God's heart for those outside our borders

Notes
Transcript
I prayed this past week and the week before about what to preach to you today. I felt strongly that God had something specific He wanted me to say. So I prayed and I searched the Scriptures and the Lord led me to Isaiah 49:1-6.
And the title of the sermon this morning is “God’s heart for those outside our borders”. In this text the Lord reveals His heart for the nations outside Israel’s borders, so that we can see His heart for those outside of our borders.
May the Lord bless the preaching of His word.

#1: The audience of the Messiah

Who is the Messiah’s audience? Who is His message addressed to? Verse 1: “Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar.” This is not a message that is addressed to the nation of Israel. When the prophet Isaiah uses terms like “coastlands” and “peoples” he’s not talking about Israel. These are locations that from the perspective of the people of God in Israel, these are Gentiles — non-Jews — people outside the borders of the nation of Israel. Nations that do not know and worship the one true God.
Why is the Messiah of Israel addressing the nations outside of Israel? Why is He concerning Himself with nations and peoples who are outside of the borders of the people He came to save?
Because it was Israel’s job to introduce the non-Israelite nations around them to the one true God. They failed at this task.
This task was literally written into the DNA of the nation of Israel. When God called Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel, this is the calling He gave Him:
Genesis 12:1–3 ESV
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Israel failed in this task. They never were to exist for themselves. Everything God did for them — from bringing them out of Egypt to bringing them into their very own land to giving them His covenant and His law — all of that was for the purpose that Israel might be a set apart nation, different from all the nations surrounding them, that from that place of being different, they might be a living picture of what it looks like to live in relationship with the Creator and in so doing draw those other nations in. Instead, Israel focused upon keeping those other nations out.
Yet God’s heart was always for the peoples outside their borders just as much as it was for them. And God’s purposes will not be undermined or thwarted. If we refuse to be part of His mission, He’ll find someone else — but the mission will go on.
The audience for the message of the Messiah is those outside the boundaries and the borders of Israel.
One of my favorite dead heroes I like to learn from is a man named John Stott. John Stott was a pastor and a missionary and an author and this is one of his quotes that I find so helpful.

[The] first command of Jesus to which we must respond is “Come!” But as soon as we have come to him, we hear his second command, “Go! Go home to your friends and tell them.… Go and make all nations my disciples.” Thus the Christian life is always one of “coming and going”—coming to him for salvation, for refreshment, for direction, and then going for him into the world as his representative or ambassador.

Notice with me next the Messiah’s calling. The Messiah’s calling.

#2: The calling of the Messiah

The message of the Messiah continues, verse one the second half. Will you look there with me? “The Lord called me from the womb; from the body of my mother he named my name” (Isa 49:1b ESV).
What gives the Messiah a right to address the entire world with His message? What gives Him the right to demand complete and total worldwide allegiance to His commands? “The Lord called me from the womb; from the body of my mother he named my name” (Isa 49:1b ESV).
The prophet Jeremiah said:

4 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

5  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

The apostle Paul speaks of God who “set me apart before I was born, and called me by His grace” (Gal 1:15 ESV).
If we study the callings of the great men used mightily of God throughout the Scriptures, we find similar statements to this effect, that from birth God has had His hand upon them, that every aspect of their life was used by God to shape them into the men He wanted them to be.
And in fact, each of us needs to see God’s hand on our lives in the same way. We’re ordinary people, it’s true. But so was Isaiah and Jeremiah and Paul. What made them extraordinary is that they were men of faith, willing to serve.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ today, God has His hand on you in a special way. “And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined…and those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom 8:28-30 ESV).
This text shows us not only the Messiah’s audience and His calling. It shows us the Messiah’s preparation.

