Sermon on Isaiah 40:1-8, for the 3rd Sunday in Advent, "Double Comfort"
In the Name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Although 2,700 years is quite a long shot
from “forever”—it is still a respectable distance from which we can see and
recognize the enduring power and comfort of God’s word, which stands forever.
2,700 years ago, the prophet Isaiah wrote these words of comfort in Isaiah 40,
which still “speak to our heart” today. They speak of a double comfort for all
that God’s people have suffered for their sins. The passage also speaks of John
the Baptist as the herald who would announce the coming of Jesus, the Messiah,
the Lord who would traverse the wilderness and reveal His glory to us. The Word
of the Lord stands forever, bringing a message of solid comfort and hope,
across the centuries, despite all the changes and chances of life while several
dozens of generations have flourished and then withered away like the flowers
and grasses of the field.
In human life, whenever we extend a
gesture of comfort—it logically follows upon some need for encouragement.
Someone is facing difficulty or hardship of some sort, and we respond with a hug,
a prayer, a sympathy card, a sympathetic ear to listen to their troubles, words
of encouragement, or whatever. Small gestures like those are usually warmly
received. But we know or can envision situations where a person might refuse
them, or gruffly say, “thanks, but no thanks”, or in some other way recoil or
signal that they don’t need any help or want anything from us. They may have
better or worse reasons for doing that, that we cannot judge, but we all can
realize that in order to receive comfort, there has to be an openness, or even
an emptiness to take it in. If we are full and need nothing, or perhaps hard and empty, the comfort is
meaningless to us.
Sometimes it’s heartbreaking in life
when you see someone who objectively needs help, but they stubbornly refuse it.
Pride and individualism might carry us a long way in earthly matters, but
there’s always a point where it exhausts itself, or proves insufficient for
greater things in life, or we find that we are just out of our league with the
problems we face. Pride and stubbornness can close the heart to God’s intervention,
to God’s work—or alternatively, humility and repentance can acknowledge that we
need God to enter in and the way is open.
Isaiah said that this was God’s chosen
preaching theme for John the Baptist—the voice in the wilderness crying out: “Prepare the way of the Lord”. He would
preach of a stony, rough, crooked, and thirsty desert, and how it needed to be
leveled, straightened, smoothed and made ready for the entrance of the Lord. What
desert? John wasn’t preparing for earth-moving operations and hiring
contractors—he was talking about the condition of our human hearts, and the
obstacles to the Lord’s entrance there. In one word: unrepentance.
Unrepentance—or unwillingness to turn back to God, is the single unifying
obstacle to the Lord entering to bring His comfort, His healing to His people.
All our separate sins unify under the devil’s banner of unrepentance, and as
long as unrepentance persists—take their stand against God. But if God by His
Law hammers on that wall, and breaks through that dam of our damnable
sin-pride, then He enters, not as an invading destroyer, but as the One who
brings double comfort.
Maybe it helps to realize that Isaiah’s
first audience in chapter 40 had already digested the first 39 chapters of the
book, which had painted a pretty bleak picture of the fate of Israel. They had
been hammered pretty thoroughly. They were going to be judged for their sins
and taken into captivity by Babylon, because the message hadn’t gotten through.
The prophet Jeremiah had said they were going to get a double measure of
punishment and destruction for their wickedness, guilt, and idolatry (Jer.
16:18; 17:18). Things were definitely not looking up for them, and wouldn’t be
anytime soon. So Isaiah 40 comes as a major hinge in the book—swinging from
grim news of what lay ahead because of their sins, to the bright hope and
anticipation that God would eventually relent and bring them a double portion
of comfort for their sins. Isaiah 40:1–2 “Comfort,
comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her
that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received
from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” Israel had every reason to
be humbled, empty, and to hunger and thirst for such comfort.
Do we? Are we laid low by our sins? Does
the way to our heart look rough and stony, crooked and overgrown with brambles?
Does God need to engage in some road-clearing operations? Does He need to
hammer through some pride or sin making is last stand against Him; or is there
a straight path for Him to enter in? Are we proud, stubborn, and closed to His
entry, or do we survey our life and realize that we’ve reached the limits of
our efforts, that our sinful choices are toxic? Do we admit that we are out of
our league when it comes to facing the overgrowth our sins, or that the ominous
fact of our own mortality is something we’re just not prepared to deal with?
How we answer these questions has a lot to do with whether the double comfort
of the Lord can enter in and do it’s healing work on us, or whether it will
fall on deaf ears, and we persist instead in facing God’s judgment or warnings.
How can God speak comfort to us, and why
a double comfort? “Her iniquity is
pardoned” the Lord says. Iniquity is the objective guilt or debt of sin.
It’s not just feeling guilty—it’s that we objectively are guilty before God. Our iniquity, or guilt, consists of all that
we have done wrong, through a lifetime of sins and failures. Whether you own up
to it or not, that guilt is still there, and God’s Enduring Word is clear that
it has an eternal cost. It’s not a debt that can easily be made up, nor is it a
debt that we have the means to repay. But God tells us that it is pardoned.
