SERMON SPOTLIGHT * 12/14/25
As we consider the Advent and the Prophets, look at this promise found in Isaiah 9: CHRISTMAS IS COMING. Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.
SERIES: The Book of Advent
TEXT: Isaiah 9:6-7
TITLE: Christmas is Coming!
PREACHER: Brett Overstreet
BIG IDEA: In the promise of Christmas, we find an extraordinary child who will do extraordinary things for sinners like us.
POINTS:
I. An Extraordinary Promise
II. An Extraordinary Child
SERMON EXCERPTS:
All quotes and text emphasis are taken directly from the pastor’s notes.
ILLUSTRATION: Facing a long, miserable summer, “We love Christmas and all that comes with it, so we've learned to love that reminder that promise to the other in the midst of our despairing, that Christmas is coming.”
“This morning we find that very promise, ‘Christmas is coming!’, here in Isaiah 9 spoken some 2700 years ago. As we will see, God's people are in a place of great darkness and despair. And yet, in the midst of this place, God speaks a promise to them through his prophet Isaiah. The very first Christmas is coming, and all that it will bring is coming. Our task this morning, as we consider the Advent and the Prophets, is to look at this promise found in Isaiah 9 and consider what it means for us.”
“As we begin, I want to acknowledge something upfront. Isaiah 9 is a very familiar Christmas passage. It is being preached all over the world this month, and for many of us, it probably appears on the list of our favorite Christmas texts. It’s because we know that this text speaks of the coming of Jesus. It speaks of a baby who would be born into this world, born to us – and on this side of redemptive history, we don’t have to wonder who this is – it is Jesus, God made flesh. But as we approach this text, we need to remember that these words are being spoken some 700 years before Jesus would be born, and they are spoken to a people who could not look back and see the cradle, cross, and grave. And so, it's not only important, it's critical for us to understand the context of what's going on around Isaiah Chapter 9 if we are to understand this extraordinary promise.”
“As we approach chapter 9, there is a rising darkness, a growing sense of gloom and despair among God’s people. Long gone are the golden years of King David and King Solomon. The kingdom of Israel has split into two different kingdoms – north and south. If we go back to chapter 7, we see that things are starting to heat up. At the beginning of chapter 7 we are introduced to a character named Ahaz. Ahaz was in the line of Davidic kings and was ruling in Judah at the time of Isaiah 9. You can learn more about him in 2 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 28, but let me give you his quick resume: He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He installed pagan worship in the temple. He murdered his own son in a pagan sacrifice. He despised the prophets and listened to the wisdom of necromancers instead of God. He did not care for and protect his people like a king should. In short, he was a terrible king.”
“At this same time, a great enemy is rising in the region, threatening to destroy Judah. This would be Assyria, a pagan powerhouse to the North. The northern kingdom of Israel has allied with Syria against Assyria and has asked King Ahaz to bring Judah into the alliance against the threat of Assyria. Ahaz says no, and Israel threatens to attack Judah. As all of this is playing out, and the threat is growing, the Lord speaks to Ahaz through Isaiah and tells him, ‘Trust in the promises of God, and I will be your salvation.’”
“He does the unthinkable: rather than trusting in the protection and promises of God and leading the people to do the same, He goes not to God, but to the pagan powerhouse Assyria for help. We read in 2 Kings 16:7-8, ‘So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, ‘I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.’ Ahaz also took the silver and gold that were found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s house and sent a present to the king of Assyria.”
“Ahaz is sending gifts and groveling and begging the Assyrians to come and deliver them from these threats. Ahaz fails his greatest test as king over the people of God. Rather than leading them to trust in the promises of God, he leads them willingly into the arms of their enemies.”
“Eventually, Judah becomes a puppet state for the pagan nation of Assyria. And in Isaiah chapter 8, the prophet announces that God will pour out his judgment on Judah because they have rejected God and turned away from Him. Ironically enough, this judgement will come at the hands of the Assyrians. The very nation they chose to put their hope in will turn around and crush them.”
“Chapter 8, verse 22, paints a grim picture for God’s people. Notice the language Isaiah uses: distress, darkness, gloom, anguish, thick darkness. In fact, in 9:2, Isaiah is describing the same conditions as 8:22 and calls it a deep darkness. That word translated ‘deep darkness’ here is the same word used in Psalm 23, which translates to ‘shadow of death’. the picture here is not that the people are just living in tough times waiting for their big break, they are living in the shadow of death.”
