Sermon26-1 Is2 Guide

Isaiah 2:1-5 theme verse Is 2:5

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this first Sunday of the Advent, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. From this week, the Advent season starts. So in this first Sunday of Advent, God speaks us to hold His word and walk in the light of the LORD through today’s text. Therefore, we would like to learn few lessons, while meditating on today’s text together.

1)    First, to summarize today’s text, Isaiah 2:1-5, in chapter 1, after proclaiming God would judge the people of Judah for their idolatry and immoral life, yet, Isaiah, in chapter 2, proclaims God’s promise that after this judgment, He would restore the people of Judah to give them hope. First, God declared that Judah would be ruined by Babylon and also the city of Jerusalem and the temple of God would be destroyed, and then they themselves would be taken captive to Babylon, suffering all the humiliation and shame. However, after those sufferings, Mount Zion, where the LORD's temple standed, would be established above all the mountains and be exalted above all the hills. In other words, it was said that their shame would be restored and honor would be given again to them. And then all the nations of the world would gather there, to the house of the God of Jacob, and God would teach them His ways and they would walk in His paths, as the law would go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And then on that day, God would judge the world, bringing an end to war and the dawning of a kingdom of peace. So as God would exhort the house of Jacob, that is, the people of Judah, it was exhorted that they should now walk in the light of the LORD.

2)    Through today's text, we would like to learn few lessons together. First thing we would like to meditate on the prophecy that Mount Zion, the mountain on which the LORD's temple stood, would be established as the highest mountain. I mean, in previous chapter, Isaiah prophesied that Judah would fall by Babylonia due to its sins so that Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple would be destroyed and the people of Judah would be taken captive to Babylon for 70 years. And to the people of Judah, it would be such a humiliation and shame. Yet, Isaiah prophesied again that yet Mount Zion, where the LORD's temple stood, would once again be established as the highest mountain, and all nations, that is, the Gentiles, would gather in it. But, this may not mean, in a literal sense, that Mount Zion, 2,510 feet above sea level where the Temple of the LORD stood, will suddenly rise, or that the golden dome of the Islamic mosque on the Temple Mount will collapse and the Temple of God will be restored and the Western wall in Jerusalem will be rebuilt, as Jews still believe. Rather I suggest that this prophesy is about the coming of Messiah and its glory, I mean, when the Messiah Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came, the gospel will be proclaimed there, and through Christ, the glorious attributes of God the LORD will shine forth from there to the entire world, causing Mount Zion to shine brightly. Furthermore, since the temple is a place to worship God, it may mean that by the first coming of Jesus Christ, worship will be restored, as John 4:23 says, "The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for the Father is seeing such people to worship Him." And also, as 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, "We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,” it may mean that all nations will be united in Christ through the gospel of the surpassing glory of Christ Jesus.

3)    And then the third point which we would like to consider is the verse 3 again that "The law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem," which we can find the same prophecy in Micah 4:2, saying "Many nations will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.' For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem." Through this, we can know that the source of the doctrine of salvation will come from Jerusalem and be spread throughout the world, just as Christ first taught in Jerusalem and after His gospel subsequently spread throughout the world by His disciples and also as Ezekiel 47:1 states that water will flow from the temple and flow out to the whole earth. Therefore, as Revelation 21:2 says that "I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband," this Jerusalem is ultimately connected to new Jerusalem in new heaven and new earth, which will be our dwelling place in the end where we will live with God who is our Holy temple, walking in His Word forever. And so the law in this verse should not be taken in a limited sense, I mean, the law of the Old Testament, rather, it should be understood to mean the Word of God, I mean, God’s pleasing will for us as it is said in the latter half of the verse.

4)    And finally, we would like to mediate the verse 4 “He shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for may peoples”, here the Hebrew wordשׁפט (shapat), which is translated as “He shall judge," means to judge, to vindicate, or to punish, yet also to govern or to rule and also the Hebrew wordיכח  (yakh), which is translated as ”He shall decide disputes” can mean to determine what is right, to argue, yet also to resolve disputes. Therefore, this can mean that when Christ comes, He will reign, bringing reconciliation among people and establishing a kingdom of peace. That’s why Acts 10:36 calls the gospel as good news of peace so that through the gospel we can enjoy the reconciliation with God as Rom 5:1 says and peace with people as Eph 2:15 and we have to proclaim peace to the world as Zechariah 9:10.

5)    In this moment, I think we need to think about the meaning of the law in today's text. I mean, according to Romans and Galatians, the law was understood as the means of the salvation through keeping it so that we tried to keep it perfectly, but we finally recognized that we could not keep it perfectly due to our total depravity and total inability. Therefore, God opened a new path to righteousness. That is, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this earth, bore our sins, was crucified to resolve the problem of our guilt and also fulfilled the law by keeping the law perfectly and obeying God throughout his life, enabling us to be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And thus, we are saved by faith in Christ. Then since our Lord has kept and fulfilled the law, we should not live as we please. Rather since we have been saved by grace alone, we have to begin to live according to God's will, as our life of gratitude to God. So, we need to understand God's pleasing will for us, and the Ten Commandments best describe this God’s will for us. Therefore, we no longer live by keeping the law to obtain salvation, rather, after we have been saved by faith, we begin to live according to God's will as our life of gratitude. That’s why in Exodus 20:1, when God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites, He said, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, so from now on, live before God like this,” and gave them the Ten Commandments. Furthermore, that’s why in Ezekiel 36:27 God said, “I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to keep my decrees and to do them.” And in Romans 8:3-4, He said, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

6)    And then within this context, we need to understand the commandment in verse 5 "Come, you house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord." I mean, as Deuteronomy 6:6 says, if we read God's Word and take it to heart, then as John 14:26 says, the Holy Spirit, will teach us all things and bring to our remembrance all that Jesus have said to us, and as Philippians 2:13 says, God works within us and makes us to will and to work for His good pleasure. And when we walk according to His Spirit, as Romans 8:4 says, we can live a life that fulfills the requirements of the law. This is the life in which we walk in the light of God, the Lord.

7)    That’s why the first John 1:5 says “God is light” and also in Mt 5:48 our Lord said “Therefore you must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Therefore I hope that in this first Sunday of Advent, we may please God, following the leading of the Holy Spirit by the help which we ask humbly before the gospel.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that the gospel of the Lord not only resolve the problem of our guilt, but also enables us to live in God’s word by renewing us. So, after reviewing our life and checking whether we live in the obedience to God, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And also, we became to know that the life to walk in the light of the LORD is possible through the renewing and the grace of the Holy Spirit. So after reviewing our life and checking whether we are living the life of obedience after discerning the leading of the Holy Spirit, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.