I want to be a Thessalonian! (Now duck...)

Normal Christianity in Extreme Times – 2 Thessalonians Series – Part 1

Who wants to be a Thessalonian?

(2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 29, 2013)

[1:1] Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: [2] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul's relationship with the first century church in Thessalonica was a story of normal Christianity in extreme times. The new church in that important city had faced persecution during a period when it must have seemed like the whole world was falling apart. Paul's letters to this church were God's Word to them (and to us) to stay on a steady course despite the upheaval that was touching their lives.

Our world faces strange disturbances that can seem to come in a moment. God our Father is steady, and we come to Him through our solid Rock—the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father's plan of grace for us through the life and death of His Son is a Word of stability for our souls. Because of that Word, we can receive the Lord's peace and pass it on to others who love Him everywhere.

[3] We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. [4] Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

The normal life of Christianity, even in extreme times of distress, is a life of vigorously growing faith and love. When we are stagnant in faith, when we are increasingly impatient, or when we are unwilling to sacrifice our convenience for the sake of others, something unusually bad is taking place. The normal work of the Spirit of Jesus within us produces a life of increasing evidence of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, yet without being showy.

Paul saw this evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in the church, and though he knew that this vigorously growing faith and love was just normal Jesus-driven Christianity, that does not mean that he considered it normal to ignore the good fact that the church that was thriving in a dangerous setting. The normal response to the normal good news of the work of the Lord in our lives is the giving of thanks to God. A happy thanksgiving for our brothers and sisters who are thriving in tough times should be a regular feature of our inner life and our outer communion. We do not deny suffering, but we share together the Lord's confidence in the promises of God.

Put the Word to Work: Replace unbelieving panic concerning societal disintegration with faithful thanksgiving for brothers and sisters who live in the shining light of the Lord.

Singing Psalm 27:1 from Trinity Psalter

The Lord's my shining light / And my salvation sure; / Who can fill me with fright / Or move my heart secure? / The Lord's my stronghold ever near; / Of whom then shall I stand in fear?

We thank the Lord our God

For brothers in His grace.

They suffer for their faith today.

They shall behold His face—

They shall behold His face!

A Shot Over the Bow of Self-Centeredness and Death

High as Heaven—Deep as Sheol

(Isaiah 7:10-16, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 22, 2013)

[10] Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, [11] “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” [12] But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.”

Ahaz lived and reigned over 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. He was not a very good king. In fact he was one of the worst kings in the history of Judah. He dismantled some of the worship that God had required of His people, and he filled Jerusalem with idolatry and false worship. He even sacrificed his sons to a false deity.

Yet the Lord spoke to this king through the prophet Isaiah. God made a promise to Ahaz. The king was in fear because the Syrians to the northeast and the rebellious tribes of Israel to the north had joined forces together against Ahaz and the city of Jerusalem. God's instruction and promise to Ahaz was this: “Be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your hearts be faint because of these two...” About the plan of these enemies, the Lord said through Isaiah, “It shall not stand.”

The Lord then invited the king to ask for some miraculous sign that would confirm that the Word of the prophet was a true Word of God. He told Ahaz that it did not have to be a small sign. It could be as high as heaven or as deep as the grave and hell—the word Sheol has that double meaning. Ahaz could ask for a sign that was really big. Ahaz refused the offer for a dramatic sign that could have bolstered up his courage. Then he claimed that it would be unfaithful for him to ask the Lord for a sign, even though God was the one to bring it up.

Ahaz said, “I will not ask. I will not put the Lord to the test.” The king's unfaithful life was putting the Lord to the test. If he really wanted to do right by God, he would have removed all of the false worship from Jerusalem and led the nation in seeking the Lord. He would have repented of his obvious sin, and he would have asked the Lord for a sign in order to strengthen his weak or nonexistent faith. Ahaz's supposed humility before the Lord was a sham.

[13] And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? [14] Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. [15] He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. [16] For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.

God knew all the king's games. He spoke through Isaiah to this descendant of good king David. God, who is slow to anger, said that he might soon be getting very weary of this wicked king.

The king needed help as high as heaven and as deep as Sheol. He thought that his most troubling problems were the enemy forces to the north and the northeast. As always, the biggest danger for mankind is not from other people, but from God. We need help as high as heaven, since someone needs to win for us eternal life in the blessing of God's perfect house. We need a solution for sin as deep as Sheol, since our disobedience to the Lord's commandments would land us forever in the silence of the grave and in the place of eternal destruction.

