Holiness and the coming blessing

Introduction/Video

What is a prophet?

Prophets… what are some misconceptions of prophets?

Bible Project and the prophets:

Prophet and the covenant:

Accusation

Repentance

The Day of the Lord

Focus would be How God would bring Justice

Daniel and Hosea.... apocalyptic.... you want me to talk about that.

Day of Lord was talking about a return to the rebuilt Jerusalem.

The prophets were all about prophetic warning but also hope for the restoration of Israel. I think hope is a good thing so I want to track a couple places today and Sunday in worship. Two different messages. (The first time I taught, some of you gave me the…can’t be here Sunday but at least I heard it today) hahaha

Isaiah Qualified to Bring the Good News

One of the huge shifts we see is the holiness of God....

Read...

Isaiah 6:1–9 NIV

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” 9 He said, “Go and tell this people: “ ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

This is incredible news. This weird vision is the shifting of holiness.

What is shocking here?

Moses and Holiness

You see very early on God was trying to teach his people about His Holiness. About how powerful it can be. For example, Moses is in the wilderness and he sees a great fire, he decides to inspect....

Exodus 3:4–6 NIV

4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

Sun

A great analogy of the holiness of God, is the sun. You do not have to be on the sun to get cooked, right, summer in Houston in august. If you are even close to the sun you are done. The glory, the holiness of God cannot be approached. His holiness is such, that to be in his presence and impure is a no-no!

The Tabernacle

Later in the history of Israel God dwells with his people in the Tabernacle. The holy of hollies as it is called is the smallest part of the temple that only the high priest could go in. that is a hotspot for God’s presence. And the high priest must be ritually and morally pure to go before the ark in the holy of hollies. In the Bible there are two focuses for the Israelites to understand and submit to, one is ritual purity and moral purity.

And they are to be ritually pure: which the Bible talks about a lot as well. This is a state where you separate yourself from anything related to death. diseased skin, dead bodies, blood, etc. Becoming ritually impure was not sinful, what was wrong was to come before God in a state of impurity.

Isaiah finds life

Isaiah, the prophet, finds himself in the throne room, in the holy of hollies in this bodily vision that takes place. He sees the creatures singing to the Lord and God is sitting on the throne of the arc of the covenant. He immediately thinks he is going to die.

Isaiah 6:5 NIV

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Then something remarkable happens. Rather than the holiness of God, destroying Isaiah because of his impurity. The holiness of God comes forward and touches him.

Isaiah 6:6–7 NIV

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Normally if you touch something impure, it transfers its impurity to you, but now here is this new idea, this holy coal touches Isaiah and transfers life to him. He is transformed by it.....

Ezekiel

Now he has a crazy vision:

Ezekiel 47.... he has a vision of a river coming from the Temple and flowing into the land. Trees and life begin to grow. It pours into the Dead Sea and there is life.

Instead of finding life and purity in the temple, it comes out into the world and changes what is dead and makes it alive.

It does not make sense really, until Jesus

Jesus is the coal

Jesus, God in the flesh, is the one who has come to take away the sins of the world. Think about it. John 1, In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....

John 1:14 NIV

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Tabernacled with us. Jesus becomes the Temple. the presence of God here. Holiness made manifest. And then he walks around touching death and transferring life.

So when the bleeding woman touches his cloak, it is this ritual impurity taking place. Going into the house where a dead body is, taking death into his hands literally would be something that was so wrong....but it is the declaration that he is the Temple. That he is the coal, that he is the holiness of God and He has come to bring life.

Listen, it does not matter how you came in here today. Jesus the giver of life desires to transfer life to you. If you have been overwhelmed by your imperfections, shortcomings, etc. He sees you. I love that we have a savior that is not overwhelmed with the death in our lives and hearts.