Sermon Notes - Isaiah 12:1-6 (Advent 2025)

 TRC Advent - Isaiah 12  The Well of Salvation: The Joy found in Advent 

Good Morning, super happy that you all are here with us this morning. If I have never gotten to meet you before, my name is Stephen Galloway, I am one of the Ministry Directors of the Student Ministry here at Three Rivers.   I’m excited to be opening up the word with you all this morning as we are continuing into our Advent season, as we are all to quickly approaching Christmas day. We are on our third week of Advent. Jon Kicked things off for us a couple of weeks ago, opening up Isaiah Chapter 2, and then Eric last week brought us through Isaiah Chapter 11, and I'll be continuing us in Isaiah as we look at Chapter 12 today. 

So if you have a Bible you can go ahead and open it up to Isaiah Chapter 12 and we will read that together here in a few minutes but I wanted to say something real quick before we get to our text.   Every year, when we get here, when we get to the Advent season, it is always something that is so much fun and yet so quick at the same time. Its probably the busiest time of the year for all of us doing family things, setting up the tree, doing your Advent study, all of these things always fly by us if we are not careful and intentional. 

During this season of having two little ones, everything already seems like it is a blur of sleep deprivation, and then you just throw Christmas lights on top of it and we are in for a good time.   But I never want to miss why we are here this morning, you know, Jon and I had a super brief conversation when we were taking our mic packs off after he preached a few weeks ago, talking about how hard it is sometimes to do these Advent sermons. Mitch gives us these passages to preach out of these weeks, and we get here and we just want to mine out all of this Gold out of these passages and bring out this new revolutionary thing that will blow everyone’s minds about how great God is.   

What we came to in that conversation is at the end of the day it is so much more than getting to this cool and revolutionary thing. What we are doing all throughout this Advent season is we are looking forward to the Coming Christ. That’s what these passages are doing, that’s what the entirety of the Old Testament is doing, is pointing us forward to when the Messiah, God coming and taking on Flesh, when he would be found in a manger, in a little town of Bethlehem. Born of a Virgin, all of these wonderful and beautiful signs and bread crumbs and puzzle pieces all coming together to this wonderful moment of the Savior of the world being born.  

 I don’t want us to miss that, no matter the blur of time that the Month of December feels like, never stop seeing and pointing forward to the coming King. That is what I hope that you see in this text this morning, as we get into this text from Isaiah, this coming King, this well of Salvation that we are to draw from.   

Alright, so let’s talk about this passage a little bit, Isaiah Chapter 12 is really a fascinating passage for several reasons. If we take this passage and place it back into the context of the rest of the book of Isaiah, what we find is that this is really the climactic ending of the first Major section of Isaiah.   

So far we have seen Grace being poured out left and right for Isaiah, Judah, and Israel and now we are going to see in this final Hymn, is us recognizing and worshiping God because of this grace that has been given to us.   

Now, if you notice, there is a future tense feel to this passage; Isaiah says in verses 1 and 4, in that day. So then the question becomes in what day are we talking about? But also notice who we are talking about, verses 1 and 4 again. In that day you will say and you will say in that day. Now I don’t want to fully answer that question yet but..   

This statement is a call back to part of what Eric taught last week in Chapter 11, where it says in verses 10 and 11.   10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.   11 In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people,   

So when we are read that statement, in that day we should be thinking of the time when the Old Exodus gets superseded by the New Exodus. And just like how the Old Exodus was celebrated in Song in Exodus 15, so too the people will sing and rejoice for this new Exodus.   

Now as we are talking about this passage today I want to make sure that you see something from this passage. In the way that this is written and the words and phrases that lie within It, there are a ton of Parallels to Exodus 15 when the Israelites and Moses sung praises to the Lord after they crossed the Red Sea. Which I think is intentional so that we can see the connection that is being made here.   

Because, this passage is a very intentionally worded. This is something that is bringing to a conclusion, like we said to the first major section of Isaiah. And this song, this hymn that is being sung, One way I read it said was Isaiah is saying that we are listening to our future voices sing praises to the Lord. This is us fully enjoying God’s Kingdom as he sweeps through history establishing it on every page.   It's so neat to think and look at this passage through that lens.   

So here is what I want to do. This passage naturally has three different sections to its structure that I want to pull some observations from and then we can figure out what we are supposed to do with this in Application.   

So, First Observation from verses 1 & 2: In response to Grace, my Personal response is to worship and to trust the God who has graciously given it to me.  

There are a lot of things that we can sometimes miss in on Modern Translations of the bible, which is why it is so important to go and read multiple translations at times to get a fuller grasp of what piece of text is trying to communicate. What we could miss though if our bibles don’t add the footnote is a slight variation in how a word is used in a couple of places.   

