The Righteous king and his rebelous subjects

Illustratoin

A Deeper Reason for Our Christmas Greed

In his book Things Unseen: Living with Eternity in Your Heart , Mark Buchanan points out how we all continually live for the "Next Thing"—the next item on our checklist of luxuries, the next job, the next adventure. As Buchanan notes, "this becomes so obsessive that we lose the capacity to enjoy and to be thankful for what we have right now. [And] this is never more apparent than at Christmastime." He writes:

I saw this close-up … when my children first got to that age when the essence of Christmas becomes The Day of Getting. There were mounds of gifts beneath our tree, and our son led the way in that favorite childhood (and, more subtly, adult) game, How Many Are for Me? But the telling moment came Christmas morning when the gifts were handed out. The children ripped through them, shredding and scattering the wrappings like jungle plants before a well-wielded machete.

The children looked at each gift briefly, their interest quickly fading, and then put it aside to move on to the Next Thing. When the ransacking was finished, my son, standing amid a tumultuous sea of boxes and bright crumpled paper and exotic trappings, asked plaintively, "Is this all there is?"

Using this all-too-familiar Christmas scene, Buchanan shows how we are taught "not to value things too much, but to value them too little. We forget to treasure and to savor. The pressure of constant wanting dissipates all gratitude. The weight of restless craving plunders all enjoyment." But he adds a surprising thought—one that points to a deeper reason for our Christmas greed. He writes:

God made us this way. He made us to yearn—to always be hungry for something we can't get, to always be missing something we can't find, to always be disappointed with what we receive, to always have an insatiable emptiness that no thing can fill, and an un-tamable restlessness that no discovery can still. Yearning itself is healthy—a kind of compass inside us pointing to True North.

It's not the wanting that corrupts us. What corrupts us is the wanting that's misplaced, set on the wrong thing.

NOTE: This is much the way the first Christmas over 2,000 years ago took place. Like the prophet Isaiah proclaims in 53:1 “Who has believed what they have heard from us?” And to whom has the strong arm of the Lord been revealed. How many people in the world this Christmas will be left wanting more and feeling empty.

Big Idea: The Best is yet to Come.

Isaiah 53 is the gospel of the Old Testament. This vision came to Isaiah some 700 years prior to the birth of Christ. Remember the story in the New Testament of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. The Ethiopian was reading Isaiah 53 when Philip joined him in the chariot to explain what he was reading. Philip opened his mouth and from the scripture he began to preach to Jesus to him. (Acts 8:35).

In all of Israel’s history no one even comes close to fulfilling this prophecy besides Jesus. He himself said that “the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve as a propitiation for our sins.

The servant will be high and lifted up. John 12:32 “And when I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all men to myself.” This is a foretelling of the manner in which Jesus will be killed.

THE ARM OF THE LORD

Note: The “arm” is here used as a figure of the true Christ as the Head of the Church. He is also the arm of the Lord. The metaphor is the symbol of almighty power. Christ is the power of God.

His arm is the symbol of power

His arm is the symbol of mercy

In making bare His arm (Christ) the Lord has revealed His great power both to smite and to save. The mighty spiritual muscle that is flexed in the life, death, and resurrection of christ.

We are called to make bare the arm of the almighty saving God to the world.

5 Stages of Redemption in the Christmas Story.

1. The rebel Subjects

NOTE: in Isaiah 52:1 begins with an alarm going off, “Awake, awake, put on your strength O Zion; put on your beautiful garments O jerusalem, the holy city.

Isaiah 51:9–11 ESV

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? 10 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? 11 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 53:1 ESV

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Isaiah asks 2 the question?

WHO HAS BELIEVED WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD FROM US?

AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?

ANSWER: Hardly anyone. Why not?

Why did Isaiah then, and why do people still today find the message of Salvation so unbelievable?

vs. 6 provides one of the answers. “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each to their own way.”

Everyone is doing it their way.

This is the weight of the ungrateful rebellion that has been going on since the fall of mankind. People are busy doing their own thing. Seeking their own individuality apart from God.

Isaiah 43:7 ESV

7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

God created everyone for His own glory.

300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon Running Back to God (Psalm 69:2, 14)

Infants, when they are among strangers, are pleased with little toys and amusements. But when they become hungry, nothing will do for them but their mother’s breast. So it is with a child of God. He may for a time be satisfied and find pleasure in the things of this world, but he only finds lasting and sure happiness in being embraced in his Father’s arms.

When my boys walk out with us in fair weather, they will run in front of us ever so far, but as soon as they see any danger in the way they quickly return to father’s side. So when everything goes well with us we frequently run a long way from God, but as soon as we are overtaken by trouble, or see a lion in the way, we fly to our heavenly Father. I bless God for the mire, and for my sinking in it, when it makes me cry out, “Deliver me from the mud and do not let me sink” (Psa 69:14)

God created us for his way

The pride of doing it my way, just like the lyrics of the old Frank Sinatra son

John Piper -

“The easiest way not to feel like a rebel against the king is not to think of the King (or the shepherd). If you can manage to put Him out of your mind then it doesn’t feel like rebellion.

