No. 25. >> I really am enjoying Isaiah. And I'm beginning to look forward to preaching from this book. So I would like to start exploring some possible texts. Will you kindly give me an example of a Christmas sermon from Isaiah? >>DR. R. REED LESSING: As we've been finding out, Isaiah has a wealth of information and application through Christ to the church in terms of preaching. I hope that throughout our time so far, you've heard enough from specific texts that you could begin to craft a sermon from some of the text that we've studied. However, at this point in our instruction, it would be a good idea to look at specific texts and see how that text may work from Isaiah's day to our day. And beginning at the part of the church here with Christmas, we want to spend some time now looking at Isaiah Chapter 9, specifically the first six or seven verses. In many liturgical calendars, this text is either assigned on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day. What you will find in this particular sermon is that it's on Christmas Day or perhaps even the first Sunday after Christmas. So having said that, let's use everything we know about Isaiah now and begin to exegete, interpret, and move a text toward Christian proclamation. The specific section that we're looking at in Chapter 9 of Isaiah would be in Verse 2. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Upon those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light upon them has dawned. Well, what we want to do in terms of moving this text and this entire pericope into proclamation is look at how I might take this and hook people into listening to a sermon from Isaiah Chapter 9. So this would be my modest attempt at trying to engage people toward a text of this nature. So it begins, this sermon. Experts call this the season of SAD. SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder. So named because during this dark time of the year, we don't get enough light. And no light means no energy, no movement, no life. It's sad in another way, too. Assuming this is a text that you're using on Christmas Day or on the first Sunday after Christmas, it's sad because we've just entered probably the post holiday blues. Presents are possessions. Parties are past. Purchases are causing a plethora of financial problems. Gone is the cacophony of choruses. Thank you so much. You shouldn't have. It just fits. Under the holiday spell we shelled out over $270 billion dollars for toys, turkeys, travel, tinsel, trees and of course today Tylenol. What now? No more chestnuts roasting on open fires. No more dreams of white Christmases. No more red-nosed reindeers. Size 36? Oh, that's been exchanged for size 40. Eggnog is on sale for half price. Your brother-in-law ate the last piece of pecan pie. We are a people walking in darkness. Living in the land of the shadow of death. So there we have it. We're trying to move the text into people's experience as they are going through life at this present moment. Having kind of set the idea for sad and lack of light, we want to now understand a little bit more about the context of Isaiah Chapter 9. To do that, we have this next paragraph. So also, was the depressing dirge for the tribes of Zebulon and Naphtali. In two campaigns the great Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser III in 734 and 732 conquered and transformed Zebulon and Naphtali into Assyrian provinces. Zebulon and Naphtali were renamed by Tiglath-pileser into ***Dulru, ***Megdu and ***Galzu. The loss of their tribal names meant the loss of their ancient ties with the people of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Sad is a cataclysmic understatement. There would be no more light. And no light means no energy, no movement, no life. Now, at this point I've at least attempted to bring this text back into its original context. The temptation when preaching from Isaiah or any part of the Old Testament is to move right to the New Testament. To ignore the text context. Its history. Its peculiarities. So I want to anchor the people in the life and times of Isaiah. I don't want to spend a lot of time on that. But I do want to provide a paragraph or so people know we're not talking about John 8 Verse 12 where Jesus says: I am the light of the world. We're not talking about Ephesians 5 where Paul says: Live as children of the light. See, this isn't Jesus preaching right now. It's not Paul. It's Isaiah. So we want Isaiah to have his say during this sermon as much as possible. So at that point there's an illustration here about the Lone Ranger. And you may remember the Lone Ranger. I won't discuss the entire illustration I have. But the idea is that someone had just been saved. Their property has been given back to them. Their wife and children are out of prison or out of some kind of burning house. And at the end of this 30-minute TV show, growing up I saw it once, I saw it 100 times, people would ask: What? Who was that masked man? Imagine having all of your life restored to you. And not knowing who did it. Well, in like manner, Zebulon and Naphtali had been called out of Egypt, fed and nourished for their journey, given their tribal inheritance. They had the sure and certain prophetic words of Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Hosea. Yahweh had again and again delivered, saved, rescued them. And they missed it. The result: God sent Assyria, the rod of his anger. That's the night when the lights went out for Zebulon and Naphtali. Okay. So we're sprinkling a little bit of Isaiah's life and times in here. We're not trying to blow people away with a lot of ancient Near Eastern Israelite history. But just so they know that the reason why people are going to be walking in darkness and then the light shines, the darkness is Assyria. Because of the fact that the people in Naphtali and Zebulon had simply missed God's provision for their lives. Well, now we need to make some law application towards the people who are in the pews. In the baptismal flood, you