The Eternal Kingdom of the Prince of Peace (Isaiah Sermon 8)

Well, I am really excited and joyful to be able to preach this passage to you this morning. This is a glorious section of Scripture. It speaks of a great joy and people celebrating, of a sense of victory, coming through the victory of Jesus Christ. This passage speaks very plainly of Christ. And it speaks also of the government that he intends to bring. I think, in some way, the study of human history for thousands and thousands of years is the study of a fruitless quest of the human race for a righteous form of government and a righteous ruler to lead it.

It wasn’t found in the ancient Egyptians for all of their achievements. You can still see the pyramids and the effects of the rule of the pharaohs over Upper and Lower Egypt. It wasn’t found there. It wasn’t found in the cruel Assyrians who swept in, who invented crucifixion, which took our Lord from this world. Just through their cruelty a pile of skulls was the measure of their success, the success of their kingdom. Certainly, it wasn’t found in their cruelty. Nor was it found in the Babylonians, who through the genius of one man, Nebuchadnezzar, were able to build a glorious empire that lasted for just a short time and then sank back down into the dust. It wasn’t found there. Nor was it found in the conquerors of the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, who came along with their wide-reaching empire, or Alexander the Great who sought to take Greek culture and philosophy and literature and language and spread it all over the world. He had a vision for that trained by the philosophers. He never lost a battle, but he did not bring in a righteous form of government, as the history after Alexander certainly proved.

It certainly wasn’t found in the Romans for all of their great achievements, for all of the tens of thousands of roads that they made, and all of their great structures for the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, and that Roman system of justice, and their philosophers. They certainly did not bring in a righteous and lasting form of government in which we can rejoice. And after that darkness, the barbarian tribes swept in, hordes from the steppes of Asia who had no interest whatsoever in culture and just sought to destroy and to establish their own power for a short period of time. Nor was it found in Christendom, the kings, the feudal system, all of that. Things were only as good as the character of your king during that era. And that usually wasn’t very good. And so they didn’t find it in the kings and the nobles and the system of serfs and pages of the Middle Ages. It wasn’t found there, in the divine right of kings.

Nor has it been found in representative democracy, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people which came in after the enlightenment. It wasn’t found there. Every four years, we listen to the hopes of another political candidate and the utopian language of what it’s going to be like if this or that individual or this or that party is elected into power. We Christians ought to know better. Winston Churchill put it this way in 1947 very famously, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Typical of Churchill to put it so succinctly. It’s basically the best we’ve been able to do. Certainly it is better than Communism, which had its run in the 20th century – enforced liberality to the poor, but really just a concentration of power in the hands of just a few. The same old thing, tyranny and corruption. It’s the same always.

But the righteous king has been found. Amen? He’s already walked our earth. Two thousand years ago, he came. He showed us what he was like. He displayed his character. And for two thousand years we’ve been getting a greater and greater sense of what kind of kingdom he is going to bring. And that kingdom is displayed so beautifully in the words of an ancient prophet who lived seven centuries before the king was born. And that’s Isaiah. Look at verses six and seven, just to get a foretaste of the kind of government that Jesus will bring to us, in which we will live and rejoice for ever and ever. Put your hope here, friends, not in any political process. Put your hope right here. Listen to these words. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” Amen and Amen.

That is the government we’re looking forward to. That’s what I’m looking forward to. I’m yearning for the government of the king of kings, of Jesus, to come and show us what righteousness really looks like here on earth, to establish and uphold it forever.

 I. A Light in Darkness

Now, the context of this glorious gift – and it is a gift, “for … to us a son is given,” the Father is giving us this kind of a government, he is giving us this kind of a king – is great darkness, a people who walk in darkness. Any passage that begins with the word “nevertheless” causes you to look back a little bit. We are starting right in the middle of the story here, right in the flow of Isaiah’s prophecy, and we are caused to look back to the end of chapter eight to find out the nature of this darkness and gloom into which this light shines. And it is the darkness of ignorance and of rebellion against the law of God. That is the darkness in which this light shines.

Look at it again. Verses 19 through 23 speak of consulting mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter instead of consulting their God. Darkness and rebellion – they don’t know God, they don’t know his laws, they don’t know his ways. They are ignorant, and they are rebellious. Even if they knew the laws of God, they would not follow them. And so this is a land of darkness. To make it even worse, these are the chosen people. These are the Jews, the people of God, the descendants of Abraham. These are the people who are walking in darkness, faulty spiritual guides who whisper and mutter – mediums and spiritists.

Friends, we have this problem too in our culture. Have you noticed the increased fascination with the occult in America? Have you noticed programs on TV like Ghost Whisperer and Medium that talk about connection with the dead? Always for a good cause, helping law enforcement officials to find the bad guy, this kind of thing. We are being duped. We’re being sucked in. We struggle with the same thing, the same ignorance of the law of God, the same rebellion against those laws we do know. And Isaiah 8 says it very plainly. Isaiah asks a simple question and gives a clear command. “Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word [the word of God] they have no light of dawn” (Isaiah 8:19,20).

They are ignorant of the word of God, and the result is utter rebellion against God and eternal judgement as we talked about last time. Verses 22 and 23 of chapter 8, “Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.” Yet in the midst of this bleak picture, this gloom and this darkness, shines a ray of light so glorious and so brilliant. And his name is Jesus. He is the light of the world and he shines into this darkness. “Nevertheless,” it says, verse one, “there will be no more gloom for those who are in distress.”

