WEBVTT 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:10.880 Welcome to City Church Dublin Sermon Archives. 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:17.120 Join us this week as we work through the book of Isaiah with the start of our Advent series, The Songs of Emmanuel. 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:20.800 Well, good morning. 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:21.839 My name's Ben. 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:23.839 I'm one of the leaders here at City. 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:28.000 And like Mark said this morning, we're taking a pause from our series in John's Gospel. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:35.840 If you've not caught that series, if you've missed some of those, you can go wherever you go for podcasts and you can search for City Church Dublin. 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:37.039 Just don't do it right now. 00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:40.799 Because we are starting our new series here, The Songs of Emmanuel. 00:00:41.119 --> 00:00:42.000 And it's exciting. 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:44.399 For the next three Sundays, we'll be looking at Advent. 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:46.079 We'll be looking at the book of Isaiah. 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:48.880 Like Mark said, um, it's from the Old Testament. 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:50.799 It's 700 years before Jesus. 00:00:50.960 --> 00:01:02.079 And like you said, you know, this is not necessarily the time where we're gonna where we're gonna look at manger and stable and all of these, all of these familiar images that we have around Christmas time. 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:03.600 We're gonna we're gonna wait. 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:05.280 We're gonna we're gonna look at this. 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:09.760 Because in this old news, we're looking ahead to Jesus. 00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:11.200 That's the easy answer. 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:16.879 But digging a little deeper, we see that Isaiah really sets the stage for Jesus. 00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:23.760 Really kind of gives us the idea of why the world was just so eager for his coming. 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:34.480 So just as Isaiah was waiting for the arrival of Jesus the first time, we as Christians, we in our day and age are waiting for the second coming of Jesus. 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:37.200 And so at Advent we find comfort. 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:40.560 We find comfort that the creator of the world has come. 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:44.959 We find encouragement to keep going because of God's promise. 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:52.159 And we find cause for celebration because the light has come into the world to dispel the darkness and make all things new. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:54.239 Let's open with prayer. 00:01:55.599 --> 00:02:07.920 Heavenly Father, we thank you for this season and we thank you for the opportunity to look into uh the book of Isaiah here, and we thank you that uh you show us so much about who we are and what our world is. 00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:11.599 And Lord, we do long for the renewal. 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:13.919 We do roll, we do long for the new world. 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:25.199 And so I pray that as we as we dig into this uh here this morning, that you would open our eyes, open our ears, and let us see how you might use this passage to transform us. 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:26.800 Pray this in Jesus' name. 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:27.439 Amen. 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:29.759 All right, so here we are. 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:30.800 It is Advent. 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:32.719 It is 2021. 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:39.439 Do you remember a year ago, 2021, the year that everything goes back to normal? 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:40.319 Remember that? 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:42.400 They said uh we'll have the vaccine. 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:44.719 Everything will be great. 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:48.560 Well, you know, 2020, it was like they gave us two variants. 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:52.240 They gave us the alpha and the beta, you know, the UK and the and the and the South African. 00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:56.879 But 2021 gave us 11 more variants if you weren't uh keeping track of that. 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:04.080 This latest one, Omicron, yes, uh, it's lots of fun. 00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:11.280 But um, we're dealing with still vaccines and masks and boosters and restrictions and all of this stuff. 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:15.759 It's pretty clear we're not really back to normal here at the end of the year. 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:18.240 But really, what is normal? 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:20.639 What is normal for our world? 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:27.039 Normal is social division, racial division, economic division. 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:33.280 Normal is environmental disaster, climate disaster, natural disaster. 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:38.479 Normal is human trafficking and wrongful imprisonment and crime and oppression. 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:44.240 Here in the 21st century, friends, shouldn't we be past all of this? 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:47.360 I mean, wasn't that the promise of the Enlightenment, right? 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:55.360 That we as a species, given the right inputs, would inevitably improve, progress, make a better life? 00:03:55.680 --> 00:04:08.879 We have these these elements, these ingredients like personal growth, education, acceptance, social action, coming together, using the resources of this world and its people to solve its problems. 