His Face Was Set

Hello, church.

Hear now the word of the true and living God, Isaiah fifty, starting in verse four.

The Lord 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 the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Good morning.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

My name's James Rathman.

I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church.

Uh we've got a busy Sunday ahead of us.

We've got uh baptism here at the end of our service.

And after that, the kids will be joining us to practice their Joy to the World song.

And then while the kids are practicing, we're going to need a group of folks to come help us empty out the uh kids' meeting room, the L-shaped garage behind us.

And then we have a members' meeting.

This is like a this is an intense, this is like a metaphor for what December feels like.

Uh we're just doing it all in one Sunday.

So uh it'll be pretty good.

Stick around.

We're gonna have uh a good morning, uh, he says to himself uh to warm up for this busy Sunday morning.

Let's pray and we'll move into our text today.

Holy Father, we thank you for your kindness towards us and your ever-present care, that in the midst of uh a holiday season that can feel like just busyness and chaos, although full of joy as well, that we can steady our hearts as we remember you and your presence, your steadfastness, your faithfulness to us, the constancy of your love towards us.

Lord, we have something stable in our lives.

Lord, you have given us your word, which encourages our hearts, which strengthens us when we are weary, and which steadies us when we feel chaotic.

Lord, I pray that your word would attend to us this morning, that we might have hearts that are enlivened, that for those of us that fear that feel weary, that we would hear your word, which enlivens our hearts, that we might remember the things that are most important in our lives, the things that you show to us in, especially in the Christmas season.

As we remember the coming of your son, the salvation that he has brought, and the hope that we look forward to.

Lord, all that you ask of us, you freely give to us.

Give us hearts to receive it.

We lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So let's jump into our text.

We are in our third of the four servant songs in the book of Isaiah.

And these four servant songs are uh in a book full of woes to a people and of uh of a prophet who faces constant rejection from the people that he is seeking to bring the word of God to.

These four servant songs break out against these shadows, and they are like these beams of light, each of which describing someone who is to come.

And he's a sort of a mysterious figure.

He's someone who, to the original hearers, would have had a probably a lot of conversation and confusion around who is Isaiah talking about when he talks about this servant, the servant of the Lord.

Is Isaiah talking about just himself and the ministry that he's been given from the Lord?

Is Isaiah talking about the people of Israel as the Lord's servant or someone else?

Now, when you look through the text, there's this strangeness, and you see it couldn't be Isaiah because he switches the way that he talks when he talks about the servant.

It can't be Israel because the servant lives in an absolute righteousness.

And the servant is sent to call back the nation of Israel.

It is a strange thing to say we're going to send the nation of Israel to call back the nation of Israel.

And so the mystery rises.

Who is the servant of the Lord?

And we, of course, know that the servant of the Lord is Jesus.

He is the one who is promised.

So at this season of looking forward to the coming of Christ, we can join with the people who have gone before us and see that these words were written for us, for the ones who can know that this servant of the Lord is Jesus.

So what will he be like?

What will the servant be like?

Well, of all the servant uh songs, of all the four servant songs, this one is, I think, the most heroic.

And it's kind of like uh it's like the Superman theme song or the Indiana Jones theme song.

Like this is this is hero music that starts playing in this servant song.

And our culture has a bit of a strange relationship with heroes, I think.

We have a deep craving for the heroic.

We have a deep desire in our hearts to encounter a real hero.

How else do you explain the Marvel cinematic universe?

Not like trilogy, the Marvel cinematic universe.

Now, look, it hasn't been so great lately, but the first run from like Iron Man to the last Avengers movie, what a run.

That's like one of the one of the most incredible cinematic achievements ever.

And it's all, I don't want to give away the endings, but they're all, it's the same story over and over again, with different uh color schemes and shades of gloss.

And the story is we, the human race, who are kind of side characters, and the part that we mostly play is our buildings get destroyed, uh, but we are facing a foe that we can't handle.

And they come from space, uh, often because the heroes are here.

So, like if they just kind of left, we'd probably be fine.

It's besides the point.

They come and we can't face this foe, and then they arrive, and and good news, that we we have the right man for the job.

The right man for the job is here.

And and sometimes it's, you know, in all of the different origin stories are they prove that they are the right man for the job.

And so the hero goes before us and fights a foe that we can't fight and defeats them, and we are saved.

