The Rest of the Package
December 30th, 2007
Beartown Road Alliance Church
We began our Christmas series three weeks ago as December was just beginning and Christmas still seemed like it was a good ways off in to the distance. Now, December has come and gone, Christmas has come and gone, and after this morning, this series will have come and gone as well. With the weather and the juggling that we had to do with our Christmas programs, this series has been anything but smooth. This morning, we’re left with a lot to cover as we try to tie up our loose ends. If you remember a few weeks back, we began to look at a verse in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah was one of the primary prophets that God used to spread the News of the coming Messiah. And in Isaiah 9:6, you have a prophecy concerning the child that was to come written about 700 years before His birth. We looked at the way that Isaiah’s prophecy was special. So many of the clues that God left through the prophets were about specific details of the Messiah, they were about things he would do and the way He would do them. We were told how and where He would be born. We were told how He would suffer and die. We were told how much money He would be betrayed for and the way that He would handle His accusers. There is a lot of fascinating prophecy about the coming Messiah and Jesus Christ fulfilled every last detail of those prophecies. Each and every clue pointed to him.
When we read this prophecy in Isaiah 9, however, it’s different. It tells us who this child will be. It tells us what kind of relationship that He wants to have with us and what benefits that relationship will bring to the people. This is a description of the God’s perfect, loving gift to us and it has been fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Listen to what God tells us that His Son will be:
ISA 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.
That’s a lot of pressure to put on a child, to expect that He can live up to each of these names and meet the expectations that come with each one. But this is no ordinary child, this is no ordinary gift, this child is God’s own Son. As He grew, He began to show each of these aspects of His character in the way that He dealt with and ministered to people.
As we began this series, we looked at the name Wonderful Counselor. We saw that Christ wants to be our supernatural adviser, not a Dr. Phil type counselor, one who speaks with an air of authority and expertise whether they know what they’re talking about or not! But one who truly knows us, one who is intimately involved in our lives and knows and wants what’s best for us. God’s desire was that, through this gift, we would have One who could take us by the hand and show us the way. This has always been God’s desire.
ISA 48:17 This is what the LORD says--your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.
This is what Christ promises to do as our Wonderful Counselor. But as we go further, we see that there’s more to this relationship. We talked on Christmas Eve about this second name that Isaiah gives us. The people of Israel wanted a deliverer, they wanted a strong and mighty Savior that would come and rescue them from all those nations that had enslaved them and held them down. Isaiah assures them that this child, though helpless and frail, was the Mighty God. He would be, in every aspect, God and the power and majesty and might that accompanied that reality would be His. This gift would have the power to save us from our sins.
In the time that we have left, I want to look at the last two names that Isaiah gives to this child and what they mean to us today. He says that this child will be our:
I. Everlasting Father
Isaiah uses the Hebrew word Abi-`ad. It’s actually a hyphenated word that consists of the Hebrew word for Father “Abi,” and “ad” which means everlasting, eternal, or “unceasing in duration. Do you remember how old your father always seemed to you when you were growing up? In our family, we would come up with some pretty good jokes that poked fun at our “old man.” Well, our dads have nothing on Christ. Isaiah says that He is the father who has always been. There has never been a time when Jesus did not exist. He is our eternal Father. Because we know that He has always been, we can be assured that He will always be. Isaiah again points out the Divinity of this child.
Jesus confirmed this truth during His earthly ministry. He was talking with a group of Pharisees and He made a comment about Abraham. This wouldn’t have been unusual except that He spoke as though He knew Abraham personally. The Pharisees thought they had Him trapped.
JN 8:57 "You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"
They thought they had Him caught in a lie but listen to the answer Jesus gives:
JN 8:58 "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"
He makes a clear declaration that He is the eternal God. He uses a phrase that God had used to identify Himself to Moses in the OT. Not, I was, or I will be, I Am, it is a constant state of being, with no beginning and no end and Isaiah says that it describes the Messiah who will come. He will be the eternal one but He will relate to us as our Father.
For some, this is a very easy thing to picture, we had Earthly Fathers who were a wonderful reflection of God. We had fathers who loved us and cared for us and gave us that approval and acceptance that we long for. So, to take those characteristics and to picture a Father in Heaven who loves us and cares for us is not a stretch. For others, however, this is a little tougher to swallow. There are those of you who have not had a loving Earthly Father, in fact there are those of you who have fathers who have let them down and mistreated them and even abandoned them and when you think of God as your Father, there can be a very negative picture that forms in your minds. Maybe you tend to think of God as a very stern figure who is never satisfied with what we do and always demanding more. Maybe you see Him as busy and disinterested or think that He will let you down when you need Him the most. Our image of our father will shape, to some degree, our image of God.
