Isaiah 9:1-7 Prophets (Christmas lead up) Overcoming Gloom

Transcription

1 1 Isaiah 9:1-7 Prophets (Christmas lead up) Overcoming Gloom How do you feel in the lead up to Christmas? Is it gloom or excitement? Is it, lets get it over with or wow check out the Christmas lights. Perhaps you re looking forward to the seafood and long lunch. Perhaps you re looking forward to the kids opening presents and a day not at work? Or perhaps you re already dreading the family conversation and the prickly aunt and the disagreement over the turkey. Perhaps this has been a light bright year for you. You ve had some success at work, the kids are on track, there s a new car in the garage, your health is good and bananas are relatively cheap. Or perhaps it s been a gloomy year. And as you head to Christmas, you just want this year done with. You re health has been less than good. If its not the side, it s the Achilles or the indigestion or the back or cholesterol or the weight. You thought you had a good job, but it looks like redundancy in the new year. Your family seems to be having more arguments than usual and the dog s started vomiting under the piano. Perhaps it s the problem of our news. We get 95% bad news and then a good story at the end. We see the plight of refugees and the war in Syria and car jacking s and juvenile crime and if we only listen to the news we would indeed have a sense of gloom. As you head to Christmas this year is it gloom or light? Isaiah 9 begins reminding us of the people who walked in darkness. Israel was in a gloomy time. And Isaiah talks about the time God bought the land of Zebulun and Naphtali into contempt... that is the land around the sea of Galilee. Chapter 8 is all about how the King of Assyria is about to come in as part of God s judgement on Israel. Chapter 8 finishes talking about distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish, being thrust into thick darkness. Like it s really black. And if you read 2 Kings 15, Tiglith Pileser the king of Assyria did come in and take the people into exile it was

2 2 pretty gloomy. It was gloomy because a foreign King was about to be very nasty too them. And it was gloomy because in the end it is the result of their own sin. They had ignored God and not responded to him. There was lots of gloom. Yet chapter 9 is not about gloom it s about light. There will be no gloom for those who were in anguish and The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.. You know I ve just come back from camping a few weeks ago, and up in the high country where I camp it is really black at night. Especially a cloudy night, you cannot see anything. But at about 4am you get woken up in the tent by the birds myriads of birds chirping away and as you open your eyes, the tent is filled with light even before full sunrise. Light filling every bit of darkness... those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined. And we know that Isaiah was looking forward to the time of Christ. Indeed it is around Galilee that Jesus begins his public ministry in Matthew 4 and Jesus begins his ministry by quoting this very passage. How the place of darkness and gloom around Zebulun and Naphtali have seen a great light. Here in this very same place, Jesus began his preaching ministry. From that time Jesus began to proclaim, repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. As John says, The true light which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. Or again in 1 John 2 darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Jesus came and brought light to the very place which had experienced darkness and gloom. It s what we celebrate at Christmas. But how does God actually deal with the gloom. You know those of us who work do sometimes get weighed down by our work yes even us ministers, although I can hardly complain this year with Christmas on a Sunday. But I know talking to some of you as you try and finish that MBA essay at the same time as meeting all your KPI s and getting those submissions done, and you re doing two other people s jobs because one left and one is off sick. Sometimes our work can be a bit oppressive.

3 3 And if you re looking at Isaiah 9 you might have noticed that the people have lots of joy inverse 3. Joy, rejoicing, more joy, exalting. And there are three reasons for that joy see those three verses beginning with the word for. Verses 4,5 and 6. Three explanations about how there will be great joy in the face of gloom. Verse 4, For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. God released them from oppression. And the Assyrian king was an oppressive king, we know from non bible sources that he delighted to impose heavy yokes on his captives. Not only terrible war crimes as such, but enslavement of the survivers for his building programs. But Isaiah looks forward to a time, like at Midian where God proved his victory for Gideon by bringing deliverance with even a very small army. You can read that story in Judges 6&7. God would release them from oppression. And we know that Jesus early in his ministry quotes Isaiah 61 in the temple, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free... As we celebrate Jesus at Christmas, we can remember that one of the ways Jesus brought light is through freeing people from oppression. Oppression both physically, through injustice, but also freedom from the oppression of sin. And as we move towards Christmas, we should make sure that we are not causing injustices like by showing favouritism for instance. Not playing favourites at work or at golf or at home or even at church. And at the same time we should be working positively for justice, like writing letters when we see unjust sentences from our courts. Or like our archbishop did recently urging the government to rethink putting children in adult prisons. It s great to see the support we ve been raising for justice work timtams for women in prison; Camcare goods not to mention all the great TEAR cards being sold. We should even now, like Christ did, be bringing joy through helping people be

