A Child is Given
Series: Christmas 2024
Speaker: Steve Jeffrey
Date: 22nd December 2024
Passage: Isaiah 9:1-7
00:00:00 --> 00:00:04 Well, good morning, everyone. Great to see you. My name is Steve Jeffrey, if you've never met me
00:00:04 --> 00:00:11 before. I'm married to Natalie. In a previous church, one of the members of that church that
00:00:11 --> 00:00:21 I was part of for 13 years, for 13 years called me Jeff and called Natalie Nicole for 13 years.
00:00:21 --> 00:00:28 About five years ago, and every time, it's Steve. It's Steve. About five years ago, I went back for
00:00:28 --> 00:00:35 a funeral to that church. And now in his early 80s, this gentleman walks up to me and says,
00:00:35 --> 00:00:45 Steve, so good to see you after all this time. How's Nat? And I'm like, how did he do that?
00:00:46 --> 00:00:53 Like, was he ribbing me the whole time that, you know, now I get it. I've got one of those names
00:00:53 --> 00:00:58 where you can, the first name can be the last name and the last name, the first name. And in fact,
00:00:58 --> 00:01:03 it's been one of the bangs all of my life. I've been called Jeff for most of my life. It would
00:01:03 --> 00:01:08 have just been easy for my parents just to call me Jeff. Just Jeff Jeffrey, just solve everything.
00:01:08 --> 00:01:15 And I'll just always answer yes to that. That'd be great. But there are a lot of rules around how to
00:01:15 --> 00:01:23 choose names for children. For instance, you can't choose a name associated with a previous romantic
00:01:23 --> 00:01:31 partner of your spouse. Or if a name reminds you of someone you didn't like at school, those names are
00:01:31 --> 00:01:39 just off the cards. And you also need to think through how do the first names and the last names
00:01:39 --> 00:01:45 roll together? How do they work? You've got to have all that consideration. So, you know, for instance,
00:01:45 --> 00:01:52 the most recent addition to our church family, Hazel Mann over there. Fantastic. I mean, that's a great
00:01:52 --> 00:01:59 choice. In fact, when we heard that, you know, introduced to Hazel, everyone in our family said,
00:01:59 --> 00:02:03 what a great name. Much more appropriate than Anita Mann.
00:02:03 --> 00:02:21 Another one of those not so great combinations is Lois Price. Or a lady that I heard, a lady by the
00:02:21 --> 00:02:26 name of Helen, who married a guy named Rodney Back, she became Helen Back. And apparently after 10 years
00:02:26 --> 00:02:32 of marriage, it pretty much summed it up, from what I understand. As we think through Christmas today,
00:02:32 --> 00:02:41 from the book of Isaiah, we see in the names that have been given to the promised baby, the given baby,
00:02:42 --> 00:02:48 we understand who he is, and we understand what he would achieve. So if you've got the St. Paul's app
00:02:48 --> 00:02:56 in front of you, you'll see in the outline there that this baby is a surprising gift, a remarkable gift,
00:02:56 --> 00:03:04 and a needed gift. So to understand the significance of Christmas, we have to understand
00:03:04 --> 00:03:16 that God had been preparing for the very first Christmas centuries before Mary first lay the baby
00:03:16 --> 00:03:25 Jesus in the feeding trough in Bethlehem. About 700, 800 years before Jesus, we read in Isaiah that God's
00:03:25 --> 00:03:32 people were in an awful lot of people were in the world. And the outlook for them was one of deep darkness.
00:03:32 --> 00:03:39 It was very gloomy. It was a time of very significant national crisis. They were economically ruined. They
00:03:39 --> 00:03:48 were facing invasion from their enemies. This was a time of deep, deep darkness. The nations to the north were
00:03:48 --> 00:03:54 threatening to come in and to annex and to destroy, which is what those nations had done.
00:03:55 --> 00:03:59 Previously, they'd gone in and entirely annihilated. And so that was the threat.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:06 And so if you go back a couple of chapters in Isaiah 7, King Ahaz sits on the throne of Judah.
