At the elementary school where Becky Barnes teaches in Arizona, they had a problem with students throwing rocks. The principal made an announcement over the intercom warning students that anyone caught throwing rocks would be taken home by him personally. Later that day, during afternoon recess, a teacher admonished a kindergartner for throwing a rock.
“Didn’t you hear what the principal said this morning?!” the teacher said in disbelief.
“Yeah,” replied the lad, grinning from ear to ear. “I get to go home in the principal’s car!” (Becky S. Barnes, Arizona, “Small Talk,” Today’s Christian Woman; www.PreachingToday.com)
That little boy was in trouble, but he still found something to be excited about. He found hope, and that’s what Christmas and the coming of Christ is all about. It’s finding hope in the midst of our troubles.
Jesus, our hope, came to this earth in the midst of troubling times just as it was predicted by the Old Testament prophets. 700 years before Christ, the people of Israel were facing severe judgment from God because of their idolatry. Isaiah, the Prophet, had warned them that the Babylonians would come, destroy their country, and take those who didn’t die as slaves and prisoners. Yet, even as they faced certain judgment and destruction, Isaiah gave them a reason for hope in four “servant songs” that describe the coming of God’s Special Servant to bring deliverance and joy in the midst of trouble.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Isaiah 42, Isaiah 42, where we find the 1st of those “servant songs” and discover how we can find hope in our troubles today.
Isaiah 42:1-4 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope.” (NIV)
That is, even those in the remotest parts of the earth will hope in His rule. Our hope (yes, even here on Washington Island) is found in God’s Gentle Servant who will not stop until he brings justice to the entire earth. So if we want to find hope in the midst of our troubles, we must…
EMBRACE GOD’S GENTLE SERVANT.
We must receive and accept Him into our lives, and we must welcome Him as our Lord and King.
Now, that Servant is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. Matthew 12:15-21 makes that very clear. There, Matthew quotes this passage that I just read to you and says this is about Jesus!
Jesus is the One “in whom [God] delights” (vs.1). At his baptism, the heavens opened, the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16-17).
God embraces His son! That’s the meaning of the Hebrew word translated “uphold” in verse 1. It literally means to take hold of something or to grasp it. Well, here God is seen holding His Servant – embracing the one He has chosen to bring justice to the world.
And we need to embrace Him too as the One who can make things right in our own lives. He doesn’t shout or raise his voice to establish his authority (vs.2). He is not like many world rulers (or even some parents) who have to scream and yell to get people to pay attention. No! “His authority is in his character more than in His command” (David L. McKenna, The Communicator’s Commentary: Isaiah 40-66, p.436).
He’s quiet and gentle. Verse 3 says, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” In other words, He doesn’t eliminate those the world considers useless. He doesn’t destroy the life that is dying out. Instead, he saves it. He restores it.
And He will restore your life if you let Him, if you embrace Him as your Lord. He won’t force Himself on you, no. In your bruised and broken condition, you have to give Him permission to take control of your life if you want to save it.
He is not like most world rulers who have to force their will on people. His is a quiet, gentle strength that simply invites people to trust Him with their lives. Yet in the end that quiet, gentle strength is stronger than any force or army the rulers of this world can muster.
In his book The Faith, Chuck Colson describes the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. D-Day was the largest seaborne landing in history. More than 150,000 U.S. troops were committed to the initial invasion, employing 6,900 vessels, 4,100 landing craft, and 12,000 airplanes. Within two weeks the British deployed an additional 314,547 men, 54,000 vehicles, and 102,000 tons of supplies, while the Americans put ashore an additional 314,504 men, 41,000 vehicles, and 116,000 tons of supplies at Omaha. Ten thousand tons of bombs were dropped on German defenses, with the word given to the French resistance to sabotage key bridges, railway lines, telephone exchanges, and electricity substations.
Despite the Allies’ air superiority and hours of heavy bombardment against the beach defenses by the warships’ guns, the Germans stayed intact as thousands of brave men in the landing craft motored toward shore. Nothing stood between these troops and the German guns but the morning air. At Omaha, Gold, Sword, Juno, and Utah beaches, the troops’ only chance was to run, swim, and crawl up the beach to the sea walls, where they could reassemble for assaults on enemy gun positions. In the first hours at Omaha, more than 2,400 died.
