Bringing Good Tidings

Isaiah 40:1-11

All over the western world and maybe elsewhere at this time of year at thousands of concert halls or churches or school auditoriums, this scenario is being played out. You may have been an observer or maybe even a participant in one of these events. The audience is assembled and then the musicians come on stage along with the choir. The orchestra tunes up their instruments, the conductor appears, the conversations come to a halt and there is a welcoming round of applause. The orchestra strikes up a brief, familiar overture. Then the tenor soloist rises to his feet and sings the opening words, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people” – and another performance of Handel’s Messiah is underway. Handel’s Messiah begins with the text for today, Isaiah 40
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.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.

We are stirred by this text, Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Did this passage resonate with you when it was read just before the sermon? This is one of the passages of the Bible that I always love reading. I read it and want to read it again. We love this passage because it speaks to us not primarily in the head but in the heart. Our hearts are thirsty for the news of this text and we take it in with eagerness. The text announces wonderful news of great hope. The text begins and ends with words of tenderness and love.

It might help you in this sermon to have some handles on which to hang. I’ll begin by looking at the context in which this message was given. Then move to the good news of the message, and finally what our role is in proclaiming the message.

Let’s begin by looking at the context in which this message was given.

Why are we so thirsty for this news? Isaiah put this message of comfort just after an account of devastating news. In chapter 39 there is an account of a visit by envoys of the king of Babylon.
At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery.  2 Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.
3 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?”
“From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came to me from Babylon.”
4 The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”
“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD Almighty:  6 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD.  7 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
8 “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

This is a devastating prophecy. Hezekiah’s palace would be ransacked, all the treasures of the palace taken to Babylon, his own descendants, just three generations later, taken to be slaves, eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon and how does Hezekiah take this terrible news?
“The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,”
Hezekiah made this pronouncement because he was relieved that at least this would not happen to him. This has to be one of the most self-centered, selfish responses in all of Scripture. Hezekiah has thoughts only for himself,  but that is another sermon.

The point in this sermon is that the message of comfort in Isaiah 40 comes on the heels of this devastating prophecy.

Here is a truth on which you can depend for which there is abundant empirical evidence and this is why we respond so thirstily from the depth of our being to this message: this world is one in which there is always devastating news. To hear that God has a message that will bring us comfort brings deep-seated relief because we live is such a world.

I was talking to a Moroccan woman this week, a freelance journalist, who has lived in France and the US. I told her I felt safe here in Morocco and she told me she does not feel safe anywhere. Al Qaeda is now targeting Morocco and Jordan in their attacks against those that work with the US. Every night we turn on the news and hear of yet another suicide bomber somewhere in the world.

Devastating news does not come just from terrorist attacks, it comes also from accidental death. A couple weeks ago a young woman here in Rabat received news of the death of both her parents in a car accident in the US.

Devastating news comes from relationships that have been broken through misunderstandings, betrayal and divorce. Devastating news comes from disease that strikes, from jobs that are lost, from robbery and theft, from romantic hopes dashed.

Ultimately, the most devastating news comes from the realization that we are separated from God and have a lifetime of work in front of us to try to work hard obeying the rules so that we can present a good dossier to God that hopefully will allow us into heaven.

It is into this world that is decaying, breaking apart, fading away, that the news of comfort comes and it is no wonder we are thirsty for this news.

That’s the context for the message, what is the good news of the message?

What is the word of comfort we are to bring?
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.

This is a prophecy of the gospel of hope that came to be reality with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Sin has been paid for. It has been paid for not by the sacrifices we bring to the altar but by the Lord’s hand. The Lord has provided the sacrifice and in a way not explained by Isaiah, he has paid double for sin.

The only other place this word “double” is found in the Bible is in Job 11:6 where divine wisdom is “two-sided” in the sense that it included hidden realities beyond the reach of the human mind. So here the word “double” indicates that the payment for sin comes in a way that is beyond our comprehension. From our New Testament perspective we understand a bit more clearly these hidden realities but even for us it remains a mystery.

