THE ZEAL OF THE LORD
Text: Isaiah 9:6 & 7
Christmas time is about many things. Your love for God and His Son must certainly be a part of your holiday season. If there is a time of the year that your relatives and friends should see Jesus in you and all over you, it is during the Christmas holiday.
The joy, the peace, and the Glad Tidings of Christmas should be radiating from our countenance.
You have heard the expression,
“Just like a kid at Christmas time…”
Regardless of what is going on in this world, or in your personal life, the birth of Jesus is a beautiful time of the year.
There is much we can learn from the story of Christmas. I am convinced that each of the scriptures that pertain to the Christmas story have a prophetic implication and will feed our soul.
We found last week (with the story of Mary) that the Biblical account of Christmas must mean much more to us than tinsel, mistletoe, garland or eggnog.
For many, the holiday season is a time for just singing Christmas carols, going shopping and to parties, and watching the kids get all excited about opening their gifts. My friend – God desires for you to draw ever closer to His glory especially during the Christmas Season.
Did you know that the Spirit of Christmas (you enjoy every year) is actually the sweet Spirit of Christ?
I love the Christmas Season and most everything that comes with it. I love to trim a Christmas tree or decorate the outside of the house. But we must be sure to keep a godly perspective. Let everything be done as unto the Lord.
Our text tells us that the Christmas story began long before the birth of Jesus.
The prophet Isaiah received the promising word from God and was recorded in these verses.
There were other prophets (in the Bible) who were told of the Birth of Jesus.
Keep your place here in Isaiah for a moment while we look at these other prophecies about the Christ Child.
Jeremiah 23:5-6
5 "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
6 In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
This is incredible. The prophet Jeremiah spoke this Word from God 800 years before the birth of Jesus. The nation of Judah is promised the Good News that they will be saved and will dwell safely.
Later - Another Prophet of God comes along and gives more Good News.
The Prophet Daniel prophesies that –
1. What God was going to do would be permanent. That is, eternal!
2. Identifies three kingdoms that will rule the entire earth. The worldwide empires of Babylon, Greece, and Rome would become very strong and rule the entire world in their day.
Anyone of these three empires were much stronger than the United States would ever dream of being. But each of them (with all of their power) would rise and eventually fall.
You may ask – “Well what does all of this have to do with Christmas?”
Listen closely. The final kingdom (that would be permanent) would be sent to the Earth from God, (the Creator of the Earth. This would become known as the “Kingdom of the God”. It would be the final kingdom that would never end!
We find this promise in Daniel 2:44
“…the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; it shall break in pieces and consume all… (the other) kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”
The Bible identifies for us the birth of the King who became the King of all Kings.
Consider this: Since the birth of Jesus,
· There have been several empires who have tried desperately to dominate and rule the world. France, Spain, England, Germany, Japan, and now the Nation of Islam.
· Every other empire that has tried to conquer the world has failed miserably.
What does that tell me?
His kingdom, God’s kingdom, is still the kingdom that rules heaven and earth.
Jesus is still the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Jesus rules heaven and earth!
His kingdom is the eternal kingdom.
This tiny little baby, born in lowly manger at Christmas time, conquered the entire world when He came to earth.
Another Prophet who identified the birth of Jesus was Micah (in chapter 5 and 7). He even names the town Jesus was to be born in. If Joseph and Mary would have had a cell phone and a zip code god would have spoken it to Micah.
All of this joy and deliverance came to the Earth for a very good reason. The children of God were suffering under the oppression and bondage and tyranny of the evil one. The world was lost and dieing. Living in darkness and evil.
Something had to be done to save God’s people. God was not going to allow the devil to destroy the Earth with darkness.
Look at Verse 2 – Isn’t it good to know that Jesus came to this world to bring you and I out of darkness? Sometimes we think our lives are good enough.
We attend church services. Let us not forget what it is that Jesus has done for us. He has truly pulled us out of the darkness we once lived in.
The tradition of Christmas is to light up your home inside and out during the Christmas Season. That’s a good thing.
1 Pet 2:9 says that we are to “…proclaim the praises of Him who called (us) out of darkness (and) into His marvelous light.”
That is a very good reason to celebrate the Season with the praises of God.
In verse two of our text, the Prophet Isaiah even knows where you used to live.
Do you know where that is? Verse two says that each of us once lived/dwelled in the “shadow of death”.
Not the kind of neighborhood I want to live in. Without Jesus being born into this dark world, and saving me from my sins,
I would still be living next door to death.
I don’t want a house in that neighborhood!
Well – thank God for Christmas! Amen?
Aren’t you glad that Jesus was born and He has brought you the
“Light of the world?”
