Let Earth Receive Her King

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Over the last few weeks, Janie’s been talking to the kids about waiting. And that’s something we all have to do. something we all have to get comfortable with, even if we don’t like it.

As much as I, at times, wish the world in some ways would be like the world my grandparents lived in or grew up in, there are other aspects of it that I’m good with being like it is. Now, I really like Amazon Prime, And they did not have that in the 1930s. I like that two-day shipping.

I like that I can successfully avoid going to the store from the week before Halloween to the week after New Year’s. Unless my wife needs something last minute and then I have to prove my love to her by going to the store. But we have that, we can get most things we want.

between Amazon and Walmart, we can get most things we want in two days, which is, I mean, if you think about where the world was a hundred years ago, that’s miraculous. But still that two days, that waiting, and sometimes this time of year, it turns into more like six days shipping. And so you wait and you anticipate, and even though two days, even six days, getting whatever you want from the other side of the planet is miraculous.

It makes it feel like those two days or those six days, however long it is, are just the longest period in history, depending on what you’re waiting on. I want it here right now. The worst thing is when I’m waiting for days and days and days, waiting on a package to arrive, and why has it not arrived?

And then I’ll say something to Charla and say, I don’t, when is this Amazon package going to get here? When is this going to be delivered? And she’ll say, it was delivered a week ago.

It’s there in the classroom. See, the package has been there the whole time. Why didn’t somebody tell me?

It had your name on it. We didn’t know what was in it. We just laid it there for you.

Sometimes the package has been there the whole time and we didn’t even recognize it. Over the last several weeks, we’ve been looking at places where the Old Testament points to Jesus. And we’re going to look at a passage in Isaiah chapter 9 this morning that describes the coming of the Messiah, that the people of Israel were waiting, waiting, waiting for this Messiah to arrive, and they continued to wait even after He arrived, not realizing He’s already here.

They were just like us, waiting on the Amazon package that’s right there waiting to be open. So we’re going to be in Isaiah chapter 9 this morning, if you’d turn there with me. The Old Testament devotes a tremendous amount of space to the coming of the King, the coming of the Messiah, and still some people missed it, unfortunately, but our King is here, and we’re going to read about His coming in Isaiah chapter 9.

So once you’ve found it, if you’ll stand with me as we read together from God’s Word, and if you don’t have your Bible or have trouble finding Isaiah 9, it’s all right, it’ll be on the screen for you. But let’s follow along as we read. Starting in verse 1, it says, but there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish.

In earlier times, he treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.

You shall multiply the nation, you shall increase their gladness, they will be glad in your presence, as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For you shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult and cloak rolled in blood will be for burning, fuel for the fire.

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government, or of peace.

On the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. You may be seated. As I mentioned a moment ago, the Old Testament devotes a lot of space to the coming of the Messiah.

God taught Israel to expect the Messiah’s coming. If you read through the Old Testament, it does not take you very, you cannot go very far without finding something that is pointing to the coming of the Messiah. And this is no different.

Now, this prophecy that we’ve just read, it differs a little bit from most of the passages we’ve studied previously as we’ve been looking for examples of Jesus showing up in the Old Testament. As we’ve looked at some of these stories and some of these prophecies, what we’ve seen is God working in circumstances that were going on right then, and God doing something, but God doing it in such a way that it also points to a future coming of the Messiah. So, in just about everything we’ve looked at up to this point, there’s been the immediate fulfillment of what God’s talking about, that they understood, and then there’s been the ultimate fulfillment that they didn’t understand until the Messiah came.

But this is different. This prophecy, God is just talking about one thing. It’s not Him leading a trail of breadcrumbs through history where people are going to eventually figure out what He was talking about.

This is something that when they read it, when Isaiah spoke it, And when the people read it or heard it, they knew that God was talking about the coming of the Messiah and what it was going to be like. God’s very explicit in the fact that He’s describing the Messiah. And when you start reading this passage in verse 1, a lot of times we’ll just pick up at verses 6 and 7 when we’re talking about Jesus coming.

