Trinity Evangel Church

# Introduction

“All Israel will be saved.” There will be a time in the future—it has not happened yet—when an entire generation of Jews will repent from their sins and believe in Jesus as the Messiah. The Christ, the King of the Jews, will reign on His throne in Jerusalem over the nation of Israel, and He will be worshiped and obeyed as the King of kings, King over all the earth. That is God’s covenant promise to ethnic Israel.

Again, “all Israel will be saved,” which is a quote from God’s Word (Romans 11:26; Isaiah 59:20-21). God’s Word makes no sense if this “Israel” is equal to the Gentiles in the Church. And what’s worse, God’s Word cannot be trusted if this “Israel” doesn’t mean those who are ethnically, nationally recognized as Jews.

The whole reason for Romans chapters 9-11 is Paul’s explanation, not just of God’s sovereign plan, but of the righteousness and reliability of God’s revealed promises. *God’s Word never fails.* There have been some amazing promises in Romans 1-8 so far, including being counted righteous by God through believing in the work of Jesus. God not only promises to justify those who believe, He promises to deliver them from the control of sin and conform them to the glorious image of His Son. He also promises that He will bring our glorification to finish, and that absolutely nothing in all the universe can separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord.

If you know this epistle, you know that it would be easy, in some ways better, if chapters 9-11 weren’t inserted. Imagine going from the end of chapter 8, the climax of the doctrines of salvation, right into the practical applications in chapter 12.

> No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37–39 ESV)

> I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1 ESV)

That’ll *preach*. (For that matter, the doxology in Romans 11:33-36 would fit after 8:38, too.) So why Romans 9 at all? What is the reason for it in Paul’s argument? And why so long? These are three chapters, not three sentences. This is (arguably) the largest sustained section in the entire letter. It is also a return to things previously raised.

> For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16 ESV)

And at the end of chapter 2 into chapter 3, Paul qualifies the advantages of the Jews, especially regarding circumcision and possessing God’s Law, and then he asks, “Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?” (Romans 3:3). The problem wasn’t how to get Jews and Gentiles to play nicely in the church. But why is God’s faithfulness even a question?

There wouldn’t be a question 1) if God hadn’t made covenant-promises to save the Israelites, or 2) if “Israel” meant anyone who believed and became part of the chosen people. This is the problem Romans 9-11 raises and resolves. The question is whether God’s Word is reliable. The answer is YES, and the evidence for the YES is that His covenant-promises to Israel haven’t been completed yet, not that His promises should be reinterpreted (as fulfilled in some other way). God promised a new covenant in which all Israel will be saved (Jeremiah 31:31-34), and the fulfillment of that either makes your faith in His Word compelling or a crapshoot.

We are entering a categorical section of Scripture. It speaks to Ecclesiology (Church); Eschatology (Kingdom), Soteriology (Election), and Doxology (Worship). It speaks to world history, church history, Jew and Gentile, and the intentional ministry of jealousability (11:11, 14). It deals with the last phrase of the thesis of Romans (1:16), the “Jew first” and what that means. It shows Paul's constant and most critical burden, another way he described his calling (in 11:13-14). These are vital truths that make us Calvinists (sovereign mercy, 9:18), Kuyperian (riches for the world, 11:12), Dispensationalists (Israel’s full inclusion, 11:12). What’s more, they make for humble worship in light of God’s sovereign plan to glorify Himself on earth (11:33-36). **Amen!**

For all that, I’ve got a book called _Romans 9: The Most Neglected Chapter in the Bible_ by W. E. Best. And also, the truths here weren’t the first thing Paul wrote to the Romans. It is foundation, but you could come in the door of the house without realizing what you're standing on. We almost always do that; we learn later more of the layers. We know truly, we come to know more fully. The gospel is good news, these show it even *gooder*.

Today we open the door. Verses 1-5 do not explicitly state the question or the problem, they imply the problem as they set up how Paul feels about the problem. The actual question comes in verse 6, though even there Paul denies the negative answer. He makes the assertion that "it is not as though the word of God has failed." The gospel promises depend on the faithfulness of God’s Word.

# Paul’s Burden (verses 1-2)

There is no conjunction, no grammatical connection. This has led some to think the three chapters were a separate sermon inserted. But as I’ve already said, there’s so many details connecting the flow of the whole epistle. The first word in Greek is **truth**, which sets the tone for this testimony.

## His Honesty (verse 1)

In three phrases he makes an assertion, a denial, and puts forward the closest witness he can. **I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit**. Rather than “protesting too much,” he’s setting up how big the burden really is. It’s *big*. He also refers to Christ and the Holy Spirit, not as fellow-witnesses, but as divine Persons who direct his witness.

## His Heartache (verse 2)

Here is the thing he’s getting off his chest: **that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart**. His pain is *big* and *constant*. The sorrow is a grief, a “heaviness” (KJV), and the anguish is a “misery, distress.” These are μεγάλη, large or even intense, and they are nonstop, endless. He took these with him everywhere.

What is the *cause* of the burden? He still hasn’t stated it.

# Paul’s Brothers (verses 3-5)

Here he begins an explanation with **For**, and the sentence continues through verse 5.

## His Extreme Wish for His Kinsmen (verse 3)

This wish assumes that something isn’t right, and Paul appears to want to trade places. **For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.**

The problem is that the Jews were under judgment for rejecting Christ. They were **ἀνάθεμα**, dedicated to destruction, cursed, and “*separated*” (NASB) from the Messiah.

He would go to the utmost end to fix this; he would be separated from Christ, he would go to hell, if that would get them to be saved.

Of course when this letter was read to the Romans, it would have been half a hot press minute since they heard Paul say that nothing “in all creation, will able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

The **brothers** here are not his fellow-Christians (fellow-Christians weren’t cut off from Christ) but his **kinsmen**, these are *family*, these are fellow-citizens, same nationality. They are the sorts of people you have reunions with, that you go into war with, that you share a culture with. That is is **according to the flesh** brings it down to shared ethnicity, biology, blood-level.

## The Exclusive Benefits of His Kinsmen (verses 4-5)

These **Israelites** were *chosen by God to receive blessings that no other nation on earth had, blessings which uniquely identified them*.

> They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 9:4–5 ESV)

**Israelites** are Hebrews, are Jews. God Himself renamed Jacob as Israel (Genesis 32:28), from whom the 12 Tribes came. The Greek text is a run-on with no commas but articles for every particular: the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises. And yet the climax doesn’t come until verse 5.

> “the plural as denoting the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants. No feature of Israel’s history marked their uniqueness as the recipients of redemptive revelation more than these covenants.” (—John Murray)

Sure seems like the New Covenant should also be included (see Romans 11:26-27, which quotes the “covenant” referred to in Isaiah 59:20-21, plus Jeremiah 31:31-40 along with Ezekiel 36:22-38). But all of these particular blessings could be summarized as the “word” (verse 6) and the “purpose of election” (verse 11) that the covenants and promises include, especially in the Messiah. These are for the “Israelites.”

Christ was an Israelite **according to the flesh**, from the tribe of Judah, through David (Romans 1:3). Christ was also a *divine* Israelite, the One **who is God over all**. This isn’t Christ *and* God, this is Christ *who is* God. Christ is the **blessed *unto the ages***.

Paul’s burden is seeing the tragedy of his Jewish brothers’ lack of belief in light of their unique privileges. At the time only some believed (11:5, 14), just a remnant for now. They expected more. They expected ALL. They expected it because God said it. Why hasn’t God fulfilled His covenant promises to Israel?

# Conclusion

No need to be afraid of this. It is all about Christ (see verses 1, 3, 5)! Because of Christ, who is God over all, all Israel will be saved. It is the pre-story of the gospel, it is the defense of gospel hope in God's Word. It explains why some (even many) reject Christ, it explains that grace overcomes rejection. It is the build up for what is probably the greatest benediction in Scripture, and the slingshot into the most basic of all our salvation: our bodies as living sacrifices based on the mercies of God.

God does not change His mind or His purpose or His covenant promises any more than the sun and moon will forbear to shine (Jeremiah 31:35; Psalm 72:7). That’ll preach!

----------

## Charge

The gospel is the power of God to salvation, to the Jew first and to you (Romans 1:16). You have been born again, not by perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God (1 Peter 1:23). The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever (Isaiah 40:8). Believe in His Word, live in righteousness from faith to faith.

## Benediction:

> Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Romans 16:25–27, ESV)

Paul told Timothy what it would be like in the last days.

