WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.940 Well, good morning. It's great to see your faces here this morning. I want to welcome you again. 00:00:06.520 --> 00:00:13.080 And just note, it's a little warm in here. If you need a moment of refreshment, please don't feel 00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:19.260 like you're going to offend me. If you get up and walk over here, get a drink of water and stand in 00:00:19.260 --> 00:00:25.219 the air conditioning for a few minutes and come back, we want you to be comfortable and get 00:00:25.219 --> 00:00:35.179 through the sermons in good measure and good health. So, as you feel the need, please take 00:00:35.179 --> 00:00:43.480 care of yourself this morning in the heat. It is a sociological reality that the percentage of 00:00:43.480 --> 00:00:53.200 America who claim to be Christians is decreasing. This is not a news. This is not a surprising thing. 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:58.620 And though some of us may see the loss of Christian America as a call to a culture war, 00:00:59.180 --> 00:01:07.320 we would want to hear carefully the recognition that this is a reality that our society is shifting. 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:13.600 And we want to ask the question, how do we navigate this? We also need to recognize, if we do some good 00:01:13.600 --> 00:01:21.120 history, that though it is true that there are new ways in which this is expressing itself, 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:27.280 this is not new. When I was a student at Princeton, I was studying the history of American Christianity 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:38.380 and noticed that in the 1780s and 90s or in the 1820s and 30s, there was much lamenting, similar to 00:01:38.380 --> 00:01:44.700 today, about the shift and the change and the distance that our culture is moving from Christian 00:01:44.700 --> 00:01:53.540 values and principles. So, we need to be aware and not be simplistic as we think about this. 00:01:53.980 --> 00:02:02.840 But the reality of the shift in our culture today does make us interact on a daily, weekly, monthly 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:10.199 basis with more neighbors, more co-workers, more people in our world who have very different beliefs 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:16.199 and very different worldviews than the Christian one. They may practice other religions, they may 00:02:16.199 --> 00:02:22.799 practice no religion. And when we're faced with a pluralism like this, when we're faced with this 00:02:22.799 --> 00:02:30.479 reality, a question, I think, can often be raised in our minds. When my neighbor is a good person, 00:02:31.060 --> 00:02:36.579 they mow their lawn, they put their garbage out, they take care of, you know, we have great neighbors 00:02:36.580 --> 00:02:42.880 who take care of our house when we're away on vacation. But when they believe something profoundly 00:02:42.880 --> 00:02:51.820 different than me, what does that mean for my understanding of Christianity? Is my belief in 00:02:51.820 --> 00:03:00.380 the Christian God, in the God of the Bible, just one belief among many that are all equally valid and 00:03:00.379 --> 00:03:14.079 equally attractive and really the distinction about them is not significant? Another way to say this 00:03:14.079 --> 00:03:22.120 is, is Christianity just the God of people who've been raised in Christendom or have been raised in 00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:30.680 Christian families? Or is it actually for the whole world? I believe that this is the kind of question 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:38.480 that the nation of Israel would have been asking themselves in the 6th century BC as well. We are in a 00:03:38.480 --> 00:03:45.500 series in the book of Isaiah. If you want to turn there, we'll be in Isaiah 49, page 570 in your pew Bible. 00:03:45.500 --> 00:03:52.780 And as we've talked about this, they lived in a world of other gods, particularly in this section 00:03:52.780 --> 00:03:59.139 in Isaiah because God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah to the nation of Israel looking 00:03:59.139 --> 00:04:05.219 ahead to a time when they will be in exile, when they were physically uprooted and many Jewish people 00:04:05.219 --> 00:04:13.280 were removed from the land of Israel, of Palestine, into Babylon. And they were literally living in 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:19.839 exile. They were literally living among other, other people, Babylonians who worshiped the gods of 00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:26.540 Babylon. They