The Promise of the Messiah
Download MP3The first reading for tonight's, message is from Isaiah chapter 7 verses 1 through 14. In the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Ramaliah, the the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David was told, Syria is in league with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. And the lord said to Isaiah, go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear Jashub, your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the washer's field, and say to him, be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these 2 smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah, because Syria with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah has devised evil against you saying, let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabiel as king in the midst of it.
Speaker 1:Thus says the lord god, it shall not stand and it shall not come to pass, for the head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within 65 years, Ephraim will be broken to pieces so that it will no longer be a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all. Again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz.
Speaker 1:Ask a sign of the Lord your God. Let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the lord to the test. And he said, hear then, oh house of David. Is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my god also?
Speaker 1:Therefore, the lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.
Speaker 2:The second reading is from Matthew chapter 1 verse 18 through 25. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2:She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.
Speaker 2:This is the word of the lord.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Lord, we thank you for your word. That's why we say thanks be to God. We are thankful. We realize that it is through your scripture that you speak to us.
Joel Brooks:Through the through the power of your holy spirit illuminating that word, making that word find deep root in our hearts. It's how you change us, and, god, we wanna be changed. We wanna look more like Jesus. I pray that would happen tonight. Lord, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
Joel Brooks:But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. I hope my voice holds out. I told myself I shouldn't sing, but I did anyway.
Joel Brooks:My 7 year old has been singing a song at home a lot. The begat song. Have have have do you all know the begat song by Andrew Peterson? She sings it all the time. If you haven't heard the song, it's based on Matthew chapter 1 and it simply walks through the genealogy of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:The first time I listened to it, I thought Christian music had sunk to a new low, which I didn't think was possible. You know, now we're just resorting to, just getting a genealogical list and just singing through it. But I've since had a change of heart about that song. Because genealogies meant a great deal to the Jewish people. For instance, if you read through Genesis, the parts that you skipped over and reading through Genesis is the part that the Jewish people would really fixate on.
Joel Brooks:They actually called Genesis tolidote, the book of tolidote or the book of generations And there's 7 generational genealogical list in Genesis that they would focus on. They would slow down and they would contemplate every name because for them, it's not just names, it's stories. Every name just just evoked a memory and they would see, they'd be reminded how how man had failed and how God had proved himself faithful with each one of these people. The genealogies were a narrative. Now we've just read one of the most famous passages in all of scripture, the Christmas story.
Joel Brooks:And we just looked at one of the most famous verses in the Bible. You find it in Isaiah 7 and in Matthew 2. Certainly, it's the most famous Christmas verse here. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel. But it's important to realize that this verse comes right after the genealogies.
Joel Brooks:This, this verse doesn't just appear in a vacuum. There's story leading up to this. This this verse is a part of history. I guess you could say that when you take time to read through genealogies, it's actually a way to celebrate Advent. You can't just, you know, if you're going to remember the stories, if you're gonna remember how man has failed and as God has proved himself faithful to each one of those people, you have to slow down.
Joel Brooks:And he began waiting with them through each name, through each name, after name, and it's advent as you're waiting for the coming of the Messiah. We're gonna do a little bit of that tonight. This sermon is gonna be a little different than my others. It's gonna be a little more historical. I hope it doesn't put you to sleep.
Joel Brooks:It it really thrills me when I think about Isaiah 7, the the sign of Immanuel in its context, that in its historical context, what it meant to those people, what it, what it meant to all those people in the genealogies, and what, how it led up to Jesus is fascinating. It's transforming. Now we can't go through all of the genealogies, the genealogical list in Matthew 1, because we we would be here for a long, long time, but we can start with David. King David, he's the 2nd king of Israel. You first, you had Saul and then you had King David.
Joel Brooks:He ruled around a 1000 BC, Ruled for about 40 years. And, David and Solomon were considered the golden years of Israel. This is when, especially the reign of Solomon is when they knew only peace and prosperity and God's blessing was on this nation. And, after that, Israel will never know that again. After Solomon died, Israel was divided.
