The Christ Is Born In Isaiah

The Shepherd's Church

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Hello, everybody, and welcome to our very first service in this brand new space.

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We met for 15 months at First Baptist Church in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. Now we're in our own brand new space, which will be ours for the next five years at least.

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And I'm so thankful that tonight, Christmas Eve, is the very first service that we get to have in this space.

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It's a wonderful little Christmas gift that we all get to share with one another. And I'm so thankful for this church.

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I'm so thankful for this building, and I'm so thankful for each and every single one of you. Thank you so much for being a part of the

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Shepherd's Church. For maybe this is your first service, or maybe it's been 15 months you've been with us since the beginning, since we were meeting up in my carriage house.

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No matter how long you've been with us, I just want to say thank you so much for being a part of what God is doing at the

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Shepherd's Church. And thank you so much for attending this Christmas Eve service.

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Now I want to begin with one of my favorite Christmas traditions. Every single year,

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I watch my favorite Christmas movie, which I've been watching this ever since I was a little child, and that movie is

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How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It's my favorite. And I'm not talking about the abominable fake remake with Jim Carrey as the

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Grinch, and I'm not talking about the new one that just came out. I've not even seen it. What I'm talking about is the real

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Grinch. The original one, the cartoon, that was simply perfect just the way that it was.

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And in that cartoon, there's this moment. I think it's probably my favorite moment. When Grinchy Claw stands at the top of Mount Crumpit's summit, wishfully and gleefully peering down at the town of Whoville below, expecting that he had, in fact, stolen

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Christmas. He strained his Grinchy ears, standing in the silent cold morning snow, listening intently, hoping to hear all of the boo -hoos coming from every boy and girl down below as they woke up to find that no

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Christmas presents were under their tree. But, in fact, that's actually not what happened at all, and that's part of the beauty and the brilliance of the story.

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Perhaps my favorite line from this scene is when Dr. Seuss tells us this. And the

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Grinch, with his Grinch feet ice -cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling.

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How could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags.

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It came without packages, boxes, or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore, and then the

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Grinch thought of something he hadn't thought of before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store?

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Or, what if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?

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Now, as a child, I appreciated this so much because it invited me to look beyond the trees, to look beyond the lights and the gifts and the mistletoe and all of the commercialism and consumerism that's inherent in Christmas.

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It even invited me to look beyond the roast beast and to instead fix my mind upon the true meaning of Christmas, to ponder its depth, to plunder the riches of its beauty, and to see that it goes even infinitely and eternally deeper than the good tidings, the great cheer, the family time, the familiar songs, and all of that.

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And that is, more than anything else, what I hope that you experience this Christmas.

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That you would see, that you would hear, that you would sing, that you would remember, that the meaning of Christmas would come washing over you this evening.

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And to do that today, we're going to begin with an assumption that we've had for the last three weeks in this series called

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The Christ Foretold in the Book of Isaiah. And that assumption is that the events of Christmas morning did not begin 2 ,000 years ago.

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It goes deeper than that. It goes deeper than a night star that led the wise men to his bed. It goes deeper than shepherds watching their flocks by night.

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It goes deeper than Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, and Joseph and their independent interactions with angelic messengers.

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It goes even deeper than a humble child lying in a manger.

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The events of Christmas morning were not the beginning. It was, in fact, the grand finale.

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It was 700 years of hopes, even further than if you go back to the Garden of Eden.

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700 to millennia of hopes, dreams, prophecies, expectations.

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All of that begins to become clear 700 years before the events actually took place.

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And those events become crystal clear in the Book of Isaiah. You see, before the triumphant and miraculous birth of Christ, the people of God were in actually in pitiful shape.

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They were barely hanging on. They were on the brink of utter destruction, chaos, and collapse.

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They were ready to give in. In the year 730 BC, as we've detailed throughout this series, a rising empire called the

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Assyrians were threatening to undo them. Israel and Syria, their neighbors to the north and to the east, were also breathing out threats of war and violence against the people of Judah.

