But to us to look at power as something the way that he does, that it's not an end in of itself. It's always a means to an end. He wants us to see what power we might have in our lives, in our spheres of influence, and ask the question, how can we use our power in a heroic way? How can we do things for others who are not strong enough to do it for themselves? That's how he uses his power. And the more we know him, that's how he redefines our understanding of power. And it helps us look at all the ways that we might have any power. And can we use that for the sake of others? So the meaning of the phrase, mighty God, is that this promised Messiah whom we know is Jesus is God. And he has all of God's infinite heroic power. And so let's talk about the manifestation of that. Where do we see that? We see it in this passage, but we also see it in the life of Christ. And I think if I asked you, then where does Jesus manifest his power? You're going to say miracles. Or you should. I mean, that's the answer. OK, that's one of the ways where we see his power manifestes. These amazing miracles performed by Christ in his earthly life and ministry. But we have to ask ourselves, what was the purpose of these miracles? And what I would submit to you is that when we look at Jesus' life, we see that the purpose of the miracles were not simply to show mercy, which they were for that purpose. But also, one of the primary purposes of all these miracles was to make manifest God's power to rid the world of all the causes of sadness and suffering. When Jesus would perform these amazing miracles, it's not that he wasn't showing compassion. In fact, we're going to talk about that next week. But a big part of why he showed this power, he manifested this power over creation, was so that you and I would have this foretaste of what's to come. He wants us to know for sure that the one we're following has the power to bring about this kingdom to totally transform the world. Now, let's look at Isaiah talks about this even here in verse four. If you look at verse four in Isaiah nine, remember last week, we talked about how Isaiah paints a picture of this kingdom here. And there's these different characteristics or qualities of it, one of which is that this kingdom will be of kingdom marked with freedom from burdens. Tremendous freedom, God will lift the burdens, all the burdens of his people. And that's what he's talking about here in verse four, look at verse four. He says, for the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. All those things, the yoke, the staff, the rod. These are all metaphors for enslavement and oppression, causes of suffering, causes of sadness. In particular, Isaiah is surely thinking of the burdens, the great burdens the people would experience when the experience, who he was foretelling about as well here, when they would attack. But the promise here at the end of the verse is really remarkable. The promise is that God is going to break these things. He's going to break the power of these things. If you look at the last line there, you have broken as on the day of Midian. That's the future. He's looking to a forward day when he has broken the power of these things. And the word literally means shatter. So this mighty God mentioned then in chapter 9 verse 6, would be able to shatter yokes, staffs, rods. In other words, he would have the power to heroically break or shatter the things that were enslaving and oppressing God's people. And granted, the people in Isaiah's day likely expected this prophecy to be fulfilled primarily in reference to oppression and enslavement by foreign armies, like the Assyrians or like the Babylonians. What's amazing, though, is what we see in Christ, is that the promise of breaking these burdens is far more comprehensive than they might have realized back then and often than we realize today. Because in Christ, we see this power manifested that undoes all of the things that try to undo us in this life. One of the things that's interesting is they thought that in the New Testament, they really thought a lot of people thought that the Messiah would be a political leader delivering them from their foreign armies and whatnot. But even if he had been just that, what's interesting if you look through history, in most of the wars in history, more soldiers have died from disease than weapons. So even if the Messiah had just been this wise, powerful military leader, there still would have been all these threats to humanity, right? The threat of disease. Not to mention the threat of demonic activity. The threat of natural disasters. And of course, the threat that continues to take out every single one of us, still a one-to-one correlation, and that would be death. In other words, what's being prophesied here is something greater. And what we see in Christ is something greater. Humanity needs a savior who can overpower all of these agents of uncreation. I love that. That's the way one theologian puts it. All of these different things are the agents of uncreation. We need a savior who has power over all of these things. And therefore, in his life, the Messiah, the Christ, the promised child, he manifested that he has this power over all these agents of uncreation. Let me just give you a few examples. If you've read through the Gospels, then you've seen them. They're just endless. Like, for example, Jesus showed that he has power over disease. He healed many people who had diseases. One example is Luke chapter 5. A man came to him who had leprosy. And Jesus healed him of that leprosy right there. Natural disasters or storms. If you look in Matthew chapter 8, that's one of the places where we see the disciples were on a boat with Jesus, and this massive storm had rolled up. And they were really worried. They were saying, Jesus, we're going to die. Again, he just tells the storm to be still, and all of a sudden the wind is gone and the waves are flat. He has power over the weather and even natural disasters. Demons, he cast out demons, again and again. An example would be in Mark 1, 21 through 28. Jesus is teaching in a synagogue and in comes a man possessed by a demon. And Jesus casts out the demon. He's got power over demonic activity. And even death. This king has power over death. He raises people to life. You might be familiar with when he raised Lazarus to life. Absolutely amazing. He comes and waited four days and Lazarus had been dead and in the tomb for four days. And Jesus comes on the scene and he says, you know, roll away the stone. And Martha tells him, no, Jesus, he's been in there four days. There's going to be an odor. In fact, in the King James, it says, he's stinketh. And Jesus says, didn't I tell you that if you believe you'd see