Awaiting Hope (Isaiah 9)

Christmas story – Waiting. IDKAY – I Hate waiting. Waiting is hard. Life is full of waiting:

-Birthday/Christmas – presents (How many peaked?)

-To get a cell phone – flip. Startac. (Picture)

-To drive – independence

-To go to university -To finish school

-To find a job – $

-To get married

-To have kids – For the kids to be out of diapers, to talk not just scream, to feed themselves, put themselves to bed (Any tired parents?), to leave the house, to have their own families, to have grandkids – love kids but the kind you can give back to their parents

-To retire

…And by this time you’re old and your body is broken. You’ve waited all your life to enjoy life and then you’re too old to actually enjoy it. Now you’re just waiting to see all kinds of doctors and then to die – tired of suffering. We just go waiting for one thing to another without any real purpose or fulfillment. Depressing way to live, isn’t it?

Don’t you all wish you could just throw yourself on the ground and scream and have a good tantrum – kids? (In service – Parents nervous. Message? Kids. Join them.) Adults – We usually find other ways to let it out – Addiction, Money, Pleasure, Comfort, Escape/Disconnect. – All promise it’s going to be ok or at least numb us for a bit but they can’t really deliver. And they leave us without hope.

Christmas is usually a joyful time. Songs, family, decorations. (I’m from – Cold weather. Snow.) But for a lot of people – it’s a reminder that nothing is the way it should be. Yes, there are some good things to celebrate and find joy in, but the reality under the surface is once the songs go away, the decorations get put up, and the holiday is over, there’s a deep brokenness inside. There’s a waiting for something more.

So you do all this waiting for your entire life, what’s the end result? Did all the waiting get you what you were hoping for? Or did you just wait and wait with nothing to show for it? For many, life – Hopelessness.

Context: Before the first Christmas – God’s people – 400+ years of silence. Waiting. Has God forgotten? Does he care anymore? Given up? For many of you – that’s where you find yourself this Christmas season. You’re waiting on God to show up, to break through. Isa. 9 – Promise of hope – Promise of Christmas.

Text: Isa. 9 1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

Prophet Isa. here – speaking of the present and future things to come (gloom and contempt) as if they were already past. Good news/hope coming. But at this moment – God’s people here are about to be invaded and disciplined by God for their sin. They’re not in a good place – they’re in “deep darkness” (Terrifying – more than heights – Water – 11k km. – Crushing pressure. Darkness.) – because they have rejected their God and his good way. 

Reality that we all find ourselves in – Darkness/Brokenness – This broken world and all the messed up things in it is the result of our sin – our choosing to reject God and do things our own way. So everything good that God had made was broken – most importantly our relationship with God our Creator. Problem – Darkness not just out there. But deep in here. In every person’s heart.

And there’s no way out for us. No way to fix it on our own. We’ve had thousands of years of human history to figure it out, and are we any closer to fixing things? If anything, we’ve just become more advanced in our brokenness. Remain – Without hope. Hopeless. 

1. Hope is not something that is found in ourselves or in the world.  Doesn’t matter how hard we try, how long we have to try, darkness and brokenness because of sin are our reality. Imprisoned. Slaves. Wishing/Waiting – Way out. (Not the most jolly Christmas message so far…) 

So how is Christmas good news in light of all the darkness and brokenness in the world? Because there’s a hope that came for us…God loved us too much to leave us in sin and death. God had to step in…

3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

God is the one who brings joy. Hope. The people are rejoicing before their God for the work he’s done…

4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Like the past – Divine work of God. God steps in to deliver his people – free them from their enemies/oppression. Not something that is brought about or accomplished by man or any country.

5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

God brings an end to all wars and violence. Peace. Imagine? Fighting a war – News – It’s over. Best news ever. Deep breath of relief. Weight gone. We’ve all been here – Waiting for good news in a terrible situation – Me: A few months after moving to Malaysia. Short – Almost died from a metal fan blade slicing the back of my head open. ED – (Broken ankle) Blood everywhere. Doctor – If I don’t tie up this blood vessel – you’re going to bleed out and die. The next couple mins – felt like eternity – pain and am I going to die?? (Lang.) I make it. – Relieved. Thankful. – Joke – She did it.

