Recap Parts 1 & 2
Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Part 1- A Child is born
• We examined some history, especially as pertains to prophets and prophecy.
• We touched on controversy, and how the bible is riddled with controversy.
• Three verses:
• Isaiah 9:6 which we just read
• Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”
• Micah 5:2 ““But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.””
• I explained that the main purpose of this series is for us to recognized and celebrate the event of Christ’s birth, as I believe God would call us to do.
• We looked @ how John wove this passage with a couple of others:
• John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
• and John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
• And the key thought to wrap our head around is this:
• If this Child is born “to you”, then you are born again.
• For this Child is not born to you, unless you are born to this Child.
When we look at His birth, we must consider this:
His birth ensured all the following promises for us:
• Favor (also can be translated as grace) Luke 1:26–30
• Blessing (He can to reverse the curse) Luke 1:39-45
• Guidance (by the Holy Spirit) Matthew 1:19-20
• Joy (Luke 2:8-10)
• Redemption (Luke 2:36-38)
• Peace (Luke 2:25-35
And oh yea,
Salvation (Luke 1:66-77)
He did all this for us!
In Part 2
We looked at the first 3 names given to Jesus in this passage:
• Wonderful
• Counselor
• Mighty God
and what they should mean to us.
We looked at some translations/transliterations of the word “Wonderful”, but after all is said and done, we come to this realization:
• Jesus’ name “wonderful” indicates the He exceeds the limits of human understanding and explanation.
I then expressed this:
• We shouldn’t be surprised by how wonderful Jesus is, but I pray we never stop being marveled by Him!
We the looked at the word Counselor, and how important it is that we not only counsel, but divine counsel through the Holy Spirit.
We wrapped the message up with thoughts on:
Mighty God
• From a creation perspective:
• Water
• Galaxies
We considered the name: El Gibbor
Last week as I was preparing I had a funny thought about the word El Gibbor (gibberish). But I digress.
I explained that the 1st mention of El Gibbor is found in Genesis 6:4, and I challenged you to read Genesis 6. No need to raise your hand, but did ya?
We then closed out with the thought how the government will be upon His wonderful, counseling shoulder.
Ornament
If you heard me last week, announce the title of today’s message, I know that probably had most of you scratching your heads.
As I was praying and preparing for last weeks’ sermon, the title of this weeks sermon was put on my heart. Believe me, it had me scratching my head as well!
Eventually, I hope you will stop scratching your heads, and the meaning will become clear.
We are in the final part of the series “Without the manger, there is no Cross”. Our key verse has been:
Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Pray-
Thank you Father for you Word, for You told us it will outlast everything!
Lord, as we celebrate the Wonderful, miraculous birth of the Son you freely gave to us, may we be ever reminded of His glory.
I broke today’s message into 3 Amazing Truths.
• A few interesting facts about the birth of Christ
• Examination of Everlasting Father
• Power of the Prince of Peace
Interesting facts about the birth of Christ
Matthew 2:1–11 read from my bible
• I find it interesting that the Magi knew when He was born, but not where. v2
• The priests knew where He was to be born, they didn’t know when! v5
But the shepherds knew when and where.
• This tells me that the most common and ordinary people like you and me, can hear a word from heaven and share it with the world.
• Luke 2:8–11 “Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
This is the good news for you and me. We can be evangelists for our Lord and Savior.
Don’t miss this church:
Luke 2:17–18 “Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled (there’s that word marveled) at those things which were told them by the shepherds.”
To me, the shepherds were the first earthly evangelists, while the angels were the first heavenly evangelists.
I’d like us to consider one final thought before we move to the next Amazing Truth.
Matthew 2:10 “When they (The magi/the wisemen) saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.”
Shouldn’t that be us church?
Everlasting Father
El Olam-Hebrew name for God who has no beginning and no end.
First mention is Genesis 21:33 “Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.” (El Olam)
Oxford Dictionary-lasting forever or a very long time.
Excuse me but that is lame!
“Forever” “or a very long time” are mutually exclusive, they can’t happen together. It is either one or the other.
This morning we are going to take some serious consideration of Everlasting Father.
