WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:05.051 I hope you're all doing well, resting in God's goodness. 00:00:05.051 --> 00:00:12.647 I often remind myself to look up. 00:00:12.647 --> 00:00:33.031 As we live life, whether it's in abundant times or challenging times, we have a great God who, as we look up, helps us realize that he is the best we have, and he does great work in us by strengthening and enabling us. 00:00:33.031 --> 00:00:41.926 I pray for myself and for others that God, through his spirit, would help us to be and to do more than we could be and do on our own, and he enables us to do that. 00:00:41.926 --> 00:00:43.798 Thankful to be here today. 00:00:43.798 --> 00:01:01.503 I enjoyed having Vic many years ago on an Israel trip and the fellowship we've enjoyed since then, and the joy of having Doug on the seminary trip a couple weeks ago and the blessing that was and, over the years, thinking about what God was doing here at your church. 00:01:01.503 --> 00:01:06.740 I'm also in the midst of the introduction details I would want you to know. 00:01:06.740 --> 00:01:08.243 My identity is. 00:01:08.243 --> 00:01:11.090 I'm a Christ follower First and foremost. 00:01:11.090 --> 00:01:26.754 I'm a lover of Martha Ann and I want to be faithful in that all my life, and I'm a lover of local churches, local assemblies that have people who are affiliated with it and put their shoulder to the task and are burdened with being a light in a dark world. 00:01:26.754 --> 00:01:34.052 I'm thankful, so praise God for your church and what God has been doing and what he'll yet do. 00:01:34.052 --> 00:01:39.813 May he be your strength as you seek to honor him in a desperately needy world. 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:42.649 We're going to look at Isaiah 49 this morning. 00:01:42.649 --> 00:01:52.694 Salvation by God's servant is presented building on chapter 42 and the rest of the chapters 40 to 48. 00:01:52.694 --> 00:01:58.331 I would say just an aside as I think about something. 00:01:58.331 --> 00:02:01.962 I'm going to emphasize the various points in the sermon, the music. 00:02:01.962 --> 00:02:07.287 Thank you for preparing my heart and thinking about this truth and our brother's prayer. 00:02:07.287 --> 00:02:13.848 Talking about trusting God, I want to just highlight that our God is a faithful, reliable God. 00:02:13.848 --> 00:02:28.884 We aren't being called to trust in a loser, in a promise big and deliver nothing, god, and we should revel and rely on that good news that he is the one who will bring to pass all that he promises. 00:02:28.884 --> 00:02:34.487 So you, brothers and sisters, have been studying the book of Isaiah for some time. 00:02:34.487 --> 00:02:45.939 The first half of that book, which you finished a few weeks ago, I'm sure the prophet seemed to show Israel that they're doomed to thorough and final judgment. 00:02:45.939 --> 00:02:50.991 At the end of chapter 39, it looks like they're toast, never more to be seen again. 00:02:50.991 --> 00:03:06.210 But in clear contrast to that idea of total devastation which the prophet wasn't saying was the case, but it sure seemed like it because it was thorough the prophet opens chapter 40 with a message of greater restoration and hope. 00:03:06.210 --> 00:03:17.560 One writer said this that when one turns from the 39th to the 40th chapter it's like he steps out of the darkness of judgment into the light of salvation. 00:03:17.699 --> 00:03:29.159 So chapters 40 to 48, which pastor just finished last week, those chapters summarize the initial phase of God's promise to deliver his people from exile. 00:03:29.159 --> 00:03:36.765 I remember the historical scenario God's people in the land of promise, characterized by rebellion and covenant treachery for years and years and years. 00:03:36.765 --> 00:03:41.810 And eventually it comes to the point that God is going to bring covenant curse on them. 00:03:41.810 --> 00:03:46.046 And the epitome of covenant curse was the eviction of God's people from the land of promise. 00:03:46.046 --> 00:03:49.909 And the Babylonians were the one who his tools to do that. 00:03:49.909 --> 00:03:51.580 And so they're in Babylonian exile. 00:03:51.580 --> 00:03:56.700 But that's not the end of God's story, praise the Lord. 00:03:56.700 --> 00:04:05.665 In 40 to 48 he introduces chapter 40 and beyond that he's going to deliver them from that exile in an unparalleled way, a totally unexpected way. 00:04:05.665 --> 00:04:11.925 It seemed like no one could ever be able to open the Babylonians' fingers and get Israel out of there. 00:04:11.925 --> 00:04:20.872 But he's going to deliver his people in an initial way that provides a paradigm for what he's going to do in the future. 00:04:21.319 --> 00:04:34.713 And Isaiah, in those first eight chapters, presents that promise, deliverance kind of like a second Exodus, exodus out of Egypt, intervening in the most powerful empire, one of the most powerful empires of the world at the time. 00:04:34.713 --> 00:04:42.608 In the book of Exodus, having Egypt, egypt having the Hebrews, the Israelites in their clutches as slaves, they had a great thing going. 00:04:42.608 --> 00:04:43.531 They weren't going to let them go. 00:04:43.531 --> 00:04:49.966 Moses and Aaron appeared to the Pharaoh and said let the people of Yahweh, the covenant Lord, go. 00:04:49.966 --> 00:04:50.769 It was like who's he? 00:04:50.769 --> 00:04:55.591 And the Lord brought them out of Egypt in what we call the Exodus. 00:04:55.591 --> 00:05:11.970 This is kind of Exodus, second Exodus language the prophet Isaiah uses that God is going to make happen again, initially through Cyrus, and we'll see in our passage in an even more significant way down the road. 00:05:13.019 --> 00:05:19.067 So the prophet, in 40 to 48, describes the approach of a conqueror, eventually named as Cyrus. 00:05:19.067 --> 00:05:25.411 He'll do what everyone thought to be impossible defeat the Babylonian empire and free the Jews from the exile there. 