A few years ago, the Tokyo Times carried a report about a 19-year-old man who was desperate to get to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. So he hopped a bus and demanded that the driver take him there.
He was hijacking the bus, but few of the passengers were concerned. For one thing, the hijacker wasn’t holding a gun, waving a knife, or carrying a bomb. He was completely unarmed. For another, the bus he wanted to hijack was already headed to Haneda Airport, so everybody on the bus stayed calm.
Some said the man was drunk, others that he was disturbed, but the harmless hijacker was quickly arrested. The Tokyo Times commented that the man “just wanted to make a scene. Which if nothing else, he did manage to do successfully.” (Hopeless Hijacker, www.Tokyotimes.org, 3-24-05; www.PreachingToday. com)
You see, anybody can claim success if they set their goals low enough, but is that really success? What about those who have big goals but fail to achieve them right away? Are they any less successful than the man who achieves little, insignificant goals?
If you have your Bibles I invite you to turn with me to Isaiah 49, Isaiah 49, where we see what true success looks like in the coming of the Messiah to this earth. This is the 2nd of Isaiah’s servant songs where he describes the ministry of God’s Servant who had huge goals, but seemingly failed to achieve them in the short term.
Isaiah 49:1-2 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. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. (NIV)
This is what God’s Servant says to the world, yes even to us on an island at the end of the earth. He says, “Heed what I have to say, because God gave me a pointed message.” You see…
JESUS CAME TO SPEAK, so we better listen.
Jesus came with a specific and direct word from God, so we better pay attention to what He has to say.
His words were like a polished arrow or a sharpened sword. From the very beginning, His message was very pointed: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17). And for those who didn’t heed that message, even if they were religious leaders, his words were even more pointed.
In Matthew 23, he says to them, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are… Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean… You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell” (Matthew 23:15,27,33).
Oh my goodness, that’s not very politically correct!
In John 6, Jesus describes himself as “the Bread of Life,” and tells a crowd of over 5,000 people that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood in order to have eternal life. As a result, the last part of the chapter says, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:66).
Everybody left him, except 12; and soon after that, one of those 12 started looking for a chance to betray Him.
Jesus asked the 12, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”
And Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:67-68).
You see, when Jesus preached, people either got mad and left or they believed and were forever changed. He didn’t mince words or pull any punches. He came with a specifically prepared message from God, and it pierced the soul.
Hebrews 12 says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
Soren Kierkegaard, with whom I have many disagreements, got it right when he said, “Christian truth itself has eyes to see with. In fact it is all eye. That's very disquieting. Think of looking at a painting and discovering that the painting was looking at you. Precisely such is the case with Christian truth. It is looking back at me to see whether I do what it says I should do. (Soren Kierkegaard, Leadership, Vol. 6, no.2; www.PreachingToday.com)
Jesus’ words were very pointed, staring with piercing eyes back at our souls, so we better pay attention to what He has to say. We can’t just pass His words off as “nice” and ignore them. No! Jesus’ words demand a response!
A couple of years ago, when I was preaching in Mark 8 about what it means to follow Christ, I told a story that bears repeating. It was about a man who came to see Pastor Mark Labberton, asking for some bullet points on Christianity. The man’s wife had just become a Christian, and he wanted help in making some sense of the dinner conversations he was having with her. He made it clear he was a very busy, very successful man, and didn't really have time to study her beliefs. He just wanted the bullet points, “right now, please.”
Pastor Mark told him, “I can see you are a very busy, very successful person, so I don't think this is a good idea.”
“Why?” the man asked, frustrated.
“Because,” Pastor Mark said, “If I were to give you the bullet points, and you were to really understand them, they have a way of working into a person's life so significantly that your life could really get messed up. You would have to rethink the meaning of success, of time, of family…of everything, really. I don't think you really want to do that, do you?” (Mark Labberton, “Pastor of Desperation,” Leadership Journal, Winter 2006; www.Preaching Today.com)
Pastor Mark was being straight with the man, warning him that even the “bullet points” of God’s Word can mess up your life. In this case, the man responded positively and trusted Christ with his life.
How will you respond? Jesus came to speak, so we better listen.
The only problem is, many don’t listen to Him. When Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, came to His own people, the Jews, even they failed to listen to Him. They rejected Him. So we see that Jesus came not only to speak…
HE CAME TO SUFFER.
