The Son

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Hey, thanks for joining us here on Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

I'm your host, Molly Vidovich. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. If I were to guess, I bet many of you are just humming or at least thinking of this familiar song from Handel's Messiah that we hear at this time of year. And the truth is we hear and we see those words everywhere right now on greeting cards, Christmas carols, tree ornaments, you name it.

We know the verse is talking about Jesus, but for most of us, that's all we know about it. And today Pastor J.D. is diving into the context behind this familiar Christmas passage as he continues our new teaching series called Foretold. The book of Isaiah is our passage today with a message Pastor J.D.

titled The Son. All right, we are in week two of a series called Foretold. Now, last week I explained to you why I believed that the prophecies about Jesus Christ are one of the most convincing ways that the Bible authenticates for us that Jesus really is from God, that he is God's prophet to us.

There are right at 322 direct prophecies that describe for us the character and the nature of the coming Messiah as well as giving us specific details about his birth, about his life, his death. These predictions, as I noted for you, were not those of people like Nostradamus. You know who that is? Have you ever read any of his predictions? I've read a few of them. There's like a thousand of them.

Seriously, I think the number is a thousand. Nostradamus was a 16th century French mystic who got his prophecies by sitting on a little tripod and peering into a pot of boiling water. His predictions, if you've ever read them, are vague at best, and even his most ardent followers will tell you that he was often just plain wrong. By contrast, the sheer specificity, amount, and detail of the Bible's prophecies is just amazing. I would encourage you, in fact, not to take my word for it, especially if you struggle with faith and with doubt, just go in and investigate it on your own.

It really is amazing. Once you look at them, it's pretty hard to say that the birth of Jesus was coincidental or a chance happening. That event, the birth of Jesus Christ, bears God's stamp all over it. In fact, I found this interesting example from a CIA report. Whenever a double agent wants to reveal information of the CIA, the CIA usually gives them several layers by which to identify themselves so that there's no chance that they could get the wrong person. For example, one particular Soviet double agent was given six prearranged signs to accomplish when he revealed himself to the United States. Number one, he was to go to Mexico City, and number two, to contact a certain guy in the city and let that guy know that he was there and identify himself by the name of I. Jackson. Number three, after three days, he was to go to a specific place in the city, and number four, stand in front of the statue of Columbus. Number five, with his middle finger placed in a guidebook. When he was approached by somebody asking for directions, he was number six, to say that the statue of Columbus was magnificent, wasn't it? And that he was from Oklahoma.

At that point, they knew they had their guy. Jesus had not six signs to identify him, but 322. So yes, fulfilled prophecy was a major way that God authenticated the message of Jesus. Scholars tell us, in fact, that 25% of what we call the Old Testament, 25% of it is prophecy.

It's the dominant theme of the whole thing. It's not just like a guidebook or a history of Israel. It is prophecy about the fact that a Messiah was coming and that the world should be watching for the birth of this baby who would be God. All right, for the next two weeks, we're going to look in-depth specifically at the prophecy recorded in Isaiah 9. Isaiah 9, so if you have your Bibles, and I certainly hope you do, if you would take those out and you would open them and you would look at Isaiah 9, and I'm going to walk us through this. Now, I'll go ahead and tell you, this prophecy that we're going to look at is not one of the most amazing in terms of the details it prophesies about the birth of Jesus, but it is one of the most amazing in its descriptions about what Jesus would be like and what his purpose would be. Isaiah 9, we're going to look at the first seven verses. Now, let me set the context for you so you really get what's going on here in this passage.

We've got to rewind the clock about 700 years before the birth of Jesus. There was a rising power in the Middle East called Assyria, and all the other nations in the Middle East started to get nervous about how strong Assyria had become. So they formed an alliance to defend themselves against Assyria. Well, they wanted Jerusalem's king, King Ahaz, to join their alliance, but Ahaz didn't want to do it because he didn't like either of those guys and didn't trust them, so they threatened to invade Jerusalem and replace Ahaz with a king who would. So their armies start making plans to invade Jerusalem, and this, of course, throws King Ahaz and all of Jerusalem into a panic. Well, the king of Assyria comes to Ahaz and says, join me, and I will protect you from those armies that are about to make war against you. So now here's King Ahaz in Jerusalem.

They got both sides saying, join us, and if not, we will destroy you. So Ahaz doesn't know what to do. So God sends the prophet Isaiah to him and tells him, don't join either side.

I will protect you. Well, Ahaz is nervous about this, and Isaiah can see that on his face. And so he tells Ahaz, don't worry, God says, I'll give you a sign that I'm speaking to you.

I'll give you a sign from me. Now, you'd think that Ahaz would be excited about getting a sign from God, but instead he's like, no, don't do that, because evidently he thinks if God gives me a sign, then I have to obey him. But Isaiah says, you don't want a sign? God says he'll give you one anyway. And so in Isaiah 7, he says the sign is this, a virgin will give birth to a child.

