Hope
Waiting with Isaiah • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 7 viewsHope for God’s people while waiting for the Messiah
Notes
Transcript
[LAUNCH ANGEL TREE VIDEO]
Announcements
Good morning. Welcome to Southern Hills Baptist Church. I hope that you had a fantastic Thanksgiving week. Thank you for joining us today as we enter into our time of Advent. Advent is a time of waiting. Since the church began celebrating the birth of Jesus on December 25, we have practiced this time of patience and anticipation as we wait for the King, both symbolically in the image of the arrival of baby Jesus and literally as we wait for His return.
If you are a first-time guest with us, you will find a Connection Card in the pew rack in front of you. We would appreciate it if you would fill that out and place it in the offering plate. That gives us a record of your visit and allows us the opportunity of reaching out to you this week to answer any questions that you might have.
Online giving is available at our website, southernhillsbc.com. By clicking on GIVE, it will take you to our giving page where you can easily give by electronic check or credit card. You can also give during our offertory time or in the box at the info table. If you are a guest, please know that we do not expect you to give. Our members and regular attenders provide for the ministry of the church.
As a reminder, we launched Angel Tree last week, which was the video that you just watched. It is a ministry through Prison Fellowship that allows churches to provide gifts for kids whose parents are incarcerated. We may still have a couple of angels on the tree in the lobby, so if you did not get a chance to participate last week, please see Beth Lamb after service.
On Sunday, December 14th, we will host a party for these kids to receive a gift from their parents, where they will also have a chance to hear the gospel. So, please pitch in and plan on joining us for the party as we try to help these families have a nice Christmas.
See bulletin for Calendar Updates
If you are a guest with us, know that this is our weekly Family Worship service. Our children will remain with us for the entire service. We do have a nursery available for children under 4 just down the hall if you would like to use it.
Please stand as I read our Call to Worship.
Call To Worship
But I will hope continually
and will praise you yet more and more.
My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge.
With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.
O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
Your righteousness, O God,
reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you?
You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
you will bring me up again.
You will increase my greatness
and comfort me again.
I will also praise you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
My lips will shout for joy,
when I sing praises to you;
my soul also, which you have redeemed.
And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long.
Opening Hymn
Advent Scripture & Prayer: Hood Family
Song #1
Offering & Prayer
Song #2 (Messiah)
Lord’s Supper
Please be seated.
(beat)
We just sang about the promised Messiah. During the time of Israel’s exile, the prophets began to speak more of this promised king to come. We read this morning of Isaiah saying that the “government would be on his shoulder” as He took the throne of King David.
As the people of Judah and Benjamin reentered the land, they understood that they were not yet free. They had returned to worship God in Jerusalem, but the exile remained in place. And even as they rebuilt the temple and returned to temple worship, God’s Spirit did not return.
A time of silence settled in as God’s people increasingly looked to the hope of the promised Messiah. They expected a baby boy to be born who would save them all. But they expected Him to be born from the wealth and extravagance of the royal blood lines in Judah. They expected Him to publicly rise to prominence and power and throw out the Romans once and for all.
But God commands an upside-down kingdom. His mind cannot be comprehended by His unredeemed human imagers. Instead, Jesus—the promised Messiah—came as a meek and unassuming conqueror. But He was focused on defeating the spiritual powers behind Rome, not Rome itself. And in His death and resurrection He accomplished the goal set before Him.
Jesus has been made king over all things. He has authority over both physical and spiritual creation. But it all started in a lowly stable, where the baby Jesus opened His human eyes for the first time. And so, today, as we begin this time of Advent—waiting for His return—where we will dwell with Him forever in the new creation, we offer Him thanks for His gift to us, but we also call out to the world, “Oh come, let us adore Him.”
We’re going to continue our reading about Jesus from the book of Mark. Today we will finish chapter 14:
And they led Jesus to the high priest. And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together. And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’ ” Yet even about this their testimony did not agree. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death. And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards received him with blows.
And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came, and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” And he went out into the gateway and the rooster crowed. And the servant girl saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.” And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.
At this time, I am going to have our ushers come forward. If you are a follower of Jesus, in that you have accepted Him as Savior, bowed to Him as King, and been baptized in obedience to His commandment, we invite you to participate with us. In just a moment, we will pass the plates. Please take a piece of bread and a cup and hold it until we take together.
Pass
Instruction from Jesus: Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Prayer of Blessing on bread and cup
Song #3
Pastoral Prayer
World -
Country- Unrest. Shot National Guardsmen (2).
