These days, we’re told, "the rules have changed." Politicians and news reporters are constantly telling us that, in the light of recent events, life, as we know will be altered forever. Heightened security, liberties changed to inconveniences, fear and suspicion – all these are the signs that the rules have changed.
In fact, many people are wondering if the holidays will ever be the same. It’s as if things are changed forever. The prophet Isaiah tells us that change isn’t necessarily bad. In fact, he describes a change for the positive; it’s a radical a change the Messiah--the Son of God, Jesus Christ--made by coming into the world. JESUS’ COMING CHANGES EVERYTHING. Concerning this change, Isaiah says, 1) rivers now flow up. According to the new rules, 2) weapons now become garden tools.
1) Rivers Now Flow Up
"The last days" Isaiah is speaking about are the days we’re living in right now. They’re the days since Jesus’ coming into the world as a baby at Bethlehem. By his coming, Jesus began something completely new. He set in motion a chain of events that would completely alter the world.
The first change, Isaiah says, is that "the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains." He’s talking about Mt. Moriah in northern Jerusalem, where the temple sat in Old Testament times. That mountain was the gathering place for God’s people. It was where the Israelites went to hear God’s word, sing God’s praises and bring him sacrifices. And so it became a symbol for the gathered people of God--for what we know today as God’s Church.
Now Mt. Moriah isn’t very high. It’s really just a big hill. But Isaiah says that in the last days it will suddenly be raised up until it’s the highest mountain on earth. That’s a poetic way of saying that God’s Church--the gathering of God’s people--will be lifted up, glorified and exalted. The Church’s ruler, Jesus, has ascended to God’s right hand. Jesus is reigning over the Church with his love, his wisdom and his power. And the Church--the people of God--is now as solid and immovable as a mountain is, and as glorious and beautiful as a mountain is high.
But the truly amazing thing about this mountain--the Church--is that rivers flow into it. Rivers normally flow down a mountain. These flow up. The reason, of course, is that these aren’t rivers of water--they’re rivers of people. "All nations will stream to" God’s mountain, Isaiah says. It happens this way. "The word of the LORD goes out" from the mountain. The good news about Jesus goes out from the Church to the far corners of the earth. People hear it. And they respond. "A Savior? Forgiveness for my sins? Sounds good to me!" they say to each other. "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths."
The good news about Jesus pulls them in. And notice how they come. They come from every land and nation and tribe and people under the sun. You can be sure this news shocked many of the Israelites at Isaiah’s time--but these people who are gathering on God’s mountain aren’t just Jews. They’re from every race and color imaginable; they’re young and old, rich and poor; they come from different backgrounds and speak different languages. But the same good news--the good news of a Savior--has brought in every one of them.
And they’re coming because they can’t get enough of that good news. They want to come so that the LORD "will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." They’re not satisfied with knowing a few basic facts about Christianity. They want to learn everything about the LORD they can. You’ll see them wearing out their Bibles, talking about what they’ve read, asking questions, learning all the time. You’ll find them in churches and Bible classes and study groups. They come from far and wide to hear the LORD’s teaching, and you don’t have to force them or bribe them to come. They come because they want to. They come as naturally and spontaneously as a river flows.
Well, is that river flowing through Abita Springs? Can we see it flowing right here at Trinity, right now? Well, yes--sort of, you might think. People are coming here to listen to the LORD’s teaching. But I wouldn’t exactly call this a river. It’s probably somewhere between a bayou and a little trickle. People come here, and we’re glad they come--but when you see how few we are in relation to some churches, you might think it will be a long time before this is going to amount to anything at all.
If that were what you’re thinking, I’d like to ask whether you’ve ever been to, or heard of, Itasca State Park in Minnesota. The state of Minnesota claims that Itasca is the headwaters of the Mississippi River. But at Itasca, the Mississippi is a little stream you can jump across by hopping from one stone to another. It’s hard to believe it’s the same river you see when you come to New Orleans and look down from the Huey P. Long Bridge--but it is. Of course by the time it gets to the Huey P. Long, other streams, and bayous, and rivers have joined that little stream, until it becomes one of the great rivers of the world.
Right now, Trinity is a spiritual Itasca. The number of believers meeting here looks like a little stream. But if you understand the big picture, you know that it is joined by thousands of other streams--big and small--as it flows up to the Mountain of the LORD. We’re on our way up that mountain. And when we get there, we’ll be joined by all the water in all the streams throughout the world. We’ll meet together at the throne of God, where we’ll be together with all our fellow-believers forever. When you’re a Christian, the size of the particular “stream” you’re in isn’t important. What’s important is where it’s going.
