Isaiah 42:1–9

Introduction

This year we have been going through the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew where Jesus is giving his people their new marching orders (as it were). He is sharing with them, sharing with us, our identity both as sinners who have not been living out our identity rightly, and also our identity as those who now have a great hope through faith in Jesus. And we have talked many times about the imagery here in the Sermon on the Mount and how we are seeing many aspects that are like Moses receiving the law at Sinai. God, showing up, speaking to his people from a mountain, that they might know him and know his love for them. Jesus is giving us insight and rules that describe his very character and the new character his people should be having.

And I venture to say that many of us might be receiving the Sermon on the Mount LIKE the law. It feels binding. It feels like unmet expectations. It feels like a reality we could never live up to. It is an identity that seems so far away it is discouraging to even think about it. It may feel like standing next to an Olympic athlete and feeling like that is the expectation people have for you. Perfect human specimens who seem so far away from us mere mortals.

It is a common experience of Christians to feel like we are failing when we read and hear of the holiness of God. We see people fall to their knees in the presence of God in Scripture not only because of the surprise of meeting God, but also because of his otherness, his grandness, his HOLINESS. He is very different from us, and we can be overwhelmed sometimes when we see the gap between who we are and who he is. We can similarly be overwhelmed when we see the gap between who we are today and who we were meant to be.

Yet, that isn’t the goal God has in revealing himself to us. He doesn’t want us to despair! Certainly, we are to see our differences from God and our distance from our designed purpose, but he only wants us to know JOY when we know his holiness and what he is calling us to be in right relationship with him.

If you and I don’t rightly perceive God and his love for us when we see his holiness in Scripture, that is a problem with us, not God. And I think for many of us the problem is the image of God that we have in our mind when we hear his words in Scripture, and that causes us problems. We hear God tainted by our own expectations and perfectionism. We hear him through the demanding words of our parents. We hear him with the disappointment we have heard from other friends when we have failed them. That might be part of how you are hearing the Sermon on the Mount—with demanding expectations, disappointment, perfectionism.

When we come to sections like the Sermon on the Mount, we should only hear the identity that Jesus is calling us to as JOY! And if we are missing that, I believe we likely have a misconception of our God and the heart behind how he is saying these identity statements here in Matthew. We have imported our experiences and thoughts and put them on god, and rather need to better understand our God and the smile that is on his face as he shares this identity and his character with us.

That is my goal this morning and over this next series—to help us see part of God’s character that—I believe—is crucial for us to hear these identity statements of the Sermon on the Mount correctly and to see and know God rightly as we ponder our new identity in Jesus. To help us see God’s joy in serving us and loving us.

And I’m going to take us to the place everyone would have expected: Isaiah! 

Isaiah Overview

I say that in jest because I doubt most people would say we should go to the Old Testament to see more about the heart of God that would encourage us towards JOY. We often have a misconception that God in the Old Testament is really an angry God and then the nice God Jesus shows up in the New Testament. People would think if we want to see more about a helpful characteristic of God that we should go to a Gospel or a letter in the New Testament.  Instead, we are diving into Isaiah this morning and next several weeks through Easter and also several weeks after Easter. And there is a reason why we should connect Matthew with Isaiah—but more on that in a minute.

That said, you may need to know a little more about Isaiah as it is a book with sixty-six chapters and one that many of us don’t have a complete understanding of. 

This book starts out clear enough: 

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
(Isaiah 1:1, ESV)

Isaiah has had a vision from God, and as prophets are supposed to do, he recorded it and shared it. He recorded it originally for those the vision was immediately for—and in this case the vision is primarily for the people of the kingdom of Judah and for two of their kings in particular: Ahaz and Hezekiah.

And already, some of us may be confused. You might say to yourself, “I thought Judah was one of the tribes of Israel, not its own kingdom? I thought ISRAEL was the nation that had kings?” That is true. Judah is one of the twelve tribes of the people of Israel. Israel was one nation that had kings who ruled over all the twelve tribes. Yet, after King Solomon, the kingdom split apart.

