Pastor Tim Patoka
He Is Bringing Perfect Joy
December 17, 2023
Rejoice in the Lord! Isaiah 61:1-3, 10-11 1) For His Good News 2) For He Certainly Clothes Us If you could decide, what good news would you like to hear now? If you haven’t finished Christmas shopping, it’d probably be that all your presents have been bought, wrapped, and delivered. Perhaps your good news would be a loved one making it home after being gone too long. Or perhaps it’s to have a dusting of snow for the perfect picture. If I were to ask you a month from now what your good news would be, I’m guessing your answer would change. It changes based on what’s going on or what’s come up. But there is one piece of good news that never changes and is also the best news of all to hear! The prophet Isaiah tells us what this is that brings us to rejoice in our Lord. We rejoice in the Lord for his good news is how Christ’s righteousness becomes ours through faith in Jesus and comforts us in our afflictions. We also rejoice in the Lord because he certainly clothes us with this righteousness and so sprouts forth our praise before all. 1) For His Good News Isaiah initially wrote these words for the Israelites leaving exile in Babylon. But as sometimes happens with Old Testament prophecies, there’s a second, greater fulfillment in mind. In Luke chapter 4(:18-21), Jesus is in Nazareth and tells us he is this second, greater fulfillment that Isaiah was talking about. As such, we can read these words and get the same comfort out of them as those Israelites leaving exile in Babylon did long before. What is Isaiah’s comfort? That the Lord has good news for the afflicted, the good news of Jesus’ righteousness for all who are afflicted by sin. We see sin’s affliction in a number of ways. A broken heart that pains you down to your very core because your hopes and dreams were crushed. Being captive and bound, that is, held against our will to live as children of God because we’re subjugated to our sinful desires and Satan’s schemes. We picture ourselves mourning as they did in Isaiah’s day: ashes on our head, letting all see our red eyes and puffy face, a faint spirit ready to be snuffed out. For all afflicted by sin, we have the Lord’s good news: Jesus’ righteousness which is ours through faith in him as our Savior. With this righteousness, we are declared right with God and thus enjoy his every blessing from his hand. As Isaiah shows us what sin’s affliction looks like, so he also describes how the Lord’s good news looks like. The binding up of broken heart because everything will be good again. Freedom and release so we can live for Christ. The joy of the Old Testament Year of Jubilee when much of life reset to how the Lord originally set it 1
Pastor Tim Patoka
He Is Bringing Perfect Joy
December 17, 2023
up. The coming vindication of the righteous on the day of God’s vengeance. Comfort for those who mourn with an ornamental wreath on their head, oil to smooth, soothe, and brighten your skin, and a festive, brightly-colored cloak for the occasion. When you hear what results from us receiving the Lord’s good news of Christ’s righteousness, does that describe you? I’m guessing not. Rather, you would need a different set of good news for you to rejoice in this way. When your heart is broken, your good news would be to forget and move on. When you’re captive and bound to sinful desires and Satan’s schemes, your good news is to be your own person. When you’re mourning an irreversible loss, your good news is getting to that fifth stage of acceptance as fast and easy as possible. Isaiah’s good news of, “you’re right with God through faith in Jesus!” seems to do little to help us with our here-and-now afflictions. Sure, it’s great to know, but what does that have to do with this? Rather, what Isaiah’s good news should be is, “here’s the solution for what’s currently bothering you.” And when our problems change, so would the LORD’s solution. Such ever-changing good news is not be all that good. Sure, we get temporary relief from current afflictions, but there’s no lasting comfort or fix to our afflictions’ root cause of sin. To strive for temporary relief is like trying to fix your house’s termite problem by plugging the holes inside. You need to treat the tubes outside from which they come if you want to find lasting comforting. To address our afflictions’ root cause of sin, we look to Isaiah’s good news: Jesus’ righteousness which is ours through faith. This righteousness is the opposite of sin. Whereas sin is any imperfection of God’s will and law, righteousness is complete accord with God’s will and law. Jesus certainly was righteous during his time on earth with his thoughts, words, and actions from birth to death, even death on a cross. Even though we are sinners, we have Jesus’ own righteousness credited to us through faith in him. Because of that, the Lord considers us righteous as he does his own Son. With this righteousness for our own, we then see how we are comforted despite our current afflictions. Though sin plagues us, it does not define us. We are children of God, forgiven of our sins and righteous in his sight. Our broken hearts are bound up with the promise that everything will be perfectly better when the righteous go to heaven. Our captive chains that once bound us are broken because no righteous person can be Satan’s slave. Instead, we are thankful servants of God. Our display of mourning is mixed with joy of a future reunion and assurance that our Lord is always with us. This is why we rejoice in the Lord, for his good news of Christ’s righteousness becoming ours is the best news of all!
