Christmas is All About Giving NOT Getting Or: Unto Us a Son is Given

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week,

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Pastor Don Filczek is preaching from his series Correcting Christmas Clichés. Let's listen in.

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I'm the lead pastor here and I want to just start off by thanking all of you for gathering together this morning to worship

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God in community. We need one another. Amen. We need people.

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We need the gathering and I am so glad for this gathering every week. I find this to be re -centering for me, personally, and I hope you experience the gathering of God's people as a grace that God uses in your life to increase your faith as well.

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And that it's through the relationships that you forge even here on Sunday morning that begins to launch you out into a little bit more trust and joining a community group and those kinds of things.

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This morning we're going to be continuing our series entitled Correcting Christmas Clichés.

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This is just a four -part series. So this is second of four. Last week we considered the phrase put Christ back in Christmas and we saw that he is much more than just a component of Christmas.

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But we ought to rather define Christmas by his very arrival in flesh to redeem us.

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We ought to be astounded and astonished and jaw -dropping awe and wonder that God who created the universe,

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Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, came and dwelt among us. That is just, whoa.

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Anybody else that's going to go like mind blown on that? It's amazing. It's astonishing that he did this.

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This week we're going to look at a common phrase I've heard over the years and despite the fact that it may not be summarized by one common cliche,

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I've heard it stated in many different ways. But I've heard it enough to feel confident that most everyone in this room has encountered at least the sentiment of this cliche.

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If you have not at least tried to communicate it to your children, if you have children, the sentiment I think is best expressed this way.

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Christmas is all about giving, not getting. Christmas is all about giving, not getting.

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How many of you have heard that sentiment or expressed that sentiment or felt that at some point? And it is indeed true that we should delight in blessing others, right?

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Isn't that what we're kind of getting at when we say things like that? We should not be greedy. We should not be selfish when it comes to gift getting.

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But at the risk of sounding a bit pedantic and kind of working with words a little bit, which is what I do, let me suggest to you that at the deepest level,

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Christmas is all about getting. Christmas is all about getting.

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The human role in Christmas is receiving. It is to stand with open arms and say,

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I am needy. God is the giver on that first Christmas 2 ,000 years ago.

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And no gift exchange, whether that be a secret Santa or a Yankee swap, or your own

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Christmas gift exchange with your kids and intimacy of your living room on Christmas morning, none of that should rise above the fundamental gift giving that defines

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Christmas. So let's turn over in our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 9, verses 1 through 7.

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Isaiah. I almost said Isaiah. Wow, that was very British. Isaiah 9, 1 through 7, and I'm gonna read this passage and as I read it, see if you can find who is giving and who is getting in the passage.

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And I again suggest to you, Christmas is fundamentally about us getting. Isaiah 9, 1 through 7,

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God's holy and precious word, what he desires for us to hear this morning, church. Isaiah 9.

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But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.

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But in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

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The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. And those who dwell in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

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You have multiplied the nation. You have increased its joy. They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

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For the yoke of his burden and the staff up for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

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For every boot of the tramping warrior in the battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

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For to us a child is born. To us a son is given.

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And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

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Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

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The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Let's pray.

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Father, I thank you so much for the opportunity that we have to dig into your word and to even just reflect and pause and think at the start of this

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Christmas season about the things that matter most and to really challenge our thinking about the way that we convey this time of the year and the uncontested thoughts that might rummage around in our mind because we have years of revolutions around this sun and so we we have had experience after experience after experience of this holiday season that is forged within us for many of us kind of an ironclad way of viewing things.

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But Father, I pray that you would be tampering with our definitions of Christmas this season that you would be breaking into where we have faults and where we have errors in our thinking about the glory, the majesty, the epic cosmic things that you did 2 ,000 years ago.

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That you would ignite in our minds and in our imaginations the glory and the beauty and the awesome gift that you have given to us in your son

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Jesus Christ. I pray that even as we have an opportunity to sing songs to you and praise you that you would help us to reflect and think about the the reason that we're able to do this that we have access to you through your son

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Jesus Christ that you're willing to receive our praise and our adoration and our prayers and our

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Reflections and our thoughts this season because of what Christ did for us that he came and dwelt among us

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And that he paid the price for our sins. So Father, I pray that you would receive now our worship.

