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[0:00] We're going to turn to our Bibles, and once again we're coming to the prophet Isaiah.! We've been looking over these Christmas services at Isaiah chapter 9. We're going to read there,! But first of all, we're going to read in chapter 7 this morning, one or two verses from there, and then at chapter 9. So if you pick up one of those Vista's Bibles, if you don't have a Bible, it's about page 571. And I'm going to read in Isaiah 7 the first couple of verses, and then from verse 5 and verse 10. It gives us a little of the context of these passages we've been reading. In the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Razin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Ramaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David was told Syria is in league with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. A very fearful people and a fearful military prospect.

[1:18] But look at verse 5. God said, because Syria with Ephraim and the son of Ramaliah has desired evil against you, saying, let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabil as king in the midst of it. Thus says the Lord God, it shall not stand, it shall not come to pass. Look down to verse 10. Again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz, ask a sign of the Lord your God, let it be as deep as shell or as high as heaven.

[1:59] But Ahaz said, I will not ask. I will not put the Lord to the test. And he, Isaiah said, let's hear then, O house of David. Is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also?

[2:15] Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. It means God with us. Turn over then to chapter 9 and these familiar verses that we've been reading together. Verse 1. There will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.

[2:45] In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

[2:58] The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. 4 verse 6. To us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

[3:57] Well, this morning we stay with what has been our theme really over our Christmas services this year, which is the identity of the Christ as promised by Isaiah the prophet some eight centuries, eight centuries before the birth of Jesus. And we focused on these wonderful names in chapter 9 here that we've just read. And we've seen that above all, Isaiah is pointing to one who is going to come, who is going to be the Lord of the whole wide world, who's going to be the ultimate king, the king of glory. And he can never be challenged. His rule will never end. It will be a never-ending government that everyone will rejoice in with great joy. And that clearly tells us, doesn't it, that that is like no government that this earth has ever known. Certainly no recent government we've ever known, either in Parliament here in Scotland or down in Westminster or anywhere else for that matter.

[4:59] It's interesting, isn't it, how every successive prime minister we have seems to have the lowest ever recorded appeal ratings until the next one comes. It's just an ever-expanding spiral of doom.

[5:12] But mercifully, mercifully for us, every one of these governments does eventually end. Although often we end up with something even worse. But this government that God is speaking of here, this rule will have no end, says Isaiah. The rule of this child, the Prince of Peace, will be forevermore.

[5:35] And it will be forever certain. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. But who is this that Isaiah is speaking of? Who is he in yonder stall?

[5:50] Well, as the hymn tells us, he is the Lord. He is the King of glory. Do take up your Bibles and turn to Isaiah chapter 9, if you would.

[6:09] And come back with me to first century Palestine, occupied territory, where for hundreds of years, God's people had been subjugated, they had never been free since their return from exile to Babylon.

[6:26] They came back to the land, but they were under the rule first of the Medo-Persians, and then the Greeks, and then lastly the Romans. And many had given up all hope of freedom.

[6:42] Others, if you know your history, had led various rebellions and uprisings to seek their own freedom. But there was a faithful remnant who still clung on in faith to the ancient promises of God.

[6:56] Promises from the prophets to bring at last help and succor to his people. There were men like Simeon, that we read of in Luke chapter 2. Righteous and devout, we're told.

[7:07] Waiting for the consolation, consolation for the comfort of Israel. Well, what was he waiting for? Well, he was waiting for this child that we've read of in Isaiah to be born.

[7:23] If you remember how Handel's Messiah begins, begins with a beautiful tenor solo from Isaiah chapter 40. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

[7:37] And then the wonderful chorus. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh will see it together. Well, that is what Simeon and others were waiting to see.

[7:50] The glory of the promised Lord. And for the beautiful feet of Isaiah chapter 52, that we've just been listening to the music of in the offering.

[8:02] The good news brought to Zion by those feet of those who come preaching the gospel of peace, publishing salvation, saying, Your God reigns.

[8:14] He reigns as the King and Lord of the whole world. That's what it means when we're told that Simeon was waiting to see the Lord's Christ.

