Powerful Roots

Isaiah 11:1–10 CEB

1 A shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse; a branch will sprout from his roots. 2 The Lord’s spirit will rest upon him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of planning and strength, a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord. 3 He will delight in fearing the Lord. He won’t judge by appearances, nor decide by hearsay. 4 He will judge the needy with righteousness, and decide with equity for those who suffer in the land. He will strike the violent with the rod of his mouth; by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness will be the belt around his hips, and faithfulness the belt around his waist. 6 The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat; the calf and the young lion will feed together, and a little child will lead them. 7 The cow and the bear will graze. Their young will lie down together, and a lion will eat straw like an ox. 8 A nursing child will play over the snake’s hole; toddlers will reach right over the serpent’s den. 9 They won’t harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain. The earth will surely be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, just as the water covers the sea. 10 On that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a signal to the peoples. The nations will seek him out, and his dwelling will be glorious.

Powerful Roots

It is about to start. There are hints out there about whether he or she will or won’t. Autobiographies are written. Books about a vision for the future are being published.

What are you talking about pastor? I’m so glad you asked. It is about the presidential election of 2024. There are whispers about who might throw their hat in the ring this election cycle. Out of a crowded field of potential wanna be’s we listen and vote for the one in our political party who we think would make the best candidate.

We approach election day in 2023 hoping for the best. We hope that things will be different. We hope that promises will be kept. We hope that it won’t be just talk but that there will be action behind those words. We hope and wait to see what will happen.

Kind of a depressing thought to begin a message with. Advent is a season of hope and anticipation. So much of our world looks for hope in politics and power and wealth.

My hope this morning is in a shoot that grew from an old stump with powerful roots.

My hope is in Jesus.

This passage from Isaiah is a message of hope for a future that is radically different from what life was like for Isaiah and the people of Israel.

The people wanted a king and their first king turned out to be failure as he focused on himself.

We first read about that stump of Jesse in

1 Samuel 16:1 CEB

1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long are you going to grieve over Saul? I have rejected him as king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and get going. I’m sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem because I have found my next king among his sons.”

The line of David continued down through both Judah and Israel until both were taken into captivity. Through good and bad kings. There were times of revival and times of wickedness and idolatry. When you read the history of Judah and Israel it seems that hope slowly faded as the people continually turned away from God.

When Judah was finally captured and King Zedekiah was the last king, it seems that hope was lost. The picture of a great tree cut down seems to be an appropriate picture.

Isaiah paints an unexpected picture. He wrote

Isaiah 11:1 CEB

1 A shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse; a branch will sprout from his roots.

I don’t know about you, but when I see a stump, I see something that has been cut off and is dead.

It seemed that all hope was lost for Israel but God says through Isaiah that “A shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse; a branch will sprout from his roots.”

Those roots run very deep and are very powerful. Those roots run back through David, to Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Noah, to Adam and God Himself.

The people, God’s people continued to turn to idolatry. They continued to turn their backs on God, the one who had saved them and brought them out of Egypt and brought them into the land of promise.

God had repeatedly called the people to repent. Sometimes God has to use physical rebuke as he did with Israel. God must use physical rebuke if His Word is ineffective in convincing us to turn from our sin. He will have to extend His hand and judge us if we refuse to accept His correction. We must not tempt God by being thoughtless or callous because He is patient. The writer of Hebrews wrote

Hebrews 10:31 CEB

31 It’s scary to fall into the hands of the living God!

That is where Israel found itself. It seems in our world today that evil is running rampant. Sin is in the world and also in the Church.

What is God calling the Church to today? Repentance.

Its easy to say that we are not like Israel and Judah. This time of year demonstrates that we are idolaters. The stores cater to our idolatress nature. Look at people with their never ending Christmas lists. If we don’t buy everything on someone’s list then we feel like we’ve failed them.

I’m not saying that we should exchange gifts on Christmas. We should because it is a reminder of the greatest gift ever given.

What I’m saying is that when our gift giving creates stress and worry, robing Peter to pay Paul to have the perfect “Christmas.” We have our priorities all wrong.

To prepare for Christmas involves several things.

The first way that we prepare for Christmas is through repentance.

In the Gospel reading we heard about the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry. He came urging people to repent and return to God. He was saying this to primarily a Jews audience. He was saying this to people who claimed to be God’s people.

It is easier to deny that there is anything wrong than to repent. When we repent we have to admit that we have been headed in the wrong direction and doing things our own way.

When you admit your sin, you are admitting that you have fallen short of God's ideal will for your life and that you have a spiritual illness that needs to be healed by a Master Healer. The only place we may truly obtain forgiveness is in confession.

