Outline “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.

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.

V. The first advent of Jesus.

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.

VIII. Better things to come for believers.

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.