IThe coming of the King; how is your life governed light or dark?
Scipture: Isaiah 9:1-7
I see the King of Glory [(Brooke Fraser) Check out this song, brilliant!]
I see the king of glory
Coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes
I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing, the people sing
Hosanna, hosanna
Hosanna in the highest
I see a generation
Rising up to take the place
With selfless faith, with selfless faith
I see a new revival
Starting as we pray and seek
We’re on our knees, we’re on our knees
Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdom’s cause
As I walk from earth into eternity.
What a great picture of the coming of the King of Heaven, The Messiah who would come and set his people free from oppression and their physical burdens, giving them great power to defeat their sins and stop their selfishness and wrong way of living.
Beautiful words, allowing ourselves to have our hearts broken for the things that break the heart of God, you have sung those words are you ready to have your hearts broken? This is more than some pretty tune, it is a prayer. Is this how you see God working in your lives? For this is how God will work and has worked since Adam.
If we allow him full access he will take it and our lives will be enriched beyond our imagining, but in ways that will not likely be physical, the enriching is almost always spiritual, it is what is ongoing and everlasting for that is what remains, “the Spiritual”.
Now the Hebrew people some 740 years before Jesus was born had a few dramas going on in their lives and these weren’t Coro Street / Shortland Street or even Days of our lives type dramas these were really nasty dramas.
Because of the way that had acted, The Kingdom of Israel had been divided into two; Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Without going into the nitty gritty of the whole thing, some alliances had been made with foreign nations. So we have a picture of the Hebrew people divided and siding with different foreign superpowers. At this time the superpower of Assyria took control of the Northern kingdom… life for people under this foreign oppressor became a huge big bucket of crud. Life was miserable to the max!
Why, because of sin. We see the old hardy annual with the Hebrew people, they sinned, God judged them; they then had the opportunity to realise their sins and repent coming into God’s grace. The cycle was as we know sin, judgment, grace.
How was this to happen? How would they come into God’s grace, and continue in his grace once and for all?
The Chosen One, The Messiah the one we refer to in English as The Christ!
Let’s look at the words of Isaiah and see what he says about this Messiah bloke!
Read (Isaiah 9:1-7).
It all sounds very much like the story of a great king. Let’s have a look at the various verses and see what God was saying to these people. And what he is saying to us today.
Looking at verses one and two, we see that the gloom will be no more, that the mess that they were currently wallowing in would cease. That those who were at this time walking in darkness would see a great light… could this be ‘The Light of The World’? In the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan. How was this to be fulfilled?
Let’s have a look at a couple of passages from Matthews’s gospel, roughly 750 years later this happened.
“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come follow me,‘ Jesus said,…” (Matthew 4:18-19a) and this “Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.” (Matthew 4:25) Could it be that Jesus is the Great Light?
If we look at verse three of Isaiah chapter nine we see that this is a leader whose nation will increase, it is thought that the ‘You’ mentioned here is God the Father. Also that ‘the great light’ will cause people to rejoice like the joy at a harvest or in the victory of battle, things that we are not overly familiar with now days, but this would be a little like the joy of a massive bonus pay or winning the world cup rugby William Ellis trophy and being on the team; great rejoicing!
If we look further at verse four we see that this great light will shatter the yoke of burdens from men’s shoulders and no longer will they be under oppression and verse five, that he will bring about peace in peoples lives. How would all this come about, in some respects Brooke Fraser in her song King of Glory captures the thoughts of some at that time, They saw the king of glory this messiah coming on the clouds with fire and the whole earth shaking before him. That he was to be a great and powerful king, a heavenly king.
But what is it that Isaiah says about this leader of the people the great light to those living in darkness?
1) “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given”. The messiah will be born as a human baby into the nation of Israel, and a son is given; the messiah will be a gift from God.
2) He will rule God’s people for “the government shall be upon his shoulders”, the truth was that in Isaiah’s time the leaders were incompetent but the coming Messiah would govern properly.
Isaiah has four names to describe the Messiah,
3) He will be called ‘Wonderful Counselor’; this means that he will be just that, his counsel will be exceptional. The people will hear him as one speaking with authority.
4) This messiah will also be known as ‘Mighty God’, now this is an interesting thing for someone who is to be born as a child…Isaiah has already pointed out that this messiah will be God like but here he says he will be the Mighty God.
5) He will be the’ Everlasting Father’; this takes on new understanding when we accept an underlying doctrine of the Christian Faith; that of there being One God and the Godhead being three persons, The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit undivided in essence and coequal in power and glory. It also brings a depth of understanding to Jesus words, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:11a).
6) Prince of Peace, he is to be the Prince who brings peace to his people, to those who will follow him. This has a two fold meaning; Let me point out the first of these the meanings by asking a question.
a) Is it well with your soul? Those who know the messiah find their souls at peace in him, again they rejoice in him, that’s not to say that life will always be a box of fluffy ducks but within any circumstances, peace and surety can be found in him.
b) The other meaning is that when he comes again, he will bring in a peace, that will last for eternity. “And of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.” “The warriors’ boots and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning.”
7) He will reign on David’s throne, was he to be a descendant of David? Establishing and upholding justice and righteousness. Now biblical justice is tied to relationship with God, later in Isaiah God proclaims his servant will bring about justice for all nations not just Israel. Righteousness again is not some sort of pious, holier than thou, self gratifying position a person holds, it is about having a right relationship with God it’s about being right with God, the messiah will make that possible for all.
This messiah was not to do this so that people could just have a taste of this – he was to establish this from that time on, from the time of his coming - till forever. How? The zeal of the Almighty according to Isaiah was to accomplish this.
How are your zeal levels, being a New Zealander they should be reasonably high! Are they this high?
I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith, with selfless faith
I see a new revival
Starting as we pray and seek
We’re on our knees, we’re on our knees
A revival, people coming to God, into the freedom of his forgiveness, love and mercy, saved by grace through faith, Christmas what an opportunity to invite a friend or neighbor to a meeting, on our knees praying and seeking after who we could invite to one of the three meetings in the next week, Christmas the time of the year when people are most open to attending church, what an amazing opportunity.
The zeal that Almighty has is because he desires that not one is lost.
Remember the parable of the lost sheep, how did Jesus finish that parable, ”In the same way your Father in Heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost”. The people of Israel were lost, they were walking in darkness, they were living in the land of the shadow of death…life was miserable,
A light dawned, a great light, the nation grew, joy increased, great rejoicing, burdens were lifted, war ceased. Why because of the gift of a son! A child was born…
Not just any child… he would be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
A light dawned, a great light, of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
So what?
Where does this leave us, are we walking in the light and are we sharing our joy at walking in the light?
Is it well with your soul? Do you need to say this?
Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
If you do there is no shame in admitting it, we were all born into sin we have all lived in sin but God gives us the opportunity through his messiah to be free from sin. We all need our eyes opened to the things unseen. To love how God has loved us, true sacrificial love, what an amazing thing.
Or maybe you are in need of a renewed zeal, a new shot of vigor for God, maybe there’s a need to get something right with him to say;
Break my heart for what breaks yours.
Everything I am for your kingdom’s cause
As I walk from earth into eternity
How to respond?
A light dawned, a great light, for to us a child was born, to us a son was given!
How to respond to his governance, yes or no!
How is your life governed light or dark?