That land in darkness and gloom now sees a light. Now the context here, politically, is the humbling, it says, of the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. This is referring, I believe, to the military oppression under the Assyrians. God was sending the Assyrians from the north, coming down from the north to invade the northern kingdom of Israel as a punishment for their sins. And during this time, during Isaiah’s time, Assyria came. In 2 Kings 15:29, it says, “In the time of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came and took …Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and deported the people to Assyria.” So that is where it came first, that’s the beginning of the exile, the beginning of the end of the people of God in the promised land. It is the beginning, I think, to what Jesus calls the times of the Gentiles, when the Gentiles will rule over portions of the promised land.

And so they deported… It begins with the land of Naphtali, the land of Zebulun, Galilee of the Gentiles. That’s why it is called Galilee of the Gentiles, because the Assyrians come down, and not only do they deport the Jews out, but they bring pagans in to settle. This is what they did. They just rearranged peoples. And so the pagans came in there and they mingled with the residual people of God that were left there, the Jews that were left there, they mingled with them, they intermarried with them, and it became Galilee of the Gentiles. Idolatry and darkness from the ignorance of God and of his word. They were a people walking in darkness.

Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” That’s the light that God has given us, that we walk not in darkness but have everlasting light. But I tell you this, physical slavery and oppression, even under the Assyrians, is nothing compared to the cruel bondage that we feel under sin. That is the true task master. And I believe behind the political language and the military language of Isaiah 9, is the spiritual language of the release that Jesus has brought us, the release from sin and death, my friends. In John 8:34, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” Romans 5:21 says, “…just as sin reigned in death.” Now, there is a tyranny for you, sin reigning in death. It is vicious and cruel. So Galilee of the Gentiles was humbled by their military domination, by their ignorance of God and by their slavery of sin.

That’s the past though. In the past. Oh but, “In the future,” he says, “he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan.” (Isaiah 9:1). How is he going to honor? The word literally means to glorify. He will raise them up out of the darkness and he will honor them and he will glorify them. Now what great honor can come to a land so downtrodden? What can these words mean?

Or shall I put it in the language of the New Testament? “Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Can anything good come from the northern regions where the Gentiles were?” That was Nathaniel’s statement when he heard about a messiah, the son of God who was coming from Nazareth and Galilee. “Can anything good come from that place? That’s the place of judgment, the place of darkness.” Oh, yes, something gloriously good can come from there.

Jesus can come, and there is a clear prophecy here in Isaiah 9, that the Messiah would come from Galilee of the Gentiles. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2). And his name is Jesus. This prophecy had been forgotten. Even those that studied the scriptures diligently did not remember. I’m speaking of the Sanhedrin. They spent their whole time studying the scriptures, at least some of them did. And you remember Nicodemus, how in John chapter 7 he stuck up for Jesus and said, “Can we at least give him a trial before we condemn him?” And so he gets a faceful of lead just for saying that. John 7:52, “Are you from Galilee too?” That’s an insult by the way. To us it’s not much of an insult, but that was an insult there. “Are you from Galilee too? Is that where you come from Nicodemus? Look into it and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.” Well, they should have looked into it.  You can imagine Jesus saying, “Have you not read in Isaiah nine, ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light’?” They’ve come walking in darkness and Jesus shines in Galilee of the Gentiles. Here he comes.

It’s a deeper symbol though. It is the life that all of us faced apart from Christ before we were converted. And let me tell you something, you are surrounded every day by people who are walking in darkness, who live in the land of the shadow of death, an eternal death, the second death, the death in the lake of fire, that hangs over people you live with every day. They are walking in darkness. They are dead while they live, because they are following “the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:2). They are under the power of death. They walk in darkness every day. They need the light that we can bear, the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s what they need.

It says in 1 John 2:11, “Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.” And only Jesus himself can bring light into that darkness. Jesus said in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” I think many of you who are listening to me today can testify to that truth, Amen? Amen. You have found Jesus to be light in a dark place once for all in the salvation of your souls. And day after day after day he shines his light to you and teaches you the way to go. He is the light of the world.

Now what is the result of that light, the shining of that light? Look at verse three: great joy. Verse three, “You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder.” Sin’s darkness, and the depression that comes from it squelches all joy. It just crushes it. And so people put on a happy face. They celebrate things that don’t really matter. They don’t have any sense of lasting happiness and joy because they haven’t found Jesus. They don’t know what it is like to be a branch on that living vine and to have the renewing power of joy day after day. Not a joy that comes from you or that comes from your circumstances but that comes from the truth of this word, that Jesus has crushed death forever and will never be under its dominion again. They don’t know it.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?” And you know the answer. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. You were destined for eternal joy in Christ, you who are believers. That’s what you were made for. You were crafted for joy and you haven’t touched one millionth part of it yet. The greatest joy is yet to come. That is what he made you for. The joy of knowing God, of knowing his son Jesus Christ.

II. The Source of Joy: “The Day of Midian’s Defeat” (vs. 3-5)

Now the source of this joy is a victory likened to a great military victory: “the day of Midian’s defeat” (verse 4). What is that referring to? Well, you have to know Old Testament history for this one. Look at verses four and five. “For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.” Oh, what a great celebration! What great joy it’s referring to.

Some of you may be old enough to remember the celebration at the end of World War II – VE Day and VJ Day. The rest of us who are younger have read about it. We have seen it in documentaries. There was wild, crazy dancing in the streets. The Nazis were not going to rule the world after all. VE day, May of 1945, the world is released from that bondage. Hitler is dead. The Nazi regime is crushed. It’s over. But even then, tempered by the fact that there was still a war going on in the Pacific, still ultimate victory hadn’t been won. But then in August came VJ Day and it was all over. World War II was over, and there would be none of that oppression and none of that bondage.

