The Highway of Hope
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Sermon Title: The Highway of Hope
Scripture: Isaiah 35:8-10
Occasion: The Lord’s Day | Christmas Eve
Date: December 24, 2023
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Scripture Transitions Sermon Title|Quotes |Emphasis
PRAY
Ephesians 1:2 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Introduction
“There's no place like home.”
According to AFI (American Film Institute), It's the 23rd most famous movie line in history.
The 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, actually has the second most quotes in the top 100 of AFI most famous quotes.
This one being one of them.
Most of the us know the move, Dorothy arrives in what is no longer Kansas anymore. And she then begins to realize that there's no place like home.
This whole story is a story of a small group of people hoping for something better.
They're following a road, a yellow brick road that will lead them to this great wizard to hopefully do for them what they cannot do for themselves.
The tin man wanted a heart.
Cowardly lion wanted courage.
Scarecrow wanted a brain.
And Dorothy of course, simply wanted to go home.
So they went to go try to find somebody who could do for them, what they couldn't do for themselves.
There's something in each of us, friends, that has a similar longing.
Something inside of us that's homesick.
Something that longs for something better wanting to find someone who can do for us, what we can't seem to do for ourselves.
Someone to do for us, what the latest product or gadget or thing can't do.
Someone to do for ourselves, what the next promotion or increase in pay can't do.
Something to do for us, what we can't seem to get for ourselves.
But we know we're longing for something that's off or even unattainable in this life.
Here is the reality- we long again to be home.
We need someone to come and bring us home and friends.
That's really what Advent season is all about
Advent comes from the Latin word “adventis” which means coming or arrival.
And so this season, this christmas eve, isn't just focused on the first coming of Jesus.
Yes, we look to Christ’s birth tonight, and we celebrate and see God's faithfulness to his promises, but we also set in our hearts a longing for when Jesus will come again, his second arrival as we then live in between these two comings.
These two advents, we celebrate God's faithfulness in his first coming. And we realize with a longing anticipation of what will happen when he comes again.
That's the message of advent, beloved.
Our greatest hope has come and friends, He will come again in this text that (whoever reads) read here at the end of verses 8 through 10 of Isaiah.
Isaiah is painting for us a picture of what our home will look like when Jesus returns and how we can get there.
So as we read today the promise in verse 8 to 10. BUT We're actually going to go through the whole chapter starting in verse 1 and finishing in verse 10 as Isaiah paints for us four different scenes of what that home will look like when Jesus returns.
1. He shows us that there was a joy for a weary world.
2. He shows us there's courage for a fearful heart.
3. He shows us that there's a resurrection for a cursed body.
4. That there is a road or Highway of Hope for a pilgrim people.(Sermon Title)
These will serve as our four points tonight as we'll be walking through the text this morning.
There is joy for a weary world.
There is courage for a fearful heart.
There's resurrection for a cursed body.
And there is a road for a pilgrim people.
Point One:
Isaiah begins with painting this picture of joy that comes for a weary world.
We see this in verses one through two, Isaiah 35.
This is what Isaiah describes.
The heading in my Bible of Isaiah 35 is titled “The Ransom Shall Return.”
Other headings are title “The Ransom to Return to Zion.”
This picture of Zion is another name for Jerusalem, the city of God.
And this Ransom is speaking of the remnant that returns back to the city of God.
This is all imagery and metaphor of when Jesus ultimately returns and God's people return to live with him.
So What will happen when Jesus returns, according to Isaiah?
Isaiah begins with what happens with creation as a joy that comes for a weary world.
He describes it this way.
Isaiah 35:1–2 (ESV)
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing.
He's describing not just creation but kind of the, the terrible parts of creation.
The parts of creation that are wilderness and dry land and the desert.
And so, you know, whatever city you want to insert there, I just insert the, the place that has experienced the curse.
The most acutely I think of Tallassee Florida in the hometown of the Seminoles.
That's the place that I come to think of where the curse has experienced most acutely in that place.
And in that place, in the place that's experienced that curse, Isaiah says that it will actually be glad, we’ll rejoice, we’ll blossom and we will rejoice with joy and singing.
