WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.080 new or visiting with us, we're glad that you're here. And we're glad that you're here, not because 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:10.660 we're trying to fill seats, but because we're following Jesus together as one community. And 00:00:10.660 --> 00:00:16.160 as we follow Jesus together, we become so convinced there's no one so good, they don't need God's 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:21.780 grace, and no one so bad that they can't have it, which is why we come back week after week to hear 00:00:21.780 --> 00:00:28.580 what God has to say to us in his word. We're still in the season of Advent together. You'll remember 00:00:28.579 --> 00:00:34.039 that the word Advent comes from a Latin word that means to come or to arrive. And so at the season 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:40.700 of Advent, we do a few things. First of all, we celebrate the past. So we focus on Jesus' first 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:44.939 Advent, his first coming to the earth. And as we celebrate the past, we sing songs like joy to the 00:00:44.939 --> 00:00:50.299 world. We don't just celebrate the past, though. We also look forward to the future. We long for 00:00:50.299 --> 00:00:55.320 Jesus' second coming, his second Advent. And that's when we sing songs like, O Come, You Come, Emmanuel. 00:00:55.320 --> 00:00:59.560 And when we do both of those things, we're actually doing something that's not just for one season, 00:00:59.700 --> 00:01:04.299 but for the entire Christian life, that we are always looking back to what God has done in his 00:01:04.299 --> 00:01:08.579 redemption in the past. And we're always looking forward to what God will do in the future. And 00:01:08.579 --> 00:01:13.579 we take both of those things together so that we can live faithfully now in the present. 00:01:14.620 --> 00:01:20.519 As we're feeling that tension of looking back and looking forward, we are continuing in the book of 00:01:20.519 --> 00:01:25.579 Isaiah. You'll remember that Isaiah is an Old Testament prophet in the eighth century who was 00:01:25.579 --> 00:01:31.500 sent to speak to the southern kingdom of Judah. And we looked in Isaiah chapter seven. We saw the 00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:38.079 challenge for King Ahaz to trust God, the challenge that he did not live up to. And then we saw last 00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:46.459 week in chapter 11, or excuse me, last week in chapter nine, the darkness that came to God's people 00:01:46.459 --> 00:01:52.199 in the midst of Ahaz's unbelief. And so we're going to continue sort of in that same vein of darkness 00:01:52.199 --> 00:01:58.399 as we advance to Isaiah chapter 11. And we're going to hone in on one specific issue of the darkness, 00:01:58.399 --> 00:02:05.439 which is the issue of injustice and oppression. The consequences of Ahaz's decision from chapter seven 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:13.019 continue to unfold. And so things become worse and worse for the nation of Israel. And as we leave behind 00:02:13.020 --> 00:02:18.219 the passage of darkness last week, we're actually going to pick up with a description of a ton of 00:02:18.219 --> 00:02:22.620 darkness. At least that's what fills the rest of chapter nine and chapter 10 before we get to chapter 00:02:22.620 --> 00:02:30.320 11. And so the question of this passage is a simple one, which is what do we do when we see injustice and 00:02:30.320 --> 00:02:40.960 oppression in the world? Too often the wicked are in charge. And so how is it that we hold on to hope 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:43.560 as God's people in the midst of that? 00:02:44.840 --> 00:02:51.100 It's with that question that I invite you to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 11, verses one through five. 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:55.960 You can turn in your Bible. You can turn in your phone. You can turn in your worship guide. 00:02:56.520 --> 00:03:03.140 No matter where you turn, remember that this is God's word. And God tells us that his word is a lamp to our 00:03:03.140 --> 00:03:08.420 feet and a light to our path, which means that God has not left us to stumble alone in the dark, 00:03:08.419 --> 00:03:15.659 but instead he's given us his word to show us the way to go. And so that's why we read now Isaiah chapter 11, 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:16.699 starting at verse one. 00:03:18.060 --> 00:03:24.699 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit 00:03:24.699 --> 00:03:30.879 and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:37.599 the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:44.159 shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:51.120 ears hear. But with righteousness, he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:58.519 earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips, he shall kill 00:03:58.520 --> 00:04:06.620 the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist and faithfulness, the belt of his loins. 