Seeing, Hearing, Jumping, Shouting | Isaiah 35:1-10

Transcript is automatically produced. Errors may be present.

Hey, thank you for leading us through that and good morning everyone. Good morning, Dan.

Wow. I heard. Good morning, Dan. I was gonna introduce myself. I am Dan in case. Hi. And as you can I’m one of the pastors here alongside Alex, alongside many other pastors on our staff. As you can tell, Alex and I have little different hairstyles. So we are in little different generations, but I am so thankful to be part of this fellowship, and I thank you for letting me be here and be able to use my gifts in this way.

I work with the area of community care and I love the teams that God has put around me. And as I was listening to that about the Food Bank Christmas shop, I realized that throughout this body, whether you volunteered to that or not, there are some tremendous hearts here.

And I thank you for being that. We’ve always said we wanna be the kind of church. If anything happened to us and we had to leave, that we’d be missed. And I think that would be true. We’re gonna look at an amazing passage and this passage in Isaiah 35 that Ivy read to us is full of joy.

And I gotta tell you, I don’t wanna get in the way of that joy. I’m hoping that by the end of this morning. Yeah, you’ll be filled with some hope to look for that joy. Let’s just, I’m just gonna read these first two verses. The desert and the parched land will be glad. The wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus.

It will burst into bloom. It will rejoice greatly, and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it. The splendor of Carmel and Sharon, they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. Now I’m gonna go back to that verse one because man, there’s some very interesting, the parts land’s gonna be glad.

The wilderness is gonna rejoice. It’s gonna burst into blooms. It will rejoice greatly. And I love this last one. It’s gonna shout for joy. How many of you believe that? Oh, come on. Come on. Where are the hands? Yes, this is talking about something. That’s coming. Something that’s coming. And I have to admit, as I was getting ready for this, I was reading different commentaries.

I was trying to see what different scholars would say, and most of them approach this and say, oh, this is a wonderful poem that Isaiah’s writing. And he uses different techniques like personification to make it come alive for us. And I thought fuey, because when I read this. I think it’s for real. I think there’s gonna come a time when creation is gonna shout for Joy, and I don’t begin to understand what that’s gonna look like.

Now, let me just tell you and I’ll go to that other slide and it’s you see that little thing NLT down there, that’s, that stands for New Living Translation. I use that a lot. And for some of you who are new to getting into the Bible, there’s different translations and the folks who translated the scriptures, they all had great intents.

In the new living translation, they go phrase by phrase. And to me it, it just makes it come alive. But as I read this, I wondered I wonder what some translations that are really a little bit more concerned about being word for word for word might come out with, and there’s a translation called the New American Standard Bible, which is supposed to be word for word.

So I looked it up expecting it may not be as over the top. As this one and this is what I saw, the wilderness and the desert will rejoice. The desert will shout for joy and blossom like the crocus. I have no idea what a crocus is, but I just picture in the springtime over there in the land of Israel, crocuses just came alive.

It will blossom profusely. It profusely and rejoice with joy and jubilation. Now, come on. The one I was using, the translation I was using didn’t get into jubilation, but here it’s talking about creation is gonna get into jubilation, they’re gonna rejoice, and I had to stop and ask, what is that gonna look like, man?

Are tree gonna start singing? I think so. Are bushes gonna come alive, lift their limbs up to God? I think so. I and that’s hard for us to imagine. A few weeks ago in in our elders meeting, one of the elders was leading us in worship, and he took us to revelation chapter five.

Listen to this. And then I heard every creature in heaven on an earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang blessing and honor, and glory and power belonged to the ones sitting on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever. Now, let me highlight a few of those things for you. And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea.

And they were all singing this praise and glory to God. And I can understand birds chirping away and singing to God and having a great symphony. I can understand some of the animals doing the same thing. I’m wondering about earthworms. I’m wondering about fish. But it says their voices are gonna join together.

Now, this is from Revelation. This is looking at the end of history, at the culmination of history. And I believe it, it reflects these same two verses, the culmination of what Jesus came to begin and as I wrestled with that and thought I wonder what this is gonna look like. Have we ever seen anything like this?