00:04:07 --> 00:04:11 And God says to Ahaz, through the prophet Isaiah,
00:04:11 --> 00:04:16 Isaiah, mate, fear not, trust me, keep calm. Don't worry about it. I've got it under control.
00:04:17 --> 00:04:28 And so Isaiah prompts King Ahaz to ask God for a sign to confirm for him that God is in fact trustworthy,
00:04:28 --> 00:04:32 that he is righteous, that he will bring justice, that he is good.
00:04:34 --> 00:04:39 Ahaz basically replies with the Steve Jeffrey version,
00:04:39 --> 00:04:44 thanks but no thanks, I've got it under control. I can handle this problem all by myself.
00:04:46 --> 00:04:55 And with that response, God says that I'm going to give you a sign anyway. And it's in chapter 7,
00:04:55 --> 00:05:02 verse 14, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and we will call him Emmanuel.
00:05:04 --> 00:05:09 Now we read that in Christmas time and it's a time of hope. In Isaiah 7, it wasn't.
00:05:09 --> 00:05:18 That promise was a promise of judgment in Isaiah 7. It's a promise that I'm going to start my kingdom
00:05:18 --> 00:05:26 all over again through a child born through a virgin. You see, Ahaz in this moment thinks,
00:05:26 --> 00:05:34 I can get on without God. I am the Davidic king. I'm descendant of David. I can get on without God.
00:05:34 --> 00:05:40 But God says, in actual fact, Ahaz, I'm going to get on without you. And that's the real crisis.
00:05:41 --> 00:05:47 Not the nations to the north. The real crisis for God's people in the beginning of Isaiah is that
00:05:47 --> 00:05:50 they're consistent rejection of God.
00:05:50 --> 00:06:00 And this rejection leads them further and further down the road into gloom, defeat and darkness.
00:06:00 --> 00:06:07 In fact, in chapter 8, we read that. It just gets darker and darker and darker as judgment descends.
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 And then you get to chapter 9, verse 1.
00:06:11 --> 00:06:17 Here's the promise of hope.
00:06:17 --> 00:06:18 Verse 2.
00:06:21 --> 00:06:35 Light will dawn in the form of a baby.
00:06:35 --> 00:06:42 And for these people walking in darkness and distress and uncertainty, God told them that
00:06:42 --> 00:06:45 what you need more than anything else is a baby.
00:06:47 --> 00:06:48 The gift of a baby.
00:06:50 --> 00:06:55 And like all great gifts, this gift is a surprise.
00:06:55 --> 00:07:07 Ahaz thinks that the light will come for him and for God's people in an alliance with Assyria.
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 That's where he thinks the light will come.
00:07:10 --> 00:07:17 If he joins forces with a strong and powerful nation to defend them,
00:07:19 --> 00:07:20 God says, nope.
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 It's coming in a baby.
00:07:23 --> 00:07:25 That's the first surprise.
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 The second surprise is in verse 1 where it says,
00:07:29 --> 00:07:35 In the future, he will honour Galilee of the nations by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan.
00:07:37 --> 00:07:41 You see, Isaiah's readers would have thought that,
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 well, if God was going to do something big, something miraculous,
00:07:45 --> 00:07:48 he's going to do it from divine headquarters in Jerusalem.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:50 Not so.
00:07:50 --> 00:07:56 Salvation is coming out of Galilee of the nations.
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 Galilee had a dubious reputation.
00:08:02 --> 00:08:08 Twenty Galilean towns had been given to the king of Tyre by King Solomon.
00:08:08 --> 00:08:14 When he received them and went and looked at them, he was so underwhelmed,
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 he nicknamed them the land of Kabul,
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 which means the land good for nothing.
00:08:20 --> 00:08:21 The land good for nothing.
00:08:21 --> 00:08:36 Everywhere in the Bible, we see God loves to bring greatness and glory and power and salvation into our lives
00:08:36 --> 00:08:41 in ways that we would never, ever expect.
00:08:41 --> 00:08:47 Ahaz didn't expect the baby to be the dawn of hope.
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 And the vast majority of humanity today still don't expect it either.
