Sermon for Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, 2026, from Isaiah 55:10-13
Pastor Peter Ziebell
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
The text for our sermon today is Isaiah 55:10-13, our First Reading read before.
10“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
12“For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
Lord God, heavenly Father, sanctify us through Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ,
Our text today follows the well-known “Suffering Servant” passages in Isaiah 53-54. The “Suffering Servant” passages conclude in Isaiah 53, but Isaiah 54 and 55 represent the direct result and celebration of the Servant’s suffering. Because the Servant has paid the price for sin, God can now offer unconditional restoration and a universal invitation to humanity. How does He make this offer? We find the answer in the words of our text.
From our Gospel last Sunday, we heard Jesus issue an invitation to “all you who are weary and burdened” (Matthew 11:28) to come to Him for rest. Those who acknowledge their sinfulness and realise that it is a burden too heavy for them to bear, that this load will drag them down to hell if they must bear it by themselves—they are the ones to whom Jesus promises rest. And this rest is His free gift.
This is the same invitation given through Isaiah today. Earlier, at the beginning of Isaiah 55, is the invitation of the LORD to “Come, everyone who thirsts… Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price… eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food… Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live” (1-3). As Jesus issued His invitation to all, so God the Father issues His invitation to every human. The people of Israel to whom the prophet Isaiah was speaking were thirsty and hungry, with no money to buy food and drink. They were helpless to help themselves, and unable to produce that which would please the LORD. Now the LORD tells them no money is needed, and no one will be turned away. The LORD provides everything. But not only the Israelites. We, too, need to hear this invitation! Cursed by the fall into sin, we are now those who are conceived in sin, so that we come forth in iniquity and are able to do no good thing that is pleasing in God’s sight. Our sinful spiritual condition is like the desert: dead and dry, badly in need of something to give us life. Sin and death make us weary of life here and thirsty for God’s blessings. The Apostle Paul writes how “the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” Then he simply states, “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21). Paul is not speaking of individual lapses into sin that the Christian repents of and receives forgiveness for, but is speaking of a pattern, a consistent and persistent lifestyle. The original Greek makes that plain. Literally, Paul says, “Those continuing to do things of that sort will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
When Isaiah speaks of “thorns” and “briers,” he is painting a poetic picture of this bleak world of sorrow, pain, sin, and death. This world is quickly filling up with the results of mankind’s fall into sin, and left to itself, it has no rosy future but only eternal pain and suffering. As Paul asks, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24).
Thanks be to God, for He hears this question and makes contact with sinners through His prophet Isaiah, supplying the answer to all life’s problems. How so? Through the Word. Reaching out to the crown of His creation, God says, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and… water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth.”
The Word comes down from heaven and goes forth to accomplish the gracious plan of Almighty God. This is true of Scripture and pertains pre-eminently to the Word incarnate, Jesus Christ. He is the eternal Word and God, the agent of creation[1] who became flesh[2] to reveal the unseen God, “The only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, has made Him known” (John 1:18).
Jesus is the Word sent down from heaven to be the bread of life for the world.
And so the LORD God sends the Word down from heaven to “water the earth.” He sends His Son, that is, the Word of God Incarnate, who takes on flesh and blood to come down and water the earth. And water the earth, He does.
The only-begotten Son of God, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, so that He might bring life and immortality to all, came down from heaven, was incarnate of the virgin Mary, and was made man. He who was in the beginning the Word of God took on flesh so that He could be crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, die on the cross to atone for our sins, and water the earth with His precious blood. When the Son of God hung on the cross, having there suffered hell, He was pierced by the sword, and from His side water and blood poured forth to “water the earth.”
As the Word of God Incarnate, Jesus Christ, hung there on the cross, He certainly didn’t appear to be powerful. He appeared to be defeated and powerless. So those who scoffed at Him were confirmed in their suspicion, while those who had followed Him were tempted to despair. It appeared that the Word of God was powerless.
But then, in glorious victory, like a sprout shooting forth from the ground, the crucified and dead Jesus rose from the dead to burst forth from the ground alive and well. That which was sown perishable and in great weakness and dishonour, appearing to have no power at all over sin and death, is raised in glory and power and honour, immortal and imperishable, as the victorious Word of God, whose death only served to conquer death, but whose life now serves to give life to the world!
So, where does the Lord continue to give this life-giving moisture today? I mean, the Lord Jesus has long since ascended to the right hand of the Father. From where does the heavenly moisture that gives life to this world continue to come? Where are we to look when we are dry and despairing, unable to help ourselves?
Like the rest of the world, we are “unable by our own reason or strength to believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called us by the Gospel” (see SC, Third Article). The Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Gospel, calls us out of the darkness of our sin to live in the light of the glory of God. The cross may be foolishness to those who continue on in their sin and death, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). The death and resurrection of Jesus on behalf of sinners is the Gospel, which is “the power of salvation for all who believe” (Rom. 1:16) and for all who will live victorious with Jesus in the land of the living.
So just as surely as Jesus Himself came down from heaven to water the earth with His own blood, so now does the preaching of Jesus serve to deliver the benefits of His blood to those who hear and believe. And just as surely as “the rain and the snow come down from heaven”and serve to “water the earth,” does the Word of the cross and the empty tomb now serve to give life to the world. This is the promise given by the prophet. It is given to us to know and to trust, so that we may be certain that the Word of God will always work. “So shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Dear friends, no matter the setting or how bleak the situation, the death and resurrection of Jesus reveal that the Word will accomplish the Lord’s purposes and will succeed in bringing life to the world. This world is full of sin and death. The curse of the fall still hovers over us, causing us to be born in sin and to commit sin. We are all born sinful and unclean and are unable to do any good thing. We would be lost forever unless delivered from sin, death, and everlasting condemnation. But the Father of all mercy and grace has sent forth His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who took on flesh to dwell among us. Though His death appeared to be the end, it has now become the source of life, so that His glorious resurrection is the proof that He has overcome the curse and brought life and immortality to light. The gospel holds out joy for sinners and brings peace. God wishes to fill the heart of the sinner with joy and peace, and both come from the Word—peace with God through Christ and joy in the redemption Christ has accomplished. As this Word of promise comes from God and enters the human heart, it accomplishes God’s purpose and imparts joy and peace. When Isaiah writes, “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace,” his promise is nothing else than gospel. At first, he may have in mind the exodus of God’s people from Egypt, and certainly he also points to the return of the remnant from the Babylonian captivity, but those exoduses, as joyful and exciting as they were for the people of God, are nothing compared with the final exodus. All God’s saints will leave the bondage of sin and death. They will be led to the Jerusalem above. In a single picture, the prophet unites both the return from Babylon and the final deliverance.
So it is. Anyone hearing the gospel longs for the eternal mansions of heaven. The overwhelming joy of God’s people as they experience God’s deliverance will be transformed. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” These words do not refer to literal and physical events. Instead, they paint poetic pictures of the final deliverance of God’s people from this bleak world of sorrow, pain, sin, and death.
There is now no doubt. It is the Word of the LORD that accomplishes His purposes. Jesus Christ has succeeded in the thing for which He was sent. Now, He continues to send His Word down from heaven to water the earth, and, by His own Spirit, He uses His Word to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole Christian Church on earth, so that sinners would be saved and the dead, dry desert of this world would be filled with life. May the Word of God continue to grant this to us all. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] John 1:1-3
[2] John 1:14