got chapters 1 through 38, and then 39 to 55, and then 56 to 66. Those are the three books. And each one of them focuses on the plight of the nation of Israel. There's kind of two Israels at the time, There's north Israel and then there's south Judah, those two kingdoms.
And this book focuses in all three of its sections on the plight of both of those kingdoms. It says how much they've sinned against God. It talks about the coming judgment that's going to be meted out against each of those kingdoms. But then each one of those books also focuses on a saving figure who's going to come to save Israel from her sins. Now, at first glance, that figure in each one of those three books looks kind of like a different person. Because in chapters 1 to 38, you have this figure of a great king who is going to come and save his people.
In the second one, you've got a picture of what has come to be known as the suffering servant of the Lord who's coming to save his people. And then in the third one, you've got a picture of a conqueror who's going to come from heaven to set the world right. So, through the years, people have started to talk about Isaiah in three sections. You've got the book of the king, the book of the servant, and then the book of the conqueror. What's amazing about the book, though, is that as you start to compare the description of the king and the description of the servant and the description of the conqueror, you realize, oh my goodness, the king and the servant and the conqueror are all the same person.
They're the Messiah. He is the Messiah. Well, today we're dropping into kind of the first third or so of the book of the king. And Isaiah chapter 9, verses 1 to 7, is one of the clearest, just most brilliant prophecies of this great coming king that you get throughout, you know, the entire first 38 chapters of the book of Isaiah. But it doesn't just come out of nowhere. It's not just a messianic meatball in the midst of the judgment spaghetti. Let me tell you how we get to Isaiah chapter 9. So we're not going to read the whole thing.
Here's what I want you to see. In chapters 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5, all the way down, you have a kind of preamble to the entire book of Isaiah. And what you see is the Lord pleading his case against Israel, telling Israel what he's done for them in the past, reminding them of the Exodus, reminding them of how he chose them out of all the nations of the earth to be his own, how he cultivated them like a vineyard as his own nation, and yet how they sinned against him.
And how now the darkness of judgment and despair and ultimately wrath is closing in on them. That's how chapters 1 to 5 work. We're going to look at the very end of chapter 5 a little bit later. And you'll see what I mean by the darkness closing in. Chapter 6 tells the famous story of Isaiah's call to the prophetic office. Remember Isaiah in the year that King Uzziah died. I saw the Lord high and lifted up. He has a vision or he's taken maybe into the throne room of God. He sees the great enthroned God with all the cherubim and the seraphim around him praising him.
And the train of his robe fills the temple and his glory fills the heavens. And Isaiah is called then to the prophetic ministry in chapter 6. Chapter 7 then contains the first of Isaiah's prophetic works. He confronts King Ahaz, the king of Israel, the king of the southern kingdom. And tells him that the alliances that he has formed with other nations around him show his faithlessness to God.
Where his faith should have been. Where his trust should have been. But he put his faith in the king of Syria or the king of Egypt. That's what's going on in chapter 7. In chapter 8, what you've got is the beginning of a sort of two-part prophecy against Israel and Judah. And it runs from chapter 8 through chapter 11. So what you have are like two parts of it, right? And at the beginning of each part, so chapter 8 and then, you know, part of chapter 10, you've got sort of judgment against Judah, judgment against Israel, right?
That's what you've got. Judgment against Judah, judgment against Israel. And then in the second part of each of those, 8 to 11, you have promise of salvation by a great king, promise of salvation by a great king. So that's how it works. If you were to read 8 through 11, that's what you'd see. Judgment against Israel, salvation of Israel. Judgment against Judah, salvation of Judah. That's how that works. So most of chapter 8 is the judgment against Israel, the northern kingdom. If you look at the subtitle there, the coming Assyrian invasion. The Assyrians are going to come down from the north.
They're going to invade the northern kingdom. And all of chapter 8 is about what's going to happen when they do. And then with chapter 9, you have this burst of salvation there in 9. But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. So that's kind of how the whole thing is working. But we're going to be focusing on chapter 9, verses 1 through 7. Let's read it. Here's what Isaiah writes. 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. 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 for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping 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. And he will sit 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. So here's the main idea. What Isaiah is calling the people of Israel to do is to rejoice because their Messiah, their Savior, is coming.
