The Promise of Renewal

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0:00It's good to be with you all this morning. It's great to worship with you. We're finishing up our Advent sermon series today, our promise of salvation. All these prophecies we've looked at in Isaiah, they start getting fulfilled at Jesus's first coming, and then at his second coming is when they'll be fully fulfilled. The promise we've heard includes deliverance, and it includes rescue. It includes reconciliation between God and us, between us and each other. It includes justice that's brought by a gentle servant.

0:36And finally, today we see that the promise includes renewal, renewal of all things. Now, if you watch a Christmas movie this season, maybe you already have watched a few. You're bound to watch a few more. If you're going to watch a Christmas movie, I can guarantee you something about the movie. It is going to have a happy ending. Every Christmas movie has a happy ending. If you flip over to the Hallmark channel, literally every movie on there has a happy ending.

1:17That channel was built on people's desire for a happy ending. God, listen, God made us that way. He made us discontent with the brokenness that we see in the world. The brokenness that we see in people, in institutions, in nations, and in ourselves. It's good to be discontent with those things, to want things to be rectified. We want things to be set right. Near the end of the Lord of the Rings, after the one ring is destroyed, that one of the best lines is not in the movie, the book. That's usually the case. At the end of the Lord of the Rings, after the one ring is destroyed, Frodo and Sam, they are trapped on Mount Doom, and it's erupting and exploding. They think that it's the end of the road for them. They lose consciousness. And then Sam wakes up. They both wake up, but Sam wakes up, and he sees he's in a bed, and at his bedside is Gandalf. And he says, listen to this, he says, Gandalf, I thought you were dead, but then I thought I was dead myself.

2:39Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world? Is everything sad going to come untrue? Just hold on to that phrase. Is everything sad going to come untrue? Gandalf replies, a great shadow has departed. Now, as a storyteller, Tolkien knew that people love happy endings, but as a Christian, he knew something more important, and that is that God's redemption story has an end that's greater than any other. It puts every other happy ending of every other story to shame. It's better than any of that. Everything sad is going to come untrue, and Isaiah 61 tells us about it. It tells us about the great happy ending, the true promised happy ending of God's great salvation and redemption story. So let's turn to Isaiah 61 to read about it. This is the word of the Lord for us. This is Isaiah 61 in its entirety. Let's listen to it and respond to it as people who are hungry and receiving bread from a good God loves us and will never lie to us or mislead us. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives in the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

4:53They shall build up the ancient ruins. They shall raise up the former devastations. They shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks. Foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers, but you shall be called the priests of the Lord. They shall speak of you as the ministers of our God. You shall eat the wealth of the nations and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame, there shall be a double portion. Instead of dishonor, they shall rejoice in their lot. Therefore, in their land, they shall possess a double portion. They shall have everlasting joy. For I, the Lord, love justice. I hate robbery and wrong. I will faithfully give them their recompense and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations and their descendants in the midst of the peoples. All who see them shall acknowledge them that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God. For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress and as a bride adorns herself with jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations. Pray with me. Lord, there are truths in here, promises in

6:46here that we need today. We need to lay hold of. We need you to work them into our hearts, to change our outlook, to give us a more secure hope, a hope that's founded in the anointed one who starts off this passage. Lord, I pray that you would show us the shakiness, the unworthiness, the instability of every other hope that we try to put ourselves on. And instead, Lord, you would ground us in you, in your word, in your ways, and in your promises. Jesus, do this work in us for our good and for your glory.

7:30In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The promise of renewal in Isaiah 61. I told you last week Isaiah has three sections. Each section focuses on some figure, and it's the same figure throughout. The first section, it's a king. The second section, it's a servant. The third section, it's a conqueror. It's the same person throughout. And in this passage, this is in the third section, and he is a conqueror. And he comes and he tells us he is anointed to bring good news. Like in chapters 11 and 42, this person is filled with the spirit. He says, the Lord has anointed me. This is good news because the word Messiah, it means anointed one. So we know we're talking about the Messiah right away. He's been empowered. He's been set apart on a mission. And the mission begins with this proclamation that goes out to people.

8:38Now, in my prior career, around the holidays, employees would await a proclamation. They, there would be rumors on a Friday afternoon. There'd be whispers before a holiday week. I think they're going to make an announcement. And then right before lunch, sometimes it would come over email. All employees are dismissed at noon today. Happy holidays. Now, that was not a proclamation we could make to each other. We couldn't just look at each other and you're dismissed today. Oh, and you say it to me. And okay, we can all go home at noon today. That proclamation has got to come from someone with power, someone with authority to say, I declare the workday is over today at noon.

