Isaiah 11 - The Lord's Redemption

Amen, sacred Bible.

We'll go to the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah, chapter 11, isaiah, chapter 11.

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

The end of September we started our study of Isaiah and as we've gone through these first 10 chapters, we've understood Isaiah painting a rather dark description of Judah and Israel and Jerusalem.

Throughout the first 10 chapters of this book, we've come across tragic descriptions of a people who have abandoned their God, who have plunged into all manner of corruption and debauchery.

These people have blinded themselves to the future, they've closed their ears to God's warnings and they run to their ruin and with deep sadness.

The prophet Isaiah was tasked with the responsibility of proclaiming the just disaster that would come upon them.

The judgment would be so devastating as we noticed last week at the end of chapter 10, that only a remnant would remain chapter 10, that only a remnant would remain, just a smattering of people out of the mass of humanity that was part of Judah and Israel.

And that judgment would come suddenly, through the powerful instrumentality of the Assyrian empire and in 735 BC, king Ahaz of Judah made an alliance with the king of Assyria and Judah became a subservient vassal of the empire of Assyria.

And as the emperor of Assyria marched his troops down, he utterly crushed and took into captivity the people of Israel.

These are dark chapters.

These things that dominate the opening of Isaiah, however, are sometimes punctured by expressions of hope that we realize are completely undeserved.

They're surprising and intriguing to us that a God who speaks about the unrighteousness and the absolute apostasy of these people would ever speak to them in any way other than judgment.

And yet he does.

And yet he does.

We've seen Isaiah move rapidly from an expression of judgment to a wondrous promise of life and hope, and once again we're going to go there in chapter 11.

We ended on a dark and sad note of judgment last week and we enter now into an expression of hope and life and reconciliation that sends us into the outer reaches of our imagination and into a description of life that is something we've never yet been able to experience, something we've never yet been able to experience.

We find ourselves filled with a description of a new ruler who arises out of the ashes, a righteous ruler from Jesse's Davidic line.

And this king will not only rule with justice and he will return to the world, to its Edenic paradise.

He will gather his people from the very ends of the earth and they will be there filled with hope and deliverance from evil and sin's consequences, and this promise we've already begun to enter into, and this promise causes us to look forward yet into the fulfillment of these things that have already been inaugurated.

And so this morning let's look with joy and delight as God turns from darkness to light the people of God.

Let's take a look at verse 1 and we'll notice.

Here, first of all, a new king will arise.

A new king will arise.

The prophecy of Isaiah begins with poetry and it turns to the language of the bard to evoke strong images in our mind that are going to elicit some strong responses to us of joy and hope and delight and motions as we rejoice before the Lord.

But in order to get us there, it begins with an image that is continuing the theme of darkness.

In verse 1,.

The first thing that we see here is a shoot growing from a stump of Jesse is a shoot growing from a stump of Jesse.

Nothing can be more bleak than to come across a fire-burned region.

I've lived in California for 12 years.

We saw a lot of burnt-out areas and during the pandemic I was sitting at my table preparing for one of our times together and I found out that there was a fire close to the house that we had bought in Grass Valley and I watched with worry as the hills that I had walked and the roads that I had driven on and the places where my sons and I had fished were on fire, and I was curious to know whether or not the home that we had owned survived.

And I was able to find a news channel that had a news helicopter surveying the fire and as it swooped over different places, it brushed closely by our house.

We didn't actually see our house, but we saw the area and we wept over the people who were once our neighbors losing their homes and we wondered if the one that we had called home was still there.

Two years ago we took Matt and Vianne through a trip to California.

He wanted to show Vianne all the places where he had lived and grew up, and so we went from place to place to place and we approached Grass Valley and we saw the devastation.

These mountains that were thickly wooded were now barren, scarred, empty, lifeless.

And we went up a road and turned up another road and we pulled onto Poche's circle and right in front of us was nothing.

Our house was gone, it had burned up and it was the most shocking, depressing, empty feeling that I had had for a long time.

It was as if the memories and the life and the enjoyment of those four years had just been burnt away and they were gone.

Nothing is more bleak than that, and here we have that.

We've got Isaiah pulling into chapter 11 some imagery from two previous chapters.

At the end of chapter six he says that God is going to use Assyria to chop down Israel, which was once a mighty tree, and he's going to burn it.

And so it's nothing but a dead stump that's left.

And then, at the end of chapter 10, the instrument of Assyria is going to be burnt and chopped down itself.

Take a look at the end of here, verse 33.

