Oh, welcome to our sermon series called “Foretold,” as we look at these passages that point to Jesus and were written long before Him — that pointed to the fact that a Savior was coming. And we’re super excited to walk through this today.

I want to share with you a story from 1946. In 1946, there was a group of Bedouin shepherds, and they were out looking for one of their sheep. And as they were going along, they came across a series of little caves that they kind of noticed, and one of them fell into one of those caves. And when he fell into that cave and got down there and began to look around, he found these jars that contained scrolls. And on those scrolls there was all this writing. And they didn’t fully know what they had at the moment, but this became later known as the Dead Sea Scrolls — one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the last 100 years. And the Dead Sea Scrolls, if you were to look through them, they contain a lot of our Old Testament. But one of the most significant pieces was a complete copy of the book of Isaiah. A complete copy. We have a great picture of that that we’ll put up on the screen — the book of Isaiah. You see the entire scroll kind of spread out. Do we have that picture? No, not that one — right — here. This is the book of Isaiah from the Dead Sea Scrolls. This incredible piece of archaeological discovery.

And what’s awesome about this is that archaeologists are able to then look at the Dead Sea Scrolls and then compare what we have in our Bible. And here’s this copy that dates back to 200 BC, and they can look at the two and go, “Do these match? Do they line up?” And the answer is yes — they do match. It’s pretty awesome to look at that and see that. And how is that possible? It’s because a group of Israelites had faithfully preserved the word of God in the book of Isaiah, and they had stored it in these jars.

But back up 500 years before that, at about 734 BC, you’ve got a prophet named Isaiah who’s writing down what God has spoken. God spoke to him these words; he wrote them down. And then for 500 years they were faithfully transcribed and passed on from scribe to scribe until they made it into this collection that would be discovered almost 2,000 years later. And then something — from the moment Isaiah wrote — fast-forward 2,757 years later, and that’s where you get to find it on my In-N-Out cup. It’s pretty awesome.

So that is our passage for this morning. So if you have your Bible with you, turn to Isaiah chapter 9, and we’re going to be taking a look at Isaiah 9:6 and 7 this morning. Isaiah 9, verse 6, says this: “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 Counselor, 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.”

And so let’s pray as we get into this passage today. Father, I’m so grateful that we get to look at a passage, Lord, that is almost 3,000 years old, and Lord, You spoke this passage and You also fulfilled it. And so, Lord, we get to walk through it this morning and see all the ways in which we can look to You as our hope, and look to You as the One who has fulfilled these promises, and Your promises still hold true for us today. Help us, Lord, to get the most out of this passage this morning, Lord, as we apply it to our own lives. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

So today as we walk through this passage, I would encourage you to keep your Bible open to it. We’re going to look at a lot of different passages, but we’re going to keep coming back to this as we unpack Isaiah 9:6 and 7. And as we go through it, I’m going to divide this up into three parts. We’re going to take a look at the promise that was given, the person about whom it is speaking, and the purpose that we see in this passage.

Part One: The Promise — For to Us a Child Is Born

So let’s begin part one, looking at the promise. Who is the promise for? That’s the first question I want to answer this morning. It says, “For to us a child is born.” Who is the “us” that Isaiah is writing about? “For to us a child is born.”

We get great insight from the apostle Paul in the book of Romans. In the book of Romans, Paul has kind of his thesis statement for what his book is about, and he makes this statement in Romans 1:16. He says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” There’s a great insight we get here. Paul, as he looks at the gospel message — the good news of Jesus, which this prophecy is pointing to — he says it is, first of all, it’s for everyone who believes. And this good news in Isaiah is for everyone who believes. But it is also for the Jew first, and then the Greek. It was written first to the Jewish people. Isaiah is writing to the people of Israel, and he’s giving them a promise that they understood to be a promise about them as a nation. It was for them. But then the beauty of what happens in Scripture and what happens in history is that we who are not Jewish — who are part of the Gentiles, and everyone who’s not Jewish is a Gentile — we are then, later on, grafted into the tree. We are part of now God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ. And so this promise was first written to Israel, but it is now included for us. We are part of this promise.

John 1:11 says about Jesus that He came to His own — He came to Israel — and His own people did not receive him. And so there has been a shift; there’s something that has taken place as it relates to God’s relationship to Israel. Israel has rejected their King. Now we understand then who the promise is for.

