November 30, 2025: Hope in the King - Isaiah 9:1-7

You have your Bibles. If you don't, that's OK, but if

you have them, turn to Isaiah Chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

As we think about lighting the prophecy or the hope candle, it

made sense to me that we look to the Old Testament.

Then we go back to the book of Isaiah.

And so there is a thrilling passage in Isaiah Chapter 9 that

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

is often read around Christmas time, and I know that it will

help us better understand our theme of hope or prophecy.

In the midst of Isaiah 9, the Kingdom of Judah is in dark

days. The Kingdom of Israel has just

been captured by the Assyrians, takes place in 722 BC, and

Isaiah is ministering to King Ahaz and the people of Judah who

are wondering, what are we going to do?

Because the Assyrian threat still exists.

They're still concerned about what's going to happen.

And it's in the midst of this that in Chapter 7, God gives the

nation of Judah a sign, says a virgin will conceive and bear a

son, and you will call his name Emmanuel, that eventually a

child is going to be born who is going to provide hope and

salvation for God's people. And that's what they have to

look forward to. And in the midst of this chaos,

this sorrow, this gloom, we also have these comforting words,

this beautiful prophecy in Isaiah Chapter 9 verses one

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

through 7. Let me read it for us, says, 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 NAFTA lie, but in the latter

time He has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond

the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

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.

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 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. For every boot of the tramping

warrior in battle tumult, and every garment rolled in blood

will be burned as fuel for the fire.

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 counsellor, mighty

God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, 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. This evening, very briefly,

we're going to talk about two items that are raised here, 2

important truths. First, this passage talks about

our King, that our King is someone we can hope in.

And in the midst of this description of King Jesus,

you'll notice his humanity and deity on full display.

We see this right in the opening line.

We see his humanity in this child being born, this son of a

virgin, Emmanuel, God with us. But we also see his deity as the

Son is given. The Father sends the Son to be

the savior of the world. And so we see both humanity and

deity here. And then we have these four

beautiful names, right? We have wonderful counselor that

this individual is coming into the world is going to be the

greatest teacher, full of the greatest wisdom, far beyond

anything else that the world has ever seen or known.

This counselor, this teacher is going to tell us that there is

strength and weakness, that the greatest of all is the servant,

that there's no greater love than someone lay down his life

for his friends. He reveals to us this totally

upside down Kingdom that is foreign to the wisdom of this

world. He's our wonderful counselor.

We also see that He is our mighty God, that He is the

fullness of God in bodily form, that He is the Word that became

flesh and dwelt among us, that He is God the Son, fullness of

God, and helpless babe, as the modern hymn puts it, in Christ

alone. What a beautiful line.

We also see this third name, which is perhaps the most

shocking because often we don't associate this title with Jesus.

He is everlasting father. Isn't that interesting?

So isn't God the Father, this talking about God the Son as our

everlasting father, that there's something paternal about our

relationship with Jesus as our king, as our forever king,

right? He's everlasting.

It's personal. There's intimacy.

Jesus relates to us as His dear children.

There is such a close connection that we are able to have with

our Savior in the midst of His great power and might which are

on full display. We also see this tenderness as

our dear Shepherd. And then the fourth name we see

is our Prince of Peace. I want to read for you not to

steal Pastor Brighton's Thunder, but we'll hear from this passage

next week. I don't want to spoil too much,

but Micah 5, verses four and five, listen to this.

And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the

Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they

will dwell secure for now. He shall be great to the ends of

the earth, and He shall be their peace.

Peace is a person. We often think of peace as a

lack or an absence of war and a fighting, but the reality is our

greatest need for peace is reconciliation to God.

We need peace with God and through faith we are justified.

According to Romans 5, we are brought back to peace with God

and our Lord Jesus Christ, and He allows us then to as much as

it depends on us to live at peace with all people.

He's our Prince of peace. So we see this beautiful

description of our King, but we also see these qualities, these

characteristics of His Kingdom. We don't have time to look at

all of them in depth, but did you notice this description of

this Kingdom? Do you notice that it's upon His

shoulder? He's not a lazy king.

He's not a king who's in it for himself.

He is the one who upholds the entire Kingdom with the word of

his power. It all rests on him.

He bears the burden. Do you notice it's a Kingdom of

peace? That it is eternal, not just

geographically, but in relation to time, covers the whole earth,

and it will last forever. And I love this.

It's a Kingdom where justice and righteousness reign, that Jesus

is the perfect king. He is just and perfect.

And so that's the type of Kingdom that is already among us

today. But it's also a Kingdom that we

can look forward to in the future when Jesus comes back at

the second Advent. You know, Christmas is a time of

joy. You can also be a time of

sorrow. True, as we mourn sadness, as we

think about the difficulties and challenges that this life

brings. But in the midst of this, my

prayer for us tonight. So we would look to Jesus that

we would recognize his purpose in coming.

Later on in Isaiah, he's going to be described as a man of

sorrows. He's going to be described as

someone who was stricken by God and afflicted, described as

someone who bore our grief and carried our sorrows, that the

Lord will lay on him the iniquity of us all.

And so whether you're coming in tonight and into this Advent

season with joy, I, I hope that's true.

Or even if there's sorrow, that's OK because Jesus came to

experience joy and sorrow for us so that we can experience an end

of sorrow when he comes to establish his Kingdom forever.

There's a final enemy according to First Corinthians 15, that

Jesus will defeat when he returns.

And that final enemy is death. Praise God, be no more tears,

sadness, sorrow, pain, suffering.

No more death. And so as we begin this

celebration of Advent, we do so as those who have hope, because

Christ has already come and made a payment for our sins, and he

is risen against that. We too may walk in the newness

of life, but we're also able to look ahead to the future with

great hopeful anticipation that when Jesus comes back, he's

going to right every wrong. He's going to make all things

new. And so whether you're

experiencing joy or sorrow, ultimately we can have hope in

our king and in his forever Kingdom.

Let's pray. God, we thank you for this

beautiful passage as we kick off Advent.

We're so grateful for this opportunity to celebrate

together. God, I pray that as we even

decorate the church, as we build anticipation for Advent, God,

that you would be with us. May we rejoice with those who

rejoice and weep with those who weep.

God, I pray that as we navigate this time of year, in the midst

of the busyness and the crazy schedules, God, I pray that we

would be able to pause and reflect on our King.

We thank you so much for King Jesus.

We also pray, God, that as we journey through Advent, as we

celebrate the first coming of Jesus, that we would recognize

two things. One, that Jesus came ultimately

to die for our sins and to rise again.

You got to pray that we would also recognize that the second

Advent is coming. We don't know when, but we can

look forward to it with hopeful anticipation that King Jesus

will return. He will establish the throne of

David forever, and we will forever be with him face to

face, and that death will be defeated.

We thank you, We pray these things in His precious name,

Amen.