Isaiah 49:1-13 : The Second Servant Song

I hope you're all doing well, resting in God's goodness.

I often remind myself to look up.

As we live life, whether it's in abundant times or challenging times, we have a great God who, as we look up, helps us realize that he is the best we have, and he does great work in us by strengthening and enabling us.

I pray for myself and for others that God, through his spirit, would help us to be and to do more than we could be and do on our own, and he enables us to do that.

Thankful to be here today.

I enjoyed having Vic many years ago on an Israel trip and the fellowship we've enjoyed since then, and the joy of having Doug on the seminary trip a couple weeks ago and the blessing that was and, over the years, thinking about what God was doing here at your church.

I'm also in the midst of the introduction details I would want you to know.

My identity is.

I'm a Christ follower First and foremost.

I'm a lover of Martha Ann and I want to be faithful in that all my life, and I'm a lover of local churches, local assemblies that have people who are affiliated with it and put their shoulder to the task and are burdened with being a light in a dark world.

I'm thankful, so praise God for your church and what God has been doing and what he'll yet do.

May he be your strength as you seek to honor him in a desperately needy world.

We're going to look at Isaiah 49 this morning.

Salvation by God's servant is presented building on chapter 42 and the rest of the chapters 40 to 48.

I would say just an aside as I think about something.

I'm going to emphasize the various points in the sermon, the music.

Thank you for preparing my heart and thinking about this truth and our brother's prayer.

Talking about trusting God, I want to just highlight that our God is a faithful, reliable God.

We aren't being called to trust in a loser, in a promise big and deliver nothing, god, and we should revel and rely on that good news that he is the one who will bring to pass all that he promises.

So you, brothers and sisters, have been studying the book of Isaiah for some time.

The first half of that book, which you finished a few weeks ago, I'm sure the prophet seemed to show Israel that they're doomed to thorough and final judgment.

At the end of chapter 39, it looks like they're toast, never more to be seen again.

But in clear contrast to that idea of total devastation which the prophet wasn't saying was the case, but it sure seemed like it because it was thorough the prophet opens chapter 40 with a message of greater restoration and hope.

One writer said this that when one turns from the 39th to the 40th chapter it's like he steps out of the darkness of judgment into the light of salvation.

So chapters 40 to 48, which pastor just finished last week, those chapters summarize the initial phase of God's promise to deliver his people from exile.

I remember the historical scenario God's people in the land of promise, characterized by rebellion and covenant treachery for years and years and years.

And eventually it comes to the point that God is going to bring covenant curse on them.

And the epitome of covenant curse was the eviction of God's people from the land of promise.

And the Babylonians were the one who his tools to do that.

And so they're in Babylonian exile.

But that's not the end of God's story, praise the Lord.

In 40 to 48 he introduces chapter 40 and beyond that he's going to deliver them from that exile in an unparalleled way, a totally unexpected way.

It seemed like no one could ever be able to open the Babylonians' fingers and get Israel out of there.

But he's going to deliver his people in an initial way that provides a paradigm for what he's going to do in the future.

And Isaiah, in those first eight chapters, presents that promise, deliverance kind of like a second Exodus, exodus out of Egypt, intervening in the most powerful empire, one of the most powerful empires of the world at the time.

In the book of Exodus, having Egypt, egypt having the Hebrews, the Israelites in their clutches as slaves, they had a great thing going.

They weren't going to let them go.

Moses and Aaron appeared to the Pharaoh and said let the people of Yahweh, the covenant Lord, go.

It was like who's he?

And the Lord brought them out of Egypt in what we call the Exodus.

This is kind of Exodus, second Exodus language the prophet Isaiah uses that God is going to make happen again, initially through Cyrus, and we'll see in our passage in an even more significant way down the road.

So the prophet, in 40 to 48, describes the approach of a conqueror, eventually named as Cyrus.

He'll do what everyone thought to be impossible defeat the Babylonian empire and free the Jews from the exile there.

He's the Cyrus, is God's anointed one who helps bring that deliverance to pass.

But in this new section we're just starting today, in chapter 49, 49 to 55 is the new section the prophet revealed through his writings that God would deal with the more serious problem of sin.

It was in the prophet's heart already.

He talked about in the first half of the book.

But he's going to also, in addition to this physical deliverance of God's people from Babylon, he's going to address the problem of covenant treachery, sin, because that's going to be required for God to bring his ultimate plan to pass.

And God's going to do.

Yahweh, the covenant Lord, is going to do this by another servant of his, called Cyrus, an anointed one called by God to deliver his people from that Babylonian land of exile.

It's going to be another servant, one of his, an anointed one, called the servant, who we come to know as the Messiah, according to New Testament truth.

So the servant would not only take care of Israel's sin problem and this is one of the glorious truths of this chapter but that of the whole world.

That was always in God's mind, but it becomes more apparent here.

So Isaiah passed from dealing mainly with physical deliverance from Babylon's exile in 40 to 48 to dealing with a bigger deliverance that included salvation, not just for the Jews but for the entire world.

Praise God for that.

So this amazing God promises covenant people deliverance and restoration.