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:1–5 ESV)

Note the bookends: the times would be difficult and the godliness would be in appearance only. The KJV calls them “perilous” times, the NIV “terrible” times, the NRSV “distressing” times. They are “troublesome, hard, difficult” (BAGD definition for χαλεπός). Brothers, without being too dramatic, these days of difficulty, as prophesied by Paul, are here in the room with us.

The last part is the worst part, and also the part that explains the rest of the list. There is only an “appearance of godliness” but no power of godliness, form without force. Their godliness is as deep and as dynamic as laminate.

A godly silhouette without godly strength could be personal, it could be liturgical. A group can go through the motions, like a church, or an entire denomination of churches, or even a generation of churches. It’s religious people who would even give a rat’s behind about looking godly. It’s a great threat to any people to play a part without the heart, to hide under liturgical practice instead of increasing in godliness and godly power through the liturgy.

Godliness is the key term, and we’re talking about godly worship. My take is that church people don’t talk about being godly like they used to. We don’t sort people by godly/ungodly categories, let alone godly in greater/lesser categories. Aspiring to godliness is even less how we walk. Wanting to be more righteous, wise, disciplined, spiritual, these are good, but so is pursuing godliness. Make godliness great again.

The Greek word for godliness is εὐσέβεια, “awesome respect accorded to God, devoutness” (BAGD). That certainly belongs with our worship. In English, godliness and piety are overlapping synonyms, to be godly is to be pious, even if piety spills over into recognizing and fulfilling one’s relational duties, to family, to countrymen, to God Himself. Thomas Watson wrote, “Godliness consists in an exact harmony between holy principles and practices” (A Godly Man’s Picture, p. 7).

I read through the Pastoral Epistles a couple times between Christmas and New Year’s, and they are full of instructions for shepherds of the flock; “I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:14–15 (1 Timothy 3:15). In fact, this church/household of God who has the great confession of godliness: “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness” (1 Timothy 3:16), more about that in a moment.

Godliness is referred to 14 times in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus taken together. And it’s a great angle with application for our new year as a church and in this series of reminders about our liturgy. How can we know what liturgy is powerful? We know liturgy is not just in appearance but power when we see godly men and women who keep growing in godliness.

I’ve grouped Paul’s teaching on godliness throughout the Pastorals into four headings, four threads (more than just a word study, it’s our worship study).

There is no godliness without truth. This is why we need/use so much Bible/Scripture, why we use words not just dim lights and deep chords, why the confession exhortation and communion meditation and sermon in between are so teaching and statement oriented. There are propositions, doctrines.

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

The first part of godliness, the first part of truth (verse 15), is a confession of faith about Jesus Christ. Godliness is personal, the He is a Person, but His greatness has contours; it is possible to be wrong about Him, which can’t help but send us in the wrong direction. The mystery of godliness is a summary phrase for God’s message of salvation which is the gospel, here put in a poetic, hymn-like structure. The revelation is meant to be definable, memorable, repeatable, and venerable to the Lord.

A couple other passages connect doctrine, words, and teaching with godliness.

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, (1 Timothy 6:3 ESV)

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness (Titus 1:1 ESV)

The teaching/truth that accords with godliness in both verses marks the nature of the truth, what makes the truth the kind of truth it is, what makes it peculiar. The teaching belongs with obedience (see Matthew 28:20), expertise in loves and choices not just in fact management.

Truth that is known but not seen in godliness is not the full truth, not true truth, not the right result of what is right. The formula for gasoline does not fire any engine forward, an entire set of flashcards doesn’t make a fluent lover. So godliness is a manifest lifestyle, not an impressive library.

We are to pray for our government so that they will facilitate a place we we can live godly lives (which I think means more than praying that they would just leave us alone).

[supplications] … for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. (1 Timothy 2:2 ESV)

God’s grace forgives us and trains us to live godly amidst those who are ungodly.

[the grace of God has appeared] … training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, (Titus 2:12 ESV)

Men are told to pray, women are told to “adorn themselves in respectable apparel”

with what is proper for women who profess godliness (θεοσέβειαν)—with good works. (1 Timothy 2:10 ESV)

Professing it, making a claim of it, could be no better than having the appearance of it. Good works are what godliness means.

Adult children show godliness by how they care for their families.

if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. (1 Timothy 5:4 ESV)

And men, especially those who would be pastors and leaders in the church, must pursue godliness.

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; (1 Timothy 4:7 ESV)

Train is γύμναζε, get yourself in the gym (the Greek word was used for gymnastics, and we get our English words from the Greek; progymnasmata are writing exercises), so to speak, to exercise and discipline oneself to get fit in godliness.

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. (1 Timothy 6:11 ESV)

Pursue is “move rapidly and decisively toward an object.” Get after it. Among the list is godliness.

It’s not just a brute force expectation; do it or else. Godliness is not all sweat without any sweet.

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:7–8 ESV)

Value now and forever. Godliness has immediate promise, instant but not only temporary benefit. You can use it.

constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain, (1 Timothy 6:5–6 ESV)

The conference speaking/best-seller “godliness” might have a lot of followers, but real godliness, godliness that puts things in perspective with thanks, is great gain (πορισμὸς μέγας).

This is where we started.

having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:5 ESV)

The contrast, of course, to denying would be accepting, embracing, and embody it's power. Godliness that is not just Sunday-clothes deep, or five Cs of liturgy deep, is powerful. So may each of you be more and more powerfully godly. Be such people, and assemble with such people.

The power, and even promise of reward, are important because in its exercise and embodiment godliness provokes persecution.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:12–13 ESV)

The elders pray that our liturgy would promote godliness and strengthen the flock to live in powerful godliness. We see our worship as more than an audience, but as an assembly of the godly. And how would that godly participation in worship not spill over into godly participation in the rest of the work of the week?

We do know, and see, by God’s grace, our worship resulting in the gain of godliness. We are blessed. Boom!

His power gives what we need for godliness. Godliness has divine power. Pursue godliness, through worship and for all your work all week. May He make your godliness full-strength.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3–4, ESV)

# Introduction

Paul told Timothy what it would be like in the last days.

> But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:1–5 ESV)

Note the bookends: the times would be difficult and the godliness would be in appearance only. The KJV calls them “perilous” times, the NIV “terrible” times, the NRSV “distressing” times. They are “troublesome, hard, difficult” (BAGD definition for χαλεπός). Brothers, without being too dramatic, these days of difficulty, as prophesied by Paul, are here in the room with us.

The last part is the worst part, and also the part that explains the rest of the list. There is only an “appearance of godliness” but no power of godliness, form without force. Their godliness is as deep and as dynamic as laminate.

A godly silhouette without godly strength could be personal, it could be liturgical. A group can go through the motions, like a church, or an entire denomination of churches, or even a generation of churches. It’s religious people who would even give a rat’s behind about

*looking* godly. It’s a great threat to any people to play a part without the heart, to hide under liturgical practice instead of increasing in godliness and godly power through the liturgy.

**Godliness** is the key term, and we’re talking about *godly worship*. My take is that church people don’t talk about being godly like they used to. We don’t sort people by godly/ungodly categories, let alone godly in greater/lesser categories. Aspiring to godliness is even less how we walk. Wanting to be more righteous, wise, disciplined, spiritual, these are good, but so is *pursuing godliness*. Make godliness great again.

The Greek word for godliness is εὐσέβεια, “awesome respect accorded to God, devoutness” (BAGD). That certainly belongs with our worship. In English, godliness and piety are overlapping synonyms, to be godly is to be pious, even if piety spills over into recognizing and fulfilling one’s relational duties, to family, to countrymen, to God Himself. Thomas Watson wrote, “Godliness consists in an exact harmony between holy principles and practices” (_A Godly Man’s Picture_, p. 7).

I read through the Pastoral Epistles a couple times between Christmas and New Year’s, and they are full of instructions for shepherds of the flock; “I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:14–15 (1 Timothy 3:15). In fact, this church/household of God who has the great confession of *godliness*: “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness” (1 Timothy 3:16), more about that in a moment.

Godliness is referred to 14 times in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus taken together. And it’s a great angle with application for our new year as a church and in this series of reminders about our liturgy. *How can we know what liturgy is powerful?* We know liturgy is not just in appearance but power when we see *godly men and women* who keep growing in godliness.

I’ve grouped Paul’s teaching on godliness throughout the Pastorals into four headings, four threads (more than just a word study, it’s our worship study).

# 1. Godliness comes from truth.

There is no godliness without truth. This is why we need/use so much Bible/Scripture, why we use *words* not just dim lights and deep chords, why the confession exhortation and communion meditation and sermon in between are so teaching and statement oriented. There are propositions, doctrines.

> Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

> He was manifested in the flesh,

> vindicated by the Spirit,

> seen by angels,

> proclaimed among the nations,

> believed on in the world,

> taken up in glory.

