Date: 1 December 2024, 9.30 am
Speaker: Ps Daniel Tan Sermon Text: Isaiah 9:1-7
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TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Blessed Sunday to everyone, both here in Henderson and those who are tuning in online. Once again, welcome to Hermon’s Sunday Service ….
It was New Year’s eve in the 1960s and Gloria was expecting her 3rd child.
The 1960s was a time when the drug culture was in full swing. There was racial tension and in the schools, there was this trend of ‘God is dead’ thinking that was becoming increasingly popular.
Her husband Bill was also physically and emotionally down as he had been suffering a viral infection for some time. It had caused swollen lymph glands, fever, sore throat, and extreme fatigue.
To add to all that, they had just been verbally attacked by a close friend regarding the Christian ministry they were serving in.
Experiencing all that was happening to them, their ministry and their country, Gloria and Bill wondered, who in their right mind would bring a child into a world like this?
With the just concluded celebrations of Christmas at the back of their minds, they began to be drawn towards Easter and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Gloria shared, “I can’t quite explain what happened at that moment, but suddenly I felt released from it all. The panic that had begun to build inside was gently dispelled by a reassuring presence that engulfed my life and drew my attention.
Gradually, the fear left and the joy began to return. I knew I could have that baby and face the future with optimism and trust. It was the Resurrection affirming itself in our lives once again. It was life conquering death in the regularity of my day.”
Gloria and Bill went on to write the hymn that has been a blessing to many of us - Because He Lives. And the first stanza begins with the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God sent His son, they called Him, Jesus;
He came to love, heal and forgive;
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!
Last Sunday, we ended our Genesis series with Joseph. Joseph died in Egypt at 110, having lived 93 of those years in Egypt.
Yet Moses records Joseph reminding his family, God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
When God surely visits, you are to carry up my bones from here in Egypt and bring it back to Canaan, the Promised Land.
Through the eyes of faith, Joseph, knew that God will keep His promise to the family of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. A promise that will happen only 400 years later.
That exodus was God delivering them from Egyptian slavery.
Israel subsequently settled into the land of Canaan during the time of Joshua and the context of Isaiah 9 is after the reign of King David and Solomon.
Isaiah 9 speaks of the upcoming exile of Israel into the hands of the Assyrians. God was using a foreign power to discipline Israel for their disobedience.
The ending of Isaiah 8 would seem even more gloomy that the 1960s for it is recorded of the Israelites :
Isa 8:22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
Yet, in the midst of such darkness, Isaiah does a 360 degree turn and encourages in chapter 9, there will be a deliverance. There will be both a near term deliverance and a further term deliverance.
The near-term deliverance will happen as recorded in the books of Nehemiah and Ezra.
But more importantly, Isaiah is prophesying a final deliverance that will happen at the first Christmas, 700 years from the time of Isaiah.
As Ps Luwin has reminded us last week, that final exodus begun anew when Jesus died on the cross to defeat the powers of this world, and deliver his people from slavery to sin and death.
This final deliverance Isaiah prophesied will have a King from the line of David who will reign from that time on and forever.
The practical implication of it is reflected in the hymn we cherish – only because of the incarnation then, this is a reality,
Because He lives (and reigns forever), I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives (and is king for all eternity), all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!
I submit for all of us, the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophesy is cause for our rejoicing at Christmas.
It is cause for our rejoicing in spite of everything that is happening to us in 2024. It is cause for our rejoicing in spite of everything that is going to happen to us in 2025.
As we go through these 7 verses of Isaiah 9, may I offer for our consideration, 3 reasons Isaiah gives in this passage for our rejoicing.
For there is light at the end of the tunnel (v1-2)
We can rejoice at Christmas because there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Isa 9:1 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, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
Imagine you are now in the Palestine or in Ukraine. Amidst all the bombing that you have experienced in the past 12 months, would you not be asking God, when will it all end.
Is there even the possibility of any light at the end of this dark tunnel?
The prophesy of exile by Isaiah is realized in 2 Kgs 15:
2 Kg 15:29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carried the people captive to Assyria.
Despite this, Isaiah 9 says, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress.
Significantly, Isaiah is referring to something that is going to happen in the future, yet he is mentioning it as if it has already happened.
It’s like how Joseph spoke about the future redemption of Israel from Egypt.
As in the time of Joseph and Isaiah, so too throughout history, we have always experienced, wars, disasters, diseases, and death. Why is that so?
Because we have gone through Genesis, we know the answer. It is the result of sin.
Sin is our deliberate disobedience towards God and His ways. The Psalmist tells us all humans are conceived in sin (Ps 51:5). It’s our fallen nature.
