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00:00 Once again, it's my joy and privilege to be standing here sharing with you from the word of God. And this month, uh, we
00:09 are looking at selected passages from the book of Isaiah as part of the buildup to Christmas. And last Sunday we
00:16 looked at u Isaiah chapter 40:es 1-1 from pastor Mark. And today we will
00:23 shall examine Isaiah chapter 11 um verses 1-10 with the uh sermon topic
00:30 healing from decay. And today we have quite a bit of ground to cover.
00:36 And this period of preparing for Christmas or getting ready to commemorate the birth of Jesus is known
00:42 as uh Advent and it's observed in uh much of the
00:48 Christian world. And Advent starts from the fourth Sunday before Christmas uh
00:55 which happens to be 3rd December this year. And on each Sunday over four Sundays before Christmas, we take a
01:01 passage from the Bible and we meditate upon the words and uh to remember the
01:06 birth of Jesus. Now, while we ready ourselves uh for this important date in the Christian
01:12 calendar, the shopping malls have been busy preparing for the year end uh
01:18 shopping season with Christmas reduced uh to a mere excuse. Chuch Chang may
01:26 have gone to uh Mid Valley, but this is the dazzling Christmas display in the
01:32 pavilion KL and all sorts of beautiful Christmas decoration, but not much of a hint of
01:40 the person of Jesus. I think it's good that they are beginning to play more and more real Christmas songs but generally
01:46 uh Jesus is absent in most of this mo and hence there is this need for us to
01:53 remind our non-Christian friends that Jesus is the reason for the season and
01:58 we want to put Christ back into Christmas. Now, while we may scorn at such a hollow
02:05 spectacle, there is a small danger that we too might get caught up in all this
02:11 commercial frenzy and lose sight of the real meaning of Christmas and hence this
02:16 short series of sermons on some passages of Isaiah to train our mind on the
02:22 significance of Jesus' birth. Today's text also will be a timely reminder why word became flesh, why God
02:31 became a human being and more importantly to understand its impact on our daily lives. In the first half of
02:39 the sermon, we will unpack the 10 verses of our text as we examine its uh structure and flow. And in the second
02:46 half, we will draw out some important lessons for our lives and see how Isaiah 11 can help us in our journey of life in
02:54 a practical way with the hope that this Christmas will be more meaningful for you personally. Let's pray before we
03:01 start. our father in heaven amidst the noise
03:06 and festivities of the season. Quieten our hearts so that we can hear
03:12 from your word so that our lives may be shaped accordingly. As we approach
03:18 Christmas, fill us with a living hope that has been made possible because of the birth of your son. For it is in his
03:25 need we pray. Amen. In line with the topic healing from
03:31 decay and as an introduction to our discussion today, I will show you a
03:37 short video clip that I downloaded from uh YouTube. But before that, when I was
03:43 a teenager growing up in the 70s in a small town in Johor, my late father
03:48 happened to be a fan of classical music. But whenever he played uh his classical
03:56 music in the house, I would mumble, oh no, not again.
04:02 You see, I was very much into pop music, Beatles, Beeges, you know, and so on.
04:08 You're familiar with that. A few years later, in 1979, I found myself in Tokyo for further studies. And
04:15 through a YW.CA foster mother program, I was paired up with a kind old Japanese lady whose name
04:23 I still remember, Mrs. Tani Fujiko. She would invite me to her home once or
04:29 twice a month. She would cook all kinds of Japanese food for me. And most
04:34 importantly, I could practice my Japanese conversation with her. This picture was uh taken with her in
04:42 March 1980. It took me a while to dig it up. The
04:48 picture was faded. She came to attend my uh my graduation
04:55 from the Japanese language school March 1980. Oh, that's a long time ago.
05:01 A few months before this uh she she told me to wear something formal and to meet
05:07 her downtown in Tokyo. She was dressed elegantly in a kimono. And what happened
05:13 that night is that she brought me to this huge concert hall to hear Beethoven's ninth symphony.
05:22 When I heard it live, wow. Especially the fourth movement or to
05:28 joy. I was immediately converted to a classical music fan.
05:34 I was 19 then. You might say that I grew up overnight. No.
05:39 But as they say, history repeats itself. Because fast forward, fast forward 30 years, whenever I play Strauss or Moza
05:46 in the house, my children will mumble, oh no, not again.
05:53 But you should try classical music if if you have not heard any. Anyway, coming back to the video that I want to show
05:59 you. It is one of my favorite pieces of classical music entitled
06:05 O for Fortuna which is Latin for O fortune. Does anyone know this? There's now I
06:12 think Malcolm is he knows this. Very good. You know anyone else?
06:17 Oh, another one just two out of so many.