Why was the promise a promise of a child? It says, “For to us a child is born.” Now, spoiler alert: if you were not sure, this entire prophecy, this entire passage in Isaiah, is pointing to Jesus. It’s talking about Him. So the questions we’re going to ask of this passage are actually questions we’re going to ask of Jesus. Why did Jesus have to come as a child?

The author of Hebrews says this — Hebrews 2:17 says: “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Jesus entered into the entirety of the human experience, except for one thing: Jesus never sinned. That’s the only thing that He never experienced as a human. Everything else — it says He was tempted in every way. Everything that we have experienced and we go through as humans, Jesus understands, because He also experienced those very same things. But for a specific purpose: that Jesus might be the propitiation for our sins, that Jesus might offer forgiveness and become the sacrifice needed to pay for our sins.

Let me give an illustration that I think will help unpack this a little bit. If somebody wrecked your car — let’s say they borrowed your car, they took it for a drive, and they wrecked it — they could not come back to you and apologize and say, “Hey, but here’s a new car,” and offer you a Hot Wheels. They’re not equivalent, right? That wouldn’t be a fair and just trade. Jesus, in offering His life, is offering Himself, because Adam and Eve essentially wrecked the car — they wrecked humanity. And so a dove or a pigeon or a goat would not be a fair and equivalent trade to pay for the sins of humanity. They were a covering, but they were not an equivalent sacrifice. So God offered a human sacrifice — a one-to-one equivalent. But here’s the difference: I could not pay for everyone else’s sin, because I myself am sinful. So Jesus, who lived a perfect, sinless life, is the only one who could lay down His life and actually pay for the sins of the world. So that’s why Jesus had to become human, and His humanity began in the womb, as a child. He first came as a child.

One Christian author wrote this. He said: “God’s answer to everything that has ever terrorized us is a child. The power of God is far superior to the big shots of the world, that He can defeat them by coming as a mere child. His answer to the bullies swaggering through history is not to become an even bigger bully. His answer is Jesus.” It’s pretty profound when you think of it — God, who is almighty, becomes lowly and meek for our sake. In Luke 2:11 it says: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” He came as a child. “For unto us a child is born.”

“To us a son is given.” If He’s called a son, then that implies He has parents. Who are the parents of Jesus? As we look at Jesus, He’s often called the “son of,” and there’s a lot of different answers given, so let’s walk through some of these together.

First, Jesus is the Son of Mary, and He is the son of Mary biologically. In Mark 6:3, people said, “Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary?” So people understood that Mary was His mother. And Mary — it’s pretty mind-blowing to think about this — Mary was a person created by God, and Jesus has a role in our creation. Mary is created by God and then chosen by God to give birth to the Son of God. It’s incredible to think about. That Mary is biologically also a descendant of King David — and we’re going to see as we walk through this together how significant King David is. King David is, I think, the greatest king that Israel ever had. He was described as a man after God’s own heart, and even though he was not perfect, even though he failed, when he did fail, he turned back to the Lord. He’s an incredible man in Scripture. And the anticipation that people had is that their Savior who would come would come from the line of David, and He would be a king like David. And so Mary is biologically in the lineage of David. That is significant.

So Jesus is called the Son of Mary. He’s also called the son of Joseph — and what do we mean by this? He is the son of Joseph legally. So He doesn’t have any of the DNA of Joseph, but Joseph is still the legal father of Jesus. In Luke 4:22, the people said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” So people saw Jesus as the son of Joseph. And Joseph was also a descendant of King David. So Jesus is both genetically, through His mother, related to King David, and He is legally, from the law’s perspective, a descendant of King David. And so He has it from two different angles.

Jesus is also called the Son of Man, and “Son of Man” is used two different ways in Scripture. One way it’s used is in a general sense. Psalm 144:3 says, “O LORD, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?” This is a general term. I am a son of man, just as you are a son or a daughter of man. It’s a term that means human. We are descendants of humans, and so we are humans; we are sons and daughters of man. And so there’s a general sense that someone could be called a son of man — for example, we see the prophet Ezekiel called “son of man” in that regard. But then there’s this other way that the term “Son of Man” was used, and Jesus is the Son of Man prophetically. And here’s what I mean: if you go to the book of Daniel, in Daniel chapter 7, he has this vision, and he says, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.” And so there’s this Son of Man who is a person who is described in the book of Daniel, and it was a prophetic writing about the Savior who would come. It was a prophetic writing about the Messiah who was coming to save His people. He would be called the Son of Man — it was an official title. And in fact, Jesus uses that title many times to describe Himself. Jesus saw Himself as the Messiah, as the Son of Man.

