WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.639 It's been a couple of weeks since we've been back in the book of Isaiah. 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:08.120 We're working through Isaiah part one this semester. 00:00:08.120 --> 00:00:09.439 We only have a few weeks left. 00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:11.960 We'll end this series at the end of May. 00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:15.800 And Isaiah part one is chapters one to 39. 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:19.519 Typically the commentators will divide Isaiah into three parts. 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:24.359 And part one chapter one to 39 is often called the book of the king. 00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:28.240 And the reason for that is you see kingship come up quite often. 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:35.560 And the big idea that you start to gather from Isaiah's poetry is that if the promises 00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:41.839 that God made to Abraham all the way back in Genesis are ever going to come to fruition, 00:00:41.839 --> 00:00:46.560 be fulfilled, then Israel and Jerusalem, they're going to have to have a good king. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:47.759 And they don't have a good king. 00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:49.560 They haven't had a good king in quite some time. 00:00:49.560 --> 00:00:55.200 And Hezekiah is the king in the chapter that we're reading about here, Isaiah 32. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:59.720 And he's an okay king, but he's not a great king, not always. 00:00:59.720 --> 00:01:03.880 And there's been a lineage of very bad rulers before him. 00:01:03.880 --> 00:01:07.719 And there's going to come a sequence that's pretty bad after him. 00:01:07.719 --> 00:01:14.159 And so because of that, God has said so far in book one, things have fallen apart and it's 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:16.439 too corrupt in Jerusalem. 00:01:16.439 --> 00:01:24.439 And that means that Assyria is coming first, 701 BC, and then Babylon's coming, 586 BC. 00:01:24.439 --> 00:01:28.679 And in both those occasions, Jerusalem is going to experience partial destruction and 00:01:28.679 --> 00:01:30.000 then full destruction. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.920 And there's nothing that you can do about it. 00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:38.000 And the reason God says this over and over and over again is because all of your leadership 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:41.719 has been corrupt and evil and unjust. 00:01:41.719 --> 00:01:47.400 And the theme of Isaiah book one is that when the ruler falls, so goes the people. 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:50.879 If you have a good king, you're going to have a good society. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:56.560 And if you have a bad king, then eventually you're going to become Babylon. 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:00.679 And over and over again, even though Babylon is the great enemy of Israel and Jerusalem, 00:02:00.679 --> 00:02:03.079 God keeps saying, but you are Babylon. 00:02:03.079 --> 00:02:04.599 You've become Babylon. 00:02:04.599 --> 00:02:07.599 You're just like Babylon and your kings have been corrupted. 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:13.599 And one commentator says, this is the plight of all societies that eventually every nation, 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:17.400 every society, every great city becomes Babylon. 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:22.800 And that's because Francis Spufford put it, we break things. 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:24.560 Human beings break things. 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:28.180 And we have a tendency to corrupt everything. 00:02:28.180 --> 00:02:33.120 And all it takes is one bad ruler and eventually society crumbles and falls. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:37.879 And that's the plight of every nation, the rise and fall of every kingdom throughout 00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:38.879 all of history. 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:44.640 Isaiah 32 is Isaiah's vision from God of a better city. 00:02:44.639 --> 00:02:49.079 We've been talking about that throughout the series of ultimately a transformed society. 00:02:49.079 --> 00:02:52.959 And really the question that underlies this chapter, this is a climactic chapter in the 00:02:52.959 --> 00:02:57.959 book of the king, the first 39 chapters, is the question really is this, what does it 00:02:57.959 --> 00:03:02.479 take for society to be ultimately transformed? 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:08.359 What do you need for the final transformation of true society, of a good society? 00:03:08.360 --> 00:03:15.640 And here's the answer, you need, Isaiah says, a great reversal, a righteous king, and a 00:03:15.640 --> 00:03:18.320 transformed people. 00:03:18.320 --> 00:03:19.840 So let's think about that together. 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:21.880 First a great reversal. 00:03:21.880 --> 00:03:26.560 If you look with me, start right in the middle of the passage, more towards the end, verse 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:32.400 14, Isaiah summarizes the plight of Jerusalem here. 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:42.840 And he says, the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted, the watchtower dens for donkeys. 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:48.360 And so he's saying, he's speaking in the present tense about a future reality and saying, when 00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:53.800 a Syria and Babylon come, there's going to be no people left, there's going to be no 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:59.759 king, and there's going to be no cultivated society, no culture. 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:03.639 It's just the city, what you once knew as a great place is going to be a place where 00:04:03.639 --> 00:04:06.479 the donkeys spend all their time. 00:04:06.479 --> 00:04:08.000 There's no cultivation, there's no society. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:12.079 And he's picking up from the very beginning of Genesis here and saying that human beings 00:04:12.079 --> 00:04:16.560 were made in the image of God to live in a great city, to live in a great society, that 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:22.279 we were made by God as the pinnacle of creation, to live not in the wilderness, but in the 00:04:22.279 --> 00:04:29.319 garden, to live in a cultivated space, a space with a good king, a cultivated culture, and 00:04:29.319 --> 00:04:31.360 a good, healthy society. 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:35.240 And when you get to the middle of history right here, we learn that ultimately he's 00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:39.800 saying to Jerusalem, the great city of God, there's going to come a day very soon where 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:45.719 you don't have a king, you don't have any culture left, no buildings, nothing, and you 00:04:45.719 --> 00:04:47.519 don't even have a people. 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:52.719 You're completely abandoned, it's just a place where donkeys like to come and hang out. 00:04:52.719 --> 00:04:56.600 Because you're so corrupt, because your kings have been so corrupt, and then you look back 00:04:56.600 --> 00:05:03.080 at verse nine where he starts this idea, he says, rise up you women who are at ease, hear 00:05:03.080 --> 00:05:05.760 my voice, you complacent daughters. 00:05:05.760 --> 00:05:10.720 Now he's not just talking to women there, to females, instead he's doing what he's been 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:16.720 doing the whole first book, and that's speaking to Jerusalem in feminine metaphors. 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:21.160 So oftentimes throughout the Old Testament when God speaks or a prophet speaks directly 00:05:21.160 --> 00:05:25.680 to a city, it speaks to the city as a her, as a she. 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:30.360 And so he's saying rise up you women, you daughters of Jerusalem, the word city is a 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:31.800 feminine word. 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:35.199 And he's saying that means you men and you women, you are all the daughters of Jerusalem 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:37.360 and every single one of you is complacent. 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:39.879 And you see you put those two ideas together. 00:05:39.879 --> 00:05:46.879 Verse 14, this is truly coming because of your corruption and you know about it and you're 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:48.240 complacent. 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:52.639 You men and women, you're just sitting around, you don't ultimately seem to care at all. 00:05:52.639 --> 00:05:58.680 And then verse 10, he puts a time stamp on it, in a little more than a year you will 00:05:58.680 --> 00:05:59.680 shudder. 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:05.839 Meaning this is probably the commentators think that you're 702 when he writes this, 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:07.159 when he speaks this. 00:06:07.159 --> 00:06:13.240 And that means a year from now, 701, Assyria, Sinakarib is coming and he's going to camp 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:15.319 right outside your door and you will shudder. 00:06:15.319 --> 00:06:18.399 You will experience the things that Isaiah has been prophesying about. 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:25.479 Now, that means that in the middle of this passage, it's bad news. 00:06:25.479 --> 00:06:32.319 And then when you look at verse 14 and finish that sentence and scan your eyes over to 15, 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:37.399 you get one of these moments in Isaiah that we've pointed out a few times in the series. 00:06:37.399 --> 00:06:44.399 They're moments of irrationality, moments where the text doesn't make any sense. 00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:45.399 Did you see it? 00:06:45.399 --> 00:06:50.399 You're about to have no king, no people, no culture, and the great city of God is going 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:52.479 to be nothing but a den for donkeys. 00:06:52.479 --> 00:06:57.799 And then verse 15 says, until the spirit is poured and the wilderness becomes a fruitful 00:06:57.799 --> 00:06:58.799 field. 00:06:58.799 --> 00:07:03.879 Now, he's done this three or four times already in the book of the king where he says everything 00:07:03.879 --> 00:07:10.879 is, devastation is coming and then the spirit's going to pour down. 00:07:10.879 --> 00:07:14.560 And what became the wilderness, the place where humans are not supposed to be, the 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:20.879 place of sin is all of a sudden going to become the fruitful field, the garden all over again. 00:07:20.879 --> 00:07:24.759 And Isaiah keeps putting these two things together. 00:07:24.759 --> 00:07:28.519 In the middle of the 20th century, Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings, wrote 00:07:28.519 --> 00:07:32.079 a wonderful essay called On Fairy Stories. 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:37.319 And it's an essay that changed the literary community in many ways and coined a famous 00:07:37.319 --> 00:07:44.000 term that's almost become a cliche at this point, but it's the literary concept of eukatastrophe. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:45.000 This is the idea. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:47.120 And it put together two different ideas. 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:53.639 The EU at the beginning in Greek means good, so it's a good catastrophe. 00:07:53.639 --> 00:08:00.199 And Tolkien said that a good catastrophe, a eukatastrophe, is in essence a massive turn 00:08:00.199 --> 00:08:05.819 in fortune from a seemingly unconquerable situation to an unforeseen victory usually 00:08:05.819 --> 00:08:09.439 brought by grace rather than by heroic effort. 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:13.519 Now, there's a biblical idea that precedes Tolkien's idea. 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:17.599 GK Beal has called it redemptive irony. 00:08:17.599 --> 00:08:23.199 There's a redemptive irony, a eukatastrophe motif that runs all throughout the Bible. 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:24.199 And here's how he defines it. 00:08:24.199 --> 00:08:31.479 He says, it's when everything seems to be cursed, but in the middle of that disaster, 00:08:31.479 --> 00:08:35.439 God is actually blessing the world. 