> (1 Timothy 3:16 ESV)

The first part of godliness, the first part of truth (verse 15), is a confession of faith about Jesus Christ. Godliness is personal, the **He** is a Person, but His greatness has contours; it is possible to be *wrong* about Him, which can’t help but send us in the wrong direction. The **mystery of godliness** is a summary phrase for God’s message of salvation which is the gospel, here put in a poetic, hymn-like structure. The revelation is meant to be definable, memorable, repeatable, and venerable to the Lord.

A couple other passages connect doctrine, words, and teaching with godliness.

> If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, (1 Timothy 6:3 ESV)

> Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness (Titus 1:1 ESV)

The teaching/truth that **accords with godliness** in both verses marks the nature of the truth, what makes the truth the kind of truth it is, what makes it peculiar. The teaching belongs with *obedience* (see Matthew 28:20), expertise in loves and choices not just in fact management.

# 2. Godliness is a lifestyle.

Truth that is known but not seen in godliness is not the full truth, not true truth, not the right result of what is right. The formula for gasoline does not fire any engine forward, an entire set of flashcards doesn’t make a fluent lover. So godliness is a manifest lifestyle, not an impressive library.

We are to pray for our government so that they will facilitate a place we we can live godly lives (which I think means more than praying that they would just leave us alone).

> [supplications] … for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. (1 Timothy 2:2 ESV)

God’s grace forgives us and trains us to live godly amidst those who are *un*godly.

> [the grace of God has appeared] … training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, (Titus 2:12 ESV)

Men are told to pray, *women* are told to “adorn themselves in respectable apparel”

> with what is proper for women who profess godliness (θεοσέβειαν)—with good works. (1 Timothy 2:10 ESV)

Professing it, making a claim of it, could be no better than having the appearance of it. **Good works** are what godliness means.

Adult *children* show godliness by how they care for their families.

> if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. (1 Timothy 5:4 ESV)

And *men*, especially those who would be pastors and leaders in the church, must *pursue* godliness.

> Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; (1 Timothy 4:7 ESV)

**Train** is γύμναζε, get yourself in the gym (the Greek word was used for gymnastics, and we get our English words from the Greek; progymnasmata are writing exercises), so to speak, to exercise and discipline oneself to get fit in godliness.

> But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. (1 Timothy 6:11 ESV)

**Pursue** is “move rapidly and decisively toward an object.” *Get after it*. Among the list is godliness.

# 3. Godliness is great gain.

It’s not just a brute force expectation; do it or else. Godliness is not all sweat without any sweet.

> Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:7–8 ESV)

Value now and forever. Godliness has immediate promise, instant but not only temporary benefit. You can use it.

> constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain, (1 Timothy 6:5–6 ESV)

The conference speaking/best-seller “godliness” might have a lot of followers, but real godliness, godliness that puts things in perspective with thanks, is **great gain** (πορισμὸς μέγας).

# 4. Godliness has power.

This is where we started.

> having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:5 ESV)

The contrast, of course, to denying would be accepting, embracing, and embody it's power. Godliness that is not just Sunday-clothes deep, or five Cs of liturgy deep, is powerful. So may each of you be more and more powerfully godly. Be such people, and assemble with such people.

# Conclusion

The power, and even promise of reward, are important because in its exercise and embodiment godliness provokes persecution.

> Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:12–13 ESV)

The elders pray that our liturgy would promote godliness and strengthen the flock to live in powerful godliness. We see our worship as more than an audience, but as an assembly of the godly. And how would that godly participation in worship not spill over into godly participation in the rest of the work of the week?

We do know, and see, *by God’s grace*, our worship resulting in the gain of godliness. We are blessed. Boom!

----------

## Charge

His power gives what we need for godliness. Godliness has divine power. Pursue godliness, through worship and for all your work all week. May He make your godliness full-strength.

## Benediction:

> His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3–4, ESV)

Every new calendar year I take some Sunday sermons to talk explicitly about our worship, our Lord’s Day liturgy as an assembly. I love it. I love the reminders and giving the reminders (a la 2 Peter 1:12), but that’s because I love our Lord even more and am thankful for His grace to us in the weekly process and practice and profit of our time together.

Qualifications abound, of course. Corporate worship isn’t the only way of worship, Sunday isn’t the only day we worship, formal liturgy isn’t the only type of worship, we can’t claim that our liturgy is the only acceptable sequence of worship when compared to other churches or even that we have it entirely figured out with no need to grow. For that matter, more people eat than cook, so knowing the recipe is a greater requirement for some than for all. And yet, we are forgetful people, and reminders about what is good and what makes it good are good.

The Lord certainly gives us some flexibility; we speak English (not Latin or other), we meet at 10:00am (not sunrise), we sing seven songs (not because that’s the number of perfection), we have song books/Cantus and we project lyrics on the screen (because King David didn’t even have power, we’re blessed with PowerPoint).

But it is the Lord who calls us to worship; the congregation congregates to praise His name because He requires it. The Lord has revealed that our greatest problem is sin, that He sent His Son as a sacrifice for sinners, so we confess our sins as Christians for sake of forgiveness. The Lord cleanses, He consecrates us by His Word, which we read and which we receive in teaching and exhortation. It is His intention to sanctify us in truth (John 17:16). It is His desire to fellowship with us, so we have communion with Him according to Christ’s ordinance. And from all this filling we are charged to go and obey with His blessing; this is a commissioning. Our worship follows all five Cs every Lord’s Day morning.

The whole body assembles to bless the name of the Lord and to be blessed by Him. We behold His glory and we praise Him and proclaim Him. We behold His glory and He transforms us from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18). What a gift. That’s at least part of why “it is good to sing praises to our God” (Psalm 147:1). A “song of praise is fitting” for Him, and praise fits us, furnishes us, feeds us, orients us, conforms us to Christ rather than to the world.

And the anchor of our week is also the wind to our week; the Lord sits on His throne no matter what hellish flood comes at us (consider Psalm 29:10), and our resting in that truth is like fresh breeze and a filling breath and a spiritual strength for our walk. Sunday is like the fat kid spinning the merry-go-round of the other six days.

So we learn that the Lord calls us to put Him first every week, and we realize He calls us to put Him first throughout everything in the week. We learn the discipline of confessing sin to Him, exercising the muscles to confess sin to each other. We taste that the Lord is good in His Word, so we long for that same pure milk and meat and recognize by comparison the tedious bluster of so many scoffers. We enjoy the feast of fellowship at His Table and try to make fellowship the goal around our home tables. We come for blessing and we go with blessing. What happens here spreads everywhere.

This is Liturgical Living, not just life that has room for liturgy but a lifestyle that learns from the liturgy.

John 15 is always in season. This text is bigger than liturgy, though there’s no conflict, there should be complement with branches abiding liturgically, with abiding worship.

The agricultural metaphor blooms in the text. The culture in agriculture belongs with both cultivare, Latin meaning to prepare land for crops, and with cultus, Latin for worship. The TEC mission statement includes both.

We are laboring in joy to cultivate a Trinitarian community of worshipping, maturing disciples who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord over all the world.

The cultivating and the worshipping, as well as the maturing, all depend on our abiding in the Vine.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4–5 ESV)

Abiding speaks of constant dependence; so apart from Christ there is nothing doing. Abiding speaks of direct contact, connection, communing.

In context Jesus is referring to Israel who depended on religious trappings, on (God-given) liturgy and traditions, on externals (and Paul addressed similar concerns in Romans 2. They weren’t like the Gentiles who were abandoned to foolish sins in Romans 1, but they weren’t living by faith in Christ either.) Jesus warns that those branches will be pruned, so the analogy isn’t about losing salvation but about being cut off from corporate, in Israel’s case national, blessings as God’s chosen.

Worship and liturgy among the Jews was a distraction, an alternate dependence, rather than a tool driving dependence on the Lord. But when used in faith, liturgy ought to serve the body, to encourage each part and all the parts together to “hold fast to the Head” (Colossians 1:19). The Head nourishes and knits so that the body “grows with a growth that is from God.” Head and body, so vine and branches.

Abiding branches bear fruit (see fruit in verses 2, 4, 5, and 8). Fruit includes obedience, good works, all as a result of, not a means to, abiding. The abide for “much fruit” does at least two things. It 1) gives evidence that one is a disciple and 2) glorifies the Father, both in verse 8. It is also part of divine joy shared and filling in verse 11.

His words (verse 7), our prayers (verse 7), God’s glory. Of course this is any time and all the time for a disciple, but also part of our liturgy. We abide and that brings fruit.

