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Well, good morning to you. It's always a pleasure to have the opportunity to open the Word with you, to come back home, so to speak. It's wonderful to see old friends, dear brothers and sisters, but also wonderful to see new faces, people I do not know, and I think that's a wonderful indication of God moving His kingdom and this church forward. And we do remember you in our prayers. And I would like you to remember us in our prayers. In God's providence, I've always tried to be, here am I, Lord, send me. So apparently the Lord is sending us to Okinawa in Japan in February. This came about in a providential way. There's a young mission pastor there. It's an English-speaking congregation, a lot of military people, and he needs a break. And he's coming to the States where he raises support. He's actually from Brazil, which is also very interesting. Would you go and fill in for five weeks? I said, sure. So Patsy and I are leaving at the end of January, Lord willing, be there for five weeks preaching and pastoring this church and would welcome your prayers for that. This morning, I would like to call your attention to Isaiah chapter 42. verses one through four one of the servant songs of Isaiah and we could dig into the fullness of this but it would take too much time so just part of it in the first four verses God speaks of his servant And then beginning in verse five and following, he speaks to his servant. We'll just take the part where the Lord is speaking here about his servant. Isaiah 42, verses one through four, hear God's word. Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law. Let us pray. We thank you for this wonderful passage, this beautiful glimpse of your servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. May we be enabled now to do as the text tells us, to behold your wonderful servant. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. As Isaiah speaks of his servant, of course we have read the end of the story. And there's no use trying to be dramatic about this. We know he's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Plenty of references in the rest of the Bible to this fact. And this sermon will attempt, by the help of the Holy Spirit, to enable us indeed to behold, to focus on, this servant of the Lord, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. this word behold is important in scripture and I try to pay attention every time scripture uses it and I hope you do too because God is saying listen up open your eyes pay attention I really have something for you here and beholding is awfully important for distracted people And are we not easily distracted people? Many commentators have written about this. We can tell this from our own experience. Peggy Noonan is a commentator that I read just about every week. I think she might be a Christian. I'm not sure. But she often has very insightful things to say about culture, about America, about politics. And I enjoy reading what she has to say. Recently, she wrote about discovering Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. She said in August, she finally got around to reading this great novel by Tolstoy, War and Peace. And if you know War and Peace, you know it's very long indeed. She said she became completely absorbed in this book. And this is the quote that really grabbed me about what she said. She said, for the first time in years, I was freed from the compulsion to pick up a device to find out what was happening." End of quote. I think that's a stunning statement. She was so absorbed by this great work of literature. that she was freed from this need to always be reaching for that cell phone to find out, oh yeah, did I get a text? Did I get an email? What's going on in the world? And especially someone like Peggy Noonan, who's by no means a superficial person, I thought, wow, what an amazing thing to say. Having something great to focus on can free us from our compulsions. War and peace is magnificent, and it's worth being focused on, but I want to tell you about something that's far, far greater than war and peace, and that is the servant of the Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God says, come and behold, and may in so focusing we be freed from our compulsions. I'd like to present this to you under three headings. I want to invite you to behold the servant's unique relationship with God. Then I want you to behold the servant's work of justice. And then I want you to notice and behold the servant's gentleness to broken people. So please, spend a few minutes with me in this portion of God's Word. First of all, behold the servant's unique relationship with God. Again, this goes against our perceptions, I think, but let's be clear that calling this one God's servant is a description of high honor. It's a description of great dignity. We don't think that way. We wouldn't like it if somebody called us a servant, because we want to be more than that, of course, and all that. But in the scriptures, And especially when God is speaking of his son as servant, it is a high honor indeed. And this is applied to our Lord Jesus Christ a number of places in the New Testament. In fact, this very passage is quoted in Matthew 12 as Jesus is ministering. In verse 17, Matthew says, this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. So clearly scripture is of a mind to say that this servant of the Lord will come in the fullness of time. The Lord Jesus Christ will fulfill this prophecy. Now let's be clear that Isaiah is speaking here of God's son as mediator, as his Messiah, as his anointed one, servant in that sense. Now, Jesus, as God's eternal son, as the second person of the Trinity, of course, is equal in power and glory to the Father and to the Spirit. There's no subordination, there's no superiority or inferiority eternally. They are equal in power and glory, as our catechism says. Freely and willingly the son took upon himself the work of servant to submit himself to the father's will and to come in the fullness of time and To do the work of God and that's what we're talking about here when we think about God's servant The second person of the Trinity as we heard earlier and in Sunday school put on human flesh and becomes the servant of the Lord to do his will and to glorify him. Notice then this unique relationship that God has with the servant. First of all, he tells us that his servant is the one whom he upholds. It's very necessary, it's very fitting because we know from other passages that we don't have time to look into that the servant will be a suffering servant. And in that sense, his work will be a labor. It will be a challenge. It will be difficult, full of suffering. And God will uphold his servant every step of the way. He also chooses him. He is my chosen one to be this mediator. The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, has always existed, was never chosen in that sense. But God chooses him to be the mediator of a new covenant. If you have time this afternoon, look a few more verses beyond verse 4 that we're looking at, and you'll see a reference to this covenant. Where from eternity past the Father and the Son agreed that the Son would be the mediator, would be the Savior of God's people. And in that sense, he is the chosen one sent forth in the fullness of time to redeem the people of God. And notice also that the father delights in him. What a wonderful statement. In whom my soul delights. We see this so wonderfully in the New Testament that God loves his son. I think we ought to think a lot about that. If we want to know what our values should be, what we should think is important, we ought to think about what God thinks is important, and God loves His son. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. The voice comes from heaven as Jesus is baptized, as the voice comes again at the transfiguration. And made clear in other ways throughout the gospel that God delights in his son. Do we delight in God's son? Do we delight? in this wonderful servant of the Lord. And with that, do we delight in his way of salvation, in his gospel. May it be so. And one final point to notice about his unique relationship with the Father. At the end of verse one, God says, I have put my spirit upon him. So this is the spirit anointed one. In the Old Testament, kings were anointed with holy oil, symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Priests were anointed with holy oil, symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Here, God comes right out and says it about the mediator, about the servant of the Lord, I have put my spirit upon him who will empower him. and enable him every step of the way until his mission is completed. And so we see something of this unique relationship between the servant, the incarnate son of God, and God. So then, this spirit anointing then equips him for his work. And that's our second point. I want you to behold the servant's work of justice. Why is the servant chosen? Why is he upheld? Why is he anointed by the Spirit of God? So that at the very end of verse 1, he will bring forth justice to the nations. And the word justice is used several times in this. passage at the end of verse 3, he will faithfully bring forth justice. Verse 4, he will not grow weary or discouraged until he has established justice in the earth. I think this is interesting because I don't think the word justice is the first word we think of when we think of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, is it? I don't I don't think so. What words would you describe Jesus' ministry? Well, we think of mercy and love, rightly so. We would think of his obedience to God, rightly so. We would think of his death upon the cross and resurrection, rightly so. But probably justice isn't the word that would come to mind. But in this text, and really throughout Isaiah, in his portrait of the suffering servant, we see the importance of the fact that the servant will bring forth, will establish justice among the nations. And I think it's always important when we're studying the Bible, and I'm sure you know this, we've gotta try not to bring our definitions of words to the words that God is using. We really have to let God speak for himself. And we have to let Isaiah define the word justice. When we think of justice, I think we typically think of personal injustice that we've suffered, and we want some situation to be corrected. And that's legitimate, by the way. Christians can think biblically about that. Or we have a friend who's being abused in some way, and we want justice, perhaps, for her. That also is legitimate to think about justice in that way. Or public justice. And don't we hear a lot of angry calls for justice? I was at a tennis tournament for my grandson up at a big high school in Massachusetts back in the spring. And I noticed a whole bunch of students over by the school. And one of them was standing up on the steps. And I didn't know what they were doing until I finally could make out the words. The person on the steps was saying, what do we want? The answer? Justice! When do we want it? Now! And if you ever watch the news, and whatever the issues are, you'll see that scenario played out, that kind of angry call for justice. And again, I'm not saying Christians shouldn't speak to that, or that we shouldn't care about it, or that the Bible doesn't speak about it. It does. All I'm saying is, that's not what Isaiah's talking about. What does Isaiah mean when he says that the servant is going to come and bring forth justice to the nations? What he's saying is the good news of the coming of God's just kingdom. That's what Isaiah means. You're going to hear from Christ, you're going to hear from the servant, and he's not just going to talk about it, he's going to establish it, the good news of the coming of God's just kingdom. In fact, if we want to dig in a little more, we could say this is a new and greater Davidic kingdom that has been long expected. I could show you so many verses in Isaiah that support this. Let me just get one that's familiar to you and you probably sang about and heard a sermon about maybe during the last few weeks. Isaiah chapter 9, verse 7. Speaking of the wonderful counselor, he says, of the increase of his government end of peace, there will be no end. And on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. That's the justice that Jesus has established. He will sit on the throne of his father David, as the angel said to Mary, And Luke chapter 1, and he will bring forth justice and righteousness from this time forth and forever. There will be judgment on the proud. There will be judgment on the wicked who do not repent. In fact, if we go on in chapter 9, just go on to verse 8, for example, the Lord has sent a word against Jacob. And it will fall on Israel. And there's lots of this judgment language on those who are unrepentant. And that's necessary for establishing his kingdom. But the good news is that he will also bring salvation to the humble. And that's the idea that we see at the end of chapter 42 and verse 4. We see the coastlands waiting for his law. the humble who long for the coming of God's kingdom. The coastlands being, speaking literally of the coastal lands around the Mediterranean, but really as a metaphor for the furthest places, for the wildest, longest, most distant places of the earth, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. That's where God's justice will be established. But one question has to stick in our minds. How can the news of God's justice be good news for sinners? Do any of us pray, oh God, treat