Sermon Tone Analysis

This month marks the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the comic.

From the image of Uncle Sam to the Marvel characters, Americans have been reading comics for one and one-half centuries.

Today, though, probably no comic series is as familiar to Americans and non-Americans as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been with us since 1939, and it’s a set of film adaptations of the Marvel series.

There’s over 20 of them!

Ice-breaker:

Get in groups and decide on a common favorite

Elect a spokesperson to be your group’s voice

So, here’s how I want ya’ll to participate.

I want you to take two minutes and gather with the people around you and determine what you think was the best Marvel movie you’ve seen.

Then, elect a spokesperson to be your group’s voice.

[GIVE TWO MINUTES]

Have your chairperson stand up.

[GO AROUND THE SANCTUARY IN CLOCKWISE ORDER]

Self salvation projects

Have you ever wondered why we like superheroes?

“They’re cool” - I get that they’re cool, that’s not in question.

I’m looking for a deeper answer.

Is there something about our nature that predisposes us to love superheroes?

Why do we have a fascination with superheroes?

If I might venture a guess, I think it’s because they embody what we wish we had but are painfully aware that we do not.

Let me put that another way: Superheroes appeal to us because we know deep down that we are not enough.

We want to know that there is power that can enable us to transcend our own weakness.

Because, the fact is this: as much as we might want to believe that we can accomplish everything and face anything, we simply can’t.

And we know it.

No matter how high the expectations we set for ourselves, and no matter how hard we try, there are some things that are beyond our reach, and those things are the most important things.

Things like, How do I deal with my guilt and shame?

Is there forgiveness available for me?

How do I break this addiction or break this or that pattern of bitterness or revenge?

How can I find salvation?

How can I achieve eternal life?

We can succeed at a lot of things, but the most important things are just beyond our grasp.

We always let ourselves down.

Even those around us let us down, don’t they?

Forget our own weaknesses.

We’ve been hurt enough by the weakness of others.

We pass our lives in disappointment because we had too much faith in people, and they failed us.

In fact, some of us go from relationship to relationship, from friendship to friendship, from job to job, each time thinking that “this one is different” - finally I’ve found something or someone I can rest my hope in.

And yet, bitter disappointment sets in, because no person or relationship or job or house of car or bank account can ever fill the weakness inside of us.

We need help from outside of ourselves.

“When all human have let us down, we might be ready for the only real salvation that exists.”

[Ortlund, Isaiah, p232]

And then along comes Christmas.

Because when you boil it down to its essence, Christmas is about our that very thing.

Christmas is the unbelievable but true story of our holy and merciful God coming down to us and living among us as one of us, almost wrapping himself around us, so that He might do for us and in our place what we could not and cannot do for ourselves.

That is the message of Christmas, the message of the promised coming King.

Will you notice with me four things about this message of Christmas, this message of the coming King?

#1: It is a message of comfort

This message is first and foremost a message of comfort.

Chapter 40, which by the way begins the second major section in the book of Isaiah, has this opening line.

Isaiah the prophet has a message from the Lord of Hosts Himself, and it is a message of comfort.

It opens like this in verses 1-2: “‘Comfort, comfort my people,’ says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isa.

40:1-2 ESV).

That word for comfort comes from a Hebrew word that may have meant something like the sound of breathing.

Take a deep breath with, and let’s enact this.

Breathe in through your nose, and out from your mouth.

In through your nose, out from your mouth.

Relaxing, is it not?

Think of the comfort God gives His people as a sigh of relief.

What do you think of when you think of a sigh of relief?

A happy outcome when a bad one was anticipated?

Maybe good news when bad news was expected?

Two sections of Isaiah

Isaiah 1-39: written to Israel before the exile

Isaiah 40-66: written to Israel after the exile

Israel definitely had gotten her share of bad news.

I said Isaiah had two major sections earlier.

Now it’ll help us to understand this message if we can grasp those two section.

Isaiah 1-39 was written to Israel before they went into exile.

The message of Isaiah 1-39 was this: Come back to the Lord; repent of your sins and trust in Him and you will find mercy.

If you don’t, He will cast you out of the land He promised you.

The message of Isaiah 41-66 was, “So you’re in exile.

It’s going to be okay.

The Lord’s anger has run its course.

Now He wants to comfort you.

That was good news when bad news was expected.

A happy outcome when a bad outcome was anticipated.

A sigh of relief.

A sigh of relief, because God has come to us in love when we expected Him to come in wrath.

By the way, this whole idea of comfort from God is sort of complex.

On the one hand, it makes sense.

We know that God is a God who comforts His people.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” the apostle Paul wrote, “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction” (2Cor.

1:3-4 ESV).

We also know the comfort of God ourselves; we’ve experienced it in times of trouble.

And so iot makes sense that God would offer comfort to us, because it fits what we already know of Him.

On the other hand, the comfort of God does — or should — perplex us.

You say, why is that, pastor Dustin?

Doesn’t God owe us comfort?”

And the answer is, of course, “Well, no.”

It might make sense to us that God would owe us comfort.

As Americans we’re so accustomed to talking about our rights and getting what we deserve.

We forget that God is God, and we are not.

God is Creator and Judge, and we are not.

God is holy and righteous, and we are not.

How, then, can a righteous and holy Creator Judge possibly forgive our sins?

How can the the Creator and Judge of the universe comfort us, when what deserve from Him is wrath?

The answer is, the cross of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah explains how God will provide comfort to His people in exile, and why He is able to provide comfort to His people in exile.