In other word, there is joy for creation itself, for a weary world.
There's one thing that we need to kind of pause and realize is what happened in Genesis three in the fall with Adam and Eve eating the fruit.
It didn't just impact us. It impacted the whole cosmos. Something fractured in that moment.
You go back and read Genesis three and you read of the curse then that came-the thing that's cursed in Genesis three isn't man, but it's the ground that he's working.
That's what Genesis 3:17-19
Genesis 3:17–19 (ESV)
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground...
There was work before the fall.
Work isn't a result of the fall.
It was there before the fall.
Work is a good thing.
What happened after the fall is it became difficult.
Work then became infested with thorns and thistles as the ground, creation itself was cursed.
And because of that fall, there was a fracture that happened in creation and then it was now damaged.
All of a sudden now there were deserts, it was wilderness, there was hurricanes, there was earthquakes.
Each of those things are a result of the fall and the fracturing that happened.
And the world then is described as a weary and longing world.
This is how Paul describes it in Romans eight verses 19 to 22.
Romans 8:19–22 (ESV)
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
You hear what Paul saying?
He's saying that creation is experiencing this bondage to decay, this curse, this Brokenness.
BUT when Jesus returns, creation itself will be led into the glorious freedom that God's Children will experience.
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Isaiah here in Isaiah 35 is saying, when Jesus returns that curse that fell on creation in Genesis 3, that curse that still exists in this world today as creation groans and longs and waits with anticipation for the revealing of the Sons of God, On that day when Jesus comes, then the wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a wildflower. It will blossom abundantly and will also rejoice with joy and singing.
Why he continues later in verse 6, the second half of verse 6, he says,
then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
What is Isaiah telling us here?
There is a complete restoration that happens for God's good creation, When Jesus comes back.
As it then sets the stage for where his people will live forever.
Now, this isn't aside but it's one that we've got to address:
That heaven, eternity I don't know what image pops in your mind when you think of heaven.
If you just imagine like, you know, when Jesus returns, this is now our eternal state. We walk through the Pearly gates. We are issued our harp that we then play on a certain cloud that's issued to us for all of eternity. And we become like fat little babies for the rest of eternity.
That's what we're supposed to do- is we just sing forever, it's an eternal choir.
And for some of us, we hear that, and we're like, “that doesn't sound that great.”
But, friend, hear me: that's not how the Bible describes what we're gonna do for eternity.
It's not this ethereal kind of spirit floating in the clouds, but heaven is described as a new heaven and a new earth.
That this earth was what we were created to live on.
This actually is our home, but it's cursed.
So in some ways, as one theologian has described,,
“we are home and yet we are also homesick”
-G.K. Chesterton
He says this because he know this isn't right, and so do we.
But Jesus has promised to one day come again and redeem this world and restore it.
And we will live here in a restored creation, a new earth for all of eternity whenever he comes and makes it all right again.
Take-way: There is a curse that's fallen on creation.
Creation is groaning and longing for the return of Jesus to return and restore the heavens and the earth back to its intended design.
And creation itself will then be set free from that bondage to decay and enter into the glorious freedom of God's Children.
So many of the Christmas songs talk about this:
“long lay the world in sin and error pinning till he appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices for yonder breaks a new and glorious mourn.” -O Holy Night by Placide Cappeau (1847)
You think of the song we sang to start the service, “Joy to the world.”
You look at the lyrics of that song. That song is not a Christmas song at all.
I think it just feels Christmas so it just gets inserted into it.
It has nothing to do with Christmas. Just go read the lyrics.
You don't believe me.
“You're like, no, that's wow, that's wrong. Feel sorry for that pastor. He has no idea what he's talking about.”
Go and read the lyrics-it has nothing to do with Christmas.
The hymn is all about Jesus's second coming!
“Joy to the world,
The Lord is come,
let earth receive her king,
And Heaven and nature sing
2nd Standza,
“Joy to the Earth, the Savior reigns
Let all their songs employ
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy”
There's this longing then for the joy to come to the world, for creation to be restored as Isaac Watts wrote that about jesus' second coming, it is a summary of Psalm 98.