Joel Brooks:You realize that Israel only had a United Kingdom for 3 kings. You had Saul, you had David, you had Solomon, then the kingdom split. And it split into the northern kingdom, which had 10 tribes of Israel, and then he had the southern kingdom, which had 2 tribes. The the northern kingdom is called Ephraim, sometimes it's called Israel. And you have the southern kingdom here, which is called Judah.
Joel Brooks:And altogether, he had 39 kings that rule during this time. It was a horrible period of those 39, 31 are described as evil. 31 of the 39 kings are described as evil. And the 8 that were good weren't really that great. It was a terrible time in Israel's history and these these two kingdoms, they would they'd often be fighting all of their neighboring, the neighboring kingdoms around them, and sometimes they would fight with each other.
Joel Brooks:And the context of Isaiah 7 is actually in the middle of them fighting with one another and escalated to the point where the southern kingdom of Judah was about to be destroyed. And it's here that you have God sending the prophet Isaiah and we find our Christmas verse. You know, the the words behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel are usually said in the context of a very quiet candle lit church, peaceful moment or it's usually said, you know, in some kind of Christmas pageant with, you know, kids dressed in bathrobes and, you know, buffet, they, they would read this before singing away in a manger or silent night or something a A people who are about to be completely demolished. They had no hope. Isaiah comes to them.
Joel Brooks:Look at Isaiah 7 verse 1 again. It says, In the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin, the king of Syria. And Pekka, the son of Ramaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. The year is around 735 BC. At this point, Ahaz is now the king of Israel.
Joel Brooks:He's 20 years old and he is now the king. He just inherited the throne, from his father, Jotham, who was a good king. His grandfather, Uzziah, was another good king. And so he inherits his throne, but he inherits it in a terrible situation. The moment he becomes king, he realizes I'm gonna be likely the last king of Judah because he is surrounded and the armies are about to break through and destroy him.
Joel Brooks:Not exactly what he had hoped for in becoming king. Now in dealing with this crisis, Ahaz begins to look at all these different options. He's scared to death. He doesn't know what to do. Look at look at verse 2.
Joel Brooks:It describes Ahaz and it says, in the heart of his people, shook as the trees shake before the wind. They're scared out of their mind. They're shaking. And here, God sends a prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah, he meets Ahaz at, one of the water conduits.
Joel Brooks:Apparently, Ahaz is going, he's trying to shore up the water supply because siege is imminent. And he goes up to him and look at verse 4. He says, be careful. Be quiet. Do not fear.
Joel Brooks:And do not let your heart be faint. Yeah. Right. I mean, right. Tell that to a 20 year old king with armies just about to break through.
Joel Brooks:Hey, be quiet. Be careful. Don't fear. I mean, he's gotta be thinking, what what what world are you living in Isaiah that you would come here and tell me these things? No way, you can't rest in a time like this.
Joel Brooks:So Isaiah looks at him and gives him another comforting word from the Lord. In verse 7. He says, it shall not stand. It shall not come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
Joel Brooks:Within 65 years, Ephraim will be shattered from being a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Ramaliah. If you're not firm in your faith, you will not be firm at all. So the lord tells through Isaiah to Ahaz, he says, hey, it's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen.
Joel Brooks:I I know you're so scared about all of these armies. You're you're looking at Syria, but Syria really just boils down to 1 person, Resin, who's its head. And I know you're so so worried about Ephraim, but it's really just one man, Ramallah. You don't need to worry about the armies. You don't need to worry about the nations.
Joel Brooks:It's just 2 people. I can take care of 2 people. And implicit in this is the Lord asking Isaiah, who is your head? We see who is their head. Now who is your head?
Joel Brooks:Then Isaiah gives Ahaz. This is one of my favorite parts. He gives Ahaz a bumper sticker. I'm dead serious. He gives Ahaz one of those one liners.
Joel Brooks:You know, that just kind of sticks out. Kind of makes you roll your eyes. You know, in in your bible it says, if you're not firm in your faith, you will not be firm at all. And and that's a pretty good translation. It misses the rhyming though, which really is what, you know, make makes this a bumper sticker.
