Sunday, April 29, 2012

Blessed Assurance


Focus: Love as an act of holiness
Function: To help people understand the importance of loving and forgiving.
Form: Bible Study

Intro:
Did you ever leave a conversation and then remember that you forgot to tell the other person the most important thing?
I want to tell a story about that in the sermon this morning. Today again, we are doing a Bible study.
This lesson plays on the back of last weeks. Last week we looked at the nature of holiness -we are people set apart from this world to point people to Jesus.
We saw that purity is a subset of holiness.
And because we still fail, we asked the question about doubt: we believe in an ideal that we do not measure up to.
How do we know we are saved?
Last week, it was because God said so, not us.
Today, we are going to see two tests to see if we are believers.
How do we know we are saved? How do we know for certain that we belong to God?
So let us start with the Bible study:
Verse ten begins with the theme of holiness again. We are separate. However, the focus is changed. We are separate from Evil. We are separate from the Evil one. We have chosen to serve the living God.
Of course, we know we are separate from Evil. I believe that regardless of whether or not someone is Christian, they believe that they too are separate from the Evil one.
Some people imply that if we are not serving the living God, then by default, we are serving Satan.
But the Bible tells us that there are many things that we can devote ourselves to: we can serve ourselves (1), we can serve money (2), we can serve some idol (3) (which, the Bible says is also serving in the Devil's kingdom) or we can serve God.
Who do we serve? Ourselves? God? An Idol? A false God? The Evil one?
After introducing the idea that we some serve a false God in verse 10, John tells us how we know if we are serving God or not.
And it is simple. If you get nothing else from this message, get this: We can know that we are Christians by the fact that we love others.
Repeat. We can know that we are Christians by the fact that we love others.
But I am not ready to stop with the study because loving others is more than being in love with someone. The passage spells out specifics of what it means to love others.
So, if you want assurance of your salvation? Then give yourself the “love” test.
I think everybody loves something, or someone.
I don't know anybody that doesn't love somebody else in some way.
Does that mean they get an automatic pass?
After all, later on in the book, John will say: God is love. (4:8) But some people get this backward and say: “Since God is love, then Love is God.”
Is the description of an evil person then: “People those who love only themselves?”
I knew a man who might have come close to being a person who loved only himself.
I am going to tell a sad story.
The truly sad part of the story is what his preacher didn't tell him.
My uncle who was nothing more than a mean drunk. He died in his 50's from an overdose of alcohol.
He beat his wife and terrorized his kids.
And I don't know if I have ever attended a sadder funeral.
Well, it was sad for those of us who believe that God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, changes the lives of Christians.
The preacher, who probably didn't believe in any form of judgment after this life, tried to preach my uncle into heaven.
He twisted this very passage of scripture.
This passage says: if we believe and have love for one another, we have love for God. It then says that knowing those two things gives us assurance when the doubts come.
Apparently the preacher knew my uncle pretty well. He used this passage of scripture to try to make a case for his ultimate salvation based on his good deeds of loving...
...his sermon tried to say that if the man was loving, he was saved...
...the problem was, he needed to find something, or someone who felt like his love was given freely to them.
He couldn't.
It was pathetic the way he had to stretch.
So, of all things, his sermon centered around my uncle's love for football.
The preacher said, “The coaches told me that they had to draw straws to see who would face the wrath of my uncle after a football game, especially if we lost.” The preacher went on to say: “his was big and intimidating and someone had to face him at the end of every game...”
Isn't this ridiculous? The preacher is trying to build a case for this man's loving nature and he introduces it by telling everyone just how scared the football coaches were of him?
Football coaches? Those guys win by being tough and generally are not afraid of anything.
So, the preacher went on, my uncle loved football. And everyone who loves is a child of God.
This whole sermon was particularly sad for my missionary -saint of a grandmother- who got saved as a teenager and saw her life turned around by God.
The preacher couldn't point to one person who was a recipient of my uncle's love. The only thing he could point to was his love for a game.