Well, like that joy and celebration, so it is with this victory that is the foundation of our eternal joy. “As in the day of Midian’s defeat.” Now what is this referring to? Well, this is coming right out of the book of Judges. You know that book, a strange book in the Old Testament, testifying to the wickedness of the hearts of God’s chosen people, to the sinfulness of the Jews, how they continually violated God’s law or didn’t know it. The Levites weren’t teaching it. And so there was a constant cycle in that book of rebellion and sin. And God would judge them by giving them over to some Gentile enemy. The Gentile enemy would rule for a while, and God would raise up a deliverer, and he would effect some military victory, and then the people for one generation would kind of walk with the Lord. And then in the second and third generations, it would devolve again, slide back down into rebellion and it would start all over again.

In the summary verse at the very end in Judges it says, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit” (Judges 21:25). I’m telling you, all of history can be summed up in this: the search for a righteous government and a king to lead it. And they didn’t know the king, so they rebelled again and again. And so in Judges 6, we learn about Midian. It was Midian’s turn to dominate the people of God. It says, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves, and strongholds” (Judges 6:1,2). They are living in caves, not in their fertile fields, in the houses they did not build and the vineyards they did not plant. They were done with that. They were banished into caves and clefts, strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites invaded their country like locusts and destroyed all that they had planted.

Ultimately, they cried out to the Lord for help, and he heard their cry. And so he raised up a deliverer, Gideon. And the angel of the Lord finds Gideon threshing in a wine press. Not a good place. You want to be up on a kind of bare spot where the wind sweeps across. He is down in a sunken area trying to hide his grain from the Midianites. It’s not a good threshing area, but what can you do when you are under the boot of the oppressor? And so there is Gideon, and he is just toiling away. And the angel of the Lord comes and calls him to this role of being deliverer. And he chose from the smallest clan, the weakest family in that small tribe, this deliverer Gideon. He is doing it on purpose. And why? Because God’s method in this deliverance is self-exaltation. He is going to deliver the people in such a way that he gets all the glory. He is going to do it through weakness. He is going to do it through frailty and he is going to do it by the enemy imploding on itself and using their own weapons to destroy themselves. That sounds like what Jesus did, as in the day of Midian’s defeat.

Well, you know the story of how Gideon got the army together. He had to have some help for his weak spirit. So he puts out the fleece once and then he puts the fleece out again and God stoops to his weakness and lifts him up. And then he has a dream. He overhears in the Midian camp about some barley loaf that rolls down. What a strange dream. But he gets inspired by the rolling barley loaf. It’s quite a story. It really is. A picture of weakness and frailty. This is no great military leader. And then he gets the army together and he says, “You’ve got too many men. Send them home.” No general has ever done that. They are always looking for more recruits. He sends them home, he sends them home, he sends them home, until at last, he’s got 300 men. Ah, the choicest of the brave, right? I don’t think so. You’ve missed the point if that’s what you think. They are not going to make a movie about that 300. Not at all. These are weak people who don’t even bring a weapon to battle. They just stand around the Midian camp with torches and trumpets. And at the signal, they break their lanterns and the torches come ablaze, and the trumpet sounds, and the enemy turns in on itself and just destroys itself until they are dead.

To God alone be the glory for that one. To God alone be the glory. And that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Isaiah is making an analogy here. As in the day of Midian’s defeat, so also will be this victory through Jesus Christ. And so he raises up a little baby (more about that in just a moment), a picture of weakness, a picture of frailty. But Jesus in the manger is nowhere near as weak as Jesus up on the cross, seemingly helpless, bleeding and dying, by his frailty, by his weakness, by his death on the cross, destroying the boot of the oppressor, Satan, destroying the lash of the tyrant, sin, just by dying. As in the day of Midian’s defeat. We know what we’re talking about here. Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. That is the lash of the oppressor. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). That is the boot of the tyrant. We can’t throw it off. It is too strong for us. We can’t defeat death. We need a deliverer. We need deliverance, and deliverance will come. Hebrews 2:14,15 says, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil.” By dying, he destroys the devil. By dying, he destroys the devil and frees those who, all their lives, were held in slavery by their fear of death.

So what does he do? Well, he turns the devil’s weapon back on himself. The devil’s got in his hand the power of death. Not anymore. Jesus has it now. “I hold the keys of death and Hades,” he says (Revelation 1:18). He won them. How? By dying. And so Satan kills Jesus, and in so doing, in that way, he destroys himself. You’ve heard of one of David’s mighty men who killed this powerful man by snatching the spear from him and killing him with his own spear. That’s what Jesus does with Satan. Habakkuk 3:13,14 says, “You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot. With his own spear you pierced his head.” Satan made a bad mistake in killing Jesus, didn’t he? He didn’t know what to do. He did not know what to do and so he killed Jesus, because that is what he did. He is a murderer. He is a liar. He followed his own nature and in so doing he killed himself, as in the day of Midian’s defeat.

III. The Surprising Conqueror (vs. 6)

But look at the conqueror in verse six. Who is this surprising mighty conqueror? Well, it’s a child. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.” Here is a surprising connection – a military victory in verses two through five, and a child introduced in verse six. Similar to Isaiah 7:14, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel [which means ‘God with us’].” The message is this, that domination and oppression is conquered by vulnerability and weakness and submission to the will of God. It is conquered by a little baby. But this child is no ordinary child. Not at all. There is a mingling here of the natural and the supernatural, even in the titles of Jesus. It doesn’t come across so well in the English, but it is very strong in the Hebrew. There is a clear mingling. There is an incarnation here. A child is born that is human, but he is called Mighty God. Now that is divine. So we have a mingling. We have the incarnation right here in these verses, that “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). That word, who is God, made his dwelling among us.

Look at these titles. We have a divine aspect and human aspect:

• Look at the first one: “wonderful counselor.” Let me shift it a bit, “miracle counselor.” How about that one? Because that is a valid translation. A counselor who does miracles, who has supernatural power then.