#3: The preparation of the Messiah

Verse 2, the Messiah continues with His message to the nations who do not know God. What makes Him qualified to demand the complete allegiance of the entire world? “He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand He hid me; he made me like a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away” (Isa 49:2 ESV).
The sword and the arrow were the weapons of warfare in the ancient near east. If you were a marksman, you were as valuable to the army as a sniper would be today. They could hit their human targets with pinpoint accuracy [DBL p41], and if an arrow is lodged in your chest or your abdomen, you’re finished. Hundreds if not thousands of archers were on the front line of the battle. They were essential.
But notice that the arrow and the swords — those aren’t the weapon. This is the Messiah’s preparation. The arrow and the sword - these are just word pictures. The Messiah is the weapon. The Lord Jehovah — Yahweh — He is the warrior who wields the arrow and the sword.
You might say that the Messiah is God’s secret weapon. Two times the word “hide” is used [Ortlund, PTW, p324] in verse two. The Messiah is revealed and enters the world at the appointed time. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4-5 ESV).
But why this battle imagery in the first place? What kind of war is the Lord fighting? Verse two gives us a clue: the Messiah says, “He made my”— what? “mouth like a sharp sword” (Isa 49:2a ESV). The weapon of the Lord is the word of the Lord. The sword is the word of God. Which tells us this is not a human battle. This is a battle for the hearts and minds of men and women made in God’s image. This is a battle for our allegiance. Missions and evangelism is a battle for the allegiance of men and women in nations where God is not known and worshiped.

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart

The word of God is a weapon that cuts first that it may then heal. The word of God cuts us in that it brings our sin to the forefront of our attention, so that we can no longer ignore it. But then that same word that cuts us also heals us. The same word that revealed our sin to us so painfully then reveals to us the Savior, the Servant, the Messiah, whose death atoned for those sins and brings us daily forgiveness and daily cleansing.
Jesus commanded His disciples before He ascended into heaven, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19 ESV). And for 2,000 years this word — the gospel — has been going out to the nations. There is a gospel witness now on every continent of the world.
But that doesn’t mean that all nations have heard the gospel.
I once heard someone describe the map of Christianity like this. You look at the sky at night, and if you’re someplace where there isn’t much night pollution, you can see that the night sky is filled with stars. But there are some parts of the sky where there aren’t that many stars, and other parts of the sky where many stars are concentrated together.
And in the same way, within these nations where there are churches and Christians, there are also smaller pockets of people who do not know Christ. And they can’t know Him because of their language barrier, or because of a lack of churches and missionaries, or because it is extremely dangerous to go there as a missionary and so the work is slow and cautious.
We can understand this, if you think about it. Raise your hand if you have ever spent time in a really large US city. Now if, while you were there, you felt out of place, like you were in a totally different country?
That’s sort of what it can be like for a missionary in a foreign country who goes from one village to try to share the gospel in the next. The reason for this is that the cultural differences are so vast. But Jesus promises us that He will use His church — that’s US! — to take the gospel to those who live outside our borders. “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14 ESV).
Just take the word and go! Jesus promises that it will be completed. And the best part is: the word does all the work. The word of God in the mouth of the Messiah and later His church is the sword God is using to cut and then to heal, to convict and then to forgive and cleanse the nations who do not know Him.
This is the Messiah’s preparation.
The Messiah has been called by God and is prepared for His mission. How about the Messiah’s reward?

#4: The reward of the Messiah

Verse 3: “And he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’ But I said, ‘I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity’” (Isa 49:3-4ab).
Is the Messiah discouraged? Is that possible?
Because, He seems to be saying that something we wouldn’t think Jesus would ever have to say. He seems to be saying, “After all I’ve done, there’s nothing to show for it.”
Peter, James, John — could you guys not even stay up and watch with me for an hour?
“O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you?” (Luke 9:41 ESV).
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Luke 13:34 ESV).
“After all I’ve done, and nothing to show for it.” It’s a very human response, isn’t it?
And while Jesus was and is fully God, He also was and is fully human. Basic theology right here: Jesus is 100% God joined with 100% humanity. They don’t cancel each other out. The Bible says Jesus was tempted in every way are with the only difference being that He never sinned. So yes, Jesus dealt on a human level with discouragement.
And here He also shows us the key to dealing with that discouragement. Look with me at verse 4 again very closely: “But I said, ‘I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity.” Now look at this — just one word that makes all the difference — “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity…yet — surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God (Isa 49:4 ESV).
We have all felt this way before.
How long have you been struggling with a child or grandchild who is straying from God? How long have you been investing time and energy and thought to talk with them, and pray for them, and hope and long for their salvation, yet they remain indifferent?
There comes a point where all we can do is say, “I’ve done what I can, and I will keep doing what I can, but I’m going to have to leave this in the Lord’s hand and choose to believe that whatever happens here, I will receive my reward from my heavenly Father.” “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.”
We’ve seen the Messiah’s audience, His calling, His preparation, and His reward. That’s the
Now we come to the climax of the Messiah’s address. Notice with me the Messiah’s mission.