I’d like us to consider the eternality of His person and His character.
• He has no beginning and no end. He was time, before there was time, and He will be time, after there is time no more.
• In this series we are considering the names of God.
• I’m going to do my best to explain:
• What’s in a name? Illustration
• As many of you know, our son Shaye, and his wife Emma had a baby last Sunday morning.
• They chose a name shortly after she conceived, but they didn’t share that name until after he was born. There were a couple of understandable reasons, but that is not the point here.
• For me, as a granddad, I didn’t feel I had a relationship or connection as it were, because I didn’t know what to call him.
• Isn’t it that way for us with God?
• Although I know some of the names of God, I still don’t fully understand them.
• And that’s ok. Scripture tells us that’s ok:
• Psalm 145:3 “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable.” (that means “beyond the grasp of human knowledge”)
• We are not called to fully understand the meaning of His names, but hear this, we do need to try to understand the power of His Name.
• Psalm 148:5 “Let them praise the name of the Lord, For He commanded and they were created.”
• Exodus 20:7 ““You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” (3rd commandment)
• Psalm 149:3 Says “get undignified’.
• “Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp.”
Man to man coverage illustration.
Since God is everlasting, He is also inexhaustible.
I’m truly grateful for that.
Me: Lord?
God: yes, I know, you did it again.
His patience and His energy are inexhaustible!
What He put into motion, will stay in motion for perpetuity. (per-pe-tu-ity)
Ever heard of a perpetual motion machine?
Man has unsuccessfully tried for decades to create one.
Some sources say we’ve come close, but that’s not true at all.
Psalm 147:5 “Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is inexhaustible.
Since God is eternal (no beginning and no end), He knows all things as “present”. The here and now!
As the Holy Spirit allowed me to glean a fraction of “everlasting Father”, because of the above statement, I have a deeper understanding of these two verses:
Think about this: Our minds are wired in a timeline.
• We have memories of our past, and expectations of our future.
• Here’s what God tells us:
• Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
• Isaiah 43:18–19 ““Do not remember the former things, (the things of the past)Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.”
• If God is in the “here and now” business, shouldn’t we?
I know we are covering a lot of scripture today, I’m working through this quickly. Another hour and a half at most!
Seriously, I am determined to have scripture interpret scripture in everything I teach and share with you.
Dogs have no concept of time illustration.
• Lisa and I have had dogs since about 2 months after we were married.
• We’ve also had cats, but they are similar to that aloof friend: Just when you think you are starting to understand and establish a relationship, they are like: get away from me!
• Dogs when you leave the house for 2 minutes, are like “you’ve been gone forever”.
• Gone 3 days. “you’ve been gone forever”
Much like dogs, when we look at the terms “Everlasting and Eternity”, it is difficult to wrap around the idea of time.
• After all, pretty much everything in our world is:
• defined
• interpreted
• established, and
• explained
through the prism of our temporal understanding of time.
But God exists OUTSIDE this temporal understanding of time.
Eternity is a duration without bounds or limits.
• That which has always been, is without beginning.
• That which always will be, is without ending.
Therefore we can believe
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
We should also take solace in the fact that God, in His eternal being, not only will not change, He cannot change. By that I mean His character is immutable, unchangeable and He can’t operate outside His character.
1 Samuel 15:29 “And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should that should change His mind.”
Numbers 23:19 ““God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Psalm 110:4 “The Lord has sworn And will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.””
lastly,
Malachi 3:6 ““For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.”
Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Prince of Peace
Last week I encouraged you to take inventory, as we move into the New Year.
Just a quick recap of that:
That inventory could be:
• mental health
• physical health
• financial health
• employment, career, job (whatever you call it) Might even be a time to have a paradigm shift in what you call your income.
• Material wealth
• Spiritual health
• relationship with your spouse
• relationship with your children
• and most importantly: take inventory with your relationship with:
• The child born unto us
• the Son given unto us;
The one we call:
• Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
• Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
I don’t know about you, but anytime I have a more firm idea where I stand with anything, the more likely I will have peace about it.
That is the main reason why I encouraged you to take inventory, so you can have peace.