We are all rebellious spirits, we don’t like being told what to do and how to do it. And to keep God’s will from interfering or conflicting with our idea about what we want, we choose not to consider God or his way. “All of us are like sheep who have gone astray and turned to their own way.”

The demand for those who hear is faith.

The responsibility of the hearers. “Who has believed?”

The message is the most timely that our ears will every hear.

The words are the most trustworthy words we will every hear.

The demand is the most reasonable ever made.

There is no exaggeration or false coloring about it. The reports are the most accurate you will hear, there is not fake news going on in the message that Isaiah brings.

Faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of God.

Cultural Note: The line that is now being drawn in time all hinges on what we are going to believe. Without faith it is impossible to please God. When we choose to do it our way instead of his, we are in essence saying we see but we still do not believe.

2. The Rejected Servant

He was:

Despised

Rejected by man

Man of sorrows

Acquainted with grief

When God sent the servant to save the rebel subjects, we despised him.

The Prince Who Looks Like a Pauper

I suspect that most of us do not honor and obey [Jesus] because he often comes to us [much like] King Edward the Disguised.

In Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, we are introduced to Prince Edward and a poor boy named Tom Canty. In the opening pages, they meet each other and discover they look identical. Since each one is dissatisfied with his social situation, they decide to swap places and see what life's like from the other side. Tom takes on the life of Prince Edward, and Prince Edward adopts the life of the pauper Tom. During the course of the novel, King Henry dies, at which point Prince Edward becomes King of England. For the rest of the story, Edward has to convince others that he is the legitimate king. All they see, of course, is a poor boy in rags.

Many people—not just the wise men—had trouble spotting King Jesus in his day, because they were looking for the trappings of royalty instead of an infant in a manger or a young man in a carpenter's shop.

Why? the answer is in verse 2: “He grew up before him [God] like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; he has not stately form or majesty that we should look upon him. Nor appearance that we should be attracted to him.”

NOTE: In other words his whole demeanor, style, view of life and money and possessions and lust and prayer and worship and pride and humility and fear and faith - none of it endorsed our own rebellion.

Jesus did not come to validate you

Jesus didn’t come to endorse your own little rebellion or to make you feel better about yourself. We didn’t feel endorsed by Jesus. He didn’t come to hand out bumper stickers for your own campaign.

NOTE: He was so lowly and unimpressive that our aspirations for power and reputation felt evil. His poverty made our wanting more and more feel foolish. His willingness to suffer for others made our cravings for comforts and gain feel more selfish and self-seeking.

So, to protect ourselves we despised him. We even hoped it was God that struck him. That would be a good endorsement of our rejection. And we rejected him. He was an offense to our way of doing things. A rejected Servant.

3. The ransoming substitute

300 Illustrations for Preachers Do the Crime, Pay Someone to Do the Time

“Do the crime, pay someone else to do the time” was the headline in the Sydney Morning Herald. In May 2009, a wealthy 20-year-old Chinese man was drag racing through the streets of Hangzhou when his Mitsubishi struck and killed a pedestrian at a crossing. This crime can be the death penalty for some. When they found out about his excessive speed (over 70 mph) and his light and callous attitude afterward, it caused an outcry in the city. So he was arrested, or so they thought. Later they found out that the man who was sentenced was not the criminal at all but someone who had been paid to take the three-year prison sentence for him.

The rich families of China do this to avoid justice. In China this is so common they call the person who does the time a “substitute criminal” or “replacement convict.” They agree to a price, then do the time. People who are broke and/or desperate are willing to make as little as $31 for every day they pay for another’s crime. Jesus was not desperate or penniless, yet he became a “substitute criminal” for you and fully paid for your crimes. What but love could motivate Jesus to do that for us?

—Jim L. Wilson and David Mills

Jesus did not come to be served but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many.

Sermons from John Piper (1990–1999) Surely He Has Borne Our Griefs

Verse 4: “Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried …” Verse 5: “But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed.” And verse 6: “But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.”

So this is at the heart of the gospel message - Jesus the substitutionary atonement of Christ.

This is the great message of good news. So, why do we have such a hard time accepting the gift?

Pride: we are hung up on ourselves, we continue to reject the substitute and try to do it our way.

NOTE: Notice what he does, instead of increasing our sorrows, he carries them, instead of avenging our transgressions, he is pierced through for our transgressions in our place. Instead of crushing us for our iniquities, he is crushed for them as our substituted.

Isaiah 53:10 ESV

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

He gives you the answer.

God gives you all that you need to know in order to pass the test.

The answer to the greatest cosmic test ever given in history is Jesus. He is the solution to every problem that the world has pondered from the dawn of creation.

NOTE: You do not need to understand how it works, you just need to know that it does.

Its like my computer. I open my computer up to Microsoft word and begin to type out a paper or a letter or something. I do not sit there and stare and my computer trying to contemplate how it is computing what I am typing into the computer. I just know that it works.

