The Prince of Peace | Sermon 12/08/2024

Isaiah 9 and the Prophecy of the Great Light

Alright, church, if you would, please turn with me and your Bibles to Isaiah. The prophecy of Isaiah chapter 9. Last week we started our Advent series in Isaiah 9 verses 1 through 5. We're going to finish in Isaiah today in verses 6 and 7.

And the title of the sermon is The Prince of Peace. The Prince of Peace. Let's start from verse 1 in Isaiah 9. Hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true God. But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish.

In earlier times he treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt. But later on he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea on the other side of Jordan, Galilee, of the Gentiles.

The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. You shall multiply the nation. You shall increase their gladness. They will be glad in your presence as with the gladness of harvest.

As men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For you shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders. The rod of their oppressor as at the battle of Midian. For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle to molt and cloak rolled in blood will be for burning fuel for the fire.

For a child will be born to us. A son will be given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace.

On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

The Darkness of Israel Becomes a Light to the Nations

Let's go before him again as we look at the text. God, there are so many people in this world who don't have peace. Even many Christians who are feeling a lack of peace in this season of their lives. We need you to show us this day, Lord, how we do have peace.

How peace has come into this creation where only chaos and sin used to reign. And so, Lord, we ask that you would help us to learn from this text. To be edified from the text. Lord, that it would come alive to us by the Holy Spirit.

That we would be counseled by it. That we would be encouraged by it, Lord. That we would remember who came to us. And how they waited for so long for you to come. And that we're in this moment of history.

That you have come. And so we can look back to look forward. We can look back to look ahead. So, Lord, please bless our time. Keep our focus on you. Let not the enemy steal away our focus from the living God this morning.

In Jesus' name, amen. So, last week, we went over the darkness. Settled over the land of Zebulun. Settled over the land of Naphtali in the northern kingdom of Israel. And really, that was an illustration for the entire world.

All of the world at this point was engulfed in darkness. You had blackness of heart. Blackness of mind. Blackness of soul. Had overtaken all of humanity. That's the image that Isaiah gave us. It was so bad for the people in the northern kingdoms, that Isaiah said that they live in the land of death's shadow.

They live in the land of death's shadow. It's like death is hanging over them.

This shadow.

Wherever they turn, death is there. Death is behind them. Death is in front of them. Death is to the side of them. It's inescapable. They can't avoid it. And at a certain point in history, I told you, God used the Assyrian nation to take these people away.

Israelites. In Zebulun, in Naphtali. But something sparked. Something was changing. God promised He would bring glory there again. We just read it. It would start there, and it would impact the entire earth.

The dark land would even get a name change. It would no longer be Zebulun. It would no longer be Naphtali. It would no longer even be the nation of Israel. He said it would be Galilee of the nations. That's what it says in Hebrew.

It would be called Galilee of the nations. All nations would become one nation. All races would come and become one race under God. Profane people would become royal priests, and their gloom would be turned to gladness.

Their mourning would turn to joy. Why? Because the great light was coming. And He would shine on them. The radiance and the brilliance and the warmth would touch every place. It would touch them. It would touch the world.

Humanity would be in the presence of God again. They've longed for this. A reversal of the curse of Eden would take place. It would be like the harvest time. It would be like the time at the end of a war when spoils were shared.

Garments of warfare, He says, would no longer be needed.

They'd be tossed in the fire.

If you were a soldier before, all your equipment and uniform would be thrown into a fire. It would be useless because peace is coming. Light's coming. They would no longer be in the darkness of slavery, but they would enter the light of freedom when the great light came.

Matthew’s Fulfillment of Isaiah 9 in the Ministry of Jesus

And so, what did we discover at the end of the sermon last week? This is key to remember, okay? This very text, this prophecy, was fulfilled with Jesus Christ, of course. The Gospel writer Matthew wrote that the great light came when Jesus settled His headquarters in Capernaum in the north in Galilee.

