SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 42 uses two phrases to describe groups of people.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh, speaking through Isaiah, calls people bruised reeds.
SPEAKER_00: And then later a smoldering wick or a flickering wick.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of people are bruised reeds?
SPEAKER_00: What's meant by that?
SPEAKER_00: It's not an expression we have in modern English.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have reeds, but reeds were a very common household item.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're like cattails, they're straws, they're grass, tall grass that grows.
SPEAKER_00: And you could use a reed for a pen.
SPEAKER_00: You could use a reed as a musical instrument, you could use a reed to sew, you could use it as a toy, you could use it to tie things together, like string to hold things to bundle for.
SPEAKER_00: You could use reeds for so much.
SPEAKER_00: And they were everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: They were so ubiquitous that if you had a reed that was bruised or broken, you know, like bent where it, you know, has a snap like that, but it's not broken in half, it's just bent now like this.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't repair it.
SPEAKER_00: You would just throw it away and grab another one because they're everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: The idea of repairing a reed is absurd.
SPEAKER_00: If you broke your sandal, you'd repair your sandal, but you wouldn't repair a reed.
SPEAKER_00: And because we don't have anything like that in our world, I was thinking of a Chick-fil-A straw.
SPEAKER_00: If you get a Chick-fil-a straw, and you know how sometimes you're trying to poke it through the top of the lid and the straw and it gets a little hole in it somewhere, you know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't repair the straw.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't get tape and wrap it up.
SPEAKER_00: No, you would throw it away and grab three more straws.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you would do.
SPEAKER_00: How about a smoldering wick?
SPEAKER_00: That's the bottom of a candle.
SPEAKER_00: We have candles in our society, but we don't use them like they did in the ancient New East.
SPEAKER_00: In the ancient New East, you'd have a candle with oil, you'd burn the oil.
SPEAKER_00: When the oil is out, you'd replace the oil, and eventually the wick would go down, and when the wick was burned down, you would throw out the candle to get new one.
SPEAKER_00: They're little pot candles, they're not that expensive, so you can replace the oil easy enough, but when the wick is done, the candle is toast.
SPEAKER_00: We have like$35 candles from Bed Bath and Beyond that smell like fig and alabaster soy or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Even with those expensive candles, when the wick is burned down, you don't replace the wick.
SPEAKER_00: It's gone.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible uses those expressions to describe people.
SPEAKER_00: Bruised people.
SPEAKER_00: People that are broken in some way, people that feel sidelines from ministry, sidelined from effectiveness in this world.
SPEAKER_00: They used to have a function in life, they used to have ministry, they used to be productive in life, but through some defects now they are sidelined.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe through sin in their own life, they've disqualified themselves from active ministry, maybe through a health defect, through cancer or through some debilitating illness or disease.
SPEAKER_00: They're no longer able, they don't have the strength to function like they used to.
SPEAKER_00: They're not useful for much because of their illness.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe through sin.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe through divorce.
SPEAKER_00: They left their family and now there's no, it seems like no path forward for them in the church or in ministry because of their own sin.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe they were a victim of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they were left or abandoned.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe a drug addiction has sidelined them and they've wrecked their lives through drug addiction.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody trusts them anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody would let them near the kids anymore.
SPEAKER_00: No one would let them near your family or your home.
SPEAKER_00: They've just been silent.
SPEAKER_00: They're a bruised reed.
SPEAKER_00: They're sidelined.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's not an issue of whose fault it is.
SPEAKER_00: If you find a bruised reed, you're not going to investigate who broke the Chick-fil-A straw.
SPEAKER_00: It's just broken.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if it was the kids' fault, the dog's fault, the Chick-fil-A worker's fault, you just get a new straw.
SPEAKER_00: Some people are sidelined because of their own sin, and some people sidelined because of other people's sin or Adam's sin or their own suffering in life.
SPEAKER_00: That's the bruised reed.
SPEAKER_00: And think of the way society views those people, you ignore them and you move on.
SPEAKER_00: There's people everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: You feel sidelined for ministry, God can raise up rocks to do ministry if he wants to.
SPEAKER_00: Angels can preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Why would God care about me since I'm no longer fit for ministry?
