WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.080 Father, we are going to spend time listening to your word and thinking about your word and 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:13.939 reading your word again. And we thank you, Father, that you are a God who speaks, 00:00:14.620 --> 00:00:21.620 that you have spoken in your word, and that every word in Isaiah is a word that you desire to have 00:00:21.620 --> 00:00:27.980 spoken. And so, Father, we ask that you would humble our minds and our hearts and our wills 00:00:27.980 --> 00:00:33.980 so that we might be willing to hear you speak to us, and that we might, Father, as well, 00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:39.439 while we are humble, that you would make us hungry for you, hungry for your word, 00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:45.420 not only to know about you, but to know you and to be known by you. Father, pour out your Holy Spirit 00:00:45.420 --> 00:00:51.400 upon us so your word will do a mighty work in our lives and will bear fruit for your glory. 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:56.060 And this we ask in Jesus's name. Amen. Please be seated. 00:00:57.979 --> 00:01:08.319 Amen. So, we have a two o'clock service in this place, and about at 1.30, I had just been coming 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:13.120 back from getting a bite to eat on Rideau Street, and as I'm coming back down Rideau Street, I decided 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:16.799 to go and have a cup of coffee. I thought I have a couple of minutes just to sit down, catch my breath 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:21.719 before the service begins, and I get my coffee. I'm sitting, and I'm looking right at the beer store 00:01:21.719 --> 00:01:26.719 across the street on Rideau Street, and a fight breaks out. And in hindsight, I'm not sure if it was 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:32.359 one guy versus two, with another guy in between, sort of trying to keep them apart by throwing 00:01:32.359 --> 00:01:37.219 punches, or whether it was two against two or what was going on, but there was a fight 00:01:37.219 --> 00:01:41.000 broke out on Rideau Street. It's sort of actually gripping, and I have to confess, because I'm a 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:48.659 pretty peaceful type of guy, not experienced with violence, and it's a bit unsettling to see people 00:01:48.659 --> 00:01:54.319 slugging each other really hard in anger. Some people at the two o'clock service asked me if I 00:01:54.319 --> 00:01:59.799 intervened. I thought, no way in the world would I go close to that. There was a security guard, 00:02:00.439 --> 00:02:06.459 and eventually, you know, he got in and broke it up, and they wandered off, and cops came a few 00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:12.379 seconds later. Now, here's the thing. It's sort of a surprising thing to see on Rideau Street. I guess 00:02:12.379 --> 00:02:18.079 maybe not that completely surprising that we'd see a fight, but I, like you, I have no idea what 00:02:18.079 --> 00:02:21.919 happened. Like, I don't know anything about it, just other than the fact that there was a fight. 00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:27.839 I don't know who any of the people were. I don't know what caused the fight. I don't know if the 00:02:27.839 --> 00:02:31.199 police caught them. I don't know if the fight continued around the corner. I don't know anything 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:36.679 about it. It just sort of happens, and then it goes, and a lot of city life is like that, 00:02:36.899 --> 00:02:42.060 if you think about it. I didn't really think about it very much until I lived in a small village. I was 00:02:42.060 --> 00:02:48.299 born in Montreal, lived in Ottawa, and then a long, long, long time ago now, I lived in a little 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:54.140 village called Eganville, which I think has 1,500 people who lives in it. I don't know if any of 00:02:54.140 --> 00:02:59.920 you have lived in a small rural town, but one of the things which is radically different about, 00:03:00.060 --> 00:03:04.740 and I, not only did I serve in Eganville, but I served another little village called Killaloo 00:03:04.740 --> 00:03:10.260 that had 700 people, and I also served a little church in Traymore, which I think had like eight 00:03:10.259 --> 00:03:17.299 people, and I served a little church called Clontarf that had zero people in Clontarf. 00:03:17.879 --> 00:03:21.060 We Anglicans know where to put churches where there's piles of people. 