"God's Salvation Is Shocking!" (Sermon on Isaiah 7:4-16) | December 21, 2025

Sermon Text: Isaiah 7:4-16
Date: December 21, 2025
Event: The Fourth Sunday in Advent, Year A

Isaiah 7:4-16 (EHV)

Tell Ahaz, “Get control of yourself, and remain calm. Do not be afraid. Do not lose your courage because of these two stubs of smoldering torches. Do not be afraid because of the fierce anger of Rezin, Aram, and the son of Remaliah, 5even though Aram, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you and said, 6‘Let’s go up against Judah and tear it apart. Let’s divide it among ourselves and set up a king over it, namely, this son of Tabe’el.’ ”

7This is what the LORD God says.

Their plan shall not succeed.
It shall not take place.
8Yes, the head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin,
but within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken into pieces,
so that it will no longer be a people.
9The head of Ephraim is only Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son.
If you do not stand firm in faith,
you will not stand at all.

10The Lord spoke to Ahaz again. He said, 11“Ask for a sign from the LORD your God. Ask for it either in the depths below or in the heights above.”

12But Ahaz responded, “I will not ask. I will not test the LORD.”

13So Isaiah said:

Listen now, you house of David. Is it not enough for you to test the patience of men? Will you test the patience of my God as well? 14Therefore the Lord himself will give a sign for all of you. Look! The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and name him Immanuel. 15He will eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse evil and choose good, 16because even before the child knows how to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

God’s Salvation Is Shocking

When was the last time you were surprised? Truly, knock-you-off-your-feet surprised? In today’s internet age of global, instant communication, perhaps we’re a bit jaded. We have heard so much from so many different places that something has to be incredibly touching or disturbing to get through because otherwise,  nothing is all that surprising anymore. We experience so many different things second-hand that are outside of our personal bubble through social media and other sources, even if the truthfulness might often be suspect.

No, to be genuinely shocked, you probably have to look smaller, not bigger. Politicians and other world leaders doing wonderful or deplorable things may not surprise us much, but when someone dear to us does something special and unexpected, that probably resonates more than 1,000 shocking headlines ever could. Maybe it was a past Christmas gift or another thoughtful gesture. Maybe it was an idea from someone that unlocked the way forward on the task you had been stuck on for what felt like forever—something that had seemed impossible!

This morning, with the help of the prophet Isaiah, I pray that we can look at God’s salvation with that same kind of personal, small, fresh shock—even though we’re talking about something that affects every human being. I know that many of us have heard this message hundreds, thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of times. But at the end of our Advent preparations, and as we look forward to this week’s trip to Bethlehem, let’s appreciate anew the shocking way that God saves us.

At the time of our reading, Ahaz was the king of the southern kingdom of Judah. He was not a good king in God’s eyes or in the eyes of people. The author of the book of Kings puts it this way, “[Ahaz] did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God … He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made his son pass through the fire, according to the shameful practices of the nations which the LORD had driven out before the people of Israel. He offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every leafy tree” (2 Kings 16:2-4). As he devoted himself to false gods, he was hardly the spiritual role model and shepherd that God wanted his kings to be. I don’t share that context just to drag the guy; it’s important to fully understand the conversation Isaiah and he have in our reading.

We meet up with Ahaz and Isaiah in a difficult time. Rezin, the king of Aram, and Pekah (the son of Remaliah), the king of the northern kingdom of Israel, were harassing Judah and threatening it. Ahaz was scared about what might happen, so scared in fact that we see him ripping parts of Solomon’s temple apart to give to the king of Assyria when Ahaz asked him to rescue them from their enemies. It’s notable, then, that God’s offer of comfort and help falls on such deaf ears.

We see a false humility in Ahaz. God encourages him to ask for something—anything—to prove that God is God and will do what he has promised. What is Ahaz’s response? “I will not ask. I will not test the LORD.” We know that Ahaz is no devout believer. He’s either trying to look good and humble in front of the prophet Isaiah, or he couldn’t care less about anything God has to say (given that he uses parts of the temple to buy earthly protection, I’d personally lean toward the latter).

What is God’s response to this pseudo-piety? The Lord himself will give a sign for all of you. You don’t want one? You’ll get one anyway! And it’s going to be shocking. Look! The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and name him Immanuel.

Now, what does God mean by this sign, this promise, in the immediate context of Isaiah and Ahaz? It will become clear that God is with them—Immanuel!—in an unexpected way. Like a child born unnaturally—from a virgin—deliverance from their enemies would come unnaturally. It will come quickly, in fact. In less time than it takes for a child to grow up, these two nations troubling Judah would be wiped out.