9:29This anointed one is empowered, set apart. The good news that he has is real. It's not wishful thinking. I've come to announce it and not just announce that it may come. It's here. I'm saying it. I'm declaring it. He brings it to the poor. He brings it to people who have no means, no help, no hope. He promises that he will bind up the brokenhearted, people suffering in despair. Remember last week in Isaiah 42, the bruised reed? Here again, this conqueror comes to bind up people like that.

10:13He comes to the captives, to those who are bound, those who can't seem to make their way forward, to get that future that they long for. It seems impossible for them. This anointed one comes and declares them to be free. You're free. He comes in power to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Now this phrase, the year of the Lord's favor, Isaiah's listeners would have heard this and they would have known immediately what Isaiah is talking about. We may not know, so I'm here to tell you. It's a reference to the year of Jubilee. Douglas read that earlier in a scripture reading.

10:58The year of Jubilee. Let me tell you about it. After God brought his people out of Egypt, he gave them laws. One of the purposes of those laws was to create a society that was fair and just, that treated people well, that cared for people. Every seven years, they were commanded to let the land lie fallow, to not sow. It was a Sabbath rest, a Sabbath year for the land. Every seventh year. Don't sow. God said, I'm going to give you enough in the sixth year to make it through.

11:34So there was a Sabbath year every, after every seven years. And it gave the land rest from the rhythms of planting and harvesting. And then after seven of those cycles, seven cycles of seven, that's 49 years, God told them the next year, the 50th year is the year of Jubilee. That was like a supersized Sabbath, a mega Sabbath. In the Jubilee year, land went back to its original ownership. If it had been bought and sold in preceding years because of drought, because of some circumstance that happened over here, over there, land went back to where it had started when they first entered the promised land. People in debt would have that debt forgiven. Immediately, debt canceled.

12:27It's gone. It couldn't be collected on. Even people who had sold themselves into indentured servitude were freed. Right then, you're free. You're going back to the way it used to be. The year of Jubilee was wiping the slate clean. It was a way to return everything to as it had been when they first settled in the promised land. When everyone had land and no one was in debt and no one was enslaved. It was a reset button. It was a God-ordained reset button. Every 50 years to put everything back the way that it used to be, to erase all of the bad things that had happened. The year of drought over here that led this family and that family to sell their land so that they could make ends meet and put food on the table. But you know, when you sell your land, you don't, you can't harvest it anymore. It wipes away the bad circumstances over here, the bad decisions over here that led someone to have to sell themselves into indentured servitude so that they could get food on the table. It erased all of those things.

13:55It brought people back to square one. I mean, isn't it a wonderful law that God thought of? It's beautiful. It's a, it's a mechanism for collective well-being. And it's a shame that it was never followed. There's no biblical or extra-biblical evidence that they ever practiced the year of Jubilee.

14:27Things went sideways real quick. Their leaders and the people, they forsake their God. They turned away. They wanted to follow other gods and other laws that were, that were not just, that were not right. They never followed it. But this anointed one says, I'm bringing it back. Now it's going to happen. Y'all never did it, but I will. I'm going to do it. I'm going to bring it about. This anointed one, full of the spirit and sent from God, he's coming to redeem the poor, to release the captives, to restore the fallen, to do what should have been done long ago. Jesus of Nazareth, my friends, is this anointed one. After his baptism and his wilderness temptation, he went to his hometown synagogue. He walked into a place that was a lot like this. And he was handed a scroll to read.

15:34And it was this passage. It was Isaiah 61. And he read the first two verses. And then he said, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. He claimed to be this anointed one. We can't avoid it. If you think that Jesus came just to be a teacher, he did not claim that. He claimed to be this guy, the one prophesied about. In Isaiah 61, we have to reckon with that. He claimed to be the one who comes proclaiming the year of the Lord's favor. But this is important.

16:18He left out one part from this prophecy. He left out the part that said the day of vengeance of our God. He did this for a reason. His first coming was not a mission of judgment. It was a mission of mercy.

16:38To atone for sin with his own body. To make justice through his own taking on of punishment. Other people's punishment. A mission of mercy to give new life to those who were dead in their sin. To all who call on him in faith. But listen, he knew he would return. He said so. And when he does return, it's going to be his warrior. It's going to be his judge. It's going to be the fullness of Isaiah 61. Renewal, friends, is an act of both grace and justice.

