WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 So on Sunday evenings in St. Columbus over the last few weeks we've been doing a wee series in the book of Isaiah. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:14.000 We've been looking at the servant songs. So if you have a Bible with you, you might want to have it open in Isaiah. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:18.000 We're in chapter 50. It's on page 6, 1, 1. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:23.000 Isaiah chapter 50 verse 10 says this, 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:29.000 Let him who walks in darkness and has no light, 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:35.000 Trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:41.000 We're now at a point in the year where the days are beginning to feel extremely short. 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:46.000 When you leave in the morning, it's dark. When you get home in the evening, it's dark. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:53.000 And we're rapidly approaching what's called the winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year. 00:00:53.000 --> 00:01:03.000 Last year in Edinburgh on the winter solstice, sunrise was at 8.42 in the morning and the sun had set by 3.40 in the afternoon. 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:08.000 It's bleak. That's only six hours and 58 minutes of daylight. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:15.000 And if you think that's bad, there's a city in Finland where sunrise is at 11 in the morning 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:19.000 and it sets at 1.20 in the afternoon. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:21.000 It's grim. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:25.000 The point is that darkness feels bleak. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:30.000 We don't like darkness. Human beings are not made to thrive in the darkness. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:36.000 You might have heard of sad. It's a seasonal, effective disorder or depression. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:39.000 And it affects a lot of people at this time of year. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:45.000 It leaves people feeling a lack of energy. It's tiring. It gives people a low mood. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.000 It leads to despair and lethargy. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:53.000 And I wonder if you can relate to that in your spiritual life this evening, 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:59.000 of what it means to walk in darkness and have no light, 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:03.000 to feel as if all the lights in your life have been turned off, 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:10.000 to know real discouragement, to experience weirdness that goes deep. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.000 And God knows that sometimes you will feel that way. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:19.000 Sometimes His people will feel like they're in darkness. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:25.000 Well, the good news is that if you feel that way this evening, then Isaiah 50 is good news for you. 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:27.000 So what's this chapter all about? 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:31.000 Well, it's the third of our servant songs that we're looking at. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:35.000 The first song we looked at was in Isaiah chapter 42, 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:42.000 where we have this great image of the servant king who will bring ultimate justice to this world. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:50.000 And then last Sunday night in Isaiah 49, Derek looked at the servant who will bring peace through restoration. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:56.000 See, what these servant songs are doing is they're giving us a unique portrait of Jesus Christ. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:02.000 They're giving us this great window into the life of Jesus that we don't really have in the Gospels. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:08.000 They're poetic songs full of wonderful imagery, but they're also deeply Christological. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:11.000 They're telling us stuff about Jesus. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:19.000 And tonight in Isaiah chapter 50, we're giving a little more insight into what the servant is going to do. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:29.000 Isaiah 50 is this great picture of Jesus as the one who comes to be the perfect, obedient servant for people who are imperfect, 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:32.000 people who are disobedient, people who are flawed. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:37.000 He comes as the one who brings light to people who are in darkness. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:42.000 So we're going to look at this picture of Jesus by asking two brief questions. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:48.000 The first is this, what kind of people does the servant come for? 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:56.000 See, what we find throughout the book of Isaiah is that he comes first and foremost for flawed people. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:59.000 He comes for sinful, rebellious people. 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:03.000 He comes for people who are messed up and broken. 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:08.000 Right at the beginning of Isaiah in chapter 1, God speaks about this great problem. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:11.000 He says, my people don't know me. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:15.000 He says, my children have rebelled against me. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:19.000 Now remember the context to the servant songs that we're looking at. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:21.000 God's people face the exile. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:28.000 They face being taken from their land, from their homes, from their families, from their place of worship, 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:33.000 and they're thrust into this unfamiliar alien land of Babylon. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:38.000 It's an incredibly dark and bleak point in their history. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:45.000 And it's clear throughout the whole book of Isaiah that the exile is God's judgment on their sin. 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:52.000 See, their relationship with God, the people in the Old Testament, was likened to that of a marriage. 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:58.000 And in a sense, throughout the Old Testament we find them being spiritually unfaithful on God. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:05.000 They were constantly turning to the gods of other nations, despite God's faithfulness, despite God's goodness to them. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:09.000 So that's the context, right? The exile, Israel's sin. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:13.000 God has allowed his people to be taken away to a foreign land. 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:19.000 And we find, as Derek reminded us last week in Isaiah 49, the people feel broken. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:23.000 They say in verse 14 of that chapter, the Lord has forsaken me. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:27.000 My Lord has forgotten me. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:31.000 Now look at what God says in verse 1 of chapter 50. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:37.000 He says here, where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:42.000 Now that's a strange metaphor for us to get our heads around. What does this mean? 