4 freed from oppression. Indeed as we work against oppression and for jutice it will bring light to our own lives. 4 And even more, we have the privilege of helping people be free from the oppression and darkness of sin by showing them the forgiveness found in the death of Christ. You know there is no light to be found in pretending that sin doesn t matter. Sin is a burden and does weigh us down and does weigh people down and our community down. But if we take sin seriously and help people find Christ and forgiveness, we will find great joy. No surprise that after quoting Isaiah 9, Jesus begins his ministry calling people to repent. But as Isaiah looks forward to the day of Christ, he does so like looking at a mountain range. He sees both the close mountains and the further away mountains together. For while Christ brought freedom to many oppressed people on earth, and we can join that action, there will also be a day when Christ returns and there will be complete freedom from oppression. And a right attitude to Christmas is both looking back to Christ, and forward to his return. You know as I ve watched the Syrian conflicts over the lats few years, I was pondering how we can possibly fight against terrorism. In some senses it s easy to fight a war when you are both in two line trenches and you ve got a clear goal to get over the others line. Not that trench warfare works really either its just clearer. But terrorism? How do you fight a war on terror if people are willing to suicide bomb it seems pretty difficult. It s pretty gloomy. And the second for in Isaiah 9, the second way God brings light in gloom is by ending war. Verse 5, Isaiah looks forward to the time when all the boots of the trampling warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. That is, war will be at an end. Isaiah has already looked forward in chapter 2 to a time when people will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. And we look forward with John to a time when death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more for the first things have passed away.

5 5 Revelation 21. God will one day end all war. We won t fight the war to end all wars. God himself will bring about that end, and there will be no war. Now there is nothing wrong with Christians being in the military that s another sermon. But we know Jesus also says, blessed are the peace makers. If God is going to end war then we as Christians should be working for that as well. But again, like with oppression, our final hope, our final place of Joy is looking forward to the return of Christ. For when he returns there will be no more war. You know one thing that is always frustrating is imperfect leaders. You get a new prime minister and you voted for him but then he goes and does something you disagree with. Or you get a new bishop and you think he ll be perfect, until his first week on the job passes. Or you have a minister and I know you all think I m perfect but then I do something or say something or don t do something that you like or don t like. We always seem to have to put up with imperfect leaders. And the third for, is that bit from the Messiah actually it was first in Isaiah 9, For a child has been born to us. God will end gloom by sending the ideal leader. Actually the first thing that should surprise us is that God sends a child. God always seems to work through weakness. Again one thing we should notice about Christmas is that we are celebrating a child born to be saviour of the world. A child. And God s ideal ruler is one who has authority resting on his shoulders. You might remember how all the people were amazed at how Jesus taught with authority or cast out demons with authority or healed with authority or controlled the weather with authority. The authority of Jesus was truly amazing that s something that should bring Joy to our gloom being amazed at Jesus authority. And then the description of him in verse 6 amazing words, Wonderful counsellor not someone who would bring human wisdom, but true wisdom, divine wisdom. Then, Mighty God

6 6 this is nothing less than the incarnate God. Here is the mighty God, able to absorb all evil surely he has born our diseases and infirmities. He is the everlasting Father. The eternal God on earth. He is the prince of peace the one who will bring peace not just between people through the ending of war, but the one who will bring peace with God. And verse 7, this will be a permanent change, endless peace, from this time onwards and for evermore. This won t just be a king amongst Israel s kings, but a permanent King. The one who is king of kings and lord of lords. And while we celebrate Christmas we look back to the birth of this child, but forward to the day, when we see Jesus, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. His head and his hair as white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes like a flame of fire, his feet like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of many waters. When we see Jesus, the rider of the white horse, called faithful and true. His eyes like a flame of fire, and on his head many diadems. For we will see the wonderful counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace. And there will be no night, no gloom, for the Lord God himself will be the light. We will see the light of the world. And all this will happen. Because God cannot be stopped. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. While I was fishing a couple of weeks ago we got all that rain, and the rive I fish rose by about 45 cm, so that as I waded up the river it wasn t knee deep but waist deep a couple of times I was getting washed away you just couldn t stop the fast flow of the river - and you can t stop God. If God has an idea, if God plans to do something he will do it. And while this passage starts in gloom because of God s judgement on the people s sin, God s grace, God s joy, God s light wins out in the end. He did send his son, and he will send his son back. And that is where we find light in our gloom. Are you looking forward to that. Are you looking forward to celebrating the first coming of Christ and waiting for the second?

7 9 After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb! 11 And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 singing, Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen. 7