Do You Need Comfort?

This week’s theme is Comfort in God’s faithfulness. The readings in Isaiah speak words of comfort to people in very uncomfortable situations on the grounds of God’s faithfulness to his promises. The Gospel reading in Mark quotes Isaiah 40 to announce the good news of God’s faithful promises being fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE IS ENTITLED

“DO YOU NEED COMFORT”

ILLUSTRATION: There’s a humorous story of a teenager who comes home and tells his dad: “Dad, I have some good news and some bad news about your car. The good news is—the air bags work.” What makes that story humorous is the fact that imbedded in the good news is the bad news.

Our text today is taken from Isaiah 40 which in some ways begins like that. We hear God saying, “Comfort, O comfort my people.”

· The pronouncement of comfort is indeed good news, but imbedded in this pronouncement is the fact that there must be something uncomfortable at hand.

· You don’t need to be comforted by good news if you are not experiencing any bad news.

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The words of Isaiah 40 are speaking into a very disturbing deliverance of bad news.

· This bad news is recorded one chapter prior to our text today.

· The news in chapter 39 is so bad that the book of Isaiah is often divided at chapter 40 as a “second Isaiah,” and

· some scholars even attribute the writing of chapters 40 onwards to a different author.

Have you ever had news so bad that everything changes so dramatically that you don’t even feel like the same person anymore?

· We will let the scholars sort out the literary changes, but for you and me, we may need a dramatic switch from bad news to good news like we see from chapter 39 to chapter 40.

But first, let’s deal with the bad news.

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· In chapter 39, Isaiah speaks of a future day when Jerusalem would be destroyed.

· Someday in the distant future, Judah and its beloved capital, Jerusalem would fall to Babylon.

· Tragically the citizens would suffer the horror of defeat and slavery.

· Most of the survivors would be deported, and exiled and scattered throughout the Babylonian empire,

· Maybe a modern day example of this would be the fate the Jewish people suffered in World War II.

· The people of Judah would lose everything:

§ Their homes,

§ Their property

§ Their wealth

§ Their communities

§ Their cities

§ Their nation,

§ Their worship centers

§ And their beloved temple in Jerusalem.

· They would be gripped by piercing grief,

§ Because many of their husbands would be slaughtered by the invading armies

§ The women and wives would be abused and raped

§ Their son and daughters would be scattered among their captives

§ Everyone would be DESTITUTE and a spirit of HOPELESSNES and DESPAIR would continually flood their hearts.

· This all took place about a hundred years later, in 586 BC.

· The city was captured, and the royal family were taken captive.

· This began the Babylonian deportation of exiles.

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A mere decade later, Judah was again attacked by the Babylonians, but this time the invaders utterly destroyed Jerusalem.

· The walls were pulled down and

· The temple was burned.

· There was no one left on the throne and

· Many more Judeans were deported.

· If you want to get a better sense of the bad news Isaiah is proclaiming, you can read the book of Lamentations, which speaks of the horrors and calamities that took place.

· After reading Lamentations, you would read Isaiah 40 as the good news that this horrible nightmare would come to an end. God was going to deliver and restore his people.

· Bomberger writes about Isa 40:

Possibly no Bible chapter has exerted a greater influence on the world’s leaders than Isaiah 40. Handel begins his Messiah with “Comfort ye”; Luther pored over it in the castle at Salzburg; John Brown read it in prison at Harper’s Ferry; Oliver Cromwell went to it for help in time of storm; Daniel Webster read it again and again when he was crushed and broken in spirit; Tennyson called it one of the five great classics in the Old Testament record.

—J. H. Bomberger

It is in the midst of Jews’ hardship and sorrow, that the Lord gives them a wonderful promise

· Isaiah tells them a day is coming when they will be comforted and set free

· Isaiah tells the captive nation that God has made promise he would save his people -AND HE WILL KEEP THAT PROMISE.

· To keep their hope alive the Lord STIRRED Isaiah to this much needed message that has been recorded for us today.

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As we begin to read this good news, we can bring OUR OWN BAD NEWS TO MIND.

· We may not be dealing with such atrocities as recorded in Lamentations, but we too are only one chapter removed from bad news.

· For some, it seems the ENTIRE LAST year has been a year of bad news. (COVID, job losses, financial ruin, loneliness, etc

· For others, it may be SOME BAD NEWS you received last year or LAST MONTH.

§ A doctors assessment of your health

§ A marital situation

§ Broken bones, back problems, arthritis, gout, cancer, heart conditions, diabetes

· Or perhaps you were given some bad news this week.

· If you happened to listen to the news or watch it on TV recently, no doubt you were given a heavy dose of bad news in some form or another.

· Bad news seems to speak to us at every turn.

· Anne Murray one of great Canadian singer sang a song a few years ago.

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Just once how I'd like to see the headline say "Not much to print today, can't find nothin' bad to say", because

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town Nobody OD'ed, nobody burned a single buildin' down Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain We sure could use a little good news today

I'll come home this evenin' I'll bet that the news will be the same

· When circumstances are OVERWHELMING and the outlook is totally BLEAK, what can we do?

