From Death to Life

The One Who Is Coming  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Open Your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 11
This morning, we’re our third part of our series called the One Who Is Coming
Each week before Christmas, we are focusing on different prophecies about Jesus that God used to tell His people about the coming Messiah
Advent, the season of waiting before Christmas, is an opportunity for us to turn our attention off of the things that have distracted us and to refocus our attention on the only thing and the only one that matters.
In our series, we’ve already spent some time talking about Isaiah and the time in which he wrote.
Remember that Isaiah is writing 700 years before the birth of Jesus
You’ll remember that Ahaz is King in Judah, and that he had been leading God’s people into full on idolatry, even replacing God’s altar in the temple with the altar of a false god from Damascus
Ahaz was looking at the power and might of the nations around him and rather than trusting in the true God of the universe, Ahaz trusted in the gods of these nations.
Ahaz looked to duplicate the power of the kings that he feared instead of seeking the One King who is greater than any other King, the Lord, Our God.
And the Bible makes it clear that this is the problem with earthly kings, earthly powers, earthly wealth, and earthly kingdoms:
When you take your eyes off of God to look at anything else three things happen:
The first is that you forget that God is bigger, stronger, and more powerful than all of creation put together, and that He is in charge of it all.
The second thing is that your focus and your priorities shift to yourself. Your needs, your wants, and your desires take center stage and your life starts to drive in the direction of those goals instead of the purposes of God.
The third thing is that you see your problems and you realize that they are bigger than you are. Your problems, worries, and fears are more than you can handle on your own.
This is exactly what led Ahaz and Judah into the trouble that they were facing, and it is the same process that leads you and I away from God and into sinful rebellion.
In the chapters leading up to our passage this morning, God has been promising judgment to Israel and then to Judah
The imagery that He uses is of destruction of growing plants.
God would cut off what is growing in Israel and Judah and burn what he cut off, along with the weeds around them.
God would use Assyria to do it
Then, God would cut down Assyria because they too are wicked and would take credit for what God had done
But, God also promises that after His wrath is poured out, that He will gather His people again.
And this is where we are starting this morning. We’re going to be reading from Isaiah chapter 11, starting in verse 1.
I invite you, if you are able, to stand with me in honor of the reading of God’s Word:
Isaiah 11:1–10 CSB
Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight will be in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, he will not execute justice by what he hears with his ears, but he will judge the poor righteously and execute justice for the oppressed of the land. He will strike the land with a scepter from his mouth, and he will kill the wicked with a command from his lips. Righteousness will be a belt around his hips; faithfulness will be a belt around his waist. The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf will be together, and a child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like cattle. An infant will play beside the cobra’s pit, and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den. They will not harm or destroy each other on my entire holy mountain, for the land will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is filled with water. On that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will look to him for guidance, and his resting place will be glorious.
PRAY: Thank You! You may be seated
God gave Israel hope the coming Messiah would bring God’s life, presence and peace.
It seems like a strange followup to the judgment and wrath in the previous section.
What is left of God’s people at the end of chapter 10 is mere stubble
What hope is left when all that remains are stumps and burnt earth?
This question is fundamentally important to understanding our passage this morning because
Jesus is the Messiah that was coming and bringing God’s promise to Israel.
And He is also bringing these things to you and to me.
Today, Jesus can bring God’s presence and peace into your life!
And our passage gives us the process by which this will happen. First,

For Jesus’ life to fill you, you need to die

Verses 1-2 give us a picture of this in the prophecy of Jesus’ coming
Isaiah 11:1–2 NASB95
Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
Jesse was the father of David
Jesus was coming of the line of David, but all that was left was of David’s line was a stump
A stump is the dead part of a tree left over when you cut it down.
God said this stump, this dead tree was going to bear fruit
The stump was the line of David, but Son was of the Spirit of God
God’s Spirit would be with Him and Fill Him, not that of man
God’s Wisdom and Understanding would be His, not that of man
God’s counsel and strength, not man’s
It was God that cut down the tree of David so that Jesus could fill it with life!
I am reminded of something that happened when my children were much younger.
My wife and I had planted several rose bushes in front of our home.
Bethany had carefully pruned and tended the plants over several years, and they had grown large and beautiful.
One day, we sent our kids out in the yard to do weeding in the flower beds.
I was working on something else, when Bethany came to me crying and angry.
One of our children had decided to prune her favorite rose bush. And by pruning, I mean cut the plant off level with the ground. We were certain the plant was all but dead.
The child was punished, but the damage was done. It was too late in the year to plant a new one, so we just left the bush until the spring.
When Spring came, to our great astonishment, the rose bush not only came back, but its growth was fuller and stronger than it had been before!
Now, I think God was blessing us. I would never risk cutting a rose bush down that far again, but
If Jesus is going to fill you with new life, your tree has to become His tree.
You are going to have to let go of the way you used to live-let him cut those branches out of your life
It will take you getting cut all the way down to the stump so that what grows back is Jesus in you.
For Jesus’ life to fill you, you have to die. Secondly,

For Jesus’ presence to reign in you, you must let Himroute out your sin.