But Jesus is also called the Son of David, and He is in fact the son of David ancestrally, meaning He was in the line of David. And people understood that their Savior would come from that line; they were waiting for this King like David. In Matthew 12:23 it says, “All the people were amazed, and said, ‘Can this be the son of David?’” They looked at Jesus and they thought, “Is He the one? Is He the son of David? Is He of David’s line? Is He the one like David who will become our King?” And as I shared, He was both legally and biologically a descendant of David.

But most importantly, Jesus is called the Son of God, because divinely that’s who He is. In Matthew 14:33 it says, “Those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’” His disciples saw it; they understood something about who Jesus was — that He was the Son of God. Now, this is again this divine mystery — how this can be possible, that Jesus is both completely human, 100%, and also 100% completely divine. He is God and man. It seems like it’s not possible; it seems paradoxical, and yet that’s what the Scripture clearly teaches; that’s what Jesus clearly taught — that He is both God and man, that He has a physical, biological mother, Mary, but that He is also miraculously born of a virgin because of the power of the Holy Spirit working in the life of Mary to miraculously bring about the birth of Jesus. It’s a remarkable thing. And so here He is: divinely appointed, the biological and legal descendant of King David, to be the new King — in fact, we would later know Him as the King of Kings.

So it says again: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.” The government will be upon His shoulder. What government are we talking about? What is it that Jesus was coming to rule? And again, this is an answer with multiple layers. Last week Pastor Joel walked through Micah 5:2, which says, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.” So first and foremost, Jesus came to be the ruler of Israel. He came to be the King of the people of David — He came to that nation, that He would be their King. Isaiah 22:22 says: “And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; he shall shut, and none shall open.” It shows the absolute authority that Jesus would have over the people of Israel — by right of His royal lineage and divine appointment, He would become the King of the Jews. But rather than being lifted up on a throne and hailed as King of the Jews, He’s lifted up and placed upon a cross, with a sign over His head that read “King of the Jews.” And He was mocked as their King rather than exalted as their King. But in doing so, Jesus was also doing something else.

Jesus was not only coming to be the King of Israel — Jesus was coming to overthrow the king of this world. In John 12:31, Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.” Who is the ruler of this world that He’s talking about? He’s talking about Satan. Jesus came to earth to undo the works of the enemy. Jesus came to conquer sin and death. Jesus is doing something much bigger than just the nation of Israel. In John 14:30, as Jesus is preparing to go to the cross, He’s talking with His disciples and He says, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. But listen to what Jesus said about him: ‘He has no claim on me.’” They’re not evenly matched. Jesus came to do something which no other king could do. He’s going head-to-head with Satan, but it’s not a fair fight, because Jesus is Lord of all. And He was coming to cast out the enemy.

But Jesus is establishing a kingdom. He is establishing a kingdom. He came to earth to establish a kingdom, and we’ve just finished walking through this series on the Sermon on the Mount, which is all about what it looks like to live life in the kingdom of God — to live your life according to the principles and teachings of Jesus. So all of us, through faith in Jesus, we’re part of His kingdom right now. We’re a part of it right now. But there’s still a moment coming when the kingdom will be fully realized in a much bigger way. But Jesus, while He was here — in Matthew 10:7, He told them, “Proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” So there’s a sense in which it’s here right now; we’re part of it. But there’s this moment coming when Jesus is going to establish an actual, physical, earthly kingdom. We read about this in the book of Revelation. It says, in Revelation 11 — “The seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.’” Jesus is coming back to establish a kingdom that will last for all eternity.

Part Two: The Person — His Name Shall Be Called

So Isaiah told us about this child who would be born to be King. What does he tell us about His identity? Who will this King be? So let’s look at part two now: the person. He says, “And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

Whenever I read those words, I think about one of the greatest pieces of classical music, which is Handel’s Messiah. And as our kids were singing and leading us in worship this morning, the very first song is a musical quote from Handel’s Messiah — “For unto us a child is born.” And as the song goes, and it builds and it builds, it comes to this moment where it says, “And his name shall be called” — it’s actually, because it’s like Old English, it’s like “callèd,” right? If you’ve ever sung it, you go, “Why is it ‘callèd’?” But that’s how you sing it — “His name will be callèd” — and then the music just becomes this epic, beautiful moment as it says “Wonderful” — there’s this pause in the strings — “Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” These triumphant, victorious, beautiful names of who the Messiah would be — who Jesus is. And so let’s walk through this together.