Some of the commentaries I read said. You look at Israel today and things are starting to turn green. That still doesn’t match verses one and two. Some have said this was during the time of Hezekiah the King, and I’m sure there was some of this that happened after that. I don’t think so.

I had to ask the question. I wonder what the Garden of Eden was like. As elders, we were going through some, oh, some theological questions, and we were talking about transformation. Now I’m a big one about transformation. Somebody, one of you came up to me and asked me Dan, what do you think we’re being transformed to?

And I said followers of Jesus Christ. I gave the typical answer that pastors give. And they said to me, did you ever think of what might have been in the Garden of Eden? And that maybe Jesus came to reestablish his creation as he intended it to be. And yeah, we’re not there yet, but he started it and he’s calling us, kinda, kinda look in that direction.

And I wonder what the Garden of Eden was like. They had a talking snake. I am sure that wasn’t the only I, the only animal that talked and it says that Adam named all the animals. Can you imagine? I think I’ll name you, giraffe. Thank you. I like that name. Who knows what was going on in The Guardian?

The, I believe the trees were singing. I believe there was something wonderful about how Jesus created all things and then put us together, and then we made that ultimately terrible decision to say, I’d rather be God. And boom, that wonderful, beautiful creation was broken. And we find ourselves in the midst of that brokenness.

That those verses that we were looking at before, it ends with that theme. The splendor of our God, that all of creation is gonna rejoice together and they’re gonna be lifting high the splendor of our God. And it reminded me of a song. Yeah. In fact, I’d say, if you wanna sing along with me, go ahead.

The splendor of the king clothed in majesty let all the earth rejoice, let all the earth rejoice. He wraps himself in light and darkness, tries to hide and trembles at his voice. And trembles at his voice. How great is our God sing with me. How great is our God? And all the great, how great it is our God.

Hey, you did a great job. I should have printed some other verses. But I just see the songwriter coming to Isaiah 35 verses one and two and coming up with that song, how Great is Our God? We’re in the time of advent. You may be saying, Dan, this is Advent. This is, we’re looking toward Christmas.

This doesn’t sound very Christmasy to me. It’s probably not because it’s advent. And and I would just point out now we’re gonna take a 180 and, here we’ve been talking about creation, just praising God, lifting their voices, birds twittering. Now I’m gonna show us cooking one of those birds.

Oh, wait a minute. First I gotta give, in the last few weeks Jessica, Alex had done a great job of giving us what the definition of advent is. It’s from the Latin word Adventist. And it means coming. And we oftentimes think of, okay, we’re remembering the coming of Christ and we’re rejoicing in that.

But it’s twofold. Yes, we’re remembering the coming of Christ, but we’re expecting his return. We’re looking forward to another coming. When he will return, when verses one and two will be actualized. When revelation five will really be coming into play. It’s something that we’re looking forward to. The coming of Christ at Bethlehem, of Jesus being born was an amazing miracle, and it reminds us that he’s gonna come again.

And that’s what Advent is. There’s something about, yes, expecting his return. I believe that even the demons expect his return. They know they’re fried, but they’re gonna try to take as many people with him before he comes. So I’d like to insert that word, anticipating his return. There’s something about anticipation that enters into just an understanding that we expect he’s gonna come.

I hope each one of us anticipates this, and you may say, we’ve gone generations without ’em coming back. That’s true. That’s true. And we may go another generations or so before he comes. I don’t know when he’s coming, but I wanna live in the anticipation that he’s gonna come and I wanna live in the anticipation that what we read here is real.

Now about me cooking a bird. This is this is a picture of our Thanksgiving meal. It is not a, an instructional video. It is not me burning my fingers, but we had to send a video to our family just to prove that Dan and Kerry cooked a Turkey. That is an amazing feat, but for Thanksgiving. We cooked this Turkey and we had a great day.

