Minister: Rev. Olon M. Lindemood

October 9, 2011

Isaiah 40: 28-31

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹ He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.
³⁰ Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
³¹ but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.

Bible Basics:  The Old Testament: “Eagles Wings”

Classic Old Testament passages / the Scriptures alive in our hearts / our lives and our faith…  We can read our bibles… we can!

(Repeat Isaiah 40:31)

Isaiah Speaks to:

• Past / Fears
• Present / Comfort
• Future / Salvation

ISAIAH SPEAKS TO the Past / Fears:

Isaiah 9:2-7

The people who walked in darkness

   have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness—

   on them light has shined.

3 You have multiplied the nation,

   you have increased its joy;

they rejoice before you

   as with joy at the harvest,

   as people exult when dividing plunder.

4 For the yoke of their burden,

   and the bar across their shoulders,

   the rod of their oppressor,

   you have broken as on the day of Midian.

5 For all the boots of the tramping warriors

   and all the garments rolled in blood

   shall be burned as fuel for the fire.

6 For a child has been born for us,

   a son given to us;

authority rests upon his shoulders;

   and he is named

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 His authority shall grow continually,

   and there shall be endless peace

for the throne of David and his kingdom.

   He will establish and uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

   from this time onwards and for evermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Our Fears are many.  We live in a world of fear.  Fear born of uncertainty and certainty!  The uncertainty of our ability to control our safety / our comforts / our things / our loved ones.  AND SO it is that we fear the Certain things as well…  Just ancient Israel feared it’s future… Empires and cost of living / homes and businesses… So our world is alive in FEARS today as it was then …

Into such a world … the Lord speaks with the Prophet Isaiah…

The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness—

on them light has shined.

And yet… our world cries out in the moments of change … our fears continue to rumble in our hearts…Associated press reported this week: 

The Death of Steve Jobs…’to some people, is like Elvis Presley or John Lennon.  It’s a change of our times. It’s the end of an era…’  that is the quote of a man named Scott Robbins, 34 a barber and an Apple Computer fan.

Isaiah knows our fears of change.  As we look over our shoulder today and know that we have been motivated by fear and overwhelmed by the struggle that lies ahead.

ISAIAH SPEAKS TO the Present / Comfort

Isaiah 40: 1-5

Comfort, O comfort my people,

   says your God.

2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

   and cry to her

that she has served her term,

   that her penalty is paid,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

   double for all her sins.

3 A voice cries out:

‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,

   make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be lifted up,

   and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,

   and the rough places a plain.

5 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

   and all people shall see it together,

   for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

In the present the Lord speaks and reminds us to abandon our fears. Isaiah is the voice that calms our fears with the assurance of our Lord’s majestic and powerful rule that comforts us again and again!  (repeat Isaiah 40:31)

Steve Jobs quote from his 2005 Stanford University commencement address: (in 2004 he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer)

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices of life.  Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

(I can’t believe I am making reference to the Raiders as a Bronco Fan!?!?) …

Friends … our salvation is not born of technology / innovations or sports enthusiasm … nor is it born of successes and failures… our salvation is of the Lord… and Isaiah is one of the best places in all of the scriptures and life … to discover that truth!

ISAIAH SPEAKS to the Future / Salvation

Isaiah 11:1-2, 6-9

A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,

   and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

2 The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,

   the spirit of wisdom and understanding,

   the spirit of counsel and might,

   the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

Isaiah 11: 6-9

⁶ The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
⁷ The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.

Isaiah offers a vision of the future that is born from the Lord alone!  … Isaiah foretells of one yet to come

Isaiah 52: 13-15

The Suffering Servant

13 See, my servant shall prosper;

   he shall be exalted and lifted up,

   and shall be very high.

14 Just as there were many who were astonished at him*

   —so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,

   and his form beyond that of mortals—

15 so he shall startle* many nations;

   kings shall shut their mouths because of him;

for that which had not been told them they shall see,

   and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.

Isaiah 53: 3-7

³ He was despised and rejected by others;

a man of suffering^* and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces^*
he was despised, and we held him of no account.

⁴ Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

YES, Isaiah speaks of the PAST AND OUR FEARS…

And YES … Isaiah speaks of our Present and our Comfort …

AND YES … Isaiah speaks of the future and our salvation…

But friends … TODAY … in the hearing of the scriptures our future… our Salvation our past and our present … all of life is revealed in the hearing of these words…

Simply from the Gospel of Luke:

Isaiah 61: 1-3

The Good News of Deliverance

61The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
³ to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.

Jesus Quotes Isaiah …

Luke 4:

16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
¹⁸ ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
²⁰And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

YES… Today, yesterday and tomorrow … TODAY…

The words of the prophet Isaiah are ours!

Isaiah 40: 28-31

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹ He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.
³⁰ Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
³¹ but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.