“I don’t think we have to labor too hard to get the picture here; gone are the peaceful, prosperous days of King Solomon. There is nothing but darkness and gloom on the horizon for the people of God. This (the shadow of death) is the setting for what we are about to read in chapter 9. I want to understand the context here because we were reminded last week that in order to understand and appreciate the good news, we must understand just how bad the bad news really is.”
“On the heels of this dark forecast of this nation being plunged into political, social, and economic ruin, we find a promise of God to act.”
“I can only imagine the fear and terror in the hearts of the king and the people when judgment is pronounced in Chapter 8, to be quickly followed by weeping and rejoicing that it will not last forever. Because that’s what’s happening here: the deep darkness of 8:22 is not final. Make no mistake, the judgment announced in chapter 8 will come; you can read about the Assyrian invasion into Judah in 2 Kings 18. But what we see next is that it is not the final word in redemptive history – God is not done with his people.”
“Do you see the seeds of the promise of God’s grace to His people? Do you see the seeds of the promise of God’s grace to us?! God’s people are dwelling in the shadow of death, and yet there is this promise that a great light is coming that will shine into and shatter their deep darkness.”
“This all sounds great, but how will it happen? How will God do this? What is this light that will shine into our darkness? How will all of this come to fruition? Because, as great as it all sounds, all of these wonderful events laid out in VS 1 – 4 must have a cause! In verse 6, God gives His answer. And what does He say? Christmas is coming!”
“He doesn’t say, I will raise up an army from the east or from the west. He doesn’t say a great military power will come and usher in this new age of light. No, he says, I will send a child.”
“These words are spoken hundreds of years before this child is born, and yet Isaiah speaks as if it were presently happening. The wisdom of God’s redemptive plan is found, not in worldly powers, but in the coming of a helpless, weak child. God doesn’t say, the calvary is coming. He says, Christmas is coming! The great light that is promised in 9:2 that is to shine into the darkness, that is to shine into the deep shadow of death, is a child!”
“The promise is not a great military power; the promise is God incarnate. The word made flesh. Jesus, the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary in a little unremarkable town called Bethlehem. Do you believe that? That God’s answer to everything that has terrorized us is a child?”
“Listen, if it’s difficult for you to relate to everything we’ve seen in Isaiah so far, let's remind ourselves, this history is our history. We may not be facing God’s judgment through a coming Assyrian invasion, but our forecast was even worse than Judah’s. See, Romans 1 reminds us that the wrath of God is coming against all sin and unrighteousness and that our hearts have been darkened by sin. And while we may not look around and see gloom and darkness all around us, spiritually, our sin has put us in a place of absolute darkness. And you and I are in desperate need of a great light to shine into the darkness of our sin!”
“Do you remember the funeral in the garden last Sunday? We looked at Genesis 3 and saw that The Fall was the funeral for mankind. But at that funeral, there was a promise spoken. Just as 8:22 was not the final word for the kingdom of Judah, the fall and curse in Genesis 3, which was the result of our sin, this was not the final word for us in God’s plan of redemptive history. Because He gave us a son – His own son. Who would not only come in the flesh as a baby, but this child would grow up and experience this world in every way that we do, except he would never sin.”
“At a young, prime age of 33 years old, Jesus would willingly and lovingly die a miserable death in our place, and though sinless, he would be covered in the blackening darkness of our sin so that we receive the light of eternal life.”
“God’s promise to shine a great light into our great darkness is found in the birth of a child.”
ILLUSTRATION: Birth is common to us in nature, “But here’s the difference: this to be no ordinary child. No, as we are about to see this is will be an extraordinary child.”
“Verses 6 – 7 give us so many clues as to who this child is and what he will be like. There’s a lot to unpack here, but notice the very first clue that Isaiah gives us about this coming child. [6b]…and the government shall be upon his shoulder. Apparently, this child is to govern, he is to be a ruler, a king. The term “king” is never mentioned in this passage, but it is clear from the references to government, throne and kingdom that this text is speaking of a kingly figure. In other words, this child that is promised to be the great light that shines into the darkness is a royal person – a king. …[and] what remains clear from our text is that this coming ruler is going to be different than the rulers before Him.”
