I had a hard time figuring out how to introduce this sermon today, but then I was reminded of the problems we’ve had with the tree near the corner. Its roots were strong enough to lift a sidewalk. We don’t stop to think just how strong a root is in order to do that because we see it all the time.
In Dansville, I remember the mayor wanting to get sidewalk grants to help repair what the trees had damaged. Unfortunately, New York State has no such program, so the village devised one where, if you paid for the cement, they’d replace the sidewalk. Wish we had that here. We fought with the village here for months just to get a new section of sidewalk.
But we don’t really stop to think just how strong tree roots can be. This is from Preaching Today:
Science writer Hope Jahren shares an interesting fact about plants, especially how a tiny seed starts to put down roots—the most essential thing for a plant’s survival. She writes,
“No risk is more terrifying than that taken by the first root. A lucky root will eventually find water, but its first job is to anchor … Once the first root is extended, the plant will never again enjoy any hope of relocating to a place less cold, less dry, less dangerous. Indeed, it will face frost, drought, and greedy jaws without any possibility of flight.”
She calls taking root a big “gamble,” but if the seed takes root it can go down twelve, thirty, forty meters. The results are powerful. The tree’s roots can “swell and split bedrock, and move gallons of water daily for years, much more efficiently than any pump yet invented by man.” If the root takes root, then the plant becomes all but indestructible: “Tear apart everything above ground—everything—and most plants can still grow rebelliously back from just one intact root. More than once. More than twice.”
So what does that have to do with our sermon this morning? Turn with me to Isaiah 6, and we’ll read verses 8-13. As you’re turning there, let me read to you something about Billy Graham. You know, he faced discouragement too? His long-lasting, incredibly impactful ministry almost never happened–if it weren’t for a stump.
This is how his grandson, Will, tells the story:
One night at Forest Home, he walked out into the woods and set his Bible on a stump—more an altar than a pulpit—and he cried out: “O God! There are many things in this book I do not understand. There are many problems with it for which I have no solution. There are many seeming contradictions. There are some areas in it that do not seem to correlate with modern science. I can’t answer some of the philosophical and psychological questions Chuck and others are raising.”
And then, my grandfather fell to his knees and the Holy Spirit moved in him as he said, “Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word—by faith! I’m going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be Your inspired Word!”*
My granddaddy wrote in his autobiography that as he stood up his eyes stung with tears, but he felt the power and presence of God in a way he hadn’t in months. “A major bridge had been crossed,” he said.
The resulting change did not go unnoticed. The next day my granddaddy spoke at Forest Home, and 400 people made a commitment to Christ. Henrietta Mears remarked that he “preached with authority” that she hadn’t seen before from him.
This was August 1949, and mere weeks later Billy Graham would go on to hold the historic 1949 Los Angeles Crusade in the tent erected on the corner of Washington and Hill Streets. That outreach was scheduled to last three weeks, and ended up going for eight weeks as people packed the “Canvas Cathedral” and media outlets nationwide began talking about the upstart evangelist.
Because of that moment kneeling by a stump at Forest Home, I get to hear stories of lives changed through my grandfather’s ministry. Because of that moment, my father and I are invited around the world to share the same hope of Christ that my grandfather preached in Los Angeles and hundreds of other locations both near and far. That moment not only changed Billy Graham’s ministry. It impacted eternity.
Scripture: So let’s see what The Bible has to say about a stump, and how it relates to us.
Isaiah 6, beginning with verse 8:
[This is Isaiah speaking]
8 Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to these people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” 9 And he said, “Yes, go, and say to these people, ‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. Watch closely, but learn nothing.’ 10 Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing.”
11 Then I said, “Lord, how long will this go on?” And he replied, “Until their towns are empty, their houses are deserted, and the whole country is a wasteland; 12 until the Lord has sent everyone away, and the entire land of Israel lies deserted. 13 If even a tenth—a remnant—survives, it will be invaded again and burned. But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel’s stump will be a holy seed.”
