Being involved in gospel ministry is the GREATEST thing you can do with your life. There will be days when you say to yourself, ‘Praise the Lord! I love making an ETERNAL difference in the lives of people! I love TEACHING Bible lessons to the kids. I love SINGING in the choir. I love helping out in the church. I love WITNESSING to my neighbours and friends with the gospel of Jesus Christ! I love it, I love it, I love it’!
And then again, you’re going to have days when you say to yourself, ‘What the HECK am I doing? My FRIENDS give me a hard time. I don’t get any RESPECT. I get asked QUESTIONS I cannot answer. People won’t SPEAK to me because I am Christian. The LORD is asking for too much of me’.
Ministry can be tough and overwhelming. And this is true for the servant who we meet in Isaiah.
This morning we are CONTINUING our studies from the servant songs. We are looking at these songs because they HELP us to understand Jesus. Now it’s IMPORTANT that we not only explain the songs, but we extend our radar into the whole book. For the ministry of the servant fits into God’s plan to REDEEM and restore this sin-ridden world.
To this end, the Book of Isaiah falls neatly into TWO sections (slide). The FIRST section (chapters 1 to 39), addresses Israel’s continuing sin and rebellion. The HEARTS of the people are so hardened that nothing will turn them, and so the PROPHET brings a message of judgment and exile. The old, earthly Jerusalem is condemned—‘They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him’ (Isaiah 1:4b).
The SECOND part of the book (chapters 40 to 66) opens with words of consolation. ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for’ (Isaiah 40:1–2). Isaiah CLOSES with the emergence of the New Jerusalem. A place of undefiled worship. A place where God is eternally glorified.
From the old Jerusalem to the new Jerusalem—from the old creation to the new creation—this is the concern of the Book of Isaiah.
I hope you are concerned about moving from the old creation to the new creation. In fact I hope you are feeling a little UNCOMFORTABLE because you will not understand the treasurers in this book unless you are living in some DISCOMFORT. You will NOT appreciate these servant songs unless you think of yourself as a REFUGEE in this world.
Every good thing we have is a GIFT from God. But those same gifts risk becoming our IDOLS. Israel succumbed to idol worship. They became self-centred and inward looking. They carried on as though GOD tolerated their forgetfulness. They FORGOT the covenant. They FORGOT to be disciple-making disciples. They FORGOT that heaven is their home. They FORGOT to be a people belonging to God. They FORGOT to declare the praises of him who called them out of darkness into his wonderful light.
But God does not forget his promises. So he forcefully PULLED away all that Israel treasured so dearly. He sent the nation into exile. In the 6th century B.C. the TEMPLE was destroyed and the land lay in ruins. God sent the Babylonians to overthrow Judah and Jerusalem because they had FORSAKEN the Lord.
It’s NOT surprising that when all is taken away our RELATIONSHIP with God comes clearly into focus. The UGANDAN church lives in a constant state of almost everything taken away. And their reliance upon God to provide their NEEDS is staggering. But some churches even tell us that POSSESSIONS are a sign that God is with us. But it was not until Israel was stripped of everything did they realise their UTTER dependence upon God—and that he is not to be mocked and disregarded.
So God’s punishment turns into an EXPRESSION of his mercy. The exile pushed Israel to see clearly again. Israel realised that WITHOUT relationship with God they are sadly impoverished. When we’ve got nothing, when we’re poor and desperate, the FUTURE matters. Can you hear the echoes of Jesus? ‘BLESSED are the poor in spirit; BLESSED are those who mourn; BLESSED are the meek and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness’.
I want you to be POOR in spirit. I want you to MOURN. I want you to HUNGER and thirst for righteousness because you do not belong to this world. The Apostle Peter describes all God’s elect as ‘strangers in this world’ (1 Pet 1:1, 2:11).
We need to hear these servant songs as STRANGERS in this world. And if you are so comfortable that you cannot do that, then PERHAPS you need to make yourself a little less comfortable. We are not home. The new creation is still to come, and the SERVANT will get us there. This servant is NOT Moses and he is NOT Cyrus. He is hand picked for the job. God reveals his hand in Isaiah 42. ‘Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations’ (Isaiah 42:1).
