The King Of Christmas
The world loves the baby in the manger — a baby makes no demands. Isaiah met the same Jesus on a throne, and the most righteous man of his age fell down crying, “Woe is me!”
Why does the world love the baby in the manger but resist the King on the throne? Because a baby makes no demands. In this Christmas sermon on Isaiah 6:1–8, Dr. Toby Holt shows that the tender child of Bethlehem is the very Lord whom Isaiah saw “high and lifted up,” the train of His robe filling the temple, while burning seraphim covered their faces and cried, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts.”
Dr. Holt begins with the world’s habit of winnowing Jesus down to the attributes it finds comfortable — Jesus the mild, Jesus the babe, Jesus the tender — while quietly setting aside Jesus the King, because a King has the authority to tell us how to live. He then turns to John 12, where the apostle declares that the One Isaiah saw enthroned in glory was Christ Himself: “These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him” (John 12:41). The same Jesus the world adores in the manger even now occupies a throne.
From there the sermon follows Isaiah’s own experience. The most righteous man of his generation does not stroll into the throne room to air his grievances; he falls down undone — “Woe is me!” — because a thrice-holy God cannot endure the stain of a single sin in His presence. Yet God does not crush him. A seraph carries a live coal from the altar, and Isaiah’s iniquity is taken away — a picture of the atonement Christmas sets in motion: the only possible payment for sin was born in a manger in Bethlehem, and at Calvary our sin was placed on Him and His righteousness was imputed to us.
The vision ends with a question — “Whom shall I send?” — and so does the sermon. Listeners will come away with a larger Christ of Christmas: not a sentimental figure to admire once a year, but a holy King to worship, a Savior who purges sin, and a Lord who still asks who is willing to answer, “Here am I! Send me.”
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Questions This Sermon Answers
“The King of Christmas” is a Christmas sermon by Dr. Toby B. Holt on Isaiah 6:1–8. It argues that the world happily embraces Jesus as a harmless baby or a great teacher, but resists Jesus as King. Dr. Holt takes listeners into Isaiah’s throne-room vision — the Lord high and lifted up, seraphim crying “Holy, holy, holy” — to show that the child of Bethlehem is the reigning King. Rightly understood, Christmas calls not for sentiment but for worship, decision, and willing service to the One who left a throne for a manger.
Because a baby makes no demands. Dr. Holt observes that we are not threatened by an infant: a baby can be held, will not exert its will over us, and does not tell us how to live. A king does. A king has the authority to command those he has made. So the secular world gladly keeps the manger — Jesus the mild, the babe, the tender — while setting aside Jesus the King. The real Christmas question is which Jesus we embrace: it is easy to come to the manger, and far harder to bow before the throne.
The apostle John answers this directly. Citing Isaiah’s vision, John writes, “These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him” (John 12:41) — and the Him in context is Jesus Christ. Isaiah’s vision in the year King Uzziah died, around 740 BC, was a vision of the preincarnate Christ enthroned in glory, His robe filling the temple while seraphim shielded their eyes from His radiance. The same Jesus who lay in the manger, gentle and mild, is the Lord high and lifted up whom Isaiah saw seven centuries before Bethlehem.
In Hebrew, repetition intensifies. To declare God “holy, holy, holy” — thrice holy — is to declare His holiness absolute and unqualified. Dr. Holt notes that even the seraphim, the “burning ones” whose appearance terrifies people throughout Scripture, cover their own faces before the One on the throne. Such holiness means God cannot endure the stain of a single sin in His presence. Modern religion tends to deflate the word holy of its meaning; Isaiah 6 restores its full weight — and in doing so explains why sinners need a Mediator to stand before this God.
Because holiness undoes sinners. Isaiah was as righteous a man as his generation had, yet when he saw the King enthroned he did not congratulate himself — he collapsed: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). Dr. Holt contrasts this with a man who once told him he planned to march into heaven and critique God to His face. No one schools God in His own throne room. If the most righteous man of his age was undone in God’s presence, how much more do the rest of us need our sin removed before we can stand there?