00:08:52 --> 00:09:02 You see, the reason why Isaiah 7 and Isaiah 9 are read nearly every Christmas
00:09:02 --> 00:09:09 is because their fingerprints are all over the biographies of Jesus' life.
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 Luke 1, we read,
00:09:11 --> 00:09:17 God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, just in case we weren't sure,
00:09:18 --> 00:09:24 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.
00:09:25 --> 00:09:26 The virgin's name was Mary.
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 Luke tells us Nazareth is in Galilee.
00:09:29 --> 00:09:34 He tells us the angel came to a virgin, as Isaiah 7.14 says.
00:09:34 --> 00:09:39 We are told that he's about to be married to a descendant of David, as Isaiah 9.7 says.
00:09:40 --> 00:09:46 In chapter 4 of his biography, Matthew quotes from Isaiah 9 to show us that Jesus is clearly
00:09:46 --> 00:09:51 the promised dawning of light and hope from Isaiah 9.
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 The early ministry of Jesus took place in Galilee.
00:09:56 --> 00:10:01 That is where the light first dawned for an occupied people.
00:10:01 --> 00:10:09 But the real point and surprise is that Jesus is not holding a light.
00:10:10 --> 00:10:12 He is the light.
00:10:14 --> 00:10:20 We see this in the names that the baby is given in Isaiah 9.
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 A surprising gift is also a remarkable gift.
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 This is a remarkable baby.
00:10:27 --> 00:10:32 In ancient cultures, a person's name was not arbitrary.
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34 It was an identity marker, if you like.
00:10:35 --> 00:10:42 Nowadays, we don't give names in our culture as identity markers, per se.
00:10:43 --> 00:10:47 Like, you know, Stephen means crown or king.
00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 That's not an identity marker in any way.
00:10:50 --> 00:10:58 Although I was given the name fox in high school, the nickname fox, because I had red hair.
00:10:58 --> 00:11:02 Now, at best, I could be called mangy fox or silver fox.
00:11:02 --> 00:11:04 Not really sure, but I had a big bunch of red hair.
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07 That's an identity marker nickname, if you like.
00:11:07 --> 00:11:08 Have a look at verse 7.
00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 A child will be born for us.
00:11:12 --> 00:11:14 A son will be given to us.
00:11:14 --> 00:11:19 And the government, in other words, all rule will be on his shoulders, and he'll be named
00:11:19 --> 00:11:23 Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
00:11:23 --> 00:11:27 The child will be called Wonderful Counselor.
00:11:27 --> 00:11:36 You see, Ahaz and God's people got into such a mess because they lacked or they ignored the wise counsel of God.
00:11:38 --> 00:11:43 Isaiah promises that a baby born will be a Wonderful Counselor.
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 Now, that doesn't mean that he's going to be a really good psychologist.
00:11:45 --> 00:11:55 It means that the baby will have miraculous or, if you like, supernatural wisdom.
00:11:56 --> 00:12:01 A couple of chapters later in Isaiah, we read this idea elaborated on.
00:12:02 --> 00:12:04 The spirit of the Lord will rest on him.
00:12:04 --> 00:12:06 The spirit of wisdom and understanding.
00:12:06 --> 00:12:07 The spirit of counsel and of might.
00:12:08 --> 00:12:09 The spirit of the knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
00:12:10 --> 00:12:12 And he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
00:12:12 --> 00:12:17 He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide by what he hears with his ears.
00:12:17 --> 00:12:20 But with righteousness, he will judge the needy.
00:12:20 --> 00:12:23 With justice, he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
00:12:23 --> 00:12:34 What that's saying is that Jesus, this baby promised, will have insight, supernatural insight, in the way the world works.
00:12:34 --> 00:12:45 All of his words, all of his decisions, will be just and righteous and true.
00:12:45 --> 00:12:49 Proverbs 4 says that his words are life and health.
00:12:49 --> 00:12:54 John tells us that his words bring eternal life and they set us free.
00:12:54 --> 00:13:01 But Jesus is not just simply a wise sage or a good teacher.
00:13:03 --> 00:13:07 Hebrews 4 tells us that he's able to sympathise us in every way.
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 This is a God who became human.
00:13:12 --> 00:13:16 A God who knew temptation, rejections, loneliness, hunger.
