The Christ Will Reign in Isaiah!

Now I want you to imagine for a second that you were in a coma and then you woke up and all of a sudden you realize that things are not the way that they used to be a

Foreign superpower has come in and take over taking over the government. You're not living in the same country that you used to live in and Everything around you

Is totally different things are bleak and dim a pale shadow of what they used to be before you went to sleep

But now you're awake and I imagine that the first thing that you would want to do is you would want to figure out what? Is going on and who can you trust and you're probably going to be asking a lot of questions.

I Imagine you might wonder is there any way of getting back to what it was before I fell asleep

And I know this is just a thought experiment But this is kind of the story of the Bible We and I you and I have woken up into a broken world a world that did not used to be this way

It once had an entirely different government and that God was in charge And the humans thrived in perfect health and people lived in close intimate fellowship with their

God but humans rebelled and a foreign power came in and seized control over the human race and enslave them in their sins and Presided over the world so that now the world is dark and lost and broken

Now had the story ended in Genesis 3 just like that we would have no hope at all

Because in this new fallen world humans lost the ability to fight back against the darkness They essentially lived in spiritual cages enslaved by the enemy.

We cannot escape So if the children of Adam are going to be free if we're going to experience redemption at all, it cannot come from us

It must come from an external power It must come from someone who was born perfectly free

Outside of the cages that have enslaved us in our sin all of our lives Someone not born in our captivity who could sneak behind the enemy lines

Throw open the cages freeing them and powering them and then sending those freed people out into the world to free others

I'm being highly metaphorical here, but this is what Jesus Christ has done. What we're going to be examining today is

What kind of kingdom has Christ brought to this world and we're gonna start at the very beginning we're gonna be in the book of Genesis a

Friend David joked with me last week that I should preach a sermon from Genesis and that really would be the beginning and here we are

Before the Great Fall occurred the world was created with great purpose and human beings were given an exceptional purpose from the from the

Lord Genesis 128 for instance is the purpose statement for humanity if you want to memorize any verse

I say this about a lot of verses, but if you want to memorize any verse, it's this one and There's five things in this verse that I want us to learn today

About humanity's purpose. I'm gonna read you the verse and then let's talk about those five things The verse goes like this

God bless them That's the first couple Adam and Eve and he said be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it

Rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves upon the earth

Now in that verse, there's five things that human humanity is created to do Five things number one.

We're supposed to be a blessed people Number two, we're supposed to be fruitful with the things that God has given us number two

We're supposed to multiply those things so that the whole world experiences life in God number four

We're supposed to be subduers meaning we're supposed to cultivate and number five. We're supposed to be rulers

We're supposed to have a semblance of godly authority and power and stewardship over this over this planet

Now, let's dig a little deeper in each of these points God created human beings to be blessed and he created that blessing actually entails

Living in the presence of God because there is no blessing if you're separated from God, that's what hell is

To be blessed means to be near God to be in relationship and be in fellowship with God If you're away from God or far from God, that is the curse

God graciously, however in Genesis 1 shares his presence with his newly created people

He dwelled with them and while he dwelled with them, he actually gave them several tasks to do

So God dwelling with his people is the blessing now. Let's talk about the task number one. They are to be fruitful

Which meant they were to be fruitful in all of their efforts bringing about more life and more flourishing in the world

Just as God created the first life and he planted the trees and they burst forth out of the ground

So two humans are supposed to bring life. They're supposed to mimic God in Making the garden more life -giving.