00:03:22.979 --> 00:03:27.219 Anyway, so, but one of the things which was really surprising that caught me by surprise, 00:03:27.299 --> 00:03:32.419 having been from Montreal and Ottawa and living in a rural, in a small village, is you always know 00:03:32.419 --> 00:03:38.019 what went on. Like, if that had happened on the main street of Eganville, even if I didn't recognize 00:03:38.020 --> 00:03:44.500 any of the four people, I could, within half an hour or an hour, I could have found out the name 00:03:44.500 --> 00:03:49.520 of all the people. I probably could have found out who started the fight, what ended up happening. 00:03:50.060 --> 00:03:54.460 I would have been able to find out a little bit about whether their fathers or mothers fought, 00:03:55.140 --> 00:04:03.260 like all sorts of stuff about this. And so, in small town life, there's far fewer things that just 00:04:03.259 --> 00:04:09.759 sort of happen that are, in a sense, meaningless, that you just see and then you move on. 00:04:10.620 --> 00:04:16.680 And it's us city people, we don't realize how much meaninglessness we are constantly 00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:22.300 surrounded with. And so, it causes, I think, a little bit of confusion in our thinking to be, 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:29.279 in a sense, so unrooted and constantly surrounded by things which just pop up, go away, pop up, 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:33.519 go away, things happen, whoa, doesn't mean anything, what's going to pop up next? 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:38.459 And this video that we're going to see, and if you haven't been to one of these services before, 00:04:38.599 --> 00:04:42.619 I intersperse my sermon with videos to make it more interesting for people. 00:04:43.559 --> 00:04:47.279 And so, this video sort of puts Christmas in that context. 00:04:47.279 --> 00:05:01.779 You might not have noticed how that little video or mini-movie began, but it began with 00:05:01.779 --> 00:05:06.519 every year when we have Christmas, we, in a sense, come into the middle of a story. 00:05:07.799 --> 00:05:11.619 And that's really not entirely how our culture thinks about this holiday anymore. It's just a 00:05:11.619 --> 00:05:16.859 holiday. It's, in fact, not even called Christmas, and that's fine. But it's all, in a sense, 00:05:16.860 --> 00:05:23.340 part of how lots of things in our culture just lose meaning. They just happen. But really, 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:29.939 the fact that we give gifts and have lights, it's all connected to Christmas, which is all part of 00:05:29.939 --> 00:05:34.100 the story. But for many people in the city of Ottawa, maybe for many of you, it just sort of, 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:37.900 all of a sudden, it happens. You have some obligation to buy gifts, to go hang out with 00:05:37.900 --> 00:05:42.780 family that you might or might not actually like hanging out with, and you might or might not be happy 00:05:42.779 --> 00:05:48.539 when it's all over and you can go away. And then it goes on and it just pops up. But in fact, 00:05:49.879 --> 00:05:55.239 just, it's in a sense as if we're in a little village now, and happy holidays is connected to 00:05:55.239 --> 00:06:00.799 Christmas. And in a sense, when we celebrate holidays like Christmas, we're coming into the 00:06:00.799 --> 00:06:06.879 middle of a story. And if you could wrap up the first point, Christmas is the story of the birth of 00:06:06.879 --> 00:06:15.399 Jesus, God's promised Messiah. Christmas is the story of the birth of Jesus, God's promised Messiah. 00:06:16.459 --> 00:06:25.100 Now, you know, I worded that in a way, and I thought about how to word it. I mean, I guess you're all 00:06:25.100 --> 00:06:29.540 hoping that I don't just have things pop into my head and throw them up on the screen. But I thought 00:06:29.540 --> 00:06:34.959 about how to word that. And if you think about it for a second, there's words there like Messiah, 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:40.539 which obviously have some type of context. One of the reasons we chose Church of the Messiah 00:06:40.539 --> 00:06:45.139 as the name for this church is because we're in a city which is always looking for the new Messiah. 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:51.159 I mean, Justin was the Messiah for the Liberal Party, wasn't he? The Messiah for Canada, all sorts 00:06:51.159 --> 00:06:55.659 of promise. But there's obviously some history and baggage with that word, and even the word Jesus, 00:06:56.500 --> 00:07:01.259 and the fact that God would promise things. Here's the thing about the story of Christmas. 