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Keith Morton

00:01

Good morning everyone. Today we're celebrating the first day of Advent and we're celebrating the fact that God sent his son Jesus Christ into the world And we're going to do that by reading through Isaiah 55. And you may be sitting there thinking, well, Isaiah, the Old Testament, judgment and wrath, that doesn't have a lot to do with me sitting here today. But I would like to just invite you to take a fresh Look at Isaiah with new eyes and listen for a new thing.

Keith Morton

00:34

God is inviting us to change our thinking and to see the abundance and provision from his perspective. If you feel far from God this morning, He is near. Let the word of God soak in. Amy's going to read Isaiah 55, and then we'll dig in and kind of use the chapter to guide us to look back at God's promises and covenants and then look forward to Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

Amy Morton

01:04

Isaiah 55. Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat.

Amy Morton

01:15

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest affair. Give ear and come to me.

Amy Morton

01:33

Listen that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples. Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you because of the Lord your God, the Holy 1 of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.

Amy Morton

02:00

Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on them.

Amy Morton

02:12

And to our God, for he will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth, and make it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth.

Amy Morton

02:45

It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush will grow the juniper, and instead of the briars the myrtle will grow.

Amy Morton

03:11

This will be for the Lord's renown, for an everlasting sign that will endure forever.

Keith Morton

03:20

Excellent, So join me in looking and working through this chapter in Isaiah chapter 55. I encourage you to look at it in your Bibles. And we're going to step through it line by line and have a look at what God wants to say to us this morning.

Keith Morton

03:41

It's very short, just 13 verses long. Okay, so the whole chapter, 55, is really focused by this small section here, Seek the Lord while he may be found. And I just want to draw your attention to that word seek. Sometimes we kind of think of it in terms of hide and seek where you kind of are looking for something and then you find it.

Keith Morton

04:07

But when we look back at the Hebrew word for the word seek, in fact, it's much more about inquiring and questioning and asking and going back again and again. In fact, the root Semitic word in Hebrew is to tread like a well-worn path. And even in Arabic, it means to study or even to thresh grain. Okay, so you guys know how I do PowerPoint a little bit.

Keith Morton

04:34

So you'll see on the side there, the layout of the entire chapter. Don't expect you to try and read that and squint and see. But I will be highlighting sections so you just kind of know where we are in this poem. Okay, so let's have a look at the poem itself, but first I just want to expand this idea of seeking.

Keith Morton

04:59

So I'm a big cross-country skier, we live in St. Bruno, so I get to go and ski on all the trails in Saint-Brunot. So what you see there is a heat map of all the places that I go and go again and revisit throughout the whole winter. And because we're exegeting Isaiah 55 and there's the word snow in there, I figured I'd start with that.

Keith Morton

05:25

Okay, so Isaiah 55 is a beautifully structured chapter in the Hebrew Bible. It's rich with poetic devices. It's got a lot of repetition and imagery. And so as we go through these verses, I just want you to just look for that repetition, look for the imagery, capture what it's trying to say about what you know in the Old Testament, and look for places where it's pointing to Christ in the New Testament.

Keith Morton

05:57

So the context. We're going to de-assue or seek all through the chapter here. So the context here is to the exiles in Babylon, okay? So they've, the judgment of the Lord has come and they've been exiled and they're living in Babylon and they're reading this word of Isaiah to them.

Keith Morton

06:21

And this is an invitation to a great wedding feast. In fact, after the chapters we've just been looking at in the last couple of weeks, chapter 54 is a renewed covenant. And the whole poem in 54 is about an unfaithful wife and the Lord coming back to redeem and renew the covenant with his people. So coming into the beginning of 55, It's a great wedding feast.

Keith Morton

06:49

So the literary structure here is really chiastic, like Doug spoke to us last week. And you can see that there's kind of a book ending of how this poem is structured. So what we have at the beginning is God's invitation to a generous abundance and at the end we have these pointers, these pointers back to the Garden of Eden with the thorns and the thistles becoming evergreens and fragrant trees. And then in the middle we have heavens and the earth.