Think about what it takes to sustain your life each day. You need oxygen, nutrients, narrow range of temperatures, narrow range of atmospheric pressure, all of these things to sustain your life. Now, you don’t wake up every morning and think to yourself, I wonder if there is enough atmospheric pressure today for me to live, or oxygen in the air so I don’t suffocate. No, we just know that it works.

This is the gospel. God tells us all that we need to know. His rejected Servant is in fact a ransoming substitute for rebel subjects like you and me. That’s the Gospel.

The Problem:

What is naturally attractive, or impressive is left in a trail to the cross.

NOTE: We have a distorted view of the gospel and of God.

The Accuser

Satan brings into question the purposes and the goodness of God. Satan plays on our conscience, your not good enough, or, there must be something more than this seemingly ordinary yet extraordinary sacrifice.

NOTE: One of the greatest miracles in history was the incarnation of God in the form of a baby in the backwater town of Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. The seemingly ordinary birth brought forth the very thing that confounds the wise and shames the strong.

The conscience continually reminds us that we are not good enough.

4. The Restored Sight

The gospel doesn’t save unless we see it and grasp it for ourselves.

So, rebel subjects cannot grasp it on their own. Isaiah tells us that something will happen-and this is the fourth stage of Isaiah’s message: there will be restored sight to the rebel subjects.

Isaiah 52:15 ESV

15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.

Blood soaked manger scene

I know that I have told this story many times before, but, the picture that I get every time I think of it, I’m reminded of the blood that is sprinkled on your life and mine. The mercy seat of God where the complete justice and righteousness of God rest.

Even through 53:1 say’s that few will believe the message, 52:15 indicates that the arm of the Lord will be revealed.

Isaiah 52:10 ESV

10 The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

God will not let his servants work be done in vain. He will bare his arm and sprinkle the nations with the healing blood of his servant and the kings of the earth will see and understand.

Isaiah 42:7 ESV

7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

Isaiah 35:5 ESV

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

Isaiah 9:2 ESV

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

God will give you the eyes to see the unrecognizable

NOTE: 52:14 the key word here is appalled or shocked, his appearance was so altered that someone would ask, “is this he?” or “is this human.” He was unrecognizable in his human body.

Sprinkling of the Blood: this had to do with cleansing, with making a person or thing fit to be in the presence of God. Other places in the OT it always referred to Israel, but there is not such restriction here. The cleansing that the servant brings is for many nations. The one that people regarded as unclean (they were appalled at him) will turn out to be the one that cleanses others.

NOTE: Remember at Jesus trial he stood there without a word in his defense, the lamb was silent before his accusers, but, now he will dry up every accusation and cause every mouth to be shut. The wisdom of God on full display in the Servant will utterly confound human wisdom.

KINGS: Kings were the distinguished caretakers of wisdom, king Solomon is a prime example.

5. The Reverent Silence

“The Kings will shut their mouths”

The suffering servant is the sovereign one of the universe. he is high He is lifted up. He is greatly exalted and to be praised. This is what God grants them the eyes to see-the majesty of Jesus. The despised and rejected servant is the Lord of glory and there will be reverent silence before him.

Sermons from John Piper (1990–1999) Surely He Has Borne Our Griefs

Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

The rest of Isaiah 53 explains what it was that shut the mouths of the kings.

English Standard Version Chapter 53

12  Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death

and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus came into the world to shut the mouth of the ultimate deceiver and lier Satan once and for all.

1 John 3:5 ESV

5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

1 John 3:8 ESV

8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Ultimately Jesus stepped in between God and us, the wrath that we deserved he bore on the cross.

Conclusion

Christmas and Communion

During China's Cultural Revolution, Christians were often sentenced to hard labor in prison camps. Maintaining their faith was hard, and expressing it was harder. But for one man, Christmas was not complete without Communion. The significance of Jesus' birth and death made celebrating the Lord's Supper on a cold Christmas Day worth the risk.

Christmas 1961 found the prisoners working on earthen walls around rice paddies in zero temperatures. Wind howled over the frozen ground.

One prisoner approached his supervisor. Could he have some time off from work since it was Christmas? The guard gave him permission, warning him to beware the warden. The old man walked into a gully, out of sight, out of the wind. He built a small fire and began to celebrate Christmas.

A few minutes later the friendly guard saw the warden headed straight for them. He hurried over to warn the old prisoner, just in time to see him sipping something from a chipped cup, eating a bite of bread.

When the warden arrived, all he saw were a prisoner and a guard huddled by a small fire. But the prisoner had completed his Christmas celebration, not with a banquet or with sweets, but with a cold cup and a cold crust—with Communion. His celebration of Christmas demanded Communion.

The birth of God's Son would leave us cold, if not for the death of Jesus, enfolding us in the warm glow of his mercy. Our celebration of his birth needs to be wrapped in the swaddling clothes of God's grace. Our awe at Advent is not [just] that he came at all, but that he came to be crucified