         Map

Not at all confusingly, the norther part of the kingdom continued to use the name “Israel” even though it wasn’t the whole kingdom anymore. This northern kingdom included only ten tribes after the split: Asher, Dan, Ephraim, Gad, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, and Zebulun. The southern half of the kingdom became known as the kingdom of Judah and was comprised mostly of the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin.

After Solomon’s reign and the kingdom splits apart—the new ten-tribe Israel in the north and Judah in the south—what we see through most of Scripture is a story of Israel’s descent. Much of the book of 1&2 Kings and 1&2 Chronicles is walking us through the downward spiral of God’s Israel as both the people and the leaders choose to walk away from God. Yes, there are moments where things pause when a good king comes on the scene and leads God’s people back to God. Things stop moving down and God seems pleased to pause any promises of punishment for the moment. But it doesn’t take long before God’s people and kings are back to serving idols.

As we get to the prophet Isaiah, we are nearing the end of the story for the northern kingdom of “Israel.” During his time of prophesying that nation will be taken away into captivity by the Assyrians. In some ways, the kings of Judah had been doing better than the kings of Israel, but the writing seemed to be on the wall in Isaiah’s prophesies. Judah was also beginning to look away from Yahweh quite regularly and Isaiah foresaw their full rebellion against God.

If we were to make an over-simplified outline of Isaiah, it could look like this:

Chapters 1-39

·     What: Prophecies about the 8th century kingdom of Judah and the Assyrian threat.

·     Audience: God’s rebellious people craving worldly security

·     Action Taken: God purifies a remnant of his rebellious people through judgment

·     “In returning and rest you shall be saved;…but you were unwilling” (30:15)

Chapters 40–55

·     What: Prophecies about the 6th century kingdom of Judah and the Babylonian exile.

·     Audience: God’s defeated people under domination of the worldly nations

·     Action Taken: God consoles his discouraged people in exile

·     “the glory of the LORD shall be revealed.” (40:5)

Chapters 56–66

·     What: Prophecies about all times and occasions until the end

·     Audience: All who hold fast to God’s covenant

·     Action Taken: God prepares all his true people for his promised salvation

·     “Keep justice, and do righteousness.” (56:1)

We start by seeing that God is kind to warn his people in the 8th century (around 740BC) of the problem of partnering with the Assyrians and the Egyptians—nations around them—instead of relying on Yahweh alone. This is in chapters 1–39. God’s people are clearly desiring to find security in their own plans and alliances with the world and not with Yahweh. Both kings Ahaz and Hezekiah try to lead their people to alliances with the world and not trust in God alone. Ahaz is thwarted by God, and Hezekiah finally relents and trusts God and sees ultimately how God provides. And we see in these chapters that God tells his people he will judge them for these sins, not to harm them, but to purify them. Isaiah 30:15 is an emblematic verse of what God continually says in this first part of the book: “In returning and rest you shall be saved;…but you were unwilling”

What is amazing to note is that the visions of Isaiah don’t just stop there. God did not just have the prophet Isaiah sharing his words for the people of Judah of his day and to judge them. God was speaking to more people and more situations than just this. The next group God was speaking to through Isaiah’s visions was the future kingdom of Judah—people who would live more than 100-200 years later in the sixth century when the southern kingdom of Judah would be taken into exile into Babylon. We see this in chapters 40–55. God was kind to give his people words through Isaiah that, when they were under the judgement he promised and in captivity under the world they so desperately wanted to find protection in, they would be able to look back and see God’s plans for them, they could see where they failed, and they could see God’s promises. God consoles his people ahead of time knowing the problems they would face. That is incredibly gracious! Isaiah 40:5 is emblematic of this section of the book: “the glory of the LORD shall be revealed.” God is not thwarted by the captivity of his people in Babylon. It is part of his plan to preserve and prepare a remnant for the future and show his glory in all he does.