State-
City-
SHBC-
Introduction
As we prepared for Advent this year, we decided to do a series based in the book of Isaiah. For that reason, we have called the series “Waiting with Isaiah.”
Isaiah was a prophet in the Southern kingdom of Judah in the 8th century BC. Much of his prophetic ministry involves consulting the kings of Judah on diplomatic entanglements with the nations around them. These kings had some sort of involvement with the kingdoms of Assyria, Syria, Israel, Egypt, and the Philistines.
His counsel was always rooted in trusting in God’s promise to bless and protect His people. Unfortunately, many of the kings that he served would not take his advice to trust in God and, instead, made allies with some of their neighbors for protection. This caused subjugation, and at times, disaster for the people of Judah.
Isaiah and Judah watched as the apostate kingdom of Israel was conquered and deported by the Assyrians. And it wouldn’t be long before Assyria was camped on the doorstep of Jerusalem. The Assyrian King Sennacherib blasphemed Yahweh God and told King Hezekiah that Judah would soon meet its end.
Hezekiah and Isaiah went and prayed to the Lord. And 2 Kings tells us that God responded to their prayer by sending “an angel” at night who struck down 185,000 Assyrians. Ultimately, Sennacherib and his men returned home where history tells us that he was brutally murdered by two of his sons in the temple of one of their gods.
For decades, the kings of Judah had hoped only in their own might and their worldly allies. But Isaiah was calling them back to rest in the might of Yahweh God alone. For it was only in the presence of God that they would be able to find hope.
[TITLE SLIDE]
In 2016, Disney produced what is—in my opinion—the best Star Wars movie ever made. The film was called Rogue One and told the story of a group who had been cobbled together by circumstance and would make a daring mission to steal the plans to the Death Star.
The evil Empire had hijacked and engineered the galactic government to break their enemies and ensure compliance through power and oppression. There were few who were bold enough to resist, and the Empire now had a weapon that would be able to completely destroy any group who would continue to stand against them.
As Jyn Erso is making her plea to the counsel leading the rebellion against the Empire, those listening are overcome by the odds stacked against them. One of them responds to her, saying that there is virtually no chance of survival, and that she is asking them to mount this mission “based on nothing but hope.”
Jyn responds by saying, “Rebellions are built on hope.”
You might expect that they would all get on board at that moment, after Jyn had just delivered a thoughtful and moving speech; that they would gather their best man and mount an assault to fight for the only hope they have left…
(Beat)
But the world doesn’t look at hope in the same way that we do. For the world, hope is 1 chance in a thousand. For the world, hope is crossing your fingers that the person who always fails will succeed just this once.
But, the same is not true for us. The author of Hebrews puts it this way, that:
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
He says that faith is being sure in our hope. So, why is our hope so sure? Why is it so secure? Our hope is sure because it is firmly planted in One who never fails.
Isaiah understood this. He helped Hezekiah see it as he bowed to his knees and prayed for God to intervene in everything that Hezekiah had messed up. And though Hezekiah trusted in God in this moment—with the armies of Assyria on his doorstep, he would go on to begin trusting in himself again soon thereafter.
Isaiah had dealt with faithless kings and with faltering kings like Hezekiah for decades. But God had revealed to him that a day would come with a perfectly holy king would arise. Our Advent series will explore that part of Isaiah’s prophecies: that one day, God would raise up His anointed to save, not just the Israelites, but all nations.
If you have your bible with you this morning, please turn with me to Isaiah chapter 11. Here, Isaiah is going to speak of this One to come and how God will restore all things through Him.
Again, Isaiah chapter 11. Starting in verse 1:
[MAIN PASSAGE SLIDE x5]
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. (/)
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. (/)
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them. (/)
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. (/)
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
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.
In this prophecy, Isaiah starts by describing a human person. We know this because he is using anthropomorphic language with personal pronouns: his eyes see and his ears hear. And even though his descriptions seem to be in line with describing the character of God, he appears to be speaking of a physical king in the line of David.
[POINT 1 SLIDE]
The Righteous Shoot (vv 1-5)
Isaiah begins by speaking of a righteous shoot that will come from the stump of Jesse. Go back with me to verse 1:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
So, from the “stump of Jesse” will come a “shoot” and a “branch” that will “bear fruit.” Let’s work through this to figure out what Isaiah is trying to say.
Let’s start with the stump. What is the stump and why, if this refers to the line of David, does Isaiah speak of Jesse?
