Sermons on Isaiah 2:4

… of what would happen when the Messiah would come. And this is the picture that you have. It's found in both Isaiah and in Micah. We read, they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. This continues to be a vision for us as Christians. It's found in our stained glass window that we're building here at the Leawood campus, a picture of somebody beating a sword into a plowshare. The idea that the day would come when we won't make war anymore, when we won't use violence anymore. We don't live in that day yet, but at least this is our vision and our dream, that there would come a day where we would not need guns, we wouldn't need swords anymore. Now what's clear is that both the prophets and Jesus had a different picture of what the world should look like than what you find in the first 15 books of the Hebrew Bible. And again, they didn't forbid weapons for self-defense or for hunting, but they had a different picture of how you treat your enemy. Now again, I'm just going to say it a third time now, there's nothing wrong with hunting, sports shooting, or even having guns for self-defense. If you own them, store them properly, learn how to handle them well, obey the laws, never use your weapons in an aggressive way to threaten other people, no matter how angry you become. But I temper all of that with three ideas from Scripture. The first is from Psalm 27. Psalm 20, verse 7. And here we read these words, …

Watch at 30:15 · See full text →

… So listen to this. This is in Isaiah chapter two, verse four, and also Micah 4, three. So both Micah and Isaiah prophesying in the eighth century BC in the 700s quoted the exact same words, probably from another source of the yearning of the people. And this is what it was. Then in that day, this yearn for day of shalom. They will beat their swords into iron plows or into plowshares, their spears into pruning tools or pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation. They will no longer learn how to make war. I mean, you hear the yearning in this prophecy. It's like, we want this. This is what the world is supposed to look like, but it's not what the world looked like for them or in many places today for us. The prophets pined for a new kind of king. They'd had kings who had walked away from God, pursued injustice and oppression. And I just want to remind you, justice in Scripture is fairness, right? It's equity. It's making sure that the vulnerable and the powerless and the poor are treated, you know, with equity alongside the people who have means and power. And when we think about righteousness in Scripture, righteousness really, you know, we think of that as, you know, in my Pentecostal days when I was a kid, it was don't smoke, don't drink, don't chew, or hang around with those who do. But righteousness in the Bible was about compassion and empathy for the poor or for people who are struggling or people …

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… there will be one world government. There will be one world government, Isaiah chapter 2, verses 1 to 4. The word which Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. So now we know that this future one world government we're about to hear about will be connected to Judah and Jerusalem. Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills, and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us concerning His ways." So what do we have here? We have God in Judah and in Jerusalem in the last days establishing His house, the house of the Lord." Really, in Jerusalem on the Mount of Zion, it will be raised up above the hills. …

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