[8:25] And that God had revealed to him that he would see him with his own eyes before he died. He was waiting literally for Christ mass, for Christ's birth. And, of course, neither Isaiah nor any of the other prophets knew exactly when the Christ would come.

[8:46] 1 Peter chapter 1 tells us that they all searched, they inquired diligently about the precise time, the precise human identity of this one who would come and suffer and then be glorified.

[9:02] But as to who he was and what he was, well, Isaiah, in fact, is very clear indeed. And the whole of his prophecy is bound up with the person and work of this child who was to come, who he really was and what he would really accomplish.

[9:19] Because Isaiah is looking forward to and speaking about the coming at last of the one who would be the promised Lord of all the world. He would be the ultimate King of glory.

[9:33] He'd be the answer, not only to God's people Israel, but in fact to all the nations of the world, indeed to the whole cosmos, and its need of renewal and salvation from the curse of sin.

[9:45] And that is why when Simeon saw the infant Jesus, as we read, he said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation, a light of revelation to the Gentile world, as well as a glory to your people Israel.

[10:06] You see, he understood that this child was at last the promised Lord of the whole world. Because he understood what Christmas meant, as foretold by prophets like Isaiah centuries before.

[10:20] So I want to try and grasp what Simeon had clearly grasped from the prophet Isaiah, about who this child born in a manger was going to be, and what it would do for the whole world.

[10:32] And to do so, we need to look a bit beyond just these verses in Isaiah chapter 9, and get the bigger picture of Isaiah clear in our minds. Now in his excellent book, The Christ of the Prophets, Palmer Robertson sums up the message of Isaiah, and he says this, that three connected mountain peaks provide the spinal backbone for Isaiah's prophecies.

[10:56] And they are first, the coming of a promised king in David's line, that is the true and everlasting David, whose throne would stand forever. Secondly, the suffering of the anointed servant of the Lord, that he speaks about in the famous servant songs.

[11:13] And thirdly, the arrival of the days of God's eschatological kingdom. That big word just means the new creation, what Isaiah calls the new heavens and the new earth.

[11:26] Those three things. I think it's very helpful because it ties together what it means for Isaiah, that he is prophesying the coming Lord of all the world, the ultimate king of glory.

[11:37] He's the ultimate answer to the world in each of these three ways. He's the ultimate ruler of the whole world. He's a king in David's line. He's the ultimate redeemer of the whole world.

[11:51] He's the anointed servant of God, the Savior. And he brings the ultimate restoration for the whole world. That is God's promised kingdom of glory.

[12:04] I want to think this morning about these three things and the way Isaiah speaks about them, relating them to this child. First, then, that the child is going to be the ultimate ruler of the whole world.

[12:16] If you look back at Isaiah chapter 7 there, just look at the context of this first mention of this child who's going to be born. And we know that famous verse.

[12:28] We read it, verse 14, about the one who would be called Emmanuel, born of a virgin. Let me quote to you from Palmer Robertson on this verse.

[12:39] He says, And that's true. If you've read biblical commentaries, you might very well know that people have said, oh, that word virgin in verse 14 doesn't really mean that.

[12:56] It just means a young woman. Well, I can categorically assure you that it's just simply not true. I point you, for example, to Alec Mateer's commentary.

[13:06] He gives a very definitive treatment of the matter. And his conclusion is that in every explicit context where we find this word, either in the Bible or outside the world, it means exactly and precisely a virgin.

[13:22] And if we look at the context in this prophecy, you'll see immediately that something monumental, something inevitably supernatural is being talked about. Chapter 7, as we read, it begins, doesn't it, telling us that God's people were under, well, a supreme threat.

[13:41] It wasn't just a political thing. It wasn't just that Syria and Ephraim were taking sides against Judah. That was enough to make them shake like trees in the wind, we're told.

[13:51] But far worse than that, if you look at verse 6, that is the real problem. They were going to get rid of Israel's king, the king in David's line, and supplant him with somebody else.

[14:07] Wiping out the Davidic king was tantamount to saying that God's whole covenant with David, that a son in David's line would reign forever, was going to be broken.