There's this brokenness to this world. And what Isaiah describes here in Isaiah 38 is when Jesus comes again, there's going to be a joy for that weary world,
But Isiah moves on and says that there is not just joy for creation, but there's something for God's people as well and not just in the future, there's something for God's people today And Jesus is second coming.
What he gets to in verses three through four is he says that there is courage then for a fearful heart.
Point Two: There's courage for a fearful hear.
Looking at heaven and Jesus’ second coming isn't just something for Christians to be able to say, oh, life is miserable now, but one day it won't be anymore.
There is something for us today in that promise.
This is what in verse three, Isaiah writes and says,
Isaiah 35:3–4 (ESV)
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not!
Isaiah is saying that this promise of God returning again is:
1. For the one whose heart is fearful today.
One whose hands are shaking, whose knees are unsteady.
That's what the promise is for.
And that's what we see: that there is courage that's offered to a fearful heart.
And the answer then to that fear is found in seeing who God is and then believing that He will do what he said he would do.
And so if you fear, if you feel fearful, if your heart is overwhelmed with anxiety or worry this Christmas eve, friend, what's your solution to that?
What do you do in those moments when you begin to feel fear overtake you?
Our knee jerk is for us to do something.
We've got a plan, we've got to try to figure it out.
We try to control, we try to either work it out or we just ignore it, neglect it and try to push it out of our minds.
(we feel this wya) I’'m afraid of what my future may look like, so let me put forward a plan which I can control.”
We try to pick up all the pieces of our brokenness and we try work out it out and push out those fears and brokenness in our lives.
So Isaiah shows us this morning:
That there is real strength for weak hands.
That there is real steadiness for shaking knees.
And there is real courage to fearful hearts.
But look at verse 4 at where that courage is found.
It's not found in your plans, but it's found in God's promise.
Look at verse four.
Isaiah 35:4 (ESV)
Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
Notice where Isaiah begins...
Isaiah begins to say in those moments when you find fear overtaking your heart, the first move of our heart is to “Behold God.” Look at Him.
We're not to do anything. We're to look at Him.
Who he is.
What he has promised.
What is his character?
What is He like?
How does he step into this moment of fear in my heart?
Let me look at Him.
He is the solution to my fear, not me.
It's seeing who God is.
Here is your God, behold Him!
That must be the first move of the heart.
And it's important for us to understand again who Isaiah is talking to here in Isaiah 35.
We have talked a lot over the last few weeks about the history and what was going on in this context.
This is the chapter right before the Assyrian invasion comes down and almost wipes out Judah.
Sennacherib, and if you've never heard of that name, that's a real name in the Bible.
When I first learned the name, that was my, one of my favorite names in the Bible.
I remembered his name by calling him “Snack-a-rib.” I digress.
The context is that Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, is coming down to wipe out Judah and they're left with nothing but Jerusalem.
Judah is about to be gone as a people and they're gonna experience injustice, murder, evil, and suffering, BUT God would save them.
And then ultimately, less than 150 years later, they would be completely overtaken by Babylon.
So the people that Isaiah is talking to have a reason to be afraid of something.
Whenever their knees are shaking, it's not just, oh, “I don't know what my financial future is gonna look like.”
They're not sure if they're gonna live, and Isaiah tells them,
“Be strong, don't fear, don't worry about the Assyrian army that is pillaging and has destroyed Israel (the northern kingdom) has destroyed Aram and is now coming for you and is wiping out your strongholds and has cornered you in Jerusalem. BUT Don't fear, you can be strong!”
How?
Look to your God!
And not just see who God is, but secondly, believe that God will do what He said he would do. (He is a promise Maker and a Promise Keeper!)
And Isaiah tells them then to turn and in particular to these people: to look at what God has promised.
“You remember in Deuteronomy” God says, in Deuteronomy, God told you vengeance is his. He will repay, Says the Lord.”
Isaiah reminds them of that promise.
Here is your God.
Here's what He's promised to do.
Vengeance is coming.
God's retribution is coming.
He's reminding His people that no matter what evil happens in this world, no one gets away with it.
God takes care of every wrong.
He is a good and perfect and just judge and there is no injustice.
There is no evil that somehow makes its way past Him.
Vengeance is coming.