The Lord, god of armies, will chop off the branches with terrifying power and the tall trees will be cut down.

The high trees felled.

He's clearing the thickets of the forest with an axe and Lebanon with its majesty will fall.

When Assyria was finally cut down in 609 BC by the combined forces of Babylon and Media and Persia, there never again arose anything out of the dead stump of Assyria.

It was gone.

But Israel look at verse 1 again.

They too were rightly judged by God.

They too were cut down like the Assyrians.

They too were burnt to a dead stump.

But God's not finished with them.

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and Jesse's a reference to David.

The reference to David is of a Davidic figure, and the Davidic figure gives us an understanding of an anointed one, the Messiah.

The Messiah, and as we've been going through Isaiah, there have been little whispers of statements that have helped us to understand who this is In chapter 4, the branch of the Lord.

In chapter 9, a child born who would sit on the throne of his father, david.

And here, in chapter 11, a little shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from a dead root.

This is the Messiah that's being talked about, and when you get to the very end of the scriptures in the book of Revelation and the very last chapter, chapter 22, there's a comment made by Jesus himself.

And how does he identify himself?

The very culmination of the very revelation of God.

He could pull from any image that he wanted to, and he says I, jesus, have sent my angel to attest these things to you, for the churches, I am the root and descendant of David.

The king would not come like most kings do.

He would not come with the worldwide fanfare, wouldn't come born into a glorious palace.

He wouldn't come with all the attention of the realm, with all the celebrations that might occur A child is born, a new prince has come into the family.

No, this would be a small, insignificant, imperceptible, little shoot of life.

He would come from obscure and humble origins.

No one would probably even notice, and if they did notice they probably wouldn't be impressed.

This is our King, this is our Savior.

And when we get into the New Testament, it doesn't bring us into the glorious palaces of Jerusalem, the mighty, mighty, vast areas of Rome's power as the empire took over that land.

It brings us into a small little village called Bethlehem, with a little gathering of just a mother and a father and a few shepherds in that backwater area.

And then, when this child is born, he settles again, not in places of notice, not in arenas of accolade, but in the backwaters of Galilee, in a village so obscure that people in his adulthood would say can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

And the answer, obviously, is no to everyone else, this little sprout of life, it shoots out of a dead stump.

The kings of Judah and Israel.

There are no more first kings and second kings and third king books, because there's no more kings to talk about.

There's no more chronicles of the kings to write.

They're dead, they're gone.

Judah has no king.

Israel has no king.

They're a defeated people in a backwater place with the Roman empire standing over them, ruling them as subjects.

But the root of Jesse will appear and this little blush of life will not only live, it will grow.

And it will not only grow, it will empower it in such a way that it will literally take over the world.

Listen to what the Gentiles.

The Gentiles will hope in him.

Yes, there's a new king coming and yes, he will come in obscurity, but his life and his ministry and his influence and effect will cover the globe.

This new king, this promise to a dead stump of Judah, this hope to a cut down, mowed down people of Israel.

But it's not just any king, he's a better king that will arise.

And look at verses two and five, because we're given a description of this new and better king.

We're told here that his life and his ministry are going to be marked by an empowering of the Spirit.

His identity is going to be with the Lord, and his relationship is going to be one that reflects the Lord and, as we know, he actually is the Lord.

This future king will align himself with the Lord's vision for what a Davidic king ought to be.

And there's never been a king on the throne of Judah or Israel who's ever, ever been like this one.

Not even David, not even Solomon, and certainly not Ahaz, or even the blush of hope in Hezekiah to come after him.

He's going to embody the insight of rule, in stark contrast to the foolishness of those other kings.

His wisdom and his strength and his empowerment will come from God and not from the strength of his own arms, like the emperor of Assyria.

This king is going to express and live in the abundance and fullness of life and understanding.

And it tells us, because the spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the writers of the gospels picked up this spirit of the Lord resting on this anointed one and spoke about the ministry of Jesus with those words, quoted from other places, in Isaiah, isaiah 42.

This is my servant, this is my chosen one, I will delight on him, I will put my spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.

Who is this one?

He will not cry out nor shout or make his voice heard in the streets.

He will not break a bruised reed, he will not put out a smoldering wick, but he will faithfully bring justice.

This is our Jesus, isaiah 61,.

At the very outset of his public ministry, jesus, in a synagogue, takes the scroll of Isaiah and opens it up and lays it out in order to speak and to identify himself to the people.

And what does he read?

He reads this the spirit of the Lord.

