The Child of Christmas

Well, here we are the final week before Christmas. I'm super excited about it and I'm so glad that you have made time to join us whether you're joining us in person here in the auditorium or online at TLC.org/live or Instagram or Facebook or YouTube. Wherever you're watching, we're just so stoked that you're here.

I want to invite you to grab your message notes that looked like this. If you came into the auditorium, you got these physically, and if you're joining us online, you can download them at TLC.org/notes. But before we go any further in the message today, I just want to give you kind of a sneak preview of what is coming up. Believe it or not, in just two weeks, it'll be a New Year's weekend. It is all happening so fast, and we are going to launch it with a series I'm really excited about that we call choosing a good year.

Here's what I mean by this. Believe it or not, in 2022, all kinds of things are gonna happen to you that you don't like and that you would prefer not to have happened to you and that you aren't even anticipating will happen to you right now. But although those things are gonna be out of your control, you still have agency. You actually still have a choice about the kind of new year you will experience.

What I mean by this is you can choose your reactions, but not only how you react; you can choose to be proactive about the attitude that you're taking as you head into the new year. You can choose wisdom, you can choose humility, you can choose blessing, and that's what this new series is all about.

Now, we're tying into this series kind of loosely basing it on this brand new book by Andy Stanley called Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets. What we're gonna do is a short month-long small group series for home groups that ties into the sermons. If you're interested in being a part of that, I'd really encourage it. You can go to TLC.org/smallgroups.

Here's the page that'll come up; you can sign up to host a small group or to be in a small group. If you were already in one of the faithful ward small groups, you might want to talk to your friends and get together and do this thing. It's only about a four or five-week long series, actually, and you can pick this book up at the book nook. Just a great way to kind of get launched being in the small groups is always free. We're gonna provide you the discussion questions for free, email them to you. It's a great way not only to be in community but to sort of get your head on straight, you know what I mean, as you head into the New Year.

So I'm super stoked about that. Well, that starts in two weeks, but right now, you know what I'm gonna do? Actually, I don't want this book on my table, so who wants this book right now? You want it? Okay, here we go. This is an early Merry Christmas present to you. What's your name? DJ? DJ, awesome. That's a cool name. Is that actually your name or does it stand for something? It stands for Dennis Jr. But you would prefer that I not call you Dennis Jr., probably, but now the whole world knows that your actual name is Dennis. Good, thank you, DJ. Appreciate it. Let's give DJ a hand. Good Merry Christmas!

All right, shadow and light is what we call our Advent series this year at Twin Lakes Church. Advent is the word that Christians use a lot around Christmas time; it means arrival. And of course, at Christmas, we anticipate the arrival of a new baby. We think of the baby Jesus, and in those days, people had been waiting a long time for that child, right? People waited centuries for the Messiah, the baby Jesus, to be born, and that's what Advent's all about—kind of that sense of waiting for God's promises to be fulfilled.

This year, I find that I am relating to this emotionally waiting for a child on a level that honestly in my life I've never related to before. Last weekend, I told you about our brand new granddaughter, Willa Mina Lily. We're calling her Willa. Thank you. Born to our son David and his amazing wife Anna, that was great news. But then things got more dramatic than we would have preferred. Due to some medical complications, she and her mama had to stay in the hospital.

Each day, it was, well, maybe tomorrow they'll come home, and then maybe tomorrow, and then, well, maybe tomorrow, and then maybe tomorrow, maybe tomorrow, maybe tomorrow. It was seven long days before they were finally able to come home, and things got tense. Now she and her mama are doing great now, thank God, and thank you for all of you who are praying for us. But I have to tell you that wait to finally be able to put Willa in our arms, that was not easy.

So the point was really brought home to me and to our whole family in some stark ways this year. Waiting for the arrival of a long-expected baby is not easy. Waiting for God to answer prayer is not easy. Waiting for God to finally set things right with your health or with your family or with your finances or in some other relationship in your life or in the world at large or in our nation or with the COVID situation—waiting is hard.

