What Are Your God’s Greatest Achievements?

5th Sunday in Lent, 4/3/22 Isaiah 43:16-21 What Are Your God’s Greatest Achievements? Like every society of the past, ours is smitten with a fixation over greatness. Last weekend greatness among actors and actresses was recognized with the presentation of the Oscar Awards. Coveted trophies were given to the winners of categories such as best film, best actress, and best actor. And more hardware will be awarded for greatness in college basketball tonight and tomorrow night. Millions of people will watch the women’s championship game tonight and the men’s game tomorrow night, both culminating in one team receiving the coveted hardware. And if music is your thing, then you’ll probably be watching tonight’s Grammy Awards. Once again, trophies will be awarded for the winners in a multitude of musical categories. And in these and other ceremonies which recognize greatness, it goes without saying that there won’t be any trophies given out simply for participation. In some instances, coming in second place doesn’t even get mentioned. I think someone once stated, “Second place is the first loser.” We’re impressed with the greatest, not just the great. This morning’s sermon text is from the book of Isaiah who was God’s prophet to the people of the nation of Judah about 720 BC. At this time, God’s people—the Jews—looked and acted like anything but God’s people. They were so unimpressed with the God who had called them to be his special people that, by and large, as a nation, they had turned their backs on him and had given their spiritual allegiance to all sorts of false gods. And yet, in the verse just prior to where our text begins, God proclaims this about himself, “I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.” There is no God like him. His greatness is unmatched. And that’s why he ends this morning’s sermon text with this encouragement to his people, “That they may declare my praise.” Praise for what? The great things he has done. We live in a world that is smitten with a fixation on greatness. And although none of us sitting here this morning would contend with the truth that our God has done great things, there are times when we forget that he has done them. There are times when we aren’t so impressed. There are times when we look for him to do greater things for us now than he has in the past. So, let me ask you, “What are your God’s greatest achievements?” If your God were going to receive trophies this morning, what great deeds would be inscribed on them? Follow with me as we make our way through some of his achievements as Isaiah describes them. And when we’re finished, may we praise him for them. Our text begins with a recounting of one of the greatest events in the history of the Jewish people. Did you recognize it? Listen to Isaiah describe it once again. “This is what the LORD says—he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick.” I’m guessing that most of you recall what Isaiah is referring to. Isaiah is speaking about the exodus from Egypt. Most Jews would assert that this was the greatest event in their history. Recall some of the details. The angel of death had put to death the firstborn male of humans and animals in every Egyptian household. But not one Jewish person died. In response, Pharaoh ordered the Jews to leave and they did so in haste, that very night. But Pharaoh soon changed his mind. He mustered his army with its horses and chariots and pursued the Israelites. Pharoah and his army were close behind the nation of the Israelites when the Israelites realized they were trapped. Pharoah and his army were behind them, and the Red Sea was in front of them. It seemed hopeless. But the Lord had a plan. He parted the waters of the Red Sea so that the Jews could pass through it on dry ground with walls of water on their right and left. God made sure they made it safely to the other shore and then, when Pharoah ordered his army to follow the Jews through the Red Sea, God brought the walls of water crashing down on them, drowning Pharaoh and his entire army. Among the Jewish people, this event ranks as God’s greatest achievement for his people. But listen to God’s commentary on this event, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.” What’s this new thing he’s going to do? Earlier in this book, Isaiah told the Jews that God was going to send them into exile in Babylon because they had forsaken him. To the people of Isaiah’s day, that was unthinkable, that they should be driven from the land God promised to them. But that wouldn’t be the end of the story. God also foretold through Isaiah that he would bring the exiles back home to the Promised Land. They would rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. Just as he had done 700 years earlier when he rescued his people from slavery in Egypt, so he would rescue them from exile in Babylon. Indeed, an awesome achievement! And yet, the description God uses here in these verses to describe that rescue doesn’t quite fit what occurred nearly 200 years later. He talks here about a way in the desert. His people didn’t travel from Babylon back to Judah through the desert; they went around it. And there weren’t any streams in the wasteland. God didn’t miraculously provide water for the returning exiles as he had for the Children of Israel coming out of Egypt. So, what great divine achievement do these words describe? They must be pointing forward to something else, to someone who lived 700 years after Isaiah. That person is Jesus, who referred to himself as the way—the only way to eternal life. Jesus did not come to this earth to show us how to get to heaven on our own; he won the gift of eternal life for us. He is the way. He has rescued us from sin, death, and hell. He also referred to himself more than once as living water. Sinful people are doomed to die in the desert of their sins, but Jesus is the living water who gives us life—life with him now and forever. As God’s people who are sitting on the threshold of another Holy Week, we know the great things Jesus did to save us from sin, death, and hell. He always obeyed the will of his heavenly Father. He had to in order to be our Savior, because we don’t obey him—not a single day of our lives. And then he displayed his boundless love for us by willingly going to Calvary’s cross as our substitute. There on the cross he sacrificed himself for the sins of the world. And three days later, at the crack of dawn, he rose again to assure us of our forgiveness eternal life. You talk about great achievements! As far as our God’s greatest achievements go, the exodus from Egypt and the return of the exiles from Babylon are small when compared to the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Human beings have always fixated over greatness, just not God’s greatness. Recall the reaction the greatest person in the history of the world received from his own people—they rejected him. That’s the truth that Jesus revealed through the parable he spoke in today’s Gospel. The owner of the vineyard sent his Son, and the tenants murdered him. And, I’m not so sure, that if Jesus would once again walked this earth that he wouldn’t meet the same fate. Our world despises Jesus and everything he stands for. It will not put up with his moral commands and it will not accept his teaching that we can do nothing to save ourselves. It flat-out rejects that he is the only way to eternal life, if he is any way at all. But the world’s reaction to him doesn’t alter his divine reality. He was and is and always will be the cornerstone of salvation. Not even Satan himself will be able to do anything to bring down the Church which Jesus established by his life, death, and resurrection. When everything else in this world comes to an end, the Church will still stand, and you will stand in it! On that day, Jesus will be eternally exalted by every human being—Christian and non-Christian alike. Another of your God’s greatest achievements! So praise him for it! Let’s praise him, while we remember to, because there are times in our lives when we conveniently forget our God’s greatest achievements for us. We do that most often when we get caught up with this life and wish that our God would do something great to make this life better for us. We long for the glory now and forget that we won’t realize that glory until he returns on the Last Day. We want the opportunity to direct our God in doing things that we consider to be great for us, rather than simply pondering and believing the greatest achievements he has already accomplished for us. This season of Lent parades those achievements before our eyes once again. It was your sins and mine that made his death necessary. We should be the ones suffering hell on the cross, but Jesus suffered it for us. And then he rose from the dead on the third day to assure us that we are his own people forever. We are the people God formed for himself that we may proclaim his praise. May your life be a hymn of praise to him for his greatest achievements for you! Amen.