Isaiah 9

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Sermon Text: Scripture

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Passage:

Formation Journal Page Number: 9:06-9:52

Isaiah 9:1–7 CSB

1 Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the future he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations. 2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness. 3 You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people have rejoiced before you as they rejoice at harvest time and as they rejoice when dividing spoils. 4 For you have shattered their oppressive yoke and the rod on their shoulders, the staff of their oppressor, just as you did on the day of Midian. 5 For every trampling boot of battle and the bloodied garments of war will be burned as fuel for the fire. 6 For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.

Opening Illustration:

unlikely rescue? Test

The beginning of the kingdom gives us hope for the fulfillment of the kingdom

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Getting into the Sermon

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Let’s start by placing this in history…

Then the northern kingdom was taken away in stages and Galilee was the first area to go.

So it is in this context, Galilee being taken away that we now get the prophecy from verse 1

Isaiah 9:1 CSB

1 Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the future he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations.

The gloom of the distressed land is that they were taken away. This was really distressing!

The rest of this is that geographical. Zebulun and Naphtali are two of the tribal lands. The way of the sea was an important highway that went through the area and of course Galilee.

What we are going to see is that the honor that will be restored to the area is related to the coming messiah. The place that is now barren and destroyed is going to be used to produce the greatest leader that the nation has ever seen.

Now, I want you to see something that is being promised and really how striking it is.

Oftentimes, land carries with them significance. So you think about New York City, it’s not just a city, it has a reputation. Even if you have never been there, you’ve seen it on TV and in movies. It’s a famous city, you have an idea of what it’s like.

Every year people visit places like Monticello - which is Thomas Jefferson’s house. They want to see the place where he lived - he’s a big deal. Maybe you visit civil war battlefields. There is a significance - places can have significance.

For Israel, bethlhem had signficance. It was King David’s city. It was a big deal. People knew about it. A few years after this prophecy another prophet would come and say that the messiah would come from Bethlehem and everybody believed it. That makes sense. That’s the place where great kings come from.

Galilee was kind of like Detroit is now. It was great at one point, it was thriving but now it’s in shambles. Detroit was the big industrial heart of america, But not anymore, there are news reports over the years of entire nieborhoods being abandoned.

Things aren’t great there. Things were great in Galilee. It used to be a pretty nice place to live, they were a breadbasket of sorts. But by the time that Isaiah is prophecying in chapter 9 they have fallen off hard.

The Assyrians have come in and taken most of the inhabitents away into exile. It was not the type of place that people wanted to live. In fact, it would remain sparsley populated for hundreds of years until there was a push to repopulate it mainly about 60 years before Christ’s birth.

Nazareth, where Jesus was raised, was somewhat of a frontier town, created primarly by people who had moved back tot he area a generation or two before. The connection of people with their ancestral lands had broken down. It was a place like the american frontier where land was easy to come by so people moved there who wanted to get ahead, but the people who were already doing well, who had means and money stayed in the established areas.

So as Isaiah is prophesying, the people have just witnessed the areas destruction. They’ve seen what had happened.

The area as the “gloom of distress.”

I love that phrase because it so accurately captures what it seems like when we are going through hard times.

I had trouble finding work - I was down, There was the “gloom of distress”

Another way you could say it, is that it’s the the valley of the shadow of death. Death is casting is so close that it cases a shadow over you.

Have you ever felt that way? Are there times when you have to sit in the gloom of distress?

The gloom of distress comes in when something bad is happening and you don’t have control it.

The trouble is so deep that the only way out is to be rescued.

Now our lives are complex, we can have multiple emotions happening at once. We can be happy and thriving in one area and in the gloom of distress in another.

Maybe your job is going really well but your relationships are in shamble.

Your marriage is better than ever but you are having real trouble with the kids.

Or Everything seems to be going well except you just got a medical diagnosis and its bad.

Sometimes its all bad, sometimes it’s a mixture of bad and good. So let me say this - if its a season of all good right now for you - enjoy it! Don’t feel bad! Those seasons are too rare to not enjoy when you have them!

But if you have the gloom of distress in your life, or if you suspect that it might be coming - there is hope - that the beginning of the kingdom gives us hope for the fullness of the kingdom.

God chose the place that was unfaithful and conquered and he said that this place, he is going to use to bring about something really amazing!

Isaiah 9:2 CSB

2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness.

And he starts it right with triumph. People who are walking in darkness have seen a great light.

In the book the Lion the Witch and the wardrobe - it described the land as always winter but never christmas. And then as the kingdom of changes and aslan, whose essentially the christ figure, comes things change. They actually have christmas, then the snow melts. The final battle takes place in springtime.

