The First Christmas Song (Christmas Eve 2021)
Luke 1:46-56
The First Christmas Song
Luke 1:46-56
Main Idea: Christmas is an invitation to humbly sing about the good news of Christ’s coming.
I. Why Mary Sings
Mary responds to the visit of the Angel Gabriel in stages:
Searching (1:29): she takes an “accounting” of this disruptive news
Surrender (1:38): she offers a simple surrender in faith
Singing (1:46-47): she is moved in her “spirit” and her “soul” to magnify the Lord, “my Savior”
II. What Mary Sings
Mary sings about:
God’s Character (1:49-50). He is mighty, holy, and merciful.
God’s Purposes (1:51-53). His strong ‘arm’ brings salvation; he humbles the exalted and exalts the humble.
God’s Promises (1:54-55). Though Mary had every earthly circumstantial reason to doubt God’s promises, he is faithful to his people and his word.
“There has never been a gift offered that makes you swallow your pride to the depths that the gift of Jesus Christ requires us to do. Christmas means that we are so lost, so unable to save ourselves, that nothing less than the death of the Son of God himself could save us. That means you are not somebody who can pull yourself together and live a moral and good life. To accept the true Christmas gift, you have to admit you’re a sinner. You need to be saved by grace. You need to give up control of your life.” ~ Tim Keller
III. How We Can Sing
We can join the song of Mary by:
Humbly receiving the mercy of God through Jesus Christ
“Christ is always born in Bethlehem among the little ones. Big hearts never get Christ inside of them; Christ lives not in great hearts, but in little ones. Mighty and proud spirits never have Jesus Christ, for he comes in at low doors, but he will not come in at high ones. He who has a broken heart, and a low spirit, shall have the Savior, but none else.” ~ Charles Spurgeon
Filling our minds with the holy wonder of Christmas
“The crucial significance of the cradle at Bethlehem lies in its place in the sequence of steps that led the Son of God to the cross of Calvary… the Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity – hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory – because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard or will hear.” ~ J.I. Packer
The Great Feast
Isaiah 25:6-9
The Great Feast
Isaiah 25:6-9
Main Idea: We are to eagerly wait for the great banquet feast of God when he swallows up death forever.
I. The Future Feast (25:6)
Isaiah is given a vision of a day where “on this mountain” (Mt. Zion; cf. Isa 2:2), a great feast will be held. In ancient times, kings would hold feasts in order to show off their power, glory, and wealth. As the host of this feast, the Lord has prepared everything in an act of sacred hospitality.
The feast is marked by:
Inclusivity: ‘all’ peoples are invited; any and all who come to Jesus in faith are freely welcomed to his banquet table of grace
Generosity: the meal consists of ‘rich food’ and ‘well-aged wine,’ symbolizing the abundance of salvation. God is generously inviting all to “taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Ps. 34:8)
John 6:35: Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Our “feasting” in the Christian life right now is an invitation to pause, remember, and prepare our hearts for the great feast that awaits us on this promised day (cf. Rev. 19:6-9).
“The eucharistic meal uses everyday elements of the common life to connect me with the extraordinary and unique crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Eucharist is at one and the same time ordinary and extraordinary, the repetition of the commonplace and the celebration of the unique. Meals, in all cultures, seem to have this capability of stretching from the ordinary to the extraordinary.” ~ Eugene Peterson
II. The Destruction of Death (25:7-8)
Our secular culture today has a very difficult time with death. In the Scriptures, death is:
The Great Interruption
The Great Schism
The Great Insult
The Great Enemy (1 Cor. 15:26)
Three realities mark the occasion of this great celebratory feast:
God will remove the “covering” (burial shroud) & “veil” over all people, which is the fear and shadow of death
Hebrews 2:15: … and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
God will “swallow up death forever”
God will wipe away every tear & remove the reproach (disgrace) of his people
This great victory will be accomplished “on this mountain,” precisely where Jesus completes his mission. In his death, the “veil” is torn in two (Mt. 27:51), and in his resurrection the “burial shroud” is folded up in defeat (John 20:7).
