Mighty God

This morning, we continue our Advent sermon series, in which we are studying the names of Christ found in the prophecy of Isaiah chapter nine:

"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." -- Isaiah 9:6

As we mentioned last week, these names are descriptions of the Messiah. Seven centuries before the birth of Jesus, they foretold the kind of king, and teacher, and savior who was to come.

This morning, we take the second name in this passage, "Mighty God". This name tells us two important things about Christ. First, that He was, and is, God. Fully God. God in all his wisdom, and power, and might. God in all his infinite goodness, and grace, and mercy. The God who has neither beginning or end of days; who existed from eternity past, and who will exist into eternity future. The God who created the universe, with all its billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars, and who even now sustains all of Creation by His power. Jesus Christ is that God.

This fact, that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, is familiar to most Christians. But the Jews didn’t understand it -- not in the time of Isaiah, nor in the time of Christ. They had no concept of a Trinity; a Triune God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God in three persons. And so, when Jesus came, and he began to teach with authority, and do miracles, and even spoke of Himself as being one with God, they reacted violently. They even tried to kill him for committing the sin of blasphemy.

[Jesus said] "I and the Father are one." Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?" "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God." -- John 10:30-33

We’ll speak more about this next week, when we look at the name, "Everlasting Father". But for today, the key thing to understand about the divinity of Christ is that he has all the power of God. All of God’s strength, all of God’s ability, all of God’s might. Whatever God can do, he can do, because He is God. It’s important to remind ourselves of this. Because although intellectually we may understand that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit all have the same attributes, that each one of them is equally omniscient, and omnipotent, and omnipresent, and all the other "omni’s" -- yet, in practice, because of their different roles in salvation, we tend to think of them as being different from one another.

We think of God the Father as being the strong, forceful one; the Creator; the Warrior; the Judge. We think of Christ as being the kind, gentle, compassionate one; the good shepherd; the savior. And we think of the Holy Spirit as being the mysterious, mystical one; the inner voice; the counselor and guide. But in fact, each one of them is all of those things. God the Father is loving and caring. Jesus Christ is powerful and mighty. They are all One in being and essence, and so they all possess equally each of the divine attributes.

Let me give you some examples, specifically with regard to God’s might. Let’s start with these broad affirmation of God’s unlimited power.

"Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you." -- Jeremiah 32:17

"All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ’What have you done?’" -- Daniel 4:35

Or this verse, one of my favorites:

"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all." -- 1 Chronicles 29:11

Listen to those verses: "Nothing is too hard for you". "You do whatever you please." "You are exalted as head over all." In other words, "God, your power is unlimited. When you want to do something, you simply do it. There is no force which can resist you, no enemy which can succeed in opposing your will. Nothing can stand in your way. Your purposes are always accomplished. You are sovereign over all."