(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 09/02/07)

INTRODUCTION:

There are movies that come out on DVD with one or two options for alternate endings.  We’re at the very end of Isaiah’s long prophecy.  Should we stay with this ending, or go with an alternate?  Is there a more interesting or a better ending?  What would we lose if we didn’t have these seven verses as the ending of the book?  I don’t think I’d have a job for very much longer if I started changing the Bible, so we’ll stick with this ending.  It’s good just like it is.

Isaiah's Ending Shows History Unfolding

It shows what the future held for the nation of Israel.  Seven centuries before Christ was born, as the Lord spoke through his prophets, the Israelites stuffed cotton in their ears, ignoring what God said, doing their own thing.  God said he was going to punish them with all with the Gentiles looking on, that this would show his glory to the Gentiles.  That deserves a pause.

God is just as glorious as ever when he punishes unbelievers.  It would not detract from God’s glory one bit, it would display his glory if he were to give us what we had coming.  It would be an example of a holy God destroying unholy people, and no one could say anything negative about God for doing so.

So what if we turned around what Isaiah wrote earlier in chapter 55 (As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.)?  What if?  We do it all the time!  With our ignoring of God and the way we think about and treat people around us, we’re constantly telling God, “No, actually my ways are higher than yours.  I’m going to be doing things my way this time.”  Oftentimes, instead of supernatural, observable judgment from on high, the Lord calmly says, “You want to go your own sinful way?  Fine!  See where it gets you.”  The Israelites were headed in that direction.  We’ve gone down that road.  God would not be one bit less glorious for letting us sin ourselves into hell.  An observer would watch it happen and would have to conclude, “The Lord did what was right! Glory to God!”

Something different happened, though, when you look at the lives of some shepherds who worked around Bethlehem, a couple tax collectors by the names of Matthew and Zaccheus, James and John of Zebedee and Sons Fishing Co, a Pharisee named Saul.  God spared them from what they had coming by not sparing his own Son, by giving him up as a sacrifice for everyone, for you, by turning some unbelievers to faith.  Isaiah called that a wonderful sign, a remarkable thing.  God would have been as glorious if he’d sent them and us to hell, but he doesn’t want anyone to go to hell.  It’s the ending of Isaiah’s prophecy that unfolds history before our eyes, Israelite history, our history, the story of the remarkable glory of God.  All should perish, but Jesus was punished for all. The Holy Spirit calls people out of unbelief.  Whoever believes in Jesus shall not perish.  Glory to God for that!

Isaiah’s unfolding of history from the time of Jesus on – we’re not going to want to change his ending at all.  Around the Mediterranean world God sent a handful of Jewish believers to tell everyone their guilt was paid for by the crucified Christ, that they belonged to the living Jesus.  History unfolds some more; Gentile Christians begin to outnumber Jewish Christians.  These Gentiles are so thankful to God for Jesus that any way they can they’re working to bring Jews back to believing in Jesus.  And Gentiles ended up doing what no Jew ever thought they would – priest and Levite type work – what we call the public ministry.  Gentiles!

Isaiah’s ending shows the ethnic profile of the New Testament church.  It shows the “race-less” people of God.  As far as God and people and church, ethnicity means nothing; faith in Christ is everything.  How much Jewish blood is flowing through the veins of people who attend this church?  Little, if any.  But Jesus’ blood flowed for all.  Jesus was Jewish and God chose to work through the Jews to bring his grace to everyone, but with Jesus’ ascension Isaiah saw race distinctions disappear.  There’s no longer any one race that can claim to be God’s chosen people.  People of all races are forgiven sinners, holy priests serving the Savior.  Many races are represented in Metro Atlanta.  There’s nothing better than when our church is an ethnic cross-section of our city.  It’s Isaiah’s ending unfolding among us; we wouldn’t want to change it a bit.  But – true story now – there have been those who’ve given Isaiah 66 an alternate ending.  When Hebrew speaking people read this ending, they repeated verse 23 after verse 24.  They just couldn’t get themselves to end the book with the content of that last verse, one of the most graphic, arresting descriptions of hell in the whole Bible.  The death of hell is described as eternal decomposition (their worm does not die) and unending torment (the fire is not quenched) and horrible shame (they are loathsome to all mankind).  It’s not surprising that people consider an alternate ending.

But we can’t!... We need to read those words and embrace the truth of those words and shudder at what those words say.  The hell described in this verse is what we’ve earned ourselves even if we were arrogant enough to think that we kept the whole law and stumbled at just one point.  It’s what we have fully deserved since birth and through today.  But this is what Christ suffered for us.  When we so quickly, sometimes mindlessly, refer to Jesus our Savior, this is why he’s our Savior.  This hell is what we have been saved from.

More than getting needed rain, more than provision of food, clothing and shelter, even more than God being holy and powerful and majestic, Jesus rescuing you from this hell will, more than anything else, move you to praise the Lord.  And Isaiah’s ending talked about that, the resounding worship of God that happens here and in heaven, not just monthly (new moons), not weekly (on the Sabbath) but daily on earth and eternally in heaven.  In prophetic picture language, whenever the saints in heaven stepped away from the throne for a moment and saw unbelievers condemned, they didn’t grieve and they didn’t gloat.  They kept on glorifying God, because Jesus sure didn’t lie – “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”  Glory to God for giving us the truth!  Those words are our confidence for heaven and our reason for mission work.

So… no alternate ending for the prophecy of Isaiah.  This one will do.  Stunning grace shown to all.  Recipients of grace worshiping God.  Through Isaiah, the Holy Spirit laid out this history and here we are 2700 years later living it.  Glory to God!

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