Amen.
Welcome to the second Sunday in Advent.
Our reading for the sermon this morning is the book of Isaiah, chapter 9.
Reading the first seven verses.
If you want to look in your pew Bible, it's page 536.
If you will turn there with me, we will read it together.
Isaiah 9, verse 1.
But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.
In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.
But in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the nations.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.
You have multiplied the nation.
You have increased its joy.
They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
For the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult, and every garment rolled in blood will be
burned as fuel for the fire.
For to us, a child is born.
To us, a son is given.
And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.
On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice
and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Will you pray with me?
Amen.
Lord, this morning, as we come to your word, we are humbled, humbled by the power and the majesty
of the words that you give us, because they point us to you and your great power and your great majesty.
Lord, I pray this morning that we would find comfort and joy, awe and wonder as we contemplate the coming of your son, Jesus,
and the great things that you have done for us in him.
Lord, I pray for your help that you would give me words.
Lord, I pray for all of us that our ears would be opened and our hearts would be ready to receive your word this morning.
Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
And they will be thrust into deep darkness.
If you look just before the passage, the end of chapter 8, those are the words that set up the passage that we're looking at this morning.
This passage is a well-known prophecy.
We hear it in Handel's Messiah.
This is one of those passages that if you've been around Christians, if you've been around Christmas, you've heard these.
But to think about the context, it's important to recognize that 700 years before the coming of Jesus,
the people of God were looking ahead for hope that they desperately needed because they had been thrust into deep darkness.
And I wonder if this Christmas season you can relate.
I wonder if you have felt like you have been thrust into deep darkness.
Maybe you open up your browser or you get your feed, RSS feed on your phone,
and you see the news of the world where we see wars and rumors of wars,
conflict and suffering from famine.
And we think the world is a dark place to live.
You read the news of society.
And you hear about sex trafficking and the suffering of immigrants.
We read about misbehavior in every level of society, from governments to Hollywood,
from church leaders to sports stars to everyday homes.
The darkness seems great at times.
Maybe the darkness has come into your home as well as you live with chronic illness,
as you struggle in a strained marriage, as you weep over broken friendships,
as you face the fearsome reality of joblessness or homelessness,
as you walk in the quiet suffering of deep aloneness,
as you grieve the loss of ones you've loved.
Maybe the deep darkness that you know so deeply is the deep darkness of your own heart,
where you've seen your own failures,
and the worst of you come out,
where you think,
why can't I be better than that?
Why do I always do that so poorly?
Why do I hurt those that I love?
Deep darkness is around us in every place.
And in Israel,
730 years before Christ,
they had been thrust into deep darkness,
just as we today maybe feel the same way.
And like them,
we long for God to act decisively
and to show that the darkness will not win.
The darkness does not have the last word.
It's to this that our text points to this morning.
And the darkness,
as we've alluded to already,
but we want to unpack a little more.
The darkness in the 8th century BC
had a particular shape.
If you were here last week,
Pastor Greg gave a great explanation of the history.
I'm going to try to summarize it.
King Ahaz,
sitting on the throne of the southern kingdom
of God's people in Jerusalem,
had shown himself to be fearful
and faithless before God.
And in trying to save his own skin,
he had made terrible allegiances
with the Assyrian nation,
the nation to the north of Israel
to try to save him.
And what we've seen in chapter 8,
if you went back and you looked at the end,
is that the prophet Isaiah came to Ahaz
and said,
because you have abandoned God,
darkness will come to this land.
The northern kingdom will be conquered
by this Assyria.
And you will be left wondering,
has God abandoned me?
You will be left wearing a heavy yoke
of oppression by the Assyrian rule.
You will know that it has been your own sin
and faithlessness that has ruined you.
And you will know the reality
that evil now has the power over your land.
Now this never came to Jerusalem.
It only happened to the northern kingdom
from Assyria.
