Isaiah 35:1-10 - The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; 2 It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, Even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, The excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, The excellency of our God. 3 Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted, "Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you." 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. 7 The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes. 8 A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray. 9 No lion shall be there, Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, 10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Theme: What Christ Brings for Our Journey
- Water in this wilderness
- Healing for the disabled
- Protection from predators
Dear fellow travelers in Christ,
Many of you are familiar with the Alphabet Game. It is usually played on camping or road trips. There are various versions I’ve heard, but the one I’m thinking of starts out with one person saying, “I’m going on a trip and I’m going to bring...” and that first person tells of an item that starts with the letter “a” that he is going to bring. Then it to the second person. The second person has to repeat what the first person said and then say something they are going to bring that begins with the letter “b.” And so it goes around the campfire until you go through the alphabet. It gets very amusing somewhere around the letter “n” when people begin to forget what the previous people said. It can also be amusing what some items people say they are going to bring. Really it’s a silly game created just to occupy time.
Well as a believer in Christ you are on a journey. You are on a journey on “the Highway of Holiness,” as Isaiah calls it. It is a journey that began when the Holy Spirit worked faith in your heart. Many of you may not even remember beginning this trip, because it began when your parents had you baptized as a baby. But you know you are on this journey now because you are following Jesus. This Highway Jesus has us on is the path to heaven through faith in Him. So as we are on this journey, what is Jesus going to bring for us? Christ brings water in this wilderness. Christ brings healing for the disabled. And Christ brings protection from predators. This is what Christ brings for our journey to our heavenly home.
WATER IN THIS WILDERNESS
When you think of problems traveling in a desert or wilderness, what is the first problem you think of? Water! There is no water in a barren wasteland or a desert. Water is a priceless commodity upon which our lives are dependent. If we don’t have water we aren’t going to survive.
Our journey in Jesus on the Highway of Holiness takes us smack dab through a barren spiritual wasteland, a true desert of sin. The world seems like it has so much to offer - money, fame, power, sex, intoxication, and the like. But none of these things can quench our spiritual thirst. They only leave us thirsting for more and more. More money, more power, more fame, more sex, more drugs, and more alcohol.
Only Jesus can quench our spiritual thirst. When Jesus was sharing the good news with the unbelieving Samaritan woman at the well He said, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:13-14) This is what Jesus brings for our journey through this spiritual wasteland. Jesus comes with water.
So many people are thirsting for this spiritual water. How many times have you heard people ask, what the meaning of life is? Their spirit is thirsting for the truth. They’re not quite sure what they are searching for but they know that they have not found it. Until they find the Gospel they will continue to be parched. It is only Jesus who can quench that thirst. He came to the barren wilderness of this world with heavenly refreshment. He came with true love. Not the emotion of love, but the action of love. Jesus came to offer His life as a ransom for all. For all - not just one or two of His friends, but for all - friend and foe alike.
This is the water Jesus supplies us through His Gospel for our journey through this parched land. The water Jesus supplies produces life in the desert as it creates faith in our hearts. Faith which blooms in the desert of this world. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes. In this world of sin that life saving water now flows through His Gospel. Christ brings us water for our journey through this desert.
HEALING FOR THE DISABLED
In our Gospel reading for this morning, we heard the disciples of John the Baptist ask Jesus if He was the one - the promised Messiah. Jesus’ answer to them? “God back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” (Matthew 11:4-5) The works of Jesus testified to who He is - true God and true Man. This is exactly what was prophesied of here in Isaiah, would happen when God came. But Jesus did not just bring this to those who were physically blind, lame, leprous, deaf, dead and poor. Christ brings this healing to the spiritually disabled also.
The Apostle Paul wrote of this to the Ephesians, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world.” (Eph 2:1-2a) We all were born dead in our trespasses and sins. All men born into this world were born with this fatal condition. According to our bodies we were alive, but according to our spirits we were dead sinners. It took an act of the God of all life to give us life. This is what Jesus brings. We who are by nature spiritually blind to the things of God, deaf to the things of God, spiritually lame - Christ brings healing.