In ancient times, including the Old Testament, kings and their kingdoms were often spoken of using tree imagery. Look how God speaks of His future king and the kings of the nations in Ezekiel 17:
[Scripture Slide X3]
Thus says the Lord God: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. (/) On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. (/) And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”
So, to say that there is a stump of Jesse intimates that there was a tree, or king, that came from Jesse. In this case, we know this to be King David. David, the son of Jesse the Judahite, became king over a united Israel after the fall of King Saul. It was his kingdom that God had promised him would never end.
And yet, in Isaiah’s prophecy, the tree of David has been cut down. David’s grandson had split the kingdom and the northern kingdom of Israel had already been removed. It’s tree had been chopped down. But now, Isaiah says that David’s tree, the kingship of Judah, will be removed also. The kingdom will be cut down, laid to waste, and all that will be left is a stump.
The stump is that of the father of the davidic kingdom. And it is from the line of Jesse that a new shoot will arise. Job speaks of this natural occurrence of shoots with plant life as he compares a tree to a man:
[Scripture Slide]
“For there is hope for a tree,
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that its shoots will not cease.
Though its root grow old in the earth,
and its stump die in the soil,
yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put out branches like a young plant.
When we see a stump, it appears to us to be dead. But the roots may still live and push out new growth in its quest to photosynthesize. The same is true of the stump of Jesse. Though it will appear to all that the kingdom of David has ended, Isaiah gives the people of God hope. They will endure the consequences of their sin, but a shoot will still arise.
[Passage Slide]
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
The word shoot here, in Hebrew, speaks of a twig or sucker that comes from a tree’s roots, or in this case, it’s stump. Proverbs uses this same word to describe a switch that has been taken from a tree to be used for discipline.
Something interesting for us to pay attention to today is the Septuagint, or the Greek version of the Old Testament. This is what most people in Jesus’ time would have read and memorized from. In the Septuagint, the translator uses the Greek word for rod instead of shoot. While it can mean the same thing as a sucker or switch, it is also used for the scepter of a ruler.
The imagery that the Jews of Jesus’ time would have understood, then, is that a new ruler in the line of David would arise in the future. That, when all of the nations believed Israel and Judah to be no more, that hope would remain in this new shoot.
Isaiah continues. Not only would this new shoot appear, but he will be a branch that bears fruit. He says that this branch will come from the roots of the descendants of Jesse, that is the tribe of Judah, and that this branch would bring forth fruit. The Septuagint says that the rod will flower.
In Genesis 49, when Israel blesses his sons, he says that “the scepter shall not depart from Judah.” This shoot is the fulfillment of the promise of Israel’s blessing. Isaiah is calling attention to what God has in store for the future.
Disaster will come to the house of David, and the consequences of the choices of the kings of Judah and the sin of the people will come home to roost. At that time, the cedar that is the Davidic line will be cut down.
God has promised His people generational blessings for the people who uphold the covenant, but generational curses when they do not. He will remove His presence, which includes His blessing and His hand of protection.
And yet, even in the midst of God’s discipline, even in the center of their return to chaos, hope remains in this shoot from the stump of Jesse.
This shoot will be the beginning of a new cedar, a tall and mighty tree, who will rule Israel with a powerful scepter. And He will rule even more benevolently than His ancestor David, producing the good fruit that David’s line was made to produce.
Isaiah continues describing this fruiting branch:
[Passage Slide]
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
He says that the Spirit of the Lord will rest on this future king. This is the ru’ach, which means spirit, wind, or breath, of God. It was this Spirit of God that hovered “over the face of the waters” in creation. This was the same Spirit of God that rested on both King Saul and King David as well as some of the judges before them. The resting of the Spirit on an individual of God’s choosing, hence anointing, endowed them with the authority that only God possessed. This person became an agent of God and was supposed to function as His hand of justice on earth.
This is the same Spirit of righteousness who will later become known as the Holy Spirit. He brings to this new anointed king the wisdom of God, counsel, might, and discernment. And this promised Messiah will know what it means to “fear the Lord.” In fact, Isaiah says that He will delight in the “fear of the Lord.”
What does it mean to “fear the Lord?” The word “fear” here in Hebrew means to hold in reverence, to offer worship, or to stand in awe. This is the correct posture for any person approaching Yahweh God. Every week, as we come together to lift praise to God, this is how we should be: standing at the foot of His throne in awe of His holiness, His otherness, His immanence.