If Ahaz did not have the sense to ask for a big sign from the Lord then God would take matters into His own hands for our sake. God would choose the sign. The sign would be extraordinarily simple: a young woman would conceive a baby boy. The word translated virgin here can either mean “young woman” or a woman who has never known had sexual relations with a man. The virgin would conceive and bear a son. But notice the name of the son—Immanuel, which means “God with us.” Suddenly what sounded like a humble sign had a very dramatic possible fulfillment. God would come to be with us by becoming a baby conceived within the womb of a woman who had never known a man.

The immediate fulfillment of the sign had to do with the birth of a child in the time of this prophesy. Before that child knew how to choose between evil and good, Syria and Israel would pose no significant threat to Judah. But then the Assyrians would be a very significant problem, and after that the Babylonians. Beyond any earthly power, God was the most significant threat against His people. God in all His righteousness and might would judge mankind.

The ultimate fulfillment of this passage, God assures us through the citation of Isaiah's words in Matthew 1, came through the virginal conception and birth of the Messiah, Jesus, in the womb of a humble woman in the line of David, Mary. This little baby would literally be God with us—God with us to meet the demands of His heavenly holiness—God with us to die the hellish death that our sin deserved—God with us to be a merciful and sympathetic Savior who would defeat His and our enemies and secure for us all the blessings of eternal life.

This prophecy was fulfilled in the short term by the help that the Lord gave to Judah in the days of Ahaz and his amazingly good son, Hezekiah, king of Judah. While that fulfillment was of great importance to the worrying, evil, and infuriating king Ahaz, it is of little concern to you and I as we prepare to celebrate Christmas this year.

We care about the greater fulfillment that came through Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. His virgin birth was a shot over the bow of every evil power who would stand against God and His people. His coming was more than a powerful sign. It was a declaration of war against Satan and his allies among men and angels. God was doing something new through a most unusual birth.

Ahaz was concerned about Syria and Israel. We are still thinking about nations by those names today, but only if we are paying attention to international relations. Our bigger concerns are about those enemies that stand against our families, our jobs, our own nation, and the Lord's churches throughout the world. The enemies are both outside us and within us. We are looking for answers in addressing relational problems within our circle of loved ones. We have fears concerning the direction that our nation has taken over the last several decades knowing that no nation can long be safe that ignores the commandments of God.

Our biggest enemy comes from a popular philosophy of life that is anti-God. This philosophy of life starts with my individual desires and choices, expecting that no one should stand in the way of any person's definition of self-fulfillment. This philosophy can never be at peace with Christianity, because Christianity insists that God is the only one whose desires and choices will be ultimately fulfilled. Every other desire and choice must follow Him.

The birth of God with us is a sign of victory and the beginning of a world war. You must take a side in this war. The way that you do that is through worship. You bow before God in His covenant assembly, and take on a holy desire above all. You say to God, “I want what you want.” Then the birth of Jesus becomes a sign to you that you have peace with God.

As high as heav'n above,

As deep as hell below,

The virgin's Child is God with us.

O Come, Let us adore!

Water for the Journey

(Isaiah 35:1-10, Preaching: Nathan Snyder, December 15, 2013)

Do you ever feel like you are in a spiritual desert?  For Christians, it can sometimes feel like we are spiritually parched.  We have doubts about God or simply feel far from him.  We get discouraged.  We feel helpless against our sin.  Our prayers feel stale.  God’s command that we rejoice in him seems impossible.  We feel condemned to live and die in the desert, like rebellious Israel wandering 40 years in the wilderness until the entire generation that left Egypt died.  Yet we at least take a little comfort in the fact that heaven is coming.  Then there will be joy.  Then there will be victory.  Then we will finally be free of our doubts and fears, discouragements and sin.  “Jesus, beam me up, because my life here is a desert.  I’m just barely hanging on by the skin of my teeth, waiting to leave this world.”  I’m convinced from Isaiah 35 that this thinking is not what God wants us to settle into.  Yes, we experience deserts.  Yes, we struggle with sin and doubts.  Yes, the journey of faith is often hard and trials are par for the course.  And yet God would also have us live with joyful expectation and confidence in his saving work on our behalf, not just once we get to heaven, but even as we make the journey to get there.