But if you go to the beginning of this part of the prophecy there at verse 1, He’s talking about those who were in anguish in earlier times, it’s clear that he’s hearkening back to something else. And if you go to chapter 8, he’s talking about the struggles that Israel was facing at that time. And what God is doing here is he’s drawing a comparison, that especially northern Israel, when he mentions Zebulun and Naphtali, he’s talking about parts of northern Israel that had really been hit hard by circumstances.

These were among the tribes that were first attacked and carried off by the Assyrians after the kingdom split. They had not known a good king. They had not known a righteous king in several hundred years.

They had suffered plagues and famine. When we talk about how in the days of Elijah and the days of King Ahab, it did not rain for years at a time. This is the part of Israel that was hit by this.

They had been hit time after time after time. And even now, they are facing attack. They’re facing oppression at the hands of the Assyrians and other people.

They were not having a good time. They were not experiencing peace, prosperity. They were not experiencing anything good.

And God is comparing their current circumstances to what he was going to do. And he was preparing to send one, he says in verse 1, who would make it glorious for them. And they would have understood that this was a future king.

They would have understood that this was the Messiah, that not only is the Messiah coming for Israel, but for those who are particularly suffering, God had a plan in mind for them. And this place that was so oppressed, these people who were so beaten down, out of them was going to come the glorious king that he talks about. And so God taught them to expect the Messiah’s coming.

They knew that this is who he’s talking about in chapter 9, is the coming of the Messiah. And it’s a promise in particular to these people who are suffering. And it’s not that much different from our world today that there are people who walk with God who still suffer.

Somewhere along the way, we got this idea that if we walk with God, if we serve Him, if we just do the right things, everything will be wonderful. You can go turn on your TVs this afternoon and there will be no shortage of preachers who will tell you that if you’ll just be faithful enough, everything’s going to be wonderful. From the doctor’s report to your bank account, that is not what Jesus promised us.

We are promised that in this world we will have tribulation. We will have trouble. But in the midst of that, God looks at his people and gives us a hope for the future in the coming of the king.

And so they understood that God was paying particular attention to His people who were struggling, and this promise that when the Messiah comes, it’s especially going to be good news for those folks in northern Israel. But what He promises, He’s not just saying, hey, there’s going to come a time that’s better than what you’re experiencing now. He tells them what this Messiah is going to be like, and the picture we have here is that the Messiah is the greatest king ever.

There’s nobody who, nobody else who’s going to live up to this description. And he says, here’s what it’s going to be like when this Messiah comes. Here’s what you’re going to experience when the king comes to you.

Several things the Messiah was going to do or bring. First of all, the Messiah was going to bring light to the people in verse 2. It says, those who walk in darkness will see a great light.

Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. And I think Miss Janie has talked to the kids about how for 400 years, the people walked in darkness. That meant they were believing God’s promise that He was going to send a Messiah.

But for about 400 years, God had not spoken to the nation of Israel through the prophets. Now, we see from some stories after Jesus’ birth that there were some people who had received promises. They knew they were going to meet the Messiah.

God was talking to individuals, but God had not sent a message to the nation of Israel. As far as the nation as a whole was concerned, it was like God had gone dark on them. God had gone silent on them.

And all of a sudden, all of a sudden, God reveals Himself in the fullest way possible. When God became flesh and dwelt among us, the Messiah was going to bring light. And John talks about this in John chapter one where we get that language that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, he talks about Jesus being a light to God’s people.

And he brought light to men in darkness. Those of you today who know Jesus Christ, you experience that spiritual light of knowing God and being reconciled to God, where we are born in spiritual darkness. We’re born separated from Him.

And the only reason we have that light is because of Jesus, not because we’re so wonderful, but because pierced that darkness. Jesus not only brought light to us individually, but the teachings of Jesus have had effects down through the centuries that have enlightened civilizations. When we talk about how, when we talk about some of the evils that took place in the ancient world and how those evils were overcome, it was because of the gospel.

Christians were the first to look at women and say we’re not going to treat them like property anymore. Christians were the ones saying if you’re going to abandon your babies that have defects or not what you want, then we’ll take them and raise them. Christians, because of the gospel, were the first ones to start hospitals and orphanages and universities.