God is the Creator of life. He gives life and makes alive. Spiritually God does this by His Holy Spirit. Through the Gospel the Holy Spirit enters the heart of man creating spiritual life. This God creates faith that believes in Jesus, the Son of God, as Savior. This faith looks to Jesus for forgiveness and salvation. This faith looks to Jesus for perfect righteousness. Christ came to bring life and healing. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. We see God doing this in conversion. Take for instance what Jesus did through the Apostle Paul. He was once an enemy of Christ and the Gospel. But when Jesus came to Paul with healing, He opened Paul’s spiritual eyes to show him that he needed a Savior and that Jesus was that Savior. He unstopped Paul’s spiritually deaf ears to the Gospel. Paul went on to sing the praises of Jesus as he spread the Gospel on his many missionary journeys.
Jesus brings each one of us this healing when He brings us to faith. He does this to the infant by rebirth in baptism. He does this to the adult through the Gospel. We who by nature had only a dirge to sing as we made our way through this life on the path to hell because of our sins, now by the Gospel have a new song to sing! Forgiveness, life, and salvation in Jesus Christ.
Having given healing through His Gospel, Christ also gives us strength for our journey. Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, "Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you." This too God works through His Gospel in Word and Sacrament. Right now, the Holy Spirit is at work through His word is strengthening your faith for this journey to the Promised Land. Through His Word He reassures you that your sins are forgiven. He came and paid your debt to God Himself. And this same Christ will come again to take you from this wasteland to Himself in heaven. Christ brings healing on our journey.
PROTECTION FROM PREDATORS
When we take trips we probably don’t give safety as much thought as we should. But imagine taking the car you have now on a trip from downtown Baghdad to Jerusalem. This road will take you through Baghdad, Western Iraq, Jordan, and Israel. How safe would you feel in your pick-up or minivan? That is a dangerous part of the world. You’d want to be assured of safe travel if you were ever to take that trip.
We need protection on the Highway of Holiness don’t we. There are many threats we face - attacks from predators lurking in the tall grass. Peter writes of the great foe who means to harm us, “your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter5:8) This is a very real enemy who is very serious about overthrowing your faith in Jesus. He will use any means necessary to try and devour your faith. Now if we attempt to engage this enemy and defeat him by ourselves we will fail miserably. Eve in her perfection could not withstand the devil’s temptations. Peter who traveled with Jesus could not withstand the pressures of the world and denied Jesus. Paul writes, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Cor 10:12) We are no match for the devil, in our pride we will fall if we try to stand on our own two feet. But praise be to God that He who is for us is greater than he who is against us. On our journey Christ brings us protection.
Christ came to prepare the Way. He Himself is the Way to heaven. Jesus said of Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) This road that Isaiah speaks of, is Jesus. A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray. The unbeliever will not be on this road, because he has rejected Jesus. But this road is a safe road. Even a fool is safe on this road. The guardrails of the Gospel protect him from going off into the ditch.
On this road to Highway of Holiness, Christ protects us. The lion and ferocious beast cannot get up on the Highway of Holiness. Christ grants safe travel to all His believers. Jesus also spoke of this. Of His sheep Jesus says, "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.” (John 10:28-29) Jesus paid for our souls with His blood, His very life. He is not about to leave us unprotected. But the redeemed shall walk there. This is you! He who loved you enough that He would die for you has promised to be with you always and provide you with protection from predators. Through His Word and His Sacraments, Jesus protects us.
So you see, Jesus supplies us with everything we need on this journey. The water that quenches our spiritual thirst, the strength to keep going, and protection from all that seeks to harm us. And Jesus supplies us with all these blessings in His Means of Grace - the Gospel in Word and Sacrament.
