Message 12-16-07
Series: Say the Words
Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10
Title: Shout for Joy
Pilgrim’s Progress –
Christian and Hopeful get trapped in the country of the Giant Despair and they are thrown into his dungeon in the bottom of Doubting Castle. They remain there for a while and the Giant keeps encouraging them to kill themselves. Finally, almost by chance, one day Christian finds a key in his pocket and the key is named. It’s called “Promise” and it will unlock any door in Doubting Castle. Christian and Hopeful unlock their prison and escape, running away from the Giant who starts after them but then falls down in a fit [probably of despair.]
John the Baptist – Matthew 11:2-11
Thrown into prison and comes to a place of doubt. Sends word to Jesus. “Are you the one or should we expect someone else?”
Jesus sends word back. He doesn’t answer “Yes” or “No”. He tells the friends of John to report back what they’ve seen. He repeats to them their experience, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."
He tells them to go back and report to John that the promise of God in Isaiah 35:1-10 is fulfilled. He hands them the key “Promise” and says bring this to John and let him open the door of his prison of doubt.
Isaiah and Us
This is the gift of Christmas, the promise of God fulfilled. This is the key we get to hand to other people. Are you thinking about who you’re giving Christmas to this year?
I’m sure you’ve got your Christmas lists, but are you thinking of who you’re going to give Christmas to this year? Who around you needs Christmas? You see we turn back to this passage in Isaiah because this reveals the nature of the coming of Jesus Christ. It reveals the nature of the work of Jesus. It reveals what it is like to be in relationship with Jesus.
It’s like a desert, a parched land. Have you ever been parched? Not just dry from exercising or thirsty from working outside but parched, that feeling of having cotton in your mouth. So in need of water that you can tell your body is say nasty things about you behind your back. You know, your body is starting to yell at the brain saying that it better find some water pronto. Parched.
When Jesus enters a person’s life it is like water pouring into a parched mouth. It’s like a storm over parched ground. It’s like rain in the desert. But, not only will it receive this refreshment. It will respond. It will open up. It will wake up. The person you give Christmas to this year is going to open up into new life in ways you never expected.
Like a crocus, it will burst forth.
But this isn’t going to be life like one little flower. The wilderness is going to spring into joyous and abundant life. There’s going to be so much life coming out of the ground it is going to feel like the earth is shouting.
The desert of a person’s life, this person that you’re going to give Christmas to this year, is going to gain life like the “glory of Lebanon”. Do you know what Lebanon’s glory looked like? It looked like a vast forest, a deep and rich forest of cedar trees. Have you ever smelled cedar? Have you ever smelled a forest of cedar? Can you imagine that? Can you imagine walking through the trees and having the air thick with the fragrance of cedar?
This is the way the life of the person will look, but it is be so changed, so affected by the love of God shown in Christmas that it will look like a mountain. Imagine the mountain, Mount Carmel is this high place and from the west side you can look out into the Mediterranean Sea and from the east side you can look out into the hills and valleys of Israel toward the Sea of Galilee and from the south side you can look down and out into the Valley of Sharon. Mountains have their beauty but valleys have a beauty of their own, don’t they. And this person, this person you’re going to share Christmas with this year, that person’s life will open up in beauty of a mountain with majesty and grandeur and with the beauty of a valley with rivers and open spaces and flowers.
Am I getting too flowery, pushing it too much, getting a bit too effusive. The Scripture says that this will be when people see the glory of the Lord and the splendor of God, our God. When you think of the people in your life can you picture the person who needs Christmas?
How do we do that? How do we give Christmas to someone else?
When you’re not sure, go back to the book. It says we come alongside them. We “strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you."
Vengeance? Divine Retribution? Are we really supposed to say those words, let alone think those kinds of things? Why not? Don’t you think that people who are hurting are hoping that someone’s keeping score, that somebody knows what’s going on here and that there’s going to be some justice? Don’t you want justice?
People… we need to know that it’s not going to be “Oh, that’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it. Don’t worry about it.” If you’re thinking that’s the way God should be then you haven’t been beaten down by life. You haven’t been spit on or kicked by life if you think that the best God can do is pat evil on the head. There is evil in the world and when God shows up in someone’s life we can discover that we can trust in him that there will be justice someday.
