Here’s Eternally Good News for Temporally Weary Christians!

3rd Sunday of End Time, Saints Triumphant, 11/13/11
Isaiah 52:1-6


Here’s Eternally Good News for Temporally Weary Christians!
I. The victory is ours.
II. Our God will not be mocked.


In so many facets of life the outcome is always in doubt. A large corporation studies a particular opportunity to diversify, thinking that this will be the means for it to remain viable for decades to come. But the reality is that it’s just an educated guess. Only God knows how it will turn out.

As a young bride and groom publicly speak their vows to one another before God, family and friends, we wonder what the outcome will be. Will the joys of their marriage outweigh the hardships?

As a new mother holds her infant son in her arms, she wonders what kind of man he’ll become. She pledges to do her best to give him every opportunity to succeed that she can, but the outcome is in doubt.

We sign our name on the dotted line making that new vehicle our own. We do so thinking we’ll enjoy years of ownership, but we really don’t know for sure. It could turn out to be the worst vehicle we’ve ever owned. The outcome is in doubt.

Too often our doubts, unfortunately, become reality. Things don’t turn out. And we face so many disappointing results throughout our lives that it quickly leaves us weary. We get weary of the pressure we face trying to complete required educational courses. When we’re out in the employment world, we get weary of dealing with the problems that business in general and our co-workers cause. The older we get, the more health issues we face, all too often without resolution, leaving us weary.

Is there any good news? Is there any aspect of our lives in which we can be confident of the outcome and that outcome is a tremendous blessing for us? Absolutely! In fact, it’s in the most important aspect of your life—your life with your God. On this Sunday in which we praise God for the victory he has given to our fellow Christians he has already called home to heaven, we’re reminded that the very same outcome awaits us as well. What great news that is for weary Christians! Our God shares that news with us this morning in Isaiah 52. Here’s eternally good news for temporally weary Christians. May that saving truth lift our spirits and fill us with Christian confidence!

Part I.

Doubtful outcomes are one thing. At least you have the hope that things will turn out for the better. Looming defeat is an entirely different matter. It’s unbearable to face each new day knowing that disaster awaits you.

That was the situation facing God’s people during the days of his great prophet, Isaiah.

These were God’s chosen people, the nation that he had formed for himself. Out of all the nations on the face of the earth, God had chosen this nation, the one descended from Abraham, to be the nation through whom he would send the promised Savior into the world. And for a while—during the reigns of King David and King Solomon—things had gone well, very well.

But terrible times had arrived. David had died nearly 150 years earlier, and, since then things had not been the same. Already under Solomon there was far too much idolatry. And things just got worse under successive kings. So God allowed his people to be attacked by enemy nations, hoping it would shake some spiritual sense into them. But it wasn’t working. Isaiah served faithfully, encouraging the people to return to the Lord, but his words largely fell on deaf ears and stony hearts.

So he told Isaiah to let his people know what was coming. The Babylonians. In Isaiah’s day they were unknown as a nation. But through Isaiah God foretold that he would raise them up as his instrument. In fact, he would use them to defeat the Jews and destroy their capital city of Jerusalem. He would end the Jewish monarchy and make his people subject to a foreign nation.

Worse yet, the Babylonians would deport the Jews, sending them into exile in Babylon. How unthinkable! The Lord would send them away from the very land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They hadn’t worshipped the Lord as he commanded them in the Temple in Jerusalem. Now they wouldn’t be able to do so even if they wanted to. They would live as subjects of the Babylonians.

But the Babylonians went too far. In the verse right before our text Isaiah describes how they would ruthlessly walk on the backs of God’s people. In their sinful pride they abused the position God had given them.

So the Lord stepped in. He calls out to his people, “Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem.” The Lord promised a drastic change. Their exile would end. The Lord would raise up Cyrus to defeat the Babylonians and send the Jews home to Jerusalem, to rebuild it and renew the worship of the only true God. He told them, “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.” Without a cent being paid, the Lord would answer the earnest prayers of the exiled Jews. They would go home. Victory was theirs.

“Without money you will be redeemed.” How true those words are of us as well! Our God has redeemed us without money, but the price was still high. It was the holy blood of his only Son, Jesus. Through that blood-payment, God has freed us from a fate far worse than exile in Babylon. He has freed us from sin, death and hell. He set us on a course of eternal victory with him in heaven. He has called some of our loved ones home ahead of us. Just as certainly as they are enjoying that eternal victory now, so will we. And there’s our answer. There’s our answer to the uncertain outcomes, the problems and disasters that weary Christians face in this life.

Here’s eternally good news for temporally weary Christians! The victory is ours!

When your God called you by name at your baptism, that wasn’t a temporary arrangement. That was eternal. He destined you to share eternal victory with him in heaven. But at times it doesn’t seem likely. We face one setback after another, and calling them “setbacks” might be sugar-coating it. Sometimes they’re personal disasters. And when they strike, we begin to doubt our relationship with our God. Where’s his love now? Does he care? How will I make it through yet another crisis, Lord? This morning he reminds us to keep our eyes fixed on the big picture, the eternal picture. When Christ declared, “It is finished,” on the cross, our redemption had been paid. His resurrection guaranteed it. His victory over sin and death and hell is our victory over sin and death and hell. That’s true no matter how tragic this life becomes. What eternally good news for temporally weary Christians! The victory is ours!

Part II.

The Jews in exile had some trouble making sense of their situation. Many of them had learned their lesson, spiritually speaking, and had repented. But they were still suffering in exile. On the other had, the heathen Babylonians seemed to be prospering. In fact, God had referred to them as his instrument. Where’s the divine justice?

The Lord addressed that situation with the Jews in these words from Isaiah. He spoke about Israel’s history with enemy nations in these words, “At first my people went down to Egypt to live; lately, Assyria has oppressed them.” We recall how the Israelites after Joseph spent 400 years in Egypt, and for decades they were slaves there. The Egyptians abused them. Lately, the Assyrians had made life miserable for the Jews. God’s original intent was to use these nations to be a blessing to these people. He intended for the Jews to become a nation of people under the peaceful watch of the Egyptians, but the Egyptians abused that position. He intended the Assyrians to be used to call his people to repentance, but they abused that position.

In each case, these heathen nations were filled with sinful pride and would not listen to the words the Lord spoke to them or pay attention to the miraculous signs God did among them. They attributed their success to their false gods. And here’s God’s assessment of the situation, “And now what do I have here? For my people have been taken away for nothing, and those who rule them mock. All day long my name is constantly blasphemed.” The heathen nations proclaimed that the Lord was helpless in the face of their gods. They refused to acknowledge him.

In response, the Lord promises in a general way to put an end to their blasphemy and bring about the deliverance of his people. He states, “Therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.” The one true God would not be mocked. In the end, he would accomplish his good and saving purposes for his people in spite of the opposition from earthly powers. In fact, from our perspective it may appear that these evil forces are gaining the upper hand, but in the end, our God wins. He will not be mocked.

And there’s some more eternally good news for temporally weary Christians. In some respects, it’s a terribly sick world we live in. Just look at last week’s headlines. Even common decency is hard to find. The masses thumb their noses at the holy God. And we suffer quietly. We’re the church militant, constantly under attack from our sinful world and Satan who works tirelessly to bring the church down. But remember who we are. We are saints awaiting eternal victory in heaven with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And that’s not just our heartfelt wish. It’s God’s roc-solid promise. Our victory is certain because Jesus lived, died and rose again to win our victory for us. Praise God for all the saints who are now enjoying that victory in heaven! Praise God that you and I will certainly join them! What good news that is! Amen.