The people of Israel also waited for the advent of the Messiah, but for centuries, when we kicked off the series the first week, Adrian did a great job talking about those prophecies back in Isaiah 9:2. The people were going through some very dark times, I mean, because of the oppression of others and also because of their own sin. And then God tells them this in Isaiah 9:2: "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned." And as Lily just said before she sang that beautiful song, you know, that's a message for you today.

Because maybe you feel like you are in deep darkness. Maybe it's just because you look at the news headlines and you're like, man, we are just living at a time of deep darkness right now. Or maybe it's something that's going on with you personally. Maybe you've been going through just this run of bad news in your life, or maybe you got a bad test result, or maybe some tough things are happening in some relationship in your life. Well, the promise of Advent is this: darkness will not last. That's been the theme of this series. Every week, say that out loud with me: this darkness will not last. Let me hear you say it again: this darkness will not last.

You know what? I want you to do? Turn around to somebody near you and look at them because somebody here needs to hear that and say, this darkness will not last. That's the theme of the whole series. And this whole idea about this darkness will not last is gonna be very emotional this Thursday and Friday. That's when it's gonna reach its culmination. On Thursday and Friday, as Adrian mentioned earlier, we have our candle lighting services. I really hope you can join us for all of these. That's gonna be our whole theme.

As Adrian said, we have these cards; we have them in business card size and postcard size that has all the details on the back. Invite your friends and neighbors. I'm getting in conversations about with all my friends constantly: what are you guys doing for Christmas Eve? People are looking for a place to go or something to watch. These are all gonna be live-streamed as well.

This was also our theme this past weekend. How many of you were here last weekend when the choir and the orchestra performed Handel's Messiah? Wasn't that amazing? Let's thank the choir, the orchestra, Dr. Dana; that was so beautiful.

Well, today I want to continue that theme by doing kind of a deep dive into one of the greatest songs that they sang. All the lyrics come out of a verse just a little bit later in the same chapter, Isaiah 9:6. Let's read this one verse out loud together as well: "For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Amen.

I've been kind of tripping out on this verse, especially this last week. What's been revelatory to me is the more I dig into it, the more I've been discovering. You ever gotten a gift at Christmas that's in one of those gift bags, and then you open it up and you realize there's all kinds of gifts inside of it, like four or five little small gifts that are individually wrapped? You take out the tissue paper, and there's more to discover, and you think you get to the end of the person who gave it to you is sitting there, and they say, no, no, keep looking, and there's something else in the gift bag, right? That's what this verse is like.

What I want to do today is just kind of unwrap all the gifts in this verse by going through it line by line, one phrase at a time. I really think this is going to encourage you if you just let the truths in this wash over you today, and it's gonna make Christmas so much more meaningful and so much more peaceful and hopeful for you.

First, Isaiah says, "For unto us a what? A child is born." Now, what's interesting about that is the people back in those days, they weren't really expecting the Messiah to show up as a soldier, as a warrior, as a judge against all those bad people out there, but not as a little fragile human baby. I mean, they knew the Messiah would be born, but they didn't realize that would actually be an important part of the Messiah story—that he would come to us in fragility as an infant, just like, well, exactly like Willa Mina.

Let me just show another picture of her. Listen, I waited for seven days; I will use her to illustrate perhaps every single point today. All right? I'll never forget my very first Christmas as a pastor here. I said in a sermon, you know, the baby Jesus screamed and cried and soiled himself and needed diaper changes and had to be nursed. The next day, I got a very, very angry note from a woman in the church who wrote me totally scandalized. It was a two-page, single-spaced typed letter that she had delivered to the church. But one of the sentences in it was this quote: "How dare you say that about Jesus? That is vulgar."

Now listen, I get where she was coming from emotionally because we think of God, and rightly so, as holy, right, and different from us and as all-powerful. So it seems incredible to think of God exactly like a human baby in his incarnation. But the point of the gospel is he did come to us into our humanity as a baby born to poor parents in the mud and straw and grime and dirt of a stable, laid in a feeding trough meant for animals as a real human child.

And Jesus didn't, you know, pop out brilliant and thoughtful, although Willa looks exactly that way because she is a genius. You know, Jesus didn't pop out going, you know, "Let me, mother, let me proclaim to you the sermon on the mount." No, and he was not always blissed out and filled with serenity, although again, Willa is here because she is a perfect child. But you know that song, that Christmas carol, "Away in a Manger"? It says, "The little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes." You know that song? That song is a lie because Jesus was 100% real human baby.

