I began a sermon series last week by saying that no one likes waiting—especially not at the emergency room of a hospital. But another place we don’t like having to wait is at the airport. If you’re travelling alone and your flight has been delayed, it’s no fun having to wait with other disgruntled passengers all desperate to get home. However, if you’re a frequent flyer, you can at least wait in comfort. Just head to the airline’s club lounge and you’ll be sure to find a quiet environment, free food, and a place to relax while you wait.
Is there a church club lounge we can go to while we wait for Jesus—a place that helps us escape the chaos and heartache of this world? No. We Christians face difficulties like everyone else. But while we may not be able to wait for Jesus in comfort, we can wait for him with comfort. That was the message God gave to the Old Testament church through the prophet Isaiah, and it’s a message that we’ll take a closer look at this morning as we continue our Advent sermon series “Waiting with the Old Testament Church.”
Our sermon text again is from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. You may remember from last week’s sermon how Isaiah was a prophet who lived in Jerusalem about 700 years before Jesus’ birth. Isaiah lived at a time when Judah was under assault from the Assyrians and matters would only get worse when the Babylonians came along. They would succeed where the Assyrians had failed: destroy Jerusalem and take most of the Israelites captive. Although Isaiah didn’t live to see that day, God had him warn his people about it with the first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah.
But when the Israelites ended up in Babylon as captives, God didn’t want them to think that he had abandoned them. And so like a mother who packs a note in her child’s lunch to be read later in the day, God packed a note of encouragement in the prophecies of Isaiah for future Israelites, as well as for all believers. This is how our sermon text begins: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 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 40:1-3).
We like how this note starts don’t we? “Comfort, comfort!” cries God. It’s not enough for him to say it once. He says it twice so the people would know that he wasn’t kidding. The Israelites would find comfort because God would bring them back from captivity and would help them rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem. That’s what God meant when he said that he would give Israel “double” for all her sins—not double the trouble, but a double portion of blessings, just as Job had received after God brought him through all his heartache.
But then what are we to make of this exchange between a heavenly voice and the prophet Isaiah? “A voice says, ‘Cry out.’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘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’” (Isaiah 40:6-8). That doesn’t seem to be a very comforting message does it to be reminded that no matter who you are, no matter what you have achieved in life, you’re like the grass of the field or at best a flower. How long do flowers last? The ones that grow in our gardens will last a season before the cold and snow gets to them. Cut flowers last much shorter – a week or two maybe? That’s why ancient Jews would never have tried to cheer a sick person with a bouquet of flowers. It would only have reminded them of their mortality!
But perhaps we, the people of the 21st century, need to be reminded of our mortality more often. I say this because we seem to be under the illusion that science and technology will find a way to overcome any difficulty in our lives. And so it’s in Google we trust, or at least turn to as if in prayer whenever there’s something wrong in our lives. But neither science nor technology has succeeded or will ever succeed in finding a cure for death. But that’s not the impression we’re given. Instead we’re led to believe that if we just exercise and eat right, if we just take the right cocktail of vitamins, and entrust ourselves to our doctors we can find and enjoy the fountain of youth! Not so says God in our text. “Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fall…” (Isaiah 40:7b, 8). Maybe we should get into the habit of buying flowers, putting our names on them and watching them droop and die in spite of our best efforts to keep them alive because that’s what’s happening to our bodies no matter how young and healthy we are, or how rich and successful.
“OK, I get it Pastor. Why are you pounding home this point? I thought this sermon was about comfort.” It is! Although we won’t last forever, God’s Word does, says Isaiah (40:8). God’s promise of forgiveness and eternal life to all who believe in Jesus can never be broken. That’s why Isaiah would go on to write: “You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God!’ 10 See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm…” (Isaiah 40:7-10a).
Although the Israelites would be taken into captivity far away from their homes, God himself would come to their rescue because he had promised to do so. He would cause the downfall of the Babylonians and replace them with the Persians. And the Persian king Cyrus would not only send the Israelites back home, he would actually pay for the rebuilding of the city and their beloved temple.
Likewise although death will one day take us captive, our God will come to our rescue and raise us to life and give us glorified bodies. Why? Because that’s what God has promised to do for all who believe in Jesus, and God’s Word is eternal and can never be broken. Although that truth may not make life more comfortable now because it will not keep away sickness and sadness, that truth will help us wait for our Lord with comfort because we can know that death will not be the end. And when sickness and sadness do come, our God will be by our side. Listen to how else Isaiah described God. “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young” (Isaiah 40:11).
It’s comforting to hear God described as a shepherd, but does it also give the impression that God is a bit wimpy? I mean is he gentle because he’s not very powerful or because he doesn’t like conflict? If this is our image of God, then we probably won’t take his commands very seriously, and we’ll treat our sins as if they are nothing for God to concern himself with. If this is how we think, however, we need to take seriously this next portion of our text. Isaiah wrote: “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’” (Isaiah 40:3-5).
God is no wimp. He’s also described as a bulldozer that doesn’t change his route for anyone. Whole mountains will be laid low, says Isaiah. And so will the wicked and the proud. John the Baptist used these words to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus. He was the voice in the wilderness calling the people of his day to repent of their sins and to lower the mountains of pride in their hearts. If they wouldn’t do this, then Jesus would end up rolling right over them in judgment and when he did, no one would be an “innocent” victim because their sins and their rejection of the savior would have made them doubly deserving of such treatment.
Isaiah and John’s words are still important for us to heed. King Jesus is coming again and it will be to run over those who have become comfortable with their sins. Are there sins with which you have become comfortable? For example is there someone you have decided is OK to hate? Sure, you probably don’t call it hate, but do you giggle when you hear about this person’s bad day? Do you second guess every decision this person makes? Do you spend more of your time figuring out ways to undermine this individual rather than help him or her? Or perhaps you just inwardly groan whenever you see this person. Have I made you shift uneasily in your seat? That’s my job. Like John the Baptist, God has called me to afflict the comfortable. But I have also been called to comfort the afflicted. I can do that by proclaiming as did Isaiah that God himself has come to the rescue. It is he who has scrubbed away your sins with the blood of Jesus leaving you cleaner than a muddy truck that has been through the car wash. And so while we do want to hate every sin that we commit, we don’t need to fear that we will have to answer for those sins. Jesus has already answered for them.
And now we are eagerly waiting to meet our Savior so that we may thank him in person for all that he has done for us. Sure, the wait isn’t a very comfortable one because there is no church lounge where we can hide away from earthly troubles. But our wait is not without comfort. We, like the believers of old, have God’s promises which endure forever. God has come to our rescue in the person of Jesus and has forgiven our sins. And God continues to lead and guide us, and even carries us as a gentle but strong shepherd carries his lambs over rough terrain. Let’s keep encouraging each other with those promises of love, forgiveness, and the truth that there is a better life ahead—an eternal life which Jesus will bring when he returns to reveal God’s glory for all mankind to see. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
How is our text today like a lunch note a mother packs for her child?
At first God told Isaiah to comfort his people. But then he was also to remind them that they were like grass. How does remembering that we are like grass make us ready for God’s message of comfort?
God is described as a gentle shepherd king. But what in our text assures us that our God is no wimp?
Explain: Although we may not be able to wait for Jesus in comfort, we can wait for him with comfort.
