Walk In Gospel Hope (Isaiah 2:1-5)
The Advent season has often been used by God’s people to adjust our focus. And I hope that happens this year.
Hope is often the theme of the first week of Advent. And I believe hope is something that we, as a church need to focus our hearts on. There has simply been so much happen this year that makes us feel hopeless. There is only so much sickness, death, money issues, government issues, and everything else that we can take before we start feeling incredible sorrow. But here, in this first week of Advent, let’s walk in gospel hope.
Gospel hope is not hope in the meaningless sense, as it is often used today. The word has been used so poorly over the years that it is almost meaningless in our current time. Obama ran on “hope and change” and I’m not sure that the first part of the phrase meant anything. And how many times have you heard someone say, or watched someone say in a move, to a person in deep sorrow that what they needed was to have hope. But the phrase is completely devoid of meaning and there is literally nothing helpful or usable in that advice.
It is not so with gospel hope. With Christ there is real hope. Jesus accomplished something real and substantive that I can look to in times of trouble. Christ accomplished something that we could hope for and walk in. Christ gave us gospel hope that we are to walk in. So, walk in gospel hope.
Today we are in Isaiah 2:1-5. Here, Isaiah saw a vision of what was to come. And right from the beginning we are assured that this will happen. It will happen. Christ will conquer, reign, and bring complete peace; therefore we can have hope. And because this is the case, we walk in gospel hope.
Christ Will Conquer (Isaiah 2:2)
This word that Isaiah saw begins with “in the latter days” (Isaiah 2:2). Something is going to happen at that time. And there is complete certainty that this will come to pass. So, what are these “latter days”?
These “latter days” are still future for Isaiah, but we are currently living in the time described. The Old Covenant gave way to the vision that Isaiah was seeing. Here is why I say this so confidently. Joel prophesied about what would happen in the “last days” in Joel 2:28 and that was fulfilled in Acts 2:17 at Pentecost. At that time they were in the “latter days” or “last days”. We see the same sort of thing in the Book of Hebrews. The writer to the Hebrews calls the time period after the Old Testament’s passage “these last days” (Hebrews 1:2). And then there is Peter who described the coming of Christ as having happened in “the last times” (1 Peter 1:20). Peter also describes the scoffing that we associate with our day as being part of the last days (2 Peter 3:3). Even John stated that the Church was already in “the last hour” (1 John 2:18).
Taking all of this into consideration, it seems obvious enough that “the latter days” is a reference to a rather large time period that began at the time of Christ and is still the time we are living in today. And the things that Isaiah discusses here are also going to be part of the “latter days”. There are things left to be completed in the “latter days”.
At some point in “the latter days”, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be lifted above the others. The significance of this lies in the fact that many religions had their own hills and mountains in this day. Rome had it’s seven hills and oftentimes the smallest of those was noted as the most significant and it was Capitol Hill. Capitol Hill was the ceremonial center of Rome. Mt. Olympus was considered to be the home of the Greek gods. Meru was the mountain that was called “Abode of the Gods” to the Hindu. Mt. Zaphon was thought to be the home of the Canaan god Baal-Haddad. And what we read here is that Mt. Zion would overshadow them all at some point in “the latter days”.
This is one of the passages of Scripture that convinced me that Christianity would dominate the globe before the return of Christ. I was once very skeptical on the growth of Christianity before the return of Christ. I would just look around myself, see society falling apart, and think that it was not going to get any better. But that is not what we see in Isaiah 2:1-5. Mt. Zion will one day overtake every false religion, false ideology, and will overshadow them all. And that is part of the message of hope that we have today.
We may have trouble seeing how this could possibly take place. You are likely considering our society and the world as it exists right now. It is hard not to with so much going on in the world today. But the Kingdom of God has been expanding for thousands of years. These “latter days” have been filled with the growth of God’s Kingdom around the globe.
This is what Christmas is about. God created the world and everything in it. He created man in His image and gave him the task of subduing the Earth. But rather than subdue the Earth, he let the enemy in who tempted his wife and they both fell into sin and rebellion. The very creatures that God had created in His image rebelled against God. This rebellion had massive consequences and left the entirety of the human race born in sin and rebellion against God. Every person born after Adam and Eve were born with this rebellion as part of their makeup. Their hearts were corrupted. And not only were they corrupted inwardly, but they desired to rebel against God. And so, now we sin because we are sinners and we earn for ourselves God’s justice and wrath. Everyone earns for their self a destination in Hell where they will face God’s wrath and justice forever. But God did not leave us in this situation. That is what Christmas is about. God the Son took on human flesh and dwelt among us. That is the Christmas story. His name is Jesus. Jesus lived a perfect life and accomplished all righteousness on behalf of needy sinners. And He died in place of needy sinners on the cross as their substitute, He bore God’s wrath in their place. And He rose from the grave three days later. And our response to that message is to repent and believe. Repentance is turning from sin, turning from ruling our own lives. Believing or faith is trusting in Christ and not anyone or anything else. All those who are trust in Christ are united to Him, His life and death accomplished for them a good standing with God and fellowship with Him forever. And those people become part of God’s Kingdom. This message is the gospel.
