March 31, 2019, Lent IV, W.H.

Isaiah 52:7-10

In the name of the Lord Jesus who is God’s good news,

Dear Fellow Redeemed:

       Lent is a solemn season.  It is a time of penitential fasting.  Liturgical colors invite repentance.  Ahead is black Friday, and we memorialize Jesus’ execution.  But Latin fathers named today, “Laetare” Sunday.  Roughly translated that means, “be happy” Sunday.  In the midst of this season of penitence God encourages us to be happy.

       Israel wasn’t happy at the time of our Psalm.  God had pun-ished them for their sin.  He sent the heathen Babylon to carry them away into slavery.  God called the king of heathen Babylon, His servant who would punish His people.  They had turn to idol-atry.  God intended that harsh punishment to bring them to sorrow over their sins, to repent.  It worked.  In captivity, they

confessed their idolatry.  In contrition and sorrow, they sang:

By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.  We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it.  For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, and those who plundered us requested mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"  How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? they cried.  Ps. 137:1-

To guide us to understand this concept we consider the theme:

REPENTANCE BRINGS JOY!

We might join Israel and ask, how can we sing in season of sorrow?  How can we lift our voices in joy? 

God answers with good news.  Lent is good news.  Believing His good news, we have something about which to sing.  These

shall be our points.  God’s says to sorrowing contrite people:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

God sends us a message of good news and His news is great.

       Israel waited for particular news.  Isaiah warned her that she would be enslaved, taken from her home.  Her land would be decimated.  Jerusalem would be razed and lay in ruins.  Babylon would leave only people for whom they had no use.  The folks who remained foraged for food eking out a living in a desolate land.  Israel was puzzled and thought of herself as blameless.

Babylon was an idolatress country.  Yet she overpowered God’s people.  The world was upside down.  The heathen had power. God’s people were enslaved.  The almighty God, Israel’s

God did not seem almighty.  His people suffered.  Israel cried:

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land

In the middle of Lent we wonder.  We wait for something to break the gloom of sin, of our contrition, of our guilt.  Evil seems to be in control.  Those who worship false gods persecute God’s church.  “Where is our God?” we wonder.  Sin continues to tempt us. We wonder, “Why doesn’t God change us, empower us?”

       So, God has a message.  We need to it hear over and again.  It is His good news.  It is the good news of His messengers.  It is the great truth of the Bible, "Your God reigns!"  Things are not as they seem.  Your God is always in control.  He is with you.

During the Civil war Longfellow wrote a Christmas Song.  It is one of my favorites.  It is set at a time of sorrow.  He had lost

his wife.  His world was in turmoil and destruction.  He wrote

I heard the bells on Christmas day, their old familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth, goodwill to men.  I thought as now this day had come, the belfries of all Christendom had rung so long the unbroken song of peace on earth, goodwill to men.  And in despair I bowed my head; “There is no peace on earth,” I said, “For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good-will to men.”  Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:  “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; the wrong shall fail, the right prevail with peace on earth goodwill to men.”

       We do not control our lives.  We could consider finances,

health, our family.  We could think our spiritual life.  New Christ-ians may not see a change in their lives for the better.  Long time Christians may be frustrated with the continual struggle with sin.  We get old, feeble.  We struggle.  We don’t get so very much better.  How can we sing God praises?  Where is good news?

       We long for relief.  We want God to prove Himself.  Israel’s

words reflect our anxiety, our demand that God prove Himself.

Your watchmen shall lift up their voices, with their voices they shall sing together; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord brings back Zion. 

Watchman strained to see a sign that relief was near.  God said: 

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!

The One for whom we wait who brings relief and salvation is the

One whose name means “Savior”,

for He will save His people from their sins.

       Jesus is proof God does not abandon His people.  God does not abandon us.  Jesus is proof.  God is in control.  God reigns. 

God is with us.  John wrote:

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.

Jesus is deliverance and relief.  He is God with us.  He came for each and every one of us.  He calls us to repent. He proclaims:  Your sin is defeated.  Jesus is the good news of salvation.  Jesus

is with us as we read:  But now in Christ Jesus you who once

were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  Eph. 2:13, 4-6

       God speaks good news to you and me.  He calls us out of ash heap of sin into the beauty of Christ’s holiness.  He rescues us from the evil one and translates us into the glorious family of God by faith in Jesus.  His birth brings our restoration, new birth.  By baptism He made us alive in Christ.   We, by faith, are His eternal church.  We glorious saints no matter what seems.

       This gives the penitent something to sing about.

Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem For the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.

The Lord is with us even in the midst of this gloomy world.

       Israel made a mistake in Babylon.  The same mistake tempts us.  Her god was too small.  She thought her God did not have power in Babylon.  She believed God lived only in Israel.  She thought He was not with them in their suffering and slavery.

       Our god may be that small too.  We may fall for the satanic lie that God is not with us in suffering.  We learn from Jesus.  Pilate had Him whipped till He bled profusely.  Soldiers mocked Him, spit on Him and worse.  Pilate paraded Him before the people, bloody, crowned with thorns, beaten, and bloody and said, “Behold your King!”  This sad Man is our God for us.

In all suffering remember Jesus loved you this much.  He loved you as He was tortured, tormented, scourged and killed.  He took your place.  He stepped in for you.  He suffered for you.  He is with you when you suffer.  You are never alone.

       God’s good news is always good news.  It is always ours.  No

matter what seems to be, we are always His children, eternal.

Break forth into joy, sing together, You waste places of Jerusalem! For the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.  The Lord has made bare His holy arm In the eyes of all the nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see The salvation of our God.

Amen.  Soli Gloria Deo!