00:13:16 --> 00:13:19 He knows what it is to be us.
00:13:19 --> 00:13:29 And the Hebrew word that's translated counselor here means the one who advises, instructs, guides through every issue with authority.
00:13:30 --> 00:13:36 Not just a good listener, but someone who guides, instructs with authority.
00:13:38 --> 00:13:42 He's the one who has the experience to understand what we're going through.
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45 The wisdom to work out the solution and the power to enact it.
00:13:45 --> 00:13:54 You see, Isaiah is referring to a supernatural light dawning in the darkness of our lives.
00:13:56 --> 00:14:01 And so Jesus is saying to you, this Christmas, the path of pain?
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04 Yep, I've endured that.
00:14:05 --> 00:14:05 Loneliness?
00:14:06 --> 00:14:07 I know it.
00:14:08 --> 00:14:09 Temptation?
00:14:09 --> 00:14:10 Knew that too.
00:14:10 --> 00:14:10 Betrayal?
00:14:10 --> 00:14:11 Loss?
00:14:11 --> 00:14:11 Heartache?
00:14:11 --> 00:14:15 I've walked all of those roads for you.
00:14:16 --> 00:14:20 And I can reliably show you the way through every one of them.
00:14:21 --> 00:14:26 You see, life's greatest discovery is knowing Jesus.
00:14:26 --> 00:14:28 Knowing that he loves you.
00:14:28 --> 00:14:31 Knowing that he's promised to always be with you.
00:14:31 --> 00:14:38 Knowing he's planned to work out every single thing for the good of those who trust him.
00:14:38 --> 00:14:48 And the reason why Jesus is able to bring such light in the darkness of the world is not simply because he's the ultimate therapist.
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 It's because he is the mighty God.
00:14:52 --> 00:15:01 The claim is that out there, beyond what we can see and measure, is a God.
00:15:01 --> 00:15:09 When Isaiah spoke about mighty God, he's not just referring to some random divine being.
00:15:09 --> 00:15:16 He means the God who has been with Israel since they were a teeny weedy little family.
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 Right through to this day with our nation.
00:15:20 --> 00:15:27 Way before Isaiah, Israel's leader Moses spoke, asked God what his name was.
00:15:27 --> 00:15:32 And God responded simply by saying, I am.
00:15:32 --> 00:15:33 Try that at morning tea.
00:15:33 --> 00:15:35 When you use yourself to say, my name's Steve.
00:15:35 --> 00:15:36 You know, what's your name?
00:15:36 --> 00:15:37 I am.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:38 Yeah.
00:15:40 --> 00:15:43 What it means here, this is from Exodus 3.
00:15:43 --> 00:15:49 It at least means that God is someone who is all that people need.
00:15:50 --> 00:15:57 That there is no lack in him that he cannot overcome because there's no lack in him himself.
00:15:58 --> 00:16:01 He's not defined by anyone else.
00:16:01 --> 00:16:05 He just simply and eternally is.
00:16:05 --> 00:16:13 And God would remind them of his name over and over and over again throughout the centuries.
00:16:13 --> 00:16:16 Whenever they were in great distress or in fear or in need.
00:16:16 --> 00:16:27 In fact, God uses his name to describe himself a total of 6 times in the Old Testament.
00:16:29 --> 00:16:32 I calculated them by using Google the other day.
00:16:32 --> 00:16:44 And when Isaiah says to us, a child is given, he would be called mighty God.
00:16:44 --> 00:16:55 He was saying that one day, one day the great I am would be born as a tiny baby.
00:16:55 --> 00:16:58 That's the promise of light dawning into our dark world.
00:16:58 --> 00:17:05 The eternal, all-sufficient I am was going to enter his world as a helpless baby.
00:17:05 --> 00:17:10 That is the Bible's astounding claim about the first Christmas.
00:17:10 --> 00:17:18 And to see the truth of it, you need to fast forward 30 years past the first Christmas to see this baby, now a man,
00:17:19 --> 00:17:22 doing things that only a powerful deity would do.
00:17:22 --> 00:17:24 In fact, he did do in the Old Testament.
