Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Isaiah 45,18-25. 3. Sunday after Epiphany

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Isaiah 45,18-25. 3. Sunday after Epiphany

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Isaiah 45,18-25 1019

3. Sonntag nach Epiphanius 016

John Chrysostom, Preacher and Patriarch of Constantinople, Martyr 407

27. Januar 2019

1. O Jesus Christ, Thou King of Heaven, cause us to confess Your Holy Name before friend and foe, and govern us by Your Holy Spirit, so that the Christian joy kindled in our hearts may ever increase. Amen. (Löhe 457)

2. »For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, He is God!, who formed the earth and made it, He established it; He did not create it empty, He formed it to be inhabited!: I am the Lord, and there is no other. I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob: ‘Seek me in vain.^’I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right. Assemble yourselves and go; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save. Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other god besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn; from My mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that will not return: ‘Every knee will bow to Me, every tongue will swear allegiance.’ Only in the Lord, it will be said of Me, are righteousness and strength; to Him will go and be ashamed all who were incensed against Him. In the Lord all the offspring of Israel will be justified and will glory.«

3. The Prophet Isaiah comforts God’s chosen one by reminding him that the Lord alone is God and He is the God who saves people. The Lord is not speaking to His chosen people, Judah, in chapter 45, but to Cyrus, the King of Persia who created the 1. Persian Empire by conquering several other smaller empires in his region, including the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The Lord calls Cyrus, who was a Gentile, His anointed one [χριστω] (45,1) and promised that He will go before him and secure his military victories (45,2). The Lord wants Cyrus to know the Lord, the God of Israel, has called him by name (45,3). It should therefore not surprise Jews or Gentiles that the Lord desires to reveal His Glory to the Gentile Magi and graft Gentiles onto the tree of Israel because 600 years earlier He was doing this very thing among the pagan Persians.

4. The Lord chose Cyrus, and made him the Great, in order to redeem Judah who was still under Babylonian Captivity. Cyrus’ genius in leadership was that he respected the customs and religions of the lands he had conquered; when he triumphed over Babylon he decreed the liberation of the Jews, encouraged them to return to Israel and issued an edict authorizing the rebuilding of their temple in Jerusalem (2. Chronicles 36,22-23). It is not surprising then that the Old Testament mentions Cyrus by name 23 times.

5. The Lord tells everyone that those who worship wooden idols made by their hands have no spiritual knowledge; their idols they pray to cannot save. The Lord Himself declares: »There is no other God besides Me, Yahweh, a Righteous God and the Savior; there is none besides Me. Turn to Me and to be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.« 600 years later Jesus arrived and claimed to be the Lord, the God who saves (John 5,17-18). Jesus told the Jews: »I and the Father are one. I am the Son of God« (John 10,30.36). The Apostle Peter proclaimed at Pentecost: »Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself« (Acts 2,36.38-39). »Faith will be counted to us as righteousness who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification« (Romans 4,24-25).

6. Holy Scripture commands us to only worship the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that Lord is revealed to be the Triune God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul proclaims: »And again, when He brings the firstborn into the world, He says: Let all God’s angels worship Him.« [Deuteronomy 32,43 LXX] (Hebrews 1,6). »So that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father« (Philippians 2,10-11). The New Testament begins with the Magi falling down and worshiping Jesus (Matthew 2,11) and ends with Christians worshiping Jesus in the new heaven (Revelation 23,3). We praise and worship the Triune God, for our Church prayer is addressed to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, for „the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one: the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding“ (Athanasian Creed 6.22). „God the Father has made us and all creatures; He has given us our body and soul, our reason, all our senses and still takes care of them. Jesus Christ has redeemed us, lost and condemned people, purchased and won us from all sins, from death and from the power of the Devil; with his holy, precious blood, His innocent suffering and death. The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps her with Jesus Christ in the one true faith“ (LSB 322–23).

7. The Triune God creates, redeems and sanctifies; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the Lord, and there is no other. Turn to the Triune God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and be saved for in Christ the world, yes, you, are saved and justified. Amen.

8. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, the earth rejoices for You reign over all creation; let us be glad and give praise to You, so that all the nations hears that You are the God who saves. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Isaiah 45,18-25. 3. Sunday after Epiphany

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