Everlasting Father

INTRODUCTION

1866 had been a turbulent year in England.

It was a year in which the liberal government, led by Lord John Russell, received a vote of no confidence from Parliament and a minority conservative government took over.

The summer had been filled with protests demanding government reform and those protests turned violent.

And on top of this political turmoil, one of the most prominent banks in London had collapsed. Overland, Gurney and Company had suspended payments by May of 1866 and this caused an economic crisis.

The bank’s collapse triggered what was known at the Panic of 1866.

And so, at the end of that turbulent year, the 32 year old pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, climbed into his pulpit and addressed his 5,000 church members.

People who had lost money...

People who had lost faith in government...

People who were looking for concrete hope...

And he opened Isaiah 9:6 and he said to them:

This morning you may have come here in trouble, but Christ is still your Father. This day you may be much depressed in spirit and full of doubts and fears; but a true father never ceases, if he be a father, to exercise his kindness to a child; nor does Jesus cease to love and pity you. He will help you. Go to him, and you shall find that loving Friend to be as tender as in the days of his flesh.

Charles Spurgeon

So then, maybe this is the case—maybe you have come here in trouble.

You have come here depressed. Full of doubt. Riddled with fear.

Maybe you are very much like the people in Spurgeon’s congregation 158 years ago.

Maybe you are like those in Judah 2700 years ago, trembling in trepidation at the prospect of the Assyrian Empire gobbling up your country and your home.

Well I want to offer you the same hope this morning that Spurgeon offered the Londoners all those years ago—if you are a believer, Christ is still a father to you.

I want to offer you the hope that God spoke through the prophet Isaiah to the people of Judah in late 700’s BC—if you trust in Him, Christ will always be a father to you.

I want us to see that the Messiah is Everlasting. I want us to see that He is a Father. And that He is both of these things together--an Everlasting Father.

These are the words are souls need when turbulence and turmoil have become our story and our tears have become our food.

I’m going to read the passage and then give you three points this morning...

TEXT

Isaiah 9:6–7 ESV

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.

OUTLINE

We have already seen that God promised Judah the Messiah would be:

Wonderful Counselor

Mighty God

This morning, we focus on the Christ being Everlasting Father.

1. The Messiah is Everlasting in Existence and Attributes.

2. The Messiah is a Father in Character and Covenant.

3. The Messiah is an Everlasting Father.

EVERLASTING IN EXISTENCE AND ATTRIBUTES

But we start with our first point:

1. The Messiah is Everlasting in Existence and Attributes.

1. The Messiah is Everlasting in Existence and Attributes.

EXISTENCE

Isaiah says that the Messiah is Everlasting.

The Hebrew word is ad (add).

It means forever.

The Messiah is Forever.

It refers to perpetuity in the future.

And yet, it can also refer to ancient time gone by—eternity past.

So the Messiah IS. But the Messiah always has been. The Messiah always will be.

There has never been a time in which He has not existed—even before His coming to earth.

There will never be a time in which He does not exist.

This statement about the Messiah being everlasting comes right on the heels of Him being called Mighty God.

One title flows into the next here.

If He is Mighty God, He must be everlasting because this is who God is—God has no beginning and God has no end.

We know this because the Scriptures tell us:

Psalm 90:1–2 ESV

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

We know this because this is how God has revealed Himself.

In Exodus 3, when God speaks to Moses from the burning bush, and Moses asks for a name, listen to what God says:

Exodus 3:13–14 ESV

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”

This is God’s covenant name. This is the name His people would know Him by. This is the name of Yahweh.

God is called by it or calls Himself by it around 6800 times in the Old Testament.

And packed into this name is something that communicates God’s eternality to us.

In the name, “I AM WHO I AM,” we understand something of God being everlasting.

God is not defining Himself by anything outside of Himself.

He is just saying, “I AM WHO I AM.”

Quite literally He is saying, “I BE WHO I BE.”

And the Hebrew verb doesn’t suggest any particular point in time.

“I AM WHO I AM in the past, present and future.”

“I AM who I have always been.”

“I AM who I am.”

“I AM who I will always be.”

No one else talks this way.

And that is because no one else is eternal, unchanging and self-existent.

But this is who our everlasting God is.

And what we saw last week is that Jesus is God in the flesh. God incarnate.

Meaning, as the Son—the 2nd Person of the Trinity—Jesus is everlasting, just as Isaiah says.

God is eternal and Jesus, being of one substance with the Father and having the same nature as the Father, is also eternal.

Jesus is the Ancient of Days.

Eternally brought forth by the Father.

Begotten, not created.

And He is the One whose Kingdom shall have no end.

He demonstrated this in John 8 when speaking to a group of Jews who say that He is a Samaritan and has a demon.

He tells them that He has no demon and that He honors His Father and that anyone who follows HIm and keeps His Word will never taste death.