God is on me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

And Jesus rolled up the scroll and said this has been fulfilled today in the ministry of Christ.

So who is this new king?

Who is this better king?

This is King Jesus, and he reigns like no other kings ever reigned before.

The spirit is fully upon him and gives him all of the equipment to be able to reign in righteousness and justice.

And we have three little couplets here in the next little section.

He's given a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

And then it's summed up in saying that his delight will be in the fear of the Lord.

This first couplet speaks about his ability to fulfill his role and it speaks about the faculties of his mind wisdom and understanding.

But it's more than just that.

Jesus will be a smart person.

He will be a smart person, he will be a wise person.

He will be able to understand how to deal with the problems of life.

He will be able to see beyond the details and the particulars of situations and he'll be able, in making an appropriate assessment, apply the right medicine and truth to the need.

How wonderful it is to have a king who can do that for us, who knows our every need and knows every possible solution that could be bought and chooses exactly the right one for us.

This is why the apostle Paul could say I know all things work together for the good of God's people.

This king will not only be able to have that wisdom and understanding, but he will also be given a spirit of counsel and of strength.

Whatever his determinations and plans will be, they will be the right determinations and the right plans, because he has the perfect counsel to carry out his ministry and his life and he will be given all the strength he needs to fulfill it.

How different it is to all of us.

A lot of times we fumble around trying to figure out what to do with ourselves and oftentimes we end down a road and say I need to backtrack quick because I'm going the wrong way.

Or we might find ourselves actually on a very good path, and even the right path, and we fail and falter and fall because we don't have the strength to complete it.

But here's our Savior who does it all, and he will be given the spirit of the knowledge of God and of the fear of God.

He will know God and his life will be marked with the highest regard for what God's glory should be.

This is the king.

This is a king who's been given the source of direction that will allow him to be just and righteous in all of his activities.

And the descriptor here is in verse 3, he will not judge by what he sees with his eyes.

He will not execute justice by what he hears with his ears.

The things that he's going to decide and do aren't decided and done in the way that we are.

He doesn't base his perspectives upon the outward appearance or even the information presented to him, because he knows the heart of all things.

He judges the earth fairly.

If you walk into a courtroom, the judge sits there and he listens to testimony and he receives the things that are presented to him and told him.

He observes as much as he can in all the things that are occurring, but he's limited by all of that.

He doesn't know everything.

He only can deal and judge based upon what he hears and what he sees.

But this king, he doesn't have those limitations.

He knows our very hearts.

He's not dependent upon his eyes or his ears and he's not going to be pulled aside by the way other kings are when they are called to execute a judgment.

He's not going to be clutching for status or being given some side money.

He's not going to be sort of using his office for a purpose of getting greater political influence.

He's not going to be tricked by clever lawyers.

He's not going to be tricked by clever lawyers.

He's not going to be fooled by idle boast or excuses or deceptive lies or half truths or false information.

None of those things will will pull him away from what is right and true and because he understands it all.

And how will he execute his office?

Will he do it like we do, by protecting the powerful and pouncing on the weak?

No, the scriptures tell us that he's something different than that.

In verse four.

He will.

Were in a covenant relationship with God and they were meant to fulfill the terms of the covenant, which meant the king was to be the representative carer of those who were powerless and weak, the protector of the weak and the care of the needy.

But what do kings do?

Well, kings do what kings do, don't they?

They amass wealth, they live luxuriously, they put their friends in other places of power, they find others to protect them, they secure their reign, they want to build their legacy.

This king, he doesn't see his role as a place of privilege.

He sees his kingship as a place of service.

And he serves not the powerful first to characterize his reign, but the weakest first.

And when our Lord Jesus came into this world, he said that he did what he came to seek and to save the lost.

He came to give his life as a ransom for many.

He would say to people come, all of you who are weak and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.

Peter said by his wounds we're healed.

He was our very medicine and our vigor of life.

We were like sheep going astray and he didn't just say well, count them off, I've got a million others.

He went to catch the wayward and bring them back.

And then, in verse four, it says he will slay the wicked.

He doesn't slay the weak, he doesn't slay with the way we would think he does.

It says that he will accomplish his work by his words.

I was told a lie when I was a little boy.

You probably were too, and you could say it with me.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Yeah, thanks, mom, thanks.

Dad Took two seconds on the playground to find out my parents had lied to me.

Words can hurt, words are painful.

Proverbs 12 says reckless words pierce like a sword.

But the tongue of the wise brings healing.