were outside of the promised land and, and they lived in a culture too, which is probably 00:04:26.540 --> 00:04:34.399 less true today. They lived in a culture where if you had the best God, you won the wars. So if you 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:40.560 were in power, if you were in control, there was a cultural understanding, oh, well, that's the God that I 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:46.860 should be following because he wins. He's the winner God and I don't want to be a loser God. And so the 00:04:46.860 --> 00:04:55.259 question of how do I, as a Jewish person, live in Babylon, how do I understand who my God is when it 00:04:55.259 --> 00:05:04.259 seems like my God's a loser? Is my God really just a small g God, just like all these other ones? Or is he a 00:05:04.259 --> 00:05:12.060 big God? How do we understand that? I think this is what our passage is going to speak to this morning 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:18.360 in Isaiah 49, 1 through 13. And just to remind you a little bit, I know some of you have been coming 00:05:18.360 --> 00:05:23.300 every week. I'm hoping this is getting into your brain so that it's going to stick beyond just the 00:05:23.300 --> 00:05:31.099 one sermon. We're looking at Isaiah 40 through 55, and Isaiah 40 through 48 is significantly about 00:05:31.100 --> 00:05:38.120 God's redemption politically of Israel from Babylon through raising up Cyrus and the Persian nations 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:46.100 to free the Jewish people to return to Israel, to return to Palestine and restore Jerusalem. 00:05:46.620 --> 00:05:52.460 So it's primarily political, but there are these little hints, like in verse, in chapter 42, the first 00:05:52.460 --> 00:05:57.520 couple of verses, there's little hints that God is up to more than that in this season because he's not 00:05:57.519 --> 00:06:03.659 only raising up Cyrus to be a political redeemer, but he's raising up another one. Another one who's 00:06:03.659 --> 00:06:10.319 going to be a servant of God who will redeem people not from political oppression and exile, but from sin 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:17.719 and from the exile from God that comes from the sin that separates us from him. And this is what Isaiah 00:06:17.719 --> 00:06:23.500 49 through 55 is really going to focus in on. So if you're going to be here for the rest of summer, 00:06:23.500 --> 00:06:28.899 as you get to pick it up on our website afterwards, this is where we're going. We're going to look at 00:06:28.899 --> 00:06:36.540 the servant, the servant that God is going to raise up, one who is not the nation of Israel, but one 00:06:36.540 --> 00:06:43.500 who will come to do what Israel could not and come to redeem God's people. So that's where we're at as we 00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:50.399 come to Isaiah 49 verses 1 through 13. So let's read this, and then we'll dive in and explore it today 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:53.979 together. Isaiah 49 verse 1. 00:06:53.980 --> 00:07:02.200 Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb. 00:07:02.640 --> 00:07:09.580 From the body of my mother, he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of 00:07:09.580 --> 00:07:17.520 his hand, he hid me. He made me a polished arrow. In his quiver, he hid me away. And he said to me, 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:26.859 you are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. But I said, I have labored in vain. 00:07:27.180 --> 00:07:33.620 I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity. Yet surely my right is with the Lord, 00:07:34.519 --> 00:07:42.339 and my recompense is with my God. And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be 00:07:42.339 --> 00:07:49.439 his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, that Israel might be gathered to him. For I am honored in the 00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:59.620 eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength. He says, it is too light a thing that you should be 00:07:59.620 --> 00:08:08.120 my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you 00:08:08.120 --> 00:08:14.560 as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. 00:08:15.560 --> 00:08:21.480 Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, 00:08:21.620 --> 00:08:30.660 abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers. Kings shall see and arise, princes, and they shall 00:08:30.660 --> 00:08:36.539 prostrate themselves because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, 00:08:36.539 --> 00:08:44.819 who has chosen you. Thus says the Lord, in a time of favor, I have answered you. In a time of salvation, 00:08:44.819 --> 00:08:51.159 I have helped you. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people to establish the land, 00:08:51.159 --> 00:08:57.919 to apportion the desolate heritages, saying to the prisoners, come out, and to those who are in 00:08:57.919 --> 00:09:05.599 darkness, appear. They shall feed along the ways, and all the bare heights shall be their pasture. 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:13.379 They shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them. For he who has 00:09:13.379 --> 00:09:21.259 pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them. And I will make all my mountains 00:09:21.259 --> 00:09:28.840 a road, and my highways shall be raised up. Behold, these shall come from afar. Behold, 00:09:28.840 --> 00:09:36.460 these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Saini. Sing for joy, O heavens, 00:09:36.920 --> 00:09:44.660 and exult, O earth. Break forth, O mountains, into singing, for the Lord has comforted his people, 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:52.800 and will have compassion on his afflicted. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for this word. 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:57.639 Lord, we pray that you help us this morning. Lord, to have clarity and understanding, 00:09:58.979 --> 00:10:04.299 and Lord, to have, Lord, not just understanding in our head, but Lord, that we might receive this in 00:10:04.299 --> 00:10:11.059 our hearts, that we might see the glory of your servant, and Lord, be moved in faith and in worship 00:10:11.059 --> 00:10:16.839 to respond to you today. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:16.980 Amen. 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:27.820 What 49, 1 through 13 is about is a servant. God is raising up a servant for his people. And who is 00:10:27.820 --> 00:10:32.820 this servant? There are three movements in this section that tell us a little bit about it. Verses 00:10:32.820 --> 00:10:41.040 1 through 4 tells us that this servant is a redeemer who displays the beautiful glory of God. Verses 5 00:10:41.040 --> 00:10:46.820 through 7 will tell us that the servant redeemer is exalted to be a light for the whole world. 00:10:46.840 --> 00:10:55.720 And verses 8 through 13 will tell us that the servant redeemer secures his people for his praise. 00:10:56.040 --> 00:11:02.139 So that's my outline. I'll repeat those as we go along if you miss them along the way. The first 00:11:02.139 --> 00:11:09.600 thing it says, verses 1 through 4, the servant redeemer displays the beautiful glory of God. Now, 00:11:09.660 --> 00:11:14.379 as we're looking at this, one of the challenges of this passage is that you're trying to figure out 00:11:14.379 --> 00:11:20.439 who's speaking. There's lots of first-person pronouns, I and you, and this is a dialogue, 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:28.179 clearly. And some of the questions are, is it God speaking to Israel? Or is it God speaking to Isaiah? 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:37.639 And though there may be times when there's a sense where he might be speaking both to Isaiah and to the 00:11:37.639 --> 00:11:45.319 servant, I think the easiest way to actually make sense of all of what this passage says is to see it as a dialogue 00:11:45.319 --> 00:11:54.139 between the God of Israel and the servant that he is raising up, okay? So, and what he says in verses 1 through 4, 00:11:54.199 --> 00:11:57.279 and centrally he says in verse 3, God says, 00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:05.199 you are my servant Israel. You are my servant Israel in whom I will be glorified. 00:12:06.079 --> 00:12:11.199 And it's striking, we haven't really talked about this as we've talked about this image of a servant. 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:17.579 But have you thought about the contrast? In verses, or in chapters 40 through 48, who is God raising up 00:12:17.579 --> 00:12:25.299 to be its savior? Cyrus, the king of Persia. He's got an army on his back, at his back, and he has great 00:12:25.299 --> 00:12:30.679 power and prestige in the world. And yet when God says, I'm going to raise up a redeemer for you from 00:12:30.679 --> 00:12:36.939 your sin, it is not as a king, it is not as a conquering hero, it is not as a general, but it is 00:12:36.939 --> 00:12:43.139 as a servant. And you saw the little hints through this, a servant who will be despised and rejected, 00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:50.339 a servant who will face difficulty and rejection from the very people he's coming to redeem. 