The Heart of Christ For The Downtrodden

Intro:

In 2021, following my full embrace of reformed theology, I was called to either recant of my theological convictions or I would be expected to return my ordination. Following the return of my papers, I soon resigned from my pastorate understanding there had, on my part, developed a great theological difference between myself and the congregation. So, being unwilling to create controversy or cause harm to people we deeply loved, we resigned and moved back to South Carolina where I began to work a job as a route driver for a company back in Greenville. It was during that time I really felt I faced an identity crisis of sorts and I found myself struggling with depression quite seriously during that time. Fast forward to August, in one week we all catch COVID, we receive a letter telling us our taxes were filed wrong and we would be expected to pay quite a bit more, and to top it off, I recieved a letter than my employer had not insured me as previously understood. Phew. Two weeks later, my Mom catches COVID, is quickly hospitalized and goes on to spend a month in ICU where we receive news that she isn’t expected to live. Wow. While Mom is in the hospital we take care of her mother, and I was always a Nanny’s boy; and while Mom was away her health seemed stronger and mind seemed clearer than I had seen in years! But one day I came home from work to see her and her O2 is 60. To keep a long story short, three days later I’m holding her hand as she slips off into eternity.

So in one month’s span we’re faced with depression, sickness, bills, stress, fear, and death all while having a toddler to look after, guys and you might be wondering, “Why are you telling us this?” The reason I feel like this may be helpful is that if you also feel overwhelmed and exhausted, there is a Christ who will not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax. There is Christ, the Lord of Glory, who is gentle and lowly of heart and in Him we find strength for our souls. When it seems the circumstances of this life are greater than we can bear, we can look to our most precious Lord.

Summary: Christ, the Servant, will preform His work of bringing righteousness to the world gently, yet unfailingly. So, I can have confidence in that when it feels as though life’s difficulties overwhelm me, Christ has not forsaken His purposes of bringing forth righteousness to the world.

Or to make it even more basis, “When life seems to be falling apart, I can look to my most gentle Lord who knows what He’s doing.”

So, in the midst of the troubles of my life we can look, first, to

I. The Servant in Whom God Delights (Isaiah 42:1)

A. His Identity

Matthew 12:16-21 “16 Yet He warned them not to make Him known, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 18 “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles. 19 He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory; 21 And in His name Gentiles will trust.””

Acts 3:13 “13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.” Acts 3:26 “26 To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”

Acts 4:27 “27 “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together” Acts 4:30 “30 by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”

It is certainly safe for us to conclude that Christ is this beloved Servant! And what do we behold as we examine the life of the Servant? Matthew 20:26-28 “26 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. 27 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” He has come as the servant, not merely granting us an example of the depth of servanthood, but He Himself being a servant for us.

B. His Esteem

He is the Servant whom the Father upholds.

Alec Motyer says concerning the word uphold, “The idea is not so much of imparting strength as of the Lord’s rights over his Servant and His determination to keep His Servant for Himself. He is the one with Whom the Father’s soul delights. He is not merely a capable man for the Lord’s task, but He Himself is the Lord’s man for the Lord Himself.”

Redpath believes it speaks of the Father’s trust in and dependence on the Son. “The picture is taken from an Eastern court, where a monarch is in a procession, and as he walks he leans upon a favorite courtier. This verse, in fact, could well be translated, ‘Behold, my servant, upon whom I lean.’ It is an indication of a special favor and confidence. So we have the picture of God the Father leaning upon God the Son.” This would present us with a beautiful portrait of the OC expectation with the NC reality.

He is the Elect One

Calvin said of this statement, “in this passage the word Elect denotes "excellent," as in many other passages; for they who are in the very flower of their age are called chosen youths. (1 Samuel 26:2, and 2 Samuel 6:1.) Jehovah therefore calls him "an excellent servant," because he bears the message of reconciliation, and because all his actions are directed by God. At the same time he demonstrates his undeserved love, by which he embraced us all in his only-begotten Son, that in his person we may behold an illustrious display of that election by which we have been adopted into the hope of eternal life.

