Behold My Servant, My Chosen One
First B Jackson
2018-12-02

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Just making sure. Let me see. There's a note. Chili Cook Off and Christmas Caroling is December 9.

That's next Sunday. It feels like we're getting into Christmas really fast this year is mister Christmas tree. It's an unusual beauty pageant. It's a very fun. It's it's a lot of fun.

So mister Christmas tree is happening tomorrow night, and there are cards and little posters around church with more information. There may be more information in the bulletin. Mister Christmas Tweet's happening, aren't I? Audience votes for the winner, so it's a fun fun event. First Friday of each month, we have a first Friday fellowship where people come together and craft down in It didn't come up on the screen.

Probably did. Yes. Angel tree. So out there in the vestibule, you'll notice that the tree, which was decorated so beautifully last week, now has on it little white tags, and each of those white tags has an item or a couple of items on it that is for a needy family, mostly needy children in our local area. So this is for deer, for Jackson, and our moose and deer cardboard cutouts out there have tags hanging off of them too.

That is so you can grab one of those or a few of those if you want to and go buy that. Bring the gifts back here already wrapped with that tag on them somewhere. Take two of them or something so we'll know. And Tanya primarily, but a lot of volunteers too, is the one who what's that? Work.

Okay? So that's happening. Angel Tree, grab a tag or two on the way out. The Boy Scouts are

and it's free and it's wonderful. Yep. And if you have an RSVP, please do so as soon as possible because we really do need to get

a count. There are invitations right out here on this little demo room table out in the And my email address is on there. And the email address is on.

Good morning. Today is the first Sunday in Advent. We like the first candle, candle of hope. We have hope because of our faithful promises of God. He sent his son and he received our savior, A savior born to redeem

the world from sending death. Romans fifteen thirteen says, may God have hope that you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. So you that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Of Mary, this this poor, young girl who would give birth to the savior of the world and just that humble obedience spirit, that humble servant spirit of hers. God, another because we started it down and finished it last week. We did the whole book of first Peter, all five chapters. Crazy, crazy, crazy on my part to do that, but it was something that it closed off that that portion. And several times in the book of first Peter, he mentions Isaiah.

He mentions Old Testament prophecies from Isaiah particularly. That's his his favorite. That's his favorite of the Old Testament prophecy. He up several times again and again. And I got away from last week's sermon, and I couldn't get away from the concept of the chosen one.

So the concept of it, if you look it up and you go, you remember the movie, The Chosen One or The Golden Child, or there are a thousand different things with Neo in the matrix. He is the chosen one. He's the one that's gonna or Luke, he's gonna bring balance to the force, whatever. All of these things, there's a chosen one as a concept. And a lot of times when there is this persistent story, the underdog story, you know, all these different they're they're only seven stories.

Right? And they're told over and over and over, and the chosen one is one of them. Well, this is the place in the Bible where this chosen one is just all of a sudden burst on the scene. It's always been the case since the fall in the garden. We've seen it in little instances, but in Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, we see these servant passages, and it's introduced right here in the first way he introduces them as the chosen one.

And so this week, as I was considering, okay, what's next in the New Testament? Where do we go? Because we've all been doing this chronological study straightforward without much turning to the right or to the left. And I thought second Timothy is next. If you're looking and you wanna start studying ahead, second Timothy is next.

But I think we're gonna take a little break for Christmas, and we're gonna go through these servant passages in Isaiah and just kinda build up Advent. Is this week first candle lighting and Jesus came to serve and not be served. Right? And so we're just gonna go through it. It's short.

It's not five chapters of first Peter. We're going through nine verses today, and it's all we're gonna cover. But this is the first of the servant passage in Isaiah, and it's really good. But before we go through it first by verse, I wanna read it all at once right here. Behold my servant, whom I uphold mine chosen one, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights.