00:12:50.340 --> 00:12:59.139 But in this central section, what God is saying is, this kind of servant, I'm going to raise up to 00:12:59.139 --> 00:13:07.240 display my glory or my beauty. Another translation might be my splendor, right? What is the splendor of 00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:16.460 something? A splendor is the qualities of something that's on display so that others can see it and 00:13:16.460 --> 00:13:23.300 appreciate and respond to it by treating it as something worthy, as something valuable, as something 00:13:23.300 --> 00:13:30.379 attractive, as something beautiful. I love going to the Rocky Mountains because when you drive up into 00:13:30.379 --> 00:13:37.600 the town of Estes Park, and you drive up over the first rise, and there's this lake in front of you, 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:45.279 and then the mountains, the snow-capped peaks rising up, towering above these gentle slopes. 00:13:45.659 --> 00:13:51.960 And it's such a beautiful place. And the splendor of this place moves my heart every time I'm there. 00:13:52.300 --> 00:14:00.040 This is glory in creation. And what God is saying is, this servant who I am raising up, 00:14:00.039 --> 00:14:10.679 in him I will display my glory, right? Now, verses 1 talks about how this servant is going to call the 00:14:10.679 --> 00:14:18.759 whole world, the nations and coastlands are an image that's kind of like shorthand for everybody 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:26.939 from everywhere. Come and listen, come and see what God is saying about me, right? And then verse 2 says, 00:14:26.940 --> 00:14:33.000 and this servant who's being raised up, he's going to have these, it's, God uses military images here, 00:14:33.100 --> 00:14:38.660 a sword in his mouth and a polished arrow, but his purpose is not military but spiritual. 00:14:39.340 --> 00:14:46.440 The sword in his mouth in the Bible is always an image of the Word. That this one, Cyrus will come 00:14:46.440 --> 00:14:51.020 and he will conquer with an army, but this servant will come and he will conquer with his Word. 00:14:51.620 --> 00:14:56.720 He will come and he will proclaim truth, and the truth that he will speak will be the 00:14:56.720 --> 00:15:02.320 thing that will set people free from their bondage. This is how he's going to redeem people. 00:15:02.779 --> 00:15:07.879 And the polished arrow is one that simply is so well honed that it will hit its target. 00:15:08.279 --> 00:15:14.320 And it says that God will succeed in what this servant is being called to do as he is being lifted up. 00:15:15.580 --> 00:15:20.899 All right? And so this is what God is doing in this servant. And in verse 4 it says, 00:15:20.899 --> 00:15:26.939 and this servant won't be received by everybody, but the last two couplet, the last couplet, 00:15:27.740 --> 00:15:34.279 the servant is expressing confidence that though the people may reject him, God will in the end 00:15:34.279 --> 00:15:41.139 vindicate him. God will justify him before the people so that he will be seen to be the one that 00:15:41.139 --> 00:15:52.439 God has raised up to do this work. This is the glory of the servant. This is the God displaying himself 00:15:52.439 --> 00:16:00.220 through one who will come and be the Word from God that will bring our redemption. This is why, 00:16:00.399 --> 00:16:07.299 friends, we read from John 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 00:16:07.299 --> 00:16:14.500 and the Word was God. Because we see that the ultimate fulfillment of this, and we're going to 00:16:14.500 --> 00:16:19.699 see this over and over again, is that this is pointing us ahead to Jesus. God is going to raise 00:16:19.699 --> 00:16:27.799 up this servant, and he is the Word of God, the one in whom the Word that in verse 14 of that part, 00:16:27.799 --> 00:16:36.679 the Word that becomes flesh and dwells among us, and we have what? Beheld his glory. The glory is of 00:16:36.679 --> 00:16:45.679 the only one begotten of God, the special, the unique one who will come and who, by his Word, 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:55.739 will bring salvation to the world. Now, you may wonder, if you're here today and you're exploring 00:16:55.739 --> 00:17:01.479 about Christianity, you may wonder, well, how do we know what God is really like? And how do we know 00:17:01.480 --> 00:17:07.319 that the God of the Bible is something different than other religions? And the Bible has answers 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:14.099 to this. We're not going to spend a ton of time on this, but we want to recognize that the impulse 00:17:14.099 --> 00:17:20.360 to understand the transcendent is a human impulse. It has happened in all cultures, in all times, 00:17:20.360 --> 00:17:25.880 at all religions. There's some way of trying to figure out how do we explain the unexplainable? 