Dec 16, 2018
by: Jack Lash Series: Isaiah 'Twas Foretold It | Category: Advent | Scripture: Isaiah 52:7–10
I. Introduction
A. Read Isaiah 52:7–10
B. The vision
1. A devastated city: waste places of Jerusalem
2. Watchmen watching desperately for news, probably of the outcome of a battle, the result of which will determine their fate
3. Suddenly a messenger appears, with good news of peace, happiness and comfort, news of salvation & redemption, news of God’s power and rule
4. The whole city joins in the celebration
C. Fulfillment in the coming of Christ is shown in Romans 10:14-15 “But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”
II. Let’s look at the vision in light of the prophecy being fulfilled in the coming of Christ.
A. A devastated city: waste places of Jerusalem: It appears like God has been defeated, His promises have come to nothing
1. Israel may have enjoyed a brief golden age during the reigns of David and Solomon, but basically their history was a tragic one. And by the time of Christ’s birth, the chosen people had been through indescribable suffering
a. 400 years of slavery in Egypt
b. 40 years of wandering in the wilderness
c. Divided kingdom: 31 out of 39 kings were evil
d. Destruction of Israel and most of Judah by Assyria
e. Conquering of Judah three times ending with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians
f. Exile in Babylon
g. Difficult return and rebuild projects
h. Conquered, ruled by Greek and Roman tyranny
B. Watching desperately for news that the day of salvation has come.
1. Waiting for the consolation of Israel: it’s been soooo long! 700 years since the promises of Isaiah
2. Promises, promises, but no fulfillment – Things keep getting worse instead of better.
C. Suddenly a messenger appears bringing good news of peace, happiness and comfort, news of salvation & redemption, news of God’s power and rule .
1. The day of sadness and mourning is over! The day of comfort and singing for joy has arrived!
2. The messenger is Gabriel to Zacharias, Mary, Joseph
a. Or the angels to the shepherds
b. Or John the Baptist to the people of Judea
III. Now let’s think about what messages there are for us from some of the elements of the story.
A. Waste places: The message came to a place of neediness and desperation.
1. You know, in the economy of God, waste places are prime real estate. They don't scare Him away as they do most investors. In fact, there's something that actually attracts Him to them.
a. When God goes shopping for property, He usually purchases places no one else is interested in:
b. Garbage dumps, toxic wastes, parched deserts, dilapidated shacks.
2. Do you see a life in ruins? A relative, neighbor, friend, a work associate, a fellow student? You?
a. Do you see a marriage in ruins? That's no problem for Him.
b. You see, God is in the business of restoring ruins. He loves fixer-uppers.
c. 1Cor.1:26ff. God has chosen the weak, low, foolish, despised
d. Christ can transform the most hopeless and desperate places in the world.
e. That’s why when there’s human need and misery, those people are most ripe for the gospel.
B. Feet
1. We talk about hands, with which we are to serve the Lord and one another. We talk about eyes fixed on Jesus. We talk about blessing God and man with what comes forth from our mouths.
2. But here it’s feet which are in the spotlight.
3. Why is this? Why such a big deal about beautiful feet?
a. Traveling feet were filthy in the ancient middle east. That’s why it was remarkable that Jesus washed the disciples’ feet.
b. The beauty of the feet is in the message they bring! You see, this is how the message gets to Jerusalem, and then from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
4. Such a beautiful message makes you want to kiss the feet of the one who traveled to bring it.
5. The gospel has feet. It is to be brought. “How lovely are the feet of him who brings good news.”
6. Jesus came. He didn’t stay where He had been, He came. He moved. He walked. He traveled. He got His feet dirty on the dusty roads of this earth.
7. Christianity is a moving, traveling faith. It doesn't stay put.
a. The gift was given in Israel but it was not to remain in Israel.
b. The gift was given to the disciples but it was not to remain merely within that circle.
c. The gift was given to the church, but it was not to remain merely within the church.
d. It is to be carried out into the world and lived out before all and proclaimed to all who will hear it.
8. Perhaps this is why the greatest acts of gratitude that anyone performed toward Jesus were both celebrations of His feet, through being anointed by grateful women: John 12:3; Luke 7:37-38.
a. And could this be why Jesus washed the disciples’ feet just before sending them out as His ambassadors?
C. Good news
1. It is good news — good news of happiness. It should be presented as such.
2. In the past I think I was often guilty of what the Sonship lecture referred to as preaching the gospel as if it’s the law.
