Isaiah 11:1-10
Second Sunday of Advent focuses on how Jesus, our hope, brings the kind of peace God calls shalom. Everybody wants to live a peaceful life. But what kind of peace? The dictionary says, peace is freedom from disturbance. Peace is quiet and tranquility. This is why so many people like to worship God in the great outdoors. They find it more peaceful to worship God in the great outdoors where all is quiet. Many of these folks don’t like organized religion because conflicts in the church so easily disturb the peace. But in the great outdoors it’s peaceful because there are not so many people around trying to get some work done together. Now I’m certainly not saying never get alone with God. Solitude is good for you. Just not all the time. We are created to be united in the body of Christ and in the Holy Spirit.
Peace is also freedom from or the cessation of war or violence. We pray for peace. We don’t like conflict at all, especially not violent conflict, but we even shy away from the conflicts that are a normal part of life together. Some people just want to be left alone to make their own decisions. If you try to advise or challenge them, you’re disturbing their peace. Some people want peace of mind, either by refusing to feel guilty about anything or by not allowing anyone to tell them they’re wrong or even ask them to think about what they’re doing.
But Jesus did in fact organize his body of believers to learn how to work together to accomplish the work he has prepared in advance for us to do so that we participate in fulfilling the great commission. He did inspire Paul to write in Romans 12:8, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” But you see, that verse indicates that conflict is everywhere. Each one of us is responsible for how we deal with each other, but it’s there. Jesus must believe that while it won’t be perfect until he comes again, we can enjoy some measure of peace while we practice Christian fellowship.
God also uses our normal frictions to mold and shape us, that is why they say iron sharpens iron. That doesn’t just happen when two pieces of metal are in the same room together. For one piece of iron to sharpen another piece of iron they have to clash. It can be noisy. Sparks will fly! The closer people live together the more there will be conflict. It’s perfectly natural, and I say that because we are all sinners by nature.
The primary laboratory in which God does this work of sharpening and humbling us is called, the family, and especially, the marriage. Gary Thomas has written a great book on the subject and all I need to say about that is the title. Sacred Marriage: It Is not designed to make you Happy but to make you Holy. (But I will say on the side that I believe the holiest people are really the happiest people.) You see, it is in conflict that we learn just how selfish we all tend to be. Every interpersonal conflict that cannot be resolved by rationally talking over the issues and learning how to live peacefully with differences of opinion is really a conflict of wills. When it’s “what I want” versus “what you want” and neither one will relent and give in or forgive and move on, relationships end.
In particular, relationships end when one or both parties fail to understand the value and use of conflict in God’s plan for human relationships. When a stubborn, prideful heart refuses to consider how his or her own sinful selfishness pours gasoline on any little spark of conflict, then that soul will not learn the lessons God has planned for them that would produce the fruit of a more godly character that has ability to more fully exhibit the fruits of the spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control. These things have to be learned. They are best learned when looking to Jesus, clinging to Jesus, depending on his mercy, relying on his Spirit at work within, when we are in the midst of conflict.
Jesus does not bring peace by solving all our problems for us in this life or by sending us all out into the woods to worship God on our own. In fact, in Matthew 10:34, Jesus actually says, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Wait, what? What happened to the Christmas message of peace on earth good will toward men?
Do you remember the song, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas day?” Jesus brings peace by touching each individual heart. But that’s a long and time consuming process and until it is finished the hate is strong that mocks the song. Evil continues on its way and Christians who stand against that evil will be attacked with angry words and even with swords and bombs. It’s happening all over the world every day. Conflict will continue. And God will keep using it to his advantage, to make us want a better world, to help us see how poor in spirit we are without him, to move us to cry out to him for mercy and to really want mercy the way he brings it.