SPEAKER_00: When I say ministry, I'm not talking in professional sense.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about just a productive Christian life ministering to people around you.
SPEAKER_00: What about a smoldering wick?
SPEAKER_00: That's somebody who's who's lived their life.
SPEAKER_00: They have run the race.
SPEAKER_00: They've used their strength.
SPEAKER_00: And the oil in the lamp is gone, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: They're close to the expiration date.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have the strength to do much anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Their light in life is flickering.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they live by themselves, their spouse died.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they have a grandkid that checks on them once a day to make sure they're still alive.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: They're kind of forgotten there.
SPEAKER_00: They might get the strength to go to church on Sundays, maybe not.
SPEAKER_00: They're just the light has gone out.
SPEAKER_00: It flickers, they're still alive.
SPEAKER_00: And they feel like, I don't have anything left to give.
SPEAKER_00: What good am I now?
SPEAKER_00: You know, what do people in the world view that demographic as?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're expendable, they're a drain on resources, there's no marketing that's directed at them.
SPEAKER_00: We used to work at a restaurant, and at the end of the night we'd go through and we'd just hit all the candles with our with our fingers.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you lick your fingers all the way around.
SPEAKER_00: You don't think anything of it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't feel sorry for the candle, you're just closing down shop.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way people in the world view those kind of people.
SPEAKER_00: You just move on.
SPEAKER_00: If you feel like you're a bruised reed or a smoldering wick, I have a sermon for you.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 12, beginning in verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was aware of this, the this being that the Pharisees want to kill Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, Jesus said, just healed the man with the withered hands.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees leave and they conspire how to murder Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Aware of that, Jesus withdrew from there.
SPEAKER_00: And many people followed him.
SPEAKER_00: There being Capernaum, all the synagogues, his habit, remember, had been to go in the synagogues to preach to the crowds in that Galilean region.
SPEAKER_00: Between Mount Arbel and Capernaum, Corzin, Beseda, all those places there.
SPEAKER_00: Magdala.
SPEAKER_00: He'd gone around preaching.
SPEAKER_00: It's just an hour walk to any of those places.
SPEAKER_00: He's, you know, moving around.
SPEAKER_00: He's got crowds.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Now the leaders of those places conspire against Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: So he withdraws even from there.
SPEAKER_00: He goes further up into the hills, out towards perhaps Nazareth, or maybe up the Jordan River.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to a more and more remote spot.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to stay out of the Pharisees' crossfire.
SPEAKER_00: Many people followed him, it says.
SPEAKER_00: And he healed them all.
SPEAKER_00: You're getting a very stark contrast here between the worldview of the Pharisees and the worldview of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees here view their power as threatens.
SPEAKER_00: They see Jesus claiming himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath, to be God, to be above their Pharisaic laws.
SPEAKER_00: And so they are angry at him and they're going to try to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, for his part, is focusing on healing.
SPEAKER_00: They're murdering, he's healing.
SPEAKER_00: It's a pretty stark difference.
SPEAKER_00: And he heals everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the exhaustive word in verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: He healed them all.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 16, he orders them not to make himself known.
SPEAKER_00: So he heals masses of people and then says, Don't tell anyone.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he tells people not to tell anyone that they're, sometimes it's an impossible command, right?
SPEAKER_00: Where he raises the girl back to life at her funeral, hands her back to the parents, and says, Don't tell anyone.
SPEAKER_00: Well, they're going to have to come out of the bedroom eventually, and the mourners are going to ask questions.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes it's absurd.
SPEAKER_00: The reason he says don't tell anyone generally is because he's not coming as a healer, he's coming as the savior.
SPEAKER_00: The message isn't that he can heal leprosy, the message is that he heals sin.
SPEAKER_00: In the context of Matthew 12, he's saying don't tell anybody because he's trying to stay out of the Pharisees' way.
SPEAKER_00: He's not trying to cause problems.
SPEAKER_00: He's not trying to provoke a showdown.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that he's a coward.
SPEAKER_00: The showdown's going to come.
SPEAKER_00: You'll see in Matthew 12.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, our passage next week, this is the showdown.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to tell them they're committing the unpardonable sin, the unforgivable sin.
