Isaiah 11:1-10

Three Interesting Thoughts:

• God is a master at turning our failures into His success (vs.1)
• The Spirit is the power behind God's transformative work in our lives (vs.2)
• There should be no safer place on earth than a gathering of the people of God (vs.9)

2 Major Sections:

1. What HE (Jesse's shoot) will do: (also-- 9 Characteristics of a Great Leader)

• delight in obeying the LORD
• not judge by appearance
• not make decisions based on heresay
• give justice to the poor
• make fair decisions for the exploited
• shake the earth with his word
• destroy the wicked with one breath
• wear righteousness like a belt -- holds all together
  
• wear truth like an undergarment -- not always visible, but most important

2. The Result of HIS work:

• Enemies are brought together
• Children are safe
  
• Innocence is not dangerous
• No pain or destruction

Final Thought:
Not just our present salvation, but our future salvation is dependent on the work of Christ! Don't become proud of your own abilities to "bring about" peace.

Psalm 122 Psalm 112

So, here's a funny thing. The reading for today is supposed to be Psalm 122, but I accidentally spent my time in Psalm 112. So here are my thoughts on that:

Sometimes when I read a Psalm like this one I struggle a bit. The words I read here don't always seem to correspond to my perception of reality. However, I need to remind myself of a few truths:

1. I don't always perceive reality accurately. My ability to judge what is a good outcome and what is a bad outcome is marred by sin.
2. I don't always see the end of the story. My life has been impacted in many ways by people and decisions who are years and miles removed from me. The end of my life's story will be woven into many lives of people who live far beyond me. I may never know how thing turn out.
3. I don't always remember eternity. Ultimately, success on earth is a nice perk, but success in eternity is far more important. I may not reap great benefits today, but that is okay if I am deemed to be right with God and can enjoy the inheritance He has set aside for me.

So here's the general idea of Psalm 112:

There are great benefits for those who live rightly.

1. The definition of living rightly:

Living rightly means having a right relationship with God

• those who fear the LORD -- a healthy respect for God, a reverence
  
• those who are righteous -- their life's work reflects a desire to be right in the eyes of God
• those who trust the LORD -- they are confident and fearless because they know God will take care of them

Living rightly means having a right relationship with others

• They are generous -- the lend money generously, they conduct business fairly (their first priority is not personal gain), they share freely and give generously to those in need.
• They are compassionate -- they are most concerned with what is good for others

2. The benefits of living rightly:

• their children will be successful and an entire generation will be blessed -- right living will impact the generations to come
• they will be wealthy and their good deeds will last forever -- TRUE wealth is defined by God's standards not ours
• light will shine in the darkness for them -- even in the hard times of life, they will have something to look to
  
• good will come to them -- "Blessed are they..."
• they will not be overcome by evil -- they may come under attack from evil, but they will never be on the losing end
• they will be long remembered -- generational impact
• they do not fear bad news -- there is NO bad news for those who have been made right in God's eyes
• they can face their foes triumphantly -- they will have foes, but they need not fear them
• they will have influence and honor -- generational impact. remember, influence and honor may not always take the shape or come in the amount we would choose. but God's standard is different from ours
• they wicked will be angry and frustrated -- no one can stand against the LORD's righteous.
  

Isaiah 2:1-5

What does it mean for God to reign on earth?

1. It means only one religion can be valid.

• "the mountain of the LORD's house will be the highest of all -- the most important place on earth." The temple mount will be the center of all things. Religion and politics will come together as the One True God becomes the One True King.
• "It will be raised above the other hills..." -- does this mean that all other religions will be shown to be invalid? Worship of Yahweh God will be shown supreme over all others.
• "people from all over the world will stream there to worship." Religion will no longer be localized. People from the East will worship God, not Buddha. People from the middle-east will worship God, not Muhammad. People from the west will worship God, not themselves or money.

2. It means true understanding is available.

• God on earth is the ultimate source of truth. What he says is always right and always needful. There is no longer any need for debate or discussion about what is right and what is wrong. Everything we need to know can be learned from Jerusalem.
• Of course, we should take the same approach today. "Come let us go up to the mountain of the LORD's house..." should be today, "Come, let us go to the Word of the LORD."

