For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ISAIAH (ADVENT SERIES)(WEEK 2/5: WITNESSING NEW THINGS THROUGH JESUS)

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS CONNECT: What habits could you take up in Advent to help your celebration of Christmas more meaningfully anticipate Jesus’ return?

WARM-UP Questions 1. If you could hire a superhero to save the world, what would you tell them to do first? 2. Who do people in 2017 look to for ‘justice’ and ‘righteousness’?

Read Isaiah 42:1-4 3. Who is speaking in vv.1-4? What are they saying about the servant? 4. How is this servant different to what the exiles living in Babylon may have expected? 5. What are the key parts of this servant’s identity? 6. How is Jesus different to other servants in the world today?

Read Isaiah 42:5-7 7. In your own words, what point is being made about the Lord in v.5? How does God compare to idols? 8. What do we see about the relationship the Lord has with his servant in v.6? 9. What do we learn about the servant’s mission in vv.6-7? 10. How would you explain God’s mission in our world to someone who is not a Christian? 11. Why did the first Christians see Isaiah 42 as vital to understanding Jesus? (see Matthew 12:9-23; Luke

4:16-22; Mark 10:41-45)

Read Isaiah 42:8-9 12. What does v.8 say about God’s character and the problem of idolatry? 13. How is Jesus’ mission and ministry a new thing? Why, do you think, God is announcing this new thing

to us through the prophet Isaiah? 14. Do you see serving God as a privilege or as a chore? Why do you feel this way? APPLY (to this week): How can we serve Jesus in the world around us today? What practical things can we do for our neighbours to show the world that we serve the servant King? Pray: Creator of heaven and earth, thank you for sending your servant Jesus into our world, not to be served but to serve. Spirit of God please help us to lay our lives down in service for one another and in witness to the glorious new thing you are doing among us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ISAIAH (ADVENT SERIES)(WEEK 2/5: WITNESSING NEW THINGS THROUGH JESUS)

GOING DEEPER RESOURCES & SUGGESTIONS

Each week we provide additional resources that help to go deeper with whatever series we’re currently focusing on as a church. Resources could include recommended books, articles, online

sermons, courses, or videos. These are optional extras! Please don’t feel under pressure to look at every resource, but consider what could be useful to.

Talks & Audio • ‘The Coming Glory - The Lord’s Servant’ by Mark Chew

http://www.holytrinitydoncaster.org.au/resources/sermons/?sermon_id=1313 • ‘Behold my Servant’ a sermon by Liam Goligher

https://www.tenth.org/resource-library/sermons/behold-my-servant • ‘The Chosen Servant’ by Andrew Sach

http://www.st-helens.org.uk/resources/media-library/src/talk/51960/title/introducing-god-s-servant

• ‘Isaiah 42’ by Jim Keavney http://www.ccmorrishills.org/messages/sermon/2017-06-07/isaiah-42

• ‘A Delusion, a Servant, a New Song’ by Ray Ortlund http://www.preachingtheword.com/av/mediafiles_31225008/highbandwidth868.mp3

Video • Overview of Isaiah (“Read Scripture: Old Testament Video Series”) by the Bible Project:

Part B: Isaiah 40-66: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TzdEPuqgQg&t=284s • A look at Biblical ‘Justice’ by the Bible Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A14THPoc4-4

Advent Reading Plan for Isaiah • Download a copy of our Advent Reading Plan for Isaiah (or pick up a copy at church):

https://stbarts.com.au/blog/2017/12/1/new-series-2-great-resources-to-get-you-started-on-isaiah

Books and Articles • ‘Old Testament Lectionary – Isaiah 42:1-9’ Doug Bratt

http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/sermon-starters/epiphany-1a/?term=Epiphany%202A • ‘Commentary on Isaiah 42:1-9’ by Amy Oden

https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1938 • “The Old Testament for Everyone Series: Isaiah” by John Goldingay. • Advanced Commentary: The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary (by J. Alex Motyer).

Talk 2/5 (The Gospel According to Isaiah): 10/12/17 “Witnessing new things through Jesus”

by the Rev’d David Browne

Bible Passage: Isaiah 42:1-9

We’re into week 2 of our Isaiah series looking at the Gospel According to Isaiah and thinking about how the message of Isaiah an ancient Jewish prophet is good news for everyone today.

• Last week we looked at Isaiah 40 and saw the comfort to be found in throwing off distractions, crying out to God in dependance and making straight paths for God by proclaiming the good news of God’s grace and love.

• This week we’re looking at Isaiah 42:1-9 which is the first of four servant songs in the book.