We learn MORE of the servant in the second servant song. We learn that the LORD has great expectations. Already we have seen that the Lord will UPHOLD him, the Lord has CHOSEN him, the Lord DELIGHTS in him, the Lord has put his SPIRIT upon him. He will bring JUSTICE to the nations. The first servant song fills us with great hope. This unnamed servant will be someone very special!
The servant feels the BURDEN of expectation upon him. Isaiah 49:1, ‘Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name’.
It’s an incredible realisation. The servant knows he is PREDESTINED to do the Lord’s work. He notes in verse 5 that God FORMED him in the womb to be his servant. There is enormous expectation. He knows, verse 4, that God intends to display his SPLENDOUR through him. He knows that he has been EQUIPPED for his mission, ‘He made my mouth like a sharpened sword (verse 2), in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver’ (Isaiah 49:2).
Before bombs and guns there were BOWS and arrows. When Andrew was a little BOY he was in a bus with JANETTE and there was an Indian man a few seats away wearing a turban. Andrew sheepishly approach the man. The MAN looked and smiled and said, ‘I’m an Indian’. And Andrew looked back and said, ‘Then where’s your bow and arrows’. To which the man almost fell over laughing. Wrong sort of Indian!
The SERVANT knows that he is the ‘polished arrow’, that he the OFFENSIVE weapon in the Lord’s quiver. The Lord EXPECTS to achieve his purposes through him. Great expectations press down upon the servant but we expect success.
The servant gives us a PROGRESS report in verse 4. This servant is the ‘top gun’ of servants. He is predestined and equip for the task. There is NO obvious reason why he should STRUGGLE and perhaps risk failure. So rather SURPRISINGLY the servant says in verse 4, ‘“I have laboured to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God”’ (Isaiah 49:3–4). The servant is BENDING under the weight of the task. His humanity is showing. He feels INADEQUATE for the task before him.
The Lord Jesus faced discouragement at every turn. Yet in faithful OBEDIENCE he humbled himself for our redemption. Jesus once said, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head’ (Matt 8:20). The Christ was WEAK and tempted as we are, but he was without sin. He SOUGHT the companionship of his disciples. In the garden he suffered ANGUISH. He trembled and was fearful. Then on the CROSS he cried out to his Father, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’?
The servant: true man, yet sinless. True man, yet very God.
Gospel ministry is hard work. If it was difficult for the servant then it is difficult for us. We may work and NOT see the fruit of our labour. We may SWEAT for apparently little gain. We may TALK to our neighbour and it seems a waste of time. We might INVITE a friend to church only to receive a mouthful later. We may even say, ‘I have laboured to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing’ (Isaiah 49:4).
Is it really SURPRISING that we struggle under the burden? Is it surprising that churches find something else to do? Israel WITHDREW to the comforts of life. They invented religious excuses. So the Lord RAISED up an individual and said to him, ‘You are my servant, Israel’. Then the servant called his disciples and said to them, ‘If anyone would come after me. He must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’ (Mk 8:34). And then the servant laid down his life as a RANSOM for many.
I’m glad the servant of the Lord did NOT give up after he said, ‘I have laboured to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing’ (Isaiah 49:4). For the then says, ‘Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God’. Despite the hardship and the frustration and the lack of progress, the servant COMMITS himself to his Lord.
Perhaps we need to toughen up. We need to realise WHO we are and why we are here. The APOSTLE says in 1 Peter, ‘You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy’ (1 Pet 2:9–10). We need a FIRE in our belly because we are called to do the GREATEST things of all.
Where’s the PASSION gone? Has our CULTURE duped us? When the servant is down he re-affirms his trust in the Lord. He resolves to carry on and display the SPLENDOUR of the Lord. The SERVANT knows that gospel ministry is hard work.
I’ve been brought up in a WORLD which says, ‘don’t share you religion with me’. And now I’m a Christian and the LORD says go into all the world. I think ’ll always live with some inner CONFLICT that makes sharing my faith hard. I don’t think this tension will ever leave me. The problem is isn’t that I don’t love God. The problem is that I forget how much he loves me!
