Sermons on Isaiah

Sermons on Isaiah

What Are You Hoping For?

Isaiah 54:1-3. What role does hope play in your life? Do you ever allow yourself to dream? Do you believe God has a glorious future for you? If you are honest, I’m sure many of us would admit that it didn’t take long for the idealistic dreams of youth to be dashed upon the unforgiving bedrock of reality. Perhaps you’ve lost your ability to dream. “What are you hoping for?” now strikes the cynical cord of despair –“why” hope at all? Who dares hope against hope? In chapter 54, the prophet Isaiah resurrects Israel’s hope in the darkest days of her history, when the land was devastated and desecrated and her children taken into exile. Come and see how God’s people, once battered and beaten break forth into resounding jubilation.

Ring Out, Ring In

Isaiah 43:18-19 Advent is a season of God doing new things. Jesus came, Jesus will come, and also Jesus comes to us in the present bring new life. As we enter into a new year we can reflect/pray to be aware of the new things that God might do.

Prince of Peace

Isa 9:6 Join us on this final Sunday of Advent as we discover who is our Prince of Peace. We are often at odds with God and the world around us, even ourselves, and we need peace. More than that, we need the one who makes all things right, bringing peace into our lives both now and for all eternity.

Everlasting Father

Isa 9:6 This third Sunday of Advent is Gaudete Sunday, meaning Rejoice! Yet Advent is a season of waiting in anticipation and hope. How do we rejoice while waiting? We consider the third name given to the child that is born, the son that is given: Everlasting Father.

Mighty God

Isa 9:6 In our first week of Advent, we remembered the gift of wisdom God has given us in Jesus — He is truly our “Wonderful Counselor”! This Sunday, we’ll look at another of the names Isaiah gave to the child born to us: “Mighty God”. In Jesus, God has shown Himself mighty over our enemies. But who are our enemies? And how did Jesus fight them for us? Come hear the good news of Jesus’ victory as we look once again at Isaiah 9:6.

Wonderful Counselor

Isa 9:6 Welcome to Advent 2022 at PBCC! Our Advent sermon series this year is titled “What Child Is This?” and will focus on the four names given to the child of Isaiah 9. This week we will focus on the name Wonderful Counselor, by asking the question, where do you go to find wise counsel in your life? However you answer that question, Isaiah promises something better. He promises that a future child will know God so thoroughly and intimately, he will counsel people in God’s wonderful plans and God’s wonderful ways. Join us this Sunday as we kickoff the Advent season.

Doing Justice, the Gateway to JOY

This Sunday is Freedom Sunday where we are joining with over 1500 churches around the world to deepen our understanding for God’s heart for justice and renew our commitment to fight modern day slavery around the world. In our text, Isaiah exposes the hypocrisy that so often plagues the people of God that prevents us from experiencing his presence and then he entices us with the indescribable joy that opens up to us when we enter into God’s work of justice. It’s not as difficult as you might think!

A Future to Die For

Isaiah 65:17-25 In our four-part series Comfort O Comfort My People we have gone through three steps: First, we received God’s word of comfort (Isa 40:1-11). On the second week, we drew near to God to lament and listen (Isa 49:1-6). Last week we caught a vision for the blessings we receive in doing acts of justice (Isa 58:1-14). To conclude our series, the prophet strengthens our hope and stirs our imagination for a future to die for—in the words of Paul, “an eternal weight of glory” beyond all comparison” (2 Cor 4:17). My hope is that when your children or friends ask you what heaven is like, you’ll be able to reframe their question and light their hearts on fire with a vision of a new earth, which is crammed with the life of heaven.

Doing Justice, the Pathway to JOY

Isaiah 58:1-14 Our text this week opens with a heated exchange between God and his people. The people are disgruntled because they have been zealous in their ritual observances, but find that God no pays absolutely no attention. “Why do we fast, but you do not see?” Sound familiar? In response, God sounds an alarm from heaven, as if this is a life and death matter, therefore we better get it right. There is gaping disconnect between their “religion” and their relationships, an insidious hypocrisy that perverts righteousness for profit and destroys lives. In relentless severity God exposes their “religion” for what it really is. What happens next is not what we would expect. Instead of thundering down judgment, God shows them the road home and the manifold blessings that pour forth when his people join him in doing the holy work of justice. Read his appeal (vv.6-14) out load before Sunday and allow the repetitive cadences to wash over your soul with increasing intensity. This is God’s “I have a dream!” speech. May it stir our hearts and awaken us from sleep to “ride on the heights of the earth” (58:14). After the message we will partake of the Lord’s table together. So have the elements ready before we start. The love of Christ be with you all.

Draw Near, Lament and Listen

Isaiah 49:1-13 In the first message (Isaiah 40:1-11) of our series, “Comfort O Comfort My People,” God gave voice to his unshakable commitment to rescue his people from exile and, in so doing, set in motion the salvation of the whole world. This week the good news will continue, but to embrace it fully we will have to learn to do what our culture fears doing—to lament. The reason they are afraid, suggests Tom Wright, “is because it seems to be afraid of the fear itself, frightened that even to name grief will be to collapse forever. We have keep going, we tell ourselves, we have to be strong. Strong, yes. Strong like Jesus who wept at the tomb of his friend. Strong like the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead and will give life to our mortal bodies too — but who, right now, is pleading for us with groanings too deep for words.” If we embrace the biblical pattern of lament in its bold honesty and audacious trust, we will discover as the psalmists, prophets and Jesus found, hidden treasures of God’s presence that surpass understanding.

Receive God’s Word of Comfort

Isaiah 40:1-2, 27-31, 43:1-7 The pandemic continues unabated and it’s not going anywhere soon. For many us, it is getting personal, as the virus has infected co-workers, friends and/or family members. Along with increasing human, economic and social costs, many are experiencing a crisis in their faith. As Tom Wright suggests, “Tears, locked doors and doubt…sum up a lot of where we are globally.” Living lives in fear and isolation erodes our faith, darkens our hope and paralyzes our love. The length and severity of the pandemic would have shaken my soul, had I not been teaching a course on Isaiah 40-66 for the last 25 weeks. The prophet’s words address the greatest disaster in the Hebrew scriptures, the Babylonian exile. In midst of unending darkness and despair, God’s words blaze with light, comfort, healing and hope. As we immersed ourselves in Isaiah’s oratorio, we experienced a renewal of our faith, a strengthening of our hope and a new flame for our love. For the next four weeks we will be exploring significant themes in these chapters in the hope of giving you a prophetic imagination to see how God is at work in the midst of the darkness.