Keith Morton

07:19

And whenever you see in the Bible those words together, heaven and earth or earth and sky, that's a key to think back to the Garden of Eden and to the beginning into creation. And so in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and God said his word, let there be light, and there was light. There's a lot of feedback on that last change. Okay, and then we come a little bit closer into the chiasm here, and it's an appeal to reason and a joyful response that are back-ended there.

Keith Morton

07:51

And this is an appeal to not just our soul, but our mind to reason with God and our heart to worship in response to God. Coming a little bit closer to the center, he's asking us to incline our ear to life, to listen to those everlasting covenants, to listen to his word, and to have confidence in his word. And then we have these 2 sections where there's really a gift of life from heaven. We have the covenant's promise to the ruler, to David, and then the fact that that messiah that's promised will bring life.

Keith Morton

08:38

Coming in even closer, we have these amazing words that God will abundantly pardon. And we're asked to turn from our ways, to repent, and to give up the way that we do things and to start thinking from God's perspective in God's way. And then finally at the center we have my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways, my ways are higher. And so that's gonna be our focus today as we look back into the Old Testament at how God just provided abundantly for his people And then as we look forward to the abundant provision of Jesus Christ our Savior.

Keith Morton

09:24

Okay, so let's dig in. Okay, so come all who are thirsty. Those that have no money and buy without cost. Okay, so this is an invitation to those that have nothing.

Keith Morton

09:45

And then we have in the next verse, why are you spending your money on what is not bread and what on your labor which doesn't satisfy? So we have both. We have the really poor is the invitation, and we have an invitation to those that have money. And moving along through, again, in the beginning of Isaiah we have a beautiful line, come now let us reason together.

Keith Morton

10:12

God is asking us in this poem to use our minds and to really examine our life. Listen that you may live, give ear and come to me. References those everlasting covenants, those promises to David. And then He goes through a prophecy of what that Messiah is going to be like.

Keith Morton

10:36

A commander of the people is a ruler. Nations that you not know will come running to you. And then there's a reference to the God of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We come back to this seek.

Keith Morton

10:52

Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. And then the call to repentance. Forsake your ways.

Keith Morton

11:01

Forsake the way that you think about the world, come and return to me because I have mercy and I will freely pardon. So, to the wicked, I will freely pardon. And again, my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways, my ways.

Keith Morton

11:22

As the heavens are higher than the earth, think about the stars and the galaxies and the way that gravity and general relativity are all pulled together so that we can have life on this earth. So are my ways higher than your ways. Think about the intricacy of what it takes to grow a plant, for a seed to germinate, and for the DNA to mitosis and then create new life. All of that intricacy in life, that's the perspective that God wants us to have looking at His word.

Keith Morton

11:57

And then as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, If you're in exile in Babylon and you're thinking about back to your homeland in Israel and you see rain and snow coming down from heaven, you're going to think about Mount Hebron covered in snow up to the north of Galilee. In fact, the top picture there is looking for Tiberias across the Sea of Galilee up to the snow cap peak of Mount Hebron in winter. And all of that rain and all of that watershed then comes down through, collected in the Sea of Galilee, and drains out to the Dead Sea through the Jordan. And you can think back through all of the Bible stories that you know about Jesus coming and living around the Sea of Galilee, about being baptized in the Jordan down at the bottom there by the Red Sea close to Jerusalem.

Keith Morton

12:50

This is God's Word coming down from heaven and of course it creates that life, that budding and flourishing and it creates the seed and the bread for us to eat. And this is what God is comparing his word that comes from the Lord in heaven to us. And then finally, a response in worship, that heart cry that we can go out in joy and be led forth with peace. And you can imagine, this is a message of hope to the exiles in Babylon, and they're gonna come back hiking through the mountains into that land and be clapping their hands and walking through those fields.

Keith Morton

13:38

And then we have this return to the promise and the recreation of Eden. The thorn bush will be junipers, evergreens, the briars will be myrtles, a fragrant, fragrant tree. And again, it's all for God's glory, it's all for the Lord's renown, and that will be a sign forever. Okay?