They say, “Come on…Abraham died. How can you promise life? Are you greater than Abraham?

John 8:54–56 ESV

Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”

They are incredulous at these words.

They say, “Abraham saw your day?? You aren’t even 50 years old—how can you say you saw Abraham who has been dead for centuries?”

John 8:58 ESV

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

Let’s be clear about what Jesus is saying here—He is claiming to be I AM WHO I AM.

He is claiming to be the everlasting God who spoke from the burning bush.

ATTRIBUTES

But He is not just eternal in His existence, but eternal in His attributes.

Meaning—At this present moment, He is who He has always been.

And if you could fast-forward a million years into the future, He will be then, who He has always been.

He has always been holy. He is holy. He will always be holy.

He has always been just. He is just. He will always be just.

He has always been loving. He is loving. He will always be loving.

And we could say this for each and everyone one of the attributes of Christ.

His wrath, His gentleness, His mercy, His omnipotence, His omnipresence, His omniscience...

Christ is who He has always been and who He will always be in each of these attributes.

College Football recruiting season is underway. This past week was Early National Signing Day.

Teams are evaluating high school players based on their attributes.

But they don’t just talk about who these players are now—they talk about who these players will be…potentially.

So they might say, “This quarterback has a great arm and great ability to read the field, but he has no pocket awareness. However—we think he has the potential to develop it.”

So these teams look at an 18 year old and say, “He has some weaknesses, but he isn’t a finished product as a player or a man, so we will give him a scholarship and then help him reach his potential.”

But God is not like this at all. Jesus—the 2nd Person of the Godhead—is not like this.

Jesus isn’t developing his attributes—honing His game—and striving to reach His potential.

As God, He actually has no potential.

As the Everlasting, He is who He is. It is who He has always been and who He will be in your life.

His human nature was not like this.

In the flesh, the unchanging, eternal God “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).

He changed from one degree of obedience to another, developing in His capacity to love His Father and love His neighbor.

He never sinned, but through all His suffering, grew as a Son obedient to His Father.

Hebrews 5:8–9 ESV

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

But this is not the way we would speak of the divine nature of Christ.

In His everlasting divine nature, Christ has never changed.

Hebrews 13:8 ESV

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

He is who He is—and who He is glorious beyond our ability to comprehend.

EXPERIENCE

And yet, through His Word and His love being poured into our hearts and lives, we have experienced Him.

We have been chosen in Him in eternity past.

Ephesians 1:4 ESV

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

We can look around and see all that He has made.

Colossians 1:16 ESV

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

He stepped into time and space to save us.

1 Timothy 1:15 ESV

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

One day He will come again and return for His people.

Revelation 1:7 ESV

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

And He will reign over His Kingdom forever.

Daniel 7:13–14 ESV

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

And if you are His—if you have trusted in this eternal Jesus for salvation—then you will be a part of that Kingdom.

And the same Jesus who has loved you from eternity past...

The same Jesus who loves you today...

Will be the same Jesus ruling over you with His love for all of eternity future...

FATHER IN CHARACTER AND COVENANT

So that is the first part of the 3rd Messianic title in Isaiah 9:6. But now let’s look at the second part.

2. The Messiah is a Father in Covenant and Character

DISTINCT FROM THE FATHER

Before we go too far, let’s be really clear about something--

In calling the Messiah a Father, we are not calling Him THE Father.

It is important we make that distinction so that we don’t fall into major doctrinal error.

Within the Trinity, the Son is not the Father and the Father is not the Son.

Just as the Son is not the Spirit and the Father is not the Spirit.

The three Persons of the Godhead are One.

Their glory is equal. Their majesty is co-eternal.

And yet the three Persons of the Godhead are also distinct.

As the Athanasian Creed says:

Christian truth compels us to confess each Person individually as both God and Lord, but the same truth does not allow us to say there are three gods or three lords.

There is one God in three Person.

Trinity in unity and unity in Trinity.

So the Father is the Father and the Son is the Son.

However—there are ways in which the Son relates to His people that allows us to experience Him as a Father.

COVENANT

First of all, we experience Christ as our Father as the Head of the Church and the Head of God’s covenant people.

To understand this, we have to go back to the Garden.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam was the humanity’s father. He was the head of the human tribe. He was humanity’s representative before God.

But the father of the human race disobeyed God and when he fell and became an enemy of God, we all fell with him and we all became enemies of God as well.

If Adam had not sinned, his descendants would have been blessed by his obedience.

But instead, our father Adam did sin and his descendants have inherited the curse of sin and death.

As Paul told the Corinthians—In Adam all die.

But now let’s go to a different Garden.

Now let’s go to Gethsemane, where we have Christ—a new and better Adam—not indulging His own desires, but being submissive to the Father’s will:

Matthew 26:39 ESV

And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

This Adam did not eat from a forbidden tree. Instead, He laid down His life and died on a tree at Calvary.

