Our final Sunday in the sermon series “The meaning of Christmas.” My goal in this series has been to answer the question “Who is this Jesus whose birth we celebrate on Christmas?” To answer this question, I have been looking through the prophecies found in the book of Isaiah about the coming Messiah. The context of Isaiah is this: the kingdom of Israel has split into two: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Judah was facing pressure from Aram & Ephraim, two tribes in the northern kingdom. King Ahaz, the king of Judah, is afraid. Isaiah tells him to trust in God for deliverance and God will protect them. Ahaz instead reaches out to a foreign nation, Assyria, for help. Assyria helps defend Judah, but then turns and defeats Judah and takes them off into captivity. In Isaiah 9, Isaiah prophesies that despite their rebellion, ultimately a child will be born who will be the ideal king, and will be God himself, and he will be the eternal king, bringing wisdom and peace once and for all to Israel.