Now, I may really be starting to make you itch a little bit here. I may be making you a bit uncomfortable if you’re looking toward a future where God just winks at sin and let’s everybody into heaven.
But that’s not what the Bible says and if you’re pushing for God to just some pleasant mamby pamby Santa Claus you may need to read the Bible a bit more. God is righteous. God is just. God is merciful and loving, but mercy is not separated from justice. Mercy is tied to justice. People who follow Jesus pray – Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. And Jesus goes on to say if you don’t forgive those who sin against you, then God is not going to forgive you. If you don’t practice mercy toward those who take a chunk out of you for no good reason other than they just want their own way, then you won’t receive mercy.
When we act that way, when we bring honest anger against evil and at the same time bring mercy to those who act in evil, then:
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
We don’t give Christmas like we’re handing over some present. We give Christmas to someone with a correction of life, with real change, with hope that is tangible.
Remember the “key of promise”? Remember how Jesus didn’t just answer John the Baptist “yes” or “no”, but sent John’s disciples back to John saying tell him what you experienced – the blind see, the deaf hear, the lepers are given back life. Some people think that’s supposed to be what we do. We’re supposed to tell others about Jesus, just go about telling people about Jesus, so that they can become people who tell about Jesus and find other people to join to tell about Jesus. But that’s like an army of recruiting officers making a bigger army of recruiting officers who never fight a battle.
We give Christmas to others when they see change in our lives and when they see our lives changing life. Life needs to change around us when you follow Jesus.
So let me give you a promise here.
If you start to do this, you’re going to find that you are walking on a pretty clear pathway to God. If you start giving Christmas to other people by changing life around you so that other people’s eyes open and their ears open, then you’ll find that you’re walking on a pathway. That’s what Isaiah tells us. He says:
And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on it;
it will be for those who walk in that Way;
wicked fools will not go about on it.
No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious beast get up on it;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
and the ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
People who don’t want Jesus and don’t want God, they’re not going to be walking on this road. It will be for those who walk in that “Way”. Remember Jesus’ words? I am the Way… We’re going to living the way Jesus did.
Now this is real important. You need to hear this especially as you’re facing Christmas.
Walking in Jesus’ way does not mean you are “perfect;” not perfect the way people normally talk about “perfect.” Walking in Jesus’ way means real and in touch with God, that is, fully real, a real human being acting the way God created human beings to act.
People will give you all sorts of rules to live by. They’re going to tell you if you don’t get this right then you’re not really walking the way of Jesus. If you allow this to happen, you’re not really walking the way of Jesus. If you don’t want to follow God – that’s the only way that you’re not going to be going the right way. How do I know this? How do I know that the whole thing is about knowing and following and wanting to follow, that is dedicating yourself to follow God? Did you hear those words I read – “wicked fools will not go about on it”, on the high way? That’s one way to translate it. But there’s another way to take those words and it says, “Even the silly foolish people won’t walk off from this way.” The idea is that even people who are just dopes won’t get this wrong.
Isn’t that a good word? That’s a promise. That’s a key. Use it to open up any door that holds you back from the freedom of Jesus Christ. What that is telling us is that even if we’re a bunch of dodo brains, we can still make it. It’s telling us that there this road is like a bowling alley with gutter guards. WE CAN’T EVEN FALL OUT OF IT. God is promising that he’ll keep us going on it. No ferocious animal is going to be able to grab us. As we walk on that way we’ll discover that all around us are people who are walking with us.
This Christmas start looking around for the people who are hoping that you’re going to give them Christmas. They aren’t looking for a handout or even a present. They are looking for people who change life when they show up. Life changes because they came. Parties get to be more fun just because you’re there and you don’t even have to bring alcohol. Sorrow gets lighter because you’re there and you don’t even have to bring “the right words”. Hard work gets easier because you’re there.
Give Christmas to someone this year. Christmas is new life in Jesus Christ and it won’t cost you a dime.
