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You’re going through just one verse over the last four weeks studying one particular idea of what Isaiah presents in in these, in this verse of Isaiah chapter nine. And the important part of, of Isaiah is that Isaiah is laying a foundation for the people of Israel, for what the Messiah will look like when he arrives for his recognition and and in identifying this Messiah, he brings the people of Israel hope. And that’s that’s really what the Christmas message is all about. It’s a message of hope. And so if you don’t leave today with a smile on your face, we’re going to hold church an extra hour longer. Okay. So I’m just teasing. We’re not going to do that. I know all of you are thinking in your head, man. We got to hurry up. Get this done. Sunday is the best day to go shopping in Utah. And so we’re going to do that right. So all right, I got you loud and clear. You see, it’s so easy to lie in the crowd here. Us guys easy crowd to please. Right. So so and for those of you who just responded to that you will be punished once again. All right Isaiah chapter nine and verse six. It is it is a message of hope. And when you look at the this passage of Scripture, beginning in these, these first couple of, of statements that Isaiah makes, he he identifies for us what the Messiah will look like.
And then he gives these word pictures of who the Messiah is for us and relationship to us. These titles that will identify the role and function that he carries for for us as people and especially the nation of Israel. Unto us a child will be born to us. This is of the nation of Israel. He’s going to be of the people of Israel. A son will be given to us. Not only will he be of the people of Israel, but he will become God in the flesh. We call this the hypostatic union. God is 100%, Jesus is 100% man and 100% God. And the government will rest upon his shoulders. When Jesus sets up his rule and reign, he will govern this world as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We we read in in Romans chapter 13, where God is still in control of everything that takes place. But Isaiah, the picture that Isaiah has of the Messiah as the Messiah will come physically and rule and reign for us. And the results of that is, is this there’s there’s these titles that are given to us. And, and it’s like Isaiah describes for us what, what this Messiah will, will look like. And, and he gets to this end of this description. He’s drawing conclusions and he just creates these powerful words to, to put these images in our minds of what he’s going to represent.
And, and so it says this, he will be called a wonderful counselor, Mighty God. Eternal Father and the Prince of Peace. This verse is intended to be an encouragement to us as individuals when we recognize the purpose of Jesus coming. The nation of Israel at the time and place in which Isaiah is giving this prophetic thought about the Messiah to the people. Earn a place in their lives where they’re feeling weak. They’re feeling abandoned. They’re seeing other nations come around them and press themselves upon them to the point that the northern Kingdom is about to be overrun by the Assyrians. There’s no protection. There’s no direction. I’m Phil alone. Isaiah gives these words to the people of Israel, as if to identify for them that what they need in their life is the Messiah. I mean, you need direction. He is the wonderful counselor. And when Jesus opens his mouth, it’s just worth listening to. You need to feel protected. Well, he is mighty God and we saw it in the Hebrew. It could also be translated as as a warrior, as a chief, he is warrior God coming for you. You need to feel secure. Provided for. He’s a father. You need to know that everything’s going to work out. He is the Prince of Peace. A few weeks ago, we talked about the idea of suffering and sin and what it does to people, and identified this, that when people go through hardships in their lives, there are two things that they just really want to know, and that is that someone genuinely cares about them.
And that everything is going to be okay. Isaiah mentions these titles about who the Messiah is, and the very thought of these words just says this into the nation of Israel. Listen, Israel, there is hope. Everything will be okay. Listen, Israel, someone cares. God is your father and God is a warrior coming to your side. There is hope. And someone cares. And this morning I want to just highlight what we’re doing as we go through this passage together, is just highlighting each of these thoughts that Isaiah mentions about who God is and identifying what it means to the nation of Israel, and therefore what it means to us as people. We’ve looked at. Wonderful, counselor. We’ve looked at Almighty God. But this morning it comes in the terms of Everlasting Father. Some translations will say. Or in our translation in New American this morning it says, The Eternal Father. What does it mean that God is Everlasting Father? I’m going to tell you, I’ve never thought about this as a young guy studying the Bible, until I begin to encounter people that would look at a passage like this and say, I don’t like that God is called my father. To me, it seems pretty simple. So I would ask. I’ve encountered this several times and even in ministry.
