Be seated.
Well, one of my favorite Advent traditions
that I try to do every year is to go and see Handel's Messiah.
And last night, Molly and I had the opportunity
to go see it at the National Cathedral.
And if you've ever gotten the chance to see it there,
it's an amazing, beautiful setting
to see this masterpiece of music
that was written by George Friedrich Handel in 1741.
And it has become one of the most well-known,
one of the most often performed pieces of music in history.
And the music itself is, of course, masterful.
But what's so amazing, if you've ever heard it
or seen it performed,
is that all the words are directly from Scripture.
It tells the story of redemption
straight from the Bible.
Handel set the message of redemption to music.
And it is absolutely beautiful.
And it about brings me to tears
almost every time I listen to it.
And three of the very first songs,
in fact, there's five in total,
that actually, of Handel's Messiah,
actually come straight from our text this morning,
Isaiah chapter 40.
And part of what I love about the Messiah
is that I think it beautifully captures
the tone and the mood of Isaiah 40,
which is one of God speaking words of comfort
to his people.
And I promise you,
I'm not gonna sing Isaiah 40 this morning,
much to your joy,
but I'm gonna preach it.
And hopefully,
we'll hear God's words of comfort
to us this morning.
The background to Isaiah chapter 40
is the Babylonian exile.
Chapters one through 39 of the prophet Isaiah
are about what is happening in Isaiah's day
before the exile,
when the kingdom of Assyria
is the major threat.
And there comes this turning point
in the book of Isaiah in chapter 39,
when King Hezekiah makes a foolish decision.
He welcomes ambassadors from the kingdom of Babylon,
a kingdom that's not yet a threat.
And he gives these ambassadors,
these envoys,
a tour of his whole palace and armory
and the temple.
And he shows them all the silver and gold
and all his wealth in the palace
and all of his storehouses.
And by the way,
if you happen to work in foreign policy,
I would not recommend this as a strategy
for foreign policy
because chapter 39
ends with the prophet Isaiah
telling King Hezekiah,
the time will surely come
when everything that you've just showed,
these ambassadors from Babylon,
and that all that your predecessors
have stored up until this day
will be carried off into exile.
And a couple generations later,
that is exactly what happened.
God had sent Israel prophet after prophet,
warning after warning,
until he finally allowed Jerusalem
to be captured by the Babylonians.
And his people
were forced from their homes
and torn from everything
that was familiar to them
and taken to a foreign land in tears.
And Isaiah,
though he lived in the time
before the exile,
God gave him the prophetic task
of writing these words
to an audience centuries in the future.
And it's to people living in the pain
and the grief
and the disorientation of exile
that God speaks these words of comfort
here in Isaiah chapter 40.
And even though we may not be living
in a literal exile today,
we need these words of comfort
and consolation
just as much as they did
because all of us,
if we're honest,
face the pain
and grief
and difficult circumstances
of life in a fallen world,
which is in its own way
its own experience of exile,
of feeling far from home,
of feeling like this world
is not our true home,
it's not the way it's supposed to be.
Perhaps this morning,
as you come into the season of Advent,
you have felt this
more heavily
this year
or in recent months
than in any other season of your life.
Maybe you're coming into the season of Advent
not with celebration and joy,
but with tears
and with grief
and wrestling with God.
And if that's you,
I wanna invite you to listen
to what's here in Isaiah chapter 40 this morning.
I wanna invite you to listen
to three voices of comfort.
Three voices of comfort.
Here in Isaiah 40,
we see a voice of assurance,
a voice of hope,
and a voice of love.
A voice of assurance,
a voice of hope,
and a voice of love.
So first of all,
we see here in this passage
that we are comforted
with a voice of assurance.
I wonder how you imagine
God's voice sounds like.
I wonder what the tone is.
I wonder what the mood is
when you imagine God's voice.
Is it a deep bass voice
that sounds like Morgan Freeman?
Is it super spiritual
and high-pitched and angelic?
Is it dry and boring?
Is it harsh and condemning?
It's interesting.
Notice how verses one and two
start with this.
Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.
The tone in God's voice here
is one of tenderness,
gentleness, comfort.
He's bringing them
a message of consolation.
And what is that message?
We see in verse three,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received
from the Lord's hand
double for all her sins.
God is speaking a word of comfort
to his people here
about the forgiveness of their sins.
The people in Israel knew
why they were in exile.
They were rightly receiving
God's discipline
for generations of unfaithfulness,
idolatry, rebellion.
And I wonder
what it would have been like
to sit around a Jewish dinner table
in exile in Babylon.
I wonder what sorts of things
would have been said.
I wonder what things
would have gone unsaid.
I wonder what questions
would have been asked.
I wonder what fears
and sorrows
would have been expressed
around that dinner table
in Babylon.