00:08:35.439 --> 00:08:36.639 That's the eukatastrophe. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:37.639 That's the redemptive irony. 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:39.240 And it happens over and over and over again. 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:43.759 Derek Kidner writing about this passage says, when you read verse 14 and then you get to 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:49.879 15 to 20, you realize that everything that Isaiah writes about transcends anything that 00:08:49.879 --> 00:08:52.320 Isaiah would ever see. 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:56.200 That the fruitful field, this reversal that Isaiah is mentioning, never will happen in 00:08:56.200 --> 00:08:58.039 Isaiah's lifetime. 00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:00.399 It will never happen under Hezekiah's rule. 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:03.039 None of the things that take place even in the Old Testament. 00:09:03.039 --> 00:09:05.519 A truly transformed society is what he's talking about. 00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:09.840 And it's going to be an 11th hour rescue. 00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:13.360 And it's something the Old Testament never saw. 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:17.639 And that's why most of the commentators say that when we read verse 15 and it says, one 00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:22.399 day the spirit will fall and the desolate place will become a fruitful field. 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:25.439 It's actually talking about Pentecost. 00:09:25.439 --> 00:09:30.879 This is Isaiah's prophecy about the day that the spirit will finally fall. 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:36.240 And we'll begin the process of transforming society fully and forever. 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:37.240 And it's the day of Pentecost. 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:42.080 Now, if Isaiah here, knowing without knowing that he's talking about the day the spirit 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:47.519 will fall, the day of Pentecost, that means that what the story of Jerusalem here really 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:52.039 is about is about the day of darkness, the true day of darkness. 00:09:52.039 --> 00:09:57.000 You see, he says in verse 14, one day everything will become desolate. 00:09:57.000 --> 00:09:59.399 One day you won't, it will be like you don't have a king. 00:09:59.399 --> 00:10:01.319 One day there will be no people. 00:10:01.319 --> 00:10:02.319 Everybody will shudder. 00:10:02.319 --> 00:10:04.079 Everybody will run away and flee. 00:10:04.079 --> 00:10:10.079 And ultimate darkness will fall upon the land and then the spirit will fall down. 00:10:10.079 --> 00:10:13.600 And if that coming of the spirit is Pentecost, that means what Isaiah is really prophesying 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:18.639 here is the day of darkness at the end of the gospels. 00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:23.240 When darkness truly fell, when the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, the true King, hung on 00:10:23.240 --> 00:10:25.240 the cross and he lost everything. 00:10:25.240 --> 00:10:28.220 The king of power became no king at all. 00:10:28.220 --> 00:10:29.660 He ran away. 00:10:29.660 --> 00:10:33.759 There was utter desolation surrounding the true King. 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:36.840 Darkness fell upon the land on that day. 00:10:36.840 --> 00:10:41.320 And that means that he, Jesus Christ, what Isaiah is saying is Jesus is the eukatastrophe 00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:42.480 of history. 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:45.320 The cross of Christ is the great eukatastrophe. 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:50.200 It's the great redemptive irony that Isaiah was prophesying without fully understanding 00:10:50.200 --> 00:10:52.800 all the way back in the eighth century BC. 00:10:52.800 --> 00:10:56.639 Now what does this mean for us? 00:10:56.639 --> 00:10:58.840 Here's the takeaway. 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:08.000 It means this, that only the resurrected spirit of Jesus Christ can build the truly transformed 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:11.000 society. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:19.080 Only the coming of the resurrected spirit of Jesus can truly usher in the finally righteous 00:11:19.080 --> 00:11:21.159 and just society of history. 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:23.600 It can't happen any other way than that. 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:25.720 And that's actually what Isaiah is talking about here. 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:32.240 In other words, all cities, all societies, all nations will end up like Babylon eventually. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:34.519 They rise and they fall. 00:11:34.519 --> 00:11:37.800 All cities, all societies are temporary in that way. 00:11:37.800 --> 00:11:42.060 And that means Isaiah is saying you cannot hope in the earthly city. 00:11:42.060 --> 00:11:44.440 You can't hope in the earthly politic. 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:47.000 That all politics will come and go. 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:51.320 But only the spirit of Jesus Christ can bring the fully transformed society. 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:54.160 That means on the one hand you can't hope in the present. 00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:59.199 And on the other hand, at the same time, he's saying a truly transformed society is actually 00:11:59.199 --> 00:12:00.199 possible. 00:12:00.199 --> 00:12:05.120 You see, he's saying to you, don't hope in the present because the good politic only 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:07.039 comes when the spirit descends. 00:12:07.039 --> 00:12:11.480 And at the same time, a truly good political order is actually possible and so hope in 00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:13.719 it at the very same time. 00:12:13.719 --> 00:12:19.120 And see, the early Christians understood this as because Jesus has come, the King of Kings, 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:24.120 the Lord of Lords, Revelation 19, we can both say, I never hope. 