00:17:25.880 --> 00:17:32.800 How do we understand this broader thing, experience of spirituality or religion? And the Bible says, 00:17:32.900 --> 00:17:41.200 well, this makes a ton of sense because God created humanity to know him, to be spiritual people living 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:47.620 in spiritual relationship with their creator. And so, this is a created impulse, according to the Bible, 00:17:47.760 --> 00:17:54.240 that gives great explanation for why we would do this. And yet, the Bible also says that because of 00:17:54.240 --> 00:18:00.500 humanity's rejection of the God of the Bible, recounted in Genesis 3 and then lived out through 00:18:00.500 --> 00:18:09.519 the rest of human history up to this point, our desire for that will be misguided and misaimed and 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:16.880 misappropriated. And we won't know where to go to find the true God of the Bible. And the amazing thing 00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:23.880 about the story of the Scriptures is that God doesn't say, I hope you can figure out who I am. 00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:30.940 I hope you're smart enough, clever enough, or imaginative enough to figure out who I am. The God 00:18:30.940 --> 00:18:37.940 of the Bible comes to us in an incarnate person, the person of Jesus Christ, and says, do you want to 00:18:37.940 --> 00:18:47.640 know what I look like? This is it. He is the exact image of God. And this is the good news. And Jesus comes to the 00:18:47.640 --> 00:18:54.840 world and says, behold, this is what God looks like. Look upon me. And if you're here and you're exploring this, 00:18:54.880 --> 00:19:02.660 or if you're wondering whether these things are true, I encourage you, go back to Jesus. Look at him. Look at the way 00:19:02.660 --> 00:19:14.000 that he displays the beautiful glory of God. And receive him as God here in Isaiah promises that 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:19.960 he will come to be the beautiful Redeemer, the servant who will display the glory of God. 00:19:22.940 --> 00:19:30.140 Isaiah continues recounting the words of the Redeemer, or the servant in verses 5 through 7. 00:19:30.140 --> 00:19:38.380 Not only is he the one who comes to display the beautiful glory of God, but he also is the one 00:19:38.380 --> 00:19:45.180 who is exalted to be the light for the whole world. The core verse in this section of verse 6, 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:53.880 the translation here is, let me make sure I'm in the right, here we go. It is too light of a thing that 00:19:53.880 --> 00:20:01.780 you should be my servant. Some translations, it is too small of a thing. It is too small of a thing 00:20:01.780 --> 00:20:10.100 for you to be a light just for the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham. And in this, God is 00:20:10.100 --> 00:20:14.720 challenging the self-orientation because one of the issues that happened in the Jewish nation 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:21.740 was their pride became so great that they thought, we are God's people, and we are therefore inherently 00:20:21.740 --> 00:20:30.000 special, and it's about us. And God says, it is too small for my redemption to be just for a little 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:38.500 group of people. You will be a light to these people, and you will redeem them and restore them. 00:20:38.859 --> 00:20:44.859 But that is too small for the God of the Bible. Instead, this servant is going to be raised up and 00:20:44.859 --> 00:20:52.079 exalted. And you see that in verse 5. He's saying, this is how much God has loved me and set His purpose 00:20:52.079 --> 00:21:01.119 on me and has promised to lift me up, not just for Israel, but for the whole world, right? And it says, 00:21:01.199 --> 00:21:07.139 I'll make you as a light for the nations. Some translations have Gentiles. Often in the Old Testament, 00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:14.259 Gentiles is simply shorthand for anyone outside of the nation of Israel. It's not a pejorative term. 00:21:14.259 --> 00:21:18.759 It becomes pejorative in the New Testament, but it's not per se a pejorative term. It's just a 00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:25.460 descriptive term of people who don't know the God of the Bible, right? And it says, the scope and the 00:21:25.460 --> 00:21:33.059 reach of this servant's redemption will be as light into the darkness of the whole world. 