Sermon - Advent 2 – Dec. 6/7, 2014 – Rev. Peter Sulzle Find Comfort in Christ’s Coming 1. He Comes with Forgiveness 2. He Comes with Proper Preparation Isaiah 40:1-4 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. 3A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. His heart was aching for comfort. Everyone around him was wrapped up in the commercialism of the season. All they hoped for was a pile of money and gifts for Christmas. They wanted a flashy Christmas program with all the bells and whistles. They asked him to get the tree, but all the trees in the lot except one were fake, just like the smile on most of their faces. He ended up getting what we now affectionately call a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. In that movie, Charlie Brown gets so frustrated with everything going on around him that he ends up yelling at the top of his lungs, “Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about!” Then Linus walks out on stage to give Charlie Brown comfort by recounting the first coming of Christ in Luke chapter two with well-known words like this, “I bring you good news of great joy! Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord.” Then the whole clan sings “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” A classic film with a classic message of comfort. Not much has changed when we consider the commercialism leading up to Christmas. When polled, less than 25% of people say Jesus is the most important part of Christmas. That means most are looking for comfort in the wrong places. But what if we had no excitement in children’s faces, no shopping, no presents, no tree, no loved ones? All that’s left is…Jesus. And would that be so bad? Isaiah tells us, “Absolutely not! Jesus gives us all the comfort we need!” Isaiah proclaims true comfort in Christ’s Coming. You too can find Comfort in Christ’s Coming. He Comes with Forgiveness. He Comes with Proper Preparation. For most of the first 39 chapters of his book, Isaiah prophesies to a stubborn, rebellious, idolatrous people that their cities would be burned, their fields stripped bare, and they would be carried off into captivity. Justice demanded that the captivity last forever. But God switches everything in chapter 40. He gives them true comfort. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for.” Isaiah could look a few hundred years into the future to comfort God’s people. The captivity would end, but true comfort didn’t come with political freedom. Isaiah says, “Her sin has been paid for.” God sees it as if it’s already been done. But how could he give comfort of sins forgiven? In chapter 7 Isaiah had written, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and you will call him Immanuel.” And Isaiah also told God’s people in gory detail what this little child would do: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed…and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” This is the message of comfort, a message of peace between God and men. The promised Messiah would come to forgive sins. Isn’t that what gives true comfort this season? Isaiah hit the nail on the head. “Your sins have been paid for.” Christmas decorations are nice, but in January, the sight of a Christmas tree and colored lights will bring no comfort to an aged grandma who is lying on her death bed. But “your sins have been paid for” will. The face of Santa might look cheery, but no teenager has been talked out of suicidal thoughts by telling them stories of St. Nick. But forgiveness through Jesus has. Coping skills for past problems and tactics for future happiness are good to try, but they aren’t comparable to the Holy Spirit who helps us forget all our sins and their guilt. What is your true constant Christmas comfort? It’s the coming of Christ who says, “Your sins are paid for.” We don’t deserve to hear those words. For our commercialistic character, for our caving in on Christian convictions, for selfishness in this season, and using people to get what we want without any thanks for it, for our sin we deserve eternal punishment. We deserve a God who says, “You pay for your own sins.” What a sad season it would be if that were true. But that’s why we look for real comfort in Christ’s coming. He gives us everything we don’t deserve. Real comfort is an angel telling us, “Unto you is born a Savior who is Christ the Lord!” Real comfort is a bleeding, suffering, dying Savior declaring from a cross, “It is finished. Your sins have been paid for.” Real comfort is in the coming Christ. Prepare yourselves for his coming. He comes with proper preparation. Isaiah wrote, “A voice of one calling, ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.’” In ancient times, many roads weren’t much more than a rocky hiking trail. Servants would run ahead of the king to make a highway. They would fill in potholes, shave down bumps, and get rid of obstacles for the king. But this prophecy isn’t talking about road repair. This was about John the Baptist who prepared the people for the coming Christ. He pointed to the Lamb of God and his forgiveness. Isaiah and John both stressed preparation through repentance. Those proud and self-righteous mountains in our hearts, our thinking that we don’t need to be saved from anything, need to be brought low. All our sins of pride need to be exposed so we crumble and cry out, “God have mercy on me!” That’s called repentance. Repentance is being sorry for sin, asking for forgiveness, and turning from that sin. After the American Civil War, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, a devout Christian, worshipped at a church in Washington D.C. During a communion service, he was seen kneeling beside a black man. When someone asked him how he could do that, General Lee replied, “My friend, all ground is level at the foot of the cross.” What makes the ground level? Repentance. God takes the huge earth grader of his law and shaves down every mountain of pride. We prepare by honestly identifying and then, with God’s help, removing the obstacles of impenitence by pouring our hearts out in confession. And then the front end loader of the gospel fills up every heart with forgiveness. The valleys in every heart also need to be lifted up in preparation. Our hearts can be deep dark valleys where the faith in Jesus is shaky, where we despair of our sins or our situation. The heart of a widow at the graveside of a husband of 50 years, the spouse in a troubled marriage, the teenager who is depressed, the sick child who wonders if God loves her, the shut-ins who feel like no one cares, every man, woman, and child who walks into church with their heads held high, and their hearts sunk low. But every valley shall be raised up! When we can’t hold it together, Jesus lifts us up and takes care of us. “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and caries them close to his heart.” Jesus carries us close, lifting us out of the valleys in our Christmas preparations. Let’s remember how he does that. “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever.” Christmas comfort isn’t difficult to obtain. We don’t have to perform rituals, exchange gifts, hang the right ornaments. We simply hear the one thing that stands forever. It’s the gift the angels brought to lowly shepherds. It’s the gift we can give and receive every day. It’s the Word of our God which will stand and cause us to stand until the end of time when Jesus comes again. Prepare your hearts with the Word of God remembering the words of the hymn, “Ah dearest Jesus, holy child, make thee a bed, soft, undefiled, within my heart that it may be, a quiet chamber kept for thee.” Prepare for the coming of the Savior in a manger and in the skies with repentant hearts. With so much to do and so much to distract, make sure you’re part of the 25% that claims Jesus and his coming as the most important part of this season. Take time to reflect on what it would be like if Jesus didn’t come into your heart. You’d probably still have the decorations, the gifts, and the family gatherings. But there would be no true comfort. You’d be like a frustrated Charlie Brown trying to push aside the distractions and peering through the commercialism screaming, “What is Christmas all about?” But the more we think, “What if Jesus didn’t come”, the more we’ll be prepared to rejoice and thank God that he did, the more comfort we’ll have in his coming. You have comfort in Christ’s coming. How is that going to make a difference in your life in the next 3 weeks and the rest of your life? Amen.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 15:00:00 +0000
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