06:23 It's part of a one-hour canata by a German composer named Khof and he wrote
06:29 this uh just before World War II. The but the lyrics are taken from a
06:34 mysterious set of 13th century poems entitled Carmina Borana written entirely
06:42 uh written mostly in Latin with a bit of German which were discovered in the monastery near Munich in 1803.
06:51 And so Khal off took the took about I think a portion of this poem and put it
06:56 into this this canata. Oh Fortuna is the opening piece of the
07:01 canata and you'll hear the choir sing it in Latin but the English subtitles will
07:07 appear at the bottom for you to follow. But before we hear it, let's take a quick look at the lyrics in English so
07:13 that you can better appreciate them uh when you watch the video. It says, "Oh
07:18 fortune, or oh fortuna in Tatin, like the moon, you are changeable,
07:26 ever waxing or waning. Hateful life.
07:32 First oppresses and then sooths as fancy takes it.
07:37 Poverty and power, it melts them like ice.
07:42 Fate monstrous and empty. You whirling will you are malleent
07:49 well-being is vain fates to always fades to nothing shadow and veiled you plague
07:57 me too now through the game I bring my bear back to your villain I think bear
08:03 back because prisoners in those days were whipped on the back you know so it means that he was tormented or tortured
08:10 fate is against me in health and virtue driven on and weighted down always
08:17 enslaved. So at this hour without delay, pluck the vibrating strings. Now I'm not quite
08:23 sure what this means. Maybe there's maybe some meaning in medieval times.
08:28 Since fate strikes down the strong man, everyone whips with me. When I reflect
08:35 on the lyrics, I almost detected a ecclesiastical flavor between the lines.
08:42 The poet laymans about his total lack of control over his fate.
08:48 Fortune comes and fortune goes and he likens it to a to a wheel. Fortune can
08:55 go up but it can certainly come down. He then complains that fate seems to be
09:01 working against him. One day you are powerful, next day you are in poverty.
09:07 One minute you are strong and the next minute you are stricken. The poet also resents the fact that
09:14 there is no escaping from the decay and decline that come with life. He says
09:20 well-being is vain, always fades to nothing. And while he pours his heart
09:26 out, his despair is conveyed powerfully by the orchestra. And this sounds so
09:31 different from Beethoven's ought to joy. or to joy is really very exuberant and
09:37 exciting but old fortuna is very dark. Now we shall come back to this video
09:43 later in the sermon and as I said just now we shall first dive into the text and then try to look at some lessons
09:50 that we can link to our topic on decay. Now even from a casual reading of this
09:56 portion of Isaiah 11, one can easily sense that it is a prophecy about the coming of this messianic king, this
10:03 great king who will not only be king of the Israelites but also king of the
10:08 world. For it says at the end of the text, the nations will rally to him.
10:16 The whole world will rally to him. And we know that this Messiahic king is none other than Jesus Christ.
10:23 The word I keep saying Messianic king. The word messiah or messianic comes from
10:28 the Hebrew word Mashiach which means the anointed one. And this is translated
10:34 into Greek as Christos from which we get the word Christ. Hence
10:40 when we say Jesus Christ, Christ is not his uh his family name. Christ is a title. It means Jesus the Messiah or
10:47 Jesus the anointed one from Hebrew. Now, not only in chapter 11, but there are many verses or blocks or groups of
10:54 verses scattered across the book of Isaiah that prophesy the coming of this anointed one, what happened to him, what
11:02 he would do. And surely the best known of this is the uh verse in Isaiah 9:6,
11:08 which is often quoted on Christmas day, which foretold the birth of Jesus. For unto us a child is born, a son is given,
11:16 and the government will be upon his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
11:22 Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. You all know this. The other well-known
11:27 block of verses from Isaiah is from chapter 53, a passage entitled the
11:33 suffering servant, which foretold the atoning death of Jesus, which made our
11:38 salvation possible. And the verse that stands out in Isaiah 53 is verse 5. But
11:44 he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was
11:50 upon him. And by his wounds we are healed. And this is often read during Good Friday.
11:58 So if if Isaiah 9 is about the birth of Jesus, if Isaiah 53 is about the death
12:04 of Jesus, then Isaiah 11 is about the kingship of Jesus and how he will rule. If Isaiah 9
12:13 is symbolized by the and Isaiah 53 by the cross, then the image of Isaiah
12:19 11 is the crown. Our text in Isaiah 11 can be divided into four sections. One,
12:25 the identity of the king. Two, the wisdom of the king. Three, the justice
12:31 of the king. And four, the reign of the king. And each section is linked to the next. Now, from the onset, Isaiah gives
12:39 us a clue as to who this messianic king might be. He writes in verse one, a
12:44 shoot will come out from the stomach of Jesse. From his roots, a branch will bear fruit. The first question is, who
12:51 is Jesse? Jesse is the father of King David. So this verse simply means that
12:56 this messianic king would be a descendant of David. He would come from the line of David.
