Peace

Sermon Style Sheet

Write that down in your formation Journal

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Sermon Text

Sermon Text: Scripture

Call to Worship

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Passage:

Formation Journal Page Number: 9:56- 10:56 (with a big pause) 3:57 - 4:42 5:31-6:09

Isaiah 7:10–15 CSB

10 Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz: 11 “Ask for a sign from the Lord your God—it can be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask. I will not test the Lord.” 13 Isaiah said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the patience of my God? 14 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel. 15 By the time he learns to reject what is bad and choose what is good, he will be eating curds and honey.

Opening Illustration:

Test Carol - nurse

Peace comes through a mediator

A mediator is a person who stands between two warring factions and he brings the peace. That’s what the children did. They were the one who brought peace

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Getting into the Sermon

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Background 200 years after Rehoboam and about 130 years before the exile

What happened was the northern kingdom was allied with Syria and Israel and Ahaz wanted to become allies with with Assyria.

But God sent Isaiah to warn him

Isaiah 7:3–4 CSB

3 The Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to the Launderer’s Field. 4 Say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Don’t be afraid or cowardly because of these two smoldering sticks, the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah.

God was inviting Ahaz to a life of faith - even though Ahaz hadn’t been faithful and was really disobedient - God had something better for them!

Isaiah 7:10–11 CSB

10 Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz: 11 “Ask for a sign from the Lord your God—it can be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.”

God was going to show Ahaz His faithfulness. It was a really generous offer because Ahas was the worst! God is making a big promise - so how did Ahaz respond?

What type of sign would you have asked for?

Isaiah 7:12 CSB

12 But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask. I will not test the Lord.”

Now this sounds like it is generous. It sound pious but it really isn’t. Ahaz doesn’t want God to save him. He wants to be connected to Assyria. Assyria was flashy and powerful and cool. Ahaz loved their culture. Eventually, Ahaz would put an altar to the assyrian god in the temple of Jerusalem. That’s what he wanted.

Ahaz gave an excuse because he didn’t want to be saved by God because he didn’t want to submit to God.

So here’s the problem, if God were to prove himself, then Ahaz wouldn’t get what he wanted. He would have to stay connected to God.

Now this sounds crazy but I’ve seen it all the time. People in church who know of God, who know what God wants them to do but then they pretend that they don’t know. They pretend that they are being pious as an excuse to do what they want. They don’t actually want God to come through because then they would have to follow him

So it sounds pious but it isn’t. Let’s see how God responds

Isaiah 7:13–15 CSB

13 Isaiah said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the patience of my God? 14 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel. 15 By the time he learns to reject what is bad and choose what is good, he will be eating curds and honey.

This is the main part of the text for us. Verse 14 is a major one for christmastime. the virgin will Conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.

Now there is some controversy over this verse and it comes up on social media all the time especially around Christmas. The controversy focuses on two things, first, in verse 16 there begins a reference to the specific timing of God’s deliverance

Isaiah 7:16 CSB

16 For before the boy knows to reject what is bad and choose what is good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned.

So the question revolves around the idea that the child in verse 14 is the one in verse 16. That’s the question. If it is, then it can’t be talking about Christ because it’s about delivering Judah from these kings.

What’s more, the word for “virgin” in verse 14 could also mean “young woman.” So the argument you’ll here is this: the passage isn’t referring to Jesus, it’s referring to some other child born as a sign to the king.

But the argument is good as people think. First, while technically the word for virgin here could mean young woman - it never does. No where in the Bible is it used for someone who wasn’t a virgin. What’s more, about 130 years before Christ, Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew into Greek - what Greek word did they chose? Virgin. That’s the way they understood that word.

So what’s going on here - again there is some debate but generally I think the clearest understanding is that Isaiah is talking about two children. At the beginning of the chapter, God tells Isaiah to go meet with the king and give him a prophecy but he is supposed to go with his young son.

Isaiah 7:3 CSB

3 The Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to the Launderer’s Field.

We don’t know exactly how old Shear-Jashub is here, but a lot of people place him at 3-4 years old. He is still very young. Shear-Jashub doesn’t match the description of the one born of a virgin nor is his name immanuel. But it does make sense that he would point to his young son, who is still learning right and wrong and say, before he learns right and wrong, the kings would be destroyed. That’s what makes the most sense in my opinion.

But why would he mention the messiah in verses 13-15? That doesn’t make much sense - to us. It doesn’t make much sense to us but it made sense within the context of the day.