And here our lord reigns by the expression of his mouth, not by the strength of his arm, and he brings justice to the weak and he mows down the wicked, the ones who actually deserve the judgment.

So here is this king with divine origin, marked by the Spirit, dispensing justice, taking care of the needy, taking care of the oppressed.

Taking care of the oppressed, cutting down the wicked, marked by righteousness and faithfulness.

And when we get to the book of Revelation, there's an image of this king flowing out of the heavenlies riding a white horse.

And listen to the echoes of this passage when you hear what it says.

I saw the heaven opened and there was a white horse and its rider was called Faithful and True and with justice he judges.

His eyes were like a fiery flame and many crowns were on his head and he had a name written that no one knows except himself.

He wore a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God.

The armies that were in heaven followed him on white horses wearing white, pure white linen, and a sharp sword came from his mouth so that he might strike down the nations.

This is our king.

He comes onto the scene as just a blush of life out of a burnt stump, but he's no longer that.

He's this better king who rules with righteousness.

And look at the effect of his rule in verses 6 to 9.

As we go here, the wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the goat and the calf and the young lion and the fatted calf will be together and a child will lead them.

The cow and the bear will graze, the young ones will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like cattle.

An infant will play beside the cobra's pit and a toddler will put his hand into a snake's den.

They will not harm or destroy each other.

Yesterday I watched a little video David Attenborough they do nature films in the UK like we've never done in the USA and it followed this little triplet of tiger cubs, beautiful and orange and cream, with black stripes, and they were growing toward maturity and getting older.

And watching the three of these siblings playing together and sort of jumping on each other and rollicking through all of the area that they lived in was delightful.

And then it's scoped over to their mother who was hunting for them and as she was hunting she's stalking and she gazes her eyes upon a deer with a fawn and that too, isolated on its own, was a beautiful scene of life and affection and relationship, until Mrs Tiger took down baby fawn and dragged it off to be eaten by the three tiger cubs.

And you realize that nature is truly red in tooth and claw, that nature is truly red in tooth and claw, that even these beautiful scenes get abruptly ended by the necessity of death and the reality of death.

The vigor of those tigers had to come from somewhere and it came from other flesh.

But when you read these descriptions of the rule of this new king, this better king, it's like you're back in Eden.

You're back where there's no more death.

You're back where there's no more enmity, back when there are things that are naturally predator and prey, live in harmony with each other, where there's no harm, where a child could play with one of the most poisonous snakes and not worry about it ever, because nothing will touch the life that's there.

This is a paradise of peace and security, with a removal of the original curse, where harmony is returned between man and man and men and animals and animals, with animals Living together, feeding together, playing together, and all of the fear and all the danger and all the death are gone.

This idyllic picture points to a day where things will be far different than what we know today.

Isaiah 65,.

The wolf and the lamb will feed together, the lion will eat straw like cattle and the serpent's food will be dust.

They will not do what is evil or destroy in my entire holy mountain.

Ezekiel 34, I'll make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate dangerous creatures from the land so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest.

Ezekiel 36, the land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden.

Ezekiel 36, the land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden.

This is God's transforming work.

Through this new king, this better king, he's going to bring a glorious kingdom in which all the things that are normal to us will be gone.

All the pain and agony, all the tears, all the enmity, all the trouble, all the heartache.

It's gone.

No terror, no fear, no striking down, no destruction, no death.

And this is not just figurative language here.

This is pointing us to a day of reality when this very plot of ground that we call earth and home will be something different than what we experience.

This is the hope.

We can conjure up in our mind, the wondrous ideals, but imagine your brain taking you to places, to the outer extremities of the most glorious scene and kingdom, and then you walk away and say, well, that was a beautiful story, wasn't it Once upon a time?

But it's real, but it's real, but it's real.

You see, all of those once upon in the time stories find their root in the realities of God's kingdom.

Then, when he brings paradise regained, because God will be victorious and his Messiah will reign and nothing will step outside the establishment of that kingdom.

And nothing will step outside the establishment of that kingdom, and verse 9 tells us exactly why and what the greatest effect is, for the land will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is filled with water.

In our day that could hardly be said of any town.

There might be in some places in the Bible Belt a much larger and sizable population of people who have the knowledge of God than they do here in the New York City area, but even there you couldn't say that that town was filled with the knowledge of the God as much as the seas fill the expanse of their borders.

But the day will come when the whole earth, not just little pockets of places, will know God and act on that knowledge in a way filled with love and obedience and devotion.