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:14.719 And yeah, we may never achieve literal perfection, but you know, things should get better and better. 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:20.399 The human race will pull itself out of ignorance through reason, freedom, and tolerance. 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:27.360 But of course, we know that an age of reason has not ushered in a real-world utopia. 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:32.240 With all our advances in medicine, do we lead healthy lives? 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:38.800 With all our ways to communicate, do we feel more connected to one another? 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:42.639 With all our access to knowledge, are we wise? 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:46.000 With all our choices, do we have more joy? 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:50.000 With all our free time, do we do the things that are important to us? 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:58.879 With all of our political freedoms to elect whatever leaders we want, are we any more satisfied with our political system and our government? 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:05.199 With all our understandings of mental and emotional health, do we have mental and emotional health? 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:10.879 Or do we find that we get the thing that we want only to find out that we really wanted something else? 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:12.399 Do we labor? 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:16.560 Do we achieve only to find out that it's not enough? 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:19.199 Our heroes let us down. 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:23.839 Our dreams disappoint, and on and on and on. 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:27.839 So Advent 2021, time marches on. 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:34.319 Humanity continues this unbroken line from the Garden of Eden, from the fall of man to now. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:42.560 And the solution to our world's problems hasn't turned out to be economic or social or educational. 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:45.120 And why is that? 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:49.600 It's because broken systems can't fix broken systems. 00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:53.920 We need a solution from outside the system altogether. 00:05:55.040 --> 00:06:05.680 Now, if we find this opening, this introduction here a bit discouraging, well, maybe that gives us a little better insight into where we need to be as we approach the season of Advent. 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:13.680 If we feel that it's a bit hopeless, then maybe we're ready to look for the hope of the nations. 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:21.600 Now, by way of historical background, Isaiah wrote this like 700 years like uh we said, before the time of Jesus. 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:24.319 And it was a time of great hopelessness. 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:29.839 Because the superpower of the region, the Assyrian Empire, was was at the gates. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.319 They were coming with an army that no one could stand against. 00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:43.279 But against the backdrop of this political unrest and this serious threat was a promise from God. 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:49.199 And the promise looked well beyond the geopolitics of the moment. 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:55.920 The promise looked even beyond, you know, a manger in Bethlehem and a star and a baby and all of that stuff. 00:06:56.560 --> 00:07:14.800 The promise was not so much about salvation as it was about a savior, not so much about deliverance as it was about a deliverer, and not so much about kingdoms rising and falling as it was about a coming king, a different kind of king. 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:17.680 Jesus is that king. 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:19.600 Let's take a look in our passage here. 00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:23.920 If you have it in front of you there, verse one, let's take a look. 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:32.639 It says, There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:36.560 So our first image is one of forestry. 00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:38.879 But this points us back to chapter 10. 00:07:38.959 --> 00:07:48.079 If we want to take a look, we're not gonna spend a lot of time in chapter 10, but just to take a look at it there, we see some of the images that are that are brought forth in this chapter. 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:54.079 We already know from earlier in Isaiah's book here that uh that the Assyrian Empire is coming. 00:07:54.240 --> 00:08:03.040 We know that they're gonna conquer the northern kingdom of Israel, and we know that God is using the Assyrians as a means to punish the Israelites, his own people. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:16.000 But we find out in chapter 10 that even though this is God's way, that he is using in chapter 10, verse 15, uh it says that uh the Assyrians are the axe that God is wielding. 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:22.399 But in 34, it says that God's axe will go to work on the Assyrians as well. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:23.920 They're not going to go unpunished. 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:29.360 This wicked empire is also going to be facing God's judgment as well. 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:41.279 And so it's quite a reversal, and this image at the end of chapter 10 that we're left with of this mighty forest that has been brought low and is now just a field of stumps. 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:43.200 It's quite a powerful image. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:47.679 So our passage starts with the stump of Jesse. 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:48.879 Which stump is that? 00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:49.840 Who's Jesse? 