00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:41.740 From the north to the south, from the east to the west, throughout all of human history, 00:21:41.740 --> 00:21:51.380 God's plan has always been to redeem people from every tribe and tongue and nation by sending this 00:21:51.380 --> 00:22:00.839 servant as a light into the darkness. Now, this light assumes that we actually live in darkness. 00:22:01.240 --> 00:22:08.420 And it's not that hard for us to recognize that, is it? We live in spiritual darkness. We don't know God 00:22:08.420 --> 00:22:15.600 as we ought to. We don't live as if we know God, even when we do know Him the way we ought to. 00:22:17.039 --> 00:22:24.620 We do not always live out or live in the light that God has given us, and we recognize how much 00:22:24.620 --> 00:22:31.160 more there is that we don't know. Light here is an image both of moral failure, but also of ignorance. 00:22:31.160 --> 00:22:35.480 And ignorance in the, simply, we do not know and we do not understand. 00:22:38.340 --> 00:22:44.500 And Isaiah says, the servant will come and he will be a light, bringing clarity that illuminates 00:22:44.500 --> 00:22:53.420 what we only understand dimly. Bringing life, the warmth and the life of light to a world that lives 00:22:53.420 --> 00:22:59.980 in death and darkness, bringing hope into the darkness of despair in our world. 00:23:01.800 --> 00:23:05.840 And to reinforce what he says in verse 6, verse 7 reminds us, 00:23:06.779 --> 00:23:12.759 you servant, though you are one deeply, though you will not be rejected, at the end of the day, 00:23:13.380 --> 00:23:18.480 kings and princes, the powers of this world will come and they will prostrate themselves 00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:30.120 before you. Why? Because God has been a compassionate God who has raised up a Redeemer for you. 00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:39.039 And so John tells us about Jesus. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 00:23:39.819 --> 00:23:46.079 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light which gives light 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:51.039 to everyone was coming into the world, He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, 00:23:51.079 --> 00:23:56.659 yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. 00:23:57.859 --> 00:24:04.639 But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to become the children of God. 00:24:05.359 --> 00:24:11.899 This is the great purpose and the great hope of the servant that Isaiah is talking about here, 00:24:11.900 --> 00:24:20.600 is that one will come and say to all peoples, from the greatest to the least, from the most highly 00:24:20.600 --> 00:24:27.019 respected to the most rejected, from those who are the most insider, 1% powerful people, 00:24:27.180 --> 00:24:33.660 to those who are the most excluded, all from every tribe, every tongue, every race, every nation, 00:24:33.660 --> 00:24:42.720 every gender, no matter where you come from, this servant has come and invited you to know the God 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:50.460 of the world, to know Him all. And this has always been, friends, the plan of God. If you go to Genesis 00:24:50.460 --> 00:24:56.640 and you look at the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, it says, I am going to bless you, and I'm going 00:24:56.640 --> 00:25:05.280 to make you a blessing to the nations of the world. Right? And this thread goes through Isaiah and Psalm 67 00:25:05.280 --> 00:25:12.800 that we read earlier. And it goes through this passage in John, that the light came not just for 00:25:12.800 --> 00:25:20.660 the Jewish people, but for everyone. And it finds its culmination and its crescendo in Revelation, 00:25:20.660 --> 00:25:30.840 where Jesus the servant sits on the throne, proving to be the one who is worthy as the Redeemer and as 00:25:30.840 --> 00:25:37.320 the ruler of all people. And around His throne are gathered people from every tongue and tribe and 00:25:37.320 --> 00:25:48.200 nation. And they bow down before Him, and they say, worthy are you, O Lord, to receive glory and honor 00:25:48.200 --> 00:25:57.519 and praise. This is what the Bible has said from the very beginning. Don't believe the lie that some 00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:03.480 people will say that the Bible is just for the Western nations, or just for Jewish people, or just 00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:11.080 for whatever the small group is that you may think somehow wants to exalt ourselves and be special by 00:26:11.080 --> 00:26:17.460 saying we're God's special people. God's plan has always been for all people. The invitation is to all 00:26:17.460 --> 00:26:25.880 to gather a church from every tongue and tribe and nation. God will not be made small. He will not 00:26:25.880 --> 00:26:33.620 allow Himself to be seen as simply one God among many in the smorgasbord or the cafeteria buffet 00:26:33.620 --> 00:26:41.440 of religious options for you to choose. The God of the Bible says, I will not receive that. You must take 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:49.480 me on my terms, and I am either the God of all or I am not God at all. And that is what the Bible says. 00:26:53.820 --> 00:27:01.680 And so this servant comes and he says, and God says to him, I will make you a light to the nation 00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:05.100 so that the ends of the earth may see my salvation. 00:27:05.099 --> 00:27:13.439 Then verses 8 through 13, the servant redeemer who has displayed God's glory, who's exalted to be a 00:27:13.439 --> 00:27:20.559 light for all people. Now Isaiah says, the servant redeemer will secure his people for his praise. 00:27:20.939 --> 00:27:28.939 This is what this last section pictures. A global salvation secured by this servant for all people. 00:27:28.940 --> 00:27:37.519 We see in verse 8 a key thing. I have heard your cry. I have heard your need. Today I am responding 00:27:37.519 --> 00:27:45.220 with the provision of salvation through a covenant that I will make. But if you notice carefully, 00:27:45.700 --> 00:27:50.360 the language here is not, I'm going to make a covenant like the covenant I made with Abraham. 00:27:50.580 --> 00:27:55.420 I'm going to make a covenant with my people at Sinai where I'm going to say, this is how you must live, 00:27:55.420 --> 00:28:00.480 and you need to receive that and respond to me. And this is a conditional covenant. But here what 00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:07.860 we see is God is actually making a covenant by saying, you, my servant, are my covenant. The 00:28:07.860 --> 00:28:13.120 covenant that he's referring to is actually between God and his servant, where the servant is saying, 00:28:13.380 --> 00:28:21.620 I am the down payment. I am the security deposit for the salvation of people, not because they will 00:28:21.619 --> 00:28:28.879 earn it or deserve it or gain it, but because I will do all that is necessary for the achievement 00:28:28.879 --> 00:28:35.059 of their salvation. And then he pictures, he goes on and he describes in the rest of this section, 00:28:35.539 --> 00:28:44.199 he pictures this salvation as like a new exodus. God is restoring people from exile and from oppression 00:28:44.200 --> 00:28:52.360 into the promised land. He is reconciling a people who have rejected God and bringing them back in 00:28:52.360 --> 00:29:01.000 to be God's people. He is proclaiming their freedom from captivity to sin and to a broken world. He is 00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:07.840 saying, I will provide for you. Even as you walk through the desert of life in this world, I will provide 00:29:07.839 --> 00:29:17.359 for you along the way all that you need so that you may receive from me life that will satisfy living 00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:23.939 water, bread from heaven. There are so many images in the New Testament about Jesus and who he is as he 00:29:23.939 --> 00:29:31.500 comes to be the provider and satisfier of our souls. He is a guide. He promises to be the shepherd who will 00:29:31.500 --> 00:29:40.380 lead us through the trials of the desert and the difficulties of life in a fallen world to lead to 00:29:40.380 --> 00:29:48.579 oases where water can be drunk, to where rest can be found and had. And ultimately confident hope 00:29:48.579 --> 00:29:56.259 that the God who is bringing this salvation, the servant who is going, who is the guarantee of this, 00:29:56.619 --> 00:30:01.480 he will look even at the mountains and say, the mountains are nothing. They'll be like a road. 00:30:01.480 --> 00:30:08.819 The greatest obstacle that you can imagine in your journey and your pilgrimage to God, 00:30:09.160 --> 00:30:17.740 the servant will make it like a highway. He will make the way through so that we can know God. 00:30:19.759 --> 00:30:24.319 And in the end, when he says that these will come from afar, from the north, the west, and from 00:30:24.319 --> 00:30:29.660 Syene, which is the Bible scholars have lots of fun with that one, they have really no idea what it 00:30:29.660 --> 00:30:36.080 really means. I wonder if it means kind of like what we, when I was growing up, my mom would say, 00:30:36.340 --> 00:30:41.240 well, you know, maybe you want to go to Timbuktu, right? Now, Timbuktu is actually a place. 