The Branch That Bears Fruit

New Testament Scripture

John 15:5–7 KJV 1900

5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Sermon Text

Isaiah 11:1–9 KJV 1900

1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 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 of the fear of the Lord; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, Neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, And reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. 5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, And faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, And the leopard shall lie down with the kid; And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; Their young ones shall lie down together: And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, And the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.

Prayer

Introduction

If you were to stand on the deck at my parent’s house, you would see in the distance a couple of mountains each having a long ridge that extends out. Both of these ridges look to be roughly around the same size, and from the perspective of where you’re standing on my parents’ deck it looks like the ridges overlap. (Pause) One day, several years ago, my dad and I were sitting on the deck eating lunch and he spoke up and said, “Hey let’s go for a walk, and see if there’s anything on those two ridges.” So, we grabbed a couple bottled waters and a backpack and headed out. The climb up the side of the mountain was tough because we had to wade through an ivy thicket and crawl over some fairly good-sized rocks, but when we reached the top of the first ridge, we were very surprised! The second overlapping ridge that looked like it was right there next to the first one was really a good distance away. In fact, there was a valley between the two ridges. (Pause) You’re Bible is constructed more like than what you might realize. You see, in the OT the prophets saw the fact that one day the Messiah was going to come, but what they couldn’t see was that his coming and all he was going to do was going to be divided into two parts, with a really long space in the middle. Years ago, theologians called this prophetic perspective. It’s with that in mind that we need to approach the first few verses of Isaiah 11. You see, unlike some of the other books of the OT that focus in on certain aspects of what was either happening or going to happen to God’s people in the near future, the book of Isaiah carries you from Zion in the Old Creation to Zion in the New Creation. In fact, Baptist Bible scholar Peter Gentry says that the book of Isaiah does this seven times over, each forming a cycle.[1] When you read Isaiah and you come to chapter eleven, chapter ten ends with the mighty Assyrian army breathing down the neck of the people, and then, without any word or textual marker that he’s doing so, Isaiah carries you far into the future beyond the Assyrians to the coming of the Messiah. However, before he does so he says in Isaiah 10:33 and 34 he says, “33Behold, the Lord, The Lord of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. 34And he will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron [an axe], and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.” What the prophet Isaiah could not see and understand was that there was going to be a massive gap of time between 10:34 and 11:1, there was a valley if you will, between the ridges, but there would certainly come a Branch who would bear fruit. (Pause) That brings us to our text today, chapter eleven, verses one through nine where Isaiah shows us the character of the coming (Branch) king and his kingdom. The text that we’re going to take a look at is divided in the following manner, vv.1-5 present us with the character of the king (the branch that bears fruit), and vv.6-9, the character of his kingdom. Let’s take a look at vv.1-5.

[1] Gentry & Wellum: Kingdom Through Covenant, 490.

The Character of the King (Branch)

Isaiah 11:1–5 KJV 1900

1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 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 of the fear of the Lord; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, Neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, And reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. 5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, And faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

The first thing I want you to notice about what Isaiah says here in these first five verses is that the “Rod/Shoot” will come from the “stem/stump” of Jesse. That’s interesting because Jesus is described in the NT as being the Son of David. So, why here does Isaiah say that this “rod/shoot” is going to come from Jesse? Why not say he’s going to come from David? Well, I’ll tell you why; the point is that we don’t simply need David back. David, as good and amazing of a king as he was, he was simply an earthly king just like anyone else, and he could not do what needed to be done to save God’s people, nor could his son, King Solomon, which is why you never really hear of Solomon that much. No, God’s people were in need of a whole new king, one that could (and can) save to the utter most! Notice also that v.1 tells us that this “Branch” from Jesse will “grow” in other words, one of his main characteristics is that “he will bear fruit (ESV)”. The big question however, that Isaiah might have asked was, “How?”. That’s where v.2 should begin to give us some clarity. Note that in v.2 “The Spirit” is mentioned four times and as the verse progresses each element builds on the one that comes before. Verse two starts out by saying that “The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him …” Now, that was certainly true of David, but with this person, with this king (the Branch) the activity of the Spirit will be threefold in its fullness. This king will have “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, and the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD”. The fact is that in order to have “wisdom and understanding”, along with “counsel and might”, you’ve got to have “knowledge and the fear of the LORD”. Church, in the NT, Jesus is described as having all of these to the utter most; they are part and parcel of his Messianic character, but it doesn’t stop there because vv.3-5 give an expansion on a number of different aspects of his character. Verse three says “… He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth …” Verse 5 says, “5Righteousness shall be the girdle (belt) of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reigns (waste).” No king or ruler that any of us could ever think of has ever ruled like this, no one, nor will they! But the big question that this brings up is when, “When will this happen; when will it ultimately manifest itself in human history so that everyone sees it?” (Pause) I think we’re given a little insight into that question at the end of verse four, and it’s at this point that things begin to get really interesting. The end of v.4 says “… he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” When you compare what Isaiah says her with what’s said in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 concerning the second coming of Christ the similarities are telling. In 2 Thess. 2:8 Paul writes, “8 And then shall the Wicked (that’s the antichrist: the Lawless one) be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit (breath) of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” What Isaiah writes has similarities with Revelation 19 as well, which is a passage concerning the second coming. So, considering these similarities between texts, I’d say we’d be on safe ground to say that the character of the Messiah will be on full display in his rule when what Isaiah writes at the end of v.4 comes to pass, and that seems to happen at and right after the second coming of Christ. This, church, is what the prophet could not see; Isaiah couldn’t differentiate between the first and second comings. We, however, are privy to this information because we’ve got the completed canon of Scripture. (Pause) So, one day, this “rod/shoot” from the “stem/stump” of Jesse, who we know as Jesus, will put these characteristics on display for everyone to see, but in the meantime, this Branch will bear fruit in those who put their faith in his saving work.

