Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Genesis 3:15, Genesis 22:7-8; 11-12, Isaiah 9:2, 6; 53:9-10

Good evening from the Panhandle. Well we are officially in the Christmas season. What that means here is that Christmas music is on the radio, and decorations are up or going up. The specials will be playing in the regular T.V. Stations and Hallmark is in full swing with their Christmas countdown. So in keeping with the season I am preaching a series of Christmas messages. The series was originally written by David Jenkins, and then I have added or changed a few things.

”Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,
Born to set Thy people free.
From our fears and sins release us;
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.”

The Story Behind the Song

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus, the carol used to introduce the theme of this sermon, was written by Charles Wesley. Born in England, he and his brother John came to America to help James Oglethorpe establish the church in Georgia, the last of the 13 English colonies. On board the ship from England, the Wesley brothers met 26 German Moravians. They were impressed by the hymn singing of these German Christians and realized for the first time that hymn singing could be a spiritual experience. (Source: World Book™ © 2000 World Book, Inc., Chicago, IL)

Charles wrote more than 6,500 hymns, many of which are sung today in Christian worship. Two beloved Christmas carols are among them: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus. Charles was an evangelistic preacher and wrote about 480 of the 525 hymns in the Collection of Hymns (1780), a Methodist hymnal. (Source: GLIMPSES, Christian History Institute, Issue #29)

I love Christmas! I love putting up Christmas decorations, I love giving presents, I even love most of the Christmas movies on T.V. And Christmas music, oh man I love it especially the Christmas Carols. I believe they help create a beautiful setting for the re-telling of the story of the birth of Christ Jesus. During the month of December, we are going to look at a sermon series consisting of 5 messages. Each bearing the title of a well-known Christmas carol.

Most of us identify the Christmas season with traditional decorations, a sparkling tree with lights, and mounds of gaily wrapped gifts beneath its branches. Little Johnny and Suzy stood mesmerized before the tree. “Don’t forget the Christmas candy!” someone shouted from the kitchen. “And the wrapping paper—did we forget it? Don’t forget the extra lights for the tree!”

Johnny walked over to a table near the tree where a Nativity scene had been placed. He looked wistfully at Mary, Joseph, and the Baby in the manger. Shepherds knelt before the infant Jesus, and animals, appearing to be awe-struck, gazed toward the manger. Remembering the story of the Bethlehem inn, Johnny turned toward his younger sister Suzy and, pointing toward the manger, said simply, “Don’t forget!”

Yes, we must not forget that the true wonder and magic of Christmas lies in God planning to send His Son to earth before He made this world and placed human beings upon it. Because He is an all-knowing God, He knew the human race would sin and would need a Savior. The birth of Christ Jesus was not God’s great “surprise event” in history. Rather it was carefully, lovingly planned before the beginning of the world. This is what I love most about Christmas!

At special times in history, God pulled back heaven’s curtain and allowed the promised light of this anticipated, glorious event to shine into the darkness of this sin-cursed world.

Let's take a tour of history past this morning, to a time before recorded history, and try to follow these “shafts of light” until they come to rest on a manger in Bethlehem. Our first stop:

I. The Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15)

We are not going to focus on Eden in its state of created perfection, but as a damaged environment where God Himself conducted the first court in history. Adam and Eve had sinned, and God had judged them.

Then God spoke to Satan, who had manifested himself to Eve in the form of a beautiful, seductive creature. Satan had been deceptively reasonable and rational in his conversation with Eve. After listening to God’s withering words of condemnation, that strikingly handsome serpent suddenly shrank to become a writhing snake on the ground.

As it slithered away in the brush, it heard words from God that were at once horrifying to Satan and gloriously wonderful to us:

Genesis 3:15

15 And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel."

Revealed in that verse, in one of the most awesome moments in time and eternity, we have the first promise of this “long-expected Christ Jesus,” and a Saviour. God expelled Adam and Eve from Paradise and closed its gates. He walked away from Eden, but not before He had shined into this glorious promise of a coming Savior into the darkness of sin and rebellion.