And lastly, Isaiah is also writing to all of God’s people across all of time—including us today. In chapters 56–66 we largely see prophecies that are for all times and occasions until God final brings about the new heavens and the new earth. God is speaking to all the people who hold fast to his covenant, and he is promising that he will prepare them for salvation. Isaiah 56:1 is emblematic of this section and God’s call to his people: “Keep justice, and do righteousness.”

Application

Friends, even the structure of Isaiah is a great application for us today. We don’t often see this as clearly as we can see here in Isaiah how God is speaking not only to the original audience in Scripture, but also to Christians throughout history! That is the amazing beauty of God’s living word. Because God spoke to us through a living, true story and revealed his character to us through this story, he can speak to us today as much as to the original Israelites. This is why we read and love the Old Testament! It shows us so much about God and so much about ourselves. WE are VERY like Israel! And our God has been even more gracious and kind to us than we see here.

Main Street, go to the Old Testament expecting to find God speaking to YOU! He is doing that even now, today.

King, Servant, Conqueror

In addition to Isaiah’s visions for Judah’s kings, the people of Judah, the future Judah in captivity, and God’s people even today, when we look at Isaiah’s visions, we also see another storyline emerging. It’s like one of those movies where the director brings in many actors at the beginning, and it is hard to see who the main character is or the main storyline. But as time progresses, you begin to realize who the whole story is about.

That is happening here in Isaiah’s prophecies. From the beginning it seems like this is mostly about Judah and their failure, God’s judgement, and their future exile. It is about that storyline. But there is a figure that begins to emerge in all Isaiah is saying and we begin to notice that this character, this person, is the more important story amidst these prophecies.

King

The first way we see this main character begin to emerge is through the image of a king. Now in the beginning we can see that Isaiah is speaking to earthly kings, and specifically the kings of the kingdom of Judah: King Ahaz and King Hezekiah. That is part of what makes this confusing in Isaiah—there are multiple characters and images that are similar. But in addition to the two main kings of Judah there is another king that we begin to see. We can see this king begin to emerge in Isaiah 9:6–7 and 11:1–10.

This king starts as a child that is given to his people in Isaiah 9. We are told his name will be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. This surely is royalty! He will rule over all people and places, and he will bring with him justice and righteousness.

We see in Isaiah 11 that he is a shoot from the stump of Jesse. That is interesting! He is not from “David,” which is what you would expect to hear, but instead we are told he is from “Jesse,” seeming to say that he is a NEW David, one who will do more and better than David. Where all these other kings have failed, he will not fail.

He is also like a living, walking temple. Where before it was the tabernacle and the temple that had God’s very presence upon it—hovering over it and in it—this time it will be a king, a man, who will have God’s spirit.

And because of this king, all of creation will be changed. Lions and lambs will be with one another in peace: it will all be different. He becomes a rallying point for all the nations to have hope in God.

We see this image of the king continue on throughout the first part of Isaiah, especially later in Isaiah 36 and 39.  

Conqueror

Much later in the book of Isaiah, we see the image of this king morph a little to be seen as a conqueror. That is somewhat to be expected. We often think of Kings as conquerors, riding to glory and victory as they challenge their enemies. Jesus later reads from this section of Isaiah 61 that says “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” The language here of anointing is the word Messiah—God’s anointed conqueror.

This understanding of Messiah is what we see the Jews in the New Testament are still looking for: they are looking for the Messiah to come as a conqueror, to overthrow the Roman rule, and to make them God’s special people again. They want this even if they really don’t care about serving God. They want the power and prestige of God, not the position of relationship with God. 

We can understand why Israel & Judah—God’s people taken away into exile in the future after Isaiah is prophesying and still in a type of exile under Roman rule in Jesus’s day—would want to hear about a king and a conqueror. A new ruler and God’s messiah. They want someone to come and conquer the Babylonians and the Romans that they might get out from under the rule of the worldly nations they previously longed to partner with.  This was the image they would want to latch onto, and did, for over 400 years.  