Why? Why would you not want God to be called your father? And the answer is this. Because I know what my father was like and I can’t relate to a God like that. I mean, some of us in this room, we think about our family lives, have had what you might call a male figure, but not a father. And if anything, he was not lasting. And so when God identifies himself, his identity in this role, it’s it’s not in the thought of what your father was or the scars you might carry from any relationship you have with him. It’s what the role of a father should be to you. One that’s committed. One that endures. One that’s lasting. One that’s just not there, but actively present in your life. God’s desire isn’t necessarily to be compared to your father. And if you had a great example of a father, God bless you. We need more of them. It’s not to be compared to the role of of an imperfect father, but the comparison he makes is to the role of a father, as God desires for that role to be filled. And Isaiah mentions the identity of who this God is for you this morning, so that you can take comfort in his everlasting, eternal arms. I love the way that Isaiah talks about who he is as a father, when he adds the descriptive word in the beginning as everlasting.
We want fathers that last. But in God’s case. It’s everlasting. The duration of his commitment is stated to you before anything happens with Israel. God is everlasting for us. I think kids in this world today need a dad who is going to stick by their side no matter what. I need my father to last. When you think about how important the role of the father is, that God would take such a term and describe himself in that image for us. Dads are intended to last. Your father in heaven will last forever. By your side. You need to know, dad. Are you going to be there for me? Are you going to direct my life and give me the love and the protection and the security that God has called you to do? And God calls you his father. What kind of father would he be? I love the way that revelation describes Jesus. That’s who he’s talking about in this passage. Revelation 320 I got to tell you, this is one of those verses in the Bible that the church has just abused for years. This is one of those verses that we always like to use in terms of salvation. You need to come to Jesus as your Savior because he’s knocking, right? And that’s not what this verse is saying at all. This verse is written to the church of Laodicea. This is written to believers.
And one of the things that we need to know within our lives about our Everlasting Father. You can imagine in the nation of Israel in these moments, they have turned away from God. And they’re thinking to themselves, man, we have blown it. There is no way, no way God wants me back. I mean, how in the world is God going to receive me? Do you even know what I’ve done? But he’s a father. And his door is always open because his commitment to you is everlasting. John writes to the church of Laodicea. In this passage of Scripture and he says, church, you need to recognize something you’ve turned away from the Lord. And this is where as a commitment to you, this is how your father is treating you. And it says about Jesus here, here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me. Yeah, our world does a horrible example of demonstrating what love is. Meaning we say, I’m only going to love you if you show me something that’s worth loving. But the idea of the way love is explained within the Bible. In first Corinthians 13 it says, love never fails. Love endures all things. Love is not about you proving your worth. It’s about me giving that away regardless of your response. Love knows no bounds.
And when you look at your relationship with God and you think to yourself, man, I have blown it, how’s he going to respond? Isaiah says to the nation of Israel in this passage, he is your eternal father. This relationship, this commitment to you, is everlasting. You need it. You need to know that somewhere, somewhere in your life, there is a place that you can go regardless of what you’ve done, and just take solace in that and just take comfort in that and just come before him and say, God, I know, I know, I’ve blown it, but thank you that your door is open. This message is for the church. Your relationship to him is one of a father. And his commitment to you never ends. It is everlasting. God desires to demonstrate his love to you forever. And the reason that he can do this is because he is eternal. Psalms 90 and verse two says, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. In Hebrews 13 eight it tells us Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He’s never changing. This is his view, and this forever will be his view of you. I love in Matthew 28, when he’s sitting with his disciples after his resurrection, he gives them one calling in the world and he says, go into the world and make disciples. But but here’s the beautiful thing about the last message he ever gives to the church before his ascension into heaven.
He says this, and I am with you. What? Always. Everlasting Father. God’s desire is for you to take comfort in his commitment to you, to understand that his doors are always open. But in addition to that, he uses the term father, which signifies the importance of that role described throughout Scripture and your role as a as a father to children. When the Bible talks about the word father in this passage of Scripture, it’s important for us to understand that that the word father described in the Bible can be used both literally and figuratively. Now, I’m going to assume this morning that everyone understands the birds and the bees, right? So so literal. We got that. We know how babies come into the world, I hope. Right? We know what what takes place for that to to exist. But what does it mean when the Bible talks about these things figuratively? Let me let me just give you an example. If you look in this passage of Scripture, Isaiah nine six, this is why you have to take it figuratively. Jesus is called the father, right? When you read the New Testament about Jesus’s relationship to God, God, Jesus being God, but the father in heaven, the father is called the father, right? Two dudes don’t make a baby, right? So. So this text is symbolic of what it means as a father. It’s figurative. When God identifies himself within Scripture.