00:05:25.411 --> 00:05:30.250 He's the Cyrus, is God's anointed one who helps bring that deliverance to pass. 00:05:30.250 --> 00:05:43.269 But in this new section we're just starting today, in chapter 49, 49 to 55 is the new section the prophet revealed through his writings that God would deal with the more serious problem of sin. 00:05:43.269 --> 00:05:45.324 It was in the prophet's heart already. 00:05:45.324 --> 00:05:47.148 He talked about in the first half of the book. 00:05:47.148 --> 00:06:02.752 But he's going to also, in addition to this physical deliverance of God's people from Babylon, he's going to address the problem of covenant treachery, sin, because that's going to be required for God to bring his ultimate plan to pass. 00:06:02.752 --> 00:06:04.105 And God's going to do. 00:06:04.105 --> 00:06:15.959 Yahweh, the covenant Lord, is going to do this by another servant of his, called Cyrus, an anointed one called by God to deliver his people from that Babylonian land of exile. 00:06:15.959 --> 00:06:25.685 It's going to be another servant, one of his, an anointed one, called the servant, who we come to know as the Messiah, according to New Testament truth. 00:06:25.685 --> 00:06:33.564 So the servant would not only take care of Israel's sin problem and this is one of the glorious truths of this chapter but that of the whole world. 00:06:33.564 --> 00:06:37.850 That was always in God's mind, but it becomes more apparent here. 00:06:37.850 --> 00:06:54.891 So Isaiah passed from dealing mainly with physical deliverance from Babylon's exile in 40 to 48 to dealing with a bigger deliverance that included salvation, not just for the Jews but for the entire world. 00:06:54.891 --> 00:06:57.086 Praise God for that. 00:06:57.086 --> 00:07:03.072 So this amazing God promises covenant people deliverance and restoration. 00:07:03.879 --> 00:07:11.684 In our passage for this morning, 49, 1 to 13, is a very important part of the message of the prophets, the second servant song. 00:07:11.684 --> 00:07:15.146 It builds, if you remember, back to chapter 42, and I'm going to review just a little bit. 00:07:15.146 --> 00:07:24.408 This builds on that and adds, fills out the kind of the biography and the ministry portfolio of this servant figure. 00:07:24.408 --> 00:07:30.129 It testifies to the worldwide task Yahweh has in mind for his servant. 00:07:30.129 --> 00:07:35.105 He's already commissioned this servant to impact Israel, yahweh's chosen people. 00:07:35.105 --> 00:07:49.946 He hinted in those first chapters, 40 to 48, that his impact on the Gentiles, because in chapter 42, he tossed out that the suffering servant would be, or the servant would be, a light to the nations. 00:07:49.946 --> 00:07:51.290 We'll hit that one again today. 00:07:52.139 --> 00:08:03.470 So the servant Psalm before us, 49, makes it absolutely clear that the Lord intends that his servant would impact his chosen people and the Gentiles throughout the world as part of his ultimate plan. 00:08:03.470 --> 00:08:05.709 Now we're not shocked by that right. 00:08:05.709 --> 00:08:17.447 As New Testament Christ followers, this may not be shocking for us, but for Old Testament Israel kind of used to being in the bullseye, in the center of God's plan. 00:08:17.447 --> 00:08:21.230 This had to rock their world a little bit what them too. 00:08:21.230 --> 00:08:23.607 But that's part of God's plan. 00:08:23.607 --> 00:08:27.490 God's chosen people may not have realized it, but they didn't deserve. 00:08:27.490 --> 00:08:33.812 They did not deserve any of Yahweh's abundant mercy, grace and patience. 00:08:33.812 --> 00:08:42.553 But still, regardless, the Lord is the incomparable God who is ever faithful to bring to pass what he had promised. 00:08:42.553 --> 00:08:54.109 He will bring to pass what he always intended to do, both for his chosen people restoring them to the land and a relationship with him and to the larger world that he created. 00:08:54.109 --> 00:08:59.331 And we're here today, many of us, as beneficiaries of that great plan. 00:08:59.331 --> 00:09:14.629 And, yes, part of that consummation of his plan involved his servant nation, but it also involves Gentiles of the world and it was going to come through the servant individual who we would come to know as the Messiah. 00:09:15.061 --> 00:09:22.625 So here's some key ideas of this passage, just to kind of lay down the central ideas to start, and we'll work through the passage. 00:09:22.625 --> 00:09:28.647 Yahweh, first of all, is a God who brings to pass all that he promises according to his plan. 00:09:28.647 --> 00:09:30.551 He is faithful and ever reliable. 00:09:30.551 --> 00:09:31.533 He does. 00:09:31.533 --> 00:09:34.825 He's not a promise big deliver nothing, god. 00:09:34.825 --> 00:09:36.990 He's a promise big deliver all. 00:09:36.990 --> 00:09:52.462 He said God, and according to this passage, isaiah 49, he will not only bring scores of Israelites to salvation and restore them to the land of promise, but he would also bring that same salvation to the larger world, to Gentiles, to us and others. 00:09:52.462 --> 00:10:00.041 Both will be able to receive that salvation in God's providence by repenting and believing. 00:10:00.041 --> 00:10:08.524 And there's a more immediate as well as ultimate deliverance God will bring about through the servant or the Messiah, and it's important to keep this in mind. 00:10:08.524 --> 00:10:09.528 We'll talk about it again. 00:10:09.528 --> 00:10:13.990 There's a near term and a far term impact of what the servant is going to do. 00:10:13.990 --> 00:10:17.408 So you're going to, we're going to see the faithfulness of God. 00:10:17.408 --> 00:10:19.206 He'll do all he promised and praise God. 00:10:19.206 --> 00:10:20.886 He does it in his behalf. 00:10:20.886 --> 00:10:30.971 So, having summarized this foundation, I wanted to stop and make sure you hang with me as we walk through the passage to get the big picture of what the prophet is saying. 