Series

Series: Inspiration in Isaiah, #14

October 8, 2006

BEAUTIFUL FEET

Isaiah 52:7

Isaiah 52:7-10 NIV

“How beautiful on the mountains

are the feet of those who bring good news,

who proclaim peace,

who bring good tidings,

who proclaim salvation,

who say to Zion,

‘Your God reigns!’

[8] Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;

together they shout for joy.

When the Lord returns to Zion,

they will see it with their own eyes.

[9] Burst into songs of joy together,

you ruins of Jerusalem,

for the Lord has comforted his people,

he has redeemed Jerusalem.

[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.”

I. Good News Romans 10:13-17

This passage was addressed to the Israelites who were living in captivity in Babylon. It was written even before Jerusalem was captured, but God foresaw that, and gave the people this encouraging prophecy. The good news he is talking about is that they will be released from captivity to return to their homeland. God’s reign will be seen in the way He governs the nations, and changes the heart of King Cyrus, to allow them to return home. Then the very ruins of Jerusalem will burst into songs of joy because of the way the Lord will have comforted His people and restored Jerusalem. God is going to show the nations of the world what He can do, and everyone will see how He saves His people from their captivity and slavery in Babylon. That’s the good news he’s talking about.

In fact, that is exactly what happened. Nebuchadnezzar was the Babylonian king who destroyed Jerusalem and carried the people off into captivity. Some years later, Cyrus, king of Persia, defeated the Babylonians, and he is the one who issued the edict to allow the Jews to return to Judah and rebuild Jerusalem. This rebuilding, which took place under the priest Ezra, and Nehemiah, was accomplished during the reigns of two other kings of Persia, Darius and Artaxerxes. I’m not an expert in ancient history by any means, but I think it is extremely rare for a) a group of captured people to maintain their ethnic and spiritual identity for 70 years in captivity, and b) for a subsequent king to allow those people to return to their homeland to rebuild their capital city. That sort of thing just wasn’t done. But it was done, and Isaiah predicts that it will be a demonstration of the sovereign reign of God.

It is often true that physical events in the Old Testament have spiritual parallels in the New Testament. Here in this passage, for example, the salvation that is referred to is the physical deliverance from their slavery in a foreign land. But the New Testament takes that same concept, and the same word, and uses it to refer to our deliverance from spiritual slavery to sin.

So the Apostle Paul takes this passage and uses it to support his contention that we need to be sharing the good news of the gospel with people. Romans 10:13-17, “‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ [a quote from Joel that emphasizes the grace and acceptance of God toward all people. In this context, to call on the Lord means to ask Him to save them.] [14] How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? [15] And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ … [17] Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

The New Testament version of the ones who came to Israel announcing that they were free to return to Judah are the evangelists who announce to people that they can be free from sin. In both cases their feet are beautiful.

II. Beautiful Feet

That’s a funny expression, don’t you think? Beautiful feet? Here are a few slides I took of feet, and I guess I don’t think they are all that beautiful.

Feet are just weird, with ankle bones protruding, and little toes often bent under other toes, etc. People have foot problems, such as a misaligned joints, and neuromas, so their feet don’t look so good anymore. I know people who have nasty fungus under their toe nails, and bunions, and all sorts of things that don’t make their feet look very beautiful. So what’s with the beautiful feet here in Isaiah?

The people he is talking about have beautiful feet, even though they were no doubt dirty from wearing sandals, because those feet carry the messengers who bring good news. Whether it is the news that the Israelites were going to be released to return to Jerusalem, or the news that your neighbor can be free to love and serve God and enjoy Him forever, if you are the one bringing that news, your feet are beautiful to the ones who hear it.

It’s like a vehicle. One day you are shopping on a local car lot, and you see this beautiful convertible sports car, hot red, chrome wheels, killer stereo, enormous engine—something like this Dodge Viper. You say to yourself, “That is one beautiful car!” And maybe you even begin to covet it just a little.

You continue browsing in the car lot, and on the other side of the fence, with weeds growing up around it, you come across a junker of a truck, like this. In your mind, you mentally compare the two vehicles, and quickly turn away from the truck, to admire once more the beautiful Viper. Unfortunately, you’re not in the market for a Viper, so you go on home.

But a couple of weeks later, you are driving in the mountains when your car goes off the road and rolls down a short embankment to land on its side in the river. You’re shaken up, but not hurt badly, so you scramble up the bank to the road, where you wait for a car to come by to help you. It’s an isolated road, and you wait and wait for hours. The sun goes down, and you are starting to get really cold, because you got soaked in the river. Then, finally, you hear the sound of something wheezing up the canyon, and then the lights of the vehicle show up around the corner, and you stand in the center of the road, waving to get their attention. As the vehicle slowly comes to a creaking halt beside you, you realize it is the very truck you saw at the car lot. Only it has changed in a subtle, but powerful way: it was ugly when you saw it before, but now it is the most beautiful truck in the world! How beautiful is the truck that can pull you out of the ditch and give you a lift to town!