Retribution is coming.
God will take care of all the evil that God's people are about to experience.
And He's telling God's people: “do not fear what is on its way. God will set right every wrong.”
Paul takes the same idea in Romans 12 and applies it to our lives.
He says, brothers and sisters in Christ,
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Paul writes to the church in Rome and He reminds us as well.
We are not the ones to take vengeance.
Whatever wrong is done against us, Sure there are justice systems and there's consequences to evil that is done, BUT vengeance should not live in our hearts.
And we can be confident that every evil in this world will one day either be dealt with as that person stands before God in his judgment seat or has already been placed on Christ and dealt with in their place.
And so what does that free us up to do?
Well, this is Paul's extension of it,
To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Paul says, actually understanding that truth, that God is the great Avenger in this world, Vengeance is his, He will repay it, frees us up to be able to love those who have wronged us to show forgiveness and grace to those who have hurt us.
And again, this isn't just some cheap like, “oh, they lied to me, and so I'm upset,”, this is the truth of people who are coming to kill the people of Israel and Isaiah reminded them, God will do what he said He would do.
Vengeance is coming and retribution is coming, Friends.
Do you trust God's retribution?
Do you trust that vengeance really is his or do you try to step into that role when you feel as though people have wronged you- you take it on yourselves and make sure they feel a little bit of a payment there.
But do you trust that, that's really God’s role. He's promised to do it.
That's what He's done and promised to those who have come against God's people.
What has He promised to God's people?
Look right there at the end of verse 4, vengeance is coming, God's recompense is coming, God will save you!
God promises ultimate and full salvation for his people, and notice the actor of that salvation: It is not God showing up and helping you save yourself.
It is not God coming and giving you a hand where you need it.
In those difficult moments, God shows up and He saves you!
Salvation is the lords. It is his.
It is not in your ability to save yourself, but in His promise to save you.
He will save you because there is no amount of self help that can get us to save ourselves.
So if you walk into a bookstore, one of the biggest sections in the bookstore is the self help section.
Why?
Because everyone knows that we're broken, but no one's got the answer.
If there's a book in the self help section, that's still there in 20 years, I will be shocked!
Why?
Because they don't last.
They're always going through the next big thing.
Here's now what you need.
Why?
Because it doesn't work. There's a deeper problem.
It's not just external changes that we need.
There's something deeply flawed in us that we can't fix, but God has promised to come and do it -for all those who would trust in Jesus to be able to say one day he will come and save you fully completely.
There is hope in that reality, that He will come again.
To know that there is real courage then and a real answer to your fear is found in a clear view of who God is and what he has promised.
And a firm belief that He will come again and do what he said that he would do.
But it's a good, a good diagnostic in walking away is whenever you feel fear rise in your heart, that fear is a smoke alarm.
It's smoke showing, there's some fire underneath there. And when you feel that fear, anxiety or worry begin to overwhelm you, ask yourself this question:
What is it about who God is and what He's promised to do that I'm not believing, that's creating this fear in my heart.
There is something that I'm not believing because God has told me to not fear.
So what is that?
There is real courage for fearful hearts because of who God is and what he has promised to do.
And ultimately, we've seen in that salvation when he returns to wipe away death, sin and hell forever, there is a certain kind of confidence (Swagger as the kids say) that Christians can walk with in this world.
Knowing the salvation that's coming.
One theologian put it this way, He said,
“Now suppose both death and hell were utterly defeated. Suppose the fight was fixed. Suppose God took you on a crystal ball trip into your future and you saw with indubitable (what an outstanding word) with indubitable certainty that despite everything, your sin, your smallness, your stupidity , that you could have free for the asking, your whole crazy heart's deepest desire, heaven and eternal joy. Would you not return then from that trip, fearless and singing. What can earth do to you? If you are guaranteed heaven to fear the worst earthly loss would be like a millionaire, fearing the loss of a penny, less a scratch on a penny.” -Peter Kreeft
Isaiah is wanting us to go on a crystal ball trip into the future to see what lies ahead of us so that we can return singing with courage and to walk through this life with courage without fear and with strength.
So that's what we see is available then to Christians here today.
