Palermo Christian Church
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Servant Songs: Isaiah 49:1-13 |
| Do you underestimate the abilities of Jesus Christ? I remember hearing the story of a man who needed money, say a thousand dollars, for a special project. He walked into a bank and talked to the president. The president asked him, “How much do you need?” The man answered, “One hundred dollars would be a big help.” He didn’t want to impose. The president signed a check for the hundred dollars and then said, “I am surprised you only asked me for a hundred dollars. I believe in your project and I was willing to write out a check for five thousand if you had asked for it.” The young man had underestimated the interest and abilities of the bank president. I find a personal dilemma rises at this point for me. I believe that Jesus can do anything. But I am not sure what he will do. I pray for healing for someone, not knowing if God will heal or not. I am confident he can, just not sure if he will. I pray for the salvation of people I know. I don’t know if they will be saved, though I know God can do it. I am amazed at people who stepped out on faith and tested the abilities of Jesus Christ. I am reading the biography of D.L. Moody, an evangelist who died in 1899, and I am amazed at his steps of faith. He moved forward to establish the YMCA, to build orphanages, to provide teachers for poor children, to establish schools for women and men, to reach entire countries with the gospel. It is incredible the vision and faith of this man. But he would tell you if he were alive today, that all that happened came because Jesus made it happen. Romans speaks about how each one of us has a measure of faith. I don’t know exactly how to measure faith, but I do know that our faith can grow. Some of us are strapped down because we think Jesus is only as competent or as adequate as we are. If we can’t do it, we don’t think God can do it. We struggle with sin in our lives. It hurts us and is pulling us down. It may be an addiction problem with drugs, alcohol, sex or some other. We may feel the need to lie or to hide things from others, to keep secrets. Because we cannot overcome the sin, we seriously doubt that this claim that Jesus will save us from our sin just doesn’t fit. So we underestimate the abilities of Jesus Christ. How many people feel financial pressure. They say, “I can’t tithe. It’s hard enough to live now without giving to the church.” They underestimate the ability of Jesus to meet their needs if they honor him with their first fruits. Some people may be at wits end in their marriage or in some other relationship. They have not surrendered themselves to following the will of God because they say to themselves, “What difference would it make. It won’t help.” And they underestimate the abilities of Jesus Christ. The servant songs in Isaiah give us an Old Testament picture of Jesus hundreds of years before he was born. Jesus is special. He is special because his birth, life and death were prophesied and he is special because God said of Him, “He is my servant that I have chosen in whom I delight.” In the New Testament God says, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Two weeks ago we saw why Jesus was pleasing to God. He is gentle. And Jesus is just. This week we will discover in Isaiah 49 that Jesus was pleasing to God because of his great abilities. We find this in Isaiah 49:1-13. “1 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. 2 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. 3 He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendour.” Notice that Israel is mentioned as a servant. 4 But I said, “I have laboured to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due to me is in the LORD’s hand, and my reward is with my God.” Look at this attitude. What I have done doesn’t appear to amount to much. But I am leaving that in the Lord’s hand. What an attitude of faithfulness. 5 And now the LORD says--he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honoured in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength— Notice that the servant will gather Israel to himself. Yet in the previous verse, the servant is identified as Israel. How can this be? The answer is that the servant is from Israel and represents the nation of Israel. Our president is that way. He is an American. And he represents America. He might say, “I am going to pull America out of its financial chaos.” As an American, he will seek to do this for the nation. But notice what God says to his servant. 6 he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. Not too small a thing? We know from history how scattered Israel became. Imagine how difficult it has been for the Jewish people to remain Jewish? With intermarriage, the awful aspects of war, the scattering of Jewish people to all countries of the earth, what has kept their identity? The servant of God is responsible. Then think of the logistics. How do you get people who have deep roots to move? How do you get Jews who are happy in Germany, in Russia, in the United States, in France to return to the land? A big chore! Then how do you get land for them to come into? Remember, that as Israel was scattered around the world, other people came to live in the land. It will be no easy task to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel. But God’s servant did it. And at the time Isaiah prophesies that He would do it, he says, “this is not a big enough job for