Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Did any of you as a child say “I want to be a servant to someone when I grow up?”
Anyone?
Not likely would anyone want to be a servant.
When we think of a servant we think of a slave, someone who is owned by someone else and who has no control of their own life.
Have any of you watch the show on PBS called Downton Abbey.
A friend of Matt’s got me hooked on that show.
It follows the life of an aristocratic family in England along with their servants.
The servants work out of the basement of the home doing what ever needs to be done for the family.
They serve meals, clean, turn beds down at night, lay out clothes, just anything and everything.
As I watched that show I thought how little control the servants had over their lives because they were at the beck and call of the master’s of the home.
Although they were free people, they really had no control.
The dictionary defines a servant as:
a person who performs duties for others, especially a person employed in a house on domestic duties or as a personal attendant.
a person employed in the service of a government.
a devoted and helpful follower or supporter.
I really like that last definition because as Christians we are called to be disciples who make disciples.
A disciple is a follower of Jesus.
You and I are called to be servants of God.
That word servant is used 767 in the Bible.
Many of those references speak of being a servant of the Lord.
In this passage from Isaiah we read about God’s chosen servant which is a prophesy concerning Jesus.
Servant hood is at the very core of who we are as Christians.
Jesus said in
Jesus came to serve and as disciples of Jesus we are called to serve as well.
How is it that we serve?
There are three things that we can learn from Isaiah about servant hood.
The Servant Belongs to God
When you think of a servant you think of someone who belongs to someone else.
As Christians we belong to God.
Look there at verse 1
Isaiah is writing about the Messiah, Jesus who is going to come.
Notice that he is described as being a chosen servant.
Notice that Isaiah uses the word uphold.
It might be a word that we read right past.
I had to pause and look at it for a while to determine what God was saying there.
The word uphold is a verb, it means there is action happening.
God is saying that his servant, Jesus the Messiah, he will uphold.
The definition of that word is to support against an opponent.
Who is that opponent?
Satan, the enemy of God, the one who tried to set himself up as God.
Remember what God said to the serpent back in Genesis?
The Cathedral Quartet sang a song, O What a Savior.
It has these words:
Once I was straying in sin's dark valley
No hope within could I see
They searched through Heaven
And found a Savior
To save a poor lost soul like me.
The theology is not the greatest, but the truth is there that God chose Jesus to be our savior.
He was chosen to be his servant.
Jesus was handpicked by God.
Not only was he chosen, but he also brings God delight.
As servants of God we are also chosen and we are to bring glory to God.
Peter wrote about that, he wrote:
Do you see it there?
We are chosen, we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
Peter then says that we are God’s special possession.
A little further down in that chapter Peter tells us to
Live as God’s slaves
This involves a total reorientation of our lives.
It involves that dying to self and taking up our cross daily and following Christ.
Notice also there in verse one that God says “I’ve put my spirit upon him.”
When God calls us He doesn’t just leave us to figure it out on our own.
God has sent is Holy Spirit to fill our lives and to transform us into the person that he wants us to be.
So many Christians struggle to live the Christian life.
The reason that most struggle is because they are trying to do it all on their own.
They fail to realize that God has provided everything necessary through the Holy Spirit.
Many fear that they have to give up control of their lives.
The truth is we do.
We do give up control because God has a greater plan than we could ever imagine.
I was thinking how we struggle in reaching people for Christ.
I came across a humorous statement that describes our predicament.
The church today is raising a whole generation of mules.
They know how to sweat and to work hard, but they don’t know how to reproduce themselves.
Now don’t call me when you get that.
It is the truth though.
We are meant to reproduce ourselves in others.
We don’t do it when we try it on our own talents and abilities.
This making of disciples and reproducing ourselves only can happen when we allow the Holy Spirit to fill our lives.
If you hear nothing I say this morning, remember this.
God has called you to be a holy people and that comes through the filling of the Holy Spirit.
It is a daily living for Christ, daily allowing the Holy Spirit work through your life.
The young preacher thrilled his congregation with his first sermon—a challenge to “gird their loins” for Christian service and living.
Then, to their dismay, he preached the same sermon the following Sunday.
When he confronted them with the same ringing message on the third Sunday, his flock felt something must be done.
“Don’t you have more than just one sermon?”
blurted a spokesman to the pastor.
“Oh, yes,” he said quietly, “I have quite a number.
But you haven’t done anything about the first one yet!”
There is a lot of truth in that story and I know I have been guilty of it myself.
When I prepare a sermon, I am preaching to myself before I ever get here to the pulpit.
The second thing that we learn from this passage in Isaiah is this:
The Servant Is Committed to Justice
God says there in verse 1 “he will bring justice to the nations.”
When we think of justice we think of a judge.
Jesus will one day judge the world.
In Acts we read:
This justice that Isaiah speaks of and that is written about in Acts is about conformity to the truth.
We live in a pluralistic society.
That are more religions and beliefs that we could even begin to name.
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