00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:11.040 I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word. 00:04:13.719 --> 00:04:22.360 Our father in heaven, we confess that we do live in a world that has many places of darkness, 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:27.120 darkness in our own lives and in our cities and our countries. 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:33.020 And so we ask that you would speak to that clearly in your word, that you would do what you always do, 00:04:33.100 --> 00:04:38.060 what you've promised to do, that you would show us our great need for the gospel in your grace. 00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:43.840 And you'd also show us how you meet us at that very same point of need, that you would cast a 00:04:43.839 --> 00:04:50.359 spotlight on Jesus Christ and we would see his beauty and his power and his glory and his holiness 00:04:50.359 --> 00:04:56.500 and his love, that we would grow in our love and our affection for him and that we'd grow in our 00:04:56.500 --> 00:05:02.339 reverence and our all and our obedience to him. And we ask all these things in the mighty name of Jesus 00:05:02.339 --> 00:05:03.599 Christ. Amen. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:13.099 If you were in Sunday school about three weeks ago, I mentioned to you the number one show 00:05:13.099 --> 00:05:19.139 on Amazon Prime this past summer, which is called The Terminal List. And it tells the story of this 00:05:19.139 --> 00:05:25.539 Navy SEAL named James Reese. Most of his SEAL team is killed in this ambush and he returns home only to 00:05:25.539 --> 00:05:31.179 find his family quickly killed thereafter. And so The Terminal List is exactly what it sounds like. 00:05:31.180 --> 00:05:36.860 It is a list of people to be terminated. James makes this list that he keeps on a drawing that 00:05:36.860 --> 00:05:40.180 his daughter made for him. So there's this sweet drawing from his daughter who's been killed and 00:05:40.180 --> 00:05:45.939 he has this list of names of people he's going to take out on the back. And we might say that he is 00:05:45.939 --> 00:05:52.620 making a list and checking it twice. The people who should have helped him should be helping him now 00:05:52.620 --> 00:05:58.759 are actually protecting the guilty and are complicit all the way up to the high levels of government. 00:05:58.759 --> 00:06:04.420 Now this is a situation where his team and his family have been killed. It sort of takes things 00:06:04.420 --> 00:06:09.779 to a bit of an extreme. But we have to ask this question of why is the show so popular? I'm not 00:06:09.779 --> 00:06:13.259 recommending it to you. I'm not saying it's good or it's bad. I'm just saying a lot of people watched 00:06:13.259 --> 00:06:17.519 it. And whenever there's a show that a lot of people watch, we can assume there's something in it 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:22.719 that appeals to the human heart. There's something that people find alluring and gratifying. And I think 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:31.100 it's this for that show. It is gratifying to see justice brought in an unjust world. It's gratifying 00:06:31.100 --> 00:06:39.560 to see justice brought in an unjust world. What do we do when power and money have greater value than 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:46.440 justice and truth and faithfulness? What do we do when power and money have greater value than justice 00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:50.939 and truth and faithfulness? And in asking that question, we're putting our finger on one of the 00:06:50.939 --> 00:06:57.199 pain points, the pressure points of Advent. Advent is this tension, this pain of living between Jesus' 00:06:57.420 --> 00:07:01.759 two comings, knowing that he's already come and understanding the grace that we have access to 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:08.000 because of that. But also knowing that not everything is right yet. Jesus has not come back to set this 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:15.240 world right side up. And so there's this heartbreak to Advent. There's this waiting and longing that comes 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:20.579 along with