The Chosen Servant
Notes
Transcript
3rd Sunday of Advent
3rd Sunday of Advent
When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.
And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Intro:
Intro:
AG: Always Say a Good Word
In the 1890s, a book appeared entitled Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush. It was authored by John Watson, who wrote under the pen name of Ian Maclaren. In the volume is the story of a lad who decided to enter the ministry. Before finishing school, however, his saintly mother died and he went to live with an aunt. By and by, the young man completed seminary and was ready to take his first church, indeed to preach his first sermon as pastor. The bright boy labored long on his sermon, then proudly read it to his aunt. When he asked for criticism, his aunt expressed appreciation for its beauty but reminded him that many of his parishioners had had little schooling. It was then she shared his mother’s words of admonition just before her death: “When you stand up to preach, always say a good word for Jesus Christ.”
G. Curtis Jones, 1000 Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1986), 196.
That is what we hope to do today!
TS: These few verses seem to point to and summarize the entire work of Christ! Remember, this book was written approximately 700 years before His birth. God’s plan has not been a secret. From Eden on he proclaimed He was going to put an end to sin and restore creation back to its original state.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God was taking a major step forward in fulfilling His promises and bringing about His purpose.
RS: It is always good to be reminded of the gospel. Here we see the heart of it all in the Old Testament. Jesus came in fulfilment of what God had previously predicted and He still keeps His promises. We truth Him today to cleanse us of our sins and look forward to the day of His second coming to restore creation.
I. His Earthly ministry (52:13a)
I. His Earthly ministry (52:13a)
Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
My servant Prudently (many suggest prospers)
During His time on Earth, Jesus was successful he fulfilled His purpose
Seek and save the lost
for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
His aim was to bring salvation. He opened the path to God, Heaven and eternal life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
The Father sent the son so the world could be saved.
Trust God to speak the truth.
His ultimate goal is salvation
Many have substituted lesser things:
prosperity, heath, prestige
Salvation is the most precious treasure we can have!
His future time on Earth He will also be successful when He reigns in Righteousness
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
When He returns He will be recognized by all as King.
II. His Crucifixion (52:14)
II. His Crucifixion (52:14)
Just as many were astonished at you, So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men;
He is beaten, bloody, and disfigured. He suffers in atonement for our sins.
It was so bad, He no longer was recognizable.
But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people.
Some truths about His death found on the site, Desiring God:
1. The death of Jesus was for his enemies.
1. The death of Jesus was for his enemies.
God’s love is different than natural human love. God loves us when we’re utterly unlovable. When Jesus died, he died for the ungodly, for sinners, and for his enemies. Paul gets at how contrary this is to human nature when he writes, (Romans 5:7–8).
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Due to our sin, we were His enemies, Yet He loving forgives us and made provision for that through His sacrifice on the cross.
What an astonishing thing!
He died for His enemies.
2. The death of Jesus is on our behalf.
2. The death of Jesus is on our behalf.
Jesus’s death was substitutionary. That is, he died in our place. He died the death that we deserved. He bore the punishment that was justly ours. For everyone who believes in him, Christ took the wrath of God on their behalf. Peter writes, (1 Peter 2:24).
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
Sin brought death
The penalty had to be paid.
By you or by Jesus
He paid it so we don’t have to!
3. The death of Jesus defines love.
3. The death of Jesus defines love.
Jesus’s death wasn’t just an act of love, it defines love.
His substitutionary death is the ultimate example of what love means, and Jesus calls those who follow him to walk in the same kind of life-laying-down love. John writes, (1 John 3:16).
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
John Piper explains: “Jesus’s death is both guilt-bearing and guidance-giving. It is a death that forgives sin and a death that models love. It is the purchase of our life from perishing and the pattern of a life of love” (What Jesus Demands from the World, 266).
4. The death of Jesus reconciles us to God.
4. The death of Jesus reconciles us to God.
Justification, propitiation, and redemption — all benefits of Christ’s death — have one great purpose: reconciliation.
Jesus’s death enables us to have a joy-filled relationship with God, which is the highest good of the cross. Paul writes, (Colossians 1:21–22).
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—
We are not just forgiven, we are adopted into the family!
We are brought near and made righteous by His completed work!
III. His Resurrection (52:13b)
III. His Resurrection (52:13b)
Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
He is highly exalted
He didn’t remain dead and buried
In Pisidian Antioch
In Pisidian Antioch
And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: ‘I will give you the sure mercies of David.’
Therefore He also says in another Psalm: ‘You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.’
“For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption;
but He whom God raised up saw no corruption.
Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins;
and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
God had not only foretold His sacrifice, He foretold His resurrection.
Only God can do that!
Believe it
Have hope in it:
a. for our friends and family who have gone on before
b. for ourselves.
IV. His redemption (52:15)
IV. His redemption (52:15)
So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider.
He performs the priestly work of sprinkling His blood.
Picture of cleansing
All can be saved due to His completed work
Redemption is offered to all.
He shuts the mouth of Kings when He returns and gives final redemption
One day in the future, our faith will become sight!
The Kings of the world will be speechless and in awe of Him on that marvelous day!
When King Jesus takes His thrown, they will see power and glory like they never have before.
Paul uses this verse in the NT to tie to preaching the gospel where Christ is yet unknown
but as it is written: “To whom He was not announced, they shall see; And those who have not heard shall understand.”
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
We have seen Christ proclaimed by Isaiah today. What a mighty God we serve.
The question remaining to address is do you know Him? I’m not asking if you know about Him (you just heard His story). I’m asking do you know Him? Have you repented of your sins and trusted him to forgive you and make you God’s child? If not, call on Him today.
If you do know Him, are you sharing His love and gospel?
That was His purpose and it remains our purpose today.