But that's not all that Isaiah says.
He said, now, look at the image that's coming not just for creation, not just for hearts today, but look at what's coming in the future for you.
He says that there is resurrection for a cursed body in verses 5 through 6.
Point 4: Isaiah shows us that there's a resurrection for a cursed body.
Isaiah writes this in verse 5.
Isaiah 35:5–6 (ESV)
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
Isaiah is noting all our physical Brokenness, all the physical Brokenness of our bodies,
Eyes that are blind.
Ears that are deaf.
Feet that are lame.
And tongues that are mute.
And the way in which all of that Brokenness is then redeemed and restored.
Paul puts it this way, He described it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:16, he says,
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
Our bodies are decaying, similar kind of decay that creation is experiencing.
Our eyes aren't as good as they used to be.
Our ears aren't as good as they used to be.
All of a sudden, you wake up and you slipped one of your discs and you can't get out of bed in the morning.
It happened to my friend. He is 33 years old.
And you might ask, how did you herniate your disk?
Were you lifting something heavy doing something like really like athletic?
To which he would respond: I was just existing.
That's what happened to my friend.
But I feel it too.
Our bodies are just wasting away and we feel it. It gets harder and harder to get out of bed.
There is this brokenness that we experience in our physical bodies- they're deteriorating.
Ultimately, even to the point in which some can't see, some cannot hear, some cannot sing and some cannot run.
But Isaiah says that one day, on that glorious day, then all that is broken will be undone and restored.
Everything that's experienced that curse and that decay- eye sight, hearing, aches and pains, sleepless nights, chronic pain, every physical and mental disability- on that day, the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped; the tongue of the mute sing for joy, and ALL Brokenness will be restored!
All of the disease in this world.
All the cancer, all the heart disease, all the different sicknesses that have fallen on God's people, as result of this decay, and on that day, will be destroyed forever.
But each of those things is just a glimpse, ultimately, of the final realization of that curse, which is death.
Because in death, every eye is closed, in death, every ear is stopped in death, every foot is stilled and every tongue is mute.
And as you read through this, you may think of jesus' ministry of the blind being able to see and the lame being able to leap again.
You think of jesus' miracles and his healings.
And there's a lot of misunderstanding around jesus' miracles.
Some people think that this is what Jesus came to do, to take those who are hurting and to help them see again, to make them whole again, to help them walk again.
BUT friends, here's the reason why that falls short of jesus' intention: it is because the guy that Jesus gave sight to in the gospels can't see anymore.
The blind man that Jesus healed is in his grave and has been for a couple of 1000 years.
The guy that he raised to walk from his mat, he was walking for the first time in his life. He ain't walking anymore.
Even Lazarus who he raised from the dead isn't still alive.
Each of those miracles was temporary in a way.
And all the healing that Jesus did was reversed by death in that moment.
Then what were they, what was the point of jesus' miracles?
They were, one word to describe them, is they were signs. Signs and Miracles.
And what does a sign do? think about it?
Think about it this way: Whenever I travel back home to Mass where I am from, I going along I95. And whenever we turn onto I95, all of a sudden there begins to be this thing that pops up on the side of the interstate.
On top of this large metal pole, there's this billboard that has a beautiful beaver on it, advertising this gas station that's coming miles away, known as Bucky.
And as our family begins to see this sign, our family, get’s really excited!
We begin to look for the Bucky signs, and then begin to point everyone out. (And there are a lot of them!)
And everyone in the car is highlighting a different aspect of this incredible reality of heaven on earth as we then get to see the billboards that describe their bathrooms which are gigantic and have greenery and tvs in them.
Their gas pumps, which if you haven't been to Bucky, you're gonna think I'm lying, But there's over 100 gas pumps at this place. There's nothing like it.
Then you walk in, not only that you walk in, the sheer immensity of the gas is breathtaking.
But then you walk into the store and you've never seen anything like this before, you go, “It's gonna be a convenience store”, but you walk in and then you walk into this place that it's as if Hobby Lobby and Target and Four Rivers all had a child and this is what you have now.
You have incredible barbecue, you have a whole wall of beef jerky, a wall of beef jerky, every kind of dessert or pastry that you can imagine.
