Sermon Tone Analysis
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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.
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