So how does Jesus bring peace? Jesus brings peace from the inside out. Isaiah 11:1 says, “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” The picture of the shoot coming out of the stump is a picture of life arising from within, or life arising anew from what was thought to be dead. When Jesus came to earth as a baby, it was the way he was going to begin to bring peace from the inside out rather than imposing it upon us by force. Only the gospel has the power to change us from within.
God became a man to show us how to do it. Instead of demanding something from us that we could not produce, he produced himself, God became a man named Jesus, and when we believe in him and accept him as our Lord as well as our Savior, he produces his own character in us by his spirit. Again, he brings peace to each heart from the inside out. He brings peace to the whole world from the inside out. As each peace filled heart does the work God prepared in advance for us to do. The kingdom of God grows the way yeast spreads through a lump of dough. Once you mix the yeast into the dough, you just let it sit there and the little yeast creatures do the work they are designed to do. The cook doesn’t make the dough rise. The cook just sets up the environment to get the desired results.
Now in our case, God is the cook, people are the yeast and the world is the dough. The gospel means that the yeast wasn’t working right. But instead of throwing out the dough and getting some new yeast, the cook became yeast and dove into his mixing bowl. Picture that a moment, in your own kitchen you wanted to bake some bread. You mixed up the flour and yeast and water etc. and it’s kind of a moist, sloppy mess if it’s not contained in the bowl. You set the bowl of dough in a warm spot and wait an hour. You come back and nothing has happened. Can you change your form, and dive into the bowl as yeast? Would you even want to?
But God could. And God wanted to. And he did it so he could show the yeast how to be really good yeast, AND so that he could visit each yeast creature because he loved each one so very much and wants to fix what was wrong with its DNA so that it could start acting like good yeast and manage conflict from a place and attitude of inner peace. True Christians are the yeast that is working right, or at least better than the dead yeast that doesn’t have God’s life in it.
The cook still doesn’t make the dough rise. But he does more than anyone else could do to set up the environment. Now if you want to be good yeast, the yeast you were always meant to be, part of the environment that causes the church to rise up in this world and change the culture of community so that the home, the neighborhood, the town, the state, the country and all the nations each become a more peaceful place to live, then you have to let God in, invite God in, trust in his mercy and let him change you. That’s how Jesus brings peace, through you and I when we learn how to be at peace with God.
11:2 says, “The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.” That same spirit resides in us to bring us peace from the inside out. And when we are at peace we can bring that peace to others. That’s Jesus in you bringing peace to those who need to let him in them.
But there will also come a day when it is finished. There will come a day when the work of the church is done or the patience of God is used up. 11:3-4 says, “His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;” That part is fulfilled in Christ on the cross, expressing God’s care for the poor and showing his mercy.
Then the last part of verse four says, “he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.” That’s when Jesus will come again, this time in glory to establish his kingdom. The only parts of God’s creation who will need to fear that day are the creatures still in rebellion against God’s peace. That would specifically be humans who have not received Christ and let him learn how to rule in their hearts.
There’s a lot of people who think they are Christians by saying they believe in Jesus, but they don’t let him rule in their hearts. They don’t spend time with him. They don’t get to know him and his character does not rub off on them. These are the ones who are pictured in Matthew 7:21-23 where Jesus declares, “Not everyone who says to me. ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven.” Many will say to him on that day, we prophesied, drove out demons and did many miracles. But Jesus will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers.”
See, even if you do great spiritual works like that, it’s not enough to get you into heaven without knowing Jesus. So, if you’re not really serving God at all, but only go to church on Sundays, how do you have any hope for salvation? Or even if you are serving God in very small ways how can you know for sure that you are doing enough good? You can’t! The core of the will of the Father is to believe in Jesus for salvation. You have to know Jesus! Your only hope for salvation is to cling to Jesus for his mercy. Trust in what he has done. Get to know him. Your relationship with Jesus is essential! His burden is light and his yoke is easy. Burden and yoke mean that there is work to do. But you can only do it if you get to know him and if you do get to know him you will want to do it. Jesus also said that by faith in him you will do even greater works than he has done!
