The Servant of the Lord
Download MP3Our scripture this morning comes from Isaiah chapter 41 verse 27 through chapter 42 verse four. I was the first to say Zion, behold, here they are, and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news. But when I look, there is no one. Among these, there is no counselor. Who, when I ask, gives an answer.
Opening Scripture Reader:Behold, they are all a delusion. Their works mean nothing. Their metal images are empty wind. Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, and whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him.
Opening Scripture Reader: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 the law.
Opening Scripture Reader:This is the word of the Lord. If
Connor Coskery:you would pray with me. Lord, I thank you for for gathering us this morning. There's a lot of things that we could be doing right now. But, Lord, you have gathered your church this morning, this group of souls this morning to pay attention to you. Lord, I I truly believe that you have gathered this group in this place at this time in all of history for your redemptive purposes, and we have come here to hear from you.
Connor Coskery:And so Lord, we pray and we ask, we plead that you would speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. We pray this in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. This morning we're gonna continue our series in Isaiah and we're gonna be focusing our attention on Isaiah 42 verses one through four. Isaiah 42 verses one through four.
Connor Coskery:Isaiah 42 introduces us to the chosen servant of the Lord. This is the first servant song we'll study. But the promised servant from this point forward will occupy our attention as we make our way through Isaiah. Throughout Isaiah, Israel is actually referred to as God's servant. But these songs are set apart because they look forward to an individual servant.
Connor Coskery:An individual servant who will fulfill God's purpose and create a whole new world. They look forward to the Messiah. Now before we dive into the text, I wanna ask you a question. When is the last time that you heard, that's not fair? If you're the parent of a small child or a teenager, you probably heard it this morning.
Connor Coskery:Maybe you even woke up and you said it yourself. You, you know, you had a rough night's sleep. You woke up with a crick in your neck. I'm still recovering from staying up to watch the fireworks with my six year old and my two year old who decided to just wake up the next morning at 05:20AM. You know, that's not fair.
Connor Coskery:It's one of the first phrases we learn, and it's actually one of the most common phrases that we use. Every one of us has said it, and in many ways, society can't stop saying it. Just open your phone and look at social media. Turn on the news, whether it's political fighting across party lines, wars between nations, horrific natural disasters, brokenness in your own family, chronic sickness that maybe you're experiencing or unmet desires, longings, it's easy to wake up each day and say, life just doesn't seem fair. And beneath this cry for fairness is an innate, an inward desire for justice.
Connor Coskery:God has created us to want to experience the world in such a way that it feels unified, that it that it makes sense. But we're all here and we can all say that that's not what we experience. We experience the world in a way that feels disjointed and oftentimes just plain hard. This ache for justice, it hits home for me in a particular way. You know, many of you know, but a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to serve with a group of our students in Yakima, Washington on the Yakima Indian Reservation.
Connor Coskery:Indigenous peoples, alongside them being displaced from the land that they've that they're, you know, passed down from generations, they experience some of the highest rates of substance abuse, suicide, homelessness, unemployment. On the Yakima Reservation alone, the average life expectancy is 39 years old. For a male on the reservation, it's 35 years old. And part of us being there is each afternoon, we'd go to Totus Park, a local housing project, and we would play with kids. And for a couple of hours, we would offer these kids safe play, a snack, and a story about Jesus who loves them.
Connor Coskery:And there is nothing like looking into the eyes of a child who lives in unimaginable brokenness, who didn't choose this kind of life to stir up that cry for justice, for fairness, for healing, for wholeness. Justice is at the heart of our passage this morning. Isaiah will repeat the word justice three times in just four verses in chapter 42. And when Isaiah wrote these words, the nation of Israel, they desired justice. They'd been in exile for a long time.
Connor Coskery:They wanted to be rescued. They wanted to go home. Isaiah 41, it gives us, some context describing how in response to this desire for justice, this desire to be rescued, Israel sold out to idols. They sold themselves out to these idols hoping that they would change their future. And if you if you start at the beginning of Isaiah 41 and you read it all the way through, it reads like a courtroom scene where God puts the idols of Israel and the nations, He puts them on trial, and the verdict is guilty.
Connor Coskery:God declares them empty, meaningless, and worthless. The idols aren't in control of their future. God is in control. God is orchestrating history. The creator has authority, not things cast in metal or made of wood.
Connor Coskery:Isaiah 41, it ends, and Isaiah 42 begins with the word behold. And anytime we read behold in the Bible, it's it's meant to to grab our attention. We need to pay attention. Something new, something important follows. And here, God says, in the place of these worthless idols that I just declared guilty in chapter 41, I am going to send you a servant who will fully and finally give you the justice your hearts desire.
Connor Coskery:Justice is going to come by way of this chosen servant of the Lord. These servant songs, they're also unique because matched with the New Testament, this chosen servant is unmistakably the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew in his gospel, he quotes Isaiah forty two one through four verbatim. And he does so at a time in Jesus' ministry when the Pharisees, they were trying to destroy him. They were they were starting to get closer and they were trying to catch Jesus, but Jesus kept evading them.