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Pastor Tim Patoka
He Is Bringing Perfect Joy
December 17, 2023
2) For He Certainly Clothes Us We also rejoice in the Lord for he will certainly clothe us with this righteousness. The prophet Isaiah describes the Lord doing this by clothing us with a garment of salvation and a robe of righteousness. This garment refers to a covering that anyone might wear whether you’re a poor leper or a rich noble. Being of salvation, it’s invaluable for it means our sins are forgiven and heaven is our home. And every Christian gets to wear it. The robe of righteousness refers to the outermost piece of clothing you wear over everything else like a winter coat or, if you’re a pastor presiding at worship, an actual robe like this. With its righteousness, we get a wonderful picture of our status as forgiven sinners. Though we do and will continue to sin, Christ’s righteousness covers over our sin so that all God sees is a holy, precious child of his. Clothed with our garment of salvation and robe of righteousness, we then look as radiant and joyful as a bride and groom on their wedding day. In Isaiah’s day, a groom would wear a headdress, a fine white turban, like a priest would. Nowadays, grooms wear tuxedos or suits and get a nice haircut. What hasn’t changed is how brides adorn themselves with jewelry. As a welldressed bride and groom look radiant and joyful on their special day, so we Christians look radiant and joyful with the righteousness the Lord has clothed us with. Such high moments of radiance and joy are not experienced just once or twice in our life. It’s always, for the Lord will certainly clothe us so every day. To prove his point, Isaiah gives us another illustration of fertile land and abundant plants. When God created our world, he had it brimming with vegetation of all different kinds across our many ecosystems. To this day, nature will take over if you let it. When you plant something in a well-tended garden, you can be certain it will sprout out of the ground and grow. As certainly as abundant plants will sprout from fertile ground, so certainly will the Lord clothe us with righteousness. Whoever believes in Jesus will receive the blessings that come through faith each and every day without fail. And when we recognize how great and many these blessings are, we ourselves do what Isaiah closes our verses with: sprouting praise up before all the nations! How can we not say, “thank you, Lord!” with our hearts, hands, voices, priorities, and offerings? People will notice that, even though we don’t try to showboat or publicize it. Perhaps you’re still a little skeptical of this all. Will the Lord certainly clothe you with righteousness and salvation and so cover all your sin? Will you be as joyful and radiant as a bride and groom every day knowing how unworthy you are in the first place? Will the Lord be more consistent in giving you righteousness than the occasional barren patch of earth or lifeless garden? Do you feel like your righteous when you’re not on fire for the gospel? Our Lord answers our questions with a clear, simple answer: I have certainly clothed you with Christ’s righteousness through your faith in him. It is the Lord who has clothed you with righteousness and salvation and covered your every sin. He didn’t leave any spot sticking out. 3
Pastor Tim Patoka
He Is Bringing Perfect Joy
December 17, 2023
Unlike a bridge and groom who only get dressed so well for their special day, the Lord clothes you every day in the same way because he considers you so worthy. Our Lord’s rate of giving righteousness isn’t dependent on sun, rain, and a green thumb. He gives it to every Christian through faith without missing a single person. And your exuberant praise? Let’s not confuse our feelings with God’s promise of righteousness. Neither are you less righteous because you’re quiet, shy, having a bad day, or if your faith’s fire has burned down to a healthy bed of glowing coals. You are still clothed with Christ’s righteousness. Closing Encouragements It’s because of that unchanging comfort that we rejoice in the Lord. Jesus is the greater fulfillment of Isaiah’s words, the one who preaches the good news of his righteousness to everyone afflicted by sin. And he gives this good news to all who believe in him for salvation. As such, rejoice in the Lord for his good news as it resolves our root cause of sin, comforts us in our current afflictions, and provides incomparable joy. Rejoice also in the Lord for he certainly clothes us with this righteousness so that we are as joyful and radiant as a bride and groom on their special day wearing our garment of salvation and robe of righteousness. As fertile land brings forth abundant plants, so also will the Lord give Christ’s righteousness to us through faith. And we will naturally sprout forth praise before all the nations. In light of all this, let us rejoice in the Lord who is coming to bring us perfect joy. Amen.
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