I have put my spirit upon him, and he will bring forth justice to the nations, and he will not cry out or raise his voice nor make his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed, he will not break, and a dimly burning whip, he will not extinguish. He will faithfully bring forth justice, and he will not be disheartened or crushed until he has established that justice in the earth and the coastlands or the outer limits, rather. The coastlands will wait expectantly for his law alone. Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people in it, in spirit to those who walk in it.

This is what the Lord has said. I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness, and I will also hold you by the hand and I will watch over you and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people. We're also doing meetings that we are practicing the Lord's table right here today. We practice an open table.

So, any of you who have trusted in Christ are welcome to come. If you're in that, we're talking about the new covenant in Jesus' blood. Okay? So he says up here, I will appoint you capital y, you. That's Jesus.

As a covenant to the people and as a light to the nations to open blind eyes and to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison. I am the Lord that is my name, and I will not give my glory to another nor my praise to graven images. Union. But before they spring forth, I proclaim them to you. Now a little bit of background information on Isaiah.

Isaiah, I'm not I mean, means the Lord is salvation. So just his name alone starting off, if you get it, if you're have Hebrew as your native tongue, you go, that means the Lord is salvation. It's automatic that it's gonna be about salvation. But it's broken down. It has 66 chapters in it.

The way we divide it is 66 chapters long, and the first 35 chapters are on judgment. They focus primarily on Assyria, and those are about judgment, and they have tons of historical details present within them. Don't let me lose you here in this. Okay? I'm getting past it pretty quick.

There's tons of historical data in the first 35 chapters, and then 36 through 39 is a historical bridge, and that historical bridge is just it's it's basically history. This that's what's going on. And then 40 through 66 is about deliverance. And it's about not just judgment that has come or is coming, but it's about how there is deliverance that is coming. Does that make sense?

Okay. So that's the quick and actually on Isaiah right there. Comfort, oh, comfort, my people starts touting forward. Okay? Because the rest of that is about judgment, and it was well deserved judgment.

And this is for the nation of Israel. We know that we have them as an example that we can look to when they feared for themselves. When they feared, things didn't go well, and when they acted in faith, things did go well. And personally speaking, when we act out of fear, things don't generally go well. And when we act out of faith in God, they usually do.

So comfort, oh, comfort my people. Isaiah, if you were to say what the book of Isaiah is about in one sentence, would be judgment and deliverance, both from the holy one of Israel. Okay? He mentioned the holy one of Israel throughout the book. It comes up.

That's the name for God he uses most often, the holy one. Judgment and deliverance from the holy one of Israel. So we are starting in the middle of the story. Okay? If we get up to Isaiah 42, you already heard me read it.

He's chosen by God, and he is led by God's spirit. I put my spirit on him. Sounds good. And for all of us who are Christians, we might look at that and say, okay. That guy right there with the dove hovering over his head and the fellow in woolly clothing next to him, that's gotta be Jesus.

Yeah. This is Jesus. But we're starting this in the middle of the story. We're starting this when he started prophesying to the people. He was called by God to serve him in the year that king Uzziah died.

And the year king Uzziah died was seven thirty nine BC. And served for fifty three years. Okay? From 739 up until the six hundred BC. So that's a long time.

Right? The reason if you read commentaries on Isaiah, everyone has to because of this right here. These are pretty different from these and are pretty different from these. And the span of time period is about two hundred years. So there's a guy who didn't live two hundred years who is writing this.

There are tons of historical details in the first 35, and there's very accurate straight up news on the street for three chapters. And then 40 through 66 is a message of hope and deliverance, and it's really good. And it has some detail in it, down to the name of a king called Cyrus. And people look at that who don't believe that God can know the future or predict the future. And people look at it and go, this could've been ripped by one hand because of their presupposition.

The presupposition is no one can predict the future. Well, God can. God knows them from the beginning. He says it over and over and over again. He is our lord.

He knows that. And if he speaks through this prophet and he speaks in a way that predicts the future, down to in the seventh chapter, he said spoke about the virgin birth. Right? And all these different things, little glimmers and little twinkles throughout the first 35 chapters. But then in the last 40 through 66, those last few books, it's about deliverance, and he gets more and more specific.

