Sermons 2024

Video 

Text: Isaiah 35:4-7a
Theme: Strengthened for Salvation

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Old Testament Lesson of Isaiah chapter thirty-five verses four through seven a.

Boys and Girls, I pray that you are doing well today and are rejoicing in the gift of good health. Are you strong or are you weak? You could pick up this pencil but I doubt that you could carry one of these pews. Yet, even if you are not strong physically, there are other ways you could be strong. You could be strong in your mind, in touch with your feelings. I know that all of you are strong spiritually. You know that Jesus loves you. He is with you always. Yet, we still have hard days. We have scary dreams that keep us awake at night, people that do not like us, difficulty with homework and schoolmates. While all of these things are happening, how does Jesus continue to strengthen you? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

The Lord strengthens us

The people of Israel in Isaiah’s time had very little strength in our text for today. The chapter before our text ends on war and the complete and utter destruction of Edom because of their sin of unbelief against the Lord.  The nation of Israel were were fearful that something similar was going to happen to them. Their hands and knees trembled because of the terror to come. Yet now, the Lord comes to them, not in judgement but with words of comfort. He says, ‘Be strong. Strengthen your feeble hands and your weak knees.’ How can they be strong? Because of the work of the Lord. The Lord turns their desolate, war-torn wasteland into a fertile land that is overflowing with good things. The Lord promises that He will be a vengeance upon the enemies of the people for the cause of Zion. God used the nations of Assyria, Babylon, and others to humble and discipline his people when they strayed from Him and fell into idolatry. But he also repaid those nations for all the evil they did against God’s people. Through the working of the Lord, He has acted to save the people. Because of the work of the Lord on their behalf, the effects of their sins are removed and they are strengthened because of the Lord’s actions for His people.

    The same is true of us. We are strengthened by what the Lord has done for us and continues to do for us. Through Jesus Christ, God establishes His Kingdom, one that lasts forever. He defeats all of our enemies that seek to do us harm. On the cross, Jesus dies for the forgiveness of our sins. The devil, who works evil through so many agencies in the world, might also appear to be winning, and God uses our setbacks and seeming defeats to discipline us. But the devil’s time is short (Rev 12:12). He has already been repaid in the crushing defeat of Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension. Recompense is finally and ultimately coming in the end when Christ returns and the devil is forever relegated to the prison prepared for him and his angels (Mt 25:41).

Because we are snared by sins/fear/foolishness that causes us to tremble

Well, we need the Lord to strengthen us! We have weak hands and knees that tremble. We tremble because we know that even in the midst of all of these blessings that the Lord has given to us, we are still stained by our sinful natures. Our sinful flesh in league with Satan. We all have those pet sins that we love to do time and time again that we are ensnared by. Sins of lying, gossiping, disrespecting those in authority over us, placing other people and things in the place of God. These sins, and many more, rightly should bring judgement upon us and make our lives into desolate wastelands as we suffer the effects of living in a sinful world, surrounded by sinful people. Our Lord should come in vengeance upon us. He should utterly destroy us because of our sins. 

The Lord comes in vengeance for the salvation of His exiled people, Redeems you by grace alone and has prepared for you a new way of life.

    The Lord’s goal in this vengeance and recompense is salvation for his people (v 4). The Lord is a God defined not by wrath but by love (1 Jn 4:8). While the immediate purpose of his coming for his Old Testament people was vengeance and recompense of the wicked, that had the decisive purpose of salvation for God’s people, delivering them from those enemies. The same is true spiritually speaking. Jesus’ attack of the devil, the stronger man against the strong man, was to save you and have you as his own so that you might “live under Him in His kingdom” (Small Catechism, Second Article). You need not seek vengeance upon your enemies (Rom 12:19) but can leave that to God. You can focus instead on the salvation He has already won for you and has in store for all who believe and are baptized into Christ. Ultimately, Jesus undoes everything that could ever make us weak and fearful as He goes to the cross bearing our sins, taking upon Himself the full wrath of God in our place, and shedding His blood to give us the forgiveness of our sins, the salvation of our souls, and life forever with Him.

Because of the work of our Lord, our wastelands of sins are undone and we have new life. We have salvation forever. God has given us new life in and through Jesus Christ. Rather than coming in judgement of our sins, He has already laid that judgement upon Jesus. In the midst of our sin, in the midst of our troubles and hardships, God strengthens our weak knees and feeble hands with His Holy Spirt, that we can live daily as His people in His mercy, grace, and forgiveness. As we await our Lord’s coming on the Last Day. That day when all of sin’s ramifications will be reversed forever. The curse that now leads to being blind, deaf, lame, or mute will forever be lifted from God’s people in the resurrection of the dead. That day when we will experience completely, both body and soul, in the kingdom of glory the wonderous power of the Lord coming to save you, reversing every ramification of sin in body and soul and throughout creation.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 

Amen.