The exile of Israel into the hands of the Assyrians points to the bigger dilemma that mankind has.
And Paul tells us what it is in the book of Romans:
Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Wars, disasters, diseases and even death is not our biggest problem. Sin is and that means the wrath of God is upon us all.
Why is death not even our biggest problem, because the punishment of sin will go on for eternity.
But Isaiah says there is light at the end of the tunnel for us.
The New Testament tells us Isaiah’s prophecy has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
Mt 4:12 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — 16 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The kingdom of this world is ruled by Satan. But in the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth, the kingdom of heaven has broken into history.
Isaiah, said, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them has light shined.
The Gospel writers tell us that Jesus is that light. Jesus is the light of the World.
Thus, Apostle Paul gives us the wonderful news :
Col 1:13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The exodus that Joseph spoke of, points to the bigger picture of our exodus from slavery to sin. And that is what Isaiah’s prophecy points to.
There is light at the end of the tunnel. The solution to man’s eternal problem has arrived in the baby born in the manger that first Christmas in Bethlehem.
Today, we are on the other side of the Incarnation, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The truth from the bible have been proven conclusively. The promise in Genesis 3:15 that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent has been fulfilled.
This Christmas, in the light of Isaiah 9:1-2, let us be encouraged to trust God’s Word. Our hearts can rejoice for His Word is true and His Word never fails.
For God has won us the victory (v3-5)
We can rejoice at Christmas because God has won us the victory.
Isa 9:3 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. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
Isaiah continues to use the past tense as he speaks about the victory that God will win at the cross on Calvary over 700 years later.
This is the type of faith that we have seen in Genesis in the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And as we have quoted over the last few sermons, their faith is described in Hebrews:
Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
During Isaiah’s time, few in Israel believed in the salvation that Isaiah foretold. But God has made it come to pass that many will come to believe in Christ Jesus.
God multiplied the nation by including the Gentiles into His kingdom. We see that in the book of Acts, how the Gospel went from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samarian and then to the ends of the earth.
Today, you and I contribute to this fact of Isaiah 9:3. And the mission of the church continues contribute to Isaiah 9:3 for that is the Great Commission.
That is Hermon’s mission too - to glorify God by being and to making disciple of Christ Jesus.
And we rejoice is it not, when a new soul is saved. We rejoice when a yet-believer places his or her trust in Christ Jesus.
Isaiah describes the rejoicing like that of witnessing a bountiful harvest or the massive plunder brought home from winning a war.
It speaks of beholding an abundance before our eyes. It speaks of receiving it as one who did nothing to achieve the success.
To ensure that we know we contributed nothing to the success, Isaiah mentions the battle at Midian. This is found in Judges 7. This is the battle God won through Gideon.
Gideon, we know was no warrior. When God told him to save Israel from the Midianites, Gideon said, who am I to do so, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father’s house (Judges 6:15).
To ensure that the battle was to be won by God and not by Israel, God instructed Gideon to reduce the number of fighting men from 22,000 to 300.
Jdg 7:2 The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me …. 22 When they blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
At the battle, all they did was to surround the Midianites, break the jars they were caring and blow the trumpets. Scripture says, it was the Lord that set the Midianite soldiers against each other.
As God used Gideon to break the yoke of Midianite oppression upon Israel, God has sent Jesus to break the yoke of sin’s slavery upon mankind.
And so Scripture says when we become a disciple of Christ, sin’s hold on us has been broken.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
This is cause for rejoicing church. The tyranny, domination, and rule of sin have been defeated for us. It means we are now made alive and we now can have the ability to choose to obey God.
As believers, there is thus the possibility of sanctification. The ability to become more and more like Jesus.
This yoke of sin upon believers have been so decisively broken that v5 tells us that all the battle gear of the soldiers for war, need not be kept anymore.
All battle gear can now be used as fuel for the fire. They can be totally burned up.
The victory Jesus won at Calvary is a decisive one. Once and for all, Jesus has broken the curse of sin.
Heb 10:12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Jesus has paid for our sins both past, present and future.
Isaiah’s prophecy of the incarnation of God, led to Christ once for all sacrifice that has broken the yoke of sin.
Church, this is cause for rejoicing. God has won the victory for us.
This Christmas, in the light of Isaiah 9:3-5, let us rest in the salvation won by Jesus at Calvary.
Church, let us rejoice in the Incarnation, for Jesus became man so that He can break the yoke of sin for us.
For our Saviour is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace (v6-7)
We can rejoice at Christmas because our Saviour is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.
Isa 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 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. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
These names of Jesus, identifies and explains for us the character of our Saviour.
