Unto Us
Isaiah 9:1-7 (ESV)
December 26, 2021
Dr. Ritch Boerckel

We’re going to be reading from Isaiah 9. If you don’t have a Bible, there should be a Bible under a seat near you. It’s going to be on page 573 in that Bible. Isaiah 9. We have been in a short series that we’ve entitled Christmas Cards from the Old Testament. As you have received perhaps some Christmas cards this Christmas season, there are some very popular verses that appear on many of them. Some of those are from the Old Testament. Today is the last in this very brief series. We’re going to be looking at Isaiah 9. Of course, that verse 6, as we read it, will be very familiar to you because it appears so often on these messages of hope that we give by way of cards. Rightly is this verse one of those that is chosen to present Christ to our friends and relatives through a message at the Christmas season. Yet oftentimes, by the way, we fail to actually capture the context. The context is really important, as we’ll discover. So we’re going to try to capture some of that this morning.

1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. 3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. 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.

What a promise!

The birth of a child is a remarkable event. Yet as exciting and joyful as the birth of children in general is, there really is nothing in comparison to the joy of the birth of a child who is born specifically to you. When we are the ones that are receiving this child, whether by natural birth or by adoption, there is something that is just unforgettable about that joy.

The Lord granted Kimberly and I three sons in our life. Of each one’s birth, my mind and my heart goes back there instantaneously when I think of it. The first child was born just beautiful. I don’t say that because I’m his dad. He just really was born looking like he had been washed and bathed and clean. He was just fresh and pink and everything just looked great. Our second son, not so much. He had forceps squishing his head and his little head came out misshapen. Our third son was born with sort of a dramatic flair. He’s our drama guy. There was a placenta abruption and all of a sudden, we have to get to the hospital. Then our doctor didn’t show up on time. We met a wonderful young doctor we had never met, for the first time, right in the midst of that. We’re still friends with that dear doctor to this day. He’s part of our church family, now. Each one brought joy, joy, joy.

Well, if you are a parent, you have your special birth stories too. I know you do. What makes them really, really special though for you is that the baby was born unto you. I love hearing your stories. I rejoice in them. But there is something about a baby that is born unto us. That brings us to our text this morning, to the story of Jesus’ birth. This is what God says of Jesus.

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;

In other words, this is not a story that is impersonal. It’s not a story about some distant baby born in a distant land. It’s a story about a glorious son given to us, an amazing child being born unto us. We’re thrilled by the description of that child as we read it here in Isaiah chapter 9. This story of this child born and son given unto us is a story of celebration for us. All who have received Him, all who know Him understand the personal nature. It rivets us. It captures our attention. We don’t ever get away from it; not now, not all the way to the day we die. All the way into eternity we’re going to be celebrating this amazing event of a child being born unto us, a son being given to us. It’s a glorious thing. This child, this Son is unlike any other in His eternal glory. I love so many descriptions of this one who is born unto us and given unto us. One of my favorites is in Hebrews chapter 1. God says this about this Son.

Hebrews 1:1-2 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,

Then He describes Him.

Hebrews 1:2 whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

Think of that!

Hebrews 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

Isaiah 9 calls to our attention the glory of this child. But before Isaiah 9 calls to our attention the glory of this child, God reminds us of the mess into which His Son entered.

If you’re taking notes this morning, we’re going to make a few comments regarding God’s judgment of the mess that we created as a result of our sin, and of God’s grace, the offering. So first, in reference to God’s judgment, what Isaiah wants us to know is that we are a people who walk in darkness. That’s who we are by nature.

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

This is our history. We are a people who walked in darkness and because we’re all walking in darkness, we dwell in a whole land, everyone. It’s every place. It’s a land of deep darkness. Most of Isaiah’s prophecy up to this point has been a description of that darkness, of its depth, of its wickedness. Turn back with me to Isaiah 1, for instance.

Isaiah 1:3 The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

He’s saying “They don’t know me.” We’re dumber than animals. God reveals Himself and yet, an ox knows its owner, a donkey knows the place where it goes to lay its head, but we don’t know God who created us because we’ve estranged ourselves from Him. Then God says this.

