Christmas Comfort
0 Amens
Good morning and merry Christmas to each of you! The message I'd like to share with you this 3rd day after Christmas involves two of the strongest motivators that you and I know in our daily experience, and which also happen to be very much a part of the Christmas story - and those two are the pursuit of true comfort, and the reality of fear. So let's jump right in and ask: what do you think of when you hear the word comfort? What images come to mind?
Some that came to my mind immediately were "comfort food" especially popular this time of year, such as a big bowl of steaming mashed potatoes, or a piece of your favorite apple, or pumpkin pie with whipped cream on it, or bowl of your favorite ice cream. Maybe others of you got a nice warm comforter for Christmas - maybe even one of those special ones advertised on TV with the sleeves in it so you don't even have to take it off and get cold when you pick up the remote or your hot chocolate. Or for others, maybe you thought immediately of someone's face, their smile, the way they greet you with a warm hug or a tender kiss, bringing comfort to your heart.
Comfort is something we all long for isn't it, because this world is broken, and we are broken, and so our hearts resonate when we hear Isaiah being given words by God to speak to us, words that he even repeats for special emphasis so that we're sure to hear them: "Comfort, o comfort my people, says your God..." And its no surprise then that when Jesus started his ministry and all eyes were on him in the temple, he stood up, took the scroll of Isaiah, and unrolled it to Isaiah 61 - "The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners." He goes on to say, "to comfort all who mourn." To follow Christ then means to learn be a receiver and giver of great comfort.
Well now I have a second question for you, and it is something of an opposite of the first, and that is: what are the areas of your life where you tend to be fearful? What recurring dreams tend to haunt you? Living on the west coast, it could be a natural disaster perhaps, such as a tsunami or the big earthquake they say is coming - or maybe its the post-Christmas credit card bills, or the fear of the economy, or what our political leaders will or won't do, or maybe for some of you, the fear of being in school for the rest of your life (although some of you might actually find comfort in that) - or maybe running into someone again who's hurt you.
Although there seems to be a million reasons for fear, Scripture teaches that fear is very much connected to what resources you have on your side to help you - and it also tends to be very relational.
For example, In Genesis 3 when God first comes to Adam in the Garden after he sinned, I love how God asks him this simple question - you know, the God who knows everything, why does he need to ask anything, right? But he says, Adam, where are you? And Adam says, I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid. You see, he suddenly realized that trying to live apart from God, he had no resources, and immediately he felt fear for the first time. Before that, nakedness carried no fear and no shame.
Or in contrast, think of that story in 2 kings 6 when Elisha's servant runs to wake up Elisha to tell him that invading Syrian armies are surrounding them. Elisha basically yawns because he can see something his servant can't, which is that totally surrounding those armies are millions of God's glorious angel armies - they're like the ultimate marines or Air Force - so he can basically say to the servant - "relax, be comforted, God's got it all covered!" You see he had a big God on his side, and so that drove away his fears.
The vertical always impacts the horizontal (i.e., how we view God on the vertical always influences our relationships on the horizontal).
Now there's a vital connection between how we are seeing our relationship to God on the vertical (whether we feel shame and want to hide like Adam) and what we do on the horizontal with people - whether we'll be fearful or comfort-givers. Do you see him as angry with you? Do you see him as distant or unfeeling? That will be how you are with others. Are you secure in his love? Then people will not seem so big and fearful, and rather than living in a kingdom of self-protection and safety, you'll risk much to love, as Jesus did, because you know that's why you were created. Paul tells us that we have not received a Spirit that makes us a slave again to fear, but we have received the spirit of sonship, and by him we cry, Abba (or daddy) Father!
By the way, anyone want to venture a guess at what the most frequent command from God in Scripture to us is? If you come from fundamentalist or legalist backgrounds, you might think it has something to do with refraining from sex or alcohol, but its not. The most frequent command from God in Scripture, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 is, "Do not be afraid." Why? The answer is found in my daughter's favorite Psalm, Psalm 46: "God is our refuge and our strength an ever-present help in trouble! Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way (there's your earthquake fear) and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea." Our God says to us "fear not for I am with you - yes even now."
