Highway of Holiness (2)
Advent 1
Isaiah 35
These are important
prophecies that God gave through His prophets. God is sovereign and He has a plan of salvation for His people.
There is joy and healing. This King is coming and there is
3- Beside joy and healing, there is judgment with the
coming of this King.
We do not like to talk about
judgment at Christmas.
“Your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution
he will come to save you” (v4).
There is judgment in His coming. The birth of this child is opening a new
chapter of salvation in the lives of the people. Jesus is bringing the Highway
of Holiness. Some will accept him and some will reject him. Some will love to
walk in the highway of holiness, and some will mock him and disbelieve him. God is Holy and just. God dislikes sin.
God’s desire is that His creation turns to him from their inequities
and sins. We judge ourselves when we reject Jesus.
-We need to be
prepared to see him, to see this king.
In the Armenian church, there is the custom of fasting for 50 days as a
preparation for the coming of Jesus. Unfortunately sometimes people fast as a ritual
without being really broken. What I am trying to say
is that the early church took it very seriously to prepare for the advent,
the coming of Jesus. They prepared themselves in repentance, as John the
Baptist prepared the people those days by inviting them to repent and be baptized.
-Once there was a man who was lost on an island.
For many years he lived there all alone. One day a
group of people found the island and they came to rescue him. He was so afraid
to face these people that he hid. They came and wanted
to rescue him, but could not find him. Eventually they left the island without the
man. The man came out and felt very bad
for what he had done, but it was too late.
When Jesus the
king is coming, he is coming for a mission. His mission is salvation; his
mission is to save humanity. The judgment is coming; either we
accept the King’s coming or we are doomed to be lost.
4- Then…then… “Then will the eyes
of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped” (vs. 5).
Then….then…. “Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue
shout for joy” (vs. 6).
Isaiah is talking
about two different comings of Messiah (Jesus).
“The prophet points to the
promised future, inaugurated in the first coming of Jesus Christ, and fully consummated at
his second coming.” (ESV notes)
-It is interesting that in the beginning of his ministry Jesus went to the
temple, stood up, opened the scrolls and read:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set
at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year
of the Lord's favor” (Luke 4:16-21).
- Isaiah the Prophet described the second coming of Jesus.
Please Read Rev. 21:4, which describes
that there will be no tears, no mourning, no crying.
meanwhile:
5- There is new Highway
opening, the highway of holiness.
It is a highway of joy, singing, going to
Jesus said: “I am the way and
the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)
John the Baptist said he came to prepare the way. “A voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for
him.” (Matthew 3:3)
On Palm Sunday his disciples and people prepared
his way to enter to
But in reality Jesus is
preparing the real highway, the way of holiness. He is the WAY. Who can
walk on this way? Who is worthy to walk on this way?
Only through accepting Jesus as personal savior
one can have access to this highway.
I watched a
touching and meannigful story from ABC news. They spoke about a 11
year old boy, Brenden Foster, who was dying
from cancer (leukemia). “Make a wish” organization asked for a final wish. The
child was on his way to his home. He saw homeless people on the street while he
was going home. Brenden decided to focus all his remaining energy on feeding the
homeless. Soon the story
was out and many helped that this boys wish come true.
“In just two
weeks, an eleven year old too sick to even work a paper route, raised tens of
thousands of dollars and brought in truckloads of donations.
Wendy Foster:
He's left a legacy and he's 11. He's done more than
most people ever dream of doing just by making a wish and speaking his mind. He
lived long enough to see it-before dying in his mother's arms Friday morning.”
(NK, ABCNews, Seattle.)
On Highway
of holiness we will walk on it when we embrace Jesus,
who is holy, just, and pure. On “highway of Holiness” we need to walk like Jesus . We are called to be his
ambassadors on the “highways of this earth” where there is pain and suffering.
I am not sure if this little boy, Brenden is
Christian, yet
his last wish is so meaningful and christlike that it
touched me.
Where are we
in the preparation for coming of the king?
Come and
repent, be ready to enter the Highway of Holiness.
amen