Servant

Yet in between these two images God used another image. This King who would also be a Conqueror is shown another way. We begin to see that this character is also called a Servant. In fact, it is telling that in Isaiah the image is first the king, then a servant, then a conqueror. There is purpose in the order.  

This image of a servant is also a little confusing, just like the image of the king was confusing. We see another servant talked about in Isaiah—God’s servant Israel. Yet when Isaiah talking about Israel as a servant, the term servant is plural, and when he talks about these plural servants—the nation—it always is talking about how bad they are and how they are failing (Isaiah 42:18, 19–20, 22).

But there is another servant—a singular servant. We see this one servant show up in Isaiah 40–53, and he is mentioned about 20 times. Whenever he is talked about, it is only about the blessings and very presence of God that he brings to God’s people. Isaiah talks about his love for God and the covenant that he brings with him. Interestingly, something happens in Isaiah 53 (we will talk about that in a couple of weeks). After Isaiah 53 this singular, good servant somehow brings about plural servants again, but this time, they rightly serve God!

Connecting to Matthew & Sermon on the Mount

So here we have Isaiah, prophesying to the southern kingdom of Judah. The kings are failing. The people are serving idols. The kingdom of Israel is about to be taken away into captivity. Isaiah sees on the horizon that in years down the road Judah will also be taken away as well to Babylon. 

And yet, in the background, we see this figure beginning to emerge. A person to comfort the people. A person who will show God’s people his very nature and character. We might expect this first image, the image of the good king. Where all of God’s kings are currently failing, God promises a king who will judge the bad kings, rule with righteousness, and care for God’s people. We also might expect a conqueror, one who like God would conquer evil and make sure goodness, justice, and righteousness prevails.

Yet even here, in the Old Testament, we see that God wants to give his people more. Before God shows his people a conqueror he wants to show them a servant. While God’s people are about to be carried away into captivity, he wants them to be thinking about his servant who would come to serve THEM. THAT is unexpected! That was STILL unbelievable to a Jewish people who couldn’t understand Jesus as the Messiah King who would serve them BEFORE he conquered his enemies. But praise God this is how God chose to love us!

God wants his people to see HOPE in a despairing moment. He wants them to see his LOVE amid suffering and tragedy. He wants them to see the Gospel. In fact, Isaiah is the first place in the Old Testament that we see the language of the gospel show up associated with this person: Isaiah talks about the good news that this king, this servant, this conqueror will bring in Isaiah 41:27; 52:7; 61:1.

We turn in this series to Isaiah and note that it is MATTHEW who quotes Isaiah more than any other gospel writer. In fact, the only other New Testament book that quotes Isaiah more is the letter to the Romans. As Matthew is recording all that Jesus is saying and preaching, as he is recording for us the Sermon on the Mount, in the back of his mind is all that Isaiah is saying about this King, this Conqueror, and this Servant. In fact, I think it is the image of Jesus as our Servant that is largest in Matthew’s mind. Twenty percent of Matthew’s quotes or allusions from Isaiah are specifically about this servant image. What we see here in Isaiah is the beautiful image of the servant that Matthew sees before him every day as Jesus lives, loves, and preaches to the people of Israel.

Matthew is not seeing a God who is mad at him nor his people. He is not seeing a God who wants to chastise his people at every turn, nor is he hearing the Sermon on the Mount coming from someone who wants to make us feel bad when we hear what he is sharing. Matthew is seeing JOY in Jesus in this moment, and he sees in Jesus the vision of God’s servant that promised in Isaiah. He is seeing the very Servant God!

And it is Matthew’s connection with the servant who is coming that leads us to Isaiah in the middle of our series in Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount. I think you and I need to have this image of our God—of Jesus—as our servant as we are studying the Sermon on the Mount.