Isaiah 1:4 Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,

Do you hear this? Capture the description. This is a people laden with iniquity.

Isaiah 1:4 …offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly!

That’s kind of tough, isn’t it? It’s not a message for people who you want to come back next Sunday. This is the way God starts off Isaiah. Does that inspire you to read the rest of the book? Isn’t that a book that once you see that’s how this book is describing me, the reader, you won’t read it? But God brings that to us not because He hates these people, but because He loves them. He is offering them grace and mercy.

Isaiah 1:4 …They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.

In other words, the relationship between God and His people has been not just slightly damaged. It’s been utterly estranged. He goes on to ask

Isaiah 1:5-6 Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds;

He is describing the spiritual condition of us.

Isaiah 1:6 …they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.
There is no healing.

Isaiah 1:9 If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.

In other words, if God would have dealt with us righteously, then all of us would have been destroyed. So the truth we’re learning is that spiritual darkness prohibits man from being able to see the beauty and wonder of God. It estranges us from God. It keeps us from knowing Him, knowing His preciousness, knowing His majesty. This blindness darkens our understanding to His goodness, to the rightness of His commands, that He is actually right and we’re the ones who are wrong.

Walking in darkness is a great word picture, isn’t it? It’s kind of a stumbling kind of walk through life. We’re just stumbling around. We’re unsteady. That kind of unsteadiness actually becomes dangerous and deadly for us. How do we reflect upon this description? If we asked the people if they are living in darkness, they undoubtedly would be offended by that suggestion because by nature, we have deceived our own selves about the condition of our soul. We consider ourselves very enlightened. We’re kind of proud of our spiritual progress.

If I were to take you into a cave in Missouri and shut off all the lights, nobody can have a cell phone, nothing, you would know you were in darkness. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever been in that kind of darkness where it’s so dark that you can’t even see anything in front of you? You would know you are in darkness if we took you to a place of that kind of physical darkness. But isn’t it interesting that’s the depth of the darkness where we are spiritually, and yet we say, “No, this room is full of light. I can see everything clearly.” It’s because of our blindness to the sinfulness of our soul that God spends so much time talking about it. We need to hear what God has to say about the condition of our hearts. Ultimately, because God says it over and over and over by God’s Spirit, we might listen and by listening we might actually believe, and by believing it we might become concerned. That’s the point. It’s that we would be concerned for our own spiritual state. God says in Isaiah 5, and this describes the self-deception,

Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,

We’re so confused, we’re in such darkness that we think up is down and down is up. We think that which is good is actually evil and we think that which is evil is actually good because we’re so confused about what is right. He goes on to say we are people

Isaiah 5:20 …who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

In other words, you take a bite of a bitter herb and say, “Oh, that tastes like candy.” You take a piece of candy and you say, “That tastes really bitter to me.” Our senses are off, is the idea. That’s what God is presenting. Let me ask you, as you read Isaiah 5:20, do you think this describes us as a people? Does it describe our culture? Is there anything that God calls good in His Word that our culture says, “No, that’s really actually evil”? Is there anything that God calls evil in His Word that our culture says, “No, that’s actually really, really good. We need to promote it. We need to exalt it. We need to celebrate it. Let’s have weeks of celebrating this as a nation.” Is there anything like that? I know we can think of one or two things at least, but I think there are many. I think there is a multitude of things that are evil that our culture calls good. There is a multitude of things that God calls good that man would say, “That’s really evil.”

Yet, for all of this, for the certainty of what God is saying as being true and the evidence that we have all around us, yet, we’re still deceived into thinking that it’s not true. I think it’s a willful self-deception. You have a little child, a little son and it’s clear that he’s gotten into the pantry and gotten into the chocolate syrup. He has chocolate syrup all over him, from head to toe. You go up and you ask, “Johnny, did you get into the chocolate syrup?” (Pastor Ritch shakes his head.) Now, why is that? He doesn’t want to acknowledge what is so evident and clear. That’s where we are spiritually. Do you realize that your heart is sinful and it’s desperately wicked? Do you realize that you’re estranged from Him? God keeps bringing this truth to us so that we would become aware of it.

Isaiah 5:21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,

In other words, they think they have life figured out.