If we see that fruit of abiding—and we do already, and we desire the Lord’s blessing for more—what might be some of the consequences? We’d actually have even more problems to deal with. There would be more crooked, dry branches being grafted into the vine alongside us.

Let me try another angle on it: Who is our worship for? It is for God, it is for believers - us, the flock, and it is for all of Nineveh, I mean, Marysville. #MMGA, or making Marysville a destination, is supposed to be a sticky idea, not a small-minded or insular one. From Darrington to Sultan, in Smokey Point and Snohomish, Lake Stevens and Everett and Arlington…and up and down the I-5 corridor, we want the branches bearing fruit in Jesus. TEC isn’t the Vine. And TEC isn’t the whole field.

We’d be glad if the Lord increased our numbers, as others see His joy in us and a drawn to the source of joy, right? Actually not everyone has been, at least not immediately. We’d be glad if the Lord increased our influence, but that would mean, for example, welcoming those who have problems. Downstream it would include not only welcoming TEC students at ECS.

Again, our mission is to cultivate a Trinitarian community (which means it’s bigger than only the church) of worshipping, maturing disciples, families and feasting and education and business and writing and suffering well in the hospital. We’re not trying to build a bunker. Nor is this turning everything into a simplistic evangelism encounter. It is love for God that hungers for His blessing, worship of God expressed in the assembly’s liturgy, with fruit that goes with us into the week.

The fruit is a community, disciples and families and church body, and more, connected to other Christians, other churches. The fruit is worshippers shaped by worship, growing disciples who are helped by worship. The fruit is more laborers, and more joy. The fruit is acknowledging Jesus as Lord as a personal/theological confession of faith and over all the fields.

This fruit bearing is not pressure, any more than it’s pressure for a branch to abide in the vine. Critical? Yes. A burden? No. This is why our liturgy promotes abiding worship, constant dependance and direct contact with the Vine, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sunday services are not denying the mess, but we whistle while we work for the Lord, trusting and waiting for His salvation, and we look around and see that our brothers aren't dropping their brooms. Sweep on, brothers!

Go live in such a way that you would be happy if Marysville repented. As in, if God granted a revival of repentance, you wouldn’t need to repent of a bad attitude, because you’ve already repented (the anti-Jonah). Who knows, maybe your repentance will snowball. Live consistently with the liturgy of grace and fruit and the abundance of His blessing.

The LORD bless you and keep you;

# Introduction

Every new calendar year I take some Sunday sermons to talk explicitly about **our worship**, our Lord’s Day liturgy as an assembly. I love it. I love the reminders and giving the reminders (a la 2 Peter 1:12), but that’s because I love our Lord even more and am thankful for His grace to us in the weekly process and practice and profit of our time together.

Qualifications abound, of course. Corporate worship isn’t the only way of worship, Sunday isn’t the only day we worship, formal liturgy isn’t the only type of worship, we can’t claim that our liturgy is the only acceptable sequence of worship when compared to other churches or even that we have it entirely figured out with no need to grow. For that matter, more people eat than cook, so knowing the recipe is a greater requirement for some than for all. And yet, we are forgetful people, and reminders about what is good and what makes it good are good.

# See the Cs

The Lord certainly gives us some flexibility; we speak English (not Latin or other), we meet at 10:00am (not sunrise), we sing seven songs (not because that’s the number of perfection), we have song books/Cantus and we project lyrics on the screen (because King David didn’t even have power, we’re blessed with PowerPoint).

But it is the Lord who *calls* us to worship; the congregation congregates to praise His name because He requires it. The Lord has revealed that our greatest problem is sin, that He sent His Son as a sacrifice for sinners, so we *confess* our sins as Christians for sake of forgiveness. The Lord cleanses, He *consecrates* us by His Word, which we read and which we receive in teaching and exhortation. It is His intention to sanctify us in truth (John 17:16). It is His desire to fellowship with us, so we have *communion* with Him according to Christ’s ordinance. And from all this filling we are charged to go and obey with His blessing; this is a *commissioning*. Our worship follows all five Cs every Lord’s Day morning.

# We Come and Go

The whole body assembles to bless the name of the Lord and to be blessed by Him. We behold His glory and we praise Him and proclaim Him. We behold His glory and He transforms us from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18). What a gift. That’s at least part of why “it is good to sing praises to our God” (Psalm 147:1). A “song of praise is fitting” for Him, *and* praise fits us, furnishes us, feeds us, orients us, conforms us to Christ rather than to the world.

And the anchor of our week is also the wind to our week; the Lord sits on His throne no matter what hellish flood comes at us (consider Psalm 29:10), and our resting in that truth is like fresh breeze and a filling breath and a spiritual strength for our walk. Sunday is like the fat kid spinning the merry-go-round of the other six days.

So we learn that the Lord calls us to put Him first every week, and we realize He calls us to put Him first throughout everything in the week. We learn the discipline of confessing sin to Him, exercising the muscles to confess sin to each other. We taste that the Lord is good in His Word, so we long for that same pure milk and meat and recognize by comparison the tedious bluster of so many scoffers. We enjoy the feast of fellowship at His Table and try to make fellowship the goal around our home tables. We come for blessing and we go with blessing. What happens here spreads everywhere.

This is **Liturgical Living**, not just life that has room for liturgy but a lifestyle that learns from the liturgy.

# Fruit. A whole lot of fruit.

John 15 is always in season. This text is bigger than liturgy, though there’s no conflict, there should be complement with branches abiding liturgically, with *abiding worship*.

The agricultural metaphor blooms in the text. The *culture* in agriculture belongs with both *cultivare*, Latin meaning to prepare land for crops, and with *cultus*, Latin for worship. The TEC mission statement includes both.

> We are laboring in joy to **cultivate** a Trinitarian community of **worshipping**, maturing disciples who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord over all the world.

The cultivating and the worshipping, as well as the maturing, all depend on our abiding in the Vine.

> Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4–5 ESV)

Abiding speaks of *constant dependence*; so **apart from** Christ there is **nothing** doing. Abiding speaks of *direct contact*, connection, communing.

In context Jesus is referring to Israel who depended on religious trappings, on (God-given) liturgy and traditions, on externals (and Paul addressed similar concerns in Romans 2. They weren’t like the Gentiles who were abandoned to foolish sins in Romans 1, but they weren’t living by faith in Christ either.) Jesus warns that those branches will be pruned, so the analogy isn’t about losing salvation but about being cut off from corporate, in Israel’s case national, blessings as God’s chosen.

Worship and liturgy among the Jews was a distraction, an alternate dependence, rather than a tool driving dependence on the Lord. But when used in faith, liturgy ought to serve the body, to encourage each part and all the parts together to “hold fast to the Head” (Colossians 1:19). The Head nourishes and knits so that the body “grows with a growth that is from God.” Head and body, so vine and branches.

Abiding branches bear fruit (see fruit in verses 2, 4, 5, and 8). Fruit includes obedience, good works, all as a *result of*, not a means to, abiding. The abide for “much fruit” does at least two things. It 1) gives evidence that one is a disciple and 2) glorifies the Father, both in verse 8. It is also part of divine joy shared and filling in verse 11.

His words (verse 7), our prayers (verse 7), God’s glory. Of course this is any time and all the time for a disciple, but also part of our liturgy. We abide and that brings fruit.

# Jealousable Joy and #MMGA

If we see that fruit of abiding—and we do already, and we desire the Lord’s blessing for more—what might be some of the consequences? We’d actually have even *more* problems to deal with. There would be more crooked, dry branches being grafted into the vine alongside us.

Let me try another angle on it: Who is our worship for? It is for God, it is for believers - us, the flock, and it is for all of Nineveh, I mean, Marysville. #MMGA, or making Marysville a destination, is supposed to be a sticky idea, not a small-minded or insular one. From Darrington to Sultan, in Smokey Point and Snohomish, Lake Stevens and Everett and Arlington…and up and down the I-5 corridor, we want the branches bearing fruit in Jesus. TEC isn’t the Vine. And TEC isn’t the whole field.

We’d be glad if the Lord increased our numbers, as others see His joy in us and a drawn to the source of joy, right? Actually not everyone has been, at least not immediately. We’d be glad if the Lord increased our influence, but that would mean, for example, welcoming those who have problems. Downstream it would include not only welcoming TEC students at ECS.

Again, our mission is to cultivate a Trinitarian community (which means it’s bigger than only the church) of worshipping, maturing disciples, families and feasting and education and business and writing and suffering well in the hospital. We’re not trying to build a bunker. Nor is this turning everything into a simplistic evangelism encounter. It is love for God that hungers for His blessing, worship of God expressed in the assembly’s liturgy, with fruit that goes with us into the week.