[14:20] That's the same kind of cosmic assault on God's whole plan of salvation that you see the seed of the serpent making on God's covenant promise all through the history of God's people, going right back to Genesis.

[14:36] Cain seeking to destroy Abel. The demonization of humanity that happens in chapter 6, leading up to the flood. All through the story, you read it.

[14:47] Ishmael wanting to destroy Isaac. Isaac. Esau wanting to destroy Jacob, and so on. The Pharaoh wanting to destroy the Israelites. Here is a cataclysmic assault on the plan and purpose of God.

[15:02] It's an attempt to destroy God's very covenant of salvation. And that's why God prompts Ahaz to ask for a sign in verse 11.

[15:13] A sign that God remembers his covenant. A sign that God will not let, will not allow such a thing to happen. And Ahaz, well, he seems to be full of false piety.

[15:26] Saying, oh, no, no, I'm not going to ask God for a sign, even when God tells him to. And so in verse 14, God says, well, I'll give you a sign anyway. A mighty sign that will show you that no force in heaven or earth can ever possibly threaten my plan of salvation.

[15:44] No force in heaven and earth can ever stop my chosen seed triumphing over my enemies. Even, even if there is not a man left on earth to father a king in David's line, even that will not stop me.

[16:01] Because a virgin will conceive and give birth to my king. And he will be this world's ultimate ruler. He himself, look at verse 14, he himself will be God, Emmanuel, God with us.

[16:18] He will be the promised Lord come to his people at last. Now he has, can I make it any clearer than that? That one who is God is going to be born of a woman, born even of a virgin.

[16:31] Paul Merobertson says, only the same spirit of unbelief that marred the response of King Ahaz to the prophet's message will rationalize away the wonder of this word.

[16:46] Emmanuel, God with us, come to be the ultimate ruler of this world. A king who is himself God.

[16:57] As we read in chapter 9, the mighty God will be his name. That is the child that God promised would be born. That's the son who would be given to his people.

[17:11] And he comes as a king in David's line as promised. If you look over to chapter 11, you'll see Isaiah again is speaking about this one who's to come.

[17:22] And chapter 11 verse 1 says that he comes as a shoot from the stump of Jesse. That is from the remnant of God's holy seed.

[17:37] The one that back in Isaiah chapter 6 God said he would preserve through the exile. So he's a shoot from the stump of Jesse. But then look down to verse 10.

[17:49] He's also, he calls him, the root of Jesse. So Jesse springs from him. So he's another David. He's a son of Jesse and yet he is the root.

[18:00] He's the origin of that whole holy family who was to be born. He is the king in David's line who is himself the origin of all things.

[18:11] He is the Lord of heaven and earth. And that's why verse 2 of chapter 11 there is unique. Look, the spirit of the Lord, the Lord God will rest on him.

[18:25] That means in fullness and completeness. The spirit of wisdom, of understanding, of counsel and might. Recognize those words?

[18:37] The wonderful counselor, the mighty God. And so, the answer notice that God gives to Ahaz to his immediate problem of war was not actually, was it, a quick fix now but it was the hope of an ultimate answer for the whole world.

[18:58] And that is what Simeon was still waiting for hundreds of years later. Not a political fix to get rid of the Romans. That's what many people wanted. But no, the ultimate answer in the true Lord of the whole world, in the coming of the King of Glory himself to his world.

[19:16] So important that to note, isn't it? God's answers are never just political. Church so often has forgotten that through the years. Got up to its ears in merely political things, merely social concerns.

[19:31] No, says Isaiah, he will be great. That's what the angel says to Mary, remember. Far greater, he will reign forever of his kingdom.

[19:43] There will be no end. He is the answer to the world because the one in yonder stall is nothing less than the world's ultimate ruler. That's the first thing.

[19:57] Before we look at the other two mountain peaks, so Isaiah tells us that this child in the manger is the king of glory. he is the world's ultimate ruler.

[20:10] But he also tells us just as plainly that he is the ultimate redeemer for the whole world. This great king, himself, God, who will rule the world, Isaiah says, will also be the suffering servant of God who will redeem the world.

[20:30] And that again is so, so important for us to grasp because that was something that Jews of Jesus' day simply couldn't stomach. They couldn't grasp.

