Christmas Eve Communion

Well before we have a chance to celebrate the Lord's Table, I want to draw our thoughts for just a few moments to a passage that's familiar to many of us. We've learned of it really through music. Music is such a great gift, those of you who've begun to know me, know that I love music. I love the expression that it gives to our hearts as we worship the Lord together. If you were to come to our house around Christmas time you would hear a great variety of music. We are very eclectic in our tastes. You might hear something from what our family affectionately calls tacky Christmas music. That would be the Time-Life series; you might even hear Elvis crooning in the background "Blue Christmas" all the way to classical. You might even hear "Messiah." There's one of the great numbers that you often hear around the holidays written by George Frederic Handel. We sang a hymn tonight that was written by Handel, or at least the music was written by Handel.

When he was 56 years old Handel became, almost possessed, those who knew him said to write this piece he had been commissioned to write. He was almost bankrupt and really his music career, his composing career had not been well received. And he was asked to write a piece to celebrate the birth of Christ, or actually originally it was to celebrate the Passion, but it has elements of it in the birth of it as well and he was asked to write that in a short period of time, and so historians tell us, music historians tell us that he locked himself away and he wrote the 256 page score to the "Messiah" in 24 days. Hardly pausing to eat, in fact he subsisted it appears through most of that time on coffee, as many of you do. But because of that piece, because of "Messiah" included in that oratorio it is a chorus of one of the familiar prophecies, now because of Handel I think in many ways the most familiar prophecy about the birth of Christ and that's Isaiah 9:6. I want us to turn there tonight and just look briefly at what the prophet Isaiah reveals.

Notice verse 6,

"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this."

But verse 6 is the really familiar verse that draws our attention to Christ and to Christmas. Notice what Isaiah tells us about this One who is to be born. He says a child will be born to us, in other words it will be a normal human birth, even as we studied this last Sunday. But then he says a son will be given so we learn that it will be a boy, this child. But more than that He's going to be given, there's implied in that although it's not clear in Isaiah's prophecy it becomes clear later in Scripture that He was existing before His birth. Also that 'was given' is what theologians call the divine passive. It means God acted. God gave this son to us in a special and unique way this son was given by God.

It says, and the government will rest upon His shoulders. What a beautiful image of Christ taking power. You learn early in this chapter and we won't look at it this evening, you learn earlier that the people were burdened. They carried a yoke they couldn't bear. They carried a weight on their shoulders but when Jesus comes, He takes that weight and it becomes His and it rests on His shoulders.

He will grow up to be a King, this boy and He will sit on the throne of his ancestor David forever. This is really the fulfillment, this prophecy, of what God had promised David you remember in Second Samuel 7 when He had said, David because of your love for Me, because of My commitment to you there'll be a king on your throne forever and ever. It's going to be this King. But He's not merely going to be King over that tiny little nation of Israel. We learn in Psalm 2 that this King is going to rule the nations. He's going to rule the entire universe. Well this will be finally and perfectly fulfilled when Christ returns. There's a time coming when He will rule as King, as a geo-political King over the kingdoms of this world. That time we call the Millennium.

But even now, Christ rules. Even now He rules as King but not over a visible kingdom. You remember when He was before Pilate He said My kingdom isn't of this world. Now His kingdom is an invisible kingdom, it's a kingdom, a spiritual kingdom made up of those people who love Him and worship Him. That's us. Even today He is our King. In the rest of Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah tells us how this child when he grows up will govern, what He'll be like as a king, what His kingdom will be like. When He grows to become king of that future earthly kingdom, and even now the kingdom that He rules over each of us, Isaiah 9:6 tells us what it's like.

What are the characteristics of our King and His kingdom? It's revealed in the names that follow in verse 6. In our culture we typically give names for no reason at all, the name Thomas that my parents gave me, Thomas Samuel Pennington. It doesn't mean anything, and in my case it wasn't even really after anyone. In other cases perhaps we name our children after a relative that we love or someone that means something to us or perhaps a biblical character. But in biblical times almost always a name had meaning. It meant something, it revealed the character either of the person who was the parent or what they thought the character of the child would be, or perhaps the character of the circumstances surrounding the birth of the child. And in this case the names that this king will be called reveal what His kingdom is like. And it's what Christ is today to each of us, that's why I want us to look at it this evening, these four names. It's because Isaiah captures the character of Christ's rule in our hearts in these four amazing names.