13:03 Isaiah uses largely botanical metaphors to describe him a shoot from the st and
13:10 he uses words like roots, branch, fruit and so that people in those days could
13:16 understand because their was largely an agricultural economy.
13:21 But we who are on this side of history, we know exactly who this messianic king is. Especially if you are a Christian,
13:28 he's none other than Jesus as mentioned just now. But Isaiah in his time, he didn't know that. And that's why he
13:34 couldn't name this king in Isaiah 11 and in in his other prophecies because the
13:40 name I named Jesus was only given to this king later when he was about to be conceived in the womb of Mary when the
13:47 angel Gabriel appeared to her. And this is what Gabriel told uh Mary in Luke
13:52 1:31. You will conceive and give birth to a son and you are to call him Jesus.
14:00 In the next verse, the angel continued, "He will be great and will be called the son of the most high. The Lord God will
14:06 give him the throne of his father David."
14:11 Now, from these two verses, the identity of of this messianic king is clear. He will be named Jesus. He will sit on
14:18 David's throne as a descendant of David. Now, the word father at the end of the verse should be read as ancestor. The
14:26 Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. In short, Jesus is no less than the
14:32 fulfillment of the prophecy we read in Isaiah 11. Now, this is the this is the
14:38 easy part, but the harder part of the of this first section is at the end of our text.
14:44 Let's let's look at this. Isaiah writes in verse 10, in that day the root of Jesse will stand out as a banner for the
14:51 peoples. So this messianic king is also described as the root of Jesse. Meaning
14:57 he predates Jesse. He existed before Jesse. How can this be? Earlier in verse
15:03 one, the messianic king is described as the branch from Jesse's roots. But now he's the root of Jesse or the root of
15:10 the roots. How can he be both a descendant and
15:15 ancestor of Jesse at the same time? Now this may remind you of an incident
15:20 in John 8 in verse 58 where where Jesus said before Abraham was born I am
15:28 similar type of language. You see Jesus predates not only David and Jesse he also existed before
15:36 Abraham. So in describing uh him as the root of Jesse Isaiah is simply pointing to his
15:43 eternity and hence his divinity. John, the apostle John goes even further
15:48 back when he when he opens his gospel with a phrase in the beginning was the word meaning Jesus was there in the
15:55 beginning even before the creation of the universe. He's the only person in human history who existed before he was
16:03 born. Now you may have not noticed something strange in this verse.
16:10 Jesus didn't say before Abraham was born I was. He didn't use the past tense. He
16:16 used the present tense. I am before Abraham was born. I am
16:23 is a bit of wrong English. In fact, this is interesting because I am
16:30 happened to be the name of God because in Exodus 3:14
16:37 when Moses instructed Mo uh when God instructed Moses to go to the Israelites
16:43 to tell to tell the Israelites, I am has sent me to you. Not God has sent me to
16:49 you. I am his name has sent me to you. Send Moses to the Israelites. So when
16:54 Jesus said before Abraham was was born, I am, he was pointing to his own
17:00 divinity. He is God. And this squares with the uh verse in
17:08 Isaiah 9:6 that we saw just now, for unto us a child is born and so on. And
17:13 it it also says, "And his name will be called mighty God." You can call Jesus
17:18 mighty God. Now I'm emphasizing on this point in the in the last verse of our text on the
17:25 divinity of Jesus because it is very important in relation to our topic on
17:30 decay because if Jesus were merely a human descendant of uh David, if he were a
17:38 mere mortal like you and me, then he will be subjected to the same decay and decline that you and I experience in our
17:46 journey of life. Then how is he going to provide a solution to our situation
17:52 in terms of our pain and sufferings? But because Jesus is divine, because he is God himself, he has something to offer
17:59 us which we shall we shall see in the rest of the verses. The second section,
18:07 the second section is is on the wisdom of the king. Isaiah writes in verse two,
18:13 "The spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom of and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and
18:19 of might, the spirit of the knowledge and the fear of the Lord." And here we see a variety of words relating related
18:26 to wisdom, the word wisdom itself and also understanding and counsel and
18:32 knowledge. And this is a way of saying this person is going to be very very wise.
18:38 In addition, there is this phrase the fear of the Lord which appears
18:43 twice. I like to think that this phrase is synonymous with wisdom itself from
18:49 the well-known verse in Proverbs 9:10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So you see the word wisdom
18:56 everywhere in this second section. So this Messianic king whom Isaiah
19:02 prophesies, he's going to be a very wise king. His wisdom is heavenly wisdom, not human
19:10 wisdom. His wisdom comes from above and is not of this world. And some of you
19:15 may recall this uh related verse in Isaiah 55 8 and 9. For my thoughts are
19:22 not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the
19:27 heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
19:36 Some of you may also recall an incident in Luke chapter 2 where 12-year-old
19:41 Jesus was found at the temple sitting among the teachers and how they marvel at his wisdom.