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:51.000 Well, in Old Testament law, a divorce, a certificate of divorce, was the thing that declared the finality of a separation. 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:57.000 See, once you had this certificate of divorce, there was no hope of getting back together. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:02.000 And God's chosen people had spiritually cheated on him time and time again. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:06.000 They deserved to be forsaken. They deserved to be thrust away. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:10.000 But the point here in verse 1 is that there is no certificate of divorce. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.000 He's saying that they aren't too far gone. 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:18.000 He's saying despite all of their faults and their failings and their inconsistencies, 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:22.000 God in his grace has not walked away permanently. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:26.000 He has not issued them this certificate of divorce. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:31.000 The point is that the relationship God has with his people is far from over. 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:35.000 He's saying to his people in verse 1, how can you think that? 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:39.000 How can you possibly think that after all that I've done for you? 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:45.000 He goes on to say, or which of my creditors is it to whom I've sold you? 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:52.000 You see, in the ancient world, if you couldn't pay off a debt, the person you owed money to, your creditors, 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:56.000 they might come and take your children into slavery as payment for that debt. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:01.000 And you would be utterly powerless to get them back. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:07.000 But the idea that God has creditors is absurd. It's ridiculous. 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:12.000 The idea that anyone might have power over such a big God is absurd. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:16.000 And God goes on to say that his people are in exile purely because of their sin, 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:21.000 not because God is powerless to stop it. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:25.000 That's what he's saying in verse 2. He's saying, why when I came was there no man? 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:27.000 Why when I called was there no one to answer? 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.000 He's saying, you guys didn't listen to me. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:35.000 But the point he's making here in these opening verses is that they are not too far gone. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.000 He says, is my hand shortened that it cannot redeem? 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:42.000 Have I no power to deliver? 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:47.000 Behold, by my rebuke, by a word, I dry up the sea. 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:50.000 So what does all of this mean? 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:55.000 It means that no matter how dark or how discouraging your situation might seem, 00:07:55.000 --> 00:08:01.000 no matter how flawed and inconsistent you might be as a person, 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:05.000 no one is beyond God's redemptive reach. 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.000 No matter how bleak life might feel at any given point, 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:16.000 we have a God who is powerful and able to redeem and to restore and to renew. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:20.000 So that's setting the context for this third servant song. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:23.000 The servant comes for people who are flawed. 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:26.000 He comes for people who keep getting it wrong. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:29.000 He comes for people like the Israelites. 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:32.000 He comes for people like you and me. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:35.000 He comes for people who are broken by sin. 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.000 People who are weary from the darkness of life. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:44.000 Now in verse 4 we have the beginning of the actual servant song. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:48.000 So the servant is painting this great picture of himself. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:54.000 It's the servant himself who is speaking from verse 4 down to the end of verse 9. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:56.000 This is Jesus. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:59.000 This is Jesus speaking about himself. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:03.000 He is the promised servant of God, the one who will ultimately restore his people, 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:07.000 who will bring justice to the nations. 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:09.000 We read verse 4. 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:10.000 It says, 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:15.000 I have given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word, 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:18.000 him who is weary. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:22.000 See the servant comes for people who are weary. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:25.000 There are weary people here this evening. 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:27.000 Many of us are weary. 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:32.000 We live in a world, we live in a society that is weary. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:37.000 Remember from this morning, the world's response to suffering and darkness in life 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:40.000 is often to seek hope in material things. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:43.000 If you weren't here this morning, go listen to the sermon. 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:44.000 It's excellent. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:50.000 The point Corey was making this morning was the stuff of this world couldn't help naming. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:56.000 No matter what amount of wealth or success or power or fame, none of that could do anything. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:00.000 No matter what you've accomplished in life, 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:05.000 there are still times when you find yourselves at the end of the rope. 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:10.000 The problem in looking for an answer to the darkness and weariness of life in things 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:14.000 and getting more stuff in material possessions is that it's never enough. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:17.000 The wine always runs out. 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:23.000 And as I was listening to the sermon this morning, I was reminded of this guy called John Rockefeller. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:25.000 You might have heard of him. 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:32.000 He was in the 19th century a man who controlled almost all of the oil in the United States. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:37.000 He was a man who was incredibly, incredibly wealthy. 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:44.000 If you adjust for inflation, Rockefeller was worth over 300 billion pounds today. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:46.000 It's mind-blowing. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:49.000 This is a staggering amount of money. 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:52.000 And this guy was asked a question. 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:56.000 He was asked, how much money is enough? 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:58.000 How much money is enough? 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:03.000 And his answer was just a little bit more than I have. 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:06.000 And that's so often the answer of our culture. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:08.000 Just a little bit more. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:12.000 I don't want much. I'm not greedy, but just a little bit more and then things will be fine. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.000 Then my life will be sorted. 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:18.000 Then life won't be dark anymore. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:23.000 There's a German philosopher in the 19th century as well called Friedrich Nietzsche. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:26.000 He said that God is dead. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:29.000 God remains dead and we have killed him. 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:33.000 How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:40.000 What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives? 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:43.000 Who will wipe this blood off us? 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:46.000 What water is there for us to clean ourselves? 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:51.000 What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:54.000 It's not the greatness of this deed too great for us. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:12:00.000 Must we ourselves not become God simply to appear worthy of it? 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:06.000 And then commenting on this, David Mitchell, the English comedian from Mitchell & Webb & Peepshaw, 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:11.000 he captures this feeling of bleakness and darkness that just permeates our culture. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:17.000 He said to change so quickly from a society which most people used to take comfort in, 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:24.000 to being told that death is not the end, to one where many proclaim that it is, 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:32.000 it will have an incalculable impact on our state of mind, bleakness. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:35.000 You remember what we saw with Naaman this morning? 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:42.000 Real hope, true hope comes with the reckoning that no matter how successful we are, 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:44.000 we are deeply flawed. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:50.000 That's the kind of people the servant comes for, people who are weary and flawed, 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:53.000 people who feel like they're walking in darkness. 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:57.000 And we listen to the words of this servant in verse 4. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:01.000 He is able to sustain with a word those who are weary. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:04.000 And that's what we have in the words of Jesus himself in the Gospels. 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:06.000 He says in Matthew chapter 11, 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:12.000 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:18.000 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:20.000 and you will find rest for your souls. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:25.000 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:30.000 A few weeks ago we were looking at the first servant song in Isaiah 42. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:36.000 And you remember the image there of the bruised reed, the bent grain stalk. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:42.000 A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not snuff out. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:48.000 Corey reminded us that it's the idea of a bruised reed is something that can't produce any grain. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:50.000 It's useless for its purpose. 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:53.000 A faintly burning wick captures the same idea. 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:56.000 Its usefulness is about to be spent. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:03.000 In Isaiah 42 we see that the servant is one who comes in and does not crush weak people. 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:07.000 So that's the first point, the kind of people the servant comes for. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:12.000 He is a servant for the flawed, a servant for the fragile, the bruised and the broken. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:16.000 Secondly, what does he do to fix them? 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:22.000 Well the picture that we're given in the rest of this song is that he's going to do what its people couldn't do. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:24.000 He's going to be obedient. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:27.000 He's going to be one who listens to God. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:30.000 He's going to be one who is faithful. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.000 Verse 2 sets up this great contrast in the chapter for us. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:40.000 It says there why when I came was there no man? Why when I called was there no one to answer? 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:42.000 And then we have in verse 4 onwards, 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:44.000 morning by morning he awakens. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:48.000 He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:51.000 The Lord God has opened my ear. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.000 I was not rebellious. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.000 I turned not backwards. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:03.000 The point is that this servant comes to be the faithful one for unfaithful people. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:05.000 The servant doesn't disobey. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.000 The servant listens to God. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:12.000 He comes to do what we in our sinful condition could never do. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:16.000 He comes to live the life that we could never live. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:19.000 And the song just goes on to illustrate this for us. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:24.000 Verse 6 speaks of what this obedience will look like for Jesus. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:30.000 I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:33.000 It's an interesting metaphor. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:35.000 Maybe you've never had your beard pulled out. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:42.000 But the picture it's painting is one of pain, suffering. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:51.000 What it's saying is that this servant's obedience will lead to incredible pain and suffering and ultimately humiliation. 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:55.000 We see in the New Testament in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus says to his disciples there, 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:57.000 Who do you say that I am? 