SPEAKER_00: They're all on their way to hell, and he condemns them all.
SPEAKER_00: So he's not a coward here.
SPEAKER_00: He's just trying to stay out of their way.
SPEAKER_00: He's not provoking the showdown.
SPEAKER_00: He healed in the synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: They want to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: He's out into the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine people being disappointed.
SPEAKER_00: They thought he would be the king.
SPEAKER_00: They thought he would overthrow Rome, of course.
SPEAKER_00: That's it says throughout all the Gospels that that was the attitude people had.
SPEAKER_00: Judas is frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: Judas ultimately betrays him at the end of his life because he was expecting Jesus to come and overthrow Rome.
SPEAKER_00: That was what was supposed to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Simon, one of the twelve, was a zealot.
SPEAKER_00: Like they're in this to overthrow Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus should be a king, he should be a politician.
SPEAKER_00: Even Peter gets frustrated at one point when Jesus has all the kids with him, do you remember?
SPEAKER_00: And meanwhile, the rich young ruler is chased away.
SPEAKER_00: So it seems to Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Like, we're not going to get anywhere like this.
SPEAKER_00: You want to overthrow Rome, and you're hanging out with six-year-olds and not like the donors.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is less like a politician.
SPEAKER_00: Politicians make speeches, take credit for everything, put themselves forward.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't like that.
SPEAKER_00: He's more like a shepherd with sheep.
SPEAKER_00: A shepherd is absent from a sheep for a while.
SPEAKER_00: He comes to them.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't walk around and let all the sheep know how great the shepherd is.
SPEAKER_00: He comes and he tends to the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: He sees who's injured.
SPEAKER_00: He binds them up.
SPEAKER_00: He feeds them.
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd isn't reminding the sheep, hey, look at the green grass I got you.
SPEAKER_00: Vote for me next week.
SPEAKER_00: He's just serving.
SPEAKER_00: And that's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's a true shepherd with his sheep, showing concern for the herding, for the lowly, for the downcast, for the reeds that are broken.
SPEAKER_00: He just comes and helps and heals.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, don't tell anyone, because he's not trying to be provocative.
SPEAKER_00: It was not the time of his exaltation, but the time of his humiliation.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what goes to this whole passage here.
SPEAKER_00: It's about the humiliation of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is a critical passage in Matthew's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It is the longest Old Testament quote we're about to read in a few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: It's the longest Old Testament quote in Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: It really is a hinge passage here.
SPEAKER_00: Up until now, Jesus has done the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: He's been massive crowds.
SPEAKER_00: He's been healing in the synagogues, access to the synagogues and the ruling class, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: He's just been doing kind things, healing the lepers, the centurion servants.
SPEAKER_00: He's got John the Baptist disciples gathered around him.
SPEAKER_00: It starts to change in Matthew 11 when John the Baptist disciples come and say, Are you the one?
SPEAKER_00: And he assures them.
SPEAKER_00: And the rest of Matthew 11, his tone is growing stronger.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 11 ends with, of course, an open-armed invitation, come to me, all you who are weak and weary.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gentle and lowly of heart, he says.
SPEAKER_00: Now Matthew 12, they're you know wanting to put him to death for healing people in the synagogue and on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: And so now he's changing course.
SPEAKER_00: He's going away from them back to the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: It is going to become showdown time between Matthew 12 all the way until he gets to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: It's just the gospel of Matthew takes a turn towards hostility at this point.
SPEAKER_00: But before we get there, which will be next week, Lord willing, before we get to there, it gives you this long Old Testament quote from Isaiah 42 that is all about the humility and the gentleness and the kindness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the most precious descriptions of Jesus in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 11 said he's gentle and lowly, but here he's a servant.
SPEAKER_00: He comes low.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you an outline to follow along, a humble hope for bruised reeds.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, if you feel like you're a bruised reed, if you feel like you're a smoldering wick, I hope this passage encourages you.
SPEAKER_00: Because it is all about the humility of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It starts in verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, my servant.
SPEAKER_00: This is Yahweh speaking from Isaiah 42.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, my servant.
SPEAKER_00: God identifying the Savior as the servant.
