Wounded to win us back

Intro

From a young age we are trained to believe that our identity is to be shaped by two things:

Firstly, There is something we need to be rescued from.

For example: the princess in the tower, the knight from the dragon, the soldier lost behind  enemy lines.

Secondly, the power we have must be used to help others.

For example, Spider-man (with great power comes great responsibility), even the Bible teaches “to those who have received much, much is expected.”

BUT the Bible teaches that the kingdom of God, is not an echo of the culture, it’s surprising, it’s radical.

In the next few minutes you’ll see why.

Structure

This passage is from an OT prophet called Isaiah, and throughout the book he’s made clear that the people of Israel need to be rescued from their sin, but in:

• Isaiah 42:1‑9
• 49:1‑7
• 50:4‑11

God forecasts that a hero, a rescuer will arrive.

And in our passage today, it will describe who the rescuer is, and with what power he will use to make everything right.

But, as is God’s way. The rescuer is not what you’d expect, and his power is the opposite of what you’d predict.

Point 1: Unexpected Rescuer (52:13-53)

Verse 13 puts the spotlight on the character called the ‘servant of the Lord’. A prophesied person throughout Isaiah who will fix the brokenness of the world.

And right out of the gate, Isaiah wants us to be clear about how to interpret the following verses with this key: ***what looks like disaster is actually showcasing the wisdom of God. ***

More than that, the servant will be: ‘highly exalted’

And that is the theme of [52:13-53] - don’t mistake what you see as failure when in fact it’s victory.

You can see why he gives that spolier alert, when he gives the following prediction that this ‘God servant’ is:

[14] ‘appalling’ to those who see him.

[14] ‘so disfigured beyond that of any human being
and his form marred beyond human likeness—

[15] is describing the surprise of what this servant looks like, when it says:

kings will shut their mouths because of him.

For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.

In other words - “kings with MI6, CIA, KGB equivalents of intelligence agencies won’t see this coming.

because the servant is so weak, so unimpressive, so, unattractive, that no one believed it was truly him when he arrived.

I am reminded of the story of the Hollywood Actor Timothy Chalmet, who entered a Timothy Chalmet look-alike contest, and came second!

In the lookalike contest for the promised ‘servant of God’, the prophesy is the true servant will come so far last, that they would kill him.

[53:2] we are given a glimpse into the origin story of the servant, and then we’re given four descriptions of the servant that make up the unexpected portrait.

Firstly, we’re told that he is born into fragility like a tiny shoot pushing through the cracked soil of drought dry riverbank.

Secondly, in [2b]  that his appearance is no asset.

Thirdly, [3] he is isolated and rejected by others.

Fourthly, [4] his mind is wrapped in sorrow.

Do you see, how easy it is for you to walk past the prophesied servant of God, as if he was sat outside in Piccadilly Gardens with an empty McDonalds cup.

Let me talk to those of you who are not yet Christians.

Perhaps you know very little about Christianity, you need to know that the identity of this surprising rescuer is: Jesus Christ.

Isaiah is making a forecast about the arrival of Jesus 500 years before he was born.

Now, if you’re not yet a Christian, you are entitled to look at Jesus, and see how he is mocked in our culture:

And how he was mocked in his own culture.

And you are entitled to look for a rescuer in strong looking things:

• Strength of self-help gurus on your favourite podcast
• The glamour of the beauty of your favourite influencer
• The promised belonging of a friendship group that feels like the cast of Friends.
• The hope of medication alone as the gateway to tame your negative thoughts.

But the message of Isaiah 52:13-54:4 is: ‘be really careful.’

From a worldly perspective Jesus looks weak and should be consigned to rubbish tip of history, but that’s an error greater than James Howells – who thinking it rubbish discarded a hard drive with bitcoin key now worth £600M.

Isaiah’s prophesy is straight-talking:

Jesus looks like nothing, but he offers the rescue that you will be spend the rest of your life looking for in the rubbish pits of this world, and yet never find.

• I know you’d rather a more conventional rescuer, but is it not compelling for those of you feel without agency in world, stuck in job going no where, a marriage that’s suffocating.
• To know that Jesus is rescuer who knows what it’s like to be fragile, imprisoned and powerless.
• Or to those of you who cannot look in the mirror without a sense of disgust, isn’t it compelling to have a rescuer who knows what its like to feel an object of disgust from the world.
• Or to those of you who are deeply lonely and to some degree you know that won’t change anytime soon, isn’t it compelling to have a rescuer who knows what it’s like to be betrayed by his friends and abandoned by his family.
• Or to those of you who struggle with negative thoughts, and sad emotions and who are tired of hearing “Cheer up, it’ll be okay”, isn’t it compelling to have a rescuer whose nickname according to Isaiah is ‘Man of sorrows’.

Let me invite you to become a Christian today, and accept the rescue of Jesus, but you need to know you will get no applause for that decision in this world, but you will never regret it!

Point 2: Unexpected Power

Now let me talk to those of you who have been Christians for a while.

I was a struck by a request written on a prayer card last week that said:

‘Would you please pray for God to help me make my life count. I don’t want to waste the gifts he has given me.’

It was a brilliant request, it’s something I feel, and I’m sure its a desire you also have within your heart.

We have been lavishly and wonderfully rescued by Jesus Christ, I have the Holy Spirit within me, how shall I exercise this power that best echoes Christ?

and ‘with great power comes great responsibility’!

To begin to answer that question, we need to understand how exactly ‘the servant of God’ - Jesus Christ, used his power to rescue us.