So we're going through four suffering servant passages or servant passages. The first one is this one today. Quietly brings in God's kingdom. Remember when Matthew 12 in Matthew 12, Jesus says that he he Matthew calls back and says, he did this, and he he didn't lift his voice. He was silent.

It's a growing thing. He told people not to tell other people about him. In the beginning of his ministry, he came about him, and people were flocking to him before long. But he was very quiet in the way he did. It wasn't a revolution, like, come who will go with me.

Right? It was more like he was walking along in the spirit and things started to gather. There was more and more confrontation, but he wasn't grandstanding ever. Not even at his execution, he never did. So he quietly brings in God's spirit, and we see that as a fulfillment of Christ.

But I want you to listen to it straight up. This is Isaiah forty two one and two. Let me back up one more time. Sorry. As I think about it, as as an American, we are Americans, most of us here, and most of us live here if not.

And for us to think about this would be difficult outside of the context. It's harder to understand. But if you knew that you're God's chosen people, okay, with the with the church, and a lot of us have been raised Christians, so we know, yeah, God's with me. I'm one of God's people. I'm one of his chosen people.

I think the church can understand that. But let's say that you had that feeling, and you've grown up with that feeling, and you've gotten this security in that, and then things started to pummel you. Are you with Israel had experienced great victories. They were a small little mouse surrounded by big cats, and for many, many, many years, they had been hooking to cats. Okay?

Babylon is a big cat, and Babylon cuts in and whips them on their own turf and takes them into exile. You know? Being an in North America and being an American and having fought wars in different places all over the world, do y'all remember what it was like when we felt attacked on nine eleven? It's a different thing when you're attacked on your own territory. Right?

Where, yes, comfort my people is really starts. Okay? So I want you to get to that place. If personally, you've been walking in your life for quite lately, you just feel like the hits keep coming. There's nothing my, capital m, that says it's God.

Servant, capital s, that says, it's Jesus. Behold, my servant whom I uphold is upheld by me. He walked every day in the spirit Submitted to it. My chosen one, there was none other. There is no other way.

There is an exclusivity to the gospel. My chosen one, the one in whom my soul delights. He will bring forth justice to the nations. And if we stop right there and I I say to you, okay, Jesus has come. Is there justice in the nations?

No. Are you seeing what I'm saying? No. It feels like there is no justice that I heard the bells on Christmas day. I say peace, peace,

but there is no peace. I see

no peace. Right? This justice to the nations is coming. And as the body of Christ, we are part in it. Okay?

You should be, if you are a believer in Jesus, about justice. You should be going for justice. You should have mercy. Don't get me wrong. You should have mercy, but you should be looking for things that are wrong and inequitable in the way that people are treated, and you should be working towards justice in whatever way are within your scope.

He, Jesus, will bring justice to the nations, and he will. That promise is still future. There is another coming of Christ. And this servant speaks of the servant that comes in and is born into this and starts this quiet revolution that starts to build towards a coming kingdom, and you can be a part of that kingdom now. And then the fulfillment of that kingdom, there will be justice to the nations.

It's it's so hard to understand that that the Jews as a people, of course, have the Old Testament as their Bible and as their book. And when they look at this, these servant passages, they have to expand it beyond just one person, Messiah, and certainly beyond Jesus. They consider the servant passages to be about the people of Israel because the people of Israel have suffered greatly, and there's no doubt about it. But they see themselves as a servant. If you look in the justice causes, there will be Jewish people right there in the midst A bruised reed if you're feeling bit up beat up, think about this.

If you're feeling beat up like you're a bruised reed now right now, a bruised reed, he will not break. And a dimly burning wick, something that's just barely there, he's not gonna snuff it out and trim it and start over. A dimly burning wick, he will not extinguish. He will faithfully bring forth justice. His kingdom marching forward will bring justice to the earth.

The lamb is not laying down with the lamb yet, but it there is a time coming, and this is what he's saying. It's just the opening of this great hope that they're saying. He will not be disheartened, he will not be crushed until he has established justice in the earth. And that's the whole planet. That's everywhere.