He’s put into a position where he must explain himself in avenues for which our mind can comprehend for us in order to relate to him. So when God describes himself within the Bible, the the way that he tends to do that is through figurative language. You think about one of the one of the popular titles we have within the Bible for Jesus is Jesus Christ, right? That’s his name, right? That’s what was on his birth certificate. Right. But the name Jesus Christ, do you know what that means? Saving Messiah or the saving King. It’s a title to identify his role to us as people. God does that throughout Scripture. He looks at humanity in a way that an inconceivable God can allow men to conceive who he is and his identity. And one of the primary roles that he chooses to do so is the idea of father. Try to think of a way that we’ve done this within our culture today. And nicknames seems kind of a crude thing, but you think of the the Native American people. They come up with some cool names, right? I was reading last night looking up some just cool Native American names. The first one that popped up was Sitting Bull. Right? I mean, Sitting Bull is given that name to describe his characteristics. The Native American people practice that, and it’s the same thing as it relates to God.
He uses these figurative languages for us to understand what his functioning role is to us as people. And the Bible just doesn’t do it with with God. It uses the name father figuratively, figuratively, in several places. Look at this, for example, Romans 416. Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace, and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. Look, look at this. He is the father of us all. Now, if you take that figuratively, we’ve got problems. We’re all Jewish, but we’ve got problems, right? I mean, Abraham was getting around or something. I don’t know, I don’t know what, but Abraham in this, in this passage is described figuratively, and it says the same thing about the apostle Paul. The Paul viewed his relationship to Timothy as one of a father, though Paul wasn’t the father of Timothy. It says, for this reason I have sent you, Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. Paul, implying that he is father. Father is seen as a figurative word describing the role of what a father should be. If you were to think this morning that God saying that he is father means that literally, he is your father. Throw out one more. One more challenge to that is is this in John 316, God says he only got one kid, man, right? That’s what it says.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. How many kids he got? He’s only got one, right? Jesus. And so when you look at the term Father in Scripture, God’s using it figuratively for us to understand who he is relationally to us as people. And so then you ask the question, I just threw up the verse. Well, what does it mean then, that Jesus is the son? If God doesn’t have kids, what does it mean that Jesus is his son? He’s got a kid, right? Well, the Bible uses the word son in the same sense. It uses the word father. It’s done figuratively. Let me give you just a few examples of people throughout Scripture. Judas in John 1712 is called the son of perdition, which means the son of hell. It’s not that hell got together with Satan and had a baby, right? Judas represents the essence of what hell was about by betraying Jesus. Acts 436 Barnabas literally says in the text means son of encouragement, encouragement. It’s my knowledge, you know, it doesn’t have kids. And and here’s Barnabas existing. So it says to us that what Barnabas represents as we look at him is the characteristics of what encouragement is all about. Last is the the Sons of Thunder. James and John. It says to them, he gave the name Sons of Thunder.
Not not born from thunder, but representing the essence of what thunder was. The reason Jesus gave him that name was because they wanted to cast down lightning on this village that rejected him and burnt it to pieces. And so they they represented this thunder in their lives. They were the the son of this representation. And so what does it mean when the Bible says Jesus is the Son of God? I’ll tell you. The word only begotten is monogenes in the Greek okay mono for the singularity of only the one and Ganesh, where you actually get the terms for genes and genetics, and the way it translates within Scripture is the only one of this kind or class. And so when God says that Jesus is the only begotten son, what he’s identifying for us is that within the nature of human flesh, the nature of God is dwelling. He is the only one of the kind or class of which God the Father is. Jesus is God in the flesh. It’s not a confession of his birth. It’s a confession of his deity. Jesus is God. And we embrace them as such. And so when you look at it, passages like Isaiah nine six, it makes sense. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given the Jewish descent and the godhood descent. And he shall be called wonderful counselor, all mighty. What God? God uses this term father not as a way to say that he has physical kids, but as a way to describe for us what his functioning role that he wishes to display to humanity has become.
He is father. And the way that’s demonstrated. It’s everlasting. It is eternal. So let me just pose this last question for us. What does all this mean? What is the importance of Everlasting Father and how does it relate to us as people? I would say for us this morning by choosing the phrase Everlasting Father, it indicates that the role of father is of high significance in the eyes of God. And if I were to make it more specific to fathers this morning, dads, I would say this your greatest success story is not what you accomplish in your job. It’s what you accomplish in your home. I know this morning, fathers, that we’re all not going to do this perfectly. But you think before your kids what you’re displaying and the ideas of who God is. Your commitment to them to be lasting and not just lasting, but to be active and display the characteristics of what a father is about. And first Timothy, it talks about provision in Isaiah one. It talks about protection in Proverbs 312 and six, for it talks about the maturity and love expressed to your child. You think how important that role must be for God, that he chooses to lay it upon himself as the title through which we identify and relate to him.