• The second one: “Mighty God.” The word is “el gibbor.” “Gibbor” just means a warrior, but the word “el”, now that means God. We’ll talk more about all of these in a moment, but I am just going across and showing you the mingling of the titles.

• “Everlasting Father.” Now all of us have a father. But there is only one eternal Father, one everlasting Father. You see the mingling of the human and the divine.

• And then the “Prince of Peace.” The word ‘prince’ is just an ordinary government official, a word that is used many, many times. But this word ‘peace’ – the more you study it, the more you realize only God can give that. Shalom. True peace. There is a mingling here of the divine and the human.

So we first have a miracle counselor, a counselor who is going to work miracles. He gives good advice, you ought to follow it. By the way, is there any difference between Jesus’ advice and his commands? I think not. Any difference between his commands and his promises for us as Christians? I think not. It’s all the same. He intends to do us good. Whatever he commands is a promise he’s going to work in us, and also his advice. He is the wonderful counselor. He gives wonderful advice. “My sheep listen to my voice… and they follow me” (John 10:27). But he does miracles, signs and wonders.

Secondly, Mighty God, El Gibbor. Now, a warrior is what we need to win a victory. Jesus is a warrior. There has never been one any more powerful. If you want to read about a military victory unlike any there has ever been in history (it just hasn’t happened yet) read Revelation 19, when Jesus comes back before the armies of heaven and everyone dies by the sword coming out of Jesus’ mouth. That’s the kind of warrior he is. Oh, he is a dreadful enemy but a marvelous savior! But the first one, El Gibbor, Mighty God. Now that is a word reserved in Isaiah’s prophecy only for Almighty God. Isaiah 44:6 – “This is what the Lord says – Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last. [Listen to this!] Apart from me there is no God.” Same word, El. There is no God apart from me. Isaiah 44:8 – “You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.” He is saying there is no other God. Why is he saying this to Israel? Because they were syncretistic. They were mixing religions together. Yahweh, yes, but so also Baal and Ashtoreth and all the others. He is saying, “No! There are no other Gods.”

In effect, he is saying, “I have studied my universe. I made it. I know. I’ve looked top to bottom, front to back, left to right, north, south, east and west. There is no other God. I know not one.” Isaiah 45:5 – “I am the Lord and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.” Isaiah 45:21,22 – “And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. [Do you get it? It is very, very plain.] Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God and there is no other.” Oh, this is a title reserved in the book of Isaiah only for Almighty God, the creator of the ends of the earth. And yet it is ascribed to the child that’s born. He will be called Mighty God, the deity of Christ established plainly.

And then Eternal Father. Father, of course, implies an intimate caring relationship to his people. Isaiah 40:11 – “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.” He is the good shepherd. He is a tender father, as a father should be. Caring for us, yes, but that word everlasting, now that’s eternal. Eternal Father. Micah 5:2 says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel,” listen to this, “Whose origins are from of old, from the days of eternity” (NASB). The one born in Bethlehem is coming from eternity past to enter into time. He steps into time at Bethlehem, but he is of eternal origins. And he says so during his trial before Pontius Pilate. Pilate says, “So you’re a king?” Jesus always told the truth, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37). That is eternity speaking there, friends. That is eternity speaking. Not one of us who draws breath today chose to enter this world. None of us. There was a stab of blinding light to your up-to-that-moment blind eyes, and there was some pain, and there was air in your lungs, and you were alive. And it’s been interesting ever since. But you didn’t make any choice there, not at all. But Jesus did. He chose to take on a human body. He is the Everlasting Father.

And he is the Prince of Peace. Prince is a natural word in Isaiah, like this for example, “Your rulers (same Hebrew word) are rebels, companions of thieves” (Isaiah 1:23). How does that sound? Or this one, speaking of Egypt’s rulers: “The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools” (Isaiah 19:11). So that’s what we get. Those are our princes – companions of thieves and fools. That is not good when government is run by companions of thieves and fools. But Jesus is not that way. He is a prince yes, but he is the Prince of Peace. He is a prince who brings eternal peace, divine peace. You’ve already heard this in Isaiah 2:4 – “He will judge between the nations and settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” The peace that Jesus brings is an eternal peace. It is a peace that goes up vertically with God and a peace that extends horizontally with all people.

And it was testified to by the angel who announced his birth. Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” That peace. Or this one, John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do be afraid.” That’s the peace that he comes to bring. Do you know that peace today? Do you understand the peace that only Jesus can give, a peace that Philippians says “transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7), a peace that settles into your heart and navigates you through whatever God chooses providentially to bring in your life? Do you know that peace? Jesus is the prince, the king of that peace. And ultimately that peace is with God. That is the basis of all the other experiences of peaceful feelings that we have. Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith…” (what do we have?) “…we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s the nature of our king. He is the Wonderful Counselor. He is the Mighty God. He is the Everlasting Father. And he is the Prince of Peace. That is what he is like.

IV. The Kingdom of Christ (vs. 7-9)

What is his kingdom like? Well, that’s what we are talking about. In verse six, it says, “The government will be on his shoulders.” Can we write him in in the presidential election this year? Can we do that? I don’t know that it will get us far. He has his own timetable. In John 6, they tried to take him by force and make him king. I think if he got elected, he would not serve at this present time, unless that was his purpose. But he is the king. And the government is going to rest on his shoulders, because he is fit for it. God chose him for this role. The Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God is a perfect blend of wisdom and power, and that’s what we need, don’t we? We need a king who is wise and a king who is powerful. Now a king who is powerful and not wise, that’s called a tyrant. We’ve seen plenty of those. A king who is very wise but doesn’t have power, I think that’s a philosopher. That’s really not a king. We need somebody who is going to be wise and powerful, and that is Jesus. He is the one on whom the government is going to rest.