The live coal taken from the altar and touched to Isaiah’s lips — “Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged” (Isaiah 6:7) — is a symbolic picture of atonement. The altar was the place of sacrifice, where sin was dealt with through a substitute. Dr. Holt stresses that God did not shelve Isaiah’s sin or overlook it; He purged it. That purging ultimately required Calvary: the only possible payment for sin was born in a manger in Bethlehem, lived a perfect life, and died in the place of sinners so that His righteousness could be imputed to them.
Because only God could bear the infinite weight of sin’s penalty, and only a true man could stand as a substitute for men. Dr. Holt argues both truths from the manger: if Jesus were merely a great teacher, His death could not atone for anyone’s sin; if He were not truly man, He could not fulfill all righteousness in our nature and in our place. The Westminster Larger Catechism (Q. 38–40) presses the same logic, teaching that the Mediator had to be God, had to be man, and had to be both in one person, so that His saving work might be accepted for us. Christmas celebrates precisely this union of two natures in one Redeemer.
In his classic work The Holiness of God, R.C. Sproul made Isaiah 6 the centerpiece of his teaching on God’s character. Sproul observed that holiness is the only attribute of God that Scripture raises to the third degree of repetition — the seraphim do not cry out His love or His justice three times over, but His holiness — and he described Isaiah’s undoing as the crisis of a sinner truly seeing the Holy One for the first time. Dr. Holt’s sermon presses the same point: our age has deflated holiness of its meaning, and recovering it is the first step toward understanding both the gospel and Christmas.
There is no manger in Isaiah 6, but Dr. Holt preaches it as a Christmas text because it reveals who it was that came down at Christmas. The wonder of the incarnation is measured by the height of the throne: the One before whom seraphim hide their faces laid aside His divine prerogatives and was born in a lowly estate, wrapped in swaddling clothes. Only when we see Jesus high and lifted up can we rightly marvel that He would descend so low — from a throne to a manger — on a rescue mission for sinners.
It is the response of a cleansed sinner to a sending God. Notice the order: Isaiah is undone, then purged, then commissioned — grace precedes service. When the Lord asks, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Isaiah, weak and fallen and knowing it, raises his hand: “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8). Dr. Holt applies the question to the year ahead: who will visit the widow, pray for their children, serve the local church, and share the gospel with the neighbor far from God? God does not ask who is ready; He asks who is willing. That willingness, Holt says, is the true Christmas spirit.
1. The Babe of Bethlehem Reigns from a Throne
The sermon opens with a diagnosis: the world winnows Jesus down to the attributes it enjoys. A baby is approachable — a baby can be held, makes no demands, and will not exert its will over us — so even a secular culture gathers happily at the manger. But Dr. Holt insists that the very same child who came wrapped in swaddling clothes even now occupies a throne. The Lamb who was led to the slaughter will return as the Lion of Judah. We must not bifurcate Jesus: the tender infant and the enthroned King are one person, and Reformed theology has always confessed His present session — Christ reigning now in glory, exercising His kingly office over all He has made. The question the sermon presses on every hearer is which Jesus we find easiest to embrace. It is easy to come to the manger; it is another thing entirely to come to the throne. Christmas, rightly kept, holds both together — the gentleness of the incarnation and the authority of the King who came.
2. Isaiah Saw the Glory of the Preincarnate Christ
How do we know the King on the throne in Isaiah 6 is Jesus? The apostle John tells us. Reflecting on Israel’s unbelief, John cites Isaiah’s vision and concludes, “These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him” (John 12:41) — and the Him is Christ. Around 740 BC, in the year King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Son enthroned, His robe filling the temple, seraphim — the “burning ones” — shielding their eyes from His radiance. John himself had known Jesus in the flesh, had leaned on Him and walked with Him, and yet John understood that this same Jesus is the One high and lifted up. Even the plural of verse 8 — “who will go for Us?” — hints at the Trinity, one God in three persons. Dr. Holt draws the conclusion that makes Christmas astonishing: the most amazing thing about the Christmas narrative is the condescension — that this One would lay aside His divine prerogatives and go from a throne to a manger.