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Which meant that under any normal circumstance, they were going to be utterly destroyed.

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To add to that, God himself, in his justice and in his holiness, was against them.

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They were politically destitute, decaying the line of David. Their kings were morally bankrupt, especially this man named

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Ahaz, who lived during the time of this prophecy. Their spiritual health of the nation was toxic and septic.

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Men and women were bowing down to various idols who were requiring them to sacrifice their own children in the flames.

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They were going to necromancers, mediums, and spiritists. This was the kind of moral decadence and depravity going on in this time in Judah that would have made a clear -minded person sick.

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We think 2020 was bad. God living during this time period makes this look like heaven.

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The nation was descending into chaos and darkness and Isaiah was prophesying about the downfall of the

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Davidic dynasty, the fall of the Jewish nation, and suffering that was going to come upon God's people.

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This was, in fact, the very worst of times. But in a sense, it was also the very best of times.

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Because even against the pitch black darkness, a faint light was shining off in the distance.

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Even though the Davidic kings were going to come to an end, Isaiah foretells of a coming king, a king that is above all kings, a king who's going to be born into the line of David, who is going to bring about a never -ending kingdom, a king who is going to bring light back into the darkened world, a king who is going to rescue

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God's people from their slavery and sin, a king that was going to do all of this. And it's detailed for us right here in Isaiah 9, verses 3 -4, and then 5 -6, we'll tackle in just a moment.

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This is what verses 3 -4 says. You shall multiply the nation.

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You shall increase their gladness. They will be glad in your presence as with gladness of a harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

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For you shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff of their shoulders.

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Isaiah is talking about the coming king. When he says you, he's talking about the king.

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He's not saying you people of Judah are going to multiply the nation. You people of Judah are going to increase your own gladness.

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He's saying a king is coming. And he is addressing this king in this passage.

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It's almost as if Isaiah is turning away from his audience that was living 700 years prior to this coming king.

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It's almost as if he turns from his audience and he stares out into the horizon and he stares down the corridors of time 700 years into the future and he looks

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Jesus Christ in the eyes and he says, you are going to multiply the nation. You are going to increase their gladness.

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You are going to make them glad in God's presence. That's what he's saying. He's saying that Jesus Christ is going to come and multiply the nation.

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He's going to come and make them fruitful again. He's going to make them glad. But the obvious question here is what nation is

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Isaiah talking about? Is he talking about the physical nation of Judah? No, he's not.

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Is he talking about the ethnic nation of the Jewish people? No, he is not. The nation to which this prophecy is given is going to be a holy people.

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It's going to be a nation who will be called a kingdom filled with priests, meaning every single person is going to serve the

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Lord. Every single person is going to come into the presence of God. Every single person is going to be saved by the sacrifice of this great king.

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It's a nation who's going to derive their citizenship, not from earth, not from nations, not from boundaries, not from physicality, but from heaven.

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There'll be citizens of heaven. It's a nation who will actually go out into the entire world and who will to every tribe, tongue, people, and nation proclaim the excellencies of this great king.

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And in the New Testament, this nation is called the church. It's the church who's going to be the king's bride.

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It's the church who's going to be the king's own body, one flesh with her. It's the king or it's the nation.

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It's the church who are going to be God's people, a holy nation dedicated to God because of what

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Jesus Christ, our king has done. Now for a moment,

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I want you to imagine the complexity of the scene. Isaiah is talking about hope that's going to be coming.

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He's talking to Jewish people, but he's talking about a new and better nation, a nation that will no longer struggle with the idolatry that Judah has struggled with a nation that will not bow their knee to the demonic gods, but a nation who will serve a better king and a nation who will bow in fidelity to God alone, a nation who will find their complete joy and satisfaction in God, a nation that the

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Jewish people can be a part of if they follow this king. It's a nation that all people, red, white, black, yellow, tall, small, male, female.

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It is a nation that will include all of the ethnic distinctions.