[20:42] In fact, they still can't stomach it today which is why Jews today still reject that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah of God, the Messiah of Israel.

[20:53] Muslims today can't conceive that God could possibly suffer. That's a repugnant thought.

[21:05] But Isaiah makes it absolutely clear. If you look forward to Isaiah chapter 42, it's the first of the four famous servant songs of the suffering servant of God who is going to suffer to redeem his people and their sin.

[21:22] Look at the very first thing that we're told about him in verse 1. I have put my spirit upon him. Exactly the description of the promised child in chapter 11 of God's king that the spirit of the Lord will rest fully on him.

[21:39] And here in verse 4, chapter 42, he, that is God's servant, will bring justice to the earth. Just as back in chapter 11 we're told God's king would judge with justice the poor, bring equity, justice to the whole earth.

[21:56] See, he's saying these two are one and the same, God's king and God's servant, his servant king. If you're in need that at all, all you need to do is turn on a little further to Isaiah 52 and 53.

[22:10] Don't bother just now, but read it later on, but listen to what he says in Isaiah 52 verse 13. behold my servant, he will be high and lifted up and will be exalted.

[22:24] Now if you know Isaiah's prophecy, you read through it, you'll find that there is only one figure in Isaiah's prophecy who is ever high and lifted up like that.

[22:35] And he is the Lord God, the Lord of heaven and earth. In chapter 57, God himself speaks and says, thus says the Lord, the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy.

[22:52] But this child, this Savior who is going to suffer, is himself God. He is the high and lifted up one. And that is why he and he alone can be the ultimate redeemer of the world.

[23:06] That's why he can fill the world with justice and with righteousness and with peace. because only he has the power and authority to deal with everything that prevents righteousness and justice and peace in this world.

[23:21] That is the sin of man. But he, the high and lifted up one himself, he comes and is made low to be a servant, to be crushed, to be stricken for the sins of his people.

[23:40] We read in Isaiah 53, to be an offering for sin so that as God's righteous servant, he might make many to be counted righteous.

[23:51] Read those chapters later on yourself and you'll see the richness, the marvel of them. And that and that alone is how that kingdom is going to be established and how it's going to be upheld with righteousness and justice from this time forth and forever more.

[24:06] again, do you see God's answer in this child that he promises is never merely a temporal thing, a political thing.

[24:19] It doesn't just concern the natural order. It's about sin. It's about the spiritual realm that is the root cause of all the cosmic disorder in our world.

[24:32] And that is so important for us to grasp. It brings us to the third great mountain peak. But again, as we think about that, let's sing once again.

[24:46] See in yonder manger low, born for us on earth below is the Redeemer. Hail, redemption's happy dawn. So Isaiah tells us that this child will be the ultimate ruler of the whole world because he will be the ultimate Redeemer of the whole world.

[25:10] And that means also that his coming will initiate the ultimate restoration, recreation of the whole world. This child brings cosmic restoration, recreation of the whole universe.

[25:28] And that's such a feature of the later chapters of Isaiah. But again, even back in chapter 11, if you look there, it's so very clear, right in the context of what he's saying about this child who's a shoot of Jesse, the one who is possessed by the Spirit of God himself in absolute abundance.

[25:50] Look at what this new David is going to do. Look at verse 11 of chapter 11. that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

[26:12] All the remnant of God's faithful ones he'll gather from north and south and east and west. Those like Simeon and Hannah and Zechariah and Elizabeth and the shepherds and many, many more that we read of.

[26:27] But not just those people from among the natural Israelites. Look at verse 10. In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal for the peoples.

[26:40] Of him shall the nations inquire. Verse 12, again, a signal for the nations as well as for Israel. Do you see? And the prophecy of Isaiah is full of that, full of it.

[26:56] That's why Matthew quotes from Isaiah right at the very start of Jesus' ministry. In fact, he quotes from Isaiah chapter 9 in verse 1 and 2 where he draws particular attention to Galilee, Galilee of the Gentiles, as Isaiah calls it.

[27:12] That is who Jesus has come to call also, the Gentiles, the nations of the world. But look at the context of these verses. In chapter 11 about this king who comes to rule Israel and the Gentiles.

