Full Sermon “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” based on Isaiah 40:6-9

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I. Home. Home Sweet Home. Many people enjoy going home to see their parents and grandparents during the Christmas season. For many people thinking about home gives them many good memories. Stories are told and retold. Happiness and laughter often follow those stories of old. I remember trips our family used to take when I was a young boy from Bozeman, MT, and later from Billings, MT, to Aberdeen, SD, during the days leading up to Christmas in December. The highways were not the best at times, but we made those trips to see our Grandpas and Grandmas. Dorothy in the movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” echoes what many people think: “There’s no place like home.”

II. Sins move us away from God. Some of us are far away from home. Because of our sins we move far away from God. Isaiah 44:13-17 described the folly of many of the people of Israel of old, “The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, ‘Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!’ And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, ‘Deliver me, for you are my god!’”

III. Sometimes we act in a similar way. We look to ourselves for strength. We trust our friends rather than God. We look to God as a last resort and pray to God after nothing else seems to help. We forget about the blessings of our Baptism. We rarely study the Bible to learn more about our gracious God. God does not give up on us. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:6-8).

IV. People and things will disappoint us. All of the people and things we look to rather than God will disappoint us sooner or later. We do not always have strength in our bodies. We cannot always count on friends to get us out of trouble. Money will not solve all of our problems in life. The things the unbelieving world offers to help us will fail to help us time after time. Only God can really give us lasting help and hope for the future.

V. The first advent of Jesus. The first advent or first coming of Jesus in Bethlehem was when the Son of God took on human flesh and blood for us. Jesus lived in exile from His heavenly home for over 30 years. He had no permanent home during the three years of His public ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing. He ended up on the cruel cross for your sins and for my sins. His lips were cracked and he had a mouth that felt full of cotton. His throat, so dry he couldn’t swallow, and his voice, so hoarse, he could hardly speak. Since His last supper with His twelve students, Jesus had been spit upon, laughed at, and whipped. He had carried the cross and bore the sins and wrongs of all people to the place of His death on that cross.

VI. Raised on the third day and conquered death. Yet raised on the third day, He conquered death for us. Jesus promised, “In my Father’s home are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you!” (John 14:2). The apostle Paul wrote, “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). And “We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).

VII. Idols are nothing. Because Jesus bled and died in our place, Jesus showed us that He alone is able to heal our wounds and forgive our wrongs. No wonder the Bible says that idols are nothing and only make things worse because every false god is no god at all. A false god doesn’t suffer for us, a false god knows no agony, a false god doesn’t die for us; a false god is a god without grace, a false god cannot deliver us, and a false god offers no true hope and no future. But this is not our Jesus! Jesus was crucified for us, but He has risen indeed!

VIII. Better things to come for believers. This is no college dorm room or army barracks or student housing; no motel or hotel. This is far better. We have better things ahead of us. We have the everlasting joys of heaven to look forward to. We have a gracious and merciful God watching over us day and night. We have a saving faith in Jesus to help us through every trial and trouble. We have a Savior who cares for us and loves us more than any family member or friend.

IX. Conclusion. We are only passing through this world. We are strangers in this world. The words of Isaiah point us to the good news about our Savior. Isaiah 40:8-9 tells us, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. 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!’”

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – God’s Son, Jesus is God With Us. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.