Good morning, everyone. Great to be in church with you this morning. My name's Steve, and
it is a brisk morning. I'm a little bit cold, and I'm hoping to warm up as I preach. So just
bear with me on that. It's just really that my core temperature must be dropped or something
this morning. But it's great to be in church with you. We've been on a journey through
the book of Isaiah, and we're coming towards some really crucial bits and towards the end
of it. So I'm really glad you're here, and I'm glad that you checked it in online with
us this morning. I'd be grateful if you get Isaiah 53 open in front of you. Also, there's
St. Paul's app. There's a message, an outline for today's message, God's surprising servant.
It will help you immensely as we go through. Well, Eric Liddell was a Scottish sprinter, rugby
player and Christian missionary. He was known for his refusal to run in the heats for his
favoured event, the 100 metre sprint at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. He received significant
pressure from the then Prince of Wales and the World Olympic Committee to run on a Sunday,
and it was against his Christian conviction to do so. And he only found out the heats were
on on the Sunday as he was travelling to Paris on the boat. He ended up, by the goodness of
one of his colleagues, swapped events with him, and he ended up winning the gold medal for
the 100 metre race instead at the 24 Olympics. His life, at least at that point of his life,
is captured in the 1981 movie, Chariots of Fire. But his legacy is much greater than winning a gold medal.
Immediately after winning the gold medal, he did what he wanted to do for the rest of his life,
and he set out as a missionary to China. He returned to China. He was born in China to missionary parents.
And he remained in China until his death in a Japanese civilian internment camp in 1945.
Liddell's Olympic training and racing, his Christian convictions, everything that influenced him,
are there in that movie, Chariots of Fire, and I encourage you to watch it. But his enduring legacy
is not mentioned in the movie. What he's really, really famous for is not mentioned in the movie at all,
because it's not an Olympic gold medal. His enduring legacy is the time that he spent as a missionary
and in the internment camp. Liddell became a leader and an organiser of the camp under harsh conditions.
He busied himself by helping the elderly, teaching Bible classes, arranging games, teaching science to
students. He was referred to as Uncle Eric. One of his fellow internees later wrote a book about his
experience in that camp, and the book's called The Courtyard of the Happy Way. And he described Liddell
as the finest Christian gentleman it has ever been my pleasure to meet.
Another said of Liddell in his writing,
it is rare indeed that a person has the good fortune to meet a saint, but he came as close to it as
anyone I have ever known. Another non-Christian said that.
Liddell, from the moment of his, beyond the internment camp and the end of World War II,
many things have been written about him. His influence has been substantial and nothing to do
with winning a gold medal.
He was known by all in the internment camp as someone who gave up his life for others. Despite him
having a wife and three children who had escaped to Canada, when he was given an opportunity to be
released from the internment camp and to return and to go to Canada, he surrendered that opportunity
to a pregnant woman. He let her go.
And he stayed.
His last words were,
it's complete surrender.
It's complete surrender.
A reference to how he had completely given his life to Jesus Christ,
who had completely given his life for him.
It's complete surrender.
The passage, which was just read out to us by Sybil this morning,
is one of the most important passages in the entire Bible.
And yet, in the storyline of Isaiah, these verses are a complete shock.
They're unexpected.
Because they subvert every human category of thought about greatness and glory and salvation.
There are three surprising things.
So if you've got the St. Paul's app, you'll notice them there in the titles.
Surprisingly Ordinary, Surprising Suffering and Surprising Glory.
That's the journey today.
Open up Isaiah 53 and the St. Paul's app.
Now the big shock of these verses is that by the time you get to Isaiah 53,
we're expecting someone of power and greatness and majesty to come in and rescue God's people enslaved in Babylon.
God's person coming to rescue his people from exile.
The great divine king who we saw earlier in Isaiah is going to raise up every valley,
fill in every valley and bring every mountain down low.
the one who's going to have big paths straight.
This great king, the one who's going to bring renewal to the whole world.
We're expecting someone majestic and big and powerful.
Instead, you read in verse 2,
he had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him.
Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind.
A man of suffering.
And familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces.
He was despised.
And we held him in low esteem.
The shock of these verses is that this majestic king,
this God's servant here,
has none of the markers of what the world would call successful.
Looks,
money,
connections,
credentials,
none of it.