That's what he said. We went over it. Matthew 4. Matthew quoted these very verses that a great light is coming. A great light will shine on them. And he said this happened when Jesus came and He was inaugurated for His ministry and He planted His headquarters in Capernaum near Galilee.

And if you remember, I talked about what happened before this was fulfilled in Matthew 4. Well, in Matthew 3, there was the start of Jesus' ministry. You have Jesus' baptism. You have the triune endorsement of God.

Who was present at Jesus' baptism? You had the Father, you had the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They were all there. And He was washed with water. John said, why would I do this for you? You don't need to repent.

And he said this is to fulfill all righteousness. And if you look back in the law, when a high priest was to take on that office, when a new man of Aaron was to take on the office of high priest, he was to be washed with water completely.

That's one indication. So Jesus is starting His ministry. He doesn't need to be washed. He doesn't need to be cleansed of sin. It's a sign that He's starting as high priest and prophet and eventually king as He starts talking about the kingdom of Heaven being at hand.

And so, I told you that at that moment, Jesus gets baptized, and it says, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and lighting went all over Him. He lit up. He was brilliant. And the Father spoke from Heaven and said, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Boom! Right there, at that moment, Jesus Christ in His humanity was marked out as the great light. If the people were around there and they saw this brilliant pillar of light shining down in the middle of day, and if they remembered this text from Isaiah, they would have recalled, this is the great light.

This is the great light. This is the One who's coming. At that point, if you remember, after the light had fallen on Him, Jesus confirmed this further by going into the wilderness. And what wilderness did Jesus enter into?

He entered into the wilderness of Zebulun and Naphtali. The exact places that are the places of darkness and gloom. The place of death's shadow. And He went face to face, or maybe word to word, in combat against the ruler of the darkness.

Matthew 4, the temptation of Jesus Christ. He fought against the devil. The Father of lies. The Prince of the power of the air. He's called the murderer from the beginning. He's called the tempter, the accuser, the adversary, the Satan, the devil himself.

And what happened? Jesus won. He won. He beat Him. And so, I told you, one tiny ray of light conquers darkness. If I were to grab a box right here and I'd say, you guys, in this box is darkness. And if I were to even open it up here,.

Open it outside,.

You couldn't contain the darkness anymore. It would be inevitable. Light would shine in it. That's how it goes. But if it was dark in here and it was completely black in here, and I opened a box and there was a light in here, the light would pierce the darkness.

And that's what happened with Jesus Christ. God made it that way when He said, let there be light. The darkness, the void, was invaded by the light. And that would become an image of what Jesus did. He is the great light.

And the devil may have previously been called the ruler of this world, but Jesus says, I am the light of this world. You're the ruler of this world? Not anymore. I'm the light of this world. He will shine on the dark people.

They will change domains. They'll change domains from the domain of darkness and enter into the domain of light. That's what's happening with His coming.

Waiting for the Great Light in Isaiah’s Day

Now remember,.

We skipped ahead a little bit by going to the fulfillment of Isaiah 9 last week. So get your mind back into this. Get your mind back into the waiting and longing and yearning that the Jews and the Israelites had for the great light to come.

At this point in our text, darkness was still over the land.

In Isaiah's day,.

And there seemed to be little hope. There were flickers of light. They were short. They were brief. When was the great light coming? And more importantly, how would they know when the great light arrived?

What does it look like? Is it like the light from the pillar of fire that led them during the moment of Exodus in which God was in that pillar of fire? Is it like the light that was at the burning bush in which Yahweh said, I am that I am?

Was it like the light that was on the top of Mount Sinai in which fire was burning and the presence of God was there when they were given the law? Is that the great light? Is that the light? Not this time.

The great light will be even more personal. It's not going to be a pillar of fire from however many yards away. It's not going to be a fire on top of a mountain and people will look up and know God's presence is there, but they're far, far away from that top of that mountain.