19:50 I find it very comforting to know that this messianic king is so full of wisdom
19:57 in relation to our topic. I have often struggled with the many questions of life
20:03 to which there are no easy answers. But I rest in the thought that my God is all wise, all knowing, and he knows what's
20:12 best. Although sometimes I don't understand his ways.
20:17 And furthermore, this king shall rule uh when this king shall rule with wisdom,
20:23 the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord from verse 9 at the bottom of our text. Meaning that
20:29 what we cannot understand today, we will know fully when the day come.
20:35 And this section, this section uh the second section of the wisdom of the king can be summarized
20:42 by a verse in Job 12:13.
20:49 To God belong wisdom and power, knowledge uh uh sorry, counsel and
20:55 understanding are his. And this leads us to the third section on the justice of the king.
21:02 With wisdom this messianic king shall come and he will come also as a judge as
21:08 evident from uh verses 3 to 5 of our text in the third section from verse
21:13 three. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide by what he hears with his ears. Why? Because appearance
21:22 can be rather deceiving. And what we hear is often half the story. But this
21:28 wise judge will look into the into the hearts of men. He knows the thoughts in
21:34 our hearts. And therefore, righteousness and faithfulness will be the hallmark of his judgment from verse five.
21:43 Now we zoom into verse four. There are two parts to his judgment in verse four.
21:51 And I will start with the second part. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. With the breath of his lips,
21:57 he will slay the wicked. Now the first half sounds rather
22:03 cryptic. Striking the earth with the rod of his mouth. What does this mean? Now
22:08 the parallel to this in the second half says with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. So it means it simply
22:14 means that he will judge the sinners and evildoers
22:19 but with what it says here with the rod of his mouth and the breath of his lips.
22:25 And these two metaphors need to be explained especially the rod of his mouth. Now to understand this we look at
22:32 this verse in Revelation 11:16. In his right hand he held seven stars and
22:37 coming out of his mouth was a sharp double-edged sword.
22:42 Now here we have a clearer imagery. The rod is a double-edged sword
22:50 coming out of Jesus' mouth. But don't take this literally. Don't imagine the sword coming out of Jesus' mouth. I I've
22:57 seen this pictures like this which I think is a bit ridiculous.
23:02 It is not meant to be take taken literally. But again, what does this metaphor
23:07 means? The answer lies in Hebrews 4:12.
23:12 For the word of God, the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any
23:19 double-edged sword. Double-edged sword here. It penetrates even to a dividing
23:25 soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hence, the double-edged sword,
23:33 the rod from his mouth, it's synonymous with the word of God.
23:39 And coming back to to verse four of our text, this wise messianic king therefore will
23:45 judge with spoken words and hence the breath of his lips. Now we understand
23:50 the second part. And what he says in those days will
23:56 carry unbelievable power. If you want to get a sense of the power of God's word,
24:01 God's spoken word, just read the Genesis account, the creation account in Genesis
24:07 1. God merely spoke and things came into being. The universe was created with his
24:13 bare words. But in relation to our topic today, I really want to focus on the uh the first
24:20 part of this judgment in verse four. The first part says, "With righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he
24:27 will give decisions for the poor." At a glance, this may be a bit hard to understand. Why judge the needy?
24:35 Are they in the same boat as the wicked? Now, if you recall the parable of the
24:40 sheep and goats in Matthew 25, where humanity will be separated into two
24:45 groups, the redeemed or the sheep on the right of the king, the condemned or the
24:51 goats on the left. Now, clearly the second part that we just covered is talking about the goats. And so, one
24:58 would expect that the first part will be about the sheep. But in but no, we don't find the sheep mentioned here. Instead,
25:04 what's highlighted here are the needy and the poor, not the redeemed and the saved.
25:12 Isaiah chose to talk more about the needy and the poor. Now, this is very interesting in the context of our topic.
25:19 To better understand this, when Isaiah says he will judge the needy, it should be taken to mean that he will make
25:25 things just for the needy. He will make things right for the needy. And these
25:32 squares with a parallel phrase, he will give decision for the poor.
25:38 Because Jesus has a very soft spot in his heart for the needy and the poor and
25:43 by extension for the oppressed and the afflicted, the disadvantaged and the sick. And this is very evident during
25:52 his earthly ministry when he often reached out to those weighted down by
25:57 pain and sufferings. So when the messianic king comes, not
26:02 only will he will the redeemed people of God get their rewards, which is not mentioned here, but more pointedly when
26:08 he comes, the needy and the poor will find relief.
26:14 Of course, not not for all the needy and poor, only for those who are in Christ.