Look at verse 3. If you have claimed to have Jesus Christ as your Savior and you are not experiencing His wonderful Joy, then something is wrong. Perhaps you once had His joy in your life, but don’t now, then something is wrong. This verse tells me that we are to be rejoicing “according to the joy of the harvest.”
The “harvest” that God has for you has come in. I look around and I see great things that God has done for me, my wife, our family, and our church family.
The joy that is spoken of here (in this verse) has to do with the joy a farmer would have when he walks out to his fields and realizes that it is time to bring in the harvest. I can see that man and his wife working their crops everyday.
They’ve worked hard all year long for what they have. The sweat, the toil, the backbreaking hard work in the hot sun. all the see is dirt, bugs and green foliage.
And then the day finally comes when that rugged farmer will lean down to his wheat and pull off a stalk and rub it together in his hands.
He can see the fruit of his labor.
He is suddenly blessed and overcome with the joy of the Lord!
But there is another kind of joy we can see in this same verse. It is the joy found after a long battle has taken place.
The victorious army comes down the streets of the city they have conquered.
Imagine this - All of the people who the army has liberated begin to come out into the streets to greet them. There is hugging and kissing and dancing in the streets.
Folks – it is Christmas.
And God expects you to have victory in whatever battle you are going through. You will be filled with the joy of the Lord when He accomplishes His victory in you.
The devil may have waged war on you for days, weeks, months or even years. But the day you experience the real reason for Christmas, the victory of Jesus, you will know the real Joy of the Lord.
It is high time for the devil to admit he has been defeated, and Jesus is victorious!
It really is amazing. We are talking about having victory at Christmas time!
Look at verse 4 – There is another reason why Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
The Living Bible says it well for us,
“For God will break the chains that bind his people and the whip that scourges them,…”
The sad story is that there are many Christians who continue to live under the bondage of sin or sickness in their lives. Did you know that God wants to “…break the chains that bind His people”
There are some people who have been bound up in chains for a long time. So long they don’t really know what to do.
Some folks will hide or mask their pain. Some do not want to deal with the chains in their life because they are ashamed.
That doesn’t change the fact that God wants to “…break the chains that bind His people…”
And that is one of the important reasons for the Christmas season. Jesus came to Bethlehem to set us free from our chains.
We all need Christmas in our lives.
We need deliverance from:
· Bad Habits – lying, cheating, smoking, drinking, cussing and discussing everybody else’s faults
· Bad Memories – heartaches, bitterness, resentment and anger.
Some of the chains that bind people can be broken during Christmas with an apology. That’s what Christmas is about.
Listen to verse 5 – The Living Bible says,
In that glorious day of peace there will no longer be the issuing of battle gear; no more the blood-stained uniforms of war; all such will be burned.
My friend the battle has already been won. The birth of Jesus began the end for our enemy the devil. Satan is defeated because of the Christmas Story.
What God accomplished with the Birth of Jesus is permanent. With the birth of Jesus we have the victory.
Anytime you let the power of God take over and defeat the enemy in your life, He will make the victory permanent by burning and consuming all of the enemy’s clothes. The enemies battle gear and his uniforms are destroyed.
The devil is made powerless because the Savior is born.
But the problem is that sometimes folks get the victory over the enemy but they don’t finish him off. What I mean is some folks get a little victory, and get to feeling a little better about their battles, but they don’t burn up all of the enemy’s garments.
They get set free from those bad habits and bad memories for a while, only to let them come back and start all over.
Listen – Defeat is never permanent until there is a complete deliverance.
The enemy has used all kinds of things to destroy good folks, but we have to take those devilish things out to the burn pile and destroy them once and for all.
Earlier this year, a couple in our church in Indiana called my wife and I and asked to come over to our house.
They brought several boxes of CD’s and videos that were destroying their lives. They wanted to burn them in our burn pile. That fire was huge and had an eary blue flame and black smoke that burned for hours.
During Christmas this year I believe that God wants to destroy the enemy’s boots and uniforms that may be laying around your house.
Close:
Hebrews 12:29
For our God is a consuming fire.
The Bible talks about fire many times. God’s fire will judge and destroy the wickedness and evil of this world.
Malachi 3:2 speaks of God being like a “refiner’s fire”
And in Acts chapter 2 we know that the Holy Spirit came in the form of fire on the Day of Pentecost in the form of “cloven tongues of fire”.
There is only one true fire. The fire of God.
This same fire will strengthen you to live for Jesus. It will cleanse and purify you.
That same fire will warm your soul at Christmas time as we observe the birth of the Savior.
Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
That child, Jesus, is your sign of freedom, He is your evidence of the things you have been hoping for. He is the sign of your deliverance and the source of your reconciliation. This Child, Jesus, will be the perfection of your life.
Let Him cleanse you. Let Him deliver you from the darkness of this world. Let burn with in you and refine you this morning.