I watched my grandma, and my mom, just hang their heads and weep that this was the best thing that anyone could say about her son, my mom's brother and my uncle.
I got permission from mom to share this story. I don't want to be accused of “the pastor is sharing about his family instead of teaching us the Word.” But you have to understand that the sermon is the lesson explained as it is lived out in the life of the preacher.
I can't separate this passage from that experience because it reminds me of just how important the sermon is.
That preacher was a day late and woefully short of doing his duty to my uncle. Maybe there was some faith, some goodness in my uncle that God saw. God is the judge, not me.
And it isn't the preacher's fault that my uncle choose to be so selfish with his life. Every person gives their own account of themselves before God.
But I made up my mind to tell the truth.
I wish that the preacher had been faithful to the true meaning of this passage.
I wish that preacher had gotten into the face of my uncle and told him that because he was living his life only for himself, he was not God's Child.
After he died, Grandma prayed every night: “Lord, have mercy on his soul.”
Look again at verse 14: 14We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death.
So what does love mean? What did that preacher fail to communicate to my uncle?
Our lesson points it out. There are two things.
First: Love means forgiveness of others. If we do not forgive, we are not loving.
If you refuse to forgive someone, then you are guilty of hating them.
Verse 15: 15All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them.
Do you want to know you are saved? Then know that you are living in forgiveness.
And yes, you may say to yourself, or to me: But you do not know the harm that person has done to me. I have a right to my hatred.
I worked with a woman's shelter in Indianapolis. It was a home for victims. And the first thing the director lead them to was forgiveness.
These women were being asked to forgive for things that I can't imagine. The director, who had many years of experience, knew that the path to wholeness in their lives meant forgiveness.
That does not mean they didn't allow the justice system to do its work on their behalf. That didn't mean that had to feel affection toward their abuser.
But her principle for forgiveness is based on verse 16: 16We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.
The director explained to them God is the one who does revenge, and since God forgave those who killed His own son, we should do likewise.
Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die.
It isn't easy. The world hates our standard of forgiveness. Vs 13: 13Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you.
They hate it because they do not understand Jesus' gift for us.
I wish that preacher had gotten into my uncles face and said, “That love thing? God meant that!”
So, the first test of love if forgiveness.
The second test of love is Charity.
Do we actually do charity?
This passage speaks of charity to the point of sacrifice.
What is Charity?
Let me tell you what it isn't:
I pastored in a small town.
Every month, the “Christian Layman's Breakfast” was held to raise money for the poor travelers who happened into the town. My church was next to the interstate, so I was the one who distributed most of the money.
One night, I gave money to a man with a family for a night's lodging in the local hotel. The president of the Christian Layman's Breakfast club got angry with me. He said: The purpose of this money is to get them out of town so that we do not have to deal with them. We need to get them out of our hair.
Does that sound like Charity? Give them just enough money to get rid of them so that we do not have to deal with them? No, it isn't
Then he called the police with the hope that the man had some sort or record.
Look at verse 17: 17How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
That question is rhetorical. It assumes that the reader is smart enough to know that the love of God is not abiding in that kind of person.
Charity is our responsibility as Christians.
I wish that preacher had told my uncle that his eternal soul rested on his faith AND HIS LOVE FOR OTHERS.
But he didn't. Instead, he lied and told us that because the man loved football, he must have been righteous.
I wish I was making that up.
But this is serious stuff.
And I don't mean to leave you offended with that preacher. I have forgiven him. Honestly, I have. However, I am not going to forget because this message means life and death for the one who hears it.
So, that is the heavy part of this bible study.
Let us cheer up and look at the blessings promised through love.
There are some sweet promises attached with this passage.
The first one is that we have a very good defense against the shame that the Devil would bring on us.
We sing that song, they will know we are Christians by our love.
The fact that they will know us by our love come straight from Jesus' words. (John 13:34-35) Jesus told us that our salvation will be proven to other by our love for others.