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:40.780 The prophet Isaiah, of course, wrote this servant song under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, hundreds of years before the Messiah's ministry on earth, and at several points we're reading through Isaiah 49. 00:10:40.780 --> 00:10:42.504 We'll read all the verses along the way. 00:10:42.504 --> 00:10:46.374 Sounds quite familiar to us in light of our New Testament knowledge. 00:10:46.374 --> 00:10:50.940 Yeah, this and this and this, I've heard this before in the New Testament. 00:10:50.940 --> 00:11:05.032 But the prophet adds to our understanding of God's script that he was writing, that Yahweh was writing for his son, the promised Messiah, and what it had significant and how it had significance in the near term as well as the far term. 00:11:05.032 --> 00:11:06.542 So he explains. 00:11:06.542 --> 00:11:16.690 Isaiah explains some of the issues related to the near term his first coming, the challenges of ministry to the Israelites and his transition of ministry to the Gentiles. 00:11:16.690 --> 00:11:37.629 He also looks toward the far term, the second coming, his future return to earth, where he's going to return to deliver his people from that larger exile four corners of the world for a purpose he's going to establish them in the land that he had promised them already in the Abrahamic and talked about in the Davidic covenants as well. 00:11:37.629 --> 00:11:58.062 The fourth servant song, which pastor will have the pleasure of teaching through, is what addresses that important climax of the Christ ministry in the first coming his redemptive death at Calvary and the burial nearby. 00:11:58.062 --> 00:11:59.264 That provides the grounds for their and our salvation today. 00:11:59.264 --> 00:12:06.601 So this is huge how the prophet Isaiah is helping lay the groundwork for an important part of what God intends to accomplish for his glory. 00:12:06.601 --> 00:12:08.225 So with that background in mind. 00:12:08.245 --> 00:12:10.510 Let's look at the chapter itself. 00:12:10.510 --> 00:12:12.802 I divide the chapter into two sections. 00:12:12.802 --> 00:12:24.148 First of all, the servant's calling and equipping, verses 1 to 6, his calling, verses 1 to 6, and then the culmination of the servant's ministry. 00:12:24.148 --> 00:12:28.154 That kind of leads to the second phase, verses 7 to 13. 00:12:28.154 --> 00:12:46.626 So let's think about the servant's calling and, by the way, throughout this servant song, the servant is speaking throughout the passage, but he quotes what Yahweh, the ultimate leader I would say God, the Father, in this capacity has said Verses 3 and 6 to 12,. 00:12:46.626 --> 00:12:47.899 We'll see that it's. 00:12:47.899 --> 00:12:52.822 And he says the Lord says it reminds us that he's the one who's in charge. 00:12:52.822 --> 00:12:54.166 He's bringing this plan to pass. 00:12:54.166 --> 00:12:56.032 This is not just a shoot from the hip deal. 00:12:56.032 --> 00:12:58.386 God is bringing his plan to pass. 00:12:59.780 --> 00:13:10.849 So first of all, under this, the servant's calling verses 1 to 6, verses 1 to 3, yahweh calls and prepares his servant for his worldwide ministry. 00:13:10.849 --> 00:13:17.644 Verse 1, coastlands listen to me, distant peoples, pay attention. 00:13:17.644 --> 00:13:22.969 He wants to address the inhabitants of the distant regions of the world. 00:13:22.969 --> 00:13:33.063 Yahweh is the incomparable God who is in charge of His world and His people and intended to impact all with salvation and wants the four corners of the world to hear. 00:13:33.063 --> 00:13:34.649 Pay attention. 00:13:34.649 --> 00:13:35.571 This is important. 00:13:35.571 --> 00:13:39.370 What the servant has to say will impact the entire world. 00:13:39.370 --> 00:13:40.706 It's a call to attention. 00:13:40.706 --> 00:13:48.331 So he calls the entire world to attention, first of all, and then, even before birth, the second half of verse 1 into verse 2. 00:13:48.822 --> 00:13:52.783 God chose and prepared his servant. 00:13:52.783 --> 00:13:58.847 Verse 1, the end of the verse the Lord called me before I was born. 00:13:58.847 --> 00:14:02.726 He named me while I was in my mother's womb. 00:14:02.726 --> 00:14:09.844 Both of these statements signified that the Lord Yahweh was writing his script for the world that the servant would accomplish. 00:14:09.844 --> 00:14:12.417 Writing that script of what the servant would accomplish. 00:14:12.417 --> 00:14:14.303 He's announcing this ahead of time. 00:14:14.303 --> 00:14:15.225 This is predictive. 00:14:15.225 --> 00:14:23.668 Now it's old news to us, but it's just significant to understand that God is the one who's writing the script and is the God who brings it to pass. 00:14:23.668 --> 00:14:30.307 God had a plan for a servant, announced here before birth, just as he did for the prophet Jeremiah. 00:14:30.307 --> 00:14:35.089 Jeremiah 1 4-5 called before his birth, the apostle Paul. 00:14:35.089 --> 00:14:39.169 Galatians 1 15 called to be an apostle before his birth. 00:14:40.600 --> 00:14:45.504 Yahweh chose his servant, but he also equips him. 00:14:45.504 --> 00:14:53.296 Verse 2, the servant describes for us that he not only chooses his servant but he equips him for his ministry. 00:14:53.296 --> 00:14:55.643 The servant describes, he's speaking. 00:14:55.643 --> 00:15:07.232 The servant is speaking to us describes the Lord's divine preparation of him for the work that God has planned for him to do, and we learn things about the servants of ministry through the preparation. 00:15:07.232 --> 00:15:11.009 Notice the unique flow of these four statements in verse 2. 00:15:13.121 --> 00:15:14.793 I'm going to put them into two categories. 00:15:14.793 --> 00:15:17.784 First line he made my words like a sharp sword. 00:15:17.784 --> 00:15:21.464 He hid me in the shadow of his hand. 00:15:21.464 --> 00:15:24.111 He made me like a sharpened arrow. 00:15:24.111 --> 00:15:26.885 He hid me in his quiver. 