Our text then closes with some very glorious words. Because of all that Christ has done for us and daily continues to do for us on our journey through this life, we have joy. Joy as we enter the gate to life eternal in heaven. Close your eyes and envision yourself after this long, hard journey entering the golden city, the New Jerusalem. Gates of pearl and jasper, city streets of pure gold. This is the promise land Jesus came to give you. By His perfect life and innocent death we are redeemed and given this gift of God’s grace, having been called to faith. And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Amen.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Isaiah 35 - "The Gospel According to Isaiah: III) What Christ Brings on Our Journey"
- Isaiah 35:1-10 - The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; 2 It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, Even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, The excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, The excellency of our God. 3 Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted, "Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you." 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. 7 The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes. 8 A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray. 9 No lion shall be there, Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, 10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Theme: What Christ Brings for Our Journey
- Water in this wilderness
- Healing for the disabled
- Protection from predators
Dear fellow travelers in Christ,
Many of you are familiar with the Alphabet Game. It is usually played on camping or road trips. There are various versions I’ve heard, but the one I’m thinking of starts out with one person saying, “I’m going on a trip and I’m going to bring...” and that first person tells of an item that starts with the letter “a” that he is going to bring. Then it to the second person. The second person has to repeat what the first person said and then say something they are going to bring that begins with the letter “b.” And so it goes around the campfire until you go through the alphabet. It gets very amusing somewhere around the letter “n” when people begin to forget what the previous people said. It can also be amusing what some items people say they are going to bring. Really it’s a silly game created just to occupy time.
Well as a believer in Christ you are on a journey. You are on a journey on “the Highway of Holiness,” as Isaiah calls it. It is a journey that began when the Holy Spirit worked faith in your heart. Many of you may not even remember beginning this trip, because it began when your parents had you baptized as a baby. But you know you are on this journey now because you are following Jesus. This Highway Jesus has us on is the path to heaven through faith in Him. So as we are on this journey, what is Jesus going to bring for us? Christ brings water in this wilderness. Christ brings healing for the disabled. And Christ brings protection from predators. This is what Christ brings for our journey to our heavenly home.
WATER IN THIS WILDERNESS
When you think of problems traveling in a desert or wilderness, what is the first problem you think of? Water! There is no water in a barren wasteland or a desert. Water is a priceless commodity upon which our lives are dependent. If we don’t have water we aren’t going to survive.
Our journey in Jesus on the Highway of Holiness takes us smack dab through a barren spiritual wasteland, a true desert of sin. The world seems like it has so much to offer - money, fame, power, sex, intoxication, and the like. But none of these things can quench our spiritual thirst. They only leave us thirsting for more and more. More money, more power, more fame, more sex, more drugs, and more alcohol.
Only Jesus can quench our spiritual thirst. When Jesus was sharing the good news with the unbelieving Samaritan woman at the well He said, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:13-14) This is what Jesus brings for our journey through this spiritual wasteland. Jesus comes with water.
So many people are thirsting for this spiritual water. How many times have you heard people ask, what the meaning of life is? Their spirit is thirsting for the truth. They’re not quite sure what they are searching for but they know that they have not found it. Until they find the Gospel they will continue to be parched. It is only Jesus who can quench that thirst. He came to the barren wilderness of this world with heavenly refreshment. He came with true love. Not the emotion of love, but the action of love. Jesus came to offer His life as a ransom for all. For all - not just one or two of His friends, but for all - friend and foe alike.
This is the water Jesus supplies us through His Gospel for our journey through this parched land. The water Jesus supplies produces life in the desert as it creates faith in our hearts. Faith which blooms in the desert of this world. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes. In this world of sin that life saving water now flows through His Gospel. Christ brings us water for our journey through this desert.
HEALING FOR THE DISABLED
In our Gospel reading for this morning, we heard the disciples of John the Baptist ask Jesus if He was the one - the promised Messiah. Jesus’ answer to them? “God back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” (Matthew 11:4-5) The works of Jesus testified to who He is - true God and true Man. This is exactly what was prophesied of here in Isaiah, would happen when God came. But Jesus did not just bring this to those who were physically blind, lame, leprous, deaf, dead and poor. Christ brings this healing to the spiritually disabled also.
The Apostle Paul wrote of this to the Ephesians, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world.” (Eph 2:1-2a) We all were born dead in our trespasses and sins. All men born into this world were born with this fatal condition. According to our bodies we were alive, but according to our spirits we were dead sinners. It took an act of the God of all life to give us life. This is what Jesus brings. We who are by nature spiritually blind to the things of God, deaf to the things of God, spiritually lame - Christ brings healing.