The problem with this is that all of our expectations, no matter how good they may be, fall well short of kind of Father that God proves Himself to be. So, set aside any preconceived pictures of what it means that God is our Father and look with me at just a few of the Truths that Scripture teaches us on this matter.
As our Father, God:
A. Delights in Us
PS 149:4 For the LORD takes delight in his people;
I love to watch my kids. They don’t even have to be doing anything. There are nights that I go in to their rooms and I will just watch them sleep and I can’t tell you how much pleasure that brings me, just to see them and to know that they are mine. I also love to watch them use their gifts and talents. Cate got a karaoke machine for Christmas. I could watch her sing and dance for hours. I could watch Ethan play basketball and baseball all day, they are my kids and I delight in them.
Don’t miss this one. So many of us struggle with self-esteem issues and feeling as though God can’t possibly love us because of the things that we’ve done, the ways that we’ve acted, or the mistakes that we’ve made. I want you to know that you are God’s Creation and He delights in you. He loves to watch you use what He’s given you, He loves to watch you be the person that He made you to be.
Rick Warren says this: Parents do not require their children to be perfect, or even mature in order to enjoy them. They enjoy them at every stage of development. In the same way, God doesn’t wait for you to reach maturity before He starts liking you. He loves you and enjoys you at every stage of your spiritual development.
When you mess up and you fall short, it doesn’t change the fact one little bit that you are the delight of your Father’s heart. Because we know that He is a Father who delights in His children, we know that we can find in Him the approval and affirmation that all of us so desperately need. Some people spend their entire lives trying to gain the approval of their fathers. Ethan is always saying, hey dad, watch this. He wants me to be proud of Him. When he plays sports, he always knows where I am and sneaks peeks to make sure that I’m watching and giving my approval. As God’s children, we don’t have to worry if He’s watching. He watches over us and is proud of each new accomplishment and step that we take. When we reflect Him in our lives, we can know that our Father approves.
He also affirms us through the work of His Spirit. I used to lay by Catie’s bed while she was falling asleep and we would talk about all sorts of things. One night, when she was around two, she was almost asleep and I put my mouth to her ear and began to tell her how special she was to me and how much I loved her. After a few moments, I finished and began to get up. She rolled over and, with her eyes closed, said, “more daddy.” Children love to be assured that we love them and that they are special. God’s children are no different. His Spirit testifies to us that we are His and that He loves us.
Romans 8:16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. God’s Spirit affirms in us that we are special to God. He assures us that we are His and that He delights in us.
B. Disciplines Us
There are some who picture God as just waiting to let us have it, sitting in heaven and looking for a chance to get us back for what we’ve done. God doesn’t discipline like that. He is not into pay-back and evening the score with us, He disciplines His children, not out of disappointment or anger, but out of love and a desire to see them become all that they were meant to become.
PR 3:11 My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, PR 3:12 because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.
Hebrews 12:10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
God disciplines when it is the best way to teach us what we need to learn and to turn us back in the direction that He has planned for our lives in order that we may know the joy He has planned for us and have the greatest impact on His kingdom.
Finally, our Heavenly Father:
C. Demonstrates for Us
I used to do a video slideshow for our Seniors each year as they were getting ready to graduate. I remember one year, one of the parents gave me their stack of pictures and the first one I saw was of the father mowing the lawn with a push mower. As he walked along, his 3 year old son walked right in line behind him pushing a toy mower. He was literally following in His father’s footsteps. Ethan was just a baby at the time and that picture struck a chord with me. I remember looking at being struck with the reality of what it meant to be a father or a parent. We are to do everything in a way that our children would want to follow and could follow in our footsteps. We are to be an example. Parents, your children will learn so much about what it means to be a godly man or woman by watching what you do. They will learn far more from your actions than they ever will by what you tell them. That is the way that we are wired. We learn by seeing the way it’s done.
God knows this and so He sent His Son to Earth to demonstrate for us how we are to live. In the OT we had the words and the laws of our father, in the gospels, we get a living breathing example of what He was taking about. Our Father, the one who was from before time began, came to Earth to demonstrate life for us. That’s what a father does.
Jesus summed this up after He had washed the disciples feet. He said:
John 13:15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
The Truth that He taught, the way that He loved, the way that He treated others, the way that He loved God, we have an example to follow and a goal to reach for. God came so that we would have footprints to walk in.
This child was to be our Father. Not a worthless, clueless man like the fathers that we see portrayed on TV today, but the one who would trulyprotect and provide. The one who would give us the approval and the attention that we all need in life. Because this Father delights in us, disciplines us for our growth, and demonstrates life for us, He is the perfect Father, and He is the Everlasting Father of Isaiah’s prophecy.