It's a little bit different for us as we read it because we're on this side of the Incarnation. We're on this side of the cross. And so I think the main idea that we're to take from Isaiah is this. Rejoice this Christmas above all, Christian, because you know Jesus the Messiah. You're not waiting on him. You're not sitting in darkness waiting on the light to dawn. The light has dawned. Joy to the world. The Lord has come. Rejoice this Christmas above all because you know Jesus Christ.
Two points to the sermon. We're going to be just looking at kind of the two halves of these seven verses. Number one, a light has finally dawned. And number two, a child is finally born. So what's Christmas? The world, the best the world seems to be able to do with Christmas is basically that it's the season of year when we're all supposed to pause in the middle of winter and just be nice to one another for a few hours. Yeah, the world sprinkles it with giving and family and even a little love.
But what I want to try to convince you of today is that it is those who know the Messiah and who know that the Messiah has come to save his people who really understand what Christmas is all about. We rejoice at Christmas not because it's an opportunity to gather with family, but because God himself has come to us. Emmanuel, that's why we rejoice. So let's look at this passage. Number one, a light has finally dawned.
A light has finally dawned. The operative word in that point title is finally. A light has finally dawned. Because to really understand how chapter 9 is supposed to hit in the midst of the book of Isaiah, you've got to understand the situation in which it was written. Because the great joy in these verses, but there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. They rejoice before you.
See that great joy in the passage? That joy in these verses is made even greater when you understand the dark, hopeless background against which the whole thing was written. Because actually when Isaiah prophesied these particular verses, it was about 700 years before the birth of the Messiah. So we're talking B.C., right? This is before zero. So like negative 722. That's about when we are. And by the time Isaiah spoke these words to the people of Israel, their spirits were already at the point of breaking. Everything that was going on in their nation, the threats from without, the cracks from within, all of it had resulted not in a kind of golden age for Israel, but nothing really but shattered hopes and broken dreams and unfulfilled longings.
That's what they had. And it was made even worse because they thought they had promises of God that a golden age was coming and a golden age was going to last forever. When you think back to 2 Samuel 7, here's what God promised King David as David sat on the throne in 2 Samuel 7. He says, when your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, So David, after you're dead, I, God, will raise up your descendant after you who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.
He'll build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Your house, that means your dynasty, it's not the building that he lived in, your dynasty and your kingdom shall endure before me forever, and your throne shall be established. forever and that is a staggering promise from the lord of the universe and the israelites took it to heart i mean that's why it's written down in second samuel chapter 7 right it's because the whole nation took that promise to heart they said the god of the universe is going to establish the kingdom of israel forever there's going to be a king who's going to sit on the throne and he's going to sit there forever.
Well, what happened over the years is after David's death when Solomon took the throne and then when Solomon's son Rehoboam took the throne is that every king who sat on the throne became the focus of all the people's hopes and dreams about that prophecy. A new king would take the throne. The people would wait and they would watch and they would hope that maybe this guy is the king that God had promised and then that king would sin against God and he would die under God's judgment and another king would take the throne and they would wait and they would hope and they would watch thinking that maybe this is the guy who's going to sit on the throne forever.
I mean, for a long time, we studied this just back in, you know, earlier in the year for a time, they thought that this great king was Solomon, David's son. And after all, Solomon was the richest and wisest man in the world. He was one to whom the queens and kings of other realms came and bowed down to. He was the one to whom kings offered tribute just to have the honor of taking a tour of his treasure houses. Can you imagine that? You're a king, and all you want is to see the treasure house of another king?
And so you give him money to put into his treasure house just so you can see it? That was Solomon. It was a golden age. But Solomon died. He sinned against the Lord, and he died. And before long, all of his gold and silver, all his riches had been lost. They'd either been given away in bribes to other nations or traded off for political favors or sometimes just stolen by invading armies. In fact, after Solomon's death, David's great golden kingdom had actually splintered in half. We talked about this as we studied the books of kings.