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You alone are worthy. You alone are high. You alone are exalted and worthy of all praise and glory and adoration forever in Jesus name.

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You can go to be seated and thanks again to the band for leading us in worship. I'm grateful for the effort and time that they put in every week to lead us before the throne of God in praise.

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I encourage you to get comfortable and if at any time during the message you need to get up and get more water or coffee back there and then for those of you that maybe this is your first time here bathrooms are out the double doors down the hallway on the left -hand side if you need those at all.

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You're not going to distract me if you need to get up at all during the message. But I would ask that you open your Bibles or your devices back to Isaiah 9 verses 1 through 7.

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You probably lost your place somewhere in the shuffle, but get back to that so that you can see that that's the order, that's the structure, that's the outline.

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We're walking through that passage together this morning. Now I'd start off by saying we pride ourselves in being good gift givers, right?

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We like to find the perfect gift for our friends or our family, especially those of you with children.

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You know, you really like to find that perfect gift for your kids even to the point where sometimes those Black Friday the elbows get sharp on some of those sales, right?

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We know how that goes. We like the thoughts that we have something great to offer others around us, but I would suggest to you that as a culture, and I think this is fairly ubiquitous in all of our hearts, we're pretty slow to ask for help.

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We are even slower to acknowledge our need and we often are not very eager or quick to accept gifts of grace.

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And so we look at a common Christmas text this morning that is often quoted outside of this context.

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You'll find this passage on gift cards and ornaments and all kinds of places you find it.

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And I would say that most often this passage is used well despite the fact that it's a context is often ignored.

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I still think that it gets to the heart of the the verse often in the places that I've seen it used, it's used fairly well.

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We may stumble onto the significance of it just because it is messianic in the Old Testament.

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It is predicting the coming of the Messiah. It is predicting his birth. But without looking at verses 1 through 5 and just jumping straight to verses 6 and 7 as we often do, we miss some of the force of what is happening in its original context.

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And so I want to bring some of that to light as we talk about this passage and the great gift that God has given to humanity here in this text.

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Verse 1 begins with a woman who was in travail and anguish and it requires a little bit of going back in the book of Isaiah to understand what's been going on in the first eight chapters before you get to chapter 9.

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Isaiah has been predicting the judgment of God coming for sinful idolatrous Israel. Israel here is being pictured as this woman.

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This is not the mother Mary that's in travail as you might expect and you might not logically think.

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But it's rather judgment coming for Israel and she is in anguish and he's predicting that that's coming.

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She will come under the judgment of God for her rebelliousness. She has broken covenant with God through worshiping other gods.

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And that's been a significant breach of their covenant with the Almighty God. So despite this temporary judgment,

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Isaiah prophetically looks down the tunnel of history and is predicting a restoration, a lifting up of Israel, a glorifying of them, a bringing them back into the promises of the covenant.

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They will be a blessing that will indeed be a blessing for all the nations.

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And that was a promise given to Abraham way, way, way, way, way back. He promised a great land, promised a great people, promised that one of his offspring would be a blessing to all.

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And so Isaiah is looking forward and saying this will indeed be fulfilled. So he says the gloom of this dire judgment is going to be lifted off of Israel.

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The former contempt that was heaped upon the northern areas of Israel around the Sea of Galilee, he says that area is going to be vindicated.

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The contempt is going to be removed. That land will be privileged as glorious. And we still know about that land today.

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We know about events that transpired. We celebrate them every year, events that transpired there in that northern region of Galilee.

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This northern area was always a frontier area considered way, way, way too close to Gentile territory for the likings of the

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Jews. It was often the front for battle throughout Israel's history with other nations.

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It was a much desired land that had a valley that formed a trade route from east to west.

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So whoever controlled that valley controlled the road for trade to Egypt. So anybody east of Israel wanted to come through Israel to get down into Egypt to trade with them.

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And they had to find a way across this rugged wilderness and there was a great place up north that went through this territory.

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So it was contested all the time. Isaiah refers to Galilee of the nations here in the text.

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Do you see that? Do you see that at the end of verse 1? Naphthali, but in the latter times he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the

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Jordan, Galilee of the nations. Showing that he has in mind 750 years before the birth of Jesus Christ that that area would indeed be a melting pot of peoples.

