Isaiah 11 | Hope for a world at war | Shaun McGregor

Is there any hope for a world at war?

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Well, I wonder what you think of and how you feel when you hear these words. Myanmar, Sudan, Israel and Palestine, the Ukraine, Iran, and the United States. I wonder, do you feel hopeful? Or do you feel despair? It doesn't matter how long you've been alive, you know that we are a world at war, don't you? Even your children. I know that if you have young children. War seems to be a reality of human life. And it fills us with great sadness. About 50 years ago, one of the Beatles, John Lennon, wrote these words war is over if you want it. All we are saying is give peace a chance. We want that to be true, don't we? But if we're honest, we know that it's not. Is there any hope? Is there any hope of change in a world at war? I want you to see today that there is, and that that is really good. In fact, it's even bigger. The hope that Jesus brings is even bigger than no more war. And he's worth hoping in. Firstly, King Jesus will give justice for the poor and the wicked. It's about a tree. A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse. From his roots, a branch will bear fruit. What is this tree thing about? From the very beginning, God saw what he has made, and it was very good, but it didn't last long. We live in a fallen world. And so God promised, he promised Abraham to gather his people and restore his world, and that promise focused in on a particular king. A man whose father's name was Jesse, but he was a bit of a nobody. His name was David. And God promised that he would be the king, and his kings would rule forever. We saw at the beginning of Isaiah that the rulers of God's people in Isaiah's day they were arrogant, there was injustice, and they oppressed the needy. And so God says there's going to be a stump. Do you see that in verse 1? A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse. Have you ever seen a stump, a tree, a great tree cut down? There's one on my way to work here actually. Cut down, and what a tragedy that is. Such life and promise and grown for so many years. Unless, of course, the tree was rotten and needed to be cut down. That's what's happening here. There was a stump of Jesse, but there's going to be a shoot that will grow. Verse 1 again: a shoot will come from the stump of Jesse. Who is Jesse? He's David's father. And so something will grow from this stump. You would expect it to say the stump of David, he's the great one, but a shoot from the stump of Jesse means not a son of David, but a new David. And he comes to be called the Messiah, the Christ. It's talking about a person. What is this person like? Verse 2. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord, and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. We saw last week that Isaiah, when he saw the Lord, he was afraid. For the Lord was high and mighty and on his throne, and Isaiah was a man of unclean lips, and yet God forgave him. But he had learnt to fear the Lord. Like God did for David, he's going to put his spirit on this new king, and so this new king, this new David, will fear the Lord. And so verse five, righteousness will be his belt, and faithfulness the sash around his waist. He will have a wise heart. And with a wise heart he will give justice. Verse three. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears. You'd think you'd want a judge to look at things, wouldn't you? And to listen to people. What is it that we want in a leader or in a king? A king, you say, well, I don't want a king. Maybe just a figurehead who gives stability. Or many people think, why would he want a king at all? If only Australia had become a republic like China did over a hundred years ago. The Bible doesn't tell us which system of government to have, but his plan is for a king and a king with power. And so that must be one possibility. What is it though, whatever your form of government, your system of government, that you want in a leader? A charismatic leader, a skillful leader, successful, someone with the right policies. And character doesn't matter. Surveys have shown in the last couple of decades in America that amongst Christians, less and less do they care about character. That doesn't matter. Just as long as they have the right policies. What do you think? God wants a king with a wise heart, and with a wise heart, he will give justice. What is it you want your leader to deliver to the people? We've had the budget this week. The main thing I think we want these days is a good economy, isn't it? And more money. The capital gains tax, negative gearing. What is the first question that you ask when the budget comes out? What's your knee-jerk reaction? What's in it for me? And God thinks that a leader is to produce not a good economy, but justice for the needy and justice for the wicked. If that's true, then you'd be looking at the overseas aid budget, wouldn't you? In the budget. And how much money is there for legal aid? And I didn't see that anywhere in the headlines or in my heart. Of course, this doesn't just affect politics and who you vote for. It's leadership in our church and leadership in our family and our businesses and our community. How do we choose our leaders? What do we look for there? What do you pray for, the ministers of your church? And for your growth group leaders. And if you exercise some leadership, which you probably do over someone, what are you doing to grow a wise heart so that you fear the Lord more and care about the needy and doing what is right? God promised that he would send a king who would have a wise heart and give justice for the needy and for the wicked. And he kept his promise, didn't he? Earlier in the year, we were in