God is the Creator of life. He gives life and makes alive. Spiritually God does this by His Holy Spirit. Through the Gospel the Holy Spirit enters the heart of man creating spiritual life. This God creates faith that believes in Jesus, the Son of God, as Savior. This faith looks to Jesus for forgiveness and salvation. This faith looks to Jesus for perfect righteousness. Christ came to bring life and healing. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. We see God doing this in conversion. Take for instance what Jesus did through the Apostle Paul. He was once an enemy of Christ and the Gospel. But when Jesus came to Paul with healing, He opened Paul’s spiritual eyes to show him that he needed a Savior and that Jesus was that Savior. He unstopped Paul’s spiritually deaf ears to the Gospel. Paul went on to sing the praises of Jesus as he spread the Gospel on his many missionary journeys.
Jesus brings each one of us this healing when He brings us to faith. He does this to the infant by rebirth in baptism. He does this to the adult through the Gospel. We who by nature had only a dirge to sing as we made our way through this life on the path to hell because of our sins, now by the Gospel have a new song to sing! Forgiveness, life, and salvation in Jesus Christ.
Having given healing through His Gospel, Christ also gives us strength for our journey. Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, "Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you." This too God works through His Gospel in Word and Sacrament. Right now, the Holy Spirit is at work through His word is strengthening your faith for this journey to the Promised Land. Through His Word He reassures you that your sins are forgiven. He came and paid your debt to God Himself. And this same Christ will come again to take you from this wasteland to Himself in heaven. Christ brings healing on our journey.
PROTECTION FROM PREDATORS
When we take trips we probably don’t give safety as much thought as we should. But imagine taking the car you have now on a trip from downtown Baghdad to Jerusalem. This road will take you through Baghdad, Western Iraq, Jordan, and Israel. How safe would you feel in your pick-up or minivan? That is a dangerous part of the world. You’d want to be assured of safe travel if you were ever to take that trip.
We need protection on the Highway of Holiness don’t we. There are many threats we face - attacks from predators lurking in the tall grass. Peter writes of the great foe who means to harm us, “your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter5:8) This is a very real enemy who is very serious about overthrowing your faith in Jesus. He will use any means necessary to try and devour your faith. Now if we attempt to engage this enemy and defeat him by ourselves we will fail miserably. Eve in her perfection could not withstand the devil’s temptations. Peter who traveled with Jesus could not withstand the pressures of the world and denied Jesus. Paul writes, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Cor 10:12) We are no match for the devil, in our pride we will fall if we try to stand on our own two feet. But praise be to God that He who is for us is greater than he who is against us. On our journey Christ brings us protection.
Christ came to prepare the Way. He Himself is the Way to heaven. Jesus said of Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) This road that Isaiah speaks of, is Jesus. A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray. The unbeliever will not be on this road, because he has rejected Jesus. But this road is a safe road. Even a fool is safe on this road. The guardrails of the Gospel protect him from going off into the ditch.
On this road to Highway of Holiness, Christ protects us. The lion and ferocious beast cannot get up on the Highway of Holiness. Christ grants safe travel to all His believers. Jesus also spoke of this. Of His sheep Jesus says, "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.” (John 10:28-29) Jesus paid for our souls with His blood, His very life. He is not about to leave us unprotected. But the redeemed shall walk there. This is you! He who loved you enough that He would die for you has promised to be with you always and provide you with protection from predators. Through His Word and His Sacraments, Jesus protects us.
So you see, Jesus supplies us with everything we need on this journey. The water that quenches our spiritual thirst, the strength to keep going, and protection from all that seeks to harm us. And Jesus supplies us with all these blessings in His Means of Grace - the Gospel in Word and Sacrament.
Our text then closes with some very glorious words. Because of all that Christ has done for us and daily continues to do for us on our journey through this life, we have joy. Joy as we enter the gate to life eternal in heaven. Close your eyes and envision yourself after this long, hard journey entering the golden city, the New Jerusalem. Gates of pearl and jasper, city streets of pure gold. This is the promise land Jesus came to give you. By His perfect life and innocent death we are redeemed and given this gift of God’s grace, having been called to faith. And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Amen.
