The Son of God Isaiah 9:1-7

-Jesus is the Promised Son of God who gives us hope.

There was a small town that had been selected to be the site of a hydroelectric plant. The plan was to set up a dam across the river which would result in the submerging of the small town. The announcement of the plan was made with ample time to give all the residents there the opportunity to get their affairs in order and relocate.

In the intervening months, something strange took place. House upkeep stopped. Community improvement ceased. Infrastructure, basic lawn care, all came to an end. The town looked abandoned long before any of the residents had moved away.

One resident explained the phenomenon in these terms: “Where there is no hope for the future, there is no power in the present.”

The Lord Promises:

I. Hope for the Hopeless vv. 1-3

In our passage this morning, the Lord is delivering some very good news to His people in Israel:

When Isaiah is sharing these words, the people are caught in the middle of the reign of a king named Ahaz and are living under the threat of invasion from the Assyrians.

The previous chapter was filled with words of warning about all that would take place

Now, there is a sudden shift: In the middle of all of this sorrow there is a promise. The Lord is going to work to change everything:

The lands of Galilee will go from contempt to glory

Their discipline at God’s hand will end

It will give way to deliverance

The people will stop walking in the darkness; instead, they will see a great light

These northern tribes were the first to face the darkness of Assyrian invasion

Now, they will be the first one to see God’s light shine into the darkness

Their sorrow will be turned into joy

All of this marks a dramatic turnaround

They will go from horrific loss to incredible, joyful harvest

We have good news this Christmas and it is the kind of good news that changes everything. It will give you hope in whatever situation you are in

Last Summer (2024), a group of Brooklyn residents were facing a very New York problem. A leaky fire hydrant was holding water and making a little pond in the middle of a neighborhood sidewalk. After watching the water sit for a while, they came up with a solution. People brought goldfish and filled the little square with life. It caught the attention of people all over the country, with folks traveling from as far away as California to witness the Bed-Stuy aquarium. The neighborhood rallied with paintings of goldfish, food for the fish, and a plan to keep them warm through the winter using solar panels and a heater. Eventually, the leak was resolved, but I think we can learn something from the transformation that took place in a bunch of New Yorkers when there was a little bit of hope present. The presence of light in a dark place changed everything!

II. Freedom for the Prisoner vv. 4-5

Next, we see Isaiah address a particular sorrow:

The people are going to go through a horrific oppression under the cruelty of the Assyrian invaders

There are three tools that Isaiah describes here. They all speak to the ability of the domination of the Assyrians over the Israelites

The Israelites will be stuck as slaves

They will have to live under the direction of the Assyrians

They will not be able to seek their own good

They will be frustrated in their attempts to serve God wholeheartedly

The Lord promises that this will come to a dramatic end

Just as God delivered the Israelites from Midian in Gideon’s day, God will deliver them again

He is going to shatter every tool that they use to oppress the people of God

He will break their grip over His people

He will destroy every evidence of their presence in the kingdom

This notion of oppression may seem foreign to us, but I believe that this is a powerful picture of the world that we live in:

This is practically true of systems of oppression that are present in our world:

We see corruption, falsehood, and injustice all around us

We know that the world is a broken place and is marked by unrighteousness

We can trust the Lord to make it right!

Personally, we are born as slaves to sin and we are living under its oppression

We continue to do the things that we know will destroy us; we act radically against our interests

We are addicted, seemingly, to sin; frankly, for many of us, we do not know any other way

I think that this is something we need to pay careful attention to: the Lord Jesus Christ has come to set us free from the power of sin!

Romans 8:1–3

[1] There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. [2] For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. [3] For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, (ESV)

III. A Son to Reign vv. 6-7

This Christmas, we have to pay attention to how God intends to accomplish all of this good work; He does it through His son

God intervenes in the course of human events in an intensely personal way

The message of Christmas is not that seasons simply change and things eventually get better

The message of Christmas is that God is on the move and has interceded in the course of human events!

He shows up Himself, in a robe of flesh, to deliver us from the power of sin and death and to lead us to glory and joy

In the form of a child, there is more weakness and tenderness than we could imagine

Yet, this is very much the wisdom of God on the matter

There are some very distinctive characteristics of the Lord that are described here:

He carries the weight of governance- He is fully sovereign over all things

He is the wise counselor-

This is a little difficult to translate but it speaks to two things:

He is wonderful and His work is far beyond any normal expectation

His leadership is the outworking of the counsel of God

He is the mighty God

This speaks to His divinity

There is nothing about the Incarnation of Jesus that robs Him of His identity as God

He is the everlasting Father

He is eternal in His nature

He is creative and was active and present in the making of all things

He is the prince of peace

Every good leader promises and wants to give peace to His people

Jesus is certain to fulfill these promises of God to His people

This has been the plan of God all along: to send His Son to reign over His people

We will share in His peace as we submit to His Lordship

When we look at Jesus we are seeing the promises of God to David reaching fulfillment

We can trust Him to rule over us with justice and with righteousness

We are being invited into a completely new way of living in a completely new Kingdom and the Lord Jesus is who makes it possible.

The Lord in HIs zeal has done this

Now, we are invited to walk in it

300 Illustrations for Preachers Sixty Years to Deliver Christmas Cards

In 1953 a stack of 50 Christmas cards addressed to Vincent and Marina Maggiore of Kingston, New York, mysteriously went missing. Sixty years later, Rick Buser, a flea market vendor, spotted the cards at an auction. He thought it was strange that someone was selling mail, and was intrigued when he noticed that the cards were addressed to someone who lived in the same town and on the same street where he had grown up. Buser bought the stack for $15 and sent the cards to the local newspaper so they could be delivered to the family. He said, “Hopefully, it will bring some sense of Christmas joy.”

The Maggiores’ two sons, Albert and Robert, were surprised when a reporter brought the letters to them. The brothers said they never expected to see letters from 60 years before, including one from a former girlfriend of Robert’s. Albert said, “Some of them were opened, and we’re now touching the cards they opened. The tears are almost coming out, but it’s really a nice feeling.”

Some of you are still waiting for the hope of Christmas to arrive. I want you to know that it is here, if you will believe it and receive it.

-Believe it for salvation

-Walk in it

-Share it with someone else