In our passage for this morning, 49, 1 to 13, is a very important part of the message of the prophets, the second servant song.

It builds, if you remember, back to chapter 42, and I'm going to review just a little bit.

This builds on that and adds, fills out the kind of the biography and the ministry portfolio of this servant figure.

It testifies to the worldwide task Yahweh has in mind for his servant.

He's already commissioned this servant to impact Israel, yahweh's chosen people.

He hinted in those first chapters, 40 to 48, that his impact on the Gentiles, because in chapter 42, he tossed out that the suffering servant would be, or the servant would be, a light to the nations.

We'll hit that one again today.

So the servant Psalm before us, 49, makes it absolutely clear that the Lord intends that his servant would impact his chosen people and the Gentiles throughout the world as part of his ultimate plan.

Now we're not shocked by that right.

As New Testament Christ followers, this may not be shocking for us, but for Old Testament Israel kind of used to being in the bullseye, in the center of God's plan.

This had to rock their world a little bit what them too.

But that's part of God's plan.

God's chosen people may not have realized it, but they didn't deserve.

They did not deserve any of Yahweh's abundant mercy, grace and patience.

But still, regardless, the Lord is the incomparable God who is ever faithful to bring to pass what he had promised.

He will bring to pass what he always intended to do, both for his chosen people restoring them to the land and a relationship with him and to the larger world that he created.

And we're here today, many of us, as beneficiaries of that great plan.

And, yes, part of that consummation of his plan involved his servant nation, but it also involves Gentiles of the world and it was going to come through the servant individual who we would come to know as the Messiah.

So here's some key ideas of this passage, just to kind of lay down the central ideas to start, and we'll work through the passage.

Yahweh, first of all, is a God who brings to pass all that he promises according to his plan.

He is faithful and ever reliable.

He does.

He's not a promise big deliver nothing, god.

He's a promise big deliver all.

He said God, and according to this passage, isaiah 49, he will not only bring scores of Israelites to salvation and restore them to the land of promise, but he would also bring that same salvation to the larger world, to Gentiles, to us and others.

Both will be able to receive that salvation in God's providence by repenting and believing.

And there's a more immediate as well as ultimate deliverance God will bring about through the servant or the Messiah, and it's important to keep this in mind.

We'll talk about it again.

There's a near term and a far term impact of what the servant is going to do.

So you're going to, we're going to see the faithfulness of God.

He'll do all he promised and praise God.

He does it in his behalf.

So, having summarized this foundation, I wanted to stop and make sure you hang with me as we walk through the passage to get the big picture of what the prophet is saying.

The prophet Isaiah, of course, wrote this servant song under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, hundreds of years before the Messiah's ministry on earth, and at several points we're reading through Isaiah 49.

We'll read all the verses along the way.

Sounds quite familiar to us in light of our New Testament knowledge.

Yeah, this and this and this, I've heard this before in the New Testament.

But the prophet adds to our understanding of God's script that he was writing, that Yahweh was writing for his son, the promised Messiah, and what it had significant and how it had significance in the near term as well as the far term.

So he explains.

Isaiah explains some of the issues related to the near term his first coming, the challenges of ministry to the Israelites and his transition of ministry to the Gentiles.

He also looks toward the far term, the second coming, his future return to earth, where he's going to return to deliver his people from that larger exile four corners of the world for a purpose he's going to establish them in the land that he had promised them already in the Abrahamic and talked about in the Davidic covenants as well.

The fourth servant song, which pastor will have the pleasure of teaching through, is what addresses that important climax of the Christ ministry in the first coming his redemptive death at Calvary and the burial nearby.

That provides the grounds for their and our salvation today.

So this is huge how the prophet Isaiah is helping lay the groundwork for an important part of what God intends to accomplish for his glory.

So with that background in mind.

Let's look at the chapter itself.

I divide the chapter into two sections.

First of all, the servant's calling and equipping, verses 1 to 6, his calling, verses 1 to 6, and then the culmination of the servant's ministry.

That kind of leads to the second phase, verses 7 to 13.

So let's think about the servant's calling and, by the way, throughout this servant song, the servant is speaking throughout the passage, but he quotes what Yahweh, the ultimate leader I would say God, the Father, in this capacity has said Verses 3 and 6 to 12,.

We'll see that it's.

And he says the Lord says it reminds us that he's the one who's in charge.

He's bringing this plan to pass.

This is not just a shoot from the hip deal.

God is bringing his plan to pass.

So first of all, under this, the servant's calling verses 1 to 6, verses 1 to 3, yahweh calls and prepares his servant for his worldwide ministry.

Verse 1, coastlands listen to me, distant peoples, pay attention.

He wants to address the inhabitants of the distant regions of the world.

Yahweh is the incomparable God who is in charge of His world and His people and intended to impact all with salvation and wants the four corners of the world to hear.

Pay attention.

This is important.

What the servant has to say will impact the entire world.

It's a call to attention.

So he calls the entire world to attention, first of all, and then, even before birth, the second half of verse 1 into verse 2.

God chose and prepared his servant.