SPEAKER_00: The word servant here is not the expected word.
SPEAKER_00: You would expect the Savior to be identified as the Son of David.
SPEAKER_00: The common phrase for the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Son of David highlights his royalty, being from the line of David.
SPEAKER_00: You'd expect to be identified as the Son of God, another common description for the Savior, identifying him as deity, the eternally begotten Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Very common to describe Jesus that way.
SPEAKER_00: Son of David being his king, son of God being his deity, son of man being the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: That's Daniel's phrase.
SPEAKER_00: Again, very common even in Matthew's gospel to identify him as the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: It means he's the Messiah, the chosen one from heaven, to be the Redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, this passage begins with a very unusual description of Jesus, describing him as the servant.
SPEAKER_00: First point of my outline here is that the Father sends the servant.
SPEAKER_00: You might be surprised to figure out that my outline will be Trinitarian.
SPEAKER_00: The Father, Spirit, and Son.
SPEAKER_00: I can't help it, it just happens.
SPEAKER_00: First, the Father sends the servant.
SPEAKER_00: This was to fulfill what was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, my servant whom I've chosen.
SPEAKER_00: A servant is Jesus' lowliest title.
SPEAKER_00: He's not here as the Davidic heir.
SPEAKER_00: He's not here as a son of God or even the son of man.
SPEAKER_00: Here in this part of Matthew, he's here as God's servant.
SPEAKER_00: Greek has so many different words for servant because they had so many different kinds of servants.
SPEAKER_00: Servants were a big part of the Israelite lifestyle, the Roman lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: That's why there are so many different words for it.
SPEAKER_00: You have a lot of words for things where clarity and synonyms are important.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they had one word for milk.
SPEAKER_00: We have 50 words for milk.
SPEAKER_00: We have one word for servant, they have 50 words for servant.
SPEAKER_00: You have a servant who's a day laborer, you have a servant who's a house servant, you have a servant who's a slave, you have a servant who's working in the yard, you have a servant who's watching the kids, you have a servant who's watching your parents.
SPEAKER_00: All those have different words.
SPEAKER_00: The word that's used here is an unusual word as well.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word that's used for a servant who's brought into the house as a child, but is loved by the father in a special way that he will become the heir.
SPEAKER_00: There's a specific Greek word for that.
SPEAKER_00: It just comes in the English as servant.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's not a child.
SPEAKER_00: This Greek word is not the son word.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word for a servant who's brought in as a child and eventually will be the heir.
SPEAKER_00: This word represents a servant who's irrevocably chosen.
SPEAKER_00: It could even be rendered adopted.
SPEAKER_00: It's a servant who's adopted into the family.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make him the son, so it's not like an American adoption where the adoption makes you the son.
SPEAKER_00: This is a different kind of adoption.
SPEAKER_00: It's a servant who's now, in some sense, legally the son.
SPEAKER_00: In some sense, but he's still a servant.
SPEAKER_00: Until he becomes the heir.
SPEAKER_00: This is the language used for Jesus here.
SPEAKER_00: The father chose him.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, verse 18, my servant whom I've chosen.
SPEAKER_00: The father chose the son to be the servant.
SPEAKER_00: Chosen here is out of a person who exists.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wasn't created to be the servant, of course not.
SPEAKER_00: He's the eternal Son of God who's always existed.
SPEAKER_00: But at some point before time, at some act before time, the Father and the Son and the Spirit chose the Son to be the Messiah, chose the Son to be the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: The Son is eternally the Son, and then is chosen to be the servant.
SPEAKER_00: This is the plan of redemption made in the mind of God from before the foundation of time.
SPEAKER_00: We were chosen by God before the foundation of time.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a believer, your name was written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of time.
SPEAKER_00: But the difference between you and Jesus is that when your name was written in the Lamb's book of life, you only existed in the mind of God.
SPEAKER_00: You hadn't been born yet.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, when God chooses him to be the servant, he exists as the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: It was the triune plan to choose the Son to be the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And as the Savior, he doesn't come first and foremost as a king, although he's recognized as a king.
SPEAKER_00: The wise men give him gifts as a king.
SPEAKER_00: He's identified as king of the Jews at his birth.
