At first glance, there may not seem to be a whole lot of similarity between the Old Testament reading and the Gospel for today. Isaiah finds himself in the temple. Peter is out at the lake. Isaiah has angels and smoke. Peter has a crowd of people and an ordinary sky. Isaiah sees the Lord God sitting on His throne. Peter sees Jesus sitting in a boat. At first glance, these two scenes don't seem to have a lot in common.
In fact, when we examine these two events a little more closely, we find many similarities. Both Isaiah and Peter have an encounter with the living God. They both experience the terror of God's holy presence. They both receive forgiveness. Then, they both receive a commission from God to take God's message to the people. In both cases, we see that God has special ways of choosing and sending His messengers.
Isaiah saw God's glory. He saw the Lord on a throne. He saw angels flying in God's presence. He heard the voices of the angels proclaim the holiness of God. The proclamation was so powerful that the foundations of the temple shook.
There are many who would say, "How awesome to see the Lord in this way," but what was Isaiah's reaction? "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" He was absolutely terrified.
Then there is Peter. His vision of God was a little bit different. [God] said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." The command didn't make sense, but Peter did it anyway. Peter answered, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets." And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. This is not angels making the temple foundations shake with song, but it is the glory of God never the less. It is God in control over his creation.
Again there are many who would say, "How awesome to be there when these men brought their catches to shore," but what was Peter's reaction? He fell down at Jesus' knees saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Peter, like Isaiah, was terrified.
You see, there is no pain, no terror, nor any other experience in this world that even comes close to the horrible experience of coming into God's holy presence with our sin still intact. Adam and Eve ran away and hid. Moses was afraid to look at the burning bush. The Children of Israel were terrified at Mount Sinai. Daniel fell on his face and did not have the strength to rise. The guards who came to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane and those who guarded the tomb of the risen Lord became like dead men. The presence of the Holy God is terrifying to all those who are not holy - to all those who are sinful.
The holiness we need to come into God's presence is something that only He provides. No amount of work on our part can make us holy. In fact, all our effort only makes us more sinful. Any effort we put forward to improve our standing in God's eyes is actually an insult to Him. Our holiness must originate with Him.
An angel brought God's forgiveness to Isaiah. One of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."
The coal from the altar in the temple was a coal used to burn the sacrifice. This coal pointed forward to the incredible suffering that Jesus would endure for Isaiah on the cross. Like the fire in Moses' burning bush, this coal touched Isaiah's lips, but it did not burn them. Instead, it made Isaiah guiltless and holy in the eyes of the Lord. This coal was the holiness that Jesus earned with His perfect life, and the forgiveness Jesus earned with His death on the cross.
Peter received the same forgiveness. He received it directly from the mouth of the Lord. Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." Peter then experienced three years in the seminary of Jesus Christ and was a witness to the life and death of Jesus - the perfect life and the sacrificial death that saved Peter from his own sin. Peter witnessed the salvation of our God with his eyes and heard it with his ears.
God extended His call to both Isaiah and Peter only after they had experienced the terror of their sin in the presence of the holy God and then experienced the relief of God's blessed forgiveness. It is the terror of sin and the relief of forgiveness that they in turn will preach to their fellow men.
Now that Isaiah has forgiveness he has fellowship with God. He can hear God's voice. I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" God's forgiveness changed Isaiah. Isaiah wants to become God's servant and carry God's message to the people. Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."
God shared the most beautiful promises of the savior through Isaiah: [Isaiah 7:14] Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. [Isaiah 9:6] For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [Isaiah 12:13; 13:4-6] Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. God gave all these words about Jesus to Isaiah 700 years before Jesus was born.
Jesus changed Peter the same way. Peter was terrified, but Jesus comforted him with a call for service. Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." Peter would one day become the leader of the Church. God would work through him to save thousands of souls.
God saves us in the same way that He saved Isaiah and Peter. He sent his only son, Jesus to sacrifice Himself on the altar of the cross. Jesus shed his blood so that we can have fellowship with God once again. Jesus not only died to forgive us all our sins, but he also rose. That resurrection gives us the promise of eternal life with Him in heaven. Just as Christ lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, we too will live with them forever.
That life doesn't start far in the future, but it is already with us. Every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper we hear these words, "therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Thy glorious name, evermore praising Thee and saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth; Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory … These are the words that we heard in the Old Testament lesson. These are the words the angels sing in heaven. Together we join with all the people in heaven and praise God. Then we join them in a meal. In this meal we share the body and blood of our savior along with all our loved ones in heaven.
God sends his servants, our parents, teachers, pastors, and other friends, to share the good news of salvation with us. Every faithful servant of God begins his ministry on his face in terror confessing his sin. Isaiah confessing his filthy lips, Peter confessing his sin, Moses begging God to send somebody else, Daniel on his face unable to even move, and the list goes on and on. Every prophet, every apostle, every faithful pastor and teacher knows for a fact that he is unworthy to stand before God's people and hand out the gifts that God has for them. Every faithful servant of God knows that Jesus had to die on the cross and rise from the dead in order for them to climb into a pulpit to preach or stand behind a lectern to read. I would have no business climbing up into this pulpit if Jesus had not given His life for me and then risen up from the dead, but Christ has given His life and risen from the dead.
All those who believe in Jesus Christ are like Isaiah and Peter. We have already met God in Word, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. God has already showed Himself to us and cleansed us from sin. We have experienced the terror of our own sin and the relief of God's forgiveness. Now, like Isaiah and Peter, He works through us to share His story with others. God works through us so that we can say, "Yes, I know that I am not perfect, but Jesus is. He paid for my sin on the cross and now I belong to Him. He rose from the dead and so I will also rise from the dead and live with Him forever. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior." In this simple way, we can proclaim God's salvation to the people we meet in our lives every day.
God will ask some, like Peter and Isaiah, to abandon everything and rely totally on the Gospel for their living. Others, like Zebedee, the father of James and John will remain at their trade and proclaim God's salvation in their every day lives.
In our day and age, we also have the opportunity to share God's salvation with people around the world. One of the ways we do that is through Lutheran Hour Ministries. Most of us are familiar with their radio ministry, but they do much more. They have an extensive presence on the Internet with activities that share Christ with men, women, and children. In all their activities they strive to bring Christ to the Nations—and the Nations to the Church.
God has relief from the terror of sin through the forgiveness that Jesus worked for us. Now we can share that Gospel with people in our lives as well as people around the world. Amen
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