He Shall Be Called: Mighty God
Well, welcome. I usually introduce myself, but I doubt any of you are first time guests today.
But if you are, I'm still glad you're here. My name is Josh. To all of you watching at home, you're missing out. These are some of the funnest Sundays when everybody shows up and we're all scattered around the room. But it's good to be together this morning, isn't it?
Glad you're here.
Before we dig into the message today, just a few things to let you know about that are going on around here. First, tonight, our programming for tonight is still on. We have a handful of things going on. We got toy store going on. And then we're all going to share in a special Christmas version of Whitewater Eats together.
So if you want to come and share a meal together, gonna have a dramatic theatrical retelling that's gonna be a lot of fun of the Nativity scene. Russ and his team have been getting that ready together, so it'll be a great time for families. So come and join us for a meal. Just bring something as a side. Oreos and chips are welcome.
And then we also have one night for our students after that. So one night. They're excited about it. Both of them were clapping. All right.
But one night is the one night. We do these roughly quarterly and we invite our one life. So our one more that we've been talking about. And so this is a great opportunity for students to come. They're going to have a great time tonight.
It goes till 9pm and then we got Christmas Eve services coming up. We plan to do those again this year. I know it's a surprise, but we're going to have four services. We'll have one on the 23rd at 6:30pm and then three on the 24th at 1:00pm, 2:30pm and 4:00pm So 6:30pm on the 23rd, then 1, 2:30 and 4 on the 24th. All of our kids and students over the age of three will join us here in this room.
If you or your guests have little ones three and under. The only service that we will not have programming for birth through three is at the 1pm Service on the 24th. All the other services, so just the early Service on the 24th will not have birth through three care. Last thing to mention is a statistic that's been super consistent over the last few decades, and that is that over 80% of people who do not attend church say that if they were invited by a friend, a coworker, or a family member, that they would show up. And so Christmas on top of that is the one time of year that culture kind of bends into.
Even the Christmas story, the biblical Christmas story. We sing Christmas songs about Jesus and it's part of our culture. And so this is a great opportunity. If you have had one of these one more cards and you've got a name on the back of it of someone that you've been praying daily for, I just want you to invite them to come to Christmas Eve service with you. Make it super specific.
Say, hey, Heidi and I are coming to the 1pm Service on the 24th and we would love for you to come and sit with us. You could attach something to it like ice skating or dinner afterwards, whatever that might be at your famous or favorite Chinese restaurant, as many of us do. But this is a great opportunity and I just want to encourage you to invite your one more and invite your friends and family again. The statistics are with us, but it'd be a great opportunity for them to hear the Christmas story, maybe if they've never heard it before. So please do that.
Announcements over. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, wonderful counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, we thank you for your kindness toward us. We thank you for your unending grace. We thank you for this church and for the rich opportunity that we have to worship and fellowship and give and dig into your word together.
Lord, we do pray for our one more. For our friends and family and co workers and classmates, whoever they might be. And I just pray that you would soften their hearts toward you, that you would provide just the right opportunity to invite them to join us for Christmas Eve. God, we pray that you'll bless us and lead us toward generosity, all so that more and more people, people will come to know you as their Lord and King. That we would be generous with the gospel.
We pray your kingdom come and your will be done in Jesus name. Amen. Well, last week we opened our Christmas series by looking at this prophecy from Isaiah. Words dropped into one of the darkest moments God's people had ever faced. Everything around them felt hopeless.
Like it was like they were being swallowed up by darkness. And into that darkness, God made a promise. One day he would break open the sky. One day a great light would come. One day a Savior would step into the darkness and his light would powerfully and miraculously overcome this darkness.
It comes from Isaiah, chapter chapter nine, starting in verse six. 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 greatness 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. And so last week, we looked at a wonderful counselor, this name, this title that is given to this coming child, the God who steps into the confusion with us, who knows us fully and loves us completely, the one who guides us with wisdom that's miraculous and beyond comprehension. But Isaiah doesn't end there. Not only is this Messiah full of empathy, love, care, wisdom, and counsel, he also holds the power to overcome all things. His next title is Mighty God.
In Hebrew, it is El Gabor. And packed into these two words is an explosive revealing of the kind of king that God is bringing to the earth. Now, almost every translation, modern translation of the Bible translates El Gabor as Mighty God. Literally, El means God and Gabor means mighty One. But before we get to the mighty one part, let's look at this incredible claim that this coming Messiah doesn't just come from from God, doesn't just represent God, but is God.