Now, look at the nature of his kingdom. It says, “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:7). His kingdom is characterized by increase. It’s going to get bigger and bigger, and grander, and more and more glorious. For how long? Well, forever. Now hang on to that thought because that will blow the circuits in your brain. I am going to try to blow them in a minute. But I just want to talk about the increase of his kingdom from the time he entered until now. There has been an increase in this world as more and more people from every tribe and language and people and nation have been hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ, have repented of their sins, have trusted in him and have found forgiveness. And I prayed this morning and I will pray again, that somebody who is listening to me today, who is in darkness because they have never received Jesus as their Lord and savior, will today receive forgiveness through faith in his name.

If you are a believer in Christ, pray for that person right now, that they would repent and that they would look to Jesus, that they would turn to Christ and be saved. And guess what? His kingdom will increase a little bit more. As another person gets saved, another person repents and believes in Jesus. Oh, trust in him! And so the kingdom just keeps on increasing until there is a multitude greater than anyone could count, from every tribe and language and people and nation, standing around the throne, dressed in white robes and saying, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne” (Revelation 7:10). Until that happens the kingdom is just going to keep on increasing. But it is going to be a secret increase. It is going to be a hidden increase. For the kingdom of heaven is “like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough” (Matthew 13:33, Luke 13:21). It just keeps permeating, and nobody really notices except Christians who care about unreached people groups, and who are evangelizing their neighbors, and praying for this very thing as we look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. We want his kingdom to increase. We are yearning for it. It is going to keep on growing. That is increase now in history.

It also increases every time you learn something new as a Christian. Every time you learn something new about God and about Christ, his kingdom gets a little bit greater. “[Oh] glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34:3). Let’s make Christ greater. Let’s speak scripture to each other. Let’s think great thoughts of Jesus and expand each other’s love for Christ, and his kingdom will keep on increasing.

Yes, but that just takes us to the end of time. That’s not enough for Jesus. That just takes us to the end of history. Is his kingdom going to increase after he has established the eternal kingdom? Will it keep on increasing there? Well, it says, “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be…” What? “No end.”

Well, this is where I started meditating. I said, “Well now, listen. Is it going to keep on getting greater and greater up there in heaven, in the new heaven and new earth?” For the longest time, I had a very static view of heaven. I’ve talked about this before, but it really characterized me for most of my first twenty years of being a Christian. You died. You saw Christ. You were transformed. 1 John 3:2 – “We shall see him as he is.” And we’re just transformed. We’re made holy. Resurrection happens, we’re conformed to him, and we get, in the modern 21st century language, an instant download. It’s not that zero to one hundred percent kind of thing, the slow thing like with the old landlines. No, it is going to be “boom!” One hundred percent. You get instant knowledge. You will know him as fully as he has known you. And then forever you will rejoice in that instant knowledge you received. And we will all be kind of around the throne, learning nothing, mind you, but just celebrating forever these things we have come perfectly to know. Kind of like a picture that never moves – a perfect picture, but it just never moves.

That is not where we are are headed. That is not where we are going. “Of the increase of his government … there will be no end.” Well, how does that work? At the resurrection, they will neither marry nor be given to marriage. No babies as far as I can tell. No new people. No need for evangelism. They’re all there. The elect have all been saved. There is nothing left of that. How then will this kingdom keep on increasing? Well, you are going to start to get to know some incredible people up there in heaven. Let’s start there.

Let’s say, for example, you sit down up there in heaven, and you talk to a Nestorian Christian, who took the gospel to China in 635 AD. Talk to him about his life. Let him share with you his testimony, how he shared the gospel there in the Tang Dynasty in China, and how he won Chinese to faith in Christ in that era of history. But imagine a three-way conversation. Jesus is sitting with the two of you, and he is filling in the spiritual details of what he did through angels, and by his power, and through the Holy Spirit to make all that happen. And Nestorian Christian’s mind is getting blown, and yours is too, and Jesus is downloading more and more, and you find out just from that one individual what God did through that person.

Or maybe a Japanese martyr who died in 1597 during the shogunate of Hideyoshi, and they would not yield and they died hideously for their faith, 1597. And again, imagine a three-way conversation, and you and that Japanese martyr are learning from Jesus all that he did to sustain that person right through the martyrdom. And then Jesus is filling in what he did (because the blood of the martyrs is seed for the church), and how he took it from there and just caused the gospel to advance. And that’s just two people you have talked to.

And meanwhile, you’re gazing at the throne. You are focused on God. You are learning more about his glory and his power. There is a new earth to be explored. It is radiant and perfect. And “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). You are going to be learning forever. But the great thing is, you are never going to forget anything you’ve learned. You’re just going to keep on learning and learning and “of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.” Forever and ever, we will be there. I can’t wait. I’d like to go there today. But in the meantime, there is still some work to be done, isn’t there? There are still some things to be done.

David’s throne – Jesus will reign there. It is a prophetic kingdom. It is predicted that he will reign on, but it’s not finished yet. All the elect haven’t been saved. Not every tribe and language and people and nation have heard the gospel yet. He is going to establish and uphold it forever. It is a secure kingdom. There is no sliding back with Jesus’ kingdom. It always keeps growing. But there is work to be done. It is a holy kingdom of justice and righteousness. But there are still things we need to do. We have a role to play. And what is our power source? It says it right there, “The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (Isaiah 9:7). Amen and Amen. A picture of it is the sun. Fusion. Burning and burning and burning and never decreasing. Just burning with the zeal of God Almighty for his only begotten Son. “Sit at my right hand,” he has said, “until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet” (Psalm 110:1). Oh, we need fear nothing except failing the Lord in this hour of need. This is the time for us to step forward. This is the time for us to advance the kingdom to some people who don’t know him at all, who are still walking in darkness. We have a labor to do.