I'm just gonna keep going, people, until somebody stops me. But you know, Jesus probably looked just like this. You know, babies can be funny and awkward and annoying and aggravating and cute, as Willa is going to continue demonstrating for us. But that's the point: Jesus was not an angel; he was not just a vision. He was fully human, yet also fully God.

How? Let's keep unwrapping the little gifts in this gift bag here. Isaiah gives us four famous descriptions of who the Messiah is and what the Messiah does for you. Number one, he comforts me. He comforts me. It says, "And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor." He comforts and guides. I saw this in my own family in a very real way when my father-in-law was shot during a mass shooting in Phoenix years ago, a few days before Easter. He did survive, but others did not. When he was in the hospital clinging to life, I watched as my mother-in-law, June, who by her own admission can be a world-class worrier, suddenly had total peace and total serenity. She said no matter what happened, I knew I would be okay.

What was that? What was happening to her? That was the Wonderful Counselor. This is not just a concept; this is not just a construct. This isn't just a paradigm; it isn't just an idea. The Wonderful Counselor is a person who stood next to her. June told me she felt the presence of Jesus as if he was reassuring her he was with her through the valley of the shadow of death, no matter what happened.

Now, of course, we can also benefit from skilled human counselors, but this is something that comes to us on top of all that and underneath that—a supernatural comfort that passes all understanding. You know, I was thinking, what makes Jesus Christ so wonderful as a counselor? Well, because being human, he knows how I feel, and being divine, he knows what I need, right? He knows how I feel; he gets it, and he knows exactly what I need. And so I can listen to his Wonderful Counselor in the Word of God.

Now, we could talk about this whole idea for hours, but it gets even better than that. Don't just stop there. In fact, let me just kind of express a pet peeve of mine here. In my opinion, it's very easy for churches and pastors to stop at this aspect of Jesus because it's so awesome, and it's true of Jesus: he is the Wonderful Counselor. But if you stop there and don't go on to the rest of the descriptions of the gospel in this verse and in Scripture, then Jesus just comes off as sort of a divine therapist in the sky, kind of your life coach. And what happens is every sermon is about life advice—how to do life better or how you can feel better. And that is a part of the ministry of Jesus, but Jesus also goes much further than that.

Let's keep unwrapping the gifts here. This verse also shows he rescues me. He rescues me. Watch this: it says he'll be called Mighty God. Now, this is so cool because the root word for what's translated mighty in English, the root word in Hebrew actually means something like hero—somebody who is a doer of great deeds. Now, what comes to your mind? What do you think? Probably like Spider-Man or Black Widow or Black Panther. And the original readers of this might have thought of Moses or Joshua. Those are all great, right? But they're merely humans. The point of this verse is that the Messiah will not just be a human hero; he is fully human and fully God—mind-blowing!

The one who created every star in every galaxy became a little baby, just like, well, here's a great example of an actual baby. And this fragility was necessary to his rescue mission. Let me illustrate it this way: you know I love Rembrandt, and I love the way he did the nativity. He was really the first major artist to try and portray Jesus in sort of a gritty way—no halos, just kind of real life. Now, you combine this sketch with his sketches of Christ on the cross, and in those two pictures, you sort of get to the heart of the Christian gospel—that God made himself fragile to rescue us. The fragility and the vulnerability was part of his rescue mission.

I was thinking about this: you know, other ancient religions have a lot of stories about quests—quests that human beings went on to try to find the gods or to please the gods, right? Well, as far as I can see, Christianity is the only one that talks about the quest God goes on in search of us, in search of you. God rescues you; that's a huge, huge component of the good news.

You know, here's why this is important—not just to stop at Wonderful Counselor and good advice. That is part of the gospel, but you've got to go on to rescue. Because, for example, if somebody's drowning off a beach here in Santa Cruz, the lifeguard is not going to just stand on the shore and yell good advice: try dog paddling, you know, swim harder. That's great advice, but they're drowning. And if we're not careful, that can become the limited message from churches. And I would dare say that that's how a lot of people who are on the outside of church perceive our message. Honestly, what the message of many churches can morph into, if they're not careful, is swim better, try dog paddling, when what people need is rest. They don't need advice; they need rescue.