17:19It must include both. The Holy One cannot look the other way. And just pretend evil does not exist. If you've ever experienced an injustice, you know. You know you would not want the Lord of the universe to not punish sin. He has to do it for there to be justice. There is such a thing as right and wrong. He is the standard of it. But you see, Jesus came and delayed it. He said, I'm going to come as an act of mercy. The second time, I'm going to come. And it's going to be the day of judgment.

18:02It's going to be the fulfillment of this entire thing that Isaiah 61 is talking about. He's going to bring this eternal year of jubilee, but there's going to be a day of vengeance. Jesus came first as a means of rescue, of redemption. So I want to tell you, now is the time to encounter him. This time between his first and his second coming, this is the time to bow your knee to him, to worship him. Because when he returns, he's going to be sitting on a judge's throne.

18:37You don't want to bow your knee to him for the first time then. You want to do it now, where there will be mercy and pardon. Everyone will be called to account someday. Do you belong to me through faith? Am I your refuge? Am I your delight? That's what he will ask you.

19:05For those whose answer now is yes. You are my refuge. You are my delight. They're going to find on that day that God's promised salvation is nothing short of a complete revitalization. It is everything they have always dreamed of and more. And they're going to find that everything sad has come untrue. Everything sad has come untrue. Now listen, this passage, it describes an enormous amount of transformation. All of the contrasts, all of the instead of's, all of the they shall's, they all convey the totality of God's salvation.

19:51As I cover the full range of God's promises, I want you to listen out. I want you to listen out for what you are longing for. Find something here in God's promises that connects with a longing that you have in your heart. Because I want you to see that you were made for this. You were made for it.

20:20First is this. God delivers people from mourning to celebration. In our culture, we wear black at funerals. In the ancient Near East, they would sprinkle ashes on their head.

20:37But now in place of ashes, people have a beautiful headdress that they're wearing. Instead of mourning, they have the oil of gladness. This is the kind of oil that's used for anointing, for perfuming, for making your hair shiny and your skin soft. In other words, it's what you do when you're going out somewhere, when you're going out to attend a party. And if you're going to go to a party, you need something to wear, right? You've got to have something, and God's got you covered.

21:09Literally. He gives you a garment of praise. He gives it to the faint in spirit. And yes, that word faint, it's the same word faint we heard about last week. The faintly burning wick in Isaiah 42, that the promised one was gentle towards.

21:31But listen, God is not just putting party hats on people. Cheer up, it's my birthday. He's not just changing your clothes. He's changing your status. He's changing your spirit.

21:52He's taking away that faint spirit, and he's bringing in a spirit of praise. Because he's brought people from weakness to strength. From weakness to strength. In the spring, sometimes, when I'm going out and doing some yard work, I look and see if any have not produced any leaves. Those kind, I find, are usually uprooted without any effort. Just the slightest push, and they come up out of the ground.

22:24Likewise, a person can look planted. They can look stable. But without roots to get nourishment, there's no stability. There's no life. Back in chapter 1, Isaiah had told people, because they had turned away from God, he says, you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water. That's Isaiah 1. But now, Isaiah 61, he says, God has mercy on you. He has mercy, and he sent them the anointed one that may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord.

23:04Do you see the turnaround there? Look, I don't know what to do with these bushes in my yard that are dry and have no leaves. All I can think to do is just knock them over and uproot them and plant something else. I figure they're too far gone. Do you know that God is much more powerful than a man? He knows what to do with a dry stump. He knows what to do when a leaf doesn't come out, when there's no rootedness there. When we are planted and we are nourished in Christ Jesus, we are established and we are evergreen, year after year after year.

23:46He knows what to do, and he sent the one to do it. To make what is dry green, and to make what is withering have water and life. These rooted people in Isaiah 61 go from ruins to homes.

24:12God's renewal is individual, but it's also communal. It's also a society, a community. My dad was born and raised in rural South Carolina. And down in rural South Carolina, you see small town after small town after small town that used to thrive. When textile mills were running and people had jobs, but when the jobs left and the mills closed down, so did the vitality of these towns. Now when you drive through, buildings are shuttered. You can look and you can see places where people went to socialize and teach and learn and shop and worship, and they're all closed.

25:03They're all boarded up. Driving through that part of the country, when I go down there to visit, I've often wondered, what would it take? What would it take for this community to thrive again? For these buildings to have life in them again. For them to not be in disrepair. I wonder, and I have no answers. I have no plan. Church, do you know God has a plan? It's a plan that is way more effective than any legislature. Way more effective than the small business community and association.