And yet despite that,
we read in verse 1,
who has believed our message,
and to whom
has the arm
of the Lord
been revealed?
The arm of the Lord,
in Bible talk,
simply means,
it's a metaphor for the power of God.
This is saying that this servant,
despised,
held in low esteem,
is God's power.
God's power.
And it's how God's power works
in the world,
and it subverts
every category that we have.
Every category.
It's exactly what we see
in the New Testament.
Mark's biography
of Jesus
records Jesus
turning up to his hometown,
Nazareth.
It's in Mark chapter 6.
And in verse 3,
it says that the people of his hometown
took offense at him.
Now,
what's surprising about that
is that Nazareth
could also be called Nowhereville.
You know,
it's a humble little village
that is hardly mentioned in history at all,
and its only famous resident
is Jesus.
Only one.
In other words,
these are grassroots people
who knew Jesus as a kid,
and Jesus turns up,
and they're offended by him.
And the word translated offense
in Mark chapter 6, verse 3,
means that they were scandalized by him.
To be scandalized
is not to disagree with him.
It means to totally reject him.
It means to feel hostility towards him.
William Craig,
sorry, not Willie Craig,
William Lane,
in his commentary
on Mark chapter 6,
states the issue really well.
Well,
their discernment
could not penetrate
the veil
of ordinariness
that surrounded him.
How could
the long-awaited
Messiah,
King,
Rescuer
of God's people
be so
ordinary?
Ordinary.
The ordinariness
of Jesus
did not fit
with the village
of Nazareth's
worldview
of a triumphant
Messiah.
This is not
who we're expecting.
And in the same way,
friends,
the ordinariness
of Jesus
offends
the normal
moral understanding
of how salvation,
sorry,
the normal
human understanding
of how salvation
works in our world.
All religions,
all philosophical
systems
offer a form
of salvation
and liberation
that is from
the ordinariness
of human life.
It's escaping
the ordinariness
of human life.
And it is
always triumphant
and it is
always strong.
the Christian
view of salvation
is unique.
God
comes
down
into
our
ordinariness.
He doesn't
lift us
just from it.
He immerses
himself
in the pain,
the vulnerability,
the suffering
of the ordinary
human life.
We cannot
know
what the good
news of
Christianity
is
if we've
never felt
the offence
of Jesus
Christ.
But we
must not
take offence.
Matthew 11
verse 6
says,
blessed is
anyone who
does not
stumble
on account
of me.
If we
take
offence
at the
ordinariness
of Jesus,
we can
never know
his blessing.
now I
know I'm
taking a
lot for
granted
when I
say that
and so
there's
an extra
incentive
to sign
up to
Alpha
to discover
a bit
more about
the Christian
faith and
the good
news that
it actually
is for
all of
humanity.
The reality
is,
this is how
God works
in all of
life from
beginning to
end.
the
extraordinary
power of
God
operates in
our life
in just
ordinary
ways.
For
instance,
the grace
and the
life of
God grows
in our
ordinary
life in
ordinary
ways is
what I'm
saying.
Things like
daily Bible
reading,
daily prayer,
self-examination,
worship,
hanging out
with people
who are bold
enough to
point you
to Jesus,
to encourage
you to
keep on
keeping on,
to keep you
accountable for
walking with
Jesus week
in and week
out and
week in and
week out for
years.
Ordinary
things that
you do over
and over
again have
a powerful
impact on
your life.
So imagine
for instance,
I got the
seed right
now for
a Morton
Bay fig
tree.
If you
don't know
what that
is, go
to the
Botanic
Gardens
or just
Google it
actually,
there we
go.
Much
easier to do,
not now,
later.
Got the
seed for
Morton
Bay fig
tree.
It easily
fits in the
palm of my
hand.
Now imagine
if I decided
right now I'm
going to go to
the corner of
this building
just outside and
I'm going to
get this
Morton Bay fig
seed and I'm
going to smash
this building
with the seed
and try and
bring the
building down.
The seed has
no power.
I don't have
any power.
It has no
power in
itself.
It's nothing.
It's just
small.
It's little.
However, I
plant it in the
corner of the
building and I
water it, give it
some sunshine,
give it time,
water it, you
know, fertilize the
nutrients, sunshine
every day.
It will grow
and it will
grow and it
will grow big
enough to crumble
the building.
