Emmanuel Lutheran Church

Sermon for Midweek of Advent 2

Isaiah 66:1-13

After ascending briefly into heaven in last week’s reading, where we heard the Lord’s promise to create new heavens and a new earth when Christ returns in glory, we come back down to earth for a moment as Isaiah begins the final chapter of his prophecy. Here the Lord makes His case one last time against apostate Israel, and extends yet another comforting promise to His beleaguered Church here on earth, made up of true believers, true worshipers of God. Even as the Lord threatens to reject the false worshipers in Israel, He assures the true worshipers that He accepts them, and also promises to increase their number abundantly, removing the apostates and replacing them with genuine Christians.

Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord.

Here it sounds like God doesn’t care about having an earthly temple in Jerusalem. He doesn’t need a building to dwell in or a place to live. He already inhabits all creation. What need does He have of an earthly building? None.

That doesn’t mean the temple in Old Testament Jerusalem was unimportant. On the contrary! God commanded Israel to build it and told them to use it for His worship. In fact, He forbade them from worshipping Him anywhere else. He chose to bind Himself to that building, to that place, so that Israel would learn to worship Him only in the place and in the way He instructed them. Because, contrary to popular belief, you can’t worship God “anywhere.” You can’t worship Him in any way you want. The only true, acceptable worship of God is the worship that He has established, in the place He has established. The Old Testament temple was actually intended to foreshadow the Person of Jesus Christ, because He is the only “place” where God the Father accepts sinners, where He is willing to listen, and ready to forgive.

But many in Israel missed the point of the temple. They became proud of it, secure in it, as if God couldn’t possibly bring judgment down on them, because, after all, they had the temple of God in the city of God! They ignored God’s commandments, they stopped trusting in Him, but they still were sure that they were going to be fine, because they had the temple.

Here God assures them that He does not need the temple. He does not accept people just because they show up in His temple, or because it sits in their city. He doesn’t actually need a place to rest. No, it wasn’t being near the temple or inside the temple that made Him willing to accept a person. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. That was the worship God was seeking, not maintaining a building—even the building He had commanded them to build and to use—but humility before Him. Contrition in a person’s spirit, that is, sorrow over sin. And trembling at His Word. In other words, when God speaks, a person actually listens, actually cares what He says and is careful to do what God says, instead of making himself the judge over God, instead of hearing God’s word and then saying, “That’s not for me. I’ll do as I please and believe as I want.”

But that’s how most of Israel responded to God’s Word. “I’ll do as I please. I’ll believe as I want. But, I’ll continue to bring sacrifices and offerings to God in His temple, and surely He’ll accept me, even though I’m not humble, or contrite in spirit, nor do I tremble at His word.” The Lord describes and condemns their faith-less acts of worship. “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations; I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.”

Right now, as God’s Word goes out into the world, how many are actually listening? There are a few who listen, who take Him seriously, who repent and believe and care about His Word. But most are like Old Testament Israel. When I called, no one answered. When I spoke, they did not listen. Most people hear God’s Word today and laugh. And sit in judgment of it and of any of the “fools” who actually believe it. That’s how they’ve chosen to act, to sin against God’s Holy Spirit who calls out to them in His Word. But God threatens to choose harsh treatment for them, even eternal condemnation.

But God knows that there are some who have listened, and He comforts them with His next words. Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my name’s sake have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy’; but it is they who shall be put to shame. “The sound of an uproar from the city! A sound from the temple! The sound of the Lord, rendering recompense to his enemies!

When you’re hated by people you don’t even know, or who aren’t close to you at all, it can still hurt. But the worst kind of hatred is the hatred that comes from a brother, from someone who claims to be a fellow Christian, but who has actually rejected the Word of Christ and now hates you for still believing it and for living according to it, maybe not with a visceral kind of hatred, but with the hatred of rejection and condescension. Those very haters often prosper in this life. They’re the ones with the big cathedrals and the megachurches and the full parking lots on Sunday, just as they were the church leaders back in Old Testament times. But here God speaks to those who still tremble at His word and comforts them: He’s coming against your enemies.

“Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she delivered a son. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?” says the Lord; “shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?” says your God.