Isaiah 5:21-22 …and shrewd in their own sight! Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink.

He’s just parking on one of the sins of the many in that culture.

In chapter 7, we are introduced to a political leader of Judah by the name of Ahaz, King Ahaz. I won’t go deep into it, but this is a time of great spiritual darkness for this nation because the king himself is leading them into great spiritual darkness. King Ahaz is ultimately going to shut the door to the temple so that no one can worship the true God. The temple that God had built to bring honor and glory to His name and to show His glory to the people, he leaves it in a state of disrepair and decay. He begins to worship other gods. One of them is Molech. In worship to Molech, this king is going to establish a fiery altar and people are going to bring their babies and have their babies burned on the altar in allegiance to this idol. Even King Ahaz himself is going to have one of his children burned on that altar.

Again, how could people be so confused? Well, look around us. Isn’t that the state of our culture today? People are unaware that these idols, all false gods by the way, are not just sort of these gentle, tame kinds of things. The Bible calls them demonic. They are demons. We either worship the true God or we worship demons. That’s the contrast, here. So here we have King Ahaz, who has gone into the demonic world of darkness, and the whole country is going with him. This is the context of this promise. I think it’s really important for us to grab hold of it for a number of reasons. The first is if we refuse to agree with God about the spiritual darkness that is in us, we will not take refuge in God’s Savior, His Son.

If a tornado warning would suddenly go off this morning, I think most of us would believe it and say, “Okay, it’s time to take some refuge.” Why? Because we hear a sound, we understand what the sound is about and we believe the sound. But if the city has said, “We’re having trouble with our warning system and there are going to be a whole bunch of false warnings,” and this is the 12th or 13th time it’s gone off, what happens? We don’t respond to it because we don’t take it seriously. We don’t think it’s real.

So often, God presents warning after warning that are actually real warnings. But we’ve gotten so used to these warnings that we don’t really think it’s real and we don’t take refuge. That’s why God in His grace says, “No, I’m giving you warning not because I hate you, but because I love you. I don’t want you to experience this kind of destruction. I don’t want you to experience death.” It’s only when we begin to become alert and pay attention to the warnings, that we are drawn in repentance toward God’s Savior. God’s Word always condemns us before it delivers us. Isaiah talks of it this way later, in

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Wherever we are, that’s exactly where each one of us is in our natural condition. We are walking away from God. The message of the Gospel, the good news, is first about God’s righteousness and about His just response, His judgment. But now we turn the corner here, because in verse 2, we see His grace shining forth. God offers salvation through His Son so that we can walk in light and we can have life, the life of God in our soul.

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;

He’s talking about a future day when the people come to their senses regarding their desperation and their need before God, and they turn and embrace His salvation through His Son. Now they see a great light.

those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

God lets Isaiah peer 700 years into the future in verse 6 to see God’s Messiah shine a light. Particularly in verse 1 it describes the place. It describes in Galilee, the place where even the Gentile nations are at least living in the midst of this northern region of Israel. He says this is the place where the light is going to shine, in Galilee. Sure enough, when the Messiah comes, where is most of His ministry? It’s up in Galilee, where there are both Jews and Gentiles living. He says this is the place where this light is going to come, where the healing for our spiritual hurt would be brought.

In the promise of Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah sets aside for a moment the fact that the people to whom the light shines are going to reject the Light when He comes to them. He looks to a more distant day when this people, Israel, will receive her king, when Israel as a nation will welcome God’s Light and be restored to the Lord and the Lord’s blessing will flow into that land. Look at what he describes as Isaiah pictures this future day. This day is yet future to us.

3 You have multiplied the nation;

He is talking about the nation of Israel.

you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

In other words, we’re not going to need any war clothes anymore. Such will be the peace. How is God going to bring that kind of blessing, that kind of joy?

