December 13, 2020. Isaiah 61:1-3,10-11 Sermon Grace-Vail, Grace-Benson Many of the most successful people talk about not just having skills, intelligence, resources; but also having the right spirit to be successful. From Elon Musk to LeBron James to generals or presidents, what separates them from their competitions is their spirit. So when it comes to the greatest ruler, leader, champion; you’d expect much the same. When Isaiah and other Old Testament prophets talked about the coming Messiah, it must have seemed impossible for one person to do so much: end oppression, heal the hurting, bring closeness to God and forgiveness of sins. How could one Messiah do it? Would he do it with power, tools, and strategies? No, not first. Instead what comes 1st for this servant Messiah is a Spirit. He needs the right spirit. Sometimes your life might feel like an impossible mission. How can you live with joy and leadership even when so much goes wrong in so short a time. All in one morning; your Christmas tree can fall down and leave broken ornaments and spilled water for you to clean up. Then you can hear about a family health problem that you had hoped would stay away. Then your car doesn’t start when you try to leave, and you spill coffee on yourself because the lid wasn’t on tight. How can you respond without anger taking over, or frustration and fatigue? How can you respond to even days like that with confidence, action, and energy? You don’t need strategies, tools, or power; not first. The first thing you need is the right spirit. Through Isaiah 61 God invites you to find a spirit of freedom and joy in him that will be there for you no matter what kind of a morning or day or week or life you are having. Important place to start: what is spirit? While spirit in some ways defies definition, a helpful one I’ve found is this: spirit is unbodily personal power. Spirit is what enables you or any spiritual being to originate or not originate actions which make a difference. Your spirit is involved in your choices, what you say yes to and what you say no to. There are different spirits. Every person has a spirit that is uniquely theirs. God also is spirit. He doesn’t need a body to make things happen. God’s spirit is good, right, perfect. We were made to have spirits that exist in harmony with his spirit; uniquely ours but sharing his goodness, rightness, perfection. Sadly we know there is another kind of spirit. Naturally, on our own we all have a spirit that is prone to disagree with God’s spirit. The Bible tells us that our sinful spirit is hostile to God’s perfect spirit. There is disharmony between us. Our natural spirits are bent, crooked, capable of regularly choosing to do things that harm ourselves and others and the world. That’s why when your coffee spills and your car won’t start, your spirit is capable of rage and frustration. That spirit comes out in your words; what you say and how you say it. That spirit comes out in body posture and movements; clenched jaw and tight fist for example. We are born spiritually misaligned. As a result our spirits can believe the opposite of Isaiah 61. That God won’t mend my broken heart. That I won’t find freedom from captivity; things won’t get better, only get worse. That the only freedom I can find is self made. That if God were to come close, he’d be a cruel punisher who just might turn me to ashes. That it’s not good to be close to a God like that. That I have good reason for my clenched jaw and
tight fist, for my complaints and accusations against God. When that kind of a spirit is operating in any person, us included, life feels like a barren wasteland, not a garden. Now, isn’t it interesting that 2 people who go through the same event might respond entirely differently. One person loses a job, and their spirits are crushed. Another person loses the same kind of job, and their spirits are still joyful and resilient. Or one person has an easy childhood, and it makes them ungrateful and selfish, while another has an easy childhood, and they grow to be compassionate and caring. What makes the difference? There are lots of differences between the spirit of one person compared to another. But Isaiah 61 helps us see one resource that can drastically change how our spirits experience the ups and downs of life. The spirit that Messiah gives is a spirit that Messiah has. We know that Jesus is the fulfilment of Isaiah’s servant Messiah predictions. We can learn from the descriptions of Jesus’ spirit in Isaiah 61. What kind of Spirit? It’s first of all a Spirit that brings good news to the afflicted, that binds up the brokenhearted, that proclaims freedom for captives and release for those bound. The afflicted are used to hearing bad news. Think of the group that gathered around Jesus for his sermon on the mount. They had all kinds of problems. Sickness, diseases, demon possession, paralysis. They came to Jesus with their problems, and he healed them, and then taught them. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” They were blessed not because of their problems, but because he came to bring blessing even to people like them in their affliction. Good news for people used to hearing bad news. He has a spirit that binds up broken hearts. So much in life breaks hearts. Being betrayed by someone you loved. We can’t mend our own broken hearts. We need someone we love not to betray us or forsake us. Jesus is that someone. The only way to really bind our broken hearts was for Jesus to allow his to be broken for us. “My God, what have you forsaken me?” That expression on the cross was Jesus’ heart breaking because of what human sin does to a person’s relationship to their heavenly father. Yet by allowing his heart to break on the cross, he set up the mending of his heart at the empty tomb, and the restoring of broken hearts to their heavenly father. Jesus comes with a spirit that frees captives and releases people who are bound and enslaved. The devil would be happy if you never realized you were captive. He wants you to call the jail cell of sin a pleasure house. Jesus shows you the truth, there is no worse jail than sin. Then he sets you free. Free from guilt and shame, from isolation and loneliness. And free to an adventurous life with him. Free to live close to God again, unified to him. He did this by becoming captive to your punishment, he was bound hand and foot nailed in order to set you free. Because of him, you are free indeed. Jesus came on his impossible rescue mission with a spirit that brought the favor of God, along with his vengeance. How could he have both? How could he be both like a prince who came and said to his subjects, “No taxes this year, and no penalties for anyone who’s behind on payments,” and at the same time bring vengeance and justice? Only in Jesus do we find both. And we need both. It’s become popular in some circles to downplay the vengeance and overemphasize the favor. But imagine you live in a place torn by
