A little girl came home from Sunday School as excited as her mother had ever seen her. She said, "Mommy! My teacher says I drew the most unusual Christmas picture she had ever seen!"
Well, the mother took the picture from her daughter and looked at it for a moment, and was, to say the least, a bit puzzled. She said, "Honey, this is a beautiful picture, but all you have here are people riding in an airplane." She said, "What does it mean?"
"Well," the little girl said, "It's the flight into Egypt." Obviously disappointed that the mother didn't immediately see this.
The mother said, "Oh, well I am sorry." She said, "Who is the mean looking man at the front of the airplane?"
The little girl said, "Mother, that's Pontius the Pilot." The girl by now was getting very impatient.
The mother said, "Well, I'm sorry honey, I should have realized that." She said, "By the way, I see Mary and Joseph and the baby; but may I ask who that big fat man is sitting at the back of the plane?"
The little girl sighed, and said, "Mother, can't you tell? That's round John virgin!"
Now we may laugh at that story, but the truth is that little girl's mixed up perspective of Christmas is not much different than the average person carries around today. Santa has replaced the Savior; Rudolph has replaced the Redeemer; feasting has replaced faith; toys have replaced truth, and glittering lights have replaced God's love.
Well, 700 years before Jesus Christ was even born, a prophet of God explained Christmas before anyone had even experienced Christmas. Seven centuries before the cradle rocked, the star shown, the wise men gave, and the angel sang. Isaiah dipped his prophetic pen into inspired ink and wrote what has become the centerpiece and cornerstone of Christmas prophecy.
Walking in the past, looking toward the future, and giving good news for the present, Isaiah wrote about the greatest single event in all of human history the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ; for it was indeed the birthday of a King. In this tremendous passage of Scripture, Isaiah answers clearly and eternally the question, "What child is this?"
I. This Is the Child That Was Given
He begins by telling us "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given." (v.6) Now in those two thoughts are also two tremendous truths: One speaks of the humanity of Jesus ("a Child is born"); one speaks of the deity of Jesus ("a Son is given").
One tells us he is the Son of man, the other tells us he is the Son of God.
One tells us of his earthly beginning, the other tells us of his eternal being.
One tells us he was the Babe of Bethlehem, one tells us he was the God of glory.
As a child, he was born to live with us, as a Son he was given to die for us.
a. His Eternal Deity
As a child of man, Jesus was born; but as the Son of God, Jesus was given. Notice the Son was not born, the Son was given. What does that remind you of? The greatest verse in the Bible, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (Jn. 3:16) God's Christmas gift to the world was a person of deity wrapped up in the package of humanity.
Now understand that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but he did not have his beginning in Bethlehem. Dr. R. G. Lee said that Jesus Christ is the only person ever born, who at the moment of his birth was older than his mother, and as old as his father.
What Dr. Lee said practically John said theologically. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (Jn. 1:1) In the beginning was Jesus, before the beginning was Jesus, because Jesus was God. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
On down in verse 18 John said, "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." (Jn. 1:18) Now the word declared is the Greek word that gives us the word exegesis. Jesus is the exegesis, or the translation of God. That eternal word that was with God, was translated into an earthly word that we could understand. In other words, in Jesus, deity was translated into humanity.
b. His Earthly Humanity
This Son that was given came in the form of a child that was born. The Son was given by a Heavenly Father, but he was born to an earthly mother. Christmas is when the Heavenly Father sent, in the form of human flesh, His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the great truth of Christmas that Jesus was God in the flesh.
We all know the great prophecy of Isaiah two chapters earlier. "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.'" (Isa. 7:14) He is to be called Immanuel, which means "God with us."
Do you remember how the final verse of the beloved Christmas carol, "O Come All Ye Faithful," goes?
Yea, Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning,
Jesus, to Thee be all glory given;
Word of the Father, Now in flesh appearing,[1]
Now the assertion that God came in the flesh is a great mystery. The Apostle Paul himself called it that. "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh." (I Tim. 3:16a) It is a marvelous mystery, a magnificent mystery, a majestic mystery; but it is none-the-less a mystery. We are not called to understand it; we are commanded to believe it.
John Phillips, a great Bible teacher, once said, "The great mystery of the manger is that God should be able to translate deity into humanity without discarding the deity or distorting the humanity.
