He Shall Not Fail

Here is the final Advent sermon for 2012.  If you've been getting help or a blessing from these, please let us know.

HE SHALL NOT FAIL

ISAIAH 42:1-7

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2012

Our Gracious God, grant that by your Word and by your spirit we may behold your Servant, in Whom you delight, that we may marvel at His judgments, His humility, His gentleness, His dedication to His mission and His triumph, and await His Kingdom, for we pray in His name.

INTRODUCTION

Above all others, Isaiah is the prophet of Advent.  As I pointed out last time (we were in Isa. 59-60), there is an unmistakable change in tone between ch. 39 and 40.  It is so obvious that Bible critics have speculated that there were two different authors.  Surely the guy that wrote the first chapters could never have written the later chapters – at least in their skeptical minds.

The concluding 27 chapters are hopeful, and full of promises and snapshots of a glorious future Kingdom of peace and prosperity, made possible by, and accompanying, the advent of the Messiah.

Early in that second main division we find four “Servant Songs of Isaiah”[1]  which climax in the famous Messianic prophecy of Isa. 53.  Servant Songs are a good name for them, because they are poetry, as you can see if you are reading from a single-column Bible.  If you don’t have one, get one before they are all gone.  It will give you a new perspective on a large portion of the Word of God.  For example, you would see from the way it is laid out that this passage I’m talking about today is poetry.

All of God’s promises are delivered in this Servant of Jehovah.  All man’s hopes are fulfilled in Him. 

There is a progression in this collection of poems.  In the first Servant Song, which is where we are this morning the Servant is introduced.  Read again what it says about Him.  The second Servant Song explains His mission; the third remarks on His obedience to His mission; and the fourth describes His suffering in order to fulfill it.

And as you would expect, they follow exactly the course of Jesus public ministry.  He began by meeting the needs of hurting people and preaching the good news of the kingdom of God, just as Isaiah describes Him. 

As time passed He came to be rejected by the Jewish leaders, and so He began to concentrate on teaching His disciples.  Soon, He began to focus more and more on His coming rejection, death and resurrection, and as you know, finally, that also came to pass.

Some other time we will have go into those other Servant Songs, and look at them all together, but for today, we will have to content ourselves with just the introduction.

BEHOLD HIM

Isaiah preached the law lawfully.  We had 39 chapters of it.  It’s not a good idea to talk about the good news until you’ve made the bad news clear.  Well, Isaiah made it plenty clear.

But He also followed that up with the comfort of the gospel (40:1) – with the preaching of Christ.   Right here where our text begins, once again, Isaiah points to Christ as directly as it can be done – he says, “Behold Him”.  How more “Christ-centered” can you get? 

That’s nearly the same thing that John the Baptist (Jn. 1:29) said when Jesus came to Jordan to be baptized.  It’s not much different from what Pilate said when Jesus came forth,

… wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe.   And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man! (John 19:5)

And never forget that Paul insisted,

1Co. 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified .

That is truly the message of the entire Bible – behold HIM!

But what did Paul know about preaching?  Just think how much more successful Paul would have been if he had just been more innovative and creative with his message – a little more relevant and seeker-sensitive – if he had asked people what they wanted and given it to them instead of delivering what God said to give them? 

He would never have been thrown in jail or run out of town or beaten or stoned again and again.  He could have been the world’s most popular Christian. 

What did Isaiah know about Church growth?   If he had preached something people actually wanted to hear, they would never have cut him in half, alive, with a wooden saw. 

But there was just no talking to Isaiah.  Stubborn as he was, all Isaiah could talk about was law and gospel, law and gospel, law and gospel.  You may ask, “What about the Kingdom prophecies?   That’s not law or gospel.”  Well actually, that’s part of the gospel because the gospel is everything that God has given us in Christ – it’s good news about what God the Father has done and will do for sinners through His Son, Who is also His Servant.

Remember now, If you have to do it, it’s not good news.  It’s law, it’s bad news.  Even if you think you can do it, it’s bad news because you can’t, so that means you are guilty of sin, and thinking you can do it, or have done, just adds sin to sin.  

But if it’s done for you, it’s gospel.  We need both of course.  We need to hear the law so we realize and remember our need for the gospel.

But now; Why does the prophet point to Christ right here, right now, in this way? 

If all he wanted to do was use up some ink and paper he could just as well given them another blessing out.  But it’s apparently time for some good news.  Why now?  Well, let’s see what he just got done saying.

41:26  Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? – good question.

…and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? – Can you think of anybody that qualifies as righteous?

…that heareth your words.  – There’s the truth of it.  We all pretend we hear God’s Word and take it seriously, but when really put to the test, we know better.  That’s bad news.

41:27  The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings.  So here’s the promise to give Jerusalem some good news, even though there really isn’t any to report just yet.

41:28  For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counseller, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.  29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.

Why was there no good news?  Because there were no good men – not even anybody that could give truly good advice.  They knew it too, so they made idols.  And then, man points to this idol thing, or that idol person and says, “behold that” or “behold him”. 
“He is righteous.”  Or, “Here’s some good advice for us.”  That’ll do the trick!

But God looks on the same thing and says, “I looked, but all I saw was a whole lotta nothing (v. 28).  Wind and confusion and nothing more.

Well then, we’re in a fine mess aren’t we?  What in the world can we do.  We’re worthless, our idols are worthless.  Everything we think is good advice – when it comes to fixing the real problem – which is our soul-damning hell-deserving sin, we’re out of luck, out of cards to play, out of tricks, out of hope.

