Christmas Eve

well merry christmas, merry christmas to everyone of you, this is the last day of advent and this is so good to be in the house of the Lord with you all tonight to worship him to lift up our praise to him and to hear from him and his word and I just want to say real quickly to the parents. We I know this is a special occasion. We have the little kids in here with us, don’t be embarrassed by their little sounds, they are a reminder to us of life and vitality and our savior came once as a little babe and that is so amazing to me and so tonight as we gather in in the name of our savior, I want to say yet again merry christmas to you, merry christmas man, have you ever considered why we say merry christmas, have you ever thought about that? Is it simply a traditional holiday saying that we just toss around? No, there’s something more to it isn’t it? We say merry christmas because we wish and we hope for the recipient to be full of joy and happiness and cheerfulness at the revelation of the Lord, jesus christ and him have him come to the earth, we say merry christmas because we want you to be full of joy at the revelation of the Lord jesus christ so we say merry christmas and yet too many people during this time of the year, they feel the very opposite of joyfulness of cheerfulness of happiness, they feel pain disappointment, frustration, a time of the year. What we ought to be full of cheer is for too many people a time of despair. Okay, and there may be a few of you in this room tonight who are in that place, maybe you said merry christmas, but inside you are well acquainted with your pain and disappointment and hurt and my goal for you tonight. It’s for you to drink deeply of the hope that we have in christ is for you to see him with fresh eyes and for you to drink so deeply of his hope and his life. It will set you free of the very things that you’re feeling right now and for others of you, you may actually be in a good place in your soul. I still want you also to drink deeply tonight of the hope that we have in christ. I want you to drink so deeply of this hope that it will overflow from your life into the lives of those around you, so that you would encourage them to have hope in christ. I want to offer you encouragement to drink deeply of the hope that we have in christ tonight. I want you to leave here tonight with the kind of hope that we find in hebrews chapter six verse 19. It says hope is an anchor for the soul, the kind of hope that we have in christ that anchors your soul in every circumstance, I want you to be able to say with the Apostle paul as he said to the the church and colossi christ in me the hope of Glory, I want you to drink deeply of this hope and I want you to experience it in such a way that it anchors your soul and then it spills over into the lives of those around you. And so tonight I’ve entitled this teaching the incarnation of hope. Now that word incarnation, it simply means that God has come in the flesh. God almighty God has come in human form and because he has come in human form, we always have hope, We always have hope. We always have hope. God incarnate is for us. Hope. So I’m going to talk about the incarnation of hope because the bible directs us to have hope in God, the kind of hope that reflects a confident expectation or a solid assurance regarding future outcomes. That means right where you are at a hope in God that allows you to have a confident expectation of the outcome, a solid assurance that your God is good and that the outcome will be for your good and his glory. And because God has come in the flesh, we always have this kind of hope. And so tonight you need to drink deeply of this. I want to I want you to turn with me in your bibles to Isaiah chapter nine we’re gonna read verses six and seven. This is the quintessential christmas passage and I wanna let you know from the beginning that in this passage, you’re not going to specifically see the word hope. And yet when you fully understand this passage, it is all about hope. It is a fountain of hope. It is a fountain of hope for you and me right now. Without further ado must read the passage, Isaiah nine verses six through seven. 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 for evermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts. We’ll do this. Let us pray. Okay father in Heaven, I thank you for this fountain of hope that you’ve just given to us, help us tonight to drink deeply of it. Help us to see that because christ has come in the flesh and because he has done a great work on our behalf, we are to be a people always of hope. I pray this in jesus name, amen again. The past is just not specifically use the word hope and yet it is a fountain of hope when you understand the context, Let me tell you the context at the time in which God speaks this word to his people, Isaiah 96 and seven, his people were a complete mess, they were an absolute mess. They had become a divided kingdom in the north, you had the 10 tribes of the kingdom of Israel and in the south you have the two tribes of the kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel was under the rule of the ancient empire of the Assyrians and the assyrians that come in. They enslaved, the people took them from their homes, took their possessions, forced them into servitude all around the people in the north with spiritual darkness, idolatry oppression, people harming one another without any sense of justice. And so the people in the north are without hope. There’s terror on every side and God speaks this word for them. But then the people in the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah, they also were a complete mess. They had at the time, the most wicked ruler ever to sit on the throne as a descendant of David king a has, wow, he sacrificed his own sons, Two demons hoping that it would confer upon him some kind of favor and blessing in life. He was a terrible military leader. He lost battles in which hundreds of thousands of his own soldiers were killed and in one battle, 200,000 of his people were taken into captive and then on top of that, he was just a ruthless and wicked man. He took whatever he wanted from his people he killed and he confiscated to his own delight. And so if you are a jew living at that time in the Kingdom of the South, where is your hope? If you’re living in the North, where is your hope? And God says this to Isaiah? I’m sending my son. He shall be your hope. This will be your hope and for you and I. That’s a lesson. We’ve got to see whatever it is you’re experiencing whatever it is your loved ones are experiencing. God gave his son as the answer. That is the hope. And you’ve got to see it. And you’ve