As the gospel is preached, God the Holy Spirit moves in people and causes them to trust in Him. And through this the Kingdom of God grows here on Earth. Slowly but surely the Church grows as the gospel is preached, the Spirit moves, and people are converted to Christ.
And this is exactly what we see taught to us in the Scriptures. Look for a moment at Matthew 13:31-33. These are the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven.
“He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”” (Matthew 13:31-33 ESV)
In both parables the Kingdom of God begins small and seemingly insignificant and grows to massive size. In the parable of the Mustard seed that tree overshadows all the other trees. In the parable of the leaven, a small bit of leaven is left and hidden until all the flour was leaven. Why is this important?
Remember, Jesus ushered in “the latter days” over 2,000 years ago. And during that time the Kingdom of God has been growing as the hearts of people are conquered by the gospel. The gospel has been preached throughout that time, the hearts of people have been converted as the Holy Spirit worked in their life, and the Kingdom of God has been expanding this way for thousands of years.
In Genesis, Abraham was given a promise that his offspring would be as numerous as the sand by the seashore and the stars in the sky. That is a lot of people. And we understand that all those who trust in Christ are considered the offspring of Abraham (Galatians 3:25-29). And as we put all this together, we begin to see how the promise is going to be fulfilled. As people trust in Christ, the kingdom grows and the promised offspring grows. And one day all enemies will be made Christ’s footstool. All will be conquered by Christ, whether it be through conversion or condemnation all will be conquered. And praise be to God that so many people will convert that these promises will be fulfilled. People from every tribe, nation, and tongue will be there, just as God said would happen.
We look around and see trouble everywhere and we are seeing that many people simply want to go to battle with Christians. It feels like the darkness is winning. And the darkness desires to war against the people of God, so that doesn’t help matters any at all. We were just told by almost every news outlet that to be against homosexuality, drag queen story hours, and the mutilation of children who think they are the wrong gender means we caused the Colorado shooting. As could have been predicted, waiting a few days would have been prudent and it was shown to be complete nonsense, but it tells us something important. Many people in our day are looking for a bat to bludgeon us with, and they’ll use it even if it is complete nonsense.
But here is the truth and the reason for incredible hope amid this dark time. The Christians are the ones who are on the right and winning side. We are on Christ’s side, and He will conquer. Through the work of the cross, the work of the Spirit, and the preaching of the gospel, Christ will conquer the world. All religions, all peoples will be conquered by Christ.
That is incredible news, and we are not even finished with verse 2. Notice that all the nations will “flow to it”. Assyria and Egypt would have been the strongest nations in Isaiah’s day and even they would be looking to Jerusalem for leadership, help, and other things. The United States, Germany, England, Russia, China, and all the nations of the world will flow to it. Christ will triumph over all religions, all ideas, and all people. They will all flow to Him. The people will abandon false beliefs and trust in Christ. They will all flow to Zion.
And this will happen because of the work of God in the salvation accomplished by Christ. By the work of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the gospel this will happen. Christ will conquer.
So go and declare the grace and mercy of God in Christ. Share it with your family, friends and strangers. Don’t think that this is an impossible thing, for God has said for sure that this will happen.
Remember it yourselves and teach it to your children. As we do so, we are participating in the conquering of the world with Christ as our Head who will reign forever and ever.
Christ Will Reign (Isaiah 2:3)
Jesus will triumph over every false religion and ideology. He will rule them all. We have already read that the nations would flow to Zion and here we see that many peoples come. Christ will reign over the Buddhist. Christ will reign over the secular humanist. Christ will reign over the gender studies major who things he is the source of all truth and his own gender. He will rule and reign over all. “All the nations flow to” Zion (Isaiah 2:3b) and “many people come” (Isaiah 2:3a).
And why do all the nations and peoples come? They come to be taught the Lord’s ways. The Lord is doing the teaching and everyone, everywhere is taught the Law of God and they walk in His ways.
I hope the picture is taking shape in your mind. This is a picture of all the nations flowing to Christ, learning His ways, and following His ways. It is a reversal of what took place at the Tower of Babel as the Lord leads and guides all the nations in righteousness.
There is much unrighteousness in national leadership worldwide. Nations were trying to move us to war against Russia, a nuclear superpower, because Ukraine had sent a bomb into Poland. Other nations were trying to deceive us into a war with Russia. I, personally believe that something similar happened with the Russian pipeline that was blown up. A country wanted deceive others into war. It is growing more likely by the minute that American money that was supposed to go to the war in Ukraine was given to a phony crypto currency exchange and then part of the money came back to America, into the pockets of politicians here in America. It is being reported that one of those politicians is in Arkansas.
We live in a country where money is used to gain the favor of government officials, which leads to massive profits. FTX was doing that and they are all over the news right now. We can also think of companies like Solyndra that did this back in 2011. They gave politicians money and received favor. And we all realize that this probably happens all the time.