The rest of the text in Isaiah 11 is a picture of the what a peaceful place it will be when the whole creation is finally and completely redeemed from the sin and corruption and death that Adam and Eve brought into the world. Listen again. It’s going to be perfect. It’s going to be beautiful. Notice that there will be animals in heaven. Your old pets will all be waiting for you there too.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling 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 asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”
Even the animals will be at peace with each other. All the beasts of the field will eat grass as it was in the very beginning of creation, before sin entered the world. Sorry guys, no more hunting there. But you won’t miss it. You’ll have much better and more rewarding things to do, even if right now you can’t imagine what that might be. Maybe you could play hide and seek with the deer. I bet they’d be pretty good at it. And they might get to “tag” you for a change!
“On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.” Jesus brings peace. Another pastor, by the name of David Nichols, put it this way, "We often think our job is to bring people to church and hope they find Jesus. What we really need is to bring people to Jesus and hope they find church." That is exactly right because a lot of people who say they believe in Jesus also think they don’t need church. You can’t get those people to church because they think they don’t need it. Thy are trying to live out their own version of peaceful living. But Jesus is the root of Jesse, the signal to all the nations. When we inquire of him we learn what a glorious life we can have in Christ, filled with that peace that passes all understanding.
If you can bring your neighbors, friends and co-workers to the real Jesus, that is, bring the Jesus-in-you to them and help them get to know who he really is, they will also realize how much they need to be in church and be part of a serving, ministering church and become ministering servants along with the rest of the members of the true church. That’s how Jesus brings peace, touching each life with the love of God that offers forgiveness, to be reconciled to God and make peace with him, so that each touched life can touch another life and continue the process so that we all learn from him how to live in peace with each other as far as it depends upon you and me and all of us together in one big happy family. Not a perfect, no- conflict family, not yet. But for now, a good, loving family that manages conflict with good, healthy processes and keeps on working together to change the world.
Amen.
Second Sunday of Advent focuses on how Jesus, our hope, brings the kind of peace God calls shalom. Everybody wants to live a peaceful life. But what kind of peace? The dictionary says, peace is freedom from disturbance. Peace is quiet and tranquility. This is why so many people like to worship God in the great outdoors. They find it more peaceful to worship God in the great outdoors where all is quiet. Many of these folks don’t like organized religion because conflicts in the church so easily disturb the peace. But in the great outdoors it’s peaceful because there are not so many people around trying to get some work done together. Now I’m certainly not saying never get alone with God. Solitude is good for you. Just not all the time. We are created to be united in the body of Christ and in the Holy Spirit.
Peace is also freedom from or the cessation of war or violence. We pray for peace. We don’t like conflict at all, especially not violent conflict, but we even shy away from the conflicts that are a normal part of life together. Some people just want to be left alone to make their own decisions. If you try to advise or challenge them, you’re disturbing their peace. Some people want peace of mind, either by refusing to feel guilty about anything or by not allowing anyone to tell them they’re wrong or even ask them to think about what they’re doing.
But Jesus did in fact organize his body of believers to learn how to work together to accomplish the work he has prepared in advance for us to do so that we participate in fulfilling the great commission. He did inspire Paul to write in Romans 12:8, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” But you see, that verse indicates that conflict is everywhere. Each one of us is responsible for how we deal with each other, but it’s there. Jesus must believe that while it won’t be perfect until he comes again, we can enjoy some measure of peace while we practice Christian fellowship.
God also uses our normal frictions to mold and shape us, that is why they say iron sharpens iron. That doesn’t just happen when two pieces of metal are in the same room together. For one piece of iron to sharpen another piece of iron they have to clash. It can be noisy. Sparks will fly! The closer people live together the more there will be conflict. It’s perfectly natural, and I say that because we are all sinners by nature.
