First Sunday in Advent

This is the First Sunday in Advent, the beginning of a brand new Church year, where the Church of Christ looks to Jesus who is reigning as King of kings and Lord of lords.

The season begins with the end in mind. The name “ADVENT” means “Coming”, and so the very first words out of the mouth of Christ’s church in this new year are the very last words of Holy Scripture: — “Come, Lord Jesus.” Therefore, we enter a new church year with our eyes fixed on the end, with our voices begging God not to tarry, and brings to an end all the things that have ravaged this world, throwing it into war and disease and other calamities, a world still in bondage to sin and death and far from glory.

If we were followers of the world, Advent would be a sentimental, pre-Christmas observance, with all the hustling and bustling from one sale to the next. Thankfully, however, the appointed readings for Advent turns our eyes from the world, focusing them on when God makes all things new again.

The Prophet Isaiah sees the result of all this: the absence of strife. Take your rifles and turn them into rakes, and turn your pistols into gardening tools, because we no long walk through darkness but on Zion’s paths in the light of the Lord.

The book of Isaiah begins with words like one would hear in a courtroom: Is 1:2 “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me.”

With the heavens and earth as jurors, God the Almighty Prosecutor presents his closing argument against the defendant, his own people, Israel:

They have abandoned their Maker and Redeemer.

Their worship is insincere, and only happens when they have nothing else going on.

Their rulers are corrupt.

They lack mercy.

They oppress the weak and live solely for pleasure.

And what is the sentence for their crimes? Their land shall go desolate, and they shall be burned with unquenchable fire.

But here in Isaiah 2:1-5, we have an oasis of grace, as the words of judgment abruptly shift to words of mercy and a description even of Israel’s future glory.

Isaiah 2:2-4 “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains. . . . For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. . . . Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” What does this mean?

From the prophet’s day to our present time, Isaiah’s prophecy about a mountain that God would one day establish high above all other mountains—to which the peoples would stream to hear the Lord’s teaching and out of which God’s Word would flow to the rest of the world, bringing peace and harmony.

This has, unfortunately, been misunderstood, and even abused.

Where Is the “Mountain of the House of the Lord”?

For many of the Jews living during Jesus’ ministry, they believed the mountain Isaiah was talking about was Jerusalem. That’s where God would come and deliver his people from their physical enemies and establish a literal kingdom on earth that would rule all other kingdoms. Convinced of this, they rejected Jesus, thinking he couldn’t possibly be the Messiah, the one sent by God to bring about such an earthly kingdom. Why? Because Jesus brought

not glory but a cross,

not political freedom but forgiveness.

Where then is the mountain of the house of the Lord?

For many Christians today, the answer is much the same as the old Jewish one. They, too, believe the mountain of the house of the Lord refers literally to Jerusalem and that one day, before the resurrection of the dead, Jesus will come to set up there a central government and rule all the nations of the world for a thousand years. The godly of the world will be in charge and the ungodly will be suppressed. Our Reformation forefathers rejected such teaching as “Jewish opinions” (AC XVII 5).

Opinions alter, but truth certified by God can no more change than the God who uttered it.

Charles Spurgeon

Where then is the mountain of the house of the Lord?

For modern Judaism, it is the land of Israel. However, despite the picture Isaiah gives of nations of the world streaming to Jerusalem, adherents of modern Judaism treat Israel as the exclusive possession of the Jews. That being the case, the conversion of Gentiles to Judaism is hardly a priority for them.

Then, where is the mountain of the house of the Lord?

For Muhammad, the mountain was Mecca, the center of the Muslim empire and the future capital of a world converted to Islam. But unlike the pleasing picture of peace that Isaiah paints, Islam has always been a religion of bloodshed. When Muhammad first received his “divine revelations” in the early 600 AD, few in his hometown believed him. So, he took his new religion north to Medina, where he found converts willing to wage war against his enemies back in Mecca. Thus began Islam, the so-called religion of peace.

Where is the mountain of the house of the Lord?

For many of the medieval popes, it was either Jerusalem, the holiest of pilgrimage destinations, or Rome, the center of Christendom and home of Christ’s representative on earth, the pope himself. Yet unlike the voluntary streaming of people and the conditions of peace which Isaiah describes, the popes sought to establish the kingdom of God by force—during the Crusades through war and during the Inquisition through instruments of torture.

II.