Joel Brooks:In Hebrew, it's tamanu tamanu. Tamanu tamanu. And you could, I guess, translate it crudely as trust or bust. That's what it is. He finally, he pulls it all down and he gives us a little rhyming bullet and he goes, trust or bust.
Joel Brooks:Kind of sounds like turn or burn. You know, it's just one of those things that you just, you would read and he says this because he wants to pound this in Ahaz's head. He wants this one thing to be bouncing around in there. Trust or bust. Trust or bust.
Joel Brooks:This is a life or death situation I need to trust in the Lord on. And here's the amazing thing about this. He asked Ahaz to stand firm in his faith, but Ahaz has no faith. He is one of the worst kings of all of Israel. If you want, turn to 2nd Kings 16 1 through 4 or I'll just read it if you can't turn there.
Joel Brooks:2nd Kings 1 through 4. This is about Ahaz. Says in 17th year of Pekka, the son of Ramaliah. Ahaz, the son of Jotham, King of Judah began to reign. Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign and reign 16 years in Jerusalem.
Joel Brooks:And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, his God, as his father David had done. But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering. According to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.
Joel Brooks:This is This is one of the worst kings in all of Israel. I I mean, he wasn't just a bad king. This man was wicked. He actually sacrificed his son. He burned his own son.
Joel Brooks:And he's likely doing this as a way of crying out to help because the moment he became king, the armies are about to come in, and yet he's doing these things. He won't call out to the lord, hey, but I'll sacrifice my child to some pagan god. And then he goes and he makes sacrifices on every hill, every green tree. He is sacrificing to every pagan god out there, but he will not call upon the lord. This is one of the most wicked evil men Israel has ever known.
Joel Brooks:And Isaiah says, stand firm in your faith. Stand firm in your faith. And I think what he's saying here is, hey do you remember your grandfather Uzziah? Do you remember Jotham? Do you remember how they had faith?
Joel Brooks:Is there any of that in you? Any. I'm just looking for a little if if it's there, call out to me and I will answer. Stand firm. And Ahaz is likely thinking, hey, Isaiah, I live in the real world with real problems, and your archaic religion doesn't apply.
Joel Brooks:Military might is what matters. Political astuteness, that's what matters. Making alliances, that's what matters. You're telling me I'm just supposed to do none of that and just trust in this God who I can't see, who I have no relationship with and he's supposed to somehow deliver me. Yeah, right.
Joel Brooks:Wake up from whatever fantasy little religious world you're in. You you could actually say that this is a story about salvation through works or salvation through faith. That's what this is about. Ahaz, you're gonna try to save yourself by working, which he does. Isaiah doesn't know it, but he's already made an he's already making an alliance.
Joel Brooks:Isaiah probably is aware of this. He's making an alliance with the Syria. I'm gonna pay off the Assyrians to come to my help. I'm gonna make an alliance. Does this feel like a Christmas story yet?
Joel Brooks:You know, you're all getting in the Christmas spirit. Put yourself in a hass shoes. I mean, seriously, picture America. Just what if we are being attacked by all these groups were being attacked and our doom is imminent. And all sudden, you know, some some preacher stands up and he says, hey, you know what, we need to repent and pray and just rest.
Joel Brooks:Okay? You know, goes up to the president and says, hey, this is what you need to do. You you don't need to send the military out. You don't need to try to work behind the scenes, make an alliance. You don't need to do all those things.
Joel Brooks:What you need to do is nothing and trust. The president be like, well, as a nation, you know, no we're not really a christian nation. We haven't really called out to God to do all these things. I, you know, I don't think so. It's like, no, this I'm I'm not saying, I'm not looking at your past.
Joel Brooks:Just call out to him now. Seems kind of absurd. That's exactly what's happening here. This is the Christmas story. And then the Lord does something extraordinary.
Joel Brooks:He tells Ahaz, in verse 10, he says, ask of me a sign. A sign that's as deep as shield or as high as heaven and and I will give it to you to prove my word. Now, you can look all through scripture and you're never gonna find any time that the lord ever tells somebody, hey, ask of me a sign. You're not going to find it. Asking the lord of a sign is wrong.