The primary laboratory in which God does this work of sharpening and humbling us is called, the family, and especially, the marriage. Gary Thomas has written a great book on the subject and all I need to say about that is the title. Sacred Marriage: It Is not designed to make you Happy but to make you Holy. (But I will say on the side that I believe the holiest people are really the happiest people.) You see, it is in conflict that we learn just how selfish we all tend to be. Every interpersonal conflict that cannot be resolved by rationally talking over the issues and learning how to live peacefully with differences of opinion is really a conflict of wills. When it’s “what I want” versus “what you want” and neither one will relent and give in or forgive and move on, relationships end.
In particular, relationships end when one or both parties fail to understand the value and use of conflict in God’s plan for human relationships. When a stubborn, prideful heart refuses to consider how his or her own sinful selfishness pours gasoline on any little spark of conflict, then that soul will not learn the lessons God has planned for them that would produce the fruit of a more godly character that has ability to more fully exhibit the fruits of the spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control. These things have to be learned. They are best learned when looking to Jesus, clinging to Jesus, depending on his mercy, relying on his Spirit at work within, when we are in the midst of conflict.
Jesus does not bring peace by solving all our problems for us in this life or by sending us all out into the woods to worship God on our own. In fact, in Matthew 10:34, Jesus actually says, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Wait, what? What happened to the Christmas message of peace on earth good will toward men?
Do you remember the song, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas day?” Jesus brings peace by touching each individual heart. But that’s a long and time consuming process and until it is finished the hate is strong that mocks the song. Evil continues on its way and Christians who stand against that evil will be attacked with angry words and even with swords and bombs. It’s happening all over the world every day. Conflict will continue. And God will keep using it to his advantage, to make us want a better world, to help us see how poor in spirit we are without him, to move us to cry out to him for mercy and to really want mercy the way he brings it.
So how does Jesus bring peace? Jesus brings peace from the inside out. Isaiah 11:1 says, “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” The picture of the shoot coming out of the stump is a picture of life arising from within, or life arising anew from what was thought to be dead. When Jesus came to earth as a baby, it was the way he was going to begin to bring peace from the inside out rather than imposing it upon us by force. Only the gospel has the power to change us from within.
God became a man to show us how to do it. Instead of demanding something from us that we could not produce, he produced himself, God became a man named Jesus, and when we believe in him and accept him as our Lord as well as our Savior, he produces his own character in us by his spirit. Again, he brings peace to each heart from the inside out. He brings peace to the whole world from the inside out. As each peace filled heart does the work God prepared in advance for us to do. The kingdom of God grows the way yeast spreads through a lump of dough. Once you mix the yeast into the dough, you just let it sit there and the little yeast creatures do the work they are designed to do. The cook doesn’t make the dough rise. The cook just sets up the environment to get the desired results.
Now in our case, God is the cook, people are the yeast and the world is the dough. The gospel means that the yeast wasn’t working right. But instead of throwing out the dough and getting some new yeast, the cook became yeast and dove into his mixing bowl. Picture that a moment, in your own kitchen you wanted to bake some bread. You mixed up the flour and yeast and water etc. and it’s kind of a moist, sloppy mess if it’s not contained in the bowl. You set the bowl of dough in a warm spot and wait an hour. You come back and nothing has happened. Can you change your form, and dive into the bowl as yeast? Would you even want to?
But God could. And God wanted to. And he did it so he could show the yeast how to be really good yeast, AND so that he could visit each yeast creature because he loved each one so very much and wants to fix what was wrong with its DNA so that it could start acting like good yeast and manage conflict from a place and attitude of inner peace. True Christians are the yeast that is working right, or at least better than the dead yeast that doesn’t have God’s life in it.
The cook still doesn’t make the dough rise. But he does more than anyone else could do to set up the environment. Now if you want to be good yeast, the yeast you were always meant to be, part of the environment that causes the church to rise up in this world and change the culture of community so that the home, the neighborhood, the town, the state, the country and all the nations each become a more peaceful place to live, then you have to let God in, invite God in, trust in his mercy and let him change you. That’s how Jesus brings peace, through you and I when we learn how to be at peace with God.