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It will include all of the different kinds of people all across the world. So long as they bow their knee to this king.

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The text says that this king will come and he will raise up this multi ethnic national global nation and he will not just do that.

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He will increase their joy. He will increase their joy.

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It does not say that he may make this nation, the church glad. It doesn't say that he might bring it into their sorrows or that he possibly could do this.

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If you're from the South, you might say might could. It doesn't say that. It says that he will increase their joy.

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He will bring God's people joy. He will give them a new heart in order to enjoy their

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God. And the question is, how is this king going to do this? Well, ultimately, this king is going to gain victory through being defeated on a cross.

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Every member of the church, past, present and future is in slavery to sin. And it would take this king going to the cross, having our punishment poured out on top of him so that we can find forgiveness.

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Because the debt that we owe God was larger than we can pay. So we needed someone who could pay it. And only

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Jesus Christ who came can take our sins and take our sadness and take our failures and take our curses and our diseases, and he will take them all the way to the cross.

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He will die with the penalty that you and I deserved, and only he could pay that price.

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And the only thing that he will leave for us is better than forgiveness.

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It's better than an empty slate. It's better than a clean record. He's not just coming to forgive us of our sins and leave us with an empty rap sheet.

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He's coming to bring us heaven's joy. For the Christian, he's not just coming to make you neutral with God.

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He's coming to cause you new emotions. He's coming to stir up gladness in your heart. He's coming to make you excited, to give you a depth and a passion for God.

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He is coming to bring heaven's joy coursing through your veins.

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It's one of the ways that you can tell who a Christian is because a

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Christian has joy. A Christian has gladness because of the fact that this king has made his people joyful.

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It's a promise. It's a promise that he will do that for his people. So it's almost as if the text is saying that an angry, bitter, grumpy

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Christian is a contradiction in terms because it says that he will make them glad. He will make them joyful.

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And if they are not glad and are not joyful, maybe they're not his. He's going to call forth the dead souls that are living within each and every single one of us.

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And he's going to cause them to spring to life and be resuscitated into praise. And for those that this great king awakens,

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Isaiah gives two examples. He says they're going to leap like hungry farmers during a bountiful harvest.

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He says that they're going to pump their fists like soldiers who are impressed about the spoils that they've just had from war.

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This king is coming to end the war and to give us the spoils of victory.

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He's going to break the yoke of our burden, a yoke that's not just political, and a burden that's definitely more than physical.

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You see, Judah at this time was suffering under the pressures of Aram, Israel, and Assyria. And of course, they wanted freedom from those geopolitical forces.

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But more than anything, they were and we are suffering under an even more menacing overlord named

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Satan himself, who's been punishing humanity ever since the beginning. This king,

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Jesus, is going to come and he's going to free his people from the tyranny of Lucifer. He's going to unbind the captives and he's going to set them free from their sin.

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This king is going to die for their debts so that he can give them his freedom, his joy, and his peace.

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This is what the people are hoping for. 700 years before the Messiah came, this is what the people of God were waiting on.

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But they could have never imagined how it came, how this king would arrive.

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You see, in their minds, they were looking for a conquering king on the back of a horse, not a political, or they were looking for a political empire.

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They were looking for a nation with prominence, prestige, and power, not an altogether new and different kingdom.

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They could not understand that this king was going to be bringing a spiritual kingdom and that he was going to come in the most inglorious sort of way.

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Instead of being born into a palace, instead of being raised by a king, he would come as a mild and humble babe, lying in a feeding trough that was made for pigs, wrapped in cloths that only a poor woman could afford, turned away from an inn to lie in Bethlehem's stable.

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He came in a way that they could have never imagined, bringing a kingdom that they could never imagine.

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And Isaiah elevates this beautifully in verse 6.

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He says almost the unthinkable. He says something that would take their minds beyond capability of understanding.

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This is what Isaiah says about the coming of this great king, and it is shocking and beautiful and breathtaking, and I hope it blesses you.

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I hope the words of Isaiah 9 6 hit you in a new and special way tonight.

