About 3 years ago, we got a call from Alissa. She wanted to make sure we were both home and she said, “We want to come over. We have something we want to tell you.  So in a couple of minutes, here comes Alissa, Josh, Sabrina, Olivia, Bella, Eden and Silas, walking up to our front door.  And they all have big smiles on their faces.  They all sit down in our living room and we have no idea what they are going to tell us.  But we know this is going to be something big.  Then Alissa said, “We are going to have a baby!”  And that is how we found out about Grayson! 

-I share that to make this point: The bigger the announcement the bigger deal you make out of it. 

In Isaiah 40, God has such a big announcement, that he said “Shout this from the top of the mountain!  This is the biggest announcement in history!  It is the most astounding and astonishing thing that anybody has ever heard. And it is the best news in the world.  So..

Don’t hold anything back.  Use all the power in your lungs and announce the good news. Here’s what I want you to say! Do not fear!  Behold your God.  He is coming! “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”  

Glory is the beauty of God, his perfect nature and character. It’s His greatness, power and majesty, but also his love and holiness and goodness.  God said He is going to reveal his glory to us. This is a prophecy about Jesus Christ. HE is the glory of the LORD, all flesh will see.  Matthew Mark and Luke and John all use this passage about Christ.  John the Baptist quoted these words just before Jesus began his public ministry.  He said, “I am that voice”. 

“Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” Jesus was God coming to us, he is the glory of God revealed to us. John chapter one: “The word was God and The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory.” 

Jesus Christ is the reason for shouting from the mountain tops. Because His coming solves every human need!  He is the end of fear, misery, war and sin.  The old hymn says,  “Jesus the name that charms our fears that bids our sorrow cease. It’s music in the sinner’s ears, It’s life and health and peace.  He breaks the power of canceled sin and set the prisoner free.  His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood (did that) for me.”  

Jesus releases us from our bondage to sin.  He removes guilt from us, and the judgment due to us because of sin.  He relieves us from the misery our sin has brought upon us.  He brings healing to us!  “The Sun of Righteousness has risen with HEALING in His wings and you will go free, leaping like calves, released from their stalls.”  Malachi 4:2

What effect is this great announcement supposed to have on us?  God tells us! It is supposed to comfort us.  “Comfort, comfort my people”.  God said “I want my people comforted! 

The gospel begins with a good news, VERY good news! It begins with a gift.  It does NOT begin with something we do but something God does for us.  We are comforted because of what God is doing FOR US.  

MLJ said this is the biggest shock of the gospel.  “We all thought “God was someone against us, who was waiting to crush us.” But God calls his prophets and says, “Go and comfort my people”.  “God knows that what we all need, because of the way in which we are battered and bruised by sin and evil in this world, is to be dealt with gently and to be soothed and comforted.” That’s exactly what God does for us.

God speaks this message right into the worst possible circumstances of life!  This comfort is for a people who had fallen into sin and were defeated by their enemies. They had been exiled, taken captive, their cities and homes were in ruins. They were under judgment for their sins. 

Into these harsh realities God said, Comfort my people! “Speak tenderly to her.  Cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned.”  Literally God said, “speak to her heart”.  God has something to say to you right here this morning, and he wants you to hear his word in your heart.  He says, “As a mother comforts her children, so I will comfort you.” (Is. 66:13)  It’s well known that soldiers dying on the battle field almost universally call out for their mothers. Why?  Because no one can calm and sooth and love you like your mother.  God desires to comfort you with deep, overflowing unending “motherly” comfort.  

Whatever is going on in your life.  Whatever stress, or fear or discouragement, or problem, is going on, let God comfort you.  Paul said God is the God of all comfort! 

Ironically I saw a message title this week that read, “God cares about your character not your comfort.”  Teachers often say God is more interested in your holiness than your happiness.  These are FALSE choices!... As though God were saying chose me OR happiness. Choose good character OR comfort.  

But God himself is our fountain of joy!  David said “You give us to drink of the river of your delights.”  God IS willing to discipline us for our good!  But his goal is to make you whole and well and full of peace!  