The fruit is a *community*, disciples and families and church body, and more, connected to other Christians, other churches. The fruit is worshippers shaped by worship, growing disciples who are helped by worship. The fruit is more laborers, and more joy. The fruit is acknowledging Jesus as Lord as a personal/theological confession of faith and over all the fields.

This fruit bearing is not pressure, any more than it’s pressure for a branch to abide in the vine. Critical? Yes. A burden? No. This is why our liturgy promotes abiding worship, constant dependance and direct contact with the Vine, our Lord Jesus Christ.

# Conclusion

Sunday services are not denying the mess, but we whistle while we work for the Lord, trusting and waiting for His salvation, and we look around and see that our brothers aren't dropping their brooms. Sweep on, brothers!

----------

## Charge

Go live in such a way that you would be happy if Marysville repented. As in, if God granted a revival of repentance, you wouldn’t need to repent of a bad attitude, because you’ve already repented (the anti-Jonah). Who knows, maybe your repentance will snowball. Live consistently with the liturgy of grace and fruit and the abundance of His blessing.

## Benediction:

> The LORD bless you and keep you;

> the LORD make his face to shine upon you

> and be gracious to you;

> the LORD lift up his countenance upon you

> and give you peace.

> (Numbers 6:24–26, ESV)

This last week before Christmas has not gone according to plan. Since Wednesday I've been laying on my back in bed or on the floor for 22+ hours a day, unable to tie my own shoes. I hurt my back again somehow on Monday and it got worse and worse, and between pain meds and muscle relaxers I've made it this far. Last night's Christmas Eve service was the longest I've been on my feet, and thankfully it won’t be that much longer before I can lay down again today.

Mo has had a puke-inducing level migraine for the last few days, and in the middle of that has taken Hallie to the doctor for another antibiotics-requiring-sickness and Cal to the walk-in for an infection near his eye, while trying to navigate the snow and ice and attempt some Christmas shopping we’d put off due to all the other December events. Our house still looks like an advent war zone, and we'll be doing Christmas into the week. It's not been according to our plan.

How about you? Maybe one family out of fifty among us isn't sick, or recovering from recent surgery, or in the middle of chemotherapy. Or you've got family that doesn't understand your life, in-laws or parents or siblings that don't want to understand, who prefer to give you grief about it. Relationships are out of sorts; dinner later today will be awkward, agitated. It's not according to plan.

Maybe you are trying to move, maybe you are sad someone else is moving/has moved. Maybe you are wishing to be married, maybe you are struggling in your marriage. Maybe you can't have kids, maybe you've lost a child, maybe a kid has rejected Jesus, maybe you can't figure out how to help your kid. Nothing seems like a good, certain plan.

Our own government just voted yes on a 1.7 trillion dollar spending package for what seems like everything but our nation. If someone wanted to destroy our economy, would there be a better plan?

Wars around the world continue, woke businesses continue to virtue signal, police in Britain arrested a lady outside an abortion clinic for praying silently in her head. Some are without power after the brutal storms and cold, some are without hope in their own brutal suffering and pain. Lord, what is Your plan?

His plan, actually, was to have a virgin get pregnant, and to explain to her fiancé in a dream that he should marry her anyway even though it would be righteous to break up with her, then arrange a regional registration requiring a trip while she was nine months pregnant to a place where there were no rooms to stay, and have this teenage girl give birth to God in flesh and lay Him in a manger. Some plan!

The plan was glory wrapped in inconvenience, majesty wrapped in difficulty, divinity wrapped in flesh, eternality wrapped in swaddling cloths. The plan for Christmas problems was Christmas.

Over these last few Lord's Days we've considered everything that's wrong with Christmas, which is also everything that's wrong with the human race on earth: sin and the spiritual battle with the serpent and his offspring. We've considered everything that is wrong with men's domination over other men, which is everything that's wrong with and between nations. We've considered everything that's wrong with the flock, initially a problem for Israel but with application for the church. And now we come closest in these concentric circles: everything that's wrong with our hearts.

God sent a Man. God sent a King. God sent a Shepherd. God sent a Savior. That was, and is, the plan.

The most famous story of the Savior's birth is in Luke 2; we'll include part of it. The first story of Christ's birth is in Matthew 1. A couple years ago we considered the genealogy that opens the good news of the New Testament, "the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1). Then in verse 18, Matthew says "Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way."

Mary was pregnant but there was no earthly father. She was betrothed, promised in marriage to Joseph, but they hadn't consummated their covenant yet. Joseph was a righteous, yet gentle, man, and this wasn't how he had planned it, so he prepared to divorce her without making a big public deal about it. What disappointment; as far as he knew, she had been unfaithful to him. In light of Deuteronomy 22:22-29, they could have brought Mary to trial to determine how she got pregnant and if she needed to be put to death. That would have been hard, but also a much more convenient route…for Joseph.

As Joseph was sorting things out in his head, behold, an angel revealed that Mary's child was of supernatural origin, that the child would be a boy, and that that boy should have a given name related to the reason for His birth.

"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21)

The meaning of the name is given by the angel. Jesus is a form of "Joshua," a common name in Israel, referring to “salvation.” God sent a Savior. “God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised” (Paul, in Acts 13:23). This saving wasn’t just from political tyranny, it was from their sins. Saving is atonement, justification, forgiveness. “Comfort, comfort my people…cry to her…that her iniquity is pardoned” (Isaiah 40:2).

This was the plan. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet (Matthew 1:22), and though we didn't study this prophetic passage in context, we have mentioned it a few times.

"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel." (Matthew 1:23)

The prophet is Isaiah, and this prophecy is found in Isaiah 7:14. It clarifies that Mary was the virgin, but the virgin birth is the lesser of two miracles. Matthew also explains what Immanuel means: "God with us." The name is only found in Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 8:8, and the quotation of Matthew 7:14 in Matthew 1:23. We don’t have record of anyone calling Jesus “Immanuel.” Yet He is the God-Man. This is the incarnation, the enfleshing of the Second Person of the Trinity. In Christ “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9, see also John 1:14). That is the greater miracle.

Joseph obeyed the word of the angel, and "he called his name Jesus" (Matthew 1:25).

On the night of Jesus' birth, a host of angels found the shepherds outside Bethlehem, and one angel said to them,

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:10-11).

God sent a Savior. God saves sinners.

The joy is not only that men could have a Shepherd who would give them physical security and prosperity, not only that men could have a King who would give them justice and peace, not only that men would have a dragon-slayer who would crush their great enemy, but with all that, and before all that, a Savior who would deal with everything that is wrong in their hearts.

There are problems. The food being cold, your house being cold, yet worse is your heart being lukewarm. The budget being too small, the government having no budget, yet worse is your heart having no self-control. Lack of righteous works, a list of heart lusts that would shame the naughty. A heart that is dull to true excellence, a heart that knows its own guilt before God. A heart that suppresses God’s truth, the truth of God, the glory of His power and righteousness. For these sins God sent a Savior.

Have you been saved?

From depths of hell thy people save

Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel

Joy to the world, the Savior reigns, let men get their resources in order. Your songs, lights, gifts, candy, turkey, egg nog, and wine have jobs to do; don't let them slack off. Do not bury your Christmas talents, employ them for praising the Savior. Christians, your charge is: have a merry Christmas!

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24, 28 ESV)

# Introduction

This last week before Christmas has not gone according to plan. Since Wednesday I've been laying on my back in bed or on the floor for 22+ hours a day, unable to tie my own shoes. I hurt my back again somehow on Monday and it got worse and worse, and between pain meds and muscle relaxers I've made it this far. Last night's Christmas Eve service was the longest I've been on my feet, and thankfully it won’t be that much longer before I can lay down again today.

Mo has had a puke-inducing level migraine for the last few days, and in the middle of that has taken Hallie to the doctor for another antibiotics-requiring-sickness and Cal to the walk-in for an infection near his eye, while trying to navigate the snow and ice and attempt some Christmas shopping we’d put off due to all the other December events. Our house still looks like an advent war zone, and we'll be doing Christmas into the week. It's not been according to our plan.

How about you? Maybe one family out of fifty among us isn't sick, or recovering from recent surgery, or in the middle of chemotherapy. Or you've got family that doesn't understand your life, in-laws or parents or siblings that don't *want* to understand, who prefer to give you grief about it. Relationships are out of sorts; dinner later today will be awkward, agitated. It's not according to plan.

Maybe you are trying to move, maybe you are sad someone else is moving/has moved. Maybe you are wishing to be married, maybe you are struggling in your marriage. Maybe you can't have kids, maybe you've lost a child, maybe a kid has rejected Jesus, maybe you can't figure out how to help your kid. Nothing seems like a good, certain plan.