(Appeal) The question we need to answer is this, am I part of the fruit he’s bearing now, and will I be among those who see his amazing characteristics come to light when he returns to consummate his kingdom. Do you/we believe Jesus is who he says he is? Do you believe that this little baby we’re getting ready to celebrate was born of a virgin, grew into a man, died a brutal death on a Roman cross, was buried, and then three days later came back to life? Do you believe that he ascended to the right hand of the Father, and that he’s biding his time and waiting to return to judge the quick and the dead? Do you believe that he, and only he is the only way you’ll ever get to heaven? Do you believe that he is the Branch that bears fruit?

The Character of His Kingdom

Isaiah 11:6–9 KJV 1900

6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, And the leopard shall lie down with the kid; And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; Their young ones shall lie down together: And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, And the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.

Let’s look now at vv.6-9. These verses are some of the most controversial in all Scripture because they deal with the concept of the “Messianic Kingdom”, and theologians disagree as to when the conditions given in these verses will happen. Some say the conditions of vv.6-9 will happen in the new heaven and earth, (amillennialism) while others believe they will occur in a period of time following the second coming known as the millennium (premillennialism). Frankly, I’ll tell you that both of these views have much to commend them, and I think both have aspects of truth, but let’s be honest, each of the views has its problems as well, and we need to bear in mind that good Christians disagree over how to answer this question, and that disagreement doesn’t mean they’re a theological liberal or an unbeliever. When you stand before God, He’s not going to ask you what your opinion of the Millennium was. No, he’s going to ask you what you did with his Son, Jesus because that, my friend, is what saves you! (Yes, I have an opinion about which view is correct, but I’m not going to share it, even though I know some of you want me to!) That said, what can we say about the consummation of the kingdom when the king returns? Vv.6-9 give us a brief description of the character of the kingdom. Church, these verses describe a time that is so far superior to the present time in which we now live, that it’s honestly hard to even imagine. (Pause) “6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, And the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” Has anyone here ever seen anything like what’s described there? The last time I checked, I wouldn’t be too comfortable allowing any of my children to take a friendly walk with the neighborhood lion. Or verses seven and eight, “7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.” Friends, I’m afraid to allow my son to reach into the woodpile because I’m terrified that he’ll get tattooed by that copperhead I saw crawling around it, but these verses say that there is coming a time when a little child is going to stick their hand in the snake’s den and not get bitten! Now, notice what Isaiah says next, “9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Now, I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty radical to me. Certainly, in the time we live now, missionaries carry the message of the gospel to some of the most far-flung places on earth, but v.9 says that when the conditions described here persist the “entire earth” will know who God is, and simply put, that hasn’t happened yet. But when it happens, I want to see and be part of it! But see, here’s the amazing thing to me about it; all of this, everything I’ve described to you, it was given by God the Father to a helpless little baby born in a stinking, filthy, and unsanitary stable almost 2000 years ago, and in order for me to see and be part of it I’ve got to believe that that little baby grew up an died for my sins, and so do you! It’s so simple that my daughter and my son who are both less than ten-years-old believe it, but some of the most intelligent minds in human history have refused to accept it, and I won’t sugar coat it for you; their rejection of the gospel will cost them an eternity in hell! Is that what you want? Why not be part of the fruit that the Branch bears and be part of the Kingdom! All you have to do is believe! (Pause)

Conclusion

In closing, in these verses we’ve looked at you’ve got a description of the character of the Branch that bears fruit, Jesus, that tells me he’s not going to miss anything, everything we’ve done will be uncovered when he returns. You’ve also got a brief description of the character of his kingdom which is only for those who claim him as their Savior. What are you going to do with this little baby who’s birth we’re getting ready to celebrate; what are you going to do with Jesus?

Invitation

Prayer