Savoring the Listening Servant: Isaiah 50:4-11

I don't know how I'm supposed to preach after that.

I mean, seriously.

No night there where we're going.

There's still night here.

But God has not left us alone.

He's with us.

And as we see from Isaiah's text today, he's going to sustain us until we get there.

The sermon text comes from Isaiah chapter 50, verses 4 to 11.

Isaiah 50:4–11

If you're new with us this morning, we're in a sermon series in Advent called The Songs of the Servant.

This is week three.

We're going to explain more as we go, but hear the word of God.

The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.

Morning by morning he awakens.

He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious.

I turned not backward.

I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard.

I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

But the Lord God helps me.

Therefore I have not been disgraced.

Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

He who vindicates me is near.

Who will contend with me?

Let us stand up together.

Who is my adversary?

Let him come near to me.

Behold, the Lord God helps me.

Who will declare me guilty?

Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment.

The moth will eat them up.

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant?

Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches, walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled, this you have from my hand.

You shall lie down in torment.

This is the reading of God's powerful and majestic word.

What a privilege we have to hear his word.

What a privilege we have to have his spirit.

Let's continue to invite him to do his work.

Lord God Almighty, thank you.

Thank you for giving us this portion of your word, a word that your son needed to hear.

A passage that we need to hear.

So by the same Spirit who inspired this word, Lord, would you please illumine your word to us now?

In Jesus' name, amen.

Songs of the Servant.

We're in the third week of a four-week series from Isaiah.

Pastor Josh and I were talking this week about this sermon series.

What is what are the songs of the servant?

For many of you, or at least some of you, I know you've not had sermon series like this before because you've told me.

It's one of those passages that the church can easily miss in Advent season, and yet it's very appropriate in Advent season.

So let's just look at it at the 30,000-foot level.

This is these are songs.

You might say this is one song, like any song that has multiple verses.

These four weeks are just the next verse in the same song.

And so there's new content in each verse.

They're not repetitious, although they build on previous themes.

It's not redundancy.

These are the different verses of the most beautiful song I know.

Because it's the portrait of the Savior, it's the portrait of our Messiah.

I've been thinking as I prepared this sermon, it's not unlike the Gospel of Mark series that we've been going through.

Those two questions.

Who is this one who calls us?

This is all over, sprinkled all over the pages of Isaiah.

And let me say, I make it a habit most Christmases, the advents to go back and reread Isaiah.

I highly recommend that.

It just gives fuller context and meaning and perspective to Isaiah's messages.

Taken all together, it does indeed make for a beautiful song.

I want to go back briefly to last week to see the transition in the bridge from last week to this week.

One of the challenges in these songs of the servant is to identify who is speaking.

Some of you, I say the smiles.

Yeah, that's not always easy to understand.

But it's critical to understand, lest we miss the portrait of the Savior.

So let's go back last week to chapter 49.

And we saw clearly that it was referring to Jesus, the servant.

And that can get confusing, by the way, because Isaiah, with his license from the Lord, can refer to servant as the nation of Israel.

Most of the time in the book of Isaiah, he's referring to the nation of Israel, who failed miserably.

Sometimes he can call Cyrus, the king of the Persians, who is a godless man.

Sometimes he can say, Cyrus is my servant.

Okay.

But in the songs of the servant, he's saying, I'm talking about my son Jesus.

Prophetically, over seven hundred years before Jesus would come, he's painting this beautiful portrait of his son.

Look at verse four from last week.

But I said, okay, class, who's the eye?

Who's the eye?

Jesus.

And if you miss that, you're going to miss the point.

What did Jesus say?

I have labored in vain.

What?

Jesus?

I have spent my strength for nothing in vanity.

Are we starting to fill in the portrait, your understanding of Jesus?

Have you ever heard this before?

Maybe not.

That Jesus, the one who was sent from heaven, could think, could say, I have spent my strength for nothing.

In vanity.

I have labored in vain.

I got your attention, don't I?

Is this is this passage on your Christmas cards?

It could be.

Does that give you a fuller perspective for Christmas?

Old Testament scholar E.

J.

Young says this is best understood as Jesus' words as a direct reply to God.

Verses 1 to 3 of chapter 49.

You, this is the Father speaking to the Son.

You are my servant, in whom I will be glorified.

The Hebrew says in verse 4, Hebrew and Greek also, they do a little bit differently than in English.

In Hebrew and Greek, for emphasis, the word that's placed first in the sentence is placed for emphasis.

Guess what verse 4 says in the Hebrew?

See, I don't know Hebrew.

Well, look at verse 4.

What comes first in the Hebrew?

In vain.

He felt his labor had been to no purpose.

He struggled with futility, fruitlessness.

Alec Moter, another Hebrew scholar, says, he himself sees nothing coming out of all of his efforts.

