Dr. M. Taylor Bach

It came upon a Midnight Clear. Maybe it was a night like tonight where the weather was good. We don't really know what it was like on the night of Christ's birth. We have the Biblical narratives. We know approximately when it was but our Gregorian calendar that we use today apparently is off by four years. So Jesus was actually born, we think, at about 4 BC. But what was it like that first night? How many people saw the multitude of angels? How many people saw a star? The birth occurred in Bethlehem which was really a small obscure town. It was predicted as a prophecy in the Bible that that's where the Messiah would be born. But how many knew that prophecy? Were the shepherds who saw the angels educated? Probably not. So what was it like that first night?

We have an advantage. Much like some of those persons who knew the prophecies, those who studied the Bible, those who knew the Bible frequently, turned to the pages of the Old Testament to find out what the Messiah would be like, we discover that there were over eighty eight predictions of this Messiah. But what was He really like? Isaiah gave us one of the biggest clues. He said, “The Messiah is going to be just like I described Him.” In Chapter 9 of Isaiah, he writes these words.

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in a land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. For unto us a child is born, to us a Son is given. And He will be called 'Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.' &He will reign on David's throne and over His kingdom establish and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

So here we have it. We have in Isaiah a major clue of what the Messiah would be like for those who were looking for Him. Yet He appeared in the form of a baby. The clue is the names given in Isaiah. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God. But a baby? That was unexpected. Prince of Peace. But there was no armor. There was no sword. There was no militia. How would that come about?

Let's look at those titles for a moment because it gives us an advantage. We as Christians have hindsight. We can look at the prophecies and have a greater understanding of who this baby was and what He would do and what He would be all about. Wonderful Counselor. The first title. That resonated with me because I was a counselor for thirty-two years. Nobody ever called me Wonderful Counselor! (Laughter) But I did have a clue in my own career what a wonderful counselor would be like. A wonderful counselor is one that gives advice that enables people to grow, solve their problems and achieve tremendous mental health. Did we find that with Jesus? We have 200 recorded sayings of Jesus in the Bible. They actually give everything we need to have great mental health. One saying of Jesus summarized it all. It made Jesus the first therapist and the best therapist and all the rest of us who were therapists could only imitate Him. What was that advice? The Great Command. “Love God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind. And love your neighbor as you love yourself.” This one command if kept, if truly understood, would create mental health in every individual. Truly understood, if we loved God with all of our heart and soul and allowed ourselves to be filled with that love and take in His love, absorb that love and give it back to Him, then love our neighbor and love ourselves, we would be mentally healthy. How many times have you talked badly about yourself to yourself? “Oh there, I've done it again. I've screwed up. I can't do anything right.” How many times have you talked badly about someone else? “He's a jerk. What a creep? He can't do anything right.” Or “She can't do anything right. She's nothing but a gossip,” or something of that nature. All those things bring about destructive emotions, destructive feelings and destructive thoughts, and they affect our mental health adversely. But if we listened to Jesus Christ and we discovered that He was and is the Wonderful Counselor and we took the advice that is contained in this book, the Bible, we'd change for the better. We would be incredibly surprised and incredibly happy about it.

The next title, Mighty God. In fact, there are three titles given in this same passage here. Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Emmanuel. They all say pretty much the same thing. Emmanuel is “God with us.” El was the word for God in the Old Testament and Emmanuel meant the dwelling of God is with us or God within us. In this case, the God within this baby that we symbolize with our crèche here this evening is Emmanuel. God with us. Almighty God. Father. Isn't there just one Father? But now this baby is also Everlasting Father? How can that be? Is it really God? Gilbert P. Chesterton said if Jesus Christ claimed to be God, He was either (a) a mad man, or (b) God. Which was he? He proved His divinity over and over again by healing people. He proved His divinity especially in that episode of Lazarus. Do you remember it? Lazarus was sick and Mary and Martha, his sisters, sent someone to Jesus saying, “Come quickly. Lazarus is dying.” But Jesus was too busy and postponed His arrival for three days. When He got there, Lazarus was already dead - wrapped up in spices and covered with minerals and laid in a tomb. When Jesus arrived at the tomb, Mary and Martha ran out crying, “If you had only gotten here on time, Lord, you could have saved him!” Jesus said, “Roll back the stone.” People protested, “If we roll back the stone, he already stinketh! We don't want any part of that!” But He said to do it anyway. When the stone was rolled back, He said, “Lazarus, come out.” It must have been a comical scene because here was Lazarus wrapped in his burial cloths and he hopped out alive. Jesus proved His divinity. Then He did it Himself. We celebrate Easter where Jesus arose from the dead Himself and appeared to over 500 people who recorded it in the later parts of the New Testament. Almighty God, Everlasting Father though? Isn't that God the Father who still remained in Heaven? Philip asked Jesus this question. “When are you going to show us the Father?” Jesus said, “How long have I been here with you and you still don't know me? I and the Father are one.” Do we really get that? Jesus was the Great I Am! Jesus was the creator of heaven and earth. Jesus was God in a man. Oh my gosh! That is the miracle. That is astounding. That is beyond our imagination.

Then the last title. Prince of Peace. What kind of peace did this baby present? The angels proclaimed peace on earth to men of good will. So there was a clue. The peace would only come to men of good will and women of good will. So you had to have a part in it yourself. If you wanted peace, you created a peace within yourself by having good will toward others. Jesus also made it known that His peace would come about by speaking truth, by embracing righteousness and seeking justice. Then His kingdom would come. But His kingdom would not be of this world. His kingdom was some place else. So we'd only have a taste of it here. We'd only have it partially here. And we would get it by responding to this baby who would grow into a man who was the embodiment of God Himself and required of us to seek forgiveness and to love one another and bring about peace and establish His kingdom.

Then there was a final name not given by Isaiah but given by an angel. And the angel was Gabriel who appeared to Mary. He said, “Mary, you are to name your son Jesus.” In Hebrew, it is Jeshua. It means God saves. So this baby who would become a man would be a Savior. Isn't that what each of us wanted, what each of us needed, what each of us needs right now? He comes to us as what the world has always wanted and needed. A Savior.