00:07:01.259 --> 00:07:06.180 Christmas. I'm sort of dating myself a little bit, but I'm sure a few of us are old enough to 00:07:06.180 --> 00:07:14.779 remember this. But after Elvis died, there were Elvis sighting societies popped up because people 00:07:14.779 --> 00:07:19.800 would joke that Elvis didn't actually die, or that if he did die, he'd come back or something like 00:07:19.800 --> 00:07:25.339 that. In fact, there was a very well-known Elvis sighting society here in Ottawa that I think used to 00:07:25.339 --> 00:07:29.939 have as their meeting place. I think they had a regular monthly meeting of the Elvis sighting society 00:07:29.939 --> 00:07:35.620 in the... Newport, right. Yeah, okay. There's a few people who've been around the block a few times 00:07:35.620 --> 00:07:40.480 in this city at the Newport restaurant, which makes really good pizza, and they didn't pay me to tell 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:46.680 you that. But anyway, but you see the thing, let's say Elvis actually did die and come back to life. 00:07:46.699 --> 00:07:51.959 That would just be like normal city life. It would just mean like, whoa, what's going on with that? 00:07:52.019 --> 00:07:56.439 Like, it would just be weird. It would be in the National Enquirer. It would just be in like some, 00:07:56.439 --> 00:08:04.620 you know, just be odd. It would just pop up, not connected to anything, not meaning anything, 00:08:04.939 --> 00:08:09.319 and pop away, and we'd just scratch our head and, you know, say, good grief, you know, people are 00:08:09.319 --> 00:08:13.500 coming back from the dead. What on earth's going on, Martha? Like, that's all it would be. 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:23.120 But the birth of Jesus is in part of a longer story. So it's not only in the Bible, the story of 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:30.500 the birth of Jesus, but when Jesus's birth comes, it's part of an overarching larger story in the 00:08:30.500 --> 00:08:38.139 Bible. And in the larger story of the Bible, we see that, first of all, God really does exist, 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:43.480 and he creates everything that exists. And he creates everything that exists, and he creates it 00:08:43.480 --> 00:08:52.779 good. And then human beings, through Adam and Eve, they have this special relationship, just as we human 00:08:52.779 --> 00:08:58.919 beings have a special relationship with the created order. Outside of the pure flow of cause and effect 00:08:58.919 --> 00:09:06.419 of the created order, Adam and Eve are federal or covenant heads. They chose to be like God, 00:09:06.759 --> 00:09:13.279 rather than just being willing to be with God and have God be God. And when they desired to be like 00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:19.279 God, and so disobeyed God and did what they wanted because they wanted to set up their order, 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:26.399 their control, their authority, their autonomy, everything in the created order became bent 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:32.519 or twisted. Some of that bentness and twistedness you can see very, very clear because there's some 00:09:32.519 --> 00:09:38.279 very, very, very evil things that go on in the world. But all of us know that something of a 00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:44.620 bentness comes with even the best things in human beings. And I think that no story other than Christian 00:09:44.620 --> 00:09:51.539 story can explain human experience as well as this larger story. And so we were created good, 00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:57.960 bent and twistedness, or the fall, that's the technical word, came into human and the created 00:09:57.960 --> 00:10:06.120 life. And then immediately in the second part of Genesis 3, God begins to make promises that he will 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:13.740 fix it. And what we call the Old Testament is a series of stories and events that all involve God 00:10:13.740 --> 00:10:22.500 both making promises about how he's going to fix it and also preparing us for when he does come 00:10:22.500 --> 00:10:29.360 to fix it. And so we're going to watch this other video. And as Andrew's just getting it set up, 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:33.940 this sort of gives you a little bit of a sort of a sweep of the Old Testament coming up until the 00:10:33.940 --> 00:10:40.720 birth of Jesus. When I was watching this with my grandson, Ruben, the other night, what I did to him 00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:47.399 was I would whisper in his ear, you can do this to kids, what the different pictures represented. 00:10:47.660 --> 00:10:51.500 So we had a bit of a context for the story. And if some of you aren't very familiar with Christian 00:10:51.500 --> 00:10:56.100 things, you're just going to look puzzling. But a lot of the best known stories of the Old Testament 00:10:56.100 --> 00:10:59.899 are all woven together to lead up to this point of the birth of Jesus. Andrew? 