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In the times of Christ, Galilee was like the doormat, considered the doormat of Israel. Just across the sea on the eastern shore was completely

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Gentile held territory. If any of you ever wondered why in the world was Jesus able to find a whole herd of swine to cast demons into?

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Jews didn't raise swine. He had to be in Gentile territory for that to be transparent.

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That's on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. You go across the sea, just ride your boat across and you're in Gentile held territory.

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And just a little north again and you're out in nasty pig farm territory as well. Not nasty, oh that's cute.

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That's not nasty, right? But it does grow up to be bacon. And the

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Jews didn't like that. But praise God that Jesus has fulfilled the law for us so we can have some bacon.

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Christmas ham or whatever it might be. Am I making you guys hungry? That's probably not really good for me to be up here talking about all this food.

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But it's in this backwater cast -off area that God begins here.

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He says a major movement, a glorious movement of his fulfillment of his promises.

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These ancient promises to Israel. And he says it's going to happen in this backwater area that you don't expect.

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A place you don't even respect at all. You think of it as kind of contested area. Jews would like to get as far away from Gentiles as possible.

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And so only the fringes would settle in those areas. But he says the people who walked in darkness.

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He's looking down the tunnel of history and he foresees a time when the people are going to be walking in darkness. And they will be the recipients of a great and glorious light.

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The light will shine on a people who dwell in a land of deep darkness. And he says it twice for extra emphasis in the text.

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So let's pause for a moment and consider what this darkness consisted of at the arrival of Christ.

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And then I think you'll see, it won't take any work on my part for you to be able to draw parallels to the darkness that we see in our own lives, the darkness that we see in our own hearts.

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And I'd even encourage you to some degree reflect on the darkness that was there in your life before great light dawned upon you.

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Before you came to acknowledge Christ and the light shone so brightly that it eclipsed the darkness in your own heart.

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But what was it like there in that time? The land would be under Roman occupation. Now Isaiah didn't know all the details of this.

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He was given a vision of a people completely in gloom and darkness and a lot of weight and a lot of burden on them.

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Under Roman occupation, taxation was stifling. Starvation would be common.

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Abuse by Roman soldiers would happen with very little to no accountability at all. The Jews themselves were severely politically divided.

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Sound familiar to anybody? Some thought that they should work with the Romans and chose to do so and they were considered traitors to their own people while others were sharpening their swords or as we might put it today, stockpiling ammo, hoping for war.

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There were people hoping for war in his time. Recast, there is absolutely, I just want to point out, there's absolutely nothing new under the sun, is there?

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You go back to their darkness, you come to our darkness, right? Are you feeling it? Do you see it?

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I mean, a land and a world just under darkness, under oppression, under gloom, under division.

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And further, their religious leaders, you go, well, at least they could go to the temple, right? At least they could go to their religious services for relief.

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No, their religious leaders were even for sale. I mean, when you realize it, the high priest himself, the highest religious figure in their culture was a man who was for sale for the right price.

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And the greatest fear among the religious leaders was losing power. They should have feared dishonoring

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God and bringing shame upon His name and instead, they feared most losing their authority.

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Losing their authority primarily over the people. So it was into that kind of darkness, into that kind of setting, that great light was sent.

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Isaiah foresaw this great light coming and he saw that the arrival of this great light in the north of Israel would result in exuberant, extreme joy.

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And you can see that, you can see it all coming to a head here. Isaiah will be multiplied in verse 3.

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Israel, rather, will be multiplied through the arrival of the light. That is verse 3, isn't it? Yeah, verse 3.

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It's going to be multiplied through the arrival of the light. Well, in what way was Israel multiplied during this time? The inclusion,

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I would suggest to you that what Isaiah didn't understand, but what the prophecy is alluding to, is the inclusion of the

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Gentile nations with Israel and the reception of the Messiah. Now, certainly many Jews rejected the

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Messiah, some chose to, but the opening of it to the Gentiles, the opening of the good news, the opening of the light to the

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Gentiles, expanded, expanded exponentially the number of the people of God.

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Big multiplication in verse 3. And the arrival of the great light will produce increased joy.