And yet it is in this context
that chapter 9 breaks into
the narrative that Isaiah is giving
and the message that he is giving
to God's people.
A message of hope comes
that God has not abandoned his people,
but will send one who will deliver his people
and deliver them from the darkness.
Two questions
that this text answers this morning.
One, whom will he send?
And two, what will the one who he sends do?
So that's what we're going to look at this morning
in our next couple of minutes.
First of all, whom will he send?
Well, verse 6 is the answer.
And you, if you've heard Handel's Messiah,
I hope the little, you know,
soprano line is singing in your ears.
Unto us the child is born.
Unto us.
And so on and so forth.
It's a beautiful place.
If you don't know Handel's Messiah,
if you're not familiar with classical music,
this is your entree.
Go listen to Handel's Messiah.
It's a beautiful piece of music.
Anyway, that's my aside.
So verse 6, though,
is the core of this hope
in terms of who God will send.
For to us, a child is born.
To us, a son is given.
And the government shall be upon his shoulder
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
God says that though right now
the darkness comes with this power
that is ruling over you,
this government that is oppressing you,
this consequence for your own
faithlessness and sinfulness
where you are suffering,
there is going to be one
who will take a throne of government
that will break these powers,
that will lose the control that they have,
and will establish himself
as the rightful ruler.
This child is not going to be,
as we saw earlier in chapter 7,
a human baby.
This is not the child of Isaiah
and his wife,
Mahar, Shalal, Hashbaz.
This is not even Hezekiah,
the next king of Israel.
The dates don't add up.
You can do the math.
We'll figure it out later.
But what this is,
is the fulfillment of the idea
that God has begun to bring
from chapter 7
that we looked at last week.
This promise that God
is going to use children as signs
that He has not abandoned His people.
That this Emmanuel isn't,
in the Old Testament,
simply just one child or one person,
but it is a series of events
where God is reminding His people,
I will be with you.
And in the end,
it is pointing towards one
who will come
and fulfill all of these things.
But when you look at verse 6
and verse 7,
you know that no human being
will ever take this throne.
No human being will be able
to fulfill this role
where the increase of His government
and the peace will have no end.
Is there any human ruler
who has ever established that?
No.
And never will be.
But He will come
and He will establish a government.
This promised one will come
and His established government
will bring the reign of God
on earth.
And He will be a mighty counselor,
one who is both
the fount of all wisdom
and also a great advocate
for His people
before a holy God.
He will be a mighty God
whose power has no rival
where there is no power
on this earth,
whether it be governmental
or societal,
whether it be personal.
No power
that He cannot overcome
and that He will not overcome.
He is the everlasting Father,
the one who is from ages past
and will live on to eternity
so His kingdom will never fail.
And as a father,
here is more of an image
that He will be one
who will provide and protect
for His people
like a perfect father ought to,
provide and protect
for His home,
for His family,
for His household,
so God will do that
for His creation,
for His world.
And this one will come
and sit on that throne
and reign in that way.
And He will be
the Prince of Peace.
The threats,
the violence,
the evil,
the destruction,
the suffering,
they will end.
One commentator said,
there are no titles enough
to capture all that He is
and all that He will bring.
This is just a taste
of the greatness
of the one
that God will send.
And so God gives
to the nation of Israel
this hope
that though they are experiencing
now great darkness,
God has not left them
or abandoned them,
but that He will send one
who will establish a kingdom
whereby the darkness
will never return.
What will He do?
What will this one do
when He comes?
This is what we're going
to look at now.
We look at these promises
of as He comes
broken up into three different things.
That He will come
and He will deliver
God's people
from contempt to glory.
In verse 1,
He will deliver us
from darkness to joy
in verses 2 and 3.
He will deliver us
from oppression
to righteousness
in 4 through 7.
So let's look at these
briefly together.
First,
the one who will come
will deliver us
from contempt to glory.
Now,
you look at this first verse
and you think,
I'm not really sure
what He is saying here.