How did this happen? It happened through the virgin birth. I don't have the time or the space to devote to defending the virgin birth. But there is only one reason to doubt the virgin birth, and that would be if you doubt God. Because if you don't doubt God there is no need to doubt the virgin birth, for with God all things are possible. Quite frankly, I can think of no reason not to believe in the virgin birth, but I can think of many reasons why I should believe in the virgin birth.
One man was preaching on the Lord Jesus and his virgin birth, and a heckler said, "I don't believe that story." He said, "If an unwed mother were to come to you and tell you a story like Mary said, that that which was conceived in her was conceived by the Holy Spirit, would you believe it?"
This preacher said, "Yes, I would believe it if she had a son and the angel sang at his birth; if it was foretold thousands of years before it happened; if a star stood over his birth place in fulfillment of prophecy; if her son had power over the wind and the waves and disease, I would believe it; if he were slain and raised again from the dead, I would believe it; if he ascended from the earth, I would believe it; if his disciples through the centuries were numbered by the millions, yes, I would believe it." So would I, and I do.
But why did it happen? As Adrian Rogers has put it, "The infinite became an infant." But why was it necessary for the child that was born be the Son that was given? Why was it necessary that eternal deity become a part of earthly humanity.
Let me quote a great apologist and scholar, Calvin Beisner, who said it best:
Because our sins are against a God of infinite holiness, they are of infinite consequence. So the proper punishment for them is infinite. Now, we are finite, so we can't experience infinite punishment in a finite period of time; it takes eternity for us to experience infinite punishment. God planned for someone to bear our punishment as our substitute, but whoever would do it would have to be capable of bearing infinite punishment in a finite time. That's why the substitute had to be infinite Himself; that's why the Son of God became a man, so that as a man he could properly represent those for whom he died, and as God, His payment could be infinite, and that's to satisfy the justice of God's infinite holiness."[2]
II. This Is the Child That Will Gladden
This child has many names: Jesus, Lord, Master, Savior, Christ. He has many titles: King of Kings, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Rose of Sharon, the Bright and Morning Star. But Isaiah especially saved for us four special names that this child will be called, for each name represents a way this child will gladden the grieving, heal the hurting, and save the sinning. Because of this child, four problems will be forevermore solved.
a. No Confusion
He is first called "Wonderful, Counselor (grammatically in the Hebrew these words should be linked together). So many people today going to psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts looking for the answers to life's problems. Let me tell you something about all of these worldly counselors. They can give you advice, and they can give you opinions, and both of them can be wrong (and often are).
But I want to tell you the Lord Jesus Christ will never give you bad advice. He doesn't give opinions, He gives truth. He will never steer you wrong. Isa. 28:29 says, "The Lord of hosts is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance."
There is no wisdom like the wisdom of God. In I Cor. 1:24 we are told that Jesus is "the wisdom of God." If the world would listen to this Counselor, you would not need any other counselor.
After many years of studying human behavior at one of the finest universities in the world, Harvard Psychiatrist, Robert Cole, said this:
Nothing I have discovered about the makeup of human beings, contradicts in anyway what I have learned from the Hebrew prophets such as: Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos; and from the book of Ecclesiastes, and from Jesus and the lives of those he touched. Anything that I can say as a result of my research into human behavior is a mere footnote to those lives in the Old and New Testaments.[3]
The greatest counselor you can ever have is the Son of God; the greatest counselor you can ever find is in the Word of God. Their advice is always true; their counsel never fails, and when you'll let Jesus be your guide, you will say, "Wonderful!"
b. No Chaos
He is the "Mighty God." As the Wonderful Counselor he can tell you what is right; but as the Mighty God he can empower you to do what is right. As the Mighty God he is in complete control over this universe.
He is mighty in his presence, for He is Omnipresent; He is mighty in his power, for He Omnipotent; He is mighty in his perception, for He is Omniscient.
There is a group of people who walk around claiming to be worshippers of only Jehovah. They will tell you that Jesus is the Mighty God, but He's not God Almighty. Well, Isaiah said just one chapter over in V.21, "The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God." (Isa. 10:21) The same word that is used there for Jehovah God is the same word that's used here for the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jesus who is the Mighty God of chapter 9, is the Jehovah who is the Mighty God of chapter 10. He is in complete control of this universe.
c. No Condemnation
He is called "Eternal Father." This literally translated says, "He is the Father of eternity." For the Hebrew mind-set, a father denoted source, or origination. Jesus is the father of all things pertaining to eternity.