And I have to imagine,
whether it went said or unsaid,
that one of the questions
they wrestled with in exile
is this,
are we beyond God's forgiveness?
Did we sin too greatly?
Did we go too far?
Are we past the boundaries
of God's mercy?
But God says to his people here
in Isaiah 40,
not only are you
not beyond the scope
of my mercy and forgiveness,
but in fact,
I have already forgiven you.
I'm not waiting
for your exile to be over,
for your sins to be atoned for.
It's not the exile
that's atoning for your sins.
I have already atoned
for them myself.
And in fact,
I have given you double
for all your sins.
This is the image
of a double portion.
A double portion
is something
that is overflowing
with extravagance
and generosity
beyond what is expected
or even necessary.
God is saying,
I've done way more
than just forgiven you.
In fact,
I'm here to comfort you
and to assure you
that you're still mine,
that you still belong to me,
that you're forgiven.
Though Israel had to endure
God's discipline
for a short time,
it was impossible
for them
to have sinned
too greatly
to be beyond God's mercy.
And this is a word
of comfort
that they needed to hear
in the exile,
and this is a word
of comfort
that we need
to hear today.
Do you ever wonder
if you can have
real
and lasting assurance
that you are
right with God?
Have you ever wondered
that
perhaps
maybe he forgave you
for those things
in your past,
but maybe now
you've,
maybe now you've gone too far.
Maybe you've crossed a line.
Maybe you've,
now you're past
the point of no return.
You're past the boundaries
of God's mercy
that maybe God's patience
has run out on you.
And if that's you,
hear these words
of comfort
and assurance
that is here
in this text.
We can know
that we can
have real assurance
in the forgiveness
of our sins
not because of anything
that we have done,
but because of what we see
here in verse two,
that forgiveness
is something that comes
from the hand
of the Lord.
It is given
and received
not something
that is earned
or achieved.
Our assurance
is not based
in our character,
but in the character
of God.
And yes,
it's true.
Like Israel,
sometimes we do have
to experience
the Lord's discipline
for a season.
Sometimes we do have
to face the real
painful consequences
for our sin.
but even still,
we cannot
out-sin
the mercy
of God.
There is more
mercy in God
than there is sin
in us.
And the tender
heart of God
longs to comfort us
with the news
that our sins
are forgiven,
to assure us
that we are His,
that we belong
to Him.
And that's the first
voice that we see.
We are comforted
with a voice
of assurance
about God's forgiveness.
But the second voice
that we see
is a voice
of hope.
We are comforted
with a voice
of hope.
During my first year
in seminary
in St. Louis,
I found myself
in a room
with a counselor.
And it was that,
in that first year
of seminary
that I was
stumbling
for the first time
and trying to unpack
the complexity
of my inner life.
And part of
what that counselor
helped me do,
and maybe a counselor
has helped
do this for you,
but part of what
he helped me do
is to learn
how to name
and process
my grief.
I didn't realize it,
but there were
a lot of things
that I was grieving.
And as a good counselor
does,
he picked up on it.
And I distinctly
remember him saying
one thing to me
in one of our sessions,
and he says,
Jeff,
it sounds like
you think
that your best days
are behind you.
And I'll always
remember that
because he hit
the nail on the head
because he was able
to articulate
my grief
in a way
that I wasn't.
And that named
for me
what I felt like
was the grief
under the grief.
And the grief
under the grief
was I felt like
that the glory days
were gone
never to return again.
And I think
if we go back
to that Jewish
dinner table
in Babylon
in exile,
I wonder
if this was a question
on their minds
as well.
Are the glory days
behind us?
Is our story over?
Has it come to an end?
Israel, of course,
had a clear sense
of its own story.
They were the people
that God had rescued
from slavery
in Egypt
and brought
into the wilderness,
brought through the wilderness
into the promised lands
to be a light
to the nations.
And yet now
it seemed like
they were
back in slavery,
back in the wilderness.
It seemed to them
that maybe their story
had come to an end,
that maybe their best days
were behind them,
that the glory days
were over.
And it's to this group
of people
that God,
through the prophet Isaiah,
speaks a comforting
word of hope.
Verse three,
a voice cries
in the wilderness,
prepare the way
of the Lord.
Make straight
in the desert
a highway
for our God.
Every valley
shall be lifted up
and every mountain
and hill
be made low.
the uneven ground
shall become level
and the rough places
a plain.
And the glory
of the Lord
shall be revealed
and all flesh
shall see it together
for the mouth
of the Lord
has spoken.
This image
of a highway
is an ancient image
for when a road
would be constructed
over rough terrain
as a processional route
for a king
coming into a city
so that all
of his chariots
and horses
and soldiers
could pass through
on smooth ground.
And Isaiah says
that this is what
is going to happen
when God comes.
He is going to come
as a king
and he is going
to come
and reveal
his glory
to the world.