Over the next few weeks, as the battle progressed inland, the U.S. would eventually lose 29,000 men and more than 100,000 wounded and missing, while the British gave up 11,000 of its finest, and Canada 5,000. And all this was just the initial set of invasions. The Battle of the Bulge and other potentially catastrophic reversals were still to come, but the invasion of Normandy was so massive and successful, that it allowed the Allies to turn every counterattack into another victory. Colson writes, “As if preordained, the outcome was clear; the evils of Hitler and fascism would be conquered.”
Colson then goes on to compare the invasion of Normandy with the invasion of God on Christmas Day. He writes:
“In one sense, the great invasions of history are analogous to the way in which God, in the great cosmic struggle between good and evil, chose to deal with Satan’s rule over the earth – He invaded. But not with massive logistical support and huge armies; rather, in a way that confounded and perplexed the wisdom of humanity.
“It was a quiet invasion. Few people understood what was happening. Mary, the mother of Jesus, knew that she was with child… a virgin… pregnant with the Son of God.
“Most of the people in Palestine at the time of Jesus’ birth were expecting a Messianic invasion like we saw at D-day – conquerors in armor bringing a sword to set the people free from oppression.
“Jesus only added to the bewilderment of the people who knew Him when He announced: “The time has come… The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15). This was the time the Jews had waited for, for so long? Liberation? And who was this ordinary Nazarene carpenter to say he was bringing in the Kingdom of God?” (Chuck Colson, The Faith, Zondervan, 2008; www.PreachingToday.com)
He certainly didn’t seem like the powerful King they were expecting.
Herod, the one who styled himself as “The King of the Jews” tried to maintain his control with force. When the three wise men left without telling him where the new baby king was born, he went berserk and ordered the murder of every male child two years old and under in the district. Frederick Buechner says, “For all his enormous power, he knew there was someone in diapers more powerful still.” (Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures, HarperOne, 1993, pp. 55-56; www.PreachingToday.com)
Jesus is the quiet, gentle ruler, who will not stop until “he establishes justice on the earth” (vs.4). One day, the whole world will come under His rule. He died on a cross and rose again to redeem people “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).
But He is very patient waiting for you and me to invite Him to be our King and Savior. My dear friends, if we want to find hope in the midst of our troubles, we must embrace God’s Gentle Servant. More than that, if we want to find hope in trouble, we must…
DEPEND ON GOD’S GREAT POWER.
We must rely on the strength God gives His Gentle Servant to set people free from bondage. We must trust in God’s power and ability to accomplish our salvation through Jesus Christ, His Son.
Isaiah 42:5-7 This is what God the Lord says— he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. (NIV)
God says this to His Gentle Servant. The One who has the power to create will give Jesus the power to re-create broken lives.
After discovering how to clone humans, a couple of scientists challenged God:
“We don’t need you anymore,” they said. “We can make life by ourselves now.”
“All right,” said the scientists. “We’ll do it like you did in the beginning.” Then they reached down to grab a handful of dirt to begin to form a man.
Then they heard God’s voice from heaven: “Hold it – get your own dirt!” (J. Richard Love, Ruston, Louisiana; www.Preaching Today.com)
No man can do what God has done in creating the world and giving life and breath to every person in the world. God is all-powerful! And by that power, Jesus will set people free from their bondage to sin and darkness.
He is the One who fulfills God’s covenant promises to Israel, “the people” in verse 6, and He is the One who is a light for the Gentiles, you and me who at one time were separated from God’s promises. With God’s power, Jesus opens blind eyes and sets people free!
John Stevens talks about visiting a museum in Italy where he was struck by four partially finished sculptures. They were figures Michelangelo originally intended to use on the tomb of Pope Julius, but midway through the project he decided not to use them and ceased work on them. He left them with a hand protruding in one place, a torso of a man in another, a leg, and part of a head, but none are finished.
Nearly everyone who sees these works senses the struggle embodied in these figures. It is as though they are crying to break free from the prison of the marble to become what they were intended to be.
Author Theodore Roder looked on these four figures that Michelangelo called “The Captives” and wrote, “When I looked at those partial figures, they stirred up in me a deep longing to be completed – an ache to be set free from that which distorts and disguises, imprisons and inhibits my humanness, my wholeness. But as with those statues, I cannot liberate myself. For that I need the hand of another.” (John H. Stevens, “His Liberating Touch,” Discipleship Journal, July/August 1984; www.PreachingToday. com)
You see, we cannot save ourselves. We cannot set ourselves free from the sin that entraps us. For that we need the hand of another. We need the hand of God’s Gentle Servant, Jesus Christ. We must depend on God’s power through Christ to be set free and become all that God intended us to be.
