The Christmas Branch
Notes
Transcript
Chapter 9 and 10 0f Isaiah Gives a word of Judgement. God was going to give the Assyrians the axe to chop down God’s people, Israel. Often times this happens in our lives, when we enter known sin, God uses outside sources to press us so that we know that we took an alternate rout off of God’s plan. God left everything desolate and dying. No living creatures or growing life. 2020 may feel like that too many of us. We may be experiencing a dark place where we feel alone and abandoned. God God...
He presses, but doesn’t crush. He allows us to know when we are wrong, but this week is a place of hope. He positioned Israel in the exact place the needed to be and then he ushered them into ch 11. In the midst of hopelessness and abandon comes
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
Hope:
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.
If walk with us through the book of revelation 2 weeks ago we talked about no one being able to take the scroll of God’s plan from his hand and open it. John weeped because there wasn’t a champion, but the slayn lamb went up to be the champion, took the scroll and began to orchestrate the will of God.
AS we climb toward Christmas coming out of the year of pandemic and misery we are looking for hope, but I think God placed his people in the right place to see the hope spring fourth out of the dead stumps. As we celebrate the Christmas season we are given the hope of a Champion.
Here’s the thing:
Our lives are like a story- there is tension, there is drama, failure there is joy and there is success. Sometimes the chapter ends like a good hallmark movie where the girl gets the guy and both of them live like million airs while working at Mcdonalds.
Sometimes the chapter ends in dispair and need either way there is always a Champion or hero that turns it around.
Every story answers three questions 1) How are things supposed to be done 2) What is wrong with the way things are 3) What’s supposed to happen to make things right?
This season often has us reflecting. I find it well played that in one month we experience three significant events.
The opening of one year
The closing of anther year
Birth of a savior to help us correct the past and look forward to the future.
We go into the new year planning on how things are supposed to be and reflecting on everything we did wrong in the closing year.
If we go back to Genesis 1 we see the perfect will of God where we walk in harmony with God and creation. It’s the way the things are supposed to be. Then in Genesis 3 sin entered and brought separation into world. And Isaiah tell us about the Champion who brings back the harmony God intended.
We know V1 one tell us that the Champion will come out of the branch of Jesse—the line of David. But if you drop down to V 10 it tells us that the Champion will also be the root of Jesse
Here we see the full man of Jesus and the Full God of Jesus. He derived from the line, but he was what supported the line from the beginning. He came to bear fruit, but it is Him who also gives the nutrients.
Then V 2
We see where this power derives from-The Holy Spirit of God. We have this fully human baby born in a manger, in the line of Jesse, being prepared to bring the fruit—what fruit?
Wisdom, Understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord.
His whole desire is to lead people into a relationship with God-through Holiness. That’s why Christmas is dawned with white- the purity of God, but also Red the blood of God because without first the sacrifice we could never obtain the holiness required to be in the presence of God.
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.
This Champion is the Holy Judge. In the NT after Jesus’ resurrection do you know that the bible refers to Jesus as the First fruits? This child to be born is the example set forth so that we too can bear fruit, when you are reading these Characteristics of Jesus you are reading the Characteristics of how we are supposed to live our life.
The reality of Jesus’ birth isn’t jut that a baby was born turned into a man and conquered death, but that we are supposed to follow that same path and calling in our life. The star that lead the wise men-Those who seek Jesus, but cannot find him—that is supposed to be us. The star that leads people to Jesus. Those who connect what was to what could be.
This Christmas branch would flip things on it’s head. Judah only knew war. It only knew fighting for it’s freedom, but Jesus is about to show them the world of Christmas Branch.
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.
The Christmas branch brings peace into a Chaotic world. 2020 closes as Chaos, but this reminder is that we can start 2021 in peace. Jesus didn’t bring an end to war and struggle, atleast not yet, but he is ushering in peace into our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And the Christmas branch brings us this promise.
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 that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.
He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them.
And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the River with his scorching breath, and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals.
And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.
What does this mean for us: We need to see the healing that is taking place—the absolute healing tht is striking to the core of someone of Israel’s deepest issues. Christmas is properly positioned at the closing of one year and the opening of the next as it need to bring healing to the past and hope to the future. The healing power that Isaiah is prophesying over Israel is given to us through the power of Jesus through the presence of The H0ly Spirit. This is a healing that will bring life out of death. That will produce fruit in even the grimiest of places. This Holiday season-This Holy Season we need to allow God close out the pains of the past and allow God to bring healing into the core of who we are and if we do this we will begin to see the fruit from the root of JEsse spring into our lives. We will be able to see the peace that Isaiah is prophesying over Israel. We will be able to enter 2021 refreshed and renewed, but first we must allow The Christmas branch to end our sorrows and open us to peace.