Keith Morton

14:02

We got it? Very good. Okay, so there's a juniper, a myrtle. There's even water.

Keith Morton

14:09

There's a snow-capped mountain. And of course, there's a path because we're going down a well-worn path today. We're going to look at this poem a couple of times. OK, so like I said, if we want to understand Jesus and the Messiah and the way he talks to first century Jews in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, We need to understand the metaphors and the comparisons he's making in those gospels.

Keith Morton

14:40

And to do that, we need to go back through the covenants and promises that we see in the Old Testament. Okay, so we're gonna use Isaiah 55 as a signpost to look back at the promises and covenants of God in the Old Testament and as a signpost to see the Messiah as well. Okay, so I've highlighted 2 covenants there. There's the covenant to David, and then there's the everlasting sign or covenant at the end of the poem.

Keith Morton

15:10

Okay? So we can look at a couple of other areas. We've already talked about David. So David's referenced in this poem.

Keith Morton

15:17

Israel is referenced, the holy God of Israel. And of course, when we talk about the holy 1 of Israel, we're really talking about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's a nice shorthand that the speaker uses here. Come to the waters, come and eat.

Keith Morton

15:38

That's directly Moses, right? We have water from the rock, we have manna from heaven. Now there's a tricky 1 here, I don't know if you can see it, but bud and flourish in the presence of God. That's Aaron.

Keith Morton

15:55

Aaron's staff was put in next to the Ark of the Covenant and the next day it bud and flourished and had almond blossoms and even almonds on it. So the author is leading us back to all of these stories that you know in the Old Testament. Okay this one's a great 1, I really like this 1. Okay, so you know about the Israelites were coming into a land of milk and honey, right?

Keith Morton

16:26

But in this poem, we have wine and milk. I don't know if you've ever done that before, but that don't really go together very well. So it's kind of jarring. So you have to go look at it.

Keith Morton

16:37

Why wine and milk? Okay, so does anybody have an inkling? Well, wine and milk is a direct reference to Jacob's blessing of Judah in Genesis 49. Now it's a bit small up there, don't expect you to read it, but it says his eyes, talking about the ruler that will come from the line of Judah, His eyes will be darker than wine, and his teeth will be whiter than milk.

Keith Morton

17:06

Okay, so the author and the speaker in Isaiah 55 is taking you back to Jacob's blessing of Judah. Okay, so starting to build up, right? There's a lot of signposts. So Judah, now we have rain and snow coming from heaven.

Keith Morton

17:23

Well, that's Noah, right? So Noah had built an ark. He was saved by going into the ark from the rain that was newly coming from the sky. And of course, Noah worked the land, so we have seed for the sower and bread for the eater.

Keith Morton

17:43

And I'm not just making this up. Actually, in Isaiah 54, there's a number of verses on Noah as well. Okay. Now the poem takes us all the way back to the thorns and the thistles of Eden.

Keith Morton

17:59

So there's 1 more character here that I want you to pull out. Okay, think about an everlasting sign, another person that worked the land, maybe a wicked person with unrighteous thoughts who was near, yes, who was near to God and labored the soil, but didn't necessarily do what was good. So very good, that was a good call. So Cain, okay, so this poem is linking us all the way back to Cain.

Keith Morton

18:35

Okay, so Cain may be a little bit far in your mind, so I'm just gonna read Genesis 4, just to refresh a little bit the story. Okay, now Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering, fat portions of some of the firstborn of his flock.

Keith Morton

19:11

The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, But on Cain, he did not look with favor. Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?

Keith Morton

19:31

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what it is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must rule over it. Now Cain said to his brother Abel, let's go out to the field.

Keith Morton

19:51

While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother and killed him. Then the Lord again said to Cain, where is your brother Abel? I do not know, he replied. Am I my brother's keeper?

Keith Morton

20:07

The Lord said, what have you done? Listen, your brother's brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you.