[27:25] Look at what that rule of righteousness is going to be like. Look at verse 6. When this king comes to reign over the remnant of his people Israel and over the nations and the peoples, verse 6, the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fatted calf together, and a little child shall lead them.

[27:49] The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and a nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra.

[28:02] The weaned child will put his hand on the adder's den, and they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

[28:20] What is that talking about? It's not talking about well-meaning people making this world a little bit better, is it, by fighting for justice and peace.

[28:33] This is not talking about some earthly hope of utopia, through some new politics, through some new social policy, or some great new leader. There's nothing like that, is it?

[28:45] This is talking about a recreated universe, where the curse, the curse of sin has been utterly banished forever, where there is utter victory, in the servant king, the son of God.

[29:01] As I sums it up at the end of his prophecy in chapter 65, by saying, behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth, and the former things, they won't even be remembered, they won't come to mind.

[29:15] And he goes on to describe the glory of that eternal kingdom. It will be glorious, it will be perfect, it will be just, it will be right, because, because, he says, in chapter 65, verse 25, because dust will be the serpent's food.

[29:37] Because at last, the serpent, the great enemy, the evil one, the destroyer of God's image in man, he will be utterly destroyed, cast down into the dust, trampled on, forever and ever.

[29:56] And then, and only then, there will be a world, where as Isaiah says, they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.

[30:06] what child is this? He is the one who will at last destroy the evil one and bring cosmic reconciliation and recreation to this whole world.

[30:21] That's the one that Simeon was waiting for. That's who Isaiah was waiting for when he wrote in Isaiah 8, verse 16, bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples.

[30:32] I will wait for the Lord. who is hiding his face just now from Jacob. But I will hope in him.

[30:45] And friends, in the birth of Jesus Christ, God is hiding his face no more. Love is smiling from his face, strikes for us now, the hour of grace.

[30:58] Savior, since thou art born. And Simeon said, now my eyes have seen your salvation. Let's pause and ponder that marvelous thought as we sing again.

[31:15] What kind of greatness can this be that chose to be made small, exchanging untold majesty for a world so pitiful that God should come as one of us?

[31:29] I'll never understand, but the more I hear the story told, the more amazed I am. God will I die? Isaiah promises us that this child is the promised Lord.

[31:43] He is the ultimate king of glory. So that means he is the ultimate ruler of this world. He's the ultimate redeemer of the world from sin.

[31:56] And therefore he and he alone can bring ultimate restoration, recreation for the world. And that is why old Simeon also said of Jesus to his parents that he would be a sign that is opposed and that to be associated with him, to be associated with the real Jesus would inevitably bring pain and opposition.

[32:26] A sword will pierce your own soul too, he said to them. Why is that? Well, it's because that Jesus is not a Jesus that our world wants.

[32:43] Nor is it, alas, a Jesus that the church is always willing to proclaim. So let me ask you all this this morning. Is this the child that you really are thinking of this Christmas?

[32:55] The one that Isaiah has actually promised us and explained to us. I hope that we have got Christ's identity as clear in our minds as Isaiah did all those centuries before.

[33:10] I hope we do because if not, we are going to run into all kinds of problems. And as we close this morning, let me just try and make that clear. First, if we don't really grasp that Jesus is the ultimate ruler of this whole world, if we don't grasp that, then we might feel inhibited, mightn't we, in proclaiming a unique gospel of a unique savior and a universal lord.

[33:38] We might hesitate to proclaim a Christ who commands all people everywhere in the whole world to repent and to bow to his ultimate lordship.

[33:52] And we might shrink back, mightn't we, from proclaiming Christ alone as the only way of salvation, to Jew and Gentile, to Muslim and Hindu, to secularist and spiritualist, to every single human being on this planet.

[34:13] We're not very clear that Jesus alone is the ultimate ruler of the whole world. We might, well, we might start to talk about interfaith witness, and all kinds of things that just show we haven't grasped at all what the gospel of Jesus Christ is really all about.