SPEAKER_00: But that is not the primary name on his mantle.
SPEAKER_00: It's put ironically over him at the cross, but throughout his life, he's here as a servant.
SPEAKER_00: He says over and over again, he can only do what the Father commands him to do.
SPEAKER_00: In his humanity, he is a servant.
SPEAKER_00: It highlights his lowliness.
SPEAKER_00: He is gentle and lowly.
SPEAKER_00: He is a servant.
SPEAKER_00: He is, of course, the eternal Son of God, but he is a servant.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what it says even here in verse 18 behold, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: This is God who's talking.
SPEAKER_00: God says, My soul is well pleased in this plan.
SPEAKER_00: Having the Son be the servant fills the soul of God with joy.
SPEAKER_00: Now God doesn't have a soul.
SPEAKER_00: God is spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God is not made of parts.
SPEAKER_00: All that of God, all that He is, is one, of course.
SPEAKER_00: So when it says, My soul delights in this, he's saying the essence of God, the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: Who God truly is delights in the Son.
SPEAKER_00: It's impossible to have God without a God who delights in himself.
SPEAKER_00: It's impossible to have a God who's not Trinitarian.
SPEAKER_00: The Father delights in himself and is the Son.
SPEAKER_00: And the Father and Son delight in one another as the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: This is all wrapped up in this verse.
SPEAKER_00: The Father loves his son with such a rich love.
SPEAKER_00: It's as if his soul is filled with love.
SPEAKER_00: Why does the father love the son so much?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because it's the son is God.
SPEAKER_00: But in this context here, their hearts are filled with love because it's the plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: This should encourage you as a bruised reed, my friend.
SPEAKER_00: God loves you because through your faith in Christ, you are adopted into Christ and his heart is filled with love towards Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a friend to me, you like my kids.
SPEAKER_00: We're kind of a package deal.
SPEAKER_00: And if I'm a friend to you, I'm gonna like your kids.
SPEAKER_00: I can't be a friend with you for long if I don't like your kids.
SPEAKER_00: We understand that at a human level.
SPEAKER_00: Think of that at a divine level.
SPEAKER_00: You bruise reed that you are, the father loves you because he loves the son.
SPEAKER_00: And the son loves you because he saved you.
SPEAKER_00: This is meant to encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: God's heart is filled with love towards his son as the servant.
SPEAKER_00: Well, first, the father sends the servant.
SPEAKER_00: Second, the spirit empowers the servant.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit empowers the servant.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the middle of verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: I'll put my spirit upon him.
SPEAKER_00: This is God speaking.
SPEAKER_00: God, who chooses the Son to be the Savior, also chooses the Spirit to come upon the Savior and anoint him and empower his entire ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, in his deity, the Son is not needing the Spirit's empowerment, but it's in his humanity.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit comes upon the Son in His humanity.
SPEAKER_00: You see this at the virgin birth.
SPEAKER_00: Mary falls pregnant with child by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the text says.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit is attending to Mary with the birth of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit is upon Jesus in his whole life.
SPEAKER_00: When he's baptized in the Jordan, you see the Spirit descend upon him.
SPEAKER_00: When he's healing, he's healing by the power of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We saw this last week with the man with the withered hand.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't touch the guy.
SPEAKER_00: It was the Spirit of God who healed him.
SPEAKER_00: All that Jesus does, he's doing through the working of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, his first public sermon in the synagogue in Nazareth, he opens the scroll of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 61.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what he he read there?
SPEAKER_00: Described in Luke 4, verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus begins his ministry by testifying that the Holy Spirit is empowering him.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the most well-known messianic prophecies from Isaiah chapter 11, a very common Christmas verse.
SPEAKER_00: There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, a branch from his roots shall bear fruit, and the spirit of Yahweh shall rest upon him.
SPEAKER_00: It is the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: This is Advent all over again.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Messiah because the eternal Son of God is sent to earth, takes on a human nature, and then is empowered by God Himself through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus preaches, he preaches by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He's sent to give sight to the blind, but he does that by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He sent to give liberty to the captives, which he says over and over and over again, he does through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He's sent to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and he does that by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Everything he does, he does by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, he's going to ascend into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to tell us to go into all the world, preach the gospel to all creation, make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all that he's commanded us, and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is over all of Jesus' ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He is empowered by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: What is the Spirit empowering him to do?
