Behold My Servant
December 8, 2019 Speaker: Albert Turner Series: Advent 2019: The Coming One
Passage: Isaiah 42:1–9
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| The Servant of the Lord |
| Text: Isaiah, chapter 42. Thoughts for reflection are below. 1. The Mission of the Servant: To Establish Justice (Read v. 1, 3, 5-6) God could not be more passionate about justice. Justice between mankind. Justice towards Him. In Isaiah, both man’s injustice towards man – the hungry, the refugee, the orphan, etc., and man’s injustice to God – idolatry and false teaching, are both central causes of God’s grief and God’s wrath. We can be selective in how we see injustice. For instance, when you see the poor and the refugee, are you prone to judge them as losers and threats? Or do you see them with compassion and concern as God does? On the other hand, when you consider how Jesus Christ’s reputation and honor is ignored and trashed in our society – even by “socially conscious” people – does it register as a terrible injustice to you? It should. God wants your prayers for His glory AND your prayers for the persecuted. He wants both. Yes, give to the church but also be concerned for the struggling single mother in the church. Do both. Show up for worship and show compassion for the refugee – even if that might begin with your heart attitude. This is the heart of the Servant of the Lord. This is the justice of God that He came to bring. And one day He will make perfect justice abound throughout the earth!
2. The Heart of the Servant: Loving, and Sacrificial (Read v. 2-3, 6-7) The Servant of the Lord is in our midst. And through the Holy Spirit, He is in us. And consider His heart for you as Isaiah describes Him. Weak and straying you may be, His heart’s desire today is not to break you or snuff you out. He is here to be who He is: a Servant. Can you hear him saying “O bruised reed, smoldering wick, I have not come to break you or snuff you out. Sit down before me. Pour out your heart to me – your trials and sins, worries and longings. Let me kneel before your filthy beaten feet and take them in my hand and wash them.” He is also our “Covenant”. A “covenant” is an agreement that binds two parties together and makes clear their obligations and rewards. Well, Jesus IS the covenant. He is the very eternal and binding agreement between ourselves and God. In His death Jesus has paid the obligation we owe God. And the reward God gives to us in return for Jesus’ shed blood is … Jesus Himself! He comes into us and lives in us and gives us all of His fullness.
3. The Glory of God in the Servant (Read v. 8-9) In Isaiah, God contends with the futility and idiocy of idol worship. He knows that He is the Only True God. And He proves it to the people. He tells and it comes to pass. He declares what will be and it happens. God does what He says. Not only in Isaiah, but in Jeremiah, David, Ezekiel, Daniel, Numbers, Genesis, Micha, Malachi, Hosea, Zechariah and on and on and on … God tells us what will happen and it happens. Nowhere is this more true than concerning His Son, Jesus. Upon Jesus, God has set His prophetic seal. We see in the Old Testament that God has told us who Jesus would be, When He would be, Why He would be, and more. Hundreds and thousands of years before any of it comes to pass. God is so passionate about making Jesus seen clearly because He is so passionate about Jesus. He is what God desires us to see of Himself. He is God’s very glory revealed to us. And He is so passionate about making Him clear to us because we MUST have Jesus and we MUST, by faith, hold onto Jesus if we are to receive eternal life.
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More in Advent 2019: The Coming One
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The Judgement Of Christ: The Sheep and the GoatsJanuary 26, 2020
The Judgement Of Christ: The TalentsJanuary 12, 2020
The Judgement of Christ: The Bridesmaids