Gaudete - Advent 2 Sermon (2025)
Comfort?
Isaiah 40:1-11
Have you ever wondered why other people have it so much better than you? Have you ever contemplated the question of why life seems so miserable?
In fact, you probably know someone who claims that man is born, he suffers, he dies. That is all there is! So, what's the purpose of life?
I can safely say that in a moment of doubt we have all asked the same sort of a question. Our text from the prophet Isaiah seems to echo those thoughts: The mouth of the Lord has spoken.” The voice said, “Cry out!” And he said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades.
It appears that the purpose of life is to wither and fade, ultimately to die. So, we might just ask the question, “If that is the only purpose in life, why even bother? What is the use? What is the meaning if that is all there is?”
While it is good to question your purpose in life, and wonder what the meaning of it all is, it can also be very selfish and sinful. You were created by God. So, when you get angry at God as if He made you for no purpose, that is to go too far.
Yet, we have all had such thoughts. Have you ever despaired of life? Maybe you thought of chucking in the towel and giving up on life? It is when this happens that we have despaired of hope. When this happens, our faith seems to have vanished, and Satan seems to be winning.
You are the dearly beloved of God in Christ Jesus. It is also true that we are all sinners. So, it is also true that when God's holy Word comes forth from His mouth it withers us. When we hear of His righteous requirements, we must conclude that our life, in word and deed, has failed to meet those requirements. That is what it means when it says, that God's Word blows upon us and withers us. God's Word blows and drives us to our knees.
Some people think their life is exemplary in the light of God's Word.
If you can stand
boldly in the face of God's holy Word and declare yourself guiltless of sin,
you are a liar. More than that, as John says in his first Epistle, saying we
are sinless – even thinking it – makes God out to be a liar.
God inspired John
to record it this way: If we say we have not sin we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us... If we say that we
have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. (1 John 1:8, 10)
To say we have overcome sinfulness in our life is itself a sinful response to that Word of God.
Another response in the face of God's Word when it blows upon you and drives you to your knees, is to become despondent. Sometimes God's Word overwhelms to the point of despair and losing any hope whatsoever.
I know how easy to
get caught up in thinking, “I have heard God's Word, I know His righteous
demands – and I fail. I am supposed to know them so well, and proclaim them as
His pastor, and still I fail. What a poor, miserable, sinner I am. There is no
way that God could ever love a wretch like me."
Such thoughts ARE NOT INSPIRED by God's Word, but by Satan's perversion of God's Word.
Should God’s Torah drive us to our knees? YES!!! Should it make you despair of saving yourself? YES!!! Does God's Word stop with this message of Law? NO! NO!! NO!!!
Yes, the God's Word of law drives us to our knees, it withers us, it wounds and pierces us. Yes, it shows us our sinfulness. Upon our knees then, in a posture of submission and repentance, God's word comes to us again.
Our text from Isaiah speaks so clearly: “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God. “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the Lord’s hand Double for all her sins.”
Comfort is what God wants you to know, to hear, to eat, and to drink. Your warfare is ended! Your battle with sin is ended, it is finished, it is accomplished. Your iniquity, the guilt of your sin, has been pardoned. It is not by your doing. You have received double from the Lord for all your sins. You will see the glory of the Lord; it is revealed and all flesh shall see it.
Where, you ask? We are expectantly waiting for it – but we know it. It is there in the Babe wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger. That Babe grew up and lived like no other, perfect in every way! He is the very Son of God. This Child, born to Mary, showed us the glory of God.
He showed it too by taking your sins and mine into Himself and giving His life unto death for them. He gave His life in payment for your sins. He died that you might be comforted. He died to raise you up from your knees in your new life in His Holy Name.
Do you now see the purpose of God in creating you? He brought you into this world in His image, fallen though it now is, so that that He might bring glory to His name. He created you to live in this world so that you might be a living testament of His great deeds for us.
God's desire was never that people would suffer and die. God's desire in creating Adam and Eve was that they would trust Him at His word, living in faith and love of Him. Satan’s temptation was to doubt God’s Word, and so Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the one tree they were told not to eat. Sinfulness was passed on to their children and their children's children, on down to us.
God foreknew Adam's failing, and His purpose was to love all mankind, and that they would trust in Him. In sin then, God would show His glory and might in His incredible mercy and love.
It was to fulfill His purpose that He sent His Son. Christ came to die for sin, to sacrifice Himself so that you might fear, love, and trust in Him above all things. You have been called by name to be His dear children to show His victory and point forward to the better life to come.
Peter preached on Pentecost: Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. This Man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge and you, with the help of wicked men put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him. (Acts 2:22-24)
Men did not crucify God because of their vile, evil, will. God sent Jesus into the world for that singular purpose. That Child in a manger, whose birth we will rejoice, was sent to die. That was His purpose. He was sent to give His life as a ransom for your sin. For it is only through Christ that your iniquity is pardoned. In Christ that you have received from the Lord's hand double for all your sins.
While the world seems to be madly spinning out of control…while our own lives often seem confused…and as we may wonder what it all means. Be comforted.
All of this purposelessness brings glory to God's name.
“Comfort, comfort My people!” Receive today from your Lord double for all your sins. And, in receiving double, you give honor and glory to God. In repentance God's hand raises you up. His Word makes you to stand. The Word of your God stands forever it removes your guilt, your lack of faith, all your sins in forgiveness.
The Word of our God stands forever and comes to you hidden in bread and wine. You eat and drink the very body and blood of the living Word of God, Jesus Christ. In eating and drinking you are trusting in the Word of promise, receiving Christ who redeems you. He comes to you and grants you comfort.
“Comfort, comfort My people!” The Word of our God stands forever. It upholds you and supports you in all the trials in your life.
His comfort is witnessed to the world through you, as you are a living testimony of His grace. Although you and I stand before Him as sinners, we also stand before Him and all people as the holy, beloved, and redeemed children of God.
Dear friends, your warfare is ended! Your iniquity is pardoned!! You receive from God double for all your sins!!!
As we prepare to celebrate the lowly birth of a Babe laid in a manger, rejoice in the Comfort which comes to you only in Him. It is He who comes to save you, to free you from your enemies – sin and death – and to live in and through you. He comforts you to stand firm forever in Him – even unto life everlasting. Amen.
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