it. We're waiting and longing for many things. One of those things that we're waiting and 00:07:20.579 --> 00:07:29.480 longing for is for justice to finally be done. If you've lived in this world long enough, you have 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:36.220 situations you know of and situations that you've come against where you didn't receive full and final 00:07:36.220 --> 00:07:43.160 justice. I think of a man I knew in a former life who ran a very successful business. And his accountant 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:48.540 who worked for him told him that he was paying his taxes to the IRS every year. Well, it finally 00:07:48.540 --> 00:07:53.439 came out that this accountant was not paying the taxes to the IRS, but when every year he was actually 00:07:53.439 --> 00:07:58.260 taking that money and pocketing it. This man didn't know until the IRS came knocking and said, hey, by the 00:07:58.260 --> 00:08:02.860 way, you owe us hundreds of thousands of dollars and we're going to liquidate your retirement to pay that. 00:08:05.200 --> 00:08:09.920 And my wife told me at one point, well, yeah, he's going to have to work longer than he was planning on 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:15.480 working. He's not going to be able to retire because of what's happened. No matter what, there are some 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:24.160 things that couple is never going to get compensated for in this life. We could take it up a notch. In 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:30.020 Ukraine last month, there were two church leaders, a church leader and his son, who were disappeared by 00:08:30.020 --> 00:08:36.180 Russian soldiers. And a few days later, they were found, their bodies were found in the woods, in the forest, 00:08:36.179 --> 00:08:41.219 tortured and mutilated. And this father leaves behind a wife, five sons and one daughter. 00:08:42.299 --> 00:08:51.039 And that will never be fixed this side of heaven. And so what happens when we demand complete and 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:58.120 total justice now? Well, there's a few things. One, you could take the James Reese approach. 00:08:58.919 --> 00:09:03.719 You could find violence, someone deciding I'm going to make my own justice. That's one option. 00:09:03.720 --> 00:09:08.120 Another option would just be cynicism and despair. You're going to shut your heart down. You're going 00:09:08.120 --> 00:09:15.259 to stop hoping and connecting and engaging with others because it hurts too much. This man I told 00:09:15.259 --> 00:09:19.420 you about who had the experience with the IRS, I think he fell into the second category. He gave in 00:09:19.420 --> 00:09:28.259 to cynicism and despair in certain ways. That brings us to where we are in this passage, Isaiah chapter 11, 00:09:28.259 --> 00:09:35.919 because Isaiah's lack of faith from chapter 7 continues to unwrap and unravel. Chapters 9 and 10, 00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:41.100 which we skipped, God brings his judgment on his people and on Assyria. And it's this great picture 00:09:41.100 --> 00:09:47.179 of darkness. Israel in the north falls into complete desiré. And we're told things like this in chapter 9, 00:09:47.179 --> 00:09:55.159 for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. Wickedness burns like a fire. 00:09:55.599 --> 00:10:00.579 So there's this absolute devastation of God's people and of Assyria. 00:10:02.179 --> 00:10:08.059 But as we turn to the beginning of chapter 11, God has not left them without hope. 00:10:08.059 --> 00:10:16.879 And the good news for us is that God has not left us without hope either. And so that's why we have 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:23.659 this image in chapter 1, verse 1, chapter 11. We're coming off this picture of hopelessness and 00:10:23.659 --> 00:10:30.639 despair, of wickedness flourishing in the land. But suddenly we're told out of this seemingly dead 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:36.539 tree, there's going to come forth a shoot. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse 00:10:36.539 --> 00:10:43.379 and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. What seemed finished is actually going to give birth 00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:47.719 to new life. There are going to be new beginnings for God's people after this judgment that they've 00:10:47.719 --> 00:10:52.679 experienced. It's not going to be true that they're going to live under the oppression of the Assyrians 00:10:52.679 --> 00:10:58.679 forever. It's not going to be true that evil and wickedness will continue to rule the day. In fact, 00:10:58.699 --> 00:11:03.000 it's not just that there's going to be new life. We find something even more exciting about it. 