This glorious passage here overrides any insinuation that the great doctrine of election is much more than a cold, calculated decision of the Father and instead, floods it with radiant, beaming passion as we consider the unbound love the Father has for His Son and thus the unimaginable love He has for us who He has foreknew (proginosko).

My Spirit

Motyer continued with, “My Spirit is the Lord’s personal presence in action, endowing leadership. As a consequence of this divine enduement, the Servant will preform the task of bringing divine truth to the Gentiles. This is also a fine verse in connection with John 1:32 “32 And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.” Further verifying our identification of the Servant.

Application: So, when we are not sure where to look we are to look to Christ! The in Whom the Father is delighted. The One Who the Father has been pleased to give us to and who the Spirit has been most gracious is bringing us to! We are Christ’s forever and we can look to our most submissive and gentle Lord!

II. The Servant Who is Gentle with the Downtrodden (Isaiah 42:2-3)

A. His Demeanor (Isaiah 42:2)

As we consider this passage we must ask ourselves what this means. We see accounts of Christ preaching in the streets, we see Him crying out, we see Him raising His voice so what does this mean? And what does it mean for our interpretation of the identity of the Servant?

Well, It must be understood that this is a depictive passage of the demeanor of the Servant. Isaiah’s flow of v1-4 is like so: (1) God will provide His beloved Servant to bring forth justice. (2-3) Here is how He will not do it. (4) He will not fail at His task.

So, as we consider this passage and note the 3 verbs, being “cry out, “raise His voice”, and “Cause His voice to be heard”. We understand that these are depicting the opposite of His nature. He will not be like Nebuchadnezzar or Cyrus, or any other King. He will be like nothing the world would expect or has ever seen. He will be gentle, not self-assertive. He will be meek.

Think of it, the One who is the Creator of all things, the One who formed the kosmos has come to Earth to do the will of the Father and does so quietly. Indeed for us as believers we can take note that when we go forward in the service of God, we don’t need fanfare or attention, photographs or applause. Our service has been seen by the Creator of all things and that is payment enough if it is for His glory.

B. His Compassion (Isaiah 42:3)

He is Gentle with the Distraught

Not only will Christ come modestly, but mildly. And just as He will work as no King ever has, He will also be more gentle than any King.

A reed is a plant that grows near marshy areas around ponds and such. It is a plant used for many purposes, particularly once fully grown and dried out. But as it is growing, and is green, it is a hollow plant without much firmness to it and when it is bent, or bruised, even the weight of a sparrow could break it. And here we see Christ’s handling of such people Richard Sibbes said, “The church is compared to weak things: to a dove among the fowls; to a vine among the plants; to sheep among the beasts; to a woman, which is the weaker vessel.”

First, lets ask ourselves, what does it mean to be bruised? I can think of no better connection that Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The bruised are the broken, the downtrodden, the hopeless and it is those who, under the weight of the ravages of their sin that are most blessed when they see themselves in such a place as within the realm of blessed bankruptcy. It is those who see themselves as the word “poor” in Matthew 5:3 indicates (Go into the illustrative imagery of Ptochos).

Within that hopeless condition the conquering King will not cut down those who are broken and worthless, but He instead is gentle with them and receives them. Christ said in Matthew 11:28-29 “28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Isaiah 53:5 says, “He was bruised for our iniquities...” What a gentle warrior He is that the upright would be bruised, that the bruised may be made upright.

He is Gentle with the Defeated

Illustration: When you look in the night sky there are few things more amazing to watch than a shooting star.  The speed at which the light flashes across the sky is exhilarating.  But have you ever stopped to consider that whatever type of debris is falling into our orbit is actually in the process of burning up. It is being consumed and the heat that is generated as the object deteriorates is the light which we see.  Pretty quickly, that object burns out and the light ceases. If it's big enough, it breaks through our atmosphere and lands with a giant thud somewhere on the planet as a blackened rock.