God said to Jeremiah, “I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them (Yes) I will rejoice in doing them good.”  32:40,41 Randy Alcorn called this the joyful enthusiasm of God to do us good. The more we believe this, the more we will love Him and live for Him!   If you are not living full out for Jesus Christ, it may be because you have never been bowled over by how good God is!  

*So what is comfort?  It’s the relief of pain and misery.  It is God wiping away our tears.  It is the assurance that everything is going to be alright!  It is the promise that wonderful good is coming to us that will make up for suffering.  Comfort from God is a powerful thing. It gives us strength, and hope and encouragement in hard times.  It makes us able to go on living with joy, even after bad things have happened to us. 

-God’s comfort matters because life is hard, painful, at times miserable.  There is that famous line by Julian of Norwich:  She asked the Lord “why there should be evil and suffering in the world.” The Lord answered her: “It necessary that there should be evil; but all shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner thing shall be well.”  I love that statement and sometimes repeat is when I am deeply troubled.  That is essentially what God was telling his people here!   

*The good news of Isaiah 40 is that Christ is God’s comforter!  All things turn for our good, through Him. The comfort of God flows to us through Christ! Through Christ God says to you, Be comforted my son or daughter, your sins are paid for.  Your enmity with God is over!  God is not against you, but now you may have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is the Glory of the Lord that will be revealed! 

When Jesus came, born as a baby, the glory of the LORD was seen here, on earth, among human beings.  In the gospels, we see his glory in the authority with which he taught, in the miracles he performed.  Jesus revealed the glorious love of God for sinners. He had compassion of the crowds because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He healed the sick, and fed the hungry. He revealed the glorious grace of God by going to the cross to die for sinful people.  If you want to know what God is like, look at the cross and what Jesus did for you there!  

For now, we see the glory of Jesus with the eyes of our heart.  With our spiritual eyes. And we love him and rejoice in him! Peter said “though you do not see him now, you love him and you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory”.  You might be able to see the glory of Jesus and find more glory in him, now, than you ever thought possible.  

But someday he is coming again in an unveiled revelation of his power and glory.  He will appear like lightning flashing from one corner of the sky to the other.  He will come with a two edged sword in his mouth.  He will come to conquer and put down his enemies forever.  He will visibly rule as king of kings.  And we will be safe and happy under his rule forever.  The glory of the Lord SHALL be revealed!  

*Next: God said to prepare for his coming.  Verse 3 “A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  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.”  “Behold, the Lord God comes!” 

What is the meaning of these verses?  Well John the Baptist was the voice.  And he repeated these verses right before Jesus came.  John cried out, “Make a highway for our God”.  What a strange message!  In those days the roads were rough or non-existent, and when the king went somewhere they would go make a road for him, raise up the low spots and knock down the high places.  

But the word picture here is a massive world-wide engineering project like the world has never seen.  Lift up every valley. Cut down every mountain, make a level path, make a highway for God.  For THE King, is coming! God is coming to us in Christ. Prepare the way.  This is a poetic way of God saying, “Get ready for the most astounding event that ever happened.” 

Was this word picture talking about actually tearing down mountains and filling in valleys?  NO!  It was about getting your heart ready!  It was about repentance!   John prepared people for Christ by calling them to repentance!  

People come to Christ in many different ways.  Some conversions are very dramatic and some are not.  BUT no one can come to Christ without repentance!  Repentance means to have sorrow for your sin. Repentance means to see that you need a Savior.  It means to be sick of your sin and yourself and the way you have been living. It means you thirst for something more!  That’s why Jesus, all you who are thirsty, come to me and I will give you living water.  “Thirst” is a word picture for repentance.

People who think, “I’m good, I’m just fine”, “I’ve got this”  will never see the glory of Christ.  Jesus said, “If you knew you were blind I could heal you, but because you say, we see, I can do nothing for you.”  Repentance prepares you to be made well...by Christ!

