(Isaiah 9:6-7)

Nathan Sehi

Bethel Baptist Church

Laramie, WY

Introduction:

Christmas is a time of great joy.

ILLUSTRATION:

Often it is a time in which we spend precious time with those that we love.

Often it is a time in which we have special traditions such as cutting down a Christmas tree.

Often it is a time of special food, where we make our favorite Christmas cookies and have a great meal on Christmas day.

Often it is a time accompanied with the giving of gifts, where we enjoy giving someone something special.

It is not a wonder, Christian or not, that Christmas is a time of joy. Great joy.

But this joy finds its basis in good news.

Describing the birth of Jesus, angels declared,

(ESV)

10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

We do not always value the significance of that statement.

If the announcement of the Birth of Christ was in a news article, it would exclaim that the most wonderful event in the history of humanity has come to be.

You see, the Birth of Jesus is more than a cute children’s play of a baby in a manager. It signifies the most important event in human history.

There are many OT passages we could turn to, but I would like us to look at today.

A passage familiar at Christmas time, but of striking importance to our understanding of who is Jesus is.

(ESV)

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.

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.

Explanation:

The passage describes the birth of a child.

“For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;”

This child to be born was to be a child of the covenant people, Israel. Israel was to have a child born that would be its deliverer.

Important Background:

Now remember the context of this passage. It comes as a promise from God to an Israelite nation overcome by fear.

In Isaiah’s day, the Assyrian empire was conquering nation after nation in the Ancient Near East. The Assyrians had now turned to begin attacking the divided nation of Israel. The Southern Kingdom of Israel, Judah, was fearful of this nation, being far inferior to this great army.

ILLUSTRATION:

We can understand that fear. It was like the fear we had after 9/11. The threat of terrorist was not a distant noise, but something that could strike any American. So we feared the threat.

The Southern Kingdom feared the threat of invasion from the Assyrian army. Many had talked about making treaties with other nations in hope of protecting itself.

However,

- the Israelites are promised by God that the Assyrians will not conquer the Southern Kingdom of Israel.

- As a part of that promise, God gave a promise of a coming child in whose name will be Emmanuel, God is with us.

- We are told in that this child will rule in the throne of David and we are given a series of names that describe this child.

From this text,

Proposition: The birth of Christ should give believers hope in God.

Transitional Statement: and this text gives us 4 names that tell us why we should hope in Christ this Christmas.

So why should the Birth of Jesus give us hope?

1. Wonderful-Counselor

(ESV)

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.

Wonderful – “extraordinary”

Counselor – “gives advice or wisdom”

ILLUSTRATION:

Our President-Elect is gathering around him a number of counselors. Each one is meant to give him advice on how to run our government.

Politics aside, the people who make up the President’s cabinets are often brilliant people in the area that they serve.

But Christ is significantly different. He does not need a counsel of people, because he is the wonderful counselor.

“an extraordinary counselor”

His wisdom far exceeds any of ours.

Christ’s wisdom was demonstrated throughout his ministry. His teachings taught the true meaning and heart motive that is required under the law. His teachings far surpassed the superficial external teachings of the Scribes and Pharisee’s.

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, one of the principle times of Jesus’s teachings, the crowd stood astonished at his Wisdom.

(ESV)

The Authority of Jesus

28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

Paul described Jesus as having all the wisdom and knowledge:

(ESV)

3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

This child be the most competent, wise ruler that has ever been King.

But his wisdom is not a simply as strategist, but as a morally wise King.

In our context, today, this baby was to be the coming ruler who would rule as a wonderful-counselor.

This is a stark contrast to the Kings of Israel.

The Kings of Israel had not only been incompetent at times such as when faced against the oncoming Syrians, but they had been ethically corrupt.

King Ahaz, the king in which this promise was given was one of the most corrupt kings of Israel.

“Throughout Ahaz’s reign Judah was in political, moral, and religious chaos. Not only was it constantly besieged by raids from all its enemies, but at the hand of Ahaz paganism had infected Judah as thoroughly as it had done in Israel under Ahab and Jezebel. Upon his death in 715 bce, his son Hezekiah ascended the throne, and he turned out to be as good and righteous a king as his father Ahaz had been incompetent and apostate.”

Losch, Richard R. All the People in the Bible: An A–Z Guide to the Saints, Scoundrels, and Other Characters in Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008.

King Ahaz was so incompetent and corrupt that he was not even buried with the Kings of Israel.

James tells us about the nature of God’s wisdom, which is the same wisdom as Christ.

(ESV)

17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

You see Christ will rule not selfishly and hypocritically as the previous Kings Israel, but with incredible righteousness.

This is why Isaiah describes the nature of his rule in v. 7 as being with justice and righteousness.

(ESV)

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.

This promised baby will be a wonderful-counselor in that he will be extraordinarily competent and extraordinarily righteous in his rule.

The Birth of Jesus should give us hope because one day he will return and rule over us as a wonderful-counselor, unlike any other ruler we have ever had.

We are also told he will called the mighty God.

2. Mighty God[1]

(ESV)

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.

This term denotes two aspects of this child.

To start with, this child is a covenant child. We have already noted he is to a child of the people of Israel. describes the birth of Jesus as being a descendent of Israel. However, this term here clarifies he is not simply a man, but he will be the God-Man.