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government

He’s a real king and a real king has a government. 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,

In other words, His government is going to be universal. It’s going to be the whole worldwide. The peace that He brings is going to be universal. There is not going to be a place on the planet where there is war when Jesus takes the throne. He’s going to sit

on the throne of David

That’s King David, who established his throne in Jerusalem. He’s going to rule from that place, on the throne of David.

and over his kingdom,

Again, His kingdom is universal. He’s going to be ruling

to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

How do we know this is true? He says it’s because

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

God is zealous for the glory of His name and His Son to have that kind of honor, that kind of authority, that kind of rule, to bring about that kind of blessing. He is zealous that His Son would receive glory. So one big question then is who exactly is the Messiah? We’re going to take the rest of our time to learn about these four names that are given to the Messiah.

In our culture, we give names to children sort of out of how we like the sound, oftentimes. Some think about the meaning of the names, but not often. In Bible times, however, it was very different. The name of a person referenced sort of a vision for the person’s character, a vision of the person’s life message. A name revealed who the person is and what their purpose in this world would be. So when Mary was with child, the angel visited Joseph and the angel said, “You will call His name Jesus.” Why would you call His name Jesus? “Because He will save His people from their sins.” That’s why. That’s what He is going to do. Jesus means, “The Lord saves.” The angel told Joseph you need to name Him Jesus because that’s why He came. It was to bring salvation. So when we read these names in Isaiah 9:6, understand they are more than just nice little descriptions. They’re really powerful testimonies about the person and the purpose of this future Messiah. There are four names.

Name #1 Wonderful Counselor: The Son guides us into God’s truth.

That’s what the Son is going to do. He’s going to bring the light of who God is or full revelation of God and His glory and the full revelation of God’s plan and purpose for mankind. The Son is going to guide us into God’s truth. That indeed is what Jesus did.

This whole nation needs a counselor. It’s being lead away to so many false ideas about life and false ideas about God. It’s producing just misery and pain and brokenness and conflict and turmoil and fear and terror. All these things are happening right here. This nation needs a counselor. Remember that King Ahaz had already rejected God as counselor and instead, King Ahaz is actually going to mediums, spiritists inspired by demons. He’s going and saying, “Tell me, what should I do?” That’s where King Ahaz is getting his counsel for how to be king.

Isaiah 8:19 And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers

In other words, people who talk to the dead. They inquire of mediums and necromancers

Isaiah 8:19 …who chirp and mutter,”

That’s how God describes them. They chirp, chirp, chirp. That’s all they’re doing. It’s just meaningless little sounds that they make from their mouths. Here’s what God is saying.

Isaiah 8:19 …should not a people inquire of their God?

If you want to know the truth, why would you go to birds that just chirp? They have no understanding, no wisdom. Why would you go to birds? Wouldn’t it make more sense that you would inquire of the Lord?
Isaiah 8:19 …Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

Then he says this, and underline this in your Bibles.

Isaiah 8:20 To the teaching and to the testimony!

In other words, God has given us a revelation through His Word. Let’s get to that. If we’re wondering what to do with life, if we need a counselor, let’s make sure we do everything to get to God’s testimony, get to God’s truth, get to God’s revelation.

When we abandon God as our Counselor, we are going to turn to any source, no matter how foolish. What a good word to a nation under judgment! God is sending them a Wonderful Counselor! The word “wonderful” simply means “beyond our understanding.” He has a wisdom that is so far above, so far beyond. He gives the kind of counsel that we would not give to ourselves. He is our access to ultimate wisdom. The book of Colossians says in Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Let me ask you, have you ever needed a wonderful counselor in your life? Have you ever needed somebody you could talk to that you know after you talk to them, they’re going to give you some direction about some of the mess that you’re experiencing in your life? Have you ever needed a wonderful counselor? People pay hundreds and thousands of dollars to find a wonderful counselor. Here, we have one and this one is given to us. He is someone who can truly help. He is someone who listens to us when we pray, but more importantly, He speaks to us. He corrects us, He instructs us, He rebukes us and He directs us as our counselor.

There is a circumstance in my own life regarding a relationship that has been important, that is kind of broken. I’ve been seeking the Lord to be my counselor. I’m wondering what do I need to say? What do I need to do to bring grace to this relationship, to bring help? I’ve gone to some godly friends who I believe know the Word. It’s right for us to hear from one another. This Wonderful Counselor often speaks through other people through His Word. I’ve gone directly to God, to Jesus Christ, to hear what the Spirit would say through His Word. Do you know what? When godly friends tell me the Word, what Jesus has already said, the Wonderful Counselor said, and when I discover on my own through my reading and through my searching, through my praying, what the Holy Spirit is saying through this Wonderful Counselor that God has given to us, I find my heart really encouraged and helped. I find a path for me to walk and to walk confidently.