Keith Morton

20:34

You will be a restless wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land and I will be hidden from your presence. I will be a restless wanderer on the earth and whoever finds me will kill me.

Keith Morton

20:54

But the Lord said to him, not so. Anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance 7 times over. Then the Lord put his mark or sign on Cain so that no 1 who found him would kill him. So Cain went out of the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Keith Morton

21:20

Okay, so I took a bit of time there to read that portion of scripture, but I just want you to reflect on that because Jesus, or Jesus, yes, Jesus, but God came to Cain twice. First time, came to Cain when he was angry and downcast, and reached out in kindness and in love to welcome him back. The second time, after he had killed Abel, God still went out to reason with Cain. Yes, there were consequences to the fact that he had killed his brother.

Keith Morton

22:03

The land was not gonna yield its fruit as easily to him. But he was still able to be in the presence of God, and to be in Eden. They'd only been driven out of the Garden of Eden, right? They were still in that general vicinity.

Keith Morton

22:21

And I think the important point here is that God's ways are higher than our ways. Even Cain was thinking, my brothers and sisters are going to kill me because I killed my brother. But God came to him not in vengeance, not in fury or wrath or judgment, but came to him with an invitation to stay. But Cain decided to leave the presence and go out.

Keith Morton

22:55

And we know that the punishment for murder would have been death. Because God says, well Cain says very clearly, people are going to try and kill me. And then God very clearly says, because I've put a mark on you, vengeance 7 times on anyone who kills Cain. So the concept of vengeance and the need for retribution was very clear even in these very first passages.

Keith Morton

23:35

But Cain leaves anyway and goes his own way. OK. So What was the difference? What was the difference between the 2 offerings?

Keith Morton

23:48

And why was Cain so upset and downcast? So it's not so much that Abel brought a lamb or something from its flock, and Cain brought fruit of the earth. In fact, both of them brought an offering to God, but Abel brought the firstborn and the best portion. Now, if you're just starting a flock, and the first lambs that are born, they're the most precious.

Keith Morton

24:23

They're the ones that are going to have the next babies. So they're not the ones that you necessarily want to give up. But Abel, understanding the way that God works through Genesis 1 in his abundance of creation, understood and trusted that God would provide everything he needs so he could bring the best and the first of what God had given him already. And by bringing the best, he in fact forfeited his own life.

Keith Morton

25:02

Because Cain kept a little bit back. He didn't give his best. He just brought some of the fruit, some of the fruits of the soil as that offering to the Lord. Okay, and this is just absolutely fascinating because you see that the Lord gazed, that's the Hebrew word, gazed on Abel and his offering because he saw in Abel exactly his own character, this character of generosity, of being able to bring the best to the offering.

Keith Morton

25:45

Nevertheless, Cain was angry and his face was downcast and he left the presence of the Lord. So now I want to go back through Isaiah 55, but I want it to be as an invitation. I'll skip over this for a sec. An invitation, a love letter to Cain.

Keith Morton

26:05

Okay, so Cain, if you are thirsty, come back to the waters of Eden. Come and eat wine and milk without cost. Why do you labor on what doesn't satisfy? Listen to me, Cain.

Keith Morton

26:21

Eat what is good and you will delight in the richest of fair. Give ear to me, Cain. Listen that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you.

Keith Morton

26:38

Call on me while I'm here. Your wicked came. Forsake your ways. Forsake the way you're thinking.

Keith Morton

26:47

I will forgive generously. For the way that I do things, my thoughts are not your thoughts. The way that I do things are not your ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts your thoughts.

Keith Morton

27:06

And I will provide for you so that the land yields seed for you and bread for you to eat. And you will go out in joy, and you will be led forth in peace. And instead of the thorn bush, instead of the thistles, junipers and myrtles will grow. Instead of a mark to protect you from vengeance, I will give you an everlasting sign that will endure forever.

Keith Morton

27:42

Okay, so we've got Cain and we've got this other whole cast of characters. And of course many of them had partners in crime, their wives, and you see them listed there. And if you think back to all of these stories throughout the Old Testament, you can put up the things, cane-like approaches to life for all of them. So I'll just put them up there.

