ADVENT THROUGH THE EYE’S OF A PROPHET: COME DOWN
ISAIAH 64:1-9
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT NOVEMBER 30, 2003
INTRODUCTION: Soren Kierkegaard, the great Danish theologian told this story:
A prince wanted to find a maiden suitable to be his queen. One day while running an errand in the local village for his father he passed through a poor section. As he glanced out the windows of the carriage, his eyes fell upon a beautiful peasant maiden. During the ensuing days, he often passed by the young lady and soon fell in love. But he had a problem. How would he seek her hand? He could order her to marry him. But even a prince wants his bride to marry him freely and voluntarily and not through coercion. He could put on his most splendid uniform and drive up to her front door in a carriage drawn by six horses. But if he did this he would never be certain that the maiden loved him or was simply overwhelmed with all of the splendor. The prince came up with another solution. He would give up his kingly robe. He moved, into the village, entering not with a crown but in the garb of a peasant. He lived among the people, shared their interests and concerns, and talked their language. In time the maiden grew to love him for who he was and because he had first loved her. Contributed by: Christian Cheong
TRANSITION THOUGHT: This is the story of Advent, our God coming down to us, to live with us, and to win us, not by his power, but through HIS great LOVE! Today is the first Sunday in Advent. Advent begins a 4 week journey to Christmas Day. Advent is the celebration of the coming of the Christ Child. For Isaiah the Prophet Advent was a time of prayer. He was hungry to see his God COME DOWN! To long had the people waited on their God. Impatients was the emotion of the day. Isaiah would go from wanting to see God’s National Power to seeing God’s personal power!
THESIS SENTENCE: Our God will COME DOWN to SAVE us!
I. TO COME DOWN IS A PRAYER OF INTERVENTION VV. 1-5A
A. A prayer of intervention is the hope of power
1. Our text begins with the Prophet Isaiah hungering for the Living God to break forth into the midst of His people again.
2. The reality is that the people of God were sick and tired of being sick and tired. They had felt impotent long enough.
3. “Oh, Lord,” they cried, “if only you would come down to us again.”
4. But, was this cry for God a wimpy hope for a helpless diety?
5. Absolutely not!! Look at verses 1 and 2: “Oh, that you world rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you.”
6. Do you hear what they are saying? Israel is tired of getting beat up on! Are you tired of being the short man on the totem pole? Are you tired of the enemy causing you grief day after day? Are you tired of the pain of life going in every direction but yours?
7. Isaiah called out to God and prayed, “Come down here and show this world and all our oppressors just who you are!!”
B. A prayer of intervention is a remembrance of the past
1. Do you know why Isaiah could pray like this?
2. Look at verses 3 and 4: “For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.”
3. What Isaiah is saying is that God, you used to do this stuff! We have memorized what you did to Pharaoh and his army. You worked no differently with Joshua and YOUR people entered the Promised Land. We know how you used King David to annihilate all of YOUR enemies. “Oh Lord, you used to act in mighty power over all YOUR enemies, won’t you come down and do it again?
ILLUSTRATION: Scott Hippler writes, “I can remember one late winter’s day when I was about 7, my grandmother had taken a cousin and me to the grocery store. When the shopping was done and the brown paper sacks were in the car, we headed home. On the way, grandma had to stop off at another store for a few minutes, so my cousin and I stayed in the car. Well Grandma took more time than she thought, so what was about to happen was all her fault. Back then, they put prizes in laundry detergent boxes as an incentive for people to buy. Well, we had two giant boxes of soap because Grandma bought everything in bulk. Well I had discovered that you could pop the ashtrays out of the doors in the back seat and when you looked down into them you could see a big black hole. So, we popped both ashtrays out, opened both boxes of soap and began to pour in the soap. Before we knew it, the boxes were empty and we had a nice little coffee cup and a nice little salad dish. It was then that we realized what we had done. I know that we have not been together long, but trust me on this: There is no way to make a soap box look and feel like it ‘s never been opened once you’ve poured all the soap down an ashtray hole in a car! It was all Grandma’s fault anyway! You can get into a whole lot of trouble while you wait! Especially if there is no purpose in your waiting.” Contributed by: Scott Hippler
TRUTH: OUR GOD IS ALL POWERFUL AND CAN DO GREAT THINGS FOR HIS PEOPLE!
QUESTION: ARE WE HUNGRY TO SEE GOD WORK IN OUR DAY AS ISAIAH DID IN HIS? ARE WE WILLING TO WAIT?
II. TO COME DOWN IS A PRAYER OF CONFESSION VV. 5B-7
A. A prayer of confession is ownership!
1. One of the great truths of scripture is that God honors those who confess their sin! Isaiah knew this first hand! Look back at chapter 6. Isaiah had met the Lord in the Temple. This was a display of power, for which Isaiah was looking. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he had one response, “I must take ownership of my own sin!” He said it this way, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty (verse 5).”
2. The lesson Isaiah learned had not left him. “But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry (verse 5).” Isaiah knew that to hide his sin and the sins of the people would be to lie to the living God. He also knew that God knows all!