Well this then is our main point this morning as we look at this great chapter of Isaiah 40: "All change from fear to comfort and rest comes as we see the true God clearer, as He becomes bigger in our eyes and our hearts."
Now since its Christmastime, I thought it would be fun to connect the three points of my outline today with one of my favorite Christmas stories, "A Christmas Carol," by Charles Dickens.
Now you remember that Scrooge is visited by three spirits, and so each spirit will correspond to a section of Isaiah 40. Here it is, in case you wanted to jot down some notes:
1.) Christmas Past: Be comforted, your guilty past is forgiven (vss 1-5)
2.) Christmas Present: Pause and Confess: He is BIGGER than man. (vss. 6-26)
3.) Christmas Yet to Come: Future comfort awaits (vss 27-31)
Now before we look at the background of this chapter, you remember of course how Marley's ghost comes to warn Scrooge at night of his hard-heartedness. Scrooge sits down to his cold soup because he's too cheap to have good food, and suddenly he hears the rattling of chains coming up the stairs. His heart begins to pound, and suddenly the locked door flies open and there is his old dead partner, Jacob Marley.
And at first Scrooge is terrified, right? But little by little his fear melts away a bit as he rationalizes his sin, as we all tend to do, and explains his selfishness with, "well, it was just business Jacob!"
This is when Marley explodes, you remember, and says those great lines, "Business! Mankind was my business! Charity (or love), mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business! The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
Isn't that a great line? You see Marley learned - unfortunately too late - why he was put on this earth, and it wasn't for himself. And he realized that in God's universe, comfort comes and we actually find our lives as we give them away - for that is what God Himself did for us.
Now this confrontation also illustrates a great point, doesn't it, which is that until we are given a clear look in the mirror to see that we too are actually in chains, we won't receive this "double comfort" and abundant forgiveness God wants to give us in His son, and the amazing freedom and power to love which breaks our chains.
And that is basically the context in which Isaiah is bringing a message to God's people, 700 years before the birth of Christ. Israel is in bondage in Assyria and they have great reasons for fear. Their captors, after all, have a favorite intimidation tactic - piling their enemy's heads in the shape of a Christmas tree right in the middle of the town for all to see. But nobody wanted to sing silent night around this tree.
And Isaiah tells us in the first 39 chapters that they were actually enslaved because this is basically what that they had chosen to become when they gave their hearts to worship created things rather than the creator - because idolatry puts you in chains - and now their guilt was swallowing them up, and they were afraid.
But then suddenly, Isaiah comes to them with this strange word from God, which is like the Christmas present they never expected or deserved - and it begins to give a bit of comfort: tell the people that their sin is paid for, and while you're at it, begin to "make smooth in the desert a highway for our God!" - the same language used by John the Baptist of Jesus in the Gospels.
And he begins to speak of a king who is so powerful he will raise up valleys, and also bring proud mountains low (in v.4) - which is really a picture of different kinds of people, isn't it? If you're broken, loaded down with a weight of guilt and sorrow from your past, you're in the valley, and this king is coming to lift you up! But if you're proud and its humbling you need, like Scrooge, he can do that too. But in either case, you must first see that like Israel, you're in bondage and have no resources of your own.
You see God wants Isaiah to preach the gospel - the good news - to these people, and as he shows us, preaching the gospel to someone does not mean pointing out how they are just a mess and if they'd just get their act together, the world would be a much more comforting place. That's called a Job's comforter - it's what his friends did to him - and it's miserable comfort indeed!
Over the summer I was able to visit many of the gospel or home groups we have at Kaleo to talk about counseling each other, and one of the most frequent questions people wanted to talk about is, how do you go to someone about their sin - the sin that is stealing their comfort?
Well again, it's fascinating what Marley does here in the story. Remember how Marley shows Scrooge the long chain he wears? Why does he do that? Its not just to scare him, but a main reason is to identify - for he's a fellow sinner himself (although he's a ghost of course) And of course Jesus makes the same point, doesn't he, which is basically in any conflict - and interpersonal conflicts are huge potentials for fear and a loss of comfort - you and I always have the log in our own eye which needs removing.