Keith Morton

28:10

But there's a lot of murderers, there's a lot of schemers, there's a lot of deception, There's a lot of drunkenness and sex. And it's a pretty miserable lot because in many, many of those cases, even though the promise had been given by God, Each 1 of them, if you look back at these stories, they tried to do it their own way. They tried to figure out how to get the promise by their own means. Okay?

Keith Morton

28:42

And again, my ways are not your ways. And God chose these people to, as people who could explain to us throughout these stories in the Old Testament, how abundantly generous God is in our lives. Okay, so here's just 1 example. Rebecca at the well.

Keith Morton

29:08

Abraham has sent his servant to back across the mountains to find a wife for Isaac. And the servant came up to the well and hurried to meet Rebecca and said, please give me a little water from your jar. Rebecca said, drink my lord. And she quickly lowered the jar from her hands and gave him a drink.

Keith Morton

29:37

And after she had given him a drink, she said, I will draw water for your camels too until they have had enough to drink. So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water and drew enough for all his camels." So God is using people that are tuned in to giving generously. And this is mapped out in a little bit more detail as you work through the rest of these complicated, difficult stories in the Old Testament. But basically, just to sum it up, you have feasts and sacrifices.

Keith Morton

30:14

And all of these feasts and sacrifices revolve around 2 main themes. The first is that God is abundantly generous and that we can trust him to give us what we need. And in all of those cases, there's calling back to these verses in Genesis 4 where you need to give back the best portion of the abundance that God has given us. And so we have the concepts of the firstborn lamb.

Keith Morton

30:43

We have the concepts of the first fruits of the lamb, all calling back to that first story in Genesis. And of course, the first fruits of the lamb are bread, oil, and wine in that area of the world. So then we have some instruction on how this should be done. And so if we look at Numbers 18, this is Moses and Aaron leading the people of Israel after coming out of Egypt through the wilderness in the desert.

Keith Morton

31:14

Okay, So this is in the desert, right? This is in exile. I give you all the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain that the people give the Lord as their first fruits of the harvest. All the land's first fruits that they bring will be yours.

Keith Morton

31:33

And then specifically he says to the priestly class, you will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them. I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites. And then a little bit further on in numbers, we have again saying to the same chapter saying to the Levites, when you present the best part, it will be reckoned to you as the product of the threshing floor or the wine press, referring to grain and wine. You and your households may eat the rest of it anywhere, for it is your wages for doing the work at the tent of meeting.

Keith Morton

32:15

By presenting the best part of it, you will not only be, you will not be guilty in this matter and you will not defile the holy offerings of the Israelites and you will not die. Okay, and then there's some more instructions a little bit further on and through Exodus as well. There for the daily offerings, for example, it's 2 lambs, finest flour, pressed olives, wine, and the wine is intended to be poured out as a drink offering to the Lord at the sanctuary. OK, so back to wine and milk.

Keith Morton

32:56

If we look a little bit closer at Jacob's blessing to Judah in Genesis 49, Again, we're looking forward to that ruler that shall come, and we have that promise to the nations, right? The covenant with Abraham, that his family would be a blessing to the nations. We have these amazing lines back in Genesis 49. He will tether the donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch, the best branch.

Keith Morton

33:27

He will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk." So we're pointing forward to the Messiah, which is that section that you see there in our chapter today of Isaiah 55. So all of this is pointing towards Jesus and his exaltation. And clearly in all of this, the way that God is working is not the way that we would have set things up.

Keith Morton

34:03

And so, as the word goes out from my mouth, it will not return to me empty. But there's confidence that what it will do will accomplish what God desires and the purpose that he sends it. And his word did come. In John 1 we read, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

Keith Morton

34:30

He was with God in the beginning. In him was life, and that life was the light of all the people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And then as We move through John, just a couple of lines later, we have this really clear match to Isaiah 55.