For millennia of human history, man has sought a righteous form of government.

·        The Pharaohs of Egypt dominated the Upper and Lower Kingdoms of Egypt along the Nile with an iron hand and with slave labor building their lasting monuments

·        The Assyrian Empire introduced new depths of human brutality into government… piles of skulls and the invention of crucifixion as a particularly vicious and cruel form of execution

·        The Greek Empire under Alexander the Great sought to spread the fruits of Greek culture— advanced philosophy, architecture, government, and the concepts of democracy—known but ignored by the Greek Kings that follow Alexander

·        The Roman Empire backed up its Pax Romana (Roman peace) with the iron domination of its invincible Roman Legions… they brought stable government, a form of Roman justice, widespread commerce and order… along with terror and corruption to its almost thousand year domination of the Mediterranean

·        The barbarian hordes swept across Europe from the steppes of Asia and put out the lights of culture and of government for centuries… they crushed by sheer military power but left no culture or order in their wake of devastation; here we speak of the time from the Huns to the Vikings

·        The “divine right of kings” dominated Christendom in Western Europe during the Middle ages with its feudal system… the government was as good or bad as the king’s moral character…

·        In England, the legendary King Arthur and the golden era of Camelot represented the aspirations of all who lived under the concepts of feudalism and the divine right of Kings… to have a perfect government of a righteous king, noble knights, beautiful maidens… the perfect vision of feudalism

In 1960, a musical entitled “Camelot” captured the hopes of that idyllic society:

It’s true! It’s true! The crown has made it clear. The climate must be perfect all the year.

A law was made a distant moon ago here:

July and August cannot be too hot.

And there’s a legal limit to the snow here In Camelot.

The winter is forbidden till December And exits March the second on the dot.

By order, summer lingers through September In Camelot.

I know it sounds a bit bizarre,

But in Camelot… That’s how conditions are. The rain may never fall till after sundown.

By eight, the morning fog must disappear.

In short, there’s simply not a more congenial spot For happily-ever-aftering than here

In Camelot.

·        The American Revolution sought to break away from monarchy and establish a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” in Abraham Lincoln’s famous words

·        But the government established here has proven to be far from perfect

·        The 20th century saw an experiment in governmentally-forced sharing for the supposed benefit of the poor. It was called Communism, and it has proven an gross economic, social, and moral failure all over the world

·        Representative democracy with all of its weaknesses and corruptions still remains the best the human race has developed… but Winston Churchill said famously in a speech on the floor of the House of Commons in 1947:

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

·        AND SO, WE WAIT… plodding along as a human race for the only perfect government there can ever be… the government described in Isaiah 9:6-7… the Kingdom of Jesus Christ

Isaiah 9:6-7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

I.    A Light in Darkness

A.    The Cause of the Darkness and Gloom

Isaiah 8:19-23 [consulting mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter instead of consulting their God] “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

1.    Faulty spiritual guides

Illus: New Age “ascended masters”, use “channeling”… séances, Ouija boards, contacting dead relatives or ancient, long-dead rulers from the Aztec empire

In 2005, CBS show “Ghost Whisperer” premiered starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, about a young woman who can see and communicate with the dead; NBC has a similar show called “Medium” in which a woman is able to use psychic powers to aid law-enforcement efforts

Isaiah asks a simple question and gives a clear command:

“Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?” “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.”

2.    Ignorance of the word of God

a.  denying the word of God… they fail to go to the law and the testimony

b.    they stumble around in darkness

3.    Result: Utter rebellion against God, eternal judgment

Isaiah 8:22-23 “Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.”

Yet, in the midst of this bleak, hopeless picture comes a ray of light so brilliant, it threatens to blind eyes accustomed to pitch blackness:

vs.1 “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress.”

B.      A Land in Darkness and Gloom Now Sees a Light

1.    The humbling of Zebulun and Naphtali

“In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali…”

a.    Military oppression

Farthest northern parts of the promised land: Assyrians came there first… dominated them

2 Kings 15:29 “In the time of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came and took
… Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and deported the people to Assyria.”

b.    Gentile domination

Assyrians were vicious, cruel, task-masters… deported Israel served as slaves

c.    Idolatry & mingling of Jews & Gentiles

“Galilee of the Gentiles”: other conquered peoples brought idols there

d.    Darkness from ignorance of God & His word

“The people walking in darkness…”

Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

Physical slavery and oppression nothing compared to the slavery of sin

John 8:34 “Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.’”

Galilee of the Gentiles was humbled by their military domination, by their ignorance of God, by their slavery to sin

2.    the honoring of Galilee of the Gentiles

“…but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan.”
a.    what great honor can come to a land so downtrodden?

b.    what can these words mean?

Word means “to glorify”… there will be a glory which will come to this region, a glory so bright that it enlightens the whole land

C.    “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

1.    Prophecy forgotten in Israel

[Nicodemas rebuked for sticking up for Jesus] John 7:52 “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

2.    Disdain for Galilee

[Nathaniel] John 1:46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”

3.    Symbolic of all Israel: rejected, little, insignificant and useless… under the yoke of Gentile oppression; worse, under the yoke of sin

D.    Deeper symbol: life without Christ

1.    Darkness, distress and gloom powerful metaphors for ignorance of God’s word and rebellion against God’s authority

1 John 2:11 “Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in darkness; he does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded him.”

