All right, grab your Bibles and go to Isaiah chapter 9. We're in a series, Christmas series here at Village Bible Church called His Name. We're looking specifically at the four names of Jesus given in the prophet Isaiah's prophecy about the coming Messiah. And last week was Wonderful Counselor, today is Mighty God. [00:00:00] Making vertical captioned clip



People love a good superhero. And we're living in a day and age where we have a lot of superheroes, a lot of mythical figures to look up to. And so I've got a couple pictures. This is audience participation, so it's okay to talk in church. Identify who this superhero is. Here's the first one. Thor, God of Thunder. He's from Norse mythology, but you might know him from Marvel mythology, and he's a popular superhero. How about this one? [00:00:23] (34 seconds)








Jesus is the divine warrior. This word for mighty God is, in the Hebrew, El Gabor. El is the word for God, and that's tied for different words in the Hebrew to mean different things. El Shaddai, El Eon. There's all these different names that God has. El is God. But the word translated into mighty is Gabor. Gabor can also be translated mighty warrior, or divine warrior, a champion, a hero. [00:05:19] (32 seconds)




So Yahweh is the name of God. from the Old Testament. And some Bibles translated Jehovah. But Yahweh is I am who I am as God appeared to Moses in the burning bush. And his description is this thing, a warrior of warriors, a mighty God, a supernatural champion. And this is El Gabor. So don't let the fact that Jesus stepped into time and space as a baby fool you into thinking that he was only a baby. [00:10:10] (41 seconds)




Jesus existed with the Father before time began. The Trinity, the three in one, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. But at Christmas, Jesus took on flesh and was born humbly in a manger. But there's much more to him than meets the eye. He is our mighty God. It's like Clark Kent. Clark Kent goes around kind of a bumbling. Clark Kent, he's not very smart. It doesn't seem he doesn't win any of the journalist awards. [00:10:51] (31 seconds)








He's our victory over all these things that would seek to enslave us. Jesus has conquered them on the cross. 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. 1556 says, the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the great victor. [00:16:24] (26 seconds)




The story of the divine warrior is a story of the divine warrior. The story of this divine warrior, El Gabor, does not culminate in the manger. The story doesn't culminate in the cross or even the empty tomb. The story of this divine warrior culminates when Jesus, our mighty God, comes back again. And he's coming back. [00:18:46] (24 seconds)

All right, grab your Bibles and go to Isaiah chapter 9.

We're in a series, a Christmas series here at Village Bible Church called His Name. We're looking specifically at the four names of Jesus given in the prophet Isaiah's prophecy about the coming Messiah.

Last week was Wonderful Counselor, today is Mighty God.

People love a good superhero. And we're living in a day and age where we have a lot of superheroes, a lot of mythical figures to look up to.

And so I've got a couple pictures. This is audience participation, so it's okay to talk in church. Identify who this superhero is.

Here's the first one. Thor, God of Thunder. He's from Norse mythology, but you might know him from Marvel mythology, and he's a popular superhero.

How about this one? Iron Man, that's easy, right?

And the next one, Superman in Plano. He came to church, and then afterwards he took this photo, which was cool. That is Plano right in the background there, right?

And not to leave out you women, who's this? Wonder Woman.

And the last one, maybe the biggest superhero of them all is Santa Claus. And really, he is. He's like the biggest one, the one that takes presents to boys and girls all around the world.

And one night, jolly old Saint Nick, he wasn't actually so jolly. The actual Saint Nick, early church father, he punched another guy in the mouth at a church meeting because the other guy denied the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Christ, jolly old Saint Nick, socked him right in the mouth. And that's church history. But yet, he's turned into this other mythical creature who is our hero at Christmastime.

What scholars have told us, actually, it's a very unique thing to the 20th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, something called comic books began to be popular. And people began to read these comic books, these stories of these superhero people, people who could do more than the average person.

And then as TV and movies began to grow in popularity, a sort of modern mythology developed in our secular age. So now people find, not in the Greek gods of old or in the Norse gods of old, none of that mythology is around any longer, but now what's around is this culture of superheroes, and we all want to have a superhero or be a superhero.

We all want somebody who can rescue us from the problems that we have because we do live in a place of problems, and there's evil, and there's wickedness in the world. Would you agree with that? There's wickedness in the world, and so we find an escape when we have somebody to look up to who can rise above the sin and the wickedness and the death and can deliver us even and can rescue us.