Keith Morton

34:54

The word became flesh and dwelt tabernacled, pitched its tent, pitched his tent among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the 1 and only son who came from the father full of grace and truth. Okay, so we've gone from Isaiah 55, and it's pointed us forward to John 1. John 1 is linking back to Isaiah 55.

Keith Morton

35:30

And so I just want to unpack a little bit the first 7 chapters of John. And there's an astounding, just an astonishing literary structure here that covers all of what we've been looking at already in Isaiah 55. Okay, so we have in chapter 1, the word made flesh, and we also have John the Baptist, a call to repent. We have the Lamb of God, that choice offering, and we have an invitation to the disciples to come and see, to come with Jesus.

Keith Morton

36:09

And Andrew and Simon Peter and Nathaniel, they go. Chapter 2 of John is a wedding feast, Cana. Okay. And at that wedding feast, Jesus took the role of the bridegroom who didn't have enough wine and made an abundantly generous 600 liters probably of new wine from what?

Keith Morton

36:36

From jars, from the ceremonial washing, from the water for ceremonial washing. He took the religious part and created wine for the wedding feast. Amazingly, at the end of chapter 2 of John, Jesus goes to Jerusalem and turns over the tables in the temple. Remember our verse, come those who have no money, why are you spending on that which is not bread?

Keith Morton

37:11

Jesus goes to the temple and turns over the money changers in chapter 2. Chapter 3, Nicodemus at night, and Jesus famously says, you must be born from above of water and spirit. And he tags on this amazing line, which I don't have time to go into here, but says, just as the serpent was lifted up in the desert, so must the son of man be lifted up, referencing back to that time in the wilderness where Moses put a snake on a pole and the people had to believe in order to be saved from the plague. Do you know why they got the plague at that time?

Keith Morton

38:00

You know what they were grumbling about? They were grumbling about manna from heaven. Okay, the Samaritan at Jacob's Well. If you have time this week, I just spend some time in John 4.

Keith Morton

38:17

Read Isaiah 55 and then read John 4. It's a match. Then we go to chapter 5 of John, back in Jerusalem, and Jesus heals on the Sabbath next to the pool. The lame man was looking at his own way to try and be healed with the pool.

Keith Morton

38:38

And Jesus said, no, I am the way. My way is higher. My way is not your way. Get up and walk.

Keith Morton

38:45

And then there's a whole exposition on Jesus as a witness, which is also part of Isaiah 55. And then in John chapter 6, we have another example of Jesus giving tremendous abundance, feeding 5, 000 with just 5 loaves and 2 fish. And then in chapter 7, back in Jerusalem for the feast of the tabernacles, Jesus calls out at the end of that feast, Let all who are thirsty come to me and drink. And John does an amazing, amazing work here in the way that he sets up these stories.

Keith Morton

39:30

Because in every single 1 of these, there's a reference to a feast or a meal, either a feast in the Old Testament or a meal. In John 1, we have that link back to Genesis, the abundance of Eden, And then the disciples go and see where Jesus is staying. There's the wedding feast that I just mentioned. The temple market where he turned over the tables was at Passover.

Keith Morton

40:02

When he's talking to Nicodemus, they're talking about manna in the desert and water from the rock. Samaritan at the well was at lunchtime. Chapter 5 is a little less explicit, just says 1 of the Jewish festivals. Chapter 6, the time for Passover was near.

Keith Morton

40:23

And as I mentioned, chapter 7, the Feast of Tabernacles. Oh, yeah, here we go. So John 3 with Nicodemus. Again, my ways are higher than your ways.

Keith Morton

40:38

I have spoken to you about earthly things, but you didn't believe. How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." Again, right back to Numbers 21. At the well, Jesus answered her, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I give them will never thirst.

Keith Morton

41:13

Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Jesus answered, very truly I tell you, You are looking for me not because you saw the signs I performed, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life. Which the Son of Man will give you. For on him, God the Father has placed his seal of approval.

Keith Morton

41:56

And then this I am statement from John 6, you know it well. Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Keith Morton

42:13

John 6 again, Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. And I will raise them up on that last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them.