26:19 Often when we think of heaven, we think of rewards. But here in our text, it's talking more about relief and release
26:27 from pain and suffering. And that's not all. It gets even better. The prophecies in this third section
26:34 extend into the fourth and last section. In the last section, we see this amazing
26:40 scene where animals are ped together. the wolf with the lamb, the leopard with
26:46 the goat, also the calf and the lion, the bear, the cow and the bear. In each
26:52 case, a herbivore is paired with a carnivore. You know what's a herbivore
26:59 and carnivore? Don't forget your signs. Earlier we began with a lot of botanical
27:06 metaphors and now we end up with plenty of zoological symbolism.
27:13 But what are these symbolic and rather poetic verses trying to convey?
27:18 First, we see a peaceful coexistence between two parties who normally do not
27:23 see eye to eye. So the picture is one of peace and harmony, an absence of
27:30 conflict and amnity is a picture of what the conditions will be like under the reign of this messianic king. There will
27:37 be no wars and hostilities. And this again squares with Isaiah 96
27:43 that we saw earlier where this child born unto us will be called the prince of peace.
27:49 Peace will be the hallmark of his reign. But that's not the entire picture. We
27:56 need to go deeper into the text because there is a curious phrase at the end of verse 7 that says the lion will eat
28:03 straw like the ox. Lion will eat straw like the ox. Have
28:10 you seen lions doing that? So what's going on here? The carnivore is no more
28:16 a carnivore. The carnivore has become a herbivore.
28:22 And now we understand why the lamb is willing to hang around the wolf. Similarly, the goat and the leopard, the
28:28 the calf and the lion and so on because they are no longer afraid of being killed by their predators.
28:35 And hence the better picture from these verses is the absence of death.
28:41 Absence of death in the kingdom of this messianic king. Death will be no more
28:47 during the reign of Jesus. And Isaiah puts it puts this across more explicitly
28:53 in another verse in Isaiah 25:8. Powerful verse. But death will be
28:59 destroyed forever, and the Lord God will wipe away every tear from every face.
29:06 And this verse is echoed by John in Revelation 21:4.
29:12 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.
29:19 Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. Beautiful
29:27 verse. The prophet Hosea drives this home even more powerfully
29:34 in Hosea 13:14. I will deliver, God is talking here. I will deliver this people from the power
29:40 of the grave. I will redeem them from death. Where, oh death, are your
29:45 plagues? Where, O grave is your destruction? Quoted by Paul in 1
29:51 Corinthians 15. And this is how we ought to understand verses 6 and 7 in our text that death
29:59 will be vanquished. And this is supported by verse 8. The infant will play near the cobra's den and the young
30:06 child will put its hand into the viper's nest. Now to do this normally will be suicidal.
30:12 But in that day when during the reign of the Messiahic king, there will be no
30:18 danger of death even if you grow if you go near uh a cobra or a or a viper
30:23 because as it says in verse 9, they will neither harm nor destroy in all my holy
30:29 mountain. We have gone through the text at length. We have covered most of the verses uh
30:36 section by section and we're now ready to to go into the second part of the sermon which is to draw out some lessons
30:43 to help us in our journey of life. But just before that I want to take us a step back and to look at the text from
30:50 an overall view before we look at it. We look at the applications.
30:55 The other main prophetic passages from Isaiah that I highlighted earlier, namely Isaiah 9, Isaiah 53, they have
31:02 all been fulfilled in the in the birth and death of Jesus. Some 700 years
31:08 before uh some 700 years after, sorry, uh Isaiah wrote, "For unto us a child is
31:13 born. Uh he was pierced for our transgressions." 700 years after he wrote all these, Jesus fulfilled to the
31:19 letter what Isaiah fortold. But our text today from uh Isaiah 11
31:26 seems to be a bit different. Other than verses 1 and two, it appears that most of the prophecies have yet to be
31:33 fulfilled. Most of our text is about Jesus coming as a judge, as an and as a
31:39 king. It talks about his judgment and his reign. In his first coming, which is
31:44 well documented in the four gospels, Jesus came as a savior and as the suffering servant. He was born to face
31:51 the cross. He didn't come as a judge nor as a king. Instead, all that will happen
31:56 in his second coming. And hence, we have to bear in mind that the prophecies in our text today from Isaiah 11 have a lot
32:03 to do with Jesus second coming, which I think is not too far away.
32:09 But let me share with you this observation that our preoccupation with his first
32:14 coming is phenomenal, but our focus on his second coming is somewhat lacking. For some reason we are
32:22 so fixated at uh on his first coming rather than his second coming.