Notice the first one, 'Wonderful Counselor.' Literally in the Hebrew it's a wonder of a counselor. The word wonder, that group of words is used eighty times in the Old Testament and it always refers to the works of God, almost exclusively. It's the closest Hebrew gets to the word, super-natural. He's a super-natural counselor. His wisdom is far above all human wisdom. And it's not surprising when you think of His qualifications to be a counselor. First of all He knows all of us He knows what's in our hearts. You remember that statement that the Apostle John makes in his gospel? Chapter 2 he says, Jesus on His part was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning men, for He Himself knew what was in man. What a Wonderful Counselor. He starts out by knowing us, knowing what we're like, knowing our hearts. There are no surprises that we can bring to our King, He knows.

But also He's qualified to counsel because He's experienced everything we have. We come to human counselors and sometimes they just can't appreciate what we're going through. But that's not true of Christ. That's the point the writer of Hebrews makes. Turn to Hebrews for a moment, those familiar verses, Hebrews chapter 2, verse 17. "Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things." That's a reference to His being made like us, verse 14, "and sharing in our flesh and blood." Becoming like us, "so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in all things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people." Notice verse 18 the implication of all this, "For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." Oh, He knows us, but more than knowing us, He has experienced the struggles you and I experience without sin. Notice again in chapter four of Hebrews, verse 15,

"For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

The writer of Hebrews is saying that we have a Wonderful Counselor, because not only does He know us, but He's experienced everything that we experience without sin.

But He has another qualification and that is, He also has perfect wisdom. He knows us, He's experienced everything we've experienced and His wisdom is absolutely flawless. Paul says in First Corinthians 1 verse 30, "He became to us" that is Christ became to us, "wisdom from God." Colossians 2:3, "In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." We have a super-natural counselor, a wonder of a counselor.

Are you ever confused? Are you ever confused about what you ought to do? Do you ever find yourself at the end of your own resources wondering what step you should take next? Are you ever ignorant about the ways of God and understanding what you should do to please God and to please Christ? Well you can come to our King and He will give you super-natural counsel. He gives knowledge for ignorance and He gives clarity for confusion. He's a wonder of a counselor.

How do we get counsel from Christ? How do we get counsel from our King? Well, Paul tells us in First Corinthians 2 that because we have the Scriptures, we have the mind of Christ. You want counsel from our super-natural Counselor? You open the pages of His word. The word of Christ it's called, and there you learn exactly the counsel you need. Also we're told in James that if any man lacks wisdom he can ask. So we can come for counsel to the Scripture and in prayer to our Christ and find Him to be a super-natural Counselor. Our King is a wonder of a Counselor.

Notice the second name, Mighty God. That speaks of course of His deity. Isaiah only uses this words that's translated here for God of the true God. And that's not surprising, remember in chapter 7 verse 14, we were told that this child would be called, Immanuel, God with us. So He's deity, but He's also called Mighty God. The word mighty is a very interesting word in the original language; it's used of warriors and heroes. You know every child grows up with a hero, a hero usually someone that knows no obstacles, whose strength knows no limit. We find even as adults wanting someone like that to step into our lives don't we? Well that's the nature of our King, He's a mighty God, not only can Christ overcome our ignorance and confusion with His counsel, but He can use His power to actually change us. You see often our problem isn't a lack of knowledge is it? Sometimes it's just a lack of power and strength to do what we should do. But we have that power in our King. In Ephesians Paul puts it this way, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 18, he's praying for the Ephesians and he says this in verse 19, I'm praying that you will come to know "what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe." What is this power like Paul? What is this power that's at work in us, this power that comes to us from our King? Listen to what he says, well it's just like the strength of His might, the working of the strength of His might that He used when He brought Christ up from the dead and seated Him in the right hand in heavenly places, far above all rule and authority. The power that's at work in you, the power of our King is the same power that God used to raise Him up from the dead and to defeat all of His enemies and to make them as the psalms says, the footstool for His feet. That's the power that's at work in you. We have a Mighty God. You ever feel weak in the face of temptation? You ever struggle to accomplish the most basic Christian duties? Our King is the Mighty God and His infinite resources of power are at our disposal. Do you ever wonder in light of your struggle with the flesh and your battle to overcome your own corruption if you'll ever make it to heaven? Well we serve a Mighty God and because our King is the Mighty God He is able to save utterly and completely all those who put their trust in Him.