Which is what John the apostle reminds people of again in this letter.
In this letter, John, takes another angle to those words of Jesus. John says that we will also be able to prove it to ourselves.
I know you all. I don't know anyone who fails these tests of love. You have heard that word spoken for generations here in this Church.
Apparently, no preacher here has shied away from it.
But it is important that we keep on asking ourselves those love test questions.
I believe that most often we will find that we do pass.
So look at the blessings.
Verse 20, 20whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
Our relationship with God is real and personal. Not only are we able to take the test and give ourselves a passing grade. At the same time, God, by the Holy Spirit speaks this same truth to us.
God speaks to our hearts.
We are going to take the bread and the cup in a few minutes.
The Bible tells us that every time we do it, we are to examine our hearts.
I pray this, silently: “God, is there anyone I need to forgive? God, is there any sin that I am hanging on to? God, is there a chance for me to do charity that I am refusing because I am selfish?”
I pray that “Love test.”
And you know what? Almost every time, God reveals something to me. I am reminded of something that I need to clear up. And I do, during those moments of silence before I partake of the ordinance.
That is what he is talking about when he speaks of God speaking directly to our hearts.
It is a mystical thing.
It is addressed in versus 23-24. The mystical presence in our hearts for everyone who believes in Jesus. God speaks with us.
So, when this love thing is practiced, honestly between us and God. We have the benefit of a real, loving and personal relationship with God.
Oftentimes, when people come to me and tell me that God seems way to distant and they have doubts, I try to get to the question of love for others. I try to get to the question of whether or not they are hanging on to bitterness. I try to get the question of forgiveness.
Love, Charity and forgiveness is the path to a deep and meaningful relationship with the living God.
So, there is a final promise: Verse 22: 22and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
These are serious words. And when we follow them, we have peace in our hearts. We believe in Jesus, we are forgiven


Sunday, April 22, 2012


Focus: Holy Living
Function: to encourage people to reflect Jesus in their lifestyle.
Form: Bible Study

Intro:
Bible Study!
Let me introduce the theme. My favorite musical is The Music Man. Robert Preston plays Professor Harold Hill. Buddy Hackett plays Prof Hill's squirrelly sidekick, Marcellus Washburn. He has this high pitched nasal voice that almost squeaks. Listening to it long enough could get annoying.
In the scene where they are trying to create the need for a boy's band, right before the song “Trouble in River City,” they are in the High School auditorium and Marcellus is running around behind the bleachers at different locations crying out the words: “Pure boys.”
Prof Hill as created a dilemma over the boys playing pool instead of Billiards, buckling their nickers below their knees are saying words like “Swell.”
The townsfolk get all upset because they are afraid they are losing the purity of their boys.
Purity. Holiness. Sinlessness. Reflecting God's image. That is the nature of today's scripture. (ASK) When you hear the word Holy, or Holiness, what do think of?
Holiness literally means “set apart for God.” In this passage, it means that we are living like we are actually the children of God.
A component of Holiness is purity, but purity is not always holiness. This passage speaks of both.
We are all called to Holiness.
Different Christians have often held different standards of holiness. Striving to be holy can lead to silly rules that somehow become a code as to who is in and who is out. I had a deacon once who believed that Christian men should never wear short pants.
His mother in law was really offended when I got the chance to lead a biker dude to the Lord. The man showed up for Church in his finest clothes, and it was a great set of leather, complete with rivets and spikes. She was alarmed until I pointed out to her that he did, in his attempt to honor the Lord, wear his best.
We need to be holy, separate, set apart fro God, but not legalistic.
The end result of all this is that somehow holiness all of a sudden becomes a code, a sort of list of rules, both written and unwritten that proved whether or not one was truly in the faith. And to do it, sometimes scriptures are taken out of context. It can be abuse of scripture.
So what does the Bible mean when it is talking about us being holy, or pure?
The meaning of holiness was debated even around the controversy of Jesus and John the Baptist.
