A Child will be born

Have you ever had a situation of good news and bad news:

Something like:
You women’s softball team finally won a church league softball game
The bad news is they beat your men’s team

Your boss asks you to write a job description of your job
They like it so much they decide to go out and hire someone that fits that description

The preacher is told that church attendance has risen drastically over the last 2 weeks but the bad news was that he was gone on vacation for those 2 weeks

Your youth group comes to visit your home
The bad news it is the middle of the night and they have toilet paper and shaving cream.

This is what life is like many times – good news and bad news. It never seems that good news is the only news.

Many people today in the holiday season suffer from depression because they have lost a loved one or they are in financial trouble.

While some people are merry with the spirit of Christmas others are suffering.

Do you have hope today or are you hopeless?

A man approached a little league baseball game one afternoon. He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was. The boy responded, "Eighteen to nothing--we're behind."

"Boy," said the spectator, "I'll bet you're discouraged."

"Why should I be discouraged?" replied the little boy. "We haven't even gotten up to bat yet!"

Charles Dickens started his book A Tale of Two Cities:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. . . .”

In today’s Scripture passage we are going to experience the best and worst of times.

The time period we will look at to begin with is a bleak time in the history of God’s people.

It has been 200 years since Solomon reigned. The Kingdom was now divided between the North – Israel and the South – Judah

Ahaz was king of Judah.

Ahaz was evil and did evil in the sight of the Lord – his 16 year reign was marked with great evil and false worship.

He sacrificed his own children to the pagan god Molech. Things had gotten really bad for Israel.
Things were so low that a Davidic King was now sacrificing to the pagan gods.

But the bad news is that things will get worse. Just a few years after this Jeremiah will being his career as a prophet and in Jeremiah 16 God will tell Jeremiah not to have a wife and kids because things are going to get so bad.

It will not be long until the Babylonians come and destroy Judah and take the best and brightest into captivity.

It is into this situation that Isaiah the prophet takes up council against king Ahaz in Isaiah chapters 7 through 9.

In today’s passage Isaiah will paint for Judah a picture of hope in the bleakest time.
There will be a bright future and a hope for all.

Isaiah 9: 1-7

1 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. 2 The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light ; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them. 3 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. 4 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. 5 For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. 6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders ; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 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.

Then he gets to the point that I want to focus on today.

He tells us a child will be born – future tense
There will be a day of liberation in which this child will be born into this world of pain and no hope.

Isaiah is painting a picture that is bleak for Judah

Darkness will dawn to day – Galilee will have light shine on it.
The region spoken of by Isaiah is the very place this Assyrian and Babylonian oppression will start.

This king that will come will bring about a victory like Gideon over the Midianites (Verse 4).
Just as Gideon overcame the odds and won the victory this child will.

Some things that Isaiah tells us about this child:

1) Wonderful Counselor – He will be a wise king- his guidance and direction will be like no other before

2) Mighty God – this child in some way will be called God.

Earlier in his lament against King Ahaz, Isaiah said the following:

Isaiah 7:14
14 "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign : Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

There will be a great sign of this renewal of all things – this brining light and hope into the world- A virgin will give birth and He will be called Immanuel.

Literally – He will be called God with us.

John’s gospel in John 1:14 tells us that the Word became flesh – the very word that had been with the Father for all eternity became flesh.

Out of the womb of Mary came the very Son of God – God with Us- God in flesh as a human baby

3) Eternal Father

This is a perfect Father that will never abandon His people – think of the perfect human father and you don’t even have a slice of what this Savior will be like.

He will be like our Father forever – God the father shows us his true love by sending His Son.

4) He will be the Prince of Peace – this is an odd saying.

We know that Isaiah is speaking of a time some 700 years later when Jesus of Nazareth is born to the virgin Mary.

We have heard the story so many times that our ears are dulled to the message. We see the seasonal images of Christmas but we loose the Biblical radical nature of this story.

This story is explosive – this story will make kings shake in their boots.

Lets set the stage for this radical entrance into Human history.

Galatians 4:4 tells us that at the fullness of times God sent forth His Son – times had to be just right for Christ to come.

By the time Jesus was born, Augustus had already been monarch for a quarter of a century.
King of kings, he ruled from Gibraltar to Jerusalem and from Britain to the Black Sea.

He had done what no one had done for two hundred years before him: he had brought peace to the wider, Roman world—peace at a price.

What an irony – the Prince of Peace is born during the Pax Romano – the peace of Rome

A price paid in cash by subjects in far-off lands.

Augustus "gave peace, as long as it was consistent with the interests of the Empire and the myth of his own glory,"

There you have it in a nutshell: the whole ambiguous structure of human empire, a kingdom of absolute power, bringing glory to the man at the top, and peace to those on whom his favor rested.

Yes, says Luke, and watch what happens now.

This man, this king, this absolute monarch, lifts his little finger in Rome, and fifteen hundred miles away,

in an obscure province, a young couple undertakes a hazardous journey, resulting in the birth of a child in a little town that just happens to be the one mentioned in the ancient Hebrew prophecy about the coming of the Messiah.

And it is at this birth that the angels sing of glory and peace. Which is the reality, and which the parody?

Here we have to pause, because the passage from

Micah 5, which Luke intends to awaken in our minds, is so well known and so little attended to:
"But you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah, little among the clans of Judah—from you shall come forth the one who is to rule in Israel" (Micah 5:2).