Our culture makes a fetish about physical beauty. There are no ugly or even plain people on television, in the movies, on magazine covers, or in politics. Everybody is beautiful. We get the impression that we don’t count if we are not one of the beautiful people—if our teeth are crooked, or our hair is thinning, our nose is too long, or we weigh too much. But if you were the person who got to announce to the office or shop that all employees were to be given a $10,000 bonus this year, you’d be the most beautiful person in the world!

Folks, you can be the most beautiful person in the world to someone, if you will tell them the good news that God loves them, that He sent His son to die for them, so that they can have a relationship with the God of the universe for eternity.

III. What Is the Good News?

The word “gospel” in Greek literally means “good news.” So what is the good news of the gospel? Here are some different ways to see it.

A. Healing from fatal disease

                    You are dying of an incurable disease. The doctors have done everything they know, run every test in the world, tried experimental treatments, and nothing has worked. You are in extreme pain, and there doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight. They give you a few months to live, at most.
          The good news is that a doctor in Switzerland has been working on this particular disease for years, and has just developed a treatment that is 100% effective. Not only that, but it is covered by your insurance company! Now that is good news!
          The Bible says that sin is like a spiritual disease that will kill us forever. It’s a congenital illness that is always fatal. Everybody on earth has it. But the good news is that Jesus heals this disease, just as He healed the people who were brought to Him in Palestine 2,000 years ago. He can heal you in such a way that you will never die.
          B.          Debt paid    Psalm 49:7-9; Matt 20:28

                    You have made some bad decisions, and have run up an enormous credit card debt. Actually, you have over a dozen cards, all maxed out, and you owe roughly a quarter of a million dollars on them, at 23.5% a year. You are unemployed. You are behind on your house payment, and your car payment, and your motor home payment. Your creditors are tired of waiting for their money, and you may be tried and jailed for fraud. Your relatives all treat you like you have Ebola. You are seriously considering robbing a bank, because you just don’t see any way at all to pay all that back.
          The good news is that a rich uncle you haven’t heard from for years dies and leaves his entire estate of several million dollars to you. The debt can be paid, you can avoid prison, and get back on your feet again, financially.
          The Bible says that we all owe God a debt that we cannot pay. Psalm 49:7-9, “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him-- [8] the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough-- [9] that he should live on forever and not see decay.” There is nothing we can do to make it up to God. We cannot pay for our sin. We owe Him too much.

But God in His mercy, pays the debt for us. Matthew 20:28, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He paid the ransom price necessary to get us out of that hole we had dug for ourselves. All the red ink of our sin is gone, and in its place is the righteousness of Christ. God didn’t just cancel our moral debt; He gave us credit for being as good as Jesus was.

C. Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5:19

You were stubborn. Stubborn and self-centered, and you just refused to change. You insisted your spouse was the one who needed to change, and they just needed to accept you as you are. As a result, your marriage finally unraveled, and here you are, separated, divorced, and lonely. You thought you’d feel better without that person in your life, but you find that they have left an enormous hole in your heart, and you are grieving that loss.

The good news is that your “ex” calls one day, asking if there is any chance you two could talk. They want to know if you are willing to open the conversation about whether you might be able to get together again. They have obviously forgiven you, and hold no grudges in spite of the terrible way you treated them. After many months of working on it, with the help of a Christian counselor, you both stand before the pastor again, and with tears in your eyes, and your hearts full of love, say, “I do.”
2 Cor. 5:19, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. We are the ones who broke the relationship with God. We are the ones who moved, who were stubborn, who insisted on doing things our way. But God in His mercy has taken the initiative to seek us out, and call us back into His love. He found a way to deal with our sin, to put it aside, so that He wouldn’t hold it against us. Now we can be one with Him again, and it feels so good!

D. Set free to live

                    You say you didn’t mean to do it, that it was an accident, but in your heart you know that you meant to shoot that guy. You hated him for stealing your girl, and that hatred just festered in your soul until one day the opportunity presented itself. The two of you were out hunting, and it was just so easy to draw a bead on him as he crept toward the elk. After a short hunt, the county sheriff caught up with you, and here you are in jail, awaiting the jury’s verdict. The D.A. asked for the death penalty; your public defender tells you he’ll probably get it.
          The incredible good news is that even though the jury found you guilty, and the sentence was death, the judge offered to send his own son to the gas chamber in your place.
          The Bible says that we are guilty before God of a crime that deserves eternal death: we have insulted the glory of the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. We have acted and spoken as though the most important Person in the world did not even exist. As a result, we are “objects of His wrath”, facing eternal separation from God and punishment. But God loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die in our place, so that we could go free. We will not die, and we are set free to live in a beautiful relationship of love with Him starting now, and on into eternity.