The light will be personal. The light will shine on them. It will be tangible. It will be felt. It's got to be better than seeing fire or light from afar. Not to mention the fact that you had to be holy and blameless to ever come near those sources of light.

They said if you even touch the edge of Mount Sinai, God's mountain, you're dead. So they couldn't go near it. They couldn't touch the pillar of fire. They couldn't experience God. So they think, how will this great light come to us?

How will the light reach us? God had a plan. He's always had a plan. He's had a design from all eternity and that's where we leave off. Look at v. 6. This is how they will know the light. What's the sign of the great light?

It's right here. For a child will be born to us. A son will be given to us. And this would have been mind-blowing for the people of God. The holy light of God, that brilliant, all-consuming fire of God will be contained and wrapped up in a child born to us?

A son that's given? You see, one might ask, what do we have to do to get the great light to come? What actions do we need to do to ensure that the light will come, that this son will arrive? And God removes all of that.

It says God will make the child be born to us. The Word says here, a son will be given to us. A son will not be achieved. We don't have to do the perfect things to get this son to come. God will do it.

God will send this child. And he will come to earth and be given. This is God acting while everyone else is not. This is His plan. And so we see the great light who is the deliverer. We saw that language in our text last week.

This light is a deliverer. Now we see that this deliverer, this light is a child, a son. And Isaiah has spoken about this child before. Look in your printout or look in your Bible. Isaiah 7 .14 The Lord says, therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign.

Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Emmanuel. This is just two chapters before ours. And this is what's remarkable. The child won't come from heaven and just sort of materialize like a beam of light comes down and all of a sudden, there's a child.

That's not how this son will be given to us. The great light will go through the same process that all humans go through. He will be born. His mode of transportation from heaven to earth, if you will, is birth.

Birth.

And you see that with these Hebrew words of Yeled for child, Ben for son, and Ulad for born. One can deduce that the great light will become human. This great light from heaven will become human. Therefore, the sign humanity is looking for is a male child born of a virgin.

This will be the indicator of the deliverer of our previous verses and specifically, from Isaiah's other prophecies, we will see the child is of the royal line of David. He is somehow related to David.

He's from the root of Jesse. He will have rights to the throne. And we'll see more of that in v. 7. It says here in v. 6, and the government will rest upon His shoulders. A child will be born to us. A son will be given.

And the government will rest upon His shoulders. This doesn't mean government in the way you think it means. It doesn't mean that He's a president of some sort. It doesn't mean that He's the head of a government necessarily.

Not the earthly kind at least. But all governments on earth will be affected by His government. This Hebrew word misra, it means all rule. All reign. The position of high ruler will be upon His shoulders.

Shoulders are a place of strength. They hold stuff up. We saw previously in v. 4, Isaiah said the great light will break the yoke of the burdens on our shoulders. He'll break the yoke of the burden, the wooden rod that kept the beast of burden walking and trudging through the field.

He says that will be broken. What enslaves you will be broken by the power of this One, the Deliverer, the great light. But here we see He's going to take things on His shoulders. He's going to have all rule and reign on His shoulders.

He's going to hold it all up Himself. I can't help but think of Matthew 28. Jesus says, all authority has been given unto Me. 1 Corinthians 15 says, Jesus must reign until all His enemies have been made a footstool for His feet.

David only got to rule over ethnic Israel. This child born unto us will be a king all over the universe. He will be over all nations. And yet, He is not even precisely called a king here. It just says that the government will be upon His shoulders.

He will be over all the nations. And I really think that God doesn't call Him a king exactly right here because this is a slap to the face of the monarchs of Israel and Judah. They've been becoming earthly kings for years and years, but they've never been benevolent.

They've never been blameless. They've never been exactly like someone who we really need to be king. This royal one will be perfectly what the other kings should have been, but were not. They only had the title king.

This one truly is a benevolent king in thought and word and deed. It's like that title isn't good enough for Jesus. The title king is shared with humans. You could capitalize the K all you want, and that's probably why in the New Testament, Jesus is called what?