Our own government just voted yes on a 1.7 trillion dollar spending package for what seems like everything but our nation. If someone wanted to destroy our economy, would there be a better plan?

Wars around the world continue, woke businesses continue to virtue signal, police in Britain arrested a lady outside an abortion clinic for praying silently in her head. Some are without power after the brutal storms and cold, some are without hope in their own brutal suffering and pain. Lord, what is Your plan?

His plan, actually, was to have a virgin get pregnant, and to explain to her fiancé in a dream that he should marry her anyway even though it would be righteous to break up with her, then arrange a regional registration requiring a trip while she was nine months pregnant to a place where there were no rooms to stay, and have this teenage girl give birth to God in flesh and lay Him in a manger. Some plan!

The plan was glory wrapped in inconvenience, majesty wrapped in difficulty, divinity wrapped in flesh, eternality wrapped in swaddling cloths. The plan for Christmas problems was Christmas.

Over these last few Lord's Days we've considered everything that's wrong with Christmas, which is also everything that's wrong with the human race on earth: sin and the spiritual battle with the serpent and his offspring. We've considered everything that is wrong with men's domination over other men, which is everything that's wrong with and between nations. We've considered everything that's wrong with the flock, initially a problem for Israel but with application for the church. And now we come closest in these concentric circles: everything that's wrong with our hearts.

God sent a Man. God sent a King. God sent a Shepherd. *God sent a Savior*. That was, and is, the plan.

The most famous story of the Savior's birth is in Luke 2; we'll include part of it. The first story of Christ's birth is in Matthew 1. A couple years ago we considered the genealogy that opens the good news of the New Testament, "the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1). Then in verse 18, Matthew says "Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way."

Mary was pregnant but there was no earthly father. She was betrothed, promised in marriage to Joseph, but they hadn't consummated their covenant yet. Joseph was a righteous, yet gentle, man, and this wasn't how he had planned it, so he prepared to divorce her without making a big public deal about it. What disappointment; as far as he knew, she had been unfaithful to him. In light of Deuteronomy 22:22-29, they could have brought Mary to trial to determine how she got pregnant and if she needed to be put to death. That would have been hard, but also a much more convenient route…for Joseph.

As Joseph was sorting things out in his head, **behold**, an angel revealed that Mary's child was of supernatural origin, that the child would be a boy, and that that boy should have a given name related to the reason for His birth.

> "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21)

The meaning of the name is given by the angel. **Jesus** is a form of "Joshua," a common name in Israel, referring to “salvation.” *God sent a Savior*. “God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised” (Paul, in Acts 13:23). This saving wasn’t just from political tyranny, it was **from their sins**. Saving is atonement, justification, *forgiveness*. “Comfort, comfort my people…cry to her…that her iniquity is pardoned” (Isaiah 40:2).

This was the plan. **All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet** (Matthew 1:22), and though we didn't study this prophetic passage in context, we have mentioned it a few times.

> "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel." (Matthew 1:23)

The prophet is Isaiah, and this prophecy is found in Isaiah 7:14. It clarifies that Mary was the **virgin**, but the virgin birth is the lesser of two miracles. Matthew also explains what **Immanuel** means: "God with us." The name is only found in Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 8:8, and the quotation of Matthew 7:14 in Matthew 1:23. We don’t have record of anyone calling Jesus “Immanuel.” Yet He is the God-Man. This is the incarnation, the enfleshing of the Second Person of the Trinity. In Christ “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9, see also John 1:14). *That* is the greater miracle.

Joseph obeyed the word of the angel, and "he called his name Jesus" (Matthew 1:25).

On the night of Jesus' birth, a host of angels found the shepherds outside Bethlehem, and one angel said to them,

> "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a **Savior** who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:10-11).

*God sent a Savior.* **God saves sinners.**

# Conclusion

The joy is not only that men could have a Shepherd who would give them physical security and prosperity, not only that men could have a King who would give them justice and peace, not only that men would have a dragon-slayer who would crush their great enemy, but with all that, and before all that, a Savior who would deal with everything that is wrong in their hearts.

There are problems. The food being cold, your house being cold, yet worse is your *heart* being lukewarm. The budget being too small, the government having no budget, yet worse is your *heart* having no self-control. Lack of righteous works, a list of *heart* lusts that would shame the naughty. A *heart* that is dull to true excellence, a *heart* that knows its own guilt before God. A *heart* that suppresses God’s truth, the truth of God, the glory of His power and righteousness. For these sins *God sent a Savior*.

Have *you* been saved?

> From depths of hell thy people save

> And give them victory o'er the grave

>

> Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel

> shall come to you, O Israel.

> —“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

----------

## Charge

Joy to the world, the Savior reigns, let men get their resources in order. Your songs, lights, gifts, candy, turkey, egg nog, and wine have jobs to do; don't let them slack off. Do not bury your Christmas talents, employ them for praising the Savior. Christians, your charge is: have a merry Christmas!

## Benediction:

> Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

>

> The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24, 28 ESV)

Peter wrote that the Old Testament prophets carefully searched what they had written in order to figure out what was in what they had written (1 Peter 1:10-11). There were clues about the Christ, who He would be, when He would come, what sufferings and glories would be His. God's Spirit moved them to write just as wind fills a sail (2 Peter 1:21), but they didn't have the entire map; they were making it.

One of the tiny details the Spirit revealed was about a city which didn’t make more than a small dot on the map. Now it's a different story. You can't turn two pages in the Advent/Christmas section of the Cantus without singing a lyric about it, sometimes even reading the title. "O Little Town of Bethlehem." A king's birth put it on the map.

It's actually two kings, one just more famous, though they are both related. King David was born in Bethlehem Ephrathah. For a while David was known as the son of Jesse who lived there (1 Samuel 16:1), but David's victories against a lion and a giant and nations, plus his forty years on the throne, turned his hometown into the what the angels dubbed the “city of David" (Luke 2:4, 11), even though the OT historical books refer to the city of David as Jerusalem. I'm sure the Bethlehemians posted a special sign in David’s honor at the city limits.

The city wasn't big, yet a warrior-king came from there and led the nation toward its golden age. It was the stuff of legends, and became the stuff of prophecy. Around 300 years after David the prophet Micah saw the birth of a new ruler in David's line who would be born in Bethlehem, and we know that birth happened another 700 years later, with some of the results still to come. And as significant as the detail about Bethlehem bringing a king, the emphasis in Micah 5 is on the character of that king. God sent a shepherd.

Similar to Isaiah's light after darkness and peace after pain, so Micah shows security after a scattering, coming home after exile, glory after groaning. Like a woman in travail, a child would be born who would tend his sheep.

God’s flock—Zion/Jerusalem/Israel—had been:

The Lord continues to speak, but turns from Jerusalem as representing the nation to "you," Bethlehem Ephrathah, names that mean house of bread in a place of fruitfulness.

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,

Bethlehem was too little to be among the clans of Judah, with "clans" a word referring to 1,000, the typical number for a unit of soldiers; they weren't even big enough to muster a serious number of troops (compare to verse 1).

Though small, big things would come from her (not entirely unrelated to what Queen Lucy says in The Last Battle, “Yes, in our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”). From you will come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.

The next phrase has to be the bigger surprise: whose origin is from old, from ancient days. The context argues that this means more than a long time ago, three centuries since David. Micah might not have grasped how ancient, though the word “old” (qeḏem) is sometimes translated “everlasting” and can describe God’s purposes (Isaiah 37:26) and God’s counsels (Isaiah 45:21), the time before Creation (Proverbs 8:22), and God Himself (Deuteronomy 33:27; Habakkuk 1:12)(see Thomas E. McComiskey). This ruler's origins are supernatural, eternal.

Verse 3 has three parts: 1) an abandoning, 2) a birth, 3) a return.

Who is the he that gives up the them and who is the she who births a his? He is the LORD, she is Israel from whom the Messiah would come, and the them/brothers are also Israel, considered individually.

When the Lord “gives them up” it’s letting them have the judgement they deserved. Assyria conquered northern Israel, Babylon took Judah captive, the Romans eventually ruled over the land, and the nation persisted in her disobedience to the Mosaic Covenant.

The key change is a birth. The she is not Mary. Isaiah's vision of a virgin birth is an individual woman (Isaiah 7:14), known to us as Mary, as Matthew leaves no doubt (Matthew 1:22-23). This "she" in labor in Micah 5:3 is more than Bethlehem, it is the covenant nation. In Micah 4:9-10 she is as a woman in labor pains, writhing and groaning. As Eve was promised a deliverer, so Israel is waiting for her rescue and redemption.