3. A Thrice-Holy God Undoes Every Sinner
Isaiah was as righteous a man as walked the earth in his age, yet in the throne room he fell down as a dead man: “Woe is me, for I am undone!” Dr. Holt contrasts the prophet’s collapse with modern presumption — he recalls a frustrated man who told him he intended to march into heaven and critique God to His face. It cannot work that way if God is holy and we are sinful. Our age has deflated the word holy of any real meaning, reducing God to a genie behind the glass, consulted only when trauma strikes. The Hebrew repetition — “Holy, holy, holy” — declares His holiness in the superlative: God cannot endure the stain of a single sin in His presence. This is the gospel’s bad news, which Reformed theology refuses to soften: the wages of sin — singular — is death, and one sin was enough to plunge the whole created realm into chaos. Until we stand where Isaiah stood, Christmas remains tinsel; once we do, the manger becomes a rescue mission.
4. The Coal from the Altar: Sin Purged, Righteousness Imputed
God would have been perfectly just to crush Isaiah. Instead, a seraph flies to him with a live coal taken from the altar: “Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged” (Isaiah 6:7). Dr. Holt reads this as a symbolic picture of atonement. God does not shelve sin in some heavenly coat closet and forget about it; He deals with it — at the place of sacrifice. And the only means possible for the payment of our sin was born in a manger in Bethlehem. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us: at Calvary our sin was placed upon Him and His righteousness was imputed to us — the double exchange at the heart of the Reformed doctrine of justification. We bring nothing to the throne; we cling to the cross, trusting in the person and work of the One who hung upon it. Simple? In a sense, yes — but consider the cost. Our sin is so heinous that nothing less than the blood of God’s only begotten Son could redeem us. Christmas rejoices in the way God dealt with sin.
5. Revelation Demands a Response: Here Am I, Send Me
A Christmas Carol is a morality tale: Scrooge softens, and we resolve to be more charitable. Dr. Holt warns that we can treat the nativity the same way — a gentle story that means no more to us than the tinsel on the tree. But the Bible does something categorically different: it puts people to the point of decision. Having revealed His glory, God asks, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” — and Isaiah’s trembling hand goes up: “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8). The order matters: Isaiah is cleansed before he is commissioned, for grace always precedes obedience in the gospel sequence. Holt presses the question into the coming year: who will go to the widow, pray for their children, serve the local church, and carry the gospel to the neighbor living far from God? Isaiah was neither ready nor equipped, and he knew it — but God uses weak, fallen men and women as His ambassadors. God does not ask who is ready; He asks who is willing. That willingness is the true Christmas spirit.
About The Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt serves as the third President of New Geneva Theological Seminary (Colorado Springs, CO), founded 1993. An expository preacher with over 1.9 million sermon downloads on SermonAudio.com, Dr. Holt brings over 17 years of pastoral experience to his verse-by-verse Bible teaching. New Geneva offers fully online, Westminster Confessional theological education — M.Div., Th.M., D.Min., and other degrees.
Summary. Dr. Toby Holt preaches Isaiah 6:1–8 as a Christmas sermon, showing that the child the world adores in the manger is the same Lord Isaiah saw enthroned, high and lifted up, while seraphim cried “Holy, holy, holy.” Citing John 12:41, he identifies the King on the throne as Christ Himself, whose glory Isaiah saw seven centuries before Bethlehem. Isaiah’s cry of “Woe is me” exposes how a thrice-holy God undoes every sinner, and the live coal from the altar pictures the purging of sin that Christ’s incarnation and death accomplish. The sermon closes with God’s question — “Whom shall I send?” — pressing hearers past Christmas sentiment to worship, decision, and willing service.
The King of Christmas
The general rule babies are not threatening and when we look upon an infant when we look upon a small child we're not threatened by the child we're encouraged by the child and at Christmas time that's why even a secular world finds it easy to approach the major with that said a mistake that we can make at Christmas time is to forget that the very same child who came to us in a manger who came to us wrapped in swaddling clothes who came to us gentle and mild this very same child that occupying a major even now what does he occupy, a throne. Even now he occupies the throne. It's easy to forget that the same Jesus who appeared is this lamb, is this lamb that was laid to the slaughter, who did not open his mouth. That this Jesus who appeared as a lamb, he'll return as what? As a lion, as a lion of Judah. See, our world likes to take Jesus this time of year and winnow down those attributes to those things that they like, to those things they find relatable, to those things they enjoy, to those things that do not threaten them. At the same time, take everything else and put it aside. The world does not mind Jesus the mild. The world does not mind Jesus the babe. The world does not mind Jesus the tender.