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Joy upon joy upon joy. Look at verse 3 to see how extensive that joy will be. Go ahead and look at it and see the phrases, follow it with me.

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Increased joy, that phrase. They rejoice, right in there. And as with the joy at the harvest.

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And they are glad as when, in the same way that people are glad when they divide the spoil, when they come into something that they didn't expect.

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Despite the gloom of judgment coming for the generation in Isaiah's time, God will not give up on his people.

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There is a day of exuberant joy and gladness coming forward for his people. He will enact his plan.

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He will enact his plan to send great light to those who live in the deep darkness. He will send light to those who live in the gloom and the shadows.

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And as Isaiah goes on to continue to describe this future blessing that God has in store for his people, the arrival of the light will result in the removal of the burden of work from the shoulders of his people.

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Look at it in verse 4. For the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulders, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.

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There is hope coming. The burden will be removed. Now, probably very few of us have a really good working understanding of what is meant by the word yoke here.

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That's not an egg yoke, that's Y -O -L -K. This is yoke, Y -O -K -E, a farming implement.

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And you can see a picture of one there. And you can see around those loops, in those loops, you would put the head of cattle, an ox, something like that, and then it would be hitched.

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And that board would keep them apart but together. Does that make sense?

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So they're not too close and running over each other, but they're also together in a way that they can pull together in a common direction.

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You don't use a yoke, and do you know what happens? They pull in different directions. And they can pull apart the bridle, they can pull things apart.

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They don't necessarily want to go straight in a straight line together. So that yoke is what puts them together in a way, it's that beam that will go over their necks, hold them together, enable them to pull and work together in a common direction.

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And His people have been set at toil together. Their toil has been in one common direction.

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That toil and burden was toward obedience to the law. It was toward trying to keep covenant, trying in their own flesh and in their efforts to try to obey

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God. That toil and that burden would cease when the light comes. Further, the staff for the shoulders of His people and the rod of the oppressor is mentioned in verse four.

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The light will come and remove their punishment from them. And He will strike down the power of their oppressors.

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Just like He miraculously used Gideon, He says, as in the day of Midian. Well, what's He getting at? He used

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Gideon to break the great army of Midian, so He will crush the power of the enemy of His people.

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When the light comes, the power of oppression will be broken. Now, consider what this means in a practical sense for us, church.

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Where does this meet us? This is Isaiah. This is 750 years before Christ. What's it got to do with us where we live?

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The arrival of our Messiah spelled the end of our carrying our own burden.

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Let me say that again. The arrival of the Messiah spelled the end of us carrying our own burden.

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Certainly, I'm recommending that we understand this prophecy is fulfilled for us at the points of our deepest needs.

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God's people were loaded down with the heavy yoke of sin and law. We had a rod of oppression and the real sense of impending judgment and even condemnation set over our lives as rebels and enemies against God.

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And we have, of course, against us a real enemy as well, the accuser, the devil, who oppresses

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God's people whenever he gets a chance. And Jesus would come, the light would come and carry our heavy load for us so that he can call all people, he calls all people to himself.

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With the words recorded in Matthew 11, 28 to 29, you don't need to turn over there, but if you're taking notes, you can jot that down.

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Matthew 11, 28 and 29 say this. Come to me, Jesus, this little baby born in Bethlehem, the light coming to the world speaks these words to his people.

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Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

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Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.

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Does that sound refreshing to any of you? Does that sound like something, raise your hand if that's something you want.

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I want that kind of rest. I want that kind of peace. I want that kind of removal of the burden from my shoulders.

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How many of you have carried a burden in the past year? Come to me and I will give you rest.

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Take my yoke upon you. How many of you, I can attest to and have experienced that kind of yoke where it's like you're pulling in one direction and it's heavy and it's hard and it's hard work to try to slog against your own sin.

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Anybody relate to that? I can. Hard work. He says come to me and come and take my yoke upon you.

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What does he mean? He says I'm pulling with you. How many of you know that if Jesus is yoked to you, it isn't a fair pull?

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You're not sharing 50 -50 on that one. I picture it this way. When I am yoked to Jesus, my feet ain't touching the ground.

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He is doing it. He says come and I'll pull for you. I'll pull for you.