We had friends over we, we had enjoyed ourselves around the table. Good food. We played games till late at night. It was a wonderful time. And when everybody left Karen and I just looked at each other and we said, boy, we’ve got a lot to be grateful for. Now, the reason I share that is because two days later, I’m just flipping through my phone looking at some news items. I didn’t even, hadn’t even been aware. And I came across these pictures and these pictures were taken right about the same time I was popping that Turkey into the stove. They said it was like a one in 300 year storm that hit Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand.

900 people lost their lives. 4 million people were displaced by the mudslides. Just a horrible devastation and it brought you into that reality. Here we are we’re looking forward to. So expectantly about his return, we’re remembering his coming to this earth, and yet this earth still is pretty broken.

And it reminded me of Romans chapter eight, for we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time. Now, Carrie and I have a little advent devotional that we go through. One day we were reading it and it was like a Debbie Downer and I have to admit, it was a pastor who was just reevaluating his year, and he came out with this statement.

His name is David Taylor. He came out with this statement, good Things that Should have been Strong and Enduring. Are falling apart, marriages broken by infidelity, families torn apart by political animosities, congregations damaged, and then fractured by the abuse of authority. Cities roiled by cycles of protest and counter protest landscapes ravaged by fire, and so we find ourselves in this.

I will call a wonderful tension. A tension that looks ahead to realize all creation is gonna rejoice when he comes back, but a tension that sees that creation living now and groaning, and we join it because we are living in a broken world at a broken time. But I don’t think God wants us to stay there.

Romans eight. That verse that I pulled out about how all creation groans, let me show you the verse that comes right before it, verse 21. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children. That’s us in glorious freedom from death and decay. For, we know now that all creation has been groaning, as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time, but with eager hope, the creation looks forward to that day when it will be freed, and we should look forward eagerly to that hope as well.

It reminded me of a song that we sing at. Christmas time. A thrill of hope. A thrill of hope. The weary world rejoices, oh, holy Night for yonder breaks a new eternal gr, a throne, a thrill of hope. I’ll go back to those verses in, in Isaiah because I hear this tension. I hear this tension, and I wonder, okay.

What is it that Isaiah is trying to say to his people? What is it that he’s saying to his people during Jesus time? What is it that he’s saying to us today?

There the Lord will display his glory, the splendor of our God with this news. With this news. Strengthen those who have tired hands. Encourage those who have weak knees, say to those with fearful hearts, be strong and do not fear for your God, for your be strong and do not fear for your God is coming to destroy your enemies.

He is coming to save you. So I had to ask the question, okay, when Isaiah writes these words, what are his people going through? That they have tired hands, weak knees. Because frankly, every once in a while my needs get weak. I get fearful. If you were to talk to Carrie this morning, she would tell you I was going through battle rattle this morning.

Anxiety comes whenever I preach but God says, strengthen each other with this. So what’s going on during the time of Isaiah? These are verses that Alex looked at that Jessica looked at. These are the visions. This is from chapter one, verse one about Isaiah’s prophecy. These are the visions that Isaiah son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

He saw these visions during the years when Siah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah were kings of Israel, of Judah, Kings of Judah. So you’ve got these four kings, and I’ll tell you right off the bat, three of those kings. Our godly kings, three of those kings did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. One of them was a bummer.

And Jessica looked at the one last week Ahaz I’ve always wondered how can a good king have a bad king as a son? And how can a bad king have a good king as a son? But Ahaz was the son of Johann. Johann was a good king, and as came, and he just reversed everything his father did, and he did some very terrible things.

But one of the really bad things he did was as, as his kingdom started to fall apart as RA rulers around him started to attack his kingdom, instead of going to his God for help, he went to an empire called Assyria. And he brought this empire Assyria into that context of Israel and Judah, and Assyria was a world domination at the time.

Ruthless, frightening. And you know what? It backfired on his, it backfired on him. He thought it was gonna, get him out of his troubles. Instead, Assyria came against him also. And then they demanded tribute and Ahaz had to strip the temple of all its gold implements to just pay the taxes that Assyria was d was requesting, not requesting, demanding.