Keith Morton

42:33

And just like in the wilderness, when the Israelites grumbled about the manna from heaven and the water from the rock, in John 6 and 7, The people around Jesus, the crowds, they didn't like this very much. This didn't agree with them. And they were grumbling. And it says many, many went away.

Keith Morton

43:00

In fact, Jesus says in John 6, does this offend you? Just as the living father sent me and I live because of the father, so the 1 who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." And then in John 7, we have this really, really heart-wrenching snippet of a story.

Keith Morton

43:34

After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders were there, were looking for a way to kill him. But when the Jewish festival of the Tabernacles was near, Jesus's brothers said to him, leave Galilee and go to Judea so that your disciples there may see the works you do, for even his own brothers did not believe him. Jesus told them, My time is not yet here.

Keith Morton

44:11

And on that last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice God's word Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink whoever believes in me as scripture has said Rivers of living water will flow from within them By this he meant the spirit from those who believed in him were later to receive. A little further on in John, just before the Passover festival, Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and to go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress.

Keith Morton

45:00

And the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things in his power, and that he had come from God, and was returning to God, just like in Isaiah 55. So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with a towel that was wrapped around him.

Keith Morton

45:34

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Keith Morton

45:54

Listen. Listen to me and eat what is good and you will delight in the richest of fare. Isaiah 28 28 grain must be ground to make bread. When you present the best part, it will be reckoned to you as the product of the threshing floor and the wine press.

Keith Morton

46:28

Jesus was flogged. Jesus was crushed. Jesus was disfigured beyond recognition for us on the cross. The punishment that brought us peace was on him.

Keith Morton

46:47

By his wounds, we were healed. The Roman soldier stuck his spear into Jesus' side, and wine, wine, and blood and water came out. And the ground that had once opened its mouth to receive Abel's blood, opened its mouth to receive Jesus's blood. Perfect for us.

Keith Morton

47:24

A new command I give you, love 1 another as I have loved you, so you must love 1 another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love 1 another. Cain and Abel, anger and murder. You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, you shall not murder.

Keith Morton

47:56

And anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother or your sister has something against you. Leave your gift there in front of the altar.

Keith Morton

48:24

First go and be reconciled to them. Then come and offer your gift. My ways are higher than your ways. Jesus replied, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Keith Morton

48:41

Very truly I tell you, unless a seed of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it. Anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Keith Morton

49:06

As the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and make it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth, it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Love 1 another as I have loved you." After Jesus rose, he came and found the disciples locked away in a room. And he said, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

Keith Morton

49:55

And with that, he breathed on them all the way back to Genesis and said, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. You will go out with joy.

Keith Morton

50:22

You will be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn brush will grow the juniper and instead of the briars the myrtle will grow. This is for the Lord's renowned, an everlasting sign that will endure forever.

Keith Morton

50:53

And of course, to cap things off, Isaiah 55 looks back to Genesis, looks back to the Old Testament. It looks forward to Jesus and the Messiah. And it looks forward to when everything will be made right. The last book, almost the very last verse in the Bible, Revelation 22.

Keith Morton

51:17

The spirit and the bride say, come. And let the 1 who hears come say, come. Let the 1 who is thirsty come. And let the 1 who wishes to take the free gift of the water of life come.

Keith Morton

51:36

This Advent season, I would encourage you to read through Isaiah 55 a couple of times, if you have a moment. It encapsulates the entire gospel. It essentially encapsulates the entire Bible. So if there was any place or portion that you wanted to memorize, Memorize Isaiah 55, because as you're walking through the day, it points to Jesus.

Keith Morton

52:11

If you have a little bit more time, and you want to dig into an amazing story begin to an amazing story in the Old Testament that points to the fact that Jesus Christ took the vengeance that was due on himself. I encourage you to go to 1 Samuel 23 and read the story about Abigail coming to stop David on his vengeful, murderous path. It's a direct intercession that matches Jesus for us. And like I mentioned earlier, John 4, the Samaritan at the Well.