Morning, everybody.
Much better.
Good job.
Happy New Year.
Wow, you really fell off there.
I tricked you.
I tricked you with two of them.
You gotta stay on your toes when I'm when I'm up here.
Happy New Year.
I hope and pray you had a great uh Christmas.
Um I know there can be ups and downs with that, and uh celebrating a new year, turning over a new leaf, um, New Year's resolutions and all that.
My name's Matt.
I am uh one of the pastors here, and uh, I'm thankful to be able to bring the word to you this morning.
Uh we're in the season of Christmas.
I love to point this out, uh, especially to my kids.
Christmas is not just one day.
Christmas is 12 days, it's a season in the church calendar.
And so this normally there's two Sundays uh during Christmas this year because of the where Christmas landed on a Monday.
We only have one Sunday, so today is the Sunday within Christmas.
And Advent that we've been through the last four Sundays, it's all about anticipation, right?
It's all about looking at God's promises and looking forward to their fulfillment.
We look we look back to Jesus' first Advent at his birth, but we also look ahead to his second.
And just like Israel in the Old Testament, we wait with anticipation in the fulfillment of God's glorious promises.
And that can be tiresome, we can lose faith, we can begin to doubt, it can be a struggle.
That is the walk of the people of God.
But during Christmas, we kind of pause from looking ahead, and it's time to celebrate.
It's kind of apt that it falls here on New Year's Eve, because New Year's is a time of celebration, right?
We we pop out the bubbly, we we watch the ball drop, we shout.
Um, and that is uh appropriate for Christmas.
Christmas is about celebration, it's about meditating on the fulfillment of God's promises, even as we await the full fulfillment of them, right?
We give and receive gifts during Christmas because Jesus is the greatest gift, right?
The gift of the Father of the Son to us.
As Isaiah says, for to us a child is born, and to us a son is given.
So this morning I want us to meditate on the nature of that gift.
What was the gift that Jesus was to us on Christmas and to all God's people?
As I said, we become so accustomed to Christmas, right?
Especially if you've been a Christian for a number of years, and maybe you get confused or tied up in, right, Jesus, keep the Christ in Christmas and kind of the fun and excitement of buying and giving gifts and all the other stuff that comes together.
Sometimes we lose our understanding of the heart of God at Christmas.
And I think the passage that we're looking at this morning captures that so beautifully.
I'm excited for us to look at it this morning.
So let's jump in.
We're just gonna jump in here with point one.
Jesus was ecstatic to come into the world to save us.
This passage in Isaiah, starting in 61, going over into 62, this is one of the few servant songs in the prophet Isaiah's prophecies.
This is where the servant of the Lord, the one who was to come, the savior of God's people, who is kind of a shadowy figure before he came, even when he came, these are the songs of the Savior, the servant, singing about, singing to God, about what God has called him to do and what he is going to do.
And this part of the song, it begins with joy.
He says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.
My soul exalts in God.
So what's he exulting about?
Well, he talks about how he's clothed with garments of salvation and a robe of righteousness.
He is getting decked out.
And then it couches it in the language of a wedding.
He says, as a bridegroom adorns himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and a bride adorns herself with jewels.
I think it's interesting.
The servant likens himself both to a bride and to a bridegroom.
All of God's people can relate to what's going on here.
Whether a man or woman, we know what it's like to get dressed up for a special event.
Right?
When you get all decked out, maybe you're going to a fancy party tonight, maybe you'll wear your nice clothes.
And it just makes things special, right?
We dress up for special events, and it helps to mark the occasion.
It's a wedding feast, it's a wedding celebration that's coming.
The servant is coming to a wedding.
And he's like the bridegroom, he's like the bride.
And this is language that the New Testament picks up about the servant, about Jesus.
And he's likened to a bridegroom coming to redeem and to rescue his bride.
And the end of the story in the book of Revelation, it talks about the consummation, what everything will be like at the end of all things, and it says it will be the wedding feast of the Lamb.
What will the life to come, what will the world to come look like?
It will look like a party.
An incredible wedding.
This year, coming up, Stacy and I will celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary.
We did it right.
We got married in the year 2000, so whatever year it is, I never don't know how long we've been married.
That's a life hack.
Um, if you want.
Um, 24 years ago, and I remember that day.
I would like to say I remember like it was yesterday.
That's not true.
I remember like it was 24 years ago.
Um, but I remember it with great affection.
I remember little funny moments like when my dad, who's here today, uh, and the pastor who's marrying us, right before the ceremony we were kind of standing in this little ante-room, and the pastor was making kind of um funny jokes, kind of crude jokes, to kind of lighten the tension, and um, so it was very memorable.
Um talking about well, I won't I won't say what he was talking about, but there were two things uh there's two main things I remember about getting married.