32:29 I will cite you an example that happened recently. This focus on the first coming rather
32:35 than the second. Late last month I on 22nd November I led a group of 31 mostly
32:42 FBC members on a 11-day tour of the Holy Land. Some of them came to see the
32:49 pictures on the screen. Now, it's hard to
32:54 describe this this experience. Uh I speak for all 31. The word amazing would
33:00 be an understatement. I would just say that the the Bible came alive for us during the 11 days in
33:07 Israel because it felt a bit strange to be physically in the land that where Jesus
33:14 walked and talked where he ministered and and taught. Now to give you a sense
33:19 of how big the group was, uh this is uh this is our group photo uh taken at this
33:27 place called the shrine of the book in Jerusalem.
33:32 Uh yep, it was a quite a big group making sure that everyone is not lost,
33:38 you know. Notice how the leader's hair matches the
33:45 building in the background.
33:53 I purposely chose this photo to show you out of the hundreds of photos because this is the place where the great Isaiah
34:01 scroll is kept. This is the complete scroll of the book
34:08 of Isaiah since we are doing Isaiah this month. Now I got this picture from the
34:14 internet because we were not allowed to take pictures inside. Why is this important? This particular
34:19 scroll about 24 24 ft long, 7 meters long is part of the so-called Dead Sea
34:25 Scrolls. It was this particular one was discovered in 1947 and it was written in the year 125 BC
34:36 only about 600 years after the time of Isaiah. Before it was discovered, the earliest
34:42 Old Testament manuscript that Bible scholars had was written around 1,000
34:47 AD. Meaning that with this scroll, we can now authenticate and check the accuracy
34:54 of our Bible. Our guide in Israel was a Palestinian Christian, very well versed with Bible
35:01 history. And so I asked him, "How close are the contents of this Isaiah scroll
35:06 compared to the book of Isaiah in our modern Bible?" He said, "Very, very close, except for
35:14 some spelling variations." And this is from this scroll. This is
35:20 Isaiah 11:es 1 to10 from the great Isaiah scroll which I
35:26 marked out with white lines. This is our text for today.
35:32 It's very reassuring to know that the verses we are reading today, these 10 verses, they are almost 100% identical
35:39 to the nine lines or so from this scroll. Now, when we saw this scroll with our
35:45 own eyes in Jerusalem, the experience was almost surreal. Although none of us
35:50 could read ancient Hebrew. Sorry for the digression. Where was I?
35:57 I was talking about the the our preoccupation with the first coming. Now any tour of the holy land must include a
36:05 visit to the church of the nativity in Bethlehem. That's for sure. You know she must be in because that place marks the
36:12 the place uh where Jesus was born. And so we were there on our second day.
36:20 But when I entered the church, I was taken a back by the thousands upon
36:25 thousands of pilgrims inside. And this is how the waiting line was
36:30 like, consisting of Christians from so many countries.
36:37 It took us like an hour to get to the end of the line
36:42 where there is a small door leading to the spot, the very spot where Jesus was
36:48 born. Here is uh almost our group's turn to go in.
36:58 You can see David wondering you know how ever can we are we going to get in you know so many people
37:06 but get in we did to see the very spot where Jesus was born on Christmas day
37:12 and millions of Christians from across the world travel to Bethlehem just to
37:17 see this. Now you can understand when I said how we are so fixated on the first coming
37:26 which is nothing wrong of course it's good to commemorate uh the birth of the Messiah to remember the day when God
37:33 came into our world as a human being but as much as we look back we also need to
37:38 cast our eyes to the future. We also visited this chapel of the
37:44 ascension in Mount of Olives that marks the spot where Jesus ascended to heaven.
37:52 But here not so many people. In fact, just a handful of pilgrims.
38:00 And you wonder why. And after Jesus ascended to heaven, two two angels appeared to the disciples and told them
38:07 in Acts 11:11, "This same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have
38:12 seen him go into heaven." So we need to look forward as much as we look back
38:18 looking forward to his second coming. At the beginning of the sermon, I spoke about the season of Advent, which
38:24 stretches four Sundays before Christmas. It's a buildup to Christmas. But what I
38:29 didn't mention is that much of Advent liturgy actually focuses on the second
38:35 coming of Jesus which is what our text is mostly about. This is so important uh
38:42 to us in relation to our text to our topic on decay. How so you may ask? I
38:48 shall now address our topic directly. If you recall the picture of Pavilion KL
38:53 that I showed earlier with its over-the-top Christmas decoration, I now submit to you that it's all a
39:00 facade, a facade of prosperity and well-being. The reality of life is
39:06 something else altogether. But if you walk into any of these big malls uh in KL or PJ, drop by any day,
39:15 not in uh not just in December, you will get a sense that life is pretty good. They have all these nice restaurants
39:22 serving delicious food, lovely shops offering all kinds of merchandise. The shoppers are all well-dressed, well fed,
39:30 and uh generally having a good time. But the but don't harbor any illusions
39:36 that life is a bit of roses. I'm well aware that life can be brutally harsh or
39:44 hard. Where are the down syndrome kids? Where are the handicapped?