What the world does mind is this, Jesus the king. Why is that? Because a king has the authority to tell you how to live. A king reigns and rules over those that he has made. A baby we can approach easily because a baby we can hold. A baby doesn't threaten us. A baby will not exert its will over us. A baby doesn't tell us how we're supposed to live and what we're supposed to do. A king does.
And that's why even the secular world has no trouble celebrating Christmas and even enjoying this picture of the manger, even enjoying tender Jesus. But Jesus is the king? That's not something they're as quick to embrace, as quick to run to. How about you? How about you this Christmas season? Which Jesus throughout the year do you find it easiest to embrace? Do you find it easy to come to the manger but difficult to come to the throne?
What is your approach to this Jesus? I can tell you with certainty the legacy of North American Christmas is to compartmentalize Jesus just to the major. Well, in today's passage, in this passage, the prophet Isaiah, He encountered the very same Jesus that the shepherds would encounter later. He encountered the very same Jesus. It's not a different Jesus.
Continue reading the full transcript 23-minute read · 8 sections · every section links back to the audio
The Child the World Will Tolerate
And yet he had a very different reaction than that which the shepherds would have all those centuries later. On this occasion, Isaiah chapter 6, on this occasion, over seven centuries before Christ's birth, when Isaiah, this righteous man, came into the presence of the same Jesus were adoring at Christmas time, when he came into his presence, he did not coo, he did not giggle before the throne. As one might around a baby and said, he said three words, woe is me. Why is that? Why is that? Well, that's what we're going to look to come to terms with today. Our object as we enter into the rest of the Christmas season is to start with an understanding, a right understanding of who Jesus is through an Old Testament lens that we might to understand his power, his authority, his might, his reign and rule, that we might understand that properly so that we can appreciate what it means for this one to lay aside his divine prerogatives and be born in the humble estate of a manger. We're looking to understand who he is as king of kings, Lord of lords, that we might greater appreciate the incarnation, that he would ever take on the form of the most tender and the most mild, that he would go from a throne to a manger is the most amazing thing about the Christmas narrative. And this morning, that's our focus.
If you would, please look with me at verses 1 through 3 of today's passage. Verse 1 says this. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. And above it stood seraphim, each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory. All right, in verse 1 of today's text, Isaiah is telling us of an encounter. It happened in real time, in a real space. He's telling us of an encounter that he had in the year that King Uzziah died. This would have been roughly around 740 B. C., towards the start of Isaiah's ministry. And at this time, Isaiah has this vision. And in the vision, he's in the throne room, in the throne room of God.
He sees Christ high and lifted up, the train of his robes filling the temple. These angels these mighty seraphim being so powerful in of themselves that they'll have a blinding effect anytime angels appear in Scripture people fall down the angels have to say don't be afraid well here it's the angels that are covering their eyes in the presence of this one and the presence of the one sitting on the throne as mighty as the angels and seraphim were seraphim means burning ones as mighty as they were they're shielding their eyes from the glory the radiance of the one on the throne.
And Isaiah, in a way we can't fully appreciate or even fathom, he's taking this all in. He sees this in a vision. He sees this one high and lifted up. Now let me ask you a question. How do we know that this is Jesus on the throne? Remember, we believe in the Trinity. We believe in one God, three persons. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Which one of those is on the throne?
Well, that question would be answered centuries later in the book of John. The Apostle John would say this with regards to what Isaiah saw all these centuries back, seven centuries earlier. John would say this in John 12. He'd say, although Christ, although he had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in him, that the word of Isaiah, the prophet, might be fulfilled. When he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore, he could not believe because Isaiah said again, He's blind with their eyes and hard in their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that should heal them. These things, these things Isaiah said when he saw his glory and spoke of him. John is looking
Matthew 2 and Luke 2 in Context
back here to Isaiah 6. John is remembering that time when Isaiah encountered Christ, because it's Christ who John is speaking of. And John says these things Isaiah saw when he saw his, capital h, his glory and spoke of him. It was Jesus Christ who Isaiah saw seated on the throne. It was Jesus Christ whose robe filled the temples. Jesus Christ through the angels covered their eyes before. It was Jesus Christ who Isaiah fell down dead before, or as a dead man saying, woe is me. That's the exposition of the apostle John. John is remembering that time. John had the benefit, the pleasure of interacting with Jesus in the flesh. John on many occasions had put his arm around Jesus, or Jesus had put his arm around John. John had this experience of the tender and mild, and yet John knew. John remembered. John read Isaiah and knew that the same one is also one who is high and lifted up. High and lifted up. Now at Christmas time, I'm going to ask you a question. At Christmas time, which is more relevant? Jesus the baby or Jesus the king? It's a trick question. The answer is both. They're both relevant. And that's the point of this morning's sermon. They're both relevant. You don't bifurcate Jesus. We need Jesus to be both divine and man. We need Jesus to both be a king and a humble servant. We need him to be these things. We need him to be born of divine stock. If he was anything less than that, if he was not divine, then he would not be a worthy sacrifice for you. If this Jesus was just a man of flesh and blood, even a nice man, even a great teacher, if that's all he was, then his death can't purchase you back from sin and death.
