Desire the Messiah
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The fruit of Jesse? v1 -9
Pray
It’s the latest BBC nature documentary and the camera pans across the great tree tops of a great forrest..
Tress great in number, height, spread and strength. A forrest like the world has never known.
The forrest is the Assyrian Nation. of 800BC or so.
The mighty forest has outgrown it’s own lands and it has turned on a smaller weaker forests all around.
But one particular surrounding forrest is of interest in this documentary.
A forrest that used to be the pride of the earth itslef,
but turned it’s back on the forrest ranger and tried to go their own ways.
This now smaller and weaker forrest is Judah.
But the Great forrest has underestimated the rejected Forrest Ranger of Judah.
Speaking of Assyria in Isa 10v15
Does the axe raise itself above him who swings it,
or the saw boast against him who uses it?
As if a rod were to wield him who lifts it up,
or a club brandish him who is not wood!
Assyria (as we know from History) will also fall.
The splendour of his forests and fertile fields
it will completely destroy,
as when a sick man wastes away.
And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few
that a child could write them down.
isa 10 18
The splendour of his forests and fertile fields
it will completely destroy,
as when a sick man wastes away.
The great forrests destiny is determined in the prophesies of Isaiah, never to grow again.
The ranger (God in case you’re not following the imagery) has laid it to waste.
But they appear to have devastated the smaller weaker Forrest of Judah before it went.
That forrest too has been cut to the ground, burnt and poisoned in the these prophesies.
And so we watch our TV screens, we see what’s left of these 2 formerly great forests,
We search across the wasteland in dramatic David Attenborough style filmography,
drones sweeping across, filming, searching for life.
Anything other than weeds or thorns,
Nothing.
Assyria is gone,
Their rejection and attack on the forrest of the forrest ranger has become their downfall.
But Judah is also gone,
Their rejection of the ranger themselves has been their downfall.
wait.....
and the camera rolls round, it slows and zooms in on a chopped and burnt stump, right in the heart of the original forrest...
11v1
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
ISa 11
Isn’t it an extraordinary picture of God’s great love for His people.
God calls Israel to be His people,
yet they reject him.
They bring judgment and punishment on themselves,
at the hand of God,
so that they might face extinction.
Or so it seems,
so that there is nothing left,
other than to rely on and hope for a Messiah,
A shoot from Jesses stump,
Jesus,
A helpless baby,
Born into a royal line, yes, but one that had been so tarnished and abliterated in history that at the time Jesus was born no-one would recognise him as a king.
That’s proabbly why Isaiah uses Jesse’s stump (the father of King David),
rather than David’s stump
- to emphasis that he is of humble origin,
before the kingly reign of David and then the son’s of David.
And perhaps also to seperate the Ultimate messiah as equal to (or greater than) King David.
In the missery of sin and rebelion, judgement and destruction,
a shoot springs up into a baren wasteland of humanity.
Jesus is born.
No wonder the angels said they had good news!
No wonder we say ‘Happy Christmas’,
For good and happy is the brith of the shoot of Jesse’s stump,
The only hope in all the world is here.
And look, he’s not just another king in the line of David,
This time he is the one!
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord—
The Holy Spirirt will give him all wisdom, understanding, consel, power, knowledge and fear of the Lord.
And look, he wont be dependant on human limitations for his justice and life.
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash round his waist.
3-
Forget eyes and ears to determin righteousness, goodness, justice for all.
Jesus is righteousness!
He is the standard by which he brings justice and goodness to the earth.
He doesn’t need to see and hear to decide, he is the living embodiment of righteousness,
So now,
now we see the Messiah is here,
Now the good news is here,
Now righteousness itslef walks the earth to bring all things to justice,
Now in his great might he will destroy and slay the wicked.
PAUSE.
But aren’t we the wicked?
Wont he slay us? Its a fair question for the remnant to ask at the time of Isaiah, and for us to ask today.
Is this really good news?
That Jesus will come as righteousness and judge the world as it deserves?
I think it is.
The people waiting in the OT for a Messiah are not perfect people.
They are people who know they need rescueing!
That’s why they are waiting for a messiah! A saviour!
Someone to make them right with God again.
Someone who will know their heart IS for God,
even when their actions so often let them down.
People who have seen the deforestation of humanity and cry out to God,
please save us, forgive us.
Who cry, bring justice on the world and deliver me for I know you care.
And care he does.
Jesus, will restore his people,
all those who ‘desire the Messiah’,
not those who ‘deserve the Messiah’,
Not least because ‘Deserve the Messiah doesn’t rhyme’, but also becasue no-one deserves the Messiah.
.
But they must “desire the MEssiah’
Even though they don’t ‘deserve to preserve’.
(It’s Christmas - we need some poems don’t we).