Verse 1, the end of the verse the Lord called me before I was born.

He named me while I was in my mother's womb.

Both of these statements signified that the Lord Yahweh was writing his script for the world that the servant would accomplish.

Writing that script of what the servant would accomplish.

He's announcing this ahead of time.

This is predictive.

Now it's old news to us, but it's just significant to understand that God is the one who's writing the script and is the God who brings it to pass.

God had a plan for a servant, announced here before birth, just as he did for the prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 1 4-5 called before his birth, the apostle Paul.

Galatians 1 15 called to be an apostle before his birth.

Yahweh chose his servant, but he also equips him.

Verse 2, the servant describes for us that he not only chooses his servant but he equips him for his ministry.

The servant describes, he's speaking.

The servant is speaking to us describes the Lord's divine preparation of him for the work that God has planned for him to do, and we learn things about the servants of ministry through the preparation.

Notice the unique flow of these four statements in verse 2.

I'm going to put them into two categories.

First line he made my words like a sharp sword.

He hid me in the shadow of his hand.

He made me like a sharpened arrow.

He hid me in his quiver.

So you can see with me that the first and the third lines go together, as do the second and the fourth ones.

Here's what the first set of lines he made my words like a sharp sword.

He made me like a sharpened arrow.

These first lines signify a sharp sword and a sharpened or a polished arrow.

First of all, with the sword, the Lord Yahweh would make the servant's mouth what he would say words like a sharp sword.

He would be an effective spokesman for Yahweh.

In various New Testament passages liken the word of God to a sharp sword Ephesians 6, 17,.

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is God's word Hebrews 4, 12,.

For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of the soul and spirit, joints and marrow.

It is able to judge the ideas and the thoughts of the heart.

So this idea that the Lord being likened to a sharp sword is telling us that God made this servant, his divine representative, like a sharp sword, to be effective, to impact, to communicate God's intentions effectively.

He also the second part of that is it says that he made him like a polished or a sharpened arrow.

An arrow like this either polished or sharpened, the word could go either way is trimmed, it's going to go into the target.

It tells us that an arrow flies a good distance without distraction and impacts or penetrates its target.

It would accomplish the intentions of the archer, god, who has set aside the servant.

So the Lord not only chooses the servant, but he equips him for the task he will give him.

So you have, on the one hand, the equipping task.

He will make me like a sharp sword and he will make me like a sharpened or polished arrow.

And the Lord also another set of lines about his divine preparation he hid me in the shadow of his hand, he hid me in his quiver.

These clauses seem to emphasize that God, who is enabling and directing his servant will bring his ministry to bear on his audience at the right time.

It's kind of like in the fullness of time Jesus came unveiled for his glory.

The servant keeps the arrows in their sheath or the quiver until the right moment.

As a result, they're more effective when God brings them to bear.

God is the one who's calling the shots and how and when Jesus will minister to impact that world according to his intention.

So, as a result of being revealed into God's time, they're more effective when he brings them to bear.

So verses 1 and the verse 1 to verse 2 demonstrate the special place the servant had in God's plan.

His whole life, from birth on, would accomplish what God intended and was guided by that great and powerful God.

And all that we know about that great servant, through our own salvation, is the result of this intention of God to bring his plan to pass.

The long promised Messiah wasn't an empty promise, but the Messiah came and lived perfectly and died and rose again and ascended to God's right hand to give us the salvation, the grounds for that, that we can enjoy today, praise God.

So we also have the third point.

You have this kind of call to all nations to hear and in this whole preparation and calling.

Thirdly, the verse three the servant does what israel, the chosen nation, could never do.

Verse three you are my servant, israel, through whom I will reveal my glory.

This first blush, it seems like this verse is telling us that the servant should be identified.

Think about who's the servant Seems to be saying.

What's the nation of Israel?

He says you are my servant, israel, through whom I'll reveal my glory.

Identified as the nation of Israel, now exiled in Babylon in Isaiah's time frame.

This is one of the big interpretive debates in Isaiah 40-55.

Who's the servant?

Is it an individual?

Is it a collective?

Who is it?

There are all kinds of opinions.

It would hurt you to think about all the variety and things that are there.

I did my dissertation on this section and it's unimaginable.

But praise God, the Bible is clear.

But think with me about some other nearby verses that help just cut right through the question.

To make it clear, in Isaiah 42, 18-19 and 43-10, exiled Israel is described as blind and deaf and fails to understand the Lord's purposes.

That isn't the servant.

Unlike the nation, the servant opens blind eyes Isaiah 42, 7, and delivers people from prison.

Israel couldn't get their way out of a paper bag.

I mean, they were rebellious and they were under divine punishment, but the servant is the one who's going to bring them out of that.

In verses 5 and 6 of our chapter, this servant says he's been commissioned to reconcile the nation of Israel to God.

So he must be distinct from the exiled nation.

According to verse 8, he'll mediate a new covenant We'll talk about that later for the nation.

He'll do that on behalf of the nation.

Verses 9 to 13 describe the servant's role of leading God's people back to the promised land.