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And I'll carry you along for the ride. How many of you have experienced that in your life? How many of you wanna say amen to that in your life?

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A glory to God that he would pull me along, that he would do the work on my behalf. That's what the light came to do.

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He came to take the yoke upon himself and says come and join me. Come and be a part.

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Come and put your neck on this and I'll pull you. He calls those strapped under a heavy religious burden to come to him.

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He is the only source of rest from our laboring to try and try and try and try to please

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God. Further consider he took the staff that was meant for our shoulders and he took it on his own.

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This is the staff of a beating. He was bruised and beaten in the place as a substitute for his people.

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The staff that would have and should have fallen on our shoulders in punishment fell on ours.

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And lastly, by his victory over sin and death, it says in the text that he came to break the rod of the oppressor.

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These things are accomplished, of course, in his first coming. They were accomplished at the cross but they're not finished until his second coming.

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And there needs to be some explanation. Anytime that we cover Old Testament prophecy, you need to understand that they weren't given all of the details that were given here.

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It will be finished but it won't be finished until his final arrival and there's one more thing that won't be finished until his final arrival and that's the end of war and the restoration to complete peace or shalom.

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Prophesied, it's prophesied in verse five, you see it there. Isaiah was given some amazing pictures, some amazing vistas of the future.

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Remember, this is 750 years before the arrival of Jesus. He foresaw God sending his Messiah.

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But I want to be clear that his prophecies did not come full and complete with drawn out timelines and dates.

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So that when we see this telescope together and we see brought together kind of the first, some things that are of the first coming and some things that are of a second coming that we yet look forward to, we shouldn't be too startled by that.

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We should instead stand in awe and amazement at what he did get so clear, right? Isaiah got some things extremely clear.

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The timeline isn't extremely clear. We know that some things that Isaiah saw have already been fulfilled and others are still yet future from our vantage point where we live today.

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Like the end of all wars and the breaking of all oppression. How many of you know that in truth, all oppression and all wars are ended in the cross but they're not realized yet until the future?

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The breaking of the power of sin, the breaking of the power of the evil one was accomplished at the cross but he's still writhing.

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He's still writhing in his death throes and we're looking forward to a final, final consummation, a final ending to all of that.

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Consider what comes next and how clear some of these things were that were revealed to Isaiah.

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He did get some things abundantly clear and again, I emphasize 750 years before the birth of Jesus here.

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How would the light come? Where would it arrive? The angels came and visited

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Mary in Galilee in the north of Israel near the Sea of Galilee as Isaiah predicted and the way of the arrival would be a child born and further with detail, says it will be a son, a male child will be born.

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To humanity, to God's people, a child would be born. To humanity, a son is given.

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Here's the gift of Christmas. Here is where our minds must most fundamentally turn when we think about giving and getting in Christmas.

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When the package is all wrapped up and ready to open, the package is all wrapped up and ready to open, what does the to and from tag read?

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Fundamentally, it reads, who is it from? God the Father. Who is it to?

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Us. Humanity and maybe even more refined would be the way to say God's people. He was after all,

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Jesus was sent to the Jews, born of a Jew to call first to the Jews who rejected him and then it was open to the

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Gentiles. A gift that's continued to give and give and give. This is the gift.

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The light dawning on a sin darkened world. A world caught in the deep darkness, groping and feeling our way through life and just no direction whatsoever.

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No bearings and abject fear, not knowing where we're going.

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The dawning of the light looks like God gifting the world with a male child. Not just any child of course, but we know the epic scope and divine identity of this one.

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From last week, we let our jaws drop at the account of the incarnation from John 1, 1 through 14.

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And here in this text, we find more fuel for our wonder, more fuel for our awe that I hope you can grasp and I hope moves you in your hearts, moves you inside.

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This given child will be the ruler. Not a government will be on his shoulders, the government will be on his shoulders.

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All rule will be vested in this one male child.

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And some of his titles are given for us and despite the fact that the way that we sing the song sounds like there's a comma between wonderful and counselor that's one title.

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Wonderful is adjectival, it describes, explains. Counselor, what kind of counselor?

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Wonderful, amazing, awesome, completely always true. He comes as the wonderful counselor against the folly of our feeble knowledge and pseudo -intellectualism.

