Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : October 9, 2005

Theme: Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Church year occasion: Pentecost 21

Some people just love to get dirty. A classmate of mine in school cleaned out boilers. I'm not talking about cleaning out the boiler room, which is bad enough. No, I'm talking about actually cleaning out the boiler itself. He told me how he would put on all kinds of gear so it looked like he was an astronaut about to go to the moon. Four hours later, he would emerge from the boiler room with not even one square inch of him being clean. He had to race back to school after work before supper closed, so he couldn't shower. So when he walked into the cafeteria, everyone would stop and stare at him because he was so filthy. But he loved it -- it was almost a badge of honor, as if the dirtiest person eating was the winner.

That image is going to be important for our understanding of God's Word this morning. Except instead of walking into just any old cafeteria to eat, we will be walking into a banquet hall set with the finest of food and drink. How can we eat at such an important table, where only the best will do, and it's obvious that we don't belong there? Listen to Isaiah as he tells you to Eat, Drink and Be Merry because you have been invited to dine with God forever in heaven.

Now hopefully when you heard the theme of the sermon, Eat, Drink and Be Merry, you thought, "That's a strange thing for God to be telling us." In fact, you might even remember a place in Scripture where those same words are said by a rich man who was only concerned about making wealth for himself on this earth. God calls him a fool.

In encouraging us to eat, drink and be merry, Isaiah isn't talking about an earthly feast, but a heavenly one. He gives us three reasons why we can eat, drink and be merry at that kind of feast. First it's because of what god has taken off of us.

Just like my friend who cleaned out boilers, we are as black as soot before the Righteous Judge who demands that we be as white as snow. That's because we're sinners. And because of that we have a shroud of sin hanging over us our whole lives which leads to death at the end of our lives. It reminds me of a horror movie where a person walks into a morgue and is about to look under a sheet that's covering a dead body. When that sheet is pulled back, the person doing it either gasps or screams or looks away. Why? Because death is scary. But you don't have to be in a horror movie to see a dead body. It happens at every funeral. And eventually we will be the one lying in the casket.

Death is not what God wanted for us by his plan, but that is what we have chosen for ourselves. We would rather be greedy like the rich man. We'd rather spend our time on ourselves instead of spending time on God in this life. We'd rather think that we are number one and we should serve ourselves and give ourselves whatever we want, instead of giving to the Lord. Because of that, God says, you and I and the world deserve eternal punishment. God looks at us as if he were looking under a shroud, and we are abhorrent to God. And therefore God has every right to send us away from him. And we can do nothing to stop it. If we tried walking into the elegant banquet of the feast in heaven covered in soot, we wouldn't belong; we couldn't get in.

What dark stain of sin does God see in you? What black part of your soul seems to rise to the surface in your life time after time after time? You know what it is. Maybe you can keep it hidden from your closest friends. Maybe you can even keep it hidden from your husband or wife. But you know what it is. And God certainly knows also. The Bible says that God cannot be mocked. We can't pull the wool over God's eyes. And God tells us that if we keep that dark stain in our lives, we won't be spending eternity with him, but away from him, suffering for that and every other sin that we've committed.

That's why we need to listen to Isaiah. Look at verse 7: "On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations." The mountain is Mt. Zion. Not only was that the site of the temple, where God decided in the Old Testament to take his place among mortal, sinful man, but Mt. Zion was also one of the hills on which Jerusalem was built. Outside Jerusalem stood a smaller hill called Mt. Calvary where the eternal and sinless Son of God would give up his perfect life. That sacrifice made it possible for God to tell us that in his eyes it is as if we had never sinned. The dark shroud of sin that separated us from God so that he looked on us as something abhorrent is gone. Jesus shredded it when he suffered and died for those sins.

As a result of Jesus taking away the sins of every sinner, the results of sin are gone also. Isaiah says in verse 8, "He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken." Instead of all of us being swallowed up by the grave when we die, death itself has to walk into an open and empty tomb not far from Mt. Calvary and Mt. Zion. And when death sets foot in that empty tomb, he never comes out -- he has met his match in the living and victorious Christ. St. Paul used that same imagery in 1 Corinthians 15:54 when he quotes Isaiah: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." And since death holds no fear for us, Isaiah can also say, "The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces." If your son or daughter falls off their bike and skins a knee, they come running and crying to you. But all you can do is wipe away the tears and say it will be OK -- but the skinned knee and the pain still remain. But if God is wiping away tears, it's because he hasn't just taken care of the tears, but he's taken care of what caused the tears -- sin. John in Revelation speaks the same way -- "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:17) Isaiah and Paul and John were all looking at the Church triumphant. Everything that needed to be taken away from us has been taken away. We no longer have our sinful clothes covered in the soot of our sins. They have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. Now we not only can come to the feast, but we have our own place with our own name on it at the feast. We can eat, drink and be merry not only because of what has been taken off of us, but also because of what God has placed before us.

Isaiah talks about what's on the table before us in verse 6: "On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine -- the best of meats and the finest of wines." God spares no expense in this feast. He spreads out only the best before us. But it isn't just meant for only a few. Again Isaiah says that it is a feast of rich food "for all peoples." The angels used that kind of language on the night of Jesus' birth. "Good news of great joy which shall be for all the people." (Luke 2:10) You might be surprised to know that this "feast of rich food" literally means a "feast of fat things." Eating fat today doesn't sound so good to us, but to ancient people, the fat was the best part because it had the most flavor. That's why God always wanted the fatty parts burned up on the altar to him in Israel's Old Testament sacrifices. The fat was the best of the animal that could be given. God wanted only the best from his people -- but only after he had promised to give his best first -- his only Son into death so that we might live eternally. God gave his most prized possession. That's what he is spreading before us -- the feast of forgiveness. He wants us to gorge ourselves on his everlasting gospel, not on the worthless food of this world. When God sets up his throne in our hearts, he doesn't do it by giving us the shallow musings and philosophy of sinful man, but he gives us his everlasting gospel. It is the best of food because its essence is Jesus himself, the Bread of Life, the Water of Life. How can we not eat, drink and be merry at such a feast -- the feast of eternal life in heaven!

And Isaiah gives us one more reason to eat, drink and be merry: Because of the day we tasted/taste/will taste his feast. The words Isaiah uses are very striking -- he used past tense verbs to describe what would happen in the future. Really, he says that he "prepared a feast of rich food for all peoples," and that he "destroyed the shroud that enfolds all peoples," that he "swallowed up death forever," and that he "wiped away the tears from all faces." But we have to translate it as future because it hadn't been accomplished yet. So how could God be speaking about the future sacrifice of his Son and the coming heaven that awaits his people through faith as if it had already happened? The end of verse 8 says it all: "The LORD has spoken." When God says something is going to happen, it's as good as already done. Today We've seen Jesus fulfill Isaiah's words when he died and rose. So based on God's promise, heaven is as good as ours already.

Isaiah has one final thing to say about that day that is awaiting all of God's people when he calls us to heaven: 9 In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."

Living as a Christian is often no picnic. It is difficult to take up our cross and follow Christ. Hardship and persecution will be our lot. We won't indulge in the same kinds of sinful and worldly things that our unbelieving friends do. We won't be trying to eat, drink and be merry in this world. We are constantly looking forward to our heavenly feast, where we will feast forever in God's presence. This life won't be easy. But following Christ and his Word now will certainly be worth it when in heaven we can say that we trusted our Savior God, and he saved us.

Don't wait until you reach heaven to rejoice and be glad in the salvation that is already yours in Christ. Instead eat, drink and be merry right now as you feast on Christ and his salvation. Amen.