John the Baptist and Jesus who had completely different takes on holiness. (Matthew 11:18-19) They never argued about it, but others did. John the Baptist adopted a code of holiness that centered around the things he abstained from. He didn't use any alcohol, he was vegetarian in the sense that his only meat was wild locusts, probably grasshoppers and he wore very simple clothes.
They rejected him for living so simply.
Jesus, on the other hand, went to their parties, befriended sinners and drank wine with them at their parties. They accused him of being a winebibber.
Holiness, purity, what does it mean?
This passage addresses it.
And other questions need to be asked as well.
Because of the sexual revolution in the 60's do we reject the concept of purity?
How can we live holy lives in this culture with all of its vulgarity?
We are bombarded with obscene and profane images and ideas all the time.
Yet this passage is a call to holiness.
I like the wristband that people wore in the 90's: WWJD. Holiness could be lived out if in every situation, we stopped and asked ourselves the question, What Would Jesus Do?
It is important.
This passage emphasizes grace but at the same time it includes two sticky verses about holiness that seem, in the surface to disagree. I want to unwrap that with a little Bible study.
This passage calls us to live separate and pure lives, because we are now called the Children of God.
And all of these worldly influences affect affect the sense of our salvation. Sometimes they give us doubts.
Sometimes we gaze upon another person in an inappropriate manner. Sometimes we refuse to forgive. Sometimes we take our own revenge, or worse, we gloat when someone we don't like, or are jealous of, has a setback.
We are not yet perfect and we know it, and it leads to doubts. This passage of scripture seems to say that once we are believers, we have stopped sinning. It leads to doubt.
Listen to these words from one of my favorite commentators:
In the family of God
One of the greatest problems facing believers these days is a lack of assurance (of their salvation). Scratch a believer and you will find someone unsure of their salvation. The reason for this lack of assurance is often related to our clumsy attempts to confirm our salvation by means of our personal piety. We work at proving our standing with God on the basis of our goodness, but every day we fail miserably and so find our standing undermined.
Take note of John's point. God's love is beyond calculation, for not only does he call us his children, he makes us his children.... ...No matter how great are our weaknesses or failings, they can't get in the way of God's gracious love for us. Jesus has taken away our sins and we are his forever.”
In the middle of, we are now pure and holy, he God reminds us that no matter what, we are His forever!
Let us read Verses 4 and 6: 4Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness... ...6No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.
Wow. When we read those words, we can see what the commentator was talking about when he says, I will paraphrase it “if you scratch below the surface of almost any Christian, you are going to find at some point a doubt that they are actually saved.”
No one who abides in him sins.”
Those words can make us afraid, and we will get to them, and a bit of study as to what was originally written in the Greek, when it was first written down, in a minute.
But before we go there, let us look at context.
Verse 1) See what Great love God has given us.
He calls us His Children. We are set apart. That is the first part of holiness, it all comes from this understanding. That is why it goes on to say that those who are not yet in God's family do not understand why we live our lives the way we live them.
For example. Those who love God and are part of His family love forgiveness.
When 60 minutes did a special on a missionary couple who were kidnapped right after 9/11, the husband eventually murdered and the wife eventually rescued by the Navy Seals, one of the people in that room took great offense to my reaction.
The missionary woman only agreed to do the interview if she was allowed to tell the audience what her faith in Christ meant to her. When she explained her faith, she did it by showing a picture of one of her abductors whom “she prayed for every day.” It was stuck to her refrigerator with a magnet.
She was allowed to tell how she forgave this man.
One of the people in the room was offended at her, and me for supporting her, because she forgave him.
After they played that segment, the interviewed a psychologist who called it “The Patty Hearst Syndrome.” My friend, and the people producing 60 minutes could not understand what it means for us as Christians to offer unconditional forgiveness to our enemies.
But the passage says that we are God's Children. Because of that, we react differently to everything. We even go beyond the question, “What Would Jesus do?”