In Isaiah, we call these sections about the promised servant the Servant Songs, and there are four distinct sections that speak about the servant aspect of our Messiah King, our Lord Jesus:

         Servant Song 1: Isaiah 42:1–9

         Servant Song 2: Isaiah 49:1–13

         Servant Song 3: Isaiah 50:4–11

         Servant Song 4: Isaiah 52:13–53:12

This is the Jesus we need to be thinking about as we ponder our identity as God’s people now as those who have faith in Jesus.

Servant Song 1

Each of these Servant Songs declare to us the beautiful nature of our servant God, Jesus. And each one has layers that weave between each section and connects them. This morning, I want us to start by looking at the first Servant Song from Isaiah 42:1–9. Many of these images will come back gain in later songs and we will focus on different aspects next week and the week after that. This morning, we will primarily focus on just Isaiah 42:1-4. I think this is a great introduction to why we need this image of God’s Servant from Isaiah as we work through the Sermon on the Mount. This morning, what I pray we see in this servant is:

Jesus the Self-Forgetting and Long-Suffering Servant

Look at this first beautiful picture of Jesus here in Isaiah’s first servant song:

Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.

Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.
(Isaiah 42:1–9, ESV)

Let’s start with just this first section, versus 1–4. Look at what God says here about his servant, Jesus.

First, we see that God says that he upholds, has chosen, and delights in this servant. This servant is quite different from any other that we have seen before in Scripture. God not only has hand-picked this servant (chosen him), but he looks on this servant and he delights in him. That means all that this servant will do will be pleasing to God. He will walk perfectly before God and will bring God joy. Even more so, God has promised to uphold him. To keep him walking in these pleasing ways.  

And God upholds him by placing his spirit upon him.  As we have already mentioned this when we were talking about Isaiah 9 and 11 and the image of the king earlier: This servant gets God very spirit placed upon him. The image Israel would have associated with this is the very glory of God that went before them in the wilderness, the very glory of God that sat over the tabernacle and temple, and the glory of God that filled the Holy of Holies. That very presence of God would be ON this servant. He not only acts pleasing to God, but he has God himself on and in him. This is indeed a unique servant.

And as a good servant he does what God has always asked for and what Israel and Judah desperately need—this servant brings forth justice. Bringing forth justice means he will make sure God’s righteous ways are not only done but that those who do not do his ways will receive the punishment they deserve. This is what Israel and Judah would be feeling acutely in captivity. Especially the remnant who served and loved Yahweh, they would want to see justice done not only for them but also against their enemies.

Yet, surprisingly, this servant is also for the nations. The very people who were holding Israel in captivity. He is coming that they too might be served. That they too might see and know God’s justice. This idea of the “coastlands wait for his law” is showing how God’s mission is going global. This servant is not something just for Israel—he is for all God’s people everywhere!

Each of these aspects are something Isaiah has shared before as he shares his vision and specifically when he talks about the image of the king. The king is also one who is God’s chosen one, the one who has his spirit, and who will be for the nations. This servant is truly a new David who truly has a heart for God and who is there here to serve God’s people. Yet he doesn’t just stop at God’s national people—Israel. He goes out to all of God’s people.

The Self-Forgetting, Long Suffering Servant

Those are some amazing characteristics of this servant, and we will see in later servant songs just how great Jesus’s righteousness and justice are. How much God is pleased with him. And how broad his reach is to the nations. But this morning, I want us to note HOW this servant comes. This isn’t just a passage about WHAT the servant is doing, but rather HOW he is doing it. Note what Isaiah says here:

He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; 

This is not just telling us facts about a servant who comes to serve God and who comes to serve us, but Isaiah is also telling us how he is coming to serve us. We are to see here:

Jesus the Self-Forgetting and Long-Suffering Servant

Self-Forgetting

The image here is interesting. Note that Isaiah says this servant “doesn’t cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.” That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t speak, but rather he isn’t making it all about himself. He is here for you and me. Yes, we need to know he is king. Yes, we need to bow our knee to his rule and reign. We need him to tell us much about the character of God and our purpose and identity. But as this self-forgetting servant he came that he might make much of us and our condition.