Like so many prophecies in the Old Testament, this one had an immediate and then an ultimate fulfillment. The immediate fulfillment would be God rescuing Judah from their earthly enemies. The ultimate fulfillment would be the long-promised Savior to rescue all people from our spiritual enemies. And just like the immediate fulfillment, the ultimate fulfillment would come in a shocking way that we would not and could not have expected.

We can probably empathize with Joseph in our Gospel for this morning. Mary, his fiancée, was pregnant, and he knew that he was not the father. I assume that she told him about Gabriel’s visit, and I can also imagine how much water that story would have held. That was such a shocking piece of information that it was completely unbelievable by human standards; thus, God sends an angel to Joseph as well to confirm the validity of what Mary likely had told him, or at least give him the information he needed to know what was going on. This was no ordinary pregnancy; this was Immanuel to be born of a virgin! God was dwelling with his people! Shocking!

But more shocking than even a virgin birth is that any of this happened at all. As we mentioned earlier, this message may lose some of its shock value because we have likely heard it so many times, but stay with me for a moment. The almighty Creator of the universe had one expectation of us—that we follow his directions flawlessly. We did not do that. You and I are in daily, active rebellion against this all-powerful being. In fact, in our natural state, we can do nothing else. We set our hearts against God, and whether we listen to the voice of our conscience or not, we can do nothing to change course.

So, what would you imagine God’s response could have been, perhaps we might say should have been? Well, what could it have been or should it have been for Ahaz? He had been completely unfaithful to God, was in trouble, and even in those moments, didn’t turn to God for help. So, God could have just left Ahaz and the largely unfaithful nation of Judah to their own devices.

So, too, God would have been fully justified in throwing us aside because of our rebellion against him. Our sin should have meant an eternity of being abandoned by God and all of his blessings in hell. Had he done that, we would have faced unending torment because of our sins, and we would have earned and deserved every single moment of it. It is not wise to thumb your nose at the almighty and, as the writer to the Hebrews puts it, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).

The shock comes in God’s mercy that he was never under any obligation to show and to what extremes he went to show that mercy. We saw God have mercy on Ahaz and the nation of Judah despite their general unfaithfulness to him. In a shocking way, God would rescue them from Aram and Israel and in an even more jaw-dropping way, from Assyria later. But that same love and mercy from God is cranked up to an unfathomable level at the arrival of Immanuel.

This week, we will see the fulfillment of what the angels promised to Mary and Joseph, the fulfillment of what God had foretold by his prophets for generations. God himself would take on our human nature and live among us—Immanuel! God himself, the very one we had sinned against, would bear our sins in his own body. He would subject himself to the punishment that we deserved. Imagine a court case where the person wronged volunteers to take the place of the person found guilty, to serve their jail time or pay their fines. Imagine a situation where the judge does that. Either case would be baffling and shocking! And that’s precisely what happened here, on an eternal scale.

The angel told Joseph to name the child not Immanuel—God with us, but Jesus (Ieshua)—the LORD Saves. Even more than being with us, Jesus’ salvation was his mission. Taking our place was his work. And the free gifts of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life are ours because he did everything that he came to do. Your sins and my sins are gone because Jesus, Immanuel, took them away.

There’s so much about this season and Christmas in particular that is familiar. Comforting traditions and messages we’ve heard over and over again. But, my sisters and brothers, today, this week, and if possible for the rest of our lives, let’s let the shock of God’s mercy bowl us over again and again. Let’s not let this message of God’s forgiveness and the gift of eternal life be old hat and blasé; let the arrival of Immanuel leave you slack-jawed and amazed. Here is God’s undeserved love for you. Here is God’s gift of eternal life. Here is Immanuel—God with us for a time so that we could be with him forever.

Stir up your power, O Lord, and come. Take away the burden of our sins, and make us ready for the celebration of your birth. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.