SPEAKER_00: To reach us.
SPEAKER_00: To be humble.
SPEAKER_00: To go from heaven to earth.
SPEAKER_00: To proclaim in verse 18, justice to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Pharisees are so policing the Sabbath, they're going to try to murder Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's out there preaching justice to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's preaching justice to those who are oppressed, to those who are put down.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing that humble work, not overthrowing Rome, but ministering to the poor, the weak, the needy by the power of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19 is more of his humility.
SPEAKER_00: He will not quarrel or cry aloud.
SPEAKER_00: Nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
SPEAKER_00: He's not walking around provoking conflict.
SPEAKER_00: And you think, oh, but yes, he does argue in the streets with people.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, on the steps of the temple when they corner him at the end of his life.
SPEAKER_00: On the right time, when it was God's time for him to die, then he's arguing in the streets.
SPEAKER_00: But even then they cornered him, remember?
SPEAKER_00: The scribes, the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sanhedrin, the Sadducees, they boxed him in on those steps.
SPEAKER_00: He tried to avoid these conflicts all that he could.
SPEAKER_00: They finally corner him and they execute him.
SPEAKER_00: On God's time, though, not theirs.
SPEAKER_00: He's not provoking arguments in the streets.
SPEAKER_00: He's not fighting with people on Facebook.
SPEAKER_00: He's humbly healing.
SPEAKER_00: The good news translation of the Bible, the Good News Bible, which is a fun translation, renders the verse this way.
SPEAKER_00: He won't make loud speeches in the streets.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's a contrast between the kings that they were expecting, the politicians that they had, and the savior that Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: He's not out there pontificating the streets.
SPEAKER_00: His sermons, by the way, to this point in Matthew's gospel, have been in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: You had to go out there.
SPEAKER_00: You had to pack a lunch and go find him.
SPEAKER_00: So the Father sends him to be the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit empowers the servant.
SPEAKER_00: Third.
SPEAKER_00: The servant saves the bruised reeds.
SPEAKER_00: This is verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: A bruised reed he will not break.
SPEAKER_00: Smoldering wick, he won't quench.
SPEAKER_00: He won't put out the candle.
SPEAKER_00: He won't break the bruised reed.
SPEAKER_00: He won't discard it.
SPEAKER_00: This is the most natural human thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: Little kids step on bugs because they're just running around and they don't care.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way people treat reeds.
SPEAKER_00: They don't care.
SPEAKER_00: But not Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sees people in their hurt.
SPEAKER_00: He sees them in their suffering.
SPEAKER_00: He sees that they feel useless, spent out.
SPEAKER_00: It's so common for God's children to feel this way.
SPEAKER_00: Because of sin in our own life, we feel like we can't be used because of situations in our family or our health or a thousand reasons, some of which are excuses and some of which are real.
SPEAKER_00: But it's so common for Christians to feel in need of grace or too weak of grace to be of any use at all.
SPEAKER_00: That's the bruise read.
SPEAKER_00: It's so common for people, especially the elderly, to feel like they have no flame in them anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But God doesn't see flickering hope and squash it.
SPEAKER_00: Because any flickering light you have is from him.
SPEAKER_00: The light that is in you, even at an old age, is light the Lord has given you.
SPEAKER_00: So he sees the flickering light.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say, oh, let's put that out and get another one.
SPEAKER_00: He sees that flickering light and fans the flame.
SPEAKER_00: Not enough to reverse the aging process.
SPEAKER_00: But enough to help you hope in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Christ values us not by what we are.
SPEAKER_00: He values us by what we will be when we're in heaven with him.
SPEAKER_00: He sees bruiseries and smoldering wicks.
SPEAKER_00: He sees them as the personification of a vessel designed for glory.
SPEAKER_00: He's chosen to glorify the gospel in us through all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you were made.
SPEAKER_00: You think, what is man that God would be mindful of us?
SPEAKER_00: We're just matter and motions.
SPEAKER_00: We're atoms circling around.
SPEAKER_00: We're made from dirt.