He came to be rejected by His own people. He came to be despised and abhorred by the very nation to whom He was sent. Listen to the dialogue between God and His Servant.
Isaiah 49:3 He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.” (NIV)
God calls His Servant “Israel,” not because He is referring to the nation of Israel. He calls His Servant Israel, because that Servant embodies all that Israel should have been, but failed to be. Now, in Bible days, the kings of a nation were sometimes called by the name of the nation itself (Keil & Delitzsch, p.260). So this Servant is the King of Israel, who is called to bring the nation back to God, according to verse 5. Only that Servant seems to fail in that mission.
Isaiah 49:4 But I said, “I have labored 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.” (NIV)
This Servant feels like a failure. He has labored to the point of physical exhaustion without anything to show for it. Even so, He trusts God to provide some sort of reward or compensation for the work that has been accomplished even though it seems unproductive. He trusts God to bring something good out of His seeming failure to bring the nation of Israel back to God.
Well, that’s exactly what happened to Jesus. Five days after He presented Himself to Israel as their King on Palm Sunday, they were calling for His crucifixion on Good Friday. John 1:11 says, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” They rejected Him as their King, and treated Him as the worst of criminals.
After Jesus died on the cross and rose again, Peter declared to the people of Israel, “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this… Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer” (Acts 3:13-14, 17-18).
Isaiah, the prophet, hints at it here in Isaiah 49, but he will be very explicit about the Messiah’s suffering in Isaiah 53.
Jesus came to suffer; but even in His suffering, He trusted God. 1 Peter 2:23 says, “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”
Jesus trusted God in His suffering, and that’s what we must do if we want to truly succeed. We must trust the Lord even in our own suffering.
First, we must trust Him for our salvation, because Jesus died on a cross to save us from our sins. His death was the punishment we had coming for our own sins, but Jesus took our sins upon Himself and died in our place. Then He rose from the dead offering eternal life to anyone who believes in Him. The word “believe” means to trust, so trust Christ with your life and your eternal destiny. Trust Christ to save you from your sins today.
Then trust the Lord in your suffering. Like God’s Servant, Jesus, trust the Lord to bring something good out of your seeming failures.
There is an old story about a house servant that had two large pots. One hung on each end of a pole that he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. The other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.
For two years the servant delivered each day only one-and-a-half pots full of water to his master's house. The perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, but the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable over accomplishing only half of what it had been made to do.
After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, the cracked pot spoke to the servant one day by the stream.
“I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you.”
“What are you ashamed of?” asked the bearer.
“For these past two years I have been able to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you don't get full value from your work.”
The servant said, “As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.” As they went up the hill, the cracked pot noticed the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path. When they reached the house, the servant said to the pot, “Did you notice the flowers grew only on your side of the path, not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table.” (unknown, www.PreachingToday.com)
There are times when we feel like we’ve failed. But Jesus can use those failures to grace His Father’s table. And God can use our so-called “failures” to great advantage.
That’s what He did for Jesus Christ, His Servant. Jesus came to speak, but His own people didn’t even listen to Him. So Jesus came to suffer; but in that suffering, He brought redemption to the entire world. For you see, Jesus not only came to speak and suffer…
JESUS CAME TO SAVE men and women everywhere.
Jesus came to deliver people from every tribe and nation all around the globe. He came not just to restore Israel, He came to be a light to the Gentiles at the farthest reaches of the planet.
Isaiah 49:5-6 And now the Lord says— he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength— he says: “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.” (NIV)
Jesus failed in a “small thing,” so He could succeed in something far greater. In His first coming, Jesus failed to restore Israel, so He could succeed in bringing redemption to every nation, including Israel itself.
Peter told the nation of Israel that they had rejected God’s Servant in ignorance. Then he warned them, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore EVERYTHING, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (Acts 3:19-21).
You see, God had something much bigger in mind for His Servant than just the restoration of one little nation. He wanted to use His Servant to bring redemption to the entire world. Romans 11:15 makes it very clear: “[Israel’s] rejection is the reconciliation of the world.”
Jesus came to speak, so let’s listen to Him. Jesus came to suffer, so let’s trust Him.
More than that, Jesus came to save the world, so let’s tell the world about Him. As His body on this earth, let’s be His light everywhere we go.