“Notice that he is not just to be a king but that his kingdom will be eternal. His Kingdom will not lie stagnant or end in ruin like the kings before him, even many of the good kings before him - no, his government, which is to be a government of peace, and righteousness, and justice, will not only last, but will increase forever.”
ILLUSTRATION: If you want to learn more about Jesus, you should study his old testament names
”’His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor…’ This king will be a wise king. His counsel will be full of wonder. This would have been music to the ears of the people in the kingdom. They know all too well the difference between a wise king and a foolish king – King Ahaz was a smart but foolish king who sought counsel from necromancers, not God. Isaiah wants them to know that this king and His eternal kingdom will be different – He will be a wonderful counselor. That Hebrew term for counselor is the same term used elsewhere in the OT to speak of a king’s trusted advisor. This king will need no worldly advisor because he himself is the wonderful counselor. His counsel goes beyond mere human thought and human wisdom.”
“What does our sin do to us? It reduces us to fools, doesn’t it? Titus 3 reminds us that before Christ, we ourselves were once foolish. In our sin we were fools, denying God and His glory. Denying our desperate need for Him. And so, what does God do? He sends, in this child, a wonderful counselor to come and rescue us from the foolishness of our sin.”
“‘His name shall be called Mighty God…’ If there was any doubt that this child was to be a divine child, this king a divine king, Isaiah puts it to rest. He says this child will be called Mighty God. The term used here is used throughout the Old Testament to refer to God. The root word here gives the sense of a strong, mighty warrior. This child is to have the very strength and might of God because He is God. He Himself is the God who is ready to unleash His power to rescue and defend His people. This may have very well brought back images of the exodus when the Israelites’ mighty God delivered, rescued, and defended his people from the hands of their enemies.”
“This is the one who has come to us. Not a Savior, but the Savior. One who is mighty enough to defeat our great enemy, conquer our sin and deliver and defend us from the shadow of death. We try to look elsewhere, don’t we? Our own efforts, our own strength, our performance – but the reality is, there is only one strong enough to deliver us.”
“‘His name shall be called Everlasting Father…’ This is not a reference to the first person of the Godhead, but a reference to the fatherly care, compassion and protection that a father offers to his children. I think about my son Jack and the levels of affection, care and duty to protect that I have for him as my son…. How much greater are the affections and love and providential care of Jesus – who is to be our everlasting father!”
“‘His name shall be called Prince of Peace…’ To a group of people facing war and oppression all around them, the Prince of peace would have been exactly what the doctor ordered. This extraordinary king is to be a king who comes in peace and brings peace, establishing it and keeping it. His reign would be a peaceful reign - Much unlike the many kings that came before him. This king will usher in Shalom, peace.”
“We all long for peace in our lives, don’t we? Maybe you’re here this morning, and that’s the one present you want for Christmas – peace. Peace at home. Peace in your relationships. Peace in the workplace. Peace in the world. We desperately want peace in our lives. But our greatest need isn’t for peace in the world, or peace with the people around us. We don’t like to admit it, but our greatest problem as a human race is that we are not at peace with God. We had peace with God – but like we saw last week, that peace was broken in the garden. Our sin wages war against God, and our greatest need is for peace with him. This child – the Prince of Peace - comes to restore what was lost in the garden. He comes to make peace between us and God.”
“Four wonderful titles for our Savior. What do we find when we look at these 4 names? Wisdom, Strength, Care, Peace. Aren’t those all things that everyone is searching for? But what do we do – we look for them in the wrong places. We look to social media for these things, we turn to sex, money, and drugs for these things, we grind and grind in our self-sufficiency, hoping for these things. We search the ends of the earth to find these things, but always end up running to empty vessels. Why? Isaiah tells us why: All of these things are found fully and completely in a person – Jesus.”
“I would ask each of us to consider those 4 things that we see in the names of Jesus: wisdom, strength, care, and peace, and to ask ourselves, where do we look for these things? As you walk through suffering and trials, life decisions, and relationship difficulties, where do you look for these things? Because let's be honest, the world is full of competing spectacles. The world offers a lot of places for us to look. There is no shortage of trends, ideas, vices, and five-step programs for us to turn to. But all of those things will one day fail us. Maybe not today, maybe tomorrow, but one day – certainly on the last day – all of the offerings of the world will fail us. But do you know what won’t fail us? The wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace. So why would we look anywhere else besides the one who is all of these things for us?”