Though Christ has defeated death and robbed the grave of its power, we still feel the “sting” of death right now as we await this promised day. Rather than despairing death or avoiding it, we are invited to take up the posture of Ps. 90:12-13:
So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Return, O Lord! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
III. The End of our Exile (25:9)
The Advent season is a call to long with patience for the promised ‘day’ of verse 9, when we will see God face to face and our waiting, restlessness, and angst will be over forever.
“You cannot judge God by your calendar. God may appear to be slow, but he never forgets his promises. He may seem to be working slowly or even to be forgetting his promises, but when his promises come true (and they will come true), they always burst the banks of what you imagined… God’s grace virtually never operates on our time frame, on a schedule we consider reasonable. He does not follow our agendas or schedules. God seems to forget his promises, but he comes through in ways we can’t imagine before it happens.” ~ Tim Keller
Hebrews 9:28: So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
“Those who serve God still stand in a dark place, but we strain forward with expectation and an unconquerable hope toward the horizon where the Sun of Righteousness will appear someday with healing in his wings.” ~ Fleming Rutledge
A New King, A New Kingdom
Isaiah 11:1-10
A New King, A New Kingdom
Isaiah 11:1-10
Main Idea: Isaiah gives us a vision of A New King, and A New Kingdom.
I. A New King
Isaiah 10:33-34: “the Lord GOD of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.”
2 Samuel 7:16: “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure (or endure) forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.'"
“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate deity! Pleased with us in flesh to dwell: Jesus, our Emmanuel; Hark the herald angels sing; Glory to the newborn king.”
Romans 8:27-28: “And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
“When a king “enjoys, delights in” his close relationship with God,…This will cause him to make decisions as God judges, not based on the outward appearance of the person (that one can see) or on false claims (that one may hear). Decisions will be based on the true nature of the heart. Status, money, or political influence will not derail this new Davidic ruler’s perspective on justice, for idle boasts, excuses, deceptive lies, and false information by the guilty will not prevent the truth from being known. This is the kind of justice and righteousness … attributed to the eternal reign of the one who will sit on the throne of David. This justice will be available to all, especially for the needy and poor, who frequently were cheated by the upper class. This would contrast greatly with the oppression of the poor and robbing of the fatherless that existed in the reign of Ahaz.”
– Gary Smith
II. A New Kingdom
“Your Kingdom come: your will be done; on earth as it is in Heaven!”
We know that there is yet to come a regeneration of all things, and it only comes with Jesus. This New Kingdom is one in which, as it says in verse 9, 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.”
Would your prayer be that the earth, even now, would be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea? So even now we can begin to see the defeat of sin that comes as violence, and economic systems that tolerate and promote poverty and homelessness and despair, and sexual perversion that promotes the exploitation of the most weak and vulnerable in our societies, and hatred, and suspicion, and racism, and tribalism?
Revelation 21:1-5: 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
Darkness & Light
Isaiah 8:19-9:7
Darkness & Light
Isaiah 8:19-9:7
“[Advent is] superficially understood as a time to get ready for Christmas, but in truth it’s the season for contemplating the judgment of God. Advent is the season that, when properly understood, does not flinch from the darkness that stalks us all in this world. Advent begins in the dark and moves toward the light—but the season should not move too quickly or too glibly, lest we fail to acknowledge the depth of the darkness… Advent bids us take a fearless inventory of the darkness: the darkness without and the darkness within.”
~ Fleming Rutledge
Main Idea: Light has burst into our darkness through a promised child who establishes an everlasting Kingdom.
I. The Gloomy Darkness (8:19-22)
Assyria was closing in on Israel, but rather than looking to the Lord & his Word for wisdom and guidance, they “looked to the earth” (8:22) for the solutions to their problems. They assumed they could figure out how to get out of the darkness on their own and it only led them into further “thick” darkness.
Advent reminds us that the state of the world and the state of our own lives is marked by darkness (cf. Jn. 12:46). Darkness in the Scriptures represents:
Evil & Sin (Jn. 3:19)
Ignorance & Lostness
“Christmas is the most unsentimental yet realistic way of looking at life… the message of Christmas is this: Things are really bad, and we can’t heal or save ourselves. Things are really dark. But nevertheless, there is hope. Upon the world a light has dawned. It has come from outside and Jesus has brought that light to save us.”