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:27.879 In the order that I live in in the present, not ultimately, but at the same time, I care 00:12:27.879 --> 00:12:32.080 about it so much because the spirit can descend. 00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:33.840 The spirit can actually come. 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:37.159 The spirit can change the order that we live in even now. 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:40.600 Now, here's how the Christians in the first century thought about this. 00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:45.399 Rodney Stark wrote a really helpful book called The Cities of God. 00:12:45.399 --> 00:12:51.879 And in it, he, as a historian, categorizes how the early church transformed the urban 00:12:51.879 --> 00:12:55.200 landscape of the Roman Empire in the first two centuries. 00:12:55.200 --> 00:13:00.000 So he looks at what happened in the Roman Empire in just those first 200 years after 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:03.639 Jesus Christ came and lived and died and rose again. 00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:08.759 And he said, here were the two great principles of how the Christians lived in that season. 00:13:08.759 --> 00:13:15.320 He says first, the Christians of the early church, in order to care for the city, the 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:21.759 society that they lived in, to point to a city that was to come, the one that the spirit 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:27.120 would bring, it says they lived a life where they cared first for the circle of intimates 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:28.120 around them. 00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:33.039 In other words, they were saying, look, you live for a city that is not yet, a society 00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:34.799 that is not yet. 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:36.399 Only the Holy Spirit can bring that. 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:37.919 Only the Spirit of Christ can bring that. 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:43.439 But because that's coming, you live as a witness, a light in the present to that which is to 00:13:43.439 --> 00:13:44.439 come. 00:13:44.439 --> 00:13:45.439 And how do you do that? 00:13:45.439 --> 00:13:47.039 How do you seek a great city now? 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:49.519 How do you seek the transformation of Edinburgh right now? 00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:51.840 And he said, here's the way the early church understood it. 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:57.639 They said, first, deeply care about the people that are closest to you in your daily life. 00:13:57.639 --> 00:14:01.879 In other words, they saw it for small transformations, small wins. 00:14:01.879 --> 00:14:07.600 And so he says they deeply cared about their family, their neighbors, and their colleagues. 00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:11.439 In other words, he said they understood that since the Holy Spirit is the only one who 00:14:11.439 --> 00:14:14.199 can build the transformed society, they can't build it. 00:14:14.199 --> 00:14:16.240 We can't change Edinburgh. 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:17.240 We can't change the world. 00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:18.240 We can't change the city. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:21.200 We can't change very much at all. 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:27.720 But what you can do is deeply care about the people God's put closest to you in your life. 00:14:27.720 --> 00:14:29.560 You can seek small wins. 00:14:29.560 --> 00:14:34.919 And so they took the word of the gospel, Jesus Christ, and the mercy of the gospel, deeds, 00:14:34.919 --> 00:14:38.240 to their intimates, a start puts it, those nearest them. 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:42.759 Now the second thing they did, one more and we'll move on, they not only cared about their 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:47.840 circle of intimates, he said secondly, the other notable thing, the first two centuries, 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:51.920 they cared for people outside their tribe. 00:14:51.920 --> 00:14:56.960 And so in the Roman Empire, there were more than 30,000 gods being worshiped when the 00:14:56.960 --> 00:14:59.879 apostles first set forth in the Great Commission. 00:14:59.879 --> 00:15:04.280 30,000 different deities that we can catalog across the Roman Empire. 00:15:04.280 --> 00:15:11.440 Almost every urban city had at least five major temples in that time, to Jupiter, Athena, 00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:13.400 all these different gods. 00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:19.439 And it just so happened that if you followed Jupiter, if you followed Athena, you very 00:15:19.439 --> 00:15:24.759 probably only cared about the people in your life who followed Jupiter and Athena. 00:15:24.759 --> 00:15:28.799 You see, people cared about the people in their tribe and not anybody else. 00:15:28.799 --> 00:15:31.399 Have you ever heard of that? 00:15:31.399 --> 00:15:34.559 And Stark says that when you read the early literature, what you see is that what the 00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:38.799 Christians did, you see, the Christians knew that they were called to be salt and light, 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:42.399 that only the Holy Spirit could bring the truly transformed society. 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:46.519 And yet to witness to that society that is to come, they said, we care about people no 00:15:46.519 --> 00:15:48.559 matter what tribe they're in. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:52.679 And so we have a letter from one of the emperors in the fourth century named Julian, and he's 00:15:52.679 --> 00:15:56.199 writing to a priest, a pagan priest. 00:15:56.199 --> 00:16:00.919 And he writes this, he says to the pagan priest, you know, the Christians have been gaining 00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:01.919 all the territory. 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:05.720 Everybody's been, everybody's becoming a Christian in the Roman Empire. 00:16:05.720 --> 00:16:07.919 What is happening? 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:11.919 He complains, he says, the pagan temples are all empty. 