Let’s take them one at a time. May it reveal the depth of who Jesus is so that our rejoicing has greater understanding.
Wonderful Counselor
This does not mean He is the most emotionally suited and connected therapist for you.
The word wonderful means miraculous. It means supernatural. It means Jesus is exalted, He is sovereign, He is divine.
Ps 78:12 In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. 13 He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap.
The same root word is used in Ps 78 translated as ‘wonders’ and it speaks of God’s parting of the Red Sea.
As for Counselor, it means Jesus is all wise, He is Wisdom. Jesus is all knowing.
So Jesus is supernatural wisdom. It means he knows exactly what needs to be done. His plan of action is infallible, always right.
Isaiah says, Jesus has 2 natures. He is human ‘for to us a child is born’ and He is divine ‘a son is given’.
What’s the implication?
It means rejoice for Jesus understands that we are dust, He took on humanity.
It means rejoice too for Jesus is omniscience, He is all knowing and so His plans for us are most appropriate.
Mighty God
Mighty means Jesus is a strong warrior. Jesus came to fight and save us. He is the seed of the woman who crushed the head of the serpent.
Church, there is a mighty battle for the souls of man and Jesus is the mighty warrior who came to conquer.
And Jesus is the 2nd person of the Trinity. He is God. He is divine.
Read the Gospels, and it will show you the divine power of Jesus. He displayed it over disasters, over demons, over diseases and over death.
Since Jesus is Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God, then it means Jesus has the ability to carry out fully, all that His wise plans calls for.
Church, rejoice that Jesus has such power to fulfil everything He plans.
Everlasting Father
Now you may ask, is that not another person of the Trinity? Is Jesus and God the Father the same?
No, God the Father and Jesus the Son are different persons of the Trinity. God the Father did not become flesh. Jesus the Son of God did.
Here when Isaiah speaks of Jesus as father, it means Jesus is the originator. It speaks of what Jesus does.
And know from Ps 23, that Jesus is the Great Shepherd. This tells us that Jesus as Father provides, He protects and He calls us His own.
And Jesus is everlasting. Meaning Jesus fathers us for all eternity.
So linking all three characteristics of Jesus, firstly, we see that Jesus has the best plans for me and secondly He has the power to ensure its fulfilment. And now as everlasting father, He will do it in a deep, personal and involved manner in my life.
Church, is that not something to rejoice in? Jesus is our Great Shepherd.
Finally, Prince of Peace.
Jesus is Prince, which means it is a royal title of authority. He is a representative of the King.
And so Isaiah says, 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 (v7).
The rule of Jesus will be with justice and righteousness. It will be a perfect rule.
And in His rule, there will be peace. There will be shalom. There will be completeness, soundness, security, welfare and peace.
Because of our sin, this peace with God is so precious. Because in Christ we are now reconciled with God and with one another.
Under the reign of Jesus, there is absolute reconciliation with God and man.
Isaiah saw all that in Jesus’, coming 700 years before his time.
As wonderful counselor, Jesus comes with wisdom and purpose and with a perfect plan. Let us thus follow Him.
As Mighty God, He has the power to accomplish all of His purposes. Let us thus hide ourselves in Him.
As Everlasting Father, He will love, protect and provide for us endlessly. Let us thus enjoy His abiding presence daily.
As Prince of Peace, He has reconciled us even when we were His enemies. Let us thus gratefully trust Him and welcome His rule over us.
And to round it all off, Isaiah says, not only will it be fulfilled, it will be done by the zeal of the Lord.
Church, it gives us the sense of the passion of God for the purposes of the Messiah.
It can even be translated as jealousy. God is so jealous for our souls, He will stop at nothing to bring us back into His arms.
This Christmas, in the light of Isaiah 9:6-7, let us rejoice in the character of our Saviour. There is no one like Jesus.
Conclusion
It had been a terrible 2 years since the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. That fire ruined Anna and her husband financially.
To give the family a fresh start, they planned for a Christmas holiday in Europe and so Anna set out with 4 of her daughters to the UK.
Horatio had to leave later as he had to wrap up business before joining them.
The ship caring Anna and her 4 daughters did not make it to England. Only Anna survived the sinking.
As Horatio took the next ship to join his grieving wife, as his vessel passed the point where his daughters had drowned, he was led to write the lyrics of the cherished hymn, It is well with my soul.
The 2nd stanza reads:
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
I submit that such profound words written out of deep anguish can only be possible when we have known Jesus who is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.
Like Horatio and Anna, because of Isaiah 9, we too can sing and rejoice that it is well with my soul.
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