(Beat)
He is so much higher and so much greater and so much stronger than anything that we can imagine. And the only proper response to recognizing that is to bow in worship. That is what it means to fear the Lord.
This new king, that has sprouted from the roots of Jesse, will be filled with the ru’ach Yahweh, the Holy Spirit, and will rule righteously. He won’t simply make judgments based on what he sees and hears, but He will discern and render judgments by God’s Spirit.
[Passage Slide]
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
His judgments will be righteous in that He will bring justice to all humankind. He will lift up the poor and the meek and He will lay low those who prey on others. With His scepter, He will discipline, and with His own ru’ach, His breath or spirit, He will bring death to the wicked.
This Messiah, the shoot of Jesse, will be clothed in righteousness and faithfulness. In short, He will be the King that God always wanted for His people: a king who is perfectly righteous, a king who is always faithful. In other words, this promised king will be the perfect imager of God.
Isaiah Has grown tired of faithless kings. But God has given him a glimpse of the future. Harsh discipline will come to the people of Judah, and they will endure a long time of generational curses for turning their backs on their covenant with God. And yet, even if every one of them remains unfaithful, Isaiah can look forward to the faithfulness of this promised shoot of Jesse, the righteous king to come.
And when we look back on history, we see exactly that. God removed His presence and allowed these people to endure judgment and discipline. And yet, even when they returned to Jerusalem, the city of peace, there was no peace. God’s spirit did not return and the people of Judah, who would become known as the Jews, cared not. They became self-righteous as they focused on the law.
There was no king. There was no faithfulness. There was no one to lead the people to give their hearts to Yahweh. They rebuilt the temple, but it remained empty. The only thing notable about Jerusalem was the davidic stump. The throne sat empty as wicked men fought over wielding human power and influence.
Then, one day, far away from the city of peace without peace, a shoot broke ground from the roots of the stump. Jesus had appeared as the promised Messiah. Hope was no longer a prophetic vision. Hope had been born in flesh.
Jesus would prove Himself to be the true imager of God as Isaiah had imagined. But His mission was bigger than drawing the hearts of Jews back to God. He had something much bigger in mind.
[POINT 2 SLIDE]
Eden Restored (vv 6-9)
Later, Jeremiah would go on to give similar prophecies about this coming anointed king. In chapters 23 and 33, he speaks of a righteous sprout from David, who will “reign and act in wisdom,” establishing justice and righteousness in the land and bringing Judah to salvation.
For the Jews of the early first century, who considered themselves a holy people because of their strict rule-following, all that was left was for this Messiah to come and give them justice by rendering judgment on the Roman authorities. But God’s idea of justice and righteousness was so much more than theirs. He didn’t just want to fix perceived injustices on earth; He wanted to give all of creation justice on a cosmic realm. He wanted more than rule following; He wanted perfection.
Let’s see what this ideal world looks like. Isaiah continues in verse 6:
[PASSAGE SLIDE X2]
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. (/)
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
Have you ever had a dream that just seemed outlandish to you? Like, you were having a conversation with your dog while he prepared an espresso for a 6-year old who was wearing a tweed jacket and quoting Dostoevsky on the beach in the middle of Summer? No? Just me?
(Beat)
My point is that Isaiah’s vision seems like a fairy tale to us. Wolves and lambs sharing a home? A lion and a fattened calf hanging out together? Those sound like recipes for disaster to us. Would you let your toddler play in a field where you know venomous snakes live?
We cannot imagine any of this happening in the world that we live in. And that is precisely the point of this prophecy. Isaiah is not describing our world as we know it. This davidic king transcends our world. He will reign over more than the cursed physical creation that we know.
Isaiah will go on to prophesy about the creations of a new heaven and new earth, where he uses similar imagery to speak of this new creation. Look at what he says in 65:25:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;
the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
and dust shall be the serpent’s food.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.
The idea that predation will stop; that the wolf and the bear and the lion will eat grass and straw instead of preying on other animals should be a sign to us. The sign is that the curse that has been placed on creation because of sin has been lifted. No longer will creation seek to fight and subjugate and kill each other. Because something new has come. Something better. A new heavens and a new earth.
We, as believers, recognize this as heaven, or the promised new creation to come. And we see in both of these passages that Isaiah references God’s “holy mountain.” So, based on Isaiah 65, we can clearly equate God’s holy mountain with heaven, or the new creation.