And we go to that movie over and over and over again because we desire a hero.

But we also have this strange relationship with heroes because if you're if you allow yourself the suspension of disbelief in the glossy, candy-colored Marvel movies, then you also have to return to the real world and your ordinary cynicism.

That means we have this deep suspicion of anyone that we see starting to act heroically.

If anyone starts to talk with like a heroic hubris or trying to rally, especially men, and starting to sit in celebrating these masculine virtues of sacrifice and going to the fight and call and going out to your enemies.

Well, I don't I think in our culture, when we hear that type of talk, there's like six people who are like, yeah, that's awesome.

And then the rest are thinking, I don't know.

I don't know if I can trust this one.

In fact, because of the heroic way that they're talking, they actually seem less trustworthy than if they were to, you know, inch up on the topic.

Now, I think we have that tension within us in the way that we approach our heroes, because we know that if you really hitch your wagon to somebody who you think will be your hero, who you think will be your champion, you are setting yourself up to be let down.

And yet, at the same time, we desire a real hero.

And we need a real hero.

So what do we do with that?

We see in the text this morning that the servant is the true hero.

And the heroic values that he operates in are just the same as you would expect.

He goes to the fight, he calls out his enemies, he is undeterred by those who would stand against him.

He is courageous and absolutely heroic.

But he is truly.

He is uh the true hero that we need, the one who will never let us down.

He's the one who, when you look at him, he inspires you to be like him, just like our heroes do.

You know, um I went to the University of Colorado at Boulder, it's a small college just in one town over, go to the Scobuffs.

Uh and uh I started there in 2010.

And unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe's run from 2010 to currently, the University of Colorado uh football team.

Not as not as good of a run.

But now it's it's prime time.

And there's it you can see this story playing out because we have our champion.

We have our hero.

And the University of Colorado at Boulder, which is 30,000 hippies and commies.

Trust me, I've I was there, I lived there, is is is so so desirous of a hero that they're like this guy that is standing up and saying, like, God called me to this place.

They're like, fine.

That's great, we'll take it.

Whatever values we said we really had, we'll just take yours instead.

Because look at our hearts.

We desperately need uh a hero.

So listen to the music of the hero that God sends us.

There are three stanzas in this song.

And in the first stanza, we see our hero described as a willing disciple of God.

He's a willing disciple.

In the second stanza, we see that he is strong in his righteousness.

He is strong in his righteousness.

And in the third stanza, we see that he is not afraid of the dark.

These are heroic qualities.

If I were a mega church pastor, I would have said he is faithful, a fighter, and fearless.

But I know you guys, and you're cynical, and so you would think that three F's, he probably just made that up.

So instead I said, He's a willing disciple, he's strong in his righteousness, and he's not afraid of the dark.

The hero music.

Now, the context of this song, before it breaks out, there's this phrase that Isaiah says uh on behalf of the Lord.

He says, Isaiah in Isaiah 50 verse 2, he says, Why when I came was there no man?

Isaiah 50:2

Why when I called was there no one to answer?

Is my hand shortened that it cannot redeem?

Or have I no power to deliver?

So God comes to the nation of Israel, and he says, Why is it you this nation that I have chosen out of all the nations of the earth?

Why is it that when I came to you and I called for someone to come out and come follow me?

No man answered.

No one stood up, no one heeded the call.

Now you might think that what's being said here is just there wasn't a man of strong enough character in Israel.

And that's partially true, but this is not just a test of like David Goggin's internal fortitude.

This is not, he he's not saying, like, look, I we had buds and all of you rang the bell.

He's not saying that you're just not a strong enough people.

Look at what he puts his finger on.

He says, Is my hand shortened that it cannot redeem?

Or have I no power to deliver?

He's saying, The reason that you didn't come when I called, when I asked for a hero to come from your ranks and no one came, it is because you didn't trust me to redeem.

Where is the strength of Israel?

What is the strong arm of that people?

He was, they were not called because they were the strongest nation.

Their strength is the Lord.

So he says, I can tell that you don't trust me to redeem, that you think my hand is shortened.

That actually is like an expression which means I couldn't afford to buy you back.

You're saying God couldn't, God couldn't afford to pay the price.

The one who created all things, who owns the sheep on a thousand hills, couldn't afford to buy back his nation, this small, the smallest of all nations.

