"Christmas Hope"
Isaiah 2:1-5
Sunday, December 2, 2012

Introduction: A while back is was reading about how Dr Martin Luther King Jr. conducted civil rights marches throughout the south. He gave inspiring speeches for which he and others were persecuted and arrested during the sit-ins and demonstrations.
            "Why do you think Dr. King kept going? Why was he willing to be arrested and mistreated for his beliefs? What motivated him to tirelessly campaign for civil rights in a time period when things between whites and blacks weren’t very civil?
            The answer is that he was a man of hope. He dared to imagine that the world could be different; that the world could be a better place. That is why he said,

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the
sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will

be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have

a dream that one day in the state of Alabama, little black boys and

little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and

white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream

that one day, all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews

and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and

sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

He had the hope of a better tomorrow; this is what inspired these words from Dr. King. The same thing is true about our reading this morning from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah is saying, "Yes, I know that things aren’t going well. Things might seem hopeless in many ways. Yes it is because of our sin and we live in a war ravaged time. But I believe that someday, things are going to change around here! I have a vision from God! There are better days ahead! Someday, this sinful land is going to become the home of the living God! An oasis of freedom and justice and righteousness. A place where people from all over the world can come to learn the word of God! A place where nations will throw away their weapons of war. And learn the ways of peace.”

On this first Sunday of Advent, we talk about the hope of Christmas; the

hope that is found in Christ alone!

I.                   The Hope of Togetherness- (1 John 5:11-12; Colossians 1:15-16; 

                                                                        Matthew 20:16; Isaiah 2:4)

a.      What if Jesus had not come?- In the book of 1^st John we are told in

chapter 5, verses 11 and 12: “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”  The one who has the Son has it all. But exactly what is included in the “all”? Well, the first thing is that Advent promises new life in Christ because: It means we now know what God is like. The coming of Christ gave us a living picture of who God is. Christ’s coming put a face on God. The Bible says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible” (Colossians 1:15-16). This is what we mean by the word “incarnation” — God came to earth wrapped in a human body. The God of heaven came to live among us so that we might know what He is truly like. He came to teach us. He came to die for us that we might be forgiven. He rose from the dead to help us know that we too will be raised. He promised that He will return so that eternal hope would burn in our hearts; the hope of knowing that the doors of heaven have been opened for us.
               Imagine what the world would be like if God, in the person of Jesus Christ, had never come to earth. Many colleges and universities would not exist, because they were started as Christian institutions. Did you know that Harvard and Yale were founded as Christian institutions? The founders of these schools believed that to study “science” was to study the work of God. It was a way of learning more about what God was like. Many hospitals would not exist, because they were begun by people who had hearts full of compassion for those who were ill, due to their personal experience with Jesus Christ and being transformed by his love. The churches that existed would be very different. There would be no Y.M.C.A. We would have half a Bible. We would not have heard of the love of a personal God. God would never have visited the world and we would have no hope of his returning to the earth. There would be no Christmas — no gifts symbolic of God’s greatest gift.

b.      Dead in our sin- Without Jesus, Mary Magdalene would have died

in her sin. Matthew would still have been a traitor to his countrymen. The Roman soldier would have continued his cruelty. Peter, James and John would have done nothing more with their lives than fish for a living. The Apostle Paul would never have been more than a cruel Pharisee steeped in legalism with an unrelenting demand for perfection from other people. In the gospel of John, 10:10, Jesus says: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Without this hope of what Jesus brings to us, we would not have the fullness of life that God promises to us.
            What would I be like if Jesus had never come? I think back to my days in high school, when I started to stray and go down the wrong path; make some wrong choices. I saw my friends get in some real trouble. In finding Jesus, my life was transformed. I became a loving, giving, caring person. I began to help others and look beyond myself. I had hope of doing something profound with my life. I had hope of making a difference with my life. What would you be like if Jesus had never come?

             Because Christ came and showed us what God was like, we who seek Him want to be like him.  We have been transformed by his grace and renewed by his love. We extend grace to others because it has been so wonderfully extended to us. We forgive because we have been forgiven. We give because He gave to us. We live because He has given us eternal life.
            This is why we sing about Emmanuel at Christmas — Emmanuel, which means God with us. He was with us 2000 years ago, and He is with us now in this present moment to show us what God is like. He was the friend of sinners and calls us to be friends to sinners as well. He showed love and compassion to the outcasts of the world and calls us to show love and compassion to the outcast. He healed the sick and raised the dead and calls us to heal the sick as well. He taught us look away from the values of this world, but to have a completely different way of thinking and living, as He said in Matthew 20:16- “The last will be first, and the first will be last.” He taught us that our value to God was more important than what anyone else thought about us. This indeed brings us hope!
            Jesus first of all brings hope, because He has given us a new vision. As Isaiah tells us in chapter 2, verse 4: “He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks…” Do you hear these words from Isaiah? They are words of people seeking to get along; they are words of a different way of life. They are words of hope that can only come true because Christ has come into the world!