3. If it is good news, it should be shared as good news.
4. We communicate differently when we are communicating different kinds of messages.
a. Purely informational
b. Bad news
c. Dire warning
d. Good news
5. There is bad news involved, and there are dire warnings connected to the gospel. And yet its defining characteristic is that it is good news of happiness, good news of great joy, and it should be communicated as such.
6. We are not Moses announcing God’s law to people, nor Jonah pronouncing doom on his enemies.
7. John 3:17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
a. And the same is true for us (in a different sense, of course). God does not send us into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through us.
b. And so we must be sure to communicate a message of salvation and deliverance and forgiveness. And we must do so as if it is in fact good news of great joy.
8. Of course, we cannot publish what we do not possess. We cannot publish peace if we don’t possess peace. We cannot proclaim good news of happiness if we are gloomy and miserable.
D. Our God reigns
1. Our God reigns = He has freed us from the death grip of sin. Another impossible dream has come true. Another unbeatable foe has been thrown down. It turns out that Satan is no match for God.
2. OUR GOD REIGNS! This truth must be allowed to burst in upon us when we dwell in darkness and gloom, when we’re frightened, when things seem gloomy in the world or in our lives.
3. We have the antidote to discouragement and despair!
4. Do you feel like you’re in prison of sickness, responsibility, financial pressure.
a. Do you feel humiliated or rejected?
b. Then listen to the voice of the happy messenger as he speeds over the hills: OUR GOD REIGNS!
5. Our God reigns, but it doesn't always seem like He does. For long periods of time, even in Bible history, things looked mighty gloomy. That’s what makes OUR GOD REIGNS so powerful.
a. Exod.9:16 It didn’t seem to be true when Moses showed up with a message for Pharaoh. It seemed like Pharaoh was in charge. "I raised you up for this very purpose, that My power might be displayed through you and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth." (Rom.9:17)
b. It didn’t seem to be true when Elisha’s servant Gehazi saw that the city was surrounded by the Syrian army. But what he could not see was the fact that thousands of chariots of the heavenly host surrounded the enemy. (2Kings 6:15-17)
c. It certainly didn’t seem like Israel’s God was reigning when the Assyrians conquered the whole middle east, destroying Judah and then besieged Jerusalem in the days of Sennacherib. But God said to Sennacherib, “I determined it long ago. I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities into heaps of ruins, while their inhabitants are dismayed and confounded. Because you have raged against me, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.” Isaiah 37:26–29 And then God did it, and they fled back to Assyria in fear.
6. In each of these stories, and a thousand others, there was an OUR GOD REIGNS moment, when it became obvious that God was in charge all along. And in our lives as well.
7. There was a wonderful OUR GOD REIGNS moment this week for Ben & Michelle. Stay around.
8. Jesus went to the cross, but He didn’t stay on the cross. On Easter morning, there was a great OUR GOD REIGNS moment, wasn’t there? And so it is with us.
9. If you’ve read the Bible a lot, you know that there are dozens, maybe hundreds of times when the wicked are quoted as saying, “God doesn’t see. He has forsaken us. He can’t do anything.” (E.g. Ps.10:11, 13; 73:11; 94:7; Is.36:18-20)
10. We suffer. We hear those same voices. And sometimes we have to wait so long! But in the end there’s triumph/glory/redemption.
11. Sometimes He takes a long time to show up. But when He shows up, it was worth waiting for!
12. This is what puts steel into the backbones of God's people. This is how we keep putting one foot in front of another instead of crippled by fear/insecurity/despair.
13. We are not left to the whims of the Nebuchadnezzars and the Caesars and the Herods and the Pontius Pilates of the world. We are not left to the powers of the big-wigs in Washington. We are not left to the whims of an unpleasant employer, or to the failings of a sinful husband, or the grief of a rebellious child. OUR GOD REIGNS!
14. The nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales... All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness... Do you not know? Do you not hear? ...He sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers...He brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness... The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth... His understanding is unsearchable. – Isaiah 40:15-28
15. History is His story. He is its Author. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Rom.8:31)
E. Singing
1. Isaiah 52:9 Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.
2. The Christian songs I knew when I was growing up as an atheist were mainly Christmas carols, which I loved but had no idea what they were about. But when Christ broke into my life on December 6, 1970, I still remember singing Christmas songs and understanding for the first time what they were talking about. I had always sung the songs, but I had never joined in on the worship. It was such a precious privilege to join in.
3. How about you? Will you join in the song? It doesn’t matter what others think. Sing away! Don’t hold back.
4. All creation join in praising God the Father, Spirit, Son. Evermore your voices raising to the eternal three in one. Come and worship, come and worship! Worship Christ the newborn King!
