Isaiah 11:1-5  (NIV)

¹ A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.  ² The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—³ and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; ⁴ but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.  He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. 
⁵ Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

The theme of the Advent this year is to get the clearest picture of Jesus from Colossians.

Colossians 1:1-8, 28-29 (NIV)

¹ Paul, as an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

² To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints–⁵ the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel ⁶ that has come to you.  All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.  ⁷ You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, ⁸ and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

²⁸ We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.  ²⁹ To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

William Holland heard these words of Martin Luther, “What, have we nothing to do?  No, nothing but accept of Him who God has made for us our wisdom, righteous way of sanctification and redemption.”  At those words I broke through and suddenly power came on and I knew who He was.  William Holland became a believer in May 1738.

Several days after Charles Wesley read Luther’s words again and he got it as well.  Wesley wrote, “I found it.  I saw by faith I stood, thought of myself I am always sinking in sin.  So, I went to bed sensing my brokenness, but finally confident in Christ.”  A year later he wrote, “Hark the Herald, Angels Sing.”

How did these two Christian men take so long to get the Gospel?  Paul says the Gospel is the core to following Christ.  “The gospel, the word of truth, has to come to you and it’s bearing fruit and growing, as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all truth.  [It’s one thing to listen to the gospel, but it’s another to have it come to you.]

Christianity is not about behavior modification.  It is about inward heart transformation.  ~Joseph Prince

It can be easy to miss the gospel, but it’s another to have it come to you.

How do we know the gospel has come to us?

Several tests of proof that the gospel has come into you:

1)      Test 1, Joy.  Gospel in the Greek is a compound word that means a joyous proclamation.  When the gospel really comes into someone’s life, there is joy.  The gospel brings joy into a believer’s life.  If Christianity is a bummer rather than joy, we have a religion instead of the gospel.

The Gospel purifies and renews, it bears fruit, wherever the community of believers hears it and receives God’s grace in truth and charity.  This is my confidence, this is my joy.  ~Pope Benedict XVI

Paul talks about the fruits of the Spirit which become a sense of soulfulness.  Paul got this love, his contentment in the face of possible death.

The Fruit of the Spirit.  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Galatians 5:22-23

2)      Test 2, Power.  Paul is experiencing an energy and a power that is coming from God, the fruit of the Gospel.  The Holy Spirit was changing Paul’s perspective and behavior in his life.

We should be like Paul, we are becoming because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, our submission to God because of how wonderful Jesus is, that’s what really matters.

Paul’s drive to engage with folks and not be drained comes from experiencing the fruit of the gospel.  It gave him love, joy, peace and patience.

Paul says, the gospel produces the fruit, the gospel saves us and moves us forward into the growing phase of our spiritual lives.

A lack of fruit in our lives as evidence by our discontent or disorder, it is the lack of fruit, which is only put right by the Gospel.

3)      Test 3, Grace.  Paul understands that the gospel is the solution to all of our issues.  All of our issues come from the failure to apply the gospel, understand the gospel and use it in our lives.

Paul understands the gospel as a bottomless well.  If we understand the gospel, we understand God to be infinitely rich, infinitely immense, we will apply this grace, this gift in all areas of our lives.

The fruit of the gospel starts growing when we start applying the deep knowledge of God’s love and acceptance of us into our past hurts, into our present situation, into our relationships, into our professional careers, into what we do with free time and our talents.

The gospel is grace, so the fruits come from the wider study of that our crown, our glory is stored in eternity, we can live off the stored grace.

Jesus, to be clear, is Christianity.  He, Himself is the Gospel.  Jesus, Himself is the Way.

That’s why we celebrate Jesus coming to us.  He means everything, He is our hope and peace, love, and joy.

We remember that Jesus is God, He came to us, in order to bring us home with Him some day.

When we allow Jesus into our lives, the Holy Spirit comes in power, and it is that power that fuels us and enables the Fruit of the Spirit to come from us to the world.

HOPE is not a philosophy, it’s a person JESUS

This season prepare your hearts to meet Jesus.  God bless you.