Somebody once said the gospel is not just good advice; it's good news. You know, the angel didn't say to the shepherds, "I bring you good advice of great joy." The angel said, "Good news of great joy." What's the difference? Advice is about stuff you've got to do; news is about something that just happened that's gonna change your life. And that's the good news: God has sent a hero to rescue you. That happened; just receive it.

But then, as we keep unwrapping the little presents in this gift bag of Isaiah 9:6, it just gets even more personal because God isn't just a Wonderful Counselor, and he doesn't just rescue you and then leave you on the shore and go, "Good luck with that," right? Then he goes further, and he adopts me into his family. He adopts me. It says he will be called Everlasting Father.

Now, there are so many places that we can go with this, but for now, think of the best things that a father offers: compassion, right? Support. What are some of the other things that a good human father provides? Just shout some things out. What? Love. What else? Security, compassion. What else? Guidance, protection, money—somebody said that's good. Well, you know, support, right? A lifeline.

Now, I know some of you are thinking, yeah, that's not a description of my dad. Maybe your dad died, and you never had a dad, or he left by choice, or he hurt you. One of my biggest heartbreaks as a pastor is I talk to so many people who are deeply scarred by their fathers or father figures. And if that's you, this word picture here is not very thrilling because if you're honest, you're thinking, great, that means God is just like some omnipotent version of my terrible father. But that's not what this means.

What this means is that God is all the good things that your human father may have failed to be. No human father is perfect, but what this means is he will never ever leave you—not ever. He will never ever hurt you, never. He will never forget you—not for one second. This means God loves you like the best father in the universe. You're there in his hands, and when you let that reassurance capture your imagination, then you know you always have hope. You know you're cherished; you know you're loved. What a gift in this verse, right?

He comforts me; he rescues me; he adopts me. And it gets even better. The whole gospel, like the whole gospel of the New Testament, like all the content of Paul's epistles, is kind of wrapped up in this one little verse because finally, it says he restores me. He restores me. And this is rich. It says he'll be called the Prince of Peace.

Now, the Hebrew word used here for peace, originally, of course, the Old, what Christians refer to as the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures were written in Hebrew. Now, does anybody know what the Hebrew word for peace is? If you do, shout it out: Shalom. Say that with me: Shalom. When you say that, doesn't that word just kind of make you feel more peaceful? Say it again, kind of in a low register: Shalom. Isn't that nice?

Shalom is an important word. It appears over 200 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, and it means much more than just the English word for peace. We associate peace with maybe a sensation of hostilities, right? No more war. It may be feeling peaceful inside, kind of feeling serenity, and that is part of the connotation of Shalom, but it goes much deeper than that. Tim Keller defines it as multi-dimensional complete well-being—physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. It flows from all of one's relationships being put right with God, with oneself, and with others.

Somebody else summarized it this way: Shalom means total flourishing, wholeness, health. That's what the Messiah comes to bring. What I'm saying is this: you know the peace you experience maybe at a beautiful Santa Cruz sunset? Did anybody see the sunset last night? Did anybody watch it up by the coast? So gorgeous with the full moon coming up. We get some great sunsets here on the coast, and they give you a feeling of peace and awe, and that's important, and it's beautiful. But Shalom goes even deeper than that.

Because if we're honest, the top peace robber is guilt—legitimate guilt over sin that breaks our relationship with God. But the Prince of Peace can deal with that once for all if you let him. Romans 5:1 says we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ pays the penalty for our sin and forgives us for all eternity. And when you realize that, then you become a person of peace. You're like, man, I've been forgiven of so much; I want to forgive other people. I'm gonna be gracious to them.

That's why the Bible says in Colossians 3:15, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace." Let's see that verse on the slides: Colossians 3:15, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace." You know, I see so many agitated Christians and angry Christians today. I think it's because they have forgotten the gospel; it's that simple—the gospel of peace.