Wonderful Counselor. The first description of this child who would be born is that He is a wonder; He is extraordinary. This word in Hebrew is used 15 times to describe the extraordinary acts of God. We see in Isaiah 28:29: “He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.” What a great description of who Jesus is. In Jeremiah 32 He describes him as “great in counsel and mighty in deed.” You see, all the kings of this world throughout history have always depended on advisers. Kings needed other people around them to answer their questions and to advise them based on their specific interest or field or the things that they knew about. And Jesus doesn’t need any of that. He doesn’t need somebody else to be His counselor — He is the Wonderful Counselor. He knows everything He needs to know; He has within Himself all the knowledge that needs to be passed on. And we need Him to be our Wonderful Counselor. We need to go to Him for counsel and wisdom, and He will give it to us. He’s the Wonderful Counselor.

Mighty God. And then He is called Mighty God. Anybody who thinks that there was no hint that the Messiah would have to be God himself — they just completely gloss over this verse. As Isaiah is writing about who the Messiah is going to be, he says “Mighty God.” God himself would be the Savior; God himself would be their rescue. Deuteronomy 10:17 says, “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.” And Jeremiah 32:18 says, “You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them — O great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts.” The Messiah would be God himself — Mighty God, the Mighty God who is able to save.

Now I love this. As you study the book of Genesis, there’s story after story where a woman could not give birth, and then God would do something — God would perform a miracle, and God would open the womb, and this woman would have a child. And in almost every instance in the book of Genesis where this takes place, God is referred to as El Shaddai, which is the phrase translated as “God Almighty.” And there’s a link between God’s mightiness and His ability to bring about a life, to bring about a child. And so God Almighty is speaking this prophecy about this child that He would bring about, and that this child would himself be almighty God. It’s incredible. It’s incredible.

Everlasting Father. And then He is called Everlasting Father. Now, this is a title applied to Jesus, but don’t be confused here, because when we talk about God, we understand that the Holy Spirit is God, that Jesus the Son is God, and that God the Father is God. This is the mystery of the Trinity — that all three are God, yet they are not each other. The Holy Spirit is not Jesus, and Jesus is not the Father. This title, “Everlasting Father,” is applied to Jesus, but it’s not saying that Jesus is the Father. What this is saying is that Jesus will be like a father forever to His people. Jesus said this: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” So there is a relationship between us and Jesus in that He is like a parent to us. He will not abandon us; He will not leave us or forsake us. He’s going to care for us; He’s going to watch over us. And so we have this familial relationship with Him.

But there’s another way that this phrase can also be translated in Hebrew, and both translations point to things that are true. So it is true that Jesus is like a father to us, but it’s also true that this can be translated as “He is the Father of Eternity.” He’s the Father of Eternity — He’s the author of Eternity; He is over all. Colossians 1:17 says about Jesus: “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” So He is the Father of Eternity. It points to the fact that He is eternal — that He has always existed and He always will.

Prince of Peace. And the last title that Isaiah gives — he calls Him the Prince of Peace. What a great title for Jesus. As the people of Israel looked to their Messiah, here’s what they expected. Psalm 72, verse 7, says: “In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound till the moon be no more.” They were looking forward to a time period of eternal peace. How does Jesus fulfill that? Paul writes this in Ephesians: “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” And what Paul is talking about is the fact that, because of our sin, there has been a chasm between us and the Father — the relationship was broken between humanity and God — and Jesus has made peace. He’s made it possible for us to have that relationship with the Father. He’s the Prince of Peace. But maybe this Christmas season, in the midst of all the busyness and all the things happening, more than anything else you need the Prince of Peace to rule and reign in your life. The Bible describes a peace that surpasses all understanding, and that’s what Jesus promises for us if you just come to Him.