The message of Isaiah in this passage is the good news we celebrate at Christmas and Easter. And although the events of these two Christian celebrations is still shrouded in mystery, we have a better understanding than did Isaiah. Our sin has been paid for us, not by our efforts but by the work of God, from his hand. His son entered the finite world of earth and by his death on the cross paid the price for our sin. This is the message that we are to tenderly speak.

That’s the good news of the message. What is our role is in proclaiming the message?

A voice of one calling:
“In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness
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 mankind together will see it.  For the mouth of the
LORD has spoken.”

We are familiar with this passage and know it as the prophecy fulfilled with the preaching of John the Baptist.

To make a highway in the wilderness is to make a road that will be easily traveled. Going up and down hills is a strain on the legs of man or beast. Rough ground causes sprained ankles and broken bones. A level path is the best path for walking.

Our job is not to convert people to Christianity. Conversion that means something, conversion that causes a name to be written in the heavenly book of life is something only God can do. Our part in this, as this text from Isaiah tells us, is to get rid of the obstacles that lie in the way so that the path to Jesus is easier for people. We are to prepare people to meet Jesus.

How did John the Baptist, who fulfilled this prophecy, prepare people to meet Jesus?
Luke 3:7-9
John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?  8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.  9 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

How tender was that?

But the truth is that when you make a way straight, leveling mountains, rough ground and rugged places, it is not always a gentle or tender process. This is a process that today involves bulldozers, dynamite and huge graders. Telling the truth disturbs people, uproots their presuppositions, tears away their defenses, irritates their sensibiities.

Preparing people to meet Jesus requires that we tell the truth and the truth is not always gentle.

Isaiah continues and tells us what the truth is we are to tell
A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All men are like grass,
and all their glory 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 stands forever.”

In his book Spirit Life, Stuart Briscoe writes;

When I moved to the United States from the British Isles, I was impressed with the number of total strangers who visited my home to wish me well. Coincidently, they all sold insurance! One day my visitor was talking about the necessity to be prudent in the preparation for all possibilities. He said, “If something should happen to you, Mr. Briscoe….” I interrupted with, “Please don’t say that. It upsets me.” He was a little startled, but tried again, “But with all due respect, sir, we must be ready if something should happen to you.” Again, Briscoe said, “Please don’t say that.” By this time the insurance salesman was completely bewildered and said, “I don’t understand what I said to upset you.”

Stuart Briscoe said, “I’ll tell you. It upsets me that you talk about life’s only certainty as if it was just a possibility. Death isn’t a possibility, it’s a certainty. Don’t say, ‘If,’ say ‘When.'”

Then he added with a twinkle, “By the way, when something happens to you, what do you
think will really happen?”

We live in a world that tries to deny the reality of death. Aging is battled with fitness regimes, pills and vitamins, tummy-tucks and face-lifts. There is what I call a cult of immortality in the western world and with our advance medical facilities and continual technological developments, people carry the illusion that we will be able to live forever. It is not until a friend dies that reality hits them square in the face – even face-lifts do not prevent the reality of death from penetrating.

We use euphemisms for death. Rather than say someone died, we say someone “passed away”,  “kicked the bucket”,  “gave up the ghost”, “went to meet his maker”, “bought the farm”, “snuffed it”, “rang down the curtain and joined the Choir Invisible”, anything but what really happened, “he died”.

In this world that denies the reality of death, we are charged with bringing the truth and by telling the truth, we prepare people to meet Jesus. Our life here is very temporary and fragile and when we become aware that real living is yet to come and that we need to live for the world to come rather than this world, then we have grasped the truth.

In preparing the way for Jesus, John the Baptist not only told the truth, he lifted up the name of Jesus who is truth.
15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.  16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.

We proclaim not how great we are but we lift up the name of Jesus.

We speak the truth into a world that does not want to know the truth, we lift up the name of Jesus and in so doing we make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God who then comes.
And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.  For the mouth of the
LORD has spoken.”

This is the message we have been given to share. It is a powerful message. It is a message that stirs within me the hope I have received from Jesus.