Look at verses 3-5
Isaiah 11:3–5 NASB95
And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist.
Remember the three things that happen when we take our eyes off of Jesus?
All too often we make judgments and decisions by the things that we see and hear
Our eyes, our hearts, our motivations are all focused on ourselves and on the struggles of this life.
That was certainly the problem for Ahaz and Judah.
It was the problem for Israel and Assyria.
AND, it is the problem for you and for me.
But Jesus sees things differently! Jesus
wears the righteousness of God.
makes judgments and decisions focused on what is good and righteous.
destroys wickedness and carefully guards the heart that is His.
Wickedness and righteousness are like oil and water: they can’t co-exist.
If we want our lives to be filled with the presence of Christ, we have to allow Him to deal with our wickedness
We can either allow Him to deal with it as the Savior that frees us from sins oppression or as the judge that will destroy us because of it.
We must allow Him to clothe us in His Righteousness
When you turn your eyes onto Jesus, your sin becomes evident
When you turn your eyes onto Jesus, you begin to desire what is good
It’s like drinking water
A lot of people struggle to drink water, especially when there are so many other flavorful things that you can drink,
But water is so much better for you than anything you can drink, and our bodies need it to survive.
And what is funny is that literally every other thing that we can drink has water in it, that water is just diluted with other stuff.
But try drinking only water, and do that for a few weeks. When you do that, a funny thing happens
All the sudden, you won’t be able to stand the sweet things you were drinking before
And all of a sudden, you will thirst for water. You will long for it even when you’ve had enough to drink. Water will be what you want.
Jesus is the water of life that you need. Won’t you let Him deal with your sin and fill you with His righteousness so that you thirst for Him!
For Jesus’ life to fill you, you have to die. For His presence to reign in you, He must deal with your sin and usher in righteousness, and finally,

For Jesus’ peace to abide with you, He must give you a new nature.

Verses 6-8 give us a picture of an entire creation that seems to be going against its very nature.
Isaiah 11:6–8 NASB95
And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.
This sounds beautiful, but it is certainly not the world I live in
Here, predators and venomous snakes prey upon the week and the innocent
Here, the rule of the world is to kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten
We see it in our everyday lives, from the wild of nature to the wild of wall street
SO, why, in Jesus, is creation able to live in peace? Why would the lion eat straw and not meat?
The secret is in verse 9 and 10
Isaiah 11:9–10 NASB95
They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea. Then in that day The nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; And His resting place will be glorious.
They act differently because they have been given a different nature
It is a nature that is informed by the knowledge and understanding of God
It is the nature of the King and the Kingdom that they live in
It is His nature, not their nature. It is His peace, not theirs.
If you want His peace to fill you, you’re going to have to let go of your nature and let Him give you His.
When you allow Jesus to exchange His nature for yours, amazing things happen
Matthew is impatient. Matthew in Jesus is patient
Matthew is selfish. Matthew in Jesus is Kind
Matthew is easily angered. Matthew in Jesus is slow to anger
Matthew holds grudges. Matthew in Jesus is quick to forgive
Matthew is anxious. Matthew in Jesus is at rest
Jesus’ nature completely changes who I am-but I have to let Him do it!
If you want to have the peace of God abiding in your life, you have to let go of your nature and let Him give you HIS!
I’m not sure what you walked out of when you chose to walk in here this morning…
Maybe you are here this morning, and you are a dead man walking.
From the very beginning your eyes have been fixed on all the wrong things, and like they always do, the treasures of this life have left you lacking.
Just like the house of David, you are cut off, a dried out stump this morning. And if that is you, let me just tell you that the good news is that Jesus is ready to fill you with new life this morning!
You are already dead! Let the King of the universe fill you with His new life. I’d love to talk with you after the service, I’ll be right out front by the welcome table.
Maybe you are here this morning, and you claim Jesus as Lord…but you haven’t let Him be your master.
You are still a slave to sin and you are still headed to death.
Your life cannot grow in His righteousness while you are still pursuing your sin life
You cannot be freed of your sins until He’s the King of your life
Today is the day to surrender to His Lordship.
Maybe you are here and like the last group, you claim the Lordship of Christ. But while you struggle against your sins, your eyes are focused on the fights of this life, and you need a new nature.
If this is you, can I just say that Jesus loves you enough to meet you where you’re at, but he also loves you too much to leave you there.
Going through the motions will never be enough. His peace will only come through His nature changing you more and more into a reflection of who He is.
You might be able to build a righteousness of that looks great on the outside; but if you never allow the nature of God to begin to replace your own, His peace will never be your own.
Aren’t you ready to let go of all the things you are doing and to simply abide in His peace?
The worship team is going to come up and lead us in a song, and as they do, I invite you to take whatever posture the Lord lead you to. If you want to stand and sing, we invite you to do so. But maybe God is speaking to you this morning. Maybe He is calling you to die to live. Maybe He is wanting to route out your sin and to give you a new nature, and if that is you this morning, I want to encourage you to spend time in prayer with Him right now, and then I’d invite you to let me know about it in one of two ways:
Come and see me at the welcome table so that I can pray for you and encourage you in this journey or
scan the QR code on the back of the seat in front of you. This will take you to our connections center, where you can send me a note to have coffee or lunch to talk and pray together. Either way, I would welcome the opportunity to pray for you and to help you as you seek to live in the presence and peace of God.
Let’s Pray together
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