But there is Hope, because there is a God Who loves and intervenes.  There is good news.  There is something worth looking to.   There is something of real value; something solid and steady.  And that of course, is “His Servant”, whom He upholds.  And here is where He is introduced.

What are some of the things that stand out immediately when we behold Him? 

1.   He is (as the Father says) My Servant

That is to say, He is divinely chosen, divinely called, divinely equipped, divinely sustained, and divinely commissioned. 

We’re not going to try this morning to unravel the mysteries of the divine counsels before time and space and matter were formed by the Word of God.  But we do know, because God has revealed it, that the Father, the Son and the Spirit all agreed that the Son would come to do the will of the Father – to fulfill the law perfectly (active obedience) and to suffer the full extent of its penalty (death, passive obedience).

He is, as the Father says, “Mine elect”, and in Him the Father is delighted.

2.   He is A Servant

I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. (John 5:30)

For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. (Romans 15:3)

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: (Philippians 2:5-7)

3.    He is upheld of the Father

HE IS UPHELD FROM SIN

Adam fell.  We all fell with Him.  He sinned under the best of conditions, and we would have done the same.  Every “hero” in the Old Testament fell.  Some of the greatest of them fell the hardest.  

But the Servant of The Lord – never.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:22-24)

And when Peter wrote that, he was making a loose quotation from Isaiah himself, who wrote 53:9-11 (see)

HE IS UPHELD IN HIS MISSION

We all need somebody to hold us up from time to time.  That goes for the God Man as well.  You might at first think that He would have less need to be upheld, but then you might want to recall just what it was that He had to bear. 

As God He was Omnipotent, but as man, He had limitations and could wear down.  At such times, He could rely on the Father.  The Father had “put His spirit upon Him” at His baptism.

Moses had Aaron and Hur to hold his hands up. Paul had his various companions at different times to assist him.  But Jesus had nobody to lean on that understood what it was that He was carrying.  He had some friends, and His disciples.  But only the Father and the Spirit understood.

The woman with the alabaster box of ointment – that broke it, poured it on his feet, and washed it off with her tears and her own hair - she seemed best to understand the load he carried.  She was just the sort of bruised reed and smoking flax mentioned in v. 3.

And that’s how it is with really broken people.  We’re all broken by sin, but some of us know it deeply.  We’re not looking for a little help in achieving the greatness of our potential.  We’re bruised beyond healing and we know it.  We aren’t luminaries right now – we aren’t stars.  We’re burned-out wicks that barely give off anything more than a whisp of smoke.

But God loves broken people, because they have a much better idea of the load that others are under.  Privileged people never do.  That’s why it was her, and not Simon, the wealthy and influential owner of the great house that washed Jesus feet that evening.

And her attention was some comfort to Him.  But it was nothing compared to the load.  He didn’t create her to help Him carry His load.  He came to relieve her of her load, to take the load born by that bruised reed upon Himself, and carry it to the cross as her substitute.  If she had even a glimmer of the load He bore, it would have quenched her.

And on the night of His betrayal, Jesus was abandoned by all of His disciples and left alone and He stayed that way till He came out of the tomb. But Father upheld Him and sent angels to the garden of gethsemane to minister to Him as He prayed in agony. 

All through the betrayal and the arrest, the Father upheld Him.  During the trials before the Sanhedrin, Pilate and Herod, the scouring and the mocking, the Father upheld Him.  As He wearily bore the up the side of the mountain, as nails were driven, during the nailing and the thirsting and the hanging and bleeding and dying one drop at a time, the Father remained with Him, carrying Him, sustaining Him

And that is why He did not cry out, or lift up His voice to be heard in the street.  That’s why He did not fail or become discouraged.  The Father upheld him and the Spirit was with Him.

HE IS UPHELD, UP TO A POINT, AND THEN FORSAKEN

 

But there came a point in time, there on the cross, at which Jesus assumed upon Himself the sin of the world – when it was all laid on Him, and He felt the total load of it.  And we can’t begin to imagine the weight of it – how crushing it must have been. 

What we can understand though is the guilt we feel concerning those things about which we are most ashamed.  Those things that have so bruised us and snuffed out our little flames and made us realize what nothings we really are (back to ch. 41, right?). 

Those things that we try to forget, but when we are alone they come back to us and mock us and torment us.  He bore all that.  And not just all of yours.   But all of mine too.  And all of everyone else in this place, and not just this place but all over the world, and not just today, but yesterdays, and tomorrows, from the beginning of humanity to the last sinner will have come and gone. 

He bore it, and the Father could not sustain Him then.  At that time, the Father turned away, and the Spirit went out, and it was there and then that Jesus cried, “My God, Why hast Thou forsaken me?”

But by then, He had made it to the cross.  By then, it was too late to turn back.  By then, He was too weak to pull himself together enough to use His will to come down from the cross and leave the work unfinished.  Deity could have done it, but humanity had been stretched beyond all limits. 

But by then, He had “set judgment in the Earth”. 

Think of it this way - the Father upheld Him right up to just the right time, which was also just the worst time to be left alone.  And yet for us, it was the very best time – for the Father to drop Him like a bad habit and leave Him in heartbroken agonized solitude to carry all alone and completely forsaken, your sins and mine.

And now, that work being accomplished, “the isles shall wait for his law.”  And that will be at His next coming.

CONCLUSION

“Behold my servant”, the Father urges us.  Behold Him for just a little while, and you won’t want to hear relevant life tips for making yourself more successful, or be lectured on the “spiritual truths” in the latest blockbuster movies when you come to Church.  You won’t want to hear about how to cope with the rat race or make more money.

You’ll want to hear more about this Suffering Servant that gave up Himself completely for your salvation.

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[1] 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12