It is interesting to note what John had to say to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These were the religious leaders of Israel. God was at work in their lives as they were coming to be baptized by John. We generally skip over that fact. The religious leaders were being impacted by John’s preaching and they responded to the call to repent. John said to them

Matthew 3:7–10 (CEB)

7 “You children of snakes! Who warned you to escape from the angry judgment that is coming soon?

8 Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives.

9 And don’t even think about saying to yourselves, Abraham is our father. I tell you that God is able to raise up Abraham’s children from these stones.

10 The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and tossed into the fire.

The old saying the “proof is in the pudding” is true here. That expression according to the dictionary means

“that the real worth, success, or effectiveness of something can only be determined by putting it to the test by trying or using it, appearances and promises aside.” [1]

The proof of repentance is in our actions. That is the second way to prepare for Christmas.

It is not in just producing fruit, it is producing good fruit. If we don’t we’ll be chopped down and tossed in the fire and all that will be left is a stump.

God offered hope to Israel and to us. That tiny branch sprouted and was named Jesus.

Isaiah 11:2 CEB

2 The Lord’s spirit will rest upon him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of planning and strength, a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.

We know that the Lord’s spirit came to rest upon him. That prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus came to John to be baptized. As he was coming up out of the water, Matthew record what happened next.

Matthew 3:16-17 “16 When Jesus was baptized, he immediately came up out of the water. Heaven was opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and resting on him. 17 A voice from heaven said, “This is my Son whom I dearly love; I find happiness in him.””

That even was the beginning of his public ministry. The words about Him here is Isaiah are a model for us.

Isaiah 11:3–4 CEB

3 He will delight in fearing the Lord. He won’t judge by appearances, nor decide by hearsay. 4 He will judge the needy with righteousness, and decide with equity for those who suffer in the land. He will strike the violent with the rod of his mouth; by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.

Preparing for Christmas means that we admit to our complete dependence on Jesus.

Isaiah wrote that He will delight in fearing the Lord. As I thought about that, I thought how easy it is to serve and fear the Lord when things are going good. When things are not going so good, it is easy to give into worry. Anxiety and Depression are the two most common mental illnesses that I treat regularly. They can become debilitating at times. One of the simplest ways of treating them is by teaching people coping skills, ways of coping with life.

Sometimes anxiety and depression reach the level where medication is needed to get a person stabilized. In general, learning healthy coping skills is an effective way to manage anxiety and depression. I am reluctant to refer a person to a doctor for medication without first seeing if learning how to cope with life will not reduce their symptoms.

As a Christian, and I want to say this carefully. As a Christian, if I am constantly worrying about the future or am depressed about the past then where am I putting my trust?

I choose to put my trust in the one with “a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of planning and strength, a spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD. “

You might say that I don’t understand what I’m going through right now pastor. That is very true. However, God has the answer.

What did Jesus have to say?

Matthew 6:33 CEB

33 Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

He was talking about worrying about what to eat or what to wear and then says to desire God’s kingdom and righteousness first.

It's little wonder that the religious establishment opposed John's work, for he was doing something unprecedented. Baptism was not new in Judaism; it was used as a step in the process of converting persons to the faith. But John wasn't simply baptizing converts; he was baptizing Jews! And he reminded his pious opponents that they couldn't rely on their religious heritage for salvation; repentance and faith involve recognition of their own inadequacy and a complete dependence on God.

The hardest part of accepting Christ for some people is realizing they are not enough on their own and that they require aid from others. That truth lies at the core of the gospel; we can only experience true peace when we surrender to Christ, depending solely on his love and grace for salvation.

We each have the freedom to decide how we will approach life. Instead of accepting the Good News of Christmas—that God is real, alive, and at work in our society ushering in a kingdom of love, justice, and freedom. We might be fearful and gloomy about the future, or we can put our faith in the God who has seen us through the years and has promised that He would never leave us or abandon us, no matter what. We can either continue to live in darkness or we can enter the light of hope and victory.

We have powerful roots through Jesus. Advent is reminder of what God came to do.

We have two options: we can live only for ourselves, or we can improve the quality of life for everyone.

Doesn't the Good News of Advent and Christmas alter your perspective on life? Doesn't it give you the impression that something wonderful, not evil, is ready to happen in your life someday, somewhere, or some way? That type of transformation occurs when the Christ Child is born again in our hearts.

[1] Editors of Merriam-Webster. (2019, January 2). The Scoop on “The Proof Is in the Pudding.” Merriam-Webster.Com; Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/origin-of-the-proof-is-in-the-pudding-meaning