"The Servant's Work" Sermon: Isaiah 49:1-6 (manuscript)

 

“The Servant’s Work”

[Isaiah 49:1-6]

February 7, 2021 YouTube

            In our text this morning, we continue to hear about the Second Servant mentioned briefly in the previous chapter – that Servant Who is sent by God along with the Holy Spirit – the Servant Who we also read of in chapter forty-two:

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law” (Isaiah 42:1-4, ESV).

            And we see, first, the Servant is incarnate as a human prophet.

The Servant speaks: “Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar.”

Here we see another aspect of the work of the Servant:  we have seen Him coming to the people of Israel, but here, we see Him coming to the Gentiles – to all the other nations of the world.  So, the work of the Servant encompasses all peoples of the earth – “to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”  And He calls the Gentiles to listen to Him and give their attention to Him.

“The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name”

 

The Servant explains how He comes:  the Lord – that is, God – YHWH – sends the Servant to the peoples of the earth through the womb of the Virgin – as we saw in chapter seven of Isaiah.  The Father clothes the Servant with flesh through the Virgin’s womb – and the Servant is called as a prophet from the womb.

That is not unusual.  We remember what God tells Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5, ESV).

The difference is that this Prophet is not merely formed in the womb, but He is sent into the womb.  He exists before His physical conception.

This, Jesus, Who we know is this Servant, confirms that He is also a prophet: “And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household’” (Matthew 13:57, ESV).

Let us remember that the primary work of the prophet is not to foretell the future, but to preach the Word of God.  Prophesying is normally the preaching of the Word of God.  As Jesus explains, “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matthew 11:5, ESV).

The Servant speaks of His preaching:

“He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away.”

The Servant is hidden in YHWH.  This means that Jesus, the Incarnate Servant, is perfectly united to God the Father in His work (https://www.epm.org/blog/2019/Mar/22/hidden-with-christ). The work of the Servant is the work of God – the redemption of His people and the glorification of God.

The Servant says His mouth is like a sharp sword and He is a polished arrow.  Why?

The author of Hebrews writes, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, ESV).

The sons of Korah write, “Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you” (Psalm 45:5, ESV).

The preaching of the Incarnate God is like a sword – it cuts to the core of a person and confronts him with the truth of the Gospel to which he must respond.

The preaching of the Incarnate God is like an arrow – it hits the mark to which it was aimed and, so, there is no escaping receiving or rejecting Christ.  No one can be agnostic about Who He is – he receives Him as the Servant Savior, or he rejects him.

The preaching of the Gospel cannot fail to bring about the end for which God intends it – to proclaim the Gospel and to glorify God in the reaction of him who hears it.

“And he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’”

God tells the Servant that the Servant is Israel and God will be glorified in Him.

How can the Servant be Israel?  If for no other reason than not every member of biological Israel receives the Servant as Savior?

            Paul explains to the Romans that God did not fail in His work and will to save Israel.  God did not fail in His promise to save the people of God. 

            “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named’” (Romans 9:6-7, ESV).

            Israel is not biological Israel; she is all those who ever believe in the Servant Savior throughout time and space.  Israel is the Church.

            Paul explains that Jesus is the Head of the Church: “And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent” (Colossians 1:18, ESV).

            How does this help us?

            Jesus is the Head of the Church – He is the Head of believing Israel.  He is the Substitute in salvation and before God.  So, Jesus stands in the place of the Church before the Father – He is believing Israel before the Father.

            And the Father is glorified in the work of the Servant Savior and He is glorified in the work of the Church – the Israel of God.  We who are in Christ through salvation glorify God the Father by the Power of the Holy Spirit through Jesus.

            The Servant is the Incarnate Prophet.  He is sent into the womb of the Virgin and called to be the prophet of the Father to preach the Word of God – salvation – to all peoples.  And the Word of God will accomplish all it is sent out to do, and the Servant and His Church will glorify God in being hidden in Him as believers in the Savior.

            Second, the Servant’s work results in world-wide salvation.

            “But I said, ‘I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God.’”

            This may seem like an odd statement for the Servant Savior to make.  How can He feel like His work has been nothing and vanity?

            We must hold before us the fact that the Servant is both fully God and fully human.  In His Divinity, He has all knowledge of the Triune God, but as the Incarnate Servant – a real human being, He does not know everything.  Somehow, His Divine nature is able to keep His human nature from knowing all things.

            Jesus says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:37-38, ESV).

            In the Garden, Jesus cries, “saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.’ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Like 22:42-44, ESV).

            And on the cross, He cries, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46, ESV).

            In His humanity, it seems to Jesus that His work has failed.  Surely the devil through that he had thwarted God’s plan.  Satan thought that Jesus’ work has been in vain and brought to nothing.  But the devil is not all-knowing.  He does not know that he has helped to accomplish the plan of God – securing the salvation of God’s people and His Glory.

            We should take encouragement from that when we can’t figure out what is going on – when it even seems to us that God’s Church is falling, and God’s plan is failing.  We are merely humans, and we do not know everything.  God is Sovereign, and everything is – and always will – go according to His plan for the good of those who love Him and for His Glory.

“And now the LORD says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him—for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength—”

God formed the Servant in His humanity in the womb of the Virgin with the work before Him of making and assuring salvation for all of Jacob and all of Israel – all those who will ever believe throughout time and space – that is, the Church.

For this, the Servant Savior is honored in the eyes of YHWH and in the eyes of all creatures in Heaven and on earth:

“Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,

“’Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’

“And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

“’To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’

“And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ and the elders fell down and worshiped” (Revelation 5:11-14, ESV).

The strength of the Servant is the Strength of God – the Power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is indwelled by God the Holy Spirit, just as we are, and in His humanity, that is where His power to do the will and the work of God come from – just as our ability to do the will and the work of God is given to us by God the Holy Spirit.

YHWH says to the Servant, “he says: ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’”

God assures the Servant that the work of God will be accomplished through Him – all the people of Jacob and Israel – from the Jews first and also from the Greeks – the entire Church – will be brought back and be preserved in God’s Hand.  There is no question that everyone for whom Christ died – everyone God planned to save from His Wrath – will be saved and brought into the Kingdom.  No matter how it may look at any moment, God has not and cannot and will not fail to bring all His purposes to fruition.

Jesus confirms this in His prayer, “While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12, ESV).

He is the Light of the nations, “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’” (John 8:12, ESV).

Jesus brings the Church out of the darkness and into His Light – the Light of Truth and Salvation, as Peter says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (I Peter 2:9, ESV).

            As the light goes out from Jesus and through us, the Truth is exposed, the world hears the Gospel, and God draws the Church to Himself and the Servant Savior, Jesus.  People of every tribe and tongue and nation will hear and believe in Jesus the Savior, and we will be forever one people, Israel, the Church, in the Kingdom that He is preparing for us.

            God sent His Son, incarnate in the Virgin’s womb, as a human prophet to declare His Gospel to all the nations that the Gospel would result in world-wide salvation – of which we who believe are part.

            Let us rejoice in the mystery of the Incarnation and give thanks that God was pleased to send His Son as a prophet to preach the Gospel and to draw us to Him as His people – forever, His Church.

            Let us pray:

            Almighty God, how can we thank You for the work that You sent the Servant to do?  How can we even understand the fulness of the Incarnation and all that Jesus suffered for us?  Help us to look on Him in humility and believe, opening our mouths with the Gospel on it, and send Your Word forth as a sword and an arrow, and bring it back as a cup overflowing, having redeemed every member of Your Church.  And we ask this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.