~ Tim Keller
II. The Glorious Light (9:1-5)
Those who dwell in Galilee, most vulnerable to invasion and who dwell in “deep darkness” (lit. ‘death shadow’) will suddenly and unexpectedly have a light shine (flash) upon them (Mt. 4:12-17). This light comes from outside the world, not from within it.
This glorious light will produce:
Joy (9:3): as in the day of full harvest & after a military victory.
Freedom (9:4): the Lord will break the yoke, rod, and staff of the oppressors, just as he did in the day of Midian (Judges 6-7)
Peace (9:5): all the necessities of warfare will go into the “bonfire of God’s grace” (Ray Ortlund)
III. The Given Son (9:6-7)
How will God bring about this great victory & drive back the darkness once and for all? He will do so through the most unexpected means: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given...”
“God’s answer to everything that has ever terrorized us is a child. The power of God is so far superior to the Assyrians and all the big shots of this world that he can defeat them by coming as a mere child. His answer to the bullies swaggering through history is not to become an even bigger bully. His answer is Jesus.”
~ Ray Ortlund
Isaiah indicates that this is not merely a royal birth announcement; these names (Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace) are only attributable to God himself. These names and descriptions push us beyond the manger scene to the totality of the life of this promised King. Though it appeared that darkness snuffed out Jesus at the cross, his resurrection three days later definitely proves “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn. 1:5).
How can we participate in this never-ending Kingdom of Light?
We receive the Son as a gift
We must look to the Son in patience as we await his return
Firm in Faith
Isaiah 7:1-25
Firm in faith
Isaiah 7:1-25
“This book puts forth a new way of seeing. And it isn’t our own brainstorming. God is the one offering us a new perspective on everything.”
-Ray Ortlund
Main Idea: We are to be firm in faith because our God is with us in judgement and salvation.
I. The bad news (7:1-2)
II. The good news (7:3-9)
III. The best news (7:10-25)
I. The bad news (7:1-2)
II. The good news (7:3-9)
Be careful
Be quiet
Do not fear
Do not let your heart be faint
Isaiah 7:7-9
thus says the Lord GOD:
“‘It shall not stand,
and it shall not come to pass.
For the head of Syria is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
And within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you are not firm in faith,
you will not be firm at all.’”
Syria - Exalted
Damascus - Silent is the sackcloth weaver
Rezin - Firm
Ephraim - Double-ash-heap, I shall be doubly faithful; doubly fruitful
Samaria - Watch mountain
Remaliah - Protected by the Lord. The exaltation of the Lord.
Jonah 3:6-9 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
III. The best news (7:10-25)
Isaiah 7:11 “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”
Isaiah 7:12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.”
Isaiah 7:14-16 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.
v. 18-19 - Effortless deliverance
v. 20 - Humbling of the proud
v. 21-22 - Reduced to hardship
v. 23-25 - Their fame will fade away
But who is this son?
Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz - Speed-spoil-hasten-plunder or, swift to the spoil, quick to the plunder.
Matthew 1:20-25
“But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.”
Be careful
Be quiet
Do not fear
Do not let your heart be faint
If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.
The New Heavens & The New Earth
Isaiah 64:1-12, 65:17-25
The New Heavens & The New Earth
Isaiah 64:1-12, 65:17-25
Main Idea: We are to long with patience for the glorious day God renews all things in Christ.
I. Lamenting the Present (64:1-12)
Isaiah cries out in a longing (‘Oh’) for God to “rend” the heavens and to rip open the “curtain” (cf. Isa. 34:4) that separates & conceals him from humanity. He is longing for God’s presence (3x) and a showcase of his glory to his adversaries and the nations.
This longing comes from a palace of lament; God’s surprising work all feels past-tense (64:3), and Jerusalem and God’s people are in shambles, all while he is seemingly absent (64:10-12).
The longing for God to come is one of the deepest longings of the human experience because it is in our creational design.