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Look at what it says to these people who are hanging on for dear life, waiting for God to move.

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This is what is promised. For a child will be born to us.

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And a son will be given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders.

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And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God, Eternal Father.

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Prince of Peace. The first part of this astounding statement is astounding enough, they're looking for a ruler, they're looking for someone who was born in a palace even.

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And yet this child is going to be a human boy, powerless at first. That was shocking enough.

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He is going to be from the line of David. He's going to be born through human birth. He's going to live and exist as a man, mostly in poverty for his entire life.

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But he's a man. You can see him, touch him, you can hear him, you can listen to him, you can watch him.

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And he's going to rule in some way. The government is going to rest upon his shoulders. That wasn't all that shocking.

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He's going to be better than his father, David. He's going to reinvigorate the hopes of God's people.

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But it's the second part of this verse that's actually the most astounding. And what's so utterly glorious, how is

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God going to accomplish everything that he's saying that this coming king is going to accomplish? How is he going to do that?

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And it's because this king is something more than just flesh and blood. He's more than just a human.

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He is God in the flesh. He will be the wonderful counselor who does the wonderful works of God with the wisdom and intelligence of God, because he is the mighty

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God. He's Yahweh visiting his people. He's God in the flesh, both human and divine.

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This child will not be the father simply disguised as an infant.

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He will be himself fully God. And I love how

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Athanasius says this in his creed. It's a creed we've read in the shepherd's church before.

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I'm going to read it to you once more, at least a part of it. Athanasius says this.

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Now, this is true faith. That we believe and confess that our

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Lord Jesus Christ, God's son, is both God and human equally.

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He is God from the essence of the father begotten before time, and he is human from the essence of his mother born in time, completely

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God and completely human. That is true faith. And if you don't have that kind of faith and you don't know

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God, it's not about being a good person. It's not about your performance.

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It's not about the things that you can do for other people or for God. It is about knowing this, that the fully

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God, fully man came to this earth for you, for your redemption.

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And it says that he's the prince of peace. Why is he the prince of peace? Because he's the one who's going to come and depose the prince and the power of this earth.

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And that was Satan himself. Satan was on the throne when Christ came. Christ came to depose him.

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Christ came to overthrow that wretched, wicked kingdom and set up God's holy and perfect kingdom in its place.

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That is the king that the people of Isaiah's time were waiting on. And that is the king that we are here to celebrate today by God's great providence.

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This king who was born for them is also the king that was born for us. This is the child that was given not just to them, but for us.

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He's a child who was born in the city of David for our redemption. He's the one who was born savior and our

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Lord. He is the theme of heaven's praises.

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And he is the one. Who has come to set his people free,

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Jesus was born 2000 years ago so that he could live and so that he could die.

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And in his death, he secured our redemption for the time that we have remaining.

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Let's take the opportunity tonight on a night where we get to relish and revel in the incarnation that God became man.

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That this eternal Lord became a baby. Let's celebrate his incarnation because without his incarnation, there is no salvation.

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Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for this season. Lord, we don't get caught up in the consumerism and the lights and materialism.

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And, you know, Lord, we certainly know that there are lots of elements of this season that are not biblical like trees and ornaments and everything else.

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Tensile, holly, mistletoe. And Lord, we're not exactly sure the exact precise moment that you were born.

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Maybe it was summertime. Maybe it was in the fall. But Lord, what we are sure of is that you were born.

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That you visited this earth 2000 years ago and you wrapped yourself. Your divine, eternal nature, you wrapped in human flesh and you did that.

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So that you could become a toddler. So that you could become a child.

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So that you could become a teenager and so that you could become a man. And as a man. Every step of your life was perfectly planned out.

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Every step of your life was leading in the direction of Calvary's cross. And Lord, when you were nailed to that cross for our redemption.

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You secured for us what we could have never secured for ourself. You won the battle.

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And you shared with us the spoils. Lord, thank you. Thank you that it began in a manger.