Right?
What you need to know
is that
Zebulun and Naphtali,
all right?
Here's your map.
Here's the Mediterranean Sea
and here's
the nation of Israel
and at the northern end
of the nation of Israel
are Zebulun and Naphtali.
In fact,
they are on the route.
If you have a map
of the Middle East
and you're on,
there's a fertile crescent,
right?
Out here is Devart.
There's a fertile crescent
that has to do with rivers
and this is where
all the civilizations were
and up here is Assyria
and over here is Babylon.
And so,
the route,
the trade routes
and the invasion routes
all come down this road
and Zebulun and Naphtali
were the entrance point
for all the attacks
from these great nations
onto Israel.
They were also,
because of that,
the great place
of interaction
and in the view
of Israel over time,
the place of loss
of purity
or clarity
of the nation of Israel.
There was interaction
with these other nations
in ways that God
had wanted his people
to be set apart.
And so,
in this northern area,
this is where
the nation of Israel
lost its identity
and became a byword.
It became a place of shame
and a place of contempt.
Place of shame
because this is where
their nation
had been conquered from
and contempt
because this is where
they had lost
their identity.
If you think about
how Jews treated
the Samaritans
in the first century,
if you know that story,
you're not worth anything.
You're a half-breed.
You're not really
a part of this nation.
You're soiled,
defaced,
disgraced,
rejected,
condemned,
hated.
This was the contempt
that fell upon
this northern part
because of their history.
This was the way
that they were viewed.
And God says
in the former time,
that's right.
This is a place
of contempt.
But look with me again
in verse 1.
But in the latter time,
he has made glorious
the way to the sea.
The way to the sea
is that same trade route,
that same invasion route,
that same,
that comes right
through that place.
God comes
and when this child
comes
and establishes
his government,
that place
that was known
as the place
of contempt
and scorn,
he will make it
a place
of glory.
What does that mean?
What does that look like?
You know,
right down the street
from the place
where my kids
go to school
on Lenox Street
over in Fairhaven,
there's a house
on the corner
and I've been going
there now
for four years
and you drive
by this house
and it's a fairly
nice neighborhood
until you get
to the end
of the street
and the street
on this house
on the right-hand side,
it was a disaster.
The windows
were broken,
the door
was even open
half of the time,
the foundation
had holes in it,
the paint
was peeling,
the roof
was slowly decaying.
It was a mess.
It was a terrible,
terrible blight
on the neighborhood.
The neighbors
were worried
about it.
It was a mess.
Last year,
Habitat for Humanity
took on this house
as a project.
I get to see Antoine
all the time
as I'm picking my kids
up from school.
I stop and wave
at Antoine
because he's there.
He's managing this project.
If you don't know Antoine,
he works for Habitat for Humanity
in the city.
He's a part of our church
and that house
has regained a glory.
It has been renewed
in a beautiful way.
It has new siding,
new windows,
a new door.
The last week,
a new front porch
went in with steps.
But not only did they
fix the exterior,
but they fixed
the interior too.
You watch them
pull it down
to its studs.
They actually
raised the whole frame
and relayed
the foundation
of the house
so that the family
that will move in,
Lord willing,
at the end of this month
will move into a house
that has a glory
of a home
where they will be able
to be a family
and to live.
Friends,
this is what it looks like
for God
to restore glory
to something
that was contemptible
and shameful.
And this is what God
is doing
at the northern parts
of Israel.
He's saying this place
of invasion
is now
something else.
No longer
are you worthless,
but you are valued.
No longer
are you soiled
and defaced,
but you are cleaned
and renewed.
No longer
are you rejected,
but you are welcomed.
No longer hated
and condemned,
but loved
and exalted.
This is the pattern
of the one
who will come
and establish
his government.
and not only
did he come
and do this
for the nation Israel,
but he will do it
for us.