We're going to go back to that in January. Picking up in 2 Kings, and we're going to see these two kingdoms. It splintered in half. He had ten of the tribes that rebelled against Solomon's son, Rehoboam. So they rebelled against the true king. formed their own kingdom that they called Israel in the north. That was ten tribes, right? The ten lost tribes of Israel. That's who they are. The remaining two tribes, remember there were twelve of them, right? So ten went with Israel in the north. Two of them banded together into this other kingdom down in the south called Judah. They kept their allegiance to David's line, but they were small and weak.
And David's throne, David's kingdom and dynasty, which had been so great and awe-inspiring, finally became nothing more than a point of derision. See, by the time Isaiah spoke these words in chapter 9 that we've just read, the house of David was terminally ill, and everybody knew it was terminally ill. The dynasty of David was winding down to nothing, in absolute contradistinction to what God had said, that I'm going to set an eternal king on your throne to reign forever, and then down to this wretch of a man named Ahaz, who was squatting on the throne of Israel while he begged for his life before the enormous empires that surrounded him, Egypt and Assyria.
By the time Isaiah said this, Israel was in dire straits. They were surrounded. Assyria was to the north, Egypt was to the south, Babylon to the east. They didn't even have anywhere to run because if they ran west, they would just run into the Mediterranean Sea and drown. To make matters worse, this king Ahaz who sat on David's throne had turned his back entirely on God's promises to David's line and actually struck a deal with all of these nations to try to protect himself. Of course, it didn't work. The kings of Assyria and Egypt and Babylon were all sinners.
They were all pagans. They didn't know the Lord. They didn't know truth. They didn't know righteousness. And so they turned on Ahaz and God promised that he was going to destroy Judah for turning her back on him. So the great line of Davidic kings was failing. It was dying. Let me show you this in a couple of places before we go on. Turn back to chapter 5. I want to show you this just amazing image at the end of chapter 5. You remember chapters 1 to 5 are this prologue, kind of preamble to the whole book, right?
It talks about God's faithfulness, the people's sin, and then the coming darkness. And it ends with this just amazing picture of the closing darkness. So look at verse 26. Isaiah writes there, God, that's the he, God will raise a signal or a flag for the nations far away and whistle for them from the ends of the earth. And behold, quickly, speedily they come. None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps.
Not a waistband is loose, not a sandal strap is broken. Their arrows are sharp. All their bows are bent. Their horses' hooves seem like flint. And their wheels like the whirlwind. Their roaring is like a lion. Like young lions, they roar. They growl and seize their prey. They carry it off. And none can rescue it. They will growl over it on that day. I mean, you see the driving image of this marauding army that's coming into Israel. I don't know if you've ever seen the movie World War Z, but this is what this reminds me of. Just soldiers piling on top of one another, growling and ripping and destroying as they come into the land.
And it ends there at the very beginning of verse 30 with that image of them growling over it on the day. What's the it? It's the prey that they're destroying. It's the nation of Israel that they are growling over. But then look at the second line of verse 30 because the image changes. And it changes from this horrifically scary active image to one that in its own way is even more frightening because it is so quiet and ominous. They will growl over their prey on that day like the growling of the sea.
And if one looks to the land, behold darkness and distress, and the light is darkened by its clouds. So did you see how the image changes? You go from this marauding army to a lone sailor out on the ocean as the storm starts to roll in, as the clouds start to build, as the lightning starts to strike and the sea starts to roar. And when he looks to land for some hope, when he starts to think about getting back to the shore where it's safe, the darkness closes in and he can't even see it.
He's hopeless. That's the end of the preamble of Isaiah. That's where Israel found herself at this point in history. Turn over now just to the end of chapter 8, right before our passage breaks through with light again finally. Look at verse 22. I just want to show you the last verse of it because, frankly, it's enough. Isaiah chapter 8, verse 22. They will look to the earth. This is the people of Israel. They will look to the earth, but behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish.
And they will be thrust into thick darkness. But then there's verse 1 of chapter 9. And it's like a trumpet blast from heaven. But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the midst of the darkness, the light breaks through. The shaft of sunlight breaks through. And there is no gloom for her who was in anguish.