00:10:59.899 --> 00:11:21.740 I find it absolutely astounding that anybody could draw and paint like that. I would love to have 00:11:21.740 --> 00:11:25.960 almost had a separate video, probably would be too long, showing the person, man or woman, 00:11:25.960 --> 00:11:34.420 who did that. It's quite remarkable. So going back to the fight that I saw on Rideau Street 00:11:34.420 --> 00:11:42.280 earlier on today, where it just seems to happen. But obviously, there was meaning to that fight. 00:11:43.400 --> 00:11:49.040 Words were spoken. Something led all of those four different men who were involved in the fight to 00:11:49.040 --> 00:11:54.000 that point where they would meet on Rideau Street and have that confrontation. And not only after they 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:58.139 were finished punching and kicking each other, but they were yelling at each other and trying to 00:11:58.139 --> 00:12:03.340 punch each other again. So obviously, there was some type of meaning and conversation that went on. 00:12:03.720 --> 00:12:09.519 I mean, part of the things about us as human beings is that we need meaning. To have no meaning at all 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:17.559 is absolutely almost completely impossible for human beings. We desperately crave it. We constantly are 00:12:17.559 --> 00:12:22.039 asking in relationships, well, what did they mean when they said that? What did that mean that that 00:12:22.039 --> 00:12:29.279 happened to me? We need to have meaning? And so it's not surprising that there's spiritualities and 00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:37.879 religions which claim to give meaning, and that in fact, that God claims to be able to tell us about 00:12:37.879 --> 00:12:43.860 things that have meaning. And when I said that there's this overarching story of the Christian story 00:12:43.860 --> 00:12:48.860 that begins with creating everything's being created good, and then from that it goes to the fall, 00:12:48.860 --> 00:12:56.700 or evil enters in, human beings decide they want to be like God, and that changes them in their 00:12:56.700 --> 00:13:01.899 relationship with God, and a twistedness and a bentness enters in. And then God, as I said it, 00:13:01.960 --> 00:13:09.680 God then prepares people. He promises that he will fix things, and he prepares people for how he's going 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:18.000 to fix it, and that means that God speaks, and that he speaks into our situation so that he makes clear 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:24.559 to us the meaning of things that are going on in our lives, and he also speaks about things that he's 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:30.459 going to do in the future. And if you think about it for a second, that's exactly what we're very, 00:13:30.460 --> 00:13:40.879 very familiar with. On one hand, there's individual psychic types or channelers, Ramtha, Celestine 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:46.980 prophecies, too many to count. Maybe some of you know a whole pile of them. And they are both, 00:13:47.620 --> 00:13:53.120 these individuals claim to be able to speak into your life in terms of how you should be living your 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:57.800 life and the meaning of your life, and also claim to be able to predict things in the future that are 00:13:57.799 --> 00:14:04.179 going to happen. And there's not only individual people who talk like this, but there's collective 00:14:04.179 --> 00:14:12.399 movements and ideas. Marxism, communism, Nazism. When we talk about thought today of being progressive 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:17.279 thought, progressive thought implies that somehow there's this collective understanding about the 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:24.259 nature of the future, what the future is going to be like, and we're to live in line with what's 00:14:24.259 --> 00:14:28.220 moving towards this future where things will be better. And that's what progressive thought is. 00:14:28.299 --> 00:14:34.120 And Nazism thought it knew the future, and communism thought it knew the future. And so there's these 00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:39.659 collective things, and we see the same type of thing in Christianity. And so now we're actually going to 00:14:39.659 --> 00:14:44.639 open the Bible, because what I want to just talk to you a little bit about is one of those prophecies 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:50.419 in the Bible. So I mean, on one hand, we're surrounded with human beings being familiar with this. 00:14:50.419 --> 00:14:56.240 That's what progressive thought is. It's what communism did. It's what Nazism did. It's what 00:14:56.240 --> 00:15:05.399 individual psychics and channelers all claim. And in the sea of this apparent human desire that there 00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:09.939 could be something that speaks about the meaning of our life and what the future is like, the Bible does 00:15:09.939 --> 00:15:15.939 the same type of thing. And I'll give you an example of it. It's Isaiah chapter 9. John just read a little 00:15:15.939 --> 00:15:19.559 bit earlier. If you have Bibles and you want to follow along, we're just going to look at it very briefly. 