Sermon for Advent 2, December 10, 2023
Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age,
according to the will of our God and Father—to whom be the glory forever and
ever. Amen.
Isaiah 40:1-11 Comfort, comfort my people, says your
God. 2Speak to the heart of
Jerusalem and call out to her. Her
warfare really is over. Her guilt is
fully paid for. Yes, she has received
from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
3A voice is calling out: In the
wilderness prepare the way for the Lord.
In the wasteland make a level highway for our God. 4Every valley will be raised up,
and every mountain and hill will be made low.
The rugged ground will become level, and the rough places will become a
plain. 5Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh
together will see it. Yes, the mouth of
the Lord has spoken. 6A
voice was saying, “Cry out!” And I said,
“What shall I cry out?” All flesh is
grass, and all its beauty is like a wildflower in the countryside. 7Grass withers, flowers fade, when
the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Yes, the people are grass. 8Grass
withers, flowers fade, but the Word of our God endures forever. 9Get up on a high mountain, O
Zion, you herald of good news. Lift up
your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, you herald of good news. Lift it up!
Do not be afraid! Say to the
cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10Look,
God the Lord will come with strength, and his arm is ruling for him. Look, his reward is with him. The result of his
work is in front of him. 11Like
a shepherd he will care for his flock.
With his arm he will gather the lambs.
He will lift them up on his lap.
He will gently lead the nursing mothers. (EHV)
God comforts His people
in Christ.
Dear sons and daughters of the One true God,
`~k,(yhel{a/ rm:ßayO yMi_[; Wmßx]n:
Wmïx]n:
I
think that is one of the coolest passages in the Hebrew Scriptures, and in
English it is equally beautiful, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” Much of the previous message in Isaiah’s book
is harsh judgment and discipline being applied to a rebellious Israel. In His great love and kindness, God had
always treated Israel with utmost care.
He provided for them, protected them, and poured out blessings upon them
in immeasurable quantity, and in response, the nation turned their backs to
God, chased after their neighbor’s idols, and sought help from nearby kings
rather than the King of kings.
God
had shown great patience with their wandering, idolatrous ways, but their
continual rebelliousness forced God to discipline His people in hopes of
bringing them back into His loving embrace.
His righteousness and justice demanded that their adulterous idolatry be
punished, that their seeking comfort, safety, and peace in relationship with
foreign gods and neighboring kings had to be stopped.
Still, God’s love required
that He not give up on His people. God’s
perfect holiness demanded that sin and the sinner be punished. Yet, rather than leaving His people bereft of
all hope, God calls for comfort for those He has afflicted in the hope of
bringing them back into His family of peace and love.
God
commanded His prophet, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out
to her. Her warfare really is over. Her guilt is fully paid for. Yes, she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.” God wants
His people to hear His tender heart for them.
He wants His elect to know how greatly He desires to care for them and
to be united with them in peace and harmony.
Yet, God knows full well that His people can never accomplish that reconciliation
on their own. Therefore, He commits
Himself to winning peace and unity of heart with them through His own sacrifice.
The
nation of Israel suffered greatly for its rebellious ways. The ten northern tribes had been driven off
into permanent exile in foreign lands and never heard from again as a unique
people. Now, the southern remnant in
Judah is being carted off into a seven decade captivity in Babylon. God’s comfort is applied first to those
captives in Babylon, but they foreshadow all God’s people held captive in this
rebellious and idolatrous world. The
whole human race was captive to the sinfulness we inherit from our first
parents, and all of us have our own guilt and shortcomings. Yet, recognize God’s loving care for us. The warfare between God and mankind has been
ended. Our guilt has been paid for,
eliminated, wiped from God’s memory forever, when His own dear Son was counted
as sin and sinner for you and me.
Now,
many modern scholars like to imagine that the Israelite people, through their
trials in Babylon, have somehow accomplished this reckoning that makes them
right with God. However, nothing could
be further from the truth. Today, in
hindsight, we know that God was sending His own dear Son to win this peace on
our behalf. Isaiah was shown the
forerunner who would pave the way for Jesus.
“A voice is calling out: In the wilderness prepare the way for the
Lord. In the wasteland make a level
highway for our God. Every valley will
be raised up, and every mountain and hill will be made low. The rugged ground will become level, and the
rough places will become a plain.”
Every obstacle that kept us separated from God would be removed when
God’s Son entered the world to save.
John
the Baptist was sent by God to call people of Judah to repentance, to prepare
them to meet the Savior and recognize Him as God in human flesh. Every obstacle to God’s plans would be smoothed
over. It may not always be obvious to us
how this played out in real life, because Jesus wasn’t always widely recognized
when He walked this earth. Yes, many
people called Him a prophet or teacher. His
disciples adored Him, while His enemies feared and hated Him. Thus, in the end, they killed Jesus. At the same time, that is exactly as God had
planned it so that His own beloved Son would pay the debt for the sins of the
world.