Keep looking at verse 1 there. You notice all those place names in the former time he brought into contempt. The land of Zebulun. The land of Naphtali. But in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea. That's a kind of technical name for this next place. The land beyond the Jordan. Galilee of the Gentiles. Galilee of the nations, right? So why does he mention those place names right there? Zebulun, Naphtali. Those are two of the tribes of Israel that had their land, you know, in a certain place. The way of the sea, that is the land beyond the Jordan.
That is Galilee, which belongs to the Gentiles. It doesn't even belong to us. It belongs to the Gentiles, right? Why does he mention those places? That's because those were the northernmost places in the nation of Israel. So when the Assyrian armies came down, what were the first places that were going to take the brunt of the spear? It was Zebulun and Naphtali and Galilee of the nations. They were going to take the first blows of the Syrian invasion. And yet, God says that it is in that darkest of places.
That place where more than any other, sin and darkness and oppression and invading armies have run rampant. It's right there that the light will dawn first. What an incredible thing. Those in the most despair are the ones who will see salvation first. Friends, when Christians talk about the good news, when we talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, we're not talking about good news for people who have it all together.
We're talking about good news for those who are hopeless. We're talking about good news for sinners, for rebels against God, who need mercy, who need compassion, who need salvation from their sins. That's what we're talking about. When the light finally did dawn, When Jesus came and began his ministry. Do you know where he began his ministry? Do you know where he first preached?
Do you know where he did his first miracle? He did his first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. The light dawned first among those who were most hopeless. What an incredible thing that is. well over the next four verses there are four specific promises that god makes for us really four things i think that make christmas really worth celebrating so let's look at them first you've got light for those who are in darkness in verse two the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them light has shown what does that what does that mean well it's it's it's not just physical it's not that the sun didn't shine in those lands right this isn't a fairy tale it's not like those northern lands were mordor or something where you literally got no sun, that the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali were as sunny as any other lands. That's talking about the darkness of invasion, it's talking about the darkness of
oppression, but even worse, here in Isaiah, it's talking about spiritual darkness. And when the Assyrian armies came through Zebulun and Naphtali, those northern lands, their lands were destroyed, their king was deposed, their children were taken away into slavery. In fact, so deep is the darkness here that isaiah calls it you see that the shadow of death the people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness that's a deathly darkness on them has light shown and yet what god is saying here in this verse is even in the midst of your destruction even in the midst of invading armies because of your sin even in the midst of death itself keep hoping in God because by God's power a new dawn is coming and the darkness would be broken and those living and walking in darkness would see light again.
Second promise is light for those in darkness that's the first but second is joy for the despairing in verse 3 you've multiplied the nation you've increased its joy they rejoice What God is promising there is that in the midst of hopelessness, he will increase his joy. I mean, how much joy would there have been under invasion from first Assyria and then Babylon? How much joy would there have been for these people when they're being carried off into slavery in Assyria or when they're being carried across the desert to slavery and captivity and exile in Babylon?
Not much. I mean, you've got to think that this verse would have seemed extremely strange if you were sitting in Babylon on the banks of the Kibar Canal as a slave of the Babylonians. The Lord will increase the joy of his people. Oh, yeah? Well, what about these circumstances right here? Because my joy isn't increasing very fast, Lord, as I sit here on the canal, a slave of Babylon. These people were without a country. They were without a king. They were under the foot of foreign rulers. They were slaves, and yet you've got it right here.
Isaiah chapter 9, verse 3, where God promises those people the deep, satisfying joy that comes like when a harvest has been brought in or when a battle has ended in victory. That's the joy that God promises to his people regardless of the circumstances that they are in. Here's the third thing he promises, freedom for the enslaved. Look at verse 4. For the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, You, O God, have broken as on the day of Midian.
The slavery that we were under, the yoke that we were under, God breaks it and provides freedom from slavery and the oppressor. In some ways, this is a kind of callback to the book of Exodus because just like God had rescued the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt in the book of Exodus, so he says, I will do it again. What's that phrase, in the day of Midian? the yoke, the staff, the rod, all of those things you have broken as you did on the day of Midian.