Christ has come
for you
who feel
that you are the one
who is called
contemptible.
He has come
to do a work
of renovation
in your life
to restore
the glory
that God
gave you
in creation
that has been
marred
by sin
and suffering.
for those
of you
who feel
outside,
who look
at the church
and think,
well,
isn't that
a group
of people
who look
good
and have
it all
together?
I don't belong
there.
Christ has come
for you.
For those
of you
who felt
marginalized,
well,
whoever those
people are,
I'm sure
I can't measure
up to their
standards.
I'm not good
enough.
Christ has come
for you
to say,
come in.
Christ,
when he came,
said,
I have not
come for the
healthy,
but for the
sick.
For those
of you
who know
you need
him,
but feel
like maybe
you can't
come in,
know that
Christ has
come for
you
to bring
glory
to the
contempt
of your
life,
to restore
you and
to renew
you,
and to
buy faith
in him
know the
hope of
Christ in
you,
the hope
of glory.
Not only
does this
one come
to deliver
us from
contempt to
glory,
but he also
in verses
two and
three turns
us from
darkness to
joy.
Look with
me again,
verses two
and three.
The darkness
here is
related to
the exile.
It is
related to
the loss
of the
light of
their identity
as God's
special people
protected by
God.
It is not
only darkness,
but deep
darkness,
if you see
in verse
two.
And if you
listened
carefully earlier
when John
read from
Matthew,
the deep
darkness is
also the
shadow of
death.
For in the
Bible,
darkness and
death are
often related
thematically.
In the
experience of
the exile,
in the
experience of
the invasion
of the
series,
in the
experience of
God's
judgment,
the nation
of Israel
felt that
what had
once been
fair and
flourishing,
the people
of God
in the
place of
God,
had now
become
ruined.
I have a
fascination
with natural
disasters.
It goes way
back to my
childhood.
When I was
10, I was
reading about
tornadoes and
hurricanes and
stuff like
that.
I don't know
if you saw
the pictures
of the
Florida Panhandle
after the
hurricane hit
it.
Places where
once there was
a community
and neighborhoods,
there is now
simply concrete
slabs.
Where there
were trees
and vegetation,
there were
at best
sticks and
stumps.
And the
power had
gone out,
like really
gone out.
There would
be no light
there for
weeks and
weeks.
This
natural
devastation
maybe gives
us a sense
of how the
people of
Israel felt
the darkness
had descended
on their
land and
on their
nation.
And into
this darkness,
God sends
this one
who will
bring light.
When you
look at two
and three,
it's this
picture of
establishing and
renewing the
land.
The nation is
multiplying and
flourishing.
Rather than it
feeling like decay,
destruction, and
ruin, the nation is
now flourishing and
growing and
expanding.
And not only is it
expanding seemingly
in size and in
prosperity, but it's
expanding in joy.
Look with me at
verse three.
They rejoice before
you, that is, the
people of God as
they see this one
come.
They're rejoicing
before God as with
the joy of the
harvest.
As in, as they are
reaping the fruits of
God's abundant
goodness and
deliverance to
them.
As they are glad
when they divide the
spoil, that is, as
they have experienced
victory over their
enemies, as they
have experienced the
establishment of
peace, the gladness
is that they get to
sit and be a part of
the everlasting kingdom
that will not end.
This joy is
characteristic and
it's this joy that
is so different from
the darkness.
For the darkness is
often a deep darkness
of despair and fear.
But this joy is in the
rejoicing that God has
not abandoned his
people.
He has not forgotten
them and he has not
failed them.
But that he is sending
this one.
How about you?
Has the hurricane come
through your life?
Maybe you feel right
now like the
eye wall has just
passed and it's
looking pretty grim.
Maybe some of you
have just had a
glancing blow.
Maybe you've seen the
darkness of sorrow or
depression, of
abandonment or
failure.
fear.
You feel like life is
over.