But you see this is not bad news, this is good news, for once we are humbled we can now see clearly to comfort others with the comfort that we ourselves have received from Jesus, as 2 Cor. 1:4 says.
Brokenness of heart, then, is always a prerequisite to finding comfort - the two go hand-in hand. After all, why go to Jesus and be comforted if you think you have no need of him, right? If you can fix yourself and other people, why did Jesus need to come? This is why the church, you see, is the very gathering where you would expect to find broken people - for its God's hospital for sinners, where the sick get to minister the healing balm of Jesus' grace and comfort to each other. But the point is, you must willingly number yourself among the sinners and the broken, for that is who Jesus specifically came for.
But let me say too, if you are broken this morning, if you sense that God's hand has gone out against you and you are in that valley, hear these tender words about Jesus: He is close to the broken-hearted. Let him lift you up, see that he's come to sing songs over you and draw you close, for if you know him as your savior and are trusting his sacrifice for you, you are his beloved child - your past is now his past.
(By the way, we often think of the holy spirit as the comforter don't we - but Jesus said "I will send you another comforter" who will remind you of me. By saying "another," he means he is the first, and the Spirit points us to Him.)
2. Christmas present: Pause and Confess: He is BIGGER than man. In vss. 6-26
Well the 2nd point Isaiah shows us, is that when we're broken, when we're fearful, we need big pictures of comfort from God.
In counseling, I often tell people that we all could really use a pause button on our chests, over our hearts. Wouldn't that be great, like that movie "Click," if you had a built-in remote that you could just hit freeze frame? What would you do with it? Would you use it to for your own advantage, to win in the stock market - if that's possible - or would it be to get ready for the king?
But on a practical level, this pause button, you see, if we learn to use it, also allows us to stop and ask ourselves a great question, and it is this: "What is it that I want right now so badly that I am growing fearful and anxious about it?" Do I crave someone's approval, and that has made me anxious? What if I'm rejected? What if I fail?
The old preacher Thomas Chalmers would say it this way: what greater affection (or we could say, what person or idol) has crept in to occupy the place of the King who would come to us - and so causes you to rely on it instead of him, and therefore be afraid? For Scrooge it was the affection and security (or so he thought) of a golden idol, and it stole away his true love. Again, the vertical impacts the horizontal, always.
But what I want you especially to see now is how God wants to show himself BIGGER, and more appealing than all our idols, and all our fears. As we look at verses 6-26, its as if our Heavenly Father invites us to crawl up onto his lap, like he has with all his fearful, broken children down through time, and he begins to open his picture book of comfort. And when he does, these are the kind of comfort images you'll see:
Is it fear of man you're struggling with?
Your Father says in verse 6b, "Surely the people are grass." (Imagine scary people in your life as nothing more than just slender blades of grass). And what happens to it?
vs. 8: "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever."
Are you fearful of how weak you are?
Vs. 10: "Behold, the Lord GOD will come with might, with His arm ruling for Him..." (He's got a mighty arm! Any of you see "Lady in the Water?" You know the guy who works out on just one side of his body? Scripture says Jesus is at God's right hand, and his arm is far bigger than any weightlifter's.)
Do you fear you will be abandoned?
vs. 11: "Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs, And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes." (He uses that strong right arm to show you he will never drop you, never let you go.)
Do you fear world events are out of control?
vs. 12: "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens by the span..." (Imagine, his hands are big enough to cup oceans in his palm, so there's your tsunami fear, and the span of his hand can easily cover the sky, so there's your global warming fear - he's got you covered)
Do you fear wars, and rumors of wars?
vs. 15: "Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;"
Or how about v.22
vs. 22: "He sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in...he merely blows on them, and they wither, and the storm carries them away like stubble." (The nations are like a water droplet or a dust-ball to him, and he just flicks it away or vacuums it up!)
or
vs. 25 & 26: "‘To whom then will you liken Me, that I would be his equal?' says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing." You see, God has given us many sacraments in this world for that very purpose - to reflect something of who he is - just as he took Abraham outside to look at the stars, he bids us to do the same. His faithfulness is like the mighty mountains, as far as the east is from the west, that is how far he has removed your sins from you, and he has hurled our sins into the depths of the sea....and so on.