And this one belief that we hold that Jesus is God is actually what separates us and sets us apart from every other religion, every other philosophy, every other spiritual idea kind of floating around our world. Most religions admire Jesus. Many respect his teachings. Some call him a prophet or a healer or a nice moral example or a revolutionary leader. But Isaiah does not leave that option on the table.
Isaiah doesn't say the child will just represent God. Isaiah doesn't say the child will reflect God. Isaiah says the child is God himself. Now, why does this matter so much? Because if he is not God, then he cannot save.
A good teacher can inspire us. A wise counselor can only guide us. A moral leader might be able to challenge us. A prophet can point us in the right direction. But only God himself can break the power of sin and darkness.
Only God can conquer death. Only God can finally crush the head of the serpent. Only God can heal what's broken at the deepest level. Only God can step into the war that's behind every war or under every war, the spiritual battle, behind every earthly battle and declare victory. And this matters so much because we don't just need better advice or moral improvement or comfort or clarity or a boost of inspiration.
We don't need a life coach. We need a mighty Savior. Because all of us have sinned. And according to scripture, the Mar of Sin separates us from God. Sin equals death.
And so we need someone who has the power to conquer what we cannot conquer. The power to change the human heart, to defeat sin's hold over us, to break generational cycles and uproot shame and silence the enemy and conquer actual death. There's only one who has the power to do that. It is God Almighty Himself. If Jesus is not God, then the cross is nothing more than a tragedy or a theatrical display.
If Jesus is not God, then the resurrection is a myth or a hoax. If Jesus is not God, then Christianity is just positive thinking. It's for the weak. It's a lame hobby. If Jesus is not God, then we are still steeped in sin and lost in this dark and dying world.
But because Jesus is God, because the child in the manger is the almighty warrior God, the cross is victory. The resurrection is reality. And in him is unshakable hope. Because he has proven by conquering death that he holds the keys to salvation. This is why this matters.
See, if Jesus is not God, nothing changes. But if Jesus is God, everything changes. This is why we will die on this hill. That Jesus can be none other than God himself. Co equal with God the Father.
Co eternal with the Holy Spirit. He certainly put on flesh and he came to this earth, but he did not suddenly begin to exist when he was born to this planet. He was there in the beginning. We read the scripture last week from John 1:1. In the beginning was the word, capital W. That's Jesus.
And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.
In him was life. And that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. So let me speak with a clarity and a weight I do not often use, because this matters that much. Anyone who claims to be a Christian but denies the full deity of Jesus is not teaching Christianity at all.
Scripture is unmistakably clear. If we strip Jesus of his deity, we strip the Gospel of its power. John says that such a person is the Antichrist. Paul says they preach, quote, another Jesus. Jude says they deny our only Master and Lord.
And if Jesus is not God, he can't be our Savior. And if he is not our Savior, then we and this whole world are without hope and without light. This one truth is the beating heart of our faith. Deny this, and the whole thing falls apart. But confess this and everything changes.
The Bible proclaims this over and over. Jesus himself proclaims his deity and then he proves it through miraculous mastery over faith, physics and weather and sickness and then death. So let there be no mistake. Jesus is co equal and co eternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. He is El Gabor, God Almighty.
Now let's look at that second part. Gabor. This promised Messiah, Jesus Christ is the mighty one. But this isn't just that he's powerful. I mean, he certainly is powerful.
But in Hebrew, the use of this word gabor, specifically with two Bs in the middle, the double B, is like saying, he's the mighty, mighty one. He's the extra mighty one. It's a superlative phrase. That's saying he's more than regular mighty. He is the epitome of.
And this word gabor is almost always used in the context of warfare to describe a great warrior. Not just power, but a champion, a hero in battle. Commentators agree on this. Isaiah's prophecy is describing not just a mighty God, but a mighty warrior God. In ancient warfare, across almost every major military culture, the Germanic tribes, Assyria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Israel, there's a practice of sending out a single representative, a warrior, a champion, to fight on behalf of an entire army.
Every culture has its own name for it. The champion, the foremost warrior, the valiant one. This is my favorite, the pro machos, the mighty man. But the idea was the same all throughout history. Rather than two armies colliding in this massive, bloody, mass casualty, victory could be decided through a single representative fighting one warrior stepping forward on behalf of his people.
And his victory or his defeat would determine the fate of an entire nation. We get a great example of this in the story of David and Goliath. We read this in 1st Samuel 17. The Philistines are on one hillside encamped. The Israelites are on the opposite hillside, encamped with a valley in between.
And the Bible tells us that a Philistine champion named Goliath, a behemoth man who towers over everyone else, he steps out into the valley. And the word used for this champion in first Samuel is literally translated the man of the in between. The man of the in between. The one who stood between two armies and determined the outcome for everyone behind them. 1st Samuel 17, verse 8.
Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? And are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come to me if he's able to fight and kill me. We will become your subjects.
But if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us. Then the Philistines said, this day I defy the armies of Israel. Give me a man and let us fight each other. And Goliath did this. Day after day.
He was so large and intimidating that no one would fight him until a 15 year old shepherd boy, the most unlikely champion with the impossible odds against him, agrees to fight this Philistine champion with a sling and a stone. And we know this story, we know the rest of the story. That David runs out onto the battlefield and he kills Goliath with a sling and a stone and he is the champion. And again and again we keep pointing out that the whole Bible cover to cover is all pointing to Jesus. Isaiah says that the child to be born, the one who will be an everlasting king, is in the line of David, the champion who stood in between on behalf of his people.
And he will be called El Gabor, the mighty God, the warrior champion of his people. See, Jesus is the greater man of the in between, the one who steps into the valley on our behalf. Not against a nine foot Philistine, but against sin, death, darkness and hell itself. The most unlikely warrior armed with the most unlikely weapon cross. And in what looked like impossible odds, our champion fought in our place, died in our place.
He was buried in a tomb. And three days later he rose from the grave, conquering death in an impossible victory. And now his victory becomes our victory. His triumph becomes our triumph. His resurrection is possible for us.
Our resurrection becomes a reality. Jesus is El Gheborg. He is God in the flesh and he is almighty warrior.
He's the one Isaiah promised, the champion who stands in our place and wins the battle we never could. And when you know to look for this pattern all throughout scripture, you can't unsee it. The Bible is dripping and saturated with stories of our God stepping in as the champion, the mighty warrior who conquers enemies that his people never could. We see it back in Exodus 14. Israel is trapped between Pharaoh's army and the Red Sea.
They have no weapons, no training, no hope. And Moses tells the people in Exodus 14:13, he says, do not be afraid, stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still.
Through miraculous and impossible power, God opens the sea his people go through on dry ground. And he swallows up Pharaoh's army in the waters behind Him. This is not a fairy tale. This is reality. Or we read in Joshua 5, Joshua and his army are headed to take the city of Jericho.
He's met on the road by the leader of God's heavenly army, an angel. And in chapter six, we read the most ridiculous plan from God. He says, I have already delivered Jericho into your hands. And so here's what you're going to do. You're going to march around the city and you're going to blow trumpets and you're going to worship.
And as they obey in faith, Almighty God miraculously causes the walls to collapse and gives victory to his army. Almighty El Gabor. Last week we talked about Gideon and the midianite army of 135,000. And God delivers his people with an army of 300, with some torches and trumpets. They don't even have to swing a sword or shoot an arrow or think about King Jehoshaphat if you know this story.
He's surrounded on every side by a coalition of armies he could never defeat. His people are terrified, outnumbered, completely unprepared. And God tells them that they don't even need to fight. He will take the battle himself. And while Judah simply stands and worships, God turns the enemy forces against each other, and they fight each other and kill each other.
We see it again and again in the Exile, where things Three young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, are tossed into a fiery furnace. They should have died just going into it. And there was another in the fire with them, El Gabor, mighty God, Jesus himself, standing in the gap. And they walked out without even the smell of smoke or singed beards. Or when Daniel is sealed in a den of lions, completely defenseless, and God shuts the mouths of the lions until morning.
And later, the prophet Isaiah describes a moment when God looked across the earth for someone, anyone who could stand in the gap. Someone strong enough to overcome, to intervene, someone mighty enough to save. But there was no one. No champion, no warrior, no human strength sufficient for the fight. So God himself said, I will step into the gap.
And he put on righteousness like armor, and he moved to rescue his people with his own outstretched arm. Over and over and over again. This is the pattern. When the enemy is too strong, when the odds are impossible, when his people have no fight left. God is El Gabor.
He is the champion that stands in the space between. He goes ahead of us, and he stands in the gap for us. He wins the victory. And every one of these stories is echoing and rehearsing and repeating and echoing and rehearsing and repeating a far greater story. They're all foreshadowing the day that Jesus becomes the man of the in between and fights on our behalf against sin and death and darkness and hell, showing us he is exactly who Isaiah told us he would be.
And one day this El Gabor will return for one final battle where he will stand as our champion. I love this section from the book of Revelation, chapter 19. God gives John a vision of that day and here's how he describes Jesus coming. 19 verse 11. I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true.
With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood and his name is the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word and in the end is the Word the the armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.
Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter he treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. El Gabor. God Almighty.
This is not a nice cuddly baby in a manger. This is not a nice moral teacher that pats us on the back. He's not just a prophet. He is nothing less than God Almighty, our champion. And if this is true, this changes everything.
So I ask one of my favorite what if God is actually who he says he is?
What if we believed that he is actually who he says that he is? Because if he is almighty warrior God, if He is the one who stands in our place and fights on our behalf, this changes everything. This means something profound for all of us who are the nation that are represented by this mighty warrior. It means that you and I can stop carrying this crushing burden of trying to be our own warrior. We can stop trying to conquer our own giants and fix our own messes and outrun our fears on our limited power.
Because the God of Exodus, the God of Joshua, the God of Gideon, the God of Daniel, the God who always steps into the valley, he has not changed the one Isaiah promised. El Gabor, the mighty God has come in the flesh. His name is Jesus and He did not come to cheer us on. He came to fight in our place he came to be the man of the in between, the one who stands where we cannot stand to win the victory we could never win.
And here's why this whole thing, or here's where this whole thing gets even more incredible. The Bible says that the same power that fought for God's people in the Old Testament, the same power that raised God Christ from the dead, now lives in those of us who have received Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
This is mind blowing. This power is available for any who will name Jesus as Lord and Savior. We read this in Romans 8, starting in verse 10. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.
Then In Ephesians chapter one, we get this incredible prayer from Paul, verse 18. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people and his incomparably great power. For us who believe that power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked not only in the present age, but also in the age to come. Our mighty God who now indwells his people, is strengthening us from the inside out so that we are no longer facing temptation and fear and anxiety or sin or suffering in our own strength, but we are facing it in the strength of El Gabor. He's empowering us to stand firm, to obey, to endure, to hope, to love, to forgive and to overcome.
This is the promise that he has given us. And Paul says, I strive with all the strength that Christ provides. We're still not fighting in our strength, we're fighting in His. So here's where all this lands. If Jesus really is Al Gabler, not just a warm baby in a manger, not a fairy tale, not just a mighty God, but a mighty, almighty warrior God.
If he steps into the valley for his people, then we don't have to keep living like the outcome depends on us. We don't have to be our own Savior.
Of course, none of us would actually say that we're trying to be our own Savior. And yet every time we fail we're somehow surprisingly disappointed that we failed again.
We don't have to be our own Savior, because the God who splits seas, who topples walls and silences lions, the God who rose from the grave is our El Gabor, our Savior.
And he has not changed. And now, by his spirit, he lives inside of us. And that means our battles are no longer fought in our own strength. What joy comes from this truth that the same power that raised Christ from the dead now strengthens us and from the inside out, not so that we can win life through sheer effort, but so that we can stand firm and obey faithfully and endure suffering. Even Paul says, yes, you're gonna die, but you've got the power of the Holy Spirit in you to resist sin and forgive freely and live in unshakable hope.
Our great champion empowers us to walk in his victory. Victory. So here's the invitation. Stop it.
Stop fighting on your own. A battle that you would never be able to win. Because El Gabor, the one who stands in our place, the mighty champion warrior, he fights on our behalf. And all we have to do is step back and let him do his work. This is the beauty of our promised, wonderful counselor, mighty God.
Because if he is really who he says he is, then the safest, strongest, wisest thing we can do is just place our life in his hands. So that's the call today. He's won the battle. He's with us. Our victory is sure.
And so if there is anyone in this room today that has not accepted this, or maybe you just know that you have been squeezing as hard as you can to fight and win this battle on your own. Today is time to set it down. Down. Set down your sword. Set down your shield.
Set down your white knuckles. Set them down. And he says, come, come. He knows you're tired. We talked about this last week.
Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden. You know why you're so weary and heavy laden? Because you're not letting El Gabor fight on your behalf.
Joy and peace and hope and confidence are ours in him. This is the invitation. So if you want to talk about that for the first time or for the 50th time today, come talk to us. Come down front. I'll pray with you.
I'm sure we've got a few more around that would love to pray with you. Let today be the day that you believe that he might actually be who he says he is and give him the chance to stand in the the gap and be your almighty warrior. King Jesus. Amen. Will you stand?
We're going to sing together. King Jesus, you are mighty and we just declare your might. Today I pray that all of these things that have kept us bound up and closed up in this box of self, self striving, self and trying and effort. God, that we can just be free of all of that. That we can trust that you are who you say you are today.
So come, be our warrior. We invite you to stand in our place. Thank you. Oh, thank you, King Jesus.
El Gabor, it's in your mighty name we pray. Amen.