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:08.299 It's going to be a shoot from the stump of Jesse. Here's the story of the Old Testament. You know 00:11:08.299 --> 00:11:16.379 that Jesse appears in this featuring role in 1 Samuel 16 as the father of King David. God sends 00:11:16.379 --> 00:11:21.539 the prophet Samuel to Jesse and says, hey, one of his sons is going to be the next king. David is 00:11:21.539 --> 00:11:26.700 actually the runt of the litter, but God picks him anyway to prove a point. He doesn't need a man like 00:11:26.700 --> 00:11:33.280 Saul who's good by appearances, but he needs a man after God's own heart. The thing that's important 00:11:33.280 --> 00:11:39.120 for us to remember here is that when the word Jesse is used in the Old Testament, it is only in reference 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:46.140 to David. It is never in reference to any other Old Testament king. And so when we're told that 00:11:46.140 --> 00:11:52.160 something's going to come forth from the stump of Jesse, what Isaiah is telling us here is there's not 00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:57.620 just going to be another king. It's not that there's a good king who's coming. No, this king is going to 00:11:57.620 --> 00:12:04.100 be so good. He's going to be like the greatest king Israel has ever known. This is going to be the second 00:12:04.100 --> 00:12:13.000 David. That's the significance of the son of Jesse. This is the greater David that we're looking for. 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:19.259 In the 19th century, a man named James Montgomery wrote a hymn titled Hail to the Lord's Anointed, 00:12:19.259 --> 00:12:26.419 and it referred to Jesus as great David's greater son, which is recognizing two things. First of all, 00:12:26.480 --> 00:12:33.419 Jesus is a descendant of David, so he's David's son. He's also greater than David. He surpasses David. 00:12:33.539 --> 00:12:40.419 He's more righteous and holy than David. He's more powerful and glorious than David. In other words, 00:12:40.419 --> 00:12:48.899 in the midst of all this darkness, God is bringing a better ruler than his people have ever seen. 00:12:49.259 --> 00:12:58.059 David is finally going to make a comeback. The king David is returning, and he will be better than 00:12:58.059 --> 00:13:04.080 the first version. So verse two here is telling us things similar to what we saw last week. So we're 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:08.600 not going to dig deeply into that because there's overlap going on in the book of Isaiah. This is 00:13:08.600 --> 00:13:12.980 similar to chapter nine when we heard about the wonderful counselor, mighty God, but we're going to 00:13:12.980 --> 00:13:18.820 see that this king is filled with God's spirit in a way that's going to enable him to rule exceptionally 00:13:18.820 --> 00:13:24.840 well, better than we would expect from a mere human. Verse three, we find out that he's going to be filled 00:13:24.840 --> 00:13:30.899 with the fear of the Lord, which means he has no fear of man. And the important thing that we find out 00:13:30.899 --> 00:13:38.659 in verses four and five is that the poor and the meek are finally going to get a fair shake. 00:13:38.659 --> 00:13:46.059 Verse four, with righteousness, he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the 00:13:46.059 --> 00:13:52.519 earth. No longer will it be true that those who have the most money get the best results. 00:13:53.799 --> 00:13:57.939 It's not saying that the poor are going to win everything. It's going to say, it's saying here that 00:13:57.939 --> 00:14:04.579 they are no longer going to get the short end of the stick. This king is going to be able to see 00:14:04.580 --> 00:14:10.240 and understand things that are more and beyond mere appearances. That's what we learn in verse five. 00:14:11.900 --> 00:14:17.920 Excuse me, verse four, verse three. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by 00:14:17.920 --> 00:14:26.480 what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear. He is able to see beyond the appearances 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:34.320 of the matter to its very truth. He is able to do what judges and juries can only dream of. 00:14:35.940 --> 00:14:46.460 This king is going to bring full and final justice. It's not going to be only those who can afford 00:14:46.460 --> 00:14:51.800 lawyers who are going to be able to get justice. It's going to be everyone. 