Take that and up it infinity times – That’s that incredible news of what God was going to do for us – Deliverance and peace – Not just physically/earthly, but spiritually – he’s going to take care of our biggest enemy – sin and death and all the brokenness and darkness.

(Through – Climax – Everything hinges on…) 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

God’s divine grace, the only hope for the world – child. How is a child our hope, the answer to all our problems, and how God is going to deliver us through him? This child will be – (Names)

Wonderful Counselor – Knows exactly what we need/when we need. The truth we need to hear. God’s good/perfect ways. Guide/Direct. (And he doesn’t just give us good words to do it on our own…)

Mighty God – All powerful. There’s nothing He cannot do. Nothing is impossible or too hard. No situation that he cannot fix, heal, or make a way out. (Not far off and uninvolved…)

Everlasting Father – Intimacy. Love. Care. Safety. Protector. Provider. – Everything is going to be ok. (Throwing kids into the air.)

Prince of Peace – Wholeness. He makes everything right. There’s nothing out of order or broken in his kingdom.

And to do this, Jesus would enter into our darkness and take the punishment for our sins in our place on the cross – he would be broken for us – so we could have peace with God and the hope of eternity with him.

7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. 

Who this child is and what his kingdom will be like sounds exactly like what we need doesn’t it? Wouldn’t you like and hope for a reality like this? This is the hope that God gives to us in his son Jesus. He is everything we need in every situation to give us hope…

Interesting story – Jesus sleeping in the storm. Jesus, boat with his disciples, storm, disciples freaking out, Jesus – how are you sleeping? Don’t you care that we’re about to die? We’re about to go under! And of course Jesus calms the storm and everything is ok.

Hope is not the lack of darkness, the lack of hardship, and suffering – It’s Jesus’ presence in the midst of all the brokenness/darkness.

Christmas – Jesus – Immanuel (Isa. 7) – God with us. Jesus entered into our darkness, our pain, our sorrow. – To be with us.

He came for people with problems, for people broken and beaten down by life and without hope. If that’s you, you’re whom he came for. He came for you. He came to give you hope – he came to give himself for you.

Why? He didn’t need to. There’s nothing we’ve done to deserve it. There’s nothing he was missing or needing in heaven. Love.

Hope is not just wishful thinking. Hope is not just a nice concept or idea. – To trick yourself to get you through life. – Confidence in God’s faithfulness to his unchanging character – faithfulness and love – and his promises – to rescue you, to send a Savior, to give you life and hope that the brokenness of this world can not take away. 

Christmas is proof. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are proof. Hope –  solid basis.

2. Hope is a person – His name is Jesus. Jesus is our hope – in life and death and everything in between. – What’s so incredible about Christmas. God could have left us on our own – in darkness, without hope. But he sent Jesus to come for us, a people dwelling in deep darkness, to save us. He was born to die. And make a way for us to have hope and eternal life with him.

Everyone here is probably waiting on God for something – You could probably make a list of things. Good things. You’d make happen right now if you had the ability. 

Exhortation – Wait on God – In Scripture 50-60x – Waiting on God for his salvation, deliverance, timing, promises. Only God can. Isa. 8:17 I will wait for the LORD … and I will hope in him.

I can wait because Jesus came as promised. I can wait because he’s promised – Jesus is coming again. And when he does – He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Death will be no more. There will be no more pain or suffering or crying anymore. Will make all things new. – If we can hope in him for the most important, ultimate, eternal things, we can hope in him for the rest. Past grace is a promise of future grace. Always on time. Never late. Never lacking. Never fails.

Our waiting, our neediness/inabilities – Opportunities for God to work. To do what we cannot. Remember – Our hope is in him – his faithfulness, his love, his promises. 

What are you waiting for? And are you sure that what you’re waiting for is going to deliver? Will it save you? Will it meet and fulfill your greatest needs? Don’t settle for temporary worldly hope for your ultimate hope. 

-Money – Comes and goes. Can’t take anything with you. Game – Monopoly – All the pieces go back into the box.

-Health – Long life. Death comes for everyone.

-Family – Sometimes our closest relationships bring us the most pain.

Good things but weren’t meant to be ultimate things. Hope is not in something. It is someone – His name is Jesus. 

If you truly believe in him, this hope changes everything. Can’t go back to your old life again. Will you receive this incredible life changing, eternity changing gift?