Then Ahaz died and his son Hezekiah again, how did a bad king birth A good son, but Hezekiah was a good king who did things in the sight of the Lord that were pleasing. And he reestablished the temple worship. He purified the temple. He started Passover again. He just went nine miles an hour, 10 boy, 90 miles an hour in that direction.

And Assyria didn’t like it because Hezekiah said no to Assyria, said, my father may have set up an alliance with you, but I’m not. And so Asthe began marching toward Jerusalem. You can almost hear the footsteps. Is that. Huge Army started to come toward Jerusalem and they destroyed town after town as they came and they came to Jerusalem where Hezekiah and his people were holed up.

If I had been there, my knees would not just have been weak, they would’ve been shaken. They would’ve been shaken, and Isaiah, I believe, came with this message. Then you can read the whole story in the following chapters Isaiah 36 to 39, and you’ll see the whole thing that took place. But I believe Isaiah came with a message and it said this, be strong and do not fear for your God is coming to destroy your enemies.

He’s coming to save you.

I just wonder if I was standing on that wall of Jerusalem, looking out over the landscape and seeing it covered with an army like a Syria had and heard the army out there just preparing for battle, what I would’ve felt like would I have been able to accept these words. What I’ve been able to relax and realize, yes, he’s, God is gonna come, he’s gonna destroy my enemies.

When you read those chapters that I said in Isaiah, you’ll find out that he did come, he did destroy as Syria didn’t destroy it. He sent a Syria back out and he saved Jerusalem that day. But a little over a hundred years later, he didn’t when another empire came against them and. They fell and people were taken into exile.

And after Babylon’s Empire came, then you had the Persian Empire, then you had the Greek Empire, then you had the Roman Empire, and you had this little place of Israel that just found itself continually under the heel of these nations. And you may ask, God, I thought you said you were gonna come to save us.

The next few verses that Isaiah shared are this. He’s coming to save you, and when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind. He’ll unplug the ears of the deaf. The lame will leap. Leap like a deer and those who cannot speak will sing for joy.

Now, let me just tell you, okay, this is saying he is coming to save you. Who’s he? It’s God. God is coming to save you. And when he comes, he’s gonna do these things. He’s gonna open the eyes of the blind, open the ears of the deaf, the lame are gonna leap. Those who cannot speak will sing for joy. And if I were standing on that wall of Jerusalem looking out at this Assyrian army, I would say God, what about them?

What about that?

Let’s. Let’s go about 700 years from then, 700 years into history. And I just wanna read some verses to you as we get ready. I’ll show you this picture first, and I read these verses from John Chapter one. The word gave life to everything that was created and his life brought light to everyone.

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it. God sent a man. John the Baptist to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony, John himself wasn’t that light. He was simply a witness to tell about the light, the one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone.

He was coming into the world. He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people and even they rejected him. Okay. What’s this crazy picture I’ve got up here? This is a place called Rios. It’s a fortress that’s on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. M many of you have probably heard of Masada.

Masada was a fortress and a Jewish fortress that was on the western side of the Dead Sea. The story of the Maccabees is phenomenal. It’s interesting to read the whole Masada story, but on the other side was this Mears, which was actually even larger Fortress John the Baptist. The one who heralded the coming of Jesus Christ, the one who said There is the Lamb of God.

Follow him, put your lives in his hands and go with him. The one who, yeah, single handedly brought people to follow Jesus. We learned from history that John the Baptist was imprisoned here in Mears. I don’t know if these steps might lead to a dungeon or something like that. Archeologists don’t know.

They just find these things and they get all excited about it, and then they try to figure out what is it that we just found. But I’ll tell you, in that vicinity, John the Baptist was sitting in a dungeon cell and he didn’t know what his fate was going to be. And as he’s sitting there, he’s asking the question, why am I here?

What in the world happened to this vision that we had? Jesus was supposed to be this Messiah who was gonna come and free us, and here I am in prison. And so John calls two of his disciples to come over and he said to him, I want you to go, I want you to find Jesus, and I want you to ask him the question, are you really the one that we were expecting, or should we look for somebody else?