With a smoking flax there is but a little light remaining. It is weak, struggling for fuel and mixed with smoke. In Matthew 12 Christ heals the withered man’s hand on the Sabbath and continues on to heal all around Him who were in need. He is healing the bruised reeds and the smoking flax. The prophesy here in Isaiah is that Christ would not extinguish the fading flame of those who needed Him. He would not snuff out the remaining embers of faith within their souls. Instead, Christ comes stoking the embers of faith reigniting what once was feeble and fading.

Surely that Widow of Nain was a smoking flax as she follows the funeral procession of her only son, yet there was Christ coming to heal her son. We may consider John the Baptist as he sends his disciples to ask Christ whether He was the Christ or if we should look for another to which Christ, seeing the fading flame, does not extinguish but speaks igniting truths. Consider doubting Thomas who Christ bore with so gently. Or Peter who, after his denial, being broken by shame, though denying Christ, Christ did not deny him.

Within the heart of believers, whether babes or not, there may be times where it seems our faith is fading it is in those times the Deceiver would convince us that Christ would not show mercy, but brutality to us. But on the contrary, when we are broken, struggling and hurting we may run to Christ to fan the fading flames. It is not a burden to Christ for His children to flea to Him. I would argue that it must touch the inner chambers of His heart to cradle the wounded spirit of His beloved for whom He died.

Is that you today, mourning mother? Is that you today, exhausted father? Is that you, you who feels abandoned, misunderstood and alone? Do you feel like that shooting star burning up the last of your energy so everyone can seem to see you’re alright, but in reality you’re almost out of fuel? Or as you sit at the beside of a loved one who just slipped off into eternity and it feels like a cloud of turmoil and pain has settled in upon your soul and you’re not as strong as you thought, then run to Christ, He will help you. He will nurture and sustain you. Our most precious Lord loves His people and He will not extinguish the smoking flax, dear friend.

III. The Servant Who is Committed to His Duty (Isaiah 42:3)

Though facing our temptation and burden on Earth, He did not splinter as a bruised reed or fade as the smoking flax but He remained faithful, even to death.

But not only then, Calvin writes, “This must not be limited to the person of Christ, but extends to the whole course of the gospel; for he not only discharged the embassy committed to him for three years, but continues to discharge the same embassy every day by means of his servants.”

Indeed Christ has established a Church that the gates of Hell will not prevail against. And, as He sits at the right hand of the Father, He is actively making His enemies a footstool. He will not fatigue and He certainly will not fail. The success of the Church rests not in the tactics of carnal men, but upon the Christ who is faithful to use His Church. He will zealously triumph establishing righteousness even to the remote lands through no means but His Gospel alone.

Conclusion

Indeed, within the context at hand there is heartbreak. It is the 8th Century BC, bondage has and will come for them, and the ending of 40-41 is both assuring them of God’s provision while simultaneously giving a dark address of the idols of man. It is understood, as Derek Thomas says, that much of Israel has turned to idols and the believing remnant hang on with a slipping grip it seems, but within this cascade of darkness, the piercing light of God’s compassion has been shown and His presented will is beautifully encouraging and reassuring.

Perhaps this evening you find yourself discouraged, let the heart of Christ for the downtrodden be a balm to your soul, friend. In conclusion I want to provide two streams of application. The first being one of personal comfort, the second of practical conduct

First, as we consider the heart of Christ towards the downtrodden, let us flea to Him in tumultuous times. Go deep with application.

Now, as we consider practical conduct:

First, we behold in verse 1 the Servant preforming God’s task, under God’s power for God’s glory. We must also function in the same manner. Appealing to God for His hand upon our endeavors as we desire to serve Him for His glory.

Second, we should note in verse 2 that Christ will not wage this conquering war with the weapons of carnal kings. **Discussion with Pastor B and us and the means of grace**

Third, as we consider Christ’s heart for the downtrodden so should we minister with the same heart toward others.