A Brief Update
For those of you who are unable to gather corporately with us this Sunday, you are loved and missed! If this is you, we are providing the songs we are singing together on this Lord's Day and a devotional based on the sermon being preached.
Songs We are Singing Together
Devotional on Isaiah 62
Since we have a guest preacher this Sunday, Joselo Mercado, no devotional is being provided. Instead, please take time to read and reflect on the passage Joselo is preaching from, Isaiah 62. As an additional encouragement, below is a portion from the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible notes on this passage.
Isa. 62:1–12 The Anointed One will not stay silent; he must speak and act on behalf of his people so that they can experience salvation (v. 1). Though in the past mocked, forsaken, and exposed in her desolation, Zion is his beloved bride: “My Delight Is in Her” (v. 4). God promises a celebration uniting the Lamb and the bride—whom he himself readies for the wedding banquet (Rev. 19:7).
It can be hard for us to believe, but the imagery here is of God rejoicing over his people just like a newly married man’s heart leaps as he looks at his resting wife (Isa. 62:5; cf. Zeph. 3:17). We are prone to have hard thoughts of God, but here we are reminded of his tender love and joyful commitment to us. One of the main images in the New Testament for the church is that of the bride of Christ (e.g., John 3:29; Matt. 9:15; 25:1–13; Mark 2:19): the groom has come; he has washed his bride and redeemed her. God is not motivated merely by dispassionate contractual concerns; his heart is moved by a deep love for and delight in his people (e.g., Eph. 5:25; Rev. 19:7). He fully recognizes her sins. But he desires and is able to bring her salvation. And through her, salvation goes out “to the end of the earth” (Isa. 62:11).
Because of what God accomplishes, the people are given a new name: Holy, Redeemed, Sought Out, and Not Forsaken (vv. 2, 12; cf. Jer. 33:16; 1 Pet. 1:18–19; 2:9; Rev. 2:17). “Christians” are those whose name has been changed because of their union to the risen Lord (Acts 11:26). Such a name change also changes us. Bearing the name of Christ, we are invited to live a cross-shaped life, willing to give ourselves for the glory of his righteousness and to suffer for the joyful spread of the gospel (e.g., 1 Pet. 4:16).
Benediction
1 Peter 2:9-10