the glory of God? And then they roll the stone away and he says, come out, Lazarus. And this man who had been dead for four days walks out. Why? Well, because he's the Messiah. He's the promised king and he has power. He's mighty God. He has power over all of these agents of uncreation. He can undo all of the things that undo us. And so as he's doing these miracles, he's showing us his power. Not only his love and his mercy, but he's showing us his power and his power to bring about this kingdom. He's giving us a foretaste of what this kingdom will be like. Tim Keller says, Jesus miracles did not merely show off the naked fact of Jesus power. They revealed the redemptive purpose of his power. Jesus miracles were not just designed to say, look what I can do, but also look what I will do completely and in full when he returns. It's a foretaste. Many of you have had the experience of a tradition in our society that I don't know where it came from. But often when a husband and wife are just been married, they have this tradition where you go up at the wedding, they cut the cake. And then for whatever reason, the husband takes a piece and the wife takes a piece and they try to feed each other and everybody just shoves it into their face and you get frosting everywhere and everybody laughs. And everybody's like, why are we doing this? And everybody says, I don't know, it's a great tradition. But here's what's interesting. When Hannah and I got married, when we had that cake, it was really good. But it wasn't the first time that we tasted it. Because weeks or months before we had gone to the baker and they had shown us what it's going to be like. We've been able to try it and it was amazing. So for the next weeks or months or whatever it was, we looked forward to it. And we're mainly looking forward to getting married, but we were looking forward. We were looking forward to what we had tasted. And it's important that we understand that Jesus performed these miracles. He was undoing these things that were undoing people. He was heroically using his power. It's important we understand that he did that out of love and mercy and compassion. We'll talk about that next week, like I said, but he was also giving a foretaste. He was saying, here's what the coming kingdom will be like. All of these things will be undone. Everything's sad, we'll come untrue. But perhaps the most important thing for us to understand about this heroic power is that the greatest example of it or the greatest moment in which he used his heroic power on our behalf, which proves to us that that is how he uses his power now and forever, would be the cross, of course. On the cross, Jesus was using his power, but not like we might think. It's Christmas time, right? We're thinking about Christmas when we think about Christmas. We think about the incarnation. We think about the Son of God becoming man. And there's two questions that we should ask, and our larger catechism asks and answers them. And the questions are, why did the Savior, why did Jesus have to be man, to save us? But also, why did He have to be God? Why did He have to be truly man and truly God? And part of that answer is power. And here's what I mean by that. If you look in the larger catechism, which you should, because it's awesome, in questions 38 and 39, it's going to ask those questions. Why did the mediator, it'll say? Why was it requisite that the mediator be God? Why was it required that He be man? And when it answers the question of why did the Savior have to be man, part of the answer is so that He could suffer and make intercession for us in our very nature. He had to be one of us so He could actually suffer. But then it asks also, why did He have to be God? And there are a number of reasons, but one of the reasons it says is so that He might sustain and keep the human nature from sinking under the infinite wrath of God and the power of death. The only one powerful enough to receive the wrath of God and not be destroyed is God. And so He had to be man to suffer, but He had to be God so that He could suffer. He could bear that weight. He could bear the wrath for all of the sins of you and I who believe. And so it is the ultimate proof that He uses His power heroically on our behalf. He took the wrath that we deserve. And now you and I who believe, we not only know that through faith we are reconciled to God now and forever, we not only know, we'll be ushered into this eternal kingdom. But we also know that we get to taste that power even now. There are still ways in which we taste the power and get a foretaste of what is to come, this kingdom that is to come. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about the method for seeing His power, the method for seeing His might, the method for tasting these things ahead of time. And what I would say, looking at verses one and two, I would submit to you, there are three essential elements for experiencing the power of our mighty God even now. The list is not exhaustive, but three things, things that we can do. Number three things, we need faith, we need community, and we need prayer. This is a recipe for experiencing more and more of the power of God. Let me show you what I mean. Number one, we need faith, look at verse one. And notice what Isaiah is doing here. Isaiah is saying there's this place that has got gloom and anguish. He's talking about zebelin and naphtheli. These are going to be the first places that will be attacked by the Assyrian. So he's talking about really deep gloom, really deep anguish. But then he says in latter times, he has made glorious these places. And so this is a call to faith. He's saying that we have to believe that God can take something, that God and Christ takes places or people where there's gloom and there's anguish. And he brings glory. That's a faith thing. That's choosing to have faith. And the bottom line is friends, unless we believe we don't see his power. We want him to show us how powerful he is, and then we'll believe, but normally it works the other way around. We choose to believe, and then he shows us his power. If you're a non-believer watching online or with us in the room, we are so thrilled to have you with us. And it's our heart that you would put your faith in Christ and begin to see what so many of us have seen. God at work, God's power in our lives. We've got to have faith. Number two, we need to have community. God's power shows up in community. Which is why I look at verse two. Notice that Isaiah does not say the person who walked in darkness alone has seen a great life. The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in a land of deep darkness on them has light shown. Look at verse six, he doesn't say for to you