me with precise and exact justice, will you? I don't think any of us would be of a mind to pray that way. We'd be afraid what might happen. How can the news of God's justice be good news for sinners? because his kingdom will be built on atonement for sin. We see that in Isaiah 53. That's well known, I'm sure, to many of you, the suffering servant. What a great description in Isaiah 53 of the sufferings of the servant. Go read it again when you have time. But it's interesting, earlier in Isaiah, in the famous chapter six, do you remember what happens in Isaiah chapter six? Isaiah sees this great vision of God, this glorious, exalted vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, and really God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. And the angels crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And at first, Isaiah is not encouraged. Remember that? What does he say? Woe is me! This is not good news. Woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. How can I speak God's word? Until an angel comes to him, bringing a burning coal from the altar and touches his lips and says, your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for. You see the point? Before Isaiah can even speak the good news of the kingdom of God, his sin has to be atoned for. That's how the news of God's justice can be good news for sinners. Because through this servant, God will provide atonement, a means for the forgiveness of sins. And that's why, rather than being a harsh judge, the servant can then be gentle with broken people. And that's our final point. I want you to behold the servant's gentleness with broken people. What an interesting description this is of his ministry. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. In the coming of the servant, there'll be no boisterous fanfare There'll be no worldwide media attention. We read in Matthew 12, where again this passage is quoted, Matthew tells us that Jesus ordered them not to make this known. Fascinating thing to think about as we read the Gospels, the so-called messianic secret. And I'm quite sure it was because at that time, that would have led to great misunderstanding. If people had just gone about talking about the fact that the Messiah's come, the Messiah's come and he's healing people, they would have had the wrong idea of who the Messiah would be. And it needed to be after the cross and the resurrection that people could really begin to understand who the Messiah was. But here we have still this amazing, the servant does not come riding on a white horse, a war charger. He comes quietly. He does not lift up his voice in the streets. You can imagine a political consultant or an advertising executive talking to Jesus and saying, this is not the way to build a kingdom. It's not the way to do it. You've got to get your message out there. You've got to be loud. You've got to call attention to yourself. You need some fireworks here. And Jesus does it just in that unpredictable, that mysterious way that he comes. quietly, not lifting up his voice. And it's part and parcel of his humble submission to the Father. And then notice verses three and four. You can also imagine a consultant, you know, worldly wisdom saying, now, Jesus, if you're going to build your kingdom, you really want to gather people around you who have their lives together. That's what you want. You want the winners. You want the successful people. You want those who really have taken this life by the tail and have everything under control. And that's exactly who Jesus actually rejects and who don't have really any interest in him. Notice verse three. A bruised reed he will not break. In a faintly burning wick he will not quench. he will faithfully bring forth justice. And of course, this is put in the negative, but certainly the positive is intended. It's not just that he's not going to break off that reed that vibrates in the wind like some weed in your backyard that you might just cut down with the weed whacker. Not only that, he's going to establish it and strengthens it so it stands firm. Same thing with this fluttering candle, this candle, the flame that's just about to go out, just the next breath is going to blow it out. Not only will he not snuff it out, he's going to trim the wick so that it burns more brightly. And that's a picture of how Jesus ministers gently to us, to broken people who can't be successful on their own. And Jesus comes to us, and as our catechism says, He renews us in the whole person after the image of God. That's the Holy Spirit's work in His people, renewing us in the whole person after the image of God. And what a beautiful picture of that gentle Savior at work among His people. Do you realize He's not going to give up on you? How many times have you looked at yourself and looked at your sin, as I have, and you almost want to give up? You say, why bother? Why do I call myself a Christian? Why do I think I'm a follower of Christ? I have failed in so many ways. The Lord Jesus Christ, this great servant of the Father, will not ever give up on his people. A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. There's a little booklet by a Puritan named Richard Baxter. It's a wonderful meditation on this verse. If you ever want to be deeply encouraged, go get that and read it. I'm sure it will help you. So we know that the saints are going to persevere. I hope that when people look at this congregation, they'll see some of these qualities reflected in our lives and in our ministries. I hope they'll see that gentleness in the way that we treat fellow broken sinners. I hope that they'll see that and yet that perseverance not giving up, because think of it, the church is an outpost of the kingdom. Each congregation is a little colony of the kingdom of God, which Jesus has come to establish. May that be so in this church. And may we be given fresh eyes as a new year begins, that we will behold the Lamb of God, he will be the focus, this great servant, that he would be the focus of our souls. And that will do so much to lay to rest the grip that these compulsions have on us in this distracted age. Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, a bruised reed he will not break. and a faintly burning wick, he will not quench. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this portrait of the great servant, the son of God, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. May we be given fresh power by your spirit to fix our eyes on Jesus, to keep our vision entranced, to behold him, to walk with him, and as it were, if we're going to be distracted, to be distracted by him. May you pour forth your spirit upon us, we pray in Jesus' name.
Gentle Justice
Isaiah 42:1-4
설교 아이디( ID) | 22024178241942 |
기간 | 28:27 |
날짜 | |
카테고리 | 일요일 예배 |
성경 본문 | 이사야 42:1-4 |
언어 | 영어 |