Sermon Details
- Pastor Name: Jonathan Cornell
- Date & Time: November 30, 2014 | 10:00am
SERMON SERIES:
Singing Through Advent
This morning, I want to begin this series of messages I’ve entitled Singing Through Advent by sharing a very special song.
It is scientific fact: there is no better music throughout the year than that which is sung in celebrating Advent and Christmas. Christians love their music this time of year, which is understandable because, let’s be honest, there is some news that is just so good it has to be sung.
I don’t know if you know this, but long before Christmas Carols were the soundtrack at shopping malls and restaurants, even before Handel’s great “Messiah,” the sounds that accompanied the very first Christmas were that of songs…many different songs. Zechariah sings, Simeon sings, Mary sings, the angels sing, even the prophets from long ago have great hymns of faith that proclaim the longing for the Messiah. The prophets never stopped singing their hopeful proclamation for the coming anointed one. This morning, we are going to look at one of the most powerful hymns of anticipation and faith in the whole Bible.
The prophet Isaiah begins his book by telling of the looming disaster, desolation, and exile that Israel faces, this on the heels of their greatest period of prosperity. Political compromise after political compromise with the empires and cultures of the world overshadow Israel’s faithfulness to God. Isaiah calls Israel God’s vineyard, with God as the gardener, and it’s a metaphor for God’s relationship with Israel. Israel is to produce good fruit that would be for the world and to the glory of God. But instead, Israel has produced wild grapes and their fruit is bitter and sour. At the heart of the problem at this time was worship. By day, the people would offer sacrifice after sacrifice in worship to Yahweh, and by night, social injustice and unfaithfulness.
A few chapters earlier, Isaiah says that if you don’t stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all, and only the holiness of God will save Israel, so they must repent and change their ways. And what we hear in chapter seven and eight is a little glimmer of hope with the foretelling of this Immanuel, God with us.
Download the entire sermon here: Isaiah 9 Prophet’s Song
Download this week’s Advent devotional here: Advent Devotional 2014 Week 1