What's that about? What's the day of Midian? Well, you remember the story of Gideon, right, in the book of Judges? Gideon who defeated Midian. That's the way you remember that. Gideon was the one who raised up an army to throw off the power of the Midianites who were at the time oppressing Israel. If you remember the story, it's an amazing story. He starts out, Gideon does, with an army of 32,000 men. But through various tests and trials and all the rest, God eventually whittles the whole thing down to 300.
Gideon is unhappy about this. You have taken my 32,000 men and you have whittled them down with really weird tests to 300 men. But then God uses those 300 men to defeat this enormous Midianite army with just those 300 little soldiers. So when Isaiah here says, you're going to do this just like you did it in the days of Midian, what does he want you to think about? He wants you to think about the fact that you're going to have as much hand in your salvation as the Israelites had in their salvation from Midian, and that is nothing.
It's God who acts. It's God who saves, not you. In Midian, God did everything, and he's saying, when the Messiah comes and I save my people through him, you will do nothing again, and I will do everything. See, when Israel was restored from Midian, when we are restored from our rebellion against God, it is no thanks to us at all. It is all praise to God who saves.
Here's the fourth thing. So God is promising that the warfare that God's people endure and experience every day of our lives in this world will come to an end. Maybe you read the Old Testament and see why this was such a compelling promise to the people of Israel. It's because wars are everywhere in the Old Testament.
But now, he says, war boots and blood-stained tunics are all being thrown into the fire. You don't need them anymore. The wars are over. The oppression is broken. The slavery is in it. And so you can take your leather boots, you can take your blood-stained tunic and throw it into the fire to cook your meals and to keep warm with your family. Here's what I want you to see from this. These, all four of them, all four of these promises, light for those in darkness, joy for the despairing, freedom for the enslaved, peace for the war weary, they are all promises to a people who are ground down.
That's what they are. They're promises made to a people ground down. You know, I think it's just part of being human to feel ground down sometimes. Even as Christians. And I know we're not supposed to feel that way. At least according to the kind of prevailing version of suburban evangelicalism that we all labor under. But we do feel that way.
Life is hard. Temptation is strong. And a lot of times, on a lot of the days of this journey, we feel ground down. We feel like we're groping around in darkness. but see what Isaiah is saying here is that to be a Christian to be one of the people of God does not mean that you're always winning it doesn't mean that you're always walking in the light what it means is that even when you're losing even when you're ground down you find hope as a Christian in promises like these so here's my question for you on this particular Christmas day for all of the joy that you might be mustering this morning for all of the rejoicing that we've done in the singing for all of the celebrating that you're going to do this afternoon maybe where do you feel ground down?
Is it physical pain or sickness? Well then friend, find hope in a God who promises joy in the midst of pain. He doesn't promise that he'll always take the pain away. But he does promise joy in the midst of it because of Jesus. Are you ground down by bad circumstances? Maybe 2022 was hard for you. 2022 was crazy hard for me. Do you feel ground down?
Maybe you didn't get the job you hoped for. Maybe you didn't get a promotion that you were hoping for. Maybe other things happened. Find joy in a God who cares for the despairing, because he does. You ground down by a fear of the future? Well, find solace in a God who rules over all, a God who's infinitely wise and who says, cast all your cares on me because I care for you. You know, I've had a struggle mentally for years with one of the songs that we sang.
I think this morning, O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant. Because there's a way you can read the words of that hymn where it's saying that those should come to Bethlehem and adore Him who are the best kinds of people. O come, all you who are faithful, all you who are joyful, all you who are triumphant, Come to Bethlehem and adore him. And when I read that song that way, I think, well, that ain't me.
That ain't me, so I guess I won't come and adore him. But, you know, I don't think that that's how that song is supposed to be read or understood or sung. Because when you think about the word faithful, I think what that song means by the word faithful is not people who always get it all right. Just bam, bam, bam, clicking out the righteousness like a factory. Faithful. It's not talking about that. It's talking about those who are full of faith.