Like the Exodus, Only Far Better

In this chapter God promises to redeem his people from the oppression of their enemies and bring them joyfully back to Zion.  God had called Isaiah to be a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah during the eighth century BC.  Isaiah spoke against idolatry and injustice going on in Judah.  He also confronted Judah over their tendency to turn to other nations for help rather than to God.  For instance, when Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel made war on Judah, they turned to the Assyrian empire.  It didn’t work out so well.  Assyria would eventually conquer the northern kingdom of Israel, and then continue south, taking all of Judah’s fortified cities as well.  People were killed.  Others carried off.  Furthermore, Isaiah prophesied that another empire would rise, Babylon, and this would mean even greater trouble and exile for Judah.  All of this was judgment from God for his people’s turning away from him.  Yet because of God’s own faithfulness to his covenant, and because of his lavish grace, he would save his people from their enemies (verse 4).  He would ransom, redeem and restore them, and he would bring them back to Zion (verses 8-10).  Zion was another name for Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah, where God’s king and God’s temple were established.

God speaks of bringing back his people on a highway in verses 8-9.  This highway will be safe and secure from ravenous beasts.  Called the Way of Holiness, nobody who is unclean shall pass on it.  The image of God making a highway is common in Isaiah.  In 11:16 and 43:16-21, God compares Israel’s return from exile to the exodus when he redeemed them from slavery in Egypt, destroyed the Egyptian army in the sea, and led his people across the wilderness to the land he had promised them.  God will do a new thing and bring his people back to that land, again bringing judgment on their oppressors.  This will be like another exodus, yet it will be far more glorious.  When God led Israel through the wilderness in the first exodus, he provided for them.  He even made water burst from a rock.  But this time the entire desert will blossom.  Water will spring from the thirsty ground and the burning sand will become a pool.  The blind shall see and the deaf hear.  The lame shall leap and the mute sing for joy.  Thus God will remedy the spiritual blindness and deafness of his people lamented in 6:9-10.  At the end of this journey will be everlasting joy.  Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.  All this far surpasses the first exodus.

God Has Come!

Has any of this happened yet?  Actually, it is happening right now.  God has come to save his people in the person of his Son.  The name “Jesus” means “Yahweh saves.”  During Jesus’ earthly ministry he physically opened blind eyes and deaf ears, made the lame leap and the mute sing.  All this was a sign that his mission was to heal those who are spiritually blind and lame.  At the cross he defeated the spiritual oppressors of God’s people, the forces of darkness (Colossians 2:15).  Jesus is the Holy One and he sanctifies his people so that they may walk with him on the Way of Holiness.  And he has poured out his Holy Spirit who springs up like a stream of fresh water in the hearts of all trust in him (John 7:37-39).

Strengthen the Weak Hands

Isaiah also made clear in his writings that when the Christ came, he would bring his salvation to the nations beyond Israel, not just to Israel (e.g. 19:23-25; 49:5-6).  All who trust in Christ Jesus have a place in Zion, the city of everlasting joy.  And do not miss this: God does not merely say that our final destination will mean joy.  He has promised the Spirit for our journey to get there.  Jesus opens blind eyes and frees us to worship him in joy today.  Spirit created life springs up in the desert of our parched hearts today.  Jesus leads us in the way of holiness today.  Jesus protects us today from the evil one who like a ravenous lion would seek to destroy our faith and keep us from reaching Zion.  Therefore, Christian, heed the command of verses 3-4.  If your hands are weak, your knees feeble, or your heart filled with anxiety, “Be strong and do not fear!”  Because Jesus has come we can complete verse 4 with these words: “Behold, your God has indeed come to save you and he will finish what he started.”

Yes, we are going to struggle in this life.  Yet we rob ourselves of power and joy, and we dishonor God, when we fail to believe what he is telling us here.  God does not want us to live like the Spirit’s power is unavailable to us, like we can’t make progress in faith and obedience, like joy in the Lord is only for a few spiritual elite, but not for us.  Joy is all over this passage, all over the journey, springing up in the desert.  It is not just at the final destination, although then it will be complete and unstained by the sin and suffering we face in this life.