But as I prayed about this text this is what I wanted most to say. Notice how we are to share this message of comfort. The message is bracketed with tenderness. Isaiah begins his word with:
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and concludes it with:
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.

This is a message of comfort that comes from a loving God. This words drip with compassion and love. To speak tenderly is to speak to the heart, like a young man wooing a young woman to be his wife or as Boaz, a rich and influential man, spoke words of reassurance to Ruth, a young woman with nothing.

Isaiah closes this passage with images of love and tenderness; a shepherd carrying the small lambs who are unable to take care of themselves, carrying them close to his heart. He gently leads the sheep that have young and are also in a dependent state. Do you see how powerfully Isaiah is communicating the heart desire of God to draw us to himself?

This is not strident preaching. This is not loud arguing in debate about who is right and who is wrong. This is not someone who is right convincing someone who is wrong. This is not a good person sharing with a bad person. This is a heart filled with love and compassion sharing with tears in the eye heartfelt truth.

Last week I preached from Malachi which was a message of judgement. I said that when we come to Jesus we will be judged and that not one of us will be able to stand in his presence. We will all be judged as unfit to enter heaven and our only hope will be that he will extend his arm and say, “Do not be afraid, I paid the price of your sin. Welcome my daughter. Welcome my son. Enter into paradise eternal.”

I am not trying this morning to balance the preaching from last week. This message is also a message of judgement but shows the heart of God in the judgement that is made. A judgement is coming and those who close themselves to Jesus will face eternal death. Not one of us will be able to stand when we come before Jesus for our judgement and some will face the wrath of God without a relationship with Jesus to save them.

I would love it if every person in the history of the world would be saved. This is the doctrine of universalism which is very popular. If truth were democratically determined, I would vote for this doctrine to be true. The problem is that the Bible suggests that this doctrine is just wishful thinking. God is a god of love. True. But God is also a god of justice. We can never forget that God is a god of both love and justice. Universalism attempts to dissect God and cut off God’s justice, leaving only his love.

The fact that Jesus will judge and some will be sentenced to eternal hell does not mean that the love of Jesus is absent. God is loving and just.

God’s amazing love and tenderness is expressed in the length to which he is willing to go to encourage us to freely choose to submit to him and accept the salvation he purchased with his blood. You are the little lamb Jesus lifts and holds close to his heart. Jesus is gentle with you and reaches out to care for you so that you will draw near to him.

Can you believe it? God, the creator of all that is seen and unseen reaches out to you, wants you, one member of the human species on a small planet of an obscure star in a corner of the universe. This God has sacrificed his son, a one time sacrifice that is sufficient for all men and women from all of time, so that we can live eternally with him.

What do you do with such news?
You who bring good tidings to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good tidings 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!”

I told the story of the visit of the envoys of the king of Babylon to King Hezekiah at the beginning of this sermon. What would Hezekiah do with such news? Given his self-centeredness, he might say, “Well it looks like I’m going to be OK so why bother telling anybody else?”

Sitting on this message is an act of selfishness. It may be an act of cowardice. But it is not a noble thing to do. If you have any compassion, any tenderness, any heart at all, then share this message.

You don’t have to hand out Bibles on the street to do this. You don’t have to deposit Christian tracts on the doorsteps of homes to do this. You are a living tract. Your life can shout quite loudly when you live and love in the name of Jesus. You can give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.

After this past summer when I ran out of emotional and spiritual gas, I have worked consistently for the last three and a half months at taking an hour each morning to sit with God, journaling, reading Scripture, praying and filling my head with Christian music that speaks to my heart. As I have done this, there has been a steady growth in my awareness of God’s presence in my life. I have felt sustained in the midst of all that I do.

I feel much more like shouting from the top of a high mountain the good news of Jesus than I did at the end of the summer. My prayer for you is that this Christmas you will be drawn to Jesus, that you will sense the love that causes Jesus to carry you close to his heart. I pray that you will feel loved by God, that you will sense his tenderness and gentleness with you. And I pray that the joy that results from being filled with a sense of God’s love will transform you into a living tract that will shout from the mountaintop the good news of Jesus.