3. It means absolute peace is possible.

• "The LORD will mediate between nations." -- Whatever things men might find to fight about will quickly be settled as God will step in and intervene. The reason we lack peace today is not just because we disagree, but because we don't know HOW to disagree without violence.
• "They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks." -- Things that were once weapons of destruction will become tools for growth. What men used to kill one another, they will now use to feed one another. Weapons are no longer necessary, because war is no longer an option.

Conclusion: Come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!"

a) we must work to get everyone on the right side of the judgment so this reality will be theirs as well
b) this is the description of the culture of our kingdom, even though we are currently strangers and wanderers, we ought to live by this code even while we wait for our king to return.

Luke 23:33-43

One of this week’s lectionary readings is Luke 23:33-43. I try to read each of the readings every week and jot down some thoughts from the passage as if I were going to preach it. The whole exercise takes about 20-30 minutes, but it is encouraging to me and builds my hermeneutic/homiletic muscles.

Sometimes, I’ll shoot those thoughts up here. This is supposed to be “Sermon Leftovers” after all.

Luke 23:33-43 chronicles a few of Jesus’ last interactions on the cross. As is true of most of the Bible, when you take some time to just sit on these verses you see they are more than just a story, they are packed with meaning:

1. Jesus words for the soldiers.

• Everything about this setting is depressing. He’s being crucified. The crucifixion is happening at a place called “The Skull”. He’s having nails driven through his body. He’s got criminals on both sides of him. The soldiers who are killing him are also playing poker, using his clothes as chips. We might understand if Jesus was tempted to have a pity party.
• He says, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
• This wasn’t an act of God, it was an act of a man. He wasn’t forgiving them of their sins. He was forgiving them for their sins against him. While we cannot forgive people their sins, we can absolutely offer this kind of forgiveness to those who have wronged us.
• I guess we can officially be excused from forgiving people when the depravity of their treatment of us exceeds the treatment Jesus received.

2. The crowds words for Jesus.

• “He saved others, let him save himself if he is really God’s Messiah, the chosen one.” These words demonstrated the deep misunderstandings held by the people (particularly the leaders) in the crowd.
• They misunderstood the Messiah. The whole point of the Messiah coming was that He would live for the benefit of others. He wasn’t to be concerned with himself. If he is really God’s Messiah he won’t worry about saving himself. Had Jesus come off the cross he would have proven he wasn’t the Messiah.
• They misunderstood themselves. In their pronouncements, they felt like they gained the moral high ground. “See” they said “he isn’t really all that good, he’s dying like a criminal.” And in saying it and thinking it, they felt much better about themselves. Sadly, they couldn’t even comprehend the life of a person who was willing to save others, but not himself. What they really proved was that they were nothing more than selfish people who think only of themselves.
• They misunderstood salvation. Jesus didn’t need saving. By not saving himself, he brought salvation to those who truly needed it. Those who think they don’t need to be saved, never will be.

3. Words among the Criminals and Jesus.

• The men on either side of Jesus had two very different perspectives of Jesus and of themselves. In some ways, they are representative of the two basic ways people approach God.
• The first criminal joined the crowd in mocking Jesus and demanding he prove he was truly God. Many people refuse to accept the truth of God because they believe He has failed to meet their standard of proof. Because they don’t buy into the “proofs” of His existence, they refuse to accept him as a savior. Ultimately, they are saying, “My intellect is the ultimate standard of truth. If you can’t prove yourself to me, I refuse to accept you.” Much of humanity has too high a perception of themselves to consider the reality of God.
• The second criminal saw things completely differently. “We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Whereas the first criminal demanded things from God, the second criminal begged for mercy. Rather than hold God to a standard of proof, he held himself to the standard of God and saw that he came up wanting.
• Jesus promised life to the second, but nothing to the first. How we think about ourselves determines how we approach God. We cannot be with Jesus in Paradise if we think we are so good that God needs to prove himself to us.

BIG LESSON: Don’t ask God to meet your expectations. Realize you’ve already missed His, and beg for mercy!