00:15:26.885 --> 00:15:33.788 So you can see with me that the first and the third lines go together, as do the second and the fourth ones. 00:15:33.788 --> 00:15:40.682 Here's what the first set of lines he made my words like a sharp sword. 00:15:40.682 --> 00:15:42.390 He made me like a sharpened arrow. 00:15:42.390 --> 00:15:50.553 These first lines signify a sharp sword and a sharpened or a polished arrow. 00:15:50.553 --> 00:15:59.072 First of all, with the sword, the Lord Yahweh would make the servant's mouth what he would say words like a sharp sword. 00:15:59.072 --> 00:16:02.471 He would be an effective spokesman for Yahweh. 00:16:03.020 --> 00:16:09.303 In various New Testament passages liken the word of God to a sharp sword Ephesians 6, 17,. 00:16:09.303 --> 00:16:15.662 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is God's word Hebrews 4, 12,. 00:16:15.662 --> 00:16:24.230 For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of the soul and spirit, joints and marrow. 00:16:24.230 --> 00:16:28.731 It is able to judge the ideas and the thoughts of the heart. 00:16:28.731 --> 00:16:47.028 So this idea that the Lord being likened to a sharp sword is telling us that God made this servant, his divine representative, like a sharp sword, to be effective, to impact, to communicate God's intentions effectively. 00:16:47.028 --> 00:16:54.505 He also the second part of that is it says that he made him like a polished or a sharpened arrow. 00:16:55.308 --> 00:17:02.672 An arrow like this either polished or sharpened, the word could go either way is trimmed, it's going to go into the target. 00:17:02.672 --> 00:17:09.683 It tells us that an arrow flies a good distance without distraction and impacts or penetrates its target. 00:17:09.683 --> 00:17:15.651 It would accomplish the intentions of the archer, god, who has set aside the servant. 00:17:15.651 --> 00:17:22.728 So the Lord not only chooses the servant, but he equips him for the task he will give him. 00:17:22.728 --> 00:17:27.608 So you have, on the one hand, the equipping task. 00:17:27.608 --> 00:17:35.267 He will make me like a sharp sword and he will make me like a sharpened or polished arrow. 00:17:35.267 --> 00:17:50.990 And the Lord also another set of lines about his divine preparation he hid me in the shadow of his hand, he hid me in his quiver. 00:17:52.061 --> 00:18:00.172 These clauses seem to emphasize that God, who is enabling and directing his servant will bring his ministry to bear on his audience at the right time. 00:18:00.172 --> 00:18:05.596 It's kind of like in the fullness of time Jesus came unveiled for his glory. 00:18:05.596 --> 00:18:09.368 The servant keeps the arrows in their sheath or the quiver until the right moment. 00:18:09.368 --> 00:18:12.364 As a result, they're more effective when God brings them to bear. 00:18:12.364 --> 00:18:18.814 God is the one who's calling the shots and how and when Jesus will minister to impact that world according to his intention. 00:18:18.814 --> 00:18:25.169 So, as a result of being revealed into God's time, they're more effective when he brings them to bear. 00:18:25.509 --> 00:18:31.589 So verses 1 and the verse 1 to verse 2 demonstrate the special place the servant had in God's plan. 00:18:31.589 --> 00:18:39.911 His whole life, from birth on, would accomplish what God intended and was guided by that great and powerful God. 00:18:39.911 --> 00:18:47.446 And all that we know about that great servant, through our own salvation, is the result of this intention of God to bring his plan to pass. 00:18:47.446 --> 00:19:04.640 The long promised Messiah wasn't an empty promise, but the Messiah came and lived perfectly and died and rose again and ascended to God's right hand to give us the salvation, the grounds for that, that we can enjoy today, praise God. 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:08.539 So we also have the third point. 00:19:08.539 --> 00:19:14.459 You have this kind of call to all nations to hear and in this whole preparation and calling. 00:19:14.578 --> 00:19:20.819 Thirdly, the verse three the servant does what israel, the chosen nation, could never do. 00:19:20.819 --> 00:19:29.203 Verse three you are my servant, israel, through whom I will reveal my glory. 00:19:29.203 --> 00:19:33.955 This first blush, it seems like this verse is telling us that the servant should be identified. 00:19:33.955 --> 00:19:36.971 Think about who's the servant Seems to be saying. 00:19:36.971 --> 00:19:38.176 What's the nation of Israel? 00:19:38.176 --> 00:19:43.337 He says you are my servant, israel, through whom I'll reveal my glory. 00:19:43.337 --> 00:19:49.291 Identified as the nation of Israel, now exiled in Babylon in Isaiah's time frame. 00:19:49.994 --> 00:19:53.836 This is one of the big interpretive debates in Isaiah 40-55. 00:19:53.836 --> 00:19:54.518 Who's the servant? 00:19:54.518 --> 00:19:55.420 Is it an individual? 00:19:55.420 --> 00:19:56.221 Is it a collective? 00:19:56.221 --> 00:19:57.353 Who is it? 00:19:57.353 --> 00:19:58.979 There are all kinds of opinions. 00:19:58.979 --> 00:20:04.482 It would hurt you to think about all the variety and things that are there. 00:20:04.482 --> 00:20:08.421 I did my dissertation on this section and it's unimaginable. 00:20:08.421 --> 00:20:10.380 But praise God, the Bible is clear. 00:20:10.380 --> 00:20:15.519 But think with me about some other nearby verses that help just cut right through the question. 00:20:15.538 --> 00:20:27.179 To make it clear, in Isaiah 42, 18-19 and 43-10, exiled Israel is described as blind and deaf and fails to understand the Lord's purposes. 00:20:27.179 --> 00:20:28.662 That isn't the servant. 00:20:28.662 --> 00:20:37.342 Unlike the nation, the servant opens blind eyes Isaiah 42, 7, and delivers people from prison. 00:20:37.342 --> 00:20:40.818 Israel couldn't get their way out of a paper bag. 00:20:40.818 --> 00:20:49.580 I mean, they were rebellious and they were under divine punishment, but the servant is the one who's going to bring them out of that. 00:20:49.580 --> 00:20:57.279 In verses 5 and 6 of our chapter, this servant says he's been commissioned to reconcile the nation of Israel to God. 