11:2 says, “The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.” That same spirit resides in us to bring us peace from the inside out. And when we are at peace we can bring that peace to others. That’s Jesus in you bringing peace to those who need to let him in them.
But there will also come a day when it is finished. There will come a day when the work of the church is done or the patience of God is used up. 11:3-4 says, “His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;” That part is fulfilled in Christ on the cross, expressing God’s care for the poor and showing his mercy.
Then the last part of verse four says, “he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.” That’s when Jesus will come again, this time in glory to establish his kingdom. The only parts of God’s creation who will need to fear that day are the creatures still in rebellion against God’s peace. That would specifically be humans who have not received Christ and let him learn how to rule in their hearts.
There’s a lot of people who think they are Christians by saying they believe in Jesus, but they don’t let him rule in their hearts. They don’t spend time with him. They don’t get to know him and his character does not rub off on them. These are the ones who are pictured in Matthew 7:21-23 where Jesus declares, “Not everyone who says to me. ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven.” Many will say to him on that day, we prophesied, drove out demons and did many miracles. But Jesus will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers.”
See, even if you do great spiritual works like that, it’s not enough to get you into heaven without knowing Jesus. So, if you’re not really serving God at all, but only go to church on Sundays, how do you have any hope for salvation? Or even if you are serving God in very small ways how can you know for sure that you are doing enough good? You can’t! The core of the will of the Father is to believe in Jesus for salvation. You have to know Jesus! Your only hope for salvation is to cling to Jesus for his mercy. Trust in what he has done. Get to know him. Your relationship with Jesus is essential! His burden is light and his yoke is easy. Burden and yoke mean that there is work to do. But you can only do it if you get to know him and if you do get to know him you will want to do it. Jesus also said that by faith in him you will do even greater works than he has done!
The rest of the text in Isaiah 11 is a picture of the what a peaceful place it will be when the whole creation is finally and completely redeemed from the sin and corruption and death that Adam and Eve brought into the world. Listen again. It’s going to be perfect. It’s going to be beautiful. Notice that there will be animals in heaven. Your old pets will all be waiting for you there too.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling 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 asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”
Even the animals will be at peace with each other. All the beasts of the field will eat grass as it was in the very beginning of creation, before sin entered the world. Sorry guys, no more hunting there. But you won’t miss it. You’ll have much better and more rewarding things to do, even if right now you can’t imagine what that might be. Maybe you could play hide and seek with the deer. I bet they’d be pretty good at it. And they might get to “tag” you for a change!
“On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.” Jesus brings peace. Another pastor, by the name of David Nichols, put it this way, "We often think our job is to bring people to church and hope they find Jesus. What we really need is to bring people to Jesus and hope they find church." That is exactly right because a lot of people who say they believe in Jesus also think they don’t need church. You can’t get those people to church because they think they don’t need it. Thy are trying to live out their own version of peaceful living. But Jesus is the root of Jesse, the signal to all the nations. When we inquire of him we learn what a glorious life we can have in Christ, filled with that peace that passes all understanding.
If you can bring your neighbors, friends and co-workers to the real Jesus, that is, bring the Jesus-in-you to them and help them get to know who he really is, they will also realize how much they need to be in church and be part of a serving, ministering church and become ministering servants along with the rest of the members of the true church. That’s how Jesus brings peace, touching each life with the love of God that offers forgiveness, to be reconciled to God and make peace with him, so that each touched life can touch another life and continue the process so that we all learn from him how to live in peace with each other as far as it depends upon you and me and all of us together in one big happy family. Not a perfect, no- conflict family, not yet. But for now, a good, loving family that manages conflict with good, healthy processes and keeps on working together to change the world.
Amen.
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