00:17:24 --> 00:17:29 Things like calming a storm, walking on water, curing blindness and deafness and paralysis.
00:17:29 --> 00:17:30 He raised the dead.
00:17:30 --> 00:17:36 He fed multitudes of people with a packed lunch.
00:17:37 --> 00:17:39 He rose from the dead.
00:17:39 --> 00:17:48 Jesus is the only, only leader of a major world religion who ever claimed to be the divine in our existence.
00:17:48 --> 00:17:59 He was entirely humble in his character and yet entirely self-centred in regard to who he claimed to be.
00:18:00 --> 00:18:08 And we do not come to terms with the meaning of Christmas until we come to terms with who Jesus declares himself to be.
00:18:09 --> 00:18:14 The outrageous claim of Christmas is that God is with us.
00:18:14 --> 00:18:19 Jesus, the great I am, is more than raw power.
00:18:20 --> 00:18:23 He is personal and present.
00:18:24 --> 00:18:26 You see, life looks very different.
00:18:27 --> 00:18:34 If you know in every trial, in every challenge, in every heartache, the great I am is with you.
00:18:37 --> 00:18:39 Jesus is also referred to as the eternal father.
00:18:39 --> 00:18:40 Father.
00:18:40 --> 00:18:45 The word father will produce all kinds of different reactions in us.
00:18:46 --> 00:18:56 For some, the word makes us smile because of the joy of being a dad or because the experience of a great dad in our lives.
00:18:56 --> 00:19:02 For some, it's a smile that's tinged with sadness because the great dad is no longer with you.
00:19:02 --> 00:19:06 For others, the word brings up all kinds of complicated emotions.
00:19:07 --> 00:19:09 It wants to make you cry, shout.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:19 In fact, it's possible that some of the greatest pain in your life is because of your relationship with your father.
00:19:19 --> 00:19:23 But God is different.
00:19:24 --> 00:19:26 And that's what we read here.
00:19:26 --> 00:19:26 God is different.
00:19:28 --> 00:19:30 He's not just an all-powerful authority being.
00:19:30 --> 00:19:33 He is referred to as the eternal father.
00:19:33 --> 00:19:34 It's a relational term.
00:19:36 --> 00:19:38 God is very different to the never-satisfied dad
00:19:38 --> 00:19:43 who rarely, if ever, expresses that they are proud of their children.
00:19:43 --> 00:19:46 Zephaniah 3, verse 17.
00:19:47 --> 00:19:49 We read about how God treats those he loves.
00:19:49 --> 00:19:54 As the eternal father, the Lord will rejoice over you, we glad, as he will be quiet in his love.
00:19:55 --> 00:19:58 He will delight in you with singing.
00:19:59 --> 00:20:00 He delights.
00:20:01 --> 00:20:03 He's not like the time bomb dad.
00:20:04 --> 00:20:10 You know, there's nothing safe at all about the dad who explodes at any given moment.
00:20:10 --> 00:20:15 It's hard to trust someone who at any moment may be in a bad mood or is inconsistent
00:20:15 --> 00:20:18 or you are dodging the outbursts.
00:20:19 --> 00:20:24 This is how Exodus 34 speaks of God's character.
00:20:24 --> 00:20:26 The Lord is compassionate and gracious.
00:20:26 --> 00:20:29 He's a gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love.
00:20:30 --> 00:20:32 Jesus is quick to love.
00:20:32 --> 00:20:33 He is slow to anger.
00:20:35 --> 00:20:37 He's also not the emotionally distant dad.
00:20:37 --> 00:20:44 The mighty God is so emotionally connected to you that he will not rest until you are brought home.
00:20:45 --> 00:20:48 You see that in Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son.
00:20:50 --> 00:20:52 The eternal father is not the absent dad.
00:20:53 --> 00:20:58 The child with the absent dad harbours deep feelings of personal rejection,
00:20:59 --> 00:21:01 that they were not worthy enough for their father's presence.
00:21:01 --> 00:21:05 Hebrews 13, we are told he will never leave us.
00:21:06 --> 00:21:07 He would never forsake us.