00:15:19.559 --> 00:15:22.459 Isaiah 9. And it begins like this. 00:15:24.359 --> 00:15:29.979 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into 00:15:29.979 --> 00:15:35.459 contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. And as soon as I say those two words, 00:15:35.879 --> 00:15:43.500 I can hear the brains going shut, and the eyeballs going glaze, and the ears going 00:15:43.500 --> 00:15:51.159 Zebulun and Naphtali. Now that's really clear. Here's the thing about this, just to give it a 00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:56.179 little tiny bit of a context. The person who's writing this, it looks very fancy now because 00:15:56.179 --> 00:16:03.019 it's in sort of a fancy book that I'm holding. But the person who wrote this was writing 733 years 00:16:03.019 --> 00:16:12.579 before the birth of Jesus when he wrote this. And so he's talking about the land of Israel. And at this 00:16:12.579 --> 00:16:16.559 point in time, there's Israel in the north, which is most of Israel, and a tiny little bit at the 00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:24.159 bottom called Judah. And in the year 722 BC, a very powerful empire known as the Assyrians, 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:31.759 they were able to complete their conquest of all of Israel and completely and utterly defeat it. 00:16:32.179 --> 00:16:37.399 And in fact, take its people away so that all of the people who lived in what was then Israel, 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:41.579 we don't know whatever happened to them. They completely disappear from history. 00:16:42.659 --> 00:16:48.319 But Assyria didn't eat up all of Israel in one big gulp. Think Russia and Ukraine. 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:57.360 And so Isaiah is talking about that part of Israel, which is at the north where the Assyrian 00:16:57.360 --> 00:17:05.140 invasion begins. And so the first part of Israel that gets gobbled up, in other words, humbled, 00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:11.960 treated with contempt, is the northern part. That's Zebulun and the Fatali. So I'll just keep reading. 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:17.460 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, 00:17:18.319 --> 00:17:22.599 he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the northern part. 00:17:23.240 --> 00:17:28.659 But in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, 00:17:29.039 --> 00:17:34.519 the Galilee of the nations. Now just sort of pause here for a second before I read anything farther. 00:17:35.379 --> 00:17:40.899 One of the things which is very unique about biblical prophecy, and it's very confusing for some of us when 00:17:40.899 --> 00:17:47.079 we try to read it, is if you were listening very carefully, which maybe you weren't, it's all past tense. 00:17:48.319 --> 00:17:54.919 It's all past tense. This is stuff that's happened in the past. And it's the reason is, is that Isaiah 00:17:54.919 --> 00:18:03.119 believes that God has revealed this to him. And so the future is so certain that he writes it in the past tense. 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:12.979 That's what he's doing. The future is so certain because God tells him this, that he writes it in the past tense. 00:18:14.219 --> 00:18:21.339 And so all the way through this, it's going to sound like past tense, but it's as if Isaiah is standing 00:18:21.339 --> 00:18:29.500 well in the year 35, after the death and resurrection of Jesus. It's as if he's standing there, 00:18:29.500 --> 00:18:35.559 and the things which led up to the time of the birth of Jesus and his life and death and resurrection. 00:18:37.500 --> 00:18:42.119 Now all of these other things that were going on, they make sense. But here's his prophecy. It 00:18:42.119 --> 00:18:46.500 continues like this. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. 