war, where atrocities and crimes against humanity happen regularly. Imagine someone telling you about a God who would just ignore the violence and cruelty done to them because he’s a God of favor not vengeance. Would a God like that be worth believing in? We sense: Evil should be dealt with. Cruelty should face a day of vengeance. We need a judgment day to deal with the wickedness and violence of our world. And God will bring such a day. But not only will it be a day of vengeance, but a day of favor as well. Jesus is the judge who has already been judged. He faced a pre-Judgment Day judgment day on the cross, so that now all that’s needed for anyone to face the day of vengeance and experience God’s favor is to simply believe in him, actively put their trust in him. Jesus also has a spirit which is able to cause mourning to be traded for comfort; ashes and weeping to be traded in for a crown of beauty; tears and mourning clothes to be exchanged for joy; and a faint spirit to be exchanged for a jacket of praise. Now there are plenty of legitimate reasons for tears, mourning, faintness. Death, losing loved ones, the death of hopes and dreams, weakness of body which leads to a weak, faint spirit and lack of energy and hope. These are real challenges, on our own we struggle to cope with the tragedy of human life. But Jesus brings comfort. He became ugly when crucified and yet came out beautiful, with beauty to share. He became the weakest, but came out the strongest. He became the most defeated and dead; but ended up the most alive and victorious man who has ever lived. He went through the worst for you, and did not abandon you when it cost him his life. Let that assure you that he won’t abandon you now; but wants you close, wants you clothed. Wants you to be an oak of righteousness. A planting that displays his beauty. That is your identity now. Like an oak that has deep roots and is able to weather a storm, and through the storm because it has deep roots, it comes out more vibrant, more green, more beautiful. That’s what you are. You only grow stronger because of the rain, because of the resilience shown during the heavy winds. Jesus gives you strength, and permanence, and solid-ness. In him you are righteous. That means you are right with God, able to do what you were built for. You are a planting of the Lord to display his beauty. Amazing. How beautiful is God? Can it even be quantified? God’s beauty, which is responsible for everything beautiful you have ever seen; you through your faith-connection to Jesus display that beauty. It seems too good to be true. It is so hard for us to conceptualize ourselves as that beautiful, as that strong. But God’s Word says so. The result of the Spirit of Jesus enabling him to complete mission impossible, is that now we are given new spirits. No longer just the old sinful nature, the Holy Spirit is given to us so that we have renewed spirits. We have reason for joy. Isaiah said, “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord. My soul will celebrate because of my God.” What causes you to rejoice? Sports team wins? Cool gift received? Win a debate with someone who has a different opinion as you? Those are good things, but the best source of joy is the Lord, who he is and what he does. You can rejoice because the divine has become human. The almighty calls you friend. The
dead one has come alive. There is a God who still as fully human fills the whole earth, invisibly, yet gloriously. The God who needs no help to get his will done, yet who enlists your services, enrolls you in his group. This is your God. Let your soul celebrate because of him. If he is in charge of the universe, it's a good place to be. If human life is his idea, then it's an amazing thing to have. If you bring delight to him, then you have reason to delight in who you are. Because of the Spirit of Jesus, your spirit has a new set of clothes. You’ve been covered in Christ. A robe of righteousness put on you at your baptism, through the hearing of his Word, in Lord’s Supper. Like a groom who wears a headdress, and like a bride who adorns herself with jewelry. God does not forget to put you on like a bride doesn’t forget to put on her dress, jewelry and make up on. Like a bride often prefers her plus jewelry, or dress or makeup; God prefers himself plus you. He does not want to exist without you. Amazing. This is how God sees you. When you see yourself the way he sees you; worry drops away. Seeking money, power, pleasure; these things don’t hold a stranglehold over you anymore. You are a beauty to God. Let that sink in. Let that define you more. Finally, because of the Spirit of Jesus, you can look forward to growth, both for yourself and for others, and for the world itself. “As the earth produces growth, and a garden causes what has been sown to sprout up.” The power of a seed of a garden plant is such that if you plant it in the right conditions, it will grow. If there is the right amount of water and sun and soil composition and the seed itself is good, it will grow, the growth is inevitable. Perhaps slow, but inevitable. You don’t plant a seed and dig it up the next day and crack it open and expect to find fruit. The seed goes in the soul and dies, but in dying a power is unlocked, a power of growth and transformation from a seed into a plant that produces tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, all kinds of amazing flavorful things. That’s what you are. Capable of becoming a life giving plant that is flavorful to God and useful and beautiful. But the growth is slow, doesn’t happen overnight. You might be at a stage when you are kind of not fully seed but not fully plant. Be patient. The growth will come. Why? Because the seed of God’s Word has been planted in you, and in that way, God says his spirit is able to intermingle with your spirit, and cause you to change. The growth is slow but sure. Gradual but certain. Let the word of God be like a seed in you that changes the growth process you are a part of. He will cause right-ness and reasons for praise to happen, even in the midst of a world where there is so much difficulty and challenge. So keep trusting in Jesus and watching for him, like Isaiah did so many years ago. God once transformed the nation of Israel, so humbled by the time Isaiah spoke, he transformed them from a nation in exile to a nation that birthed the savior. He can transform you from a sinner to a sinner-saint, and then further to a perfect saint in the glorified life to come. In the same way Jesus transformed from dead Messiah to living savior, through the power of the spirit that never left him, even when dead. He will transform you one day from dead to living, just as he already has given you spiritual life through your connection to him. And yes he can even transform days when the Christmas tree falls, ornaments break, cars don’t start, coffee spills. He can transform those into days where he displays his beauty, his power, his love for you. Trust in him, and expect your spirit to change into a spirit of freedom and joy. Amen.