His Name Shall Be Called…“The Everlasting Father” Series

His Name Shall Be Called…“The Everlasting Father”

Chuck Sligh

Series: His Name Shall Be Called

December 16, 2018

A PowerPoint slide presentation of this sermon is available upon request at chucksligh@hotmail.com.

TEXT: Isaiah 9:6 – “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

INTRODUCTION

Illus. – An old pioneer traveled westward across the Great Plains until he came to an abrupt halt at the edge of the Grand Canyon. He gawked at the sight before him: a vast chasm one mile deep; from four to eighteen miles wide; and more than 200 miles long! “Wow!” he gasped, “SOMETHIN’ musta’ happened HERE!”

I think a visitor to our world at Christmastime—seeing the lights, the decorations, the trees, the parades, the festivities, the Santas, the Nativity scenes, the Christmas carols, and the religious services—would also probably say, “Wow! SOMETHING must have happened here!” And indeed, something did happen—Something BIG! On the first Christmas, God took on Himself the fullness of human nature—something unparalleled in history, and in fact, an idea impossible for any human to have conceived. Only God could CONCEIVE IT, and only God could CARRY IT OUT.

As we’ve already seen, by the names listed in Isaiah 9:6, the prophet Isaiah makes it clear that the Messiah would be no ordinary man— Not a mere POLITICAL LEADER; not the KING of an earthly dominion; nor a GENERAL to lead his people in conquest over other nations. And He would be far more than a common teacher or prophet.

No, the Messiah would be absolutely unique—something never before seen in history.

1) He would be WONDERFUL—far more wonderful than we could ever imagine.

2) He would be a COUNSELOR like none who ever existed before.

3) But more amazing than anything—He would be “THE MIGHTY GOD”—GOD, with all His power, and might, and wisdom, and glory—yet somehow fully a MAN.

The Gospel of Matthew makes this same point in its version of the Christmas story – Matthew 1:23 – “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH US.”

That’s what Jesus was—“God with us.” Not God out there somewhere, beyond the boundaries of the universe, but God HERE, in our midst—God walking among us as a flesh-and-blood person.

And that’s also what the fourth title—“Everlasting Father”—signifies.

By referring to Messiah as “Everlasting Father,” Isaiah teaches us two important truths:

I. FIRST, IT REMINDS US AGAIN OF CHRIST’S DEITY.

Remember that the people who first received this prophecy—the Jews—had no conception of a Trinity. They didn’t conceive of God as both ONE and THREE at the same time: one divine essence of three co-equal persons—God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They only knew God as FATHER. So, when Isaiah identified the coming Messiah as “The everlasting FATHER,” he was communicating in the only way they could possibly have understood that the Messiah would be GOD IN THE FLESH.

And when Jesus came—when He grew to manhood and began to teach—He acknowledged that this was, in fact, who He was.

We saw last week that when He was speaking with the Pharisees, He said: “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)—a statement that almost got Him stoned to death for blasphemy!

In John 14:7, He said, “If you had known me, you should have known my Father also: and from now on you know him, and have seen him.”

Anyone who saw Jesus had seen the Father, because Jesus fully reveals God. And the only one who can fully reveal God is God Himself.

There are MANY witnesses in the Bible to the truth of the deity of Jesus Christ. The bottom line is this: Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is indisputably God the Son, the second person of the Trinity; He is very GOD HIMSELF.

Well—we saw that last week, and now again I’m Isaiah emphasizes it this week. You may be asking yourself, So what? What does it matter to us today in this room, and what difference does it make? We aren’t professors or academics who spend our free time arguing the fine points of theology. We want information we can use—wisdom and knowledge that will help us get through the week, help us live worthwhile, productive, God-honoring lives.

So how does the teaching of the deity of Christ help us do that?

1) First of all, it affirms that Jesus truly is the one and only way to God.

The gulf between the Creator and His creatures is so vast—the distance separating sinful man from holy God so immense—that only someone who in Himself unites deity and humanity can truly unite God with man. Only one who is both fully God and fully man can bring the two together—both now and forever—