How do we gain strength and joy when we are not feeling the glory of God’s salvation?  First, cry out for the Spirit.  Jesus has told us that our heavenly Father is good and he gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:13).  Second, turn away from sin (Hebrews 12:1-17).  While our experience of the desert is not always the consequence of our own sin, it can be, like Israel and Judah going into exile.  Furthermore, there is always the temptation when our souls feel dry and weary to turn to false gods and false saviors, like Judah turning to Assyria when they should have turned to the Lord.  Psychology might call it self-medicating.  God calls it idolatry, and it always leads to more misery for us.  The highway to the everlasting joy of Zion is the Way of Holiness, and it is only as we are pursuing holiness through the Spirit’s power that we experience joy and fruitfulness in our present journey.  And if we feel defeated by sin, we must realize that God has promised to save us as we trust him.  The desert will blossom.  The lame will leap for joy.  All this because of what Christ has done for us.  All God’s promises are true through Jesus and therefore we can be confident in them regardless of how many times we have failed.  Which leads to a third thing we can do.  Obey verse 4.  Behold your God who has come to save us.  We do so by meditating on Christ and his Word.  We walk by faith, not by feeling.  And we walk by faith in God’s salvation through Christ, not in how well we have been doing.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).  Faith clings to gospel promises like Isaiah 35 even when we cannot feel them at the moment.  Hear the Scriptures proclaimed.  Read them.  Ponder them.  Memorize them.  Speak them out loud when your soul feels parched and dry.  What we find is that the more we feed our souls on the gospel, the more we experience the reality of what is promised in the gospel.

More Good News from God in Dark Days

Let the People Be Glad!

(Isaiah 35:1-10, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 15, 2013)

[35:1] The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
[2] it shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the LORD,
the majesty of our God.If the deserts of the earth could talk, what would they say? “I'm thirsty. Water! I would like to be covered with flowers and fruit trees so that I could make a more joyful noise to my Maker.”

In the coming day of Messiah's kingdom, the trees of the fields will sing for joy to God. Places that were once fruitless and dangerous, will abound with the joy of the Lord. A Death Valley will experience the freshness of Mt. Pleasant. And God will be glorified by the removal of every sign of the devastation that came upon the earth because of the sin of mankind.

[3] Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
[4] Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”Even in the dark day of Isaiah, the words of this passage were very helpful. They aided the weak in finding new strength. A promise had come forth from God, who is always to be trusted. The Lord would bring His vengeance against men and angels who oppressed and abused His people. He would judge the wicked, and deliver the righteous from every danger. The Lord would save His faithful Israel who called upon His Name.

Because of this sure Word, weak hands were strengthened again. Feeble knees were once again steady and firm. Anxious hearts found a new courage. Even though the words pointed to an era that would only begin with the birth of a King centuries in the future, the righteous could live by faith, trusting in a Word from the Lord that would carry them through life and death.

[5] Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
[6] then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
[7] the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.In 2 BC, as best as we can date it today, Salvation was born. He escaped the notice of nearly everyone until He was baptized by John. But after that time, when he was about thirty-two years old, He began to perform signs that would fulfill ancient prophecies.

In John 9 He opened the eyes of a man born blind. In Mark 7 people brought to Him a man who was deaf and could not speak. That man's ears were opened and his tongue was released. In Acts 3, Peter told a crowd that it was because of the Name of Jesus that a well-known beggar who had been lame from birth was now walking, and leaping, and praising God.

These were not the only times when Jesus fulfilled the specifics of Isaiah 35:

Matthew 15:31-32 “And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.”

Luke 7:22 “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.”

[8] And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
[9] No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
[10] And the ransomed of the LORD shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.Jesus has brought about a new era of hope for weak and broken sinners who will repent of their old fruitless ways and turn to Christ to be declared holy through His blood. He has placed us on a new road called the Way of Holiness. Even those who are not skilled in wilderness travel will find this path to be well lit and safe.

The redeemed of the Lord are on that road, bought back from sin and hell by the blood of the Lamb. They are singing on their way to heaven. They have found a good deposit of joy with more promised upon their arrival or whenever the King returns to be with them forever.

The kingdom of the Christ child is the kingdom of the Spirit-born, Spirit-filled child of God. They speak the language of heaven best now. They rejoice to hear of those who were lost who have seen the light and are walking again with the redeemed.