But then again, it is not up to him to decide.

He's submitting, he's submitting his life to the Father's will.

At times he felt frustrated.

In the end, he was abandoned.

We know that.

On the cross, he cried out, My God, my God.

The only time he referred to his father as my God, not Father.

Why did you abandon me?

Is this a message of Christmas?

Yeah.

Because without this, we don't have joy.

We don't have hope.

We don't have eternal life.

Again, E.J.

Young.

This psychological problem we cannot answer.

Amen.

Can any of us fully comprehend this?

Can any of us write an essay on this?

Not really.

But the Word of God says it.

We believe it.

Even though there are mysteries to this in his human nature.

Frustration and feelings of futility were part of the burden that he came to bear.

So when we think of the burdens that he came to bear at Christmas, maybe we add that to our understanding.

Frustration and feelings of futility were part of the burden that he came to bear.

Now let's jump back to chapter 50.

Our passage today, the third song of the servant.

Beginning in verse 4.

The Lord God has given me, now let's identify the speakers.

The Lord God is referring, we know because in Hebrew it says, Adonai Yahweh.

Lord God Almighty.

The Lord God.

The one and only God.

What's it saying?

The Lord God has given me.

Who's the me?

Jesus.

Not Cyrus, not Israel.

The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word.

Look at the next phrase.

Who?

I think you.

Me.

Him who is weary.

Are you aware of your weariness this Christmas season?

Or are you fighting hard to resist it?

Do you feel the urge to pretend that things are better than they are in your life?

Are you fighting the urge to pretend that things are better than they are in this world?

And you're just hoping against hope, there's a better way.

Be honest.

He wants us to be honest.

He doesn't want us to pretend about anything.

You know why he went through this, Jesus?

So that he could sustain you when you're weary.

So that he can minister to you when you are utterly weak.

He has a word to speak to you.

Jesus looks to the covenant-keeping God to sustain him.

Then it says, He has given an instructed tongue.

He has given me an instructed tongue.

An expert tongue, instructed by his father.

Yahweh Adonai, the sovereign God, has given me, Jesus, an instructed tongue.

An expert tongue.

One who speaks out of intimate knowledge of God.

Where else are you going to find that?

Who else is going to be the one who can speak an expert word to you in your weariness, but the one who has been instructed by his father?

Is this beautiful?

I mean, it's it's it's hard to think about, but it's beautiful.

He's given me incisive speech.

Like a sharpened sword.

And all of a sudden, what we're reading about in Mark comes alive in new ways to me.

As the Pharisees and the scribes say of Jesus, no one ever taught with authority like him.

Well, this is why.

He didn't get it at rabbinical school.

And nobody here gets it from seminary.

You get it from the Lord Jesus Christ directly by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This third song today, listen, is about listening.

This third song is about listening.

Israel had a listening problem.

Time after time we see in the Old Testament, God wants to take his people in for a hearing exam.

He says it's time to go to get your hearing checked out.

And time after time, you know what they how they responded?

Okay, I'll go.

My hearing's fine.

Am I hitting too close to home as we age?

No, no, my hearing's fine.

But ask your spouse.

Ask your friend if your hearing is fine.

Israel just says, no, no, it's fine, it's fine.

And God says, No, no, it really isn't fine.

This servant has an ear to listen.

I want to break it down in three ways.

Isaiah does.

The first one, he had an ear to be taught.

Let me tell you this about the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

He's a good listener.

He's the best listener.

He passes the hearing exam with flying colors.

He had an ear constantly open to God.

Look at verse 4 and 5.

The Lord God has given me the tongue, yes, of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.

But then look at this.

Look at the connection.

Morning by morning he awakens, he awakens my ear.

Now we're on a roll, right?

Who's talking?

Jesus.

Jesus is saying, every morning my ear is going to be awake and attentive to the voice of my Father so that I can complete this mission.

I think, wow.

Really?

Morning by morning, my father awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

That verb in the Hebrew is a continuous tense.

Not once in a while.

Jesus is not saying, every once in a while I'm ready to listen.

This verb is saying, every morning my ear is open, my ear is attentive to the very word that the Father has for me to carry out the mission for you.

The Lord God has opened my ear.

And let me say this as application.

Only the Lord God can open your ear.

Are you listening?

Am I listening?

Really listening?

Or am I multitasking?

I'm kind of listening, but there's music in the background, and I'm doing work.

I'm doing study.

Am I really listening?

Are you really listening?

By the Spirit to really hear what the Father wants to say to you.

What the Father said to his own son.

The Lord God has opened my ear.

The Son was devoted to God's voice.

Because he listens to the Father, he knows what to say to us.

He knows how to sustain us in seasons of weariness.

He knows how to speak because he first knew how to listen.

I know what some of us are thinking, because I've thought it earlier in my life.

No, no, no, no.