25:44It can do good work. Verse 4 tells us God's renewed people, they join Him in doing this restorative work. They shall build up. They shall raise up. They shall repair. They're joining up with their God. And they're doing this restorative work. What has happened to them inwardly is now being manifested outwardly. Dwelling places, meeting places, worship spaces, community centers, marketplaces, schools and parks and theaters. They're all building, they're all being built up and renewed and occupied again.

26:26People are there. Life is happening. A community is thriving. The people in this renewed community have been taken from scarcity to abundance. Life is full of finite resources, right? All of us have finite resources. Money, food, energy, time. Wisdom is reckoning with these limitations and trusting God.

27:02But we also trust God with the unfulfilled longings that we have. That's why we call it walking by faith. All of God's people, from Abraham to Joseph to Moses to Samuel to David, they lived and they died looking forward to what God had promised. Not having everything in their hands. That is the posture of faith.

27:39But faith is not forever. Did you know that? Faith is not forever. However, someday faith will be replaced with sight. And we will see everything that the Lord has promised us. Everything that he said that he would do. Everything that we're waiting for.

28:04Isaiah says they'll get a double portion. There'll be no lack. You ever been at a party and you've gotten a piece of cake and you eat that cake and you're like, I really would like another one.

28:19But I don't know if there'll be enough. God's got a double portion planned. And not just of cake. Of every good thing. There'll be no lack and there'll be no discontentment. Everyone will rejoice in their lot. Everyone will be happy with what they have and everyone will have more than enough. Isn't that amazing?

28:53Finally, these people have been brought from scorn to honor. From shame to honor. God's people going all the way back to Abraham were often at odds with the people around them. They were targets of oppression, of cruelty, of violence. But verses 5 and 6 depict a new kind of relationship. It's a scene of mutuality, of cooperation. There is a new honor that's being shown to God's people. They're not rulers. They're priests.

29:34The nations are cooperating with them. Theirs is a position of responsibility. They're people who bring God's truth to the world. And to whom the world is flocking, drawn in like moths to a light. Because they've got to hear about this good news. They've got to hear about this salvation. This is exactly what God said would happen. He told Moses this in Exodus 19. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And to Abraham, he said, in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

30:12And it happened in Jesus. The gospel went out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. And look at how these two New Testament authors, these two Jewish, now Christian New Testament authors, mirror God's words to Moses and to Abraham. Peter says, you are a chosen race. A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. It's like a mirror image of what he said to Moses. And then Paul says, no then, it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

30:50He told Abraham, in you shall all the offspring of the earth and all the families of the earth be blessed. And it's those of faith that are the sons of Abraham. All who put their faith in Christ receive God's forgiveness and approval. The honor. The honor of belonging to him. Now this list that I've put up here, it shows you that the Messiah comes to address every form of affliction. Emotional, physical, social, material, and spiritual. Everything.

31:30And he does it because of God's will to save. I will faithfully give them their recompense. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them. I will. I will. I will, God says. I will do it. This happy ending comes because of God's initiative. God's mercy. God's power. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And because God said, I will, you can say, I will. I will praise him. I will follow him. I will trust him. Because God is bringing to us an eternal joy.

32:16An eternal joy. I'm going to end with this. The last part of this passage, Isaiah now speaks as one of the renewed people. The people are decked out in garments. They have a beautiful headdress. They have a robe. Just like the Messiah said that they would back in verse 3. I'm sure they look stunning. But they aren't focused on themselves and on their attire.

32:47Listen, I am sure that every bride looks in the mirror on her wedding day. Right? She looks at her dress, her makeup, her hair. She might even admire how beautiful she looks.

33:06But when the wedding service starts, and she's walking down that aisle, no bride is looking down at herself anymore. Or holding up a mirror and looking at herself. Right? Who is she looking at? The groom. Her eyes are on her beloved. Not on how she looks. That's why God's people here declare, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God. They're looking at him. He dressed me this way. He made me look like this. He put this on me.

33:53Oh, how he loves me. And oh, how I love him. When you see him someday, you're going to be overjoyed. The greatest love of your life will be right in front of you. And your heart will be overflowing with praise and with worship. Yes, you will look stunning. But your more important concern will be to look at him. At the one who did this for you.

34:28This chapter of Isaiah ends with an assurance of new life. No matter how long or how hard the winter is, every spring, new life comes up from the ground. And it happens that way because the Lord makes it so.

34:49In the same way, no matter how long or how hard your waiting is, the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all nations. He came to start it and he will return to finish it. Every last word of this salvation will come true. For those whose faith and trust is in Jesus. Come to him, won't you? Come to him. All you who are poor, all who are brokenhearted, all you who are captive and bound, come to him. And let's live now in the surety of this promise that he will bring to pass our promised salvation.