Joel Brooks:People don't ask the for the lord a sign. As testing the lord, you don't do that. But here you actually have the God of the universe telling man said, ask of me. I will do anything no matter how great. Do it.
Joel Brooks:Come on. Ask. I mean, it seems like God's bending over backwards. It seems like it helped this man. This very wicked man.
Joel Brooks:And Ahaz, he goes up. All sudden he gets very, you know, religious, I guess. Actually, he's just pompous. Says, no I'm not gonna put the Lord to the test. I wouldn't do that.
Joel Brooks:Like he cares. God then does something extraordinary. He gives Ahaz a sign anyway. It's fine, don't ask for a sign, but I tell you what, I'm gonna give you a sign. And it's gonna be the greatest sign.
Joel Brooks:I just said, you can ask anything as deep as shield or as high as heaven and I'll give it to you. I'm gonna give you the greatest sign of all signs. Are you ready? Here it is. And we come to verse 13, And he said, here then, oh, house of David.
Joel Brooks:Just just right there. You gotta stop. He's no longer just addressing Ahaz. You you have here that Isaiah is backing up. And, yes, it's directed toward Ahaz, but it's more like, Ahaz, you're a representative of the entire royal line of David, of all of Israel.
Joel Brooks:Here here, oh, house of David. Here's the sign. Is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my god also? Therefore, the lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel.
Joel Brooks:And there it is, Christmas. Most famous Christmas verse we have in the bible. And and you know, when a has heard it, he had to be thinking, what? What? You call that a sign?
Joel Brooks:A woman's gonna have a child? Come on. I mean, a sign's fire falling down from heaven, you know. I even I remember the the sign about water being turned into blood. That's a sign.
Joel Brooks:Raise somebody from the dead. That's a sign. A card trick is better than a woman having a child. Alright? This is not a sign.
Joel Brooks:God says it is the sign. The sign. So why does God give Ahaz the sign of Emmanuel? I mean, why reveal his name? God with us.
Joel Brooks:Emmanuel, God with us. Why reveal it to him at this time? Well, I think it's because here you find man in desperate need. You find people who cannot save themselves. You find people who have turned to every god under the sun and cried out for help, and no one has answered.
Joel Brooks:It's here you see a wicked, evil people crying out to God to basically judge them. He refuses all of God's graces and all of God's mercies. People who have no faith at all. I think it's people like us. God doesn't say this to people who have their act together.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't say this to people who are really good. That's not what the sign of Emmanuel is for. That is for us. People whose hearts are depraved and broken and sinful and who cry out to all other gods. That's who the sign of Emmanuel is for.
Joel Brooks:God is with us. This is really good, good news In case you don't get this, it's really good news. But sometimes even good news is hard to take because it means you have to admit something. For this to be good news, you have to admit something. You have to admit that you have failed in order to accept the sign of Emmanuel.
Joel Brooks:As you know, I've got 3 little girls. For the most part, they get along remarkably well. They play together pretty well. But, you know, I'll let you know a little secret. They occasionally sin.
Joel Brooks:They they occasionally fight. Actually, at least daily, but, you know, it's interesting to to to hear them and see them fight over just ridiculous things. And often they're upstairs playing, and I'm downstairs, and I hear them fighting. And so they started yelling. And whenever they yell, they really, you know, enunciate each other's names so well.
Joel Brooks:Natalie, Karen, line. You know, they're just they're just shouting at one another and and Lauren and I will look at each other, and we just say, well, you know, just let them work it out. And we wait. And then they're still fighting. So Lauren goes, hey, why don't you say something?
Joel Brooks:So I'll go to the steps. I'll go, hey, work it out. Hey, I fixed that one, honey. And then they're they're still fighting. Like, fine.
Joel Brooks:So I go to the steps and I yell up once again. I was like, Hey, whatever toy you're fighting over, neither one of you could play with it. Alright? Say you're sorry. Work it out.
Joel Brooks:Now, go back. And they're still fighting. They're still fighting. And finally, it comes to the point I'm like, You know what, I got to come up there. My words need to become flesh at some point.