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:00.469 So he must be distinct from the exiled nation. 00:21:00.469 --> 00:21:05.240 According to verse 8, he'll mediate a new covenant We'll talk about that later for the nation. 00:21:05.240 --> 00:21:07.653 He'll do that on behalf of the nation. 00:21:07.653 --> 00:21:13.433 Verses 9 to 13 describe the servant's role of leading God's people back to the promised land. 00:21:13.453 --> 00:21:23.519 My point here is that when you think about a verse like this that some could take as saying the nation of Israel is meant to be the servant identified here, good interpretation looks at the context. 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:28.696 What are the things in the near and even a little bit farther context in the passage area? 00:21:28.696 --> 00:21:33.680 That helps see that the servant is clearly distinct from the nation of Israel. 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:37.199 So there must be some other significance of the statement. 00:21:37.199 --> 00:21:41.057 You are Israel, and here's the one I would suggest. 00:21:41.057 --> 00:21:49.680 The servant can be referred to as Israel because he embodies God's ideal for his people, not because he is the nation of Israel. 00:21:49.680 --> 00:21:54.920 It's the function, not the identity, of Israel that's emphasized here. 00:21:54.920 --> 00:22:00.582 The servant will be all that the Lord intended that his chosen nation would be. 00:22:00.582 --> 00:22:14.153 He'll be quite unlike the exiled, rebellious, hard-hearted, worthy of covenant punishment nation which failed to fulfill God's promises. 00:22:14.153 --> 00:22:28.769 Yeah, the following verses are going to tell us that the servant will restore the wayward, exiled nation to God, but verse 3 is trying to emphasize that this servant will bring to fulfillment the role that God had given to his chosen people. 00:22:28.769 --> 00:22:33.853 He will represent God's character to the world in a flawless way. 00:22:33.853 --> 00:22:44.039 He'll epitomize If you wanted to know what a godly Israelite would be according to the Mosaic law the servant, jesus, the Messiah. 00:22:44.490 --> 00:22:56.980 And you see and I can't go down this road very far at all when you think about the Old Testament, even the Old Testament law God gave the Old Testament law to his people not to save them, not to give them any kind of spiritual stature. 00:22:56.980 --> 00:23:04.799 It was to give them a concrete understanding of how they could live their lives in the way that would advertise God's surpassing character to the watching world. 00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:06.202 Did you catch that? 00:23:06.202 --> 00:23:19.297 He wanted them to obey the Mosaic law in an inside-out fashion, heartfelt obedience, and he wanted them to know how to do that so they could advertise God's surpassing character to each other and to the watching world around them. 00:23:19.297 --> 00:23:20.740 Well, how'd that go? 00:23:20.740 --> 00:23:24.779 Well, the nation of Israel failed, right, they didn't do it. 00:23:25.670 --> 00:23:27.015 But guess what the servant will do? 00:23:27.015 --> 00:23:41.614 In all that he says and all that he does, he's going to be the perfect advertisement of an incomparable and amazing truth presenting God, and that's our Heavenly Father and our Savior. 00:23:41.614 --> 00:23:54.016 So in this way, israel, the servant being Israel through him God says, the servant is saying I will be glorified. 00:23:54.016 --> 00:23:57.719 Even though Israel failed in this mission, the servant would succeed. 00:23:57.719 --> 00:24:04.809 So the nation of Israel is not the servant referred to in chapter 29. 00:24:04.809 --> 00:24:13.141 Isaiah called the servant of Israel here to emphasize that he will epitomize Yahweh's expectations of his chosen people. 00:24:13.141 --> 00:24:20.661 He models what an ideal Israel would have looked like if they had pursued heartfelt loyalty to the Lord. 00:24:21.369 --> 00:24:23.436 Now, just a commercial. 00:24:23.436 --> 00:24:29.935 I would tell you that if you want to think about what God has called each one of us to do as Christ followers, that's job one. 00:24:29.935 --> 00:24:42.076 I need to live my life in a way because of heartfelt loyalty, obeying God in an inside-out fashion that those close to me and further out understand who God is better. 00:24:42.076 --> 00:24:46.960 We need to be advertisements for God's surpassing character. 00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:49.374 So each day when we wake up. 00:24:49.374 --> 00:24:53.894 Lord, help me, and I will tell you this I would always start close to home and move out. 00:24:53.894 --> 00:24:54.777 I do. 00:24:54.777 --> 00:25:03.559 I'm not doing it perfectly but, lord, I pray you'd help me to help Martha and my sweet wife understand God better because of the way I care for and pursue her. 00:25:03.559 --> 00:25:07.759 I want my kids to have thirst in their hearts and see who God is. 00:25:07.759 --> 00:25:12.119 Better by the way, I love and care for them and for their mom and on the circles go. 00:25:12.220 --> 00:25:27.880 And so here the servant, as called Israel here, because he correctly and perfectly modeled what God expected and who God was, and he did what Israel could not do. 00:25:27.880 --> 00:25:32.798 Now we're not going to do it as well as the servant did, but God's called us to that as well. 00:25:32.798 --> 00:25:39.260 So the Lord, verses one to three, calls and prepares the servant for his worldwide ministry. 00:25:39.260 --> 00:25:46.078 And then verse four the servant faces opposition but still trusts in Yahweh and his plan. 00:25:46.078 --> 00:25:50.074 Verse four here I'll read it, but I myself said so. 00:25:50.114 --> 00:25:55.401 The servant is talking for the most part, telling us things the Lord has said along the way. 00:25:55.401 --> 00:25:56.594 But this is the servant saying. 