My point here is that when you think about a verse like this that some could take as saying the nation of Israel is meant to be the servant identified here, good interpretation looks at the context.

What are the things in the near and even a little bit farther context in the passage area?

That helps see that the servant is clearly distinct from the nation of Israel.

So there must be some other significance of the statement.

You are Israel, and here's the one I would suggest.

The servant can be referred to as Israel because he embodies God's ideal for his people, not because he is the nation of Israel.

It's the function, not the identity, of Israel that's emphasized here.

The servant will be all that the Lord intended that his chosen nation would be.

He'll be quite unlike the exiled, rebellious, hard-hearted, worthy of covenant punishment nation which failed to fulfill God's promises.

Yeah, the following verses are going to tell us that the servant will restore the wayward, exiled nation to God, but verse 3 is trying to emphasize that this servant will bring to fulfillment the role that God had given to his chosen people.

He will represent God's character to the world in a flawless way.

He'll epitomize If you wanted to know what a godly Israelite would be according to the Mosaic law the servant, jesus, the Messiah.

And you see and I can't go down this road very far at all when you think about the Old Testament, even the Old Testament law God gave the Old Testament law to his people not to save them, not to give them any kind of spiritual stature.

It was to give them a concrete understanding of how they could live their lives in the way that would advertise God's surpassing character to the watching world.

Did you catch that?

He wanted them to obey the Mosaic law in an inside-out fashion, heartfelt obedience, and he wanted them to know how to do that so they could advertise God's surpassing character to each other and to the watching world around them.

Well, how'd that go?

Well, the nation of Israel failed, right, they didn't do it.

But guess what the servant will do?

In all that he says and all that he does, he's going to be the perfect advertisement of an incomparable and amazing truth presenting God, and that's our Heavenly Father and our Savior.

So in this way, israel, the servant being Israel through him God says, the servant is saying I will be glorified.

Even though Israel failed in this mission, the servant would succeed.

So the nation of Israel is not the servant referred to in chapter 29.

Isaiah called the servant of Israel here to emphasize that he will epitomize Yahweh's expectations of his chosen people.

He models what an ideal Israel would have looked like if they had pursued heartfelt loyalty to the Lord.

Now, just a commercial.

I would tell you that if you want to think about what God has called each one of us to do as Christ followers, that's job one.

I need to live my life in a way because of heartfelt loyalty, obeying God in an inside-out fashion that those close to me and further out understand who God is better.

We need to be advertisements for God's surpassing character.

So each day when we wake up.

Lord, help me, and I will tell you this I would always start close to home and move out.

I do.

I'm not doing it perfectly but, lord, I pray you'd help me to help Martha and my sweet wife understand God better because of the way I care for and pursue her.

I want my kids to have thirst in their hearts and see who God is.

Better by the way, I love and care for them and for their mom and on the circles go.

And so here the servant, as called Israel here, because he correctly and perfectly modeled what God expected and who God was, and he did what Israel could not do.

Now we're not going to do it as well as the servant did, but God's called us to that as well.

So the Lord, verses one to three, calls and prepares the servant for his worldwide ministry.

And then verse four the servant faces opposition but still trusts in Yahweh and his plan.

Verse four here I'll read it, but I myself said so.

The servant is talking for the most part, telling us things the Lord has said along the way.

But this is the servant saying.

I myself said I've labored in vain, I've spent my strength for nothing and futility.

Yet my vindication is with the Lord and my reward is with my God.

You know we're seeing the human side of Christ's ministry in that statement.

These two verbs I've labored in vain and have spent my strength signifies the idea of exhausting labor.

We might focus, and I'm a cup is three quarters full, guy right.

We may focus and be encouraged by rightly so, the amazing teaching of Christ and as many miracles recorded in the gospel accounts.

But that's not the whole story of Jesus's ministry.

Throughout the gospels, jesus faced rejection, unbelief, prejudice and misunderstanding.

Especially after the first year of his ministry, there was opposition at every turn.

The religious leaders, the Pharisees and their kind had a monopoly in religious authority and had great influence over the majority of Israelites.

Jesus and the apostles were always running into that Pharisaical wall.

Those who genuinely followed Jesus and his teaching were far less numerous than the Israelite population.

Jesus, in Luke 9, 41, cries out you, unbelieving and rebellious generation, how long will I be with you and put up with you?

Mark 8, 21,.

He was grieved by his own disciples' failure to understand Mark 14, 27,.

He foresaw that most of his disciples would run away from him when the priestly authorities took him captive, gone and, of course, his suffering and death at the hands of the Romans, connived by the Jewish leaders, represents the epitome of the ministry challenges he faced.

Luke 13, 34 to 35,.

Toward the end of his ministry, we read about Jesus' lament over Jerusalem, jerusalem, jerusalem, she who kills the prophets, and stones of those who were sent to her.

How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

And then he talks about the judgment that's coming John 1, 10-11,.

He was in the world and the world was created through him, yet the world did not recognize him.

He came to his own and his own people did not receive him.

There may have been many times during the Messiah's ministry when it could have seemed like anybody watching that his ministry labors were almost for nothing.

