O Come: His Promise is Peace

Sermon Introduction

A little over 10 years ago, there were all of these YouTube video from Coca-Cola under their global marketing campaign called “Where will Happiness Strike Next”

In North America and Europe the main videos were about this Coke vending machine that they called “Happiness Machines” because it gave out like 5 bottles of coke when you buy just one… In one video at a university campus, it even gave out pizza, flowers and sandwiches to the students...

Now in the Philippines, one of the main videos the videos were much longer, and more story-like… and one of the main videos was Christmas themed.

It was about three Overseas Filipino Workers who had not been able to return to the Philippins in many years...

There’s Lonie and Joey who were caregivers in America and Europe, and who were taking care of children as their work, but whose own children were growing up without them

And, there was Jo Mari who was a medical technologist in the Middle East, whose father was sick and so instead of spending money on vacations to the Philippines, he would just send it home

The video then shows them preparing to return to the Philippines and eventually reuniting with their families for Christmas

If you want to find the video, just search “Where will happiness strike next” on YouTube… I chose this screen shot of Jo Mari and his dad here, because his dad looks very much like someone I know here

Of course, it’s a very heart warming video… it will definitely make you tear up...

And I think you will agree with me that it is fairly typical to think of the themes in the video when you consider Christmas

On the surface, these would themes would be Family, Happiness… a big lechon...

But for me, there is one more theme from this video that really stands out, that I think encapsulates one of the important, yet overlooked, theme of Christmas… and that is “Anticipation”

Can you imagine the anticipation that Jo Mari, Lonie and Joey were feeling as they were preparing to see their families for the first time in so many years?

Can you feel the tension that must have been building up in their hearts on that long plane ride home, and as they landed in Manila...

If you will remember from the first sermon of this series, a few weeks ago now, the Christmas season can really be broken up into two distinct parts...

The second part is the one we’re most familiar with… the part that is most prominent in that video from Coca Cola… Christmas… the celebration that Jesus has come… Joy… Happiness… Time with Family…

But that second part begins on December 24th… Christmas Eve. The silent night… the celebration of Jesus’ birth...

And so there is still this first part of the season... the part that we are actually in right now… Most people call it… Advent.

It is the season of anticipating Jesus’ coming.

I know that it might be a hard concept for us to really grasp… Because on our side of history… The messiah has already come

Imagine watching that video from Coca Cola backwards… seeing the happy celebration first, then trying to appreciate the anticipation and tension that came before… To tell you the truth, it kind of loses its imapct a little doesn’t it?

And yet, the reason why we should spend a little time trying to understand and appreciate that season of anticipation for Jesus’ first coming, is that we are also living in a season of anticipation for Jesus’ second coming… a second Advent...

Immanuel

In the first sermon of this series, we talked about the conditions that necessitated the coming of a Messiah in the first place...

The attitude of rebellion… the desire to operate as if there was no God...

And today, we are going to begin looking at the promises that God made to the people of Israel that built up the anticipation for a Messiah

We are going to look at the passage today that is one most well known of the messianic prophecies for Christmas, but even as we do this, let’s always be reminded that all of scripture point to Jesus Christ

We are looking at Isaiah 9:6-7 because it is one of the prophecies that is most often quotes for Christmas…

The other is Isaiah 7:14, “14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Which is actually, what I want to quickly look at first, because of this word…

If you’ve ever wondered what Hebrew looks like here it is...

EXPLAIN IMMANUEL

God With Us… others like to include the verb… “God is With Us”… Me personally, I like to turn it into a kind of adjective… The “With Us” God...

In any case, the point is clear… God’s intention is to be among his people...

This of course is completely different from what our society believes about God.. or what our society wants to believe about God…

There is this famous illustration.. I’m not actually sure where it comes from.. but I think it was Oprah Winfrey who popularized it...

It basically states that God is at the top of the mountain… and all the different religions are basically just different ways of going to him...

There are many fundamental problems with this of course… Not least of which is this post-modern ideal of blending religions together in the name of tollerance..

And obviously, for most major religions they would have a problem with this idea of blending their beliefs with others…

And yet the fact remains for all other religions of the world, the illustration is somewhat appropriate… People working their way towards God..

It’s appropriate for all other religions except for Christians of course, because the most basic error of this idea as it relates to our faith is that we don’t need to make our way up the mountain to God… but that God comes down to us...