00:18:46.500 --> 00:18:55.599 Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation. You 00:18:55.599 --> 00:19:01.680 have increased its joy. They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:09.240 defy the spoil. And so it pictures this time of people being in great darkness. And in the midst of 00:19:09.240 --> 00:19:15.299 the darkness, God is going to bring light. And he's going to bring a type of victory and liberation 00:19:15.299 --> 00:19:21.299 and freedom. He goes on in verse four to say this, for the yoke of his burden and the staff for his 00:19:21.299 --> 00:19:26.019 shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you are broken as on the day of the Midian. It's an image of, 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:32.059 there's actually two images here. The first image is of the Exodus of God delivering his people from 00:19:32.059 --> 00:19:40.779 bondage in a mighty empire of Egypt to the Red Sea. And the other is the story of Gideon and how Gideon 00:19:40.779 --> 00:19:48.019 takes 300 soldiers and God does a mighty miracle. And the story of Gideon takes place in Zebulun and 00:19:48.019 --> 00:19:55.960 Naphtali. In other words, the beginning of this profound act of liberation from God is going to begin 00:19:55.960 --> 00:20:04.100 in the very place where Israel began to be humbled in the north. And then in verse five, it goes on and 00:20:04.100 --> 00:20:10.680 says, for every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will 00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:17.920 be burned as fuel for the fire. We just want to pause here for a second. This is a very interesting 00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:27.680 image. Andrew, could you put up the next point, please? Biblical prophecy speaks of God acting for 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:36.640 people in such a way that there is no room for human boasting or pride. The world is filled with proud 00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:46.019 Christians. The world is filled with Christians who are consumed with vanity and arrogance. But the more 00:20:46.019 --> 00:20:55.879 proud and arrogant we are, the less we are as God desires. Biblical prophecy speaks of God acting for 00:20:55.879 --> 00:21:01.720 people in such a way that there is no room for human boasting or pride. Remember, I just, those of you 00:21:01.720 --> 00:21:07.819 might not know the story of Gideon. One of the things about the story of Gideon is that God, they're being 00:21:07.819 --> 00:21:13.099 oppressed by Midian and Gideon calls out thousands of people and God says, no, no, I'm going to beat the 00:21:13.099 --> 00:21:19.500 Midianites in such a way that no human being can boast. So get rid of most of them. He gets rid of 00:21:19.500 --> 00:21:24.319 most of them. He says, there's still way too many. You still might boast. So all that was left is huge 00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:28.799 thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of Midianites and God said, we're going to take 300 00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:36.519 people and I'm going to win a victory so that no one can boast. And what's seen here in verse 5, 00:21:36.519 --> 00:21:45.960 the image in verse 5, is not that human beings had been used to defeat evil, but that God has done 00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:53.920 this mighty victory and after the mighty victory is over, human beings come and they take the wood 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:59.879 of the weapons and the clothing and they burn it in the fire. That's how they heat their houses. 00:21:59.880 --> 00:22:08.380 It's how they just have bonfires out in pastures because it's fun and that there's no boasting 00:22:08.380 --> 00:22:15.540 possible. See, this is one of the interesting things about biblical prophecy. People who claim 00:22:15.540 --> 00:22:20.320 to be very good at channeling and connecting with spirits and knowing what the present is 00:22:20.320 --> 00:22:26.600 and what the future is, they all like lots of money. I think the person who does the Celeste, 00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:34.639 Ramtha, I think, you know, she lives in a 12,000 square foot house, has piles and piles and piles 00:22:34.639 --> 00:22:40.119 and piles of money. And the fact of the matter is, is that when you think of these collective things 00:22:40.119 --> 00:22:46.679 that go on like progressive politics and progressive cultural movements and Marxism and communism and 00:22:46.679 --> 00:22:52.799 any other type of collective that claims to know the future, it all in fact feeds on human pride. 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:57.159 Part of the reason that people want to know the future is so they can have power. 00:22:58.599 --> 00:23:07.579 But in the Bible, because it's God who speaks, God acts in such a way that there is no room 00:23:07.579 --> 00:23:13.339 for human boasting or pride. In fact, this can be seen right here in a moment when the prophecy 00:23:13.339 --> 00:23:18.079 continues. So here we see that God is going to do this thing in the future that's going to be a profound 00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:22.879 act of liberation. So obviously he's talking, he's going to be talking about superheroes. 