Week 3 – Joy “The Branch Will Bear Fruit"

Intro

In Amsterdam, on 23 August 2010, a fierce storm snapped the great horse-chestnut tree that had stood behind the Anne Frank House for almost 170 years. Anne had looked at that tree from the Secret Annex and written in her diary, “From my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver…” When the tree crashed to the ground, people around the globe wept. They left flowers, poems, candles at the stump. It felt like a second death for Anne, as if the last living witness to her hope had been silenced.

Thirteen years later, almost to the day, another beloved tree fell. Along Hadrian’s Wall in northern England stood the the one everyone called the Robin Hood tree, framed perfectly in that dip in the hills, photographed millions of times. One night in September 2023, someone walked up with a chainsaw and cut it down for no reason anyone can understand. The nation went into shock. People drove hundreds of miles just to stand at the stump and cry.

Two trees. Two stumps. Two stories that looked completely finished. But then… something happened.

Within weeks of the Anne Frank tree falling, tiny green shoots began pushing up from the stump a Sapling descendants of that very tree now grow in front of the White House, at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, in schoolyards across the world. The tree that saw Anne’s hope did not die; it multiplied.

And the Robin Hood tree? In the spring of 2024, the National Trust found strong new shoots rising straight out of the eight-foot stump. By 2025 those shoots were taller than a person. They decided: we will let one of them become the new tree. The very stump that vandals meant to end has become the cradle of resurrection.

A shoot from the stump. A branch from the roots.This is the picture God gave Isaiah seven centuries before Jesus was born. The mighty royal line of David, the house of Jesse, looked like a chopped-down tree. Empire after empire had taken its axe to Israel. By the time Jesus arrived, the throne of David was a memory, the kingdom a province, the family tree a stump in the dirt.

Out of death, life. Out of ruin, royalty. Out of what everyone thought was over, a King. The same joy that broke over Amsterdam when those first green leaves appeared, the same shout that went up along Hadrian’s Wall when the shoots rose higher than the rubble, that is the joy of Christmas and Good Friday and Easter morning rolled into one.

But there is a Shoot from the stump of Jesse, and His name is Jesus, and He bears fruit that will never fail, and His government will never end. God specializes in shoots from stumps. And the joy that comes when the green appears is the same joy that filled the world the first time a branch from Jesse’s roots bore fruit for the healing of the nations.

Joy comes from the branch that will bear fruit that comes from the dead stump. The dead stump brings sorrow, the tree is gone but the branch brings joy knowing that one day what once seemed lost and dead is fruitful and will come to pass. an eternal throne

Chrsitmas is a time of Joy, for many reasons we can have joy even though it may not seem like we can be to joyful. Our joy comes not from our circumstance but because we have a king that has come and will come. He came to bring righteoussness to those who believe.

The Stump

Isaiah 11:1 CSB

Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

We start out wiht a stump. We talk about Christmas being a time of Joy but what we start with is a stump. I was thinking about the stump I was preparing for this and the amount of people it seems like who are facing what Joy they should have with the stump they do have. Let me elaborate.

We live in a world of pain and suffering, we live in a world of grief and loss. I know there are some of you that deal with loss everyday and the pain never really goes away. I never knew my moms parents well, but i grew up on the same yard as my dads parents so I knew them very well. My dads mom passed away shortly before Abigail was born. Even after 14 years he still isnt over it though He knows she is in heaven now. The grief still hits him. I guess 60 years of marriage will do that.

So in a situation like that how do we find joy? The stump metaphoprically seems dead.

At the time this verse was written, it was a warning of what would happen if the Israelites kept going down the path that they where currently headed. When Jesus was born the dynasty of the promised king had been reduced to a mere dead stump. The people where under Roman rule, things where looking bad. What cause was there to have joy anyways. The dynsaty had been been without a king for nearly 600 years.

They where lost it seemed like and the promise of new life, of jpoy that could be had, a ruling king who would solve their problemsbut after 600 years what casue was there for joy in the midst of that.

like that we greive, we deal with loss and sin that has ravaged the world. I am not saying do not drieve. Greif is a part of life but we do not grieve as those who have no hope. Right now we are in the dark, we are dealing with sin and grief but we have hope, the hope of the light of the world that has come through our saviour Jesus Christ.

The Branch will Bear fruit

The joy we can have is because the branch will bear fruit we are told, but what is this fruit we are told? and when can we expect to see it. So while we grieve, while we struggle with sin and darkness we remember the joy that comes from this simple promise. A shoot has grown from a seemingly dead stump and because of that we can rejoice! This prophecy is echoed in the book of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 33:14–16 CSB

“Look, the days are coming”— this is the Lord’s declaration— “when I will fulfill the good promise that I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a Righteous Branch to sprout up for David, and he will administer justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and this is what she will be named: The Lord Is Our Righteousness.