First is how excited I was, you know.
This we we were engaged for nine months and kind of that that whole build-up and all the planning and all of that, and having our friends there.
We were the first in our friend group to get married, so we had no idea what we were doing.
Um, and uh, there's actually a picture here, so you can go, oh, is there a picture?
Yes, there it is.
Thank you.
Isn't she beautiful?
Yes, she is, she still is.
Um, just how how exciting it was uh to see this relationship uh come to this climax, if you will.
The other thing I remember is how much work a wedding is.
We, like I said, we were engaged for nine months and it felt like we were cutting it close.
You gotta find a location, you gotta figure out the food, you gotta do the guest list, you know, you cut it off at a certain level, and like who's gonna be mad that they weren't invited?
And um, I remember we were going, we were um registering.
How awesome is registering for stuff for your wedding, but I was kind of your typical clueless uh engaged guy, and I was kind of hanging back and like, hey honey, whatever, you know, what did you think about this?
I was like, uh I don't care.
And she just stopped and she said, No, you will care because I care.
And I was said, yes, ma'am.
And it was a great, it was a great premarital thing to learn that uh you need to care about what your spouse cares about.
Anyway, lots of little stories like that.
Um, this next picture is of the bridesmaids with Stacy, and I show this because it kind of captures the work.
Not only do you have to do all that stuff with food and location and guest lists, uh, Stacy's mom, who is to her left, actually made all of those dresses.
Uh, so I think it took her nine months to do all of that by hand, by herself.
Weddings are a lot of work, a lot of planning.
But you know it's worth it.
Right?
There's so much joy and so much excitement.
You come together, you celebrate love, you celebrate a new family, you celebrate, right, a man leaving and cleaving to becoming one.
And that's what this servant song is expressing.
This was the heart of God, this was the heart of Jesus as he anticipated coming into this world.
It wasn't begrudging, it wasn't reluctant.
He was so excited to come and find his bride and to be united to her.
And beloved, if you're a Christian, that's you.
That is what Jesus held in his heart.
And if you will, you can imagine the father like a proud parent, was also excited about this incredible wedding day.
And it echoes what we hear in the New Testament.
Hebrews 12, 2 says that it was for the joy set before him that Jesus endured the cross.
What was that joy?
It was the joy of marrying his bride, of finally standing at that altar, exchanging vows, and becoming one.
I love the way Dane Ortland captures this idea in his book, Gentle and Lowly.
He says, it was the joyous anticipation of seeing his people made invincibly clean that sent him through his arrest, death, burial, and resurrection.
When we today partake of that atoning work, coming to Christ for forgiveness, communing with him despite our sinfulness, we are laying hold of Christ's own deepest longing and joy.
That longing that Isaiah 61 talks about, it hasn't ended.
That is still the way your Savior feels toward you.
Especially us.
Let's look at verses uh chapter 62, 1 through 3.
For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent.
For Jerusalem's sake, I will not be quiet, until the righteousness, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, her salvation as a burning torch.
The nations shall see your righteousness, all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.
You shall be a crown of beauty in his hand, in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
One of our beloved Christmas movies, I'm sure you all have one.
It's a fun conversation.
One of ours is Elf.
It was the first Christmas movie we saw this year.
Perhaps you are familiar with Will Farrell in this uh hilarious Christmas movie.
But there's one scene where Buddy, the elf, kind of an elf, he's a human, but he thinks he's an elf.
Um comes to New York to meet his dad and he he inadvertently falls in love.
And he goes on his first date through New York, and they look at beautiful Christmas trees, and um, I think Buddy is kind of taken by surprise by this.
And uh he came to New York to find his dad, and so he goes, and his dad is like the Scrooge character, he's mean and heartless, and all that kind of stuff.
And his dad is having this incredibly important business meeting in this big conference room, and after the date, Buddy goes straight to his dad's office, he bursts into the conference room, he takes off his hat, he he slings it and turns around, he says, I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it.
And that's just what this passage is saying.
Jesus wants everyone to know that he loves his bride.
Did you hear what it said?
Kings will see your righteousness.
Nations will stand in awe of God's love for his people.
In fact, do you know what that means, actually, for those of us in this room who are not ethnically Jewish?
That's actually us.
We are the Gentiles.
We are the nations who saw God's love for his people, Israel, and we came to be part of that love.
We are the fulfillment, actually, of these words.
But in coming to Christ and putting our faith in him, we become part of God's people, part of Christ's bride.
Jesus loves us.
He wants everyone to know.
But but here's the fascinating thing.
Who do you think it matters most to?
Who does he want most to know of his love?
Look at uh verse, this verse again.
He says, For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent.
For Jerusalem's sake, I will not be quiet.