So, verse 1, we are the Children of God. Verse 2, what that means is actually a mystery. Even we do not yet fully comprehend it. I love this, because I love the idea that we are involved in God's mystery! We are just beginning to see the fulness of it. But we don't understand it all.
I know this. God changed my heart and made me agree with that missionary woman who forgave the men who murdered her husband. I was watching it and shaking my head in affirmation. “Yes!” I thought. “This is what I believe!” It is a spiritual thing. And it is mysterious.
But the passage says that we have not yet come into this mystery fully. We are still growing. As we grow in the Lord, we are still changing the way we react.
Are you still growing?
Verse 3 says that everyone who has their hope in Christ purifies themselves.
It is important to understand the Greek language. This passage was written in Greek. And the Greek language is more complicated than English. So it is difficult to translate.
The verb tense here is present. It means that we keep on doing it. It does not mean that once we have believe we have arrived, we have achieved purity. Because of Christ, God sees us pure, but we are still maturing in our ability to reflect Jesus' image. And the passage is instruction to us to never stop growing. If we stop growing, we are dead or dying.
This is something that we are participating in.
It is something that we are working at.
It is a continued action. That is how it was written in the original Greek. That is how the original reader understood it.
And the Bible says we do it because we are loved by God, we are His Children, we are His body on earth, and we want to represent him well.
But in context of all that Grace, accepted into God's family, forgiven regardless and etc, we get to those two sticky verses. If we sin, we are lawless. If we abide in Him, we do not sin. Taken out of context, that means that every one of us is lost. Not one of us is perfect.
So, John makes sure that we understand the awesome nature of Grace given to us freely by God.
Because we can take verses 4 and 6 to mean that we have failed, God had John place them in the middle of all those verses about being the Children of God and forgiven.
Now, let us get back to the commentator who said “if we scratch beneath the surface of every Christian, there may be some doubt, some fear that we are not good enough.” He keeps up the theme of Grace and he says:
This truth produces great confidence, it produces great assurance, and this assurance is supported by an amazing fact: a believer is orientated toward righteousness. This doesn't mean that a believer won't sin, in fact, sin will daily infect our lives. What it means is that a believer is attracted toward Christ-likeness. A person who has truly experienced the mercy of God will tend to be merciful - not perfectly merciful, but oriented toward mercy. A forgiven person forgives, strives to forgive. A person bathed in the purity of Jesus tries to express that purity in their lives.
So, our standing (point between heaven and earth) as God's children rests on his grace alone.
As for our personal piety, it but demonstrates orientation, an orientation toward Christ, or an orientation toward lawlessness. As for sin, the truth is there is no sinless Christian; we all trip and fall.
Here is what happens. He speaks of working toward purity. It is an ideal that we keep growing into.
So let us go back to those “sticky verses” and see how they support the idea of grace instead of leaving us with the feeling of failure.
Both verbs, the one about purifying ourselves and the one about sinning are written in the present tense. Something we are working toward.
Believers work at purifying themselves, sinners work at improving their ability to sin.
The translators of the NRSV fail to take into account the subtlety of the Greek language. They translate it the same was as the King James Version. Both say, “If you commit (and it is implied) ANY sin, you are lost.”
The correct translation of the verb tense is picked up in several other translations with words like, in the NASB “the one who practices sin....” In that translation he is speaking of one who keeps on doing it with no remorse. As a matter of fact, the believer is practicing purity, and getting better at it. The unbeliever is practicing sin, in order to get better at it.
In The Living Bible it is translated about as pure to the original as possible: “The one who keeps on sinning” (with no regret) that is lawless.
When we become God's children, we are oriented to holiness, not sinfulness.
The believer recognizes that our sin, our greed, our lusts, our lack of forgiveness, our lack of mercy, our selfishness and all of our brokenness is what placed Jesus on the cross.
So, the believer strives to live a life that models Jesus behavior. As Hebrews 6:6 says, they do not want to keep on crucifying Jesus.”