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:53.279 Well, Jesse is the father of King David. 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:57.360 David, in the Old Testament here, it's about a thousand years before Jesus. 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:01.120 David is called a man after God's own heart. 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:05.120 David united the kingdom and led them in righteousness. 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:07.120 That's what a king is supposed to do. 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:10.799 David wrote about half the Psalms that we have in our Bible. 00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:18.960 He was God's chosen king, and he, in some ways, was the king that all future kings would be judged against. 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:21.519 He wasn't perfect, clearly not. 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:23.120 He was far from perfect. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:30.639 But God promised David would have a descendant who would establish the royal line for all eternity. 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:35.360 That descendant, that king, is Jesus. 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:41.679 So from the stump of Jesse, from this kingly line that's been cut down, new growth. 00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:43.840 And it works that way in nature. 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:50.720 If you've seen sometimes trees that have been cut down, they can get new branches on them, they can get new sprouts on them. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:59.360 If you've ever walked around in a forest fire, after a forest fire, it looks like just this scene of waste and devastation and ash, and it's it's terrible. 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:06.720 But if you come back after some time has passed, you see that new life starts to grow even in those circumstances. 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:13.519 So this kind of natural reality points us to the spiritual reality that Isaiah is pointing to here. 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:19.600 From this wasteland of sin and judgment, God will raise up one who will restore. 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:25.679 So this king, this one here, what are his qualifications? 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:31.840 Well, we see in verse 2, it says, The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:40.399 Now this reminds us of what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus in the Gospel of John, the series that we're just uh taking a pause from right now. 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:43.840 If you want to go back and September 19th is the is the one that talks about this. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:45.200 But don't do it now. 00:10:45.519 --> 00:10:51.759 Um but he says, I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:54.480 This is John the Baptist seeing Jesus. 00:10:54.799 --> 00:10:57.840 So in the Old Testament, just a word about the Holy Spirit here. 00:10:58.159 --> 00:11:07.519 In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit worked in people, worked through people, primarily through these roles of prophet and priest and king. 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:12.320 Jesus comes and fulfills all three of these offices. 00:11:12.399 --> 00:11:18.240 And we can see this even in the way that we have this threefold explanation of the Spirit in verse 2. 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:21.919 It says, you know, the spirit of wisdom and understanding. 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:25.919 This is like a prophet who's bringing God's words to the people. 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:28.399 It says the spirit of counsel and might. 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:34.399 This is like leading and ruling and deciding for God's people, like a king would. 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:41.440 And then the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord, this might be like calling God's people together for worship and presenting them to him. 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:50.559 It's clear that this king will have divine, supernatural resources as his qualifications. 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:52.399 So what's he like? 00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:54.480 That's what we have as his qualifications. 00:11:54.639 --> 00:12:00.960 Verse 3 starts into what he's like, and it says, his delight will be the fear of the Lord. 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:03.840 Now, a word about the fear of the Lord. 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:09.200 We see this passage and we see this phrase in Scripture a lot, this idea of the fear of the Lord. 00:12:09.360 --> 00:12:11.279 And we might think one of two extremes with this. 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:16.639 We either think, you know, fear like like terror, like panic, like, you know, very scary stuff. 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:22.639 Or we might think, you know, some kind of, you know, just just respect, you know, we do we just have respect. 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:24.960 And I don't think it's really either one of those things. 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:29.120 It's not the panic thing, because, you know, you can't really delight in your panic, right? 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:31.600 In verse 3, his delight will be the fear of the Lord. 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:39.120 We also wouldn't be able to manage with places in the Old Testament where God says, fear not, for I am with you. 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:46.399 If God's scary, if God's terrifying, if you know we're supposed to live in dread of him, then we wouldn't be saying, you know, fear not. 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:55.279 The book of Proverbs, in the first chapter, it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. 00:12:55.600 --> 00:13:00.720 And this is contrasted with the idea that fools despise wisdom and instruction. 