John's Gospel. Come and see Jesus. Jesus is this Messiah, this king. As we see Jesus in John's Gospel, he's not yet sitting on a throne. But he looks like just the sort of person you want on the throne. The Spirit came down on him and rested on him. He had a wise heart and gives justice to the needy. You might remember, he met an outcast, sinful Samaritan woman and welcomed her. A son who was dying and saved him. A man who'd been lame for thirty-eight years, helpless, and he healed him. And he promised to bring justice for the wicked. Woe to you who exploit the needy, he said to the leaders of his day. Ultimately, actually, Jesus gives justice to the needy. That's us. Because of our sin, we are facing judgment. And King Jesus, well, he is Isaiah 53, the suffering servant that we'll see later. He took the justice we deserved, that he might justify many. And when he comes again, King Jesus, he won't just pronounce judgment that it's coming. He will give it. He will judge the wicked and destroy injustice. There is so much wrong with our world. And God has promised a king and given a king who will fix it. What are you hoping will fix the world? Jesus is the only one who can. And God tells us he will really fix it. It is extraordinary point to King Jesus will give complete peace for all creation. Have a look at verse six. It's just bizarre. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yealing together, and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear. The young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. These are extraordinary images, aren't they? I don't know how much you're into nature. My main interaction with nature is through documentaries. David Attenborough, you've heard of him perhaps. Turned a hundred. Hours and hours of documentaries, extraordinary things that he has shown us. We watched a documentary movie just the other night on Jane Goodall. Have you heard of her? In her early 20s, a secretary in England. She was sent to live with chimpanzees in Tanzania. For the rest of most of her life, that's exactly what she did. At that point, very little was known about chimpanzees. How did they relate to each other? Were they much like us or not? And what she discovered changed our complete understanding of chimpanzees. They live in family groups. They love and care for one another. She grew, she fell in love with their chimpanzees, you might say. They were extraordinary, so extraordinary, they even used tools. That was a first. We thought that human beings were the only ones that used tools. What do they use tools for? To eat ants, of course. Because that's a natural instinct. Animals eat animals. That's right, isn't it? And yet this says that will come to an end. About halfway through the documentary, halfway through her time with the chimpanzees, it turned tragic. She and her husband had had a son by this point. We learned that chimpanzees actually will steal the young of another if they are jealous. And so we watched her son playing in a metal cage for his own safety. The matriarch amongst the chimps died, and the whole family structure fell apart. The two groups separated, one moved south, and a war started between them. This war went for four years, and they constantly found dead chimps destroyed and killed by the other group. Jane was shocked by this. They had seemed so so idyllic, so wonderful, so unlike us. She thought, I thought chimps were so like us but nicer. But they have a darker and aggressive side, just like we do, capable of hostile and territorial behavior that was not unlike certain forms of primitive human warfare. And for the life of me, I don't know what the word primitive is doing in that sentence. They were like us, JC. For creation has gone wrong. In chapter two, we saw that there was hope for a world at war. On the mountain of the Lord, when Jesus returns, they will beat their swords into plough shares, and they were not trained for war anymore. And in chapter 11, we see it's even bigger. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, verse 9, and even natural animal instincts to kill one another will be gone. This means that it's not just war that will be gone, but all violence, domestic violence, child trafficking, just the normal conflict that you and I experience in our normal human relationships. Gone. And not just people, but nature. Animals will not attack one another. There will be no more floods, no more bushfires, and no more global warming. How will this happen? Is it just a pipe dream? Well, some people will tell you the key is to remove mankind from the equation. We are the problem. If you simply remove us and leave nature alone, all will be well. Verse 6, have a look. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yealing together, and a little child will lead them. This week in my Yasik scripture class, we asked the question: why are we here, mankind? And we saw that it's God's plan for mankind to be here on purpose to rule and to care for his world. I asked them, out of ten, how do you think we're doing? Two, they said. But the solution is not to get us out of the picture. Do you see there, verse six? And a little child will lead them. It's explained more in verse eight. The infant will play near the cobra's den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper's nest. Cobra, viper, what are they? Snakes. Do you know the story in the Bible? Adam and Eve are to obey God, to rule the world, to care for the garden, and yet the Satan comes in the form of a snake and deceives them, and they trust him and not God. And there is a curse on them and the world ever since. This king, King Jesus, will reverse that curse and set everything right. King Jesus will give complete peace for all creation. This answers our deepest longings. And