I think it's more than just something that rose up in the 20th century. I think there's something deeper going on there. I think there's something within each one of our hearts that it's really a God-shaped hole, but we try to fill it with other things, but we should have a right, and it's a good and godly desire to have someone who will rescue us from sin, death, the power of the devil, which is so prevalent in our world today.

Today we're going to look at this. From his humble beginnings in Bethlehem in a manger to being our mighty God, and that's what we're going to look at today.

Last week we looked at Jesus' description as a wonderful counselor, that he's a miraculous counselor to be able to give us his wisdom and to lead us and to guide us. His counsel is not only good for making the universe, his counsel is good for your individual life, right where you find yourself today in 2024.

And he's our wonderful counselor. But make no mistake about it, the babe in the manger, he's not only just the babe in the manger, he is our mighty God.

Look at Isaiah chapter 9, starting at verse 6. Would you pray with me one more time?

Lord, we thank you for this, your word. I pray that as we look at Jesus, our Messiah, the one who was prophesied 700 years before Bethlehem, that he would come and that he would be our mighty God, that he would speak to us this morning.

Lord, I pray that we would see Jesus in a different light this morning, and that we would ultimately worship Him. Amen.

So let's start here. Jesus is the divine warrior.

Jesus is the divine warrior. This word for mighty God is, in the Hebrew, El Gabor. El is the word for God, and that's tied for different words in the Hebrew to mean different things. El Shaddai, El Eon. There's all these different names that God has. El is God.

But the word translated into mighty is Gabor. Gabor can also be translated mighty warrior, or divine warrior, a champion, a hero. Most of the times when it's used in the Old Testament, it's tied with military prowess and victory.

Actually, the word is used 159 times in the Old Testament, and I want to take a couple minutes to trace this word, Gabor, with you through the Old Testament.

Turn to your neighbor and say, this will be fun. Trust me, this will be fun. Word studies are fun.

And so the first time you see this word is in Genesis chapter 6. So you got your Bibles? Let's do a little Bible study. Genesis chapter 6.

Verse 4, the Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man, and they bore children to them. These were mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

So we don't know exactly what's going on here in Genesis chapter 6. This is a fascinating thing to study, by the way. Some people believe that during this time, God allowed in a special instance for fallen angelic beings to actually procreate with human beings and produce these people called the Nephilim.

And these people called the Nephilim were known as mighty men of renown, gibor. They were mighty. They were strong. There's another interpretation of that, by the way. It's that these Nephilim were a product of kingly men marrying ordinary women, and they had these special offspring, these kids.

These kids that were powerful men, as the line of Seth married into the line of Cain, okay? And so you can dive into that all that you want. I'm just here to show you that this is the first place in the Bible that gibor is used for these mighty men of renown.

Then the second place, the second time it's used, and we're not going to go through all 159, but the second place is in chapter 10, verse 8. Cush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on earth to be a mighty man, Gabor. He was a mighty hunter, Gabor, hunter before the Lord.

So this man, Nimrod, was the first one named to be Gabor. And so this word is starting to take on a shape to it, that this person, whoever is described, is being described as Gabor, is a strong person, is a mighty person.

In 1 Samuel chapter 17, verse 4, we see there's a giant on the side of the Philistines. They're going against the nation of Israel, and this giant is mocking Israel and mocking God, and he's challenging anybody else to come out and fight him.

Anybody know his name? Goliath. Goliath is called Gabor. He was a mighty warrior. He was a warrior since he was a teenager, they say. And now he's a giant among men, and he challenges the army of Israel.

Somebody steps up and fights him. His name was King... Yeah, and he wasn't a king then. He was just a young lad at the time. And he fights David and kills him. And David goes on to be one of the most powerful military-wise kings of the nation of Israel.

And he's got these special forces around him. His mighty men, they're called. Mighty, Gebor. The mighty men of David, they surround him. They're his green berets or his navy seals, whatever you want to call them. And they are described as Gebor.

Not only are people described with this word, mighty, strong, warrior, champion, hero, it's also applied to angelic beings. Psalm 103 verse 20 says that in the heavens, the Giborim, the mighty ones of God, are declaring the glory of God and worshiping God.

And so you take this word, Gebor, and you tie it to El, the word for God, El-Gebor. It is the word for God. It is the word for God. It is the word for God. It is always used for God Almighty, for God Himself, the mighty God, the strong God.