SPEAKER_00: We decay and then we die and the world forgets us and goes on.
SPEAKER_00: Why would the God of all the galaxies take concern to us?
SPEAKER_00: Why would he know your name?
SPEAKER_00: Why would he care about your prayer requests?
SPEAKER_00: You're so low and you're made of dirt.
SPEAKER_00: And he's so high and he made the universe.
SPEAKER_00: Why would he care about you?
SPEAKER_00: What is man that you would be mindful of us?
SPEAKER_00: What's the Son of Man that you would even consider him?
SPEAKER_00: But God then not only considers us, he becomes one of us, taking on our nature, so that he can save us and present us back in glory.
SPEAKER_00: The Father gives us as a gift to his son.
SPEAKER_00: The son rescues us and redeems us from our sin to present us back as worshipers to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: So we have glory in that kind of worship cycle right there.
SPEAKER_00: The Father chooses us, the Son redeems us, we're adopted into the Son, presented back before the Father.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he's not gonna discard the bruised reed.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he's not gonna snuff out the smoldering wick, because the light is light he gave us that he will cause to burn brightly again.
SPEAKER_00: That's all future, though.
SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, we're forced to wait.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, while we wait, reminds us he's not gonna break the bruised reed.
SPEAKER_00: This is the constant mantra he gives.
SPEAKER_00: He tells, remember, the leper comes to him and says, if you are willing, you can make me clean.
SPEAKER_00: The leper didn't question the ability of Jesus, but just his willingness, would you, would a leper really, would Jesus really want to make a leper clean?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, I am willing, be clean.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what the centurion said?
SPEAKER_00: The centurion said, if you're able.
SPEAKER_00: The leper didn't question the ability of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The leper just said, How could you care for me?
SPEAKER_00: This passage is given to remind you that God cares for the lepers.
SPEAKER_00: He's always willing.
SPEAKER_00: Now you can think about this for a second and then ask a very natural question.
SPEAKER_00: Why would there be so many bruised reeds then?
SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, God is the one who often bruises the reed.
SPEAKER_00: The truth is, God is sovereign over our suffering.
SPEAKER_00: The truth is you're not going to come to faith in Christ unless God bruises you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe there might be the person who's raised in the church and learns Christ from a young age and follows Christ their whole life.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I pray that's the testimony of my daughters.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I pray for.
SPEAKER_00: I pray they never have to be bruised by the Lord to open up their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: But I would hazard a guess that it's universally true for those raised outside of the faith.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord had to bruise you to get you in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's the crack in the wall that lets the light in, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has to open up a hole in your heart for his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, for you to be convicted of your sin and need, recognize your need for a savior, and then for his spirit to regenerate you.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be broken by the law, recognize your own sin, recognize your frailty.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not just intellectual.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just you going, oh, you know, now I think about it, I am a liar.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Lord crippling your pride, breaking you.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes people have to have all kinds of things taken from them before they realize how useless they are without the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's why there's bruised reeds.
SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't change conversion either.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes reeds need bruising their whole life.
SPEAKER_00: It was Richard Sibs who said the Lord often bruises his children to remind us that we are reeds and not oaks.
SPEAKER_00: You know, some of you are the Chick-fil-A straw that thinks I'm the strongest straw in the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you may very well be the strongest Chick-fil-a straw in the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: You're still a Chick-fil-A straw.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord disciplines the children he loves.
SPEAKER_00: If you've gone a long period of your life without feeling the Lord's discipline, it might be worth asking you if you're following the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't discipline the neighbor's kids, he disciplines his own kids.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 23, verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Don't withhold discipline from a child.
SPEAKER_00: If you strike him with a rod, he's not gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: That's a very good parenting verse, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Very good parenting verse.
SPEAKER_00: You can spank your kids, it won't kill them.
SPEAKER_00: Even though they scream, oh, I'll die.
SPEAKER_00: They were not gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon's main point here is not even about parenting.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord disciplines his children.
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna kill you.
SPEAKER_00: He's not gonna tempt you beyond what you're gonna bear, what you can bear.
SPEAKER_00: With every trial he gives you, he sanctifies you.
SPEAKER_00: Of course he does.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: Have your soul saved from Sheol.