individual, for to us a child is born to us, a son is given. This is communal language, this is he's talking to a community. Even in the New Testament, there's so much language and we miss it because of our modern Western American individualism. There's so much language that's about us or so many plural used. Lots of y'alls in the New Testament. And think about Ephesians 3.20, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power that is at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. See what happens when we are in community with one another is we not only experience God at work in our lives and see things in our lives, but we see it in those around us and we see more and more examples of the power of God to change lives, to help people, to protect people, to provide for people. Because I'm in community because I know someone who went for months without a job, but now I know God has just provided me, finally has income again, and I'm celebrating that but without community I wouldn't even know it. So here's what I want to say with that, if you're not in community, if you're not in a community group, one of the things you could do is text the word community to 407-384-3300, text the word community to 407-384-3300, we need to think of a little song for that number, so it's easier to remember. But here's what my even greater hope is that those of us who are in community would reach out and draw others in. There are new people among us who are not yet in a community group. There are people who just haven't had a chance to get into a community group, and here's your incentive. You draw in more people into your community, and suddenly there's more people that you are doing life with, and you're seeing more of what God is doing in their lives as well as your own. There's more tastes of the cake. So expand your groups, reach out, draw in people, and see more and more of God at work in each other's lives. Tell stories after the first service, haven't said that in nine months, after the first service, a man came up to me and he said, yes, I love the element of community where we talk about the things that God has done in our lives, the way we've seen God's power in our lives. It gives us hope, it reminds us that his power is heroic, that it is for us, so we need community. Finally, we need prayer. I'm going to be honest, this is not a direct application of this text, but prayer is one of the ways in which we say to God, I don't have power. And you do. The evangelist Billy Sunday used to say, if you are strangers to prayer, you are strangers to power. And we see this in the New Testament, we see that God responds powerfully to prayers. It doesn't always answer them the way we want exactly, but he does respond to our prayers and shows his power. One of my favorites is an Acts chapter 12, Acts chapter 12, verse 5, Peter is in prison, it says, and the church is praying. And then what happens is in Acts chapter 12, verse 7 says that an angel comes and gets Peter out of prison. And Thomas Watson, a Puritan theologian, said, the angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel. So if we want to see God's power, we need faith, and we want to be in community, and we need to be praying together. And as these things are happening in our lives, we're going to see his power. We have seen it, we will see it again, he will keep showing us his power, proving to us that he will make all things new one day in the future, showing us just how powerful he truly is to redeem us, to forgive us, to transform us. So one of the most exciting demonstrations of just power I've seen, and heroic power in recent weeks, I'm sure you've seen it too, was a video that went viral, it's a video of a man named Richard Wilbanks, and his three month old puppy named Gunner, and if you haven't seen it, you will. And here's what happens, there's a wildlife camera that's set up to sort of keep track of the number of ducks that go on this little pond here in Florida, finally there's a Florida man story that we can be excited about, and Richard is walking his three month old little puppy by this pond, and in view of this wildlife camera, and a four foot alligator launches out of the pond like a missile grabs Gunner and pulls him in, that's not the end. So what happens, Richard dives into the water, and he goes underwater and is able to grab this alligator, and he lifts the alligator up out of the water with Gunner in its mouth, and there's two versions, there's the silent version, and there's the sound on version, and I'm going to be careful, but the sound on one is remarkable, because you hear this little puppy screaming its little head off, but you also hear Richard, and what he does is he's holding this alligator, and he gets his hands in the alligator's mouth, and he begins to pull, pry apart the jaws of this alligator, and you can hear him going, he's suffering himself, he's using all his strength to get this little puppy free, and then little Gunner finally pops out and runs off, and just a little update, he went to the vet and got treated for a little puncture wound, and now he's fine, so you can take a breath. But in that moment, you saw this man showing this power that's heroic, using his power, in fact the most amazing thing is the entire time, the whole scene, you've got to see this, the entire time he never drops his cigar, which it's fantastic for two reasons, one, that's just super impressive, the man went underwater and wrestled an alligator, and still had a cigar at the end. But the second thing is, in a very weird way, it kind of makes it look like it was easy for him, and the bottom line is, our God is so powerful, our Christ, the mighty God, come in the flesh, he is so powerful that it is actually easy for him to bring about this kingdom, to transform our lives, and to establish a future, a glorious future where we live with him in his presence, for all eternity, and truth, and joy. And joy, and freedom and peace, it's easy for him, yet he chose to suffer nonetheless, that's the king that we worship, that's the king that we serve, that's our mighty God, father would these pictures of power that we see in the world, and especially the ones we see in your scriptures. Would you Holy Spirit help us to see those things and be even more convinced that our King, our Savior, Jesus Christ, is indeed our mighty God, would you help us to believe he truly has the power to bring about this kingdom? And would you help us to have faith and to be in community and to be praying so that we might get more and more tastes of your power? And when we get those tastes, help us to tell others about it, and the good news that anyone can get in on this, we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.