· Whom can we trust?

· To whom can we turn?

· Is there any hope?

· THE RESOUNDING ANSWER IS YES!!!!

But God chose in chapter 40 not to remain silent and to share his good news of comfort, and HE GAS CHOSEN TODAY TO SPEAK TO YOU – WORDS OF COMFORT to help you face whatever challenge lies before you.

So, let’s look at this good news recorded in the first 11 verses in chapter 40. We wil read Isaiah 40:1-11 NRSV.

ISA 40:1-11 (NRSV) Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

3 A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

6 A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. 9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10 See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.The first thing we notice is that GOD IS TELLING MESSENGERS to speak his words of COMFORT.

· You could say he is giving the preacher the message for his sermon.

· And that message hasn’t changed.

· When one is called to speak God’s words to God’s people, he is called to speak good news.

· This doesn’t mean that we have to ignore all the bad news and pretend it doesn’t exist, but it does mean we bring a message of comfort and hope in the midst of it.

· The good news in Isaiah 40 does not dismiss Israel’s sins, which have landed them in exile, but it reminds us that SIN IS NOT GOD’S FOCUS; DELIVERANCE AND RESTORATION is the focus of his good news.

The text begins with GOD’S VOICE of comfort. Then we have three other voices enter the scene

· The four voices altogether proclaim the message of God’s salvation.

A. The “1ST VOICE is “COMFORT GOD’S PEOPLE”

· Telling them that their captivity, warfare, hardship is over

· It is a prediction of God’s deliverance from the Babylonian captivity.

· God is saying your sins have been paid for, pardoned

· God has seen their repentance.

· God reached out to the captives in empathy with intense compassion.

· To the righteous believer God will give strength and courage to bear whatever lies ahead, working all things out for good as it says in Romans 8:28

ROM 8:28 28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

· Let’s get back to today’s reading.

· The first voice spoken of are found in verses 1-2

ISA 40:1-2 Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. (NRSV)

· Each of these voices is to “PREACH” this message in their own words.

· Each messenger has something to contribute to the overall message of good news the Lord is delivering.

· In vs 1-2 God speaks and wants this message to be heard.

· He is not content to just say it once.

· He keeps speaking to us by sending different voices to deliver the same message—like a lover who uses many forms of communication to “speak tenderly” to his beloved who is separated.

· It doesn’t matter if it’s

§ a letter,

§ a phone call,

§ a text,

§ a Facebook post,

§ a pigeon,

§ a poem, or

§ a smoke signal.

· He will keep speaking through chosen instruments until the people hear his words wooing the nation back to him.

· NOTE THIS: Remember the nation or people had suffered greatly, they face a seemly dismal future and were distressed and discouraged

· They had lost all hope

· Even the righteous WOULD QUESTION GOD, wondering why He would allow them to suffer so much.

· Others may have walked away from the faith.

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As we examine each of these VOICES that God speaks through, we tune our ears to hear the voice of the Father who is

· speaking to us PERSONALLY,

· DELIBERATELY, and

· PASSIONATELY

· Verse 2 states he SPEAKS TENDERLY – TO THE HEARTS OF THOSE WHO HAVE SUFFERED.

The Lord will not rest until the good news of his love for us becomes the final word over all the bad news we are facing. So, let’s examine each of these three voices to hear what he has to say today.

VOICE 2: A MESSAGE OF RESTORATION AND A ROYAL REVELATION

· Lets go back to our text for today.

ISA 40:3-5 3 A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (NRSV)

· The imagery used here is of preparing a highway in the desert probably draws from the Babylonian religion that would build special processional roads where they could display their gods before the people.

· It was a sort of parade of the gods, you might say.

· But the highway Isaiah is talking about is a about a highway in that would lead away from Babylon across the desert back to the promised land.

· All obstacles would be removed for a unhindered speedy return.

· It’s the Exodus all over again.

· In this procession WE HAVE ON DISPLAY THE TRUE GOD OF ISRAEL, who delivered them from Egypt.

· The phrase “prepare the way of the Lord” also TELLS US the KING IS RETURNING TO THE THRONE.

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This returning Lord and King is depicted as doing two things.

· FIRST he engages in a major RESTORATION OF THE LANDSCAPE. “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”

§ This is METAPHORICAL language and doesn’t mean he is talking about changing Jerusalem’s topography.

§ In using images of making things smooth and level, he is letting us know that this King WILL SET THINGS RIGHT.

§ It’s another way to speak of the proud being humbled and the lowly being exalted.

§ Things will be put back into proper balance and the rough edges will be smoothed out.

§ This text is picked up in the Gospels to point to Jesus as the ultimate new king who comes with a royal restoration.

§ Jesus is the KING WHO FIXES THINGS things the way they should be.

§ Jesus is recorded in his ministry as HEALING the sick, RESTORING the blind, FEEDING the hungry, FORGIVING sinners and RAISING the dead.

