I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed that English people sometimes are a little bit understated, just a little bit. You know, you do something just quite remarkable or you go out to a fantastic event, someone asks you how it was and you say, yeah, it was all right. Or maybe you watch an incredible film and you think, well, it could have been a bit shorter, couldn’t it? Could have just not. In fact, some people have taken this particularly far on the Internet. They’ve reviewed books or films and narrowed them down to a single sentence. Let me give you some examples, see if you can work out what they’re talking about. So one such example was a small person goes on a really long journey to drop a little bit of jewellery into a volcano. Lord of the Rings. There you go. You don’t need to watch the nine hours, just there you go. Or maybe this one. Five daughters are desperate to. To get married to someone because for some unknown reason their father is giving their inheritance away to a random cousin. Pride and Prejudice. There you go. Or last one. Teenage orphan and his friends at school turn the school into a battleground year after year after year after year after year. It’s Harry Potter made eight books of that. Could have just summarised it in a sentence. We quite like things punchy and short, understated, but that’s not quite how he poetry works. And Hebrew poetry is going to give us detail and richness. And the book of Isaiah that we’re just dipping into for a second week is really like a symphony where we get these echoes, we get the kind of story over and over again. And if you have a Bible, it’d be really helpful to look at page 741. And I’m just going to read to you two verses before our reading today kind of sums up the darkness of the exile and the judgement that God’s people are facing. The lord says verse 5. For my people have been taken away for nothing. And those who rule them mock, declares the Lord. All day long my name is constantly blasphemed. Therefore my people will know my name. Therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I. And Isaiah takes us on this roller coaster, which is often very dark and heavy, but this Advent season we’re glimpsing some of the light shining through. We did that last week, we’re doing it today. And really the aim is that we would grow our joy and anticipation this Christmas season. We’ve all been through many Christmases, but that Again, we might taste something of that richness and depth, some of the emotion of Jesus coming at Christmas. So we’re just going to spend a few moments in these verses and kind of see the way in which the poetry tries to move us along a little bit emotionally. And have a look down at verse seven. How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news. We’ll pause there. I’m not sure when it says beautiful that I was anticipating feet to be the conclusion of that sentence. How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news. But there is a real sense that someone carrying news, I guess you can picture them physically walking in that sentence, moving towards you, carrying some news that is going to be great and life changing. And Hebrew poetry wants to intensify that. He wants to kind of pause on the picture. So we’ll go back to verse seven. What’s the substance of the news? Good news. Who proclaim peace? Twist it further. Who bring good tidings? Twist again. Who proclaim salvation? Twist one more. Who say to Zion, your God reigns. If we had to do a little summary sentence of Isaiah at this point, you know, condense it down like those book reviews do, maybe the ending of verse seven, your God reigns, could be a great conclusion. Through the exile, through the darkness, through the war, your God reigns. A message of hope to the people that are going to go into exile and face all that that brings. And just like on our new screens, when we see refugees travelling, they’re going to be taken from their homes, they’re not going to have much of them, the stuff they can carry, the clothes they’re wearing. But in that situation, in the darkness, there’s this message that still your God reigns. And we can sit here and say, well, yeah, surely that’s a consistent theme in the Bible. If I’ve been to church for any length of time, I’ve kind of heard that and I know it. But we see later in the verses that the city lies in ruins. The situation is bleak when they hear this good news. And I thought because it’s Christmas and because, you know, we should try different things, I thought we might try and capture the retelling of that journey. As the battle rages, the situation is a bit like this. They send their troops off to the war. Basically, women and children are left behind in the city and they don’t know the outcome of the battle until someone comes and brings them the news. And we’re going to play some music and I’m just going to try and capture something of that retelling, as though we were in the city waiting for that runner to come. So we’re going to try it together. Hopefully you’ll enjoy. Thanks, Bella. We’re having a little pause. Is the sound up on the sound desk? Oh, there we go. Okay. We’re the watchman, and we’re standing on the battlements and it’s cold and the sun is just coming up and we pull the cloak around and the battle is raging in the distance. The armies have gone to fight and we’re waiting for the news, anxious about what the news might be. And as the sun rises and we’re gazing into the far distance, there, we spot a glint on the horizon. The runner is coming. And he is running with all his might. His heart is pumping in his chest, his lungs are burning, and he’s