So when we look at verses 1 and 4 of this passage, we see two statements that sound very similar. Verse 1, You will say in that day, then in verse 4, And you will say in that day. Two statements that are extremely similar, but what we can miss is that within that first statement, that First You is singular, it’s a personal you. And in verse 4 it is a Corporate, it is plural you. And we will get to more of that in a few minutes.   

The first “You” though, is personal, it’s Singular, which I think shifts the way that we look at this passage. When I first read this passage after I had gotten my bearings in the context of where we were at in Isaiah, I had a moment where, once I had put the personal, singular on top of this You that I made a connection where I thought to myself. These 2 verses perfectly summarize Isaiah 6.    

Does it not perfectly summarize that earlier interaction that Isaiah had in the throne room of God? Read it again.   Isaiah 12:1–2 (ESV)   1 You will say in that day:     “I will give thanks to you, O LORD,   for though you were angry with me,     your anger turned away,   that you might comfort me.    2 “Behold, God is my salvation;   I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song,   and he has become my salvation.” 

If you are not familiar with Isaiah Chapter 6, I encourage you to go back and read that story later. I could spend all day there because it is by far one of my favorite passages in scripture. But here in Isaiah 12 I think that we this beautiful recounting, this summarizing of what took place there as Isaiah is there before the presence of God in his throne room. The train of his robe filling the whole room, and Isaiah falling on his face. Woe is me for I am undone, for I am a man of Unclean lips among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King of Kings and the Lord of Hosts.   

Sorry, I could recount the whole thing if I let myself. But think about what takes place there, Isaiah is confronted with his Sin, his uncleanliness in Contrast to the Holiness of the Lord of Lords and he falls on his face and repents in that moment. And instead of utterly destroying Isaiah in that moment the Lord doesn’t do that, he turns his anger away and provides salvation in that moment.   

Don’t you hear that passage intertwined into Isaiah 12? Can’t you hear Isaiah’s response? Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord is my strength and Song.   And here is the thing about this, we all, at one point, were enemies of God. And the wrath that was aimed at our guilt was absolutely warranted and deserved, and even required for God to be true to himself. And his wrath, his condemnation, does fall with full force, just not on us. It falls on our substitute, on our propitiation. Jesus took that in our stead.   

In our place on that Cross. He bore the full weight of that wrath that we deserved.   And now we can say with full confidence, You comfort me, Behold God, you are my salvation and I trust you.   I trust you.  The question that I have to challenge myself with especially when I am neck deep in the muck of hard things is asking Do I feel confident with God alone? If I had nothing else, would I feel confident in trusting God and God alone to get me through it?   

Personally, right now, I don’t know how to answer that question. And I don’t think I will try to right now.   I think what I can do sometimes is to overcomplicate things. And my focus is not always correctly aimed as it should be.   It really is very simple when I think about it, instead of trusting God plus something. Instead of trying to have my own hand in there as if I can bring something to the table I just simply say. I trust you.   I trust you. And It is in that moment that when we give all trust to the Jesus, our faith comes alive. Behold, God is my salvation, he is enough, Period.   

I think that when we experience how strong God is he becomes our song. God has placed a capacity for joy within in our hearts; it is a Holy Delight that we were created for, and it is a song that we all so desperately want to sing.  This song that Isaiah is singing here, this hymn, it echoes and parallels so much with Exodus 15 when the people sang in worship after the crossing of the Red Sea. The people of Isreal over and over again though failed God, they worshiped other Gods, they complained about his provision, over and over again they showed their own weakness.   

And yet from cover to cover of our Bibles we are reminded over and over again that it is not our strength, but it is the Lords. And His strength will forever hold us and keep us. 2 Corinthians 12:9 tells us His power is made perfect in our weakness.  But think about what these couple of verses are saying. It is saying, we, I have been given this grace, this salvation. And what happens after that? Thanksgiving and praise is the response. There is a personal response that has to come from this moment of salvation.   

God's salvation is not some abstract philosophical concept. This is deeply personal and relational. For the Lord is MY salvation. These statements don’t tell us that God is simply involved in salvation, but it identifies God with salvation. It’s descriptive in a way that represents His state of being rather than some progression of events that he carries out.   And in turn, we praise him. We praise him as that source of salvation that delivers people from anything that might destroy them.   

This is a picture of the believer having confidence, complete trust, utter peace, joy in commitment, and total dependency on the Lord.   Let’s keep moving. Verse 3 in our passage today is a fun one for us and I think that it continues these themes that we have seen thus far.   