[4] is Isaiah’s summary answer:

Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,

[4] goes on to say, that from a human perspective, (he’s prophesying about the cross, 500 years in the future), it looks like it’s simply a matter that God hates Jesus to see him suffer like this.

But [5] pulls back the curtain, and explains:

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah is describing what theologians down the ages have called ‘Penal Substitution’

And it works like this:

• God is perfectly just and without sin but we are not (‘Sheep gone astray’ is the comparison [6]).
• This creates an issue: How can God remain perfectly just and punish sin, yet also in merciful love show us compassion and forgive?
• If he’s like a judge who turns a blind eye to even small sins, he’s not perfect, and not utterly good. But if he gives each of us what we deserve, we are all in rightly inline of just judgement and separation from God.

So his solution is this:

• The most powerful being in the universe will become man, a lowly servant.
• He will live a perfect life ([7] describes him as the ultimate sacrificial lamb).
• But at the cross, in front of the justice seat of God, he would empty himself of power and rights and choose to exchange places with you and me, and God’s just judgement would fall utterly and completely on him, and we would receive not only forgiveness of everything we have ever done or will ever do wrong, God that father will love us with the same passion as he loves his Son.

That exchange, that substitution is the heart of Christianity it is the engine of the power behind why Christians are convinced they are forgiven and have peace with God.

That’s why [7] says:

the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

That’s why [8] says:

for the transgression of my people he was punished.

That’s why [11] says:

my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

And I could go on and on – For Isaiah wants us to be clear the cross of Christ was no tragic accident, it was as Paul says [Rom 1:16]:

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.

And so we come to the question, having been beneficiaries of such power and now we are invited, empowered by the Spirit, to use this power for good in the world, what should it look like?

[Illustration of the plant] - Left to its own devices the plant will always lean.

If you are a Christian, if you are left to your own devices your response to the Gospel will lean towards self-exalting power.

That sounds strange to say, because surely the remarkable power of salvation through the substitutionary atonement of Christ, should propel us to grow as we should.

The reformers put is this way, that the believer is ‘Simul ustes et pecator’, that is, simultaneously justified and a sinner.

As a result, unless we are paying attention to the gospel trellis our hearts it is easy for us to become:

• accumulators of power,
• collectors of status,
• and hoarders of self-glory.

And in the church it looks ugly.

[For example...]

Rather, Isaiah 53:4-12 offers us a very specific trellis to fix our hearts to look at how Jesus Christ, the servant of God, wields his power:

Now, there is no suggestion that the responsibility of Christians is to take on the sin of others – Jesus is the only rescuer who as that mission, but look at [4] where it says:

[4] Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,

Surely, at some level a mature Christian life is marked by laying down the power of one’s rights to comfort and routine, and giving away your time and energy to support others who are in distress and need help.

In fact I was encouraged last week, as I sat in the kitchen of a couple at church who opened their home for a week to someone who was going through a difficult time.

Then look with me at [9]

[9] He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Again, surely the expectation for a mature believer echoing how Jesus changed the world by giving away his power, is that sometimes your intentions to do good in your family, amongst friends, in your networks will lead to you being ‘assigned’ a place on the ‘wicked’ list.

And in that moment what will you do?

How will you protect your rights, your power, your reputation?

Surely, it looks a little like refusing to get even, do ‘violence’, get revenge.

Notice, that one of things Isaiah wants to us observe because he mentions it three times [7,9] is that the power of using:

• our words,
• our opinions,
• our ‘take on the situation’,
• our weapons of ‘argument’.

Jesus in the moment that no one would have blamed him, if he let it fly and gave them a piece of his mind – he refused to fire and remained silent.

Now, in lots of places throughout the Gospels Jesus says a lot; but his decision to ration his words very carefully under the pressure of the cross, is a rebuke to many of us who feel it is our God-given right to ‘say it as it is and hell with the consequences’.

For the mature Christian the power of harsh words is like the fire extinguisher in the kitchen, it's there in emergency but it should be gathering dust in the corner.

And finally, but no less importantly, look at the unusual example of Jesus’ power in [11]

[11] he will see the light of life and be satisfied;

It’s a prophesy that Jesus will be resurrected from the dead and it’s the only commentary, the only insight to how Jesus felt about the event of the cross, and that’s deliberate.

Isaiah isn’t interested in the psychology of the servant, but what will happen and why. Nevertheless, we are given a glimpse into his heart.

And what do we learn?

• The heart of God’s great servant looks beyond the suffering,
• beyond the pain, to hope of the resurrection –
• the hope of no more death,
• the new creation where all bad things are no more, -
• and that future ‘light of life’ - satisfies him.

That word ‘satisfy’ means to say, it makes the suffering worthwhile,

to serve others in sharing the new creation with him, is what Isaiah wants to highlight as the motivating joy behind all that Jesus would experience.

How does that apply to us?

The radical power of Jesus is not ‘he is simply very busy and can endure lots of hard things in order to serve his Father’ – I think we can make that mistake.

The mark of mature believer echoing the way of ‘God’s servant’, is to serve satisfied

• not by the applause of others,
• not by a bitter sense of duty,
• certainly not from a sense of paying God back –

but rather, by a deeply, joyfully, satisfying anticipation of the resurrection life to come.

Close

[Aunty Gill – is a treasure of our family]

She has served for over 20 years on her church’s kids team.

To serve she has endured the burden of many inconveniences.

She has a reputation for cheerfully, in season and out of season, no fuss, just make sure the ministry happens.

She has served under the encouragements and frustrations of three pastors. Kept going. 20 years!

If it was you, in the light of the cross behind you and the satisfaction of pointing the next generation to the resurrection to come.

If no one said ‘thank you’ - would that still be enough?

‍