Now, this part right here is a little confusing, so hang with me. Scholars believe that there was a fulfillment of this prophecy at the time of Isaiah, a child that was born then. In fact, you can see the birth of that child referenced in chapter 8 of Isaiah. But it becomes pretty obvious that the real and the ultimate fulfillment of this promise would come much later, because you see this child start being described in the most incredible terms.

All right, verse 2, that's where we'll pick up. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined. You have multiplied our nation.

You have increased its joy. For the yoke of his burden, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the 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.

Now, here's your Debbie Downer moment for your weekend. Ahaz ends up rejecting all this advice and making an alliance with the King of Assyria, which not only did not help them, but it eventually backfired. Assyria, who they made the alliance with, came against them and would try to capture them. Then Ahaz completely loses his mind and starts to sacrifice to the gods of the other nations around them just to see if any of them would help him. You know, I'll burn an offering to this god just in case that helps. And then I'll try this god over here.

And then I'll try this god over here. I get the image of a guy who's gone to Las Vegas and lost all of his money, so he takes the last little bit of it that he has and starts just playing at anything he can get his hands on to see if he can win back all this money he lost. At the end of his life, the legacy that Ahaz leaves is to have led Israel into all kinds of idolatry that would ultimately lead into their destruction and exile. So be depressed.

All right? But this passage, while it's depressing in its historical context, is very instructive for us. So let's ask a few questions of it. First, how does this prophecy of the birth of Jesus, how does it answer the problem that Ahaz has in Isaiah 9? Namely, that there's an army outside of Jerusalem that wants to destroy him. You see that into a very real, dire, felt need situation, impending attack. It doesn't get more dire than that. Into that situation God gives a promise about a Messiah who wouldn't be born for 700 years.

How does that prophecy speak to the situation? That's a great question. All right? So I'm really glad you asked it. I'm going to spend the rest of our time answering it.

Here's number one. Ultimate answers to our problems will be given in Jesus. Ultimate answers to our problems will be given in Jesus. Now first, let me let you know that I know that I'm speaking to a group of people with problems.

I know that. Sometimes people look at pastors and they think, you're a preacher, you're a man of God. You don't know what it's like to have real problems. Especially problems that you created for yourself. Listen, I have my own jobs.

And many of them are self-created. Plus, people come to me a lot as a pastor. I am daily confronted by many of the problems of people in this church. I know that some of you have health problems. Some of you have got significant relationship problems. Some of you have problems with your kids. Some of you deal with depression.

Some of you have a family member with depression. Maybe you just found out that you can't have kids. Maybe your spouse has left you. You've got problems at your job.

Some of you are so suffocated by problems around you that you feel like you can't breathe. Just like King Ahaz, you have an enemy that is larger than you. And you really need God's help with it.

And I want to make this clear. God will help us in the present just as he offered to in his Word. He offered to help King Ahaz. God answers prayer. Scripture makes that very clear. At this church, we believe that he heals the sick. We believe that he restores marriages. We believe that he provides for the needy. And we believe that because many of us have experienced it firsthand.

So we believe that very, very deeply. One of the greatest excitements in my life is seeing God on a consistent basis answer prayer in my life. Prayers for guidance that I pray.

Two, this week that God just in his own way revealed something to me that I was praying about and helped me with something. Prayers for help that we call out to God for. Prayers for healing.

It blows my mind seeing how active God is in my life. But the big point, while God will help us in the present, the big point that God is making here is that the ultimate answer to this prayer and all prayers will be given in the reign of Jesus. The ultimate answer to this prayer that Ahaz is praying and all prayers will be given in the reign of Jesus. You see, ultimately all of our needs require an eternal solution.

Stop and think about this for a minute. You ever think that a lot of our prayers are for temporary answers? For example, you have bad health and so you pray, God, please heal.

And if he does, great. But at some point you still die and death is like varsity level sickness. So any healing you now ask for is just temporary. You say, God, make my spouse get better so they don't die and leave me alone. God, my spouse has left me. Bring them back to me.

Again, eventually one of you is going to die and leave the other one. The Prince of Peace that was promised here was not simply coming to help out temporarily to win this particular battle for King Ahaz or heal one person's sickness. The Prince of Peace was coming to end all battles and rid the world of death entirely. When he reigns he will restore families permanently, abolish wars, take away sickness and pain and loneliness and depression.

That's ultimate healing. Until then, we, like those in Isaiah 9, are waiting. And while God does answer prayer in the present, we still live in a world of trouble and pain and disappointment and we wait for God to bring final healing in Jesus' reign.

Now I know some of you, especially the more astute, are like, wait a minute, wait a minute. When Ahaz heard this, Jesus had not been born yet. But now here we are, 2,000 years, 2,700 years later after this, Jesus has been born and the world is still a mess. I've had many Jewish people over the years tell me this is why they don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah. They're like, you know, I mean, he came, your Messiah came, what's the difference in the world now? The Holocaust was post your Prince of Peace, not pre your Prince of Peace. So how could that have been the Messiah?