And that when he does,
his rule
is gonna transform
the whole creation.
all of the unjust
power structures
that oppress people,
all of the sin
and idolatry
that dehumanize people,
all of the hatred
and all of the violence
that divide people,
all of the rough terrain
is gonna be smoothed out
when God the king
comes and reveals
his glory.
And this is an incredible
word of hope
that God is speaking
to Israel
that their story
doesn't end
in exile
but with the glory
of God
transforming
the whole creation.
And not just them
but all flesh,
all creation,
all the nations
of the earth
are gonna see it.
And God offers us
the same hope
that if we,
if you belong to him
that your story,
your individual story
is bound up
in the transformation
of all things
and the revelation
of the glory of God
to all people.
And because that's true,
your story
is far from over.
Your best days
aren't behind you,
they're ahead of you.
And so if life for you
feels like
exile
or wilderness
right now
because of grief
or pain
or difficult circumstances,
if that's you,
let me invite you
to see what is here
in this text.
That it's in those places.
It's in the wilderness.
It's in exile
where God comes
to reveal
his glory
and to smooth out
the rough places.
He comes
in the desert.
He comes
in the valleys.
He comes
in the rough places
to reveal
his glory
to the world.
That is where God comes
and transforms
the rough terrain
of our lives
and our world
into places
of beauty
and glory.
And this hope
is not dependent
upon human ability
or wisdom
or power,
but on the wisdom
and power
of God's word.
And that is what we see
next in verses
six through eight.
All flesh
is grass
and all its beauty
like the flowers
of the field.
The grass
withers
and the flower
fades,
but the word
of our God
will stand forever.
people are
as fragile
and as frail
as grass.
Here today,
gone tomorrow.
Kingdoms rise
and fall,
political leaders
come and go.
Ideas
and technology
come and go.
It's frail.
It's momentary.
And that is why
we can't place
our ultimate hope
in any person
or any of the
thousand things
that human beings
put their hope in,
whether it's kings
or presidents
or historical circumstances
or intellect
or all beauty.
They're all
too frail.
They're all
too temporary.
They're all
too momentary.
But God's word
is eternal.
And that is where
true hope
is to be found.
And if he said
it's true,
it's going to come true.
Isaiah says,
the mouth
of the Lord
has spoken.
That was the
original mic drop.
Right?
The mouth
of the Lord
has spoken.
And when we
see what's
promised to us
here,
the transformation
of all creation,
that's incredible
comfort.
It's going to happen
because it's based
on God's word.
So first of all,
we're comforted
with a voice
of assurance
about God's
forgiveness.
Second,
we are comforted
with a voice
of hope
about God's
glory.
Thirdly,
finally,
we see
a third voice,
that we are
comforted with
a voice
of love.
A voice
of love.
If we go back
to that Jewish
dinner table
in Babylon
one more time
and we look
outside
and we see
an unfamiliar
place,
an unfamiliar
culture,
unfamiliar
food,
unfamiliar
language,
I would
imagine,
again,
spoken or
unspoken,
that a
question
that arose
around that
dinner table
was,
are we
alone?
Has God
forgotten us?
Has he abandoned
us?
Has he forsaken
us?
Look at verse
10 and 11.
Behold,
the Lord God
comes
with might
and his
arm rules
for him.
Behold,
his reward
is with him
and his
recompense
before him.
He will
tend his
flock
like a
shepherd.
He will
gather the
lambs in
his arms,
he will
carry them
in his
bosom
and gently
lead those
that are
with young.
This
is the
image of
God
as a
warrior
shepherd.
God
promises
to come,
yes,
as a
conquering
king
who reigns
and who
rewards
his people
with victory.
But don't
miss that
the end
goal of
the reigning
conquering
king is
to dwell
with his
people in
love as
a shepherd.
This is
one of the
most intimate
images in
scripture about
God's loving
presence with
his people.
He gathers
them into
his arms.
And brings
them close
to his
chest.
He says
to Israel,
I haven't
forgotten you,
I haven't
forsaken
you,
you are
not alone.
My whole
purpose is
to come
and to dwell
with you
in love.
And he
says the
same thing
to us.
God
longs to
dwell with
us in
a loving
relationship
as a
shepherd,
to be
present with
us,
to lead
us and
to guide
us,
to nourish
us,
and to
bind up
our
wounds.
And if
you're here
this morning
and you
are especially
grieving or
suffering,
look at
this image
here in
Isaiah 40
that the
God of
Isaiah 40
is not
a God
who has
left you
alone,
but who
gathers
you into
his arms
and who
holds you
close to
his chest.
There is
incredible
comfort for
us here in
this image
of our
God as
a shepherd,
warrior,
king.
And so
there's
incredible
comfort here.
There's
comfort all
over this
passage and
in fact,
if you
read the
rest of
Isaiah
chapter 40,
there's
more
comfort.
