Midweek Advent Service, December 11, 2013

Advent, December 11, 2013

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Mid-Week Advent, Wednesday, 7 PM Central

The Hymn # 61    Comfort, Comfort Ye               2:21
The Order of Vespers                                             p. 41

The Psalmody            Psalm 100                             p. 144
The First Lection                   
The Second Lection        
 The Sermon Hymn # 76 Great and Mighty Wonder     2:2

The Plain Words of Isaiah

The Prayers and Lord’s Prayer                         p. 44

The Collect for Peace                                           p. 45

The Benediction                                                   p. 45

The Hymn #  558                                                 2:9

Second Mid-Week Advent Sermon

^{Isaiah 7:10} Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying,

¹¹ Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

¹² But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.

¹³ And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

^{Isaiah 9:6} For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

⁷ Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

The Plain Words of Isaiah

The Christian faith has been attacked primarily on two fronts in the last century. One is justification by faith.

The other is the divinity of Christ. The third front has been the humanity of Christ (in various eras) but the first two mentioned have been the favorites in our lifetimes and before that by 50 years or more.

When we understand the Bible as the Word of God, the Isaiah prophecies move us to faith and to greater trust in God.

Isaiah is like mine full of jewels, where they are increasingly numerous. The verses stand out because they are often quoted and so clearly Messianic.

When someone starts with the denial of the divinity of Christ, as so many modern theologians do (and Biblical critics, or so-called scholars), the verses are simply explained away.

But explanations do not work well if we look at the plain wording of the passages.

In Isaiah 7 we are expected to believe that the prophet predicted the birth of a king. That is all. A young woman will have a baby in the ordinary way and that is all.

But the words alone betray this as reading an assumption into the text. The prophet offered any miracle that Ahaz might want, down on earth or in the heavens. That is a remarkable offer, but God knew the response in advance. Ahaz refused the miracle in the guise of his great piety or humility.

This made God angry, because a gracious offer of a spectacular miracle should not be refused, especially with such a show of self-righteousness. Therefore the response of God is one designed to be unforgettable and beyond all expectations. For that reason, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son is not an ordinary prediction but the greatest miracle of all, the Word becoming Flesh, dwelling among us. That is sealed with the name, Immanuel – God with us.

There we have the Two Natures of Christ, God and Man, just as taught in Romans and everywhere else in the Bible. The Two Natures are so clearly taught, so often taught, that we can overlook them. For instance, Jesus said in John 4 that He was thirsty. In that regard He was completely human. But in the same passage He had divine knowledge of the woman at the well – the kind only God could know. His knowledge and teaching were so powerful that she was converted and ran to tell her friends and relatives.

This is a great miracle none the less, one we should never take lightly, because the Incarnation is the message of God becoming one of us to reach us, to show compassion, to be an example, and to die as our Savior, to rise as our Redeemer.

Isaiah 9 is another example of plain words expressing a message that cannot be rationalized.

It is a baby, but Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father.

And although the greatest empires have fallen, or reduced to nothing but names, the Kingdom of Christ has grown from the beginning and extended its reach across the world. No tyranny has been able to stop it. No political effort can thwart it, although there have been and will be persecutions until the end.

If someone is wondering about the truth of the Bible, these two passages alone show how the Word of God has been fulfilled so many times, far beyond man’s expectations.

Moreover, these are Gospel passages offering hope and comfort to people.