2) Weapons Now Become Garden Tools
Jesus has got you, and all other believers, headed in the right direction. He’s made us all part of the one, holy Christian Church. And he’s showered, on his Church, one blessing after another. He’s given us his "light." And he’s given us his peace--peace Isaiah describes by talking about a time when weapons are turned into garden tools.
In the last days, swords are pounded into the iron tips that were placed on wooden plows. Spears have their blades bent and are used for pruning trees. There are no more soldiers drilling and training for battle. There’s no need for them, because there’s no longer any reason for anyone to go to war. There’s no longer anything to fight about. The LORD has stepped in, settled every dispute, and set up every people in its own, comfortable home.
People at Isaiah’s time dreamed about a world like that. But reality was exactly the opposite. In Isaiah’s day people were still making weapons out of anything they could find. They were ready for war at any moment. In Isaiah’s day, the world was dominated by two superpowers: Egypt, and probably the cruelest, most bloodthirsty empire the world has ever seen: the empire of Assyria. Israel was conveniently located right in between them. And the day was coming soon when Assyria would come, destroy the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and knock on the door of Jerusalem itself. At this time, war was everywhere, it was constant, and there was no relief in sight.
And in the last twenty-nine centuries, what has changed? True: the world is no longer balanced between two superpowers. The cold war ended. The Berlin Wall came down. And when all that happened, some commentator confidently called it the end of history, and the dawn of a new age of peace. And what has happened since? Let’s just mention a few names: Iraq. Somalia. Chechnya. Mexico. Bosnia. Rwanda. The former Yugoslavia. Afghanistan. It seems the last century, was the bloodiest in the history of the world, and it is only getting bloodier. It might look like we’re no nearer to lasting, world peace today than Isaiah was. But really, we are. Don’t misunderstand. We’re not one bit closer to the day when nations will find a way to settle their differences peacefully, and war will end. But real peace--lasting peace--is on the way; in fact, it’s here now. This isn’t a peace humans negotiate. It’s a peace God inaugurates. And God did that when he sent the Messiah. That peace began with the coming of Jesus.
Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Peace is what Jesus is all about. Jesus, by his coming, ended the oldest, costliest, and most tragic war of all: the war between man and God. Our sin had turned God against us. Sin was what we were fighting over. But Jesus took our sin, killed it on the cross, and buried it in his tomb. Now "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," Scripture says. God and sinners are now reconciled. We’re friends!
And in Jesus’ kingdom, the Church, sinners are reconciled with each other. Think about it. What do real, true Christians have to fight about? Are we going to argue to see who is better or more spiritual or closer to God? God’s Word says we’re all "one in Christ Jesus"--we’re all equally sinful, but all equally saved, and all equally valuable members of God’s family. Are we going to fight about wealth, or power, or status? We all already have spiritual wealth beyond our wildest dreams, and status that truly means something and that lasts forever: our status as God’s dearly loved children. As for earthly wealth, we know that none of that matters anymore. God has promised us that we’ll always have all we need--and whatever we have beyond that simply isn’t worth fighting about. Christ’s kingdom is a kingdom of peace. The members of Christ’s kingdom are like the spokes on a wheel. They’ve been put in a right relationship to God, the hub of the wheel. And so they automatically line up in a right relationship with each other.
But it doesn’t always look that way, does it? You certainly don’t see that harmony, that peace, in the world. And you don’t always see it in the church, either. That’s true because the better part of this world still wants no part of Christ and his kingdom. And there’s a part of our own hearts that feels the same way. We’re still in this world. We haven’t reached the peak of God’s mountain yet. And God’s work inside each of us also isn’t finished yet. But it’s coming along. It’s moving toward its goal, just as surely as a river flows. God’s kingdom will reach that goal: the goal of brand new people in a brand new world, peaceable people in a world of peace. Jesus’ coming into the world at Bethlehem set all that in motion. Thanks to that coming, we’re now on our way.
We Christians belong to a world that is really changed. We’re citizens of the kingdom of God. We’re part of it. It’s part of us. And when the king returns, it will be here for all to see. Now there’s a reason to "change the way you think." God’s kingdom really does play by "new rules." And Christians everywhere follow them. Amen.
