Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro
You wouldn’t think John Wilkes Booth had anything to do with Christmas, but in a strange way he did.
In early April 1865, the bloody Civil War that had torn America asunder was drawing to a close.
Richmond had fallen, Lee had surrendered, and the end was in sight.
Motivated by anger and despair, John Wilkes Booth decided to take matters into his own hands.
Entering the box at Ford’s Theater, where Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln were watching a play called Our American Cousin, Booth fired a bullet into the head of Abraham Lincoln.
He died a few hours later.
The news deeply troubled a young minister in Philadelphia named Phillips Brooks.
When the slain president’s body lay in state in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Brooks went to pay his respects.
Later he preached a sermon on Abraham Lincoln’s legacy.
O Little Town
A few months later, hoping to lift his spirits, the church sent him to the Holy Land.
The itinerary included a horseback ride from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve.
Back then it was a small village, far removed from the bustling city it would later become.
By nightfall the pastor was in the field where, according to tradition, the shepherds heard the angelic announcement.
Then he attended the Christmas Eve service at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Something about the beauty and simplicity of that visit stayed with Phillips Brooks when he returned to America.
Three years later he wrote a Christmas poem for the children’s service at Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia.
He then gave it to Lewis Redner, the church organist, who composed the music in time for the children to sing it in the service.
It became a favorite Christmas carol when it was published in 1874.
The first verse gives us a poetic picture of Bethlehem as Phillips Brooks saw it:
O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight
The last two lines remind us that Bethlehem was more than a picturesque by-way in the Holy Land:
Read Isaiah 9:6-7
I.
A Child is Born vs. 6a
Isaiah 9:6 declares both the humanity (“A Child is born”) and the deity (“A Son is given”) of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Most straightforwardly, Isaiah used the Hebrew literary tool of repetition to emphasize the point.
The Child is born, the Son is given.
At the same time, we recognize the hand of the Holy Spirit in the specific wording.
For unto us a Child is born: This glorious prophecy of the birth of Messiah reminds Israel that the victory-bringing Messiah would be a man.
Theoretically, the Messiah could have been an angel.
Or, the Messiah could have been God without humanity.
But in reality, neither of those options would have qualified the Messiah to be our Savior and High Priest as Jesus is.
The Child had to be born.
Unto us a Son is given: This Child would be a man, but more than a man.
He is also the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Godhead.
Theoretically, the Messiah didn’t have to be God.
He might have been a sinless angel, or merely a perfect man like Adam.
But in reality, neither of those options would have qualified the Messiah to be our Savior and High Priest as Jesus is.
The Son had to be given.
What glorious truth!
We needed a perfect, infinite Being to offer a perfect, infinite atonement for our sins.
We needed Immanuel, God is with us (Isaiah 7:14).
The Child could be born because the humanity of Jesus had a starting point.
There was a time when humanity was not added to His deity.
The Son had to be given, because the Second Person of the Trinity is eternal, and existed forever as the Son, even before adding humanity to His deity.
While Isaiah may have intended the repetition merely for the sake of emphasis, we rejoice in the Holy Spirit’s guidance in every word!
Jesus, the Messiah, is fully God and fully man.
There was a time when the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, added humanity to His deity.
He never became less God, but He added a human nature to His divine nature, and so became one person with two distinct natures, functioning together in perfect harmony.
That Jesus is both God and man tells us that man really is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) and that perfect humanity is more compatible with deity than we imagine.
It says that our problem is not our humanity, but our fallenness.
To say “I’m only human” is wrong because Jesus was fully human yet perfect.
It is more accurate to say, “I’m only fallen.”
But remember that the humanity that Jesus added to His Divine nature was not the sinful humanity we commonly know, but the perfect humanity of Adam and Eve before the fall.
Jesus remains a man eternally (Acts 7:55-56, 1 Timothy 2:5).
He did not relinquish His humanity on His ascension; but He is now a man in a resurrection body, as we will one day have.
If Jesus were not fully man, He could not stand in the place of sinful man and be a substitute for the punishment man deserves.
If He were not fully God, His sacrifice would be insufficient.
If Jesus is not fully God and fully man, we are lost in sin.
II.
Government on His Shoulder vs. 6b
God had promised David that his dynasty and throne would be established forever
This is fulfilled literally in Jesus Christ who will one day reign from Jerusalem
This was partially fulfilled on Palm Sunday
It will be fully fulfilled when on his second coming
This kingdom is called “the Millennium,” which means “one thousand years.”
Ultimately, this will be fulfilled in the Millennium, when Jesus Christ will rule the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords
Isaiah prophesied about it
Turn to Isaiah 2:1-4
This ultimate fulfillment of this promise is still waiting.
But we can still see the government…upon His shoulder in many ways.
His name will be called: The idea isn’t that these will be the literal names of the Messiah.
Instead, these are aspects of His character, they describe who He is and what He has come to do.
In Semitic thought, a name does not just identify or distinguish a person, it expresses the very nature of his being
We see four names
III.
Wonderful Counselor vs. 6c
The Messiah is Wonderful:
Literally this title means “a wonder of a counselor.”
It speaks of the wisdom of his plan.
The word “wonderful” means “astonishing” or “extraordinary.”
The writers of the Old Testament used it for acts of God which man cannot understand.
The word “counselor” means “advisor” or “ideal ruler.”
The glory of who He is and what He has done for us should fill us with wonder.
You can never really look at Jesus, really know Him, and be bored.
He is Wonderful and will fill your heart and mind with amazement.
The Messiah is our Counselor:
Jesus is the One fit to guide our lives and should be the Christian’s immediate resource as a counselor.
He is a reliable counselor.
Those who come to him will never be led astray.
He is therefore the perfect teacher and the ultimate counselor.
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