Praise Him For The Promise Series

Note: There may or may not be sermon notes here for next week. We will be in Luke 2 for December 24th. Thanks for following along. - JED

Praise Him For The Promise

Isaiah 40:1-11

Introduction

Kimball Gannon was born in Brooklyn in 1900. After going to law school and passing the bar, He became a well-known song writer. One song he wrote was from the viewpoint of a soldier away from home during the war. He had a hard time getting someone to record it. (They said it was too sad.) One day playing golf with Bing Crosby he sang it for him and Bing decided to record it. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” was sure to be a hit, as it was on the flip side of another song we still sing, “White Christmas”.

Our text is written to some distressed people who wonder if they will ever be home again. Exiled into Babylon’s clutches, many thought they would never escape.

Last week we were focused on Jeremiah’s little book of comfort. Today we look at a similar passage in Isaiah - an oasis of hope amid a book of lost hope. In this passage, Isaiah takes a sharp turn in his prophesying about the misdeeds of Israel. In our most distressful moments often neglect to remember God’s provision and presence. What can we remember when we need comfort at Christmas? The book of Isaiah is a book of both judgment and comfort and in this passage, God offers Israel comfort and strength. This is what we need when we are feeling anxious—for God to remind us what he can and will do as we let him. God is everything we need to find promise and hope in the days to come.

1. God is Comfort (Isaiah 40:1-2)

Isaiah 40:1-2 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed,  that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins

Isaiah is speaking to some people who were going through some extreme hardship. Though their setting is different than ours - we can identify that life can be rugged at times and all of us need God’s comfort and strength. The comfort that comes from God springs from forgiveness. To emphasize the comfort of God does not mean that we can ignore sin - this is why we need comfort in the first place. W. E. Vine: “Comfort” lit. means to cause to breathe again - to receive revival and relief. On your darkest day, God desires for you to find relief from your burden, and forgiveness for your sin.

God is a God of Comfort - and when we need His strength, He is there for us. 

2. God is Glorious (Isaiah 40:3-5)

Isaiah 40:3-5 3 A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.4 Every valley shall be raised up,  every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,  and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

In our days of struggle, we can find encouragement and strength to know that God is at work and this is not the end. They needed to prepare a pathway for the Lord in their hearts. This verse is used in all four Gospel accounts - John the Baptizer made this a proclamation of the coming Christ!

Mark 1:1-4 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”—3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” 4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Even now we expect the Returning Jesus. In your roughest days remember that God has walked ahead of

you and created a path forward.

3. God’s Word is Eternal (Isaiah 40:6-8)

Isaiah 40:6-8 …“All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. 7 The grass withers and the flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”

God’s word is so sure that we can shout it out with confidence!

Isa. 55: 10, 11 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.