“So much of our restlessness and disappointment is the result of trying to convince ourselves that we’re already home… [but we are called] to a refugee spirituality – unsettled yet hopeful, tenuous but searching, eager to find the hometown we’ve never been to.” ~ James K.A. Smith
But Isaiah knows firsthand (cf. Isa. 6) that an encounter with God’s presence is terrifying because of our sin. Isaiah describes our sin using 4 images (64:6):
Unclean Leper: sin spreads like a disease & infects all things
Polluted Garment: even our best efforts are not as good as they look
Fading Leaf: sin causes decay & breakdown
The Wind: sin controls us & takes us places we were never meant to go
What Isaiah could not have known is how God would answer this prayer & fulfill this longing. God has indeed already “rend the heavens” in Jesus Christ to forgive us of our sins & to promise his steadfast presence (Mt. 28:20).
Hebrews 9:28: … so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
II. Life in the End (65:17-25)
At the end of the story, God does not give up on the earth and his creation. He remakes a new heavens and a new earth, renewing and restoring all that has gone wrong because of sin. God’s people will spend eternity not in the clouds or a serene garden like Eden, but the idealized city of Jerusalem (cf. Rev. 21:2).
“Many people want to go to heaven the way they want to go to Florida – they think the weather will be an improvement and the people decent. But the biblical heaven is not a nice environment far removed from the stress of hard city life. It is the invasion of the city by the City. We enter heaven not by escaping what we don’t like, but by the sanctification of the place in which God has placed us.” ~ Eugene Peterson
This new heavens and the new earth is marked by 4 things in Isaiah 65:
Joy (65:17-19). All the hardships of the “former things” in this fallen world will be forgotten. We are invited to “be glad and rejoice forever” in their place.
Revelation 21:4: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Life (65:20). Isaiah speaks metaphorically to try and accommodate our minds to understand something that we cannot fathom: the end of death itself. In this heavenly city, “death will have no more power and sin no more presence” (Motyer).
Fulfillment (65:21-23). Life will be marked by security & work will be fulfilling - reversing the curse to Adam in Gen. 3:17-19. There is no threat of attack or another stealing, and the gates of this heavenly city are always left open (Rev. 21:25-27).
Peace (65:24-25). God will never again feel asbent, but he will “answer” his people before they even call. All of creation (including) the animals will experience shalom, and the serpent will forever live in humiliation.
“The work of Christ is not just to save certain individuals… The total work of Christ is nothing less than to redeem this entire creation from the effects of sin. That purpose will not be accomplished until God has ushered in the new earth, until Paradise Lost has become Paradise Regained… God will not be satisfied until the entire universe has been purged of all the results of man’s fall.” ~ Anthony Hoekema
Everlasting Joy
Isaiah 61:1-11
Everlasting Joy
Isaiah 61:1-11
Main Idea: Jesus proclaims the gospel of salvation, transforms his people, & clothes us in garments of joy & praise.
I. The Salvation of the Gospel (61:1-2)
Jesus quotes Isaiah 61 = in Luke 4:16ff as his “mission statement” in his first public ministry appearance in Nazareth. These verses give us the “seven infinitives for all that it means for God to save us” (Ray Ortlund).
The recipients of this good news (gospel) include:
The poor & afflicted
The brokenhearted
The captives (or those in exile) & prisoners
Those who mourn
“Jesus did not come into the world to exalt those who are high, to give greater power to the strong, or to clothe those who are already clad in their own righteousness. No! The Spirit of God was upon him, that he might preach good tidings to the meek, that broken hearts should be bound up, captives redeemed, and prisoners released... This ought to be a very great subject of thanksgiving to those who are heavy of heart. Is it not sweet to think that the Anointed of the Lord came for your sakes, that you whose eyelids are fringed with beaded tears, you whose songs are dirges, you who dwell at death’s door, may be brought forth into the sunlight?” ~ Charles Spurgeon
The circumstances of these recipients include physical & socio-economic realities along with spiritual & emotional needs. The Anointed Messiah is coming to mend & set right all that has gone wrong, because sin has infiltrated all things in our fallen world.
Proclaiming “The year of the Lord’s favor” is an allusion to the “Year of Jubilee” in Leviticus 25. Every 50 years, Israel was to forgive all debts, free all slaves, and the land itself was returned back to original family allotments. Jesus came to accomplish the fulfillment of all the Year of Jubilee foreshadowed.
II. The Transformation of the Gospel (61:3-9)
5 “insteads” anchor these verses that talk about the transformation brought by the Messiah.