This all just happened automatically.

Jesus is the Son of God.

Yes, but He put self, He self-placed limitations in His humanity.

Did He ever lose His deity?

No.

But these self-imposed limitations, none of this happened automatically.

Stop thinking that way.

Because that will take the edge, that will dull the blade of the gospel in your life.

I'm going to prove that this morning.

Because he listens to the Father, he knows what to say to us.

He knows how to sustain us when we are weary.

He has more than a little inspiration to give us this Christmas.

How many Christians struggle with that?

I mean, how many of us think that Christmas is or Jesus is pretty much about just giving us a little inspiration?

You're down in the dumps, you're having a hard time.

Just just let them let Jesus go to Jesus to get a little pep talk.

No.

That is exactly not what this is.

After reading the word of God, do you sometimes still feel like it's really up to you to live this Christian life?

Just get a pep talk from Jesus.

Doesn't work.

Does not work that way.

Jesus has a real word he wants to give you.

He wants to give me.

Because he's listened to the Father and He obeyed perfectly.

He knows how to give you the word that you need from His Word.

The sharpened sword that he spoke about in Isaiah 49 and the polished air.

Again, did not happen automatically or all at once.

They were the products of profound attention, defined here as the discipleship of morning by morning appointments with God.

The morning by morning appointment is not a special provision related to the perfect servant, limited to the perfect servant.

But is, this is what Alec Moter says, but is the standard curriculum for all of his disciples.

Man, did that pierce me?

Can I read that again?

The morning by a morning appointment that Jesus had with his father is not a special provision related to the perfect son, servant, but is the standard curriculum for all of his disciples.

When you see his assignments, your assignments will change.

I honestly believe that.

When you begin with new wonder, begin to understand how the Son, morning by morning, with an awakened ear and an obedient heart, took his assignments from the Father, your assignments will change.

You will find that you have more of an awakened ear.

You will find that you have more of an obedient heart.

And it won't be a little pep talk that got you there.

It'll be a real Savior, speaking real truth and real grace, that will get you there.

The servant speaks with the tongue of a disciple because he listens with the ear of a disciple.

That's what we're saying.

So that we could read in Hebrews chapter 4.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

This is why these things are true.

Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12.

Hebrews 4:12

The word of God is a living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of morrow, and discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart.

Jesus has a very sharp sword.

This is why you get up in the morning and have that appointment.

Jesus has a very sharp sword.

And if that sharp sword is not cutting through your heart, your intentions, your motives, you're in bad shape.

You're in bad shape.

If I can't hear, if the word of God by the Spirit of God is not convicting me of sin, my sin.

If he's not convincing me of and giving me assurance that I'm loved, that I'm delighted in, it's because my hearing is really bad.

If that blade of this sword just bounces off of me, the problem is not the blade.

The problem is not the sharpness of the sword.

I must be spiritually worse off than I realize.

I want to give you hope this morning, my friend.

Jesus knows how to wield that sword.

He knows how to pierce through our motives, our intentions, our thoughts.

Oh, we say, Lord Jesus, take that sword and pierce through my intentions, my thoughts, my excuses, my excuses, my blame shifting, my contentless, uncontented heart, discontented heart.

Would you cut through all that?

Would you reveal yourself to me as you really are?

You are a beautiful, obedient servant who came to serve people like me.

Incredible.

The servant speaks with the tongue of a disciple because he listens with the ear of a disciple.

I want to share a story I read this last week.

Malcolm Muggeridge, who was a very successful businessman and kind of in the front of media 50 years ago, framed this question: what if instead of the Dead Sea scrolls we had found the Dead Sea videotapes?

Would the difference matter?

Would it matter if biblical faith had been handed down to us in images rather than in words?

Does the camera make the same impact as the pen?

He argues that the camera deceives us.

It makes us think we are seeing reality.

But television especially brainwashes us with carefully edited fantasies.

God encounters us meaningfully through words, words that illuminate, words that last, words that undeceive our confusion.

Melchized says this: the Christian faith has come to us in words, not images.

I find that passage in the first chapter of John, the word became flesh, one of the most beautiful and profound things ever written.

If it had come to us in images instead of words, it would not have lived on as it has.

Many experiences can come from your encounter with this word, but don't chase the experience.

A word was sufficient to sustain the Son.

The word of God is sufficient to sustain us by the power of the Spirit.

I love my time in the Word.

The older I get, the more I love it.

Awaken my ear, God.

What do you have to say to me?

From your word.

Tom, don't make it up.

We can do that.

Thank you, Father.

We said he had an ear to be taught.

Secondly, he has an ear to suffer, we see in verses 5 to 7.

An ear to suffer.

The Lord God, okay, class, we know who this is now.

This is Yahweh Adonai.

The Almighty, powerful God, has opened my ear.

And I was not rebellious.