“After all of this is promised, look what the Lord says through His prophet Isaiah: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. That word “zeal” speaks of the passion of God. And in this context, it speaks of God’s passion for our salvation. So great is the passion of God to bring people out of a great darkness, so great is His passion to deliver His people from the shadow of death that Isaiah considers everything he has just said and speaks these words in full and utter confidence - the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”
“This is what we celebrate at Christmas! This is why I love the words that my wife reminds me of every year: Christmas is coming! That is the promise that is whispered in the garden in Genesis 3. This is the promise given in Isaiah 9. This is the promise, as we will see on Christmas Eve, fulfilled in Luke chapter 2. The coming of an extraordinary child who does extraordinary things for sinners like us.”
APPLICATION:
- If you are aware that, because of your sin, you are not at peace with God, there is only one thing you need to hear today: There is no hope for you outside of this extraordinary child. There is nothing that this world can offer. No amount of success, no amount of money, no amount of good deeds or church attendance or Bible reading that can make a sinner at peace with a holy God. But there is One who can: Christ Jesus. It's this Great Light that shines into the darkness. It’s this child that was promised 2700 years ago, that was born over 2000 years ago, and died in your place on the cross bearing the full penalty of your sin against God so that you might be forgiven of every sin you have ever committed and every sin you will ever commit.
He simply asks you to confess your sins and trust in Him for salvation.
- For the believer…we aren't off the hook. Even if we have believed and put our trust in this extraordinary child, we are still prone to look elsewhere as we walk through life, our hearts are often divided. As we have considered these four names given to Jesus, I pray we are increasingly convinced that there is nowhere we can look to find better hope, better news, better wisdom than by looking to HIM. Consider those 4 things that we see in the names of Jesus: wisdom, strength, care, and peace, and ask, “Where do I look for these things?”
- Every time I look at a Christmas light on a tree or in the yard or on the roof, I want to be reminded of Isaiah 9. To be reminded that this child is the great light that shines into and shatters my darkness. As we enjoy Christmas this year, may we find every little way to be reminded of the great light that shines into our darkness. And then let's turn and worship Jesus!
ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE:
John 1:6-8, 14
1 Corinthians 1:30
John 1:12
Ephesians 2:13-14
QUOTES:
John Oswalt - “The gloom is not final. God will not be satisfied that His people have experienced the just results of their rebellion. That experience is not an end in itself but a means, a means whereby God’s goodness can be manifested in the salvation of a land now aware of its true source of life. When every human attempt to bring light has failed, then God will bring light, not because He must, not because human craft has discovered the key to force Him, but merely out of His own grace.”
Ray Ortlund - “God’s answer to everything that has terrorized us is a child. The power of God is so far superior to the Assyrians and all the big shots of the world that He can defeat them by coming as a mere child. His answer to bullies swaggering through history is not to become an even bigger bully. His answer is Jesus.”
John Calvin - “It is good for us that he is called strong or mighty because our contest is with the devil, death, and sin, enemies too powerful and strong, by whom we would be vanquished immediately if Christ’s strength had not made us invincible. Thus we learn from this title that there is in Christ abundance of protection for defending our salvation, so that we desire nothing beyond him; He is God, who is pleased to show himself strong on our behalf.”
Paul Tripp - “With words carefully chosen, because they were carefully directed by the Holy Spirit, Isaiah is telling us that the Messiah son is exactly what every Sinner desperately needs. He is the ultimate answer to every destructive thing that sin does to us. Isaiah, with beautifully poetic words, declares to us that Jesus is all we need. He is the solution to the sin that we cannot avoid or escape. Long before we were born, God had appointed for us the one who would be the remedy for every symptom of the sin that would infect us all.”
SONGS FROM THIS SUNDAY:
Prepare Him Room
Scripture Reading: Luke 2:8-14
Heaven Has Come To Us
Come Behold The Wondrous Mystery
He Who Is Mighty
NEXT WEEK’S PASSAGE:
Galatians 4:4-7 Advent and Our Identity
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