There are constantly accusations of leaders being involved in corruption and we believe it, because we think a lot like Mark Twain about our politicians.
“There is no distinctly American criminal class—except Congress.” (Mark Twain)
And if it weren’t for Christ, there’d be no hope that would ever change. But Christ will rule in perfect righteousness. And He will rule and reign in righteousness.
This is a regenerate people that exist all over the globe that want to follow the Lord’s ways and Christ rules in righteousness. And in that day, the corruption of our time will one day be gone, for it is the Lord that judges between nations. He is deciding disputes. And He does it in perfect righteousness.
Christ Will Bring Shalom
Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace, but it is more than just the absence of conflict. It has a much more full meaning than any word that I can think of in English. It is a fullness and completeness that means that all is right.
The world was created and it was the picture of Shalom. Shalom was lost when Adam and Eve rebelled. And Shalom is being renewed in the world. Christ is at work restoring perfect peace.
We’ve already seen that the people flow to the Lord to learn righteousness and to walk in His ways. Then we see that the Lord will give perfect judgment and rule over the nations. And now we see that there will not even be a need for weapons because the peace will be all over the Earth to the extent that war will not even be learned anymore. There will be an absence of conflict, but also true and perfect peace.
Christ will bring “shalom”. Righteousness will fill the Earth. There will be a perfect peace throughout the world.
Have you grown weary of the operations of this world? You have reason to hope.
Have you looked around and seen wickedness seeming to win? You have reason to hope.
Do you struggle with the pain and turmoil of this life? There is reason to hope and that reason is Jesus.
God sent His Son to come into the world, born of the Virgin Mary to accomplish the salvation of all who would believe through His perfect life, death, and resurrection. This is called the gospel, the “good news”. And this good news has spread and will continue to spread across the globe. Jesus is ruling and reigning over His people and will rule and reign over the entire globe. And He will bring real, true, and lasting peace. Jesus will bring to us shalom.
Walk In Hope (Isaiah 2:5)
The situation for Isaiah in his day was different than our own. Judgment would fall on Israel and the purpose of this vision was for the people to see the future hope so that they would “walk in the light of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:5 ESV)
It should have the same motivation for us. As illness, death, and the darkness of this world comes at us, we have tended to become a bit defeated and downcast. The world just seems to be weighing many of us down.
Church, “come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” (Isaiah 2:5 ESV)
Let us walk in hope. You are victorious in Christ. You are not defeated. You have a glorious hope to look forward to and a glorious hope to walk in.
Walk in the light of the Lord. Raise your families in gospel hope. Declare the gospel with gospel hope. Love and care for your brothers and sisters in Christ with gospel hope.
When I say “walk in the light of the Lord” with regard to those in this room, I mean that you should treat them as people you will be with for all eternity. Treat them as people you want to have complete peace with. There has been a little bit of competing, biting, and acting as if we are part of the world and would rather not strive for shalom. Stop it. Walk in the light. If you’ve sinned against someone in this room then you need to go and ask for forgiveness, don’t make excuses. It doesn’t matter how young or old you are, you are still of an age in which you can act like a fool and need to ask for forgiveness. We should also love the people in this room enough to overlook most offenses.
“Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” (Proverbs 19:11 ESV)
If there is unresolved conflict, something that you could not look past, figure out how to make it right. Seek peace. Walk in shalom as much as it is possible for you to do. We have hope that this peace is coming, and we are to walk in it.
When I say “walk in the light of the Lord” with regard to your family, I mean that you teach your children in God’s Word. Teach them the gospel. Teach them how God desires for us to live. Raise your children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Run a righteous household. Teach your children to be obedient and teach them to be bold.
And walk in the light of the Lord with regard to our evangelism. Don’t keep your mouth shut, tell people about Jesus who is currently at work conquering the globe through the gospel.
We are to walk in the light of the hope that is dawning. Christ is at work bringing all of this about. And we are to walk in that hope.
Conclusion
Over 2,000 years ago the Virgin Mary was pregnant with child in a land that was occupied by the enemies of her people. Joseph and Mary had to travel back to their homeland for a census and could not find room in an Inn. Someone allowed them to hang out with the animals in the manger.
And there in a land that seemed hopeless and with Joseph and Mary having plenty of reasons to be depressed, the hope of the world came. Jesus was born. He grew up in enemy occupied territory and taught the people there. And in a moment of terrible darkness, He was arrested. Though He had done nothing wrong, ever, He was arrested and executed on a criminal’s cross. Talk about a situation that seemed hopeless. But God the Son rose from the grave three days later. He was victorious over the grave. And for 2,000 years His people have been preaching the good news and the Holy Spirit has been at work creating new subjects around the globe. Christ is conquering people from every tribe, nation, and tongue. The Kingdom is advancing and one day the darkness will be completely overtaken.
Don’t live as if you are hopeless. Walk in gospel hope.
R. Dwain Minor