"Live for Later, Not for Now" (Sermon on Isaiah 2:1-5) | November 30, 2025

Sermon Text: Isaiah 2:1-5
Date: November 30, 2025
Event: The First Sunday in Advent, Year A

Isaiah 2:1-5 (EHV)

This is the message that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2This will take place in the latter days:
The mountain of the LORD’s house will be established
as the chief of the mountains.
It will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it like a river.
3Many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
Then he will instruct us about his ways,
and we will walk in his paths.”
For from Zion the law will go out,
and the LORD’s word will go out from Jerusalem.
4He will judge between the nations,
and he will mediate for many peoples.
Then they will beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
nor will they learn war anymore.
5O house of Jacob, come,
and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Live for Later, Not for Now

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” I’m not really sure how much truth there is in that in corporate America, though I can see an argument for self-respect in it. I know even less of what that means in Silicon Valley when often people that are worth more than the GDP of some nations typically wear jeans, tshirts and hooded sweatshirts, but there is a kernel of something that I think is worth focusing on: you want to plan for the future; you want to think ahead; you don’t want to just be stuck spinning your tires here hoping things change instead of making those changes happen.

At the start of this new church year, through the prophet Isaiah, God has us thinking about the choices we’re making now, how we’re living today, and encourages us to make choices that focus not on the immediate here and now and but on what is coming later, what is coming for eternity.

At times, when the propets’ words to God’s people involve promises about the future, it can be hard to nail down exactly what God is referring to. For example, throughout the book of Isaiah, if God promises rescue from something, we have to ask what rescue he’s promising. Is he referring to his rescuing his people from Assyria who would take the northern kingdom of Israel into exile but from whom God would protect the southern nation of Judah? Is he speaking about the eventual rescue of his people from captivity in Babylon that would come 150 or so years after Isaiah’s ministry? Is he referring to the arrival and work of the Messiah? Is he referring to the ultimate rescue of the final judgment? And, at times, is it a combination of the things above? Context has to be our guide.

In our First Reading this morning, we have a section of the propet’s words that are future-looking. But Isaiah is looking beyond his time to sometime later as he describes what will happen in the “latter days,” that is at a time near the end of time. And for this future setting, God directs our eyes toward the temple mount: This will take place in the latter days: The mountain of the LORD’s house will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it like a river.The temple was very important. In Isaiah’s day, it would have served as the center of worship of the true God and the place where his promises were restated and reinforced. While the hill the temple was built on was not an imposing “mountain” relative to the other heights around the world, it was very important.

In those days after Isaiah’s, the temple mount would be established as the chief of the mountains. More prominent than Everest or K2, more majestic than the Rockies or the Alps, more powerful than any explosive volcano. What would make this little hill in the Middle East so important as to be chief among all mountains? The events that would take place there.

Temple worship in Isaiah’s day and in the Second Temple period after the Israelites’ return from exile in Babylon would center on sacrifices. Those sacrifices all pointed ahead to a greater, ultimate sacrifice that would be offered just outside the walls of Jerusalem, because there the perfect Son of God, having taken on our human nature, would offer his life in exchange for ours. This hill would not be the chief of the mountains because it was so tall, beautiful, or dangerous. No, it would be chief because there the payment for sins was made; there all mankind was saved from hell. There forgiveness was won and from there it is freely given.

This little hill in Jerusalem will be—is—chief among the mountains because there our eternal life was accomplished. There, Isaiah’s sins would be forgiven as he trusted in the coming Savior. There our sins were forgiven as we trust in the Savior who has come.

This all perfectly introduces the first season of our new church year, Advent. The days of Advent are not just “pre-Christmas.” In fact, Advent in the church can be a bit of a respite from the overwhelming commercialization frenzy that accompanies this time of year. During these Sundays in Advent, we get to contemplate our Savior’s arrival as the baby in Bethlehem, yes, but also his return not as a helpless newborn, but as he truly is—the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Jesus’ first advent and the work that he accomplished brought about a global change. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. Then he will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For from Zion the law will go out, and the LORD’s word will go out from Jerusalem. The gospel—the good news that sins are forgiven in Jesus—makes people want to seek out their God even more than the natural knowledge of God all people are born with would compel them. Knowing that he’s not only a just and powerful God, but a God who loves and forgives, fills people with joy and a desire to be close to him. And so God obliges. He welcomes people to this mountain, not just those who are descended from Abraham, but all people, because his word goes out globally from Jerusalem. Our minds probably jump to Jesus’ direction to his disciples that they would be his witnesses first in Jerusalem and Judea, then to Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Jesus is a Savior for the whole world, not just one group of people; therefore, they all need to hear what he’s done, because it’s going to have eternal ramifications.

Isaiah’s words then jump us to the end, when those ramifications will come to fruition: He will judge between the nations, and he will mediate for many peoples. These are the events of Judgment Day. Jesus is simultaneously our judge and defense attorney. The punishment of our sins was real and justified, but because Jesus took the punishment we owed on himself, he can mediate for the world. As Paul would later write, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). The forgiven people of God are renewed, defended, and saved by the Messiah who came to save us from our sins.