It will tear it
down over the
course of time.
That's the
extraordinary power
of God's work
in our lives
through ordinary
means again
and again
and again.
Slow and
ordinary growth
comes through
the means of
grace and it's
so powerful to
bring about
incredible
transformation in
life.
So I want to
ask you, is
the arm of the
Lord evidence
in your life,
in your habits?
That's the
first thing
that's surprising.
God's servant
was so ordinary.
The second
thing surprising
here is that
God's servant
suffers.
How can a
great triumph
come through
such weakness?
That's not
how we work
in this world.
Notice the
words in
verses 4 and
5.
Pain,
suffering,
stricken,
afflicted,
pierced,
crushed.
The word
pierced there
means the
most painful
possible death.
Then down in
verse 8,
taken away,
cut off.
The word
cut off means
a violent
death.
God's
servant,
Jesus Christ,
suffered terribly.
many people
think,
and just a
little bit
of a side
point here,
many people
think that
because they're
suffering,
God doesn't
love them.
And the
only response
I have to
that,
look at
Jesus.
Just look to
Jesus in your
suffering.
God's
salvation in
our lives
is in
fact compatible
with a
very hard
experience.
His love
for us is
compatible with
a very hard
experience in
life.
God can be
with you,
love you,
in you,
working through
you,
growing you,
even while you
suffer terribly.
But the
surprising thing
about the
suffering of
God's servant
here is
why he
suffered.
there is
at least
ten times
in these
verses
that he
is described
as taking
on things
that are
not his.
He took
up our
pain,
verse 4.
He bore
our suffering,
verse 4.
He was
pierced for
our
transgressions.
And again,
the punishment
that brought
us peace
was on
him.
Over and
over again,
he's taking
on,
taking on,
taking on
things that
don't belong
to him,
that are not
his.
transgressions.
What does
all that
mean?
Cast your
eye down
to verse
12.
It says,
God's servant
king was
numbered with
the transgressors.
What's surprising
about that is
that when you
read through
Isaiah 53,
you'd notice
that he is
declared to
be innocent
at every
point.
And yet
here he's
numbered with
the transgressors.
In Luke
chapter 22
verse 37,
Jesus
quotes
this verse
at the end
of his last
supper with
his disciples
just moments
before he's
arrested and
is executed.
And he
says,
Isaiah 53
verse 12
is about
me.
I'm the
one who
is numbered
amongst the
transgressors.
He says
this,
he was
numbered with
the transgressors
and I
tell you
that this
must be
fulfilled
in me.
He says
this just
hours before
his death.
Isaiah 53
verses 12
verse 12
is what
is on
his mind.
What does
it mean
that he took
our pain,
our suffering
and our
punishment?
to be
numbered with
the
transgressors
doesn't
mean that
he became
a transgressor.
It means
that he
was counted,
treated as
if he was
a transgressor.
And just
hours later
he was hung
on a cross
between two
other transgressors
as if
he himself
was one.
This is the
surprising thing
about his
suffering.
He takes
on what
should be
our
suffering
for our
transgressing.
He is
treated as
if he
has done
every
single
thing
that we
have
done.
What's
even more
surprising
is that it
says in
verse 11
that my
righteous
servant
will justify
many.
So put
verses 10
and 11
together
and it's
an amazing
section.
Verse 10
said it
was God's
will to
crush him
to cause
him to
suffer
and through
the Lord
make his
life an
offering for
sin
he will
see his
offspring
which simply
means he
through his
suffering
through his
death
will see
the results
of his
suffering.
And then
in verse
11 we
read after
he had
suffered
he will
see the
light of
life
and be
satisfied
by his
knowledge
my righteous
servant
will justify
many.
To justify
someone is
to make
them
righteous
it's a
legal term
to declare
them to
be right.
It is
the idea
once again
I was up
here I
talked about
the idea
of double
blessing.
He had
the peace
but got
the punishment
so that we
who deserve
the punishment
get the
peace.
Sin is
forgiven
but peace.
Jesus
Christ is
treated by
God as
he has
done
everything
all of
humanity
has done
throughout
the history
of humanity
so that
when we
put our
trust in
him we
are treated
as if we
have done
everything
that he
has done.
Righteousness
of life
constant
obedience
to the
father.