Isaiah 35:1-10 - The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; 2 It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, Even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, The excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, The excellency of our God. 3 Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted, "Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you." 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. 7 The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes. 8 A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray. 9 No lion shall be there, Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, 10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Theme: What Christ Brings for Our Journey
- Water in this wilderness
- Healing for the disabled
- Protection from predators
Dear fellow travelers in Christ,
Many of you are familiar with the Alphabet Game. It is usually played on camping or road trips. There are various versions I’ve heard, but the one I’m thinking of starts out with one person saying, “I’m going on a trip and I’m going to bring...” and that first person tells of an item that starts with the letter “a” that he is going to bring. Then it to the second person. The second person has to repeat what the first person said and then say something they are going to bring that begins with the letter “b.” And so it goes around the campfire until you go through the alphabet. It gets very amusing somewhere around the letter “n” when people begin to forget what the previous people said. It can also be amusing what some items people say they are going to bring. Really it’s a silly game created just to occupy time.
Well as a believer in Christ you are on a journey. You are on a journey on “the Highway of Holiness,” as Isaiah calls it. It is a journey that began when the Holy Spirit worked faith in your heart. Many of you may not even remember beginning this trip, because it began when your parents had you baptized as a baby. But you know you are on this journey now because you are following Jesus. This Highway Jesus has us on is the path to heaven through faith in Him. So as we are on this journey, what is Jesus going to bring for us? Christ brings water in this wilderness. Christ brings healing for the disabled. And Christ brings protection from predators. This is what Christ brings for our journey to our heavenly home.
WATER IN THIS WILDERNESS
When you think of problems traveling in a desert or wilderness, what is the first problem you think of? Water! There is no water in a barren wasteland or a desert. Water is a priceless commodity upon which our lives are dependent. If we don’t have water we aren’t going to survive.
Our journey in Jesus on the Highway of Holiness takes us smack dab through a barren spiritual wasteland, a true desert of sin. The world seems like it has so much to offer - money, fame, power, sex, intoxication, and the like. But none of these things can quench our spiritual thirst. They only leave us thirsting for more and more. More money, more power, more fame, more sex, more drugs, and more alcohol.
Only Jesus can quench our spiritual thirst. When Jesus was sharing the good news with the unbelieving Samaritan woman at the well He said, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:13-14) This is what Jesus brings for our journey through this spiritual wasteland. Jesus comes with water.
So many people are thirsting for this spiritual water. How many times have you heard people ask, what the meaning of life is? Their spirit is thirsting for the truth. They’re not quite sure what they are searching for but they know that they have not found it. Until they find the Gospel they will continue to be parched. It is only Jesus who can quench that thirst. He came to the barren wilderness of this world with heavenly refreshment. He came with true love. Not the emotion of love, but the action of love. Jesus came to offer His life as a ransom for all. For all - not just one or two of His friends, but for all - friend and foe alike.
This is the water Jesus supplies us through His Gospel for our journey through this parched land. The water Jesus supplies produces life in the desert as it creates faith in our hearts. Faith which blooms in the desert of this world. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes. In this world of sin that life saving water now flows through His Gospel. Christ brings us water for our journey through this desert.
HEALING FOR THE DISABLED
In our Gospel reading for this morning, we heard the disciples of John the Baptist ask Jesus if He was the one - the promised Messiah. Jesus’ answer to them? “God back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” (Matthew 11:4-5) The works of Jesus testified to who He is - true God and true Man. This is exactly what was prophesied of here in Isaiah, would happen when God came. But Jesus did not just bring this to those who were physically blind, lame, leprous, deaf, dead and poor. Christ brings this healing to the spiritually disabled also.
The Apostle Paul wrote of this to the Ephesians, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world.” (Eph 2:1-2a) We all were born dead in our trespasses and sins. All men born into this world were born with this fatal condition. According to our bodies we were alive, but according to our spirits we were dead sinners. It took an act of the God of all life to give us life. This is what Jesus brings. We who are by nature spiritually blind to the things of God, deaf to the things of God, spiritually lame - Christ brings healing.