• We read in verse 1: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.” (Isaiah 42:1 NIV11-GK)

• As we saw last week Isaiah is filled with accounts of God’s righteous anger at Israel’s unrighteousness, idolatry and sin

• At the same time it’s filled with good news and hope and this ‘servant’ the Lord repeatedly tells us he is sending is at the heart of God’s plans for redemption and restoration for his people and for the world

• For us to understand the good news according to Isaiah we must know the servant

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• So today we’re going to look at: • The servant’s identity/ A just and gentle servant • The servant’s mission / bringing righteousness and justice to the nations • And ultimately we’ll see the claim these words have on our lives calling us to be

servants of the servant, laying our lives down as witnesses of the new thing God is doing through Jesus

#1 Identity // A just and gentle servant \\ VERSES 1-3

If I asked you who you thought the identity of the servant is I imagine many of you would be able to answer me straight away. The servant is… (Jesus)

• We will see this is true but in order for us to fully comprehend the identity of the servant and the good news of Isaiah we need some context

• The prophet Isaiah lived over 2500 years ago in Jerusalem at a time when the Kingdom of Israel to the north had already been destroyed and it was quickly becoming apparent that Judah would be next

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• While you’d think the imminent danger would cause God’s people to run to God for comfort they turned to idols

• Isaiah 1-39 details how the people’s idolatry and rejection of the Lord their God in favour of the gods around them has brought about injustice and abuse in the land and warns of a coming invasion

• Sure enough 100 years later the Babylonians invaded Judah, sacked the temple, and dragged the people to Babylon leaving behind only the poor and uneducated to scratch out a living in the land

• It’s to these exiles that Isaiah 40 onwards is addressed

• With their homeland destroyed and their community living as aliens in a foreign land they struggled to make sense of how the God of Israel could let this happen

• How could a good God allow his temple to be destroyed, let his people be defeated in battle, or see his chosen people be dragged off to Babylon?

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• As the people ask these questions they see the idol worship around them and it really seems to be working

• Bowing down to Molek, Marduk, Bel and the idols of Babylon seems much more for effective than living for the Lord

This is why Isaiah’s news of a chosen servant is confusing In chapter 44 the Lord says to his people: “… you, Israel, are my servant. I have made you, you are my servant; Israel, I will not forget you.” (Isaiah 44:21)

It would seem here that the servant is Israel, God’s chosen people as a nation,

But looking at 42:3 we see that:

“In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth.” (Isaiah 42:3)

Justice is a key theme in Isaiah and it disqualifies Israel from being the servant

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The justice spoken about here isn’t just about judicial justice in a law court or social justice where everyone gets a fair-go

God’s Justice or ‘mishpat’ in Hebrew is a state where God’s right rule and reign is established,

Mishpat is a state whereby the community lives according to God’s good design and the people of Israel had failed miserably to live this way,

While elsewhere in the Bible God’s servant is Israel this is not the case here so the servant has to be someone else, perhaps it’s a superhero or super-sub?

In the 2006 football World Cup Australia were down 1 - nil against Japan with time running out when a substitute player Tim Cahill ran onto the pitch The super-sub went on to score 2 quick goals for the Aussies and bag them their first World Cup victory What Israel seemed to need was a super-sub, someone who could change the game completely and establish a new kingdom

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Enter Cyrus, Emperor of Persia, a powerful and dominant King who ruled with an iron fist and brought about justice by force!

Was this the servant, the super-sub the people needed?

Cyrus conquered Babylon and allowed the exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple

Cyrus brought joy and hope to the nation and elsewhere in Isaiah he is called God’s servant

but another aspect of this servant’s identity shows us that Cyrus isn’t God’s chosen one:

“He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;” (Isaiah 42:2–3 NIV11-GK)

Cyrus wasn’t a bruised reed or a smoldering wick, he was a brutal killer but his empire, like all empire, was eventually snuffed out!

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God’s servant, the Bible says, will be different however, while the people may have been wishing and praying for a powerful ruler who would dominate and annihilate on their behalf this is a new type of ruler with a new mission

Isaiah’s good news to the people in exile is this: a servant is coming who will establish God’s rule and reign in a new way,

The servant will bring justice, but he will do so with gentleness and endurance not like unrighteous Israel or a dictator like Cyrus

Isaiah’s servant songs reveal that God has new type of servant with a new mission in mind

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#2 Mission // Righteousness to the nations \\ VERSES 4-7

Verses 5-7 of our passage highlights the mission of the servant: “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” (Isaiah 42:6–7)

• The people of Israel would have to hope and pray and watch for 700 years before God’s chosen servant

• but when he arrived he fit Isaiah’s description perfect • Jesus was born into a world still plagued by idol worship and sin and still dominated

by abusive empires • To a people who were still questioning why a good-God would leave them in such a

mess. • He grew up surrounded by religious and political exploitation and would have

learned much of Isaiah by heart • In Matthew 12 we read of Jesus healing all who are ill and proclaiming the good news

of the Kingdom of heaven, and Matthew explicitly says: !9

“This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations…(Matthew 12:17-)

• Here we see that Jesus is literally and physically fulfilling all the things Isaiah claimed he would

• Jesus is not a nation or a group of people like Israel but he fulfils Israel’s mandate to be a chosen and holy people, to be a light to the nations dedicated to God alone, putting idols to shame