00:21:07 --> 00:21:08 He will never abandon us.
00:21:10 --> 00:21:14 Jesus is the only one who doesn't leave, who doesn't disappoint,
00:21:15 --> 00:21:18 who doesn't fail, who doesn't hurt, who doesn't die.
00:21:20 --> 00:21:23 He's eternal and he is eternal.
00:21:23 --> 00:21:30 And his promise is that he will love you like the perfect father forever.
00:21:34 --> 00:21:36 And that's why he's such a needed gift for us.
00:21:38 --> 00:21:43 In the last name given to this baby in Isaiah 9,
00:21:43 --> 00:21:46 we see what this baby will achieve.
00:21:46 --> 00:21:48 He will be called Prince of Peace.
00:21:48 --> 00:21:54 In Isaiah's time, Ahaz and God's people didn't realise that the rejection of God
00:21:54 --> 00:21:58 was in fact their foundational and their biggest issue.
00:21:59 --> 00:22:02 They were so fearful of their enemies to the north
00:22:02 --> 00:22:06 and yet they failed to see that they were in fact at war with God.
00:22:08 --> 00:22:13 The dysfunction we see in all layers of life in this world
00:22:13 --> 00:22:17 is the symptom of a much, much bigger issue.
00:22:18 --> 00:22:23 A dysfunctional relationship with a God who has made us all.
00:22:24 --> 00:22:29 And we don't enjoy peace in our lives and in our world
00:22:29 --> 00:22:34 because we don't enjoy peace with God.
00:22:35 --> 00:22:41 Our greatest relational problem is our lack of relationship with God.
00:22:41 --> 00:22:45 Our greatest poverty is the spiritual poverty of not knowing God.
00:22:45 --> 00:22:50 The greatest injustice is in fact the way we have treated our creator.
00:22:51 --> 00:22:57 And this has left every single human soul with a deep longing
00:22:57 --> 00:23:04 to be settled, to find acceptance, to find peace.
00:23:05 --> 00:23:07 In fact, it's much deeper.
00:23:07 --> 00:23:12 We actually live a life pursuing conflict with God.
00:23:13 --> 00:23:16 We don't want him to be in charge.
00:23:16 --> 00:23:17 We don't want him to be God.
00:23:17 --> 00:23:19 We don't want to think that we need him.
00:23:20 --> 00:23:20 We want...
00:23:20 --> 00:23:21 Or that he...
00:23:22 --> 00:23:24 You know, that we should praise him in any way.
00:23:25 --> 00:23:27 We go, we've got it.
00:23:28 --> 00:23:29 Got it under control.
00:23:30 --> 00:23:31 Don't need your help.
00:23:31 --> 00:23:37 The Bible's word for such an attitude is called sin.
00:23:38 --> 00:23:39 It's the problem we all have.
00:23:39 --> 00:23:42 We turn away from God to get freedom, approval and acceptance.
00:23:43 --> 00:23:46 We make alliances with our careers, with our families,
00:23:46 --> 00:23:49 with everything else to give us, to fill us up with what we need
00:23:49 --> 00:23:51 more than anything else.
00:23:51 --> 00:23:54 And yet all we get is a feeling of vulnerability,
00:23:55 --> 00:23:58 of being exposed, being under judgment, in darkness,
00:23:58 --> 00:24:01 always seeking but never getting.
00:24:03 --> 00:24:05 It is not a peaceful life.
00:24:05 --> 00:24:07 It is a restless life.
00:24:08 --> 00:24:10 And that's why Jesus came.
00:24:11 --> 00:24:14 The title Prince of Peace points to dealing with this issue.
00:24:14 --> 00:24:19 Into the darkness of a world of rebellion against God,
00:24:19 --> 00:24:21 God sent a baby.
00:24:23 --> 00:24:24 Born of a virgin.
00:24:25 --> 00:24:30 He didn't send an army to destroy our rebellion.
00:24:33 --> 00:24:39 He made an alliance with himself to destroy himself
00:24:39 --> 00:24:44 by turning his justice on himself in order that we would be set free
00:24:44 --> 00:24:46 and find peace.
