Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Isaiah 6:1-8
Pastor: Pastor Horton
Sermon Date:  May 26, 2024

Colton Burpo was a 4yr old boy, who during his emergency surgery claimed he went to heaven and back.  His father wrote a book (and later a movie called: “Heaven Is for Real.” Have you ever heard of it?  The experience sounds incredible but also a few things that if you know the Bible make you say “hmm.”  Such as the description of the Holy Spirit being blue and Colton’s dad fighting in Armageddon (even though we know that the defeat of sin and the devil was finished on the cross and we sing each Easter time: “Jesus lives, the victory’s won.”)  A few years after him another boy named Alex Malarkey wrote a similar book thanks to his dad and later confessed that his account accurately reflected his name: it was a bunch of malarkey and completely made up.  In fact, later in life he was highly critical of Christian bookstores for capitalizing on those who became overly enthusiastic about the topic.

Yet heaven is real, because God says so.  We don’t have to search the world wide web or page through end-of-life accounts to figure out what will happen one day.  God has already been very clear about heaven in his word.  And God has been very clear about how we get there through the saving work of Jesus.

Today we hear the call of the prophet Isaiah who was one of a number of believers given a glimpse of heavenly grandeur.  This vision allowed him to be standing in the presence of God.  Can you imagine?  Why would this be beneficial to him as he began his ministry?  Well, because a whole lot of other things had been going to ruin in his world around him.

For starters, our reading tells us that his calling came “In the year that King Uzziah died.”  And let’s set the table, shall we?  Do you remember how Israel wanted a king (to be like the other heathen nations) and how they were given Saul, David, and Solomon?  We’re now past that historically and things were no longer working out all that well.  Two kingdoms had formed: Israel to the north, and Judah to the south.  And Israel in the north was in total chaos: 4 of their past 6 kings had been assassinated (one was on the throne for 6 months…one for just one month).  The war machine of Assyria was pushing into the region and about to squish northern Israel like a grape.  The people were resentful and unrepentant towards God, and they would be wiped clean off of the map.  Judah to the south would be spared for the moment but judgment loomed over them as well.  God would allow for the bigger boot of Babylon to take his unrepentant people away from Jerusalem and their glorious earthly temple into the dregs of captivity.  Oh, and, if that wasn’t enough, right about the time that King Uzziah died, a city called Rome was founded, the fourth and final beast Daniel would see in his vision.  Things were really bad….and they were about to get worse.

What is a believer to do when the worldly powers churn in unrest and upheaval?  We can do what we are able: we pray big placing such issues into the almighty God’s hands.  We dive deep into his word and find peace for our souls.  We come to terms with our sin, repent, and rejoice over this day we have of our salvation.  We can’t direct the nations of the world no matter how much we post on Facebook.  But we can, with God’s help, appreciate our day of grace in God’s kingdom with work in front of us to do with the help of God.

And so Isaiah’s vision begins with a peak at the real power behind all these earthly forces…true and Triune God!  That’s who caught Isaiah’s eye first.  He writes: “ I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.”  How did God look?  Was he an old man with a white beard like in the Farside comics?  Was he more Euro-American looking with blondish-brown hair and blue eyes (as 4yr old Colton describes him)?  Isaiah doesn’t describe his appearance, but rather his position – and that’s what really matters.  It sounds similar to what believers like Ezekiel, and Stephen, and John all witnessed as well in the Bible.  In Isaiah’s vision, God looks like a king: dressed in royal robes, seated on a royal throne in the temple, displaying the power of a royal ruler.  Did you notice?  In earthly Israel’s temple there was no throne, but there is here as the Lord rules over the nations but also over all things in his church with perfect wisdom, power, and authority.

But God was not the only thing Isaiah saw in his vision: “Above him stood the seraphim.  Each one had six wings.  With two they covered their faces.  With two they covered their feet.  With two they flew.”  We don’t have much information on cherubim, even less Biblically on seraphim.  What seems to be true is that these groups of angels have various ranks with a special position.  We also don’t know how many were at the Almighty Lord’s command, but we do know that they were covering their faces and feet.  They felt unworthy to be in the Lord’s presence.  And did you hear their song?  One we use in our church: “ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies!  The whole earth is full of his glory!”  Their calling out “Holy” three times in a row reminds us in its repetition that our God has revealed himself to us as a Triune God.  And they are declaring what God is.  He is without sin.  He is opposed to sin.  He destroys sin.  If he does not then he can not be a holy and righteous and almighty God.

