How Christ Is Like A Father Series

We’re in the series, "What Christ Came to Give" and this is our fourth and final part to the series.

We’ve been expanding on what Christ’s birth means to us by looking at the titles given to Christ by Isaiah seven centuries before His birth.

Tomorrow we’ll commemorate and celebrate Christmas with our families. Today we’re going to do it as a church family by looking at one more title of Christ.

We want to make this worship gathering a time of praising the Lord Jesus Christ for His greatness!

The Bible says in Isaiah 9:6: A child is born to us! A son is given to us! And he will be our ruler. (I must allow Him to be in charge in my life if I want to experience and enjoy the blessings these names foretell.) He will be called, "Wonderful Counselor," (“Extraordinary Strategist”) "Mighty God," "Eternal Father," "Prince of Peace."

This king that Isaiah wrote about would be a perfect King in every way. He is neither hampered nor hindered by the normal weaknesses of earthly kings and leaders.

The Bible contains many stories about kings. There were some good kings but there were an awful lot of bad kings as well. And the kings mentioned in the Bible, just like kings and other rulers throughout history, faced a lot of problems.

Problem #1: ENEMIES.

Sometimes national leaders face armies that are larger and stronger than their own. They want to protect the people of their kingdom but that’s not always possible. They are simply outnumbered or out-maneuvered sometimes. They want to win for their people but they don’t always have the resources and manpower to do so.

Problem #2: RESPONSIBILITY.

Kings had to settle a lot of disputes; solve a lot of the problems of their people. They had to see to a thousand different details of the operation of the kingdom or at least see to it that the responsibility of the details had been delegated to someone. It could be a 24-7 job. The king didn’t always have enough time or enough wisdom to be up to the task.

Problem #3: DEATH.

Some kings can rule a long time but no human king can rule forever. Some kings died in battle. Some just died of old age or disease. But no king has ever had enough power to stop death’s dominion.

So here in our text Isaiah writes about a KING THAT IS NOT HAMPERED BY ANY OF THESE DIFFICULTIES!

We know from our digging in Isaiah 9:6 the last several weeks that the King Isaiah wrote about is Jesus. He is the One who’s birth we celebrate at Christmas. He was born in a manger, a place where animals were fed, in a cattle stall, in Bethlehem. Angels and shepherds and wise men celebrated his birth.

But before we look at one last title of Christ in Isaiah 9:6 to see "What Christ Came to Give," we’re going to listen to part of a sermon by S.M. Lockridge, Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in San Diego, California from 1953 to 1993, and relocated to heaven in 2000. This sermon snippet is entitled, "That’s My King!" I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Somebody say, "That’s My King!" [Wow! That’s a hard act to follow.]

The last title of Jesus the Messiah we want to look at from Isaiah 9:6 is EVERLASTING FATHER.

What was Isaiah saying when he called Jesus "Everlasting Father?" What Isaiah was getting at is that Messiah would be a king who would be like a father to His people.

Let’s look together at three ways this is fulfilled in the life of Jesus.

1. Like other good kings, Christ PROTECTS His people from their enemies.

Remember, we said that’s part of the job description for kings. But unlike other kings Jesus as Messiah has never met an enemy He can’t defeat. There’s no problem that His followers face that He hasn’t defeated.

John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, said this about Jesus the Messiah:

"Our God has given us a mighty Savior from the family of David his servant. 70Long ago the Lord promised by the words of his holy prophets to save us from our enemies and from everyone who hates us." Luke 1:69-71 (CEV)

At first that may sound incorrect to you. You might wonder why evil still plagues the world if Jesus conquered the enemies of His kingdom. If Jesus won why do terrorists declare war on innocent people? If Jesus defeated evil why do murder and rape and robbery and hate still exist? Why do bad things still happen to good people?

Evil still exists because He has given each one of us a choice. He still allows the presence of evil in order to give you and me a choice to follow Him and to follow everything that is good. If you follow Jesus it’s going to be because you choose to do so. No one is ever forced to follow Him. You follow Jesus of your own free will.