In this process, I have to tell you the Wonderful Counselor has rebuked some of my attitudes. Does the Wonderful Counselor ever do that when you’re seeking His counsel? Does He rebuke you? The Wonderful Counselor has rebuked me because I’ve been kind of stirred up by some perceived wrong suffered. He says, “Ritch, that attitude is dark and wicked. You need to turn away. Repent from that. Stop thinking that way.” The Wonderful Counselor has also opened up paths of grace. “This is how you ought to think about this relationship. This is how you ought to respond. This is how you ought to speak.” It’s still in process, so I’m still looking to the Wonderful Counselor. That will be the whole of my life. I give you that little window because it’s real. He’s not just sort of a make believe Wonderful Counselor that it’s nice to have Him set up somewhere and we don’t hardly ever need to go to Him. I think we need to go to Him every day.

When Peter and James and John were with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus showed them the glory of God in Him. They wanted to stay up on the mountain. Toward the end of that experience,

Mark 9:7 And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

This is God the Father speaking. He says, “Listen to Him!” He’s the Wonderful Counselor. We’re so prone to listen to every other voice except Jesus. There are two practical applications in view of the Messiah being our Wonderful Counselor. Number one is, let’s sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to Him.

The truth that we need resides outside of us and inside of Christ. We have no access to truth in our own hearts or in the hearts and feelings of other people. We have access to truth only through Christ. That’s the only access we have to truth that will truly help us and transform us. The most certain way to miss the truth is to ask the question, what do I feel is true about God? What do I feel is right to do in this situation? That question will lead us away from the majesty of Jesus, the exclusiveness of His wisdom, the authority of His Word. It will lead us away ultimately to the desperate sinfulness and darkness of our own hearts and minds. It will lead us away from the necessity of Jesus to be our ultimate Counselor. It will lead us away from repentance and a soft heart. It will lead us away from hope. Our Wonderful Counselor, however, when we grab onto Him, He loves to speak and He loves to lead us and He loves to guide us into light.

A number of years ago, I read an article by a Christian therapist in a family magazine. The article was entitled, Listening from Within: The Inner Voice that Can Keep Us Safe. That was the title of the article; Listening from Within. The author rightly warned against the voice of culture that we often listen to. So I’m thankful for that. But then in this article, this author commended, “The inner voice, though quiet, is worth listening to and trusting with all our heart and soul.” What does God say? He says, “No!” So whenever we hear, whether we put a Christian word on top of that kind of philosophy, let’s understand that doesn’t come from Jesus. That’s why it’s so important for us to saturate ourselves with the pure Word of God because there is so much that gets twisted and bent away from it. If you open your Bible, you’ll never have a sentence like that. You’ll never read one sentence like that in all the Book. Instead, you’ll hear

Isaiah 8:20 To the teaching and to the testimony!

Let’s go to the teaching. Jesus loves to reveal Himself through the Word as we listen to Him as our Counselor and as we submit our lives to Him. What a joy it is!

The next practical consideration with Jesus being our Wonderful Counselor is not only is He available to us, not only is He willing to speak and it’s right for us to just sit at His feet and find people who have listened to the truth of Jesus as they have studied the Word, and then open up the Book for yourself and just saturate yourself with the Word of Christ. Let the Word of Christ dwell richly in us. That’s how we can have true counsel.

But secondly, let us make sure we reject every counsel that contradicts what Jesus says. Let’s make sure that we are able to discern that which is from Christ and that which is from other sources. I love what 1 Corinthians chapter 1 says about Christ being our wisdom. We’re right to be absolutely confident with any counsel Jesus gives us, no matter how much it contradicts the counsel that anyone else gives us, regardless of how much it contradicts the counsel we would give ourselves and what seems right to us. The counsel that Jesus gives us through His Word, by His Spirit, we can have 110% confidence that it’s true and right and good for us. I love

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

1 Corinthians 1:30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God,

That’s who He is. He is wisdom from God to us. He is also

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 …righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Not only is He the Wonderful Counselor, but He is

Name #2 Mighty God: The Son is worthy of worship and trust.