So he's saying, You didn't come when I called because you didn't believe in my strength.

You thought my hand was sh was shortened.

You you believe I do not have the power to deliver.

So this is the context of this hero song: a survey of the nation of Israel, and no one comes out of it to fit the mold of who the hero is.

We know this.

This is where our cynicism and our skepticism comes from.

This is why when we see someone acting heroically, we we go, nah, I don't know about that.

That's a little repulsive.

We use words to describe it like toxic.

That's toxic.

Why?

Well, if you really hitch your wagon to it, you'd realize you'll be betrayed later on.

That same thing that you're rallying for could turn on you.

So God calls out Israel, and no man comes from the ranks.

There is no hero present.

You can picture Goliath standing on the other side of the valley, shouting, send forth your best, and the whole nation of Israel stands there and says, I'm not gonna go.

I'm not gonna go fight that guy.

There's no hero present.

Now, from that context, we fe we see our hero, the servant of the Lord.

And the first thing that we see about him is that he is a willing disciple.

He goes when he is called by the Lord.

Isaiah 50, verse 4.

Isaiah 50:4

The Lord God has given me.

The text switches to this first person, and the way that it unfolds, we're thinking, who is this person that uh Isaiah is now speaking as?

And later on, it's revealed that this is the servant of the Lord, the one that Isaiah has seasoned throughout his book.

So the Lord 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.

Now, the word taught is the word for disciple.

He has awakened this disciple of the Lord.

This is why I'm saying that he is a willing disciple.

We see that the servant is given, he has the words to sustain a weary heart.

See, this is what a hero does.

He says things like, I'm coming.

And it sustains the weary hearts of Colorado football fans.

Because we need that word, but where does that word come from?

It comes from he has listened to the Lord.

The Lord, morning after morning, has awakened him.

Morning after morning.

Now, this means that when we when we hear that he's been given the word of the Lord, that he's been given the word to strengthen a weary heart, don't think of this like uh, you know, walking into an old cave and dusting off an old book and saying, okay, here it is.

Here's here's the word to say here.

This is something which is awakened every morning for the servant.

It's like how do God comes into the servant and like wake wakes him like a child.

Says, I it's time to wake up again.

I have I have the words for you.

The words for today are here for you.

This is a relational, continual dwelling together, so that the servant is formed.

The will of the servant is formed by the presence of God, so that his will becomes the will of the Lord and is shared with us.

Now, the text goes on, and it says in uh verse 5, The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward.

So the Lord has been speaking to the nation of Israel.

That's Isaiah's whole ministry is to go out to the nation of Israel and share the words of the Lord.

But when the Lord gives a command, he creates this moment for the human hearer.

And now there are options.

There's an option of conforming your will to the will of the Lord, but there's also the option of rebellion.

And we hear that this servant does not rebel against the Lord as the rest of Israel has.

But this servant instead doesn't turn his back but goes towards what the Lord is calling him to.

The servant does not rebel.

You know, if you if you have my my daughter, when we we decided to name her Mabel, and then we started saying, Mabel, Mabel on the table before she was born, well, that was a bad idea because now every dinner she gets on the table, and when she climbs on the table, she's looking around, and she's a fighter.

Uh and when when I say, Mabel, it's time to get off the table, I know that I'm creating a moment.

If I said nothing, we would probably finish the meal in in peace.

But it's not a good habit to sit on tables while you're eating.

So I'm trying to be a father, you know.

So I create this moment by saying, Don't get on the table.

And there's an option.

She can now rebel, or she can conform her will to the will of her father and sit in the booster seat, which we bought her, and she claims to love.

Listen to what our servant goes towards.

Listen to how willing he is.

Verse 6.

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.

You know, I'm calling my daughter to a more enjoyable meal.

This servant, when he is called to follow the Lord, is being called into torture, abuse, disgrace, humiliation.

And the servant says, I turned not my back.

I was called by the Lord to this, I will enter into it.

These words are pulled from this letter throughout the Gospels to describe the moments leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus, where his beard is pulled out.

That's just torture.

He's tied, his hands are bound, and his back is whipped.

That he's spit on and he's humiliated, pressed as low as a human can go.

But look at the way the servant describes it.

He doesn't say, I was put in a situation where I was humiliated.

I was dragged against my will to have my beard torn out.

My pride and all that was good about me was taken from me.