It was common for prophets in the Old Testament to connect the present rescue of the people with the future messiah. It’s a technique that is sometimes called telescoping - where if you imagine staring at two mountains, you will describe the near mountain and the far mountain behind them.

But it also makes theological sense - people in the Old Testament were saved through Christ. That’s key - we often lose sight of that. Their salvation was through Christ too - they looked forward to Christ, while we look backwards. They reached out to the future, we reach out to the past. But all salvation is through Christ.

So what Isaiah is doing here in bringing up the messiah is he is making it clear that while Judah will be saved - they are being saved through a mediator, they are being saved through Christ. He is making that connection.

So what Ahaz was rejecting was not just God’s current help, he was rejecting Christ. But God is still faithful to Judah, even though the king is unfaithful because it is connected to Christ.

Here is what this means for us in a very practical way - “all salvation comes through Christ and because of Christ.”

For the war to end there has to be a mediator and the bigger war that was being faught wasn’t between Israel and Judah it was between Ahaz and God.

It’s all through him. Ahaz, wanted his own way to salvation. He wanted to defeat the enemy on his own terms but he couldn’t. It all comes through Christ and because of Christ.

Now here is why that matters to use today - because we face an enemy too. One even worse than Israel and Syria. We talk about the enemy we are talking about three things - the devil, the culture and the sin inside of us.

We have all sinned and fallen short of God. Says we were enemies to God. Its says we were hostile to god

We were fighting against God - enemies and hostile

Now, most people know that they have offended God and are under his judgement. Most people know that. Ahaz knew he faced a bad enemy. We know we face sin.

The questions becomes what do we do with that knowledge? Where do we go from there?

Some people, will try to create their own standard. They want to be good enough. They want their own way to be saved. Like ahaz, they don’t want to have to submit to Christ, they want to create their own code to live by.

It reminds me of Romans chapter 10 verse 3

Romans 10:3 CSB

3 Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.

But it doesn’t work. We create our own standard but it doesn’t matter what our standard is.

Last week, I mentioned the rides - imagine you go to that and they say - you’re child is too short. And you say, well, according to your standard, sure - but not according to my standard. What are they going to say? Oh, well, I didn’t know that. I guess I was wrong.

In the same way, you go to God and say, sure according to your standard I wasn’t good enough but look at my standard.

Romans 3:20 CSB

20 For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.

The fact that we need a code or a law to live by reveals we understand enough about right or wrong to tell on ourselves.

So we are stuck, if we are trying to save ourselves, we are stuck. We can’t do it. It won’t work.

and so we are left, like the tribal people that Don was working with who are constantly at war. We can’t bring peace to ourselves. We need a mediator. We need someone who can stop the war.

But that’s why there is a sign. A sign that Isaiah looked forward to and a sign that we look back to.

Isaiah 7:14 CSB

14 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.

Look how Matthew handles the prophecy

Matthew 1:20–23 CSB

20 But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.”

This prophecy is pointing to the one who will save people from their sins. God with us.

That’s what we are celebrating this season.

Why a virgin? But here’s why it’s important the was born a virgin - it means that he was fully God and Fully man. He was able to be our mediator because he represented both sides. He had to be a man because only a man can represent mankind. He had to be God because only God could live perfectly and only God’s blood would be valuable enough to pay for the sins of the world!

For our war with God to end, we needed a mediator who could legally represent God and man - which is what we have in Jesus. And because of that if we repent of our sins and put our hope and faith we can be saved.

The baby was born and lived and died to save us from our sins. Listen, if you have never been saved - today is the day.

But here’s the good news too - you have been saved from your sins! God is with us! Here’s what that means for you.

First, You are saved from the penalty of sin. It’s paid for. You’ve been saved! You’ve been forgiven. Let’s trade the guilt for joy!

Second, you are saved from the power of sin. You can have real victory! You can change. Let’s live in that.

Here’s why it matters to Mercy Hill - at Mercy Hill we want to enjoy God. That’s one of our core values. As a church we want to enjoy him - a big part of enjoyment is joy. Joy. You have joy when you understand that you are free. It’s happened. You are rescued.

Jesus won, he is winning, he will win, all that. You are saved from your sins!! Because a child was born - God with us, the mediator brought peace - so let’s live with the enjoyment of that God togehter.

Lord’s Supper:

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 

Benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD makes his face shine upon you and be gracious to you:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.