#1,372 12/25/19 Christmas Day Isaiah 52:7-10
“To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority… now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 24)
Fellow Worshipers at the Manger, Every year summaries of the year’s top events and news stories come out. According to the Associated Press, the Top 10 news stories of this year are: impeachment, immigration, Russia probe, mass shootings, opioid crisis, climate change, Brexit, US-China trade war, Boeing jets grounded, and the Hong Kong protests. These are news items that filled newspapers and TV reports for months. And yet, what’s striking about these and all past years’ huge news stories is how small they become, just fading bytes of information tucked away in books and memories. What were the top news stories of 2018, the year before?
Compare this news of the year with the news of Christmas. The angel told the shepherds: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” (Luke 2:10) The news of Christmas, Christ’s birth can never be just a line in a book or a fading bit of trivia information. It may be old news, but it is the greatest news the world will ever hear. THE OLD NEWS OF CHRISTMAS BRINGS NEW JOY FOR ALL!
I. Your God Returns. A. There isn’t much sadder news than a soldier, a relative, or a friend who leaves home and never returns because of death or desertion. Psychologist say that those forsaken by divorce, desertion, or abandonment are even more scarred than those who lose a loved one to death. That the way the people of Judah felt in Isaiah’s day. Their fellow Jews of the northern kingdom of Israel had become “The 10 Lost Tribes” because enemy Assyrian armies had so decimated the country that it was no longer recognizable. Now God was warning of a similar fate to come for the southern kingdom of Judah. Two chapters earlier Isaiah reports what the people were saying: “But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” (49:14)
B. The truth of the matter was that it wasn’t God who had left, but the people of Judah had left God. In the fourth verse of Isaiah’s book God says: “Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption. They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.” (1:4) The Prophet Isaiah in our text tells the good news that was coming for God’s people, though: “Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.” This was good news for the Jews. God hadn’t forgotten or forsaken them. It only looked like He had left, but He returned for them, and delivered them from their enemies.
C. Your God returned for you at Christmas. Jesus Christ, God’s true Son, came for you as a baby in Bethlehem’s manger. Isaiah prophesied: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (7:14) As the angel of the Lord explained to Joseph in a dream, the name Immanuel means “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23) God came to be with us in a very special way. He returned to be our Savior. He hasn’t forgotten or forsaken us. God says to you just as He reassured the forsaken-feeling people of Judah: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will never forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” (49:15-16)
D. Ever feel forgotten? Someone leave you off their gift list or their Christmas card mailing list this year? Are there friends or relatives who didn’t even bother to contact you? That can hurt. It may be old news, but what a joy it is to know that God returned for you and me on Christmas Day! He daily remembers and daily returns to us and for us as our loving Father who provides for us. And He will return in glory on the Last Day to claim His children for all eternity.
II. Your God Reigns. A. When God returned in Isaiah’s day to His people, He didn’t just come for a visit. He came to work. He came to rescue and redeem His people Isaiah says: “Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” “Redeem” was a familiar word to the people of Judah. Literally, it means to “buy back.” There was a practice among the Jews which highlighted what the word meant. When a Jewish man died childless, the nearest male relative was to take the widow into his home and provide for her as for his own wife. He was called the kinsman-redeemer. If the widow was in debt, the kinsman-redeemer was to bail her out and buy back any property she had to sell. If the widow gave birth to a male child fathered by the kinsman-redeemer, the child did not belong to the kinsman-redeemer, but was counted as the son of the dead man to carry on the family name.
B. God redeemed the people of Judah from their enemies, defeating the Assyrians and the Babylonians, giving them back their land, their freedom, their lives. God redeemed you and me and all sinners when Christ came to do the work of rescuing us. The angel of the Lord told Joseph: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) In our Epistle Lesson it says He “provided purification for sins.” (Hebrews 1:3) Of course, Christ did not pay money to buy us back, to redeem us. He paid the price of His own precious life sacrificed on the cross. Scripture promises that all sins and all sinners are forgiven through the sacrifice Jesus made. That’s old news, but it brings new joy for you, for me, for all!
C. Some Christmas gifts you receive may be rather inexpensive. Others may be quite costly. How high do you value the Christmas gift that Christ brought you, the news that you are redeemed from all sin and its eternal consequences? Is it really just old news? Is it only a cheap gift that only lasts until the holiday is over? Is it something you unwrap at Christmas and then throw away or consign to the closet in your life the rest of the year, like last year’s news? No, the gift of Christ at Christmas, the redemption that He came to win for you, is a priceless and timeless gift. The only question is what will be your gift to Him? Let it be the most expensive thing you have to give: yourself, your heart, your love!
III. Your God Reigns. A. Isaiah wrote: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” That seems like a strange announcement for the messengers and watchmen to bring to God’s people in Judah. “Your God reigns!” Didn’t they know that? Didn’t they see that? Apparently not. Even though they had God’s promises of a Savior to redeem them from sin and from the punishment of eternal damnation in hell which their sins deserved; even though God had bared His arm to demonstrate His almighty power endless times through the history of the Children of Israel, they didn’t think God was reigning anymore. The immediate horizon looked cloudy and foreboding. Judah as just a pawn at the control of more powerful nations, like Assyrian and Babylon, it seemed.
B. History shows that God whisked away the Assyrians and Babylonians like yesterday’s news. God was always reigning! Christmas shows that your God reigns too. Just think how God used Caesar Augustus to decree a census to that Mary and Joseph had to go to Bethlehem! What about the star that God put into the Christmas sky to announce Christ’s birth and summon the wise men? How about the angels whom God sent to announce the births of John the Baptist and Jesus to Zechariah and Elizabeth and to Mary and Joseph? Or the multitude of angels and the bright light that lit up the Bethlehem sky with God’s glory that first Christmas night? Or the way God manipulated Herod and the wise men and directed Mary and Joseph to flee to Egypt to preserve the young Child’s life? It is all old news, but all of this shows us that the almighty God reigns.
C. And He still reigns. He still runs and rules the universe. He makes the sun rise and set and the seasons turn. He still rules in the hearts of believers too. He still has our fiercest enemy, the devil, under His control. He still sends His holy angels to do His bidding and protect His children. He still removes believers from this world of sorrows to Himself in heaven when they die, far from all fear and worry, just as He promised, just as He planned. It might not always look like He’s ruling, as Isaiah’s people wondered too, but you can be assured that He is! Yes, it’s old news, but it’s news that we need to hear and heed every day. Yes, it’s old news, but it’s news that changes every day of our life. Yes, it’s old news, but it’s news that changes eternity. The old news of Christmas brings new joy for all! May that joy fill your heart each day and lead you to worship Him and serve Him each day. Amen.