I Don't know if you know this but Eden was not created as a global garden. It was a local garden God created it and put his people into it meaning that there were parts of the earth that were not a garden

Meaning that human beings were supposed to take what they had learned in the Garden of Eden and extend it

Multiply it make it larger. It also meant that they were to be fruitful in their labors

Men were to wake up in the morning and work and not complain about it women were to Bring life and fruitfulness and faithfulness to their homes and their family marriages were exposed supposed to be fruitful as well so that husband and wives were to have perfect communication and Men would listen as their wife were telling them a very long story that lasted on and on for about 30 minutes

I don't have experience with this but with a smile on their face and say I love it when you tell me those stories

Just hypothetically speaking Marriages were supposed to produce godly children fruit of the womb and They were supposed to fill the garden full of godly people the whole point of Genesis 1

Especially with this first command is that humans would be a blessed people living blessed lives blessing everything around them with more fruit which entails multiplication because They weren't just called to be fruitful they were called to multiply the fruit

It's like the difference between a tomato plant and an apple tree a tomato plant You plant in the beginning of the season and you get fruit, but it doesn't last through the winter

If there's any fruit that's left on the vine it falls and it rots and it's fertilizer. That's about it but an apple tree

When its fruit falls to the ground and it rots Some of the seeds and plant into the soil and new apple trees come about you see the purpose of an apple tree is

Not just to make fruit. It's to make more apple trees So then in a perfect world one apple tree over a long period of time could fill an entire field full of apple trees one seed at a time

It has multiplication embedded into its its own DNA. That is the difference between what tomatoes and apple trees are

But that's the difference in what God created humans to do. We weren't just created to be fruitful in and of ourselves

We weren't just created to be fruitful by ourselves and to ourselves and for ourselves. We were created to multiply in the garden

They were created to have children who would then help them with the work and then you can imagine how multiplication would happen there

Two people having two children. I'm assuming they would have had more than that. But let's just say two Eventually, none of them die by the way

Eventually the whole garden is filled full of people and then what do they do? The gardens local well the third thing

Or the third the fourth thing is that they would subdue or they would cultivate so when the garden was filled with people

They would go to the edge of the garden to the border of the garden Where the dusty parts were where there was no garden and they would grab a rake grab a hoe grab a plow

And they would start cultivating more garden They would start planting seeds and planting crops so that the garden would get extended so that more people would have space to live

Eventually if sin would not have entered into the world You can imagine that God's Prototype in a local region called

Eden would have been a global garden filled with people worshiping God and that my friends is the goal of Creation the entire world blanketed with worshipers who love and worship

God and if you don't believe me look at the last chapter of the Bible Heaven is a garden city filled with worshipers who worship

God Eden was rural because there was just two people but the goal was an urban city filled with worshipers

Final command is that they would rule they would have authority They would have dominion and that dominion is not domination like we see in today.

That's a sin infused sort of leadership Dictatorship and everything else have come from that They had a godly responsibility to rule on behalf of God to take care of his stuff almost like a property manager

The property manager owns the property or the property the owner owns the property, but the property manager maintains it

That's what human beings were designed to do but They didn't get very far along in that purpose

They fell Genesis 3 talks about the fall of man How before Adam and Eve were fruitful before they multiplied before they subdued anything before they ruled as God's representatives on earth they rebelled against their

God and With that rebellion came the downfall of all five of these blessings

Think about the first one they were blessed then they were cursed Their fall led to the exact opposite consequence so that their blessing now is gone and they are living under an awful curse their fruitfulness was lost

They struggled to make fruit in the ground thorns and thistles came up out of the ground. They struggled in Relationships so that men and women don't communicate as effectively as they used to they struggled in intimacy so that now there's miscarriages and there's stillborns and there's all of these other things that were infused into the

Landscape of the planet because of sin you see the blessing was fruitfulness and now you've got rotten spoiled fruit because of sin

The same thing is true with with their multiplication the first couple

Multiplied together under sin and they created the first murderer and the first murder The person who gets killed

I Don't know why I blinked a victim Why did I blink out on that word and it wasn't long before the world was being filled in an alarming rate with sinners

So much so that it says that the whole face of the earth was covered with sin and God regretted

That he had made these people They were multiplying But it was perverted

Subduing was tainted Instead of subduing the barren regions of the earth and Eden They were thrust out of the garden into a planet that was now in rebellion against them

Instead of ruling there was enmity between them and the animal kingdom so that animals now didn't follow human leadership so that There was storms.