Joel Brooks:My words need to become flesh. They need to see me there. To put an end to all the quarreling, to all of their fighting, to all of their failure. I've got to be present. God had sent prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet with his words.
Joel Brooks:Don't do this. Stop. Repent. Change, And it wouldn't happen. It just could be worse and worse.
Joel Brooks:And finally, God said, you know what? It's time for my word to become flesh. Which is both a great hope. It's good news because he's gonna he's gonna put it into the conflict but it also bruises our pride because we have to admit, we need help. That our hearts are bad and we need somebody to come in.
Joel Brooks:I mean, we would in our life, we'd hear God saying things to us, you know, have no other gods before me. And yet, we would we would, we would worship gods of success, gods of money. We would sacrifice our own children on the altar of success. Many of us have. God would say hey, don't lie.
Joel Brooks:Do not bear false witness against your neighbor and we would lie. He'd say, hey, don't covet. And yet we would covet. We would covet people's jobs, people's spouses, people's clothes, people's reputation. And finally, god says, alright.
Joel Brooks:It's time. Since you can't work it art out because you're flawed and you're sinful, it's time for my word to become flesh. It's time for Emmanuel, god, to be with you. He comes to us in our darkest hour. He comes and lives in the midst of an evil people.
Joel Brooks:You know, even when you jumped Isaiah 9 and hear all those wonderful names of God, he's the wonderful counselor. Well, that implies that you're not a great counselor. That you don't have wisdom. And God is, he's the wonderful counselor. He's almighty God, and that that you can actually translate that, He's the heroic God, which means He's the one who comes in and He saves us.
Joel Brooks:He's the prince of peace, meaning you don't have peace and He's got to come and bring you peace. Even when we ascribe those names, God, even when we hallow those names, what we are recognizing is that we have failed in all those. We need them. Ahaz did not listen to Isaiah. He did not have faith.
Joel Brooks:He made a very practical, wise decision. He paid off Assyria. At one point, he went even went to Assyria when he paid them all the money and he took careful notation of all their altars. And when he came back to Jerusalem, he tore down the main altar in the temple of Jerusalem and he set up an Assyrian one so he could sacrifice to their gods there. Then Assyria turned on him.
Joel Brooks:That's what they wanted all along. And they don't remove him as king, they just remove all of his power. Now he's just a puppet king. He has no power whatsoever. And the kingdom of of of Judah never will again and have no power.
Joel Brooks:The royal line just pretty much goes into oblivion a couple about a 150 years later, they're destroyed. People think that the the line of David is gone. People could care less at this point. So much so that 735 years after Isaiah made this prophecy, you could actually have an heir to the throne, the royal descendant of David. And he's just a son of a carpenter and nobody even knows.
Joel Brooks:Hey, this is the one who's going to rule. This is the messiah. This is the king of the world. He is in such obscurity that there's nobody bowing down to him, Following him, praising him as king. When Christ comes, which we read in Matthew.
Joel Brooks:He comes as God with us to save us not from an army but to save us from ourselves. To save us from sin and sin and death. There's two names and we might look at this actually in a few weeks. There are two names in Matthew chapter 2 or chapter 1. There are two names that that God says you're the name the Messiah.
Joel Brooks:Says, hey, Joseph, you're to name him Jesus, Yeshua, which means the Lord saves. Says, hey, Joseph, you don't get to name this child because you don't have authority over him. I named the child and his name is Yeshua, meaning the Lord saves. His other name is Emmanuel, God with us. God is with us, saving us.
Joel Brooks:That is who Jesus is. And the same line stands, stand firm in your faith, whatever little faith you have or you don't stand at all. Trust that God is with us to save us. That's what Christmas is about. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:For 735 years, people waited for the sign of Emmanuel. We thank you for Jesus, father. Thank you that he is our king, that he saves us from our problems. He saves us from ourselves and sin and death. And we come to you and we admit we're broken.
Joel Brooks:We can't work it out. We need him. We need God with us, saving us. I pray we'd remember that this Christmas. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus, our present and our future king.
Joel Brooks:Amen.