Now this recitation (and you can see God does something similar to this in the book of Job too) is very different, isn't it, to what we do sometimes when we want to fix someone or think that we're bringing them comfort (which is usually really a back-door way of comforting ourselves, because real comfort learns to cry with someone).
But we'll say something like, "Worry is a sin, so stop worrying! Or, "Don't you know God says ‘be anxious for nothing!' so just stop it!" But instead, what if we learned to do with others what God does with us, which is in the midst of all our anxieties and fears (and they can sneak up on us can't they) we learned to crawl up into our Father's lap, put the pause button on our hearts, confessed that we have let our plans, and people, and the worries of this life get too big - maybe even things that haven't even happened, but only could happen - and let him show his picture book to us? What if we helped each other to do that? "Perfect love," Scripture says, not our commands, "casts out all fears."
Jesus does the same thing for us doesn't he, in Matthew 6 when he says, "I tell you, do not worry about your life...look at the birds of the air! They don't sow, or reap, but your Heavenly Father feeds them! Are you not much more valuable then they?
We're meant to pause and look at the birds in that way! My wife does, and has befriended a red-tailed hawk in our neighborhood who sits on the lamppost on some of her most difficult days, just looking at her - reminding her to follow his trail up to a big God who cares for and keeps his eye right on her.
I love the scenes when "Christmas Present" takes Scrooge to see those simple, joyful scenes of love in action in the Cratchit household - the Muppet version of this will tear your heart out - or when they visit Scrooge's nephew's house to see the games they're all playing. You see, Scrooge is getting pictures of love, isn't he - which is certainly one thing we do for each other as a community and family of believers. Christmas Present is essentially saying, look, life is bigger and love is more beautiful than you know right now, and you need to see it Scrooge.
Well finally, we see at the end, a wonderful Christmas yet to come:
3. A glorious picture future grace (27-31) for God's people.
Look especially at v.31, which is the favorite verse of many who have lived with chronic pain all their lives and long for comfort:
31 ...those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.
Scrooge was shown his future - he was to die alone and sad, and fearful, but here Isaiah gives us a glimpse of true comfort: because Jesus triumphed over the grave, our future as a broken community is to rise on eagle's wings!
And this means, no more wheel chairs, no more canes, no more of all these physical props we need to help us - and no more fear of death.
When he sees you face to face, you will know true comfort like you never have, for he will gently wipe all your tears away.
Isn't it comforting that history ends with this picture - a picture of one of the most tender things one person can do for another, which is to gently touch their cheek and dry their tears? You have to be in intimate relationship with someone to do that don't you? And you see what we're shown in Scripture at the end of Revelation is that Jesus Himself will come to you, and with the very hands that were pierced with wounds of love for you, will brush away your final tears, which are precious to him, and will store them away in his bottle with all the rest that you cry right now.
And then, you will know joy, and it will be a greater joy than Scrooge even knew on Christmas morning.
You know, it's a shame that the name Scrooge is associated with a mean old miser, because the end of the story tells us that Scrooge became a better man who loved well and generously - and who knew how to keep Christmas well, till the end of his days. As Dickens said, May that truly be said of us as well, and God bless us, everyone!
Let us Pray!
Isaiah 40
Comfort for God's People
1 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak 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.
3 A voice of one calling:
"In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD [a] ;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God. [b]
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
6 A voice says, "Cry out."
And I said, "What shall I cry?"
"All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the LORD blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God stands forever."
9 You who bring good tidings to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, [c]
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
"Here is your God!"
10 See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power,
and his arm rules for him.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has understood the mind [d] of the LORD,
or instructed him as his counselor?
14 Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge
or showed him the path of understanding?
15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as dust on the scales;
he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
16 Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,
nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
17 Before him all the nations are as nothing;
they are regarded by him as worthless
and less than nothing.
18 To whom, then, will you compare God?
What image will you compare him to?
19 As for an idol, a craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and fashions silver chains for it.
20 A man too poor to present such an offering
selects wood that will not rot.
He looks for a skilled craftsman
to set up an idol that will not topple.
21 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
24 No sooner are they planted,
no sooner are they sown,
no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
25 "To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God"?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
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