Instead of ashes → a beautiful headdress or garland (61:3a)
Instead of mourning → oil of gladness (61:3b)
Instead of a faint spirit → a garment of praise (61:3c)
Instead of shame → a double portion (61:7a)
Instead of dishonor → rejoicing with everlasting joy (61:7b)
1 Peter 1:8: Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
The gospel is the message of the “great instead” in Jesus Christ. In Luke 4, Jesus stops reading before “the day of vengeance of our God,” because this was yet to take place. The ultimate “instead” occurs on the cross, where Jesus bears the day of vengeance, taking our shame, dishonor, & sin, while offering us his righteousness, honor, & double portion of grace.
III. The Garments of the Gospel (61:10-11)
The Messiah is clothed as a groom, wearing the garments of salvation & the robe of righteousness. He is experiencing the joy of a wedding celebration & delighting over his work of redemption for his bride.
Revelation 19:6–8: Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
As we await the marriage supper of the lamb, we have been clothed by Christ which sprouts up within us “righteousness & praise” (61:11). We are invited to live as a Jubilee people, “putting on Christ” (Eph. 4:22-24) and living with an everlasting joy before a weary, broken, and mourning world.
The Great Reversal
Isaiah 60:1-22
The Great Reversal
Isaiah 60:1-22
Main Point: There remains a bright future for the people of God.
There are the two realities about our bright future that Isaiah foresees in this chapter:
Our bright future hinges on a Great Reversal that taps into our deepest hopes.
The Great Reversal hangs on the success of a Great Hero who makes those hopes real.
What is this Reversal that Isaiah foresees?
It is a COMPLETE reversal. Things were going one way and now they are going in a completely different way. Everything has changed.
It is a DEEP reversal. The nature of things was one way and now the nature of those things is another way. Everything about everything has changed.
It is a SATISFYING reversal. The change in things fills out what we always longed for. What has finally changed, changes everything.
What makes this Great Reversal so satisfying?
The bright future promised to the people of God is:
Physical - it corresponds to our reality as embodied creatures
Communal - it fulfills our hunger for home and community
Beautiful - it satisfies our taste for aesthetic, appealing pleasantness
Eternal - it offsets our aversion deterioration, decay, disappointment
Substantial - it affords us the significance, the weight, the dignity we know that creatures like us are worthy of (even as we know that right now we do not deserve it.)
The Great Reversal hangs on the success of a Great Hero.
It is very important to note that there is NO action taken or undertaken in this chapter by anyone other than “the Lord your God… the Holy One of Israel.” All the other players in this passage do what they do in RESPONSE to what He has done. This Great Reversal is NOT derived or generated from anything we do. The entire tone of this poem sees us as beneficiaries, recipients, and responders NOT benefactors, contributors, or producers.
Who is this Great Hero?
The Heroes credentials in Isaiah:
Born to a virgin and called Immanuel (God with us) - Isaiah 7
Descended from David and heir to his throne - Isaiah 9
A light to those dwelling in darkness in Galilee - Isaiah 9
The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon HIm as He conducts Himself with perfect righteousness and equity - Isaiah 11
When He arrives, the blind shall see, the deaf shall hear, the lame shall leap, the mute shall sing - Isaiah 35
His arrival would be announced by a voice in the wilderness crying, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” - Isaiah 40
He is the Servant of the Lord, who accomplishes the Lord’s will in the most unexpected way.
He is beaten and spit upon (Isaiah 50) yet remains silent before His accusers (Isaiah 53)
He is innocent of any crime, yet slaughtered with the wicked and buried among the rich. (Isaiah 53)
In this profound injustice, the Lord reverses the basis of who stands righteous before Him. It is not performance based, for all we like sheep have gone astray
Rather, the Lord lays on Him the iniquity of us all and by His sacrifice, the Hero brings many sons and daughters to righteousness.
Isaiah’s point is this: When you identify the One who is the Hero of God, run to Him, look to Him, trust in Him, for He alone brings the Great Reversal which shall satisfy your deepest hopes.
The good news of the Christian gospel is that Jesus of Nazareth
- crucified, buried, and risen again -
is the one and only Hero of God.
Everything our souls hope for is found in Him.
In Jesus alone, there remains a bright future for the people of God.