00:14:51.799 --> 00:15:03.699 And so the point here is pretty simple. The poor are going to get a fair hearing, and the wicked are 00:15:03.699 --> 00:15:10.439 going to be brought to justice. The poor are finally going to get a fair hearing. The wicked are finally 00:15:10.439 --> 00:15:21.779 going to be brought to justice. Finally, full justice is going to arrive. Finally, everything will 00:15:21.799 --> 00:15:30.120 be set right. Verses four and five. Jesus is the one who has a terminal list. 00:15:31.799 --> 00:15:38.879 Jesus is the one who knows the wicked and everything they have done. He is the one who is going to hold 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:45.500 them to account. Verse four, he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath 00:15:45.500 --> 00:15:57.279 of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Jesus is the hope of these people to make everything in the world 00:15:57.279 --> 00:16:06.340 right, to settle every score, to make all accounts come out as they should. And that's the hope of Israel 00:16:06.340 --> 00:16:14.179 as they live under the burden of Assyrian rule. That's the hope of Israel as they see injustice after 00:16:14.179 --> 00:16:19.839 injustice. That's the hope of Israel as they are living in a land filled with darkness. 00:16:22.739 --> 00:16:28.819 And so that raises the question again for us of the temptations that we face as we also live in a 00:16:28.819 --> 00:16:33.979 world filled with darkness, a world that does not yet see the full light that it will in Jesus' second 00:16:33.979 --> 00:16:39.059 coming. How do we walk through that and avoid the landmines and the temptations that present themselves? 00:16:39.059 --> 00:16:44.459 And there's a few temptations I've named already. First is the one to take justice into our own hands 00:16:44.459 --> 00:16:51.219 that we, if someone has wronged us, must punch back. Now I'm going to say, by the way, revenge is not 00:16:51.219 --> 00:16:56.919 the same as accountability. There's an appropriate way to be a whistleblower, to press charges, to pursue 00:16:56.919 --> 00:17:02.899 litigation without seeking revenge and vengeance. There's a time when we protect other people by bringing 00:17:02.899 --> 00:17:10.339 evil into the light. What I'm saying here is there's a temptation when we see and realize we can't get the 00:17:10.339 --> 00:17:18.139 justice we want in this world to take things into our own hands. It could be extreme, like James Reese. 00:17:18.980 --> 00:17:26.180 It could be small and obscure, like destroying someone's reputation as a way of getting even. 00:17:26.180 --> 00:17:39.580 Even then, even if we do everything we can, justice is not full and complete. We cannot completely undo the 00:17:39.580 --> 00:17:40.860 wrong of this world. 00:17:43.180 --> 00:17:48.779 The other temptation is not vengeance, but despair and bitterness and cynicism. 00:17:48.779 --> 00:17:57.259 To shut our hearts down and to eliminate the possibility of joy, to simply say, this is a dark world, and so I'm going to 00:17:57.259 --> 00:18:08.359 be filled with darkness as well. My only response is to stop looking for things to be right, to stop hoping and 00:18:08.359 --> 00:18:18.500 dreaming, to no longer have a heart that works. And the answer to both of these temptations is the same. 00:18:18.779 --> 00:18:23.319 How do we hold ourselves back from making all things right? How do we keep from shutting down our hearts because 00:18:23.319 --> 00:18:29.180 the pain is too great? It's not that we stop looking and longing for justice. 00:18:30.700 --> 00:18:36.039 No, keep looking and keep longing. That's the point of Advent, that we live in this tension, and we're looking 00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:41.119 forward to Jesus' second coming, knowing that he's coming back and saying, as it said at the end of the book of 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:47.839 Revelation, even so, come Lord Jesus. And so the solution is not that we stop hoping and longing to looking. 00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:55.419 The solution is that we hope and long and look in the right direction. The solution is that we look 00:18:55.419 --> 00:19:01.379 to the shoot from the stump of Jesse, that whether we're tempted by vengeance or cynicism, that we set 00:19:01.379 --> 00:19:09.259 our eyes on Jesus. If we're tempted to take things into our own hands, we set our gaze on Jesus, knowing 00:19:09.259 --> 00:19:16.159 that he's coming back to make all things right. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, so we can stand down. 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:22.900 If we're tempted by cynicism and despair, our solution is also to look to Jesus and say, no, 00:19:23.019 --> 00:19:30.279 I don't have to give up in this world because I know one day everything may be set right. The court 00:19:30.279 --> 00:19:42.160 system may have gotten it wrong. Jesus will not. I may have been wronged. Jesus will make it right. 