It was because of the teachings of Jesus Christ that the slave trade ended not only in Rome, but eventually in the British Empire and in the United States. The teachings of Jesus Christ and His presence. They bring light with them wherever they go.

And the Messiah was going to bring light to the people. Then we see in verse 3 that the Messiah will grow His kingdom. It says, you shall multiply the nation.

Now, for them, this is the idea that Israel was going to be strong and powerful. But there’s a double meaning in this one, because Isaiah talks elsewhere about the Messiah bringing light to the Gentiles. And when the Messiah brought, when it says the Messiah was going to multiply the kingdom, that meant there’s going to be more in the kingdom than just Israel.

He was going to bring people who were strangers and aliens from God and bring them into the fold and make them part of God’s covenant. You will multiply the nations. And that refers to the engrafting of the Gentiles into the people of God.

And thank God that He did that because that’s most of us. We were talking at the Live Nativity the other night. Somebody asked me, if all these characters we’re portraying are Jewish, why are we having ham sandwiches in the tent back here?

It’s like, well, we’re Jewish on stage and we’re Gentiles in the tent. I don’t know what to tell you. But that’s most of us.

Because of Jesus Christ, the ability to be reconciled to God is no longer limited just to the Jewish people. It’s for all people. And so the kingdom has been multiplied.

The nation has been multiplied because of our Messiah. It says in verse 3 that the Messiah will bring joy to those under His rule. It says, they will be glad in your presence, as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

So the Lord speaking as though He’s speaking to the Messiah, says, when the people are in your presence, they’re going to find joy. It’s going to be like harvest day when all the crops come in. It’s going to be like when our enemies are defeated and we’re able to gather the spoils of war.

Most of us in here are not farmers, if you are, but most of us in here are not farmers, and most of us are not going and pillaging neighboring villages, so we have trouble relating to this. But imagine the day the Christmas bonus check arrives, or tax refund day, or I don’t want to say you won the lottery, but say you found a winning lottery ticket blowing down the street, okay? It’s kind of a running joke in our house.

Charla always said that she was never going to marry a preacher. She was never going to move away from more. I said, can you tell God you’ll never find a winning lottery ticket just blowing down the street?

Can you do that? But imagine that, that everything you need just suddenly falls into your lap, and the kind of joy you would experience over that, that’s what it’s going to be like in the presence of the Messiah. Not just because of physical provision, and I believe we’ll see that when the kingdom is finally fulfilled, but even now there’s a joy that we’re supposed to experience because of the presence of Jesus that’s in us and goes with us.

And if we don’t experience that joy, something’s wrong. It doesn’t mean that we never have a bad day as Christians. That’s unrealistic.

but I have known some people in churches that are just joyless and and dare I say downright mean and you can’t help but think something I think of one lady years ago I could tell you stories but I’m not going to come see me afterwards if you want to hear the stories I think something has gone wrong there because as Christians we ought to be characterized by joy because we have in in words of some of those early apostles who met Jesus, we found the one we’ve been waiting for. And God promised that His people would experience joy in His kingdom, joy under His rule. And we experience joy under His rule, or we should today, and when His kingdom comes, the joy will be boundless.

Part of that is because of His presence, just because of Him. And part of it is because of what He does for us. It says in verse 4 that the Messiah will establish justice for the good of His people.

It says, you shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulder, the rod of their oppressor as at the battle of Midian. Throughout ancient history, there were a lot of people who took it upon themselves to oppress the nation of Israel, who took it upon themselves to oppress God’s people. And it’s not that different today.

Whether you want to look at Israel, whether you want to look at the church, sometime go look at the Voice of the Martyrs website. And you can see that there is no shortage of people that have set out to mistreat God’s people. I was looking at a list the other day of the either 40 or 50 worst places in the world to be a Christian.

And some of the places on the list were not all that surprising. But I saw Mexico was on the list. And I thought, what? I’ve gone on church mission trips to Mexico.