The idea here behind Jesus being the Mighty God, the Almighty God with infinite power and infinite strength, is He is God come in the flesh. At Christmas time there are some precious images that we have about Jesus of Him coming so humbly, born of a virgin, a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Those are all precious to understand the humility of Christ, His serving nature. But the Christmas truth is that this baby who needed to be nursed, is the One who spoke and the worlds exploded into being just simply at the power of His Word. That’s who the Messiah is. Isaiah here is telling us that this one who is Mighty God is a child who is born unto us. He is a Son who is given unto us.

Those two little lines, they are similar, yet, they’re different. I want us to make sure we observe the difference because it’s important in reference to understanding who Jesus is as the Mighty God.

6 For to us a child is born,

That’s a reference to Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. It’s a reference to this beginning of the eternal Son of God taking on flesh. That did take place at that point in time. A child had not been born to us until Mary gave birth. But then he says

to us a son is given;

When did that happen? That happened in eternity past. A Son was given unto us because the Son is eternal. As the Son of God, He preexists time and He was given to us well before Bethlehem. The Son existed from all eternity past. He is the one who spoke the worlds into being. We had access to the Son from Genesis 1 forward, from the beginning of the existence of this present world, because He pre-exists this present world. If you go all the way back to the very beginning of time, we find Jesus already there, the Son already there. He always was, He always will be, and He always is.

There are two practical applications that I want us to make of this idea of Jesus’ deity, His fullness of divine power and might. First, let’s worship Him. This is a Son who is worthy of worship. Let’s make much of Him. To worship means to exclaim over Him, to yield ourselves to and to treasure and to praise. Let’s make much of Him as we gather with other disciples on a Sunday morning, but also all throughout the week. The idea here is that when we think of Jesus, we ought not to think of Him just simply as a baby in a manger. We ought not to think of Him as just merely a good teacher. We think of Him as God of very God.

The reason why the religious leaders hated Jesus so much is not because He did good deeds or because He healed or because He was teaching good morals. They hated Him because He claimed to be God. It’s on that basis that they said, “We have to put this guy to death. He’s blaspheming.” It is this aspect of our Messiah that we relish in. These Christmas carols are so precious in exalting this Messiah as the Mighty God. “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail th’ incarnate Deity! Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel.” So, because He is Mighty God, we worship Him. Secondly, because He is Mighty God, we can rest our weary souls in Him. He is able to keep us safe. We’re going to talk about that more as we think about Jesus and His third name, Everlasting Father.

Before we bend away from this idea of Jesus being God, we have to observe something that is sort of basic to Christianity. That is that if we fail to believe that Jesus is God, we are outside of the Christian faith. We’re outside of the Gospel. This is such a central aspect of the faith that in the early church, it was so apparent that even sort of the secular people around who didn’t like Christians, commented about it. There is a particular guy by the name of Celsus who was sort of a Roman wealthy guy. He didn’t like Christians at all and he didn’t like Christianity. He wrote around the time 170 AD. Listen to his description. It’s remarkable! I wonder how many secular people would say this about Christians today. Listen to what he said about Christians. He says

“But in fact they [Christians] worship to an extravagant degree this man who appeared recently,”

He recognizes that it’s only been 130 years ago when Jesus appeared. These Christians worship Him extravagantly. I wonder if that would that be what a secular person now would say if someone were to say, “Tell me what a Christians is.” He goes on to say

“and yet [they] think it does not offend God if they also worship his servant. If you taught them [Christians] that Jesus is not [God’s] Son, but that God is father of all, and that we really ought to worship him alone, they would no longer be willing to listen to you unless you included Jesus as well, who is the author of their sedition.”

He calls them rebels against the Roman throne. He says they wouldn’t listen to you if you suggest that you cut Jesus out of your worship. He says

“Indeed, when they call him Son of God, it is not because they are paying very great reverence to God, but because they are exalting Jesus greatly.”

Again, do our friends know as we talk about who Jesus is, that we see Him as God and worthy of this kind of worship?

