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.
II. We see that He is Mighty over Sickness and Disease.
God alone can heal and touch our bodies where science and medicine fall short. In the Old Testament, you see examples of God delivering people from leprosy and other incurable diseases. As you read about the life that Jesus lived on Earth, you see that He has this same power, He was mighty over the body. He healed the lame and the deaf, the blind were made to see, and even the dead were raised to life again. This child would prove Himself mighty, even over the ravages of sickness and disease. He is mighty over the body still today. The Bible says that we were created through Jesus, that He knows us intimately, right down to the number of hairs on our heads. When our bodies fail, we can turn to the one who knows us best, who knit us together and we can ask for His healing. Does He always heal, no, sometimes His will is not to heal, but I have seen doctors amazed as Jesus has healed in a way that left no medical explanation. This baby, this Messiah and Savior would be the Mighty God and He would show His might over sickness and disease.
III. We see that He is Mighty over Sin
The most important reason that this baby came was to deliver us from our sins. When Ethan was little we took him to a corn maze that was close to us in Ohio. I got out ahead of him and I could see over the corn and see that he was looking for me. I was right there, but there was a barrier between us that he couldn’t see past or get past. When he began to cry out my name, I answered and moved the corn back so that I could go to him. That’s what this baby came to do for us. There is a barrier between us and God, our Father. That barrier is sin. The Bible says that every one of us has sinned; there is no one that is perfect. Because of that sin, we could no longer see God or be near to Him like we were created to be. But Jesus came to forgive that sin by taking the penalty for us on the cross. Now, when we cry out His Name, He answers, the barrier is removed, and He comes to us, so that we can have a relationship with Him.
As Jesus was healing a man, He said to Him, “Son your sins are forgiven.” This made the religious leaders mad as anything, they thought Jesus was being blasphemous. They thought He was just a man. They cried out, “no one can forgive sins but God alone!” They didn’t know it, but they had just hit the nail on the head. They were absolutely right! No one can forgive sins but God alone. As Isaiah told the people hundreds of years before, this child in the manger would not just be any kid, He would be the mighty God. Because He is God, He is mighty over sin and can rightfully be called Savior. That’s God’s gift to us. That’s why we celebrate Christmas. God came to Earth. Not in the way that we would dream it up, not in power and splendor, but in a mighty strange package. He came as a helpless babe, but what many missed then, and still miss today, is that that baby boy, is the Mighty God. Mighty over nature, over sickness and disease, and most of all, mighty over sin. To those who recognize who this baby is and what he did for us on the cross and who accept the gift of Salvation that God gave the world that day can know God, can have a relationship with Him, and can live forever with Him in Heaven. That’s the Christmas story. That’s the gift. You don’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to have it all figured out. The gift is there, God asks only that you open it and ask His Son to forgive your sins and come into your life, then He promises to change you from the inside out as you begin a new life in Him.
So, don’t miss it! This baby that we hear so much about on Christmas is the Wonderful Counselor, He is the Prince of Peace, He is the Everlasting Father and make no mistake, don’t let the packaging fool you, He is the Mighty God.