His death cannot purchase you back. If he's not divine, if all he was is a great and a wonderful teacher, rabbi, man, or what have you, then there's no way that his death can atone for your sins, and therefore you're still in your sins, if Jesus was not divine. At the same time, if he was not a man, if he did not live a complete and full and perfect life, if he did not fulfill all righteousness as he said he came to do, if he didn't do these things as a man, then he's not an acceptable substitute for you or me. He needed to be fully king, and he'd be fully divine, and he'd be fully man, there's a lot of theology baked into those two concepts.
But the point is, at Christmastime, we need to celebrate both. We need to remember both, bring to mind both. The babe in the manger and the one, as John read earlier, who comes down on the white horse with fire in his eyes because he is both. Let's look at verses 4 through 5. Verse 4, and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
So I said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips. And my eyes have seen the king. You know, I met with a man once, this was a few years ago, who he had a difficult time in the faith. In fact, I think he was on the outside of the faith looking in. And one day out of his frustrations, he told me that when he got to heaven, He was going to march right in.
He was going to march right into the throne room and tell God just what he thought about God, about what he had done, about choices God had made, about his own life, how things had worked out for him. He was going to school Jesus or school God was his plan. He said this in a fit of frustration. But nevertheless, he thought in that moment that one day he would come and he'd walk into the throne room and he'd critique God to his face for all the ways that he had let him down.
Now, does that man's expectation, even in that fleeting moment, does that man's expectation match up with what we see really happens when one walks into the throne room of God here in Isaiah 6? Well, not at all. Isaiah was as righteous a guy as there was.
Herod, Power, and the Threat of Christ
you and I, I trust, we're on the road to sanctification. I trust we're trying hard. I trust that God is at work within us to make us something better tomorrow than we are today. And yet we could try for some time and all of us probably are not quite there where Isaiah was. And yet Isaiah, as righteous a man as was walking the face of the earth and his age, and even Isaiah, when he came into God's presence, falls down as a dead man.
It says, woe is me, for I am undone. If that was true of Isaiah, how much more so is it true of you and I? We're not going to march into the throne room and tell God what we think about him. That's not the way that this works. It can't be if he's holy and we're sinful. We have reduced our understanding of what the word holy means. We've deflated it of any real meaning.
We've reduced our understanding. God, in our age, is some sort of weak, progressive, ethereal genie in a bottle. He's behind all those things, you know, in case of emergency, break glass. That's what we've done with God. Only when trauma or drama strikes our lives do we turn to him and trust in those moments he'll come and help us out on our terms. Prophet Isaiah, again, as righteous a man as there was, He came into the presence of God and he did not see a genie.
He did not see some sort of cosmic fuddy-duddy. He did not see an old wallflower. He saw the Lord high and lifted up. And when he saw God in all his majesty, in all his radiance, and he saw even the fiery ones, the angels covering their eyes in his presence, isaiah knew he brought nothing to the table. And so down he went, which is the most appropriate response you could have in those moments.
Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king. Isaiah recognized this. He recognized he had a problem. You know, part and parcel to the Christmas season is remembering what the Gospel is. If someone were to ask you, what is the Gospel, what would you say? Well, we regularly talk about it as having two components.
