Sermon Tone Analysis
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“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.”
[1]
Can any text be more intimately associated with Christmas than the text now before us?
When he wrote “The Messiah,” George Frideric Handel drew heavily upon this passage of the Word.
Anyone who has attended a presentation of that extraordinary oratorio will have heard the words of this text sung during that presentation.
The promise of Christ’s birth and His reign is integral to the message of Christmas.
Many people—especially if they should be untaught or if they are unknowledgeable concerning the Faith—are surprised to discover that the Old Testament provides Christmas texts.
However, Christians who are conversant with the Word know that the Faith is firmly grounded on teachings delivered first under the Old Covenant.
Though no command to celebrate the birth of the Christ is ever issued, there is nevertheless recognition that His birth was foretold and that His advent was anticipated throughout the Jewish populace.
The necessity for the Messiah’s first advent is rooted in the human condition.
Death reigns over the race because of the sin of our first father.
However, in mercy God promised a Saviour even as He pronounced judgement on the creation as result of Adam’s rebellion.
The promise of a Saviour was iterated throughout the Old Testament as God progressively narrowed the uncertainty shrouding the advent of His Son.
The date of Messiah’s coming, the place of His birth, the conditions prevailing in the world when He would be revealed and especially the necessity for His coming were all foretold in Scripture.
Isaiah, as was true of other prophets of the Old Covenant, spoke of the incarnation.
Though some supposed scholars have dismissed the importance of Isaiah’s prophecy, the court prophet did speak pointedly of the purpose of the Messiah’s advent.
The purpose of Messiah’s coming, the reason the Anointed One would be born, is detailed in the words of our text—“to us a child is born, to us a son is given.”
*TO US, A CHILD IS BORN* — The key to understanding this passage is revealed through Isaiah’s use of the prepositional phrase, “to us.”
Consider the language the prophet used when delivering the comforting promise.
“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us” [literal translation].
The prophecy promises that a child is to be born, and the recipient of this blessing is “us.”
The prophecy also promises that a son is to be given; again the recipient of this blessing is “us.”
Some collective entity is designated as beneficiary of the divine promise.
Whatever else may be implied or meant by the words God delivered through the prophet, it is apparent that some collective group is the intended recipient of the promise.
In order to assign benefit for the words of the prophecy, we must discover the recipient of the prophecy.
Perhaps the prophet intends Israel to be the recipient of God’s grace.
This possibility cannot be discounted.
Israel is God’s chosen people.
The Messiah was to come through Israel.
Through Israel, we who are Gentiles are to be blessed as Scripture makes clear.
In GENESIS 9:27 we discover an enigmatic promise delivered by Noah after one of his sons had mocked him because he was drunk.
“May God enlarge Japheth,
and let him dwell in the tents of Shem.”
Japheth is the progenitor of the Indo-European peoples—non-Semitic races we speak of as “white.”
Ham was progenitor of the Asian and African races and Canaan was the son of Ham.
According to Noah’s prophetic word, these lineages would be indebted to the Semites for some boon.
That blessing is the revelation of the Faith we have received—blessing given through the Semitic peoples and propagated through European peoples to all the earth.
In GENESIS 12:3, the promise of God to Abraham that all the families of the earth shall be blessed through him.
The Apostle Paul picks up this theme when he informs us of the role of the Jewish people in bringing the message of life to us.
He writes of them that, “They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises.
To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever.
Amen” [ROMANS 9:4, 5].
Amen, indeed!
Thus, we cannot dismiss the possibility that Isaiah may have been speaking of Israel as the intended beneficiary resulting from the child’s birth and from the giving of a son.
Nevertheless, I am quite certain that the divine promise cannot be restricted to one nation, though that one nation figures prominently in the divine plan of God.
I am confident that the promise is given to all mankind—if we are willing to receive the gift proffered.
The reason for my confidence lies in the Word of God.
Paul continues writing in Romans with this explanation.
“It is not as though the word of God has failed.
For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’
This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring” [ROMANS 9:6-8].
As he considers a variety of Scriptures and the multiple implications of what has been written, the Apostle concludes with this word, “What shall we say, then?
That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith” [ROMANS 9:30].
God’s righteousness is offered to Gentiles through the child who is born and through the son who is given.
In ISAIAH 9:1, 2 the Prophet declares, “There will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.
In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
‘The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shined.’”
The words that follow are directed to us Gentiles.
The prophecy is not restricted to the people of Israel, though Israel will be affected as greatly as is also true for Gentiles.
Remember, the focus of this portion of the message is that a child is born to us.
Now we must identify this child.
Why is it important to know that a child is to be born to us?
The fact that the prophet speaks of a child born who will benefit all mankind, and especially a child who will in some way bless the Gentiles, implies that this is no ordinary child; rather, this is a child of promise.
Earlier in Isaiah’s writings, another prophecy was delivered; that prophecy was intended for a craven king.
Read the prophecy with me; it is found a few pages back in your Bible.
The prophet asserts, “The Lord himself will give you a sign.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” [ISAIAH 7:14].
Any reasonable person would conclude that this is a rather astonishing promise.
Virgins do not conceive in the normal course of events.
Reports of babies born miraculously do surface from time-to-time.
As an example, consider British news reports from some years ago that spoke of a self-styled archbishop, one Gilbert Deya, claimed that infertile women could become pregnant through His prayers.
Women, demonstrably infertile, travelled to Kenya where they were said to have given birth in slum clinics.
However, DNA tests done on at least one of the children in Britain proved there was no link to the supposed mother.
In fact, what was happening was a baby theft ring that was trafficking in stolen babies.
[2] More than twenty babies were taken into custody in Kenya as result of Deya’s malfeasance.
[3] As is inevitably the case, claims of miraculous births can be easily discounted.
Children are not normally identified as “God with us.”
However, according to the prophecy a child would be born of a virgin and that child would be “God with us”—Immanuel.
Indeed, people do occasionally appear claiming to be god among us.
The Guru Maharah Ji claimed to be god in human form, an avatar.
[4] Though claimants to divinity appear with confusing regularity, [5] only one managed to demonstrate the validity of His claim through raising the dead after restoring sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf.
He alone conquered death.
Only one has brought hope and joy to mankind through forgiveness of sin and the promise of life.
That One is Jesus the Messiah—the child promised to all mankind.
To us a child is born, and the purpose of the birth of that child is that He might provide Himself as a sacrifice to take our sin upon Himself and then rise from the dead to bring reconciliation with God.
That child must be very God; thus, He alone is worthy of our praise.
We celebrate the birth of the Christ child because in Him only do we find hope and joy and peace.
We Christians rejoice in the knowledge that God has become man, for it means that we are not left without hope.
God has remembered us in our helpless condition.
He has sent His own Son to share our condition.
In Christ the Lord, God became man.
Those who believe this glorious truth rejoice.
Indeed, it is impossible not to rejoice in the knowledge that God has sent His own Son.
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