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:13.039 Why? 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:14.639 And he notes one thing. 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:22.240 He says, I think it's because the Christians care for the poor that are not their poor. 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:25.199 In other words, he's saying the Christians are going around and caring for the pagan 00:16:25.199 --> 00:16:26.199 poor. 00:16:26.199 --> 00:16:28.959 And he says, and we're not even caring for the pagan poor. 00:16:28.959 --> 00:16:30.279 And so everybody's becoming a Christian. 00:16:30.279 --> 00:16:35.559 You see, Stark says, they witnessed to a society that is to come. 00:16:35.559 --> 00:16:40.120 Can you imagine a society, the true society, the transformed society, where Jesus Christ, 00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:44.399 the Lord of Lords, is truly King, a kingdom of justice and righteousness that is to come? 00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:52.840 Well, the Christian call is to say, I want to show forth that light in the present, 00:16:52.840 --> 00:16:57.480 to be salt in light, preserve and shine the light of the future into the present. 00:16:57.480 --> 00:16:59.679 And he said, here are two simple ways to do it. 00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:04.960 Love the people closest to you with the word of the gospel and deeds motivated by the gospel, 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:08.160 and care about truth rather than tribe. 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:10.360 Speak to care for people that aren't like you. 00:17:10.360 --> 00:17:12.960 And that's how the early church did it, and that's how they transformed the Roman Empire 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:13.960 with the good news. 00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:19.560 Now, secondly, and we've got to hurry, the early Christians, the Christians, as soon 00:17:19.560 --> 00:17:24.120 as Christ was resurrected, did not find their hope in their present society in the political 00:17:24.120 --> 00:17:27.000 order yet they deeply cared about it. 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:31.080 And it's because they were waiting for the King and knowing that Jesus called them to 00:17:31.080 --> 00:17:33.600 live a life that mattered in the present. 00:17:33.600 --> 00:17:37.040 Now that means that the second thing we need to have a transformed society is we need the 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:38.879 King. 00:17:38.879 --> 00:17:42.720 We need the King, and this is what the passage is ultimately about. 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:49.519 Chapter 32, verse one, you see what he says, behold, a king will one day future reign and 00:17:49.519 --> 00:17:51.639 righteousness. 00:17:51.639 --> 00:17:59.079 Now in the ancient Near East, kings are not like King Charles at all. 00:17:59.079 --> 00:18:07.359 They were the CFOs, the CEOs, they were the lawmakers, the courtrooms, the executioners, 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:10.159 the judges, the justices, they were everything. 00:18:10.159 --> 00:18:12.480 We're talking about absolute monarchy. 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:18.639 But above all, and especially in Babylon, the King regarded himself as God. 00:18:18.639 --> 00:18:23.599 So we see kings all throughout the ancient Near Eastern Empire saying that they're demi-gods, 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:25.919 that they're connections or priests to the God. 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:32.800 But when you get to Babylon, you see Nebuchadnezzar stand on his balcony and say, I am the most 00:18:32.800 --> 00:18:33.800 high. 00:18:33.800 --> 00:18:38.120 You see, Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian kings regarded themselves not only as demi-gods, 00:18:38.120 --> 00:18:40.240 but as full gods. 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:45.039 And the Bible does something revolutionary in ancient history for then and for now. 00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:49.640 It comes into Deuteronomy and says, Israel, if you want to have a king, you better know 00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:51.920 that your king is never really a king. 00:18:51.920 --> 00:18:57.920 In other words, your king is never really the king, there is only one capital K king, 00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:00.759 and that king is the Lord your God. 00:19:00.759 --> 00:19:05.200 And so if you get a king, the king is a magistrate, he's a ruler, he's there to help. 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:08.160 He's there to govern, but he's not really the king above all kings. 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:14.800 In other words, you will never have a human that is truly the king. 00:19:14.800 --> 00:19:19.160 Now when you come to Isaiah, you get to a passage like Isaiah 32.1 and it says, one 00:19:19.160 --> 00:19:24.000 day a king will reign in justice and righteousness. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:26.240 And we call it the book of the king. 00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:28.440 And Isaiah has been building a case. 00:19:28.440 --> 00:19:32.519 We read in our call to worship Isaiah chapter nine verses six and seven. 00:19:32.519 --> 00:19:39.120 You know, God said on the one hand, no human being from Israel will ever truly be the king, 00:19:39.120 --> 00:19:41.800 but then you get to Isaiah and Isaiah starts to build a case. 00:19:41.800 --> 00:19:46.560 And he says, well, Isaiah chapter nine verse six and seven, one day a child will be born 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:50.240 and on his shoulders will hang the whole government of the world. 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:52.319 And he will reign in righteousness and justice. 00:19:52.319 --> 00:19:57.359 And you will call his name, wonderful counselor, mighty God. 00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:00.919 And Isaiah put something together. 00:20:00.919 --> 00:20:08.000 Isaiah says, he's going to be born, but his name will be mighty God. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:11.000 And then the people in the eighth century have to look at Isaiah and say, well, what 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:14.839 do you mean that the mighty God could be born? 00:20:14.839 --> 00:20:16.519 A child. 