Princeton Presbyterian Church

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1663

December 8, 2024

Isaiah 7.10-16; Luke 1.26-38                 Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“The Promised Advent”

 

Isaiah 7.10-16, Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: ¹¹“Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” ¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” ¹³And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. ¹⁵He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. ¹⁶For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.

 

Luke 1.26-38, In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. ²⁸And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” ²⁹But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” ³⁴And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” ³⁵And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. ³⁶And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. ³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

 

• The Promised Sign

 

The season of Advent is often referred to as a season of preparation as we look to the coming of God through Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. And that is true, we are getting ready to celebrate and remember the birth of Christ in the narratives of Matthew and Luke and perhaps in the cosmic view of John 1 and even in the prophetic words like those of Isaiah.

In that sense I think Advent is also a time of promise, of signs and wonders, of fulfillment and hope, and a time of looking back and looking forward to what is promised again. Christ came by the will of God for a specific purpose and that advent was promised long ago in the prophets and the Psalms and the books of Moses (Luke 24.27, 44). Jesus refers back to all of those references after the resurrection in Luke 24. In Isaiah we see the promise of a sign. People love signs. When Jesus was on the earth, people asked for signs and we still seek signs of His coming again. Isaiah reveals the sign of a child born to a virgin. That is quite a miraculous sign. Luke takes this prophetic sign and reveals its fulfillment in Mary in the Christmas story. Matthew, who loves to show Old Testament prophecies fulfilled, even quotes from Isaiah. We will look at that in a moment.

There are signs everywhere for things like the existence of God. Signs that have been fulfilled like this one on the birth of Christ. And there are signs of His coming again. And yet, I doubt we really need the signs because I would put more weight on the promises. Great to have signs, but even greater to have promised signs. God keeps His promises.

 

 

• The Promised Name

 

The name given in Isaiah is Emmanuel, God with us. It is repeated in Matthew’s Christmas story,

 

²¹She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²²All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ²³“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel” (1.21-23).

 

As I have stated, Matthew was all about showing the promises and prophecies of the advent of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Both Matthew and Luke reveal the other name given which is Jesus. Both these names are powerful revelations, one giving us the comfort and promise of God’s presence with us, and the other, Jesus, giving us the promise of salvation. Jesus literally means God saves.

Immanuel is the name of promise both in what was promised to come in Isaiah and in what it means for all of God’s people. If God is with us it also means that God is for us. And that is good news. Romans 8.31-33 tells us,

³¹What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? ³³Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

With the name comes justification. With the name comes identity. With the name comes responsibility to walk worthy of the name. The third commandment verifies this truth that we carry the name above all names, not to be taken in vain and not to be carried in vain. We are in Christ, identified solely in His name as Christians who are called to God’s kingdom and righteousness.

Jesus is the name of God’s initiative and mighty work of salvation. Name Him Jesus because He will save His people. Name Him Jesus because He will die for us that we might be saved from sin and death. Name Him Jesus because He will wash away our sins and set us free to live dead to sin and alive to God. Jesus, the name, has power.

“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. ¹²And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4.11-12

 

And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, ³⁰while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” Acts 4.29-30

 

 

• The Promised Savior

 

Israel was looking for centuries for the coming of the Messiah. About the time of Jesus there were multiple views on what the Messiah would look like, not in His person but in His role. Would He come as a conquering king to overthrow Roman rule? Would He come with an army of angels? He came in the way God often comes, not as we might expect. He came as a suffering servant.

 

The same prophet who gives us the sign of Immanuel also gives us the way He would come. Isaiah 53 is the picture...we wonder how the Jews in Jesus’ day could have missed it.

 

For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. ³He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ⁴Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53.2-5).

 

To this very day, evangelicals are using this text in Israel to show Jesus as the Messiah. I’ve heard Messianic Jews give testimony about Rabbis or Jewish families basically ignoring or hiding Isaiah 53.

 

 

• The Promised Advent

 

In the promised Advent we have received the good news of a promised Savior, promised miracle (virgin birth), promised obedience (Jesus to the cross, Phil 2), from the promise keeper (God keeps promises), for God is faithful in all things; Psalm 111.7-8, “The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy; they are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.”

All of this has come at the first Advent, the birth of Christ. During the season of Advent we also look to the promise of the Second Advent when Christ will come again.

 

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” ⁹And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ¹⁰And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, ¹¹and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Acts 1.6-11

 

We look for this promised advent having seen the first. We look with anticipation for the coming of Jesus just as many looked long ago for the first. God has promised. God has kept His promises, and because we are a part of His promise, we hope, we wait, we look, we follow. Amen.