**In Isaiah’s day, God had worked repentance in the hearts of his people THROUGH war and captivity and loss. Verse 2 says, “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.”   These people had experienced the misery of war and captivity and slavery because of their great sin! 

Earlier Isaiah said, “They parade their sin like Sodom. (They flaunted their sexual sin) The land is full of idols.  Their words and deeds are against the Lord.  They have harps and tambourines and flutes at their banquets, but they have no regard for the Lord.  They are heroes at drinking wine.  They have rejected the Law of the Lord.  Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding.” (Isaiah 3:9, 5:22 etc.)

And they do...Israel was taken into captivity by the Assyrians in 722 BC.  Judah was taken into captivity in Babylon in 587 BC.  God intended this captivity as a purifying force to lead them to repentance or to turn back to God.  In Isaiah 40 God is speaking to people who have been chastened and broken by their own sinfulness and failure.  Have you been humbled and  chastened by your own failures, faults and sins?  Those are not pleasant things, but if they make you deeply sense your need of Jesus Christ, that is a good thing!

*Israel’s captivity was a specific situation of course, but sin and it’s disastrous effects are experienced by all people. We are all aware that things are NOT alright in this world!  We groan under a curse because of sin!  And we keenly feel that! There is so much that is good, but life is not perfect, life hurts, there’s failure and disappointment, and death! And sin and evil it NOT just out there!  We find it right inside of us! 

*So how can God comfort us in the darkness of sin and failure?  Only by God doing something for us.  Only by God making a big change.  For Israel he said, “Go tell them the war is over! Tell them their sins are forgiven!  Tell them they are not going to receive any more anger or wrath for their sins.  Tell them I am coming to save them!”

This message, of course, goes way beyond Israel and their tragic condition. This comforting message is that Jesus Christ is God coming to us, to deal with OUR sin problem, to comfort us, by that.  He is the answer to the entire problem of sin, for all time. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!  Christ loves us and released us from our sins by His blood! 

I know we are all looking for something to make us happy this morning or right now and that is the only solutions we tend to be interested in.  God is interested in that too. But the root of our problem must be dealt with in order for us to be truly happy and walk in joy.  Our daily trials and tears and even death, can only be alleviated by overcoming the source of it all, sin!  

God’s comfort IS for OUR daily heartache and afflictions, but it is bigger than that!  Christ is the answer to everything that is wrong.  He comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found!  Christ’s mission is to bring an end to evil, suffering and sin in the entire universe!  

The message is “Joy to the world!” Yes, it’s joy for you!  But it’s worldwide joy!  The angel said, ‘Behold I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all the people.” This is something we are to celebrate TOGETHER! 

*No wonder God said, Go up on a high mountain, and tell the people that something new is taking place, something that staggers the imagination. Something is going to happen that will solve all your fears, fulfill all your hopes, alleviate all your misery, defeat all your enemies.  Lift up your voice with all your might and cry out, “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed to you. Your God is coming to you! Do not fear!  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. 

And what is He going to do for your when he comes?   Verse 11 “Like a Shepherd, He will tend his flock.  He gathers the lambs in his arms and will carry them (close to his heart); he gently leads those that have young”.  When you hear those words, and begin to believe that, you have discovered God!  

This is what Jesus Christ revealed God to be.  God is a shepherd.  He not only will pardon your sins. He will bring you up close to his heart.  When you are weak he will carry you.  When you are helpless, he will lead you.  He will show you the way you are to go!  He will lead you in paths of righteousness.  

The comfort you long for is only found in Christ. He is God’s comfort for troubled, sinful, failures!  He is God’s comfort for troubled people! Go to Him for comfort.  Stop seeking to solve your sin and sorrows and disappointments with something else. 

“O let the Son of God enfold you with His Spirit and His love, Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul. O let Him have the things that hold you, and His Spirit, like a dove, Will descend upon your life and make you whole. “Give Him all your tears and sadness, give Him all your years of pain, And you’ll enter into life in Jesus’ name.”