Jesus our Mighty God

2 The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.

3 You will enlarge the nation of Israel, and its people will rejoice. They will rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest and like warriors dividing the plunder.

4 For you will break the yoke of their slavery and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders. You will break the oppressor’s rod, just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian.

5 The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the fire.

6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!

HE SHALL BE CALLED THE MIGHTY GOD

We know the stories of the OT

It wasn’t unusual for the people of Israel to find themselves in situations that seemed impossible:

In the book of Exodus, we read that the entire nation of Israel found themselves oppressed in the land of Egypt, by a brutal ruler called The Pharaoh

The Pharaoh was on a massive building campaign, building cities. And he saw in the Israelites a source of free, or at least cheap, labor.

And so he made them work.

But the bible says that the harder the Pharaoh made them work, the stronger and more numerous the Israelites became.

Which worried the Pharaoh. He felt threatened by them.

And so he enslaved them. He put slave masters over them to beat them. They made bricks and mortar, and worked in the fields.

Their lives were miserable.

And on top of that, to take care of the Israelite problem once and for all, the Pharaoh commanded that if one of the Israelite women gave birth to a son, this son should be thrown into the Nile River and killed.

Things looked impossible for the Israelites.

Their power had been taken from them. They were oppressed, and it looked as if they would eventually die out, if the Pharaoh’s orders were carried through.

They needed a deliverer.

And so God, in His mighty power, raised up a deliverer, Moses. And God displayed His might power in bringing plagues upon the land of Egypt

And Moses led the people out of Egypt to the promised land.

God’s power was displayed.

Years later, the people again found themselves oppressed. This time by the people of the land of Midian.

Their land was being decimated as the people of Midian swarmed in, took their crops, their livestock, their livelihood, leaving them destitute and afraid.

And the people ran and hid in caves, crying out in fear and misery.

Things looked impossible for them. If their situation didn’t change soon, they would die.

And again, God raised up a deliverer.

The mighty hand of God was shown as Gideon and a small band of 300 men, routed an entire army, driving out their oppressors once and for all.

In the book of Isaiah, again the people of Judah find themselves between a rock and a hard place.

There is an empire rising in the northeast: The ancient,Assyrian empire, an empire in the area of modern day Iraq and Iran, is becoming strong.

It is so strong that it is threatening to invade and swallow up the southern kingdom of Judah, the northern kingdom of Israel, and their neighbors to the north, the Syrians.

The King of Israel, and the Syrians make a pact, and join forces against the Assyrians, and pressure King Ahaz of Judah to join them.

In fact, they even march their armies against Judah, and the city of Jerusalem, trying to coerce King Ahaz and the kingdom of Judah into joining with them.

This is where we find King Ahaz in the opening chapters of the book of Isaiah.

He has no one to help him. Literally everyone is against him.

He is scared, desperate for a deliverer.

And Isaiah comes to him in chapter 7, with a message of love from God.

And you have to know, that Ahaz was a very wicked king. He didn’t love and worship God.

Yet God comes to him with a message of love and hope.

The message is, “Don’t be frightened”. God is on your side.

Despite your wickedness and unbelief, God is on your side. Ask Him for a sign that God is on your side and is waiting to deliver you!

We know how Ahaz in self-righteous indignation says, “I wouldn’t dare ask God for a sign”

and Isaiah says, “OK, well the Lord Himself will give you a sign”

And what follows in chapter 7 and onward is God’s message to Ahaz and the land of Judah

A virgin will conceive and bare a son and name Him “Immanuel”, meaning God With Us.

What a wonderful name! What a wonderful thought that God will be with us!

But in chapter 9, we read more about this child. He will be GREAT with a capital G

His will be a greatness unmatched by any person before or since

He will be called “Mighty God”.

This child is going to be the sign from God.

The sign that Almighty God is actively working in the lives of His people to bring about His promises

The sign that His people are greatly loved by Him, and that despite their wickedness and unbelief, He would deliver them.

Now, the outcome of this story in Isaiah is that King Ahaz did not listen to the Lord. He did not respond to God’s love.

Instead, he turned to the king of Assyria, the very king that was threatening the region and made a peace treaty with him.

A very bad move.

Because this so-called “peace treaty” made the whole region vulnerable and set into motion a cycle of events, characterized by violence, bloodshed, invasions, and captivity.

Ultimately, both the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah were conquered and taken captive.

A tragic, sad story

So, how could have this child that was prophesied been a sign of God’s favor and Love for His people.

How could he have been called “Mighty God”, if His people came to such a sad end.

If this sign, this Child was “Mighty God”, why did He not come and strike the enemies of His people?

Why did He not raise up someone to lead the people against their foes and win a mighty victory just like he did through men like Moses and Gideon?

It’s because God knew that His people faced a much bigger threat, a much bigger enemy, than that of nations like Egypt, Midian, or Assyria.

This was an enemy that the largest army in the world could not conquer.

It was an enemy that the wisest military leaders and strategists in the world could not out-think.

And it’s an enemy that faces us today.