No, he says, I gave.

I gave.

I gave my back to those who strike.

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

I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

Look at your hero.

Look at your hero who goes into the pain and suffering.

He is not manipulated into it.

He is a willing, willing disciple of the Lord.

He goes willingly.

And secondly, as we move into the second stanza, he is strong in his righteousness.

Isaiah 50, verse 7 says, But the Lord God helps me.

Isaiah 50:7

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.

Do you see the strangeness of these verses being back to back?

I gave my back to be beaten.

I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

And then here, but the Lord helps me, therefore I have not been disgraced.

How is it that the one who is being disgraced, where all of the actions that we can come up with to disgrace him are being laid upon him, are being laid upon him, and he says, In that I am not disgraced.

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

Now remember what the call of God to Israel was in verse two?

I I called to you and no one came.

Did you think my hand was shortened?

Well, the servant says, I will enter into that which is most disgraceful, and I know that in that place the Lord is able to redeem.

In that place the Lord is able to show that I will not be disgraced.

In the place of walking willingly into shame, I will not be put to shame.

Look at the faith of the servant.

Look at the trust he has in the Lord's ability to provide and rescue.

He is heroic because of his because of his faith in the strength of the Lord.

He says his face was set like a flint.

In Luke 9, uh he bar Luke borrows this language to describe Jesus walking towards Jerusalem, where he would be crucified.

And he says his face was set towards Jerusalem.

It's just a borrowing of this phrase.

Now his face was set like a flint.

Flint was the hardest rock that uh was in the Near East at this time and still.

So if you were to uh smooth out or shape or mold another type of rock like limestone, you would use flint.

And when you hit that rock with the flint, the flint's shape wouldn't change.

It is the hard one, the unchanging one, the steadfast one.

But all else would change around it.

So Jesus is saying, the servant is saying, I have set my face towards this suffering so that no matter what rocks you pile on me, I will be unchanged.

No matter what is offered to me, and we see this in Jesus' ministry at the very beginning.

You know, Satan gets word, he's after this kingdom of heaven thing.

Oh, kingdom.

I will offer him all the kingdoms of the world, and he won't have to suffer to receive them.

No, but Jesus' face was set like a flint.

Imagine a hero that you could trust.

A hero that you could send into the battle and be confident that they wouldn't be swayed, that they wouldn't be changed.

This is what our hero is.

His face was set like a flint.

Verses eight through nine.

We see the source of this strength.

He who vindicates me is near.

Who will contend with me?

Let us stand up together.

I want you to hear this is like I want you to hear the grit and intensity in this.

This is a this is a he, you know, he this is a a battle cry of a hero warrior.

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.

There's words that I want to say to describe this that I shouldn't say in church.

But words, but the these are if you were to watch this in a movie, it would it would totally put a battery in your back.

And you'd leave the movie theater and you'd, you know, because when we watch movies about heroes, we don't watch the movie and identify with the people whose buildings are being destroyed.

You feel like the hero when you leave the movie.

That's why the last James Bond movie was miserable, because when you walked out of the theater, you didn't feel like James Bond because he was, you know, dead.

That's giveaway the ending.

And the whole point of a James Bond movie is to walk out of the movie feeling like James Bond.

Not, you know, feeling like, oh, James Bond's dead.

So that was a miss.

You need to hear this.

Jesus stands there and says, Who will contend with me?

Stand before me.

Who's my adversary?

Come near.

Now, what is the source of that strength?

The ability to stand before any enemy and know that he will be victorious.

What is the source of that strength?

The Lord God helps me.

Who will declare me guilty?

This is why his strength is in his righteousness.

Because there is no one that can stand before him and condemn him before the Lord.

When shame is brought against him, it will always fall flat.

When there is a just claim made against him, it will always prove false.

That's not true of us.

We can always be taken down.

There is always something unrighteous in you which can be demonstrated and show you shouldn't be the hero.

It's dangerous for you to be acting like that.

But this hero is absolutely righteous.

He's absolutely righteous.

So he stands in the strength of his righteousness before the Lord.

This is the hero that we need.

He says of his enemies, Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment.

The moth will eat them up.

Wear out like a garment.

They don't have the fortitude.

They don't have the strength of character.

They don't have the faithfulness to continue.

They're eaten up like moths on the outside.

They don't have, they aren't protected.