They also know how to do Christmas right. How's that? They are not easily offended because they live in the joy of Jesus all the time. They believe in the hope of the life to come. They sing the song of a desert that has flowers and fruit trees on order and coming very soon. They see with the eyes of those who know the One who can make blind people see.

The deaf will hear His voice.

The blind shall see their Lord.

The joy of Jesus fills our hearts.

O Come, Let us adore!

A Root of Jesse

Of Him Shall the Nations Inquire

(Isaiah 11:1-10, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 8, 2013)

[11:1] There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
[2] And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
[3] And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.Jesse was the father of the famous King David who reigned over God's people 1000 years before the coming of the Messiah. This great King David had been promised a descendant who would reign forever. A dead stump is not a likely candidate for the emergence of a fruitful branch. The recovery of David's line to produce another man who would reign over a sovereign state of Judah again seemed like an impossible dream in 2 BC when Jesus was born. But then Isaiah had written that there would come forth a shoot from David's roots that would bear fruit. That was a promise from Almighty God. At just the right time, when the faith of many would have been waning, the Prince of Peace was born.

Isaiah wrote that the Spirit of the Lord would rest upon Him. John 3:34 puts it this way: “He whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.” Jesus came as the perfect representative of the Father. He had the wisdom and power of the Spirit of God in Him. He did not need to be reminded that He needed to love His Father; that was His continual delight. He had the perfect fullness of the Spirit. He gives that Spirit generously.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
[4] but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
[5] Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.In the dark days of the eighth century BC, the announcement of God's intention to send His Spirit-filled Son to reign would have been a great aid to those who were waiting for the consolation of Israel. Isaiah wrote that this great King would have the immediate knowledge and strong moral conviction that would enable Him to judge righteously and effectively in ways that no other king had done. He would not be yet another clever or manipulative man of arrogance that used His words and influence to rise to power. He would know the right thing to do and His voice would have the power to bring about a new world.

Because of His reign the weak would not have to live at the mercy of the strong. The rich would not be able to force their will on the poor by using money to get their way. This great King would have righteousness and faithfulness as His garments. The wicked would have no opportunity to fool or manipulate Him. He would bring the justice of God against them and save the Lord's faithful servants from their own cynicism and despair. In His birth, hope would come.

[6] The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
[7] The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
[8] The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
[9] They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.What began so modestly at a time when there was no room at the inn would not be finished until the world was so thoroughly changed that natural predators among animals would stop killing each other. This King would bring a world into existence where a mother would no longer have to worry about the safety of her child. No more would people have to try to figure out what to say to people in situations where there is nothing good to say. The holy mountain of the Lord and of His Christ would take over this present creation, beginning with the souls of lost sinners, and ending with a cosmic transformation that many would first scoff at when they heard of it.

The reign of this Messiah would not only transform the instincts of lions, bears, and cobras. The message of the LORD would overrule the enemies of the human soul lurking within skeptics, cynics, and other bruised and battered insecure human beings until the earth would be full of the knowledge of the Lord just as thoroughly as the ocean is full of water. There would simply be no room in the human heart for the exaltation of any pretender claiming to be the greatest and demanding our allegiance. The Lord God Almighty would reign over even us.

[10] In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

All of this would come from what appeared to be a very small beginning—a root of Jesse. That root would become a shoot. That shoot would become a new branch. That branch would bear fruit and become a mountain—a kingdom that would fill the earth and fill the hearts of a new mankind. This root of Jesse, this King from the line of David, would give a new spirit to people and would stand as a signal for all the people groups of the world. He is our banner. We have nothing to be ashamed about when we give our lives entirely to Him.

How would Jesus become our banner. In John 12 he told us that He would be lifted up on a cross, and that He would draw all people to Himself. The suffering of the cross, also foretold by Isaiah, would be a victorious banner from heaven that would change the earth. It would break the pride of the arrogant, and conquer enemies as intractable as arrogant cynicism and unbelief.

Isaiah told the people of Israel in a very dark century that this would all end very well. The Jewish Messiah from the line of David would be the Lord over all. He was telling them that despite the sin of their leaders, despite the brutality of the Assyrian Empire, despite the exile of Judah at the hands of the Babylonians, despite the legion of powerful enemies that stood against them from foreign lands and even within their own harassed souls, the God who spoke the worlds into being had a powerful Word coming that would make all things new. This Word has come. Let us adore Him forever and ever.