00:20:16.519 --> 00:20:18.720 And then you come to chapter 11. 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:23.959 Chapter 11 says, Israel, Jerusalem, you've become so corrupt that God is going to cut 00:20:23.959 --> 00:20:26.559 you like a tree. 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:29.559 Jerusalem's going to fall like a tree and you're going to be nothing but a stump. 00:20:29.559 --> 00:20:33.759 And even that stump is going to be burned with fire all around it. 00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:37.439 And he says, and one day from that stump, a tiny little shoot's going to come out of 00:20:37.439 --> 00:20:40.559 the middle with a couple of small little leaves. 00:20:40.559 --> 00:20:44.199 And it's called the shoot, the branch of Jesse. 00:20:44.200 --> 00:20:48.640 And he says, and from that branch, go, if you read chapter 11, six or seven verses of it, 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:53.600 he says, from that little branch, the entire government of the world will be built on the 00:20:53.600 --> 00:20:54.600 branch of shoulders. 00:20:54.600 --> 00:20:55.600 He says it again. 00:20:55.600 --> 00:20:58.000 And he says, in righteousness and justice will fall. 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:03.400 And he will be the branch of Jesse, this man, this lineage, the lineage of the house of 00:21:03.400 --> 00:21:04.400 David. 00:21:04.400 --> 00:21:05.600 And Isaiah is building a case. 00:21:05.600 --> 00:21:09.720 And that case is the argument of the book of the king. 00:21:09.720 --> 00:21:12.720 And he's saying, remember Deuteronomy? 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:16.759 God said, you can never have a human king that is really the king. 00:21:16.759 --> 00:21:22.240 And then Isaiah comes along and says, but wait, what if God becomes born? 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:27.880 What if the stump of Jesse is really actually God? 00:21:27.880 --> 00:21:33.160 What if the great son of David, you see, the king becomes the man of the great reversal. 00:21:33.160 --> 00:21:35.880 The king becomes the one of ultimate redemptive irony. 00:21:35.880 --> 00:21:38.839 You see, we never expected this. 00:21:38.839 --> 00:21:40.360 That's Isaiah's point. 00:21:40.359 --> 00:21:46.879 And when you come to the gospel of Mark, Mark says, Mark one verse one, unrolls the scroll 00:21:46.879 --> 00:21:50.119 of Isaiah and says, prepare the way of the Lord. 00:21:50.119 --> 00:21:51.119 What's the Lord? 00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:52.119 What is a Lord? 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:55.439 A Lord, the Lord just means king. 00:21:55.439 --> 00:22:00.759 And so Isaiah and Mark's gospel are both the books of the king. 00:22:00.759 --> 00:22:05.139 And when you get to the very end of the gospel of Mark, chapter 15, the king stands before 00:22:05.140 --> 00:22:11.600 a punches pilot and pilot says, are you the king? 00:22:11.600 --> 00:22:17.040 And Jesus responds, you have said so, meaning no, but yes. 00:22:17.040 --> 00:22:19.600 No, I'm not the king that you've ever expected. 00:22:19.600 --> 00:22:23.920 I'm not the king that you thought you were looking for, but I'm the king. 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:30.120 And he gets nailed to the cross and they hang above his head a sign that says king. 00:22:30.120 --> 00:22:32.759 You see redemptive irony, the great reversal. 00:22:32.759 --> 00:22:35.200 He says, this isn't the king, but we're going to nail a sign above. 00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:37.079 It says king. 00:22:37.079 --> 00:22:42.879 They meant he's not the king he thinks he is, but oh boy, they were right. 00:22:42.879 --> 00:22:46.200 And that's exactly Isaiah's point. 00:22:46.200 --> 00:22:49.319 Revelation 19, we read it as our New Testament reading. 00:22:49.319 --> 00:22:55.440 And it's important because the king hung on the cross and the king, the God become man, 00:22:55.440 --> 00:22:57.720 he died. 00:22:57.720 --> 00:23:00.920 God was born and he died in Jesus Christ. 00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:06.039 But we can't stop there because Revelation 19 comes to you and says that now he is the 00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:07.160 great white writer. 00:23:07.160 --> 00:23:09.279 He stands on the ultimate horse. 00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:11.279 He sits on the ultimate horse and he comes. 00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:13.400 What does Revelation say? 00:23:13.400 --> 00:23:15.320 King of kings, Lord of lords. 00:23:15.320 --> 00:23:19.440 And all of this is about one simple thing that if you want to have a transformed society, 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:24.160 you need an absolute king, a good king, a righteous king, a just king. 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:30.560 And Isaiah is saying that king had to be both God and man and he is Jesus Christ. 00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:31.879 You have an absolute king. 00:23:31.879 --> 00:23:35.679 Now let me bring this home to you for a second and tell you what this means for right now, 00:23:35.679 --> 00:23:38.440 for tomorrow, Monday. 00:23:38.440 --> 00:23:46.480 It means that our true citizenship is with the king, the true king, and the kingdom that 00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:51.799 he's bringing in the future, but is already present today because he's with us. 00:23:51.799 --> 00:23:55.159 It's both now and it's not yet. 00:23:55.159 --> 00:23:57.879 And that means takeaway. 00:23:57.880 --> 00:24:01.560 That means something very important for both kings and presidents and prime ministers and 00:24:01.560 --> 00:24:04.360 rulers and for all of us citizens. 00:24:04.360 --> 00:24:10.160 And it means this, one, all kings, all presidents, all prime ministers, all magistrates, all rulers 00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:13.840 are temporary and relative. 00:24:13.840 --> 00:24:16.860 They matter so much and they don't matter very much at all. 00:24:16.860 --> 00:24:19.560 That's the revolution of the biblical politic. 00:24:19.560 --> 00:24:21.320 Is the gospel political? 00:24:21.320 --> 00:24:22.320 Absolutely it is. 00:24:22.320 --> 00:24:26.080 Jesus Christ has founded the ultimate politic and it means something for every other political 00:24:26.080 --> 00:24:27.520 order in all of history. 