§ When King Jesus embarks on his royal projects of restoration, it is on a scale best depicted as EARTH SHATTERING.

· The SECOND thing depicted in this passage is that this returning King will BRING A ROYAL REVELATION.

§ “Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

§ To speak of God’s glory is to speak of his true essence—to see him for who he is.

§ Jesus, the true King, is the one in whom we see the GLORY OF GOD.

§ In Jesus we come FACE TO FACE WITH WHO GOD IS, and he is glorious indeed, a God full of grace and truth, a God who loves us with his dying breath.

§ This revelation leads us from the bad news of bondage that might indicate that God is against us or means us harm.

§ GOD IS FOR US, even when our sins plunge us into the bondage and exile we deserve.

§ He doesn’t leave us there; he reveals and restores and brings us home.

· In ISAIAH’S DAY the Jews need to prepare for the Lord’s coming to deliver them from Babylonian captivity

· In JOHN’S DAY the people needed to prepare by doing exactly as he preached “Repent and be baptized for the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world was coming soon.

· In OUR DAY we need to prepare, by STAYING ALERT, WATCHING FOR CHRIST’S RETURN, LIVE A GODLY LIFESTYLE, looking forward to the day of Jesus’ return.

§ ALL MANKIND WILL SEE GOD’S GLORY.

§ We now come to the 3rd voice

In the 3rd VOICE we hear from the scriptures of his UNFAILING FAITHFULNESS – Here we see the CONTRAST the difference between People and God.

ISA 40:6-8 6 A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. (NRSV) These verses deliver some wonderful good news that at first may seem a bit insulting.

· Basically, it says that it is not up to us.

· Maybe putting it in modern terms “IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT US”

· Now, if all your efforts have landed you in the horrid situation of exile that Isaiah has proclaimed, this comes as a welcomed announcement.

· What wonderful news to know that GOD IS NOT LEAVING OUR SALVATION UP TO US.

· You know we would mess that up in a hurry.

· The poetic language of flowers and grass CONTRAST the FRAIL, FADING and FLEETING nature of our faith with the sure and UNFAILING FAITHFULNESS of God’s word in Jesus Christ.

· PEOPLE and their GLORY FADE AWAY – just as the grass withers and flowers fall because God has power over all.

· People age, deteriorate, fail and die IN CONTRAST God and HIS WORD STAND FOREVER – He will fulfill all his promises.

· Jesus is God’s promise kept.

· Note the CONTRAST BETWEEN HUMAN & GOD

I PET 1:24 24 For “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,

LK 21:33 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

· Jesus as God’s Word is the last Word, and it is never taken back.

· We can count on it with our whole being, as it “will stand forever.”

The 4rd VOICE give a PERSONAL message PROCLAIM THE “GOOD NEWS”of GOD’S DELIVERANCE

ISA 40:9-10 9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10 See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. (NRSV) The sweeping pronouncement of good news that “all people shall see” is marvelous to behold.

· The 2nd & 3rd voices speak of this good news with tremendous global and national implications.

· But this FOURTH voice lets us know that we do not get lost in a crowd. This good news is FOR US PERSONALLY.

· You will never hear God say, “It’s not personal, it’s only business!”

· God is a personal God as Father, Son, and Spirit.

· His good news is TO YOU as a particular person in RELATIONSHIP with this tri-person God.

· This final voice moves closer to speak to the people of Jerusalem in personal ways.

· Listen to this voice, not as a voice to the WORLD or to the NATIONS of Israel, but to YOU PERSONALLY:

The fourth voice:

· Fearlessly proclaims God’s coming to rescue his people

· Fearlessly proclaims God’s coming in power to rule and to reward this people

· Fearlessly proclaims God’s tender care for His people, he feeds them and he leads them.

§ As believers and followers of Jesus we must not cowardly shrink back from proclaiming the good news, even though it may lead at time to rejection or persecution.

· We come now to verse 11

ISA 40:11 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep. (NRSV)

· We are a strange group, believers in Christ

· Sometime STUBBORN, REBELLIOUS, BLIND, UNTEACHABLE, ETC

· But one thing we do know we are dearly loved by God.

God chooses in this passage to speak to you TENDERLY today.

· He is not coming with a booming voice of judgment or power.

· He comes as a CARING SHEPHERD full of humility and tenderness.

· He comes with a GENTLE TOUCH for those who have tender wounds.

· He KNOWS YOU PERSONALLY and particularly.

· He knows the bad news you are facing, and he knows the HEAVINESS OF YOUR HEART.

· He carries you in his arms to heal and lift you up.

· Jesus is this GOOD SHEPHERD.

· Jesus FEEDS US, PROVIDES NOURISHMENT and GROWTH in our lives.

· HE is the LIGHT OF OUR PATH, GIVING US DIRECTION.

· Jesus is the good news that the Father wants you to hear today.

· The bad news is coming to an end. The good news has arrived in Jesus. And this is a word of comfort indeed!

· I would like to close with the last verse of this chapter, which is a favorite many.

ISA 40:31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.