Isaiah 9:3 CSB

3 You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people have rejoiced before you as they rejoice at harvest time and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.

Things have started to change! Things are going to get better! The nation is god’s kingdom - it’s not so much about the national boundaries and so the kingdom is enlarging. And with that, increased joy. That’s why I love a multuicultrual church - because we have peope form all over 0 the nation is enlarged and the joy is enlarged right along with it.

Isaiah 9:4 CSB

4 For you have shattered their oppressive yoke and the rod on their shoulders, the staff of their oppressor, just as you did on the day of Midian.

So the people were beat down. The yoke is what they would put on an ox to make it pull a plow or a wagon, and is used as a metaphor for the oppression of what the people felt like.

Isaiah 9:5 CSB

5 For every trampling boot of battle and the bloodied garments of war will be burned as fuel for the fire.

There will be peace! After my dad came back from the war he had his boots and he had his uniforms. I still use some of his uniform bags. But he said that peace will be so secure that we would no longer use the army navy surplus stores, they are going to be burned. We won’t need them. - we don’t even want the momentos of war

Isaiah 9:6 CSB

6 For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

So how will this come about? Because a child would be born who would have the government on his shoulders. He would be in control of the history!

Then look - he would be the wonderful counselor - that doesn’t mean that he will be your therapist it means that he will guide you. He can give you direction and knowledge.

He will be the mighty God! The very God of the universe!

But God isn’t aloof and far off, he is also your eternal father! He cares about you!

and he is the prince of peace. He bring peace to our lives.

Isaiah 9:7 CSB

7 The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.

It’s a kingdom that would last forever!

It’s paradise. That’s what he is talking about.

So for people who are in the doom of distress there is a promise not just that things will get better but that things will get much better! That they will be better forever!

The baby that was born, was born to rule the world in peace and joy and prosperity.

But here’s the question is it happening? the question of all the christmas songs

Think about joy to the world - part of the song says this:

He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove, The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love

Or my favorite, Oh Holy Night

Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Later on it says, “And in His name all oppression shall cease.”

Ok, so let’s hit this head on - has that happened?

The answer is somewhat. Kind of.

The term we use is “inaugurated eschatology” eschatology is the end times and inaugurated means that it is started the end times are officially installed.

So things have started even though they aren’t yet complete. That’s the idea. The is a real reality that change happened 2000 years ago when Jesus was born. Things actually did change and things have gotten better, even if our full hope hasn’t been realized yet.

So for example, oppression has lessened. There was a time before there was a middle class. People were just poor or rich. There was no middle. There was no freedom. Oppression has lessoned in a real way even if it isn’t the fullness of what we will have.

People walking in darkness have seen a great light. Things really are changing for the better.

And the nation has been expanded. We can all take part in it now.

God shaped hole - gloom of distress - spiritually

Gospel —> repentence

today is the day to get right with God -

We can have real hope. the beginning of the kingdom gives us hope for the fullness of the kingdom.

Look here’s the deal, to often we can fall into the trap of living like functional atheists. We get overcome with the gloom of distress and we think -God can’t do anything about it.

Now we know about heaven, we know the afterlife is going to be good and that’s great. But we live as if our lives are only run by the laws of the universe. We get up, go to work, and everything is just cause and effect.

It’s like we believe that Jesus only came to save us for that final day. But here’s the thing I want you to remember,

even though his Kingdom comes in fullness - Jesus is still King right now. He is still in charge. The government is still on his shoulders now. It’s not that he will reign - he reigns now. The light shines now.

So that matters to us because that means that he has the power and authority to answer our prayers. This is why it is so important for us to live our lives through prayer. We are starting our 30x30 prayer challenge on January 2. If you are in the gloom of distress, use that time to start taking your concerns and fears, and distress, and hope and joys to the one who can do something about it.

If you need wisdom - he’s the wonderful counselor - now! right now

If you need major change happen - go to him in prayer - He is the mighty God right now

If you feel alone and forgoten - he is your eternal father now, not later now.

Maybe you feel like there is war in your life, in your relationships, in your family, in your own soul - He is the prince of peace right now.

So we want to connect to that. Have a realtionship with the one who restores lands of distress like galilee and give light to people in the darkenss.

Maybe you feel like galilee - a land in the gloom of distress - but remember the light has come! Jesus has shattered the yoke of oppression. He is the king! We won’t see in it’s fullness until later but we can see it in a real way in our lives today. We don’t have to wait.

So let’s put aside the thought that God’s reach is limited and let’s rejoice, have hope and pray together.

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.