A. Read Isaiah 52:7–10
B. The vision
1. A devastated city: waste places of Jerusalem
2. Watchmen watching desperately for news, probably of the outcome of a battle, the result of which will determine their fate
3. Suddenly a messenger appears, with good news of peace, happiness and comfort, news of salvation & redemption, news of God’s power and rule
4. The whole city joins in the celebration
C. Fulfillment in the coming of Christ is shown in Romans 10:14-15 “But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”
II. Let’s look at the vision in light of the prophecy being fulfilled in the coming of Christ.
A. A devastated city: waste places of Jerusalem: It appears like God has been defeated, His promises have come to nothing
1. Israel may have enjoyed a brief golden age during the reigns of David and Solomon, but basically their history was a tragic one. And by the time of Christ’s birth, the chosen people had been through indescribable suffering
a. 400 years of slavery in Egypt
b. 40 years of wandering in the wilderness
c. Divided kingdom: 31 out of 39 kings were evil
d. Destruction of Israel and most of Judah by Assyria
e. Conquering of Judah three times ending with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians
f. Exile in Babylon
g. Difficult return and rebuild projects
h. Conquered, ruled by Greek and Roman tyranny
B. Watching desperately for news that the day of salvation has come.
1. Waiting for the consolation of Israel: it’s been soooo long! 700 years since the promises of Isaiah
2. Promises, promises, but no fulfillment – Things keep getting worse instead of better.
C. Suddenly a messenger appears bringing good news of peace, happiness and comfort, news of salvation & redemption, news of God’s power and rule .
1. The day of sadness and mourning is over! The day of comfort and singing for joy has arrived!
2. The messenger is Gabriel to Zacharias, Mary, Joseph
a. Or the angels to the shepherds
b. Or John the Baptist to the people of Judea
III. Now let’s think about what messages there are for us from some of the elements of the story.
A. Waste places: The message came to a place of neediness and desperation.
1. You know, in the economy of God, waste places are prime real estate. They don't scare Him away as they do most investors. In fact, there's something that actually attracts Him to them.
a. When God goes shopping for property, He usually purchases places no one else is interested in:
b. Garbage dumps, toxic wastes, parched deserts, dilapidated shacks.
2. Do you see a life in ruins? A relative, neighbor, friend, a work associate, a fellow student? You?
a. Do you see a marriage in ruins? That's no problem for Him.
b. You see, God is in the business of restoring ruins. He loves fixer-uppers.
c. 1Cor.1:26ff. God has chosen the weak, low, foolish, despised
d. Christ can transform the most hopeless and desperate places in the world.
e. That’s why when there’s human need and misery, those people are most ripe for the gospel.
B. Feet
1. We talk about hands, with which we are to serve the Lord and one another. We talk about eyes fixed on Jesus. We talk about blessing God and man with what comes forth from our mouths.
2. But here it’s feet which are in the spotlight.
3. Why is this? Why such a big deal about beautiful feet?
a. Traveling feet were filthy in the ancient middle east. That’s why it was remarkable that Jesus washed the disciples’ feet.
b. The beauty of the feet is in the message they bring! You see, this is how the message gets to Jerusalem, and then from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
4. Such a beautiful message makes you want to kiss the feet of the one who traveled to bring it.
5. The gospel has feet. It is to be brought. “How lovely are the feet of him who brings good news.”
6. Jesus came. He didn’t stay where He had been, He came. He moved. He walked. He traveled. He got His feet dirty on the dusty roads of this earth.
7. Christianity is a moving, traveling faith. It doesn't stay put.
a. The gift was given in Israel but it was not to remain in Israel.
b. The gift was given to the disciples but it was not to remain merely within that circle.
c. The gift was given to the church, but it was not to remain merely within the church.
d. It is to be carried out into the world and lived out before all and proclaimed to all who will hear it.
8. Perhaps this is why the greatest acts of gratitude that anyone performed toward Jesus were both celebrations of His feet, through being anointed by grateful women: John 12:3; Luke 7:37-38.
a. And could this be why Jesus washed the disciples’ feet just before sending them out as His ambassadors?
C. Good news
1. It is good news — good news of happiness. It should be presented as such.
2. In the past I think I was often guilty of what the Sonship lecture referred to as preaching the gospel as if it’s the law.