You feel like the
darkness will never
get better.
God speaks a better
word.
He has not abandoned
his people but he has
come for his people.
The light shines most
brightly for those who
have lived in the
darkness.
The hope is sweetest to
those who have tasted
despair.
And the love is most
glorious for those who
have known rejection.
in the midst of the
darkness then the
light has come.
If you're a believer and
you are going through a
period where darkness
seems to be the thing
that is winning, the
word here is hold on.
because Christ has come and
he will be victorious over
that darkness.
Don't give up.
Don't give in.
Don't despair and allow
that darkness to rule you
for Christ has come.
If you're here this morning
exploring Christianity, you're
here because it's Christmas
season, maybe you've come to
recognize that there's
something missing in your
life.
Maybe there's a nagging sense
that there's a darkness in
your life, a yawning, aching,
longing for something, a
spiritual darkness, a
lostness in your life.
The reason why we celebrate
Christmas every year is to
remember that God has come
for us.
That this light of Jesus has
come to save us and deliver
us from the darkness and he
invites you to come.
Come and know him.
Come and know him and all of
who he is.
Come and find out more of what
this book says about who he
is.
And we pray that in him you
will find hope and by
believing in him you will
find life.
You will find him who is the
real joy of Christmas.
So not only from contempt to
glory, not only from darkness
to joy, but finally from
oppression to righteousness.
Look with me at verses 4.
4 through 7.
The images are striking,
aren't they?
The very tools and the
weight of the Assyrian
invasion, the yoke of his
burden, the staff for his
shoulder, the rod of his
oppression.
Those are talking about the
implements of war and the
weight of a heavy government
being brought upon God's
people.
slavery and servitude.
Listen, if you haven't ever
explored, I think Greg
mentioned this last week, but
if you've never explored how
evil the Assyrian empire was,
Wikipedia, do something, look
it up.
It was a truly horrific rule.
It was not a society that you
would have wanted to be a part
of.
The boots of the soldiers
trampled over the ground and
the land of Israel and the
garments of blood remind us that
they came not as peaceful
occupiers, but as warlike
conquerors.
And they came with death.
But the promise here is that all
of those tools will end.
The yoke is removed.
The staff is broken.
The rod is broken.
As on the day of Midian, which
reminds us of the story of Gideon
in Judges 6 and 7, when Gideon,
with a very small army that God
made even smaller, intervened and
defeated the enemies of God's
people in a miraculous way.
God did an unlooked for and
surprising victory in ways that you
could never have seen because he
did it without military might and
power.
God is promising his people that
those implements of warfare are not
the last word, but that he will
break them.
God is promising his people that
those implements of oppression will
not continue forever.
Now, we live in a world where
oppression does continue, doesn't
it?
It happens on a global scale.
Socioeconomic, the rich oppress the
poor.
Racial tribes oppress other racial
tribes.
Even in more genteel societies, we
see gender discrimination and power
struggle.
And in our personal lives, we see
homes where oppressive abuse happens
on a regular basis.
Oppression does happen on a global and
on a personal level in these ways.
We also recognize that the Bible says
that the greatest oppressing force in
our lives is actually the power of
sin.
That the thing that we most are
powerless over and the thing that
most drives and controls us is our own
evil hearts and our intent to live
apart from God and the destruction that
it causes in our lives.
It is the weighty hand that rules over us
in our worst moments.
And when we're honest, we recognize how
often it still controls us and destroys us.
Our life with God and our life with others.
But verse 7 tells us that a new power has
come.
There will be a government that will
increase and grow until there is no other
government other than his.
And he will establish a kingdom that will
never fail but will go on forever.
And he will establish justice and
righteousness.
The wrongs that we face and the wrongs
that we do and the wrongs, the evil that
wells up in our hearts will no longer
control.
That he will break their power.
And he will establish instead justice and
righteousness which is not merely vengeance
but it is a life-giving establishment of all that
is right and true and good.