00:30:41.620 --> 00:30:46.120 And so it should not be disparaged as the farthest ends of the region. But when I was a kid, 00:30:46.220 --> 00:30:51.000 it was just a symbol of it's so far away, you can't imagine how far it is. 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:58.099 And I think that's what verse 12 is saying, even from those who are so far away, they can't imagine 00:30:58.099 --> 00:31:02.000 ever coming back. God is going to bring them back. 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:12.980 So John says of Jesus, to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, 00:31:14.460 --> 00:31:19.299 he gave the right to become children of God who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the 00:31:19.299 --> 00:31:26.619 flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have 00:31:26.619 --> 00:31:34.339 seen his glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 00:31:36.879 --> 00:31:44.399 Friends, this is why we gather every Sunday, to lift up this servant, Jesus, who has come and 00:31:44.399 --> 00:31:51.459 fulfilled all that Isaiah said would come from this one. He is the one who displays the glory of God. 00:31:51.559 --> 00:31:56.479 He is the one who is a light to the nations. He is the one who has, by his life, 00:31:56.619 --> 00:32:06.059 and death, and resurrection, secured a salvation for us that requires only our reception of it. 00:32:06.379 --> 00:32:14.719 We don't earn it. We can't achieve it. We can't be good enough. There is no privilege or no standing 00:32:14.719 --> 00:32:22.019 in society that can get us entry into this salvation. But when he calls us in humility and brokenness to 00:32:22.019 --> 00:32:28.680 recognize we are lost apart from you, but you have given us this Savior. And Jesus says, I have done 00:32:28.680 --> 00:32:35.460 everything that is required for you. I am the way and the truth and the life. By me, you may come to the 00:32:35.460 --> 00:32:45.799 Father. And only by me, you may come to the Father. This is the good news of the gospel. This is the heart of the 00:32:45.799 --> 00:32:53.399 Christian message. And this is what Isaiah is lifting up this morning. And he lifts us up. What is the ultimate 00:32:53.399 --> 00:33:01.720 purpose of God in this redemption? What is the ultimate purpose of Jesus' mission? It's that we may be 00:33:01.720 --> 00:33:09.879 a part of a people that God gathers to worship Him forever. And this is what verse 13 is about. This is why 00:33:09.880 --> 00:33:15.240 it's the end of this passage. Because after he talks about this servant and all that he will do, 00:33:16.200 --> 00:33:23.620 he then calls us to respond. Sing for joy, O heavens and exalt, O earth. Break forth, O mountains, 00:33:23.760 --> 00:33:29.580 into singing, for the Lord has comforted His people and will have compassion on His afflicted. 00:33:30.700 --> 00:33:38.640 Friends, this is what we gather to do, is to respond in worship, to recognize the value, 00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:45.720 the glory, the beauty of all that He has done in our salvation. And for that to take a place 00:33:45.720 --> 00:33:52.280 in our hearts and in our lives greater than all of the idols of our world, all of the achievements, 00:33:52.540 --> 00:33:58.980 all of the things that we so easily set our hearts on, to set our worship rather on this servant 00:33:58.980 --> 00:34:06.780 who's lifted up in our midst and the greatness of what He has done for us. And when we see Him like this, 00:34:06.779 --> 00:34:15.099 then we respond rightly. We see His glory and we humble ourselves. We see His beauty and we sing out 00:34:15.099 --> 00:34:25.500 of its praise. Just like Julie Andrews in the mountains, singing the glory of the beauty that we 00:34:25.500 --> 00:34:35.980 see as we behold this servant, Redeemer Jesus. So let's pray together. Lord, thank You for this word, 00:34:36.139 --> 00:34:45.500 for this reminder. Lord, that many, many years before the time of Jesus, You predicted that You 00:34:45.500 --> 00:34:51.960 would raise up a servant who would come and be our Savior and our Redeemer, that You would raise one up 00:34:51.960 --> 00:34:59.440 to display Your glory and be a light to us and secure our salvation. And Lord, we see how You fulfilled 00:34:59.440 --> 00:35:06.699 that in Jesus. And now how You are working this out in the world, taking this good news to the ends of the 00:35:06.699 --> 00:35:14.940 earth that all the world might see the God that You are, and that they might turn and find salvation 00:35:14.940 --> 00:35:22.679 salvation in Jesus. Lord, I pray that as we meditate on these truths, that we would respond in worship 00:35:22.679 --> 00:35:28.220 and sing Your praises. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.