One of my favourite modern hymn is Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery by Matt Papa, and one of the verses goes like this...

In our longing, in our darkness

Now the light of life has come

Look to Christ, who condescended

Took on flesh to ransom us

I particularly like that third line… “Look to Christ, who condescended”… even though it does need a little explaining...

Because the word condescending, is a negative one for us right? It has this idea of someone who has a superior attitude towards other people...

The irony of course is that the true meaning of the word is just the opposite… It actually means to descend to a lower level, or to waive the privilages you are entitled to…

Which of course means that it is entirely appropriate to use for Jesus… as Philippians 2:6–7 "6 ...though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

So that’s what Immanuel means… God is with us… He is the word became flesh who dwelt among us..

Now here’s the thing… we kind of think of this as a very profound thing… God with us.... amazing!

But for ancient Israelites… this would have been completely natural...

God already dwelt among his people… first through the Tabernacle…

Exodus 40:1–2 “1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “On the first day of the first month you shall erect the tabernacle of the tent of meeting.”

Exodus 40:34 “34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”

And then later through the Temple...

2 Chronicles 7:1–2 “1 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house.”

So this idea that God will be dwelling among his people is really not so unusual… But I think this kind of common place idea among ancient Israelites… and honestly even among Jews today has really caused them to put on kind of blinders that prevent them from seeing Jesus as the Messiah...

Names of Jesus

I mention that because one of the most common objections today about Isaiah 9:6-7 being applied to Jesus Christ, and other messianic prophecies in Isaiah for that matter, is that it was already fulfilled in history...

Let me set the stage for you very quickly… Isaiah starts of during the reign of King Ahaz, one of the kings of Judah, the southern kingdom

The kingdom is already divided between the northern and southern kingdoms, but the northern kingdom had not been overthrown by the Assyrians yet...

In fact, what they were doing is preparing to fight against Assyrians, and to do so, they approached King Ahaz with a proposal to form an alliance with Syria against the Assyrians

And so in the beginning of Isaiah, he is basically counselling Ahaz not to entrust his security on foreign powers...

Ahaz is of course one of the bad kings of Judah, which had alternating good and bad kings… and generally whenever there were bad kings… the people followed them in rebellion...

And so, Isaiah’s prophecies from chapters 7-12 were prophecies against a rebellious people, promising that a remnant will be purified from among them lead by this messianic figure… this child to be born

And so there is this objection to Isaiah 9:6-7 being applied to Jesus because there is belief that it was already fulfilled by Hezzekiah, the son of Ahaz, who is one of the good kings of Judah, and reigned for almot 30 years…

And so people who resist Jesus as the Messiah will say this prophecy no longer applies it is just something within history… the trouble with that of course is how the text describes this child to be born...

so Isaiah 9:6–7 “6 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.”

I’m not going to cover these four titles in more detail today… but remember Growth Groups have a lesson they can go through called “Advent”, which explores these four names given to Jesus...

But I want to point out that these four “names” are clearly names meant for a divine being...

Wonderful Counsellor… I know we’ve kind of reduced the meaning of the word wonder now adays, but it is more better suited to talk about the works of God.. for example Exodus 3:20 “20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.”

Mighty God is self explanatory…

But Everlasting Father is an interesting one… Because we know of course that we normally associate Father with Yahweh, the creator God… right… the father of Jesus Christ...

One way to look at this is the character of Jesus, about his care and gentleness as a father… Mark 2:5 “5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.””

I think the best way to look at this... at how Jesus can be called everlasting father is how he reflects God the father… in John 10:30 “30 I and the Father are one.”” John 10:38 “38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.””

If you want to see what God the father is like, you need to look to Jesus Christ! John 14:6 “6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Finally, Prince of Peace...

Which of course refer to the perfect peace with God that Jesus will win for us...

Isaiah 9:7 “7 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.”

Everlasting kingdom

The ZEAL of the Lord will do this…

As one author wrote: “You and I will not achieve the victory of God in this world. We don’t trust God that much. We rarely live fully for him. But God is solving our problem for us, because his heart is not divided. That is the guarantee of our salvation. When we are finally glorifying and enjoying him perfectly, we will look at one another and say, “ We didn’t do this. God did. This is the triumph of his zealous grace.”

Philippians 2:8 “8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Celebration of Lord’s supper