Deuteronomy 10, 17 says, Yahweh is God of gods, Lord of lords, the great God, the warrior of warriors, El-Gebor.

So Yahweh is the name of God from the Old Testament. And some Bibles translate it as Jehovah. But Yahweh is I am who I am as God appeared to Moses in the burning bush.

And his description is this thing, a warrior of warriors, a mighty God, a supernatural champion. And this is El Gabor.

So don't let the fact that Jesus stepped into time and space as a baby fool you into thinking that he was only a baby. Jesus existed with the Father before time began. The Trinity, the three in one, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

But at Christmas, Jesus took on flesh and was born humbly in a manger. But there's much more to him than meets the eye. He is our mighty God.

It's like Clark Kent. Clark Kent goes around kind of a bumbling. Clark Kent, he's not very smart. It doesn't seem he doesn't win any of the journalist awards. He is kind of a klutz. He falls down a lot. He wears clunky glasses. Nobody knows his real identity.

Those are incredible glasses, by the way, that they can cloud his identity from everybody around him. But he's much more than Clark Kent, and the baby in the manger is much more than a human baby in a manger. He is our mighty God.

Now, here's this description of who Jesus is in Colossians chapter 1. And I just want to remind you, as you think of this this Christmas, here's who we're celebrating his birth.

Colossians chapter 1 verse 15, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. This is Jesus. He has made all things. Created all things. Spoken all things into existence. He sustains all things, even now today.

The reason why the molecules and the atoms in your body aren't separated is because Jesus himself is holding you together. Literally, he's holding all together. And everything that he created was for him and his glory.

This is our mighty God. This is our divine warrior.

Jesus is the divine warrior. Secondly, the divine warrior was victorious. He was.

Many different religious scholars and theologians have tried to process and describe what Jesus did in his passion week, the last week of his life. The passion of the Christ is not just a movie. It's his last week. It's when he was arrested and put on trial and crucified, and then he rose again.

People have tried to describe what was going on supernaturally. We see it in history, what happened, and it's very brutal, but it ends with an empty tomb, and the lives transformed, of the disciples, but what was going on spiritually speaking.

And so some have said, well, they call it the moral influence theory. What Jesus did was he was our example, and so he gave up himself. He gave up his life for his friends. And so he's our example.

And maybe back in the 90s, you wore a bracelet, and it said WWJD. What would Jesus do? That's the moral influence, that he's our example. And he is. Jesus said this in John 15, verse 13. Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

And Jesus did just that. He is our example. He is our moral, the person that we look to for our morals. But what he did was more than that.

And so this other theory exists called the substitutionary atonement of Christ. It's that not only was he our example, he was, but he was our substitute, meaning he took our place to bear our punishment on the cross and to actually absorb the righteous wrath of God on our behalf.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says that God did this. God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us so that we could have the righteousness of God in him.

So now Jesus takes our punishment. Jesus takes what we deserve. And by faith, when we trust in him, we receive the righteousness of God then.

So that now as you stand before God, he doesn't see you and your sin and your mistakes and your life that's fallen apart. He sees Christ's righteousness as he died in your place. He was your substitute. He stepped in. He did the hard work for you, the substitutionary atonement of Christ.

So he's our moral example, yes, but more than that, he's our substitute, substitutionary atonement, yes, but even more than that, he's our victory.

He's the Christus victor, and that was a term, a Latin term given by a Swedish theologian. His name was Gustav Allen in 1931, but that name was given to describe a view that existed in the early church with the early church fathers, and it's this.

Not only was he our moral example, and he is our substitute, and he bore the wrath of the Lord, but he also declared victory, cosmic victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil through the cross and through the resurrection.

He's our victory over all these things that would seek to enslave us. Jesus has conquered them on the cross.

1 Corinthians 15:55-56 says, the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the great victor. Colossians 2:15 says, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he, Jesus, made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

So the cross secured the victory over sin. You don't have to be a slave to sin any longer. Did you know that? Because Jesus Christ has conquered sin. He paid for sin. You don't have to be a slave to sin.

He also conquered death. In his death, he conquered death so that you could be alive spiritually, and actually, you can have eternal life.

So that when you stand by the graveside of a believer, a fresh grave, you don't have to mourn like everybody else mourns, because you know that there is heaven to come. There is life to come, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And then lastly, he defeated the devil. 1 John 3:8 says, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.