When she's given birth—related to the coming forth of a ruler—then his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. Their “return” is because they had been a part. And we know now that this is still waiting for full fulfillment. John said Jesus “came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him” (John 1:11). A remnant believed, but the rest were hardened until “all Israel will be saved" (Romans 11:25-26).

It may not be surprising to us, less of a "wow," but it's still good, and part of our hope.

He shall stand and (feed) his flock. He is not a hireling who runs; He “will assume His post” NET). And He “feeds,” He “pastures” in that He guides and manages for their food. The ESV translates the metaphor as "shepherds," the one who takes care of. “His flock" is assumed from the text, and the way an Eastern king would relate to his people; as David was called from being a shepherd to shepherd the people (Psalm 78:70-72). God sent a Shepherd.

The shepherd tends in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. This overlaps with Isaiah's view of the King as “Mighty God" (Isaiah 9:6). The majesty of the name is in the excellence of everything the name brings to mind, all the associations. "Democrats" = death, "Republicans" = spineless. Trump and spray tan. The name of the LORD = majesty, eminence. His name is life and strength and truth.

And they (his flock) shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. We've only begun to see this, as the good news of Jesus Christ makes new men and families and peoples wherever God's Spirit gives faith. But there will still be a great, more visible coming of His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, and He will reign forever and ever. The earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as water covers the sea.

For the earth will be filled

This king-shepherd has been born. He is coming again. And he shall be their peace. He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). He gives peace. He makes peace.

Caesar Augustus decreed it was time to find out how many taxpayers he could fleece, so around 6-4 BC he called for an enrollment, and citizens returned to their hometowns to be registered. “Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David” (Luke 2:1-4).

Outside of Bethlehem, the first group to hear of the birth of the Shepherd were shepherds. “In the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night….” Of all those on earth, God sent His angelic host to fellow shepherds.

the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10–11 ESV)

“Shepherds, why this jubilee? … Come to Bethlehem and see” (“Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”)

Matthew quotes Micah 5:2 in Matthew 2:6 in the words of the chief priests and scribes who knew Micah. They knew Bethlehem was the center, even if they didn't believe it. “So it is written by the prophet.” So God fulfilled His Word.

Israel, and we like her, are like a flock of sheep (Isaiah 53:6) that need a shepherd.

God sent a Shepherd. He is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11), the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4). The Lord is our Shepherd (Psalm 23:1).

More than Santa knowing if you've been bad or good, more than Google tracking your keystrokes, the Shepherd knows His sheep and gave His blood for the sheep. He is the Lamb-Shepherd (Revelation 7:17), the Shepherd-King.

The smallness of origin is no limitation, neither is the length of wait time, or how it matches the expectations of men. God’s promise was for Christmas and then for Consummation. The second advent of our Shepherd will be worth waiting for.

The incarnation is not an imperative, it is a true story, foretold and for us and forever. Believe in the baby born in Bethlehem. And also, listen to the voice of your Shepherd in the Word, and trust Him to put you into a condition to function well, to “equip” (καταρτίσαι) you with all the good you need.

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20–21, ESV)

# Introduction

Peter wrote that the Old Testament prophets carefully searched what they had written in order to figure out what was in what they had written (1 Peter 1:10-11). There were clues about the Christ, who He would be, when He would come, what sufferings and glories would be His. God's Spirit moved them to write just as wind fills a sail (2 Peter 1:21), but they didn't have the entire map; they were making it.

One of the tiny details the Spirit revealed was about a city which didn’t make more than a small dot on the map. Now it's a different story. You can't turn two pages in the Advent/Christmas section of the Cantus without singing a lyric about it, sometimes even reading the title. "O Little Town of Bethlehem." A king's birth put it on the map.

It's actually *two* kings, one just more famous, though they are both related. King David was born in Bethlehem Ephrathah. For a while David was known as the son of Jesse who lived there (1 Samuel 16:1), but David's victories against a lion and a giant and nations, plus his forty years on the throne, turned his hometown into the what the angels dubbed the “city of David" (Luke 2:4, 11), even though the OT historical books refer to the city of David as Jerusalem. I'm sure the Bethlehemians posted a special sign in David’s honor at the city limits.

The city wasn't big, yet a warrior-king came from there and led the nation toward its golden age. It was the stuff of legends, and became the stuff of prophecy. Around 300 years after David the prophet Micah saw the birth of a new ruler in David's line who would be born in Bethlehem, and we know that birth happened another 700 years later, with some of the results still to come. And as significant as the detail about Bethlehem bringing a king, the emphasis in Micah 5 is on the character of that king. *God sent a shepherd.*

# Labor Pains

Similar to Isaiah's light after darkness and peace after pain, so Micah shows security after a scattering, coming home after exile, glory after groaning. Like a woman in travail, a child would be born who would tend his sheep.

God’s flock—Zion/Jerusalem/Israel—had been:

- 4:6 - driven away and afflicted

- 4:7 - cast off

- 4:10 - writhing and groaning, taken out of the city (of Jerusalem) into captivity

- 4:11 - attacked by many nations

- 5:1 - siege against it

The Lord continues to speak, but turns from Jerusalem as representing the nation to "you," Bethlehem Ephrathah, names that mean house of bread in a place of fruitfulness.

>  But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,

> who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,

> from you shall come forth for me

> one who is to be ruler in Israel,

> whose coming forth is from of old,

> from ancient days.

> Therefore he shall give them up until the time

> when she who is in labor has given birth;

> then the rest of his brothers shall return

> to the people of Israel.

> And he shall stand and shepherd his flock

> in the strength of the LORD,

> in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.

> And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great

> to the ends of the earth.

> And he shall be their peace. (Micah 5:2–5 ESV)

Bethlehem was **too little to be among the clans of Judah**, with "clans" a word referring to 1,000, the typical number for a unit of soldiers; they weren't even big enough to muster a serious number of troops (compare to verse 1).

Though small, big things would come from her (not entirely unrelated to what Queen Lucy says in _The Last Battle_, “Yes, in our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”). **From you will come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.**

The next phrase has to be the bigger surprise: **whose origin is from old, from ancient days**. The context argues that this means more than a long time ago, three centuries since David. Micah might not have grasped how ancient, though the word “old” (*qeḏem*) is sometimes translated “everlasting” and can describe God’s purposes (Isaiah 37:26) and God’s counsels (Isaiah 45:21), the time before Creation (Proverbs 8:22), and God Himself (Deuteronomy 33:27; Habakkuk 1:12)(see Thomas E. McComiskey). This ruler's origins are supernatural, eternal.

Verse 3 has three parts: 1) an abandoning, 2) a birth, 3) a return.

Who is the **he** that gives up the **them** and who is the **she** who births a **his**? He is the LORD, she is Israel from whom the Messiah would come, and the them/brothers are also Israel, considered individually.

When the Lord “gives them up” it’s letting them have the judgement they deserved. Assyria conquered northern Israel, Babylon took Judah captive, the Romans eventually ruled over the land, and the nation persisted in her disobedience to the Mosaic Covenant.

The key change is a birth. The **she** is *not* Mary. Isaiah's vision of a virgin birth is an individual woman (Isaiah 7:14), known to us as Mary, as Matthew leaves no doubt (Matthew 1:22-23). This "she" in labor in Micah 5:3 is more than Bethlehem, it is the covenant nation. In Micah 4:9-10 she is as a woman in labor pains, writhing and groaning. As Eve was promised a deliverer, so Israel is waiting for her rescue and redemption.

When she's given birth—related to the coming forth of a **ruler**—then **his brothers shall return to the people of Israel**. Their “return” is because they had been a part. And we know now that this is still waiting for full fulfillment. John said Jesus “came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him” (John 1:11). A remnant believed, but the rest were hardened until “all Israel will be saved" (Romans 11:25-26).

It may not be surprising to us, less of a "wow," but it's still *good*, and part of our hope.

**He shall stand and (feed) his flock.** He is not a hireling who runs; He “will assume His post” NET). And He “feeds,” He “pastures” in that He guides and manages for their food. The ESV translates the metaphor as "shepherds," the one who takes care of. “His flock" is assumed from the text, and the way an Eastern king would relate to his people; as David was called from being a shepherd to shepherd the people (Psalm 78:70-72). *God sent a Shepherd.*

The shepherd tends **in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God**. This overlaps with Isaiah's view of the King as “Mighty God" (Isaiah 9:6). The majesty of the name is in the excellence of everything the name brings to mind, all the associations. "Democrats" = death, "Republicans" = spineless. Trump and spray tan. The name of the LORD = **majesty**, eminence. His name is *life and strength and truth.*

**And they (his flock) shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.** We've only begun to see this, as the good news of Jesus Christ makes new men and families and peoples wherever God's Spirit gives faith. But there will still be a great, more visible coming of His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, and He will reign forever and ever. The earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as water covers the sea.