00:25:56.594 --> 00:26:03.260 I myself said I've labored in vain, I've spent my strength for nothing and futility. 00:26:03.260 --> 00:26:09.363 Yet my vindication is with the Lord and my reward is with my God. 00:26:09.363 --> 00:26:15.221 You know we're seeing the human side of Christ's ministry in that statement. 00:26:15.221 --> 00:26:23.135 These two verbs I've labored in vain and have spent my strength signifies the idea of exhausting labor. 00:26:23.135 --> 00:26:28.161 We might focus, and I'm a cup is three quarters full, guy right. 00:26:28.161 --> 00:26:36.195 We may focus and be encouraged by rightly so, the amazing teaching of Christ and as many miracles recorded in the gospel accounts. 00:26:36.195 --> 00:26:40.188 But that's not the whole story of Jesus's ministry. 00:26:40.509 --> 00:26:45.406 Throughout the gospels, jesus faced rejection, unbelief, prejudice and misunderstanding. 00:26:45.406 --> 00:26:49.759 Especially after the first year of his ministry, there was opposition at every turn. 00:26:49.759 --> 00:26:57.544 The religious leaders, the Pharisees and their kind had a monopoly in religious authority and had great influence over the majority of Israelites. 00:26:57.544 --> 00:27:01.741 Jesus and the apostles were always running into that Pharisaical wall. 00:27:01.741 --> 00:27:08.143 Those who genuinely followed Jesus and his teaching were far less numerous than the Israelite population. 00:27:08.970 --> 00:27:16.403 Jesus, in Luke 9, 41, cries out you, unbelieving and rebellious generation, how long will I be with you and put up with you? 00:27:16.403 --> 00:27:17.673 Mark 8, 21,. 00:27:17.673 --> 00:27:23.893 He was grieved by his own disciples' failure to understand Mark 14, 27,. 00:27:23.893 --> 00:27:42.282 He foresaw that most of his disciples would run away from him when the priestly authorities took him captive, gone and, of course, his suffering and death at the hands of the Romans, connived by the Jewish leaders, represents the epitome of the ministry challenges he faced. 00:27:42.282 --> 00:27:45.076 Luke 13, 34 to 35,. 00:27:45.115 --> 00:27:55.506 Toward the end of his ministry, we read about Jesus' lament over Jerusalem, jerusalem, jerusalem, she who kills the prophets, and stones of those who were sent to her. 00:27:55.506 --> 00:28:02.016 How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. 00:28:02.016 --> 00:28:07.638 And then he talks about the judgment that's coming John 1, 10-11,. 00:28:07.638 --> 00:28:15.020 He was in the world and the world was created through him, yet the world did not recognize him. 00:28:15.020 --> 00:28:21.220 He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. 00:28:22.751 --> 00:28:30.640 There may have been many times during the Messiah's ministry when it could have seemed like anybody watching that his ministry labors were almost for nothing. 00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:37.964 However, praise God, though Jesus may have experienced discouragement and opposition at times, he was never defeated. 00:28:37.964 --> 00:28:42.317 There were numerous great moments of heart-changing responses and spiritual growth. 00:28:42.317 --> 00:28:48.961 He impacted multitudes of people, performed significant miracles, taught God's truth with amazing clarity. 00:28:48.961 --> 00:28:56.930 There is good news to be blessed by, but this verse here is letting us know that there is great opposition. 00:28:59.382 --> 00:29:04.970 Even though there was opposition, the servant, the promised Messiah, trusted God, the Father, for the final outcome of his ministry. 00:29:04.970 --> 00:29:06.499 And this is where we can't get into it. 00:29:06.499 --> 00:29:11.804 But the divine and the human side, he's the God man, he's in human flesh. 00:29:11.804 --> 00:29:13.451 This is one of those manifestations of. 00:29:13.451 --> 00:29:20.840 He felt the opposition, the prejudice, the discrimination, the rejection. 00:29:20.840 --> 00:29:27.798 It was on his heart, but he didn't let that dominate his thought. 00:29:27.798 --> 00:29:33.001 It says he my vindication is with the Lord at the end of verse 4. 00:29:33.001 --> 00:29:35.877 My reward is with my God. 00:29:35.877 --> 00:29:40.586 He trusted his Father for the final outcome of his ministry. 00:29:40.586 --> 00:29:45.932 He was confident that God would prosper his ministry in the way and the time that he knew to be best. 00:29:45.932 --> 00:29:52.317 So the servant faces opposition but still trusts in Yahweh and his plan, verse 4. 00:29:52.317 --> 00:29:56.298 And that leads us to and, by the way, telling us about that opposition. 00:29:56.298 --> 00:30:00.490 Isn't that Jesus is a Debbie Downer or the cup is 1-8 full. 00:30:00.490 --> 00:30:16.601 He wants us to see the providential trigger, occasion for this move to do what God had always expected to expand the ministry of the servant to encompass the larger world. 00:30:17.529 --> 00:30:24.260 So verses 5 and 6, yahweh enlarges the servant's ministry to bring salvation to the Gentiles. 00:30:24.260 --> 00:30:32.280 We see in verse 5, there's a statement here and now, and when you see something like that in a passage you ought to think about. 00:30:32.280 --> 00:30:34.659 It's a transition, it's introducing a new section. 00:30:34.659 --> 00:30:36.490 He's building what was before. 00:30:36.490 --> 00:30:46.238 So, after the discouragement or the opposition that the servant would face, and now is telling us shift the gear. 00:30:46.238 --> 00:30:49.278 Something new is going to be presented. 00:30:51.030 --> 00:30:58.440 The servant is reminded all who have read Isaiah, isaiah's prophecy that Yahweh had commissioned him to be servant from birth in verses 1 and 2. 00:30:58.440 --> 00:31:07.897 And now this statement it talks about he's been opposed, and he tells us one of four times. 00:31:07.897 --> 00:31:13.998 When he says thus, says the Lord, and it just would tell you four times. 