The righteous Son of God

Became the Lord of all.

The nations shall inquire of Him.

O Come, Let us adore!

Coming to the One Who Is the House of the Lord

The Mountain of the House of the Lord

(Isaiah 2:1-5, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 1, 2013)

[2:1] The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Lord this year we will receive much help from some passages from the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah. Isaiah ministered to God's people eight centuries before the death and resurrection of Jesus. Yet, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, He wrote powerfully about both of those events and about the Lord whose birth we desire to celebrate.

[2] It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
[3] and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”Isaiah looked past his era to a future time that he called “the latter days,” when something extraordinary would come to pass. The mountain of the house of the Lord Yahweh God of Israel, Mount Zion in Jerusalem, would be established as the highest mountain on the face of the earth. It would be the focus of all the nations, not only for our observation, but for the height of our desire. All the nations of the Gentiles would be drawn to a Jewish mountain.

Many different people groups would want to come to this mountain in order to learn from the God of Israel. This desire for learning would not be to satisfy intellectual curiosity. People would flow to Zion to learn from the God of the Jews so that they might follow Him.

For out of Zion shall go the law,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
[4] He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;In the most sacred place in Israel, people would gather from all over the world in order to learn the Law or the Word of the Lord. That Law would not be just a list of statutes of dos and don'ts. The Word of God would be a person. “He” shall judge between the nations. “He” shall decide disputes for many peoples.

The Word of God would become a person who could be followed and a King who could resolve international disputes for all the people groups of the world. The King of Israel would not only be the King of the Jews. He would be the King of the world. People would be streaming into Mount Zion so that they could learn from and follow Him concerning the important matters between their nations that needed to be resolved.

and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.This King, who can be none other than the Messiah, Jesus, the Word made flesh, would fulfill His weighty office with perfection. He would do what no one before Him had been able to accomplish. He would bring peace to all the people groups of the world. The people who would hear His voice would be eager to embrace his reign of peace. Better to have food than weapons in that new world. Better to learn how to live in peace than how to make war.

[5] O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the LORD.

Even eight centuries before the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, this great prophet of the Lord was urging the Jews to walk in the light of the Lord. He was preparing them for the King of Peace through these words.

To make good use of this passage we need to answer some basic questions.

What is the mountain of the house of the Lord?

The mountain of the house of the Lord is understood in the light of the final plan of God for the “temple.” He will dwell in peace with His people, ruling over them in the fullness of the fruit of the Holy Spirit and the height of every kind of holy blessing imaginable. Our focus now is not the temple in Jerusalem as it was in the days of Isaiah. That temple has been torn down and a new temple has come. Jesus is the cornerstone of this New Temple. He—united together forever with His church—is the mountain of the house of the Lord.

What does it mean for the nations to stream toward that mountain?

All people groups all over the world are called to see the glory of the Resurrection King and His people. They are to stream into Jesus and His church as the only place of safety from the coming judgment and the only hope for a blessed eternity of peace and fruitfulness. Streaming toward Him happens when we delight in Him, His Word, His ways, and His people, eagerly learning and following the way of the Lord.

How can we learn from the One who is the Word?

The Lord has given us just what we need in order to learn from Him. We have a Bible including these wonderful verses from Isaiah and many other Old Testament authors. We also have the New Testament fulfillment of God's promises teaching us how to understand His prophetic Word rightly. Not only do we have the Word, we even have the Spirit of God Himself to be our teacher as we eagerly seek understanding of His Word in a posture of prayer and obedience.

What does it mean for us to pursue peace in a world of intense warfare?

We still live in a world of much danger. Civil authorities still need to bear the sword, and even individuals may need to defend themselves and others from evil. But we are people who have been called by God to know the power of the cross. We have our eyes open to the day when we will not need to study war any more. We are to delight in opportunities to turn the other cheek to the slap of an enemy, living in peace as a testimony to what we know will surely come to pass.

Finally we are to find the great object of our adoration in the gift of the Son of God. He is our Rock that becomes a great mountain that fills the earth (Daniel). He is the new Temple in whom we will dwell forever (Ezekiel). He is the answer for all the people groups of the earth. (Psalm 100). He is the Lord over all, who was born to save us from this world of death and despair.

And it shall come to pass.

The mountain of the Lord

Shall be established over all.

O Come, Let us adore!