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
There, in heaven, animals will no longer hurt or destroy. So, God’s holy mountain will be in heaven, but His “holy mountain” is also described as Mt. Sinai and as Mt. Zion. In Psalm 48, the psalmist calls God’s holy mountain the “city of our God.” So, what becomes clear to us is that the “holy mountain” of God is the place where God dwells. Whether Sinai or Zion or in the new creation, God’s holy mountain is His home.
But Ezekiel sheds some additional light on this home of God. In speaking prophecy against the King of Tyre, who is a figurehead for the power that would become known as Satan, God gives these words to Ezekiel:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE x3]
Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God:
“You were the signet of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. (/)
You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone was your covering,
sardius, topaz, and diamond,
beryl, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle;
and crafted in gold were your settings
and your engravings.
On the day that you were created
they were prepared. (/)
You were an anointed guardian cherub.
I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God;
in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
Here, Ezekiel is speaking the words of God about things that happened in Eden. And he describes it as the “holy mountain” of God.
(Beat)
God’s holy mountain has always been and always will be. It is His royal throne room. It is His holy garden known as Eden. So, not only will this Messiah be bringing a new creation full of justice and righteousness, but He will, in effect, be restoring Eden to God’s original design.
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
That is what the new creation is. It is a complete restoration job. The curse will end, not only from humanity but from all creation, and the Messiah will make all things new. Jesus, Himself, tells this to John in Revelation 21.
The original design was for Adam and Eve to “fill the earth.” They were supposed to extend the reaches of the garden to every corner of the globe. But, they chose to disobey instead. That’s how we first got into this mess with curses and weeds and cold blowing snow…
(Beat)
But, the Messiah, He will fulfill Adam’s original calling. He, along with His followers, will fill the earth with the knowledge of the Lord.
Jesus has fulfilled this prophecy as the promised shoot of Jesse. He completed His mission on earth and has been raised from the grave, where He defeated sin and death, and He has been given all authority over heaven and earth. There is only one thing left for Him to do.
[POINT 3 SLIDE]
Rest and Rule (v 10)
Jesus has sat down at the right hand of the Father. It is there, from God’s “holy mountain” that Jesus will rule and reign. Look at what Isaiah has to say in verse 10:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
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.
Isaiah says that this root of Jesse, which has sprouted—this new perfect and awesome cedar—will rest and the nations will come to investigate. That, as the Messiah sits in judgment, bringing justice and righteousness to a broken and perverse world in anticipation of the one to come, the nations will want to hear the news.
Church, it is our job—as the people of the Messiah—to give the nations the news. Jesus is sitting at rest while He rules and reigns from the “holy mountain” of God in heaven now. But, in anticipation of the new creation to come, where Jesus will restore Eden, we are called to practice now the justice and righteousness to come. We are called to bring justice and righteousness to the nations by sharing the good news about Jesus. That is what the gospel is all about.
I want to close us, this morning, by going back to the Septuagint. Again, this is the Greek version of the Old Testament that Jesus would have studied from while on earth.
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
And in that day there will be the root of Jesse and the one who rises up to rule nations; nations will put their hope in him, and his rest will be honor.
Jesus would have known Isaiah’s prophecy this way. That, as He fulfilled His mission on earth, He would rise up to rule the nations. Not by dominating them on earth, but by conquering the spiritual powers and resting in heaven. That completed act of Jesus resting and ruling is our hope. And Isaiah says that the “nations will put their hope in him” also.
Church, it is our job to proclaim the hope of the gospel.
God created for 6 days and then rested.
Jesus conquered sin and death and then rested.
The church must fulfill its mission of following the Holy Spirit in proclaiming the Hope of Jesus and building the church. Everyday we should be working towards that goal. And our hope is on the fulfillment of Isaiah 11. Our hope is in the Messiah’s return and the coming of the new creation.
[PREVIEW SLIDE]
Application
Advent time is here. We wait for the celebration of the birth of the Messiah. And we wait for the coming of the King. I pray that you would find more hope, peace, joy, and love this Christmas season. But I pray more that you would help others find it. Help them find hope by giving them the news of the King. Give them hope by introducing them to Jesus.
Invitation
If you are not a follower of Jesus, this is time for you to find the only thing worth putting your hope in. Jesus came so that you might be redeemed and restored into a relationship with the Almighty Creator God. He offers you hope today by calling you to believe the truth of His good news. And the good news is this:
You don’t have to try harder.
You don’t have to be better.
You don’t have to save yourself.
He’s done all the work for you. And He invites you to come and be at peace while He rules and reigns from heaven.
CLOSE IN PRAYER
CLOSING HYMN
CONGREGATIONAL BLESSING