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:32.000 He gives meaning and purpose to all political orders and the first thing he tells us is 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:38.200 I'm the king of kings and that means every other king is important but relative. 00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:41.359 Not that important, not ultimately. 00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:46.240 And that's why throughout Christian history, Christians have developed an ethic of what 00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:49.319 we call civil disobedience at times. 00:24:49.319 --> 00:24:52.559 And Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the great examples of history. 00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:55.160 You know, he says, I listen to what Jesus says. 00:24:55.160 --> 00:24:58.519 Jesus says, render to Caesar what is Caesar's. 00:24:58.519 --> 00:25:03.840 And they gave Jesus that denarius and on one side it had the face of Caesar and under Caesar's 00:25:03.840 --> 00:25:07.000 name it said, son of God. 00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:08.440 Caesar Augustus, son of God. 00:25:08.440 --> 00:25:09.440 You see what Jesus was saying? 00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:11.279 He was saying, pay your taxes. 00:25:11.279 --> 00:25:16.080 Render to Caesar what is Caesar's but do not give him what is God's. 00:25:16.080 --> 00:25:19.600 Caesar says, pay your taxes but he also writes on his calling, I'm the son of God. 00:25:19.600 --> 00:25:22.200 Don't ever give Caesar that. 00:25:22.200 --> 00:25:23.480 And that's the ethic. 00:25:23.480 --> 00:25:27.160 And so Martin Luther King Jr. came and said, I will look at my government and say you're 00:25:27.160 --> 00:25:34.640 important, you matter and I will obey until you tell me to sin against the living God. 00:25:34.640 --> 00:25:35.640 And I can't go that far. 00:25:35.640 --> 00:25:36.640 I can't do that. 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:38.319 That Jesus Christ is my ultimate king. 00:25:38.319 --> 00:25:43.360 Our Dietrich Bonhoeffer or William Wilberforce or all the Christians that have stood against 00:25:43.360 --> 00:25:47.799 totalitarianism on the right and on the left in all myriad of ways. 00:25:47.799 --> 00:25:54.159 They were encouraged by this politic, the politic of the king of kings and the Lord 00:25:54.159 --> 00:25:55.159 of lords. 00:25:55.159 --> 00:25:56.759 Now let me move on finally. 00:25:56.759 --> 00:26:01.240 But before that say that this is also a revolution for you rulers. 00:26:01.240 --> 00:26:04.319 So some of you today are bosses. 00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:07.720 You are in charge of people. 00:26:07.720 --> 00:26:11.480 Maybe you're not the king, you're not the prime minister but you have people that work 00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:12.879 for you and that are underneath you. 00:26:12.879 --> 00:26:15.440 Now listen to what Saint Augustine writes about this. 00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:21.440 He says this, he says that Jesus Christ makes happy bosses. 00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:22.480 And here's how. 00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:27.960 We call those Christian rulers or people in charge happy who govern with justice never 00:26:27.960 --> 00:26:31.200 forgetting that they are only human. 00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:33.480 They think of sovereignty as a ministry of God. 00:26:33.480 --> 00:26:36.279 They fear and they worship God above all. 00:26:36.279 --> 00:26:37.720 They're slow to punish. 00:26:37.720 --> 00:26:39.360 They're quick to forgive. 00:26:39.360 --> 00:26:44.759 They temper with mercy and generosity the unavoidable harshness of their commands. 00:26:44.759 --> 00:26:49.160 They rule not out of glory but out of love for an everlasting bliss. 00:26:49.160 --> 00:26:54.519 They offered to God the humble sacrifice of their repentance and their prayer. 00:26:54.519 --> 00:26:59.680 And in this life they are happy in their hope and they're destined to be truly happy when 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:03.599 the eternal day comes for which we all hope the city of God. 00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:08.400 Augustine saying there is a true king, you people who are in charge of stuff in this 00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:11.200 life and you're not it. 00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:14.079 And that actually should make you incredibly happy. 00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:18.720 I mean you're relative and that when you make mistakes you can repent and it doesn't 00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:21.679 all hang on you and it teaches you how to be a boss. 00:27:21.679 --> 00:27:22.679 How do you be a king? 00:27:22.679 --> 00:27:23.679 How to be a prime minister? 00:27:23.679 --> 00:27:29.000 How to be in charge to see always our relativity and our temporariness is Christianity a political 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:30.000 movement. 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:31.000 Oh boy. 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:36.559 Yes, it says care so deeply about the political order today but because you're here to shine 00:27:36.559 --> 00:27:42.359 light on the political order of tomorrow, the not yet of the kingdom that is to come. 00:27:42.359 --> 00:27:45.000 The true politic, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.559 Now let's close and we have to close quickly. 00:27:49.559 --> 00:27:52.679 We need to have a truly transformed society. 00:27:52.679 --> 00:27:57.719 The Holy Spirit has to come down and we need a righteous king and lastly the text tells 00:27:57.719 --> 00:28:00.879 us we need to be transformed people. 00:28:00.879 --> 00:28:03.879 That's how we seek a transformed society. 00:28:03.879 --> 00:28:08.679 If you're a Christian tonight, if the Spirit of God has moved in your life, you've repented 00:28:08.680 --> 00:28:16.759 of your sins, you are now a dutiful subject to all people but you are a slave to no one. 00:28:16.759 --> 00:28:21.120 You only have one master ultimately and that's King Jesus. 00:28:21.120 --> 00:28:25.519 And in this passage we see lastly exactly what that person looks like, the transformed 00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:27.360 person as we live life now. 00:28:27.360 --> 00:28:33.039 Now, very quickly, verse one, a king will reign in righteousness and princes will rule 00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:35.200 injustice. 