God's Presence is Desperately Needed Because We Have a Problem...

This week, we have been looking at the reality that Christmas in our culture is all about the presents. However, Christmas began not so that we could experience presents. Instead, Christmas began so that all of humanity could experience God's presence. We have been answering the question "why does God and God’s presence in our lives seem so fleeting and elusive? And why do we desperately need God’s presence?" by looking at a section of a letter that is recorded in our Bibles called the book of Isaiah.

Yesterday, we saw Isaiah respond to the Jewish people of his day who were questioning God’s nature and character and were beginning to think that God had changed and was the problem by revealing the reality that God is not the one who moved. Instead, the Jewish people have moved. God was not playing hide and seek; they were playing hide and seek. God was not paying attention and God’s presence was no longer present because they were too busy running from God and running to selfishness and rebellion.

The Jewish people had embraced and were now ensnared in a life and a lifestyle of selfishness and rebellion that hurt God and others and separated them from God’s presence being present in their lives. The prophet then reminds the Jewish people of the impact of their selfishness and rebellion had in verses 9 and 10:

Therefore justice is far from us, And righteousness does not overtake us; We hope for light, but behold, darkness, For brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope along the wall like blind men, We grope like those who have no eyes; We stumble at midday as in the twilight, Among those who are vigorous we are like dead men.

As a result of God’s presence being no longer present in the lives of the Jewish people, the Jewish people were no longer experiencing a right relationship with God. The Jewish people were not experiencing God revealing Himself in practical and powerful ways. Instead of the light of God’s presence in their lives, they were experiencing the darkness of God’s absence. And as a result, the Jewish people were groping along the way like blind men. They were reaching out and searching for a way to be right with God while being blinded by their selfishness and rebellion. Regardless of age and stage of life; regardless of position or prominence in society, the Jewish people were hopelessly lost and were left to deal with the consequences of their attitudes and actions toward God and others.

And the reason why the Jewish people were hopelessly lost; the reason why God’s presence was not longer present in their lives; was due to the fact that God’s presence cannot and will not be present with selfishness and rebellion. God is just and God is right. God, in His justice, will not allow harm or wrong to go unpunished. For God to allow wrong or harm to go unpunished would only prove that He is unjust. And because God is holy, just and right, He will not allow His presence to be present with selfishness, rebellion or injustice. We see this reality repeatedly play out throughout the Bible. Throughout the Bible, we see God repeatedly withdrawal His presence from individuals and nations who chose to run from God and run to selfishness and rebellion.

And throughout the Bible we read that the Jewish people were well aware of this reality. The Jewish people were well aware of both God’s holiness and justice and God’s right and just response to selfishness and rebellion. That is why throughout the Bible, we see individuals respond to an encounter into the presence of God with fear and dread. We see this happen when Joshua had an encounter with God. We see this happen when Samson’s parents had an encounter with the Lord in the book of Judges. And we see this happen when the writer of the letter we have been looking at this morning, Isaiah, had his encounter with God, which we read about in Isaiah 6:1:

In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined!

Isaiah responds to his encounter into the very presence of the Lord by stating “Woe is me, for I am ruined”. In other words, Isaiah is proclaiming “Oh no! I am a dead man. I am as good as dead”. But why are all these people responding to an encounter where they get to experience God’s presence in such a way? Why does Isaiah feel like God is going to take him out? What is the problem here? We find the answer in what Isaiah says next:

Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."

You see, Isaiah knew that the issue wasn’t with God. Isaiah knew that God was not the problem. Isaiah knew that he issue and the problem was with Isaiah. “I am a man of unclean lips and I live among of people of unclean lips”. The problem was Isaiah’s selfishness and rebellion. In the presence of God’s perfect holiness and justice, Isaiah was able to see himself for who he truly was. There was no room for excuses, there was no room for blame shifting; who he was and who God was became painfully apparent.

Isaiah recognized that he had a huge problem with God as a result of selfishness and rebellion. The same problem that the Jewish people faced. The same problem you and I face. A problem that is universal; a problem that reveals a desperate need of rescue from; a problem that is insurmountable. A problem so massively large that only God could solve.

You see God’s presence is desperately needed because we have a problem. And that is what Christmas is all about. Christmas is about the reality that God’s presence cannot and will not be present with selfishness and rebellion. Christmas is not about us experiencing presents; Christmas is all about God providing the opportunity for all of humanity to experience God’s presence. Christmas is all about God revealing His presence in the most radical way imaginable, so that all of humanity could know that God was real and that God was present and active in the world.

Christmas is about God responding to the problem of selfishness and rebellion that created a void that separated humanity from God. A problem that no present under a tree could ever solve. A problem that only the presence of the Son of God hanging on a tree could solve. Christmas is about God responding to the problem of selfishness and rebellion with a promise.

Next week, we will discover the promise that God made to provide an opportunity for all humanity to experience God’s presence.


.