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:48.440 And so there's a turning away. There's a turning away from our own solutions and despair and turning 00:19:48.440 --> 00:19:56.480 towards Jesus and the justice that he is bringing. Now, this doesn't mean that we're apathetic about 00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:03.840 injustice in this world. I'm not saying that we give up fighting for what's right. What I am saying 00:20:03.839 --> 00:20:13.559 is this, we will not be able to do it all. No matter how hard we work, we will not make everything 00:20:13.559 --> 00:20:19.639 right. And so it means not that we turn away from doing what's right, but that our hope is firmly fixed 00:20:19.639 --> 00:20:26.259 on Jesus. That the horizon line that we look forward to is not when we have finished everything, 00:20:26.259 --> 00:20:33.579 but when Jesus returns again. As we live after the first advent, what we are looking forward to 00:20:33.579 --> 00:20:41.440 is the second advent. That everything falls into perspective as we look out on the horizon line 00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:48.579 of Jesus coming again. We have a different timetable and a different expectation. 00:20:48.579 --> 00:20:58.000 things in this world will not be completely fixed until Jesus comes again. 00:21:00.179 --> 00:21:05.859 And so that's why we look towards his second advent. That's why we pause this morning for a brief moment 00:21:05.859 --> 00:21:13.179 in our lives to say, hey, let's stop and remember that Jesus is our hope. Let's stop and remind one 00:21:13.180 --> 00:21:19.799 another that Jesus is coming again. Let's stop and guard one another against the dangers of revenge, 00:21:19.920 --> 00:21:26.420 the danger of giving up, and instead have the joy and hope that we talked about last week from looking 00:21:26.420 --> 00:21:33.480 darkness right in the eyes, but being able to stand it because we know that Jesus is even brighter. 00:21:37.740 --> 00:21:42.759 Knowledge of Jesus' return gives us a way of living in the world right now. 00:21:43.180 --> 00:21:53.980 Now the original audience, those who were living under Assyria, their encouragement was to hope and hold on. 00:21:56.120 --> 00:21:58.220 In fact, Isaiah tells us in chapter 10, 00:21:58.920 --> 00:22:03.820 in that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who 00:22:03.820 --> 00:22:08.539 struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 00:22:08.539 --> 00:22:16.579 Brothers and sisters, we have even more reason to hope and hold on. 00:22:17.779 --> 00:22:20.480 Because we are not looking forward 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:24.279 to the branch from Jesse. 00:22:24.500 --> 00:22:26.119 We know he's already arrived. 00:22:27.240 --> 00:22:30.440 We are not looking forward to Jesus' first advent. 00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:32.099 We've already seen it. 00:22:32.099 --> 00:22:35.699 We are not hoping on a hope. 00:22:36.339 --> 00:22:38.519 We have a down payment. 00:22:39.899 --> 00:22:45.439 And so we have even more and greater reason to look and hope in Jesus. 00:22:45.440 --> 00:23:00.420 Jesus is able to bring full and final justice without crushing us because Jesus is the just one who was judged unjustly. 00:23:00.420 --> 00:23:07.940 Jesus is the one who put himself on the terminal list so that he could take us off. 00:23:09.160 --> 00:23:15.259 Jesus is the one who's able to bring justice without crushing us, not because we're blameless, 00:23:16.060 --> 00:23:18.519 but he's taken our blame onto him. 00:23:19.580 --> 00:23:20.880 And so that's our hope in Advent. 00:23:20.980 --> 00:23:21.660 Our hope is twofold. 00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:25.120 One, we know that Jesus has forgiven us and died for our sins. 00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:27.880 And two, we know he's coming back to make all things right. 00:23:27.880 --> 00:23:30.580 He is the redeemer and the creator. 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:32.220 He's redeemed us from our sins, 00:23:32.260 --> 00:23:37.320 and he's coming back to rescue and restore all of his creation. 00:23:40.220 --> 00:23:44.900 I shared with you last week that Jonathan Clark and I, 00:23:45.020 --> 00:23:46.740 Jonathan who preaches here from time to time, 00:23:47.020 --> 00:23:52.360 go and walk his dog Tuna every other Wednesday at 6.30 a.m. 00:23:52.359 --> 00:23:58.639 And recently, Jonathan shared another story with me about his challenges, 00:23:58.839 --> 00:23:59.979 his adventures in parenting. 