00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:39.960 And Derek Kidner says about this that whenever you have a true king, a good king, a king of 00:28:39.960 --> 00:28:46.480 righteousness, then the people, the people who truly follow the king, you have here princes 00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:51.360 in power that use power like God uses power. 00:28:51.360 --> 00:28:56.880 In other words, people become like their king when they truly follow him. 00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:01.840 There's a call here to follow Jesus in other words and to become like him. 00:29:01.840 --> 00:29:04.080 To become like him for the sake of building a great city. 00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:10.279 So if you're a prince of Jesus, of the kingdom, a Christian, prince or princess, there's a 00:29:10.279 --> 00:29:14.639 call here, an invitation to be like the master, to be like the king. 00:29:14.639 --> 00:29:18.759 And here's how the passage tells us to do that very quickly. 00:29:18.759 --> 00:29:25.679 In verses five to seven to eight, it's that there's one main idea and it says that you 00:29:25.679 --> 00:29:28.919 are to become noble like the king. 00:29:28.920 --> 00:29:34.320 Now yesterday in God's providence, as Derek said this morning, we had the coronation and 00:29:34.320 --> 00:29:38.759 this morning's passage in Mark was all about kingship and tonight it's all about kingship. 00:29:38.759 --> 00:29:41.920 And here at the end of the passage, the middle of the passage, verses five to eight, it says 00:29:41.920 --> 00:29:47.480 that ultimately those who follow Jesus are to be noble people. 00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:49.120 What is he talking about? 00:29:49.120 --> 00:29:54.360 And he's not talking about the kind of nobility that we saw yesterday in the carriages, not 00:29:54.360 --> 00:29:56.759 being dukes and duchesses, nothing like that. 00:29:56.759 --> 00:30:03.039 Instead you can see it when you place nobility against the opposite here in verses five and 00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:04.039 six. 00:30:04.039 --> 00:30:06.279 He says, what's the opposite of the noble? 00:30:06.279 --> 00:30:13.640 The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable. 00:30:13.640 --> 00:30:16.920 So it's saying that a truly transformed society has a transformed person. 00:30:16.920 --> 00:30:20.519 It's noble, the follower of the king, a noble person. 00:30:20.519 --> 00:30:24.359 And that person is the opposite of the fool and the scoundrel. 00:30:24.359 --> 00:30:25.359 What's a fool? 00:30:25.359 --> 00:30:27.279 What's a scoundrel? 00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:28.279 And you can see it. 00:30:28.279 --> 00:30:33.639 It says, the fool is the one who practices ungodliness and utters error concerning the 00:30:33.639 --> 00:30:34.919 Lord. 00:30:34.919 --> 00:30:39.479 And then it says the scoundrel is the one who has wicked schemes against the poor. 00:30:39.479 --> 00:30:42.000 Now think about that. 00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:48.719 The fool, the word fool in the Old Testament is referring to someone who says foolish things 00:30:48.719 --> 00:30:54.679 about God himself, who utters error about the Lord. 00:30:54.680 --> 00:31:01.759 It says the scoundrel is the one who then turns and devises wicked schemes against people. 00:31:01.759 --> 00:31:05.640 And when you look at the Old Testament, you look at the law, the Ten Commandments. 00:31:05.640 --> 00:31:09.560 The first several say, here's how you're to serve God. 00:31:09.560 --> 00:31:12.640 In the back half, the second table say, and here's how you're to love people. 00:31:12.640 --> 00:31:14.600 And you see what it's saying? 00:31:14.600 --> 00:31:17.560 The fool in the scoundrel is actually one person. 00:31:17.560 --> 00:31:22.560 And it's the person who rejects the Ten Commandments, who says, I don't want to follow God. 00:31:22.559 --> 00:31:25.240 Table one, I don't love people, table two. 00:31:25.240 --> 00:31:28.599 And Jesus comes in the New Testament and says, you want to become like me and follow me? 00:31:28.599 --> 00:31:29.599 Here's how you do it. 00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:35.000 Love God, table one, love people, table two. 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:40.559 And you see the true person of nobility in this life is not hereditary, it's not by your 00:31:40.559 --> 00:31:42.440 bloodline. 00:31:42.440 --> 00:31:49.279 The true person of nobility is the person who loves God and loves people. 00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:52.639 The people who love God and they love people because of Jesus Christ, all for the sake 00:31:52.639 --> 00:31:59.599 of Jesus Christ, witness to the society that is to ultimately come one day in Jesus Christ. 00:31:59.599 --> 00:32:01.559 Let me close our time with verse 17. 00:32:01.559 --> 00:32:09.319 Verse 17 says this, the effect of righteousness is peace. 00:32:09.319 --> 00:32:16.559 If you want to pursue in a small way, pursue peace in our great city. 00:32:16.559 --> 00:32:19.799 If you want Edinburgh to truly become a great place, a great city, more and more all the 00:32:19.799 --> 00:32:23.919 time, he's saying pursue righteousness. 00:32:23.919 --> 00:32:29.440 And in pursuing righteousness, you pursue the peace and prosperity of your city, of your 00:32:29.440 --> 00:32:30.440 society. 00:32:30.440 --> 00:32:31.960 Let's pray together. 00:32:31.960 --> 00:32:38.200 Father, we ask that you would help us long for the transformed society that is to come, 00:32:38.200 --> 00:32:39.799 the kingdom of God. 00:32:39.799 --> 00:32:43.599 And until then, motivate us as salt and light. 00:32:43.599 --> 00:32:50.519 We pray now, Father, that you would make us into people who care so deeply about loving 00:32:50.519 --> 00:32:57.959 you publicly and loving other people publicly so that as our light shines, you might get 00:32:57.959 --> 00:33:00.439 the glory as Jesus tells us in Matthew 5. 00:33:00.439 --> 00:33:05.000 So this is ultimately Lord, a passage about becoming salt and light. 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:10.839 And we ask for help as we go out tonight into our great city and long for it to become better 00:33:10.839 --> 00:33:16.639 and tell Jesus comes again, give us a real heart for righteousness that we might love 00:33:16.639 --> 00:33:18.039 well like Jesus loves. 00:33:18.039 --> 00:33:19.359 And we pray this in Christ's name. 00:33:19.359 --> 00:33:41.519 Amen.