getting closer and closer. He’s running and stretching and he’s shouting something, but he’s too far away for us to hear. But he’s getting closer and nearer. And we’re leaning in, desperate to hear what the news will be. Could it possibly be good news? Might the army be just behind the. Oh, we’re leaning and searching and desperate. And he’s nearing and nearing and he’s shouting and he’s shouting, it’s the gospel. It’s the gospel. We won against the odds, we won. And we just astonished, gosh, we won. How did we do that? And then you realise your job, you’re the watchman, and you call out to your neighbouring watchman, wake up, wake up. It’s good news. God has rescued his people. We won. And the watchman stands up and like liquid gold, the message starts to philtre across the battlements, through the city, down through the streets, people are coming out of their houses, people are coming to hear the news. And you can just see this wave of expectation and anticipation as the news comes, trickles its way down. We won. Hope and peace and joy. And in the marketplace, there’s a little boy. He’s sitting there and he’s waiting for news from the battle because his dad is fighting on the front and he’s sitting down, just waiting. And suddenly someone brings him that noose. And you know what? He’s on his feet and he dashes back home. And he’s dancing, darting through the crowd, up and down, no one’s getting in his way. He must get home to his mom and sister to tell her the news. And he’s kind of desperate. All other things are forgotten. He has to get home and tell his Mum, we won. Dad’s coming home. And he’s ducking under people and he’s weaving through the crowd and people are coming out of their houses to celebrate and they’re putting up flags and the bells are ringing. It’s such joy. And now his heart is burning and his lungs are hurting because he’s the messenger. And he’s darting through the crowds and he bursts through the door and there’s his mum and she’s looking after his siblings. Mum, we won. We won. Dad’s coming home. It’s peace and victory forevermore. And she scoops him up in her arms and she says, it’s the gospel. It’s good news. It’s the gospel and it’s the best. You’re very kind. Thank you. Catch my breath. And that captures just one tiny fraction of this message here. Because the message here isn’t just about a battle that was raging for Israel, but it is a messenger, the Lord Jesus himself, who left everything in heaven and stepped down. This Christmas, we remember it again to come and bring us a message. What kind of message? A message of peace to outsiders like us. A message of good news, good tidings, salvation. To tell us once and for all that your God reigns. Jesus did that for us. It’s remarkable. He was crushed so this Christmas we could be comforted. He was sacrificed so that we could be saved. He was broken that I might be brought near to the kingdom of God. It’s a remarkable thing. And we get in verse eight, the watchmen lifting their voices, passing on this message with joy. Your watchmen lift their voices together. They shout for joy. When the Lord returns to Zion, they see it with their own eyes. And it would be easy to think like the boy in the kind of retelling that we become the runners. In fact, let me help you. I brought with me this morning, you know, I like a property. I brought with me some running shoes that we become the runners. We go and take that message out. And this Christmas time, we go and knock on some doors and we say, hi, we’ve got some Christmas services and I’m pretty confident that we could go in that direction. If you’ve got a Bible, just flick to Romans chapter 10. Keep a finger in Isaiah, but Romans, chapter 10, which is found on page 1137. 1137. I’m just going to read you a few verses. I think this is the only time in the New Testament that our passage is directly quoted. Maybe someone will correct me and tell me a second time, but I think this is the only one. And I’m going to read to you from verse 10, Romans 10:10, page 11:37 says this. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified. And it is with your mouth that you profess faith and are saved. As the Scripture says, anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame. For there’s no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all, and richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the one they’ve not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they’ve not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. And it’s true, this Christmastime we can become the bearers of that message. To go out to post, to write and invite, to share. Of course we can. And I kind of thought, yeah, that’s the direction this morning we could go in. But then I realised that’s not actually what Isaiah does. If you’ve still got Isaiah Open on page 741, he goes in a different direction, which I think is really actually more helpful for us this morning. Not that I want to quash your running shoes, Go and do it by all means. But let’s notice where Isaiah takes this direction. Verse 9. Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem. For the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all nations and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God into the darkness, rather than saying go. There’s a reminder here that before we are runners, we are receivers of the message that we like sitting in the ruins of Jerusalem, need words of comfort and joy. We sang about that in our carol that that would come to us. The picture less of urging you to put on your running shoes and more like this one more visual illustration, if you’ll forgive me. Let me just grab a chair. I’m gonna take this one here. It’s a bit more like this. I think that before we are even thinking of being runners, we are receivers. We are those who quite honestly sit and need to receive comfort and joy. Because we all know in our broken world, this Christmas, in our own lives, this Christmas, there’ll be many reasons for sadness. Maybe the empty chair at the dining table on Christmas Day, maybe we put on our news, and we see yet another war, another conflict. Maybe it’s the challenge of our friends or family who are alienated from us for some reason. All of us carry those reasons. And before we think about being runners, we need to receive again. You see, it’s like our lives, the stain of sin and death. We can’t escape it. We might try on Christmas Day and make it jolly and light, but we know soon the next day will come and the next. And the burdens of the world will come into our hearts again. Before we are runners, we are as those behind the scenes. We’ve sent our brightest and our best, the Lord Jesus, into battle for us. And we are the ones who wait for the news. We couldn’t have rescued ourselves. We couldn’t have won the battle that day. We had to wait. And what does it say in verse nine when we are there sitting? It says, the Lord has comforted his people. Maybe actually that would be the message that we could pass on this Christmastime. Someone says, how are you doing? And we don’t say, I’m fine or all’s okay. We say, actually, it’s really tough. It’s really tough for this particular reason, this thing that is probably known to whoever’s asking you. But I do know comfort in the midst of that from the Lord God. I do know that God himself reigns. That might actually be a really powerful story to speak into our broken world rather than urging you to just go and bang on some doors to be honest about where the comfort comes from. You see, I think the more that we take Isaiah’s line and experience and sit in that comfort ourselves, the more we see the light shining out. Well, as we head towards a close, say, well, when. When does verse 10 come about? When does verse 10 happen? Because this day of comfort seems to be linked with a particular event. Verse 10. The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. Was that when they came back from exile, the people? I don’t think so. Because if you read in Nehemiah, they come back in dribs and drabs. They’re but a shadow of their former self. Was it maybe at the birth of Jesus, at Christmas? We get that bit in Matthew’s Gospel that says all of Jerusalem was kind of stirred up by this event. You know, the magi arrive and go to the palace and everyone’s talking about it. But, well, in the early life of Jesus, it kind of dies down, doesn’t It. It just kind of disappears. John’s gospel tells us there’s one particular moment, an hour of glory, a time of glory, when Jesus is going to be most on display, when God is going to bear his holy arm. And it is, of course, at the cross. We can be confident of that because of where Isaiah 52 bleeds into Isaiah 53. You may just want to read that in the week and see that. The Lord Jesus was crushed so that we could be comforted. He was sacrificed so that we could be saved. He was broken that you and I might be brought near on the cross as he dies on that day of resurrection. Which seemed just like nonsense to the disciples, didn’t it? They couldn’t get their heads around it. But the New Testament says that was the day. That was the day we sent our brightest and our best, the Lord Jesus, into fights. He won the victory for us. He brings the good news of comfort and joy. And one day when he comes back again, all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our gods. And you might just say, but he hasn’t come back yet. Why hasn’t he come back yet? 2000 years to us seems a heck of a long time. Is he actually coming back? That’s when I remember that bit in the Scriptures which says that for the Lord, a thousand years is like a day and a day like a thousand years. So 2,000 years, that’s like a weekend. Okay? Weekend. You don’t even need to tell your insurer if you go away for a weekend, do you? Just, you think nothing of it. I’ll be back on Monday. This Advent season, there is a reminder that the Lord Jesus is coming back. One day, every eye will see him, every heart will be exposed. But right now, he offers us comfort and joy. I don’t know what Advent season or 2025 will bring for us as a church, for you individually, for me individually, it might be the toughest year that we’ve ever experienced. It might be darker than anything we could imagine or fear right now. And yet this passage, if we were to summarise it and condense it down, it’s the end of verse seven. Through whatever is coming, your God reigns. He reigns and he rules, and we can trust him. So I hope this Advent season, if I’ve done anything this morning, maybe I’ve just built your anticipation a little bit more for the goodness and the joy and the comfort that that tiny little infant in the manger brings. And I hope that you remember that before you’re a runner carrying that message. You’re a receiver like I am too. Let’s bow our heads and pray. Almighty God, we thank you that the Lord Jesus was so willing to stand in our place to fight that battle that we never could have done, to claim the ultimate victory. And we pray this Christmas time, with all the hurt and sorrow that we will carry into it, that you might once again bring comfort and joy into our hearts and lives. We praise you for the work of your Saviour. And we thank you that you are the God who rules and reigns. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.