Easter and the First Servant Song

Isaiah 49:1-50:3

There are some who believe that none of the promises of God given to the people of God in the OT are extended to the Church. This idea popularized around the time of the “second great awakening” and has continued today. I simply want to say that this theological framework, even where it is well-intentioned, undermines the gospel. In fact, I don’t believe that there is Good News if this is true. As we begin to approach Easter and move into a few weeks focusing in the work of Christ on the cross, I pray that we will see the beauty of God’s promises in the OT and why we should care so deeply about them. Over the next few weeks we will focus on God’s promise of a Savior and this morning I want you to grapple with a question. Is God able to redeem His people?

(49:14-16, 50:1-3) Is the Lord able to redeem His people?

They are the guilty party

Certificate of divorce

Deuteronomy 24:1-4- When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, 2 and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, 3 and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, 4 then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord.

There is no certificate to be found

Hosea 3:1-2- And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.

Creditors to which He sold her

2 Kings 4:1- Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”

They have sinned and bear the guilt for their sin

Has the Lord forgotten His people?

Can a mother forget her child?

It can be imagined, although unlikely, that it is possible

However, the Lord will never forget His people

It is as if they have been engraved on His very hands

Can He redeem them?

He is the sovereign God

He reigns in all power over the waters

Psalm 106:9- He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert.

At His hand the fish are laid waste

Exodus 7:17-18- Thus says the Lord, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood. The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.”

He is the one who holds all power over the sky

Exodus 10:21-23- Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived.

He can do all that He pleases

Amos 5:8- He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name;

Therefore, He can surely redeem His people

But how will He do it?

(49:1-5) He has raised up His servant

When the Bible calls to give ear

When this happens we must respond with our utmost attention

The Lord has called His servant

This happened from before the foundation of the world

It was not accident or change of plans

Ephesians 1:4- even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

Revelation 13:8- and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

He supplies and equips Him with all that He needs

There is nothing that He was sent to do that He wasn’t empowered to do

His purpose is to gather His people to Himself

(49:6-21) It is too small a thing

His ultimate goal is not only to restore the remnant of Judah to Jerusalem

This would be gracious and merciful

But God’s plan of redemption is so much better than that

He goes way further

He will fold in many from among the nations

The land will not be able to contain the people who He will bring

This is not a prophecy about the prosperity of a restored Jewish remnant in the land

This is a prophecy about the salvation of the nations

Matthew 24:14- And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

By this, you are included

If this were not so, you would have no claim to the promises of God

But you are included, and God has sent His Servant to redeem you to Himself

Christ has come as the powerful Messiah

He came Divinely prepared

He was called from eternity past

He was equipped by the hand of God almighty

He came, not as weak, but strong

He came, not only for ethnic Israel, but also for the whole world

Acts 10:34-43- Bible