00:24:46 --> 00:24:50 Isaiah 53 verse 5 puts it like this.
00:24:50 --> 00:24:51 He was pierced.
00:24:51 --> 00:24:52 Speaking about the baby,
00:24:53 --> 00:24:54 he was pierced for our rebellion,
00:24:55 --> 00:24:57 crushed because of our iniquities.
00:24:57 --> 00:25:00 Punishment for our peace was on him.
00:25:01 --> 00:25:03 And we are healed by his wounds.
00:25:05 --> 00:25:08 You see, what Christmas does in every instance
00:25:08 --> 00:25:12 consistently points us to Easter and the cost of our peace.
00:25:12 --> 00:25:16 On a cross just outside of Jerusalem,
00:25:16 --> 00:25:18 the wonderful counsellor, the mighty God,
00:25:18 --> 00:25:20 the eternal father, the prince of peace,
00:25:20 --> 00:25:25 absorbed the pain and the penalty for our rebellion
00:25:25 --> 00:25:29 against his rule and our rejection of his love.
00:25:29 --> 00:25:33 Christmas makes no sense whatsoever without Easter.
00:25:33 --> 00:25:41 Jesus being the prince of peace doesn't make sense
00:25:41 --> 00:25:45 until we realise that the peace he came to bring
00:25:45 --> 00:25:47 was the peace that we most need.
00:25:49 --> 00:25:53 He brings a solution to humanity's deepest problem,
00:25:54 --> 00:25:56 not a vaccine for a virus,
00:25:56 --> 00:25:58 which you might have hoped for several years ago,
00:25:58 --> 00:26:01 but forgiveness for our sin.
00:26:02 --> 00:26:07 The prince of peace brought us peace with God.
00:26:08 --> 00:26:11 All the lights that are on display at Christmas time
00:26:11 --> 00:26:19 are symbolic of the light that has dawned
00:26:19 --> 00:26:22 into the darkness of our sin and our brokenness.
00:26:23 --> 00:26:27 John, in fact, opens his biography of Jesus like this.
00:26:27 --> 00:26:30 He was with God in the beginning, speaking about Jesus.
00:26:31 --> 00:26:33 Through him, all things were made.
00:26:33 --> 00:26:35 He's God, the mighty God.
00:26:35 --> 00:26:37 Without him, nothing has been made that has been made.
00:26:38 --> 00:26:39 In him was life,
00:26:40 --> 00:26:45 and that life was the light of all humanity.
00:26:47 --> 00:26:49 In the coming of Jesus,
00:26:49 --> 00:26:51 the light shines in the darkness,
00:26:52 --> 00:26:55 and the darkness has not overcome it.
00:26:57 --> 00:27:00 And what the beautiful words of Isaiah 9 are
00:27:00 --> 00:27:06 is that this baby was a gift.
00:27:07 --> 00:27:10 A son is given.
00:27:10 --> 00:27:11 Given.
00:27:12 --> 00:27:13 What a gift.
00:27:14 --> 00:27:17 A couple of chapters later in John's Gospel,
00:27:18 --> 00:27:20 we read the most famous Bible verse of all,
00:27:20 --> 00:27:21 for God so loved the world
00:27:21 --> 00:27:26 that he gave his only son.
00:27:27 --> 00:27:30 And at the beginning of John's biography of Jesus' life,
00:27:31 --> 00:27:34 we read what Jesus offers us as the prince of peace.
00:27:34 --> 00:27:37 To all who did receive him,
00:27:37 --> 00:27:41 he gave them the right to be the children of God,
00:27:41 --> 00:27:46 to those who believe in his name.
00:27:46 --> 00:27:49 Names matter.
00:27:51 --> 00:27:52 Names matter.
00:27:54 --> 00:27:56 What we call someone matters.
00:27:58 --> 00:28:01 So what do you call God this Christmas?
00:28:01 --> 00:28:03 You see,
00:28:03 --> 00:28:04 believing in Jesus' name
00:28:04 --> 00:28:06 doesn't mean that you believe he existed.
00:28:07 --> 00:28:09 Doesn't mean that you believe that he can help you.
00:28:10 --> 00:28:12 Or even that he rose from the dead.