Okay, that’s strange. I have to admit, some things in the Old Testament are strange, and as Billy Graham confessed, there are things we don’t quite understand sometimes. Isaiah later used this illustration of Israel as a stump to prophecy that Jesus will be a shoot that rises from the stump.
If we move ahead a few chapters, Isaiah 11:1 says, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” So what does this mean, and how is it a reference for us? After all, this is the Old Testament and it says here, “Israel’s stump.” We don’t live in Old Testament Israel so how is it an encouragement to us?
The encouragement is this: no matter what happens, if we have our roots firmly planted in the good, rich soil of God’s word, we’ll also, because of the root of Jesse, because of Jesus, spring forth with new life again. And we can become strong in the faith. Stronger than the roots that take out cement sidewalks. We can take out the enemy of our souls.
Brian Barth, who is an environmental consultant in Atlanta said, “Stump sprouting is a natural mechanism for plant regeneration. It allows a forest to return after a fire and prevents the death of saplings after they have been browsed by deer. A root system stores some of the energy produced in photosynthesis and directs it into new growth from the stump…”
While thinking about this, I was reminded of the trip we took out west. When we got into Yellowstone, I think one of the first things we saw was the remnants of a forest fire that happened back in 1988. Now, I don’t remember it, but maybe you do, I was a young teenager and not really paying attention to the news at that time. But we went in the summer of 2017, so it had been 30 years, and the remnants of the forest fire were still there.
We can see the effects of a forest whose charred remains still linger after 30 years. But there are other areas of the forest that have regrown nicely. This is from treesource.org talking about the incident on its 30th anniversary in 2018:
In Yellowstone, wildflowers and grasses sprouted from surviving roots because soils did not burn deeply and retained key nutrients needed for plant growth. Native species steadily filled in the bare spots. Aspens – long a species of concern in the northern Rockies – established from seed throughout the burned pine forests, many miles from the nearest mature aspen trees. Many are doing well at higher elevations than their pre-fire distribution.
Yellowstone’s ecosystems recovered rapidly on their own. I suspect that many visitors no longer “see” evidence of the 1988 fires as they admire scenery and wildlife amidst a sea of green. Similar patterns of natural recovery following 20th-century fires have also been observed in Rocky Mountain, Glacier, and Grand Teton National Parks,
So here we were, for the most part seeing some wonderful recovery as if nothing ever happened, yet in just a few other areas, there were still remnants of the fire. In our own Christian walk, we may have been burned, charred, damaged, whatever, but our remnant shall spring forth with new and greater shoots. Why? Because like Yellowstone, we were planted in fertile soil, and as the article says, “soils did not burn deeply and retained key nutrients needed for plant growth.”
When we get burned, by people, by unexpected life circumstances, by whatever flaming arrows the devil throws at us, our soil will not burn deep enough and we will retain key nutrients for growth.
It reminds me of Jesus’ parable in Matthew where he says, “25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
In the imagery of Yellowstone, instead of the foolish who build on sand, you can picture the acreage that did not regrow as those whose roots were not strong and solid and in good fertile soil. Instead, like that parable of the sower, they had weak roots in rocky soil, so they burned.
Let me read to you again verses 9 and 10, but this is how the Greek version of the Old Testament words it. So this is an English translation of the way Jesus would have read The Old Testament. I think this makes a little more sense:
And he said, “Go and say to these people, / ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. / When you see what I do, you will not comprehend.’ / For the hearts of these people are hardened, / and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes— / so their eyes cannot see, / and their ears cannot hear, / and their hearts cannot understand, / and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.”
Sound familiar? It was another prophecy of Jesus. You can see how this was fulfilled in his ministry.
Mark 6:-6 says:
4 Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family.” 5 And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 And he was amazed at their unbelief.
Matthew 13:10-13 says:
10 His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?” 11 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. 12 To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. 13 That is why I use these parables, “For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.”
And then Jesus quotes this passage from Isaiah; and then in verse 16, Jesus says, “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.”