Things that you can buy for your home.
Merch that you can get to wear whatever it might be.
It's a magical place.
And as we're driving down I95, there's a different sign that's highlighting each of these different aspects: the bathrooms, the gas, the barbecue, the food, the beaver nuggets, all of it.
But each of those signs aren't telling you, “hey, pull over, you're here.”
The sign exists to say “here's what's coming and you're not there yet.”
Gives you a glimpse of what's still ahead.
Friends, that's really what jesus' Ministries was in these miracles.
And in these signs wasn't to say we've arrived BUT was to show and give us a glimpse of what was still ahead.
It was to show us what was coming.
When we arrive into his kingdom.
When we pull into heaven, we will find in that moment:
No one who is deaf, no one who is blind, no one who is lame and no one who is dead.
He's showing us and giving us a glimpse and a sign.
You're not there yet, but it's coming.
And this is the promise that we have to hold on to.
As we see Jesus in his earthly ministry affecting everything that was fallen underneath this curse creation, our bodies disease, sickness.
That's what was infected by this curse.
And what does Jesus do?
Every single person who's lived, lives underneath that curse.
We can't make a tornado stop.
We can't stop cancer from spreading.
We cannot call someone back from the dead.
But then this man shows up and all of a sudden he says a word and the storm stops.
The brokenness and the curse on creation hears again as creation hears the voice that created it, and it obeys!
Sickness and the curse that's falling, on His creation hears the authority in jesus' voice and obeys!
And those who are sick then are healed!
Or the grave that has a hold of his friend hears the voice of its conqueror!
And when Jesus says Lazarus come out, then he gives up his prisoner!
And Jesus, friends, comes in his ministry to show that he is the one that stands above this curse.
He is the one that has all authority in heaven and on earth that has been given to him and he will one day come again.
And when he does all of these signs that he did will be brought into perfect completion.
“And all of the curse will be undone.
All the sin, all the sorrow, every thorn will be lifted.
No more, Let sin or sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground,
because he's come to make his blessings flow
as far as the curse is found.”
-Joy to the world
Friends, This is what Isaiah showing us happens when Jesus comes- a real resurrection for a cursed body.
There's a glimpse even in the Old Testament of the doctrine of the resurrection.
And there's real hope here.
And for those who've walked through or experienced death, we know the New Testament talks about that.
When we die, we then are absent from the flesh. We're present with the Lord, we then go and we are present with Jesus in this intermediate state until he one day returns.
And when he returns, he then reunites our souls with our then resurrected bodies.
That's the resurrection of the dead that the church talks about, that the New Testament talks about.
And when Jesus returns, he then redeems creation and he redeems these broken bodies.
So for all of eternity, we will live not in ethereal kind of clouds floating around. But we will have real redeemed, resurrected and glorified bodies just like Jesus was whenever he was resurrected.
And we will live in a real redeemed, restored creation for all of eternity, in the presence of God with no sin, with no sadness, with no sickness and with no sorrow.
Because when he comes, he will speak a word and all of the sickness, all of the brokenness, all of the death will then ultimately give way to its great conqueror, Jesus Christ.
I’m reminded of a story of two friends from the seventeen hundreds.
And in it both were pastors.
Both these guys were pastors and one of them preached the funeral of his friend.
And at the graveside as they were laying his friend in the ground, in the earth.
John Ryland, the pastor stood graveside at his friend's tomb. And he said these words, this is the kind of confidence that we can have as Christians.
He said,
“Farewell, my dear old man. We leave you in the possession of death until the resurrection day, but we will bear witness against you. O king of terrors at the mouth of this dungeon. You will not always have possession of this dead body. It will be demanded of you by the great conqueror. And at that moment, you will resign your prisoner. Oh, you ministers of Christ, you people of God, you surrounding spectators prepare to meet this old servant of Christ. At that day, that hour when this whole place shall be nothing but life and death will be swallowed up in victory. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the years of the death unstopped, then the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy and we will stand and say, oh, death. Where is your victory? Oh death. Where is your sting? Because we have followed and are found in the great conqueror of death, Jesus Christ. And so we see that there is a resurrection for a cursed body.” -“The great Conqueror” by John Collett Ryland
So this all sounds great, redeemed and restored creation.