00:31:13.998 --> 00:31:28.923 It happens I'll draw your attention to them along the way, and part of the purpose of this statement is he wants to remind the reader, through the prophet Isaiah, that the incomparable God is the one directing the ministry of his ministry. 00:31:28.923 --> 00:31:34.001 Even through the hard times of opposition and rejection, god had a plan. 00:31:34.001 --> 00:31:40.551 The end of the story was different, so the rest of the verse, of verse 5, doesn't tell us right away what the Lord said. 00:31:40.551 --> 00:31:45.362 It reminds us, though, of who the servant was, in verse 5,. 00:31:45.402 --> 00:31:53.299 And now says the Lord, the one who formed me from the womb to be a servant, up in verse 2, to bring Jacob. 00:31:53.299 --> 00:32:08.657 And then he tells us a little bit about his plan, his initial plan, and that was phase one to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel might be gathered to him. 00:32:08.657 --> 00:32:15.695 So, even in Isaiah, but also in the time of the New Testament, how is Israel doing spiritually? 00:32:15.695 --> 00:32:18.142 Well, well, they're getting worse than an F. 00:32:18.142 --> 00:32:20.096 That's a grade right, I mean. 00:32:20.096 --> 00:32:24.096 They're rebellious and hard hearted, captured by the traditions of the Pharisees. 00:32:24.096 --> 00:32:31.874 And Jesus is sent to be able to bring Jacob back to him ultimately, and to regather Israel to him. 00:32:31.874 --> 00:32:36.903 And this is going to be done initially in the first coming, but more fully in the second coming. 00:32:36.903 --> 00:32:38.334 For I'm honored in the sight of the Lord. 00:32:38.334 --> 00:32:41.953 The servant is embracing all that God is doing. 00:32:41.953 --> 00:32:44.366 He's not rejecting, and God is my strength. 00:32:44.366 --> 00:32:46.354 He does it through the strength of the Lord. 00:32:46.354 --> 00:32:51.155 So this is going to be a great honor for the servant to be used this way. 00:32:51.195 --> 00:32:53.671 And then verse 6, the first part of the verse. 00:32:53.671 --> 00:32:58.615 The Lord implies that he has bigger plans for his servant. 00:32:58.615 --> 00:33:02.597 He says second time again who's in charge? 00:33:02.597 --> 00:33:03.924 Who's calling the shots? 00:33:03.924 --> 00:33:04.829 Who's giving him direction? 00:33:04.829 --> 00:33:06.233 The incomparable God. 00:33:06.233 --> 00:33:08.140 God is bringing his plan to pass. 00:33:08.140 --> 00:33:20.276 He says to the servant it is not enough for you to be my servant, it is not enough for you to be my servant, raising up the tribes of Jacob and restoring the protected ones of Israel. 00:33:20.276 --> 00:33:32.438 When he says this not enough Does not imply that Yahweh made a mistake in his original commission of the servant. 00:33:32.438 --> 00:33:38.042 And now it's like oops, plan B. 00:33:38.042 --> 00:33:51.016 We're seeing play out in this passage the reality of the servant, who we know as Jesus, the Messiah, ministering in a dark world with hard hearts not being welcomed. 00:33:51.016 --> 00:34:02.215 That is a providential occasion for God to move on, to filling out his revelation of his plan for the world. 00:34:03.542 --> 00:34:11.442 Numerous passages throughout the Bible and even in the book of Isaiah make it clear that he always intended to impact the Gentiles with his kingdom and the gospel. 00:34:11.442 --> 00:34:22.315 When God created mankind, he had all the inhabitants of the world in mind when he said let us make mankind as our image and according to our likeness and let them have dominion over all of the world. 00:34:22.315 --> 00:34:24.460 That was his plan all the time. 00:34:24.460 --> 00:34:26.052 Abraham and covenant. 00:34:26.052 --> 00:34:29.452 All about Abraham, no, and in him, what's going to happen? 00:34:29.452 --> 00:34:31.920 All of the families of the earth will be blessed. 00:34:31.920 --> 00:34:45.518 And then, even in Isaiah 45, just a couple chapters before verses 22 to 25, the Lord declared Turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. 00:34:45.518 --> 00:34:47.630 By myself, I have sworn. 00:34:47.630 --> 00:34:50.898 The truth has gone out from my mouth a word that will not be revoked. 00:34:50.898 --> 00:34:54.514 Every knee will bow to me and every tongue will swear allegiance. 00:34:54.514 --> 00:35:01.233 So this is not new news, but it may have been ignored news by Israel and could have been shocking to them. 00:35:01.333 --> 00:35:06.795 Yahweh is progressively revealing his plan for the entire world through the ministry of the servant. 00:35:06.795 --> 00:35:07.998 He didn't make a mistake. 00:35:07.998 --> 00:35:15.222 He is progressively unveiling, writing the script he's writing in history as well as in the servant's ministry. 00:35:15.222 --> 00:35:19.019 And then there's a third part at the end of verse 6. 00:35:19.019 --> 00:35:31.239 So verse 5, he's the one verse 5, and now says the Lord, the servant's initial ministry to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel might be regathered to him. 00:35:31.239 --> 00:35:35.701 Second step we have verse 6, the first part. 00:35:35.701 --> 00:35:37.936 Not enough for you to be my servant. 00:35:37.936 --> 00:35:39.893 There is going to be. 00:35:39.893 --> 00:35:43.856 There's a granted issue of I have something more in mind for you. 00:35:43.856 --> 00:35:45.730 Not that the first part was mistaken. 00:35:45.730 --> 00:35:52.820 And in the end of verse 6, the Lord expands the scope of the servant's ministry. 00:35:53.422 --> 00:35:54.023 In verse 6. 00:35:54.023 --> 00:36:04.889 He says I will also make you a light for the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth. 00:36:04.889 --> 00:36:10.583 Yahweh intended that the servant would provide redemption for the Jews and Gentiles throughout the world. 00:36:10.583 --> 00:36:11.755 So stay with me here. 00:36:11.755 --> 00:36:17.842 Let's just summarize the divinely chosen and prepared servant was originally commissioned to minister to the nation of Israel. 00:36:17.842 --> 00:36:19.534 That's who his people were. 00:36:19.795 --> 00:36:25.197 In the process of carrying out that ministry, the servant experienced opposition and even frustration. 