Do you want to be a disciple-making disciple? Then REMEMBER that Christ loves you and he died for you. He rose so you could have life. The SPIRIT of renewal is working within you. You belong to a whole new FAMILY which is his church.
Well, the Lord responds in three parts to the frustrations of his servant.
The first response comes in verses 5 and 6. After assuring the servant that he will succeed, the Lord says to him in verse 6, ‘It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth’ (Isaiah 49:6).
The servant’s rejection by Israel causes the Lord to EXPAND his ministry to the Gentiles.
Please turn to Acts 13 where Paul and Barnabas quote Isaiah 49:6 as JUSTIFICATION for their expanded mission (slide). The setting is Pisidian ANTIOCH which is a Gentile city with a Jewish presence. On the SABBATH Paul and Barnabas go to the SYNAGOGUE and this time almost the whole city comes to hear them. The Jews are less than happy.
Acts 13:46. Paul and Barnabas say, ‘“We had to speak the word of God to you first (you Jews). Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us (now comes the quote from Isaiah 49): “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honoured the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. The word of the Lord spread through the whole region’ (Acts 13:46–49).
The JEWS reject Paul. But the gospel is not only for Jews, it is for the WHOLE world (slide). The servant’s mission in Isaiah is HANDED to the apostles, ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth’. And it’s wonderful that when the GOSPEL is proclaimed to the Gentiles, they believed the message. I hope YOU also have heard the message and believed it.
But did you catch the little gem in verse 48? It stands between the Gentiles HONOURING the word of God then the word SPREADING throughout the whole region. ‘And all who were appointed to eternal life believed’ (Acts 13:48). Isn’t it interesting that we should have a comment on ELECTION right in the middle of this great evangelistic story?
There are people who CANNOT imagine how anybody can be an EVANGELIST if God decides who will be saved. But the God who APPOINTS the ends also APPOINTS the means. Sovereign election is the engine room of evangelism. The gospel is only a light to the Gentiles because God will OPEN their eyes and let the light in! James Montgomery BOICE points out that virtually all the famous missionary pioneers were believers in election.
And so the Lord’s FIRST answer to his servant’s frustration is to extend his ministry to the Gentiles, a mission that will bear fruit because God is a missionary God.
The Lord’s second response to the servant’s lowly state is seen in Isaiah 49:7, ‘This is what the LORD says— the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel— to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: “Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you’ (Isaiah 49:7).
The Lord PROMISES his servant a phoenix-like existence. That out of the ASHES he will rise in stature. KINGS will one day bow down before the servant. Worldwide glory will be GIVEN to him. Napoleon penned these words about Jesus (slide):
Everything in Christ astonishes me. His Spirit overawes me, his will confounds me. Between him and whoever else in the world, there is no possible term of comparison […] The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine, everything is above me—everything remains grand, of a grandeur which overpowers.
The Lord promises his servant future vindication. He may suffer now, but glory will follow. We see this tension in the life of Jesus. Immediately after Jesus predicts his death in Mark 8, then comes the transfiguration—a reminder that after his suffering, the Christ will be raised to glory.
For us, on this side of the cross, we KNOW this to be true. We know that the Lord has been FAITHFUL to his servant. The splendour of God was revealed in the most UNEXPECTED place—the cross of Christ. And the Father raised his servant-son and then he ascended to be at the right-hand of the Father. And he will COME again and every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that he is Lord.
The Lord’s LAST response to the servant’s frustration is found in verses 8 to 12. ‘This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favour I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’” (Isaiah 49:8–9).
This last response ASSURES the servant that God has not forgotten Israel. The Lord will not abandon his covenant people. Isaiah looks FORWARD to ‘the day of salvation’ and much later in 2 Cor 6 the Apostle Paul says, ‘You know what? It’s here’. Now is the time to get about the BUSINESS of gospel ministry, ‘I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation’ (2 Cor 6:1–2).
Now is the TIME to go into all the world. Now is the time for action. ‘How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news’!