00:28:13 --> 00:28:16 It means receiving who he is
00:28:16 --> 00:28:18 into your life,
00:28:18 --> 00:28:19 according to John 1.
00:28:19 --> 00:28:23 It means recognizing that Jesus isn't just a great bloke,
00:28:24 --> 00:28:25 and left us with some great thoughts,
00:28:25 --> 00:28:26 and some teaching,
00:28:26 --> 00:28:28 and some moral things to follow and do.
00:28:28 --> 00:28:31 It means much more than that.
00:28:32 --> 00:28:35 It means receiving his name.
00:28:36 --> 00:28:39 So what might be your next step this Christmas?
00:28:40 --> 00:28:42 Is, for instance, he your wonderful counselor,
00:28:43 --> 00:28:45 in whom you give the right
00:28:45 --> 00:28:48 to guide and direct your life through his word?
00:28:50 --> 00:28:55 Are you earnestly pursuing knowledge of the scriptures?
00:28:55 --> 00:28:58 Is your next step,
00:28:59 --> 00:29:02 is he your mighty God,
00:29:02 --> 00:29:06 to whom you entrust and surrender all of your life,
00:29:06 --> 00:29:08 the one who has right to rule over you?
00:29:09 --> 00:29:11 Do you worship him as supreme,
00:29:11 --> 00:29:14 or are the idols of your life still controlling
00:29:14 --> 00:29:15 what is most important?
00:29:16 --> 00:29:17 Is he your eternal father,
00:29:18 --> 00:29:20 the one whose love awakens you,
00:29:21 --> 00:29:22 encourage you,
00:29:22 --> 00:29:24 fills you,
00:29:25 --> 00:29:26 sustains you?
00:29:27 --> 00:29:28 Do you go to him
00:29:28 --> 00:29:31 as a fully approved
00:29:31 --> 00:29:33 and total dependent child?
00:29:35 --> 00:29:37 Is he your prince of peace,
00:29:38 --> 00:29:41 in whom you have put your faith
00:29:41 --> 00:29:43 as the one who has died in your place,
00:29:43 --> 00:29:46 who has turned away God's anger,
00:29:46 --> 00:29:48 so that you might be fully forgiven,
00:29:49 --> 00:29:50 fully accepted,
00:29:50 --> 00:29:52 and fully free forever?
00:29:52 --> 00:29:53 You see,
00:29:54 --> 00:29:55 receiving him
00:29:55 --> 00:29:59 means receiving his name.
00:30:01 --> 00:30:03 All of those things for you.
00:30:04 --> 00:30:05 Receiving him means
00:30:05 --> 00:30:07 that whatever you have been searching for
00:30:07 --> 00:30:08 all of your life,
00:30:08 --> 00:30:10 you find it only
00:30:10 --> 00:30:12 in the one who is at the center of Christmas.
00:30:14 --> 00:30:15 When we come to him
00:30:15 --> 00:30:18 and we receive his name,
00:30:18 --> 00:30:20 we receive the approval,
00:30:20 --> 00:30:22 the affirmation,
00:30:22 --> 00:30:23 the love,
00:30:24 --> 00:30:26 we need more than anything else.
00:30:28 --> 00:30:30 A son has been given
00:30:30 --> 00:30:33 so that we might be received
00:30:33 --> 00:30:35 as children of God.
00:30:35 --> 00:30:37 That's the gift he offers you
00:30:37 --> 00:30:38 this Christmas.
00:30:38 --> 00:30:41 We're going to play with God.
00:30:41 --> 00:30:44 I'm sorry.
00:30:44 --> 00:30:44 But I see that when we look at him,
00:30:45 --> 00:30:46 it's not aimatum.
00:30:46 --> 00:30:47 But the truth is no doubt
00:30:47 --> 00:30:47 I do not know.
00:30:47 --> 00:30:48 It's not a father.
00:30:48 --> 00:30:48 Sometimes it's a quelque animal
00:30:48 --> 00:30:49 like a animal of the limo,
00:30:49 --> 00:30:50 but even the youth
00:30:50 --> 00:30:51 comes in.