Christmas, The Gift, The Peaceable Kingdom

Christmas, the Gift, the Peaceable Kingdom

1. The Christmas season has many wonderful traditions. Does everyone here know of the "tradition" of kissing under the mistletoe? The history of kissing under the mistletoe goes back to ancient Scandinavia custom and Norse myths. If by chance enemies met beneath mistletoe in a forest, they laid down their arms and maintained a truce until the next day. You see, for the Norse, Mistletoe was a symbol of love, peace and goodwill.

2. Throughout the Bible, we repeatedly find this idea of love, peace and goodwill. Isaiah is a fine example. If there is a fifth Gospel, it is the Book of Isaiah. That is because Isaiah talks so much about Christ. Isaiah predicts that, because of the sins of its people, the Davidic dynasty will end, and all that remains will be the stump of its family tree. Isaiah then speaks of the genealogy of Jesus and states that out of the stump of Jesse’s family tree a “shoot,” a fresh stem. will emerge. That stem, that stump, is the birth of Jesus. Further, Isaiah says that the church will emerge and reach out to the gentiles. He also the prophesizes that love, peace and goodwill comes when Christ rules the earth.

3. Our scripture today is Isaiah telling of the restoration of the Kingdom through the re-establishment of a Davidic Messiah. I now read from Isaiah 11:1-10, “1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. 3 And 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; 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins. 6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. 9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”

4. As we read this passage from Isaiah this morning, it is important to understand that Isaiah describes the birth of Christ, and His thousand-year reign. It is then that the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling dwell together.

5. Isaiah declares that the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Jesus, the Prince of Peace that came as a baby. He is the source of everlasting peace every human heart desperately wants. In a world so torn by war and economic hardship this season, how can we find the kind of peace that Isaiah predicts can be ours? We feel the Prince of Peace in three ways.

I. The first way of knowing the Prince of Peace, "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” The prophet Isaiah lived during the eight century B.C. That is a significant date because it marks the time of the fall of the ten Northern tribes of Israel to the Assyrian Empire, the world’s only superpower at that time. We find in the first ten chapters of Isaiah that Israel was facing God‘s judgment because of her unfaithfulness in serving the gods of the nations around her. Isaiah prophesies that the Assyrians would invade Israel carry her into exile.

A. In chapter 11:1, Isaiah says that on the “stump of Jesse” is Spirit of the LORD. Jesse was the father of King David. This is only time is in the Old Testament that David’s line is called by His father’s name.

B. When I was a boy, we had an Oak tree that grew between our driveway and our neighbor’s. We cut that tree down to a stump. A fresh shoot grew from the stump and grew until it once again towered over our neighbor's property line. That is like what Isaiah says here. Regardless of the destruction of David’s family tree, the Messiah will come as a small shoot. That shoot will grow into a mighty Branch and Christianity will fill the world.