And the only reason you need to be full of faith in somebody else is because you can't have any faith in yourself. It's saying, oh, come, all you who are full of faith in the Lord Jesus, And because you are full of faith in the Lord Jesus, you come joyful and triumphant in him, not in yourself. Oh, come all ye faithful in the Lord Jesus and be joyful and triumphant.
Come to Bethlehem and let us adore him. That's point number one. Here's point number two. Unto us a child is finally born. All those promises that the Lord makes in those first five verses or so, the question that comes after that is, okay, how? How are you going to do all that? How are you going to make all these great things come about? And the answer comes in verse 6. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. It's a shocking thing that the Lord says there because God's answer to all our despair, all our darkness, all our oppression, all our fear, The world falling apart is weirdly a baby.
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. He will sit, that's understood, 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. And I'm sure you all know already who finally fulfilled that prophecy.
So you know who it is that finally reestablished David's royal line, took a seat on David's throne. It was Jesus. It was Jesus. Look with me at Luke 1.30. You can either turn to Luke 1 or you can just pick up your bulletin and turn, I think, to the call to worship. Let's just look again at what the angel said to Mary. The angel said to Mary, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. I mean, that's amazing enough, right? I mean, Mary, this young virgin woman, she's not married yet. She's betrothed. And this angel comes to her and says, You're going to bear a son. He's like, Oh, that's cool, right? But then look at 32, he will be great and will be called the son of the most high. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there will be no end. Gabriel is basically quoting Isaiah 9 right there.
He's basically saying that this baby that's going to be in your womb in just a little bit is the prophesied one from Isaiah chapter 9, because he's using the same language that's used in Isaiah 9. Let's look a little closer for just a couple minutes at these verses because they tell us a lot about the Messiah who was going to be born in Bethlehem, who was going to sit on David's throne. It gives him, if you look in verse 6, four different names. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. I want to look at those very briefly. First of all, Wonderful Counselor.
First of all, that word wonderful there is not just awesome. Oh, isn't that wonderful? Isn't he amazing? Isn't he awesome? That's not what it means. That word wonderful is the same word that's used in the New Testament for like signs and wonders. It's about as close as you're going to get in the Hebrew language to the word supernatural. It means that this Messiah, this King, is not merely natural. He's not merely of this world like the rest of us are. He's supernatural. There's something about him, not everything, but there is something about him that is utterly different from us.
Hence, his birth from a virgin. And he's called here wonderful. He's also called their counselor, basically because of his great and supernatural wisdom. Counsel, counselor is a word that's used throughout the Old Testament. Generally, it's used for like military counsel and advice, right? So when the Old Testament repeatedly talks about the king's counselor, it's not like the king on a couch talking about his deepest, darkest secrets to somebody. It's like standing over a war table, and his military counselors are giving him advice about what to do.
And what this is saying is that this Messiah is going to be a wise, divine ruler of God's people. He's going to know what is necessary to do against the forces of hell and death and the grave in order to save his people. Paul said similar things in 1 Corinthians 1.30. In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Friends, your wonderful counselor knows exactly what is necessary to bring you safely home to him.
He's not a novice when it comes to warfare against hell. He's already defeated Satan and he knows how to mop up the operation and bring his people home. He is a wonderful counselor. Trust him in that. Fight despair with that knowledge. Second thing that he's called there is mighty God. He will be called, this king will be called a wonderful counselor, supernatural, wise person in military affairs particularly, it seems like.
And he will also be called mighty God. Easily one of the most stunning statements in the entire Old Testament because Isaiah is saying here that the king who reestablishes David's throne will be God, the Almighty. I mean, look at it. He's not sheepish about it at all. He doesn't hedge, he doesn't pull his bets, he doesn't pull his punches, nothing. He doesn't say, this one will be like God in a whole lot of ways. He doesn't say, he's going to be a God-like conqueror.
No, he just says it straight up. This king, this child, this son will be mighty God. God Almighty. And it's exactly what the angel meant when he said he will be great and he will be called the son of the most high. He meant exactly what Isaiah meant here. He meant what John the Apostle meant when he said at the very beginning of the gospel that we were studying this fall. In the beginning was the Word. The Word's Jesus, right? The eternal Son of God. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word, the eternal Son of God, was with God.