SPEAKER_00: So if you see a broken-hearted Christian, somebody who's miserable in life, the bruised reed, the smoldering wick, you can have pity on them for a second.
SPEAKER_00: And then just remind yourself it's not it's not a miserable person.
SPEAKER_00: They may seem miserable, but they're not truly miserable.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at someone in whom the Lord is doing a gracious work.
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_00: Taken together, this whole pericope here shows you the Lord is gracious to people.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to save people.
SPEAKER_00: He's so compassionate to people.
SPEAKER_00: He's inviting them to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: Even while he's being hounded and they want to kill him, he's using his last moments on earth to invite people to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: He is a king.
SPEAKER_00: He is the son of David.
SPEAKER_00: You know that.
SPEAKER_00: He is the king.
SPEAKER_00: But here he's humble.
SPEAKER_00: He's a meek king.
SPEAKER_00: He will admit mourners into his presence.
SPEAKER_00: He's not the king who only has the strongest watchman on duty.
SPEAKER_00: He's the king that lets mourners and the broken-hearted and the meek and the humble come before him.
SPEAKER_00: He's a king of mercy and compassion.
SPEAKER_00: He's a king who endured temptation on life.
SPEAKER_00: In his humanity, he was tempted by sin.
SPEAKER_00: Not so that he would learn what temptation is like.
SPEAKER_00: He's omniscient.
SPEAKER_00: He was tempted by sin so that you would know you have someone who understands what you're going through in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He endured that for you.
SPEAKER_00: He endured ridicule and mocking.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So that if you endure ridicule and mocking, if you feel like a bruised reed, you know you have a high priest who sympathizes with you and your weakness.
SPEAKER_00: You know you have a physician who is familiar with your afflictions.
SPEAKER_00: He can heal whatever is wrong with you.
SPEAKER_00: And he specializes, by the way, in broken hearts.
SPEAKER_00: He died to heal our souls.
SPEAKER_00: And he heals our hearts with his own blood.
SPEAKER_00: You feel useless, like your race has been run.
SPEAKER_00: He has use for you still.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what his use is for you?
SPEAKER_00: It's in the last verse, verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: In his name the Gentiles will hope.
SPEAKER_00: You feel useless in life?
SPEAKER_00: Hope in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You feel like there's no fruitful ministry you can do.
SPEAKER_00: You know what you can do at any stage of ability, physical, mental, or otherwise, you can hope in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's how the flame keeps going.
SPEAKER_00: That's how Christ is glorified.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't come to prop himself up, he came to serve you and have you hope in him.
SPEAKER_00: If you hope in him, which you can do if you're alone in your house all day long, if you are bedridden, you can hope in Christ at any stage of life.
SPEAKER_00: You can cling to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: A vine might be weak, but as it clings to the oak tree, it is strong.
SPEAKER_00: You, in your bruised reed state, when you cling to Christ, you can be strengthened.
SPEAKER_00: Christ never turned away a single person that came to him.
SPEAKER_00: He never told a reed, You're too bruised for me.
SPEAKER_00: He never told a candle, you're too faint for me.
SPEAKER_00: He does this so that we learn there is more mercy in Christ than there is sin in us.
SPEAKER_00: He is the king, of course, he is a lion of Judah, but he will receive any child that comes to him.
SPEAKER_00: He's like Aslan.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the kids can pet him and he purrs.
SPEAKER_00: But he will devour those who don't bow the knee before him.
SPEAKER_00: And there is no one too lowly to be used by him.
SPEAKER_00: My last verse, in his name, the Gentiles will hope, should be tattooed on your eyelids.
SPEAKER_00: You can suffer all every experience in life.
SPEAKER_00: And you can still hope in Christ and be used by him.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're grateful.
SPEAKER_00: You have never found a servant you would discard.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who comes to you in faith is received by you.
SPEAKER_00: Even the woman with blood just thought, if I can touch his coat, I can be healed.
SPEAKER_00: That that is all of us, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We just want hope in you.
SPEAKER_00: The world may have moved on from us, but you never do.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help our hope remain.
SPEAKER_00: Fan the flame of hope in our heart.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, DC area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.