And then one day, this Prince of Peace will restore total Shalom to the whole planet when he returns and fixes everything that was broken and brings peace forever and ever. You know, Laurie, I love those flip TV shows—those homemaker over TV shows. You know what I'm talking about? Those remodel shows? Does anybody else like to watch those? My wife's like obsessed with those, right?

Well, what this verse implies and what the New Testament goes on to elaborate on is that one day, the Prince of Peace will return and do an extreme makeover for the entire universe at the second advent. And you know, actually, when you listen to Christmas carols, let me just give you a little key that'll open up Christmas carols that you thought you knew by heart, and you're all of a sudden like, whoa, I never saw that before. A ton of Christmas carols, like probably half of the Christmas carols, are not only about the first advent when Jesus was born but also about the second advent when he returns to bring peace on earth and total goodwill toward men.

It's really interesting. For example, think of the words of "Joy to the World." Have you ever thought about these words? It says, "No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as far as the curse is found." That's about the second advent. And here's why this is really important to talk about: Advent is not just about remembering the story; it's about remembering my place in the story.

And here's what I mean: you and I live between the first and the second advent, and that gives me hope because it gives me perspective, right? God had a plan for Jesus to be born; we can see that clearly now because we can look back on the first advent. But that can give me hope: God has a plan for the second advent too. He's still in control. It seemed like chaos, even to Mary and Joseph, but looking back, it's like God was totally in control the whole time, and it was beautiful, and we celebrate it now. Well, that's what it's gonna be like in the second advent too, and remembering that reminds me this darkness will not last.

So the question is, if this is everything in the gift bag, right? If this is the gospel, if this is what the Messiah comes to bring us, then how do I personally experience this? Right? Why do we not always experience all of this? Well, go back to a phrase that you might have noticed that I skipped: "And the government shall be upon his shoulders." Yes, that means one day he's gonna rule the whole planet with justice and love, but it starts right here in my heart when I place the government of my life on his shoulders.

When I allow him to rule in my life, you know, in recovery, they talk about turning over control of my life to his power. And you need to have a moment where you say, "Jesus, I turn over control to you. Be my Lord." And then you begin to experience, in increasing degrees, all these things we've been talking about and more.

I'll close with this. In his brand new book, Unleashing Peace, just came out this past week, the author Jeremiah J. Johnston, who by the way is gonna be a guest speaker here at Twin Lakes Church next summer, I'm super excited about that, shares in his book the true story about a remarkable thing that happened in London. A suicidal man tried to jump off a footbridge onto one of the busiest streets in the city, but passersby saw him and grabbed him and held on for two hours until they were able to get him safely over the railings.

One of the most amazing things, I think, about this photo—do you notice he's tied up with yellow rope to the bridge railing? God works in mysterious ways, as Jeremiah Johnston says in the book. For some reason, somebody walking past happened to have yellow rope in his jacket. But as he puts it, that photo captures a determination by these people to rescue. And you know what's amazing? Not one of these people knew each other before this, and not one of them had any relationship to that person. You can tell they're different ages; they're different ethnicities. But guess what united them? Their mission to save that guy's life.

The message of Christmas and the message of Isaiah 9:6 is God is full of determination to rescue you. And once you realize that and take it in, then what happens is that mission can also unite us beyond all of our divisions. We talked about I want unity; I want to get over all of these distinctions between people. Well, you know what can unite us as a church here is our mission—our determination to help other people. Once we realize what's happened to us, then that can unite us as we help a waiting and lost world.

Listen, unto you is born this child who can be your Mighty Counselor, your Mighty God, your Everlasting Father, your Prince of Peace. Now that we've unwrapped the gift, only one thing remains for you: to receive it. Let's pray together. Would you bow your heads with me? As our heads are all bowed, I just want to give you a moment to make everything we talked about personal, maybe for the first time, or maybe you've been distracted from this astonishing full-orbed picture of the gospel, and it's kind of a recommitment. But I just want to invite you to pray something like this in your heart. The words don't matter, but it's the intent of the heart—something like this:

"Lord Jesus, thank you for being all these things. Be all these things to me today: my Wonderful Counselor, my Hero God, my Father, the Prince of Shalom. I can't say I understand it all, but today, for the first time or again, I put the government of my life on your shoulders. Thank you, Lord Jesus. In your name, we pray. Amen."