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:16.159 So when we think about fears that we have, we might have rational fears, we might have irrational fears, but to one extent or another, to one degree or another, our fears do a lot in how we order our lives and how we set up our lives. 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:18.639 We build our lives to avoid our fears. 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:21.840 We have a lot of thoughts and a lot of feelings about our fears. 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:27.679 Jesus said in the Gospels, to make sure that you have the right fears in mind. 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:36.080 You know, it says, um, don't fear those who can kill the body, but fear the one who can destroy both the body and the soul. 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:36.480 Right? 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:40.000 So have the right, the right sequence, the right ordering. 00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:43.200 We might be scared of spiders and snakes. 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:53.840 We might be scared of open spaces or tight spaces, scared of heights, might be scared of social situations, might be scared of being alone. 00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:56.240 But God is bigger than all of those fears. 00:13:56.320 --> 00:14:00.799 So fear of the Lord here just means that we have the right view of God. 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:09.600 We put God in his right place in our lives, that we build our lives on him and not around the things that we fear in this world. 00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:11.440 And we can see this in Jesus. 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:19.360 Jesus, when he was walking around on the earth, um, it's clear that he was not scared of God, scared of his father. 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:28.960 But his earthly ministry displayed just an unwavering obedience, you know, an ordering of his life to be about the business of his father. 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:34.799 So, like verse 3 says, his delight shall be the fear of the Lord. 00:14:35.679 --> 00:14:40.639 And in verses 3 to 5, we see how this plays out in his work. 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:46.159 So he's not turned aside by sights and sounds. 00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:50.080 His rule is based on righteousness and equity. 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:53.039 And is characterized by righteousness and faithfulness. 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:54.480 This is verses 4 and 5. 00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:56.480 Think about this kind of ruler. 00:14:56.720 --> 00:15:01.039 He is righteous toward the poor, he is equitable toward the meek. 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:05.360 He's not turned aside by grand spectacle or flowery speeches. 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:07.039 He's not impressed. 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:13.200 He does justice, he punishes the evildoer, he rights wrongs. 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:18.159 Integrity and fidelity are strapped to him like a belt. 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:33.279 Now, whether you're a lifelong Christian or a diehard atheist or anything in between, this work, this rule is the is the kind of leader, the kind of ruler that we would all want. 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:35.919 And Jesus is that King. 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:39.279 Look at how the king interacts with three different categories of people here. 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:43.200 You talk about the poor, we talk about the meek, we talk about the wicked. 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:47.360 You know, he's doing justice and he's doing righteousness and he's acting in truth. 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:55.360 Truth is, each of us, all of us, deserve to be counted in the category of the wicked. 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:57.440 We've all fallen short of God's mark. 00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:01.840 We've all done wrong by our words, by our thoughts, by our actions. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:06.320 We've all not done right things that we should. 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:13.679 None of us, by all rights, should get a seat at the table, should get a place in this kingdom. 00:16:13.919 --> 00:16:21.360 But this king comes not only with the spirit of wisdom and understanding and counsel and might, but with mercy, with grace. 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:26.480 The people of God, we're going to talk about the people of God in the next half of this passage here. 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:30.559 They're not the people of God because their behavior is good. 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:41.759 They're not the people of God because they have a certain DNA or certain ethnicity, and they're not the people of God because they've had certain experiences or done certain things. 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:46.720 They're the people of God because of God's character, because of this grace. 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:58.240 In chapter 30 of Isaiah, which we will not get to this morning, I Isaiah writes, The Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. 00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:14.559 So the big difference, the key difference between the people that we see in this first section here, between the wicked who are put to death and the people of God who are called home is this grace, which they've taken hold of by faith. 00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:18.319 So we've seen what this king will do. 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:22.720 Now let's have a look and see what results he brings about. 00:17:23.279 --> 00:17:27.519 Verses six to nine are some fantastical verses. 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:31.440 This world just looks so unnatural to us. 00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:35.440 Predators and prey coexisting peacefully. 