And Isaiah, standing before the presence of God, had what amounted to a spiritual panic attack.  Who of us could blame him?  He cried out: ” “I am doomed!  I am ruined, because I am a man with unclean lips, and I dwell among a people with unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies!”  Standing in the presence of God made his knees knock.  Isaiah had sin and should be dead on the spot.  And the same holds true for us.

One might reason that of all the people of the world, being God’s hand-selected prophet should give Isaiah the inside track to heaven.  And that’s where we all want to be one day.  Compared with the people that God called him to serve, Isaiah probably looked pretty good.  He was probably the most righteous guy on his block.  But “degrees of goodness & sin” means absolutely nothing in the presence of a just and holy God.  The Almighty Lord demands total perfection from all people.  Isaiah knew that he fell far short of that perfect standard.  Isaiah knew that holiness must also wipe out and decimate any and all that is unholy in order to remain purely holy.  And that’s why Isaiah cried out.  He didn’t deserve special treatment – he acknowledged his sin – he acknowledged that he deserved to feel God’s eternal wrath.

Compared with the rest of the world, we can get to thinking that we look pretty good too.  Christians are the light of the world.  We consider ourselves to be the last line of defense for morality and decency and truth in the world.  But it does not take much to get pretty comfortable and pretty confident in thinking highly of ourselves.  In fact, we may even be tempted to ignore opportunities to share the gospel because we consider ourselves better than someone else.  And be entitled to God’s blessings not because of Jesus but because of what we do.  And slowly we change the seraph’s song, to “Holy, holy, holy.  Heaven deserves me.  Because I’m such a good person as everyone can see.”  But take away those “degrees of sin” and you are simply left with sin.  See Isaiah standing before the Almighty Lord without a thing in his hand.  No, instead, he yelled out because of his sin.  The law struck his heart.  “I’m doomed!”  Do we take our sin just as seriously?  You are here today in church worshiping the same Lord of Armies.  To really understand, you may have to imagine no church ceiling and all of heaven visible.  You are standing in the presence of God today.

And yet God did not allow Isaiah, or you and me, to despair.  Up to this point in the vision, Isaiah had seen only one side of God: the glory, the room was filled with smoke, and the power as the foundations of the temple shook.  But what one of the seraphs did next showed Isaiah another side of God.  Verses 6-7: “ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, carrying a glowing coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.  He touched my mouth with the coal and said, “Look, this has touched your lips, so your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.”

Sacrifices for sin were made at the temple alter.  Blood was shed to pay for sin.  This was a symbolic place and a symbolic act of Jesus sacrifice for us, once for all.  So when the angel took the hot burning coal from the altar and touched it to Isaiah’s lips, he was making use of the same imagery.  The seraphs’ song proclaimed: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.”  The angel’s actions proclaimed to Isaiah, “Loving, loving, loving, is the Lord all-merciful.” Such actions meant that God heard Isaiah’s plea for mercy.  Such words assured Isaiah that he was forgiven and his guilt had been taken away.

God may not come to us today using seraphs and hot coals on our lips in visions.  But His saving truth remains the same, His forgiveness is just as real back then as it is now, and His promises are always kept.  Our Bible is not written by Colton Burpo’s dad or by Alex Malarkey, but by God.  There we find His real plan to save us, with Jesus our Savior really dying on the cross to atone for all of our sin, and rising from death to life so that he might stamp your passport to eternal heaven with authority.  He has given you a faith to believe, and Jesus will see you home to heaven.  You will get to stand in the presence of God all thanks to Jesus.

After the angel touched Isaiah and announced God’s forgiveness, there was a noticeable change in Isaiah’s attitude, wasn’t there?  Now, having mercy and a message, he could speak with boldness: quickly responding to God’s call with: “Here am I.  Send me!”  God had not changed, but Isaiah’s relationship with God had.  Just like Isaiah, we can respond in thankfulness.  God has rescued us from certain and eternal death to certain and eternal life.  Isaiah would hold up the name of the “Holy One of Israel” throughout his ministry.  A ministry moved by the gospel for the salvation of souls.

Dear friends, let’s keep that same awareness as we live and serve and tell others about our Holy Lord in heaven.  We have been given the same gospel truth of our salvation in Christ thanks to the action, direction, and grace of the Triune God.  And one day we’ll get to be standing together in presence of God in heaven, all thanks to Jesus.  Amen.