Democracy - who really wants to fight for it?

12 Dec 2007 - Democracy under attack. Sad but true the Bill is going to be passed under urgency.

My Christmas message is below..Have a really great Christmas everyone!

Messiah for All (Isaiah 11: 10)
(Or what E.J. Young calls: The Crisis and the Messiah)
When in trouble, people react in different ways. Some will look inside themselves, some outside themselves. But they may look in the wrong direction toward entertainment or drugs, work and family, alcohol or sex.
The most common question is ‘where is God in my situation?’
So Who will help us? Someone needed to deliver the people of Isaiah’s day.
You have to ask; you feel the need of some help. However, needy people may not know who or what God is. Some people speak of ‘the universe’ rewarding their good or bad behaviour and they organise their lives along the lines of good or bad karma.
This is where the Bible helps and Isaiah in particular on this second Sunday in Advent.

Who is He?
Who is the Person who will help us when we are in trouble?
That is the constant question, the perennial question. Who is the person who will make things right and make the world all right again?
And by the way, we always need help since we are not in control of the world, not even our little part of the world…We are all finite, only God is infinite.
God is God and He is in control.
Another reason we are needy is that all have sinned and come short of what God expects.
The Bible says: “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:23)
Our theme today is:
Messiah for All: Christ came to save His people.
So the prophet is keen to tell us about Him.
Who is this Messiah or Anointed by God? The Anointed One is set apart to take the people sins and to rule over them in peace.
Where did Jesus the Messiah the One we call Christ come from? Isaiah tells us in chap 11:
“The royal line of David is like a tree that has been cut down; but just as new branches sprout from a stump, so a new king will arise from among David's descendants.” (Isaiah 11:1)
Jesse was David’s father, so this Person is from King David’s house/lineage. This is what Luke and Matthew tell us in their Gospels. They wish to make it plain that Jesus has the right credentials to be who He claimed to be.
C.F. Alexander picks this up in one of his hymns which says:
“Once in Royal David’s City, stood a lowly cattle shed, where a mother laid her Baby in a manger for His bed. Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ her little child.”

Illustration
During last week, I went to the University to enroll for a course. In order to prove I was who I claimed to be, I produced a passport. That worked.
In Jesus’ day or for that matter, in Isaiah’s day, there were no passports, so you relied on your lineage and for Jesus to establish Himself as the Messiah, this is well documented in both OT and NT.
The Maoris use their whakapapa so you can follow a line of people to whom they belong. It would have been Jesus’ whakapapa that Mary and Joseph presented at the census when they enrolled at Bethlehem. (Lk 3: 31-32; Mt 1: 6)
It was also during this last week that my sister chose to send me our family tree! What an interesting time I had with that! And I was able to add few people to it (with pictures.)
The reason I found it interesting was that it spoke about people I knew, my people, and told me about my heritage from Scotland and now passed on through me to Australia and NZ.
This is what interested the believers and people generally way back in Isaiah’s and in Jesus’ day. They knew of Jesse’s son David and the importance of the lineage that flowed from that line of God’s people.
It was where the Messiah had been predicted to come from.

What Will The Messiah Do?
Apart from His whakapapa or lineage such claims about the Messiah away thousand of years before the birth of Jesus had to be substantiated in another way.
How would people recognise Him as their Messiah?
Isaiah says we will recognise the Messiah by what He will do.
11:2 "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 of the fear of the LORD." Cf. Luke 4:17-20
Is this what Jesus was like? The people of Jesus’ day thought so and that is precisely why Luke records these events of Jesus preaching in the synagogue.
Did Jesus qualify as Messiah?
He knew more than Solomon. He was greater than Solomon. (Mt 12:42)
He told the woman at the well more than she knew about herself! That He was the Source of living water and eternal life and that He was the long awaited Messiah. (Jn 4:12 greater than the Patriarch Jacob, Jn 4:14-25)
Apostle Peter told Jesus” “Lord you know all things!” (Jn 21:17)
This Jesus had the Spirit without measure. (Jn 3:34)

What He will Do is further spoken of in Isaiah 11:2 and in Luke 4:17ff
What He will do follows on from His character described in verse 2 and from Luke 4.17ff.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people.” (18-19)
Lk 4: 21 “as he said to them, ‘This passage of scripture has come true
today, as you heard it being read.’ ” (from Isa 61)
You know, it is essential that we believe in our hearts that He will do what He claims.

Because we have been let down by a few or many people is no reason to distrust Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the Saviour the world has been waiting for.

Illustration: Christ-No Social Reformer
“A Brahmin once said to a Christian missionary in India, ‘There are many things which Christianity and Hinduism have in common. But one thing Christianity has that is not found in Hinduism.’
‘What is that?’ asked the missionary.
The Brahmin's answer was, ‘We do not have a Savior.’
He was right. Christianity is different in that Christ did not come as a social or economic reformer but as a Savior of individuals. God came to earth, not to change the adverse conditions under which men live but to change the sinful hearts responsible for such evil in the world.’ ” (e-Sword Topic Notes, Christ: His Uniqueness)
That does not mean that He will not do good.
He will come and improve social conditions for people. But follow the Biblical order. He is first of all, Jesus: the One who saves. That’s what His name means!
“His delight,” says Isaiah, “is in the fear of the LORD.” That comes first.
He will establish a reverence for God and justice for the needy: Isaiah 11:3 “His delight is in the fear of the LORD, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; 11:4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. 11:5 Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist.”
Oh, and by the way, He will not establish a just society according to our standards of what that community shall be.
“He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; 11:4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth…”
The standard for that action will be the righteousness of God from heaven. Anyone wishing to live in such a kingdom will have to submit to God’s values in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians still debate when this time will be.
He alone has come to save the people.
Jesus came to save: the poor in spirit and the meek who shall inherit the earth, not those who speak and act falsely especially in His name.
‘Equity’ is here a straight measurement. He will measure society with a justice, straight, like the barrel of a gun. It does not mean that those who have will be robbed to pay out to those who do not have!
(The wicked will be judged and destroyed, (4) so he must be talking about a future time than our present.)

What else will He do?
He will establish a kingdom or realm of peace…
11:6 “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 11:7 The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 11:8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. 11:9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”
Who or what on earth could transform a leopard into being at peace with a lamb? Or make it safe for a child to play safely in a poisoned snake’s den?
Verse 9 says: “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain…”
As we saw last week, the holy mountain was Jerusalem.
Zion or Jerusalem is Jeru-Shalem or “foundation of peace.”
He will be the Saviour of all who seek Him and who call on His name.
11:10 “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,
Who shall stand as a banner to the people;
For the Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.”
The Branch blesses not just Jews but all the nations of the world. (In verse 10 and continued in v 11).
The Flag, Ensign or Banner of v10 will be lifted up on a pole and draw all men to Himself.
There are people from many nations and ethnic backgrounds among us here today.
It’s been the history of our St Mark’s church.
This shows the amazing power of God through the gospel of our Branch, the Lord Jesus Christ.
As the Psalm writer says in Ps 117:1-2 “Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!
For His merciful kindness is great toward us,
And the truth of the LORD endures forever.
Praise the LORD!”
And the Apostle Paul in Romans 15:12 “In Him the Gentiles shall hope.”

Romans 15: 4-13
15:4 “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
15:5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus,
15:6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15:7 Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.
15:8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers,
15:9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy…
15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
MAY THE HOPE OF THE MESSIAH FILL YOU ALL THIS CHRISTMAS!!! Amen.