True Worship
Isaiah 58: 1-14
True Worship
Isaiah 58: 1-14
Main Idea: The Gospel transforms us into people who love justice and delight in righteousness from the heart.
I. The Counterfeit Fast (Isaiah 58:1-5)
‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? (Zechariah 7:5–6)
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27–28)
II. The True Fast (Isaiah 58:6-12)
Embrace Responsibility (Isaiah 58:6-7)
Blessing (58:8-9a)
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” (Zec 7:9–10)
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” (Ps 82:3–4)
Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. (Proverbs 14:31)
Correct the Wrongs (58:9b-10a)
Blessing (58:10b-12)
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:16–18)
Enjoy the Sabbath (58:13-14)
Blessing (58:14)
Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, (John 7:37–39)
Renewal & Repentance
Isaiah 55:1-13
Renewal & Repentance
Isaiah 55:1-13
Main Idea: The Lord invites us to experience his lavish, generous grace by coming to him in repentance.
I. Come & Be Satisfied (55:1-5)
The Lord again invites his people to come to him in faith. Like street vendors trying to sell a product, God is beckoning all who hear him to come, feast, and be satisfied. This invitation is to two groups of people:
The Needy: those who thirst & have no money (the “have-nots”)
The Self-Sufficient: Those who spend their money on & labor toward that which does not satisfy (the “haves”)
1 Timothy 6:17: As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” ~ C.S. Lewis
The Lord is inviting us not merely to an intellectual knowledge of his goodness or a theory of his mercy, but instead a full-fledged experience of his lavish, generous grace. He is offering refreshment (waters), rich provision (milk), & joy (wine). We are invited to come to him for life & life abundantly (Jn. 10:10), and someone else has already paid the bill.
We come to this feast of God’s grace by listening to his word (“listen diligently.. Incline your ear… hear”). It is through the Word of God that we are pointed to our source of satisfaction & joy.
God’s Word ensures us that all who accept this invitation to come to him experience the blessing of the everlasting covenant made with David (2 Sam. 7), ultimately seen & fulfilled in Jesus Christ: John 6:35: Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
II. Return & Be Renewed (55:6-13)
The way that we come to God & accept the invitation to his feast of grace is by repentance. 55:6-7 tells us exactly what repentance entails:
1. Seek & call upon the Lord with urgency (55:6a; cf. Acts 17:30)
“To ‘seek’ the Lord is to stop dawdling and to become intentional about him, setting highest value on him, removing everything that keeps us from him, hearing his Word without back-talk, opening up to his will with no preconditions... Seeking the Lord is a whole-life realignment with Christ. We stop treating him as a religious garnish on the side. He becomes our continual feast, our defining center. And the time to move in his direction is now.” ~ Ray Ortlund
2. Forsake our sins, both in belief & behavior (55:7a)
3. Return to receive compassion & abundance of pardon (55:7b)
“This [promise] is a profound consolation for us as we find ourselves time and again wandering away from the Father, looking for soul calm anywhere but in his embrace & instruction. Returning to God in fresh contrition, however ashamed and disgusted with ourselves, he will not tepidly pardon. He will abundantly pardon. He does not merely accept us. He sweeps us up in his arms again.” ~ Dane Ortlund
Typically, Isaiah 55:8-9 is quoted to talk about God’s unique, mysterious providence or his sovereign governance over all things. But in the context of this chapter, Isaiah is noting that there is indeed an immeasurable gulf between God & us, but it in regard to his compassion & mercy toward the undeserving (cf. Ps. 103:9-12)
When we have trouble believing this, we are reminded that God’s word will accomplish what he purposes; it will “rain” down like rain from the sky, watering & nourishing the ground, causing it to bear fruit. Those who trust in him will be led out of exile with joy & peace, worshipping alongside creation itself as God promises to roll back the curse (“thorns & briers”) & transform not only us, but all of creation.
“This passage is beautifully communicating that God’s heart for his people is building toward a crescendo as the generations roll by, preparing to explode onto human history at the end of all things. Our joyous restored humanity will surge forward with such spiritually nuclear energy that the creation itself will erupt in raucous hymns of celebration. This is the party for which the created order is on the edge of its seat in eager anticipation.” ~ Dane Ortlund
Psalm 34:8a: Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!