I didn't turn my back.

I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard.

I did not hide my face from disgrace and spitting.

But the Lord God helps me.

Therefore, I have not been disgraced.

Therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

An ear to suffer.

That's what heaven is about.

The Lord God has opened my ear.

When he says I did not turn back, what he's saying is I didn't run away from my assignment.

Thank you, Jesus.

I did not run away.

How many times have we?

How many times have we run away from the assignments that God gives us?

He says, I did not run away.

When the storm was the fiercest, the verbs, I gave my back.

Jesus did not come back kicking and screaming, tied up.

He walked right into the fire.

Because he had an awakened ear and because he had an obedient heart, he walked toward it.

He didn't run from it.

Thank you, Jesus.

Can we just pause for a moment and thank him?

Thank you, Jesus.

You didn't walk away, you didn't run out on us.

Or we wouldn't be here this morning.

It was in Near Eastern, Middle Eastern culture, it was highly offensive to touch a man's beard, to touch his beard, to pluck out his beard.

He gave his back.

You know, when he went to the cross, his back was scarred.

His back was bloodied, beaten to a pulp.

Christ learning and his suffering went together.

Hebrews 5, verse 8 tells us, although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

Hebrews 5:8

Another mystery we don't fully understand, but it's true.

Although he was a son, although he was the perfect son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

What about us?

What about us?

Are we learning obedience through suffering?

Or do we just run away from it?

And try to bury our pain, our loneliness, our despair, our hopelessness.

We will sometimes try to find an answer and bury it anywhere else but in obedience to Christ.

And he's not glorified, and we're not sanctified when we do that.

The more we understand his suffering, we will not run away from our testings in life.

We will not run away from our sufferings in life, the more we understand his.

Excuse me, vindication, verses eight to nine.

An ear for vindication.

It's not over.

It turns out well.

And he knew that.

Verse 8, he who vindicates me is near, who will contend with me?

Let us stand up together.

He says, come on, let's fight.

You want to fight?

Who's he talking to?

We'll get there.

Look at verse 8, verse 50.

He who vindicates me is near.

Guess where the word near is in the sentence first?

Near to me is the one who will vindicate me.

Near is the one who will justify me.

This word is a strictly forensic word, as the word justify is used in the New Testament, to declare to be just.

The only righteous man who ever lived.

In the court of God, God the Father says of his son, My Son is innocent.

My son is righteous.

My son never committed any sin.

He became a sin offering for us.

I'm proud of my son.

My son accomplished his mission and did everything that's necessary to bring a huge family with him.

So that we can hear the words from the Father as well.

Not guilty, righteous, innocent.

And you say, but I know my sin.

Yes.

But my son came to be your sin bearer.

I hold your sin against you no more.

You're innocent in my court.

And we say, joy to the world.

The Lord has come.

He alone was worthy to offer himself as a sacrifice for sin.

He alone met all the righteous requirements.

He alone was set forth by God Almighty.

You know what he says about his accusers?

They will all wear out like a garment.

Do you understand that Jesus Christ was not simply a good man?

Jesus Christ was not simply a prophet.

Not one more prophet, not the best prophet.

He was the Son of God in the flesh.

He is the Son of God.

Still in the flesh.

Do you acknowledge him as Lord and Savior?

Do you acknowledge him as God in the flesh this Christmas?

And serve him.

Let him serve you.

All who sit back and circumspect saying, I don't know that he really is God in the flesh.

Good luck in court with him.

I mean, that's what he's saying.

Trust me, you don't want to go into that courtroom thinking that.

There's punishment waiting for that.

You bow your knee and you bow your heart now and acknowledge him as your Messiah, your Savior, your redeemer, your servant.

Let this servant serve you this Advent season.

This is how much he loves you.

His victory is your victory.

That'll get you out of the ash heap.

His victory is your victory.

It's true.

He came here out of love.

I'm still trying to understand that.

I know it in my head.

I'm still trying to really let that seep in to every fiber of my body.

Only he can do that for me, and only he can do that for you.

But I tell you, that's his desire for us.

Let's pray.

Father, would you please?

Now, let your spirit do the Spirit's work in us.

If it's to convict us deeply of our sin, convict us deeply of our sin.

If it's to bring us to a Savior as Jesus Christ came to save, let us be saved this morning by your grace.

Let us come to Jesus and bow before Jesus to save us, to redeem us, to serve us.

Lord, if it's to awaken our ear, awaken our ear.

If it's for daily appointments with you, let it be.

Only your spirit knows what we need most this morning.

Spirit of God, do your work.

In humility and by faith, we will yield.

We will say, Lord, do your work.

May you be glorified.

Speak the word to those of us that are weary to sustain us.

Oh God, whatever it is, you know.

We want to thank you in advance for what you're going to do.

In Jesus' name, amen.