Those pains of life will just wear them away and they will go away and be gone, like the other rocks that are hit against a flint.

But our servant will remain.

And then lastly, he is not afraid of the dark.

And we are called to listen to and obey this servant.

It shows the text says this, Isaiah 59, verse 10.

Isaiah 59:10

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.

Do you fear the Lord?

Obey the voice of his servant.

What's being shown here is that the voice of the servant and the voice of the Lord are the same.

That the willing obedience of the servant shows a marriage of wills between God and the servant.

And that we are to obey him as he is absolutely righteous and worthy of being obeyed.

Now, what do we do?

The servant lays before us a pattern of light and darkness.

Now it's a strange pattern because this is the pattern that the servant will walk.

Now, when the Bible lays before us a pattern of light and darkness, you can take a pretty safe bet and say, you will soon be called to walk in the light and not walk in the darkness.

This one shows just the opposite.

It says, 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.

Our servant is not afraid of the dark.

Our servant is the one who enters into the absolute darkness, and he trusts the Lord to meet him there.

This is the servant that you need.

You need this servant for your own heart.

Sometimes I am appalled by the darkness that I find within myself, by the deceit and the proclivity to sin that I find resting within me.

Should I just hide forever?

Is this proof once again that I am just as faithless as I ever was, and that the gospel has not taken root in me?

That's one option.

Or there do I say, I need the servant, the one who fears no darkness, to come into this darkness with me and show the faithfulness of the Lord in this place.

If we know ourselves and if we understand the reality of our situation is that we are Israel in verse 2, when God says, I called to you and no one came.

We need a hero who meets those people.

The Marvel superheroes go and die for the innocent civilians, the innocent and property damaged civilians.

Our servant goes into the darkness on behalf of those who, when called, abandoned him, on behalf of the ones who are pulling out his beard and whipping his back and saying we're taking from him.

And he says, No, no, I'm giving it to you.

That is our servant.

He is not afraid of the darkness.

Why?

Because he trusts in the name of the Lord and he relies on his God.

Our servant is the one who stands in our place, and where we do not trust in the name of the Lord.

He trusted.

Abandon me and there is death.

I give you these two pathways.

And we walked the pathway of death, abandoning the promise of God.

The servant is the one who the Lord holds out to him.

Obey me, and you will get death and humiliation for your perfect obedience.

Disobey me, and you might preserve your life.

And his faithfulness was such that he went in absolute obedience to the Lord even unto death for his enemies like us.

There is no other hero like this.

This is the maximal hero.

This is the end of all hero stories.

It is the ultimate and most complete of all possible hero stories.

What other story is there left to tell after you tell the one about the man who didn't just die for those who loved him, but who died for his enemies?

There's no hero story beyond that.

The text ends with this warning.

Verse 11.

So he says, If you follow him, walk into the darkness, and trust that the Lord will meet you there.

Here's the other option.

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.

We try and concoct all kinds of ways to avoid the reality of the darkness that we must face.

Whether we numb ourselves out with social media or alcohol, or if we create hostility in relationships that don't need it, if we distance ourselves from the ones that we ought to be giving ourselves to, we try and kindle these own these own lights.

If we start measuring ourselves by things that aren't righteousness, that's described in scripture, but instead we say, well, look, my my job's going so well, I must be doing something right.

We light these torches.

We say, these will be bright enough for me in the dark.

But what's promised from the hand of God is that we will lie down in torment.

Lie down in torment.

Now, this is probably one of those texts of scripture that some might hear and gawk at, but it's but it's also like one of the most empirically provable texts of scripture.

Look at our world walking by its own light.

Who is lying down in peace?

But the Christian, the one who follows the servant, follows the one who says, even in this darkness, even amidst this darkness, I know that the Lord is faithful.

I know that my hero's face is set like a flint.

And then you're taught where to look for your hero.

And as you see the heroes of our world rise and then fall, your face can be set on him.

As you see your own heart rise and then fall, you keep your face set on him, our true hero.

We have a true hero in Jesus.

Now this was all prophecy.

It was a hope to be extended onto the future.

We look back and see he gave his face, he gave his back, he gave his life, he experienced the rejection, he bore the pain of death on behalf of us, and three days later he rose again because of the faithfulness of God.

We are freed in him.

Our hero has been victorious.

Look to your hero.

Look to your hero.