Easter and the Second Servant Song

Isaiah 50:4-11

Last week we established that God equipped and empowered His Servant to do the work that He willed for Him to do. But this is not the only prerequisite for Easter to happen. It is possible to imagine that a servant who is prepared, equipped and empowered could lose the willingness and resolve to complete the job for which He was sent. So this Servant Song comes along and lays that worry to rest. The goal over these weeks is that you would not only see Christ more fully and love Him more deeply, but that you would also have more confidence in His work and His Word.

The LORD’s plan and the Servant’s work

It is God who is establishing His plan through His servant

This is again what we saw last week in that servant song

God has planned, prepared, and sent His servant

Why?

Because they need redeemed

Again, without the Trinity, Easter is gutted of its good news

This is a hill we must be willing to die on

All who would claim otherwise are heretical false teachers

2 Corinthians 11:3-4- But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

The ministry of the Servant

Teaches

His teaching was that of His Father

His teaching was in direct connection to His time spent with His Father

Matthew 7:28-29- When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

Sustains the weary

His ministry is for the sustaining of those who are wearied from the world

He beckons them “come”

Matthew 11:28- Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest

Not only at salvation, but also day after day

The resolve of the Servant

He did not turn back

He was not rebellious

John 14:31- but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

Philippians 2:8- And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Hebrews 10:7- Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

He set His face like flint

He set His face to the cross

Ezekiel 3:8-9- Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.”

He set His face through the cross

Hebrews 12:1-2- Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

The shamelessness of the Servant

He experienced the shame of scorn and abuse

Matthew 26:67- Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him,

Matthew 27:26- Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.

Mark 15:19- And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him.

Luke 22:63- Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him.

He experiences no ultimate shame

Philippians 2:9-11- Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Look to the joy set before you

Christ has defeated death and Satan

Christ has set His face to the cross for the salvation of His people and the decisive slaying of sin and death

1 Corinthians 15:55-57- “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Your inheritance awaits through faith

1 Peter 1:3-9- Bible

Therefore, walk in undaunted hope in Jesus as you fix your eyes on Him

There is no doubt that these are, in some ways, peculiarly uncertain days

No matter what tomorrow might be you can look at it in the face with unwavering hope and joy because Christ has died, risen, reigns for your everlasting good

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Verse 1- When I survey the wondrous cross

on which the Prince of glory died,

my richest gain I count but loss,

and pour contempt on all my pride.

Verse 3- See, from his head, his hands, his feet,

sorrow and love flow mingled down.

Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,

or thorns compose so rich a crown?