Courage we can have today.
Resurrection for our cursed body here in this home.
But the question then arises, how do we get there?
“OK. I want that, I want that kind of hope.”
“I want to live in eternity in that way with my God forever.”
“But how do I get there? “
“What's the path?”
“What's the road, what's the way?”
And Isaiah closes in verses 8 to 10 saying that there is a road for a pilgrim people.
Point 4 (final point): There is a road for a pilgrim people, a Highway of Hope.
This is the image that was read earlier in verses 8 to 10. It's this image of God's people who are exiled or who are pilgrims, they're not home, but they're in the process of returning home.
They're traveling back to Zion to Jerusalem, to the city Of God, but they're not there yet.
They traveling there, and as they're traveling, they're traveling on this yellow brick road. No, not the yellow brick road.
The road that will be there, “And a highway shall be there, ... called the Way of Holiness.” V8
This is the way for all you Star War fans, don't listen to Mandalorian, this is the way. A highway or a road will be there, “called the Way of Holiness”.
It's no different for Judah. They were exiled later by Babylon, desiring to go back to Israel.
But it's no different for God's people today.
You read through the Bible and here's what we see to be true:
God's people have always been a pilgrim people. (Repeat)
We're not home.
The Bible describes us as strangers or exiles here on this earth.
We're traveling home, we're headed home as Isaiah has described what that home will be like, but we're not home yet.
We each of us are pilgrims.
One of the things that helps us do is make sure we don't get too comfortable and try to make this place our home as it is.
The American dream as it’s coined, is a great lie to try to tell you “make yourself as comfortable as possible, here.”
Set up your home here.
But the Christian realizes that no, this place is not my home. I'm headed home.
Martin Lloyd Jones describes it as “a blessed detachment” from stuff, from things, from money, because we go “this place isn't the final stop for me. I'm a pilgrim heading home.”
And Isaiah describes here, there's a point where the traveling of these pilgrims in verses 8 to 10 then gives way to arriving, as they then finally get home back to Zion, back to Jerusalem.
And the first question we have to ask, well, who then is on this road?
Who's on the road?
Isaiah describes who's not on the road?
He says, the unclean will not travel on it.
There's nothing that's unholy there.
And he says, not only is there nothing unclean, but there's no fools.
No one wanders onto this path.
That fools will not just wander onto this path. No one just stumbles onto this highway headed back to God, headed back to Zion, to this new Jerusalem.
You don't just kind of accidentally find yourself here.
It takes a choice, a decision.
You see that there's no threats on this road. There's no lion that's there. No vicious beast will go on it.
There's no threat for the people that are on this road.
And finally, we see who the road is for at the end of verse 9, the road is for the redeemed.
They will walk on it,
English Standard Version Chapter 35
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
It's those who have been ransomed and redeemed, bought and purchased by Jesus Christ.
They're the ones on this road.
But where does this road lead?
As we've said, it leads back to Zion here in Isaiah 35.
They're on the road and they come to Zion, they come to Jerusalem.
Now this is an image that's used in the New Testament, especially to describe what heaven will be like.
You read the end of revelation, revelation 21 and 22, it describes the new heaven and new earth as “a new Jerusalem”.
This image here is of the city of God, where God dwells in and amongst his people.
It's the image of what heaven will be like.
The city of God is a garden kind of city.
It's almost like a return then, back to Eden in Revelation 21 and 22.
And there God dwells with his people perfectly in this New Jerusalem.
That's where this road is leading.
And what will these people do when they get there?
All the people do when they get there, well, they come to “Zion with singing.”
Step one: is they sing!
You go, “I don't like to sing.”
I like to think that God will give us all redeemed and glorified vocal chords for all of eternity. (we will get a taste that again at the end of service when we sing “Silent Night.”)
And we can harmonize, we can sing together.
Maybe some of you have a thorn in the flesh like Paul, and you can’t sing, you can’t hold a note. And God gave you that thorn in the flesh to keep you from being conceded.
But I just like to think that on that day we will walk in to heaven and we are going to be singing the high harmony as we walk into Zion.