And unless this enemy was faced head-on and conquered, God’s chosen people and all the people to come after them, including us, would surely, without a doubt, be conquered and perish.

This enemy’s name is “Sin”

It has some nicknames: Rebellion, hatred, anger, lust, pride, envy

We are talking about the ultimate enemy here.

One which has the power to destroy utterly and forever those who give into its power.

This enemy struck its first blow when an angel named Lucifer, the prince of angels, the angel of light, who dwelt in the very presence of God,

grew jealous of God. He rebelled against God, and was cast out of heaven, along with a third of the angels

This enemy continued its conquest when a man named Adam and a woman named Eve gave into whispered suggestions by Lucifer and ate the fruit of a tree which they had been told in no uncertain terms not to touch.

At that moment the thing that God said would happen, did happen.

God had told them, if you eat the fruit of that tree, you will die

And they did die

Not physically. They didn’t keel over right there. Else you and I wouldn’t be here

But they did die spiritually

You see, they had been created to be in intimate fellowship with God.

God created them for His glory, and to be in constant relationship and fellowship with Him.

He has created each of us specially for His glory.

He has created us to have a relationship with Him. to be in fellowship with Him.

We were created to draw our life from Him, both physically and spiritually

We were created for Him to be the source of our strength and life.

But sin, that cunning enemy, crept in and struck a blow which has been felt down through the ages, until this day, December 12, 2021.

Satan said, “you do what you want. Forget about what God said. What does He know anyway?”

And Adam and Eve gave in.

At that moment, their lifeline was severed, and they died.

They died to the life that they were meant to have.

They said, thanks but no thanks, God. I’ve got this. I’ll do things my own way

From that day until now everyone, including us have been waging a warfare against this enemy.

Fighting a war that is impossible to win. Sure we score our little victories, but if we are honest, we know that we are in a war against the ultimate enemy. One which is impossible to win.

We see it over and over again in the Bible. The people trying and failing, trying and failing.

Following God, falling away. Worshiping God, worshiping idols.

We see it in our lives.

Trying and failing. Trying and failing. Trying to conquer addictions, winning small battles, loosing many more.

This was what the problem really was in King Ahaz’s day.

The real problem wasn’t the surrounding nations. Oh, they were terrifying alright

But the biggest enemy was sin. They were being held hostage by the power of sin,

That’s our problem as well

It was their separation from their God, their Creator, that was the real problem

They needed a Deliverer. WE need a Deliverer

They needed a Mighty God, WE need a mighty God to conquer this enemy.

And there was only one Person who could be that Deliverer.

To rescue us from that most fearsome of enemies.

That Person was Jesus, God’s own Son. That Person IS God’s own Son, Jesus Christ.

This is the story that we have in our Scriptures.

It is the story of a people created and loved by God. A people created to walk in close fellowship with God, being separated from Him by their own pride and arrogance

Being held hostage by the enemy of sin, destined to die.

And God doing what only He, the Almighty God could do:

putting a plan in action to conquer this most formidable of enemies.

The Apostle Paul describes this well in his letter to the church at Ephesus.

Made Alive with Christ

Ephesians 2: 1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world.[a] He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

There’s a lot going on here.

But here’s the key thought. You were once dead.

What power does a dead person have? None

What ability does a dead person have to help himself? None

Paul says, “You were once dead”.

Does that mean that this was a church full of corpses lying about?

No.

Again, just like in the case of Adam and Eve, It means that at one time these folks were apart from God. They had been conquered by the ultimate enemy: sin

They were being held hostage with no chance of escape.

A hopeless condition.

It doesn’t sound very pretty. And it wasn’t.

These folks needed a hero. They needed someone mighty to rescue them.

But he doesn’t stop there, because there is some pretty amazing news

Just listen to these words

4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

Do you understand what Paul is saying here?

God loves you so much that even when you were in bondage to sin, being held hostage by this ultimate enemy, God was working to free you.

Jesus, God’s own Son came, and offered himself to die on the cross as a payment for the sin that you and I have done.

But He didn’t stay dead

Because then God did something amazing

He raised Jesus from the dead.

And when He did that, the power of the enemy was broken.

Relationship with Our Heavenly Father was restored.

And you were offered the gift of life and freedom.

You were offered the opportunity to have your relationship with your Father God restored

But the Apostle Paul cautions us to understand two very important things

Listen to this next part.

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

We have to understand two very important things:

It is God who did all of this through Jesus Christ, His own Son

It wasn’t something that we came up with

It wasn’t some strategy that we thought of to get ourselves out of our predicament

So we can’t take credit for doing it.

It’s not even a reward that we get for doing something great.

We can’t earn His love simply by doing what we think is right.

God did it all because of His great love

To receive it, all we have to do is believe

God saved you by His grace when you believed.

That’s it. That is all there is to it.

You simply have to believe that Jesus is the Mighty God

That He came and did what we were powerless to do

He broke the power of our ultimate enemy,

And He offers to free us and give us life

This is the Gospel.

It’s free

It’s simple

It’s too wonderful and deep to explain fully.

But it is offered to you today.

If you have not accepted this offering, it is still available and open today

Jesus is The Mighty God