One weekend, author Paul Tripp gave his teenage son permission to spend the weekend at a friend’s house. But during the weekend Paul received a call from the friend’s mother, informing him that Paul’s son was not at her home. (Her son had felt guilty about covering for Paul’s son and confessed to his mom.) After Paul told his wife about their son’s deception, Paul said, “Luella could feel my anger, and she said, ‘I think you need to pray.’ I said, ‘I don’t think I can pray for him right now.’ She said, ‘I didn’t mean for you to pray for him; I think you need to pray for you.’” Paul writes:
I went to my bedroom to pray for God’s help, and it hit me that, because of his love, God had already begun a work of rescue in my son’s life. God was the one who pressed in on the conscience of my son’s friend, causing him to confess to his mom. God was the one who gave her the courage to make that difficult call to me. And God was the one giving me time to get a hold of myself before my son came home. Now, rather than wanting to rip into my son, I wanted to be part of what this God of grace was doing in this moment of rebellion, deception, hurt, and disappointment.
After giving his son a couple of hours to relax upon his return, Paul asked him if they could talk.
“Do you ever think about how much God loves you?” Paul asked his son.
“Sometimes,” he answered.
“Do you ever think how much God’s grace operates in your life every day?”
His son looked up but didn’t speak.
“Do you know how much God’s grace was working in your life even this weekend?”
“Who told you?” his son asked.
Paul said: “You have lived your life in the light. You’ve made good choices. You’ve been an easy son to parent, but this weekend you took a step toward the darkness. You can live in the darkness if you want. You can learn to lie and deceive. You can use your friends as your cover… You can step over God’s boundaries. Or you can determine to live in God’s light. I’m pleading with you: don’t live in the darkness; live in the light.”
“As I turned to walk away,” Paul wrote, “I heard his voice from behind me saying, ‘Dad, don’t go.’ As I turned around, with tears in his eyes, he said, ‘Dad, I want to live in the light, but it’s so hard. Will you help me?’” (Paul David Tripp, Forever: Why You Can’t Live Without It, Zondervan, 2011, pp. 151-153; www.PreachingToday.com)
It’s hard to live in the light. For that we need our Heavenly Father’s help through Jesus Christ His Son. If we want to find hope in trouble, we must embrace God’s Gentle Servant; we must depend on God’s great power; and finally we must…
BELIEVE GOD’S INFALLIBLE WORD.
We must rely on our Lord’s sure and certain promises.
Isaiah 42:8-9 “I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.” (NIV)
God’s prophetic word is sure! If He makes a promise about “new things” to come, we can be certain they will come just as He said. No other god (or idol) can do this. Out of all the religions of the world, only the Bible contains detailed, predictive prophecy which was fulfilled exactly as prophesied. It’s a sure sign that this Book came from God.
For example, there are hundreds of specific prophecies in the Old Testament about Christ’s first coming. There are prophecies about the place of his birth, the date of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the manner of his death, and so on.
Robert Culver says, “About 300 distinct prophecies of Christ lie in the Old Testament. They were like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle… more or less obscure until Jesus came and put them all in clear relation to one another by his career. It has been calculated that the possibility that these would all be fulfilled in one lifetime by one person is one chance in 84 followed by 131 zeros!” (Can I Trust the Bible, Howard F. Vos, editor, p.109-110).
You can trust this Book. It is absolutely reliable. Indeed, we MUST trust God’s Word if we’re going to find hope in troubled times.
We must embrace God’s Gentle Servant. We must depend on God’s great power, and we must believe in God’s sure and certain promises if we’re going to find light in the midst of our darkness.
In his book Hope Is Contagious, pastor and former pro football player Ken Hutcherson tells the story of a little boy in Chicago who was shot and permanently disabled in a drive-by shooting. Everyone in the neighborhood knew who the shooter was, but no one came forward to identify him. The boy’s mother even acknowledged that she drove by the shooter’s house every day on the way to work. An educator from Chicago commented to the reporter who was writing the story. He said, “That’s what happens when people lose hope. You don’t think things will get better, so you just give up.” (Ken Hutcherson, Hope Is Contagious, Zondervan, 2010, p.16; www.PreachingToday.com)
Dear friends, please don’t lose your hope. Things WILL get better, because Jesus has come and God has promised “new things” ahead. Just trust Him. Trust in His power. Trust in His Word; and most of all, trust in His Son.