The King of Kings. It's not good enough to be called a king. He's the King of Kings. The government rests upon His shoulders. He has all rule and reign. That's what that means. And it continues. It says His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

You see, in some cultures, when a male son was born to a royal family, he would be named with up to three to five names. A royal child who was one day to be king would get three to five names. And I think that they often hoped that those names would describe their desire of what they wanted the child to become.

Right?

Some young men were called the valiant, the grand, whatever it may be. They gave them these names hoping they would be this way. But these names here don't describe what God hopes His Son will become.

These names describe what He already is. This is who He is already. This is who He is from the beginning. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. You think about, how did David pick his son's name?

He picked his son's name Solomon. Solomon means man of peace. Solomon is man of peace. And then God said, I want to name Solomon as well. Do you know what God named Solomon in Scripture? He named him Jedediah.

Jedediah literally means in the Hebrew loved by Yahweh. Loved by Yahweh. So you have man of peace and loved by Yahweh. That was Solomon. But this child, this child of Isaiah 9 is named by God four times.

And a multitude of times elsewhere. Even at his birth, he is called Emmanuel, which means God with us. He's called Yeshua. Yeshua or Jesus, which is transliterated into the English. That means the Deliverer, the Savior.

Jesus means Savior. That's who He is. And He will be the perfect Son of David. He will be the perfect heir of the throne. He will be the better Solomon. He is actually the man of peace. He's actually Yahweh's Beloved.

He's the perfect One. Because He's from Yahweh. He's from the Lord. He's also a wonderful counselor. This is two words combined into one title. The first word is a wonder, a miracle, a marvelous sign.

The second word here is a counselor, an advisor, someone whose advice is considered wise and valuable. Therefore, this wonderful counselor will be an expert on the supernatural. He'll be an expert on miracles.

He has insight into the supernatural that no king has ever had before. He can tell us what's from heaven, and He can tell us what's not from heaven. You see, some people looked at Solomon, who was the wisest man in the world at that time, and some looked at Solomon and his wisdom and said, this is divine.

This is wisdom from God. They thought his wisdom was divine, but this one's wisdom will truly be supernatural. He will have true supernatural wisdom. It's not going to be filtered from God. It's going to come from Himself.

He is inside of Himself the wonderful counselor. He is all wisdom.

And more than that,.

I believe that the title is saying His words are wonders. So it says wonderful counselor. A counselor gives words. A counselor gives advice. Wonders, signs, and miracles is the first word. I think that what it's saying is His own words are miraculous.

His own words will be like signs from heaven. When He speaks, you'll be hearing from God. In fact, Isaiah 28 .29 says, this also comes from the Lord of hosts who has made His counsel wonderful. It's Yahweh.

It's the Lord. The Yahweh of hosts. The Lord of hosts is the One who has wonderful counsel. That's the only other time that this phrase is mentioned. Yahweh is the wonderful counselor. What does that say about this child?

The wonderful counselor is divine. He's from God. He is God. And we're going to continue to see that. Look at this. Look at the next name. He is mighty God. In Hebrew, El Gibor. El is from the title of God, Elohim.

And Gibor means might, strength, or power. It means that this child will be a divine hero. He will be a mighty hero. He is the mighty God. He is power that no mere human possesses. In fact, Isaiah later says that all evil will be hurled at this one.

All evil will be sent to this child who will become a man. He's called the servant later in Isaiah 52 -53. Isaiah says that all the iniquity, all the sin that we've ever committed will fall upon Him. It will fall on His shoulders and He will have the strength to bear it.

He'll rise again. Now to this point, the title mighty God in Scripture has never been used for someone who is born. It's never been used for someone who's born. It's never been used for a human. El Gibor.

In fact, Jeremiah says, O great and mighty God, O great and El Gibor. He says the Lord of hosts is His name. Mighty God is only ever given to the Lord. The only God. El Gibor is Yahweh. What this tells us is this child is no regular human.