The government really didn’t hassle us. So I read their blurb on what’s going on in Mexico. It’s not the government.

It’s social pressure and cartels and things like that. We think of people mistreating the church. We think of communist governments.

We think of things like those. But sometimes there are societal pressures that make it where people can even lose their lives for being Christians, even in supposedly free countries. And that’s just kind of baked into the cake.

We are taught as Christians not to be surprised by that when it happens in this world, to be prepared for it, that we should be willing when necessary to suffer for the name of Jesus. But there’s going to be a day when all of that’s over with. Whatever persecution they suffer, that yoke will be broken.

whatever it has cost you which let’s be honest whatever whatever it costs us here pales in comparison to our brothers overseas but whatever it has cost us he’s going to more than make up for with the justice with the with the joy that he brings just just being in his presence will make it all worth it but he promises that he will one day right the wrongs that have been done to His people. And that’s important for us to know because sometimes this world is not fair. Any of your kids ever overuse that word?

It’s not fair. I like the answer from Bluey, it’s fairly fair. Sometimes it actually is fair, but the world is not always fair.

We don’t always experience justice on this side of eternity. But as Christians, that doesn’t have to eat us alive because we know God’s going to do what’s right in the end. The Messiah will establish justice.

The Messiah will impose peace. Every boot of the warrior, every cloak rolled in blood, he says, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. All these things of war will be burnt up.

We’re not talking about pacifism here in this world. We’re talking about when Jesus comes again to reign, there’s going to be, there’s the initial conflict that Revelation speaks of where Satan makes his last stab, his last feudal stab at power. But once Jesus stamps that out, there’s no longer any need for war or conflict because all of creation is in submission to the King.

And I don’t know about you, but that is one of the things that I look forward to most about eternity. I am not, I am, sometimes you have to have conflict because it’s worse if you don’t, but I’m not a conflict guy. Like there are some people in my house and I will not name names that their motto is fine, let’s blow it up, let’s do it.

That is not me, okay? It makes me physically ill to think, oh, we’re gonna have to have conflict now. There is a time when all of that is going to be done.

And there’s peace as the world submits to the Messiah. And He’s going to rule well, the Messiah will. Verse 6 says, the whole of the government will rest on His shoulders.

The Messiah will rule well. He can handle it. Do you ever look, I think I’ve asked this question before, but do you ever look at the news and wonder who’s in charge?

Oh my goodness, this drone story, let’s just take that by itself. I heard somebody go, oh, yeah, we’ve probably all got questions and theories. But I just look at the drone story and think, nobody, nobody knows what’s going on.

Nobody’s in charge of this. Are we looking into this? And I know there are things that national security-wise I can’t know.

But it just feels like not only that, but that’s just the latest thing. I look at and think, is anybody actually in charge here? I mean, we’ve got a whole executive branch full of people.

We’ve got 535 people in Congress. We’ve got a judicial, we’ve got states and federal and local and city. And sometimes you just look at the world and think, is anybody handling this?

Your words, you think, is anybody handling this? I tell you what, just the one person, when Jesus rules, nobody’s going to look at it and say, is anybody handling this? He will have under control what all the human governments could not.

The government will rest on his shoulders. He’s going to rule well. And so they read this, and they’re thinking there’s a king coming, and we’re so excited that he’s coming.

But there were some things that they missed because they’re looking for a regular human king, a regular, even an extraordinary man. They’re looking for a regular human being. And they’re looking for somebody who’s going to come in and kick the Romans out and establish a golden age.

But there are some things even in this passage that tell us only Jesus can fit this description of this conquering king who is coming back to reign. Only Jesus could fit the description. Now, all the things that I’ve explained here that the Messiah is going to do, Jesus has done them, He is doing them, or He promises to do them.

They all fit within His list of what He says are going to be His responsibilities. But the Messiah is described in this passage in divine terms that no earthly king can fulfill. Just a couple of them.

Verse 6 calls Him the eternal Father who sits on the throne of David forever. That goes into verse 7. Show me a person who can do anything forever.