The believer reflects the love, mercy and joy of Jesus.
The Believer is not like the Pharisee who uses God's Word to judge others. The believer is like Jesus who uses God's grace to give mercy toward those who are struggling.
The believer does not marginalize the “other” in order to prove himself or herself more righteous. The believer does not marginalize the gay person, the poor, the victim of AIDS, the Muslim, the person of a different race, anyone else. In all these people, the believer points them to the Savior.
That does not mean that once we have placed our trust in Jesus we are perfect in this. But as the Holy Spirit, and God's Word dwells in our lives we become more and more like Jesus.
So, lets go back to the introduction and the concept of “pure boys.” Professor Hill and Marcellus created a “moral outrage” over a pool table and the entire town took the bait and got upset.
What would Jesus have done? Obviously Jesus would not have campaigned against a pool table.
And here is the problem. People can get so wrapped up in the concept of purity that they forget holiness.
Purity is being pure. Holiness is being like Jesus. The Pharisees claimed to be pure, and then they condemned Jesus.
There are times when moral outrage is important.
Look at Jesus. There were several times when Jesus did demonstrate moral outrage:
He was upset with people who turned the church into a place to make money instead of an house of prayer. (Matthew 21:13)
He was upset with the people who brought a woman caught in adultery and not the man. (John 8:1-11)
He was upset with the people who thought that in order to be pure you must isolate yourself from sinners and thereby prove that they are not good enough for us. (Matthew 11:19)
He was upset with the religious leaders who celebrated all kinds of religious practices, but didn't have a conscience about the suffering they created when they did things like foreclose on the mortgage of a widow. (Matthew 23:14)
That is what Jesus did.
He is the light of the world.
So here the rubber meets the road in this study.
We have learned that once we trust in Jesus we become more like Him.
We know we are God's children because the Holy Spirit works with our conscience making us more like Jesus.
We know we are God's Children because we practice being good instead of practice being bad.
And there is an easy way to do it.
I like WWJD.
But I think we need to think about it from the perspective that there are things that Jesus did that we cannot do.
Jesus healed people and Jesus had the power to forgive other's sins. And I have seen God work some pretty big miracles when Christians pray.
But we don't always know God's will about healing.
So we ask the question, WWJHMD? What Would Jesus Have Me Do?
And the answer is simple, be like Him. Reflect Him and in every situation, instead of pressing what is best for us, instead of getting revenge, instead of winning an argument for the sake of winning, let us point people to Jesus.
Point them to Jesus who is still constantly forgiving us and drawing people into His family. God wants everyone back.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

And Now, the Feast!


Focus: Easter
Function: Celebration
Form: Bible Study

Intro:
These are the first four lines of the world's oldest lover's poem, found in Turkey. The words were written 4,500 years ago. The poem is like 30 lines long and the ancient managed to write it on a piece of clay 4” by 6” with those little cuneiform letters. It is amazing.
You can see a picture of it by searching on the internet for the world's oldest love poem, or clicking on the link to my sermons online.
What a day we live in when all this printed information is right there for us to find!
What a day when we can hear audio, or see video clips of the things that interest us!
It wasn't so for the people who originally heard this message from Isaiah. Paper was expensive, and writing on almost dried tablets of clay was limiting.
Isaiah the prophet, in order to help his people remember the message, used poems, and sang most of his prophecies. Today's passage includes two poems about God's deliverance. They come right after a poem about how God will act to protect His own people.
And the first 5 verses continue that theme. God cares about our suffering. The prophet's poem, given that way so that people will remember it, says: 4For you have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.
And not only is God a refuge, but He has given them a victory. Easter is a victory for every believer.
There is strong language about the victory given. Big powerful cities are destroyed. Strong people, foes that we cannot easily defeat will see the Glory of God's power on behalf of His people.
On Easter, we celebrate the proof of God's deliverance in our lives.
And it speaks to all of life. I have to keep reminding myself to have faith. Because Jesus rose to heal us in every facet of our lives. One commentator says this: (In this passage) We read of a people lifted out of that despair through the destruction of the enemy.