Isaiah
wrote, “Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh together
will see it. Yes, the mouth of the Lord
has spoken.” The glory of the Lord
was revealed to the world at the cross where God’s Son, Jesus, laid down His life to pay for all
sin. To the world, it seemed that God
had lost, but on Easter morning, the true revelation of victory over sin,
death, and the devil was revealed as Jesus rose from the grave gloriously alive
again. Still, there is another day
coming in which the Lord will fully reveal His glory as He returns to judge the
world. Then the word of the Lord will be
complete, as John prophesied, “Look, He is coming with clouds, and every eye
will see Him, including those who pierced Him.” (Revelation 1:7)
Our
need for a Savior is not neglected in Isaiah’s prophecy. A voice was saying, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry out?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is
like a wildflower in the countryside.
Grass withers, flowers fade, when the breath of the Lord blows on
them. Yes, the people are grass. Grass withers, flowers fade, but the Word of
our God endures forever. Just as
John the Baptist called for the Judeans to repent and believe, so we are called
to repent, because our time here on earth is short, and without our Savior’s
intervention, our lives would end in the flames of destruction. Yesterday, we experienced again the cold, northwest
wind that so often cuts down the plants of the field. Naturally, this is only a picture of the Lord
cutting short the lives of sinners. Even
if we should live to be in our hundreds, compared to eternity, life without
Jesus is nothing.
On
the other hand, God’s Word will never fall.
Nothing on earth can interfere with what God has promised. We could preach law until we are blue in the
face, but the law will show our sins and condemn us. Still, God does not neglect us. He says to the prophet and His people, “Get
up on a high mountain, O Zion, you herald of good news. Lift up your voice with strength, O
Jerusalem, you herald of good news. Lift
it up! Do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your
God!” Look, God the Lord will come with
strength, and his arm is ruling for him.
Look, his reward is with him.”
Zion
and Jerusalem are synonymous for the elect of God’s kingdom. Of course, Christ Jesus is first on this
list. He is the Son of God who came
proclaiming salvation to the people of Judah.
John the Baptist preceded Jesus and he pointed to Him exclaiming, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of
the world! This is the one I was talking
about when I said, ‘The one coming after me outranks me because he existed
before me.’” (John 1:29-30)
Jesus
came with the strength of the Almighty to live according to the will and law of
God, then to take on death and the grave and even the devil and leave them all
in ignominious defeat. After Jesus rose
from the grave triumphant and returned to His Father’s side in the throne room
of heaven, the apostles were sent out to proclaim the power and victory of
Jesus to the world. Their work is
continued to today through the Church, empowered and directed by the Holy
Spirit sent by Jesus from the Father.
Christ’s reward is to honor His Father with the souls He has won to
salvation.
Finally,
Isaiah assures us that Jesus is still in control. Just as the prophets had foretold, God has
put all things under Jesus’ feet, and Jesus promised to be with us, to help us,
and to work all things for our everlasting good. Isaiah wrote, “The result of his work is
in front of him. Like a shepherd he will
care for his flock. With his arm he will
gather the lambs. He will lift them up
on his lap. He will gently lead the
nursing mothers.” This is the
picture to which Jesus refers as He speaks to His disciples, “I am the Good
Shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep
know me … And I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:14-15)
No
one in Jesus’ care is ever forgotten. No
thief can ever snatch the child of God from his Savior. Salvation is only lost when the weak reject
the Lord as their Savior. Therefore,
through all the troubles and sorrows that beset us in this life, we should
never be afraid or ever despair, because Jesus has done everything needed to
restore us to life everlasting. He gave
His life on the cross to reconcile us with God Almighty Jesus lived perfection for us so that our
record now reads as perfectly holy in thought, word, and deed for Jesus’s
sake. Furthermore, the God who was
willing to sacrifice Himself so that you may truly live, made sure that you
heard and believed the words that brought you forgiveness, salvation, and
eternal life in heaven. What greater
comfort could ever be ours than to know that God Himself has made us right with
Him eternally? The voice rings out again
and again as we wait for Jesus to return in all His glory; through the water
and Word of baptism, we are comforted as we are welcomed into the kingdom of
heaven as children made holy by the blood of the Lamb. In His holy supper, our Savior again offers
us comfort and peace as He brings to us forgiveness of all sin in the medicine
of His body and blood in the bread and wine.
Hear the Good News again and again: “Comfort, comfort my people, says
your God.” Amen.
The
Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
you all. Amen.
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