Zion and Jerusalem, they kind of are metaphor for the city of Jerusalem, which was the metaphor for God's people, whom he loved.
And he said, It's it's for my people's sake that I will not keep silent.
It's for their sake that I want the nations to know.
You see what God is saying?
What Jesus is saying?
He's saying, the people I care most about knowing the depth of my love is them.
He wants us more than anyone else to know how much he loves us.
And if you've walked with Jesus for any amount of time, you know that that's true.
I think we, of all people, easily forget how much God loves us.
As we experience hardship and suffering, disappointment when life doesn't go the way we want it to, we we begin to forget or we doubt whether God loves us.
And I think this is one of the most profound theological points that I've been struck with in recent years, and that is that our understanding, believing, and embracing God's love for us is the most foundational and important theological truth we can embrace.
And I think that's what Paul was saying in Ephesians 3 when he said this, he said, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father that he may grant you the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
I mean, look at Paul is like totally waxing eloquent.
The length and the depth and the height and the width, the love of Jesus for his bride is limitless.
It engulfs us in a beautiful way.
Listen again to what he says in Isaiah 62, 4.
He says, You shall no more be termed forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed desolate, but you shall be called, my delight is in her, and your land married, for the Lord delights in you.
Beloved, this is what Jesus wants for you to know that he delights in you.
I love the way the ESV Study Bible talks about this verse.
He says, Isaiah explains that in God's great plan of salvation, he not only forgives his people, protects them, heals them, provides for them, restores them to their home, reconciles them to each other, transforms them so that they are righteous, honors them, exalts them above all the nations, and makes them a blessing to all the nations, as he has called them to be.
But more than all of these things, he actually delights in his people.
Why did Jesus come?
Why was he born?
What was the joy set before him?
Why did he go to the cross?
Why was he resurrected?
Because he was passionately in love with you.
Beloved, I am not a big fan of New Year's resolutions.
Uh, but if there's one, I would encourage you.
It's to step into this new year with the resolution to grow in understanding and embracing how much God loves you.
All right, point three.
A brief word to those who struggle to believe what we're talking about.
First, if you struggle to believe, and even this morning I've talked with some of you who are going through incredible suffering and struggle to believe the truth of the gospel.
Maybe that once was easy to believe.
But if that's you, then I want you to know that you are in good company.
Because these words were spoken to a people in exile.
They were spoken to a people who had lost their homes, family members, lost everything.
And it was into that situation that the Lord spoke.
The Lord speaks these words to people who struggle.
The Lord loved them.
They struggled to believe that he would provide for them.
But remember that that's why these words were given and why we need to return to them again and again.
Like Joseph, you're invited to remember that though much of what has happened in your life has been evil, the Lord can use it for good.
Like Job, you're invited to honesty before the Father, honesty about the suffering and the loss you've experienced, and not to let go until he has met you in those places.
With Mary, you're invited to cherish up all these things in your heart, meditating on his promises even as you experience the not yet of this current fallen world.
Again, a quote from Wortland.
He says, All our natural intuitions tell us that Jesus is with us on our side, present and helping when life is going well.
This text says the opposite.
It is in our weakness that Jesus sympathizes with us.
The word sympathize here is a compound word formed from the prefix meaning with, joined with the verb to suffer.
Sympathize here is not cool and detached pity.
It is a depth of felt solidarity, such as is echoed in our own lives most closely as a parent to a child.
Indeed, it is deepen, deeper even than that.
In our pain, Jesus is pained.
In our suffering, he feels the suffering.
His heart is drawn into our distress.
Beloved, sometimes we think when we are going through hard things that God is far off.
But imagine your spouse or someone very close to you is going through hardship.
What would your heart be for them?
It would break with them and for them.
And you would long to be with them and to and to help them.
That is exactly Jesus' heart for you.
And what we see as we walk through suffering and as we look at it through the scriptures, we see that even as that comes into our lives, that is part of God's loving work in our lives.
For us to see the depth of his love, though it is often a mystery.
So even as and if we struggle to believe that Jesus is with us in our distress, the scripture calls us to remember the truth.
And that that is exactly where he is.
He is with us in our struggle, in our celebration.
He is Emmanuel, God with us.
As we step out of one year and into another, let us lift the glass to our King and our Savior, the child who was born in Bethlehem.
Let's pray.
Our Father and our God, Lord, thank you for this passage.
Thank you that you have revealed the true depth of your heart for us.
God, to be cherished, to be loved, to be died for.
Lord, thank you for how you've loved us.
And for those of us who struggle to believe, Lord, would you meet us even this morning with your compassion and your presence?
Remind us that you are with us even in our suffering.
That you suffered for us and that you invite us into a fellowship with your suffering.
That we would know you better and in fact know your love more fully.
We pray and ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.