SaveMe
Notes
Transcript
I do not know if anyone else has seen that commercial, but what I love about it is it tells about this event that happened in 1914 during the first World war where it started as soldiers just singing and eventually ended with them coming out of the trenches, exchanging gifts, for a short time of peace.
Peace in the middle of what people believe was one of the worse wars in history.
And I think the beautiful thing about this story is there is something about the Christmas story that inspires peace.
And if you have been with us we have been in this series called “Unto Us” where we are looking at all of these Old Testement passages that look forward to Christ coming as a baby.
And if you were with us last week you probably remember that we were told all of these names that Jesus was given and one of those names was prince of peace.
And we have discussed this throughout the series, but it would have been really hard to believe that the savior called the prince of peace was coming into a world like that of the Old Testament
Because their world was plagued with violence, the context of the passage today is they believed their nation was about to get taken over, and people are crying out for a savior
And really throughout the Bible and if we are honest one of the biggest themes of our lives is actually we are a people looking for a savior.
And sometimes they end up chasing after God and other times they end up chasing after other things like false idols or something that we think will fufill us
but a beautiful theme throughout the Bible is that God continues to pursue the people even when they are not pursuing Him.
And that in the middle of our messy broken world, the prince of peace is coming.
And so we are going to be jumping into our passage which is Isaiah 11:1-9
And we are starting in verse one because in the middle of people chasing all these different saviors, God speaks through a man named Isaiah and tells them how God is chasing them.
And so we will just be starting in the first verse. It says this:
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
So the focus of this first verse it centers on a stump. When you think of a stump what do you think of?
Something thats dead right? You never go wow look at this beautiful stump, usually its rotting, have bugs living in it, and its dead.
but whats interesting is this passage tells us out of this dead stump something is growing.
A small branch or shoot is coming out of the stump. this is what Isaiah is talking about. (Look at the picture above)
Because what will sometimes happen is a tree gets cut down and so when you walk by it things look dead but then often times the roots will still be alive
In fact these root systems in some plants can go miles.
so what happens is these small branches or shoots come out of the stump.
And so I want you to get this picture Isaiah is painting, because He is going sometimes our lives look like this stump, things look dead, they look like they are going no where.
If you remember a couple weeks ago Isaiah compared two nations to burning stumps, and so He might even be playing off of the Chaos that is happening when this was written.
But the beautiful thing is that Isaiah is going but what if God is moving in the middle of this in a way that we cannot even see? Becaause so often God moves in the roots or the unseen things.
A lot of times we see whats happening around us but God is doing so much more.
And you know if God can move in a stump that looks dead I imagine He can move in the areas of our life that feel dead.
And maybe He can even grow something that bears fruit out of something that appears lifeless.
And lets keep moving, because lets look at verses 2-5. It says this:
2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord— 3 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; 4 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. 5 Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
What I love here is that sometimes we may not understand what God is doing, but right here it is saying God does know is haappening and what He is doing.
This past week my car started having a ton of issues, it was leaking oil, a couple other things went wrong.
And I was going I know something is wrong here, but you know how much I figured out from googling things? Nothing at all, Because I have no idea how to operate a car
However what I did is I took it to a mechanic, because they were able to look at it and go look this is and this is wrong and you should be doing this.
And I think this is a big encouragement because life can look like a stump, and it can be confusing but we do not have to know exactly what to do because God knows exactly whats going on.
Thats why verse 3 is saying He is not making decsions based off of what He is seeing or hearing,
But He is operating off of justice, righteousness, and faithfulness.
And lets keep moving because this next part tells us where God is leading us and how He is working. Look at verses 6-9. It says this:
6 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. 7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den, the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. 9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
So look at this because the world can feel chaotic, but God is bringing peace in the middle of the chaotic world.
Because Isaiah list all of these opposites He says the lamb will lay with the lepord, the calf and the lion.
It says the infant plays by the Cobras nest and the young child will put its hands in the vipers nest.
Anyone read this and think what is He talking about?
Because not to say my parenting style is better then the Bible but I do my best to keep Eden away from Cobras nest and Liam and Finn from putting their hands into a vipers nest.
And Isaiah is not saying go and do that, but He is saying look what God is getting ready to do, because He has come to create a peace among all of these different things that a face value should be enemies.
And I think this is a beautiful picture of peace, but I think its also a beautiful picture how God unites His creation when they follow Him.
Because one thing I really find beautiful about the church is it is full of people who are so different, I mean it is full of people who are from different cultures, people who have different ideas, who are young, people that are old, people who might think differently then how we think.
But it is these people that we might even go they should be enemies, but they are united at the feet of Jesus.
A lot of you know this but we are a part of a denomination, and the denomination has churches in 163 countries around the world.
And two of the countries we have multiple churches in is Ukraine and Russia.
And because of the war happening there they ended up having their ordination services in a country near by.
And the really beautiful part of this is these Pastors whos countries are in the middle of an ugly war sat down together, ate together, and were ordained together,
Because while the world says that your enemy, God says thats your brother or sister.
I am so thankful for the peace that God can bring even in the most hostile areas.
And its all because of that last verse in verse 9.
Because it says the world will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Want to hear something mind blowing If you have ever been the the Ocean the whole thing is water. Right?
And thats what we get to look forward to, a day where the world is at peace.
10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant 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 Mediterranean. 12 He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.
You know the passage closes with all people rallying to Him.
And there is a lot I could talk about here, but I want you to notice in verse 10 and I think this is a good place to end, because it says the root of Jessy will stand up and the people will Rally around Him.
We cant really get into the rest of this if we do not understand this. That the passage says the people are rallying to Jesus, but secondly when we rally to Jesus we get closer together.
I mean if you have ever went to see your favorite sports team play at home you get this.
Because lets say we went to see the ravens play, (right micheal) you are surrounded by ravens fans.
And guess what you might have tons of differences with those people but all the sudden you are like family, because you are cheering on the same thing.
And if that happens durring a ravens game how much more can it happen in the world
Because the world can be broken, but the beautiful part of the Christmas story is that in the middle of the broken world the prince of peace has come.
And as we close maybe this morning you feel like you are far from God and far from others, can I just point out the beauty that while this passage is refering to Christ coming back again, because Christ came as a baby we can can begin to experiance peace with God, with ourself and with others.
We do not have to wait until heaven, but God can move in our life now.