We say this. We say the Gospel has news for us. Now, the first news is bad news. The first news is this, that we have a problem and we are sinners. Now, why is that a problem? Well, it's a problem because the wages of sin is death. And it's not sin plural. It's sin singular. That's why in the garden it only took one sin before the entire created realm was thrust into chaos.
you and I, how many times have we sinned? Many times over. And there's our problem. We are sinners and the wages of sin is death. And yet the good news, if there's a problem, there's also a solution. If there's bad news, there's also good news. And the good news is this, is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were fallen, while we were doing what's wrong, while we were messing up, while we were living in all sorts of ways that were not according to God's will for us, while we were doing all of that, while we were prodigal sons and daughters doing all manner of wrong things, drinking down iniquity, while we were in the midst of that, Christ died for us.
He was born in a manger. He was born in a lowly estate. He took on our flesh. He lived a perfect life. And some 33 odd years later, He hung upon a cross. And in that moment, our sin was placed upon Him. And His righteousness was granted, imputed to us. And the way we're saved is simple. Nothing to the throne I bring, only to the cross I cling. We trust in the person and work of the one who hung upon the cross.
We know that even though we are not righteous and we can't work our way into heaven, it does not work that way.
The Baby Is Also the King
You can do a million years of otherwise good deeds that will not offset a single bad one. Yet while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. And on Calvary our sin was placed upon him, his righteousness was imputed to us, and all we must do is this, believe. Believe, have faith. Does it seem simple? In a sense, yes, it is. But consider the cost. Consider the cost. When your life was in danger, when you were in jeopardy, He did not hold back from you that which was most precious to himself, His only begotten son.
And our sin is so heinous that it could cost nothing less than the blood of Jesus Christ, His only son in Calvary, to redeem us. There's nothing else that would do it. That's how bad a thing sin is. But the good news is that we've been saved. When Isaiah, when he comes in, he acknowledges, he says, I have a problem. Woe is me. He's acknowledging the first part. He's acknowledging that he has a problem.
He's acknowledging that we all have a problem. Woe is me. But in that moment, did God crush him as he could have, as he would have been totally just and righteous to do? Did God crush him? No. Did God just crush him and blow the smoke and the ashes of Isaiah out into the courtyard? No. Look with me at verses 6 and 7 to see how God responded after Isaiah acknowledges his problem, acknowledges his guilt.
Verse 6, then one of the seraphim flew to me, having his hand alive, Cole, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and he said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged. If God is holy, he cannot stand the stain of a single sin in his presence. If he's holy, he can't. If you think he can, then you're deflating the word holiness of any meaning.
If he's holy, holy, holy, which is what the angel said, if he's holy, holy, holy, thrice holy, which in Hebrew the repetition means it's just through the rough holiness. If he's thrice holy, he cannot endure the stain of a single sin in his presence. If God is just, furthermore, he has to deal with sin, and the wages of sin is death. Again, that's our problem. And yet in verses 6 and 7, we see the symbolic action that represents the purging and the removal of sin, which Isaiah needed and which you and I needed.
you and I are not going to march into the throne room as sinners thinking everything's going to work out all right. It won't. We need our sin removed. Or we can even set our foot across the threshold. We need our sin removed. In verses 6 and 7, that's what happened. But notice here that Isaiah's iniquity, God didn't just say, well, we'll take the sin and we'll put it into the coat closet in heaven, kind of forget about it for a bit.
No, that's not what he does. He has to deal with it. And at Christmas, we're rejoicing over the way he dealt with it. We're rejoicing that the only means possible for the payment of our sin was born in a manger in the city of Bethlehem. While we were yet sinners, out of his love and compassion for us, while you and I were standing on the train tracks of his wrath, while this was our estate, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
God was not content to leave us on the tracks, but he sent his son in our moment of need to redeem us, to pay our debts. Because a debt was due. A man has sinned. A man must die. And on Calvary, that's just what happened. Jesus came on a rescue mission and he completed it.
Receiving or Resisting His Reign
Let's look at our final verse, verse 8. Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who shall go for us? That's a reference to the Trinity. You ever wonder where you get the doctrine of the Trinity from? Well, this is one of these references. Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? That's not a revelation about just the courtroom of heaven and all the angels nearby.
This is speaking to the Trinity. Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Then I said, and this is Isaiah speaking, then I said, Here am I. Send me. You know, a lot of us are familiar with the classic story of Charles Dickens' The Christmas Carol. A lot of us enjoy that. It's a tradition. We read it or we watch it each year. Now, you could argue that The Christmas Carol, you think about Charles Dickens, you think Ebenezer Scrooge and the angels of Christmas past, future present, sideways and so forth.
