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Dec 01, 2019

The Profile and the Promise

The Profile and the Promise

Passage: Isaiah 11:1-10

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Isaiah: The Story Beneath the Story

Neither fanciful nor devoid of truth, “myths” are stories offering both explanation and expectation of our deepest questions. C.S. Lewis argued the Incarnation is the “myth that became fact”--the story which had parallels across cultures and eras but which in time unfolded in a particular time, and happened. Isaiah here introduces us to that story, and to its Subject--once thought only a dream, but in time the living answer to our story.

Order of Worship

Pre-Service Text: Isaiah 11:1-2
First Candle of Advent: The Hope Candle
Advent Reading: Luke 1:26-33
Advent Prayer
Sermon Title: The Profile and the Promise
Central Text: Isaiah 11:1-10
Benediction: 2 Thessalonians 3:16
Post-Service Text: Isaiah 11:6

12.01.2019 Sermon Notes

Illustration

Dave - Helping Hand

Once Upon A Time - Hope

Readings & Scripture

Pre-Service Text: Isaiah 11:1-2
1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

Advent Candle: The Hope Candle
Reading - “Today is the first Sunday of Advent. The word ‘advent’ means to look forward, expectantly, for the arrival of something or someone of great importance. And there is none more important and more special than Jesus the son of God, who became flesh and lived among us - and who will, one day, come again. So during this Advent season - a season of waiting - let us listen to the prophets as they announce the coming of the King. And let’s also hear Luke’s telling of the birth of Jesus, as we remember what God has done by sending his Son Jesus into the world so many years ago, but also as we look ahead to what God will do in the future, when Jesus returns in glory.

Each Sunday we will light a candle to remind us of Jesus, the light of the world. This first candle is called the Hope Candle. And it specifically invites us to a hopeful anticipation of the Coming King.”

Advent Reading - Our Advent reading is from Luke 1:26-33.
“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Advent Prayer - “Let’s pray together. --- Lord God. Thank you that you are perfectly faithful. You have promised to come and rescue your people by sending your own Son to be one of us, live among us and die for us. The world waited in anticipation for thousands of years, and you showed yourself faithful. While we look back in faith to the very same Jesus that they were looking forward to, cultivate within our hearts a deep longing for you to come again. As we enter this season, please let John the Baptist’s words ring true in our lives when he said: “‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”

Central Text: Isaiah 11:1-10
1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

Is. 11:6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
9 They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.

Is. 11:10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

Benediction: 2 Thessalonians 3:16
LEADER: Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

ALL: And also with you.

Post-Service Text: Isaiah 11:6
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.

Related Scriptures:

  • Psalm 72:2, 4
  • Psalm 87
  • Isaiah 7:14ff
  • Hosea 2:18
  • Zechariah 3:8, 6:12
  • Matthew 11:1-6
  • Mark 2:8
  • Luke 1:32
  • Luke 4:1-13
  • John 2:24-25
  • John 18:36-38
  • Romans 15:12
  • 2 Corinthians 5:16-18
  • 2 Thessalonians 2:8
  • Revelation 5:8, 8:3
  • Revelation 19:15, 21

Discussion Questions & Applications:

  1. Who were your heroes when you were younger? Did any retain that distinction in your mind as you grew--why or why not?
  2. If we think of “delighting in the fear of the Lord” as relishing to do God’s will, what might that relish look like?
  3. What do we learn of this leader from how he deals with both the weakest and the wicked?
  4. The latter half of the passage spends an extended time describing a virtually unimaginable transformation of the animal kingdom. If we think of that section as figurative, what might those vivid images seek to convey about what will come over the world led by this one from the root of Jesse?
  5. How is what’s envisioned about the nations in verse 10 both a surprise and yet also a fulfillment? (cf. also Psalm 87)
  6. How does this description of one from the root of Jesse sound like what we see in and hear from Jesus? How does Jesus reflect the capacities, the labor and manner, and the outcomes of this “root of Jesse”?
  7. If this profile and promise finds its greatest fulfillment in Jesus--whether already fulfilled or one day will be--how is anything mentioned herein a consolation of any sort? How is it a consolation of a different sort when you consider it was first spoken to a people who had earlier placed their trust far from God?

Quotes:

  • In a very real sense, the Christian community lives in Advent all the time… The disappointment, brokenness, suffering, and pain that characterize life in this present world is held in dynamic tension with the promise of future glory that is yet to come. In that Advent tension, the church lives its life. - Fleming Rutledge
  • . . .Christians also need to be reminded. . .that what became fact was a myth, that it carries with it into the world of fact all the properties of a myth. . . . We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting on our theology. We must not be nervous about "parallels" and "pagan Christs": they ought to be there-it would be a stumbling block if they weren't. . . . For this is the marriage of heaven and earth: perfect myth and perfect fact: claiming not only our love and our obedience, but also our wonder and delight, addressed to the savage, the child, and the poet in each one of us no less than to the moralist, the scholar, and the philosopher. - C.S. Lewis, “Myth Became Fact”

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