None of us can do that because we don’t live forever. People, even now, people live longer than they used to on average, but still all of us have an expiration date. The Lord says it’s appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment.

Who can rightly be called eternal? Who can do these things forever? No king, no politician, no military man I’ve ever heard of.

But it also says in verse 6 that he will be called mighty God among the names that are applied to him. Let me tell you, no prophet of God would ever apply that term to a man. No Jewish prophet would ever look at a human king and say, he is our God.

You realize that’s what they crucified Jesus for. That’s why they were so upset and turned Jesus over to the Romans. It was because he made himself out to be God.

That was the height of offense to them. And yet here we have the prophet saying that this king will be mighty God. These are not terms that can be applied to a mere man.

So we know this is not some leader that we’re still waiting on. The package is here waiting to be opened. Jesus is all the things that God promised here.

When it says wonderful counselor, it’s talking about somebody who would be wise in his rule. Nobody is wiser than Jesus. Even non-believers, when they read through the Gospels, recognize the wisdom that Jesus had.

Even his detractors in his day were in awe about the things that he said, and not only that, about the times he didn’t say anything at all. They realized they could not outdo his wisdom. It’s called Mighty God.

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God. That means it’s describing somebody powerful, somebody God in human flesh. This cannot be an ordinary man.

When it says Eternal Father, it does not mean that Jesus is the Father. The Bible’s clear. Jesus is God the Son, and God the Father is a separate person.

We can get into a Trinity discussion later, but I do want you to understand that does not mean Jesus is the Father. What it means is that He cares and provides for His people the way a father does. And then it says He’s the Prince of Peace.

He brings peace. Even in the moment that could have been maximum conflict for Him and His followers, the moment that they came to arrest Jesus, His followers were ready to resist, Peter grabbed his sword, Jesus told him to put it away. And Jesus went willingly like a lamb to the slaughter.

Jesus is not only a conquering king, but He’s a Prince of Peace. And here’s the thing, God not only promised that this king would come, He said, I will deliver Him personally. If you look at verse 7, at the very end of it, it says, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

We talked about last week with Isaiah chapter 7, that God was showing us that when He promises something, He will follow through. And God says, I will accomplish this. God was eager to accomplish this.

So we have this King that’s been promised, the greatest King imaginable. Only Jesus could fit His description. He is coming.

He has come once, which is what we celebrate with Christmas. God the Son became a man for us and our salvation. He proved it through the cross and through the resurrection, and He ascended to heaven with the promise that He was coming again as that conquering King.

And we just have to understand that to be part of His kingdom, we have to receive Him as King. That means, if you’re someone who’s never trusted Jesus as your Savior, that means believing about Him what He said about Himself, that He is God the Son, that He came in the flesh to be our Savior, that He was nailed to that cross to shed His blood and die to pay for our sins in full, and rose again to prove it, and that He is coming back. If you believe that He is everything He said He was, and you believe that He accomplished everything for us that He said He would, that He paid for our sins in full, if you believe that, then you can ask Him for His forgiveness.

But we have to receive Him, we have to acknowledge Him for who He says He is. But something else we need to make clear that we receive him and are saved by believing in him, but that results in a change to us. And we as believers, once we’ve received him as king, we have to continue to live like it.

And I say this because it is so easy to get swept up in what we’re doing and what we want and what our agenda is and our plans and our to-do list my goodness I’ve got all of those things and it’s so easy to get wrapped up in all of them but if you’re already a believer the question is are you acting like he’s your king who is your king is it you or is it him the question for me who am I trying to put on the throne in my life he’s already made it clear in Isaiah 9 he’s a much better king than I’ll ever be so I just want to leave you with that question this morning who are you trying to have as your king today and that’s if you’re a believer, but if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, just doing all the right things and trying to serve Him, that’s not what gets you into the kingdom.

It’s recognizing Him for who He is, God’s Son who came in the flesh to be crucified to pay for your sins in full and rose again to prove it. If you have questions about what He did for you, I’d love to try to visit with you this morning and answer whatever questions you have, but also right where you are this morning. If you believe what he says about himself, you can ask for that forgiveness, and you’ll have it.