Jesus.” I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” When you think that Jesus’ abilities are limited, think not only about the nation of Israel. But think also about the cross. At the cross Jesus died for all the sins ever committed. Take the sins of the Chinese who used people as building materials for the great wall of China, of Nero who used Christians as lampposts in his garden, of the crusades and inquisition, of Hitler, Mussolini, Sadaam Hussein, Osama ben Ladin, Ted Bundy, Timothy McVeigh, add them together and then put your sins and mine all together and you have just a small idea of how much Jesus did to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. But it goes further than that as the passage shows us. 7 This is what the LORD says--the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel--to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: “Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” 8 This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favour I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, 9 to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ “They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. 10 They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water. 11 I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up. 12 See, they will come from afar--some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan.” This servant will bring light and salvation to all the world. Jesus has touched our lives. This prophecy has been fulfilled in us. We have seen the light of Jesus and have bowed before him. But we are not alone. The despised servant would have kings bow down before him. Larry King is not a king. But someone is reported to have asked him this question, ”Who would you most like to interview in history.” His quick answer was, “Jesus Christ. I would ask if the virgin birth really happened.” Paul says that someday, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. People will come from the north, the west (who would that be?) and from the region of Aswan. Some commentators think this is talking about somewhere near southern China. Can anyone say, “Thailand?” And others from Aswan, an area on the border of Ethiopia and Egypt. But people are going to come from everywhere to worship Jesus, God’s servant. 13 Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.” Isaiah 49:1-13, NIV. Do you think this is so? Will the Lord comfort you and have compassion on you in your affliction? God thought so. He saw what his servant would do for Israel and said, “Too small a job. He is more able than that!” What is stressing you out? For Israel it was the humiliation and pain of slavery. They did not have real freedom. Their country was destroyed. Their homes were ripped apart. Many of their relatives had died. Whatever might be stressing most of us out will pale in comparison with that. Some of our stresses are things we have no control over. The oil prices, who is the next king of England, will a friend live for die. Some can change. For some of our stresses are because of sin. The world works by the system of “what goes around comes around.” We find ourselves in cycles. Some one hurts us, we hurt them, they hurt us back. And on and on it goes. Have you seen the commercial that shows the Hatfields and McCoys? Come to find out their problem was that they didn’t have cell phones to talk to one another. Once they did, they didn’t need to fight. We also struggle with anger, with our temper. Our mouth gets us into constant trouble. What is said cannot be taken back. It has happened so often, but we are sick inside. We are living outside our means. Add up the mortgage, the credit cards, the food bill and what is left unpaid from Christmas and we are in trouble. We find it hard to say no. I come to tell you today that Jesus can save you from sin. He starts by offering forgiveness at the cross. There is no sin that you have done that cannot be forgiven by God. Others may struggle, but God has forgiven it. This is part of Jesus being a light to the Gentiles. His light is that you have forgiveness offered through Jesus. Jesus can do more for you than you think. God did not undervalue what he could do, we should not as well. I have been impressed with what happens to people who really trust Jesus. I am reading the biography of D. L. Moody. When he gave his life to Christ, Jesus used him to preach all around the world, build an orphanage, start a boys and a girls school, institute a preachers school now known as Moody Bible Institute, mobilize people to go into the slums to reach boys and girls for Jesus. I think of Jim Eliot, a capable writer and speaker, who died at the hands of the Acua Indians, a group he was trying to reach for Christ. I think of what God is doing for the Kibbe’s in Thailand, Arsenia Benaga in the Philippines, Jay Walker with Truckers for Christ. These are people who are testing the abilities of Jesus and finding him more than sufficient. And I think about us. Hebrews tells us “25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” Hebrews 7:25, NIV. Are we saved completely? I think not yet. But we are completely saved. And we are in progress. What a joy it will be to hear of your testimony when you decide to take your affliction and trust Jesus with it. This church would be buzzing with good news if we trusted and shared. It might be that God’s light in you that came through Jesus Christ might be lit in others. God is able!
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