00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:39.119 We see babies playing near vicious snakes. 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:44.240 This is this is foreign to us, and this would be sheer madness in our world. 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:48.480 If you have a pet goat, don't set him up on a play date with a leopard. 00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:49.599 Don't do that. 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:55.119 If you've got an African lion, don't put him on a lead and let a little kid lead the lion around. 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:55.920 It's not a good plan. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:56.880 It's not going to go well. 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:02.960 Don't let your babies play uh peekaboo with cobras, all right? 00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:08.400 Because these just are so horrifying in the results that they would have in our world. 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:17.279 And yet, under the rule of this king, under the rule of Jesus, that we look ahead to, situations like this would just be normal. 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:30.480 And this points us back to what the world would have been like before the curse of sin, before the struggles of life and death and natural selection and competition. 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:34.160 This is the created order as it should have been. 00:18:34.799 --> 00:18:41.839 In Genesis, after God's created the world, it says God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. 00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:42.960 Very good. 00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:46.400 There's not a hint of scarcity of resources. 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:49.359 There's not a hint of the toil of survival. 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:52.480 This is a world of abundance and blessing. 00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:57.759 These are the conditions of the world that this king ushers in. 00:18:58.160 --> 00:19:01.039 And again, Jesus is that King. 00:19:02.799 --> 00:19:07.279 When we think about Jesus and his work to conquer sin, we usually think about it on a personal level. 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:14.240 We think about how people are forgiven, people are released from condemnation, they're not under curse, they're not under punishment. 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:18.000 And this is all very true and all very important. 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:25.279 But here in this section, we see that the conquest of sin extends even to the world around us. 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:31.119 The curse is reversed, and God's people will no longer have to live in a place that sin has ruined. 00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:38.960 Verse 9 says, The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the sea. 00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:42.960 This is a very different world from the one that we live in now. 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:49.359 But again, I think we would all agree this is a place that we would all like to live in. 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:54.160 So the other set of results has to do with the people. 00:19:54.319 --> 00:19:58.960 Verse 10 says, people of all nations will be drawn to this king. 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:06.880 And verse 11 says, God's people who have been scattered in all directions will be gathered and they'll be brought home. 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:12.480 So right away we can see this kingdom is not about ethnicity. 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:15.039 It is not about national identity. 00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:20.079 We see here that people from the nations will seek to know about this king. 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:23.039 Nations here, it's the same word for Gentiles, right? 00:20:23.119 --> 00:20:27.359 And in the Old Testament, in the Jewish mind, Gentiles are the outsiders. 00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:29.440 These are the non-Jewish people. 00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:38.160 But this king is not limited just to the Jews, not limited just to that people group, not limited just to that political nation state. 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:47.839 He's the king that people from every nation, all tribes, peoples, and languages stand before at the end of the Bible in Revelation. 00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:54.720 These divisions that we have in our world, they're not a thing under this king. 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:56.880 Exiles get to come home. 00:20:57.200 --> 00:21:00.240 Those political realities are undone by this king. 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:05.519 People from north and south, east and west, come to this king. 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:08.720 Friends, Jesus is that king. 00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:32.319 So if we want to sum up this passage, this points to a king who is appointed and empowered by God to institute social and moral justice, to renew the natural world and environment, to unify and reconcile the races, to release captives and to welcome his people home. 00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:40.079 If this were a political candidate standing for office, running for office, he would get just about everybody's vote. 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:45.200 If he were applying for a job, we'd ask no questions other than when can you start? 00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:49.359 This world that he ushers in is timeless. 00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:54.799 This was written 2,700 years ago, and it's still appealing to us here today. 00:21:55.519 --> 00:22:03.440 So the question becomes why isn't More of the world on board with this king. 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:07.920 Well, one reason might be the way that the kingdom was inaugurated. 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:12.319 We think about Bethlehem, we think about the birth of Jesus. 