00:23:23.559 --> 00:23:28.000 He's going to be talking about the Avengers. He's going to be talking about some unbelievably 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:33.379 powerful weapon. He's going to be talking about some powerful force like the force that allows 00:23:33.379 --> 00:23:39.699 you to defeat powerful things. But what comes out of his breath, what comes next? Verse six, 00:23:39.700 --> 00:23:48.220 for to us a child is born. A little tiny baby. After the service, I don't know who the youngest 00:23:48.220 --> 00:23:56.700 baby is in the room. Maybe it's Elena. Go look at Elena. She's really cute. But go look at Elena. 00:23:57.319 --> 00:24:03.059 That's a little baby younger than that's what's going to defeat all of these things. Only God can do 00:24:03.059 --> 00:24:13.559 something like that. Could you imagine Stalin saying, to us a child is born? Stalin is famous 00:24:13.559 --> 00:24:19.740 for saying, when it was said that the Pope was opposed to him, Stalin famously said, how many 00:24:19.740 --> 00:24:27.500 battalions of tanks does that man have? He's just a crazy old celibate locked up in an old city. 00:24:27.500 --> 00:24:36.440 I have tanks. For to us a child is born. To us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his 00:24:36.440 --> 00:24:43.440 shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:50.640 Peace. Notice this connection, that this child is God. Andrew, could you play the next video? 00:24:57.500 --> 00:25:14.839 Isn't that what Christmas is all about? God, a loving Father, giving himself to his children 00:25:14.839 --> 00:25:17.440 so we can live. 00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:17.920 Amen. 00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:32.000 For to us a child is born. To us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder. And 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:40.019 his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 00:25:40.600 --> 00:25:46.180 Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and 00:25:46.180 --> 00:25:51.740 over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from 00:25:51.740 --> 00:26:00.060 this time forth and forevermore. And then the prophecy pauses in a sense. And Isaiah comes 00:26:00.060 --> 00:26:10.000 back to his own time. And he says, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. 730 years 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:15.380 before the birth of Jesus. And what better gift can God give us than himself? 00:26:18.140 --> 00:26:20.880 What better gift can God give us than himself? 00:26:22.759 --> 00:26:28.980 And so he promises in a world that's filled with darkness and gloom and violence and evil 00:26:28.980 --> 00:26:35.079 is part of life and darkness and violence is part of life. And we human beings know as well 00:26:35.079 --> 00:26:42.139 that there is something of hope. And I think it's only in the Christian story that there can 00:26:42.139 --> 00:26:49.720 be this profound promise that the way that God will fix the twisted and bentness of the 00:26:49.720 --> 00:26:56.939 world is with him giving himself for us so that we might have life. 00:26:56.940 --> 00:27:12.180 Real hope requires the eternal creator God to make an unbreakable promise to ordinary people like you and me. 00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:24.220 Real hope requires the eternal creator God to make unbreakable promises to ordinary people like you and me. 00:27:24.220 --> 00:27:51.700 Who would fly on a plane if we knew that 85% of the time while the plane is in the air it was going to work? 00:27:51.700 --> 00:27:58.519 Who would fly on a plane if they were told that 99% of the time it would work and the other 1% it wouldn't? 00:27:59.480 --> 00:28:06.259 And the fact of the matter is that human hope is completely and utterly always broken because we can't 00:28:06.259 --> 00:28:08.580 make unbreakable promises. 00:28:09.640 --> 00:28:17.100 If there is to be real hope, it has to be offered by the eternal God, the creator God, 00:28:17.099 --> 00:28:25.359 who makes an unbreakable promise to ordinary people like you and me in such a way that it actually enters into our 24-7 lives. 00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:36.139 Now, I think one of the reasons why Isaiah was hailed as a prophet by the Jewish people is that obviously he not only spoke wisdom into their day 00:28:36.139 --> 00:28:40.479 and he spoke about things that were going to take 700 years or longer to fulfill, 00:28:40.619 --> 00:28:46.099 but he also told of things like the coming Assyrian invasion and so they believed he was a prophet. 00:28:46.099 --> 00:28:55.859 At the end of the day, I believe that these are true prophecies in a world which is filled with people who claim to know the future. 00:28:56.000 --> 00:28:58.139 I would say that almost all of that is counterfeit, 00:28:59.740 --> 00:29:05.959 but that this was a true prophecy which actually got fulfilled. 00:29:05.960 --> 00:29:11.160 And I believe it because Jesus was vindicated in an historical manner. 00:29:12.279 --> 00:29:14.680 It's an Easter sermon, not a Christmas sermon. 