There was weather was everything their leadership was thwarted All of this is came crashing down because of one act of rebellion against God You see everything that God gave them as blessings was lost in their sin, but this is where we now come to the book of Isaiah See Isaiah story intersects with the creation story because God wasn't finished with his people

You know again if the story ended at Genesis 3 we would have no hope Isaiah Infuses hope into the human condition so that we can see that God actually has a plan to get us back

To those five things there's a symmetry in the Bible I'm going to show you that in Jesus Christ all five of these things come back to us and Isaiah prophesies about it the first thing that he does when we've learned this over the last several weeks is he prophesies about the

Incarnation of God Jesus is going to come being born of a virgin Invading the sinful planet so that he can bring redemption back to his people

Isaiah 7 14 is behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son Isaiah 9 2 is lights gonna come into this dark world

Isaiah 9 6 is for unto us a child is given unto us a son is born

He's gonna come he's gonna show up and he's going to do the work of redemption on our behalf But it's not just his incarnation.

He also is gonna accomplish what's called imputation It's a theological term, which means that God Christ is going to take away our sin so that he can give us his righteousness and we learned about this in Isaiah 53 a beautiful passage.

It says he was pierced for our transgressions He was crushed for our sins

The punishment that brought us peace notice this The punishment that brought you and I peace with God was placed on him

We received the peace of God because of what Christ has done He received the punishment that you and I deserve because of what we've done

Jesus not only came and not only lived and not only dwelled among us. His plan was to take from us our sin and our curse so that he could give us the blessing and Bring us back into a

Genesis one kind of world We've lived long enough in a Genesis three kind of world. Jesus came to bring us back to the garden

Now everything again that was lost in Eden will be found in Jesus Christ. So let's turn now to Isaiah 11

We're gonna be in verses 1 through 10 and we're gonna see how all of this comes about Isaiah 11 starting in verse 1 it says then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse and A branch from his roots will bear fruit the spirit of the

Lord will rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and strength the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the

Lord and he will delight in the fear of the Lord and He will not judge by what his eyes see and make decisions by what his ears hear but with righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth and He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips.

He will slay the wicked also righteousness will be a belt around his loins and Faithfulness the belt around his waist and the wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the young goat and the calf and the young lying in the fattening together and a little boy will lead them and The cow and the bear will graze together

They're young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like an ox the nursing child will play by the hole of a cobra and The weaned child will put his hand into the vipers den

They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the

Lord as the water covers the sea Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse Who will stand as a signal for the people's and his resting place will be glorious Let's pray

Lord Jesus. Thank you for this text Thank you for all of the stuff that's going on inside of it and all of the intersections that are happening and how it's

Binding together your entire Bible How it looks back to the glorious purpose that we find in Genesis 1 of human beings created to be blessed to be fruitful to multiply to subdue and to rule and yet It wrestles honestly with the with the problem of sin

That we no longer live in that kind of world. We need someone something Somehow to come in and rescue us and Lord how it looks so perfectly forward

To the Christ This passage is a past present and future kind of passage and it's holding all reality together and Lord I pray that in the time that we have remaining that we would see

Just a glimpse and a taste of the good news and of the hope that can be found because of Isaiah's prophecy

It's in your name. We pray. Amen Here's the context long after The king a has is going to meet his doom in the future from this passage long after Israel and Syria are destroyed long after the

Assyrian Empire has fallen and New Empire has replaced it and then they fell after the exile to the

Babylonians after the return and the rebuild in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah after the 400 years of Silent years between Matthew and Malachi After all of that these prophecies are going to come true 700 years of time is going to separate the prophecy of Isaiah with the kingdom that Christ is going to bring and It's going to be more than a military empire

It's going to be a kingdom that's going to reestablish the glory of Eden It says in verse 1 then a shoot will spring forth from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit

Let's talk about that for just a second. Jesse is the father of David and It says that the spring is going to shoot forth from the root of Jesse or from the stem of Jesse There's about five things.