And the Word, the eternal Son of God, was God. And the Word, the eternal Son of God, became flesh and dwelt among us. He is mighty God. Friend, if that's true, If Jesus Christ is truly the mighty God, what does that say to us? It says that he is completely and utterly reliable. You can trust him because there's nothing in this entire universe, there's nothing in the timeline of your life that can come against you that he is not completely and totally in charge of.
That's what the doctrine of providence is. that all things are ordained by God for his glory and the good of his people. You're not suffering, you're not experiencing, you're not being afflicted by a single thing that is outside the sovereign control of God. It's all completely in hand. He knows exactly what he's doing with it. Third phrase there, everlasting father. Some people get tripped up on that.
Because they think, well, we're talking about the Son here, right? We're talking about the eternal Son of God becoming flesh, and so how are we saying that he's everlasting Father, right? So isn't that confusing the Trinity? Isn't that getting God the Father and God the Son sort of mixed up? We're not supposed to call the Son Father. But there's no reason to be tripped up, though. That word Father is talking basically about rule and authority. That's what it's talking about. So basically, everybody in Israel who had authority, so kings, judges, magistrates, you know, the leaders of the tribes, you know, all of them were known as the fathers, the elders, the people who were the rulers of the people.
So that's what it's saying about him, that he's going to be the everlasting ruler, the everlasting one in authority. Now, that's interesting, right, that they were called fathers, and that has connotations of authority. You know what other connotations it has, though? It has connotations of love. To call your rulers a father has connotations of love, care, compassion, protection. Now, I know that not everybody experiences fathers like that. But that's the connotation that it has. That's how fathers are supposed to act. And so that's what the Israelites called their leaders, the fathers, because they have compassion because they love.
And what this is saying is that somebody, this mighty God, this wonderful counselor is going to sit on David's throne and he will be a loving king. It's an incredible thing to think about. But I think one of the things that you and I ought to do on this Christmas day is take some time to meditate on the fact simply that Jesus, the king, loves you. I've never thought much of Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so, being a Christmas song.
But it's hard really to think of a better one, honestly. The king of the universe, the incarnate son of God loves you as a good father would love you. Which means he wants you to thrive as a Christian. He wants you to grow up as a Christian. He wants you to grow into maturity. He wants you to win in your struggles. He wants you to persevere through temptations. He wants you to grow strong through the things that you're fighting in this life. He wants to see you even in the midst of hardship and affliction and difficulty filled up with joy and happiness as your eyes are set on home.
And he wants you home with him. Remember the high priestly prayer, as it's called, from John 17? Father, I want them to be with me where I am. If you're a parent, especially if you've gotten, you know, into the upper echelons of that and some of your kids have started to leave the house, You know that prayer as a father, as a mother, right? Father, I want them to be with me where I am. When all three of our kids are at home, and especially after they're, you know, all tucked in and in bed, Mariah will often, like, sort of, you know, just snuggle down.
She'll say, all my chickies are home. I want them to. Why does she do that? Like, why do I have that feeling too, usually? It's because we love them. We love our chickies. We want them to be with us where we are. It's the same with Jesus. It's the same with Jesus. He wants you home with him. There's a long road between here and there, but he wants you home. Find comfort in that.
Prince of Peace. Fourth, finally, Isaiah calls him the Prince of Peace. Meaning he's the one who's finally going to put an end to all hostility, all warfare. He's the one who's going to reign forever in peace. You remember what it was that the angels said on the night when Jesus was born to the shepherds tending their flocks by night? They said, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace. The king of peace was finally coming into the world.
You know, I read something the other day in an article. The angels in the Bible are said to sing or to praise God in several different places. But do you know that right up until this moment, in the fields, with the shepherds, no angel is ever said to sing while his feet are planted on the earth. They only sing in heaven. But on that night, As the vanguard of heaven, as the hymn says, clears the way and the Son of God came down from heaven.