The rest of the chapter verses 10 through 16, talk about the reach of this king's rule.

He's not only a new king coming out of a dead stump, he's a better king, who reigns like no other king has done, and he brings a perfect kingdom into reality.

What are the reaches and the boundaries and the borders of this king?

Well, in verses 10 to 16, we find that it reaches the whole earth.

On that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples.

On that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples.

What I thought he was, the root of Jesse.

I thought this was the Davidic king.

I thought this was Israel's hope.

He is.

But Isaiah doesn't start there.

He starts with the Gentiles.

The nations will look to him for guidance and his resting place will be glorious.

This king, amazingly, is spoken of as the king for the peoples before he's mentioned to be the king of the Israelites.

His rule and his reign will be so impressive that the world will flock to him and will seek his blessing and seek his guidance.

And this very passage of scripture is a passage of scripture that Paul quotes in Romans 15, when he talks about the glorious outflowing of the gospel as is proclaimed around the world.

He says I say Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God's truth, to confirm the promises to the Father so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy.

And then he gives this list of quotes as it is written Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles.

I'll sing your praises to your name Again.

Rejoice you, gentiles, with his people.

Again, praise the Lord, all you, gentiles, let all the peoples praise him.

And again, isaiah says the root of Jesse will appear, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles.

The Gentiles will hope in him.

You see this perfect kingdom that we talked about coming just a moment ago, where lion and lamb could lie together.

The king's already showed up and the king's already working his work.

And the reason we're here in this room this morning singing the things that we sang together and filling our heart with joy, in rejoicing over our Lord Jesus who saved us, is because this King is already beginning and extending his rule over the Gentiles.

And we're here.

Arnie, you get a moment in just a second, okay, but the rest of us want to rejoice right now.

The promises made to the fathers?

Arnie's saying that's me, but we're all standing here saying what promises made to our forefathers?

None.

But this king is merciful not just to his promises to be faithful to them, but to people he had never given a promise to.

He now gives himself to, and the nations will rally to him.

And it's talking about that standard or that rallying point.

If you were ever in the Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts or in the military or did anything where you'd put up a standard and you would sort of make a way toward it, you know what that is.

And this image comes from Exodus 17, when the people of God were attacked by the Amalekites and Joshua took an army and went down in to meet the Amalekites in battle.

And Moses went up on a hillside and he stood there and he lifted up his arms with this God's staff in his hands, and as long as he kept his arms up, the people prevailed, and when his strength weakened, the people would begin to be taken down in battle.

And so Aaron and Hur stood on either side of him and held Moses' arms up, and at the end of the battle that was full of victory, moses in song says the Lord is our banner, the Lord is our standard, the Lord is our rallying point.

It marked the place of victory because God was doing the fighting on their behalf After the tree of Israel was cut down and after there was nothing but a dead root remaining.

A new life would come, a new king, a better king, and he would arise as just but a little shoot.

But the day would come when he too would go up on a hill and he too would lift up his arms.

But his arms were fastened to the cross and never failed, never faltered.

And as his arms were held there, the victory of God happened.

As his arms were extended.

And Jesus himself said if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me.

If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me.

Here is our king.

He is the very standard and rallying point of the nations.

But he's also the answer to the people of Israel and Judah and in the last few verses we see him acting with power that this is a redemption that only God will bring, that he is redeeming the people, he's gathering them, but he's also redeeming them with a purchase.

And then he's gathering them from all corners of the earth.

We find north and south and east and west mentioned as these people are drawn to this king.

But he not only populates his kingdom with them, he transforms them.

Israel and Judah are now reconciled, when they were once enemies.

This is the king, the king.

This king like no other, this king from David's line, this king that fears the Lord, this king that practices justice, this king that establishes peace, this king that stands against the wicked, this king that restores the oppressed people of Judah and Israel, this king that causes the earth to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, this king who rules justly and establishes peace and prosperity and delivers the oppressed.

This king.

Now let's go, last of all, to Revelation, chapter 5, and see the culmination of this promise in chapter five.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

And see the culmination of this promise Last book of the Bible, in chapter five, and we're brought into a vision.

John sees, in a throne room of God, in a scroll with writing, on both sides sealed with seven seals, and he sees an angel proclaiming with words a question to the peoples who was worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?

As John contemplates the question and as he looks around for someone who might rise, he realizes there's nobody who can do it and he begins to weep because there was no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth able to open the scroll or even to look at it.

And he says in verse 4, at it.

And he says in verse 4, I wept.

And I wept because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or even to look at it.