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I would suggest to you that the best that we offer as humans is pseudo -intellectualism.

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We are guessing that we've got it right. In 50 years from now, they will look back on the way we handled this pandemic with scorn.

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Guaranteed, no matter how you stand on that, they will look back at this and go, fools? Are you serious?

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They did that and that and that? How many of you just kind of look back? We have this chronological snobbery where we always look back and go, what?

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They used to knock holes in people's heads. They used to bleed people out when you had an infection.

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Like they would cut you and let you bleed. Like I mean, you look back and you go, that was medical practice back then?

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Gosh, what are they gonna look back on in the ways that we handle things? He's the wonderful counselor.

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He knows the truth. He knows how all of these things work. The wonderful counselor against our feeble knowledge and our pseudo -intellectualism.

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And let that rest on our shoulders too. I'm not taking a side on this. I'm trying to express to you that we've got it wrong in every single one of us.

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We've got something wrong in this. The second title is mighty God.

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Praise God, he comes against our powerlessness to remedy our most basic of issues.

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The most basic situation, the most basic problem that's set against us. Well, what are our basic problems?

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We still sin and we still die. We still sin and we still die.

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And he has come as the mighty God to solve that. Wonderful counselor, mighty

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God. The third title, everlasting father. He comes against the temporary nature of our weak governments that always, always, always crumble and fail.

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Every attempt to self -govern crumbles and fails. I wanna point out that father, really unanimously in the commentaries that I read this week, a father is identified as a title for king.

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It was a very common thing that a king would take upon himself the title of father, like father of the people, father of the nation.

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And that's what all the commentaries that I read this week identify that as the title of Jesus.

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This is not to be confused with the title of father for God almighty, as in the first person of the

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Trinity. But he is the everlasting father. In other words, the everlasting king, the everlasting governor, the one who is over it all.

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And the last title is prince of peace. He comes against our warring, tribalistic, ethnocentric, broken relationship kind of ways.

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In all of us, to war for our own ways, to war for ourselves. And he comes to break that down.

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Another way to summarize these titles is highlighted in our needs that he was sent to meet.

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We needed knowledge and wisdom. So God sends us a wonderful counselor, showing us the wisdom and truth, and even demonstrating to us the life of God and how he lives.

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We needed to overcome sin and death. So he came as the mighty God who has the power over sin and death.

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And he worked a great, amazing, awesome redemption through an amazing plan to defeat our greatest enemies at his cross and at his empty tomb.

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Sin and death defeated on our behalf. We needed good and wise governance to replace all of our shabby attempts at self -governing, and he came as the everlasting father, the permanent, benevolent monarch.

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I remember, I don't know why I thought this way, but when I was in high school, I remember trying to think through governments, and it just appealed to me, like it kind of struck me.

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And so in my government class, I kind of took it probably more serious than the average student. You know, it's a required class or whatever. But I just,

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I was kind of intrigued by the different methods and different ways that people govern. And I actually remember doing a mental exercise in high school where I was thinking through what will the final government look like?

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Like what does it look like in heaven? What does the new earth, what does that governance look like? And I haven't heard this ever said anywhere else, but it's a title

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I came up with. I would say what we're heading towards is not a democracy, folks. What we're heading toward is a benevolent monarchy.

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A benevolent monarchy. Think about it. Where is this all going?

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It's all going under a king. He is a good king. Not just any king.

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He's all good. He's all powerful. He's ever -present. He's eternal. He's just.

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He's gracious. And he's overflowing with abundant, lavish blessings. And he shall reign forever.

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That's where it's going. What are you, like, come today, Jesus. Like, set that up.

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Like, that's a king I'll, that's a king I'll bow my knee to forever. That's a king that I will love, and he loves me.

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You get what I'm saying in that? That's a right government. We needed the end of our wars.

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We needed the end of tribalism, of racisms, of divisions, of ethnocentrisms. But also, the end of our apathy, our self -centeredness, and broken relationships with the created order around us.

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The peace that Jesus came to bring as the Prince of Peace is not merely the absence of war.

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It's a small vision of what peace is to the Jewish mind. It's the presence of a rightly, of all rightly ordered relationships.