I looked at a couple of definitions of peace in a biblical sense. Here were a couple I found:
• In the biblical writings, peace is the wholeness that comes as a result of alignment with God’s creative and redemptive purposes. Peace can refer to the cessation of war, but the biblical concept of peace is often broader. The word ??????? (šalôm, “soundness, peace”) can refer to wholeness or well-being in general as well as to political or interpersonal peace.
• Peace denotes the wholeness, soundness, and well-being that characterizes God and that God created in the world. As peace was broken due to human sin, such well-being constitutes the hope for ultimate restoration by God.
Last week we considered all the ways Jesus is our counselor. Here is yet another reason:
He counsels us to the pathway of peace.
Heart surgery illustration
• Whirlwind event. Tues dr.-Th surgery
• I had complete peace about it.
• Maybe I really didn’t have time to grasp the gravity of it all, but I don’t think that was it at all.
• I think my relationship with my Lord, is where my peace came from.
• I know where I’m going when I die.
• I remember my prayer being something like:
• Your will be done Father, please take care of my family!
I was just resting in Jesus, and the peace is truly unexplainable.
That is Prince of Peace in my life.
I get an understanding of world peace when I dig a bit into this verse.
I go back to another verse in Isaiah.
Isaiah 2:4 “He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.”
Here’s another ideal that most of us have never experienced.
No war…anywhere!
Here’s what really caught my eye.
Neither shall they learn war anymore. (NKJV)
Generation after generation we have taught war.
Jesus as Prince of Peace will remove the need to learn war.
I find it interesting that the culture of Jesus’ day thought of the Messiah as one who would come and crush the enemy, and they were so disappointed that He wasn’t all that. Not in the 1st Coming anyway!
In fact, many may have been like John the Baptizer and began questioning was Jesus really the Messiah?
What brings peace in your life?
• For just a quick moment, envision that physical setting or place where you are most @ peace.
• Let that envelope you for just a brief minute.
• Why does that bring you peace?
• Ever thought about that?
You know, we live in a world that promotes chaos.
I want you to think about that.
Chaos- complete disorder and confusion.
• Look at the news! If it is not disorder or confusion, they don’t report it.
• Commercials- You teach one thing to your children at home, and commercials teach the opposite. Does that create confusion for them?
I believe the foremost reason for this series, at this time of year, was to try and give you peace.
We get so caught up in the chaos of the world, that peace is virtually impossible.
That is by design, but not of our Creator. He is the Prince of Peace.
So what do y’all say we wrap this up?
Part 1- we discussed that The Child was born to make payments for our sin.
and the Son was given to rule over our hearts.
Part 2- we looked at how Wonderful our Counselor is and many of the names that describe Him as both.
And that on His Big Shoulders the world would rest.
Part 3- That He is everlasting and that one day, so will be peace everlasting.
Closing
Everything God does He does as the Triune God.
Each person of the Trinity is involved in every action of God.
Yet, at the same time, each person has a special role to fulfill in that work, as laid out for us in Isaiah 9:6.
If you didn’t catch it, the title of part 3 is: “Ornament”
As I was contemplating all the decorating and ornaments, I was getting somewhat grieved. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing what people do when they decorate for Christmas! But my grieving was over that fact that so much of this misses the point of Christmas.
And my thought was, you know; Jesus has just become an ornament on a tree.
In this moment of grief, I decided to look up the word ornament. There are many definitions, and some not very becoming, but I took comfort in these two:
• Something that adds beauty
• A manner or quality that adorns
And I thought, may we all adorn the birth of our Savior, as we dwell in His everlasting beauty.
This season may we be like the angels we see in Luke 2:13–14 “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!””
and like the shepherds in:
Luke 2:20 “Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.”
This series taught us some of the names of God. I believe, in order for us to love the name of God, we must know Him by His name.
Let’s go to the Lord:
Father I pray that every person here experiences you as wonderful, as counselor who has our best interest, as Everlasting Father in glory, and as Prince of Peace.
I know that in order for us to trust you Father, who must daily strive to know who You are.
Open our eyes Lord, as we celebrate the birth of our Savior.