II.                The Hope of God’s Light- (Isaiah 2:3, 5; John 3:16-17; John 8:11;

1 John 3:1; 2 Corinthians 3:18)

a.      New life- Secondly, Advent promises new life and new hope

because our sins can be forgiven. And so therefore we can walk in the light of Christ. Think for a moment of the worst thing you have ever done — the thing that makes you feel shame. And then think of what it would be like if Jesus had not come and you could not be forgiven of your sin. What would that be like? Your guilt would never be relieved, and condemnation would always be hanging over your head. You would not live in the light, but in darkness. You would not have hope, but things would be hopeless.

But since Jesus came, forgiveness has come to those of us who have received the grace that Christ came to offer. We know the freedom that forgiveness brings. We can forgive others and ourselves because we have experienced the liberating forgiveness that Jesus Christ came to give us.
            If Jesus had never come, we would have only commandments to follow, and we would never hear the great words of the New Testament from John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

If Jesus had never come, we would be missing a Savior. There would be no talk of forgiveness and reconciliation to God, only laws to be obeyed. Grace would not be a word in our vocabulary. We would talk about justice, and people getting what they deserved, rather than finding mercy with God. If Jesus had never come, the woman caught in adultery would never have heard the words: “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11).
            J Children are great. They can bring real joy to your life. For example, When Tiffany was younger, she was also one to give a great quote. She said things like: “I had a brain blast,” meaning that she had a thought. She called last night “yesternight.” She told us she didn’t want to do ballet anymore, because she said “Doing all those positions isn’t dancing.” And my all time favorite, when I asked her why she didn’t close her eyes when she prayed she said: “Because it’s dark in there.”                        Children are a joy to be around and a reminder of what is true. Children remind us of the hope of a pure and simple life.

b.      Children of the Lord- Example 2- But children can also cause

great frustration. Anyone who has had children knows what I’m talking about. Tyler and Tiffany are at an age where they think they know what is right and what is best. Because of this they challenge us in our decisions. They question us until we have to emphatically say “no.” When they don’t get what they want they get a tone of frustration and have an attitude that they are not happy with us. They are not as accepting of our decisions as they once were.

            WE are children of the Lord. The Bible says in 1 John 3:1, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” We are children of God because we have been forgiven as an act of the grace Jesus Christ made possible by His coming to this earth, and His atoning death. It is as simple, and as difficult, as humbling ourselves and asking for the forgiveness which He offers. Yet, as His children, we can sometimes take a prideful tone with God and not accept His guidance and His truth!

We need to understand that what Christ offers is more than forgiveness; it brings about a transformation in our lives. The Bible says, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Christ came to not only clean our hearts, but to change our hearts. We are being transformed into his character more and more with each passing day./   Because we live with him, we are becoming like him. His Holy Spirit is working in us to produce his image. This is what it means to walk in the light of the Lord.

      This is the hope of Christ, that we can become more and more like Him in every way!
              Example- In his book Dare to Believe, Dan Baumann illustrates what it is like to know that something is yours even though you have to wait for it. You may even have it in hand, but are not able to enjoy it “out of the box.” He says that when he was young he always did a lot of snooping at Christmas time, trying to find his gift and figure out what was in the wrapped packages, which his Mom had hid. One year he discovered a large package with his name on it that he knew was a set of golf clubs. One shake of that box revealed the unmistakable sound of clubs. He says, “When Mom wasn’t around, I would go and feel the package, shake it, and pretend that I was on the golf course. The point is, I was already enjoying the pleasures of a future event; namely, the [unwrapping]. It had my name on it. I knew what it was.” It was his, but it would not be handed over to him until Christmas morning. Then he would see with his eyes what before he had only seen with his heart.
           

Conclusion: Christ’s coming means that not only has Christ given us new understanding of why we are here on earth, but Christ has given us the gift of heaven. At this point it is still wrapped. But the package has our name on it. We know what awaits us. It is ours. We would never have received the gift if it were not for Christ. But we wait longingly for the day when we will enjoy the gift of heaven in all of its unwrapped wonder. As the Bible says, “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).             Because Jesus came, we know what God is like. We experience forgiveness for our sins and the transformation of our hearts and minds. We can know togetherness and we desire to get along. We can walk in the light of Christ, and be freed from our darkness. We have received the promise of heaven and eternal life. This is the hope we have: hope for a wonderful today, and an even better tomorrow. What better gifts could we ask for? Amen.