And as he's sitting there contemplating the utter devastation and humiliation of humanity, of no one able to take the very will of God and to inaugurate and execute it, he weeps.

We're all ruined, he says, until one of the elders touches him and says to him you don't have to weep, look, the lion from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered.

You don't have to weep because there is someone who can take God's will and inaugurate it, and execute it and bring it to full completion.

And as the elder is bending over John, as he's beginning to realize that there's some better news than what he thought was the actual situation, and as he's told, open your eyes and look and see a lion, the root of David.

What does he do?

He opens up his heart with a desire to see this lion that's going to be this reigning king.

And as he opens his eyes and he looks, he sees this.

I saw one like a slaughtered lamb standing in the midst of the throne.

This is not the lion I was expecting to see.

This is not the courageous, powerful, potent lion.

It was a slaughtered lamb.

This isn't a figure of royalty and dignity and reign, powerful, mighty.

It's a lamb Small, humble, weak, quiet, submissive and dead.

This is the lion.

This is the only thing that can inaugurate and execute and fulfill God's will.

This is the greatest paradox in the world.

The Almighty King, because he is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of Jesse.

How does he win?

By seemingly letting his enemies overcome him.

And Satan surely thought he had one.

He had tricked devious people into murdering their own Messiah and Jesus was dead.

And for three days, if anybody had thought Jesus was the hope of the world, they felt like they were looking at a dead stump again.

We thought he was the one who would deliver Israel, the disciples said on the road to Emmaus.

But we don't think that anymore.

He's dead and hope has failed and deliverance is once again burnt down.

But out of the ashes arises the stump, the life again Three days.

Three days later, the angels say to those who are there why are you here?

He is not among the dead, he's alive.

This valiant king has won through his death.

You've heard the story, perhaps, of St George and the dragon right Whack the head right off of that dragon.

What a powerful story that is.

We love movies like that.

Get to the climax and the tension.

And the hero he may be shot 17 times but he can still run like he's never been touched.

And he gets in there and he takes out the enemy and you're like what a great movie, this movie.

He's dead, he's slaughtered.

A slaughtered lamb, a slaughtered lamb because he was a sacrificed lamb.

He was a slaughtered lamb who gave up his own life.

Lamb.

He was a slaughtered lamb who gave up his own life.

You see, god is redefining for the human race what victory actually looks like.

When Jesus was nailed on the cross of Cal and darkness and he won by becoming dead himself, the scriptures say in Colossians 2, he has disarmed the powers and authorities, making a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by his cross, triumphing over them by his cross.

Hebrews, chapter 2.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

Jesus shared in flesh and blood so that, through death, he might destroy the one holding the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their life, have been held in slavery by the fear of death.

Here is our Lord who takes us through every conceivable trouble, through every area of enemy territory, through and over or around every obstacle, and can take us through the greatest enemy we have death itself and bring us on the other side of that in victory.

This is that little, little blush of life.

Jesus, how do you define victory?

How do you define victory in this life?

How do you define victory in eternity?

And where is your victory found?

Is your victory found in eternity in the?

I hope God will be merciful to me, or I think I've done enough to get there, or I'm not as bad as other people are, or well, at least I was sincere, or I was baptized when I was a baby.

Where does your victory lie?

Where does your hope anchor itself?

Are you willing to anchor your hope in the death of a slaughtered lamb?

That's where the victory actually is, because he's the lion of the tribe of Judah, he's the root of David and in his death he destroys death and he now gives life and immortality that he's brought to light to all who believe on him.

This is the king.

This is the king from the dead stump, this is the new king who rules in justice.

This is the king who brings a glorious, peaceful return to Eden to all of us.

This is the king who gathers the nations.

This is the King who keeps his promises.

This is the King who defeats all enemies.

This is the King.

Amen.

Let's pray, father, thank you.

Thank you for being our King, thank you for being who you are, thank you for giving us this glorious picture of who our savior is and what he will inaugurate and enact as the fullness of his kingdom flourishes and becomes fully known.

And, lord, we wait and hope for that coming day when all these things will be the former things that have passed away and his glorious reign will be seen and felt and enjoyed by all who believe.

Father, I pray for any in our midst this morning who are bowing to a different king, who are bowing to the king of self or self-righteousness, or to their pleasures, or to their intellectual capacities of doubt and skepticism.

I pray, father, that you might move them to bow to King Jesus and Lord, we pray that all of us may do so with gladness and joy and submission and in the delight of your mercies, and we pray this in Christ's name, amen.