Who is the woman in labor here? It’s the Church, often pictured as a woman, often referred to in the Old Testament as Zion, which is another name for Jerusalem. In the New Testament, she’s referred to as the Bride of Christ, or “the Jerusalem above.” To whom does she give birth? She gives birth to Christians from every nation, tribe, language, and people. But, as God says here, it’s really God who causes the Church to bring forth children, as His Holy Spirit works through the ministry of the Church, through Word and Sacrament, to bring sinners to faith in Christ and to make them children of God. Here God promises the birth of New Testament Christians from the Old Testament Church, after the Christ Himself is born.

“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her; that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance.” For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

There was good reason to love “Jerusalem,” that is, the Old Testament Church of God, because God created it and nurtured it, just as there was good reason to mourn over her, because she was in shambles and appeared about to die in Isaiah’s time, since there were so few true worshipers of God left in her, and so many false worshipers and non-believers within the Church of Israel. But God called on His true worshipers, on those who tremble at His word, to rejoice with Jerusalem, because He was going to make her the mother of a new Church, of the Holy Christian Church.

So give thanks to God for preserving His Old Testament Church long enough to get His Son born into the world, and long enough to give birth to those who believed in Him and proclaimed His Word in the world, so that you, too, could hear the word about the Child born in Bethlehem, humble yourselves, become contrite in spirit, and tremble at His word. In other words, so that you could be born again as true worshipers of God, whom He will preserve within His New Testament Church, just as He preserved the true worshipers in the Old Testament, until it’s time for the New Jerusalem to come down out of heaven. Amen.

Sermon for Midweek of Advent 1

Isaiah 65:17-25

After writing so much about earthly Jerusalem, and Israel’s captivity in Babylon, and even about the first Advent of the Christ, Isaiah finally moves fully beyond everything earthly to describe heaven for us. But how can God really describe heaven to those who only know earthly realities? It’s like trying to describe colors to a blind person, or music to someone who is deaf. So, how does God describe heaven in this second-to-last chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy? He describes it in terms we can understand, in earthly terms, using earthly imagery and comparisons. That means we shouldn’t get too hung up on those earthly images. Because the main thing we’re to come away with after reading Isaiah 65 was summarized well enough by C.S. Lewis: “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

When we talk about the next life, we often just use the word, “heaven,” by which we mean, the spirit realm which is invisible to us, but where God dwells visibly with the saints and angels. When a believer in Christ dies, it’s appropriate to talk about their soul going to heaven. But when Christ comes again, it’s a much more physical kind of existence that’s described, which makes sense, because there is going to be a physical resurrection of the bodies of all the dead. So what’s next for believers? The Lord describes it here as “new heavens and a new earth.” Peter describes it the same way in his second Epistle: Let us wait for and hasten the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Think of all the beauty and goodness that still remains in this creation. Think of all the ugliness and suffering and meaninglessness in this world. Lump it all together, and realize that God has determined, none of it is worth preserving. None of it is worth keeping. He has far, far better things in mind for His children. So much so that, as he says here, the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. That doesn’t mean literally that we won’t be able to remember anything from our life on this earth. It just means that, once you see the new heavens and the new earth, you won’t, for one second, think back and long for the life you had here. There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.

But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people;

It’s worth noting that God makes it clear, twice, that He is the one creating the new heavens and the new earth. We don’t create it. We don’t bring it about. We don’t make it happen, as if the Church were responsible for renewing this sinful world and building a glorious kingdom of God on earth. No, everything here will be destroyed, and God Himself will create the new world. And He calls on His people to rejoice in it! Because it will be a place filled with joy and peace and everything good.

He promises here to create a new Jerusalem. Obviously that can’t be a reference to the current Jerusalem that exists here below, because everything on earth, with the earth itself, will be destroyed. Nor can this be a picture of the Christian Church as it exists here on earth, because here the Church still has its share of false brothers and false teachers who are not a joy, but a scourge on the Church. No, this is the New Jerusalem, the new city of God, the perfected home of God’s children where righteousness dwells, where no unclean thing can enter, where there is nothing to interrupt or detract from the joy that God and His people will share together.

