Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a
sign for yourself from the Lord
your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” But Ahaz said, “I
will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”
Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small
thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord
Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son,
and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:10-14)
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What is
the purpose of a sign? Why does God give
so many signs in the Bible? It is
because God wants you to be sure of what he has promised. He wants you not to doubt his mercy and grace,
and his goodwill and favor toward you in Christ your Savior. He wants you to be certain of it and to
regard him as your loving Father in heaven who does not condemn you, but
blesses you and keeps you, since it was to this end that he sent his only begotten
Son to be born for you, to live for you, and to die for you. He wants this confidence for you because he
loves you very much. He wants you to be
firm in your faith for at least these two reasons:
The
first is very obvious: because it is only by faith in his word that you will be
saved from your sin, from death, and from eternal punishment in hell. Only faith receives the salvation Jesus
gives. But the second reason why God
wants you to be firm in your faith is often overlooked and neglected. There is more to God’s love for you than what
will eventually become of you when you die.
God is concerned about your current life as you live it now. God wants you to be firm in your faith because
he does not want you to be afraid now,
or to carry on in misery now while
you live here on earth. He wants you to
be full of joy and gladness tonight. Such joy is found only where he strengthens
your faith in his holy word. This joy begins
now and lasts forever.
It
begins now. What he gives you now is
what you will have in heaven. God wants you to begin enjoying this treasure
before you get there. God’s concern for
your present circumstances and current state of happiness is nowhere
made more evident than when we celebrate Christmas, that pivotal moment in
history when God so condescended toward man that he assumed our flesh and blood
in the womb of a lowly virgin and laid himself to rest in a manger. He who lived from eternity in heaven came
down in time to live on earth. It was
because of this birth that God sent angels to insignificant shepherds telling
them not to be afraid of God – not now; not ever again – because the God who has
come to you will also bring you where he has gone.
Yes, God
wants you to know that your eternity is safe with Christ. Of course!
But he demonstrates this desire for your eternity by letting you know
that your today and your tomorrow are safe as well. What love he has! After all, what worse pain or sorrow can
there be on earth than to be unsure of how the eternal and righteous and
almighty God in heaven thinks of you? Not just what he will think of you – what he does
think of you.
Imagine
the uncertainty and doubt a young man has who must live without his beloved,
who must go without seeing her or hearing her voice, who must wonder while life
goes on whether she still thinks of him fondly, or if he has faded into a
quaint memory that she rarely thinks of anymore even as she gives her affection
to another. What pain, what fear – the
kind that we can all relate to – the kind of pain you feel in your heart and in
your gut and that clouds your mind. It
is the pain of doubt. Yet how much
greater is the drama within the sinner’s heart who must carry on in life unsure
of where he is headed, unsure of what God is going to do with him, in doubt as
to whether God is angry or genuinely pleased!
To doubt
God is a sin to be sure – a sin that needs to be repented of and pardoned. But, dear brothers and sisters, it is a sin
that our God is eager to bear with in patience and kindness. It is a sin that he especially wants to free
you from even now – not only for the sake of your eternal welfare, but also for
the sake of your current happiness. He
wants you to be saved from hell.
Absolutely! He also wants you to
be saved right now from the fiery darts of the devil who tortures souls by
tempting them to doubt God’s word. What
worse pain can you feel than to be unsure of God’s love for you?
So now
consider what greater joy you can have than to be absolutely sure. Absolutely is a strong word. 100%?
Really? Who can have such certainty? Who does?
Only God. The confidence you
desire is not one that you can develop on your own. It must come from outside of you. And it does.
What kindness God shows in giving signs, therefore, since this is
exactly what they are for. They confirm
the truth of his word.
How
precious, after all, a small token of love would be for the young man who has
begun to doubt his sweetheart: a letter, a scarf, a picture. What joy and relief such a sign
provides. So also, this is why God gives
us signs. They are not mere sentimental
tokens of summer love. They are sure and
clear promises of eternal love – a love so genuine and holy that it extends
deep into the coldness of sin’s dark winter to rescues us. He rescues us from eternal woe by rescuing
us from our present doubts.
What God
thinks of you matters. We can distract
ourselves from this. We can imagine that
other things are more pressing and will give more pleasure in the here and now. But these diversions are lies that will be
exposed in the end and leave sinners disappointed. And we know it. To lack peace with God is the worst. That is why Christ draws you here with his
promise to give you just that, peace with God.
God
tells you things. He tells you that
certain things are true – certain things that you cannot see or feel – things
that are contradicted by everything you can
see and feel. He tells you that you
are his own dear child, washed clean and made holy in the blood of Christ. Can you feel it? What experience proves it? Have you lived like a child of God? Is your holiness evident? Or do you know what impure thoughts you have
indulged? Have others witnessed or even
felt the brunt of your sin? Can you not
fix it? Do you not feel and see the
exact opposite of what God says is true?