However, praise God, though Jesus may have experienced discouragement and opposition at times, he was never defeated.

There were numerous great moments of heart-changing responses and spiritual growth.

He impacted multitudes of people, performed significant miracles, taught God's truth with amazing clarity.

There is good news to be blessed by, but this verse here is letting us know that there is great opposition.

Even though there was opposition, the servant, the promised Messiah, trusted God, the Father, for the final outcome of his ministry.

And this is where we can't get into it.

But the divine and the human side, he's the God man, he's in human flesh.

This is one of those manifestations of.

He felt the opposition, the prejudice, the discrimination, the rejection.

It was on his heart, but he didn't let that dominate his thought.

It says he my vindication is with the Lord at the end of verse 4.

My reward is with my God.

He trusted his Father for the final outcome of his ministry.

He was confident that God would prosper his ministry in the way and the time that he knew to be best.

So the servant faces opposition but still trusts in Yahweh and his plan, verse 4.

And that leads us to and, by the way, telling us about that opposition.

Isn't that Jesus is a Debbie Downer or the cup is 1-8 full.

He wants us to see the providential trigger, occasion for this move to do what God had always expected to expand the ministry of the servant to encompass the larger world.

So verses 5 and 6, yahweh enlarges the servant's ministry to bring salvation to the Gentiles.

We see in verse 5, there's a statement here and now, and when you see something like that in a passage you ought to think about.

It's a transition, it's introducing a new section.

He's building what was before.

So, after the discouragement or the opposition that the servant would face, and now is telling us shift the gear.

Something new is going to be presented.

The servant is reminded all who have read Isaiah, isaiah's prophecy that Yahweh had commissioned him to be servant from birth in verses 1 and 2.

And now this statement it talks about he's been opposed, and he tells us one of four times.

When he says thus, says the Lord, and it just would tell you four times.

It happens I'll draw your attention to them along the way, and part of the purpose of this statement is he wants to remind the reader, through the prophet Isaiah, that the incomparable God is the one directing the ministry of his ministry.

Even through the hard times of opposition and rejection, god had a plan.

The end of the story was different, so the rest of the verse, of verse 5, doesn't tell us right away what the Lord said.

It reminds us, though, of who the servant was, in verse 5,.

And now says the Lord, the one who formed me from the womb to be a servant, up in verse 2, to bring Jacob.

And then he tells us a little bit about his plan, his initial plan, and that was phase one to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel might be gathered to him.

So, even in Isaiah, but also in the time of the New Testament, how is Israel doing spiritually?

Well, well, they're getting worse than an F.

That's a grade right, I mean.

They're rebellious and hard hearted, captured by the traditions of the Pharisees.

And Jesus is sent to be able to bring Jacob back to him ultimately, and to regather Israel to him.

And this is going to be done initially in the first coming, but more fully in the second coming.

For I'm honored in the sight of the Lord.

The servant is embracing all that God is doing.

He's not rejecting, and God is my strength.

He does it through the strength of the Lord.

So this is going to be a great honor for the servant to be used this way.

And then verse 6, the first part of the verse.

The Lord implies that he has bigger plans for his servant.

He says second time again who's in charge?

Who's calling the shots?

Who's giving him direction?

The incomparable God.

God is bringing his plan to pass.

He says to the servant it is not enough for you to be my servant, it is not enough for you to be my servant, raising up the tribes of Jacob and restoring the protected ones of Israel.

When he says this not enough Does not imply that Yahweh made a mistake in his original commission of the servant.

And now it's like oops, plan B.

We're seeing play out in this passage the reality of the servant, who we know as Jesus, the Messiah, ministering in a dark world with hard hearts not being welcomed.

That is a providential occasion for God to move on, to filling out his revelation of his plan for the world.

Numerous passages throughout the Bible and even in the book of Isaiah make it clear that he always intended to impact the Gentiles with his kingdom and the gospel.

When God created mankind, he had all the inhabitants of the world in mind when he said let us make mankind as our image and according to our likeness and let them have dominion over all of the world.

That was his plan all the time.

Abraham and covenant.

All about Abraham, no, and in him, what's going to happen?

All of the families of the earth will be blessed.

And then, even in Isaiah 45, just a couple chapters before verses 22 to 25, the Lord declared Turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.

By myself, I have sworn.

The truth has gone out from my mouth a word that will not be revoked.

Every knee will bow to me and every tongue will swear allegiance.

So this is not new news, but it may have been ignored news by Israel and could have been shocking to them.

Yahweh is progressively revealing his plan for the entire world through the ministry of the servant.

He didn't make a mistake.

He is progressively unveiling, writing the script he's writing in history as well as in the servant's ministry.

And then there's a third part at the end of verse 6.

So verse 5, he's the one verse 5, and now says the Lord, the servant's initial ministry to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel might be regathered to him.

Second step we have verse 6, the first part.

Not enough for you to be my servant.

There is going to be.

There's a granted issue of I have something more in mind for you.

Not that the first part was mistaken.

And in the end of verse 6, the Lord expands the scope of the servant's ministry.