39:51 Where are the shriveled old men? Where are the poor, the sick and the dying?
39:56 Well, they are generally kept out of sight, out of our view. But they are there at
40:03 home, in orphanages, in the nursing homes, in hospitals. Come any Thursday
40:10 evening and you will see whole group of autistic teenagers doing the activities
40:16 outside in the God garden cafe. Any Thursday evening from 6:00 come and see
40:21 them. And those who attended my Bible classes, I sometimes advise them to do hospital
40:27 visits and to attend funerals as often as they can. Of course, the main purpose is to offer prayers and comfort. But at
40:35 a deeper level, each time I visit someone in hospital, each time I attend a funeral, it's like a reality check, a
40:43 reminder that life comes with pain and sufferings, that our bodies are weak and fragile. And most sobering of all, that
40:51 earthly life will eventually come to an end. Like a packet of biscuit, it has an
40:57 expiry date. Now, let me dwell on this a bit more. years ago, I I I remember teaching the
41:04 book of John at the SS19 life group. And I I remember reminding my students about
41:11 the four Ds of life, ABCD, four Ds of life when we were studying some of those
41:17 chapters in John. What are these four four Ds of life? Not Magnum 4D. Yeah.
41:26 the one you most many of you will know.
41:31 Out of the seven miracles of Jesus recorded by John in his gospel, I have selected five to help illustrate the
41:38 harsh realities of life. In the miracle of Jesus walking on water in John 6, we realize that they are
41:46 occasional storms in our lives and hence the first D, danger.
41:52 In the healing of the official son in John 4 and also the blind man in John 8, we note the second de of life, disease.
42:01 In the healing of the at the pool in John 8, he was wasting away for 38 years. We see the third D, decay.
42:10 And finally, in the raising of Lazarus, we face the last D, death.
42:17 Now these are sobering thoughts. You can exercise every day. You can have
42:22 the healthiest of diet. You can be very careful. For example, when you drive on the road, you can do your best to try to
42:29 avoid or prevent any of these dreadful days of life. But even if you manage
42:35 somehow to escape danger or disease, but slowly the third D will catch up with
42:42 you. decay and eventually the fourth D will get you
42:48 death. Now this is not an easy subject. It's not something that we like to talk
42:54 about. Our normal response is denial. Take for example the third D decay.
43:01 We like to say oh it's okay like you know as long as we are young at heart.
43:08 You can repeat that a thousand times a day. say in the mirror, but nobody can look into your heart to see how young it
43:14 is. They only see the wrinkles on your face. So no matter what you say or what you
43:21 do, there is no escaping from these four Ds of life. And that's why I I wanted
43:26 you to see the video Oh, fortuner to hear the lamentations of this unknown poet about about his afflictions, his
43:32 his misfortunes. His situation may be a bit extreme, but if you have lived long enough, you have
43:38 seen long enough, you can empathize with him. If you cannot identify with him, then most likely you're still young and
43:45 and with limited exposure. In my younger days, I I didn't bother with with such issues. I didn't have the
43:52 time. I was busy pursuing my career. getting married, raising my kids and
43:58 then suddenly reality hit like a hurricane and it was in August 2006
44:05 when my late father was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. The doctor gave
44:11 him five months to live and exactly exactly five months later he passed away
44:16 on 14th of January 2007 and it was tough on us, tough on my mom, even tough on my
44:23 dad as his body wasted away. I witnessed disease,
44:29 decay and death before my very eyes. Some of you may ask, why doesn't God
44:37 shield us from the four Ds of life? Why doesn't God protect us from harm? After all, we are his children. There are no
44:45 easy answers. My father was a committed Christian, a faithful servant of God throughout most much of his life. He
44:52 taught at the adult Sunday school. He he drove the church van to to ferry the elderly to the to church. And he did so
44:59 much to serve God. I saw that when I grew up. Every morning he will he will pace the garden for an hour before
45:05 sunrise. You know he will walk in the garden for an hour in deep conversation with God.
45:12 When he was suffering from his illness in 2006 my late father prayed earnestly
45:18 for God to extend his life for another five years. I don't know why five and
45:24 not seven or 10. But that didn't happen. Not even five weeks God took him home.
45:32 Can God heal? Yes. Does God heal? Yes. Does God heal all
45:40 the time? No. Sometimes God heals. Often times he
45:47 doesn't. In the case of my father, he didn't. Why?
45:53 Why didn't God grant his heart's desire? especially since he had served God so
45:58 faithfully for more than 60 years. Again, there are no easy answers.