How? “He was wounded for our
transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the
chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”
(Isaiah 53:5). Jesus, the Lord, the One who traversed the dry deserts of human
hearts to reveal His glory, went to an ugly, hideous cross—a place of hatred,
shame, and contempt, and died there to pardon our iniquities. He bore in His
body all the guilt of our sin so that we could hear that the debt has been
paid. We have been pardoned! That we would not be faced with a double measure
of destruction, but rather a double comfort!
This doubling of comfort and doubling of
good news shows up in a couple of places. Today we sang "O Come, O Come Emmanuel": a double invitation to God to come and be with us--and sang in the refrain the double: "Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel has come to you!" Today is “Gaudete” Sunday, also for
“Rejoice!” Our responsive Introit features a double rejoicing! “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say,
Rejoice!” (Phil.4:4). Isaiah 61:7, speaking of the year of the Lord’s favor
when Jesus comes, declares: “Instead of
your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall
rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double
portion; they shall have everlasting joy.” All that they have suffered for
their sins will be a distant memory when the double portion of joy and blessing
pours down from God! Another reason for double rejoicing! And finally, that
prophecy from Zechariah 9:12 that announced Jesus’ coming on the humble donkey
to bring righteousness and salvation to Jerusalem; this passage also declares: “return to your stronghold, O prisoners of
hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.” God acknowledges
the hurt and pain His people have suffered—even if they have suffered it justly
for their own faults. He acknowledges it, but even more He sends His Son to
bring a double blessing, a double comfort, a double restoration.
And what about the sin that is out of
our league to handle? Turn it over to Jesus, who is more than capable to deal
with our sin problems—who already paid the price for them, but now also renews
and sanctifies your life by dwelling with you. Comfort, comfort my people. That little pronoun “my” speaks volumes of God’s love and
care for you. And what about the looming fact of our mortality? The clock is
ticking on each one of us—as this very passage reminds us, “all flesh is like grace and all its beauty
is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the
word of our God will stand forever.” We’ve talked about this several times
in these recent weeks of Advent, that whether it’s our own mortality or the
return of the Lord and the signs that anticipate that—Yes, the clock is
running—but No it’s not a call for anxiety, fear, or gloom. Because we are
secure on the eternal foundation of Jesus and His Word, because His Word
endures forever, we look forward to our redemption with joy and hope. The grave
does not intimidate us, because our hope is not in our own flesh, but in the
Eternal Word of God, and in Jesus, the Risen One who defeated sin and the grave
for us.
Are we open and ready for God’s double
comfort and healing? You’ve heard and you know how to build the obstacles of
unrepentance, pride, and the refusal of help that would prevent it—but you’ve
also heard how earnest and loving our God is to enter in, and bring His
comfort. This Advent season, as Christ approaches, humble your hearts, prepare
the Way of the Lord, and rejoice as He enters in! Don’t just rejoice—rejoice
doubly! Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice! Rejoice that
where sin has left its wake of devastation, no matter how severe, God earnestly
desires to follow in and make straight paths to enter and reveal His glory.
Jesus comes with His double comfort, to make this groaning creation new again,
to replace our shame with a double portion of His blessing, to replace our
dishonor with a double portion of His joy. God’s gifts are ready, and He is
giving them to you freely and generously. Merry Christmas, in Jesus’ Name.
Amen.
Sermon Talking
Points
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- The book of
Isaiah was written about 2,700 years ago. Why is its message still timely
and comforting for us today? Isaiah 40:8; 1 Peter 1:23-25. Meanwhile, what
has continually changed throughout those 27 centuries?
- What are
examples of common comforts given or received, and when is such comfort
received or rejected? Why would people reject the comfort of God, or feel
no need for it?
- What was the
theme of John the Baptist’s preaching? Isaiah 40:3-5; Luke 3:3-14. What
does the crookedness, dryness, roughness, etc of this wilderness
represent? How do we prepare and ready our hearts for the Lord’s coming?
- Isaiah 1-39
features strong messages of judgment against Israel for their idolatry and
wickedness. How does Jeremiah 16:18 and 17:18 similarly describe what is
due to them for their sin? How does this relate to the words of Isaiah
40:1-2? How is Isaiah 40 like a “hinge” that swings between the first and
second halves of the book (hint: the change in the predominant message).
- Are we
receptive and ready for the Lord’s coming? Are we humble, or proud and
stubborn? If we are proud and stubborn, how do we face the challenges of
our own sin and mortality?
- How has God
objectively pardoned our iniquity? Isaiah 53:5. How does this bring double
comfort?
- What other
examples of doubling joy or comfort do you find in these passages? Isaiah
61:7; Zechariah 9:12; Philippians 4:4. How much do Christ’s gifts cost us?
Merry Christmas!
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