God is the Creator of life. He gives life and makes alive. Spiritually God does this by His Holy Spirit. Through the Gospel the Holy Spirit enters the heart of man creating spiritual life. This God creates faith that believes in Jesus, the Son of God, as Savior. This faith looks to Jesus for forgiveness and salvation. This faith looks to Jesus for perfect righteousness. Christ came to bring life and healing. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. We see God doing this in conversion. Take for instance what Jesus did through the Apostle Paul. He was once an enemy of Christ and the Gospel. But when Jesus came to Paul with healing, He opened Paul’s spiritual eyes to show him that he needed a Savior and that Jesus was that Savior. He unstopped Paul’s spiritually deaf ears to the Gospel. Paul went on to sing the praises of Jesus as he spread the Gospel on his many missionary journeys.
Jesus brings each one of us this healing when He brings us to faith. He does this to the infant by rebirth in baptism. He does this to the adult through the Gospel. We who by nature had only a dirge to sing as we made our way through this life on the path to hell because of our sins, now by the Gospel have a new song to sing! Forgiveness, life, and salvation in Jesus Christ.
Having given healing through His Gospel, Christ also gives us strength for our journey. Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, "Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you." This too God works through His Gospel in Word and Sacrament. Right now, the Holy Spirit is at work through His word is strengthening your faith for this journey to the Promised Land. Through His Word He reassures you that your sins are forgiven. He came and paid your debt to God Himself. And this same Christ will come again to take you from this wasteland to Himself in heaven. Christ brings healing on our journey.
PROTECTION FROM PREDATORS
When we take trips we probably don’t give safety as much thought as we should. But imagine taking the car you have now on a trip from downtown Baghdad to Jerusalem. This road will take you through Baghdad, Western Iraq, Jordan, and Israel. How safe would you feel in your pick-up or minivan? That is a dangerous part of the world. You’d want to be assured of safe travel if you were ever to take that trip.
We need protection on the Highway of Holiness don’t we. There are many threats we face - attacks from predators lurking in the tall grass. Peter writes of the great foe who means to harm us, “your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter5:8) This is a very real enemy who is very serious about overthrowing your faith in Jesus. He will use any means necessary to try and devour your faith. Now if we attempt to engage this enemy and defeat him by ourselves we will fail miserably. Eve in her perfection could not withstand the devil’s temptations. Peter who traveled with Jesus could not withstand the pressures of the world and denied Jesus. Paul writes, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Cor 10:12) We are no match for the devil, in our pride we will fall if we try to stand on our own two feet. But praise be to God that He who is for us is greater than he who is against us. On our journey Christ brings us protection.
Christ came to prepare the Way. He Himself is the Way to heaven. Jesus said of Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) This road that Isaiah speaks of, is Jesus. A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray. The unbeliever will not be on this road, because he has rejected Jesus. But this road is a safe road. Even a fool is safe on this road. The guardrails of the Gospel protect him from going off into the ditch.
On this road to Highway of Holiness, Christ protects us. The lion and ferocious beast cannot get up on the Highway of Holiness. Christ grants safe travel to all His believers. Jesus also spoke of this. Of His sheep Jesus says, "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.” (John 10:28-29) Jesus paid for our souls with His blood, His very life. He is not about to leave us unprotected. But the redeemed shall walk there. This is you! He who loved you enough that He would die for you has promised to be with you always and provide you with protection from predators. Through His Word and His Sacraments, Jesus protects us.
So you see, Jesus supplies us with everything we need on this journey. The water that quenches our spiritual thirst, the strength to keep going, and protection from all that seeks to harm us. And Jesus supplies us with all these blessings in His Means of Grace - the Gospel in Word and Sacrament.
Our text then closes with some very glorious words. Because of all that Christ has done for us and daily continues to do for us on our journey through this life, we have joy. Joy as we enter the gate to life eternal in heaven. Close your eyes and envision yourself after this long, hard journey entering the golden city, the New Jerusalem. Gates of pearl and jasper, city streets of pure gold. This is the promise land Jesus came to give you. By His perfect life and innocent death we are redeemed and given this gift of God’s grace, having been called to faith. And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Amen.
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