There's
comfort that
is extravagant
and poured
out.
And I
wish I
had time
to preach
the rest
of the
chapter because
the entire
chapter of
Isaiah 40
is glorious.
It's one of
the most
amazing
chapters in
all of
scripture.
And so I
encourage you
later today
to go home
and read
the whole
chapter because
it is just
overflowing
with comfort.
But here in
these verses we
see that we're
comforted with a
voice of
assurance about
God's
forgiveness,
that we're not
beyond his
mercy.
We're comforted
with a voice of
hope about
God's glory,
that our
story's not
over.
And we're
comforted with a
voice of love
about God's
presence who
comes to dwell
with his
people,
that we are
not alone.
And centuries
later, these
words of
comfort would
leap off the
page and
take on
flesh.
In Mark
chapter 1,
our gospel
reading, John
the Baptist
says, that
voice in Isaiah
chapter 40
calling in the
wilderness to
prepare,
the way for
the Lord.
That's me.
That is my
voice.
I am the
voice of one
calling in the
wilderness that
God is here.
That the God of
comfort who was
promised and
foretold in Isaiah
chapter 40 is
here.
He has come.
Repent and
believe the
good news.
Repent and
receive the
comfort and the
consolation that
has taken on
flesh.
forgiveness.
In Jesus
Christ.
Jesus Christ is
God's ultimate
word of
assurance to us
about God's
forgiveness.
It is through
his finished work
on the cross
that we can know
with great
assurance, beyond
the shadow of a
doubt, that our
sins are forgiven.
God's ultimate
love of a
God's ultimate
salvation.
He is
not because of
everything in him,
because his work
was full and
final and
complete and
satisfactory in his
death on the cross
in our place.
And in Jesus, we
find God saying to
us, your
warfare is
ended.
your iniquity is
pardoned.
You have received
from the Lord's
hand a double
portion, not only
the forgiveness of
sins, but the
transfer of his
righteousness to
us, our adoption
as his sons and
daughters, our
justification, the
indwelling of the
Holy Spirit, and
all the spiritual
blessings that come
in Christ.
He is God's double
portion, his
overflowing, extravagant
grace to us.
He is God's word of
assurance.
to us.
And if we put our
faith in him, we
don't have to doubt
for a second that
our sins are
forgiven and that
we belong to God.
Jesus Christ is
God's word of hope.
He is God's ultimate
word of hope to us
about the coming of
God's glory.
In his incarnation,
God revealed his
glory to the world.
Wherever Jesus
went, valleys were
raised up.
Mountains were brought
low.
Rough places were
smoothed.
The sick were healed.
The blind saw.
The lame walked.
Sinners repented and
received forgiveness.
Wherever Jesus goes, the
transformation of the
glory of God goes too.
God's glory to God's
God's glory to the
glory of God.
And the amazing hope that we
have is that we can be united to Jesus' story of cosmic transformation by faith.
Jesus loves to reveal his transforming glory in the wilderness and in the exile of our lives.
And we're gonna hear a story about that later in the service.
He can reveal his glory in the rough places of our lives and of our city even now.
That is why he came.
And that's why in Jesus we hear God speaking a word of comfort to us.
Your story is not over.
God's not done with you.
And thirdly, finally, Jesus Christ is God's ultimate word of love to us about God's presence
because he is the shepherd king in Isaiah 40 who has come to dwell with his people in love.
And to carry them in his chest.
To lead them by the hand.
To bind up their wounds.
And it's in Jesus that we hear God saying to us,
you are not alone.
I am with you.
You are loved.
Jesus Christ is God's ultimate word of comfort to us.
He is our assurance.
He is our hope.
And he is the presence of God in love.
And the invitation of the season of Advent is that even though we may feel like Israel,
that we are waiting in exile.
In a world where we can sometimes feel far from home.
In a world of sin.
In a world of pain.
A world of grief.
A world of tears.
A world of loneliness.
A world of waiting.
A world where it feels like consolation is never gonna come.
The invitation of the season of Advent is that in that world, in this world,
there is incredible comfort to be found because God came.
Behold your God.
He came in Jesus Christ and took on flesh.
He left all the glory and the comfort of heaven to experience the pain and the difficulty and the grief of exile with us and for us.
He was exiled for us to purchase our eternal comfort.
And it's in Jesus Christ that we hear God speaking to us.
And so, I'm so much more in the week.
I'm so much more deeply.
I'm so much more in that world.
Comfort.
Comfort, my people.
I have forgiven you.
Your story is not over.
You're not alone.
And when we receive this word with open hearts of faith,
this comfort can truly become ours.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus Christ,
bring the comfort and the consolation
of your coming into our lives.
Reveal your glory.
Lord, comfort us with your incredible assurance.
Comfort us with your incredible hope.
Comfort us with your incredible love.
We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.