So now when the devil comes to you with this discouragement or despair, you don't have to be afraid. He's a defeated enemy. He was defeated on the cross.

And so you can claim the victory, not because you're stronger than the devil, but because he's stronger than the devil, because he is our El Gabor. He's our mighty God. He's our divine warrior.

And he, through the cross, was victorious for you and for me. But we have to embrace it by faith. We have to believe for ourselves. We have to follow Christ.

So he was victorious. He conquered sin, death, and the power of the devil. And he did it at the cost of his own life for you.

The divine warrior was victorious, but here's finally the divine warrior will be victorious.

The story of this divine warrior, El Gabor, does not culminate in the manger. The story doesn't culminate in the cross or even the empty tomb. The story of this divine warrior culminates when Jesus, our mighty God, comes back again.

And he's coming back. He said this at the end of the story. Revelation 22, verse 12, Jesus says, Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. I'm coming, he says, and I'm bringing my recompense. I'm bringing repayment.

He's bringing justice and righteousness and truth and salvation for those who have believed and forgiveness and peace for those who have believed.

But you talk about reparations. These are the real reparations that are coming. Jesus is coming back, and he's going to stand against evil and give them a final death blow because they're a conquered enemy already, but we're just waiting for him to return and to make things right forever, and he's coming again.

Now, what's he going to do when he comes? How is he going to bring this repayment? How is he going to make the crooked paths straight? How is he going to make sure the sins against you that nobody has given account for are going to be paid for?

How does he come and bring judgment to those who deserve judgment? How is he going to come and... what's he going to do? How's he going to bring peace to us who have believed in him and trusted in him?

Revelation 19, verse 11. Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God.

El Gabor, our mighty God, our divine warrior, is coming back, not as a babe in a manger, but as a mighty warrior on a white horse, and he is called the Word of God.

John 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It's Jesus, eternal, with the Father and the Spirit, who now, after his incarnation, is coming to make peace through the cross and by his blood.

Now he's coming back to set up his kingdom again. And this is not a very Christmassy message, especially when the angel declares that all the birds are going to die, and all the birds are going to die, and all the birds are going to die, should come and feast on the flesh of all the people and the devil who will be judged.

But it's who Jesus is. He's our divine warrior. And we lose sight of that in our culture. And we see Christmas and we see Jesus, meek and mild, long hair, frolicking through the fields, some hippie preaching love.

And don't make no mistake about it, he is our mighty God. He is a divine warrior and no sin will be left unpaid for.

So my recommendation is let him pay it for you. He did on the cross.

But this is true. All of it's true. All evil will be done away with by the victory that has come, that is to come with the divine warrior.

El Gabor is the king of kings and the Lord of lords, our mighty God.

Back in the 90s, might have even been the late 80s, during this time of superheroes and culture developing a new mythology, there was a Christian artist named Carmen, and he came up with a song called The Champion.

And I guess you'd say it was kind of like spoken word today. There's some singing, but there's a story that he told. And the story that was told was about Jesus and his passion.

His death and resurrection was described as a sort of a Rocky Balboa boxing match. And so the devil's on one side and Jesus is on the other side and God the Father is the referee.

I don't know how theologically correct this song is, but it really fired me up. And he gets dealt a death blow. Jesus gets dealt a death blow and he goes down.

And he goes down for the count. And the referee, the Father, starts counting down.

And this is the end of the song. And I've asked Greg to play it and to crank it because it's really cool. And I love it. And so I'll just play this song for you.

Subject: Jesus: Our Mighty God and Divine Warrior

Dear Village Bible Church - Plano,

Reflecting on Jesus as our Mighty God and Divine Warrior has been a profound journey for me, and I hope it has been for you as well.

In last Sunday's sermon, we explored the powerful identity of Jesus as "El Gabor," the Divine Warrior, who triumphs over sin, death, and evil. This title, rooted in Isaiah 9:6, reminds us that Jesus is not just a figure from history but our present and future hope. His victory through the cross and resurrection is a cosmic triumph that liberates us and promises eternal life. As we anticipate His return, we are called to live in the light of this victory, embracing the hope and peace He brings.

As we continue to reflect on these truths, let us be encouraged to embrace Jesus' victory by faith. Trust in His power and follow Him as our divine warrior, knowing that He has already secured our freedom and will one day return to set all things right. May this inspire us to live with hope and courage in our daily lives.

Blessings,
Village Bible Church - Plano Team