In verse 6.

He says I will also make you a light for the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.

Yahweh intended that the servant would provide redemption for the Jews and Gentiles throughout the world.

So stay with me here.

Let's just summarize the divinely chosen and prepared servant was originally commissioned to minister to the nation of Israel.

That's who his people were.

In the process of carrying out that ministry, the servant experienced opposition and even frustration.

Trusting in Yahweh to do what is best, the servant received an enlarged commission to be a light to the Gentiles.

Again, this is not the first time this entered the thought of God.

This was how it's unveiled on the stage of human history.

The Lord commissioned his servant not simply to restore Israel to fellowship with God, but also to bring salvation to all peoples, that is, to function as a light to the nations.

The relationship with God available to Israel for generations in a direct way will be expanded to include Gentiles as direct recipients.

Up until this time it had been kind of like in the back door, you know proselytes.

At the outside here is Israel, and at the edges you had some Gentiles that embraced salvation by faith.

But now it's going to be as Galatians says there's neither Jew nor gentle bond, nor free male nor female.

There are those categories in the church.

But it's even Stephen.

The ground is level to the foot of the cross.

And so in the New Testament, the passage you folks read this morning, our brother read Acts 13.

I'll just read 46 to 49.

Then Paul and Barnabas.

They're out in this mission to a part of the world that included Jews and Gentiles.

But there was to the Jew first, synagogue first, and then, when they got tossed out on the street, then they preached to the Gentiles and they wanted to make sure that the audience, especially the Jews, know this is God's plan.

Then Paul of Barnabas boldly said it was necessary that God's message be spoken to you first, to the synagogue, to the Jews.

But since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.

For this is what the Lord commanded us.

I have made you a light for the Gentiles to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and glorified the message of the Lord and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed.

So the message of the Lord spread throughout the whole region.

So that's his calling.

Verses one to six has an expanded ministry according to God's plan.

Let's look at the culmination of the servant's ministry in verses 7 to 13.

This one has been called and equipped, who is going to be able to epitomize God's character, as Israel had not done, and who would have this expanded ministry, always God's intention but unveiled at this moment to impact that larger world.

So the culmination of the servant's ministry, verses 7 to 13.

First of all, worldwide effectiveness verses 7 to 9.

When I first came up here I thought I didn't see a clock at the back and I didn't think I had one up here so I could go as long as I wanted.

I need to push this clock down, right?

No, I heard there's a trap door here under me, so I don't want to go down with the alligators and the crocodiles underneath.

All right, the worldwide effectiveness verses 7 to 9.

And there's no doubt, by the way, that verse 7 is kind of like like a transition.

It kind of rehashes a bit of this expanded ministry that God gave the servant, but he also is going to have this work with the Gentiles and then some future oriented truth.

So there are a couple of things here.

Verse 7 deals with the rejection and later recognition of the servant, old news.

So this is the third.

He says this is what the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, his only one, says To one who is despised, to one abhorred by people, to a servant of rulers.

That all kind of highlights back to the verse 4 that there were those.

It was like empty, vain labor.

It was like what was the ultimate impact?

There were days in his earthly ministry, in his first coming, where despised, abhorred, rejected.

And then he says to his servant though, and this is where seven transitions to what's going to follow here there's a coming, a day Kings will see and stand up and princes will bow down because of the Lord who is faithful, holy one of Israel.

He has chosen you.

The Lord is faithful.

So the first phase of the ministry first coming true.

Then, in the second part of verse 7, this rejection is followed by enthusiastic recognition of and submission to the servant by all levels of society, referring to a future day not given to us on a clock.

But it's the second coming, when he comes to earth and there's going to be judgment of the wicked.

There's going to be rejoicing, everybody kicking their heels and praising God.

A big change is coming in the undetermined future.

Kings will see, stand up, princes will bow down.

The once despised servant will be worshipped by all leaders and nations of the world.

They'll recognize what great things Yahweh is doing through the servant and will rise in admiration and respect.

And what's going to trigger this transformation?

It says kings will see stand up, princes will bow down.

Because of the Lord, because of Yahweh, who is faithful, he brings His plan to pass.

He does what he says.

He's absolutely reliable.

It wasn't failure in Jesus' ministry as you faced opposition.

It was providential preparation for God unveiling another part of his plan.

And now in the second coming, this part of verse 7, it's because he keeps bringing, progressively unveiling his plan for the world.

It's on account of God's faithfulness to his servants, seen in the use of this one to accomplish great things, that occasions the response of these Gentile rulers and other leaders.

Yahweh clearly demonstrates he is totally reliable, always faithful to bring what he promised to pass according to his plan.

So verse 7 talks about the rejection and later recognition of the servant.

Verses 8 to 9, we read about the servant and the covenant with Israel.

Even though his chosen nation did not originally respond to the servant's ministry in entirety.

There were those that did a lot who didn't.

The servant has great things in store for his covenant people.

Yet this is the fourth the Lord says in verse 8, which is again God's calling the shots.

God is directing his plan to pass.

This isn't accidental.

