Christmas Eve, A Child A Son (Isaiah 9:6)

Tonight I want to talk specifically about a passage that you probably hear multiple times every Christmas season, and that's Isaiah 9.6.

So I want to read you this passage, and we'll have it up on the screen if you don't have a Bible with you, so that's okay.

We're going to be putting a couple scriptures up there here tonight.

But Isaiah 9.6 through verse 7 says, For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders.

He will be named wonderful, counselor, mighty God, eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end.

He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.

So this evening I want to talk mainly about those two statements that we see right in the beginning of verse 6 there.

Because a common question that often comes up in this season, in this Christmas season, is why did Jesus need to come as a baby?

You know, couldn't he have just shown up in his early 30s, you know, just in a fully developed body and just started his ministry from right there?

Why not?

You know, but really, other than Jesus' birth and a very short story about how his parents lost him in Jerusalem when he was 12, we really don't know anything about the 30 years that took place in his life in that time.

It's really unknown to us exactly what happened in those moments.

But the answer to that question is this.

So he could become our compassionate high priest.

That's why he had to come as an infant, as a baby.

Why he had to be conceived and be carried in a womb and come to us in the form of a baby.

Now, priests were, you know, that is before Jesus came, were the ones that were responsible for making intercession.

And that just means that they were the ones intervening in between them and Israel on the Israelites' behalf, specifically by offering daily and yearly sacrifices that the law required for the Israelites.

They were kind of the go-between between the Israelites and God.

But Jesus became our great high priest.

And those other priests, along with the law, were replaced by Jesus.

They were no longer needed.

I want to read you Hebrews 4, verses 14 through 15.

Hebrews 4:14–15

It says this therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are yet without sin.

You know, in order for Jesus to become our compassionate high priest, he had to be able to sympathize with our weaknesses.

And he had to be tempted, as it says right here in this verse, in every way.

Think about that for a second.

In every way.

And in order to experience this, he had to be born in the flesh, fully man.

You know, when Jesus came, he didn't forfeit his God nature.

He took on an additional nature, that being humankind, so that he could be fully God and fully man at the same time.

So that God, think about this, so that God could experience firsthand what it's like to be you.

If that isn't the greatest love that we can imagine, then I don't know what is.

You know, think about it this way: there isn't a single thing that you are going through that he can't sympathize with.

So with that in mind, let's get back to verse 6 in Isaiah and see how that all ties in.

Look at verse 6 again.

For a child will be born for us.

A son will be given to us.

This is the prophet Isaiah, and he's letting Israel know 700 years before Jesus came that that's when Isaiah was written, was 700 years before Jesus.

He was letting the Israelites know that their Savior, their Messiah, that their God would come in the form of a baby.

I mean, can you think of anything more helpless and more dependent than a baby?

And Jesus being fully God, he humbled himself and he temporarily set aside his glory to come and to live among us.

So he could know you and understand you and your struggles better.

To relate to the temptation that we experience to know what our fleshly desires feel like, to know what our fleshly needs really feel like.

Because he wanted to know exactly what it feels like to be you.

So that he could have compassion on us and say, I've been there.

I know what you're going through right now.

I know the pull of temptation that you feel.

I know the hurt and the pain that you're suffering right now.

Let me help you through this.

Let me show you how I walked through those same things when I walked in human flesh.

You know, the reason Jesus can have so much compassion comes because of his first hand experience that he has.

Now, the second part of Isaiah 9.6 says, a son will be given to us.

Probably the most famous scripture in the Bible is John 3.16.

For God loved the world in this way.

You see how right there?

A son was given.

So that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

A son was given to us.

You know the first part there, a child will be born.

That told us that Jesus was human.

But a son will be given tells us that he is God.

Emmanuel, as we just sang, that means God with us.

You know, we needed a perfect sacrifice to be at peace with God.

And it was so important to God that we were to be at peace with him that he sent his only son, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Son was given.

You know, as we read at the beginning, as we read at the beginning, I should say, one of Jesus' names in Scripture is Prince of Peace.

And that's not referring to world peace, that's referring to peace with God.

And that peace could only come through Jesus, and that's why a son had to be given.

You see, Jesus has always been God.

But 2,000 years ago, he choose to step, he chose to step into time and take on a second nature, that being humanity.

This happened as soon as Mary conceived, and then he was revealed that amazing night in Bethlehem at his birth.

And if Jesus was not also fully human, he could not have stood in that place for us as that payment for our salvation on that cross.

You see, Scripture tells us that the wages of sin is death, and that we're all sinners, and we all deserve death because of our sin.

The only way around this is if somebody became a substitute for our death in our place to pay that price that we owed.

But you see, that substitute could not already owe that same wage that we did of sin.

So the substitute had to be sinless, they had to be perfect.

Therefore, Jesus had to be also God in order to be that perfect substitutionary sacrifice for us.

So a son was given.

And of course, Jesus came willingly as the perfect sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world.

But God knew there was only one way to end the sacrificial system that Israel had been in for so long.

There was only one way to end that lineage of the priesthood.

So a child was born and a son was given.

And he rightfully is called, as we just read, wonderful counselor, mighty God, eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

And Jesus did this in such a way that our eternity with him in glory forever is a free gift for each one of us.

But we just need to accept that free gift that he's given, that gift of salvation that he paid for, so that it is free to us.

We just need to accept it.

And to accept it, Scripture tells us that we simply need to confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved.

I want to end with 1 John 4 9.

It says, God's love was revealed among us in this way.

God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.

If you've not believed in your heart and confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead, what better Christmas gift could you receive than the gift of salvation?

Make this the greatest Christmas of your life with the confidence of your eternity being in the hands of Jesus forever.

Right where you are, you can confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus died for you in your place to wash away your sins and to bring peace between you and God forever.

And I just want to encourage you if you make that decision or would like to talk more about it, please see me or see Ben, who was up here a little bit earlier, or the person that you came with, maybe, and talk to them more about it and ask the questions that you have, or if you did make that decision, to tell the person that you came with that you did, or come up and tell us that you did, because we would love to pray with you and talk with you and encourage you in that way.

Will you please just pray with me?