Wow. And those disciples went, they found Jesus. They asked that question and Jesus gave them this answer. Then he told John’s disciples, go back to John and tell ’em what you’ve seen and heard the blind. See the lame walk. Those with leprosy are cured. The deaf here, the dead are raised to life, and the good news is being preached to the poor.

The good news is being preached to the poor, I believe very much. When those disciples went back to John with that message, John received it and he knew right off the bat, oh, this is from Isaiah, the prophets. And I do believe also that John realized when Jesus said those words, Jesus was identifying himself as someone in particular.

Because John knew that those words said, when God comes to save, this is what he’s gonna do. And Jesus was saying, Hey, I’m God. I’m God, who in a miraculous way has reduced himself to a human body and I’m doing these things that I told you I was gonna do.

Jesus adds something very interesting after those disciples leave. There’s that verse right there, but down at the bottom, at the yellow, and he added, God blesses those who do not fall away. And I see that’s cut off who do not fall away because of me. He said. And as I read that, I wondered, what in the world does that mean?

God blesses those who don’t fall away because of me. This is again, when you can kinda look at some other translations and I love to look at the message. Now. I will tell you right off the bat, the message is not a translation, it’s a paraphrase, but sometimes it just makes it come alive. And he translates those words.

God blesses those who do not fall away because of me to Is that what you were expecting? Then count yourself fortunate. Were you expecting a Messiah to come? Who would heal the blind? Who would open the ears of the deaf? Who would allow people to walk? Are you expecting a messiah to come? Who would say, I wanna take my creation, I wanna bring it back to what I intended it to be?

Or were you expecting a creation to come or a Messiah to come? Who would say, I’m gonna overthrow the Roman Empire for you. I’m gonna free you all? And Jesus said. That’s not me. In fact, when Isaiah gave these words, Isaiah may not have even realized what he was saying, but he was giving us the word that God was saying When I come, don’t let your expectations of how I should work hinder you from seeing my coming,

and I think we have the same problem today.

When I think of John the Baptist and many of the Jews of his time, his fellow Jews, oh, they so much wanted to be freed from the Roman Empire. And frankly, I don’t know that God is all that concerned about impacting empires and political enterprises, military movements. God is concerned about touching human hearts individually, uniquely as he has created them to be and as he touches those individual hearts, there’s a transformation that takes place.

And I think the greatest impact on empires occurs as God moves individuals to come together as his kingdom. We have hospitals today because God’s people have started them. Yeah, we have orphanages because Christians felt concerned for orphans. We had the abolition of slavery because some Christians were concerned about slavery.

You can go on and on throughout our culture, throughout our history and see how Christianity has made an impact far greater than if Jesus had gone in there and overturned the Roman Empire because he’s mobilized us. To be his instruments of transformation in our society. Isaiah goes on in his chapter 35 and you’ll have to read it.

We don’t have time to go into everything. He talks some more about creation just coming alive and the rejoicing and everything that’s gonna go on. But then he comes to this verse that’s interesting. And a great road will go through that. Once deserted land, it will be named the Highway of holiness.

Evil minded people will never travel on it. It will be only for those who walk in God’s ways. Again, I believe this is something way in the future, and who knows if it’s way in the future, maybe it’s tomorrow. I don’t know. But it’s the culmination of the history that Jesus started rolling. As I read Isaiah, I was reminded of another highway, ’cause there’s another highway that Isaiah talks about which kind of blows me away.

It’s back in chapter 19. Just read this for you. In that day, Egypt and Assyria will be connected by a highway. The Egyptians and the Assyrians will move freely between their lands. They will both worship God in that day. Israel will be the third along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth.

Isn’t that something? When I look at the Middle East today, I don’t see that getting too close, but God’s gonna do that, and Isaiah saw that. But that highway, which just amazes me, does not begin to compare. To the highway that he talks about in Isaiah 35, because on that highway, only the redeemed are gonna walk there.