and I are called out of Egypt, this world. In eucharistic body and blood, we're fed and nourished for the journey. We have an inheritance, I Peter 1 Verse 4 that can never perish, spoil or fade. Kept in heaven. We have the word of prophets made more certain. God has again and again delivered us, saved us, rescued us. But we miss it why is that? John 3:19: This is the verdict: Light has come into the world. But men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Loving the darkness of self-centered narcism, living in the darkness of lies and half truths, longing for more of the darkness that feeds our flesh, the prince of darkness mocks our feeble discipleship, our failed relationships, our fatal attractions. So here we are moving from the sin, the malady of Zebulon and Naphtali and applying that to the hearer. Nevertheless, that's how Isaiah 9 Verse 1 begins. There will be no more gloom for those who are in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulon and Naphtali. But in the future he will honor galley of the Gentiles. By the way of the sea along the Jordan. That's Verse 1. Verse 2, our primary text, people walking in darkness have seen a great light. And not just any ordinary light. The first light to shine on the land of Zebulon and Naphtali was Gideon. Remember, we talked about this. When we were trying to understand how prophecy works, what makes prophecy tick, one of the components is that a prophet is simply taking something from Israel's past tradition and applying it to their day. Again, we don't want to move too quickly. We're entering the Gospel point of the sermon. But we don't want to move too quickly to the New Testament lest we lose Gospel from the Old Testament. So we want to talk about Gideon. And we talked about him already in a prior question. But we had this hermeneutical clue in Verse 4 of Isaiah 9. All of this, remember, is like the day of Midian. So Judges 7 Verse 20: Grasping the torches on the day of Midian in their left hands and blowing in their right hands trumpets they were to blow, they shouted a sword for the law and for Gideon. So there is this great light in the land of Zebulon and Naphtali through Gideon. And the defeat of those mighty menacing Midianites. But soon after there would be another light that would shine on Zebulon and Naphtali. Again, remember that six-part slide we looked at. We are locating Isaiah in Israel's past text. Now we are locating him in what's going to happen in the future. Still in the Old Testament. And we've located him as best as we can in his present day. So this light shining is going to happen within the Old Testament. And that would be Josiah. In the Josianic Reformation that would be in II Kings Chapters 22 and 23. Anyway, in the sermon it would say: Soon after our text another light would shine. King Josiah marched north with the burning torch of a new found torah, Word of God. A lamp to his feet and a light for his path. He would reclaim the northern kingdom. Zebulon and Naphtali included. But the best light was saved for last. See how now we are moving into New Testament Gospel. What a light show. Luke writes: An angel of the Lord appeared to them. And the glory of the Lord shown around them. Simeon celebrates a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. The Magi marveled: We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. What a light show. At this point we want to go to Verse 6 in Chapter 9 of Isaiah. And use Isaiah, again, to preach the Gospel. Where Isaiah says -- at least in this text -- his name is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And here being within the day of Christmas or shortly thereafter, we have the beauty of the incarnation. Jesus, the light of the world, took on flesh. So that he might take you into his arms. Heal your hurts. Forgive your filth. And destroy your darkness. He took on flesh not to demonstrate the innocence of infancy. But in order to live the life we could not and die our death so we need not. Dazzling light. Brilliant light. Eternal light. No wonder the Nicene Creed declares Jesus God of God and Light of Light. But with Gideon, the light burned out. With his son, Abimelech. With Josiah, the light burned out in his death at the battle of Megiddo. Would this light burn out, as well? Would it cease to shine? Would the betrayal and his blood and the burial be the final curtain call on Good Friday? Never. Remember, this is a great light. John 1:5: The light shines in the darkness. And the darkness has not overcome it. And so Isaiah 9 Verse 7 of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end to this light. And Easter morning guarantees that all good things must come to an end is simply not true. Now, what have we just done here? We want to proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus in every sermon. And we've used some of Isaiah in this case to speak about the darkness of Good Friday as well as the triumph of the light, Jesus Christ. Then we conclude this sermon with an illustration. Art Holst, the NFL referee, tells about a Sunday when Kansas City Chief tightend named Fred Arbanas was tackled so hard that his artificial eye popped out. Soon the missing eye was found. Arbanas popped it back into his eye and was eager to resume play. Holst then said to Arbanas playfully: I'm impressed with your courage. But what would you have done if you had lost the other eye, the real eye? That's easy, snapped Arbanas: I would become a referee. Referees aren't the only ones who are blind. So are we. Nevertheless, hear the Word of the Lord. This time from Isaiah 60 Verse 1. Arise, shine, for your light has come. Don't miss it. Well, there you have it. A Christmas sermon from the prophet Isaiah. I hope you were able to see he some of those six categories that we've discussed earlier in our discussion. And how using that template along with some creativity and some sermon illustrations, one can move from Isaiah to Jesus to proclaim the hope of Christ who truly is the light of the world.