got to drink deeply from this fountain of hope that God offers us. And so God, God’s son, he’s the hope that God offers. And what I love about the passage that we read God. Mhm gives four names to describe The sun and why we ought to hope in him. four names. Do you think about that four names and each name? It’s a combination of two words, one reflecting his divine nature and the other one reflecting his work on our behalf before names. To a people in darkness. To a people feeling hopeless. Four names to help them to see that christ is the incarnation of hope that God’s people are always to have hope. The first name That we read in verse six is wonderful counselor. He shall be called wonderful counselor. Now that’s two ancient hebrew words that are joined together to bring us the english word of wonderful, but in hebrew, the pairing of these two words and also means supernatural. In other words, the life of God’s son on earth would be marked by supernatural and miraculous activity. And then you combine that with the term counselor and the indication is that his life will reveal divine planning and strategy. And forethought. God is saying to a people in darkness that his son will be a better ruler than king, a has that his son and his kingdom will be a much better kingdom than the Assyrian kingdom. And God said the same thing to us today, he must be wonderful counselor in your life and my life, he is the one to put your hope in. Even his disciples came to this conclusion In March 737. And they were astonished beyond measure saying he has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak, That’s his miraculous life and John seven it says so they were seeking to arrest him, jesus, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. The divine planning and strategy. His life reflected everything according to God’s plan. The wonderful counselor. But the second name God uses to describe his incarnate son is mighty God. The fullness of divinity was wrapped in human flesh. Thank you. The fullness of the Godhead was in him, in the form of a man fully man and fully God. And so some would see that human form and conclude that he cannot be the son of God. And God says, no, he is the son of God. He is the one that you are to put your hope in. Okay. And even his disciples again, Matthew eight, they come to the same conclusion during the storm when they saw him calm a storm and the men marveled saying, what sort of man is this? And even winds and sea obey him. He’s mighty God, how many of you are experiencing a storm right now and you need God to calm it in your life. Put your hope in him, Put your hope and almighty God. But God has a third name. He wants us to know. He calls him everlasting father. In other words, he’s saying the Eternal one always has a watchful and a concerned fatherly heart for his people. That gives me great hope. You may be thinking that you’re going through your trials and your pain alone, that your loved ones that they are somehow beyond the glare and the vision of God. And yet God says no, he is everlasting father. He always looks towards you but following concern and care. This is why hebrews 725 says that he lives to make intercession for you. He lives, he lives, he lives to make sure that you are cared for. Now, these three names are enough to convince me that it’s not safe to put my hope in anything else other than jesus christ. But God doesn’t stop there and neither can I. He gives us the fourth name. It gives us the fourth name because he wants us to be overflowing with this hope, so that will spill over into the lives of the people around us. And so God says that his son, his royal son is to be called the Prince of Peace. Now this name speaks to the deep longings of our heart, the desire to be free from sin and the corruption of this world and to have peace with God and to have our lives make sense. And God says, here look upon him, the Prince of Peace, put your hope in him for he has conquered not with the physical sword, but with a message of peace and his kingdom is the way of peace with God Colossians 1 19 says that the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on Earth or in Heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Our Prince of Peace, He is the one we hope in. So these four names were given by God to cultivate hope in his people and we are to drink deeply from them. You know, the scriptures reveal that hope is made strong by first a revelation of who God is. So that’s why he gives us these four names and then secondly by believing in what God has spoken and that’s why he is not only given us names that reveal the divinity of christ, but the work of christ. And then thirdly hope is made strong by reflecting on what God has already done for us. Lastly coming into the presence of God is how we see our hope and God made strong so friend. If you want to have your soul anchored and the hope of jesus christ and then you must know him as wonderful counselor, you must experience him as almighty God, who forgives your sin and gives you a new life. You must believe every word that your everlasting father has spoken, knowing that he watches over you to encourage you to teach you and to correct you. Lastly you must reflect on that bloody cross where he died to bring you peace and you must pursue him in his resurrected glory as your prince of peace. This is how you strengthen your hope in him. This is how you teach yourself to drink deeply of that fountain of hope that we have in him. But what should you do if you don’t know him in these ways? C. H Spurgeon said this, He said this child is not born to you unless you were born to this child. Speaking of jesus coming in the flesh and essentially what Spurgeon is saying is that christ lays the foundation for us. But we must have faith in him in order to be filled and overflowing with hope in him. You must first believe in him as our savior. We must know him as our savior. So that hope can spring forth in us and overflow in our lives because he came church, we always have hope and the darkest hour of God’s people, God sent his son so that we might always have hope. He is the incarnation of hope. Therefore we always have hope. Let us pray. Mhm Father in heaven, I thank you. You’re not a god who does not see you’re God full of mercy and compassion and you are God who call your people to be full of hope in you confident expectation, solid assurance that you will come through in our darkest hour that you will lead us for your glory. That you will keep us in your name and that you will be with us always. God may we drink deeply of these truths tonight and they will be encouraged to go forth as your kingdom people in christ’s name. I pray Amen