Name #3 Everlasting Father: The Son loves His own forever and ever.

As a dad, I love this! It has such huge meaning. The Son who is given to us is also our Everlasting Father. When Jesus is called Everlasting Father, the title is not used in reference to the Son’s relationship to the Father in that triune three-in-one being that we understand God to be through His Word. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three distinct Persons, one God, exists eternally, co-equal, co-eternal, one substance. This is not suggesting that the Messiah is going to take that position in the Godhead. What is this suggesting? How is He the eternal Father? There are two ways.

First, Jesus is the Everlasting Father in that He takes the place of our old sinful, human father, Adam. We all had a representative in Adam. Adam sinned and we all sinned in Adam. That’s what the Scripture teaches. When Christ died upon the cross and rose again, He offers everyone who believes in Him, to become part of a new race, a new family. We can get out of this dead end family, Adam’s family of sin and death, and become part of His family, who conquered sin and death, and be part of the line of life. He becomes our Father instead of Adam being our father. So there is a transfer that takes place. We have an option because He is now our eternal Father.

But also, I think God wants us to understand the immense affection and care that the Messiah has for His own. This Messiah to come is going to act as a Father would to His own children, and that is a tender, loving, caring kind of disposition toward us. How precious, how life-giving is it to think of Jesus as our Everlasting Father. As a Father, He feeds us bread from heaven to strengthen our soul. As a Father, He counsels us with wisdom to help us grow in grace. As a Father, He listens to us as we cast our cares upon Him because we know that He cares for us and He will bear the weight of our burdens. As our Father, He disciplines us so that we might have true joy in our lives. As a Father, He remains ever present with us so that we can always turn our lives over to Him in our times of weakness and severe trouble. As a Father, He leads us so we have direction. As a Father, He protects us from all that the world would bring against us to destroy us. As a Father, He provides an eternal home for us. In every way, Jesus acts as our Everlasting Father. Not only is He a Father, He is an Everlasting Father. He’s the kind of Father who never fades away. He never grows distant. He always, always, always, always acts as a Father would His own child.

Name #4 Prince of Peace: The Son rules with grace to bring us peace.

Exactly how is Jesus the Prince of Peace? First, He is royalty. He is majesty. He is worthy of us bowing down to and paying homage to and submitting our lives to. In other words, He has authority. But He is a Prince of Peace. He is a Prince whose rule and reign and disposition to His subjects is that of peace. How is that? Well, there are two kinds of peace that this Prince brings.

First is peace between God and man. The Bible teaches us that we are born at war with God because we’ve rejected Him. We’ve decided that we want to go our own way, rather than submit to God’s way in our life. God is holy and He won’t allow those who resist His sovereign rule to go unchallenged. So what is going to happen to us? Well, if we’re left in that state of animosity or conflict with God, we’re left in a state of eternal misery. There will be no hope for us, only despair. So the Prince of Peace comes and He says, “I’m going to take these two parties and I’m going to bring reconciliation. Through Jesus Christ, God has already turned His face of grace and mercy toward us. Then through the Holy Spirit, we’re called to submit our lives to the Son. It’s through the Son’s working that we find peace with God. Paul exults in this in Romans chapter 5. Listen to what Paul says.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,

In other words, we’re declared righteous by God by faith

Romans 5:1 …we have peace with God

I can’t imagine words that are more precious than this to believers. We have peace with God. There is a kind of peace, a kind of wholeness, a shalom. There is a relationship that is not fractured. It’s not bent. It’s one of fullness and completion. If you’ve ever been in a relationship where it’s like that on a human level, you understand what that kind of peace is. It’s more than just that there is no more conflict. A relationship between a husband and wife that is one of peace is more than that we’re not arguing. It’s much more than that! There is a unity. There is a wholeness in that relationship that just is so enjoyable you can just sit in each other’s presence and you don’t have to say anything. You just enjoy this relationship. That’s what the peace is that Jesus offers between us and God. It’s real relationship, real knowledge, real union together with God. Then there is not only peace between God and man, but ultimately, there is peace on earth.

