Coming Soon - Christmas Child
Our Tendencies:
St. Augustine called Isaiah the fifth gospel because in its pages there is such a clear picture of God, His heart, our estrangement and His clear path of salvation for us.
Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”
― Saint Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions of Saint Augustine
What does it take to allow God to be more than an afterthought?
- Who was Isaiah?
- Isaiah 7:1-17
- The Assyrian threat, the Israeli/Syrian alliance, and the secular trust of King Ahaz of Judah
- The backdrop - II Chronicles 28
Who was Tiglath-Pileser and what does he represent for us?
- This is very common in our modern environment as well. We are bred in the Petri dish of naturalism which tells us that
- It intentionally excludes the supernatural or the spiritual. We think of ourselves as very modern or progressive in our society holding to this viewpoint, but we'd be surprised to understand that it is not so novel and evolved after all. It is a very ancient heart condition that becomes destructive as it fails to answer the most challenging questions about the purpose of our existence or to satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts. We end up damaged and broken, whether or not we have material or professional success, and become the slaves of those structures from which we sought help. We looked to our careers, intellect, relationships and financial statements for deliverance, but found that like Tiglath-Pileser, they were instead tyrants who would take from us more than we were willing to offer.
“I held my heart back from positively accepting anything, since I was afraid of another fall, and in this condition of suspense I was being all the more killed.”
― Saint Augustine of Hippo, Confessions
In each of our lives, there are two divergent paths that begin to emerge. When we have decisions to make or circumstances to surmount, whether at work, in relationships or in the home, we feel it. It's almost reminiscent of the scene with Neo and Morpheus in the Matrix with the red and blue pills. We can either choose one path, which humbles us and has us cry out to God, or, like King Ahaz, we can harden our hearts and look to our own devices which have their limits. The former leaves us liberated as we work. It is here we see real supernatural intervention out of the mercy of God on our behalf. We honor Him in response, and in that moment, we are on the road to our salvation. The latter leaves us without hope and without God in the world while our insides become just a little bit more calloused like the world around us. It becomes easier, the path of least resistance each subsequent time, to choose this path.
God's Response:
- You must understand that God is in pursuit of you. He is merciful, witholding for long periods of time what we actually deserve. He is kind, continually giving us not what we want, but what we need to inevitably find our rest and wholeness in Him. Despite our disregard of His intervention, God sends both a sign and an inevitable Savior who will rescue us from our self-reliance and dependence on earthly structures that not only disappoint, but enslave. He came to set people free by His own initiative and at His own personal cost. God came to those who were not looking for Him and would do for us, because of our foolishness and pride, what we could not do for ourselves.
“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’ (Isaiah 65:1 NIV84)
- What is significant about God's response is the specific mention of particilar kings and kingdoms encamped in antiquity showing that God was dealing with real people, at precise times in the chronology of the world. It is not a set of superstitious myths, it is history. The gospel, the good news, is more than a set of do's and don'ts, it is the reporting of an event that changes the very fabric of our lives as we receive its subject, Jesus Christ.
Who we worship and why:
The double meaning of the prophets' words
The Jewish writers of the NT understood the inexhaustible, Creator God to be far more complex and his messages far deeper than the immediate relevance of their prophet's predictions. They understood that because all of creation was made by Him and for Him, all of history is a foreshadowing of what will ultimatley be fulfilled in the person of Christ. This is why even modern day secular parables found in literature, music and movies resonate with us as they repeat the motif of ensnared people, and a coming Savior. To be plain, all of the Bible is ultimately about Jesus, and all of the human experience points to our need for Him as a better Savior. There is both a present and future fulfillment of these predictions found in the promised Messianic deliver from the line of King David who would come.
Yet who is this Messiah who would be King?
- Isaiah 9:1-7
- We must see from the outset that community is engrained in God's revelation of Himself - to us a child is born. The privitization of religion has led to incomplete and distorted pictures of this child's identity.
