December 8, 2024

Isaiah 9:2-7

Advent Promised

Sunday Sermons

Advent is a season of waiting and watching for the promises of God to be fulfilled. The prophet Isaiah, writing some seven centuries before the time of Christ, points forward to the hope of one who would come with the power to set right what had been broken in the rebellion of the Garden. Like our own day, Isaiah’s was marked by moral, relational, cultural and spiritual darkness. Isaiah offers us the sure hope that the darkness will come to an end, it has an expiration date. The “joy of every longing heart” can be finally and fully satisfied in the person of Jesus—the Light of the World. He has come, is with us now by his Spirit, and will come again.

Join Pastor Tommy as we consider together the promises given to us in Isaiah.

Speaker

Tommy Bailey

Series

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

Go to Series

Scripture

Isaiah 9:2-7

Topics
Suffering

Sermon Notes

“Those little arms in the manger will one day grapple with the monster “Death”, and destroy it. Those little feet shall tread on the serpent’s neck and crush that old deceiver’s head!”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Promises of God in Isaiah

  • He will swallow up death forever… (25:8)
  • He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened… (35:4-5)
  • The Lord will be your everlasting light… (60:19)
  • For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. (65:17)

“God is on the move toward us, not the other way round. In the very midst of our confusion and incapacity, we are met by the oncoming Lord.”
Fleming Rutledge, Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ

“In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
John 1:4–5

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12

His name shall be called:

1. Wonderful Counselor

“Believers display unanxious peace, nourish their minds and guide their lives by the Word the Lord has spoken, face the uncertain and cloudy future with calm and certain expectation; they flee constantly to…the Lord himself who waits to welcome them, and center their lives reverently on his awesome presence.”
Alec Motyer, Isaiah by the Day

2. Mighty God

“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
1 Corinthians 15:54-55

“Death is no longer a threat in the way it was. It has been defeated in Christ. The signs of aging are no longer a threat but a promise. Gray hair and deepening lines on my face don’t need to speak to me of a past I can’t recover but of a future I can barely conceive. The real glory days are not behind but ahead.”
Sam Allberry, What God Has to Say About Our Bodies

3. Everlasting Father

“Only when our greatest love is God, a love that we cannot lose even in death, can we face all things with peace.”
Tim Keller, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering

4. Prince of Peace

“But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5 (emphasis added)

“The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.”
Isaiah 9:7

Discussion Questions

  • This second advent week are you feeling expectant or sleepy? Do you ever suffer from what Paul Tripp calls, “gospel amnesia”?
  • What are the promises that Isaiah 9:2-7 hold for those who believe?
  • What does the Bible tell us about God the Father’s goal for his creation? Was Christ’s sacrifice a type of “course correction”?
  • How is the light the ultimate metaphor for Christ? Conversely, what does darkness represent?
  • Isaiah names the coming Messiah our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Why does mankind need peace?
  • Are you finding your hope, peace, and healing in Jesus? What is it called when we look for hope and belonging in other places? What is it called when we turn our face toward God instead? What is the result?

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs:

“Angels We Have Heard On High“ by text: Trad. French carol Music: Gloria
“Sing We the Song of Emmanuel“ Words and Music by Matt Boswell, Matt Papa, Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, Choir and Orch. Arranged by Simon Nathan and Paul Campbell
“The First Noel“ by William Sandys and Davies Gilbert
“Come Adore the Humble King“ by Words and Music by
Matt Papa and Matt Boswell, Arranged by Simon Nathan
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois

All songs are used by Permission. CCLI License #200369

Call To Worship: Advent Promised

Leader: O Radiant Dawn, Splendor of eternal light, sun of justice, come and shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death!
People: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them a light has shown.

Leader: The true light, which gives light to everyone, has come into the world!
All: Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s Sunrise will break in upon us, shining on those in the darkness, guiding our feet on the path of peace. Amen!

Classic Prayer: Clement of Alexandria, 150-215 AD

Lord Jesus, for this you clothed yourself with man. For this you voluntarily subjected yourself to the experiences of men, that by bringing yourself to the measure of our weakness whom you loved, you might correspondingly bring us to the measure of your own strength. Oh how you loved us…

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