I want to say to you from this. So let's walk through them one by one This kingdom is going to come about through the line of Jesse who is the father of King David Which means that the

Messiah who is going to be born is going to come from the line of David Matthew chapter 1 Takes great links in the

New Testament to show us that Jesus is physically connected to King David So he is the long anticipated long awaited

Hope that Isaiah is talking about so that's how Jesus is connected But he's also greater than David notice that this passage doesn't say

David because the author I don't think wants any of us to get Confused on who the greatest king of Israel actually is

It mentions David's father Jesse because David was always known as the greatest king.

He was the prototype He was the archetype of great kings in Israel Jesus is going to be far greater like a supernova being held up to a candle flame

So he doesn't mention David he mentions Jesse to show that Jesus is beginning something brand new

It's not going to be connected to the Davidic dynasty or the Davidic line. It's a new kingdom It's gonna be greater than David's kingdom and it's coming in Jesus Christ.

The third thing is that life is gonna come out of death It says that a stem is gonna grow forth out of the stem of Jesse that word stem means stump

You get the idea that David's kingdom the kingdom of Judah has been cut down with an ax and It's now in a state of decay by the time that the

Messiah shows up It's rotted to the point that the only life that's gonna come out of it is this little stem

That's born in Bethlehem's manger Jesus Christ is the one who comes as the final king of David the one who brings life and Yet that stem is gonna grow into a plant with branches that spread out all over the world

So that that one stump will be a tree that feeds the nations. That's kind of the picture that's going on Life is gonna come out of death.

The Davidic Empire is dead. Jesus is gonna bring life The fourth is that fruit is gonna come unlike David's Empire that waxed and waned even in David's own life

He was fruitful in some points of his life and at some other points of his life He was murdering someone to steal their bride

See the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel waxed and waned it was up and down It was fruitful and faithful at some times.

It was wicked and deplorable in other times, but not so with the kingdom of Christ Christ is gonna bring a kingdom that will never end and Christ is gonna bring a righteous kingdom that will bear fruit

His kingdom is gonna start in an upper room, but it's gonna multiply also fruitful multiplying

It's gonna go into the city of Jerusalem. It's gonna expand into the territory of Judea It's gonna overtake

Samaria then it's gonna eventually topple the Roman Empire until now 2 ,000 years later.

There's 2 billion Christians on the earth. We have more Bibles on the planet than any other book

There's more missionaries for Christianity than any other faith This kingdom that Jesus Christ started has multiplied.

It is a blessed kingdom It is a fruitful kingdom and it is a multiplying kingdom and we see how he's gonna launch his kingdom in verse 2

It says the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him in the spirit of wisdom and understanding and The spirit of counsel and strength and the spirit and the knowledge of the fear of the

Lord What we're seeing is that unlike David and unlike Hezekiah and any of the other kings of Judah Jesus is gonna have the

Spirit of God dwelling upon him in a measure that no one had ever seen before in the Old Testament The Spirit of God came upon a person when they had to do something

Jesus is gonna live every moment of his life in the Spirit of God so that his Kingdom will be a perfectly pure kingdom infused by the power of the

Holy Spirit. He moves in the Spirit He walks in the Spirit. He talks in the Spirit He says if you've seen me you've seen the

Father and if you've heard me you've heard the Father's because Jesus is Moving walking talking in the

Spirit of God He honors the Spirit by living in the fear and the knowledge of God never before had a person lived like him

And yet we know that being a part of his kingdom means that you and I also have the

Spirit as well Jesus didn't just begin a blessed kingdom that only he could be a member of He didn't just make a fruitful kingdom that only he could bear the fruit of The same

Jesus who the Spirit of the Lord rested upon him shared the Spirit of God with each and every single one of his believers every single one of his children

John 14 26 says but the helper the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name

He will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all the things that I have said to you

Jesus his purpose in coming Was he was born to die so that he could die for our sins so that he could give us the

Holy Spirit of God So that we could be a part of the kingdom of God and that Spirit is to teach us how to live

To teach us how to walk with God Acts 2 38. How do you receive the

Spirit of God? It says and Peter said to them repent and be baptized every single one of you for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ and you will receive the gift of the

Holy Spirit It's not rocket science It's turned to Jesus and accept the forgiveness of your sins and the

Holy Spirit will come upon you and live in you and you Will be a member of the kingdom of God Jesus says that if you have the

Spirit in you you will bear fruit That means that there is evidence on whether you are a

Christian There's evidence on whether you're saved. There's evidence on whether you have the Spirit of God He says

I am the true vine and my father is the vinedresser every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and Every branch that does bear fruit.