That leaves us with one name left. The last name that Isaiah uses for the Messiah that he is pointing to is that He will be our:
II. Prince of Peace
Now, this is not exactly peace as we think of it today. If you look around you, there is very little peace on Earth. Nations are fighting within themselves, as well as with other nations. We have fighting within our families and many are being torn apart. There is fighting among religions and even within our churches. Peace is certainly not an objective that’s been realized. The world was just as unstable in those days and while the people of Israel longed for peace and longed for an end to their suffering and oppression, they would have understood that Isaiah meant something different when he called the Messiah the Prince of Peace. The word that Isaiah uses is a familiar one to most of us, it is the Hebrew word Shalom. Now, we translate Shalom as peace, but the true sense of the word is harmony or completeness. In fact, the opposite of shalom is not war, it is chaos. Isaiah is saying that this child came to make us whole, to complete us. He came to take the chaos of life and give it meaning and purpose. He proves to be our Prince of Peace in several ways:
Gives us:
A. Positional Peace
We talked about this a few months ago when we looked at the Armor of God and the shoes of the gospel of peace. The primary aspect of the Peace that Christ brings is a peace between us and God. This is the Good News of the Gospel, we who were once far away from God have now been brought near by the blood of Christ.
RO 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
When we accept in faith that Jesus is God’s Son and that He truly is the Prince of Peace, an amazing thing happens. God attributes the very perfection and righteousness of Christ to us. We are covered by Christ and considered Holy by God. Because the sin has been wiped away, we can now enjoy complete fellowship with God again. Our relationship with Him is brought from chaos to harmony and completeness, it is restored to what it was intended to be from the moment that God created Adam. Through Christ, we have shalom, peace and harmony with God. It’s not the peace that Israel thought they wanted, but it is a peace that is not short-sighted, this peace will carry us through into eternity. So, the peace he provided for us was taken care of in the past, when He died and rose again for us. He also provides another kind of peace, a peace for the present, a
B. Practical Peace
This relationship that Christ longs to have with us is one that will provide practical peace in our daily lives. We can have a settlesness and a sense a peace even amidst this crazy and hectic life. When things are not going right, when family problems seem overwhelming, when loved ones get sick or pass away, when our jobs are unbearable, we do not have to react like the world who cannot have peace during those times. When times are the toughest, we can rest in the knowledge that our God is in control. He is the Everlasting Father who loves us and who will carry us through the tough times. This is a peace that those apart from Christ cannot know, it is a peace that will make no sense to non-believers, and it is a peace that the world cannot offer. Jesus says in John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
This is not a “que sera, sera, attitude but a deep seeded faith that God will do what God has promised to do. He will work out ALL things for the good of His children who love Him and whom He loved enough to send His Prince of Peace.
In this practical peace we have: Peace for our Daily Problems
MT 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. We don’t have the promise of God that our lives will be problem free. We don’t have His promise that He will remove all of the problems we have as they come up. We do, however, have His promise that He will carry us through the hard times and that He will hear our prayers and act according to His will. We have the ability to approach the throne of God because of that positional peace that Christ gave us. We can lay all of our problems and burdens down at His feet and then trust that He will provide for us. Jesus was explaining to the disciples one day the benefits that were theirs in prayer. He tells them that they can ask for anything and be assured that God will hear them and that He will work on their behalf. Then He says to them:JN 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Jesus promises us practical peace and rest no matter what gets thrown at us.
This Prince of Peace gives us positional peace with God and Practical peace for our problems, He also provides a peace for the future:
C. Promised Peace
There will come a day when the Messiah will usher in a time of peace like the Israelites were hoping for in their day. God promises the ultimate peace that will come when this life is done and eternity begins on heaven. Satan will be defeated, there will be a new heaven and a new earth and those who are in Christ Jesus will be in His presence forever. We should be living every day of our lives with one eye on eternity and the promise of God to restore His creation to perfection. There is a peace that comes when we no longer have to fear death, but understand that to be absent from the Body is to present with our Lord, our prince of Peace, and to know the kind of complete and full peace that we were meant to know.
Isaiah prophesied later in his book about this child again, He said that a child would lead the people and that: Isaiah 11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together;ISA 11:7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. ISA 11:8 The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. ISA 11:9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. ISA 11:10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.
This child will be responsible for undoing what was accomplished through the sin of Adam and for the restoration of conditions as they were in the unfallen world. This is the promised peace of heaven.
The Prince of Peace may not have been what the people expected, He may not have even been what the people thought they needed, but in God’s Wisdom, He was Perfect. He provided positional peace through what He accomplished in the past. He provides Practical peace for the problems of today, and He promises perfect peace for the future and for all eternity.
This child would be unlike any other. This strange package that contained God’s greatest gift, His highest expression of love, was God Himself. He had come to save us and to deliver us, but He came to be our Wonderful Counsleor, our Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and out Prince of Peace. Only Jesus could have lived up to the names that were given to Him, only Jesus could be all these things and more for us.