To the very ends of the earth is the command for the great commission. He will not be disheartened or crushed until he has established justice in the earth. And the coastlands, that is the outermost parts, will wait expectantly for his law, his governance, his reign. And thus says the Lord God, who stretched out who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all of its offspring, every living creature that the earth has brought forth, who gives breath to the people in it. You give life.

You give love. You give everything we sang this morning. Who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. Amen. That's God.

I am the Lord and I have called you. That's Jesus. Capital y right there. I will put a little bit more to this, though. If you are the body of Christ, you are to continue in the same vein, walk and submit it to the spirit.

I will put my spirit in you. That was for you, Christian. This is specifically in the early 700 BC or the late 600. This is forecast, predicted. I am the Lord.

I've called you in righteousness and I also will hold you by the hand, and I will watch over you. And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people and as a light to the nation. As a covenant to the people, when Jesus was with his disciples on the night that he was betrayed, and he took that cup, and he said, behold, this is the new covenant in my blood. This is the way. It's the grace of God that's given by the chosen one, the gift of God.

He who walked in sinlessness, he walks committed to the spirit, and he is the one that we can put our faith in to be made right with God. And knew that he would be building his church through them. He said, you are the light of the world. I'm the light of the world. You are the light of the world is the way that that went.

So as a light to the nations, and the nations is every family outside of the Jewish family. There were, in Jewish minds, Gentiles and other. I mean, Jewish and other. So Gentiles He's God. That's the whole otherness when we see in Isaiah at six where it's holy, holy, holy.

Isaiah has this vision of the temple, and he sees it filled in their cherubim and seraphim angels, of God. The holiness of God is his glory. That's the manifest. I will not share that glory with another, and that's why God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. We When recognize it, all the glory that there is and all the good that there is belongs to God.

And our limitations do hurt us, and we do not deserve it. If we were to ascribe to ourself glory, we would not deserve it. My grandfather I mean, I think I've said this before. I know one of you has heard it before. My grandfather used to always say, if you can brag without lying, go ahead and brag.

I am the Lord. That is my name, and I will not give my glory to another. That's why he resist the crowd. When we pump ourselves up and over glorify ourselves and don't give credit where it's due, He resists that, but he gives grace to them all. Now my praise to graven images, behold, the former things have come to pass.

The old covenant has come to pass, and the new covenant is the one. Now I declare these new things. Before they spring forth, I proclaim them to you. Now I started mentioning Isaiah three distinct parts of it, and a lot of historians that look like, biblical historians and those outside of the Christian Christian faith say that Isaiah could not have been written by one man because one man could not have known what was gonna happen in chapters 40 through 66. But God knows, and God spoke through this prophet, and he predicted the future.

So he says right here, before they spring forth, I proclaim them to you. Isn't it nice for somebody to say, this is what's gonna happen? Well, sometimes it's nice. I I remember one instance where we were with some friends' children, and friends were there. We were there while they're playing soccer.

Kids were up on the bleachers, and the little girl climbed up way high on this bleacher. And she had been jumping off the bottom bleacher, and everything was fine. Second, final, third, even questionable, she goes up to about the fifth one, and Tynan was sitting there, and she But little girl, listen a little better the next time. If someone says you have an incorruptible hope in heaven that's guarded for you by the power of God, righteousness in Christ. If you have not trusted in Christ, you are in peril.

Oh, yeah. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and I declare new things. The new covenant, the only way, bread first. And I have said that this is a completely open table. If you believe in Jesus, if you trusted in him years ago or just here this morning, if you said, you know what?

That's it. I'll take the only way God has offered. That one starts off in the bleak midwinter, but then it goes right into the birth of Christ. Would you allow Christ to be born into whatever bleak midwinter you're going through? Sing to the Lord a new song.

Sing his praise from the end of the earth. You who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you islands, don't separate yourself and those who dwell on there. Be the bomb. Thank you.