7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,
Now he is talking about universal. First, we want to consider personally and practically, do you have peace with God? But now also in this big scheme of what human history is moving toward, all of human history is moving toward one great event. When this Prince of Peace comes a second time and He establishes authority, establishes rule on the throne of David, when He establishes peace over all the earth, that’s really going to take place here in this place that we call planet earth.

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.

How do we know it’s true?

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

This child that is promised is a mighty ruler who brings ultimate peace. Do you remember when the angel spoke to Mary, who was troubled about the news that she was with child? The angel comes to her in Luke 1 and says

Luke 1:30-133 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,

So the conception is yet future to this announcement.

Luke 1:31-32 …and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.

That’s who He is. He is God of very God.

Luke 1:32 …And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,

So the angel is picking up on all that God wrote about this Messiah in the Old Testament, of Him being a King, of Him being a Prince.

Luke 1:32-33 …And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

What we find is that God’s future plan is to establish His Son upon the earth. He established peace with God through His first coming and through His death. He is going to establish this second kind of peace, peace among the nations, peace over this world as He rules and reigns, in His second coming. When will we have peace on this earth? The answer is when God’s Son, the Messiah is seated on the throne, when He is ruling and reigning as the Prince of Peace, not before. There is nothing we can do to create this peace because the heart of man is full of conflict. It’s only through the Prince of Peace that we can experience God’s peace personally now in our life with God and in our life with others, and peace on earth only when the Messiah returns. That’s why we say, “Even so Lord Jesus, come quickly.”

Have you ever seen that bumper sticker that says, “Visualize World Peace”? Have you seen that? The idea is that we as man want to think that we can resolve all the problems that sin brought into this world on our own. We think that if we just get together and get our minds together and we get everybody on the same page. That’s why there is such a propensity of governments to say, “We’re going to make everybody get on the same page because if we can make everybody get on the same page, then we have the answers. The only reason why there are problems is because nobody is following our plan.” That’s why there is so much corruption in government. It’s because power is abused and because of such lack of wisdom.

But here we have One who says the answer isn’t to visualize world peace. It’s not that we can make peace happen. But for the Christian, what does it mean to visualize world peace? What it means is for us to visualize and think about and hope for the day when Jesus returns. When the Messiah returns, this Prince of Peace will create peace. He will take His place upon the throne as King of kings and Lord of lords. It’s right for us as Christians to be reminded that it’s good to let our imaginations flow from Scripture to that future day of these many descriptions of that future day, of what God is going to do, so that we ready ourselves for Him and that we have hope today about tomorrow. What a day that will be!

I close kind of where I began. To us a Child is born. To us a Son is given. Let me ask you, is that true for you? Has this Child been given to you personally? Has this Child been born to you personally? Has this Son been given to you personally? King Ahaz remained outside that promise and he could never say that about himself because he refused to believe, he refused to receive, he refused to submit to that King. So that promise that was offered to him, that he could have a Wonderful Counselor who would direct his steps, he would have a Mighty God that would stand with him and for him, he would have an Everlasting Father who would care for him as a father cares for his own son, he would have a Prince of Peace who would rule in his heart so he could have peace with God and there would be peace in his life that flows from this peace with God in other relationships, Ahaz didn’t ever experience that.

We don’t experience it because we receive a Christmas card or we give a Christmas card. How can we experience the blessings of this Son, the blessings of this Child? It’s when we take that little word “unto us” and we personally appropriate it by faith. We say, “God, you promised a Messiah and He came the first time. He’s coming again a second time. I want him to be my Messiah, my King, and I am bowing my heart right now. I’m submitting my life to Him. I’m receiving Him as my Mighty God, as my Everlasting Father, as my Wonderful Counselor, as my Prince of Peace. I need Him and I need the blessings that would flow from Him into my life.”

If you’ve never received Jesus as your personal Savior, if you’ve never bowed to Him as Lord, if you’ve never turned from following your own way and turned toward Christ, I’m going to pray a prayer and if this prayer reflects your heart, I would encourage you to pray it to God. It’s not a prayer, it’s not these words, but if this reflects your heart, right now is the day when all the benefits that flow from this amazing Child that was born, this Son that was given, all the blessings that are found in Him would be yours today.