The greatest success story. It’s what you do in your family. I can thank this morning. People. That I’ve encountered in ministry. Whose lives are just a struggle because of the absence of a father. Or maybe the presence of an abusive one. They’ve never had the opportunity of a father who just said, I am here for you. Your worth is not in what you do, but who you are. My my door is always open because I’m here to listen. My my love is lasting and it’s always extended to you because I care for you. I am a place through which you can be comfort and find solace and just be open and know that I’m going to give you direction. I’m. I’m going to be here for hope. I’m going to be here to offer you my best, because I am lasting and understanding my role as a father. Statistically, when you study the homes in America with that suffer from the absence of a father. Some of the statistics and some in the most horrific topics escalate within those homes. Children that grow up in a fatherless home have the tendency, a much higher tendency of living in poverty, a much higher tendency of of growing with emotional stress into their adult age, a much higher tendency of of drug use, a much higher tendency of living a criminal lifestyle.
The statistics and probability drastically increase with the absence of a father like presence within the home. Maybe I could challenge some of you fathers who who are committed to your children. Isaiah one and 17 says this learn to do right. Seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless. Plead the case of the widow. I mean, maybe maybe within your home. You think, you know, my kids are gone or or my kids were our life structured together. And there’s an understanding that that though your life may be like that, this is a family and this is a church, and God has called the men of the church to be a father to the children of the church, to display what God looks like on, on, on their behalf and and reflect his image to them. So they have a good understanding of what it means growing up in the church community to pursue God in their own lives. That. What do you want for your kids? Genesis says the goal of of the home is this very simply, God bless them and said, then be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth and subdue it. God has called the family to be the place of the reflection of his glory in the world. That you, as parents, are to be fruitful in childbearing and increase in number, and and be fruitful in this earth. God has called the family.
And God has called the father. So let me just give this last thought. What do you do if you’ve grown up in a home where you know your father wasn’t the best? I mean, you’re looking at that and I say statistics of the difficulty of growing up in a home without a father figure for kids and what that might mean for you. And you’re thinking, oh, no hope, no hope here. What do you do with that? The answer is the same thing that God’s telling Israel. In the Book of Psalms in chapter Excuse Me 68 and verse four, it says this. Sing to God, sing in praise of his name. Extol him who rides on the clouds. Rejoice before him. His name is laud, a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows. Is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families. The reason Isaiah gives this verse to the people of Israel. Because they felt fatherless. They felt abandoned. They felt weak. They didn’t know where to turn. And this is what I can tell you this morning. If you’ve grown up in a situation in your life where you just looking at your circumstance, you’re thinking, I didn’t really have clear direction. I know I didn’t feel like a door was open. I didn’t feel loved. Well, here’s the answer God will be the father far beyond any father figure, no matter how perfect could ever be in your life.
I mean, maybe you’re in adulthood and you’re thinking, I don’t even know how this works. Well, God is that example, and God is that open door to direct your life. Hope is not lost because Jesus and his relationship to you is present. You know I love about the Christmas story. I communicates to us how much God cares. It says to us. Where is your heart? God wants to heal it. Where’s your brokenness? God wants to hear about it. What? What brings you joy? Jesus is coming near. He wants that relationship with you that that door is open. Where are your struggles? Just take solace in him. He is committed to you forever. God cares if no one else cares. If you feel all alone, God cares about you. The story of Christmas goes this way. With the presence of God, the unremarkable become remarkable. I mean, you think about the story of Christmas, the presence of Jesus and what it created. Bethlehem. Nazareth. I mean, if I were to change the lyrics, you know, the old little town of Bethlehem would be like, oh, little town of Podunk ville, you know, O little town of Redneck Place or whatever. And that was, that was a nothing happening kind of town, both of them. And you look at Mary and Joseph. She’s so young. And him. He was ready to abandon the whole situation. God has the the ability.
To take the unremarkable. The deserted and forgotten. The backwards and redneck. And use it for his glory. Because he’s a lasting father. He is a committed father. That you can even think about your home and just say, you know, right, right now it’s a mess. It is a mess and I feel like Joseph. I want to give up. But can I just tell you, if you just take the example of God in this passage and just be committed as a lasting father and look to your father as direction. God has the ability to take the unremarkable and just make it remarkable in his image. With a lasting commitment. Not only is God a counselor. Not only is God a warrior. But he is a father. Mean, it may bring us to a place where we recognize within ourselves. I got some confessing to do before my family. I’ve got some recommitment to do before my family, my kids, they they need to know of the intimacy I desire, the love, the protection, the provision, the direction and how, when, when, even in my failures, I can continue to point them to the one who will never fail them. Even when I can’t be present, I can continue to point them to the one who will forever be present in their life to provide for them when I am weak because he is strong. He is a father. And his love is everlasting.