The music of heaven filled the spheres of the earth. Peace on earth to those on whom his favor rests. How does he ultimately do that? Well, Paul wrote about it in Romans 5. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, since we've been declared righteous through our trust in the Lord Jesus who died for us, we have peace with God.
The warfare is finally over. Do you remember what happened at the end of Genesis chapter 3 when Adam and Eve were finally kicked out of the garden and the way to the tree of life was closed after the rebellion against God. Do you remember what happens? The Bible, Genesis, says that an angel was placed on the way, on the road to the tree of life with a flaming sword to prevent them from coming back into the presence of God.
Now, the Bible doesn't tell us who that angel was. It just doesn't. So you can't really preach this, preach this. But Jewish tradition had it. Long before Luke was written, long before the Christmas story was written, the Jewish tradition had it that that angel that was placed on the way to the tree of life with the flaming sword to block human beings from coming into the presence of God was Gabriel. Now, if that's true, we don't know that it is because it's not actually in the Bible, but Jewish tradition said it.
But if it's true that that was Gabriel, what an incredible thing it is. What an incredible thing it must have been for Gabriel to get a new assignment. Can you imagine? Gabriel, enough of that. Don't bar them from my presence anymore. Why don't you go tell Mary that the Messiah who's going to save them from their sins is finally here? Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince of peace. Last thing, very last thing in conclusion, I just want you to notice one more thing at the end of verse Six. Well, two, sorry, two more things. First, this child is given for us. You see that? For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. This is not something that is far and away from you. If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, this is not something that's just like a distant thing to you that you can kind of look at and consider and walk away from.
This son, this child, this wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace, is given for you. There's an open hand to you to take mercy from him and be saved from your sins. Don't pass that up. The child is given to us. Last thing, though, at the end of verse 7, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. What does that mean? Well, what it means is that God isn't just doing this out of a sense of duty. He's zealous about it. He's doing it because he's excited to do it.
All of this, these great promises, these breathtaking blessings, all of it's going to be accomplished, Isaiah says there, by the zeal of the Lord. Everything that God did to save you from your sins, he did it zealously with an amazing, zealous love for his church. Now, how many times at Christian conferences have you heard speakers and songs and all the rest It's exhorting you and challenging you and pushing you to be on fire for God. Okay, fine.
That's great. It's great that we want to be on fire for the Lord. That language isn't exactly used in the Bible anywhere, but whatever. This language, though, is used. Not that we are on fire for God, but that God is on fire for us. He's zealous to save his people. I wonder sometimes what it was like on the day when the Son of God descended into Mary's womb.
Some of the hymns that we sing at Christmas have beautiful pictures of that happening. In most of those hymns, it's a kind of slow, silent descent into the darkness. As the darkness clears away and the angels spread their wings at the vanguard. I'm not sure it was like that, though. I don't know, but I wonder if when the go order from the Father was given, if the Son of God rather roared off the throne to go save his people.
The time has come, and I'm going to get them. Praise God. O come, O come, Emmanuel, God with us. My guess is that a lot of you still have a lot of Christmas stuff to do today. You've got a lot of gifts to give. You've got a lot of food to eat and prepare. But my prayer is that in the midst of all the gifts, all the food, all the family, all the friends, don't forget why we do all of this in the first place. Maybe even coming here this morning felt to you like a bit of a duty, a bit of a thing that you had to do, a bit of an inconvenience in the midst of an already busy day.
Don't forget why we do all of this. It's because after so many centuries and millennia of hopeless and despair, finally the Savior King has been born. And the throne of David and the throne of the universe is no longer empty. Praise God. Let's pray. Our Lord Jesus, we praise you today just as the angels did. That you are the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And you are worthy of all majesty and might and honor and glory.
You are the eternal Son of God who became man for us so that we might be saved from our sins and from our rebellion against you and from the consequence of death that comes from it. Oh, Lord God, we thank you for the shaft of light that broke through the darkness in Isaiah chapter 9. And we thank you that it grew and grew and grew until that day, that night in Bethlehem when the Son of God was born to Mary so that we might sing with the angels forever. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus, our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Messiah.
Amen.