[34:30] Now, we really need to grasp Isaiah chapter 11, verse 4, what it means that Jesus really is the Lord of all, that he will judge all the nations with justice, and therefore that he must ultimately destroy the wicked who will not submit to his rule.

[34:51] If we don't grasp the ultimate kingship of the Lord Jesus, then we'll fail to do what the very last few verses of Isaiah chapter 66 demands that we do to declare his glory to all the nations, all the nations of the world.

[35:12] And we might also be tempted to finish Isaiah chapter 66 at verse 23 and not verse 24. Look that up yourself later. Secondly, if we fail to grasp that this child came to bring ultimate restoration to this whole universe, the whole cosmos, then we might lower our horizons drastically.

[35:34] We might not look for a fulfillment that's nearly big enough. Our eyes won't be on a new heavens and a new earth that Christ has begun and that he'll usher in for certain when he returns.

[35:47] And that means then we won't be living for that world, will we? Instead, we'll just have our eyes on the things of this world and our priorities will be in this world.

[36:01] And we'll be very tempted to settle for a partial restoration now. And so we might indeed lose our way as a church down the road of a social gospel as liberalism has done.

[36:12] Getting totally taken up with alleviating this world's problems which we can never do because we cannot sort the evil heart of man. And even if we start off as evangelical believers, we don't understand about the ultimate goal of the restoration of this whole world, we might get sidetracked completely, putting all our energy into merely political campaigns about peace and justice and poverty and all manner of things which are very worthy in themselves but will never, ever, ever bring in the real salvation that this world needs, which is the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in glory to reign when all have come to repentance and bowed the knee to him.

[37:00] But notice his eyes so clearly this child brings the real answer, brings the ultimate transformation of all things. And that means that our task as the Christian church is to proclaim that message, the glorious message of that transformation to every nation on this earth.

[37:18] And that's how, as Peter says in his letter, we will speed the coming that we long for. And that is what is to fill our horizon as Christian people, not shoring up a dying world and making it a little bit better.

[37:34] Although, of course, we want to do as much as we can to improve this world as we live in it. Thirdly, if we fail to see that this child is the ultimate redeemer, who suffers in order to bring salvation and who calls his followers to share in that suffering so that we might also share in his glory and in his way to bring that message of redemption to the world, if we don't grasp that truth, then as the church we might fall into all kinds of triumphalism.

[38:09] We might mistake totally, mightn't we, what it means to follow the king of the world in this world. Because in this world he was despised, he was rejected, and he always will be.

[38:22] And he tells us, so always will be those who truly stand with him. A sword will pierce your own soul also. Unless we see that as Isaiah saw it, we might think that to serve Jesus now means to have all that glory now, all that health, all that wealth, all that prosperity, all that bliss.

[38:47] But no, says the Lord Jesus to his followers, in this world you will have not that, but tribulation. But don't forget, this world is not all there is.

[38:58] And be of good cheer, because I have overcome this world. So what child is this, friends, that we are celebrating this Christmas?

[39:11] Are we really as clear as old Simeon was, as Isaiah was, hundreds of years before his birth? If he really is the ultimate ruler, then we'll bow to his authority alone, won't we?

[39:25] And we'll call others without fear to bow to his unique and universal authority. If he is the ultimate redeemer, then we will trust in his cross, and we will carry our cross with him, gladly bearing the reproach, so that others will also find the salvation that he brings.

[39:45] And if he brings ultimate restoration to this world, then we will live with detachment from this world, won't we? We'll be people who are increasingly content with material things, but increasingly longing for the coming of Christ to usher in his eternal kingdom forever.

[40:09] And the whole trajectory of our life, the whole energy of our life will be focused there, won't it? On real world transformation, not on fantasies of utopianism in our present world.

[40:23] So what child is this, the Christ child, that we are thinking of this Christmas? Is he the ultimate ruler of the whole world?

[40:36] The ultimate redeemer? The ultimate restorer, recreator of this universe? Isaiah gives us a lot to think about.

[40:50] And I'd encourage us to be thinking about these things very much as we approach a new year. Let's pray. Almighty God, Lord, who has given us thine only begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin, grant that we, being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, that we may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit, through the same, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with thee in the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end.

[41:37]  Amen.