He comes as a self-forgetting servant because you and I need help. We are not nearly as strong and able as we would like to imagine. In Jesus’s second coming he will make much about himself as the king and the conqueror. First, he comes to serve us that we might be made ready.

The image here is one you likely know well. Matthew quotes this section of Isaiah in Matthew 12:18–21 as he talks about Jesus’s healing ministry.

…a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth…
(Matthew 12:18–21, ESV)

You and I are often the bruised reed or the faintly burning wick. The image of a bruised reed is a stick of grass that has been bent, so it keeps falling over. It has been hit or buffeted by something and therefore can’t stand upright on its own anymore. Expand. It doesn’t do what a reed should do and stand up tall above the waters. Similarly, a faintly burning wick is one that seems to almost be going out. A faint glimmer of orange that seems like it could go out at any moment. It is a candle that does not give great light. It seems to be failing at being a candle. Expand.  

Jesus knows this is who you and I are. Matthew has seen again and again that Jesus is not here to make you nor I feel bad that we are sinners and those who need help. In fact, he is the one who has come for us—those who need him:

Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. (Matthew 9:12–13, ESV)

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28–30, ESV)

Application

We have talked many times throughout the Sermon on the Mount about our identity. We are told who we are, and sometimes that feels hard. It may seem like you and I don’t often match the identity that we see in the Sermon on the Mount. Maybe we don’t see our identity in any of the images Jesus gives us in the Sermon on the Mount. We feel like we can’t measure up and never will. Like we can’t be the person who God wants us to be and never will.

Jesus knows that is how we feel—in fact, if we follow the imagery here, he knows that we are usually not quite the reeds we should be nor the brightly burning candle that can light ANY way or path! Jesus sees this ABOUT us and KNOWS us. That is his self-forgetful part as the perfect Servant of God. He came as the very king of the universe and has every right to expect you and I—his creation—will rightly honor him and give him glory as our God and live perfectly the image of his glory that he made us to be. Yet he comes knowing how broken we are. He comes, first, to serve us. He makes much of our weakness and predicament and comes to serve US!

The author and pastor Dane Ortland looks at this self-forgetting characteristic of Jesus and calls it “Gentle & Lowly.” He says of Jesus

Meek. Humble. Gentle. Jesus is not trigger-happy. Not harsh, reactionary, easily exasperated. He is the most understanding person in the universe. The posture most natural to him is not a pointed finger but open arms.

Dane Ortlund, Gentle & Lowly

Where do you feel like you can’t match up to your identity today? We have talked about many aspects of our life so far in the Sermon on the Mount, from our heart of purity and peacemaking to our witnessing to those around us to prayer and fasting. What aspects of that identity feel so far away that you are tempted to despair? Perhaps it is particularly in the sin you still have. Where do you feel like you are sinning in ways that mean God can’t possibly love YOU? Main Street, remember that Jesus came to serve exactly that version of you—he came to serve you where you are today. He is THE self-forgetful servant to you and I and only wants us to know he is beckoning to you and I to come to him—even in these areas. To return to Dane Ortlund again:

We all tend to have some small pocket of our life where we have difficulty believing the forgiveness of God reaches. We say we are totally forgiven. And we sincerely believe our sins are forgiven. Pretty much, anyway. But there's that one deep, dark part of our lives, even our present lives, that seems so intractable, so ugly, so beyond recovery. "To the uttermost" in Hebrews 7:25 mean [that] God's forgiving, redeeming, restoring touch reaches down into the darkest crevices of our souls, those places where we are most ashamed, most defeated. More than this: those crevices of sin are themselves the places where Christ loves us the most. His heart willingly goes there. His heart is most strongly drawn there. He knows us to the uttermost, and he saves us to the uttermost, because his heart is drawn out to us to the uttermost. We cannot sin our way out of his tender care.