This is what the Lord says, verse 8, I will answer you in a time of favor.

I will help you.

In the day of salvation, the covenant Lord declares that he will intervene in some future day to bring to pass his promises for his covenant people and we'll see for the entire world.

Another translation offers an interesting perspective or emphasis.

At the time I decide to show my favor.

At the time I return to the earth and bring to pass the next phase of God's plan, I will respond to or answer you In the day of deliverance, I will help you.

The prophet affirms that there will be an appointment, a divinely established time when Yahweh will intervene in human history.

The first phase of this divine activity took place during his first coming, but will have even a greater and widely experienced impact at the time of his second coming.

I know there's a lot here, but that's what Isaiah 49 gives me right.

I just got to try to walk through it.

So hang with me and if you have any questions, go ahead and ask Pastor Doug when he gets back.

So I notice what Yahweh says he will do for and through his servant.

This is huge In verse 8, I will answer you in a time of favor, I will help you in a time of salvation, I will keep you and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people.

But what is that?

What do people refer to here?

Well, is it Gentiles or Israel?

And I would say in the context, time-wise, I don't want that trap door to fall.

I think he's talking about first and foremost Israel, because of the verses following.

We're talking about what God's going to do in restoring his people to the land of promise, but it has implications for all the Gentiles of the world.

And what's the land of promise?

But it has implications for all the Gentiles of the world.

And what's the significance of this divinely assigned role as a covenant of the people?

I think it's covenant mediator for the people.

Now, on the one hand, this function of the servant is somewhat surprising.

When the servant becomes the fulfillment of the covenant to the people, the mediator of the covenant, he is in part, proclaiming the continuity of God's covenant love to a people who are losers in many ways, who had every expectation that whatever relation they may have had with God in the past was toast.

They were hopelessly gone.

We're off his scope.

We're under covenant treachery, dispersion around the world.

He's forgotten about us?

No, that's not the case.

Many passages in the book of Isaiah clearly show that Israel's covenant relationship with Yahweh may have seemed non-existent in light of their constant rebellion and their rejection of a relationship with him, but their God is a God who wouldn't forget the covenant.

In his role as the covenant of the people, the servant clearly demonstrates that, while Israel's relationship with Yahweh may have been interrupted covenant treachery, covenant punishment the end of the story may seem to have been done, it's all over.

No, the servant clearly demonstrates that, while Israel's relationship with Yahweh may have been interrupted, a blessed relationship with the transcendent God is still possible.

Through the servant, there is hope.

I say this to our students all the time when you look at totally devastating and appropriate covenant judgment, that is never the end of God's story for His people, because he's unilaterally promised to bring His will to pass, which involves coming to earth, establishing a millennium, relocating His people to the land of promise, while he rules over the entire world and we're part of that too.

It's not just Israel, and then the rest of us think it's a big part of God's ruling over the entire world, over the entire kingdom is in the little wedge of the world known as the promised land, is fulfilling what God promised to do and he's a promise big deliver, big God Alright.

So the servant will be needed a renewed relationship with Yahweh.

Those folks aren't out of his plan.

He's trying to bring his plan to pass.

It mediates those covenant blessings to God's firstborn people.

But there's something else important to keep in mind and I need to hurry here.

I just would say there's a first coming reality where the Lord is going to provide salvation, yes, through his death, burial, resurrection and ascension, to a number of Israelites of his day and a few Gentiles.

But what happens after his death, burial, resurrection and ascension?

About a month later, the church is inaugurated, and then it's the church is inaugurated, and then it's maybe at first, 98% Jews in the church in Jerusalem, handful of Gentiles.

That just changes altogether because God's plan involves the world.

So because the climax of the first coming of Jesus, the Messiah, death on the cross, burial, resurrection and ascension, the promised servant, his ministry, numerous individual Israelites would enjoy new covenant salvation.

But remember that Isaiah 49 seems to be addressing a future, divinely appointed time and there's coming a day when there's going to be so many saved it'll be like all Israel is saved.

Romans 11, 26.

Domina, skip through some notes here.

Verse 8 at the end he says, after being a covenant for the people to restore the land and that's where I think he's talking about restore his people to that promised land that they're evicted from right now and to make them possess the desolate inheritance.

Saying to the prisoners come out.

And to those who are in darkness show yourselves.

They will feed along the pathways.

Right now, my mountains into a road and my highways will be raised up.

So these would come from far away, from the north and from the west and from the land of Sinim.

It may be China, it may be Aswan in Egypt, but it's coming from a long way away from all the dimensions of the compass.

So, just to summarize, the Lord is saying to them in verses 9-12, the idea of world we've talked about worldwide effectiveness, this is worldwide gathering.

It sounds like Isaiah 11, 6.

There will be a highway for the remnant of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

A second exodus Isaiah 40, verse 4, as he introduces the idea, is going to bring them back from the land of exile, from the Babylonian land, to the land of promise.

Isaiah 40:4

That may have seemed impossible.

Nothing is going to prevent the accomplishment of that plan.

There will be.

Every valley will be lifted up and every mountain will be leveled.

The uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places are plain.