00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:03.500 Some of you may have met his daughter, Phoebe, who's four years old, 00:24:04.019 --> 00:24:06.939 and she's the most extroverted four-year-old you will ever encounter. 00:24:08.039 --> 00:24:09.219 And so Phoebe was very excited. 00:24:09.740 --> 00:24:11.699 They were going to go out trick-or-treating on Halloween, 00:24:11.699 --> 00:24:14.240 and they went out and they were having just such a fun time. 00:24:14.339 --> 00:24:15.199 Everything was great. 00:24:15.679 --> 00:24:19.419 But there was a man who decided he was going to have a fun time as well, 00:24:19.420 --> 00:24:21.960 and he dressed himself up like a shrub. 00:24:23.240 --> 00:24:26.660 And then dressed as a shrub, he would hide by other shrubs, 00:24:27.080 --> 00:24:29.900 and he would jump out at little four-year-olds and growl at them. 00:24:31.120 --> 00:24:32.920 Very traumatizing experience. 00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:37.240 And so this man jumped out and growled at Phoebe, 00:24:37.320 --> 00:24:40.080 and of course she was scared and confused. 00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:42.779 Before anything could happen, this man ran away. 00:24:42.779 --> 00:24:49.480 And so Phoebe, knowing that her father was there as the one to fix everything, 00:24:49.619 --> 00:24:52.960 said, Dad, what are we going to do about that? 00:24:57.139 --> 00:24:58.480 And Jonathan said this. 00:24:58.680 --> 00:25:01.759 He said, Phoebe, God tells us to forgive our enemies. 00:25:03.299 --> 00:25:06.639 God will forgive him or God will punish him. 00:25:08.180 --> 00:25:11.539 It's not up to us to determine that he gets punished. 00:25:11.539 --> 00:25:16.139 God will forgive him or God will punish him. 00:25:16.559 --> 00:25:19.480 He said, this is a four-year-old playground theology here for you. 00:25:20.339 --> 00:25:25.940 All of his badness is put on Jesus or God will pay him back for his badness. 00:25:27.159 --> 00:25:27.920 That's our hope. 00:25:29.639 --> 00:25:34.019 And so that night they prayed for the man who was scary and dressed like a shrub 00:25:34.019 --> 00:25:37.059 and was scaring little kids on Halloween. 00:25:38.159 --> 00:25:40.180 And Phoebe was still a little confused by that, 00:25:40.180 --> 00:25:41.920 but I think Jonathan just kept telling her, like, look, 00:25:43.180 --> 00:25:46.720 Jesus is going to take all his badness or Jesus will punish him for his badness, 00:25:46.779 --> 00:25:48.600 and we just trust Jesus to handle that for us. 00:25:50.039 --> 00:25:52.620 And I told Jonathan, I said, I'm not a four-year-old, 00:25:52.980 --> 00:25:55.299 but can you call me every week and tell me that? 00:25:55.980 --> 00:25:58.440 I need to hear that too. 00:25:58.440 --> 00:26:02.660 Simple, profound, easy to forget. 00:26:03.700 --> 00:26:04.740 You can be peaceful. 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:08.360 You can have hope because God has been violent. 00:26:09.320 --> 00:26:11.820 He was violent either to Jesus on the cross 00:26:11.820 --> 00:26:17.940 or he'll be violent on the last day to make everything right. 00:26:17.940 --> 00:26:22.140 But with righteousness, he shall judge the poor 00:26:22.140 --> 00:26:24.519 and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. 00:26:25.100 --> 00:26:27.640 And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth 00:26:27.640 --> 00:26:30.600 and with the breath of his lips, he shall kill the wicked. 00:26:31.759 --> 00:26:33.559 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist 00:26:33.559 --> 00:26:36.539 and faithfulness, the belt of his loins. 00:26:37.120 --> 00:26:37.759 Let's pray. 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:42.619 Our Father in heaven, we praise you and thank you 00:26:42.619 --> 00:26:46.460 that you haven't left us alone as orphans in a merciless universe, 00:26:46.460 --> 00:26:50.420 but instead you father us, you speak to us. 00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:52.119 When we ask you, what are you going to do? 00:26:54.019 --> 00:26:56.420 You tell us all the badness that we put on Jesus 00:26:56.420 --> 00:26:58.879 or I'll punish the badness. 00:26:59.799 --> 00:27:01.759 We thank you that that's our hope and our confidence. 00:27:01.920 --> 00:27:03.839 We ask that you would stir that up in our hearts, 00:27:03.980 --> 00:27:07.220 that we would look to you more than anyone else, 00:27:07.220 --> 00:27:10.039 that we would long for your second coming, your second advent, 00:27:10.460 --> 00:27:14.039 and that would allow us to live with joy and confidence in this world. 00:27:14.660 --> 00:27:17.180 We ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. 00:27:17.500 --> 00:27:17.720 Amen.