Dane Ortlund, Gentle & Lowly

That is the heart of our self-forgetting servant God, our Lord Jesus! He enters into our insufficiencies, our sin, and our brokenness, and wants to serve you.

Long-Suffering

And it gets even better than that! Not only is Jesus self-forgetful but he is also long-suffering. God promises he will not tire of the process of our growth even when you and I tire of it. Even when we despair of the process of our excruciatingly slow growth, God will not despair.

There is some beautiful language going on here that is a little harder to track in English. In the Hebrew we are meant to notice the connection between the phrase “bruised reed” and “he will not…be discouraged.”  We are also meant to notice the connection between the phrase “faintly burning wick” and the phrase “he will not grow faint.” Those pairs are the same words. That has amazing implications for me and you!

Where we may feel bruised—discouraged—Jesus will never become discouraged. He will not become discouraged by our sins nor the need to continue to serve and care for us. Expand…perfect friends of Job, marathon runner. And where we may flicker faintly, Jesus will never faint at the prospect of caring for us and saving us. He will remain strong and bright where we may fade. Expand – Jesus lights the way for us.

That is amazing! Our God holds us up when we fall. Our God cheers us on and carries us forward where we despair. Not only does Jesus call us to come to himself, not only are we to find that he is here to serve us—even serve us in our deepest, darkest sins—but we are to see that he is there helping us even when we cannot help ourselves.

Application

Israel missed this servant. Their exile to Assyria and Babylon was filled with a God who came alongside them and continued to uphold them even as they traveled into the darkness their sin brought in their life. God was with them in the exile and God was with them in the very person of Jesus. God did not abandon Israel, and he is not abandoning you.

Main Street, where do you need to see this long-suffering God? Have you wrongly become convinced that God is tired of your sin and has abandoned you? There is a day that we all have appointed to us to die so we ought not presume on God’s future grace. But while it is still called “today” (as Hebrews 3:15 says) we should see our long-suffering God in Christ Jesus and turn and run to him! He is not only there with open arms waiting for you like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, but he is also walking right along-side you and sustaining you when you couldn’t sustain yourself.

Your servant God, Jesus, is even today encouraging you where you are despairing. Know today the JOY of God that he has in serving you and I this way!

Conclusion

This is the Jesus that Matthew knows from Isaiah and that we should be seeing throughout the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’s sermon is not coming from a harsh task master, demanding that we match up to the expectation nor that we jump over the bar set before us. This is a God who knows who he is talking to, and he comes gentle and lowly, meek and mild, self-forgetting and long-suffering.

Come to Scripture and see this amazing servant of God who came not only to perfectly serve God but to also serve you and me. See:

Jesus the Self-Forgetting and Long-Suffering Servant

You and I are meant to see here in this image of the servant in Isaiah’s first Servant Song a fair evaluation of our weakness. We are meant to see the reality of the God we need to have serve us. And we find surprisingly that where we are weak, he will never be weak. Where we fail, he will only succeed. Where we need help, he is already there helping us. That means we should only hear any statement about our identity as coming from one who bought, secured, and is making true that identity in us even today. Jesus, in all his perfections, is perfectly self-forgetting for me and you in his service and perfectly long-suffering in his walk with us. He will stay with us long after others will give up and he will remain strong for us in our struggles.

Main Street, in this Servant find JOY this morning. Begin to see through Isaiah your God who is also your Servant. Our God who is reminding us of our identity in the Sermon on the Mount is also the God who has lived that identity FOR us, is working that identity IN us, and will make sure that identity IS our reality through his Holy Spirit! In all the areas you are struggling, in all the areas you feel like you are failing to live up to your identity come to your self-forgetting and long-suffering servant!

Communion

Remember in communion this morning this self-forgetting and long-suffering servant.

Benediction

Eph. 3:17-19 - (May) Christ dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.