The point is in Isaiah 40, which in the initial sense has some horizons of fulfillment.

In the initial sense he's saying getting you back to the promised land, out of the clutches of Babylon.

It's going to happen, I'm going to make sure it happens.

John the Baptist uses this to describe his preparatory ministry for Jesus.

It's another kind of unique horizon of fulfillment.

The ultimate consummation of that promise is referred to in this that when God comes to earth and he's going to establish his kingdom on earth and he has Jews scattered to the four corners of the world, in whatever way needed, he's going to bring them home.

Nothing will prevent the fulfillment of God's plan.

And so worldwide effectiveness verses 7 to 9, almost the very end and worldwide gathering 9 to 9 to 12.

And then worldwide rejoicing, verse 13.

Shout for joy you, heavens, earth rejoice.

Heavens and earth.

They're called the Marisms, like A to Z.

It's everybody, every level of society.

This is going to be loud and exciting.

Mountains even break into joyful shouts, for the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

The prophet Isaiah calls on all peoples, jews and Gentiles, from every corner of the world, to erupt in enthusiastic praise to Yahweh.

Heavens and earth all shout for joy, rejoice, break into joyful shouts.

God's intervention in human history and providing redemption to his chosen people, as well as Gentiles who repent and embrace his salvation, should occasion and will occasion worldwide celebration.

His actions on behalf of the humanity created in exact fulfillment of his plan, will prompt all observers to celebrate God's mercy toward his people.

And we're on that team.

Regardless of the difficulties of life we face, we're on the winning side.

We trust this faithful one to bring his plan to pass for us and for those down the road.

Just a conclusion here.

Summarize, john, here, so that could go as long as I wanted.

So, john, I'm taking you at your word.

You're going to stop that trap door from getting me right.

So, just to summarize, this servant in Isaiah 49 was divinely called and prepared for a significant ministry.

At first, this ministry focused on God's chosen nation, israel.

However, the servant's labors were met with a degree of failure.

Instead of, the Lord, instead of diminishing his task, greatly enlarged it.

And not only would this servant restore Yahweh's people, but he would also carry God's salvation to the ends of the earth.

And we're here today, as beneficiaries of the light of salvation, also called to share it with those around us too.

Although the servant had been treated despitefully, because of Yahweh's manifest faithfulness, totally reliably bringing his plan to pass, these same revilers of the same ilk at least will one day, at the time of his second coming, treat the servant with homage and respect.

At the right moment in his own timing I'm not setting that here Yahweh will cause the servant to be the mediator of his covenant blessings as a result of his death and resurrection.

In his first coming, the servant, or promised Messiah, provided the ground for the salvation of a growing number of needy sinners of Jesus' day.

In the second coming, after the Messiah judges all unredeemed sinners, he will establish his millennium for believing Jews and Gentiles and will mediate that covenant salvation to uncountable scores of people who embrace salvation.

This time, though, unlike his first coming, his task of restoring Israel will bring Israelites, hard-hearted and rebellious for centuries, into a vibrant relationship with their covenant God.

He will install the believers of his chosen people in that land as part of what he's doing throughout the world, ruling over that kingdom.

So, to his great glory, the incomparable God of Scripture will bring his plan for his created humanity to complete fulfillment and universal praise will resound.

So here's just a couple things.

Here's a concluding blessing to consider, something we can be encouraged by, as many other passages in Israel in the Old Testament about Israel and the Gentiles, demonstrate our God, the amazing and incomparable God, faithfully and reliably does all that he promises according to his plan.

We know this in part because the Messiah came, promised a long time.

God made it happen, provided the basis for our treasured salvation.

Let's daily rejoice in the blessing of this faithful God and rest in his faithfulness as circumstances come our way that are kind of tough.

Here's a concluding challenge to think about, and I would say first, is Jesus your Messiah, the one who came to earth and provides us with a life transforming gospel?

Is he your Savior, your Messiah, your life transformer, putting your feet on the rock instead of on the miry clay, transforming you out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light?

And if you're a Christ follower, is Jesus, the Messiah, the object of your daily obedience, your daily praise, your daily worship?

Are you transformed daily by the gospel, by the servant Messiah, who came and will yet come to do amazing things?

Let's pray, lord.

I thank you so much for using crack clay vessels to present an amazing passage with halting words.

I do pray you'd help me, help the brethren here and anybody who doesn't know who is your Savior, to consider you as the faithful God who brings His plan to pass, and that you, in your grace and your mercy, you are patient, like with Israel.

You didn't write them off in the wake of their consistent rebellion.

You know you provide your Son and you will bring them to yourself according to your timetable as they repent and believe.

I do ask that we'd walk out of here as your children rejoicing.

We've had aches along the way and bumps and challenges.

You're totally reliable.

We're trusting in the one who is absolutely faithful.

Encourage us and then I pray that anyone here who doesn't know you is that Messiah Savior, help them to sense the weight of their sin and their unpreparedness for eternity, and talk to one of us about what it means to repent and believe and have the gospel transform their hearts.

We pray this for your glory, in Jesus' name, amen.