That is
the surprise
that is
the center
that is
the power
that is
the wonder
of the
Christian
faith.
And there
is nothing
like it
in all
of humanity.
It is
radically
different from
every other
religion.
Every other
religion in
this world
is from
the strong
to the
strong.
And the
basic message
is if you
want to
be great
then you
summon your
strength and
you focus
your will and
you live in a
particular way
and eventually
you'll be
great.
Jesus
Christ died
rejected and
in utter
weakness.
He was
despised.
He comes
in weakness
and so his
salvation is
only ever
for the
weak.
Salvation
is a
gift
from the
weak
to the
weak.
God's
servant
in Isaiah
is surprising.
He is
both a
servant
and a
king
just as
God is
both
righteous
and loving.
God
substitutes
himself for
us on the
cross.
God puts
himself where
we deserve
to be
so that
now we
can stand
in the
place of
honour
only he
deserves to
plead.
And it's a
place of
honour,
it's a
place of
love,
it's a
place of
acceptance,
it's a
place of
approval,
it's a
place
that's
guilt-free,
shame-free.
glory.
And that's
the surprising
glory of
this passage.
God's
servant is
surprisingly
ordinary,
surprisingly
suffers in
weakness to
make us
right and
strong,
and this
all points
to a
surprising
glory because
it's not
how we
would do
it.
Have a
look again
at verse
10.
It was
the Lord's
will to
crush him
and to
cause him
to suffer
and through
the Lord
make his
life
and offering
for sin.
He will
see his
offspring
and prolong
his days
and the
will of
the Lord
will prosper
in his
hand.
And then
in verse
11 it
says,
he will
see the
light of
life and
be satisfied.
What's
happening in
verse 11 is
that it's
completing the
full circle
of this
poem,
which began
in 52,
verse 13,
where it
says about
God's
servant that
he will be
raised,
he will be
lifted up
and highly
exalted.
That is,
it's a
reference to
the cross
and the
resurrection
and the
ascension of
Jesus.
He will be
raised up on a
cross,
dying for the
sin of
humanity
and he
will be
highly
praised,
exalted,
honoured.
Now we've
seen this
language before
in Isaiah,
the idea of
being high
and exalted.
We've seen it
before.
You all
remember the
very first
message in
Isaiah chapter
6, several
months ago,
I'm sure.
But it's
there in
Isaiah 6,
when Isaiah
is commissioned,
he gets a
glimpse of the
throne room of
God and he
says, I
saw the
Lord high
and exalted
seated on
a throne.
He sees the
God of the
universe on a
throne and
it's saying
here that this
suffering servant
is the God
of the
universe,
seated on
a throne.
What's even
more remarkable
is if you
read through
John chapter
12,
John says,
Isaiah was
gazing on
Jesus Christ.
Isaiah saw
Jesus on the
throne.
At the
cross,
humanity
passed its
verdict on
Jesus and
its verdict was
rejection and
condemnation,
but the cross
is not the
end of it.
That's what
this verse is
saying in
52 verse
13.
The cross
is not the
end.
Jesus
Christ,
the Son of
God,
became human,
lived a
perfect life,
a perfect
life,
but to us
humanity,
he was
ordinary,
he was
despised,
rejected,
he was
disfigured,
beyond
recognition,
he was
placed in
a grave.
That was
our verdict
on him
and then
God's
verdict came.
And he
brings him
powerfully
from death.
Resurrection
is God's
vindication.
This is
my
suffering
servant
for
humanity
and he
is high
and he
is exalted
and he
is honoured
and he
is lifted
up
at the
right hand
of the
Father in
heaven.
And the
world
falls
silent
as Jesus
is vindicated
in Isaiah
52 verse
15.
The cross
of Christ
looks like
a failed
plan or
a pointless
gesture,
but is the
power and
the wisdom
of God.
As the
Apostle Paul
writes in
1 Corinthians
1,
Jews demand
signs for
the wisdom,
but we
preach Christ
crucify the
power and
the wisdom
of God.
substitutionary
sacrifice
is the
surprising
glory
of his
work.
And it
is the
surprising
glory of
the Christian
life.
In other
words,
you want
to be
great
in life?
Why
shoot for
an Olympic
gold?
Give up
your life
for others
and you
will be
great.
That's the
surprising
glory of
the Christian
life.