He prunes that it may bear even more fruit He says abide in me and I in you and as that branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine

Neither can you unless you abide in Jesus you cannot bear fruit He says

I'm the vine and you were the branches whoever abides in me and I in him will bear much fruit

Remember the southern grammar that we learned just on Christmas Eve Mike could doesn't work here You will bear much fruit if you are in Jesus so that if you are not bearing much fruit

That's not an opportunity for shame. That's an opportunity for examination. Am I in Christ? Do I really believe what

Christ has said and if not it's time for me to hit my knees and pray and call out to the Lord and say father forgive me for I've sinned and Come into my life and accept me and indwell me so that I can be in you because I'm not in you

That's okay. That's okay to say it says work out your salvation with fear and trembling It's okay to be afraid

It's okay to tremble We can test and see whether we're in the Lord. The point

Isaiah is making is That Jesus Christ has come to indwell his people with the

Spirit of God so that they would be blessed So that they would be fruitful So that they would multiply

So that they would subdue and so that they would rule Paul says in Galatians 5 22 through 23.

The fruit of the Spirit is love joy. Peace patience kindness Goodness faithfulness gentleness and self -control it encompasses all of our lives

Living in Christ means that there's no room in your house that he can't renovate It means there's nothing inside of you that he can't call to repentance that part

I'd like to hide guess what if you're in Christ the Spirit of God will shine a light on it It won't be comfortable, but it'll be for your good like cancer getting cut out of your throat.

It's for your good Again, the point Isaiah is making that a coming

King is coming to begin a kingdom That's gonna far surpass anything that a human kingdom could ever do

He reigned on the earth and the power of the Spirit and he sent his spirit into his people Now, I don't want to believe her the point but this spirit -filled

King Is the one who is going to restore to us? What it means to be a part of the kingdom.

I want you to notice in this passage The wolf and the lamb are gonna lay down together.

It's a fascinating point That means that those who were bitter enemies are now going to be friends

The weaned child is gonna play near the snake pit. I Don't know about you, but that sounds pretty dangerous

Like would you ever let your toddler play near a cobra? The point is not that we would be reckless.

The point is is that the curse That was brought about through a serpent is

Going to be so Fundamentally overturned and broken that it would be as if a child could play with a snake.

It's not literal It's being figurative here But it's saying that that the curse is going to be so broken that even the symbol of the curse

Which is the serpent is now gonna be no more danger to us a child could play with it

Like it's playing with its baby rattle That's how deep Jesus's kingdom is gonna go it's gonna go so deep that everything is going to be made new

Everything that was lost is gonna be found now

I Want to end like this? Because when you preach a sermon like this

You're talking about Jesus's kingdom winning. You're talking about Jesus's kingdom in victory.

You're talking about Jesus's kingdom coming So that you and I could be blessed again

So that you and I could be fruitful by the power of the Spirit so that you and I could multiply meaning we can make

Disciples we should make disciples. We are commanded to make disciples This kingdom is going to be successful, but I will tell you this

I Find so much discouragement in the Christian Church today

When it comes to the kingdom of God We've come to church and we agree and we say amen to these things

But we live every single day of our lives as if the world is getting darker if the world is getting worse the world is getting more bleak and That Jesus Christ is going to return any moment to utter defeat

He's gonna come and rescue us like a group of soldiers in a foxhole that are pinned down just waiting on reinforcements to show up.

I Don't think that's the message of the Bible I know we live in a weird time in America where it seems that our country is declining

But if America falls that doesn't mean the kingdom of God does The kingdom of God it's gonna far outlast this little piece of rock that we live on.

