Everlasting Father Series

Everlasting Father

Isaiah 9:1-7

December 17, 2023

I can vividly remember the days Joshua and Zachary were born. There was awe and frankly, there was shock! I don’t think it ever really occurred to me that I was going to be a father until the nurse realized Debbie was deep in labor.

Until that point, it was actually kind of boring. Just wait and wait and you better not leave the floor because what if it happens when I’m in the cafeteria?

As I was thinking about today’s message, it led me to reminisce about the boys. Because as we look at the third name Isaiah gives us for Jesus, the name changed my life. I was no longer just Michael. I was now a father, a dad.

And the name can strike a chord in our hearts. We all have different thoughts and impressions about who God is as we looked at different names we might have for God.

Today’s hits us in a different way, for a variety of reasons.

As the people were struggling in the face of persecution and exile, God gives Isaiah a word that 2700 years later, still touches our hearts and leads us to have a sense of expectancy. Isaiah wrote - - - -

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.

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. - Isaiah 9

And in line with last week looking at mighty God, Isaiah ends this by using that prophetic phrase about God, calling Him the Lord of Hosts, or the God of the heavenly armies.

Today’s focus is on calling Jesus our Everlasting Father. And the phrase father can evoke various feelings and emotions depending on our stories.

Some of us have wonderful memories of our childhood and our fathers. They were always there for us and nurtured and cared for us.

But for others, fatherhood is a painful thought. Your dad wasn't very good to you, and you live with the scars from that: the hurt, the wounds, and the damage. You’ve had to overcome!

Still, for others, it wasn't that your dad was bad or good — he was just gone. He was absent, physically or, maybe it was emotionally.

For a few of you, your dad wasn't a part of your life because of sickness, death, divorce, or imprisonment.

Speaking to the theme of fatherhood can strike a deep chord in our hearts, for some it’s a great song, for others, it might be a lament. And for still others, it’s a mixed bag, depending on the day of the week.

And yet here’s the good news of the gospel: Jesus Christ helps us know God as our Father, not just our Father, not a tyrant, not an absent father, but our everlasting Father, One who will never leave us, nor fail us, nor forsake us.

One who is always there for us,

One who has us in the palm of his hand forever.

One who promises to forgive us, and to redeem us.

In fact, it is the distinctive privilege and distinctive mark of a Christian to know God as everlasting Father. This is at the heart of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. You know God as Father.

You don't grope in the dark looking for some higher spiritual power or chase after some false and fickle deity. Nope! Because of Jesus, this child to be born, this Son to be given, we confess as Paul wrote - - - -

6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist,

and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. - 1 Corinthians 8:6

But before we look at how Jesus reveals to us God as the everlasting Father, we need to address a question that may already be surfacing in some of your minds. It sounds something like this: Isn't God the Father of us all? Aren't we all God's children?

Well, it is true that God is the creator and sustainer of us all and so has a kind of fatherly relationship with his creation, including each and every human being. But the fact is that the Bible doesn't talk about God as Father by virtue of His being our creator — only our Father because He has become our redeemer.