But do you see the parallels? The same is happening today. The world around us thinks they know who Jesus is, but they don’t. They think they understand what the Bible teaches, but they don’t. And when the real Jesus stands up–if they get a chance to hear him–they reject him because he’s so divisive in this politically correct culture in which we live. His call to holiness isn’t what the people want anymore. His call to uncompromising faith isn’t what people want anymore. The road is too narrow; or should I say, too narrow-minded?
So what will become of them? They are as spiritually dead as those trees. Their hearts have hardened; their eyes have been closed; and their ears cannot hear.
Verse 13 says: “If even a tenth—a remnant—survives, it will be invaded again and burned. But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel’s stump will be a holy seed.”
That doesn’t sound very promising, does it? “The remnant will be invaded again and burned?” Well, that’s not very encouraging, pastor. Don’t worry, the next sentence is us. “But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel’s stump will be a holy seed.”
Okay, what does that mean? Paul goes on to explain it in Romans 11:5, “Even so then, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”
Notice Paul said, “at this present time.” Let’s remember that there has always been a remnant. Look at Noah and his family. God could have done away with them, or said, “Come up here,” as he did with Elijah and Enoch. But God wanted a remnant left on this earth.
If we go back to Isaiah, to chapter 1, verse 9, we read Isaiah say, “Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.”
God wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah, yet let a remnant out–Lot and his family. As a side note, I think this is sort of a foreshadowing–as is Noah’s Ark–of the rapture.
But why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah–all but one family? Why did he destroy all the earth–but one family? Because He wanted a people to call his own. And He wanted that family to grow until the end of time. Imagine all of human history–the good stuff–all of the wonderful people, places, and things that would have been missed had God said, “That’s it. No more people–ever!”
But in spite of all of the evil that has happened since then, as I mentioned last week, it is worth it to God to have a family to call His own. And so today, we are that family, We are that remnant. Small as we might be in the grand scheme of things, but we are not as small as Noah’s family. There are millions, if not billions of us in the here and now. We are all a remnant according to the election of grace.
Crosswalk.com says, These people who make up the remnant are instrumental in preserving God’s character, God’s purpose, and God’s will in the earth. Therefore those who make up the remnant represent hope along with the promise and possibility of restoration.
Peter calls us, “…a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession,”
And why are we called that? So that we, “may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Isn’t it amazing that all of this can spring out of a stump? It’s a brilliant depiction. Of course, it’s brilliant, it comes from God.
Looking further into this, I found that the Hebrew word here for stump is mat-st-se-beth – which doesn’t just mean a regular old stump, but also a pillar, a monument [like Billy Graham’s story], or an altar. It also bears the word, substance as a synonym.
Substance meaning that which is needed in the existence of something. So a stump in this sense is not just the remainder of a tree that has been cut down, but its “substance,” the true life that remains. Spiritually, the true life is the root system that leads to Christ.
We have been planted in good soil and that seed that was planted developed strong roots. Of course, we had to intentionally develop those strong roots.
Asbury Bible Commentary says, “It is the working of God’s Word in the midst of believers that produces real growth in the church.”
So because we have developed these strong roots, because we’re allowing the nutrients of God’s word, we’re producing growth in the form of a shoot from the stump. Like the parable of the foolish builder, we’re not going anywhere while the world around us is not hearing, not seeing, and going about its own way. We’re rooted in Christ and continue to receive nutrients by staying solid and firm in His rich soil. Because we remain strong after the storm, after the fire, after the winds and the waves, we are called by God as His remnant, as His people, as His holy nation on the earth. And we stand as pillars. Maybe we’re still resprouting, that’s okay. We have other pillars in the forest to look up to. And if we continue to receive those nutrients, we’ll regrow into pillars for other shoots to look up to.
I’m just going to read one short scripture verse from Colossians 2 as we close, and I want you to take a moment and just soak this in:
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen
Featured Image by Kjerstin Michaela Noomi Sakura Gihle Martinsen Haraldsen from Pixabay
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