It speaks to life in bringing peace between warring parties. The commentator says:
(His victory is like) In international affairs it would be like the destruction of the hatred that exists between Israeli and Arab.
And that is out there, but what about here, in our own little world? Jesus' deliverance is more than “out there” for us. He speaks of personal lives. The author says:
In our personal lives, it would be like the removal of the enemy of debt, bitterness in our job or marriage, even the enemy of fear, anxiety, guilt, jealousy....
When we trust, or rest, in Jesus, even those enemies of fear, bitterness, jealousy, guilt and anxiety are calmed, dispelled, if we trust Him, if we give them over to Him. He rose to save us.
This is what Jesus wants to do for us. And it isn't just those personal things, at also speaks to the deep Spiritual matters in our lives. He says:
In spiritual affairs it is the destruction of the power of sin, evil, even death, in our lives. Satan may be a roaring lion, prowling, seeking someone to destroy, but in Jesus the believer is surrounded by a divine power which protects us from this ferocious beast. The powers of darkness may rant and rave, but they cannot take us from the protective hand of our Lord.
Easter is the proof of that!
Easter is proof of God who gives us victory over whatever is keeping us down.
When we think of victory, we think of a contest. In chapter 24 and these first 5 verses, it is more than a contest, it is war.
And there is warlike imagery, the alien city, the alien stronghold, the alien people are all cast down.
Most wars are about money and greed and power. And we know that religion has been used as a fuel to light the fire of war. Most people would not want to die to make someone else rich, but if they are incited with a promise from their religion, maybe they would act.
But Easter has the message that God is bring the entire world back to Himself.
And if we take verses 1-5, the first poem that Isaiah wanted people to remember, if we take them without the next three, we might have that problem. The problem being that is only about Israel, and we Gentiles are the alien, the enemy.
But God wants to remind the people that His salvation, His promises, His healing, His protection, and His love is for the entire world.
It is highly symbolic from this passage, but Isaiah the prophet sees the New Jerusalem, the Holy City coming down from heaven that is referred to in the book of Revelation.
This city includes everyone who will come into it. Everyone who chooses it. Every person who by faith decides to let Jesus be their Savior.
And in that city, there is going to be a feast.
When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, He said: “I wont have this feast again until I have it with you, anew in heaven....” (Matthew 26:29)
At the end of the ages, or as soon as we individually get to heaven, there is going to be a feast with us and Jesus. He is waiting for it with you.
And it is for everyone in the entire world who believes.
So the prophet adds another poem, expanding the story. Verses 6-9 are important.
Hear verses 6-9 from the Message:

Isaiah 25:6-9

The Message (MSG)
6-8But here on this mountain, God-of-the-Angel-Armies
   will throw a feast for all the people of the world,
A feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines,
   a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts.
And here on this mountain, God will banish
   the pall of doom hanging over all peoples,
The shadow of doom darkening all nations.
   Yes, he'll banish death forever.
And God will wipe the tears from every face.
   He'll remove every sign of disgrace
From his people, wherever they are.
   Yes! God says so!
9Also at that time, people will say,
   "Look at what's happened! This is our God!
We waited for him and he showed up and saved us!
We celebrate Easter every year. We know the story.
But again, this song was given to them in a form that they could use to easily memorize it.
It is important to keep that celebration.
There is a feast being prepared for every single person who comes to Jesus.
It is a simple message.
Jesus came to deliver the world from its warlike ways. He came to deliver people from hatred, bitterness, envy and other things that bind us like addictions, hopelessness, and etc. And He came to forgive us of every sin that keeps us from God.
And all of that is for the entire world. Every person who trusts Him.
CONCL:
Do you trust Him? We are not being invited to some sort of club, fraternity, sorority, or nation that is made up of people who win over other people.
No we are invited back into God's family, a place of wholeness, health, prosperity and healing.