Verse 3 says this: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”  There is a lot that I would love to say here, but I think I will save it for another day, and say this instead. A while back, when I preached on Exodus 17, I started into the themes of Water in the Bible. This is one of those stopping points for us in that conversation. So I encourage you to dive into that theme that connects from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22.   

Here is what I will say, though, from this verse today. We have a shift here in this verse and it will hold through the rest of the passage. If you remember back in verse 1 we had identified that the “You” in that verse was singular. Its an individual and a personal “You.”  Here in Verse 3 and in Verse 4, the “you” in these passages are no longer singular, but they are a plural “You.”  

So I think that is important, though, for us to identify because I think it does shift the way that we read these sections. Because we have moved from the personal, God is my salvation, and I will trust him. He is my strength and my song to now; there is something corporate here.   There is a collective You. And we are called to Joyfully drink from this well of Salvation.   David would say in Psalm 63 “My Soul thirsts for you.”  But Jesus would later say in John 7, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”   

A quote from Leon Morris.   “When the believer comes to Christ and drinks he not only slakes his thirst but receives such an abundant supply that veritable rivers flow from him. This stresses the outgoing nature of the Spirit-filled life.… There is nothing of the piety of the pond in Christianity.”   

I love that part. There is nothing of the piety of the pond in Christianity. And I think that is true, when we drink from the wells of His salvation, it flows with an endless freshness.   The final section that we can talk about this morning is verses 4-6.   I’m not sure that I gave verse 3 its own observation point so I apologize to my note takers. But for verses 4-6. I would say this: We have been given a mission to go and worship his name and proclaim his name to the world.   

Remember we are working with a plural “you” here in this statement, so when you start that verse 4 it reads a and Yall will say in that day.   And it dives into this list of imperative call to actions: to give thanks, to Call upon his name, to make his name known, to proclaim and sing his name.   Which we can talk all day about these actions and what that means, but first I want us to recognize that each one of these are not just a empty call to action.   

They are a response. These actions, these acts of worship, are little moments of praise that are out of a response to God’s Salvation. It’s these wonderful OUT components of the Christian Life encapsulated right here.   

In fact, if you look closely can almost see the flow of the Radical life here in this passage. The Up in the 1-2, being brought into God’s Salvation, trusting Him and Him alone, He has become our salvation. The IN within verse 3, as we corporately joyously drink from the well of salvation, and then the Out here in 4-6 as we go and proclaim His Name to the world.   Gosh its almost like this Up, IN and OUT thing came out of the bible. Crazy.   And this OUT component, like we said we can never simply just will ourselves to do something like proclaiming his name to the world. This is out of a response. This is a response to the salvation that has been shown.   

Verse 6: For great in your midst is the Holy One of Isreal.   Great is the Lord and because of how great he is we can give thanks, call upon his name and make his deeds known among the world.   Throughout the entirety of this passage, Isaiah’s eyes are pointed to the Lord. And what he is saying is that the people are going to be so overwhelmed that all they will want to do is worship him.   

But in this picture of Worship, it is so interconnected with Evangelism that they are indistinguishable from each other. They are connected at the hip.   Evangelism is joyfully shouting about the exalted glory of God and His wonderful deeds. Worship is joyfully shouting about the exalted glory of God and retelling his wonderful deeds. For Worship to become evangelism, it has to be done outside of these 4 walls of the church.   

It has to be declared for those that don’t know to be able to hear. And so just like every Sunday we will close today with Adam Saying “Three Rivers Church you are Sent.” That’s not a command that we just casually throw out there. This is a call to make your voice of worship known to the world.   Let the world hear your praises. Exalt his wonderful deeds to them and tell them so that they can hear.   

There are a lot more things that I want to say about this passage, but before I get into the application, I want to stop for a few moments and really drive home the core theme of this passage.  When I was considering and praying on what it was that I wanting to speak to today I struggled a lot to find the right words to say what it was that I wanted to convey from this text. There was always something hanging out there that I couldn’t quite put my figure on about this passage.   

Here is the conclusion that I came to on this passage. This passage, is our voices today. I don’t know if you remember saying earlier how Isaiah wrote this in a future tense. Verses 1 & 4. You will say in that day.   

Today is that day. This is available right now. We can joyously draw from the Wells of Salvation. We can cry out, I will trust you Lord and not be afraid for you are my strength and Song. And we can proclaim His name each and every day. All of this is something that we have available right now to us.   These are our voices right now.   All of this was made accessible when Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, the fullness of God coming and taking on flesh, walking this earth, and dying on the cross so that we can forever be reunited with him.    

