Isaiah 27

God will change the world. Not you or me. That is the hope that believers have to hold onto. 

In Chapter 27, the final section of the “Isaiah Apocalypse”, where the prophet outlines his vision of the end times, we see what the world looks like after the judgment of God. 

Isaiah returns to the analogy of the vineyard. In Chapter 5, God creates a vineyard (Israel in the Old Testament) that is corrupted by the world around it so he decides to tear it down and start over. His new vineyard (the Christian church in the New Testament) will be different. It will change the world instead to the world changing it: 

“I, the Lord, watch over the vineyard; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it. I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me! 

I would march agains them in battle; I would set them all on fire. Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me."

In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit. 

— Isaiah 27:2-6 

The new vineyard will fill the world with fruit. Not because of anything that it will do. But because of what God will do for it. 

That is where Isaiah's confidence in the future comes from. There was no reason for him to have any. His people and his religion seemed doomed. 

Jesus had the same confidence. He was a no-account peasant from the middle of nowhere who was abandoned by even his closest friends at his death. The Roman Empire should have lasted a lot longer than the religion he founded. But Jesus knew something they didn’t: 

“Heaven and earth will pass away; but my words will never pass away.”  

— Matthew 24:25 

The Romans did everything they could to stamp out Christianity. They made it illegal and killed anyone they found practicing it. They murdered Jesus and they murdered Peter and Paul, too. 

Killing Jesus should have been enough. There was no one who could fill his shoes. His inner circle wasn't made up of wealthy and important people. The 12 disciples were mostly fishermen without any formal education. They were essentially guys with associates degrees who worked blue-collar jobs. It was the first thing the Jewish religious leaders picked up on. They couldn't believe people like that could speak so well:

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 

— Acts 4:13  

That’s the difference between Man and God. Man changes the world from the top-down. God does it from the bottom-up. He doesn’t need people from Harvard and Yale. God can empower a community college graduate just as easily.

Peter was the first leader of the Christian church after Jesus. There was nothing particularly impressive about him. He’s a rash and impulsive character throughout the Gospels, constantly second-guessing Jesus and rarely grasping the meaning of his lessons. 

After spending three years together, Jesus gives Peter a series of tests on the eve of the crucifixion. He asks Peter to pray for him, and Peter falls asleep instead. When the Roman soldiers arrest Jesus, Peter chops off one of their ears, going against every single thing that Jesus had taught him about non-violence. He even tells Peter beforehand that he will deny him three times. Peter scoffs at the warning and then does it anyway.

He's not someone who should have been able to lead and grow a religion. Yet Jesus still trusted him with that authority. 

The whole point of being a Christian is that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done or even what kind of abilities that you have. God can still use you in miraculous ways beyond what you could do on your own. He actually enjoys doing it that way. 

God doesn’t want people who don't need Him to succeed because then He wouldn't get the credit for their accomplishments. No Christian does anything without God. That is the first lesson you learn when you start walking with Him. That's what this classic hymn is getting at:

I will not boast in anything; no gifts, no power, no wisdom /

But I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection.

-- How Deep The Father's Love

No early Christian leader understood this more than Paul. He was the opposite of Peter and the disciples in every way. Paul wasn't a nobody in Jewish society. He was born into the 1% and advanced even further up the ranks on the strength of his intellectual brilliance and religious zealousness, the two things their culture valued the most:

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

-- Philippians 3:4-7

Paul turned his back on everything his society said was important to follow God. He was in line to become the ancient Jewish version of a Supreme Court justice. That's what he's getting at when he talks about all the reasons that he has for "confidence in the flesh" [i.e himself]. He had checked every box and was climbing all the most important ladders. Think of him like a graduate of Harvard and Harvard Law who had clerked in the Supreme Court and was now a federal judge. Then he threw it all away to become a Christian. 

He went from persecuting the early Christians to being persecuted. He went from a religious scholar to a tentmaker, traveling from town to town and selling his goods in the market like his fellow believers, none of whom had his education.

History proved him right. Paul became one of the most influential thinkers in human history. His words have lived forever. But here's the important part. Peter is one of the most influential thinkers, too. He has his own letters in the Bible that people still pour over thousands of years later. And he didn't have 1% of Paul's natural ability or education. 

The world tells you need to check all these boxes to accomplish anything in your life. You need to go to this college. You need to know these people. You need to have this kind of career. God says you don’t need to do anything other than love Him. You don't have to be "special" in any way. He will do all the work. The pressure isn't on any Christian to do anything. Ask for help and help will be given. 

That certainly applies in my life. I had nothing going on before I was a Christian. I was broke, alone, and marginally employed. The only thing that separates me from a lot of folks on Basketball Twitter is that I asked God for help in my career. It really is that simple.

That's why the best thing that can happen to you in your life is to bottom out. Because that's when you realize that you can't get out of that hole without help from God. There are a lot of people in this world who don't ever need God. They were born on third base. They have everything figured out. That's what Jesus means when he says it's hard for a rich man to make it to heaven. They are doing just fine on their own. 

But that wasn't my story. It's probably not yours, either. The world wrote me off. I am where I am today because I wrote the world off and turned to God. It's the best decision you can make with your life. The only thing that it will cost you is your pride. 

Becoming a Christian is the opposite of selling your soul to the devil. You don't get to name your price. God isn't a genie. But He can do things for you far beyond your wildest dreams. You never know what will happen when you ask.

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

-- Matthew 7:7-11

Here are two facts that even non-believers can agree. Christianity changed the world even though Christians aren't the most impressive people in the world. It's what Isaiah promised all those years ago. And there are even more promises still ahead of us.