Look at the third name Isaiah uses for our King, Eternal Father. In Hebrew literally it's the father of eternity. It speaks of the duration of the king's rule that it's forever but there's more in this phrase. We could paraphrase it this way; our King is One who is eternally a Father to us. That doesn't mean that Christ takes the place of the First Person of the Trinity. It simply describes Christ's attitude and disposition toward His own. He acts toward us like a father, now and forever. He will be eternally like a father to us. Well what does that mean? Well there're images throughout the Scripture of what a father does and how God as a Father works for us, but my favorite is in Psalm 103 where it says that He exercises compassion toward us like an earthly father does toward his children. I've often thought that we're afraid to take the image that God gives us of Himself and to think of God like a father, or of our King of Christ like a father figure toward us but's that the very image that He's chosen.

Sadly, I think for some of us, not for me personally but some of the folks who are here this evening, perhaps you were raised in a home where the father was not an example of the Father, he was abusive, he was sinful, he was the worst of men. Fortunately in God's goodness and providence all of us know someone to whom we can look and say now there as humans go is an exemplary earthly father and if I could have grown up in that home, I would have loved to have grown up in that home under that man. Well think of that person for a moment and then magnify it as many times as you can magnify it and realize that is how our God and our King is toward us. He is eternally a Father. Love and tenderness and comfort are in that wonderful expression an Eternal Father. And for those of you who no longer have an earthly father, or who have earthly fathers who have deserted you, there is in our God One who takes the position of a father. Christ is eternally like a father to His people.

The final name Isaiah uses is Prince of Peace. You see most earthly rulers seek to make a name for themselves in war. But Christ establishes His kingdom in peace. Earthly peace is a common human desire; you hear it on so many lips. You even hear it on the lips of those who are confused, I read a T-shirt one time that said, 'I want world peas' they missed the point, P E A S. But world peace has never been true; it's something that we've arrived at. In the history of the world there have only been a few years without war. But someday our King will establish an earthly kingdom characterized by peace. But that's not all that Isaiah means here, there's more; turn to Luke chapter 2, that familiar story of the birth of Christ. And you find that when the angel appeared to the shepherds and specifically when the hosts appeared with him in verse 13, they say in verse 14, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." You see this was more than just lasting earthly peace, the no more war; this was a proclamation that peace with God for individuals was available. This Prince would procure peace with God, the cessation of hostilities. I love that verse in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 5 where it says, the chastening to secure our peace fell on Him. Romans 5:1 says, therefore being justified by faith we have what? Peace with God. Not a subjective feeling, but an objective reality. There's no more war between me and God, it's done. Christ secures that kind of peace for all those who are truly His subjects. Notice Luke 2 again, peace among men with whom He is pleased. You see when the angels proclaimed peace, it wasn't primarily about world peace although that will come, but they were talking about a very personal individual application of God's peace in every heart brought about by Christ as the Prince of Peace. Our King has provided peace with God and as a result of that He's given us the peace of God in our hearts and someday peace will characterize the entire earth as He rules as Sovereign. He is the Prince of Peace.

And as we partake of communion this evening we're really celebrating the reality that this baby who was born, this baby born in Bethlehem has become our King and as our King He's our Prince of Peace. He has established peace between us and God and He accomplished that through His sacrificial death which is exactly what the Lord's Table reminds us of. He has become our Prince of Peace by coming a child, growing through all of the seasons of life, until He fulfilled the very purpose that He came and that was to die in our place.

I'm going to ask the men to come and as they come I'm going to ask each of you to take a few moments, examine your hearts, confess your sin to the Lord and prepare your hearts to enjoy this reminder of our Lord's death.