This child will not be an ordinary child because he will be the “mighty God”. Jesus was a divine child.

Also, the term mighty God is meant to refer to the power of God.

As a term, might refers to God’s strength. In other words his power.

See the similar usage in .

(ESV)

17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

The point is that in contrast to the god’s of Egypt, Yahweh was far superior.

Our context, again is in light of an opposing military force. Isaiah is emphasizing that this child will be the all-powerful God.

(ESV)

8 Who is this King of glory?

The Lord, strong and mighty,

the Lord, mighty in battle!

There is no one who is more powerful than this child that is to be born. He will protect His chosen people.

Theological Elaboration:

The context here points us to a mighty ruler, a commanding general. But the greatest foe to mankind was not an army or a ruler.

It was death. The one foe who effects every living person in all of humanity going back generation to generation is death.

ILLUSTRATION:

You want to look at a battlefield, go to a cemetery. Around the world there are cemeteries filled with victims of the enemy of death.

This child will be a mighty one because he will put every enemy under his rule.

(ESV)

24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Therefore, we can hope in Christ birth because he is the mighty God. The one who no one is capable of opposing every enemy of ours. There is no enemy that can defeat this child.

3. Everlasting Father.

(ESV)

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.

The name, “everlasting father” is an interesting anomaly in how the Biblical authors describe the trinity.

The idea of this child being an “everlasting father” is not the idea of God the Father of the Triune Godhead. Instead, it emphasizes this child’s position in relationship to time.

He is literally the everlasting father because he created time.

Paul tells us in that Christ created all things.

(ESV)

16 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.

This means that this child, baby Jesus was there before creation, and was the creator of time.

We can hope in the Birth of Christ because he is the eternal father.

There will be no end to him or his rule. He is the one person in all of the universe that we can always count on.

(ESV)

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.

This baby Jesus is the King of what will be an eternal Kingdom.

ILLUSTRATION:

In the last few decades we have watched the presidency swing from one party to another, one political extreme to another political extreme. Our country is not all that different than others in this way.

Britain, Germany, France have all seen swings in their own leaders.

Israel likewise has seen this problem. Even when they have a King who honors Yahweh, he is often preceded by a wicked king.

In contrast, this baby will be an eternal ruler in an eternal kingdom. We can hope in this baby because of his eternal nature. He will always be there and thus provide political stability. We will no longer have to worry about a return to an incompetent ruler because he is the eternal ruler.

We can hope in Christ because he is the:

4. Prince of Peace

(ESV)

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.

Israel is fearful of an oncoming assault from Assyria, but God has promised them a prince of peace.

They will have a ruler who can establish and guarantee the peace of the nation.

Whether by force, he is the “mighty one” or by diplomacy, he will bring peace to the land.

ILLUSTRATION:

Our country spent $598.5 billion on defense spending last year. Almost 600 billion dollars. That is an unfathomable number. For most Americans, a million dollars would be a vast expenditure. A billion dollars is more than I can fathom. 600 billion is mind boggling.

Yet, have we brought peace to the world. We are still threatened by conventional forces, that is tanks and aircraft, by our enemies, and by terrorists who threaten the security of our county on a daily basis.

This child will do an impossible job, bring peace to the Kingdom forever.

(ESV)

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.

He will be called the prince of peace.

We can hope in this child because he is the one who will bring peace. Whether it is the bloodshed of war or the bloodshed of natural death, he will bring an end to that struggle and bring eternal peace to His Kingdom.

CONCLUSION:

Therefore,

Proposition: The birth of Christ should give believers hope in God.

Transitional Statement: and this text gives us 4 names that tell us why we should hope in Christ this Christmas.

Christ is the promised child of .

Why is the news of Jesus birth good news of great joy?

Because he is the promised King of a kingdom like no other we have ever seen.

He will rule as:

- The wonderful-counselor

- Mighty God

- Everlasting Father

- Prince of Peace

The message of Christmas is not simply a cute manager scene, but the down payment of an eternal Kingdom.

We have the opportunity to be a part of that Kingdom. ()

The angels who appeared to the Shepherds to announce the birth of Christ told them this:

(ESV)

10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

The most important truth of the Christmas season is that we have a savior born on Christmas day. That if we believe in his ultimate death, burial, and resurrection for the payment of our sinful deeds, then we can have eternal life.

Salvation.

We can be a part of his eternal Kingdom and he is the down payment of the eternal Kingdom in which every one of our enemies will end. All suffering will cease and we can fellowship with God as he created us to do, before sin and death. We can hope in Christ this Christmas season.

As we leave today, I want you to remember, this is the greatest news any person could ever hear. Our savior was born in Bethlehem. What good news of great joy do we have this Christmas day.

[1] The referent of אֵל גִּבּוֹר (’el gibbor, “mighty God”) is uncertain. The title appears only here and in 9:6, where it is one of the royal titles of the coming ideal Davidic king. (Similar titles appear in and [“the great, mighty, and awesome God”] and in [“the great and mighty God”]. Both titles refer to God.) Though pictures Israel someday seeking “David their king,” and provides some support for a messianic interpretation of , the Davidic king is not mentioned in the immediate context of (see , however). The preceding verse mentions Israel relying on the Lord, so it is likely that the title refers to God here. (NET Bible)