Those the Lord has rescued will return, they’ll enter Zion with singing. Everlasting joy is gonna crown their head. Gladness and joy will overtake them. Sorrow and sighing is gonna flee away. Now, if that sounds like a song, it is. But we’re not gonna sing it, therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall.

Anyway I just share that we have so much to look forward to. We have so much to anticipate and yes, in the anticipation and in the hope of those days to come, it doesn’t mean that we just turn a blind eye and say, okay, I’ve gotta put on the happy face. No. We realize at Christmas time sometimes, yes, loneliness is very prevalent at Christmas time.

Oh, sometimes brokenness just seems to be emphasized.

But if there’s any word, I would have you here today. Don’t give up hope. Hang on to this amazing vision. That we’re given in Isaiah 35 and know that it’s coming. In fact, there’s some verses I would just close with and I’d ask the band to come up as we get ready for our final song. But it’s from Colossians chapter three, and these are verses that God’s just been hammering away at me these last few weeks.

Colossians chapter three. Since you’ve been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s. Right hand set your sights on those things of heaven. And I have to admit, there were times I’d read that verse and I’d say, oh, that sounds like you’re becoming a little too heavenly minded to be any earthly good.

But I think after Isaiah 35 is percolated in my heart, I’d rather say it’s time to be a little bit more heavenly minded so I can start to be some earthly good. Because you know what comes later? There’s after these verses, there’s this, therefore there’s this word. And he says in verse 10, I. Put on the new nature since you’ve been raised to new life of Christ, that your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.

And then it says, therefore, put on the new nature. Be renewed. As you learn to know your creator, become like him. And I can’t help but believe as we become more and more like him, we’re not gonna be able to sit in our chairs. We’re gonna be getting involved in transformation in the world around us. Many of you know the story of my mom.

As you can see from my hairstyle, I’m fairly old. My mom is still alive. Now this picture was taken a couple years ago when we were back there visiting, but my mom just had a birthday. She’s now 104. I know.

Just to let you all know, I am not putting in any orders to live to 104, but I’ll always remember one time when we were back visiting and mom’s in a skilled nursing care place. Now, when we were back there visiting, one of the nurses pulled me aside. I said, Dan, I just wanna tell you, your mom amazes me.

And I said, oh yeah, a hundred, 103. Yeah, that’s something to be amazed at. 104. She said no. It’s not about how old, we’ve got some old people here. She’s not afraid of death. And I said no, she’s not. And frankly, neither am I because of Jesus Christ. I have faith in him that when Jesus came, he started his work and he conquered death and he conquered fear.

And therefore we don’t have to be afraid of death because on the other side, there’s amazing things. I don’t know how it’s all gonna work out. That’s up to God when someone dies. I have people that come up to me and say, Darren, what happens when I die? I don’t know, but I know you’re gonna be in God’s presence somehow, some way, somewhere sometime.

I just leave that up to God, how he deals with all the details. But I know that the day is gonna come when all creation is gonna glorify him. They’re gonna sing, they’re gonna jump. The animals are gonna be rejoicing in symphony, and we’re gonna join in with him. And you and I are gonna be walking on that highway that Isaiah talks about where the redeemed of the Lord are gonna return to him.

I’ve asked Aaron and the band this isn’t exactly a Christmas Carol. But I must admit, I think it should be an advent, Carol. It’s a great advent. It’s a great advent, Carol. Soon and very soon, I don’t know how many of you know this song, but we’re gonna sing this one. It’s an Andre Crouch song way back.

But I have great memories. Okay. I just gotta tell you this, I got great memories of this because when when I was a youth pastor, years and years ago, we took our youth group down to Kentucky, to this music festival. There were thousands of people there. And Andre Crouch was on the stage with his band, the Disciples, and they sang soon and very soon.

And I was so moved. I gotta tell you now, this is a visual you’ll probably never forget. Carrie got on my back and she’s up on my shoulders and we’re just dancing soon and very soon. And I didn’t drop her at all, but I’m just looking forward to us singing this because it’s real for us soon. And. Very soon we’re gonna see the king.