2.    Only Jesus can bring light into our darkness

John 8:12 “When Jesus spoke again to the people he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’”

E.    Result of Light: Great Joy (vs. 3)

vs. 3 “You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder.”

1.    Sin’s darkness and oppression brings terrible sadness & depression

2.    YET in the midst comes blinding light…THEN comes joy

Westminster Catechism: “What is the chief end of man?” “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” JOY comes from this light! The joy of a tremendous victory won over a vicious, cruel, oppressive foe

YET it is the joy of knowing God, of glorifying Him [Piper’s “hedonism”]

II.     The Source of Joy: “The Day of Midian’s Defeat” (vs. 3-5)

vs. 4-5 “For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.”

Illus. Joy of VE day & VJ Day

A.    A Military Victory [Need to know OT history for this one!!]

B.    The story of Gideon and the Midianites

1.    the cycle of sin, judgment, and deliverance in Judges

Judges 21:25 “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.”

2.    Midian’s turn:

Judges 6:1-2 “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.

Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites… invaded their country [like locusts and destroyed all they had planted. Ultimately they cried out to the Lord for help and he heard their cry]

3.    God’s deliverer: Gideon

a.    from smallest clan in weakest family in his tribe

b.    God exalted his own power by choosing him

c.    he wavered in unbelief and put God to the test twice… fleeces

4.    God’s method: self-exaltation

a.    army pared down smaller and smaller… down to just 300 men

Judges 7:2 “In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her…”

b.    army brought no weapons… only trumpets and torches inside empty jars

c.    Midian army so large no one could count the men and camels

d.    at the signal, Gideon’s army smashed their jars and blew their trumpets

Judges 7:20-22 They shouted “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled. When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords.”

e.    All glory to GOD alone for this victory!!!

5.    Isaiah’s analogy: total victory over our oppressor..SIN & DEATH

a.    enemy is an oppressor like Midian… overwhelming power

b.    sin is like slavery… a yoke that burdens us, a rod smashing our back

c.    Christ wins the victory over sin and death…

vs. 4-5 “For as in the day of Midian’s defeat

John 8:34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin…. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death…”

Hebrews 2:14-15 “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

d.    like Midian, the enemy destroys itself!! Satan killed Jesus, destroys himself

Habakkuk 3:13-14 You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot. Selah 14 With his own spear you pierced his head

e.    Christ gives us the spoils of his victory… joy as when dividing the plunder

III.     The Surprising Conqueror (vs. 6)

A.    Who will be this conqueror? A child!!

1.    Surprising connection… military victory in vss. 2-5, a child introduced in vs. 6

Isaiah 7:14 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and she will call him Immanuel” (which means ‘God with us’)

b. Message: domination and oppression conquered by vulnerability, gentleness, self-sacrifice and love

God has more than enough power to dominate the dominator, to oppress the oppressor… yet every time we gaze into the visions of Isaiah we see the face of a child gazing back!

2.    But the surprise increases as we learn more about this child

NATURAL YET SUPERNATURAL

B.    Natural Yet Supernatural… Isaiah’s Four Titles:

1.    Miracle Counselor:

a.    “wonderful” = miraculous, able to do wonders, wonder-working

b.    “counselor” = one who gives advice, or one who gives sound teaching

Isaiah 30:21 “Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying ‘This is the way, walk in it.’”

Jesus fulfilled these perfectly!! Mighty Miracles & Profound Precepts

John 10:27 “My sheep listen to my voice”

2.    Mighty God:

a.    Clearly ascribed deity by Isaiah!!! “’el” is ALWAYS God

b.    Absolutely remarkable for a human child, born in the natural way to be called “el gibbor” …MIGHTY GOD

Isaiah 44:6 “This is what the Lord says—Israel’s King and redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and the last; apart from me there is no God. “

Isaiah 44:8 “You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock, I know not one.”

Isaiah 45:5 “I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me, there is no God.”

Isaiah 45:21-22 “And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God and there is no other.”

And yet, Isaiah himself declared that this human baby was God… the MIGHTY GOD! The incarnation seen plainly in the vision of the ancient prophet Isaiah, declared to us seven centuries before it happened!

John 1:1, 14 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us …

3.    Eternal Father:

a.    “Father” implies intimate caring relationship to His people

b.    Very much like a “Good Shepherd”

Isaiah 40:11 “He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those that have young.”

c.    YET divine… “from eternity” He has existed

Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from the days of eternity.”

John 18:37 “You are right in saying that I am a King. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world…”

4.    Prince of Peace:

a.    Natural: a Prince… standard word for governing official

Isaiah 1:23 “Your rulers are rebels, companions of theives…” Isaiah 19:11 “The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools…”

b.    when our governing officials are thieves & fools, we are in trouble

c.    This miraculous child, this son will be a PRINCE; but unlike any other

d.    a PRINCE who can at last bring PEACE

Isaiah 2:4 “He will judge between nations and settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

This kind of peace is clearly supernatural… a peace only God can give; any peace at all seems so elusive, almost a joke… “What do I want for Christmas? Peace and happiness for the world, and a cell phone.”

Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.”

John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let you hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

·        State of peace with God

Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have be justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We were enemies of God because of sin, now we submit to Christ’s rule and our warfare is ended

·        Experience of peace in daily trials

“Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Philippians 4:7 “The peace of God which transcends all understanding shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Summary: The four titles of Jesus are a perfect blending of human and divine titles… and they show how perfectly fit Jesus is to rule

IV.     The Kingdom of Christ (vs. 7-9)

A.    The Identity of the King: Jesus Christ

1.    Government on his shoulders

vs. 6 “The government will be on his shoulders…”

Wonderful Counselor & Mighty God = perfect blend of wisdom and power

a.    King with power but no wisdom = TYRANT

b.    King with wisdom but no power = WEAK, INEFFECTUAL

2.    Human history one failed government after another

kings, emperors, dictators, democracies, parliaments, republics, communists… all have failed in one way or another

3.    Jesus is the King of Kings… he alone can rule righteously

B.    The Wealth of His Kingdom: Increase and Peace

1.    Characterized by Increase: Growth of the Kingdom

Matthew 13:33 “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

Isaiah 2:2 “In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains. It will be raised above the hills and all nations will stream to it.”

