Deo Gloria
December 2, 2020
Sermon for Midweek Advent Service
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Isaiah 61:1-3
Theme: Hark the Glad Sound – The Savior Comes!
- To Bind Up Broken Hearts
2020 has been a difficult year to say the least—a challenging year in so many ways due to the coronavirus. Here in the United States more than 13 million people have been infected and over 250,000 people have died. It has placed a tremendous strain on our doctors and nurses and our medical facilities. And many people have lost a family member or a friend.
On top of that there is the mental and emotional strain resulting from lost jobs and lost income and being separated from coworkers and classmates and family members. More and more people this year have been struggling with loneliness and depression, especially those in nursing homes. As some of you know, my dad is battling Alzheimers and lives in a nursing home in New Ulm. I hadn’t been able to see him in a couple of months. And last week I had planned to go and see him, but then a worker at the facility where he lives tested positive for COVID and all visits were cancelled. It’s been hard for him and hard for us too. I’m sure many of you can relate.
It’s in the face of such discouraging news and precisely because of such discouraging news that I bring you good news this evening, good news that is reflected in the title of our Advent series and in the hymn we just sang: “Hark the Glad Sound – The Savior Comes.” That good news also comes across loud and clear in the words of our text.
These words from Isaiah ch. 61 were written for the people of Israel, people who one day would be living in exile in Babylon. Because of their sinfulness and rebellion against him, God had foretold that one day he would bring judgment on his people and allow an enemy army to conquer them. About 100 years after Isaiah lived, God’s word came true. The Babylonian army invaded the land of Judea. They crushed the armies of Israel and destroyed their towns and villages, including the capitol city of Jerusalem. They smashed down the walls and torched the buildings. And they burned the temple, God’s temple, to the ground as well. Thousands died in the fighting. Many thousands more were captured and taken away into captivity in Babylon. Their homes were gone. Their jobs and businesses were gone. Their beautiful temple was gone. Their loved ones were gone. Their freedom was gone. The grief and heartache were overwhelming. It was almost too much to bear. Read the book of Lamentations once and listen to Jeremiah as he describes his own great anguish and grief.
Needless to say, God’s people would need some encouragement during such a dark and difficult time. They’d need some words of comfort, some words of hope. And God provides it here through the prophet Isaiah. Let me read his words again. (Read text.) Yes, one day God would bring them good news, wonderful news, incredible news, news that would dispel the gloom and darkness and depression, news that would put a song in their hearts and a spring in their step, news that would turn their grief into gladness and their mourning into dancing. One day he would restore their freedom. One day in his grace and mercy God would deliver them from captivity in Babylon and bring them back to the promised land, where they would rebuild their homes and rebuild their villages and rebuild the city of Jerusalem and rebuild the temple too. Yes, here was good news for God’s people, news to bind up their broken hearts.
But it was really just the beginning. You see, there is another kind of captivity that is worse than captivity in Babylon, another burden that is heavier than the loss of one’s freedom, a source of grief and sadness and pain that is even harder to bear than the loss of a dear friend or family member. It’s the captivity to Satan and sin and death. It’s the loss of your spiritual freedom and the slavery of your soul. It’s the unending grief and sadness and pain and death a person would experience in the eternal darkness of hell. Talk about depressing! Talk about discouraging!
We’ve tasted it at times—the darkness and gloom, the anguish and sadness and pain. We’ve tasted it as we’ve wrestled with some besetting sin or temptation or maybe with an addiction of some kind and wondered if we would ever be free of it. We’ve tasted it as struggled with the burden of guilt over some awful thing that we said or did and wondered if it would ever be lifted. We’ve tasted it as we struggled with COVID-19 or some other serious illness and wondered if we would ever get better. We’ve tasted it as we stood at the grave a dear family member or friend and wondered when we would see them again. And that’s just a little taste, a little glimpse of the gloom and death and darkness Satan has in store for you and me in hell.
But here’s the good news, good news for God’s people back then, good news for God’s people today: The Savior is coming. The one who would break the power of sin and death was coming. The one who would take on our enemy the devil and crush his head was coming. The one would bring good news of forgiveness from our sins and release from our burdens and freedom for our souls was coming.
And not surprisingly, when he came, he spoke these very words. The day he preached in his home town of Nazareth, he unrolled the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and this is what he read:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.(Luke 4:18-19).
And then he said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus is the one who was sent by God to bring us good news, to bind up our broken hearts, to bring us comfort and peace and joy and salvation. And Jesus could bring us such good news because he would actually do what God had predicted through prophets like Isaiah. By his death and resurrection he would defeat Satan and sin and death. By his death and resurrection he would set us free from their power and control. By his death and resurrection he would release us from the burden of sin and guilt. By his death and resurrection he would give us the peace of forgiveness and the joy of salvation. By his death and resurrection he would shatter the shackles of death and give us life, eternal life in heaven. This is good news, wonderful news, encouraging news for just such a time as this, news to bind up our broken hearts.
But it doesn’t end there. You see, our Savior Jesus is coming again. And when he does, these words of Isaiah will be perfectly fulfilled. He’s coming to set us free from sin and all the effects of sin forever. He’s coming to heal every disease and sickness forever—not a new vaccine for COVID, not a new treatment for cancer—no COVID, no cancer ever again. He’s coming to wipe away every tear and fill our hearts with joy and gladness—unending joy and gladness. He’s coming to bring the dead back to life and give us life, life the way it was meant to be, in perfect peace and perfect joy and perfect health with him forever.
Yes, here is good news, good news for God’s people back then who would be living through a difficult time and struggling with gloom and depression, good news for God’s people today who are living through a difficult time and might be struggling with gloom and depression. Hark the glad sound—the Savior comes! He comes to bring you good news. He comes to bind up your broken heart! Amen.