• Jesus is not a conquering King like Cyrus or military leaders of the day, instead he is the King of Kings proclaiming an everlasting kingdom of God’s mishpat, God’s righteousness and reign

Jesus’ mission is new and wonderful and reveals God’s liberating power to the whole world

• While those who read Isaiah and prayed that God would bring Israel back to it’s old glory and liberate his people, the mission outlined for the servant is much more expansive than this

• Jesus preached to Jews first but he crossed social and cultural barriers healing both Jews and non-Jews, sharing the good news of God’s kingdom with whosoever

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• This is the servant promised in Isaiah when we read that “he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.””(Isaiah 42:4 NIV11-GK)

• The Islands here refers to the farthest flung reaches of the world, in other words this good news of the Kingdom is an opportunity for the whole world to put their hope in Jesus and embrace the new thing God is doing

Jesus' mission, is to serve everyone everywhere, to bring God’s healing and wholeness back into a world scarred by suffering brought about by sin, to shake the power our idols have over us and bring us back to God

While it will become more apparent in later servant songs part of the mission of God’s servant will be to suffer

• Notice in v.6-7 the intimate relationship between God and his servant and how this servant will be bruised and broken but attempts to snuff him out will fail

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• Jesus’ faithfulness brings forth mishpat, God’s justice to all people of all nations through his suffering

• Yet suffering will not have the final say, this reed will come into a broken would and will be bruised on it’s behalf but he will snap

• This servant (v.3) will come into a world where hope and goodness appears to be snuffed out but like a smouldering wick that is fanned back into flame he will not be snuffed out

• If you’re feeling like all hope is lost Isaiah says take heart, God’s servant will fan into flame a reign of righteousness and justice beyond your wildest imagination

• In his mission Jesus, God’s servant, never faltered or stumbled (v.4), dying and rising he brought new life and invites everyone everywhere into his life of service

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#3 A life in service of the servant \\ VERSES 8-9

The last part of Isaiah 42 says this much:

““I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.” (Isaiah 42:8–9 NIV11-GK)

God’s servant will bring us back into a faith filled relationship with God, breaking the power of idols and creating a new covenant people• God’s original purpose for people in Genesis is as God’s image bearers to caring for

all God has made and as God’s image bearers to walk in harmony with God worshipping him to our hearts content

• Isaiah is addressed to exiles in Babylon but the first exiles Adam and Eve exchanged their privileged place in God’s presence for thorns and thistles, suffering and eventual death outside the garden

• The overarching story of the Bible is of how God’s purposes for humanity were destroyed as people swore allegiance to created things and chose exile rather than God

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• This was at the heart of the people’s problems in Isaiah’s day but it’s also the root cause of our problems today

• Our rejection of God is the reason why injustice reigns in our world, why suffering plagues our existence and why we live as exiles with death hanging over us everyday

• This is the bad news but here’s the good news • God came down from heaven as a man not to be served like the mute and useless

idols which we create, • but to serve and bring us out of exile and into relationship with him • Isaiah pointed his people to a new way of living, a way back out of spiritual exile and

into God’s kingdom of justice and righteousness, through Jesus Christ

Because of Jesus we can throw off the tyranny of serving idols

We get to serve the servant!!//

The coming of Jesus opened up a new way of living, !14

In Christ we are set free to live lives laid down in love for God We no longer have to live lives desperately trying to touch and taste and feel as much as we can before we die, Instead in Christ we are set free to live and serve to God’s glory not our own, loving our neighbours with reckless abandon knowing that God has provided all the love.

Missionary Don Richardson tells the story of the Karen people of Burma who served demons and spirits because they had rejected Y’wa the supreme GodThey knew that Y’wa was better than demons and spirits but they felt God had abandoned them and they didn’t know how to get back to God But they had a legend that one day a prophet would come with a sacred parchment roll from Y’wa which would show them the way back to him The amazing thing about this part of the legend was that they didn’t have parchments or even an alphabet for their languageBut when missionaries first came to the Karen they were overwhelmed with joy to see that these missionaries carried a book from God which they then translated into Karen

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Today over 1 million Karen people follow Christ and faithfully serve the Lord knowing the restoring power of Jesus frees us up to serve the Lord wholeheartedly

The servant sets us free to love and serve the world in his name. A Christian life is to be marked by service and self-sacrifice in the cause of God’s justice and mercy because that’s living life to the full

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CONCLUSION \\ Witnessing new things through Jesus

The servant sets us free to love and serve the world in his name. • When all hope appears to be lost the Good news according to Isaiah is that God’s

chosen servant Jesus Christ is the hope of the world • As we prepare to celebrate Christmas,

let’s remember the servant who won our peace

• Jesus’ is the ultimate servant, we find our identity in him

• Jesus’ mission brought God’s righteousness into the world, we find our purpose in him

• Jesus life of service calls us to new life serving and witnessing the new things God is doing in Christ

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