Okay, that's a fair question. Let me explain a mystery to you. The Bible says that the first time, again, this is a little deep, especially if you haven't been in church for a while, but hang with me. The Bible says the first time Jesus came, what we call the first advent, he came to defeat sin and death by dying on the cross and then demonstrating that by resurrecting from the dead and thereby starting a revolution in the hearts of people all over the world. That's because our primary problem was not that an army was trying to destroy us.

Our primary problem was not bad health or bad relationships. Our primary problem is that we are sinners who have separated from God and spiritually corrupted ourselves. So Jesus on the cross defeated our sin and death and has offered that victory to all who will receive it. When he comes again, what we call the second advent, he will then rid the world of all pain and suffering. But the first time he had to come and rid the world of the sin that caused that pain and suffering and he offered that freedom and that healing to all who would receive him. Here's your Christmas theology lesson, okay? The first advent brought relief from our sins. The second advent will bring relief from our suffering. But for now, we like Ahaz are given a promise of that healing and we wait for its fulfillment. Now, you say, why the wait?

Why didn't he just fix it all at once? I mean, I hate waiting. Don't we all? I mean, don't you? But me, I feel like especially. I think it's because I have an especially low threshold for boredom or maybe I'm just way too ADD.

I don't really know. But for whatever reason, I just despise waiting. One of the things I hated most about Christmas as a kid was the waiting. It was like we could never get through December and drug on and on.

Have you noticed by the way that we actually do things to accentuate the fact to kids that we are waiting? For one, the mall starts putting up Christmas decorations on the 4th of July now. Then there's the whole advent seasons thing. You know, at every point, you're reminded for like, you know, 20 some days in a row that it's not here yet. Then we got the little, in our house, we have three, I don't know what they call advent calendars, but you know, there's two things up around that. One's got the little barn doors that you open up every day and it's got something else inside of there until you get to 25 and then you're at Christmas. And then we got a little chalkboard that has blank days to Christmas and every day the kids get up and they erase the number and they write in the new number. It's like, just in case you forgot, it's not here yet. It drives my poor kids crazy. In fact, there's a southern phrase if you grew up deep south called slow as Christmas.

Anybody heard that? That's actually a very important part of Christmas tradition. That's not accidental waiting. Waiting is supposed to be an important part of Christmas tradition because it reminds us that life for the believer is in a posture of waiting for ultimate redemption. And two other times in my life I remember hating waiting.

The first was the birth of my first baby. Anybody in that situation? It's so slow. You're like, whatever, get here. It's the slowest nine months of my life but then when you think about it, you don't want that baby to deliver early.

Right? I mean, it may be hard to wait but there are important things developing in that womb that you do not want to stop nor do you want to rush them. What if that was God's purpose in what he's doing or seemingly not doing in your life right now? What if the purpose of God in your waiting is to form some very important things in us during this time? That is exactly the analogy or the metaphor that Paul uses in Romans 8 as to what God is doing on the earth. What if there was something that God was doing in the waiting and yes, it was driving you crazy but what if he had a purpose and guys, I know we want God to just appear and fix everything but sometimes God has a purpose in the wait. Things we learn, attitudes that are formed in us and if we refuse to wait, we will abort the work that God is doing in us.

Does that make sense? One other example, the other time I remember hating waiting was when I got engaged. We had a relatively short engagement, you know, six months or so but it just was like why? I mean, we know we want to get married.

Why would we just put six arbitrary months in there? That makes perfect sense to guys. To girls, they're like, because you got to plan a wedding and you can't do that in like a week. I'm like, why wouldn't you do it in a week?

Just, you know, some wings and some big room and invite all our friends, great. The reason I didn't want to wait those six months is because I don't give a rat's behind about the ceremony. I mean, honestly, guys don't. You're like, just, you know, it's pass, fail. We get married, pass.

We don't fail. That's all I care about. But my wife did care about the ceremony so she was willing to wait. God cares about what He is doing in you and so there is the wait as God does that. Guys, God is never late.

He's got it all under complete control. I know you think He's late. Ahaz thought He was late, but He's not. He's never been, never been late. He always arrives exactly when He intends to.

In fact, you know, the Apostle Paul described Jesus' birth in the Epistles only one time and what he said was this, Galatians 4, 4, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son. Fullness of time is a majestic Greek phrase that simply means at just the right moment. If you find yourself in a place where you're having to wait on God, know that God has things fully under control. God will do His work in your life in the fullness of time.

Don't abort what God is doing in you by refusing to wait. Here's our second thing. For now, what you get is Jesus. For now, what you get is Jesus. That's what you'll see here in Isaiah 9. God gives them a promise of ultimate fulfillment in the future. What you get in the present is the presence of Jesus. Life's greatest joy and treasure is to know God and to know that He knows you and loves you and is present in your life. You're listening to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author, and theologian J.D.

Greer. We're just getting started in our new teaching series called Foretold. If you've been growing in the gospel through this program and you want to help reach more people across the country, you can do that by giving today.

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