We will then come into Zion with singing.
What else will happen there?
We come with singing.
Second: We are crowned with unending joy.
What a promise.
Not just shallow happiness, opening up a gift on Christmas and kind of being overtaken by happiness, but then by like two o'clock, you're kind of like done with it.
No, this is a joy that's unending, a joy that's ever expanding.
A joy that has no bottom or no end, a real joy as you stand before the one who created you and the one who redeemed you and you look in his eyes.
There's nothing that separates you from him.
And you feel in the truest sense of the word, what it means to be accepted, what it feels like to be loved.
But the one that knows you the deepest, the one that knows the worst parts of you, the one that knows the worst parts of you even better than you do. And yet he has loved you and welcomes you home.
And in that moment, we will be crowned with a joy that is unending and that will never be taken from you.
English Standard Version Chapter 35
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
Not just as there are unending joy, but he says that there is joy and gladness that will overtake them.
English Standard Version Chapter 35
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
You imagine this picture of a wave behind you that just eventually catches up and just consumes and overwhelms you.
It's a bad image because that's a negative thing.
But you can imagine if it was joy and gladness behind you, it would be a great thing.
One commentator noted that David in Psalm 23 describes how goodness and mercy (or faithfulness) of the Lord will follow us all the days of our lives.
This image of all of our lives here, there's goodness and faithfulness and joy and gladness that's following us.
God is chasing us with his goodness and joy.
But on that day, when Jesus returns, we will be overtaken by it, we will be overwhelmed by it and not only will be overtaken with joy and gladness, but we will also watch as every sorrow and every sighing will flee, run away, will be conquered and dealt with once and for all!
For our king has returned and we stand in his victory and every pain, every sickness, every sorrow and every sighing of your soul will become a memory, friends.
On that day, we will live in a restored creation, enjoying perfectly all the goodness of this world that God meant for us to.
Playing sports.
Living in this world.
Talking with one another.
We may fly, I don't know, who knows!
Maybe, but we'll be here enjoying the creation of this world in ways that you cannot imagine.
A real creation.
Every wrong will be righted, every injustice dealt with .
God's vengeance and retribution will come perfectly and everything that's damaged in this world will be restored fully.
And when he does return, he then , brings us into his perfect kingdom as we were always created to be.
He will look you right in the eyes and he will wipe away the final tear from your cheek.
He will crown you with a joy that never ends and he will lead you from time into eternity.
That is what is ahead of all those who have trusted in Jesus as their savior and chosen to follow him.
And do you want to know the road how to get there?
You wanna know this holy way?
If you're here and you're not a Christian, know that christanity is not a path, it's not a set of choices that you have to make to try to work your way to it.
It's not a path. It's a person.
Jesus says this in John's Gospel. He says,
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Follow him, friends.
He is the way back to Zion.
He is the road that leads us to unending joy.
Follow him today.
And when he comes, he will lead you home.
And your homesick hearts will finally find the rest that they've been longing for.
There will be joy,
There will be courage.
There'll be resurrection,
And Jesus himself will be the road for every pilgrim saint.
We will live forever with our God and we will at last be home and friends.
There is no place like home.
Let's pray.
Lord, we are amazed at your strength and your might and your power of defeating things that we could never defeat on our own.
The things that we fall underneath.
The oppression of sin and all the effects of sin and the curse in this world.
Lord, we also marvel at your grace and your kindness and your goodness to enter into the brokenness of this world, living a life that we should have lived, dying a death that we deserved, ascending to heaven and promising to one day come again and bring us then fully, completely glorified, redeemed and restored into eternity with you.
Lord, would you help us to live with a certain scent of heaven.
God help us to be a people that have our eyes on where we're headed.
Give us a clarity that we are.
In fact, pilgrims and exiles and strangers in this world help us work to bring that kingdom that exists in heaven and work to bring it here on earth.
But knowing ultimately that we are not home until you return and bring us there.
And God, what you set in our hearts, a longing to see that return, God help the song rise in our hearts as we would sing, that you come.
Lord Jesus, come and take your people home.
May we have a taste of the new Jerusalem today as we close in singing “Silent Night”.
I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.