Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Recently I found myself spending some time by the side of the road.
This stop wasn't planned.
In fact I was keen to get home.
I was reasonable tired, because it had been a big three or four days.
But for those who were here, and heard a children's story recently, you may know why I was stuck on the side of the road . .
we ran out of petrol!
So as Nadelle went off to get some more - I waited by the road.
The road we waited beside, was as you can see reasonably isolated.
It was long and straight and in reasonably good condition.
Without much traffic - it allowed me to go and take a few photos.
But somewhere in the past, someone decided that there need to be a road there.
Plan it, grade it tar it, paint it, maintain it.
When you stop and think about it, a-lot of thought, time, energy and money goes into roads.
And rightly so - they enable us reach our desired destination.
The better the more direct the road, the sooner and safer we arrive where we want to be.
In the Bible, one of the more prominent mentions about roads is when John the Baptist arrive on the scene.
And when he did, all four gospels called him “The voice of one crying in the wilderness.”
They also all record his message
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”
Or Prepare a highway for our God.
So the question I have this morning is.
How do you prepare the way for Lord?
How do we prepare for him in our own hearts?
What is our calling to encourage us to do it with others?
How can God use us in this?
This is what we will look at today.
Prayer
Background.
In saying that John was the voice of the one calling in the wilderness, all four gospels - quote the from prophet Isaiah.
Lets spend time the Isa 40.
When we get to this chapter we see this is turning point in this book with the prophet
The first half of the book of Isaiah deals with how Israel has turn its back against God.
The book opens with a message of rebuke to Jerusalem, pictured as “a besieged city” and a wicked one.
Isaiah point out all the consequences and judgement, the reason for their exile.
Isaiah has found himself giving messages of rebuke, because Israel has turned its back on God.
They have been lead away God, and from what God wanted for his people.
Yet all this changes from Isaiah 40 on-wards.
At this turning point the prophet foresee a time when the warfare is over.
God sends a message through his prophet and it has changed in tone and in theme.
* We move from a message of rebuke - to one of comfort and hope.
* the unrighteousness of the people - to the righteousness of God.
* from God’s people being drawn away from him - to the Lord showing the lengths he would go to to draw people back to him.
As chapter 40 begins God finds Israel in exile discouraged because of their failures as a nation.
Yet here God encourages them to look forward in faith to the glorious prospect of what lay ahead and who was coming.
THE VOICE OF PARDON
Whenever you see two of the same words together you know that they are there for emphasis.
Here is a double imperative - this isn’t just something God wanted them to know, its something he wanted them to take to heart.
This opens with a message of comfort for the returning captives.
The city had suffered more than enough.
God instills in them reassurances, comfort and hope.
But note closely what the text says
“Comfort, Comfort (Who?) . .
.MY PEOPLE.
Despite all that they have done, despite he number of times they turned their backs on God, they were not cast off.
Rebellious as they were, they are still God’s people!
His chosen people.
He still deeply loves them, he still deeply cares for them.
And as the next phrase says, he says he is still “your God”
You can take comfort in that . .
and also in this.
God tells Isaiah, to speak tenderly to Jerusalem because
your sad days (NLT),
your hard service (NIV),
her warfare is over (KJV).
That’s good news right there.
But it gets even better.
The very next line says
HER SINS HAVE BEEN PAID FOR !
They are pardoned, They are forgiven, they are gone.
And maybe right here - this is where we can start as we think of preparing the way.
How can God say that the sins have been paid for, that he has pardoned, or forgiven Jerusalem after all she has done.
Then again - how can God say that our sins have been paid for?
The only way is if someone else has made the payment.
You see even before we begin clearing the site, marking out the road and pouring the tar to prepare the way for the Lord, we need to see Gods motivation - for why the road needs to be prepared in the first place.
Sin has separated us from God - so God has removed this obstacle, this barrier that has kept us from him.
He wants us to understand what he his doing and what he has done so our response is a heart response.
God wants to start in our own hearts before anything else, because this is where Jesus wants to come in, this is where he wants to live.
This is what he want to open, so that we can prepare the way for him to come into our hearts.
Christianity is all about the saving grace of God.
God offers comfort through his forgiveness offers pardons for our iniquities, and sins, for the times when we have gone against him.
How can God do that . . .
A few chapters on, Isaiah give us this clear picture of how God can do this when he says. . .
This text clearly points to Jesus.
It points to what he did no the cross.
Jesus is our substitute - He paid the price , when we could not.
- He received no pardon, to give us pardon.
-The iniquity of us all, was paid by Jesus.
And it was Jesus on the cross, who originally prepared the way for us to be reconciled back to God.
The message is this - You can have the God who pardons you, through the work of Jesus in your life today.
The text back in Isa 40 says that Jerusalem received a double for all her sins and now this time is over.
But what did this doubling mean?
Once commentary I read suggested that maybe the idea of this double came about when there was an indebtedness or mortgage on a house in Israel.
That this was written on a legal document, and put on the doorpost so that all their neighbors and friends would know that they had a mortgage on their place.
Another copy was kept by the one who held the mortgage.
When the debt was paid, the second copy, the carbon copy, was nailed over the other doorpost so that all might see that the debt was paid.
(Thru the Bible Vol 23).
Jesus had paid our debt.
Our God is a God of Pardon.
He has made forgiveness available through him.
His love is the motivation of why we want to prepare the way for God to enter into our hearts.
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