Everlasting Father
Papa
Text: Isaiah 9:6
Theme: He is the Everlasting Father
Purpose: To help this congregation to find a permanent savior.
INTRODUCTION
1. Thursday and Friday, I worked on the mini bus. It should be a simple thing, to change a belt. There were several problems. First, the belt we thought was missing was in fact, there. Which meant that something else was wrong, alternator. Easy, a few bolts and off it would come. But nothing is easy. Sometimes, things are simply hard.
2. One of the hard subjects of Christianity is the relationship between Jesus and God, and how that play out in our lives. In the names Isaiah gives Jesus, one is deals with this relationship. We look here, at a hard topic.
3. Read Text
4. KEY SENTENCE: We find two parts to this name.
I. As Everlasting Father, Jesus is One with the Father.
A. Of all the names we have looked at this Advent season, this one is the most troubling.
1. From the point of the Trinity, how can the son be called the father?
2. Solution to this dilemma is found in the relationships between the two.
B. This name is never applies to Jesus in the New Testament.
1. He is always the son.
2. He address God as a son addresses a father.
C. Yet, there are places, especially in John, where the name begins to make sense.
1. 91 x in John, Jesus speaks of the Father. (Synoptics, 58x)
D. It begins with John 1:14, "We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." For John this incarnation moment is critical.
E. Another key chapter is John 5.
1. v 19, "I tell you the truth, The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his father doing, because whatever the father does the son also does.
2. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.
3. v 22, The father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the son.
4. For as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son to have live in himself.
5. Conclusion, Jesus shares qualities and characteristic with the Father.
F. Even more telling is John 14,
1. v 7, "if you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.
2. v 9, "Anyone who has seen me as seen the Father, how can you say, 'Show us the Father?'"
3. v 10, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
4. The connection between Jesus and the Father are so strong.
5. It is this connect that Isaiah reveals to us.
Trans: So the second part of this name, Everlasting Father, talks not so much about the relationship between the two, but describes the way he relates to us. The first part does something else.
II. As Everlasting Father, Jesus is Eternal.
A. We live in a world of quick fixes.
1. Short term . . . long term.
2. My front tooth, temporary, quick fix.
B. The salvation of man is far from a quick fix, it is part of an eternal plan.
C. This is a plan put in place long ago, before creation.
D. This is a plan which has been patiently executed.
E. This is a plan that completely fills the needs of all. (Past, present, and future.)
F. This is a plan which is a permanent fix, not temporary.
1. Not "rent a player"
2. Not "OK for now, but long term . . ."
3. This is an eternal fix to the fall of man.
Trans: So, we see here that Jesus shows us the father, and is like the father in many, many ways. If fact, we know God because we know Jesus. And we see that he is everlasting. From before the beginning, to beyond the end he is. At the new heaven and earth the Jesus we know and love, will still be at the center of it all.
CONCLUSION
1. We have met the Wonderful Counselor, and the Mighty God. We meet also the Everlasting Father.
2. Need something permanent in your life right know? I would offer Jesus.
a. Life is not permanent.
b. Property is not permanent.
c. Family is not permanent.
d. Our only anchor is Jesus.
3. And what an anchor, an anchor of love.