No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

Remember, the Lord is not giving us a literal description of heaven, as if there will be infants or death in the new creation. He’s using earthly comparisons to show us how much better it will be. First, there’s no more weeping, no more stress or distress, because there’s nothing there to cause weeping or distress. Think of all the things that make you weep for sorrow here: guilt, betrayal, mistreatment, loneliness, emptiness, sickness, pain, and, maybe the biggest culprit of them all, loss. But all of that will be a thing of the past. He gives us the example here of the terrible tragedy of the death of an infant or of a young person, a major cause of suffering here. No such tragedies will occur in the new world that God will create.

More examples follow. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity. These descriptions remind us of the curses that Moses commanded Israel to pronounce on themselves, if they should turn away from the LORD God and His covenant and His promised Messiah. Building houses that others would inhabit. Planting vineyards without being able to eat their fruit, etc. Israel experienced those curses here below, and all people on earth know what it is to labor in vain, because no one is immune to the curse that God placed on this creation in the Garden of Eden. But in the next life, the curse will be lifted, and God’s people will no longer labor in vain.

For they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.

The blessings of the new creation are entirely, 100%, the result of God’s goodness toward us, God’s blessing upon us, which He has poured out on us already through the Lord Jesus. He is the One who has set the slaves free and has made us sons of God and coheirs, together with Him, of this blessed eternal inheritance, where God will no longer seem distant, where God will no longer appear not to hear, where faith no longer needs to be tested and children no longer need to be disciplined, but where God will be right there with us, providing for every need before we have to ask.

The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox,

There may or may not be animals in the new creation. This verse simply pictures for us the perfect peace and safety that will be there. Things that are dangerous and destructive on this earth will not be dangerous and destructive in heaven. No prowling lion. No wolf stalking its prey. No violence or killing or death. No enemies trying to destroy God’s people. No sinful nature to drag us down.

What about the devil? Will the ancient serpent be able to enter the heavenly garden and ruin it, as he once entered Eden and ruined everything in that first paradise? And dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord. Neither Satan nor his offspring will be able to tempt or harm God’s children anymore. Satan and his offspring will forever remain under the curse, and we, God’s children, will live in security without anyone or anything to ruin it, ever.

It’s hard to imagine an existence like that, isn’t it?, surrounded as we are by the effects of sin and death. Is it any wonder that God tells us over and over again in Scripture to get our focus off of this earth, to be more concerned with heavenly things than earthly things? Is it any wonder that He pleads with us to hold to the teachings of Scripture as if our entire blessed future depended on it? Because it does! Satan even now wants to rip all of this out of our hands, but as St. Paul says, the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. So hold on a little longer. Hold onto Christ Jesus and His Gospel and don’t cling too tightly to this world. Because there are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind. Believe that truth. And use it to help you bear up under all the difficult things here. Because the end of those things is in sight! Amen.

Sermon for Thanksgiving Eve

Isaiah 65:13-16

We only have four verses before us from Isaiah’s prophecy this evening, and it won’t be too hard to find some applications to our theme of giving thanks to the Lord. As Isaiah’s prophecy draws closer to the end, the contrast becomes clearer and clearer between the righteous and the wicked, and between the very different ends and rewards that each group will have from the LORD, beginning in the New Testament era, and experienced fully after the resurrection. In these four verses, the contrast is made between “My servants” and “you.” So the most important thing we need to understand is, who is who?

In these verses, the Lord Yahweh says only good things, wonderful things, about “My servants.” Who are they? They are the ones who truly serve the true God, who truly worship the true God, who truly fear Him, who truly trust in Him, who truly love Him and are devoted to Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. And who are they? Well, they’re no one, by nature. No one is born with a heart that truly fears God or loves God or trusts in God. God has no servants among mankind, by nature.

But, as we learned over the past year in Isaiah’s prophecy, THE Servant of the LORD would come, the Lord Jesus Christ, and would serve the Lord perfectly, who would bear the sins of the world and suffer and die for them. And His Gospel would go out, showing mankind how no one has served the LORD by nature, but then inviting all men, both Jews and Gentiles, to repent and believe in THE Servant of the LORD, to be forgiven, to be saved, to be made into children of God—into servants of the Lord Yahweh, children of God who serve our Father and seek to do His will, not as slaves, but as sons, who love our Father because He first loved us and gave His only Son for us. Christians—penitent, baptized believers in Christ Jesus—are “His servants.”