00:29:15.579 --> 00:29:21.920 But the fact is that there is surprisingly a large amount of evidence that Jesus not only lived, 00:29:22.039 --> 00:29:27.019 but that he actually died and that on the third day he rose from the dead in history. 00:29:28.019 --> 00:29:34.100 And the Christian faith is rooted in the reality of the resurrection of Jesus. 00:29:34.099 --> 00:29:40.919 And Jesus' resurrection vindicates him and vindicates what he said about himself 00:29:40.919 --> 00:29:49.059 and vindicates prophecies like this, that God would come and dwell among us, 00:29:49.759 --> 00:29:55.899 that Jesus would be the Prince of Peace, that he would be the one who brings peace between human beings 00:29:55.899 --> 00:29:58.279 and not only the created order but our Creator. 00:29:58.279 --> 00:30:05.099 And this is available to any human being who calls out with an honest heart 00:30:05.099 --> 00:30:08.379 that they no longer want to be like God, 00:30:08.759 --> 00:30:13.500 but they want to have God take them to himself and rescue them. 00:30:13.500 --> 00:30:22.940 Just the other day, I was in a Starbucks and I heard a woman, two women talking beside me. 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:24.279 They were both about my age. 00:30:25.299 --> 00:30:29.000 And they were casually dismissive of people like myself. 00:30:30.019 --> 00:30:31.559 And they were very smug. 00:30:32.500 --> 00:30:37.200 And there's only one thing which is required to know God. 00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:42.160 And that is to actually hunger and seek for him. 00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:47.039 And if you call out for him, because you are not smug, 00:30:47.180 --> 00:30:50.480 but know that you need a hope to face the future, 00:30:51.480 --> 00:30:56.559 and that there is a darkness and a gloom within you that cannot be defeated by yourself, 00:30:57.620 --> 00:31:00.600 and you don't want to just have stories that might come and go, 00:31:00.740 --> 00:31:05.720 but actually be able to have a type of security rooted in the security of the eternal God. 00:31:05.720 --> 00:31:13.640 Well, then, well, it's time for you to call out to the one who proved that he can speak into the future, 00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:17.519 and who came and dwelt among us as a baby. 00:31:17.880 --> 00:31:20.620 Because what better gift can God give for us than himself? 00:31:21.319 --> 00:31:23.180 And with that, a new and eternal life. 00:31:24.360 --> 00:31:25.880 Andrew, if you could play the final video, 00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:28.319 and then after it's over, I'll ask you to stand and we'll pray. 00:31:28.319 --> 00:31:28.420 Amen. 00:31:35.720 --> 00:31:44.380 I invite you to stand. 00:31:51.960 --> 00:31:56.819 Father, we confess before you that self-justification and self-righteousness 00:31:56.819 --> 00:32:00.220 is the very last idol that will ever die in our lives. 00:32:00.220 --> 00:32:05.700 That we are deeply addicted to self-justification and self-righteousness. 00:32:06.140 --> 00:32:08.339 And we give you thanks and praise, Father, 00:32:08.920 --> 00:32:11.680 that you do not weigh our merits, but pardon our offenses. 00:32:12.480 --> 00:32:15.960 That you see our great vanity, 00:32:16.420 --> 00:32:17.720 and our great delusions, 00:32:18.140 --> 00:32:19.360 and our great illusions, 00:32:20.220 --> 00:32:22.380 and our great self-preoccupation, 00:32:22.779 --> 00:32:25.920 and our intermittent desire and hunger for you. 00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:27.240 And still you loved us, 00:32:27.279 --> 00:32:30.000 and sent your Son to die upon the cross, 00:32:30.340 --> 00:32:32.080 to make us right with you. 00:32:33.019 --> 00:32:35.539 Father, we ask that you fan into flame within us 00:32:35.539 --> 00:32:37.880 a deep desire to put to death, 00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:40.440 to put to death all self-righteousness 00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:42.779 and self-justification in our own lives. 00:32:43.620 --> 00:32:45.360 To put to death within us 00:32:45.360 --> 00:32:49.480 our great addiction to human boasting and pride. 00:32:50.100 --> 00:32:52.460 And create within us a deep humility 00:32:52.460 --> 00:32:54.300 before the babe in Bethlehem 00:32:54.300 --> 00:32:55.720 who died upon the cross. 00:32:55.920 --> 00:32:59.100 And rose again to make us right with you. 00:32:59.740 --> 00:33:03.420 Father, grant us a humility and a longing before him. 00:33:04.019 --> 00:33:06.000 That he might be our Savior. 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:08.920 And that we might walk with him. 00:33:09.620 --> 00:33:11.180 With him as our Lord. 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:13.800 This we ask in Jesus' name. 00:33:14.420 --> 00:33:14.740 Amen.