Advent B 02: A Joyful Homecoming

Sermon Outline

1. Page 1 of the Sermon: Trouble in the Text. Isaiah saw a day when his people would be not only far from home in Babylon but also seemingly far from God.

2. Page 2 of the Sermon: Grace in the Text. Yet, remarkably, God was coming to restore them with a joyful home-­ coming.

3. Page 3 of the Sermon: Trouble in the World. Like Judah, because of our sin, we’re a long way from our heavenly home.

4. Page 4 of the Sermon: Grace in the World. But God has come to us in Jesus Christ so that his suffering and death would bring us back to God.

In Jesus Christ, We Have a Joyful Heavenly Home-­ coming.

Sermon

1.

When Isaiah wrote the words of our Old Testament Reading, he saw a day when his people would be far from home. Isaiah saw a day when the Babylonian army would come to Judah and carry his people off into exile and captivity. He saw a day when Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed, and the fields and orchards and vineyards would be laid bare. The people of God would be far from home. It would be a 1,700-mile journey from captivity in Babylon to freedom in Jerusalem. There would be seemingly no hope of ever making it back. “A voice says, ‘Cry!’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades” (vv 6–7a).

The great tragedy was that God’s people had brought this all on themselves. They were the ones who had rejected God and his Word. They had refused to listen to him. Instead of trusting God, they had sought security in alliances with surrounding nations—with Assyria, with Egypt. Instead of hearing what God said, they closed their ears and disregarded him. They lived like the nations and sought their own glory instead of God’s.

When the people wound up in captivity, they were not just far from home. They seemed to be far from God. It seemed as if God had abandoned them. It seemed as if his judgment was final and that he was never coming back to them. All hope was seemingly gone, because they could never free themselves from their captors. All hope was seemingly gone, because they could never atone for their sin of failing to listen to God and his Word. They saw a future apparently with no hope because it appeared as if, after they had rejected God, he had rejected them in judgment. “The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass” (v 7). The people of Judah were far from home. And it appeared that they were far from God, unable to get back to him.

2.

That’s what makes what Isaiah says so remarkable: “Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’ Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him” (vv 9–10). Isaiah says that God is coming to them. God isn’t coming to heap judgment and condemnation on them; he’s coming to forgive and pardon. God is coming to restore them. Isaiah says that their sins of failing to listen to God and his Word are forgiven. Their iniquity is pardoned.

Through Isaiah, God says he is coming not in anger and not in judgment. He is coming as a compassionate, gracious God. “Comfort, comfort my people” (v 1). He is coming to comfort and restore them. He is coming to bring them back home. He will gather them up in his arms as a shepherd and carry them back. “He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young” (v 11).

They will be resettled. The temple will be rebuilt. The vineyards and fields and orchards will be replanted. They will be restored. There will be a joyful homecoming, because God’s Word stands forever. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (v 8).

“As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:12). Nothing could ever separate them from him and his love for them. No sin could ever cause God to leave his people in exile forever. No amount of iniquity could ever overcome the comfort and pardon that God has for them. Their exile from God because of their sin will be ended.

Isaiah saw a day when God’s people would be far from home and far from God. But more importantly, he saw a day that would be a joyful homecoming. God would come to them in forgiving love. Isaiah saw a day when there would be a joyful homecoming with God as he gathered them up in his arms and brought them back home.

3.

It was good news then. It’s still good news today. It’s good news today because, like Judah, we’re a long way from our heavenly home. That’s happened because of our sin. While we might listen to God’s Word today and throughout the week, when we fail to put God’s Word into action, we reject it and our God. We close our ears and refuse to hear him. When we disregard his promises to defend us from danger and to guard and protect us from evil, by seeking safety and security in people and things, we are just like the people to whom Isaiah wrote. We distance ourselves from God and our heavenly home by a distance that we simply cannot cover. Because of our sin, there is nothing we can do to make things right with God. Any attempts on our part to justify ourselves will only compound our guilt, drive us farther from God, and forfeit any hope of return to life with God in a new heaven and a new earth. If God were to give us what we had earned and deserved because of our failure to listen to his Word, we would experience eternal judgment and exile from him. There would be no comfort. There would be no pardon. We would wither under God’s eternal and holy judgment.

4.

But God had a message of grace about a joyful homecoming for the people of Isaiah’s day, and he has that same message for us today. God has come to us in Jesus Christ. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, outcast shepherds, who were thought to be beyond God’s love and forgiveness, received the comfort of hearing from the angel that the Savior had been born in Bethlehem for them. Wherever Jesus went, he brought comfort. To a paralytic troubled by his sin, Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven” (Mt 9:2). To a Samaritan leper, “Your faith has made you well” (Lk 17:19). Zacchaeus was told by Jesus that salvation had come to him and that he was a son of Abraham, a member of God’s eternal family.

Finally, the day came when Jesus gave you the greatest comfort for which you could ever hope. By his suffering and death, he brought you back to God. He ended your exile of sin. When Jesus died with all your sin, your iniquity was pardoned, and you received from God’s hand double for all your sin. At the cross, Jesus was pierced for your transgressions. He was crushed for your iniquities. You have peace with God. By Jesus Christ’s death, you are healed.

God’s eternal Word to you is that he has come to you in Jesus Christ and brought you back home to him. He says that you are forgiven and that nothing could ever separate you from him and his love for you in Jesus Christ. All your failures to listen to him are pardoned. Your sins of rejecting God’s Word have received from God’s hand a double portion of pardon and forgiveness.

That makes all the difference for you and your future. Advent is a time of waiting. We are waiting for God to come again. Because God came in Jesus Christ, forgiving your sin, you can look forward to him coming on the Last Day. When Jesus comes again, everyone will see him. When he comes again, he will gather you up in his arms and lead you home to the eternal place he’s prepared for you in your heavenly Father’s eternal mansion.

In Jesus Christ, We Have a Joyful Heavenly Homecoming.

You will have a joyful homecoming as you see him with your own eyes and live face to face with him in a new heaven and a new earth. Amen.