Life may seem dead, the world around us lost but we do not have to fear because it is not completley dead, there is life in the birth of Jesus.

but following this idea we go back to Isaiah 11:2

Isaiah 11:2 CSB

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.

Divinely endowed, Jesus reign is by the power of God for He is God. We read about the different aspects of God that will come with the messiah on His birth. These aspects remind me of the names that where given to Him back in chapter 9. We have been given gifts from the spirit that resemble the aspects of the character of our God. They reflect what we are supposed to be, though imperfect. But Jesus has these in perfection. It is what we have to look forward to when we go to see Jesus again.

Jesus purpose was for the Glory of God and so will His second coming. This first bit deals with what the reign of the messiah will look like. The fear of the Lord will dictate Jesus reign. Wayne Grudem describes fear of the Lord and how it starts the wisdom of God well in this way. If we fear dishonoring God or displeasing him, and if we fear his fatherly discipline, then we will have the motivation that makes us want to follow his ways and live according to his wise commands.

His rule of us will look to and search our hearts. We will not be judged and ruled by our outward appearance but by what is in our hearts, how we have feared the Lord. This should cause us to want to live our lives for Him because He will judge us based on all we have done, nothing can be hidden from the Lord as much as we would try.

Isaiah 11:3–4 CSB

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.

Isaiah 11:5–6 CSB

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.

Righteoussness and Joy

Because of these things we can have joy. The wisdom of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, the strength counsel and knowledge of the Lord and come through the birth of Jesus. His righteoussness will come and everlasting peace. Some of these things have started now. Like the faithfulness and righteoussness of the Lord.

Though all seems lost, we can have joy because of the coming kingdom of God. The shoot coming out of the dead shows us that there is something great coming. we are declared as having a right standing before God when we give our lives to Jesus, and when we do that we are promised something great to come.

this brings me to the NT. When Jesus was alize talking to the religious leaders he dealt with this idea as well. He was the root of Jesse that was promised, the joy in the midst of pain and he reminded them and us that it looks forward to something greater, something more then our salvationIn our grief and darkness we look forward to the fruit that comes from the divine branch of the messiah.

John 2:19–21 CSB

Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.” Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

ANd that was what Jesus did, but what he said also looked forward again to something that was to come which we went through in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 5:3–5 CSB

But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even to look in it. I wept and wept because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or even to look in it. Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Look, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

The only one worthy to open the scrolls to set in motion the coming of the kingdom of God, the Temple of God, which is Jesus. Solomon’s temple fell. The second temple was a disappointment. The prophets kept promising a greater Temple-King. Joy explodes when we realize Jesus is that Temple. The kigdom of God has come and is going to come. If you have Jesus in Your heart you are going to be a part of that Kingdom.

Rejoice for the Kingdom of God is at hand

Advent Joy: The third candle is lit because the living dwelling-place of God has come in the flesh.

You do have a reason to rejoice when we remember that though we greive it is not as those who have no hope. A MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. It seems plain to me that just as there will be a literal return of Christ, there will also be a literal new heaven and new earth over which Christ will reign; it is to that kingdom that this chapter is looking forward. Apart from the explicit biblical statements, I believe the logic of creation calls for a time when God’s creatures will experience creation as it was meant to be.

we rejoice for the Kingdom of God has come and will come, we are a part of it. Though all may seem lost, it is not all lost for the branch that has sprouted from what seemed like death (the messiah Jesus) and has borunce fruit, righteoussness, wisdom, a fear of the Lord and a future Kingdom. Come be a part of that kingdom.

We also must bear fruit

The present kingdom. At the same time, this is not an excuse for Christians to sit on their hands and wait for deus ex machina to come and deliver us from this mess. Clearly Christ’s kingdom has both come and is yet to come.10 In the sense I have just been speaking of, it is yet to come. But in another sense it has come. The Holy Spirit is available in his fullness to every believer, and he will enable us to know God in a way that changes our individual behavior. That the sinful nature in humanity has proven much more intractable than the church has believed in its more optimistic moments does not justify each of us avoiding full participation in all that Christ died to make available to us.

We can know God in ways that will forever change our thinking and acting, and that change can affect our communities in positive ways. We can participate with Christ as he seeks to bring right to the needy and justice to the poor. We can surrender our “rights” to him and thus any need to aggressively claim what is ours for ourselves, knowing he will supply our needs better than we ever can ourselves (Eph. 3:20–21; Phil. 4:19).

In our own times we have seen the beginning of the fulfillment of the promises of this chapter as the Jewish people have been gathered into Israel from all over the world. Furthermore, it is interesting that the kingdom of Jordan, which encompasses ancient Ammon, Moab, and Edom, is at peace with Israel. To be sure, most modern Israelis give God no credit for their return, which is a dangerous position for them to be in. However, it is obvious that God is not finished with his plans for his people, and we may look forward with excitement to see exactly how he will fulfill his promises.