ANd so, now we know we can be saved,
That Jesus is the only hope in this fallen forrest of a world,
That Jesus is empowered with all things good by the Spirirt of God,
That he is Righteousness itslef,
and does not rely on fallible human sight and ears,
That he will bring ultimate justice and goodness,
Look at the result,
As the shoots grows, the trees around are restored the forrest restablishes itself in the power of the Messiaianic King,
His Sirirt filled power,
His righteousness and justice,
streams begin to flow,
grass covers the fields, animals return
paradice is restored,
And the Camera zooms into v6
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
isa 11 6-
6
Isn’t this a beautiful picture.
It’s a glorious picture of eternity,
The paradise of the Garden of Eden restored:
What a joy that will be when Jesus returns.
But remember,
as we saw 2 weeks ago in ,
the promises of God are so sure they are a present reality for the believer.
We enjoy this picture now as a church, atleast symbolically.
It also has to be a symbolic picture of the church today.
In the time between the birth of the shoot of Jesse, and his final fulfilment of his eternal riegn.
Why?
We have peace, a security,
wars and terror do not need to worry or confound us.
Each other’s sin need not drive us apart,
for we know we are all eternally righteous in Christ,
The lion lies down with the lamb.
The young child can put it’s hand in the viper’s nest,
In Christ, we are eternally secure.
In Christ, the earth is already full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
Because this picture is the result of people seeing Jesus (the shoot of Jesse) and returning back to God:
That is good news!
isa 11
If you lived in Isaiah’s time then all this imagery would be wonderful, but hard to grasp.
v10-16 If you lived in Isaiah’s time then all this imagery would be wonderful, but hard to grasp.
We’ve just focused on the far, ‘end-times’ fulfilment in v1-9.
And then , as if to make sure we believe that the end-times promise is trustworthy, we’re given details about the near horizon fulfilment in v10-16.
As if to say, when you see this happen, you can be sure that Jesus the ultimate Messiah will also happen!
They lived before the Messiah had come, their enemies were on their doorstep,
And so Isaiah moves on to couch the promise in practical terms.
Almost a ‘what would this look like in todays world:
Well it would look glorious to God’s people;
Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish,
and Judah’s enemies will be cut off;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
nor Judah hostile towards Ephraim.
13-
Ephraim (also known as Israel) would be friends again with Judah - the 2 kingdoms restored.
They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west;
together they will plunder the people to the east.
They will lay hands on Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites will be subject to them.
Their enemies would be destroyed and overthrown.
But - they are not to make the mistake they have made before
- this is not s all about national pride or geography, race or even their favourite sandwich fillings.
This prophesy,
this promise of hope and joy,
Well it’s all about Jesus.
We wont go through all the details today,
but we will see one more great encouragement for how God loves the world.
In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.
In that day - TODAY - the age of the church,
Did you notice,
this is not talking about he remnant Jews.
This is no longer an issure just for Judah and Ephraim,
The phrase ‘nations’ means everyone around the world, all nations.
Jesus, the root of Jesse - he is the churches banner - of this present age - promised 3000 years ago.
nations will rally to Jesus.
Jesus will give rest and peace.
All things in Jesus are glorious.
this is not talking about he remnant Jews.
This is no longer an issure just for Judah and Ephraim,
The phrase ‘nations’ means everyone around the world, not just Jews.
Jesus will call in the world.
His church will hold a banner over their heads that says
‘The root of Jesse is here - come a join Him - the rest will be glorious!’
look at v11, that iss addressed to the Jewish remnant
In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.
Jesus will attract all God’s people back to himself- Jew and gentile, from every nation.
Gathering to the banner of Jesus.
And Jesus will make it easy:
isa 11
The Lord will dry up
the gulf of the Egyptian sea;
with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand
over the Euphrates River.
He will break it up into seven streams
so that men can cross over in sandals.
The mighty geographical features that made movement into God’s promised land difficult will be as easy to cross as jumping in puddle.
Jesus is accessible!
David Attenbourgh wouldn’t like v16,
luke 2 10
but it’s wonderfully encouraging for all who need to find Jesus this Christmas,
for people what are wanting to reach the banner His church carries,
for people who want to be part of this new and great forrest kingdom
There will be a highway for the remnant of his people
that is left from Assyria,
as there was for Israel
when they came up from Egypt.
All are
All are welcome,
Jesus is calling.
And a traffic jam free motorway will lead to Jesus!
The sign posts all point forward to ‘Jesus’.
The slip road is in front of you and it says
No entry to the proud, to the arrogant, to those who think they deserve the Messiah.
Spirit of the Lord
wisdom and understanding, councel and power, knowledge and fear of the Lord
It simply says:
This way, for all who ‘desire the messiah’
Judge with righteousness (not human sight and hearing)
Righteousness belt and faithfulness sash
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
Knowledge of the Lord = peace - Perhaps we don’t have peace becasue our human sight and hearing isn’t righteously soverighn and all knowing - but it will be.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
PRAY