Revelation 7:9 “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, and tribe, and people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.”

2.    Characterized by PEACE:

a.    Peace with God

Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you.

Trust in the Lord forever…!”

b.    Peace between peoples

Isaiah 2:4 “They will beat their swords in plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up swords against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

c.    Peace with creation

Isaiah 11:6-9 “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie die with the goat… The infant will play near the hole of the cobra and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

The wealth of Christ’s Kingdom is constant increase and permanent peace… YES, permanent!!

vs. 7 “Of the increase of his kingdom and of peace THERE WILL BE NO END.”

What is the nature of that “increase”??

The word can also be translated “abundance”… but all the translators go with “increase”… a sense that the greatness of the Kingdom will just keep on expanding forever

It will keep expanding, keep increasing, keep getting greater BUT can something expand forever?

Meditating on this has brought me tremendous insight into our future heavenly life I used to think of heaven as a static place…

We would instantly be changed and made like Christ

We would instantly know Him as perfectly as He knows us

And there we would be forever, never changing, never growing… just there worshiping

And there would be no new people added, since there will be no marriage nor giving in marriage

Everything would be instantly perfect, and how can one improve on perfection… it would be like a picture… unmoving, unchanging perfection

I thought the scriptures even taught this static view:

ESV 1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Seeing Christ face to face would be like an instant download of knowledge… knowing Christ as fully as He’s known me

But here’s my new insight…

Even though we will be perfectly holy, totally conformed to the image of Christ, mentally flawless, physically flawless, emotionally flawless… yet for all of that we will still be FINITE CREATURES… with finite minds

Angels are morally flawless and they long to look into the unfolding redemptive plan of God

1 Peter 1:12 Even angels long to look into these things.

And they ask questions of each other:

Daniel 12:6 One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?”

So when we are living in the New Heaven and New Earth, we will be morally, mentally and physically perfect, but we will still be able to learn

And the topic we will be studying will be INFINITE… knowing God and His Son Jesus Christ:

John 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.

So we will spend eternity… an infinite time… studying an infinite topic: the glory of God in Christ: So also we will spend eternity studying what Christ did in each of our lives to save us

John 21:25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

There will be a multitude greater than anyone can count from every tribe and language… they will have come from every era of church history as well…

Imagine learning all that Jesus did in the life of a Nestorian Christian missionary to China in 635 A.D. during the T’ang dynasty, finding out how God used him to bring Chinese people to faith in Christ at that time; now imagine having that conversation with Christ there supplying hidden spiritual information about what He was doing in the lives of the Chinese to make the gospel effective

Imagine talking to a Japanese Christian martyred during the reign of the Shogun Hideyoshi in 1597… talking to him about his faith, about what he experienced; now imagine having Christ in that conversation as well, describing what sovereign power He exerted to make that martyr’s death most glorious for the advance of the gospel

We have twenty centuries of church history to relearn, with a countless multitude of people from all over the world, and the topic will always be the same: the glory of God in the salvation of human sinners

Isaiah 41:22 Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome.

By learning the greatness of God in Himself and the great acts of God in the past, we will be constantly saturated with the glory of God

Habakkuk 2:14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

The New Heaven and New Earth will see therefore a constant INCREASE in the Kingdom in that the people of the Kingdom will be constantly learning more and more about God and Christ

C.    The Nature of His Kingdom: Prophetic, Secure, Holy, Eternal

vs. 7 “He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”

1.    David’s throne… PROPHETIC KINGDOM

2.    “established and upheld”… SECURE KINGDOM

3.    “justice and righteousness”… HOLY KINGDOM

Hebrews 1:8-10 “Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your Kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.”

4.    “from that time on and forever”… ETERNAL KINGDOM

D.    The Power of His Kingdom… the ZEAL OF THE LORD ALMIGHTY

1.  What is the “zeal” of God?

a.  a burning fire, a passion, like the anger of a jealous husband

b.    a drive to accomplish great things… incredible energy to build

2.    What is God “zealous” for?

a.    the glory of His name

b.  the glory of His Son

c.  the honor of His word: His promise to David

d.  the holiness and welfare of His people

3.    Christ’s reign in no way threatens God… quite the opposite

Philippians 2:9-11 “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

God’s burning zeal is to exalt His Son… He will take the name of His Son to the ends of the earth, and all His enemies will either come into His kingdom as His servants or they will be destroyed

Hebrews 1:13 “To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’”

V.     Application:

A.    Understand:

1.    The victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death is total and complete

2.    He did it alone… no one helped Him

3.    As in the day of Midian’s defeat, he caused the enemy of God, Satan’s kingdom, to destroy itself

4.    He gives us the plunder… eternal life, peace, righteousness, good counsel forever

B.    Worship & Obey the King

1.    He will rule all the earth and everyone in it

2.    Come to Him today and praise Him with a joyful heart for your salvation

3.    Humbly bow and acknowledge that He has every right to rule over you

4.    Let Him be your King… obey Him

5.    Let Him also be your Wonderful Counselor… take His counsel

C.    Study God and Christ NOW… let his kingdom increase in your heart now

A.W. Tozer:

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.

STUDY CHRIST… KNOW CHRIST

Philippians 3:10-11 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.