I Believe that the kingdom of God is winning. I Believe that the kingdom is is moving forward in power

I believe that when Jesus died and he rose from the dead and he went sat at the right hand of the father He knows what he's doing.

He's reigning if you think about it when Christians Were first called Christians.

They were being burned on poles in Nero's garden They were being murdered and sacrificed for their faith. People were cheering and Colosseum's watching them die at the hands of beasts and gladiators

We don't have that anymore. Just Just in the last 500 years

You think about the fact that Christianity has has become a worldwide phenomenon now you can say, okay maybe not everybody in the world that's that professes to be a believer is a believer, but what's happened in The world is truly phenomenal

Christianity has single -handedly impacted so many different things literacy in the world literally looks different because of Christianity creating schools and missions going to other countries and teaching people how to read who never knew how to read before Christianity's had an impact

Poverty is lower I think in large measure because of Faithful Christians who have went to other countries and who have helped in these education is better than it's ever been

Poverty is is lower than it's been There's so many things that Christianity has brought to this world science even the first scientist

They they wanted to understand the world because they loved God and they wanted to know their God through their research

Now we think about science as a God -hating enterprise the original scientist who brought us

Vaccines and brought us information about the heliocentricity of the universe. They were Christians.

They love the Lord music some of the great composers of all time were we're writing symphonies and Celebration of who their

God is. I think the kingdom of God is winning I think we're living in a peculiar awkward time right now where it feels like it's being defeated

My encouragement for all of us as we finish off this year is to understand that we

Fell that's true Christ came though to give us victory and That victory is supposed to impact every aspect of our lives

We are a blessed people More so than anyone else on the planet because we who were dead are now alive

We who lived in the kingdom of darkness now are in the kingdom of light. You and I are blessed beyond any

Conceivable measure and yet we think so little of it and we think so few times in our week about it

We go about our week and we rarely think about how blessed in Jesus Christ. We are we are blessed and we can be fruitful

You see the whole point of Jesus winning the world over to Christ is so that he can recreate the Garden of Eden People all over the world bearing fruit looks like a garden doesn't it?

the whole point of the Bible is that we would be God's people and that we would sing the praises of God even as you and I get to be a part of the

Expansion Jesus did not come and do all of this on his own. He empowered us

He empowered you and I to walk out of this space today and be the light to our towns

To be salt and light to demonstrate the fruit of the gospel He invited each and every single one of us to do something to see the kingdom of God expand

What an amazing privilege that is. I Know I've gotten way far off of my notes

But I just want to encourage each and every single one of us that Please don't have a pessimistic view about the kingdom of God It will win it is winning and you and I get to be a part of that.

Amen Lord Jesus, thank you For the fact that the kingdom of God courses through every page of the

Bible Old Testament and New Testament and that Lord You didn't leave us in our sin.

You came and you died so that you could make us a part of your kingdom and Lord you gave us the awesome privilege and opportunity of working in your kingdom and serving in your kingdom

Lord When we think about multiplication each and every single one of us get to multiply we get to make disciples

You commanded your 12 disciples at the end of your life go into all the world make disciples of all the nations

You commanded your little group in the upper room to When the Holy Spirit has come on you

You will be my witnesses in Judea and Jerusalem and Samaria and to the ends of the earth Lord I pray that you would light a fire in your church in America so that she's no longer

Trying to be woke, but she's trying to be awakened to what God has actually called us to do Lord Would you give us a vision for what you've called us to do?

We are a small little church Lord but would you infuse us with the power of the Holy Spirit so that we could reach

Chelmsford so that we could reach these towns and so that we Could see the gospel win in this region Lord We're tired of seeing losses and Lord we trust your sovereignty and we trust your plan

But Lord if it's a if it's a matter of spiritual laziness in the Church of Jesus Christ Lord, wake us up Lord help us move

Lord help us share Lord help each and every single one of us grab a vision for what it means For us to be a part of the kingdom and us

Working in the kingdom and us sharing the gospel in this kingdom so that all those who are lost may be found and it's in Your name we pray