What a change this gospel message makes in the hearts of his people! What a change this gospel message makes in our surroundings! Then they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they learn war anymore. Heaven will mean the end of conflict, if you can even imagine it. Conflict between sinners and the holy God will be over because there will be no more sin. Likewise, conflict between individuals and groups of people will also be over. We won’t need weapons or military training because there will be no battles to fight, no land to defend, because our Savior King has rescued us from all of our enemies! So we will be able to take all those implements of war, so focused on death and destruction, and turn them into tools for good, to cultivate beauty and bounty. Thus will be life with our God in heaven.

Our brief reading ends where we began: dress for the job you have or the one you want? Behave as the person you are, or you will be? To live for now is to embrace our sinful natures, to indulge in the constant stream of temptations to rebel against God, thinking that it will somehow be fun or beneficial. But living for later, living as the citizens of heaven that we will be—that, truly, we are even now—looks different, sounds different. O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Walking in the Lord’s light means living as he wants us to live, not hiding in the darkness of sin and rebellion. No, we walk in the light of our King. We have no fear of what he will do to us because he’s already done everything good for us. We get to rejoice in him—give thanks to him—for his unending mercy.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, let’s live like the perfect King’s righteous subjects, because we are. Let us live our lives in gratitude to the God who loved us and saved us and will bring us to himself! Let us cut out the sin that brings nothing but dreadful darkness and instead bask in the light of our Savior’s love, knowing that we will live with him in the mountain of heaven forever.

The one who came as a child placed in the manager, who entered Jerusalem amid shouts of praise while riding on a donkey, will come to take us home to be with him. His first advent makes his second advent certain. Stir up your power and come, Lord Jesus! Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.

"Look at What God Is Doing!" (Sermon on Isaiah 43:16-21) | April 6, 2025

Sermon Text: Isaiah 43:16-21
Date: April 6, 2025
Event: The Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year C

Isaiah 43:16-21 (EHV)
This is what the LORD says,
who makes a road through the sea
and a path through mighty waters,
17who brings out the chariot and the horses,
the army and the strong warrior.
They will all lie down together.
They will not get up.
They are extinguished.
Like a wick they go out.
18Do not remember the former things.
Do not keep thinking about ancient things.
19Watch, I am about to do a new thing.
Now it will spring up. Don’t you know about it?
Indeed I will make a road in the wilderness.
In the wasteland I will make rivers.
20The wild animals, the jackals and ostriches, will honor me,
because I am providing water in the wilderness,
rivers in a parched wasteland,
to provide water for my chosen people to drink.
21This people that I formed for myself will declare my praise.

Look at What God Is Doing!

“Hey, watch this!” Depending on who is saying those words, you might have different expectations of what you’ll see. If it’s a very young child, it might be some new-and-a-big-deal-to-them type of physical maneuver or something new they learned that aligns with their growth and development. If someone has been studying sleight-of-hand illusions, you might see something that seems impossible at first glance. And if it’s a layman working on the plumbing at the kitchen sink, perhaps you’ll see a great success or a wild failure as the water gets turned on. But in any case, you want to watch and see, either to encourage, be amazed, or know if you need to get the mop.

But what about when God says to you, “Hey, watch this!”? Depending on what you know about him or how you sense your relationship's health with him, you might be filled with excitement or dread. But certainly, if God is saying that we should look and watch, then we do well to look and watch. And that is exactly what God says to us today in our reading from Isaiah. He calls on us to bear witness to what he is doing because it is important—eternally important for us and for all people.

Our brief reading begins with all sorts of allusions to the exodus when God rescued his people from their slavery in Egypt. The exodus took place around 700 years before Isaiah’s ministry—roughly three times the length of the United States’ existence. So this happened a long time before this, but in Isaiah’s day, it ranked as the high water mark of God’s saving work. God is described as a God who saves with this language: who makes a road through the sea and a path through mighty waters, who brings out the chariot and the horses, the army and the strong warrior. They will all lie down together. They will not get up. They are extinguished. Like a wick they go out. This is a direct reference to the parting of the Red Sea, which enabled the Israelites to cross over the seabed on dry ground, and then the crash of the waters on the Egyptian army as they tried to pursue God’s people, to their destruction.

In other words, “Do you want to know who God is? Look at the exodus!” Notably, the all-capital-letters-LORD, God’s name of covenant love, is used here. He promised that he would rescue his people from their slavery, and through many miracles, plagues, and even the naturally-impossible parting of a large body of water, God did just that.