The passage is regularly cut off a verse or two early when read in public.

Verse 4 launches a project that ought to make Augustus anxious:

"He [the coming King] shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of YHWH, in the majesty of the name of YHWH his God; and they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth." But the next verse goes on: "And he shall be the man of peace."

Here is the old king in Rome, turning 60 in the year Jesus was born: he represents perhaps the best that pagan kingdoms can do.

At least he knows that peace and stability are good things; unfortunately, he has had to kill a lot of people to bring them about,
and to kill a lot more, on a regular basis, to preserve them.

Unfortunately, too, his real interest is in his own glory. Already, before his death, many of his subjects have begun to regard him as divine.

Here, by contrast, is the young King in Bethlehem, born with a price on his head.

He represents the dangerous alternative, the possibility of a different empire, a different power, a different glory, a different peace. The two stand over against one another.

Augustus's empire is like a well-lit room at night: the lamps are arranged beautifully, they shed pretty patterns, but they have not conquered the darkness outside.

Jesus' kingdom is like the morning star rising, signaling that it is time to blow out the candles, to throw open the curtains, and to welcome the new day that is dawning.

Glory to God in the highest—and peace among those with whom he is pleased!

Who do you want to put your hope and trust in today?

Do you want to put your trust in human kings and human agencies?

Today are you hopeless?

Does this story of the coming of Christ – prophesied fall on deaf ears because you are so consumed with depression – lonliness?

Or does this story warm your heart with hope?

I think before this story can warm your heart- before you can appreciate the reason all of this happened I must challenge you to do something.
JUDGEMENT

Imagine if today I told you that you had to sit as judge.

So many times we question God and wonder why He lets bad things happen to good people.

We may shake our fist at God and say WHERE ARE YOU???? Why do I feel alone?

I think we all have had those moments of doubt.

Moments where this story of hope of this baby coming in the world may seem hopeless to us.

Let me put you in God’s shoes.

What if I told you today that you had to pass judgment.?

What if you have more than one child and I told you that one of your children can go to Heaven and one had to go to Hell and you had to pick which one went to Hell.

Could you do that?? Could you sentence your own child to Hell while letting the other go into Heaven?

Do you love all your kids the same? I have three wonderful daughters that God has blessed me with.

When we first had Carlin I thought there is no way I could love another like this, but then all the sudden we have another in Emmy and I have just as much love.

They are different – I have different experiences and different things I appreciate about them, but I love them the same.

If I were asked by God to make that type of call of trying to decide between which one of my kids went to Heaven I could not do it.

But what if you had to do it – what would you say to God?

I think I would fall down begging and ask that God send me to Hell instead.

I would beg that God send me to Hell and not send any of my kids.

How many of you hear could identify with that feeling?

Well that is exactly what God did for us!! We were estranged on a collision course with Hell – we are His children and he Loves us.

He loves us so much that Jesus chose to come and die for us. God doesn’t want anyone to go to Hell and he doesn’t so much so that He sent Jesus to die on our behalf.

Jesus literally experienced Hell so we don’t have to. Jesus took on what we deserve.

When we think of that baby in the manger – we must see some 33 years in the future. Those perfect hands – those little baby hands will grow one day and be pierced by nails for us.

When you think about that message of love and think that you are hopeless you better think again.

God loves you so much that he sent His only begotten Son.

Next,
God now sends us to tell others this message of hope.

Imagine If your child was in danger – imagine if you were hurt and incapacitated and you knew your child was in danger and you sent someone to warn your child.

What if your child was walking toward a cliff and you sent a friend to warn them to turn back?

How would you feel if that friend never warned your child? What if that loved one was hurt because that person never warned them?

That is exactly what God has called us to do.

God loves all His children and has called us to go out and warn them to tell them of the Hope they have.

We cant ignore them but are called to share this message of hope.

Conclusion: Hope

From Parade magazine comes the story of self-made millionaire Eugene Land, who greatly changed the lives of a sixth-grade class in East Harlem.

Mr. Land had been asked to speak to a class of 59 sixth-graders.

What could he say to inspire these students, most of whom would drop out of school?

He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him.

Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart.
"Stay in school," he admonished, "and I'll help pay the college tuition for every one of you."

At that moment the lives of these students changed.

For the first time they had hope. Said one student, "I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me. It was a golden feeling."

Nearly 90 percent of that class went on to graduate from high school.

They had a goal in mind they had hope held out in front of them.

Today I want to encourage you and exhort you to hang on to hope.

Having Hope will show in how we live our lives:

One night at dinner a man, who had spent many summers in Maine, fascinated his companions by telling of his experiences in a little town named Flagstaff.

The town was to be flooded, as part of a large lake for which a dam was being built.

In the months before it was to be flooded, all improvements and repairs in the whole town were stopped.

What was the use of painting a house if it were to be covered with water in six months?

Why repair anything when the whole village was to be wiped out?

So, week by week, the whole town became more and more bedraggled, more gone to seed, more woebegone.

Then he added by way of explanation: "Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present."

When you think as many people will this season about the birth of Christ cut through all the noise of our culture and hear the voice of God in Scripture.

The story of Christ’s coming and birth all boil down to God’s love for you.

God loves you and wants you to spend eternity with Him.

God doesn’t want anyone in this room to perish but to have life everlasting.

Today how do you see your future? Are you just wrapped up in this life or do you see the eternal?

Do you see yourself living forever with Christ?

If you don’t we encourage you to do something before it is too late.