00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:17.839 And it wasn't kings and rulers and the elites who came and turned up for it. 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:19.680 It was shepherds. 00:22:20.559 --> 00:22:25.920 We think about the people that Jesus spent his time with during his earthly ministry. 00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:33.599 And it wasn't the elites, it was the poor and the meek, like we saw in verse, you know, the verses four and five there. 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:42.079 Even in verse 10, the signal, it talks about a signal that will call people to inquire of him. 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:47.519 This sounds like a great and mighty thing, but it's pointing to the cross. 00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:50.000 Listen to Jesus' words here. 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:51.039 John chapter 12. 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:53.759 We'll get to this maybe in the new year. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:59.599 But uh Jesus says, And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. 00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:03.519 That sounds a lot like the language that Isaiah is putting forth here. 00:23:03.759 --> 00:23:09.759 But the next verse explains it, and it says, He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:15.200 Another reason might be that this kingdom seems very far off. 00:23:15.359 --> 00:23:21.599 And yes, it was inaugurated 2,000 years ago, and we still wait for its consummation. 00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:26.559 We as Christians live in an already but not yet kingdom. 00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:34.880 The Apostle Peter pointed this out nearly 2,000 years ago himself and said, you know, that scoffers will say, Where is the promise of his coming? 00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:40.400 For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. 00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:54.319 And to this Peter says, The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 00:23:54.720 --> 00:23:59.440 He says that we should count the patience of our Lord as salvation. 00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:05.519 Remember, it's it's faith, and that faith is borne out in repentance. 00:24:06.160 --> 00:24:10.559 It's faith that makes the difference between the wicked and the people of God. 00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:17.519 But perhaps the biggest reason why people aren't flocking to this king is the call. 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:27.839 To live in this coming kingdom that we've been reading about this morning means that we are to be about the business of this kingdom in the here and now. 00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:36.079 We're not to be about building our own kingdom, not to be building our brand, not to be serving the idols of this world. 00:24:37.200 --> 00:24:40.960 Now, some of those idols, I mean, they're very appealing, right? 00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:48.000 Comfort and control and success and reputation and money and power and sex, just to name a few. 00:24:49.119 --> 00:24:53.599 But like all the idols of this world, they promise big but fail to deliver. 00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:58.240 They bring us all back to that futility that we were we were looking at at the beginning. 00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:02.160 Broken systems can't fix broken systems. 00:25:02.559 --> 00:25:07.279 The more we achieve, the less they satisfy, the more we have, the more we want. 00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:12.319 Be speeding down a track to a bleak and unfulfilling future. 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:18.480 And yet all of us, every one of us, falls victim to these idols at some time. 00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:21.039 That, friends, is the human condition. 00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:32.960 And the hope of Advent is that Jesus came into this world to set us free from those idols, and he will come again to start up this new kingdom. 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:43.440 Now, if you're a follower of Jesus already, if you're a Christian, if you're walking with him, take the comfort and encouragement of this passage. 00:25:43.920 --> 00:25:47.359 We'll look beyond this broken and sinful world. 00:25:47.519 --> 00:25:49.759 We'll look ahead to a better world. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:56.240 Hold on to this picture, hold on to this image because times of difficulty, times of discouragement will come. 00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:00.000 We wait in hope of a better world. 00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:06.720 If you don't yet know this, Jesus, I'm glad you're here and I'm glad that you are with us this morning. 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:14.000 But I hope you can also see the brokenness of this world, the futility of this world trying to fix itself. 00:26:14.240 --> 00:26:18.240 How the more we change, the more things stay the same. 00:26:19.359 --> 00:26:25.200 I hope you'll put the passage we've just read against anything this world has to offer. 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:28.400 And look into this king, look into this Jesus. 00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:48.960 And for the church as a whole, that's a gathered body of believers here this morning, across Dublin, around the world, let's remember that our hope is not in a far-off world to come only, but in the king from this passage, the one who came to be Emmanuel, God with us. 00:26:49.599 --> 00:26:52.799 We struggle and we suffer, but we do not do it alone. 00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:56.799 We have God's presence with us by his spirit. 00:26:57.039 --> 00:26:59.680 We have his word and we have his people. 00:26:59.839 --> 00:27:01.599 Let's encourage each other. 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:07.519 Let's uh go forward together as we move towards this new world. 00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:17.359 Thank you for listening to this week's sermon. 00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:24.240 If you found this helpful or want to know more about City Church Dublin, visit our website found in the links below.