What does God say about this event by which glorified him as the saving God? He says, “Forget all of that because it’s going to seem like nothing compared to what I’m going to do. Do not remember the former things. Do not keep thinking about ancient things. Watch, I am about to do a new thing. Now it will spring up. Don’t you know about it?” As we said, when God says, “Hey, watch this!” we do well to pay attention! God is calling to us to look because, to paraphrase, “Ya’ ain’t seen nothing yet.”

So, what does God want us to see? “Indeed I will make a road in the wilderness. In the wasteland I will make rivers. The wild animals, the jackals and ostriches, will honor me, because I am providing water in the wilderness, rivers in a parched wasteland, to provide water for my chosen people to drink.” While roads running through barren lands and rivers appearing in the desert are interesting—useful, even—what is it about this work that makes it superior to the miraculous exodus? What about this could be considered “new,” from the God who created the world—desert and river alike—from nothing? Well, if he were talking about actual rivers in actual deserts, then, nothing. But this is something more, something bigger, something new.

God aims to bring relief and help to those in desperate need. He’s getting ready to bring life to something dead, like springs of water would be in the middle of a barren wasteland. He’s getting ready to do this new thing to save people from eternal death with eternal life.

This is not new because it was a secret no one had ever heard. Quite the contrary. God had been clear from the beginning that a champion was coming to rescue people from their sins. Elsewhere in his book, God gives remarkably clear prophecies and promises about this Savior through Isaiah. No, but it’s new because it’s something that had never been done before and would never happen again.

The life-giving water of forgiveness would be given to God’s people to drink, and there would be enough for every person who ever lived to satisfy their spiritual thirst. This the work that Jesus will embark on, to make the one-time, one-and-done payment for sins. This new thing would be God himself taking on our humanity, living among us, allowing himself to be sacrificed for us, and in doing so, paying for every misdeed and sin you and I have ever committed.

The reminder of the exodus ahead of the announcement of this imminent new thing is very helpful. If there was ever a time that it seemed like God’s promises couldn’t happen as he said they would, it would be the exodus. As his people left Egypt, the pharaoh had a change of heart and wanted his slaves back. He pursued the people with his army—armed warriors against a nation of just-released slaves. They had no weapons or defense force to speak of; they had no combat training. This group of two million people could probably have done very little to make a stand against the Egyptian military.

Add to that the location where the army caught up with the Israelites, at the shore of the Red Sea. They were hemmed in on all sides—water to one, the enemy army to the other. Rock, hard place. And so, what does God do? Whatever is necessary to keep his promises. The waters of the Sea part, the pillar of fire and cloud stands between his people and the Egyptians, and they cross over to safety and freedom, unscathed.

Nothing stands in God’s way when he’s made a promise. But I wonder how often we feel or think something is getting in God’s way regarding forgiveness. Perhaps the guilt we feel over sin—that conscience that won’t stop crying out about the condemnation it expects to face—makes it seem like this sin can never be dealt with, that we are doomed to perish in hell because we know that it is the just punishment for our sins.

Or maybe something else gets in the way; maybe we are in the way. Maybe our own lack of appreciation for what God has promised and done, our distractions and lack of focus on these immeasurably important eternal matters, or our general apathy with God’s work for us lead us to wander away from God with little regard for what that will mean for us eternally.

My dear brothers and sisters, look at what God is doing! Don’t let this pass you by, uncaring. Don’t look at it as if it is ineffectual to save you. This new thing in Jesus is God’s full and free forgiveness for you! You were parched, dying of thirst under the brutal sun and scorching winds of your sin, destined to eternal death in hell. And here God comes with this new thing, with himself in human flesh, to take your place. He gives you to drink from the cool waters of his love and his forgiveness. And this drink does not fail to revive. Nothing will prevent God’s mission to save, not Pharaoh and his army, not the depths of the Red Sea, not the multitude and severity of your sin or mine. Here, in this new thing, they are gone. Here, we have life instead of death, now and for eternity.

Over these next few weeks, in our worship on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, and especially during the run of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, we’ll see this new thing spring up. God promised the sacrifice of Jesus, and from it comes forgiveness that cannot and will not fail. The new thing that God promised is done. Your sins are forgiven. You have eternal life and perfect peace with your God as your certain possession.

In the days ahead, let us look and watch together as this new thing unfurls God’s love for us in Gethsemane, in the sham trials, at the cross, and even at his burial site. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.