And this Adam did not face death, in need of redemption.

This Adam overcame death, providing redemption, by rising from the grave.

So in Adam all die, but in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22).

In living a perfect life, dying on the Cross and resurrecting from the grave, Christ—the 2nd Adam—was undoing everything the First Adam did and He did everything the First Adam could not do.

He became a curse for His people in order to remove the curse from His people.

Now, anyone who repents of their sin and trusts in the redeeming work of the 2nd Adam will be saved.

They will no longer have the first Adam—the fallen Adam—as their forefather. He will no longer be the head of their ancestry.

They will be in Christ. They will have Christ as their Head. He will be their Forefather. He will be the head of their ancestry. And He will be their representative before God.

Spurgeon said it this way:

Generation makes us the sons of Adam; regeneration acknowledges us as the sons of Christ. In our first birth we come under the fatherhood of the fallen one; in our second birth we enter into the fatherhood of the innocent and perfect One.

Charles Spurgeon

So then, all who are regenerated by the power of the Spirit and who are reconciled to God through faith in the Son, are a part of the Son’s spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 12:12–13 ESV

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

This means that Christ is the Head of Church. He is the Head of God’s household.

And it is in this sense that we understand Him to the a Father to the New Covenant people of God.

As New Covenant people in the spiritual body of Christ, we don’t look completely like Him just yet.

We are being changed from the inside out. But we still wear our first father’s clothes in a lot of ways.

Corruption. Weakness.

But as the Lord changes us, we are taking off the old Adam’s clothes and putting on the 2nd Adam’s clothes.

We are putting on Christ.

Romans 13:14 ESV

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

And then one day, we will be done with these dishonorable, weak and natural bodies. What is sown perishable will be raised imperishable.

1 Corinthians 15:43–49 ESV

It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

There will be no mistaking us then—we will look like our spiritual Father—the Father of the New Covenant—the 2nd Adam—the Lord Jesus Christ.

CHARACTER

And once we enter into a relationship with Christ by grace through faith, what we will experience in our relationship with the 2nd Adam is that He is truly fatherly in character.

Again—He is not the Father in the sense that Father is not His title. That very clearly belongs to God the Father—the first Person of the Trinity.

However, as He functions in the role of being the Father of a the New Covenant community, He is a Father to us in His character.

There are two main ways that we experience the fatherly character of Christ as His people—It is through His provision and protection.

PROVISION

First of all, Christ is a Provider for His family.

This is one of the most basic ways that human societies judge whether or not someone is a good father, right?

Even among the pagans, this is the way.

In Ancient Rome, if a father did not provide for his family, he would face legal ramifications and he would be shunned socially.

Even today in many parts of Africa, a man who refuses to provide for his family will become a social outcast.

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

When it comes to Christ, He is the greatest example of a Provider that we could ever hope for. We could name a hundred ways this morning, but I will just give you three.

He has provided us with spiritual life.

As the Good Shepherd, He has laid down His life for His sheep, in order for His sheep to have life.

In John 10, Jesus says this explicitly.

John 10:11 ESV

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

But if you look one verse earlier, you will see the life He provides for His sheep, by laying down His life.

John 10:10 ESV

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Christ has provided abundant, spiritual life for us.

And this is life that we will have for all of eternity.

He provides for us as an Intercessor.

Romans 8:34 ESV

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Christ is seated in the most honorable place in the cosmos and there, today, He is making intercession for us.

He is giving us access to the throne of God so that we can approach it boldly.

He is listening to your prayers and advocating for us.

Christ’s heart now in heaven is as graciously affected unto sinners as ever it was on earth.

Thomas Goodwin

What Goodwin was saying is that the same care and tenderness you see in Jesus as he sits with Peter on the beach and forgives him for his denial of Christ and He commissions Him for ministry…is the same care and tenderness He has for you in heaven as you pray.

He provides us with peace.

How often did Jesus look at His children and say some version of “Don’t be afraid?”

As He came to them on the water in the fourth watch of the night...

Matthew 14:27 ESV

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

As he spoke to the ruler of the synagogue whose daughter had died...

Mark 5:36 ESV

But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”

Preaching to thousands in Luke 12 ...

Luke 12:32 ESV

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

And then, on the eve of His death, He told His disciples:

John 14:27 ESV

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

I am a boy dad who is five years into learning how to be a girl dad. That is what happens when you have two boys and then a girl comes along.

My wife has to remind me that I can’t always respond to overly dramatic tears from my daughter with, “You’re fine. Wipe the tears away.”

She’s like, “Sometimes she just needs you to comfort her, Dad...”

I am trying to grow!

Jesus has no growing to do in this area.

He is the God of peace and comfort and He loves to comfort us in every affliction.