When the Apostle Paul traveled all through Asia Minor (what we know today as Turkey) on his First Missionary Journey, he spoke to the Jews first in their synagogues. But when they rejected his message about Jesus, Paul declared, “We had to speak the word of God to you first. 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: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” (Acts 13:46-47)
Paul quotes Isaiah 49 here and applies it to himself and his missionary companions. You see, as representatives of Christ on this earth, Paul saw it as their responsibility to fulfill Christ’s calling. He saw it as their responsibility to be a light in Christ’s absence.
Sometimes, I think God would say to the church today as He said to His Servant in Isaiah 49:6, “Is it too small a thing for you to be my servant.” If we’re not careful, we can get “caught in the bigness of small things” (David L. McKenna, The Communicator’s Commentary: Isaiah 40-66, p.509). That is, we can get caught in greatly succeeding in little things – things like raising money, maintaining a facility, or filling positions – all the while forgetting the big picture of what we’re all about.
As representatives of Christ on this earth, God calls us, like Christ, to be a light for the Gentiles that we may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. In all our work we do for Christ, let’s not forget the real reason why we’re still here on this earth.
In 1938, in a Russian prison, about 250 miserable men were herded together in one small cell. Among them was David Braun.
Soon David became aware of a Greek Orthodox priest in their midst. The old man had been thrown into prison because of his faith. His peaceful, radiant face made him stand out in that awful place like a candle in the dark. You couldn't miss him.
It was probably because of this that he became the target for the sarcastic and blasphemous remarks of two of the prisoners. They were continually harassing him. They bumped into him. They mistreated him. They mocked everything that was holy to him. But always the priest was gentle and patient.
One day David received a food parcel from his wife. When people are constantly hungry, receiving a food parcel is something that can't be described – it has to be experienced. David opened the parcel. As he looked up, he saw the old priest looking at his bread with longing eyes.
David broke off a piece and gave it to him. To his amazement the priest took the bread, broke it, and gave it to his two tormentors.
“My friend,” said David, “you are hungry. Why did you not eat the bread yourself?”
“Let me be, brother,” he answered. “They need it more than I. Soon I will go home to my Lord. Don't be angry with me.”
Soon after that he died. But never again in this cell did David hear mockery and blasphemy. The old priest, a true servant of the Lord, had fulfilled his commission. (Cornelia Lehn, Peace Be With You, Faith and Life Press, 1980, p. 91; www.Preaching Today.com)
He was Christ’s light in a dark place. With God’s help, let’s be the same in this place.
Jesus came to speak, so let’s listen. Jesus came to suffer, so let’s trust Him. Jesus came to save, so let’s tell the world all about Him until that day every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. For you see, Jesus not only came to speak; Jesus not only came to suffer; Jesus not only came to save…
JESUS ALSO CAME TO RULE.
Jesus came to be the King not only of the Jews, but the King of kings and Lord of lords over the entire world.
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.” (NIV)
It look like Jesus had failed – He was despised and abhorred by THE nation – i.e., the nation of Israel. And He was a servant of rulers – A Gentile ruler, Pontius Pilate, actually ordered His execution. But one day, every king and every prince on this earth will rise up from their thrones and bow down before Him.
Did Jesus fail? Only if you’re shortsighted, for Jesus death brought salvation to the entire world, and for Him, sovereignty OVER the entire world.
Philippians 2 says, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11).
Jesus came to speak; let’s listen. Jesus came to suffer; let’s trust Him. Jesus came to save; let’s tell the world. And Jesus came to rule; let’s bow before Him, for that’s what true success is all about.
Emptied of His glory; God became a man,
To walk on earth in ridicule and shame.
A ruler, yet a Servant; a Shepherd, yet a Lamb;
A Man of Sorrows, agony and pain.
Humble and rejected, beaten and despised,
Upon the cross the Son of God was slain.
Just like a lamb to slaughter, a sinless sacrifice;
But by His death His loss became our gain.
He is Lord, He is Lord!
He is risen from the dead and He is Lord!
Ev’ry knee shall bow,
Ev’ry tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Satan’s forces crumbled like a mighty wall.
The stone that held Him in was rolled aside.
The Prince of Life in glory was lifted over all,
Now earth and heaven echo with the cry.
He is Lord, He is Lord!
He is risen from the dead and He is Lord!
Ev’ry knee shall bow,
Ev’ry tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
(Linda Lee Johnson, Claire Cloninger and Tom Fettke)