yet I struggle to remember this. I see the images on TV, I experience conflict, say, and I'm filled with despair. How can I kindle this hope in my heart? Well, again, in my scripture class this week, I share with them two words for them to learn. Simple words. One is ah. The other is ah. I had to explain, it's not pirates I'm talking about. No. When you see a sunset and you are amazed by the glory of God, by the beauty that He has made, and that sense of peace that you have, that's ah. And when you hear or see of someone who is dying of famine, ah, it's not right. Or you see two polar bears hugging each other. Ah. Or you see grown men elected to represent the people of their nation, supposed to be having a rational, sensible debate, having a punch-up instead. That's ah. And we experience that all the time in the things that we see in our world and in our lives. We have that sense of, and I want you to give a word to it. Ah or ah. To express your heart and to remember that this is not right, and that it is going to be fixed. Jesus promises, has done what it takes, and will bring about the peace that we long for. Will you kindle that in your heart? Of course, we want that for everyone, don't we, to have that hope. Finally, King Jesus is gathering his people through us. Suddenly it changes and narrows down. Verse 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. In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people, from Assyria, Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt, Cush, Elam, Babylonia, Hamath, and the islands of the Mediterranean. What a transition! Where's the segue? All of creation transformed to gathering his people from a few places in the Middle East. But notice it's still Jesse, the father of David. We're still talking about the same person, the new David. And God's people have been scattered, that's like the stump cut down. They've been scattered, and God is committed to gathering his people, his plan, under his king. And so his king is like a banner held up that the people, his people, will come to. They have been exiled and they will return. And their return will be wonderful. They will no longer be scattered. It will be like the Exodus when they came out of Egypt. That's verse 15. They will no longer be divided, like Israel or Ephraim in the north and Judah in the south, verse 13. They will no longer be afraid because, verse 14, they will be victorious. And just 70 years later, it seemed like God had kept his promise. They did come back from exile. They were gathered, but not united. But not victorious. The wars continued around them, the wars continued over them. And so in Jesus' day, there was a king. But King Herod did not have a wise heart, and he did not give justice. And yet Jesus had a wise heart and gave justice. And he said, When he died, he would be raised as a banner for all the people. When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. When is he lifted up? On the cross. When he takes the judgment of us, the needy, he draws all people to himself. At Pentecost, Jewish people came from all their scattered places on that day, and they heard about God's king and came to him. But it is bigger than that. Don't know if you noticed in verse 10, but it says, the nations will rally to him. I think it probably just means God's people in the nations. But later in Isaiah, Isaiah 56, it says, Foreigners will come to my holy mountain. My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. And that's exactly what Jesus did. He sent his disciples to gather disciples to live under his rule, people from all nations. United in him and victorious over sin, death, and even evil spirits. And that's exactly what Jesus is doing today, isn't it? Gathering people from all nations. And he does it through us. Have you noticed that in this chapter we are not told to do anything? If you're interested in grammar, there are no imperatives, no commands, but it's obvious what to do, isn't it? Put your hope in this king. Delight in this king. Look forward to his rule. And you must want others to enjoy his rule as well. And if he is gathering people under his rule to enjoy that hope, then it must be our role to invite people to come. Time is running out. He is going to return on his throne, give justice to the needy, and justice to the wicked. And so I must want my mother, my brother, anyone I know and care about, to come to him, be under his rule, and have this hope. We must want that. We can't keep it to ourselves, can we? There must be some ways that we can find to share that hope, to be praying for opportunities to share that hope. That is why we're running the Alpha Course. That's why many of you invited people to come. That's why we invite people to join us here at church. King Jesus gives justice for the needy and for the wicked. He brings peace to all of creation and is gathering people from every nation. I wonder how does he answer your deepest longings? How will you kindle in your heart your hope for the new world? And what will you do this week to see someone move just one step closer towards Jesus? Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, in this world at war, this fallen world, we need hope. We are so prone to despair. And Father, we thank you that you know that, you know our hearts, and you answer. Your King Jesus, he will give justice and he will bring in a whole new creation of peace. Father, we do pray that you would kindle this hope in our hearts and that we would seek ways to do that. And Father, we do pray that you would give us opportunities, that we would be prayerful and looking for opportunities and taking them to share this hope that people so need and deep down are so looking for. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. What a glorious.