Yet God
says that by faith in Jesus who bore your sin you stand righteous before him. Can you see or feel this righteousness
within? You cannot. You see and feel the very sin that God tells
you is forgiven. What God says about you
and about the current state of affairs between you and him are completely
contrary to what you experience and feel and see.
And this
is as it should be. Because you do not
verify whether God is telling you the truth based on how you feel. You do not determine whether you really are forgiven
and justified by looking to see how sin-free and righteous you are. Anyone who does this deceives himself and the
truth is not in him. Rather, you listen
to what God says. He speaks truth. He confirms what you feel, to be sure. Yes, he sharpens it even. God teaches you what you by nature have some inkling
of – that you are a poor sinner who falls short of his glory and who merits the
death that creeps up on you. And to this
you say Amen.
But God
does not leave you with such bitter truth.
He gives you the saving knowledge of Christ your Savior – the same
saving knowledge he once gave to Adam and Eve, and to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. It is the saving truth he gave to
David and so many prophets and kings that, though you feel your sin and have
come to know and hate what God knows and hates within yourself, yet despite
this there is One who bears your sin in your place. There is One who has no sin of his own. He is your God who took on human flesh and
blood to do what sinful flesh and blood could not do. He was born innocent for you who were born guilty. He was obedient where you were rebellious. He loved where you hated, forgave where you
held a grudge, and blessed where you cursed. And he who pleased his Father where you did
not also shed his blood in pain and sadness so that you might not. He takes your place. He comes lowly to you in order to exult you
with himself. And doing so, he reveals
to you his Father’s heart, full of grace and pardon. He remembers his promise even now – his
promise to forget your sin by forgiving it.
But he
shall not forget you – even now. God
knows your weakness. That is why he sent
his Son to join you in it. He knows your
doubt. That is why he sent his Son to
give you certainty. And so that we might
rely on this alone, he gives us signs.
His signs do not point to some place we must still go. His signs point us to where he has already
come to us.
In
Baptism, by simple water, he gives what he says is yours. You do not feel washed and clean. But your Baptism says you are. You do not see your inheritance. But your Baptism says that Christ’s birth is
yours, his death is yours, his resurrection is yours, what he now owns and
holds forever is yours. This is what it
means for Christ to remember you in his kingdom. What a glorious sign!
You do
not feel eternal life within. You feel
death. But in his holy Supper Jesus
gives you his very body and blood that lives and cannot die. It is the body and blood of God your Savior
that once hid his glory in a manger, revealed it on the cross, and now shares
it with you in bread and wine. As
certainly as our Father in heaven was pleased to see this holy body bear your
sin and this innocent blood trickle down as payment, as certainly as he was
pleased to raise it from the dead since all sin had been paid for, so just as
certain can we be that he gives it to us in order that we might know and see
what God knows and sees. He sees what
he here reveals to you: the body and blood that we eat and drink is the very
body and blood that pleads in heaven for us.
What a glorious sign!
These
signs, these sacraments, teach us where to find the truth when we don’t feel or
see it on our own. They direct our minds
and hearts away from what we experience.
They ground us firmly where God forgives and puts an end to all
doubt. God wants you to be certain. God loves you. That is why God gives signs.
Ahaz
refused to ask for a sign because he had already made a treaty with another
king. He pretended to trust God. But he only mocked him. He found all the confidence he desired in the
peace that he himself had made. So also
many today will refuse to make use of God’s signs. They are content with what little certainty
they have, which is no certainty at all, because they are content with what
they have arranged. Having made peace
with doubt, they remain at war with him who alone gives true peace with God.
But his
peace is still found in the sign that stood against Ahaz, in the sign that
stands against all who would refuse God’s signs and sacraments and rely on
themselves. But dear Christians, today
is Christmas Eve, the night of our Savior’s birth. God’s sign does not stand against you. His sign stands for you. It stands fulfilled
in the sign the angels gave to the shepherds.
A virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and call his name Immanuel, that
is, God with us. Tonight is born to you
in the city of David Christ the Lord.
God is with you. He is your Savior. Do not be afraid. Simply follow the signs. There you find your certainty, there you find
your true Shepherd – where doubt and sin and fear are cast out by perfect love
– perfect Love wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. He comes not to condemn. He comes to rescue. He loves you.
Follow
the signs. He sends not mere tokens of
his promise. He comes to you himself. He is your God. He is your Brother. He is with you wrapped in his word, made
visible by the signs and sacraments of the New Testament. Even now.
And as surely as this poor baby in lowliness gained the victory over
sin, hell, and Satan, so he remains with you today in your lowliness to gain
the victory over all your doubt. The
divine and certain Word that once made his bed in a manger now makes his home
in your heart. Do not lose heart. Be courageous to say Amen to what your God
says is yours. “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man
is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a
moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are
seen are temporary, but the
things which are not seen are
eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
He who has joined your flesh and blood forever joins also your
day-to-day. Come what may, he loves
you. In him you are safe. Amen.
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