In fact, the next title says that He is eternal Father. Maybe your translation says He is everlasting Father. The Hebrew dictionary says that this word eternal is an unlimited duration of time without end and without reference to other points or units of time.

No reference in the past ever going back into eternity. No reference, no end in the future of eternity. He's eternal. He's eternal. He's uncreated. And yet, He's going to be born unto us.

Right?

It's this phenomenon that we've never seen in Scripture up until this point. Now some have asked, why is this Son, this Child, why is He called Father? Why is He called everlasting Father or eternal Father?

Okay?

Let me explain that. This does not mean that the Son,.

The Child given,.

Is the Heavenly Father, the First Person of the Trinity. There are a few reasons for that. Number one, eternal and Father are coordinated together to demonstrate that He is from eternity. The Father in any family is the preeminent One.

The Father is the One Who came first. The Father is the One Who's been there before everyone else. That's what it's trying to demonstrate here. This great light, this Child Deliverer, is before everyone else.

He's from eternity. He's uncreated. The people didn't want leaders who came and went like the judges and the kings of old. They wanted someone Who was truly good. Who would rule from David's throne forever.

Someone Who's eternal. And that's Who He will be. Number two, the title Father is used because He will follow the pattern of His divine fatherhood. This Son has a father of His own, and He will carry out what His Father has willed and desired.

He will be an image of the invisible God. A representation of Him to us. When we see this Child, we're going to see an image of the Father. He is the image of the incorruptible God. He is the exact imprint of His nature.

That's what Scripture says.

Number three,.

Father is also a title given with endearment. As someone Who cares for others as though they are His own children and He is their Father. In fact, God has called a father to the fatherless. This Child Deliverer will love us fiercely.

The Scripture shows us that this Son that is given will put children on His own lap, and He'll bless them, and He'll say that the kingdom belongs to such as these. This One will heal the sick. He'll clothe the naked.

He'll miraculously give food to the hungry.

He'll teach the people.

He will even give forms of discipline. The Messiah, the Son, the Child given, is like a Father to us on behalf of the Heavenly Father.

Okay?

Now again, Eternal Father is only ever a title for Yahweh. Eternal Father is only ever a title for Yahweh the Lord, the One true God. So can you see what all these things show us? Wonderful Counselor.

It's only ever used for the Lord. You have Eternal Father showing His eternality. You have El Gabor. You have Mighty God. That was only ever used of the Lord as well. So you see that He has attributes that only the Lord possesses, and yet there is a distinction between the two of them.

Because some have tried to say they go to this text, and people who are not Christians or people who are not honest with the text, they'll say, ah, this is about the Lord. This is about the Father. These Scriptures are about the God that Isaiah already talks about.

This is no one new. This is the God that Isaiah speaks of already. He's just speaking about Him in a different way. No. You can see the distinction. You can see that this Child, this Son that is given this great light, is distinct from the Heavenly Father, and yet He shares all the same attributes of that Father.

The only explanation is the doctrine of the Trinity. There's one God.

Three Persons.

The Bible shows that all of that is true. There's only one God, and yet the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God. That one God. The second thing these attributes show us that the Son shares with Him is also the dual nature of Jesus Christ.

It's a theological term. It's the hypostatic union. He is absolutely God. He's from all eternity. He's El Gabor. He's a wonderful Counselor. He's Everlasting Father. He's all that. He's absolutely God.

And then He will be born. He will be human. He will have blood. His blood will run red. He'll share of the bloodline of David. He'll be totally and absolutely human, totally and absolutely God all at once.

This is called the hypostatic union. He is the wonderful Counselor who works supernatural wonders from His own being. He is the mighty God who has all power. He's the eternal Father who has no reference point in eternity, past, or future.

These titles show that the Child given to us, this great light, this Deliverer,.

Is all-knowing,.

