God’s saving love frees me.

Sermon for Christmas Day, 2019

The God of love and peace be with you, for by His grace, salvation has appeared for all people.  Amen.

Isaiah 9:2-7  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.  ³ You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy; They rejoice before You according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.  ⁴ For You have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, The rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.  ⁵ For every warrior's sandal from the noisy battle, and garments rolled in blood, will be used for burning and fuel of fire.  ⁶ For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder.  And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  ⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever.  The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

God’s saving love frees me.

Dear friends walking in Christ’s light,

In the Advent season we prepare to celebrate the Good News of God’s love coming to earth, so that on Christmas Day, each and every one of us can remember Christ’s birth rejoicing that God’s saving love frees me.  What greater love could God show His people than to shine His light on the path of those who were walking in darkness and to set free all who had been enslaved? 

            Isaiah presents quite a picture of the nation of Israel in our reading.  He displayed God’s chosen people as captives of an oppressive conqueror, being driven along by whip and rod through the dark of the night, their hands bound by chains to heavy yokes on their shoulders. 

Imagine what it would be like to find yourself bound in such a position.  In the deep dark of night, you wouldn’t be able to see things in the path that might trip you, so you wouldn’t be able to avoid them, and if you should stumble, you would have no way to catch yourself with your hands bound to the wooden beam laid across your shoulders, the weight of which would increase the likelihood of your falling and being severely injured by the weight of that heavy beam.  The tormentors driving you to despair wouldn’t be any help; instead, they’d enjoy seeing you fall.  Then, at the end of this march of slavery, you could expect only more suffering, pain, and death.  That’s awful stuff, isn’t it?  Yet, Isaiah pictures exactly the tormenting slave march of sin into which each of us was born.

Like your parents before you, you were born enslaved by the devil and his wickedness.  The Bible says we were born enemies of God, blinded to anything good by the darkness of unbelief; we were dead in sin and slaves of unrighteousness.  But, lest any of us want to play the victim card by blaming our parents and refusing to accept our own responsibility, recognize that we often volunteer for this slavery and oppression.  To some Jews who refused to admit that they had ever been slaves, “Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.’” (John 8:34)

In our text, Isaiah wrote, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.”  How the shepherds must have marveled when the night sky lit up with the brightness of God’s angels!  Yet, Jesus shines all the brighter for His light is perfect holiness and the glory of God.  Numerous times the Bible speaks of Jesus as a Light for you and me; not to show us how we might climb up to heaven, but to be the light that beams us there.  Certainly, Jesus taught many things on how we should live, but primarily, He lived so we could be made alive, and the power of Jesus’ light opened our eyes to His glory and salvation.

Isaiah also praises God saying, “You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy; they rejoice before You according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.”  Most ancient peoples celebrated the harvest with great joy, because a good crop ensured another year of life.  I know from lived experience that harvest time is the highlight of the year for most farmers as they are rewarded for year-long efforts.  Likewise, the Lord reminds us, here, how much He too treasures the bounty of His harvest which He expands and grows by bringing forgiveness and salvation to the people on earth.  You see, Jesus didn’t enter His humility, and take on suffering and death for just for a few of Jacob’s relatives; He came to live and die for the whole human race, and thus, you and I benefit from God’s gracious gift.

Because of Jesus, we can spend Christmas praising God and rejoicing in His mercy saying, “For You have broken the yoke of [my] burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of [my] oppressor, as in the day of Midian.  For every warrior's sandal from the noisy battle, and garments rolled in blood, will be used for burning and fuel of fire.” 

As we considered before, all the people of this world were marching along bound by sin in a yoke of slavery, and as we struggled along we were tormented and abused by the enemy’s accusations, but Christ lifted all of that off of every one of us.  The binding burden of the law, the wretched pounding of enemy torments, the bloody garments of our sinfulness all rolled up for burning in the fires of hell—Jesus took that all away from us and wore it Himself. 

Yes, Satan can send his demons to make their noise, but Jesus now owns the field.  Christ’s victorious, everlasting kingdom has been established by His innocent death and resurrection from the grave.  The Father has accepted Jesus’ once-for-all-sacrifice, and here at Christmas time, we are assured that His victory was never in doubt, because Jesus’ victory over our oppressors was exactly His Father’s plan all along.

“Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder.  And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  Notice that Jesus came into this world for the purpose of saving you, me, Isaiah, all his fellow Israelites who had so often betrayed their God, and everyone else too, and God is continually increasing the dominion of His Son as the Gospel is preached to more and more poor, enslaved sinners, releasing many into the glorious freedom of His heavenly kingdom.  The Word of God is for all of us.  We don’t have to wonder if we are included in God’s love, because He demonstrated His love for every person who ever lived, or will live, in this world.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:16-17)

Isaiah wrote, “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever.”  Christ will reign in His kingdom well past the time when the stars fall from the sky.  Past the day this earth melts away in the fires of destruction, and Satan and all his fellow tormentors are forever bound in the deepest pit of hell, Jesus will be reigning in peace and justice, and we will live free in the glory of God’s heaven, free from sin, from pain, from sorrow, free from illness and death.

Why can we each, personally, be so confident that God’s saving love frees me?  Simply, because “The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”  God has always wanted “all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4)  Before God created this world and everything in it, He knew we would turn against Him, but He planned our rescue anyway.  And in His zeal and love for His special creation, God will not be denied.  God wouldn’t allow our salvation to be based on anything so flimsy as human choice or effort, so God’s own dear Son, Jesus, came to rescue us.  Because only God’s one and only Son could withstand all the devil’s temptations and the torments that so afflict us, God sent Jesus to redeem you and me and everyone.

What an amazing thing it is to be able to say—God’s saving love frees me!  Most of us have, at least sometimes, been burdened with feelings of guilt.  We cause others’ pain.  Our consciences remind us that we do things we know are wrong, and the devil whispers his accusations in our ears.  We get in trouble with our parents or spouses.  We break the laws of the land, get caught, and the police and courts say we must pay for our guilt.  Sometimes, we feel so much guilt that, like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we try to hide from God because our guilty feelings warn us that we dare not stand in God’s presence because we are guilty. 

When those guilty feelings rise up against you, dear friends, be comforted by the promises of the Gospel, because Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)  Come to the Savior called, “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  Come to Jesus in the message of His grace and receive the forgiveness and peace with God that only He can give.   In Jesus, we find rest from all that had kept us separated from God.  In Him, we have a Counselor who knows our afflictions, who bore our torments, who resisted the same temptations we suffer; in Jesus, we have a Prince who did everything necessary to win our peace with God. 

As you spend today remembering the birth of the Christ Child, remember His love for you, a love so great He spread His arms on the wooden yoke of the cross, a love for you so deep that He carried all your sins and bore your guilt into the fires of hell.  Return again and again to that Baby in the manger of Bethlehem, remember all that Jesus did for you, living His perfect life and suffering death to give you life; then boldly repeat with me and all Christians ever, God’s saving love frees me!  So shall it be!  Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore.  Amen.