1. Wonderful Counselor - Our desires become our despots, those who provide them our taskmasters. Like the Midianites, they raid our lives and take whatever is fruitful. Rather than working to live, we live to work and yet the Counselor, the proper object of worship, gives liberty in these things by assigning balance to His Creation. So many of us in Chicago go days without connecting with anyone who knows our name. God is different. When God loves us, He loves us by name and when He calls to us, He calls to us by name. He knows our past - he knows our junk. He knows our present - He is intimately acquainted with our successes and failures. Yet in the midst of all of this, He calls us to Himself anyway. This is what's called grace. This grace is revealed through prayer, the Word of God and interaction with God's people, the church.
This is what the Sovereign Lord , the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. (Isaiah 30:15 NIV84)
2. Mighty God - To bring you to a place of rest, He has revealed the identity of the Messiah-Savior as the eternal, uncreated, Mighty God. However, the ruler who can redeem your past, heal your present and give you a secure future will do none of this without submission to His will. There is no place for Him off of His throne. As we come to Him, it must be through trust and obedience.
3. Everlasting Father - The truth is that we do not like the idea of submission or anyone telling us what to do. Most often it is because we have had bad examples of authority figures in our lives who have abused that power, whether it be a parent, a boss, a coach, a spouse or even at trusted friend. Yet the idea that it is legitimate to have an historic, living God, while picking and choosing what we will and will not accept about Him is irrational. Without His ability to cross your will, there is no real relationship. Your god is simply a product of your preferences and imagination who will never really be an Everlasting Father. There is no good father that completely resigns to the whims of the child, especially when he knows it is harmful or destructive. Of all the imagery that He could use, we see God describe himself potently and invitingly as a father throughout the old and new testaments. This is sometimes hard to conceptualize because for the first time in our nation's history, there are more children born to women under the age of thirty out of wedlock than within. The children of these homes grow up without knowing their fathers or having one around. The product of divorce, abuse or neglect in the home has many times produced similar feelings. He wants to give us a clear picture of what a good father looks like whether or not we ever had one around, or we need a better image of what a good and benevolent Father should be. Ultimately, through the work of Jesus, he wants to adopt us into His family.
Families gather together to grow together, and so we do in what is called church. We meet together to further cultivate our relationships throughout the week in what we call our small groups or community groups. We invite you to be a part
4. Prince of Peace - Through this submission, He becomes our Prince of Peace. This Messiah would bring peace with God by satisfying the wrath that we justly deserve in the sacrifice of His own life. He goes beyond that by providing peace with one another as he restores broken relationships. We are supernaturally empowered to forgive horrendous atrocities and betrayals because we know that we have first been forgiven. We emulate the humility that He has demonstrated. We then have peace within ourselves because we are no longer striving to be accepted, but are forever given rest through what the Son has done for us. Repentance from sin and trust in this prophesied Savior is the key. As we continue to discover His goodness, the increase of his government and peace in our lives, and in the earth, knows no end.
Gospel Rest - the zeal of The Lord God Almighty will accomplish this
I think the reason we sometimes have the false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put him. We have kept him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on him in prayer, we wonder where he is. He is exactly where we left him.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Has Christianity Failed You?
Yet He is Immanuel - God with us!
- This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”–which means, “God with us.”(Matthew 1:18-23 NIV84)
- The point of this declaration is that Christ Jesus is an historical figure. He emerged in our chronological timeline to show Himself not a myth, but the prophesied God clothing Himself in flesh through the Jewish line who would bring the true deliverance to the world. He is a better king than Tiglath-Pileser, or those things that we substitute in the place of God to save us. Jesus is the King who when we cry for help does not exploit us, but rescues us. The Tiglath-Pilesers call us into further bondage, Jesus comes to liberate. The Tiglath-Pilesers come under false pretenses. Jesus makes his love plain, demonstrated on the cross. Tiglath-Pilesers are selfish in their ambitions to get ahead at our expense. Jesus is self-sacrificial and gives his life that we might have life. Jesus humbled Himself, coming as a child, but is now exalted as the greatest King that this world has or ever will know, the eternal one - the benevolent King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords! The joy of Christmas is that we can submit to HIS PURSUIT and become a Christmas child ourselves, this day.
2nd City Church - Coming Soon Sermon Series 2012