Jesus Christ is the Well of Salvation that we can joyously draw from. It is his salvation that we have been given and it is his name that we proclaim to the ends of the earth.   Read back through that passage as if this was your own voice.   Isaiah 12:1–2 (NLT) 

“I will praise you, O LORD!   You were angry with me, but not any more.   Now you comfort me.   2 See, God has come to save me.   I will trust in him and not be afraid.   The LORD GOD is my strength and my song;   he has given me victory.”….  …“Thank the LORD! Praise his name!   Tell the nations what he has done.   Let them know how mighty he is!   5 Sing to the LORD, for he has done wonderful things.   Make known his praise around the world.   6 Let all the people of Jerusalem shout his praise with joy!   For great is the Holy One of Israel who lives among you.” 

Because of the Advent of the Son of Man. Because of His Birth, his humble, beautiful birth. Because of his Life, His perfect, incredible life that he lived walking on this earth. Because of His, Death. Because of the Sacrifice that he made on the cross, in our place for our sin.   Because of his resurrection, because of his victory over death. Because of who Jesus is.   We no longer have to say in that day as if it is something far off that we will never see. Today. Today, we can call upon his name and forever drink joyfully from the Springs of Salvation that is Jesus Christ.   

Let me wrap us up with a couple of pieces of Application.   Maybe let me do it this way, I think for the first Application I want to ask a question, because a passage like this should make us consider something.   

When we read this passage, do we feel like we are hearing our own voices in these words?   And if we don’t feel like we are hearing our own voices, then why not? Is it the Joy? Is it the proclaiming of his deeds to the world? What part doesn’t sound like us, or is it all of it?   Do we believe that we have access to this? I think it’s a hard question to consider.   

Personally, I don’t know how to answer that question well right now. I think there are several aspects that I look at within this passage and wonder why it is that it feels so far off and foreign to me. To be honest, I'm not quite ready to be that vulnerable up here to work out some of those feelings this morning.   

But man, I think that this is something that we have to consider for ourselves.   Verse 2 is the one that I get the most hung up on. Do I trust in the Lord to the extent that I am not afraid? Is He, is Jesus my Strength and my Song?   I think as you are considering that question, approach that question in the 3 aspects of the Radical life. See it through the Lens of Up, In and Out to help you work through some of those thoughts and those feelings that you are having.   

Hey, and maybe you are over here, ‘Yup, im good. I got It, this sounds just like me.’ If that’s you, can I get some time on your calendar? I have lots of questions for you.   But here is what I want this passage and so much of the book of Isaiah to be for us. You know, I think there are times when we can come into Christmas time and see it as a very joyous season. Because for most of us that is what this time is. Christmas lights and Music and presents everything. I know there are some of you in this room who have been listening to Christmas Music since before Halloween in Secret because it makes you so happy to be in this season.   

For others, this is a very difficult time. There are some of us who have felt like God is very absent from you right now and that you feel like you are just sitting in the dark. For some of us it could be life circumstances that are going on right now. For others this is time of remembering loss in a deep and profound way.   

Here is what I want this passage to be for us today. To show us that Jesus is the light in the darkness. When Isaiah is writing this passage, there was not a lot of hope for him and the of Israel and yet, he looks forward to the one whom he finds his Joy in.   

The promise of the Gospel is that in the cross, Jesus meets us in the dark valleys where we are waiting for God to turn the lights back on. And guess what, he will. Jesus is our Hope and he is our source of Joy, so I invite you. No matter where you are, lets together drink joyously from the well of salvation that is Christ.  

Final place of Application I want us to take away from this passage. This Advent Season, I want us to worship. I want this season to be one where we truly are overflowing because of this joy that we have, where there is no mistaking it for anything else.   Y’all, this is a season where even the pagans are singing about joy and happiness. We are the ones who get to proclaim His name and point them to Christ. To show our families, our friends, those whom we have never met, we get the honor of declaring to them why it is that we are celebrating during this season.   

We get to joyously declare that the Son of Man, the Messiah who has come to take away our Sins, has been born. And we get to declare to them, he has become my salvation, and it is Him that I trust above all else.   It is his great name that is on my Lips as I sing his praises for all the world to hear.   Let his name be know in all of the earth.   Can we do that right now? Can we praise him this morning?   

The Band can come on up, and we are going to worship now together.   Let me close out our time by having us pray together. I want us to pray through the verses that we have been praying together for a long time now because I think it is so important to us as we enter into the final days of this Advent season and prepare for a new year.   So if you will bow your heads and let’s pray together.   Ezekiel 36:37–38 (ESV)  37 “Thus says the Lord GOD: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. 38 Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the LORD.” 

Three things in that passage the Lord says Ask this of me, and I will do.  

Increase us, to make us a Holy People, and to send us.