In Heb. 1:10-12, listen to what God the Father said to God the Son:
"You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands;
They will perish, but You remain; and they will all grow old like a garment;
Like a cloak You will fold them up, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will not fail."
Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He is the Father of eternity.
Jesus is the eternal Lord who brought into this world eternal light, that He might give to this world eternal life, and bathe this world in eternal love.
If you want anything eternal, you must get it from Jesus, because He is the Father of eternity. If you want eternal life, you must get it from Jesus. Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life." (Jn. 10:27-28)
d. No Conflict
He is called the "Prince of Peace." In our country today we have a group of people called "Peaceniks." They have peace marches and peace movements; they support nuclear freezes and diplomatic falls; they protest nuclear missile silos and state sit-ins at the gates of military bases; they sponsor concerts and marathons trying to raise money to work for world peace. Well, I'm all for peace, but there is only one who will ever bring peace to this war-torn, strife-filled world, and that is the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Only Jesus can give political peace. Israel is trying to trade land for peace. I've got news for that nation. Land can't bring peace; only the Lord can bring peace. It is only when the Lord Jesus comes that "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." (Isa. 2:4)
Only Jesus can give personal peace. Only when you receive Him will you have peace with God, and the peace of God.
Only Jesus can give perpetual peace. Jesus said something very interesting about the peace that he gives. He said, "Peace, I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you." (Jn. 14:27a) The peace of this world can be shattered by a sneak attack, a sniper's bullet, or a terrorists' bomb. But the peace that Jesus gives can weather any storm.
III. This Is the Child That Will Govern
"And the government will be upon His shoulder." (v.6) Today, less than 25% of the people in America say they trust that the government does what is right. But his government will be far different than any government in human history.
a. It Will Be a Universal Government
The first time He came to a cradle; when He comes again it will be to a crown.
The first time He came to redeem; the next time He's coming to rule.
The first time He came to die on a tree; the next time He's coming to rule on a throne.
Today, his kingdom is internal; it's in the hearts of his people; tomorrow it will be external on the throne of the universe. The prophet Zechariah declared, "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be 'The Lord is one,' and His name one." (Zech. 14:9)
It was the great Christian, Isaac Watts, who wrote these immortal words:
Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
Does his successive journeys run;
His kingdom spread from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.[4]
b. It Will Be an Unending Government
"Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end." (v.7) Now let that sink in. There will never be an end to his government. Daniel 2:44 tells us, "The God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed."
Let me tell you about my coming King. He won't be voted into office, and he can't be voted out of office. He's not coming to take sides, he's coming to take over.
When He comes, he won't be riding the back of a Republican elephant, or a Democratic donkey; He'll be riding the white charger of holiness, righteousness, and godliness. He will be coming to establish a kingdom where justice will roll down like mighty waters. His law will be the standard of righteousness, and it will be a kingdom where faith becomes sight; where wrong is made right; and where darkness is turned into light.
Why was this child born? Why was this Son given? He was given to show the glory of God, to share the grace of God, and to send the goodness of God.
THE PRINCE OF PEACE
To us a Child of hope is born,
to us a Son is given;
Him, shall the tribes of earth obey,
Him, all the hosts of heaven.
His name shall be the Prince of Peace,
forevermore adored;
The Wonderful, the Counselor,
the Great and Mighty Lord.
His power, increasing, still shall spread;
His reign no end shall know;
Justice shall guard His throne above,
and peace around below.
To us a Child of hope is born,
To us, a Son is given;
The Wonderful, the Counselor,
the Mighty Lord of heaven.
What Child is this? That child is God's gift to you by special delivery wrapped up in love. Won't you receive that child, God's gift today?
[1] "O Come, All Ye Faithful", translated by Frederick Oakley.
[2] Answers for Atheists, Agnostics, and Other Thoughtful Skeptics, E. Calvin Beisner, p. 103.
[3] Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, edited by Michael Green, p. 230.
[4] "Jesus Shall Reign", Isaac Watts.