Christmas
Isaiah 30:15–21
15For thus the Lord 1God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, "In 2repentance and rest you shall be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength." But you were not willing,
16And you said, "No, for we will flee on horses," Therefore you shall flee! "And we will ride on swift horses," Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.
17One thousand shall flee at the threat of one man, You shall flee at the threat of five; Until you are left as a 1flag on a mountain top, And as a signal on a hill.
18Therefore the LORD 1longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He 2waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who 3long for Him.
191O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.
20Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher.
21And your ears will hear a word behind you, 1"This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left.
The past few months there has been much excitement about the end of the world on December 21st. Prophets of doom and those who like to manipulate our uncertainties and fears in order to sell news and books were telling us the Mayan calendar was predicting the end of the world. Books were selling like hotcakes. The tourist industry was booming as people from around the world were flocking to Central America to watch and wait. It was humorous to see how excited people were. It was tragic to see that even Christians were trembling in fear. First of all, why should believers in Christ trouble themselves with anything the idols of false religions have to say.
Second, such fear is a misunderstanding of the Mayan calendar and religion. You see, we Westerners have a linear concept of time which most other cultures in the world do not share. Most have a cyclical concept, that time goes round and round. For the Mayans reaching the end of the calendar simply means the end of one cycle of time and the beginning of another.
Which is sort of where we are this New Year's Eve. One year ends and another begins. We too have our fears and doubts tonight. Our failures of this past year haunt us; the things we have not finished, the things left undone, the goals unmet, the messes we have made of our lives and the lives of other people. We harbor inside the secret desire that the mistakes of the past year will not be repeated.
And then there is the anxiety of the year to come. For many there are worries about the future, economic security, family concerns, problems with kids, declining health. Some wonder if this may even be the last New Year's Eve they ever celebrate. What will the coming year bring? Will it be successful? Will it be a fail? Will it just be more of the same?
But perhaps the most tragic and distressing thing about all the commotion surrounding the end of the world among Christians is that many of them were actually afraid of the end of the world. For believers in Christ there is no fear of the end or of judgment. The end of the world is a promise, not a threat. It will be a good day for all who are found in Christ; a day of salvation; a day when evil, sin, suffering and death will cease; when all tears will be wiped from our eyes; and when we will truly come alive! It will be a day of celebration and feasting at the wedding banquet of God's Son. So why the fear? Why the worry?
"Thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, "In returning and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you were unwilling." He promises rest and quietness but we are unwilling. Perhaps that is the reason some fear the end of the world, they are unwilling to enter into the rest and peace of God. He says he is coming and we say, "We will flee on horses; we will ride upon swift steeds." Since Adam hid among the trees because he was afraid of God, the nature of man is to flee God. Since that day in the garden, man has feared God, run from him, sought to hide, loved the cover of darkness. God says, "The people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil."
Our works are evil so we run from God. We hide in the darkness. That is why people are afraid for God to come. We are afraid of the end of the world, because we know we deserve judgment and death. We prefer darkness. We are afraid for our works to be exposed by the light. A Day of Judgment is what we fear the most. We don't even want to think about it or admit that it can be true. Indeed, many people, even some who call themselves Christians, don't want to think that God will judge mankind or send anyone to hell. They try to convince themselves that God is tolerant and would never do anything so unloving. "All good people will go to heaven," we tell ourselves in an attempt to feel better about death.
The uncertainty for the New Year, the fear of what's coming next, serves as a wakeup call to us. Will the new year be more of the same? Will it be more of the struggles, the fear, the worries, the hiding, the failures of the past year? Or can these memories be erased? Can there be a new hope, a new future, a new dream? On the eve of the New Year, God calls us to repent. And yes, he promises to forgive us. There is a new start. The sins of the past year can be wiped away, and we are given the chance by God to start over in Christ. "The old is passed, the new has come," for anyone who is in Christ. You are a new creation. Christ makes all things new. Waiting for the New Year is like waiting for the coming of Christ. A whole new creation is being ushered in.
Why does God make all things new in Christ? Look at verse 18 in our text: "The Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he longs to have compassion on us." What a God we have! What kind of love is this! We have sinned. We have run from him. But he longs to be gracious to us. He yearns to show us compassion. That is the pure heart of God. Here we see deep into the heart of God. In spite of our sin and corruption, he desires to be gracious. He longs to give us his compassion. He just can't wait to be merciful to us. His joy and delight is doing good things for us. His whole being is love. His every thought about us is good. His every desire is to bless us.
We just celebrated Christmas. What is the significance of Christmas? God's yearning and desire to be gracious to us just couldn't be held back any longer. He was not able to wait one hour longer to do what he always has wanted to do; give us his mercy and save us from the punishment for sin. He sent his Son to die on the cross and pay for our sins. He gave his only begotten Son to suffer and die in our place. To pay the wages we have earned by our sin—death and eternal punishment. Christ paid it by his own death; by suffering our punishment in hell.
God just couldn't wait any longer to make all things new in Christ. Christmas is when the love of God came to us in physical and tangible form. God's love was born a man. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
So God's love came crashing into our world of darkness and sin and death. Into our lives of worry and fear came the love of God in human form. We ran from God, we rode away on swift steeds, but his love came after us even swifter. We couldn't escape his infinite love. He caught up with us with his Word of forgiveness. He came to seek us sinners and save us. He took our sins into his human flesh and suffered the punishment of hell for them. He went to the cross and sacrificed his life for us. He poured out his life giving blood on the altar of the cross to give us the mercy and compassion of the Lord. And when we were baptized he grabbed us and made us a new creation in him. He made us his own possession to have and to love for eternity. The old has passed away, drowned in Baptism, put to death. The new has come, raised up, resurrected out of the water of Baptism. Though we ran fast from God, he caught us and brought us into his kingdom.
So now, as we face the uncertainties of a new year; as we wonder what will the new year bring; will it be good or bad, we have the one thing that is certain in life; Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Like the friends of the bridegroom who stay awake and watch through the night for the groom to return home with his bride, we stay awake and watch. Some of us will stay up tonight to the wee hours of the morning waiting and watching for the new year. We wait and watch for the coming of the bridegroom, Jesus Christ who will come with salvation for all who believe in him.
And we stand assured in the midst of our fears and uncertainties of life, that nothing, "neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separated us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Yes, this things will come. Trials and temptations, sickness and death, suffering and sorrow will all come, but in all this "who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No! In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." So whatever the new year brings, good or bad, success or failure, life or death, there is one thing for sure: we are safe in the hands of God who loves us and will not allow anything to take away the promises of his blessing and eternal life with him forever. For the truth is, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come." Amen.