B. A prayer of confession is helplessness!
1. Not only did Isaiah know that you must take ownership of your sin, he also knew the consequences of sin!
2. The Apostle Paul in the book of Romans states it this way: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one (3:10-12).” “All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God (3:23). For the wages of sin is death (6:23).”
3. Isaiah puts it this way, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (verse 6).”
4. What Isaiah is praying is that he and his people, all of us caught in sin, are helpless. We have become nothing more that soiled diapers! We are good for nothing. “We all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away (verse 6).” How useful is a leaf lying of the ground? What do we do with them???
5. I think verse 7 sums it up for us, this picture of helplessness caused by sin: “No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sin.”
ILLUSTRATION: When Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual politically correct generalities. But, what they heard instead was a prayer delivered with grace yet full of truth. "Heavenly Father we ask Your forgiveness. We know Your Word says, ’Woe on those who call evil good,’ but that’s exactly what we have done and we confess that:
• We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism.
• We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
• We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
• We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
• We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
• We have neglected to discipline our children and called it self-expression.
• We have abused power and called it political savvy.
• We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
• We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
• We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, 0 God, know our hearts today, cleanse us from every sin and set us free in the Name of Your Son, the Living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen."
What was the response of the legislators? Some of them walked out and expressed their outrage. Contributed by: Davon Huss
TRUTH: OUR GOD IS NOT OBLIGATED TO WORK ON OUR BEHALF WHEN WE HAVE CHOSEN SIN OVER HIM!
QUESTION: ARE WE WAITING ON GOD TO COME DOWN AND BENEFIT US WHEN WE KNOW WE ARE SEPARATED FROM HIM BY OUR SINS? HAVE WE CONFESSED OUR SINS?
III. TO COME DOWN IS PRAYER OF FAITH VV. 8-9
A. A prayer of faith speaks the truth vv. 8
1. Isaiah has come a long way from verse one. “YET” is the key word here. What Isaiah is saying is everything I have said before is not the controlling factor. The real issue is what is to come. THE PAST IS BEHIND US AND WE LOOK TO THE FUTURE.
2. So, what is the truth in Isaiah prayer? “O Lord, you are our Father (verse 8).” Isaiah is remember and reminding the Living God, “YOU are our Dad!” You may not like us right now, but you are still our Father!
3. The next truth is that the Living God is the Potter. “You are the Potter.” Isaiah is remembering and reminding the Lord, “You are the one that shapes us!”
4. The obvious truth that comes next is: “WE ARE THE CLAY.” We are nothing but slimy mud for you to shape. WE ARE THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS! The bottom line for Isaiah is that we belong to You, Oh Lord and You belong to us. This is not a statement of audacity, but of humility. Do you remember the slimy mud?
B. A prayer of faith is a passionate petition
1. The pleading of COME DOWN in power and awe for the nations to see is now a passionate petition for a personal response.
2. Isaiah once more moves to a personal relationship with a personal Savior. At the very end of verse 5, Isaiah asks a very important question: “How then can we be saved?” It is a response to the realization that God has not come down for one reason alone, a holy God cannot have a relationship with sinful humankind.
3. The only response for Isaiah and for us is a passionate petition for a personal response from a forgiving God. “Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people (verse 9).”
4. Three request were made: 1. Don’t be angry. 2. Don’t remember. 3. Oh, look upon us, we pray (don’t disown us, we are yours)!
5. Isaiah was believing in a personal relationship with a personal God.
ILLUSTRATION: Paul Harvey told about a 3-year-old boy who went to the grocery store with his mother. Before they entered the grocery store she said to him, "Now you’re not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask."
She put him up in the cart & he sat in the little child’s seat while she wheeled down the aisles. He was doing just fine until they came to the cookie section. He saw the chocolate chip cookies & he stood up in the seat & said, “Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?” She said, “I told you not even to ask. You’re not going to get any at all.” So he sat back down. They continued down the aisles, but in their search for certain items they ended up back in the cookie aisle. “Mom, can I please have some chocolate chip cookies?” She said, “I told you that you can’t have any. Now sit down & be quiet.” Finally, they were approaching the checkout lane. The little boy sensed that this may be his last chance. So just before they got to the line, he stood up on the seat of the cart & shouted in his loudest voice, “In the name of Jesus, may I have some chocolate chip cookies?” And everybody round about just laughed. Some even applauded. And, according to Paul Harvey, due to the generosity of the other shoppers, the little boy & his mother left with 23 boxes of chocolate chip cookies.
Contributed by: MELVIN NEWLAND
TRUTH: WE BELONG TO HIM; WE ARE HIS. HE IS THE POTTER!
QUESTION: DO WE HAVE FAITH TO BELIEVE HE WILL COME DOWN AND SAVE US?
CONCLUSION: As we begin this ADVENT SEASON will we humble ourselves before the living God and once more long for His Coming? Will we go through this holiday season focused solely on self and the madness that this holiday season can bring, or will we look once more toward the God of Heaven and seek Him to COME DOWN and take residence in our Lives: The forgiveness of Sin and the promise of Eternal life. DO YOU BELONG TO HIM? For what are you praying?
BENEDICTION: ROMANS 15:13