Part Three: The Purpose — An Eternal Kingdom of Justice and Peace

So this is the person that Isaiah describes. Let’s now look at the purpose in His coming. He says, as he continues in the prophecy, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.” He’s setting up an eternal kingdom where peace is going to be the standard — peace is going to be the normal — and it’s going to last forever. How can this kingdom be eternal? It only happens if you have a King who is eternal, and the only one who is eternal is God. It shows that Jesus is God. Psalm 145:13 says, “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations.”

And then Isaiah says, after talking about this government and this peace, “On the throne of David and over his kingdom.” So here it comes full circle — this link to King David. God had made promises to King David that are now fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. In 2 Samuel chapter 7, God told David, He said: “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” And when you read this in its context, it’s first just talking about King Solomon — King David would have a son, who is Solomon, who would build a house for God; he would build the temple. But there’s a secondary — and in fact we might call it the primary — application, which is actually not about King Solomon. He’s talking about this offspring who would come from his line who’s going to establish a throne of his kingdom forever. That wasn’t Solomon — Solomon would not be on that throne forever. But from the line of David would come Jesus, who would be eternal and always be on that throne. Jeremiah 33:17 says, “For thus says the LORD: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel.” And again, it’s talking about Jesus — He is always on that throne. So the people, as they looked at Jesus and called Him the son of David, they are thinking about these Scriptures. They’re thinking about who Jesus is as it relates to David and as it relates to being the King.

And so His disciples were a little bit confused at times. And we get to the book of Acts — it’s after Jesus has died on the cross and risen again — His disciples say to Him, in Acts 1:6 it says, “So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’” So once Jesus came back to life, they’re thinking, “Okay, so now this is the moment, right? You’re going to reestablish the kingdom of Israel right here — you’re going to overthrow the Romans, right?” But that’s not what Jesus had in mind. The disciples didn’t fully understand it at the moment, but their clarity got better over time — that Jesus was coming to establish this eternal kingdom; it was going to be different from what they were expecting.

And this kingdom that Jesus is setting up — Isaiah describes it. He says it’s “to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness.” This kingdom is going to be perfect. The kingdom of Israel — that earthly kingdom — it could never be that. And in fact, there’s no earthly kingdom that has ever been, or ever will be until Jesus’s kingdom, that could be perfect. It’s just not possible with sinful people; we can’t do it. But Jesus is going to set up a kingdom that is full of justice and righteousness. Jeremiah 23:5 says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” Everyone’s going to act justly; everyone’s going to be righteous. That means our sins have been washed away and our sin nature has been dealt with. This moment is coming — this part applies to the future — and it’s going to last forever. Isaiah says, “From this time forth and forevermore.” It’s going to be an everlasting kingdom.

And how will God accomplish all of this? How will God accomplish this prophecy? It says at the end of that passage: “The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” In other words, God — who is the commander of the armies of heaven — will accomplish this by His zeal: His energy, His excitement, and His passion for you and for me. God is passionate about His people. He cares for us. And that’s why He sent a child. That’s why He gave us this Son who would die for us, who would set us free from the power of sin and death. He offers us life in His kingdom.

Gabriel’s Words to Mary — The Prophecy Fulfilled

So now we’ve walked through this passage in Isaiah, and you’ve got all these things in your mind about who the Savior would be. Listen now as the angel Gabriel spoke to this woman, Mary. Listen to his words to her and just hear how much of this Scripture is bubbling up in what he says. In Luke 1:31–33 he says: “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Do you hear Isaiah coming out in what the angel Gabriel shared? He’s essentially telling Mary: the Savior who you’ve been waiting for is going to be your child. He’s coming into this world. He’s coming to you.

And in John chapter 1 it says that the Word — who is Jesus — became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus came here to earth as a child for us. It was spoken by the Lord; it was written by the prophet Isaiah; and it was fulfilled 2,000 years ago in the birth, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the King of Kings. He is the Prince of Peace. As the kids were singing earlier, the King has come — He is here today — Jesus, the Messiah. And my only question for you this morning is: do you know Him?

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray. Jesus, we thank You that You came to earth as a child for us — innocent, small, meek, yet all-powerful, almighty, able to save, able to rescue. And Lord, I pray that many this morning, if they don’t know You yet, will turn to You and find the peace that only You can give. Help us all, Lord, to worship You in the splendor of Your majesty and Your holiness this Christmas season. We ask in Jesus’ name. And all God’s people said — amen.