As these angels come into the picture, as all this happens, you could argue that what this is is a morality tale. It's a morality tale. You've got Ebenezer Scrooge and one minute he's mean and crusty and he's Scrooge-like and he's got greed and avarice and the like. And over time, over time, something happens, something changes and he becomes filled with mercy and charity. And we can look at that and stand back and go, oh, I guess I should be charitable too.
I guess I should be kind and less like Scrooge and the like. And we can take that away from Ebenezer Scrooge. We can take that away from the Christmas carol. With that said, we can do the same thing with the biblical narrative of Jesus and the manger. We can look at it as just a morality tale. And we can see just a gentle Jesus. And we can hear abstract things about sacrifice.
And it doesn't mean much more to us than the tinsel does on the tree. Again, I think that's the legacy of North American Christmas. Deflated of its meaning. With that said, the Bible puts people to the point of a decision. You won't be put to the point of a decision when you watch a Christmas carol this next week. The Bible will put you there. God put Isaiah there. Who will I send?
Who will respond? Who will go for us? Scripture puts us to the point of a decision. God revealed his glory to Isaiah. He revealed to Isaiah something about his attributes, his characteristics. Isaiah came to the throne room. He learned something about God in that moment. And then the question was this, what was he going to do about it? I tell you, that is front and center before us this Christmas season too.
The Christmas narrative is not just about being comforted. I hope it comforts us and should, but it should also prompt a response. If it doesn't, something's wrong. Whom shall I send? God reveals his characteristics, his attributes to Isaiah, and then asks him squarely this, who shall I send? Who will go for us? And in the midst of that mighty throne room, fiery angels all flying around, six wings and the like, isaiah's trembling hand goes up.
It says, here am I. Send me. Isaiah knew he was weak. That's why he lay down, fell down. Isaiah knew he was weak. He knew he was a fallen man. But he also knew that God uses fallen, weak men and women. God uses people just like you and I to be his ambassadors into a hurting world. And to tell them not just about a cute baby, but to tell them about a Savior.
And the reason we need a Savior is because we have something we need to be saved from. Isaiah, in his life, in his ministry, he took that message out. Here I am. Send me. Now, I know there's a new year just around the corner. I'll close with this observation.
Pastoral Application
There's a new year coming around the corner. For some of us, it can't come fast enough. For some of us, as we look back at this past year, this past year was bad enough and nightmarish enough that we can't wait for the page to turn. For some of us, even now, it's a blue Christmas, so to speak. Whatever the case is, good, bad, above the tinsel, above the Christmas lights, above some of the distractions, God will put you and I to a point of decision as we encounter the Christmas narrative time and again over the next week and a half.
He'll put us to a point of a decision. He'll say, who shall I send? This upcoming year, who's going to go to the widow? This upcoming year, who's going to pray for one's children? This upcoming year, who's going to serve the local church? This upcoming year, who's going to serve the poor and the needy, the destitute? This upcoming year, who is going to share the Gospel with a guy down the street who's living as an absolute heathen?
Who is going to go and do that? Who shall I send? Who will take the hope and the promise of this Christmas season, that which we rightly esteem? Who will take this hope and promise and translate it into an actual response in 2020?
Christ, Grace, and the Closing Exhortation
Who will hear the words, who shall I send? And say, me. Here I am, send me. You know, in many ways, Isaiah was not equipped for that task. He knew it. In many ways, Isaiah was not ready for that task. And he knew it. In the midst of your hurts and your pains and your circumstances, you might think you're not ready either. But here's the thing. God doesn't ask who's ready. He asks who's willing.
Who's willing? Are you willing to be sent this Christmas season, this week? In 2020, the year yet to come, are you willing to be sent to a darkened world with the Gospel of light, into a hurting world with the Gospel of hope? In the midst of your present difficulties, are you willing to raise your hand in the air and say, here I am, send me? If so, that's the Christmas Spirit. That's the exact Christmas Spirit that God is looking for this day and which our darkened world sorely needs.
Let's pray.
More in The Gospel Of Luke
Continue the verse-by-verse series.