He's all-powerful, He's eternal, and He's all-good. Completely good. And we see that lastly in this final term for Him. This is the climatic title for the Son, the Child that's given. He is the Prince of Peace.

The Prince of Peace. This word prince in Hebrew is sar. It means prince, or it can mean even commander. The highest ranking officer in military at that time. It's as if He's saying He's going to make war using peace.

He's going to make war using peace and the result will be peace. Who can do that? Who can fight chaos with peace and the result will be peace? Only He can. Wrath needs a peacemaker. And He will be just that.

He will afford us peace where we deserve wrath. He will establish peace between God and man, and He'll even establish peace between man and man. The Prince of Peace will fix the vertical relationship, us and God, and the Prince of Peace will fix the horizontal relationship, man and man.

He'll fix everything. He'll bring peace to all relationships. All issues that would normally bring chaos and war. And as the Prince of Peace, we will never need to doubt Him. We will never need to be worried that one day He will flip and give us chaos instead of peace.

He will give us lasting peace. He is the Prince of Peace. A prince is to administer good things to the people of His kingdom. And so He will distribute peace. The Prince of Peace will come, and He's not going to remain a concept.

He's not going to keep the peace inside of Himself. As that title, Prince, means He gives things to His people. The prince or commander is to equip the people of His kingdom or those in His army with what they need.

The supplies, the equipment. As the Prince of Peace,.

He will distribute peace.

You'll get it. You'll get it. You'll get it. We all get peace from the Prince of Peace.

And it's true peace.

True peace.

That's what He'll give humanity. Specifically, the word here in Hebrew is shalom. He will give shalom. And I've told you before, shalom ended up becoming kind of a greeting, a salutation. Shalom. Peace to you.

And that kind of ruined it a little bit. That changed things. Shalom is much more than a salutation. It's much more than a greeting. Shalom isn't quiet time in the corner. Shalom isn't just a piece of ceasefire.

We all hate each other, and we're all fighting, and we're fighting with God, and we're fighting with man. Let's just stop for a moment. That's not real shalom. That's not real peace. In Hebrew, shalom is a state of completeness.

It's total salvation. It's total safety from terror. It's wellness. Total wellness. Total satisfaction. And it denotes the highest blessing from God. Shalom is salvation. Peace alone is a poor word to describe it.

Honestly. You see, in the Garden, when sin came into the world, we lost shalom. We lost peace. Most importantly, we lost peace with God. The path of peace the world has not known. Only disharmony, disquiet, distress.

These things came between mankind and God. Division from God. Chaos and rebellion against God. Because there's really no peace when we don't have peace with God. There's no true peace for anyone when you don't have peace with God.

You see, you think about the pharmaceutical market. You know how many drugs are out there to make you peaceful? You know how many prescriptions are out there to make you quiet? To make you subdued? To bring you down?

To keep you from being full of anxiety and chaos in your life? There's so many. They have tons of different names. But those alone won't give you peace with God. True peace doesn't come from those medicines.

They come from having it with God. They come from the Prince of Peace. Now, there's a time during these moments of warning to the people of Israel when the prophet Jeremiah was warning them, if drastic measures aren't taken, you're going to be judged by God.

That's what he told the people of Israel. You're going to be judged. You're going to be taken away under God's judgment. But the people didn't like what Jeremiah had to say. They wanted a second opinion.

So if you can imagine it, the prophet Jeremiah is warning everyone. He's warning all these Israelites in the open square and saying,.

Repent.

Turn back to Yahweh. Turn back to the one true God. Destroy your idols. Stop worshiping this way.

Warning.

He's going to come. There's going to be a day of judgment. The day of the Lord is near. The Assyrians will come. Babylon will come. Jeremiah's warning everyone. They're like, whatever, man. We want a second opinion.

You're just the lunatic of the town. Let's talk to the king's prophets. Because each king had an office of prophet. He hired them. Soothsayers. Men of wisdom.