#5: The mission of the Messiah

The message of the Messiah that began with addressing the nations of the world now ends with a promise that Israel’s salvation is not limited to Israel.
So look with me at verses 5-6: “And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant” — So, the Lord who called Him, and prepared Him, and who will reward Him, now commissions Him. Continuing in verse 5: “to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him” — the Messiah would be the Savior first of the Jews but not the Jews only — and then skip down with me to verse 6: “He says, it is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa 49:5-6 ESV).
The Messiah embodies God’s heart for the nations beyond the border of Israel.
[WATCH TONE]

Are we neglecting needs here?

Church family, there is something that I hear fairly often and it is something that weighs heavily on my heart. And that is this: “I believe we need to take care of our own first.”
And I think I know what this means. Why do we invest in international missions? We have enough ministry and missions to do here. Somehow it feels to some of you that in sending money and people on international mission trips, we are somehow neglecting something important, that we’re wasting valuable resources over there that really need to be used here.
I want to say two things to this. First is, I get it. We are aware of needs in our own city, in our own community, even right here in our own church family. I don’t want to neglect these needs anymore than you do.
But you also need to know that our church is doing a lot to meet needs in our own community.
We have a partnership with Washington Elementary. For two years now we have supported teachers and students and family there with fully-loaded backpacks, snack foods, games and prayer. This summer will be the third such ministry.
It’s our goal to plan one outreach every quarter to our community — fall festival, Cherryville Christmas festival outreach, a summer event like VBS which we are hoping to restart this year and a springtime outreach like the Easter Egg Hunt we had a couple weeks ago.
We have a group of men — Baptist Men as they’re called — who build handicap ramps, fix roofs that leak, help with yard work for our members who are homebound — whatever our members need, whatever they are unable to do — those men go out often and do those kinds of projects.
Our ladies organize the Appalachian Backpack outreach where we send loaded backpacks to poor and struggling communities in West Virginia and Kentucky.
During COVID we had a strong food ministry to those affected by the pandemic. Our benevolence team still handles food requests when they come in, or requests for assistance with rent or utilities.
Our church gathers once a month to make 75 bag lunches for the Feed the Hungry ministry at First Baptist.
Not to mention the countless ways our church members minister to one another and those outside our church body one-on-one — conversations, late-night phone calls, rides given to those without cars.
And these ministries are growing in strength and in numbers.
In the meantime, Jesus “go”. “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
So, do not grumble about your church going on a mission trip to a country with a high concentration of people who are lost and dying in their sins apart from Christ.
Do not stand in the way of your church’s obedience to the explicit command of Christ.
Do not seek to undermine the work of taking the gospel to those who are outside of our borders. Because that is what Christ has called us to do, and as long as we have the opportunity and the resources, we will go and we will do it.
We don’t exist for ourselves. Our church does not exist for us. We are not here for our own enjoyment. God has a mission for His church. We exist to carry the the love of Jesus to those outside our walls and beyond our borders. We are the church of the Messiah who is a light to the nations, that His salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

Call for response

Meanwhile, if there is something we are not doing that we should be doing, and you’re the first one to notice it, then that’s God’s way of calling you to do it. Be a doer and not a grumbler. If you care as much as you say you do about the needs in our community, then meet those needs yourself. Or form a team and tackle it. We’ll support you and encourage you and equip you with whatever you need.
What I’m asking of you this morning comes down to this: open your heart. Open your heart to people living in places you can’t see, places that are out of sight out of mind. Open your heart to those outside our borders. Open your heart to those living in darkness, separated from God and under God’s wrath because they don’t know Jesus. The heart of God beats just as passionately for their salvation as for our own.
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