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Peace in the Hebrew mind was the right balance of three relationships. And if you're taking notes, I encourage you to jot this down.

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It's a good definition of peace. Peace is the balance of these three relationships.

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A right relationship with God, a right relationship with other people, and a right relationship to creation, to the created order.

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The Prince of Peace came to give us shalom. That word means so much more than we're not at war today.

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Shalom in my marriage looks a lot less like, well, we didn't argue. She didn't call me any names today.

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That we love each other. There's a proactive benefit. There's a right relationship there.

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Are you getting what I'm saying? It's not the absence of war. It's not the absence of fighting that defines peace.

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That's not what defines shalom. Shalom is the rightly ordered existence. The Prince of Peace is bringing that for eternity.

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For eternity. Verse seven lets us know that any attempts to try to limit this predicted arrival to an earthly king in the context of Isaiah just can't hold any water at all.

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And the reason I'm bringing that up is that for centuries, the Jews, when they read this passage in Isaiah, have tried to explain away this as messianic by saying that it just merely refers to the birth of King Hezekiah, who was born during the time of Isaiah.

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They were contemporaries. But verses six and seven give such an epic scope to the one predicted here.

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I hope you see it like I do. I hope you see it like Christian scholars see it. But it is abundantly clear that these prophetic words could not be fulfilled by the arrival of a pretty good earthly king.

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You see how this is not talking about a fairly decent guy who ruled with some justice and did some good things and kind of brought people back to worship.

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He is called Almighty God. He's called the everlasting, eternal ruler. But also in verse seven, he is given the keys to the

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Davidic kingdom to reign forever, the text says. Hezekiah died, and you could say, well yeah, so did

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Jesus, but only for three days. Now he has ascended, and he reigns forever and ever and ever, and I can't add enough evers, so just do that in your mind.

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His government will increase forever until it extends over all of creation. And the shalom of his reign also will extend forever.

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It's interesting that we're gonna be going over 2 Samuel in this new year, and it's in that book that we will study the

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Davidic covenant. It's a covenant that God unilaterally gave to King David.

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A promise that he made, just kind of like showed up off the cuff, didn't have to say a word, and instead just showed up and said,

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David, I'm gonna make one who's born of your lineage to reign forever and ever and ever and ever.

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Well, guess who is Jesus's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather?

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I didn't add enough greats, I don't think, but it's David. He comes from that line.

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I got God working out all of history and all of the details to fulfill that promise to David.

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And he will establish that kingdom forever. And what's the category, what's the definition, what's that kingdom gonna look like?

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Justice and righteousness for eternity. And all of this light and all of this hope and all of this justice and all of this peace and all of this redemption and reconciliation and eternal hope is a product of a really interesting attribute of God.

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You see it at the very end of our text. Go ahead and look in your Bibles at the end of verse seven. What is it that's going to accomplish this?

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Somebody say it if you have it in the ESV. Zeal, that's a weird attribute of God, isn't it?

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Like you might think, well, out of his glory or out of his love or out of, no, it's his passionate enthusiasm.

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The word there means an effusive, boiling or bubbling over delight. And that's what brings about the greatest gift ever given.

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How many of you ever enjoyed giving a gift? Have you ever enjoyed that? God's here saying, you know what produced the greatest gift of all?

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My joy, my gladness, my exuberance, my enthusiasm, my zeal.

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That's where this whole Jesus thing came from. That's where this whole incarnation thing, just I was excited one day and Jesus was born.

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You'd say, what? That's just awesome. The incarnation of his son, the greatest gift comes from the zeal of the

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Lord. The bringing of great light into the deepest gloom of anguish and judgment and suffering comes to us through God's great passion for his glory and for his grace and his steadfast love to be known, his zeal.

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So let's think back to the basic premise of the cliche. Is Christmas all about giving gifts?

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Over and against giving, over and against getting gifts? The sentiment of foregoing greed is good.

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But I call this a cliche because it refuses to dive deeper into what we even mean when we say

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Christmas. I'm encouraging us all to redefine Christmas this year as the very incarnation of the son of God himself.

