A Mighty Strange Package

Beartown Road Alliance Church

December 23rd, 2007

“A Mighty Strange Package”

You’ve heard the kids sing, this morning, about the baby Jesus and the love that they have for Him. This was the One that the people of Israel had waited a long time for. In fact, thousands of years ago, hundreds of years before this baby was even born, God used men called prophets to give clues as to what the people should look for. One of those prophets was a man named Isaiah and during a time of war and captivity for the people of Israel, Isaiah talked about a hope that was coming. He talked about a time of peace and prosperity that would have been hard for the people to envision with all that they were suffering. When Isaiah gets done explaining what God is going to do, he then tells them how He is going to do it. He says in Isaiah 9:6:

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

He tells them that a child will deliver them. He tells them that Jesus, God’s Son is coming. And then he describes to them, who this child will be. He says that this baby will be the wonderful counselor. We looked a couple of weeks ago at what this meant. This loses a little in translation but Isaiah says literally that we have a miraculous, divine God who wants to be intimately involved in our lives as He moves us in the way that is best for us, that a part of who this baby would be. On Christmas Eve and next Sunday, we’re going to look at two of these other names that Isaiah gives to the baby. He says that He will be our Everlasting Father and that He will be our Prince of Peace. That leaves us with one name to look at. To me, this one is the most interesting because it is such a paradox. Isaiah says that the One who would deliver them would be The Mighty God.

When Ethan was little, he used to love to flex his muscles. He would grunt and pose with his bony little arms and always wanted someone to “feel my muscle!” There is something in all of us, from a very early age, that is drawn to might and power. We like displays of strength. We want to feel powerful and if we are going to count on someone to deliver and protect us, we want to be convinced that they are powerful enough to get the job done. In this name, Isaiah assures the people of the strength the Messiah would have. He doesn’t say that this would be a mighty man, or that this would be a sort of, kind of, lesser version of God. With this name, Isaiah proclaims that the deliverer was fully God with all of the might and power that that entailed.

Now we get to the paradox. When we think of might and power, the last thing that comes to our mind is a baby. I’m sure that many of God’s people expected a full grown, fully trained warrior that would help them to throw off the yoke of slavery and once again become a world power. But God sent a baby. When my kids were infants, the best words to describe them would have been helpless and dependant. Those words would have described baby Jesus too. And so many people missed this gift that God gave the world because He certainly didn’t fit the profile of the Mighty God. But as the baby grew, as Jesus began His ministry and as His life on Earth as a human ended, we see in Him the reality of another name that Isaiah spoke of, “Immanuel” God with us. The words that God spoke through Isaiah proved true, Jesus is the Mighty God.

I. We see that He is Mighty over Nature.

In the gospels you see that Jesus was mighty over nature. He cast aside human limitations and walked on the water. He had the power to command the wind and the seas. With a word from His mouth a mighty storm was calmed. There is only one explanation for the power that we see displayed in the gospels. Jesus is the Mighty God. God alone can tame and control what He has created in nature. The Bible tells us that God parted the Red Sea, He caused the sun to stand still, and withheld and provided rain at His pleasure. This baby in the manger, this Christmas Gift, showed the same power and might because, though He was fully man, He was also fully God. And as such, He is Lord over nature.