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:01.000 And we see that they're beginning to grasp that Jesus is fitting this picture. 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:05.000 That he is this Messiah, the servant king who was promised. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:11.000 Peter says, you are the Christ, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:15.000 But Jesus then goes on to explain what that means. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.000 It says in Matthew chapter 16. 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:24.000 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:29.000 and suffer many things and ultimately be killed. 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:33.000 The point is Jesus is saying that by human standards and by human expectations, 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:36.000 his ministry is not going to end well. 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:38.000 It's going to result in pain. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:43.000 It's going to result in humiliation, suffering and ultimately in death. 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:47.000 And see if we were to make a list of what our great world-saving king would look like, 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:50.000 it probably wouldn't be like this. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:53.000 I wonder if you've heard of Justice League. 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:56.000 It's a movie that's in cinemas just now. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:02.000 Our culture today loves superhero films, Marvel, DC and so on. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:06.000 And most of these superheroes, they have extraordinary abilities and powers 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:08.000 that they can use to defeat evil. 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:14.000 And then Justice League, you've got Superman and Batman and Aquaman and Wonder Woman 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:17.000 and Cyborg and all these cool guys. 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:22.000 Now you might not be a fan of superhero movies, but you get the general idea. 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:28.000 All these characters can use their powers, their abilities, their strength to crush evil. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:30.000 And the storylines are usually pretty predictable. 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:33.000 Some evil power threatens the world and the superheroes come along 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:37.000 and after a fight, managed to overcome and everything's lovely again. 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:42.000 So we spoil most Marvel movies for you. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:47.000 But what we read here in Isaiah is that this world-saving figure, 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:52.000 this servant king who's going to bring justice and put all things to right, 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:55.000 will be someone who doesn't fight back. 00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.000 This justice-bringing servant will be someone who takes a beating, 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:04.000 someone who allows their beard to be pulled out, 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:10.000 someone who does not hide their face from disgrace and from spitting. 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.000 This doesn't really fit in with our world's image of a hero. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:23.000 I think Jesus would struggle to find a place in the Justice League. 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:29.000 Paul says in Philippians chapter 2 in the New Testament, verse 6, 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:33.000 Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:36.000 did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:38.000 a thing to be used to his own advantage, 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:42.000 but rather he made himself nothing. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:48.000 He took the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:50.000 and being found in appearance as a man, 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.000 he humbled himself by becoming obedient. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:57.000 And how far did that obedience extend, well, Paul says, 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:05.000 to the point of death, even death on a cross. 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:07.000 He gave his back to those who strike. 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:10.000 He gave his cheeks to those who pull out the beard. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.000 He hid not his face from disgrace and spitting. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:17.000 Matthew goes on to tell us in his Gospel in chapter 27 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:23.000 that before his death Jesus was flogged and utterly humiliated. 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:26.000 The whip that the Roman legionnaires used in flogging 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:29.000 was not the kind of whip that we would imagine. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:32.000 It was made up of nine heavy leather strips, 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:38.000 and each one was embedded with small bits of glass and stone and bone. 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:42.000 And this was brought down against Jesus' back with full force. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:45.000 This is what being king meant for Jesus. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:48.000 This is what being the Messiah looked like. 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:50.000 This is the kind of coronation he received, 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:56.000 a crown pushed into his scalp, a crown of thorns. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:01.000 The Gospels don't go into detail about the physical pain that Jesus experienced, 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:05.000 but we know from scholars that crucifixion is one of the cruelest 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:08.000 and most painful deaths you can imagine. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:11.000 Next week we'll be looking at Isaiah 53, 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:14.000 which really goes into the suffering that the servant will endure. 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:17.000 So I don't want to say too much just now. 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:22.000 But in crucifixion the Romans would drive huge five-inch nails 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:25.000 through the wrists and the feet. 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:28.000 The arms were slowly wrenched out of their sockets. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:31.000 Pain unimaginable. 00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:35.000 See, to take a breath you'd have to push yourself up on these nails 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.000 and then sag back down into a hanging position. 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:45.000 So for Jesus on the cross every breath was agony. 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.000 Let him who walks in darkness and has no light. 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:53.000 Well, Jesus experienced the full reality of that. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:57.000 Of a moment where there was not even a glimmer of light. 00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:00.000 On the cross Jesus took on the ultimate darkness, 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.000 not only physically but spiritually. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:07.000 He felt what it was like to truly be abandoned, 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:11.000 to truly be forsaken. 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:16.000 So the point is that God intervenes to rescue his disobedient people 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:18.000 through the obedience of his servant Jesus. 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:23.000 And that finds its climax, its ultimate expression in the cross. 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:29.000 In the place where Jesus swallows the ultimate darkness for his people. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:34.000 Now the rest of the song goes on in verse 7 to say that this isn't the end of the story. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:37.000 The cross is not the end. 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:40.000 But the Lord God helps me, verse 7. 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:43.000 Therefore I have not been disgraced. 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:46.000 Therefore I have set my face like a flint. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:49.000 And I know that I will not be put to shame. 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:52.000 He who vindicates me is near. 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:54.000 Who will contend with me? 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:57.000 Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? 00:21:57.000 --> 00:21:59.000 Let him come near to me. 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:01.000 Behold the Lord God helps me. 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:03.000 Who will declare me guilty? 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:06.000 Behold all of them wear out like a garment. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:08.000 The moth will eat them up. 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:11.000 This is how the song comes to an end. 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:16.000 With complete confidence and trust in God. 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:21.000 In the face of that unspeakable darkness. 00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:27.000 And just as we close, Isaiah challenges us in these final few verses of chapter 50. 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:32.000 Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:35.000 Let him who walks in darkness and has no light, 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:40.000 trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:45.000 Behold all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches. 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:50.000 Walk by the light of your fire and by the torches that you have kindled. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:56.000 This you have from my hand, you shall lie down in torment. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:58.000 So what does this mean? 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:02.000 Well, Alec Mottier, who's wrote a great commentary on the book of Isaiah, says this. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:06.000 He says that it means that those who continue in their own way, 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:11.000 who try to deal with the darkness of life by a kind of do-it-yourself remedy, 00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:13.000 they're doomed. 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:19.000 The picture here is of people seeking to equip themselves out of earthly resources 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:25.000 to deal with the dark and difficult experiences of life on their own. 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:30.000 So there's two responses here, right, at the end of Isaiah chapter 50. 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:35.000 You either place your trust, your hope, your confidence in God. 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:38.000 You acknowledge that you are in darkness. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:41.000 Or you try and walk by the light of your own fire. 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:44.000 It's painting a picture of self-sufficiency. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:49.000 I know what to write. I'll figure out my own way. 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:52.000 Remember the context of this passage. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:57.000 He's writing about the terrible things that are going to happen to God's people. 00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:00.000 An unspeakable, unimaginable darkness. 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:03.000 The temple would be destroyed. Jerusalem would be destroyed. 00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:08.000 Their way of life, their hopes and everything that made them them, 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:10.000 was going to be taken away. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.000 They're facing tremendous discouragement. 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:19.000 And at times, as God's people, we face discouragement. 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:22.000 See, the gospel doesn't say, you need to be more like the servant, 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:24.000 and then you'll be fine. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:27.000 You need to obey more. You need to listen better. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:31.000 You need to get your act together. 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:34.000 The gospel says, don't try and rely on your own light. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:39.000 Trust in the name of the Lord and rely on God. 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:44.000 Trust in the servant who takes the darkness head-on for you. 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:47.000 Do you feel weary this evening? 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:52.000 If you're conscious of how flawed and broken by sin that you are, 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:56.000 then these words in Isaiah chapter 50 are for you. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:00.000 Let him who walks in darkness and has no light 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:05.000 trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:08.000 Let's pray. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:11.000 Lord God, we thank you and praise you 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:14.000 for all that you've done for us through this servant. 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:19.000 Lord, we praise you for all that you've done for us in the gospel. 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:22.000 We thank you, Father, that you shine the light of your gospel 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:26.000 into the darkest places in our lives. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:30.000 Lord, we pray that the light of your love, 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:33.000 of the transformation we've experienced in you, 00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:37.000 would shine through in our lives in every situation you place us. 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:41.000 Father, help us to point others to you in our work, in our studies, 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:43.000 in our leisure. 00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:46.000 Lord, in the time we spend doing anything this week, 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:50.000 Lord, help us to be salt and light in a dark and weary world. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:26:08.000 In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.