00:36:25.197 --> 00:36:33.137 Trusting in Yahweh to do what is best, the servant received an enlarged commission to be a light to the Gentiles. 00:36:33.137 --> 00:36:36.364 Again, this is not the first time this entered the thought of God. 00:36:36.364 --> 00:36:40.541 This was how it's unveiled on the stage of human history. 00:36:40.541 --> 00:36:51.599 The Lord commissioned his servant not simply to restore Israel to fellowship with God, but also to bring salvation to all peoples, that is, to function as a light to the nations. 00:36:51.599 --> 00:36:59.483 The relationship with God available to Israel for generations in a direct way will be expanded to include Gentiles as direct recipients. 00:36:59.563 --> 00:37:04.440 Up until this time it had been kind of like in the back door, you know proselytes. 00:37:04.440 --> 00:37:10.014 At the outside here is Israel, and at the edges you had some Gentiles that embraced salvation by faith. 00:37:10.014 --> 00:37:18.456 But now it's going to be as Galatians says there's neither Jew nor gentle bond, nor free male nor female. 00:37:18.456 --> 00:37:21.152 There are those categories in the church. 00:37:21.152 --> 00:37:23.721 But it's even Stephen. 00:37:23.721 --> 00:37:26.137 The ground is level to the foot of the cross. 00:37:26.137 --> 00:37:34.398 And so in the New Testament, the passage you folks read this morning, our brother read Acts 13. 00:37:34.398 --> 00:37:36.217 I'll just read 46 to 49. 00:37:36.710 --> 00:37:37.692 Then Paul and Barnabas. 00:37:37.692 --> 00:37:42.362 They're out in this mission to a part of the world that included Jews and Gentiles. 00:37:42.362 --> 00:37:55.282 But there was to the Jew first, synagogue first, and then, when they got tossed out on the street, then they preached to the Gentiles and they wanted to make sure that the audience, especially the Jews, know this is God's plan. 00:37:55.282 --> 00:38:03.518 Then Paul of Barnabas boldly said it was necessary that God's message be spoken to you first, to the synagogue, to the Jews. 00:38:03.518 --> 00:38:09.181 But since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. 00:38:09.181 --> 00:38:10.952 For this is what the Lord commanded us. 00:38:10.952 --> 00:38:14.942 I have made you a light for the Gentiles to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. 00:38:14.942 --> 00:38:23.639 When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and glorified the message of the Lord and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed. 00:38:23.639 --> 00:38:28.097 So the message of the Lord spread throughout the whole region. 00:38:28.097 --> 00:38:29.460 So that's his calling. 00:38:29.621 --> 00:38:35.762 Verses one to six has an expanded ministry according to God's plan. 00:38:35.762 --> 00:38:40.730 Let's look at the culmination of the servant's ministry in verses 7 to 13. 00:38:40.730 --> 00:38:57.141 This one has been called and equipped, who is going to be able to epitomize God's character, as Israel had not done, and who would have this expanded ministry, always God's intention but unveiled at this moment to impact that larger world. 00:38:57.141 --> 00:39:01.079 So the culmination of the servant's ministry, verses 7 to 13. 00:39:01.079 --> 00:39:06.420 First of all, worldwide effectiveness verses 7 to 9. 00:39:06.420 --> 00:39:13.215 When I first came up here I thought I didn't see a clock at the back and I didn't think I had one up here so I could go as long as I wanted. 00:39:13.215 --> 00:39:16.382 I need to push this clock down, right? 00:39:16.382 --> 00:39:27.849 No, I heard there's a trap door here under me, so I don't want to go down with the alligators and the crocodiles underneath. 00:39:27.849 --> 00:39:32.469 All right, the worldwide effectiveness verses 7 to 9. 00:39:32.469 --> 00:39:34.617 And there's no doubt, by the way, that verse 7 is kind of like like a transition. 00:39:34.617 --> 00:39:44.610 It kind of rehashes a bit of this expanded ministry that God gave the servant, but he also is going to have this work with the Gentiles and then some future oriented truth. 00:39:44.610 --> 00:39:46.577 So there are a couple of things here. 00:39:46.697 --> 00:39:50.871 Verse 7 deals with the rejection and later recognition of the servant, old news. 00:39:50.871 --> 00:39:53.800 So this is the third. 00:39:53.800 --> 00:40:01.996 He says this is what the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, his only one, says To one who is despised, to one abhorred by people, to a servant of rulers. 00:40:01.996 --> 00:40:07.313 That all kind of highlights back to the verse 4 that there were those. 00:40:07.313 --> 00:40:09.494 It was like empty, vain labor. 00:40:09.494 --> 00:40:11.918 It was like what was the ultimate impact? 00:40:11.918 --> 00:40:22.483 There were days in his earthly ministry, in his first coming, where despised, abhorred, rejected. 00:40:22.483 --> 00:40:41.574 And then he says to his servant though, and this is where seven transitions to what's going to follow here there's a coming, a day Kings will see and stand up and princes will bow down because of the Lord who is faithful, holy one of Israel. 00:40:41.574 --> 00:40:43.219 He has chosen you. 00:40:43.219 --> 00:40:45.474 The Lord is faithful. 00:40:45.474 --> 00:40:50.942 So the first phase of the ministry first coming true. 00:40:51.110 --> 00:41:02.572 Then, in the second part of verse 7, this rejection is followed by enthusiastic recognition of and submission to the servant by all levels of society, referring to a future day not given to us on a clock. 00:41:02.572 --> 00:41:06.932 But it's the second coming, when he comes to earth and there's going to be judgment of the wicked. 00:41:06.932 --> 00:41:13.679 There's going to be rejoicing, everybody kicking their heels and praising God. 00:41:13.679 --> 00:41:17.159 A big change is coming in the undetermined future. 00:41:17.159 --> 00:41:19.237 Kings will see, stand up, princes will bow down. 00:41:19.237 --> 00:41:24.150