That we are right with God and right with one
another.
And we as human beings under his rule will
flourish and rejoice in one another.
It is the very opposite of our fallen world
and our fallen hearts when he comes to break
the oppression and to establish rightness
in our world and in our hearts.
And friends, this is good news, isn't it?
For we know how often we still face and
experience the oppression.
We know that some of us are fighting today with
addictions.
Deep-seated patterns of sin.
Long stretches of failure.
Where we feel helpless before our sin.
Jesus has come to break those bonds.
And to set you free from them.
For is this not the very gospel that we preach
and that we proclaim?
That we are dead in our sins and trespasses.
That sin has a power over us that we cannot free
ourselves from.
And the only hope and the only help we will find
is not from improving ourselves but from looking
outside of ourselves.
And God has come in the person of Jesus Christ
to be that help from the outside.
And by his perfect life and by his death on the cross
bearing the penalty for our sin and breaking the power
of sin over us.
By rising from the dead so that he might give new life.
This is the great hope of the gospel for us.
And it's not just for us as individuals but it is for our
society as well.
We must not pit the oppression that he breaks of personal
sin against the oppression of our society as if they're
separate.
But in fact they are a weave of the power of sin in our
world.
And we know that God has come to break those.
And we know that he's not done doing those.
And so it is right for us as his children to act for
righteousness and justice in this world.
We know that we know one who has the power and who wields
the power to break those patterns.
And we know that one day when his rule is fully established
that those bonds of oppression, that that weight will be
broken.
That the kingdom will come for the flourishing of all and
flourishing of each one of us.
But recognize at the very end, verse 7, the last line, to
recognize that though we may work towards this, in the end, what
will accomplish this?
It will be the zeal of the Lord.
It will be the hand of the Lord who will bring this deliverance.
It will be the person that God will send who will bring this
final victory.
And friends, this is why in Matthew chapter 4, the passage that was read
earlier this morning, the gospel writer refers to this passage.
He says, Jesus is coming in the most unlikely way to bring a surprising
redemption to remind you that God has not forgotten his promise.
But in fact, he will fulfill his promise.
Jesus comes out of Galilee in the north, a place of contempt in the first
century, to redeem him.
Jesus comes not as a conquering warlord on a white horse with an army at his
back, but he comes to a stable.
And in Matthew 4, he's just beginning his ministry.
And what has he started with?
Temptation and exile in the wilderness.
And he comes out of that.
And Matthew says, do you see this one?
He's coming from the north.
He's coming to redeem Zebulun and Naphtali, Galilee of the Gentiles.
He's coming to bring the fulfillment of the promise that light will win over
darkness because he is the child that will be born.
He is the one upon whom the government will rest.
He is the coming king who has come to rescue us and to save us and to deliver us.
But he does that not by great overpowering might and by fighting with the weapons of this warfare,
but he does it with the incredible grace of offering himself to die in our place.
And he breaks the power of darkness and of contempt and of oppression by taking those things upon himself.
He was scorned.
He was abandoned to the darkness by his friends.
He was oppressed in his crucifixion, in his death.
He took those things on himself to free us to come so that we might have life,
so that we might have freedom, so that we might have glory and joy and righteousness in God.
Friends, this is the good news of Christmas.
This is the good news of the gospel.
And this is why we sing,
Joy to the world, the Lord has come.
Let earth receive her king.
Let every heart prepare him room.
And heaven and nature sing.
Let's pray together.
Lord, we thank you for this word.
We thank you for the word of hope that you bring us.
Lord, that you have remembered your promises and you have remembered your people.
And you have come to us in love.
You have come to us in the person of Jesus.
Who comes, Lord, as our savior, as our deliverer, as our king.
Lord, we do pray that as we walk through this season, Lord, we would be renewed in hope.
Lord, and that in hope we would be renewed in our devotion and our love for Christ who has come for us.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.