> For the earth will be filled

> with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD

> as the waters cover the sea.

> (Habakkuk 2:14 ESV, and 2:20 “let all the earth keep silence before Him”)

This king-shepherd has been born. He is coming again. **And he shall be their peace.** He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). He gives peace. He makes peace.

# A Shepherd to Shepherds

Caesar Augustus decreed it was time to find out how many taxpayers he could fleece, so around 6-4 BC he called for an enrollment, and citizens returned to their hometowns to be registered. “Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David” (Luke 2:1-4).

Outside of Bethlehem, the *first group* to hear of the birth of the Shepherd were shepherds. “In the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night….” Of all those on earth, God sent His angelic host to fellow shepherds.

> the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10–11 ESV)

“Shepherds, why this jubilee? … Come to Bethlehem and see” (“Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”)

Matthew quotes Micah 5:2 in Matthew 2:6 in the words of the chief priests and scribes who knew Micah. They knew Bethlehem was the center, even if they didn't believe it. “So it is written by the prophet.” So God fulfilled His Word.

# Conclusion

Israel, and we like her, are like a flock of sheep (Isaiah 53:6) that need a shepherd.

- we have grief and sorrows (Isaiah 53:4), we need a Shepherd

- we have transgressions and iniquities (Isaiah 53:5), we need a Shepherd

- we have conflict (no peace) and wounds (Isaiah 53:5), we need a Shepherd

- we walk through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4), we need a Shepherd

- we live in the presence of enemies, we need a Shepherd (Psalm 23:5)

- we have to watch for fierce wolves (Acts 20:28-30), we need a Shepherd

- we have gone astray and gotten lost (Isaiah 53:6, see also 1 Peter 2:25), we need a Shepherd

*God sent a Shepherd.* He is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11), the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4). The Lord is our Shepherd (Psalm 23:1).

More than Santa knowing if you've been bad or good, more than Google tracking your keystrokes, the Shepherd knows His sheep and gave His blood for the sheep. He is the Lamb-Shepherd (Revelation 7:17), the Shepherd-King.

The smallness of origin is no limitation, neither is the length of wait time, or how it matches the expectations of men. God’s promise was for Christmas and then for Consummation. The second advent of our Shepherd will be worth waiting for.

----------

## Charge

The incarnation is not an imperative, it is a true story, foretold and for us and forever. Believe in the baby born in Bethlehem. And also, listen to the voice of your Shepherd in the Word, and trust Him to put you into a condition to function well, to “equip” (καταρτίσαι) you with all the good you need.

## Benediction:

> Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20–21, ESV)

A good story doesn't give everything away on the first page, not even in chapter 3. As Scripture records God's dealings with man, even as Scripture records God’s promise that He will send a Man, the revelation progresses. We're in a blessed position, and can work our way back (and forward) from many spots on the timeline. We know more about the Christ in Christmas than anyone in the Bible (mostly because we have our own complete copies unlike any of them), but that doesn't mean we long for His coming as we should.

This year as we head toward Christmas day in a advent season series of sermons, I am taking us back to the Old Testament. We're getting a prophetic start, a progressive anticipation.

Last Lord's Day we started at the beginning of mankind, and with what has been called the protoevangelium, the “first gospel,” in Genesis 3:15. Christmas is the celebration that the Dragon-Slayer Seed was born. It was going to be a man, which is important for sake of Him identifying with our sins, but it's also the promise to bruise the head of the serpent. We who believe in the Son of Man are also offspring of the woman. The devil is defeated in principle, but mad, and the ongoing spiritual battle between his offspring and the woman’s offspring is everything that is wrong with Christmas.

A lot has happened between Genesis 3 and our text for today, Isaiah 9. The flood, Babel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob/Israel, Joseph, Egypt, Exodus, and back into the Promised Land to Abraham. The Lord chose a family to become a nation which He would love and from which would come the Man. He lead them personally, He led them successfully (even miraculously), He led them mercifully, and they didn't think it was enough. They wanted to be like other nations (1 Samuel 8:6). They wanted an embodied ruler, one who could take them into battle and govern their land (1 Samuel 8:19-20). They rejected the Lord as king (1 Samuel 8:7).

The Lord gave them Saul, whose resume stood a head above the rest, for a while. Then the Lord gave them David, and to David the Lord promised a son who would sit on the throne and rule forever (2 Samuel 7:14-16).

But even though we know the petty and disobedient and divided and in some cases tyrannical history of Israel’s kings after Solomon, note that the original desire for a king was right. It was not right in terms of how the people went about it, says God Himself. But as He reveals His purpose for the offspring of the woman, the particulars include the Seed’s coming as a Man-King.

Things were in a bad way near the end of Isaiah 8. Things were dark. The people of Israel were looking to spiritual mediums (Isaiah 8:19), they weren’t looking to God’s Word and so they had “no dawn” (8:20), the earth was “distress and darkness,” they were thrust into “thick darkness” (8:22). The people walk in darkness, “in a land of deep darkness” (9:2). Isaiah sees the Assyrian army under Tiglath-pileser taking over the northern part of Israel, “the land of Zebulun and…Naphtali” (9:1, see also 2 Kings 15:29), who are a burden of oppression (9:4). Ahaz was the king at the time, and his kingdom was full of distress and war. But the prophecy doesn't end with the blackness of night, it looks forward to a better king. After darkness, a King.

For to us a child is born,

The "child born" picks up a previous word from the Lord in Isaiah 7:14 about a son born of a virgin named Immanuel. It's a man, who is God, and who takes dominion.

The government shall be upon his shoulder, and of the increase of his government...there will be no end. The word "government" is good, but the Hebrew word (pronounced miś·rā(h)) means domination . The LXX translates as ἀρχὴ (arche), the meeting point/corner of authority and power. The VLG has principatus, the first or eminent one. But domination works, even as it is related to Dominus, the Lord. This is the Lord of lords, the King on the throne of David. He can shoulder the responsibility of rule.

There are four titles for Him.

Four more things describe the King's accomplishments in verse 7.

This isn’t speculation of outcome based on exit polls, this is God’s commitment. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

God sent a King.

The wise men from the east came because they saw the sign of whom? “Where” is he who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:1-2). When Herod realized the wise men weren't coming back with a report of this baby's location, he ordered the murder of all the boys two and under because his throne, his dominion was being threatened.

Jesus was killed for His claim to be King (Matthew 27:11, 29). God sent a King, and “the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed” (Psalm 2:2).

This is the problem with domination, or attempts at it, among men. It's a constant fight to be top dawg. This is the way it was since the serpent, this is the way of the serpent himself (compare with Isaiah 14:12-14). This is the way among the "rulers and authorities, the principalities and powers." This is the way of all those who typify the Beast of the Apocalypse. This is what’s wrong with politics, with governors, with men in power.

The levels of incompetence among our rulers are higher than Snohomish County flood warnings. And I get that being anti-authority is cool. But that is mostly a show.

While there is a tendency of hostility toward hierarchy, something about a King appeals to men because of God’s regality.

Give me a good king to submit to. Deep in their hearts men want a King, at least one like Isaiah’s prophecy. God established this desire. We have a king-shaped whole in our hearts, not separate from the God-shaped hole, but the archetype of a magnanimous king is universal and eternal. It is divine. God set up and progressively revealed the glory of His kingship. The Christ as Messiah, the Anointed One, is Priest but also King.

If you are at the top of your hierarchy, you don't understand Christmas. Those hostile to King Jesus are just mini-Herods. Wise men bow down.

This King has sons, not just servants. And He glorifies His court.

What king surrounds himself with warped, dwarfish, worthless creatures? The most glorious king, the more glorious the titles and honors he bestows. … He is a very great king to have figures of such immense dignity in his train, or even better, to have raised them to such dignity. … All glory to him, and in him, glory and honor to these others. (Thomas Howard, Evangelical is Not Enough, 87)

His glory is never threatened, His glory is heightened by raising us up. Jesus said, that all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him, and we represent Him.

Born They people to deliver,

Joy to the world! The Lord is come; let earth receive her King!

Beloved, you must give as those who have received, you must forgive as those who have been justified by grace, and you must use your authority as those who are under the dominion of the Dominus, the Lord Jesus. God sent a King, and God has delivered you from the domain of darkness and transferred you into the Kingdom of His beloved Son. Adore the King, adorn His ways.

I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:13–16, ESV)