The “you” in these verses is directed at Old Testament, unbelieving, impenitent Israel (and, by extension, it applies to all unbelievers). “You” refers to the sinners who refused to repent, who held onto their sins, who insisted on believing whatever they wanted, living however they wanted, ultimately serving themselves and not the Lord God.

What will be the outcome for each group? Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, My servants shall eat, But you shall be hungry; Behold, My servants shall drink, But you shall be thirsty; Behold, My servants shall rejoice, But you shall be ashamed; Behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, But you shall cry for sorrow of heart, And wail for grief of spirit.

The two outcomes will be vastly different for “My servants” and for “you.” The differences are portrayed here in earthly terms. “My servants” get to eat and drink and rejoice and sing with gladness of heart, while “you” go hungry and thirsty, and suffer shame, and sorrow and grief. Now, in this life, it’s hard to see a distinction between believers and unbelievers, but it’s not entirely impossible. Believers and unbelievers alike suffer illness, and scarcity, and tragedy, and death. In fact, sometimes the wicked seem to prosper far more than the righteous. But if you look closely, you can, usually, see a difference even now, mainly in the fact that the believer knows gratitude and contentment. St. Paul writes, I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. The believer knows how to give thanks to God, in every situation. Not that our sinful flesh is ever content or eager to give thanks. But the New Man inside of you, the real you, who knows that we have a gracious Father for Jesus’ sake, the real you knows that God is always good, and that it is always good and right to give thanks to Him for every morsel of food, for every gift, for every breath. Meanwhile, the unbeliever is always missing something, even in the midst of plenty. Because he has God for an enemy, not for a friend, and part of the unbeliever knows that there will be a reckoning, but he doesn’t want to flee in faith to Christ to escape condemnation.

But the difference between believers and unbelievers will be made plainly obvious to everyone at the resurrection, when Christ comes again. We’ve seen that distinction very clearly the last two Sundays as they showed us glimpses of the Last Day, in the parable of the sheep and the goats, and in the different outcomes for the wise and the foolish virgins. It’s the same thing Isaiah pictures for us this evening, with pure comfort and joy for “My servants,” and pure torment and sorrow for “you,” that is, for the unbelievers.

What else does God have to say to “you,” that is, to those who are not “His servants”? You shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen; For the Lord GOD will slay you, And call His servants by another name; So that he who blesses himself in the earth Shall bless himself in the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth Shall swear by the God of truth.

Speaking to Old Testament, impenitent, apostate Israel, the unbelieving Jews, God says, “you shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen.” In other words, because of your unbelief, you will give up the name of “Israel” and the name of the “Jews” and hand it over to those who truly worship God, who believe in His Christ. This is just what St. Paul talks about in the New Testament, that Christians are the true Israel. But we don’t usually go by that name, do we? Because the name of Israel is so closely associated with those who rejected and still reject Jesus as the Christ, with those whom God permanently cursed with destruction already in the first century AD. And so the name “Israel” has now, in a sense, become a curse for us. But God promises here to call His servants by “another name.” Now, instead of “Israel,” God’s people, His true worshipers, are known as Christians. And at the resurrection, Jesus promises to give His people an even more glorious name, as He says in Rev. 3: He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.

Isaiah concludes, Because the former troubles are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My eyes. The glory that awaits God’s servants is so great that neither we nor even God Himself will give a thought to all the troubles that came before. As Paul says to the Romans, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. This is the glory that God’s servants, God’s saints, have to look forward to.

So as you turn your thoughts at Thanksgiving time, with gratitude in your hearts, to all the earthly blessings God has given you, be sure to give thanks to Him most of all for revealing His beloved Son to you, for inviting you to enter His service by faith, for giving you other servants of God to walk through this life with you in His holy Church, and for the promise that He will come again soon to bring His servants into that eternal inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. Amen.