Isaiah 2: 1-5

(Sermon by Vicar Kelly Huet 12/02/07)

INTRODUCTION:

Sometimes you hear two kids tell you the same story.  The one kid had the time of his life, the other, wasn’t as thrilled.  The one who wasn’t as thrilled would relay a story like, “We went to Stone Mountain Christmas and it was OK.  There were lots of lights and it was kind of cold.  We did get to throw snowballs but it was fake snow so it wasn’t that great!  Then you hear the younger sibling retell the same story.  “We went to Stone Mountain and saw TONS of lights.  Every tree had lights on it.  Thousands, maybe millions of lights. It was the most amazing sight I have ever seen.  They even had little moving elves and Santa’s reindeers’ heads moved and looked sooo real.  Then it seemed to get colder but that’s because there was a pile of snow to play in!” You get the idea.

So which story do you prefer?  Both stories tell the events of the evening, only one adds so much more detail that you can almost picture it happening right before your eyes!  Do you ever feel like you look at church like the first kid?  This morning...

Isaiah Visually Describes The New Testament Church

It's the Church that we are currently living in, a group of believers in Jesus that has existed from the time of Christ’s first coming and will continue until he comes again.  The picture Isaiah paints is an appealing picture of the New Testament Church.

Isaiah describes the New Testament Church as ‘the mountain of the Lord will be established.’  Isaiah, 700 years before Christ (2,700 years before us), speaks with absolute certainty that God will establish his Church!  It is such a certainty that God allows Isaiah to actually see it and describes it to us here.

“In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.”

For the last two summers I have spent a considerable amount of time in the state of Washington.  Anyone who visits Washington on a clear day will always take note of how Mount Rainier stands so majestically above all the other mountains.  You cannot help but notice the mountain.  It is recorded that when Solomon’s temple stood in Jerusalem, people approaching from hundreds of miles away could see the temple as a snow capped mountain that stood out in the desert.  This is the picture Isaiah is painting of the “mountain of the LORD’s temple.”  The mountain of the Lord’s temple though isn’t a physical destination.  It is not the temple mound in Jerusalem where the temple stood and where now a mosque stands.  The mountain of the LORD’s temple that people flock to is pure teaching of the Gospel!  Wherever God’s word of grace is preached people flock!

The phrase, “nations stream to it” is an amazing phrase.  It is a reference that all different nations will be represented.  They stream to it.  Right now isn’t a good example but if you were to go to the Chattahoochee River in northern Georgia and you were to watch the water flow, it isn’t being forced into the stream, or forced to go one way or another, it simply is drawn down stream.  This is the way Isaiah says he sees people flocking to hearing the Gospel message.  They are like a stream of water rushing to its destination!

Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.  He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”

You can almost sense the excitement here.  It is almost like a little kid who just found the coolest toy in the toy shop and who drags his parent to it.  “Come on, let’s go!  Let’s go to church!  Let’s go to Sunday School!”  Isaiah sees Christians acting in this way.  He sees them so excited about learning about God that they are taking each other by the arm and with excitement “dragging” their friends to church to learn the ways of the LORD. 

Isaiah now paints the picture that when these Christians gather 700 years after him, 2700 years after him, the Christians will gather, will flock, not to hear a prophet, not to be taught  by a pastor, but to learn from the LORD!  When we gather here on Sundays or any other day of the week, we gather to be taught by the LORD.  Yeah there may be a pastor, vicar, or someone else physically standing before us speaking, but it is the LORD who does the teaching.  It is the LORD’s message being taught, the LORD’s ways being revealed!

Then having learned from the LORD, we walk in his paths.  The pictures just continue.  In Boy Pioneers (while growing up) we would often go up into the mountains or deserts of Arizona.  We had an experienced leader who taught us about how to live off the land etc. and as long as we followed his instructions we would be fine.  We would walk in his paths.  This is the picture Isaiah paints for you, the picture that after coming to hear God’s word we in faith then walk in his path.  We live our lives to his glory in thoughts, words and actions.

This is such exciting stuff!  No wonder that Isaiah closes the section with the excited plea, “Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.”  Church is no longer a place we just come to worship, but a place where we see the mountain that Isaiah saw.  We see the people streaming to God’s Word.  Have the excitement that Isaiah saw, the excitement that is produced by the Gospel message!  Hey fellow believers, this is such an awesome picture of God’s church, let’s imitate it!

I don’t know about you but I am a visual learner, one who if shown or described a picture will learn much better than just being told a message.  We all learn in different ways, but when I read Isaiah (especially this portion), I believe he was preaching to the visual learner in each of us.  He masterfully paints, with words, an appealing picture of the New Testament Church.  His vision shows people flocking to God’s word, eager to learn about the Lord and walk in his ways.  Isaiah through the Holy Spirit knew that this picture postcard view of the Church would grab our attention and preach an encouraging word to our hearts.

Think for a second, having seen the picture painted by Isaiah, can you not say, “Wow, what an amazing picture.  I want to be part of that!”  His language is so uplifting, written in such a positive, excited tone that it just grabs your heart and makes you glad.  It makes you glad to be one of those whom Isaiah saw, streaming to the mountain of the Lord.

Although we must all admit we are not always that excited to be part of the Holy Christian Church are we?  We sometimes struggle with keeping the excitement or enthusiasm that is found in the Gospel.  As our lives become more and more hectic with the holidays we sometimes find it difficult to be as excited about Christ has done for us, what it means to be part of his Church.  It is like going on a mountain drive.  While you up in the mountains you feel relaxed and refreshed at the beauty.  The following week though, while sitting behind your desk or in traffic for the umpteenth hour, your joy and happiness fades!  Daily we face our sinful nature!  Daily it attacks us!  Daily it tries to blot out from our sight the “mountain of the LORD.”  Daily we need to be reminded of God’s grace for us.  Daily we need to be refreshed and have our enthusiasm replenished.  Like the picture you have on your desk of your family or of the mountains that remind you of a joyful day, we need to daily look at the pictures in God’s word of what he has done for us!

We stand here on the first Sunday of Advent in a new church year, preparing to celebrate Christmas, Christ’s first coming.  Christ came the first time to take care of his Father’s business, the job that his Father laid out in eternity, before time, for him to take care of, the rescue of all of his children.  He rescued all of us from ourselves, snatched us from the danger we were in and now stands between us and that danger. 

He snatched us from the eternal danger of hell with his innocent death on the cross.  On that tree, he removed all of our baggage of not daily living with joy and excitement for the Lord.  He removed our guilt for not daily confessing our sins and being reminded of his grace.  He removed out guilt forever!  He now stands between us and danger in that he stands at the Fathers right hand, interceding for us.  When we do mess up, he forgives us that sin and sends the Holy Spirit to strengthen us to live lives to his glory!  His resurrection from the dead is our assurance that all this is ours!

Isaiah’s words were, “In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established…and nations will stream to it.”  We are the living proof that the picture Isaiah saw was fulfilled because the LORD has brought us in!  The message of Christ crucified and risen to pay for our sins is the only message of free salvation in the world. 

No wonder people in Isaiah’s picture were grabbing friends and dragging them along.  This message is so comforting, so joyful that how can I not help but grab my neighbor, friend, relative, and stranger off the street and bring them along!

Brothers and sisters, we have been shown an amazing sight this morning!  We have been shown the exciting picture of Christ’s salvation that draws the people in!  Come, let us learn the LORD’s ways and walk in the light of the LORD!  - Amen

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