His comfort is tailored to your tears and His peace is perfect.

PROTECTS

But that is just one side of the coin. We also get to experience the protection of Jesus as a Father to the church. Again—there are a myriad of ways in which our Lord protects us, but I will just give three.

And I will focus these points of protection on our three biggest enemies: Satan, our flesh and the world.

So first of all, He protects us from Satan.

Satan would love to reach up with his grimy, condemned hand, latch on to your soul, and snatch you out of the hand of salvation.

But listen to what Jesus says:

John 10:27–28 ESV

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

No one will snatch them out of Jesus’ hand.

He is safeguarding us from every enemy, including THE Enemy who steals, kills and destroys.

Secondly, He protects us from our own flesh.

Galatians 5:24 ESV

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

We had no recourse for this sort of action before we knew Jesus.

We were enslaved to our sin and the desires of our flesh.

Even our most righteous moments were rooted in the pride of our flesh, making them nothing more than filthy rags before God’s throne.

But now that we have become Christians, the power of sin and death is broken in us and we are spiritually enabled, through the power of God’s Spirit, to put our sin to the sword.

We can crucify our sinful passions and desires.

They used to thrive and dominate us.

But now, by the power of Christ in us, we can see them die and be powerless.

Our sins were crucifying us, slowly suffocating us and bringing us toward spiritual destruction.

But now, through Christ, we can see sin crucified and we experience the abundant life of obedience.

Thirdly, He protects us from the world.

The world is evil system of fallen humanity that is all around us.

It has many fruits to offer us and all of them are rotten.

It has many persecutions to strike us with and all of them are painful.

It has a host of temptations to lay before us and many of them will seem enticing.

When the world of Babylon is all around you, it can be hard to live like a citizen of Zion.

And yet, on the last night He was with them, Jesus told the disciples:

John 16:33 ESV

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

The tribulation is to be expected, but so is a taking of courage in the heart—because Christ our Protector has overcome the world.

Providing life, a ministry of Intercession and peace.

Protecting us from Satan, our flesh and the world.

This is the character of Christ—the father of a New Covenant for His spiritual children.

EVERLASTING FATHER

So we have broken down these two words together:

The Messiah is everlasting in age and attributes...

The Messiah is Father in Covenant and Character

But let’s close this morning by putting them together:

3. The Messiah is Everlasting Father.

When you put the two words together to make the Messianic title that Isaiah gives to us, what you come out with is true security.

Isaiah’s generation were desperate for security.

Between the threat of Syria and Israel, to the threat of Assyria, they had not felt safe for a long time.

They were up to their necks in the floodwaters of fear.

And in that circumstance, Isaiah pointed to a Source of security that the people badly needed to fix their eyes on:

God keeping His promises to His people through a Messiah who would be an Everlasting Father to them.

When we say that the Messiah is an Everlasting Father, what we are saying is that in terms of our relationship with Him as the people of God:

You cannot not un-father Him from us.

And you cannot un-child us from Him.

You are His child and by extension, God’s child—adopted into the Father’s family—and that is permanent.

If you are His, you are His forever.

If you are the recipient of provision today, you will be the recipient of His provision forever.

If you are protected by Him today, you will be protected by Him for all time.

In calling Him everlasting Father, we are saying that the Father of Time has become the Father of us.

And nothing in time will ever change that.

And when time is no more, it will still be the case—He will be our Head and we will be His body.

FACING OUR OWN THREATS

It may not be a foreign army, but many of you are facing your own threats this morning.

You have these sort of oppressor’s sitting on the border of your life and their very presence causes you anxiety—maybe even to the point of hopelessness.

It is shaky health.

It is a questionable financial future due to changes at work.

It is your children growing up and moving out.

It is devastating loss and grief.

If we sit on the border and stare at the size of the Assyrian army, we are going to despair.

Some of you are despairing this morning because you are staring at these threats and they are breaking down your very soul.

You go to bed late and get up early eating the bread of anxious toil.

But what I would suggest to you this morning is that you so badly need to stop starting at the circumstance and start staring at the Savior.

Colossians 3:1–2 ESV

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

Look to Christ—not the things of the earth.

Because here is what you will find in Him: An Everlasting Father.

One who provides.

One who protects.

One who prays for you.

A father who walks with you in each moment and never leaves you alone.

Just imagine a little child who is about to jump off a diving board.

He is looking at the water. He is looking at the sign saying how deep the pool is. He is looking at his own arms and thinking about how much they struggle to keep him afloat.

He is shaking in fear and he wants to walk away.

But then, he hears a voice and he looks right in front of him and remembers, “There’s my dad. He is in the water, ready to catch me.”

This is Jesus. He is the water.

Whatever it is that you are about to jump into—He is there to catch you and hold you in the midst of it.

Do not be afraid. Trust in Him.

He is our Forever Father.