Sermon Tone Analysis

Have you ever found yourself eavesdropping on a conversation?

Perhaps you were in a restaurant and in the booth behind you a couple was speaking a little loud and they were difficult to ignore.

Sometime, in such situations, you hear interesting stories.

In our text for this evening, we find ourselves eavesdropping on a conversation between God the Father and God the Son.

In these verses, Isaiah—writing by inspiration—records a conversation between God the Father and God the Son.

Isaiah 49 is the second of three Servant Songs recorded by the Prophet.

The songs are four poems written about a certain "servant of Yahweh".

God calls the servant to lead the nations, but the servant is horribly abused.

The servant sacrifices himself, accepting the punishment due others.

In the end, he is rewarded.

Over the centuries there have been a number of interpretations as to who this servant might be.

* Some have thought that Jeremiah, who lived 100 years after Isaiah, was this servant.

* Some have thought that King Cyrus of the Persians, who let the Israelites out of captivity, was this servant.

* Some have suggested that the “Servant” was a personification for the nation of Israel.

In Jesus’ day, many of Israel’s great teachers believed the nation itself to be the suffering servant of Isaiah.

* But the real answer of the servant’s identity is really much easier.

Jesus, God’s Son, is the Servant that this passage speaks of.

Jesus thought he was the servant of Isaiah’s Servant Songs either quoting from or alluding to Isaiah 53:1-12 six times.

The Disciples thought he was the servant of Isaiah’s Servant Songs—Peter, Paul, John, Matthew and Mark all quote from the various Servant Song Passages.

The Early Church Fathers extensively quoted form the 4th Servant Song which is Isaiah 53 making it the most important text of the Old Testament.

In this passage we’ll see three thee things about this servant:

* This Servant will speak with piercing words.

* This Servant who will appear to have a failed ministry.

* This Servant’s work will extend to Israel and to all the nations of the earth

!

I. IMMANUEL TO HIS PEOPLE

* /"Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.

He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.”/

(Isaiah 49:1–2, NIV84)

#. the passage begins with an imperative—Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations ...

#. the Servant himself commands the attention of the whole world

#.

it’s not merely Israel that God cares about

#. he commands the attention of islands as well as distant nations

#. hear this means the world must attentively listen to what the servant is about to proclaim

!! A. IMMANUEL’S TASK

#. with missionary-like zeal, the Servant would call upon the whole world to hear what he had to say about his work

#.

God’s message of redemption is also for people who live far away from Israel

#. the word isles in this passage is better translated coastlands and indicate all the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea; and the distant nations of the Gentiles

#. thus the address includes the entire heathen world

#.

these were people who were far off but Immanuel’s task is to bring them near

#.

only after the resurrection and the Lord’s command to go into all the world did the disciples begin to understand that the Gospel message was not merely for the lost sheep of Israel

#. early on, the Apostle Paul, understood this

#.

during his first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas find themselves in Pisidian Antioch

#. they have preached the gospel in the local synagogue and piqued the interest of the city’s Jewish populace and they ask the missionaries to return the next Sabbath to tell them more about Jesus

#. word spreads and the next week almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord (Acts 13:44)

#. let’s pick up the story from Acts ...

* /“When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.

Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first.

Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.

For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

[Paul is quoting Isa.

49:6].

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.”/

(Acts 13:45–48, NIV84)

#. the servant—God the Son—reminds us that he was God the Father’s choice to save the world even before he was born—Before I was born the LORD called me

#. remember when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary?

#. when people these days have babies, they spend literally hours and days trying to come up with the perfect name for their new child

#. Mary didn't have to worry about that—Gabriel told Mary what God was going to name her baby even before he was born—from my birth he has made mention of my name

#. the child's name would be Jesus – Why?

#. because the name Jesus means Savior, and that was God's way of letting the world know that this child was his choice to save the world from sin

!! B. IMMANUEL’S TESTIMONY

#. the primary instrument for accomplishing the work of the Servant is the spoken word

#. his mouth would be like a sharp sword (cf.

Matt 10:34)

#. his ministry would be a polished arrow—his word will /“wound men for their own good”/

#. as Jesus grew up, he proved with his words that he was the Son of God

#. and Jesus had some powerful words to speak—He made my mouth like a sharpened sword

#. in the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John has a vision of the risen Christ and in that vision he sees the Christ and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword

#. these visions remind us that the word of the Lord, whether spoken by his lips or recorded by the authors of the Scriptures, is powerful

* /“For the word of God is living and active.

Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.

Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”/

(Hebrews 4:12–13, NIV84)

#.

Jesus wasn’t afraid to call the religious leaders of his day white-washed tombs, which looked good on the outside, but on the inside housed the stinking corruption of sin

#.

He wasn’t afraid to rebuke his own followers—the disciples—when they showed little or no faith in him

#. but the most powerful words that Jesus spoke were his words of comfort

* ILLUS.

Think of the paralytic, whose friends lowered him down through the roof in front of Jesus, so that Jesus could say, “Cheer up!

Your sins are forgiven.

Oh, and by the way, just to prove that I do have the authority to forgive your sins, why don’t you get off your mat and walk?” and the paralyzed man was healed just like that!

Think of the criminal dying on the cross next to Jesus, hearing from Christ, “Today, you will be with my in paradise.”

Jesus was telling that dying man that his previous life of sin didn’t matter.

Jesus was on that cross to do away with sin.

!

II.

IMMANUEL TO HIMSELF (49:4)

* "But I said, “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.

Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.””/ (Isaiah 49:4, NIV84)

#. as the servant surveys his work, he expresses disappointment

#. the words used and the structure of the verse imply that the servant, as it were, has poured out his strength to accomplish the work God had given him, but the result is to no purpose—his work is desolation and a vapor

#. as Jesus Christ ministered on earth, especially to His own people Israel, there were times when His work seemed in vain

#. the religious leaders opposed Him

#. the disciples did not always understand Him

#. and those He helped did not always thank Him

* /34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”/

(Luke 13:34, NIV84)

#.

He lived and labored by faith, and God gave Him success

#. with the benefit of prophetic hindsight, we understand that Isaiah is painting a picture of Jesus’ humiliation

#. although He is God’s eternal Son and one with the Father, yet for our redemption He humbled Himself, /“being born as a man, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, becoming a servant to all, experiencing the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross”/

#. the idea that Christ "emptied himself" (as Paul writes in Philippians 2) has always been difficult to grasp and may even be called one of the great mysteries of the faith

#. as man He was weak and tempted in all points as we, but without sin

#. in Gethsemane He suffered the deep anguish of grief, trembling, and fear