The Gift of a King

Series: A Christmas Worth Waiting For

I want to ask a question as we start.  Who is the Messiah?

- Don't answer yet, because we need to look at the Bible first ... but I think the answer may surprise you.

Just asking that question - who is the messiah - can lead to shocking changes in peoples lives.

Story based on one told by M. Scott Peck in "A Different Drum.  He says he doesn't know where it comes from either.

Anyway, in this version of the story we find ourselves considering the fate of a small town. The town has fallen on hard times. In previous centuries it was a place of religious commitment and deep community.  But now economics had changed and times were hard.  The churches and synogougs had nearly closed down, and the town limped on.  The townspeople were at each others throats most of the time, so now the streets were silent with sullen looks and bad feelings.

In the deep woods surrounding the town there was a little hut that a rabbi from town occasionally used for retreat and contemplation. The people always could tell when the rabbi was there, because they could see a little trail of smoke coming from his hut.  Worried about the future of the town, the mayor decided to ask this rabbi for help - so he headed off towards the hut.

When the rabbi saw the mayor coming up the path, he went out to greet him and bring him inside. But when the mayor explained his problems, the rabbi could only grieve with him. "I know how it is," he said. "The spirit has gone out of the people. It is the same in my town. Almost no one comes to the synagogue anymore." So the old mayor and the old rabbi wept together. Then they read parts of the Torah and quietly spoke of deep things. When the time came for the abbot to leave, they embraced each other as they parted.

"It has been a wonderful thing that we should meet after all these years," the mayor said, "but I have still failed in my purpose for coming here. Is there nothing you can tell me, no piece of advice that you can give me that would help save my dying town?"

"No, I'm sorry," the rabbi responded. "I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you."

When the mayor returned to town a few people gathered around him to ask, "Well, what did the rabbi say?"

"He couldn't help," the mayor answered. "We just wept and read the Torah together. The only thing he did say, just as I was leaving-it was something cryptic-was that the Messiah is one of us. I don't know what he meant."

In the days and weeks and months that followed, the old people of the town pondered this and wondered whether there was any possible significance to the rabbi's words. The Messiah is one of us? Could he possibly have meant one of us? 

If that's the case, which one? Do you suppose he meant the mayor? Yes, if he meant anyone, he probably meant the Mayor. After all, he's been our leader for over twenty years. But if he meant Mayor, why didn't he say so?

On the other hand, he might have meant Thomas. Thomas is so gentle and kind, we all know that he's truly a holy man.

Certainly he didn't mean David! David gets so crotchety. Although, when you look back on it, even though David is a thorn in our sides, he's nearly always right. Exceedingly right. So maybe the rabbi did mean David.

Well, the rabbi couldn't possibly have meant Barbra. Barbra is so passive, a real nobody. But then, almost mysteriously, she has a gift for somehow always being here when you need her. She just magically appears by your side. Maybe Barbra is the Messiah.

As they contemplated in this manner, the people of the town began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that one among them might be the Messiah. And on the off, off chance that each person himself might be the Messiah, they began to treat themselves with extraordinary respect.

As travelers and tradesmen when through the town, they sensed something different in the people - a change in the air.  They sensed this aura of extraordinary respect that now began to surround the people of the town and seemed to radiate out from them and permeate the atmosphere of the place. There was something strangely attractive, even compelling, about it. Hardly knowing why, they began to come back to the town more frequently.  They told their friends about it, and more people visited.  A few people opened new shops and started new businesses.  Jobs became available, trade increased, and the town began to thrive again.

There is power in those words, isn't there?  The promise of the Messiah has led people down roads of discovery for thousands of year.  Today, as we read Isaiah 11, we see the Messiah.

1.  Messiah Means Anointed One

Messiah is a Hebrew word.

Greek is "CHRIST"

They both mean the same thing - Anointed One

  • Symbolic pouring of oil over the head
  • Indication of a spiritual anointing with the Holy Spirit.

Three Anointed JOBS - Prophet, Priest & King

  • - Not a monarchy, but a theocracy.
  • o God was the ruler of Israel
  • o The Prophet, Priest & King served to point the people to God
  • § Checks and balances
  • § Nathan confronting David
  • § Jeremiah confronting the false priests.

A.  David's Line Became the Messianic Line

When David had oil poured over his head, he became the "messiah" - with a small "m". 

He was anointed of the Lord, and would become the king of the land.

Promise to David in 2 Samuel 7:8-16

""Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies. " ‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.' "" (2 Samuel 7:8-16, NIV)

B.  There Would be a Messiah with a Capital "M"

"Great David's greater son"

This would be "The Messiah" - and people waited ... some still wait ... for Him to come and deliver.