A life
of substitutionary
sacrifice is
the Christian
life.
And it
happens in
all of
life.
It's there
right through
all of
life.
Let's
take the
example of
parenting.
I'm glad
that James
and Sybil
rose this
one.
I mean,
unbeknownst
to them.
Let's
take the
example of
parenting.
A child
comes into
your life
and all
of a
sudden
you
experience
how much
they hamper
your
personal
freedom.
How much
they get
in the
way of
your
life.
There
are all
sorts of
things you
used to be
able to
do but
you can't
do to
the same
degree.
Travel,
career
advancement,
social life.
life.
This is
particularly
a conflict
for the
Westerner
who deeply
values
personal
and individual
freedom,
which is
why so
many
Westerners
are getting
a dog
rather than
a child.
if you
make a
choice
to hold
onto your
freedom
and go
down the
road of
selfishness,
then that
child will
grow up
with all
kinds of
insecurities.
All kinds
of
insecurities.
There is a
sense where
they will
themselves
grow up
and be
enslaved to
their own
complex
brokenness
if the
parents
are under
their
freedom.
On the
other hand,
if you give
up your
freedom as
the way a
parent should,
then the
child will
grow up
stable,
responsible,
free.
And when
they do,
the parent
will discover
a new
kind of
freedom.
A freedom
that comes
from a
relationship
with a
child who's
grown up
to become
a stable
contributing
adult to
society.
The freedom
that comes
from the
richness of
family life,
transparency
in relationship.
See the
point?
The point
is, it's
either you
or them.
Substitutionary
sacrifice.
It's either
you or
them.
All real
love, all
real love
is weakening
yourself to
strengthen the
other, but
it results in
the giver
getting a
new strength
that they
could not
have otherwise.
There is a
freedom in
that.
Take another
example.
You've got
wealth.
What I mean
is that you've
got money and
you've got assets
that mean
that you've
got some
power to
make choices
in your
life.
That's what
I mean by
wealth.
I don't
mean whether
you're on
the BRW
rich 200
list.
You've got
power to
make choices
in your
life.
That's the
definition of
wealth.
And you
might not
feel that
you're
wealthy,
but you've
got power
to make
choices.
You have
choices.
And you
can hold
on to all
of your
money,
all of your
time,
and all
of your
power for
yourself in
such a way
that you
become enslaved
to it.
And you
will perish
with it in
poverty.
You will
perish with
it in
poverty.
Or, on the
other hand,
you can give
up your
riches in
various ways.
You can
start to
share your
wealth and
your power
and your
choices and
invest your
time and
your money
charitably
towards others
and you
can use
your wealth
either to
hold on to
your power,
you will
always be
weak,
or to
give up
your wealth
to empower
others and
you'll start
to discover
a new and
real wealth,
something that
liberates and
frees.
When Jesus
gave himself
away to
win us,
he then
got the
name that
is above
every other
name.
Not
before.
Not
before.
He deserves
far more
honor for
having lost
his honor.
In
closing,
at the
end of
his book,
Mere
Christianity,
C.S.
Lewis,
sums up the
Christian life
just beautifully.
It's the
very last
page.
Let me
quote him.
The principle
runs through
all of life
from top
to bottom.
Give up
yourself and
you will find
your true
self.
Lose your
life and
you will
save it.
Submit to
death,
death of
your ambitions
and favorite
wishes every
day and
death of
your whole
body in
the end.
Submit with
every fiber
of your
being and
you will
find eternal
life.
Keep back
nothing.
Nothing that
you have not
given away will
ever really be
truly yours.
Nothing that
has not died
will ever be
raised from
the dead.
Look for
yourself and
you will find
in the long
run only
hatred,
loneliness,
despair,
rage,
ruin and
decay.
But look
for Jesus
Christ and
you will find
him and
with him
every other
thing thrown
in as well.
What a way
to finish a
book.
Mere
Christianity
by C.S.
Lewis.
And so
I wonder
friends,
can you
say
with Eric
Liddell
at the
point of
death,
it's
complete
surrender.
It's
complete
surrender.
what might
be your
next step
to
weaken
yourself
that
others
might
be
strong.
Thank you.
I can't
that
quartet
matter
season
so
I he's
estoy
loving
away
and
giving me
have many
them to
work
there's
maybe
to
l
has
been
there's