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The arrival of great light in the north of Israel, the birth of a child, the birth of a son who is given, it's

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Christmas, a son given and he will be wonderful counselor, almighty

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God, everlasting father and prince of shalom. The birth of the one who will carry the final government to end all governments on his shoulders.

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We celebrate in Christmas God's great zeal, bringing forth the one who will end all oppression.

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His eternal kingdom will be defined by justice and righteousness forevermore.

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I wanna ask you a question. What if the stores stopped selling? Or they just stopped selling?

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What if Amazon didn't fulfill any of its package deliveries and UPS just dropped out, said, nah, we're out of it?

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What if all the cargo ships turned back to China? And we couldn't give any presents?

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We might be tempted to like right away go to an analogy that's really common in our culture.

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Those little who's down in Whoville still came together, sang their songs about peace and goodwill and good feelings.

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It's a good sentiment, right? Because the gist of the Grinch is that it's all about giving, not about getting.

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It's really not about presents at all, right? And I think that gets us part of the way, right?

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But I would suggest that those who's in Whoville still didn't have a Christmas. I read it.

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I didn't see Christmas in there. They got one thing right. Christmas is coming one way or another, even without packages, boxes, or bags.

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But they fall short of the real reason to rejoice. Our Savior has broken into the darkness.

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And the light he brings is like the rescue lights of a search party. When we were lost in the darkness, hopeless and helpless, and for sure condemned, sure that nobody was coming for us, sure that we were on our own, and confident that this was the end.

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The rescue lights show up. And the one has come on the scene as our hero to save us.

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And so let's come to rejoice together in the Lord's Supper this morning. If you've asked this wonderful counselor, this mighty

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God, this everlasting ruler, this Prince of Peace to be your Lord and your

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Savior, that means that you at some point have recognized your sin and rebellion against him, and you said,

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I need you to save me. And not only that, but I need you to take the steering wheel of this life. I need you to run it.

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Did I just say Jesus take the wheel inadvertently? Speaking of cliches, there you go, right?

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But you basically have asked him to call the shots in your life. And I mean all the shots, you're just saying,

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I wanna honor you in the way that you have asked me to. And I need your strength, and I'm leaning on you.

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Then let me encourage you, if you're in that status where you've made that decision, then come to the tables to remember his incarnation.

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Come to the table to remember his sacrifice. And yes, even his resurrection. He came to earth out of zeal, passion for our salvation.

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He died for the love of his people and the love of his Father in obedience. And he rose again victorious over our sin and death, the sin and death that we deserved.

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And so church, let's rejoice. Let's rejoice this season. Let's rejoice in what we have already been given, and be sure you reflect this year that it is very real that Christmas is all about getting this year.

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We celebrate the earth getting her Savior. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for the amazing gift, and it just seems even petty in words don't express the thankfulness and the gratitude that I have in my heart.

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I don't think anything shy of my eternity of worship of you can suffice, and even that is probably not enough for the great gift that you have given to us in your

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Son. I pray that that would overshadow and eclipse all traditions this Christmas for all of us, that we would, whatever the depth and the entrenchment of traditions and the types of ways that we think about Christmas, that you would break through that in each one of us, again, to be redefining it as the very incarnation.

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I confess that over the years, I've been kind of dour this time of the year because of the loss of loved ones and things like that that I've allowed to encroach.

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But Father, if it was all about celebrating with family, well, I'd have cause for sorrow, but I have cause for deep rejoicing, the greatest thing, the most glorious thing given in your

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Son. So Father, I pray that you would move all of us to that type of gratitude, to that kind of thankfulness, to see this season and the things that you desire to do in us and through us.

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I just recognize that this has been a tough couple of years here, trying to navigate this pandemic has been hard.

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It's been hard on all of us, and we just, we're tired and exhausted and not sure if we're doing things right or wrong or where we're at, but Father, you know.

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So we ask that you would guide us into peace. We long for the return of your

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Son. But in the meantime, I pray that you would help us to be faithful, to shine the light, to share the gospel with those around us.

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We know that we're not guaranteed tomorrow, so Father, give us voices to speak the glory of the truth.

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Let us be on task and on mission for you this season. Spotlighting the

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Son is a great rescue. Use our voices, use our words, use our

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Christmas cards, use our letters, use our communication to bring others close to Jesus this season.