3. If it is good news, it should be shared as good news.
4. We communicate differently when we are communicating different kinds of messages.
a. Purely informational
b. Bad news
c. Dire warning
d. Good news
5. There is bad news involved, and there are dire warnings connected to the gospel. And yet its defining characteristic is that it is good news of happiness, good news of great joy, and it should be communicated as such.
6. We are not Moses announcing God’s law to people, nor Jonah pronouncing doom on his enemies.
7. John 3:17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
a. And the same is true for us (in a different sense, of course). God does not send us into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through us.
b. And so we must be sure to communicate a message of salvation and deliverance and forgiveness. And we must do so as if it is in fact good news of great joy.
8. Of course, we cannot publish what we do not possess. We cannot publish peace if we don’t possess peace. We cannot proclaim good news of happiness if we are gloomy and miserable.
D. Our God reigns
1. Our God reigns = He has freed us from the death grip of sin. Another impossible dream has come true. Another unbeatable foe has been thrown down. It turns out that Satan is no match for God.
2. OUR GOD REIGNS! This truth must be allowed to burst in upon us when we dwell in darkness and gloom, when we’re frightened, when things seem gloomy in the world or in our lives.
3. We have the antidote to discouragement and despair!
4. Do you feel like you’re in prison of sickness, responsibility, financial pressure.
a. Do you feel humiliated or rejected?
b. Then listen to the voice of the happy messenger as he speeds over the hills: OUR GOD REIGNS!
5. Our God reigns, but it doesn't always seem like He does. For long periods of time, even in Bible history, things looked mighty gloomy. That’s what makes OUR GOD REIGNS so powerful.
a. Exod.9:16 It didn’t seem to be true when Moses showed up with a message for Pharaoh. It seemed like Pharaoh was in charge. "I raised you up for this very purpose, that My power might be displayed through you and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth." (Rom.9:17)
b. It didn’t seem to be true when Elisha’s servant Gehazi saw that the city was surrounded by the Syrian army. But what he could not see was the fact that thousands of chariots of the heavenly host surrounded the enemy. (2Kings 6:15-17)
c. It certainly didn’t seem like Israel’s God was reigning when the Assyrians conquered the whole middle east, destroying Judah and then besieged Jerusalem in the days of Sennacherib. But God said to Sennacherib, “I determined it long ago. I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities into heaps of ruins, while their inhabitants are dismayed and confounded. Because you have raged against me, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.” Isaiah 37:26–29 And then God did it, and they fled back to Assyria in fear.
6. In each of these stories, and a thousand others, there was an OUR GOD REIGNS moment, when it became obvious that God was in charge all along. And in our lives as well.
7. There was a wonderful OUR GOD REIGNS moment this week for Ben & Michelle. Stay around.
8. Jesus went to the cross, but He didn’t stay on the cross. On Easter morning, there was a great OUR GOD REIGNS moment, wasn’t there? And so it is with us.
9. If you’ve read the Bible a lot, you know that there are dozens, maybe hundreds of times when the wicked are quoted as saying, “God doesn’t see. He has forsaken us. He can’t do anything.” (E.g. Ps.10:11, 13; 73:11; 94:7; Is.36:18-20)
10. We suffer. We hear those same voices. And sometimes we have to wait so long! But in the end there’s triumph/glory/redemption.
11. Sometimes He takes a long time to show up. But when He shows up, it was worth waiting for!
12. This is what puts steel into the backbones of God's people. This is how we keep putting one foot in front of another instead of crippled by fear/insecurity/despair.
13. We are not left to the whims of the Nebuchadnezzars and the Caesars and the Herods and the Pontius Pilates of the world. We are not left to the powers of the big-wigs in Washington. We are not left to the whims of an unpleasant employer, or to the failings of a sinful husband, or the grief of a rebellious child. OUR GOD REIGNS!
14. The nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales... All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness... Do you not know? Do you not hear? ...He sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers...He brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness... The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth... His understanding is unsearchable. – Isaiah 40:15-28
15. History is His story. He is its Author. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Rom.8:31)
E. Singing
1. Isaiah 52:9 Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.
2. The Christian songs I knew when I was growing up as an atheist were mainly Christmas carols, which I loved but had no idea what they were about. But when Christ broke into my life on December 6, 1970, I still remember singing Christmas songs and understanding for the first time what they were talking about. I had always sung the songs, but I had never joined in on the worship. It was such a precious privilege to join in.
3. How about you? Will you join in the song? It doesn’t matter what others think. Sing away! Don’t hold back.
4. All creation join in praising God the Father, Spirit, Son. Evermore your voices raising to the eternal three in one. Come and worship, come and worship! Worship Christ the newborn King!