46:03 I've struggled with that question for a while. At the surface level, perhaps I could say that if if Christians are
46:10 immune from cancer, this just one thought I had. If Christians are immune from cancer, then all the churches will
46:17 be full of people. They will convert to Christianity willingly and quickly. But for the wrong
46:23 reason, for the sake of the immunity, not because they love God.
46:29 No, God doesn't want such believers. So if I were to tell you that God will bless you with good health if you follow
46:35 Jesus, then I would then I will be preaching a false gospel, it will be a
46:40 kind of prosperity gospel. But the fact is even members of the prosperity gospel
46:45 church, they do fall sick. They do succumb to cancer. The only thing they don't highlight only,
46:52 tell me if I'm wrong, don't tell me all the members of the prosperity gospel church, they're all healthy and they
46:58 don't die of cancer. The truth is pain and suffering are a part of Christian living. James 1,
47:06 Romans 5 teaches that pain and suffering are the means by which God builds our
47:12 perseverance and character, the means by which we develop our trust in him. But that is a separate topic for another
47:18 day. Jesus says in Matthew 5:45 that God causes his son to rise up on
47:24 the on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
47:31 It's hard for me to say this. I have to tell you that we are subjected to the
47:36 four days of life as much as the non-believers. It will not be sunshine every day.
47:43 Sometimes there will be rain. The sea will not be calm all the way. Sometimes
47:49 there will be storms. If you have had good weather all these years, then most likely you you have not lived long
47:55 enough. Now to drive home this point, when the group returned from Israel early this
48:00 month, many members text texted messages in the WhatsApp group. Praise God for the safe journey home. And I said the
48:07 same thing. Thank God, you know, for granting us journey mercies. anything
48:13 could have happened. But do you know that when Air Asia
48:19 flight 8501 crashed into the Java Sea 3 years ago, I
48:24 think it was 28th December uh 2014, killing all 155 passengers and crew.
48:31 There was on board that flight 41 Christians from a Suraya church going
48:38 from Suraya to Singapore. You know that that disaster right after
48:43 MH370 and then MH17 and then Asia 8501
48:49 because the reality is that Christians do die in air disasters.
48:54 So in the face of all this, how do we then journey through life with all its twists and turns? How do we deal with
49:01 danger, disease, decay and death? When the misfortune hit us is natural to ask
49:07 why me? Why this? Why now? But is there could there be a a better
49:13 response that we can master? The trouble with old fortunate is that he offers no solution to life's trials
49:20 and troubles. It ends with a depressing note where the poet says, "Not everyone weeps with me." But thankfully in our
49:27 text today, we see a ray of hope. Our text offers us a perspective that is
49:34 powerful and helpful, which is hope. H O P E hope a living hope that surpasses
49:42 understanding when I showed you this picture of the Advent candles at the beginning I didn't
49:49 touch on the themes or the four themes of Advent written in smaller print too small to see hope
49:56 joy peace and this may be a bit clearer our text today from Isaiah 11 at its
50:03 core is about hope living hope, biblical hope. And that's
50:10 the take-h home message. And because of this hope, I've come to
50:16 terms with my father's passing. I mentioned just now that I I struggle with the question why God didn't answer
50:21 his prayer. I found the answer a few years ago from watching a Francis Chan
50:28 uh sermon on YouTube. He was preaching on stage. We had this very, very long
50:33 piece of rope. He was holding on to one end of the rope which he painted a little bit red only just about couple of
50:39 inches and he said that this short red end represents our life on earth. The rest
50:45 of this long rope represents eternity. He said that we are
50:50 so preoccupied with this short length, this little bit of the rope, so concerned with what's going on here that
50:56 we often forget the rest of the rope. I finally understood.
51:03 I can now imagine when my father arrived at heaven's shore.
51:09 God must have told him, "Why stay a day longer in the wretched place?
51:15 Come home and find eternal rest. Welcome to the
51:20 king of the to the kingdom of the king where love, joy, and peace abound forever."
51:27 And it's based on this living hope that I will see him again one day. and we will sit down and listen to
51:33 classical music.
51:40 I also hope to meet not I hope I'm sure I will meet my Japanese foster mother again and I will thank her for her
51:47 kindness when I was in Tokyo because thank God she was also a committed follower of Christ. Maybe we shall go to
51:54 a concert together again to listen to Beethoven's uh auto joy. Nobody will be
51:59 listening to old fortuna. In closing, place your trust in Jesus,
52:04 the Messianic King, for he's God and he's very wise. He will make things right for those who are hurting and in
52:11 distress. He will grant relief and release from all pain and sufferings and
52:16 he will abolish deaths. Everything will be beautiful and perfect. And that's why earlier I said
52:22 repeatedly, focus on the second coming. Christmas is not just about looking back
52:28 at the birth of Jesus. It's also about looking forward to his second coming, to his reign as king. It's also about the
52:35 living hope that we breathe and hopefully we breathe it shorter and shorer