  • A big part of their waiting was because all the kings after David fell short.
  • Deuteronomy 17:16-20
    • The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, You are not to go back that way again. He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
  • Solomon
    • Had a great start, asking for wisdom instead of money and power
    • Huge Mistake = IDOLATRY
    • Oscar Wilde: The definition of bigamy is having one wife too many - The definition of monogamy is the same.
    • Solomon let his wives lead his heart away from God.
    • 1 Kings 11:1-6  King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, ‘You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.' Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. SO SOLOMON DID EVIL IN THE EYES OF THE LORD; HE DID NOT FOLLOW THE LORD COMPLETELY, AS DAVID HIS FATHER HAD DONE.

C.  Isaiah 11 Talks about the Long Awaited Messiah

STUMP, ROOT & BRANCH v.1

Isaiah 10:33-34 "See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low. He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One. "

All the threats to Israel will be chopped down

But ... so also will be the bad kings.

God is clear-cutting the forest, making room for the real-deal.

Image - a field of stumps - like you see along I-90 past Issaquah.

One of the stumps has new growth come out of it.

  • Look at the name on the stump - its not David, Solomon or any of the kings
  • It says "Jesse"
    • Jesse was David's father
    • A nobody from a small town called "Bethlehem"
    • David's name has been trashed by the bad kings
    • So God is going back to the stump, back to Jesse

V. 10 - the Root of Jesse

  * roots are the unseen supplier of food and health for the tree           

  • So this new King is somehow both the Branch of Jesse and the Root of Jesse
  • Both the unseen supplier of power
  • And the visible King

This King Will be A Mighty Warrior (v.4-5)

Often when we think about Jesus, we thing about the Jesus of "Silent Night"

  • - Holy Infant so tender and mild Sleep in heavenly peace
  • - We picture this tender and mild person grown up
  • - With blue piercing eyes
  • - And flowing hair

That's not the image of Jesus the Bible often presents.

Isaiah 11:4-5   "but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist."

Belt = a sign he is ready to enter the wrestling arena

  • Belt wrestling
  • You would grapple with your opponent to throw them out of the ring or to get their belt off them.
  • o Bets were placed
  • § "If you get his belt off, he owes you 200 pieces of silver"
  • o Disputes were settled this way
  • § Cuneiform text found at Nuzi in which two brothers find themselves in a lawsuit. It is settled by a bout of belt wrestling - the winner had to pay an ox to the looser. (Cyrus H. Gordon "Belt Wrestling in the Bible World")

The Warrior Rescues His People

v.11- In this wrestling match, the gift he snatches is God's people.

"In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people."

Jesus did this for us:

Col2:15     "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."

  • Public Spectacle = a parade of conquest
  • The Devil and his demonic host have had their belts ripped off
  • Jesus takes their own belts and binds their hands
  • And on the cross he lead them in a parade - a demonic walk of shame

2. This Messiah Has a New Kingdom - PEACE

When the Messiah takes over the throne - things change.

v.6-9    "The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."

This is a change in human nature

  • o Where there is sin, there is lack of peace
  • o Only when people are actually righteous can there be peace described here

This change is accomplished by Jesus' suffering.

Isaiah 53:4-5,

"Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."

Question - when will this happen?

Some promises were fulfilled at the Cross (Inauguration)

Some are being fulfilled today, during the church age (continuation)

Some will be fulfilled with Jesus returns (Consummation)

Woody Allen, has cautioned: "And the lamb and the wolf shall lie down together, but the lamb won't get any sleep."

Calvin -           By these images, the Prophet indicates that among the people of Christ there will be no disposition for injuring one another, nor any other ferocity or inhumanity.

3.  The Spirit on the Messiah (v.2-3)

[TS] Everything we've said so far makes the answer to our question pretty simple.  Who is the Messiah.  Its Jesus.  Jesus is the warrior who is able to rescue His people.  Jesus is the King who is able to change the nature of people and things so that Peace can reign.

But there is another distinctive trait of the Messiah we need to look at ... the way the Holy Spirit is upon him.

Isa 11:2-3        "The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord- and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;"

From these verses we can see that the Victories of the King are not by accomplished by human power, human might or human intelligence.

They are victories of the Spirit of God!

The Spirit Gives:

  • Wisdom & Perception - The ability to rightly apprise the situation
  • Perception - The ability to see the true nature of things - the understand the human heart
  • Counsel & Might - Practical power
  • o Wisdom = to always choose the right things
  • o Power = the ability to execute the right things
  • Knowledge & Fear of the Lord
  • o This is where Solomon fell short
  • o 1 Kings 3:9 "So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?""
  • o Solomon had Wisdom, Perception & Power
  • o But he did not fear the Lord!

 

This was Jesus' main identifying mark.

John the Baptist said:  "I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God."" (John 1:33-34, NIV)

Paul describes him:

"For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form," (Colossians 2:9, NIV)

 

[TS] Remember - Messiah means anointed one.

Jesus is anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our warrior, deliverer and peace.

4.  Our Role in the Kingdom - messiahs?

We Are Filled with The Holy Spirit

Eph 5:18-21    And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Practical Outworking of that fullness

"Watch Your Life and Doctrine Closely"