Gift of Christmas

Isaiah talks about the hope, the dream, and the promise of Jesus. He talks about a root that will bear fruit. It doesn’t make sense at this time of year when most of the growth is happening underground where we can’t see it. There’s so much that God gives us that we can’t see like the roots of a tree. If the tree did not have roots it would not have a foundation and it could stand tall and strong. There’s a lot of talk about knowing a good tree by the good fruit that it bears.

During the Jewish exile, it was the hope of the Messiah that kept people going. We have the promise of Jesus Christ in our lives. We don’t have to wait to see Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We just have to make a choice to invite Jesus Christ into our lives and into our hearts.

Isaiah 11:1-3: 1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD - and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.

The faithful people of Israel felt more like a beautiful tree that had been cut down and that all that was left was a rotting stump. It was hard to imagine that a tree stump would grow --- much less bear good fruit again, but that was the promise of Jesus Christ. There are so many nuggets in these words. I love the word “rest.” The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. The Spirit of the Lord is like a warm down quilt on a cold winter’s night. It covers us up with God’s grace.

There are times that we also feel like tree stumps. If Jesus was able to redeem the Jewish people who were in exile in a foreign land, then he can redeem us, too. The stump also alludes to Christ on the cross and his resurrection. Isaiah describes a lot of characteristics of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Isaiah also talks about the example Jesus makes for us to follow. The prophet continues:

Isaiah 11:1-10 The Branch From Jesse
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

This scripture is describing a new way of seeing and hearing the world. We will no longer see with our eyes, but we will see with the eyes of God. We will no longer hear with our ears, but we will hear with the faith of God. We will have the gifts of discernment and understanding. We will have compassion for our fellow man and we will share the love of Jesus Christ. We are going to be a faithful people.

All of that is wonderful, and Isaiah continues with a promise:
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling [a] together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.

This scripture has so many meanings. It talks about peace without war. It talks about the time when we no longer hate and our enemy is our friend. This scripture describes Jesus as the Prince of Peace who will cause the wolf to live with the lamb. It also describes Jesus as the good shepherd who protects and cares for his people.
9 They will neither harm nor destroy on my entire holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.

It talks about a time when all of the nations of the world know about God. The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In Ghana, on this trip they told me that Walter stands for water. They said that I am everywhere because water flows everywhere. If you are sailing in the ocean, it looks like water covers the earth. If you look in every direction, the only thing that you see is water. Just imagine a time when everyone knows and loves God. That is the promise of Isaiah 11.

Today, we love to read the gospels. In fact, the gospels are almost a must at Christmas time, but I love looking at the Old Testament scriptures that describe Jesus as the Messiah. Have you ever gone to Dairy Queen and seen all of the ice cream. It looks sooooo good! As a child, I daydreamed about a banana split, a hot fudge sundae, or a strawberry shake. I also had a hard time waiting for the hand cranked homemade ice cream to harden. I can almost taste that first bite of ice cream. That is what Isaiah was trying to do. He was trying to get you to take that first bite of Jesus Christ as our Messiah. He was trying to get you to want to taste the future messiah who was coming to change the world.

The message that the Prophet Isaiah gives is still a great message today. He is telling us that Jesus is still our future. Jesus Christ is better than a banana split or hot fudge sundae. Jesus Christ can change our lives instead of just our waist. We have a month to anticipate Jesus Christ’s birth in our lives again this year.

Let’s stop running around long enough trying to find Christmas presents to find the true gift of Christmas. The gift of Christmas is Jesus Christ. The gift of Jesus Christ is to realize the promise that the Prophet Isaiah was describing for us. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.

I admit that I’ve been running around this week. I’m working on a new Rotary grant to give more people clean water in Africa. It is never easy. There’s always a huge challenge trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. We thought about buying a drill rig so that we could drill more wells at a cheaper price. We thought about using solar power to pump water into cities. We’ve thought about fixing pumps that have died and digging more wells. It takes a lot of time to figure out what to do, where to do it, and how much it will cost next year to do it. We finally decided not buy a drill rig. We decided to avoid solar energy in the African bush for now. We finally decided to dig hand dug wells, fix broken wells, and drill deep wells.

God has given me the gift to tell the story of people in pain, people who are hungry, and people who are thirsty. God uses me to share the message to share the gospel of peace and to share the message that we should love our neighbor as our self regardless of where in the world our neighbor may live.

I love being your pastor. I’ve got so much to learn. The gift of being your Pastor is that it makes me stop doing the “busyness of life” so that I can be in the presence of God to study the scriptures and to write your sermon.

Our next scripture is talking about the man who came to prepare the way for Jesus Christ and his ministry here on earth. Last week, we learned how Zechariah and Elizabeth learned that they would be parents of John the Baptist. In the Gospel of Matthew, we start to learn about

Matthew 3:1-12 says: In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." 3This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John the Baptist followed the path that the Angel Gabriel had prophesied in our scripture reading last week. He definitely would be someone unusual in most churches today. His heart was baptizing as many people as possible and telling them about God. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

The gift this Christmas is the gift of baptism with the Holy Spirit. Baptism with the Holy Spirit is salvation that begins at that moment when we accept Jesus Christ into our lives as our Lord and Savior. Eternity doesn’t start when we die. Eternity starts when God rests on our heart and fills us with his knowledge, wisdom, and love.

John the Baptist was one of those preachers who loved to tell the wonders of God. I imagine he was a guy that on a good day he preached and baptized until he couldn’t baptize people anymore. I’ve only experienced that once in my life. It was on my first trip to Ghana in 2003. I didn’t know about God’s power and the power of the Holy Spirit until that trip.

Talk about Gbani, praying, witch doctor, taking 150 people to the riverside and baptizing 81 people from Gbani and Sagadugu. That was the first time I saw a glimpse into why John the Baptist was driven to baptize as many people as possible and bring them to the full knowledge of God. The full power of the Holy Spirit rested on John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.

John the Baptist wasn’t the message. He just wanted to tell as many people as possible about God and that Jesus would come and baptize with the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist is an inspiration to us that we should share the gift of Christmas to as many people as possible. To be able to share the gift of Christmas we need to love God with all of our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength and love our neighbor as our self.

The gift of Jesus Christ is free. He paid our price in full on the cross. If we spend our time trying to buy our happiness at Christmas, we are looking in the wrong place. We need to turn our eyes, our ears, and heart so that we can see with the eyes of God.