The centuries roll by, and suddenly we find ourselves in:

2. The Land of Moriah (Genesis 22:7-8; 11-12)

Moriah was one of the highest plateaus in the ancient land of Canaan. Today on its summit is a city with a rich and glorious history—Jerusalem. But the event we are reliving took place long before any wall, palaces or temples were built. In every direction there is barren desert and limestone hills, the tawny color of a lion’s fur. The winds from the Mediterranean whip the sand into dust devils. In this landscape we see two figures climbing to the highest level of Moriah. On the hilltop is a stone ledge, surrounded by bramble bushes. Here an old man, his face ashen with sadness, walks beside a young man.

Hesitantly, the young man speaks: Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"

"Yes, my son?" Abraham replied.

"The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Genesis 22:7

The older man replied quietly, maybe with a hint of sadness in his voice; the old man answered: Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. Genesis 22:8

As we look on the older man prepares the altar and carefully arranges the wood on it. Then he takes his son, his long awaited promise from God; binds him with cords, and places him on the altar. He takes a dagger from its sheath at his side, holds it aloft, and prepares to plunge its death-dealing blade into the young man's body.

Then we hear a voice thundering, seeming to come from every direction at once: But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"

"Here I am," he replied.

"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Genesis 22:11-12

From behind Abraham comes a rustling, and a bleating sound. A ram is caught in the bramble bush. Abraham takes the animal and offers it as a sacrifice on the altar in the place of his son.

In that unforgettable object lesson involving Isaac,and Abraham; God gave a foretaste of how He was going to provide the Savior whose sinless life would be offered for the sins of the world. But unlike Isaac, God's Son, Christ Jesus; life would not be spared.

Now it’s time to move again. We travel several centuries through time and find ourselves in:

3. The Kingdom of Judah (Isaiah 9:2, 6; 53:9-10)

It is six centuries before the birth of Christ Jesus. The voice of a powerful preacher electrifies the people in the Kingdom of Judah. We could call him “the Old Testament Billy Graham,” his name was a household word in his day. The prophet Isaiah stood before kings and princes and commanded their attention. He also mingled with peasants and spoke their language. 

No Old Testament prophet had more to say about the coming Messiah than Isaiah. Because of his humanity and limited understanding, he had little idea it was Christ Jesus that he spoke of. His words possessed historic and prophetic significance. He spoke of historic events that were happening in his day. His words also pointed ahead to the prophetic climax and culmination of every Old Testament sacrifice that was ever offered to God! After Christ Jesus no other sacrifice would be needed.

Today, because of God's Word, we can look back and read Isaiah’s thrilling words and know that they describe our Lord and Savior. One day he stood before King Ahaz (aw-khawz') and said: 

Isaiah 9:2

The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death

a light has dawned. and

Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

I can just imagine that fire flashed from his eyes and the people felt a strange stirring in their souls. They languished in despair and hopelessness. They were reaping the consequences of their sin and pride, and the outlook was dark and foreboding. 

But Isaiah wasn’t finished. Again God took control of the prophet’s mind and voice, and he confronted the people with the familiar words recorded in Isaiah 53:1-7.

Who has believed our message

and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities

and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered him stricken by God,

smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

“But how could this be?” Isaiah may have thought to himself. “Could such a man as this be God’s Messiah? How could a suffering, rejected person like this ever rise to save His people, and to restore His kingdom?” 

But then, as if he had not already said enough, Isaiah felt the burden of inspiration again:

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days,

and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:9-10)

And the people probably said, “Isaiah has taken leave of his senses! That’s not the kind of Messiah we need. That’s no Messiah at all! He is a failure. He could never lead us to victory over our enemies.” But Isaiah was right on target. That is exactly how “the long-expected Christ Jesus” came and brought light to shine in the hopeless darkness of the world. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:4-5).

 The forces of darkness have tried since the Garden of Eden to put out the light of hope that finally broke through in Bethlehem, but they have failed. And they will continue to fail until that day when “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). Do you know the Light of Hope, which is Christ Jesus?