So, Where then is the mountain of the house of the Lord?

A key to help us unlock the mystery is the phrase “in the latter days,” that Isaiah uses in Is 2:2

Isaiah 2:2 NKJV

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.

The error of first-century Jews and modern-day Christian lay in thinking that the “latter days” to which Old Testament believers looked forward are still way in the future. Many people have asked me, “Pastor, do you think we are in the last days?” This question is a dead give-away to ones understanding.

How did the author of Hebrews put it?

Hebrews 1:1–2 (ESV)

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.

Did you catch that? “In these last days.” Every day since Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, and until his second coming, is “the last days.”

There is nothing left to be accomplished for our salvation between now and our Lord’s coming again in glory! Jesus’ reigning as King of kings, and Lord of lords, has already begun. As St. Paul said in Romans 13:11, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep...” We do know the time! We are living even now in the last days.

But this isn’t all: Isaiah also spoke of people streaming to the mountain of the house of the Lord to be taught by God and to walk in his paths. The mountain of the house of the Lord is the place where God dwells and is enthroned as King, where He reveals himself gives His gifts to his people.

The mountain of the house of the Lord is where God gathers his people around his Word and Sacrament. In short,

the mountain of the house of the Lord is here, in this place, right now, here in God’s Church, where two or three have gathered in his name. You and I are part of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s 2,700-year-old prophecy! For wherever the truth of the gospel is proclaimed, there is the mountain of the house of the Lord. Jesus himself had said, “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:32).

So, that begs the question: With Holy Scripture so clear, why do people stay away from the mountain of the house of the Lord? Perhaps it is because they wrongly understand “the last days” as something yet still in the future. If that is the case, then the natural conclusion is that gathering on a given day is not that important. But, then, what do we do with what the LORD Himself has already said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself”?

Thankfully the Lord does not conform to what the people what. So hear this beloved of God, Christ is drawing us to Himself so we may sit at His feet to hear His Word, and to eat the bread of heaven that gives us forgiveness, life, and salvation.

But we now have modern technology, so we can sit in the comfort in the comfort of our own home and watch a church service on TV. Isn’t that sufficient?

We know that we are sinners, and that we sin every day. And the gospel shows us how this problem is solved. As we gather at the mountain of the house of the Lord we receive what God desires to give—namely, the forgiveness of sin. Therefore, attendance is necessary.

Walgreens runs these television ads about coming in to get the flu shot. Just hearing the message on the TV is not going to immunize anyone against the things that virus. Likewise, we must be in attendance to receive the gifts of God that He desires to gives to His people.

The risen Christ commanded his disciples to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins “to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Lk 24:47). And that’s exactly what happened: The Word—the promise of salvation through Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross—went out from Jerusalem. It started with the apostles in Jerusalem, and spread to sinners around the world. Even today, around the world, people of every nation, language, and tribe come to the mountain of the house of the Lord and are being converted to faith in Jesus Christ, are being taught by God and are walking in his paths.

III.

That very same Word comes to you today. Although you and I fall under the same judgment which God spoke to his people in Isaiah, God has graciously pardoned us. He has issued a stay of execution. He has done so for the sake of the one who was condemned in our place—his Son, Jesus Christ. Risen from the dead, God’s Son declares to you this day, “Peace be with you.” Your sins are forgiven.

It’s true that, just as did the believers of Old Testament times, we still look forward with a sure hope to that Last Day, when God will put an end to all earthly war, remove all sin, wipe away all tears, when there will be only peace and joy in the presence of our Lord forever. But unlike the Old Testament believers, we know that the age of Christ’s second coming is the culmination of what has already begun.

Isaiah got to view the mountain from a distance, and we are actually dwelling on it!

These are the last days. The Light has come into the world! The hymn writer of old understood and put it like this:

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun

Does His successive journeys run,

His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,

Till moons shall wax and wane no more.

Even now there is forgiveness of sins and peace, peace with God and therefore with one another, because of this forgiveness. It is the Word of the Lord draws the nations to itself. What a note on which to begin a new church year!

Today, on the First Sunday in Advent, Isaiah reminds us that the Lord is faithful to his promises. Though we still live in a world ravaged by war and disease and other calamities, a world still in bondage to sin and death and far from glory, God dwells even now in his house—this house!—and reveals himself to us in His Word and Sacrament.

“O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the LORD” (Is 2:5).