IV. Sent Romans 10:14-15; John 20:21

Whatever image you use, the gospel is good news. But, Paul asks, Romans 10:14, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? [15] And how can they preach unless they are sent?” You can’t tell this good news properly unless you have been sent by God to do it. But each of us has been sent. After the resurrection, Jesus said, John 20:21, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." We don’t need to wait for a special voice from heaven, or a supernatural experience calling us to be preachers. Each one of us has already been sent by Jesus. The risen Christ says to you and me, as He said to His disciples in the upper room, Just as the Father sent me into the world, I’m sending you to seek and save the lost. Only Jesus can save them, but we can tell them the good news that He can do that.

It could be that God is calling and sending you to the ends of the earth, as He is Jeremy and Jamie Lang, and Jed and Shannon Olson, and Bethany Vogel, and Dave Temple, and Peter and Rebecca Shug, and many others from our church. But it is certainly true that He is sending you across the room or the street. Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Church, has written a book called Just Walk Across the Room. He tells the story of an African-American man who was at a cocktail party in the south, where he felt very uncomfortable and out of place. He was just standing off to the side by himself, waiting for an appropriate time to pass before he could slip out and go home, when another man on the other side of the room noticed him standing there alone. This other guy got up, excused himself from the group of people he was talking to, and walked across the room to introduce himself. They got talking about their mutual profession, their families, business and sports—all the usual stuff. Eventually, their conversation got around to issues of faith. The African-American took the risk of telling the other man that he was a Muslim, but rather than being put off by that, he just admitted that he knew almost nothing about Islam, and began asking respectful, insightful, questions.

They continued to meet socially after that, and developed quite a friendship. The Muslim was quite impressed that this Christian man seemed genuinely interested in understanding his faith. One week, the Muslim asked the Christian about his faith, and got a very natural and compelling story of why this man had committed his life to following Christ. Many weeks went by, and then one day the African-American Muslim knelt by his bed and gave his life to Christ.

All of that came about just because one man was willing to walk across the room. As the Father sent Jesus into the world, so Jesus sent that man the 15 feet across a cocktail party floor to engage someone who seemed alone.

Folks, we don’t all have to go to Outer Mongolia. But Jesus is sending all of us to walk across the room, or across the office, or across the street, and tell people the good news about Him. Do you know the people across the street from you? How about diagonally, or down a couple of doors? What about that new person in the office or on the block?

V. A Message Romans 10:17

A. “Speak up”

St. Francis of Assisi is reported to have said, “Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.” This points to the importance of living our lives in such a way that people can see Christ in us, that we reflect something of His love, joy, peace, patience, etc. in all our relationships and work and play. But Paul reminds us that it will always be necessary to use words. Rom 10:17, “…faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” Faith comes from hearing the message. If no one tells you that the Swiss doctor has developed a cure for your fatal disease, you won’t go to him for the treatment. If no one tells you that your rich uncle has left you all his money, you won’t ever use it to pay off your debts. If your spouse doesn’t ever call to open the door to reconciliation, you’ll always be estranged. None of us will ever live such a good life that we can communicate without words the essence of the good news about Jesus. We’ve got to speak up.

What is that good news in a nutshell? Here are two ways to say it.

B. The Bridge (Navigators)

I like this because I am a visual person, and this gives me a chance to draw on a napkin. I usually just use stick figures, because I couldn’t draw a person if I tried.

	The Bible teaches that God loves everyone, and wants to be in a relationship with us. But we are all separated from God.
	The problem is that we have figuratively stuck our fist in God’s face and told Him we don’t need Him. That’s the essence of sin—an attitude of independence and rebellion against God. People try to use all sorts of ways to get across that gap to God, usually counting on how good they’ve been, or how religious they are, but these efforts can never make us good enough.
	The reason this state of affairs is such a problem is that the ultimate consequences of our sin are death and judgment by God.
	But God in His love sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to bridge the gap for us. He took the punishment that we deserved, so that we could be right with God. Praise God, there is a way!
	So now what you have to do to take advantage of this great offer is to receive Christ by faith. Step out on the cross, put your whole weight on it, trust the cross of Christ alone to get you to God, and He will do it.

You can trust Christ simply by praying to Him, and asking Him to save you. Ask Him to forgive you of all your sins, and to come into your life as Lord and Savior. When you do that, He will come in, and will give you a quality of life that starts now and continues through all eternity.

That’s the message. It’s easy to draw on a napkin in a restaurant, or a piece of scratch paper, and it makes the point clear. The bad news is that we are all separated from God, and that’s going to lead to judgment and death. The good news is that God has provided a way for us to be acceptable to Him, simply by trusting Jesus Christ.

C. “Do” v. “Done”

Finally, this is the shortest version of the gospel message that I know, but I think it really says it all in a very concise way. The difference between Christianity and all other religions is that other religions all tell you there is something you have to do in order to get right with God, attain Nirvana, get into Paradise, etc. The Bible says that it has all been done for you by Jesus Christ on the cross. All you have to do is to trust Him to save you, and He will.

How beautiful are your feet? Regardless of what they look like, they’ll seem beautiful to the people you walk across the room or the street to meet, to share with them the best news the world has ever heard.