Connor Coskery:And he would evade them, and he would retreat to the outskirts to heal the sick. And all these people in that Jesus was healing, he would then tell them, hey, don't tell anyone about me. Keep my identity a secret. He wanted to make crystal clear that I'm not here to to overthrow the Roman occupation. No.
Connor Coskery:Matthew cites this verse describing Jesus to show who Jesus was and how he came to earth as a humble servant to the Lord with a singular mission. And that mission was to save sinners. So this morning, we're gonna take a deep look at who this servant is and the mission that He came with. And as we unpack these verses, I want you to keep your gaze into the future. It might feel like we've left the exiles in Babylon, but hang with me.
Connor Coskery:What the Israelites saw dimly, we see clearly. God answers the cries for justice with the Messiah. Three points are gonna guide us as we take a closer look at this chosen servant. First, the servant of the Lord, we're gonna see the servant of the Lord is king over His people. He is king over His people.
Connor Coskery:And we'll we'll look at verse one for this. The second is the servant of the Lord heals His people. We'll look at verses two and three for this. And then the third point is the servant of the Lord suffers for His people. Look at verse four.
Connor Coskery:So the servant of Lord is king over His people. He heals His people and He suffers for His people. So let's look at point one. Look with me at chapter 42 verse one. Verse one says, Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights.
Connor Coskery:I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. Before we can understand the mission of the servant, we first need to understand the identity of the servant. Who is God's chosen servant? Who is this servant of the Lord?
Connor Coskery:And what makes Him qualified to bring justice to the nations? Verse one tells us four very important attributes about this servant. God says, behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. We break it down.
Connor Coskery:When we put all of this together, we see that this servant will be dependent on God, chosen and strengthened for a particular purpose. And while at every point as He as He fulfills this purpose, He will be fueled by the delight of the Lord. As I mentioned, Matthew, he quotes this exact verse to show that Jesus came to serve not to be served. But there's one other place where this verse is quoted, and that's at Jesus' baptism. It's there that we're given a key clue about the identity of this chosen servant.
Connor Coskery:So in Matthew chapter three verses sixteen and seventeen, it describes how as Jesus was being baptized, the heavens opened and the spirit of the Lord, it descended like a dove and rested upon Jesus. And then a voice from heaven declared, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. In this declaration over Jesus, it combines two scriptures. First, Psalm two, which is a royal song about the reign of the Lord's Messiah who rules over the earth and receives the nations as a heritage. This is a psalm where it says that the Lord sits on his throne and as the nations rage, he laughs at them in derision.
Connor Coskery:And the second part is Isaiah 42 verse one, the chosen servant of the Lord. See, what you have is you have a a king song matched with a servant song. And what's happening here is that at his baptism, Jesus was declared both the servant and the king. He's the servant king. He's the king from Psalm two in that He has absolute authority.
Connor Coskery:He has the spirit upon Him. As Cole preached several weeks ago, He is supreme. But He's also a servant who emptied Himself to save sinners, who while He holds the universe together by the word of His power, He stoops down to wash poor fishermen's feet. He's drawn to the needy. He's drawn to the outcast, to those who have lost all hope.
Connor Coskery:We see that all throughout his life as he retreats away from the crowds to save the sick and the lost. We can survey history and see many examples of kings bringing justice. Kings by nature, they possess power. They can slay their enemies and they can bring about peace, but power doesn't bring healing. God's people then and God's people now need a king who has authority, but but that king who has that authority, he wields that authority to serve, to heal, to take what is broken and dead and to breathe life into it.
Connor Coskery:Late pastor, Tim Keller, he in a sermon, he once articulated, this apparent paradox of Jesus' identity, in this way. And I quote, He, Jesus, has a supernatural, humanly impossible juxtaposition of seemingly contradicting virtues, end quote. He has a supernatural humanly impossible juxtaposition of seemingly contradicting virtues. In other words, never do we see servants and kings put on the same playing field. Servants do the king's biddings.
Connor Coskery:Kings order servants around. It's only in Jesus where these two roles that seem opposite come together and form a perfect pairing. And it's being this servant king that makes Jesus fit to bring justice to the nations. And this takes us to our second point. Now that we better understand the identity of the servant, we're ready to consider the mission of the servant.
Connor Coskery:And the first part of his mission as the chosen servant of the Lord is to draw near to his people and to heal them. Look with me at verses two and three. Verse two says, 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.
Connor Coskery:We see in these verses that this servant king, he will approach his people with gentleness and tender care. Again, Isaiah is juxtaposing the behavior of an earthly king with that of the servant king. God will use earthly rulers to accomplish His purchase His purposes throughout history, but no ruler is like this chosen servant. Most people in power with their big egos like to draw attention to themselves as they shout down orders. People who shout are either insecure about what they have to say or they're insecure about themselves.
Connor Coskery:And Jesus is neither. He completes his mission because he is entirely sure of who he is and what He has been commissioned to do. He's full of the Spirit. He's chosen. He's at peace in the delight of the Father.
Connor Coskery:And we see throughout His ministry that this posture of quiet confidence, that it's from that posture that he draws near to people who are in desperate need for healing. Isaiah provides two images that really convey the tender care of the servant. And the first image is a bruised reed, he will not break. Now when we read bruised, we probably think of, you know, an abrasion on our arm that after we bump into something, a bluish purple mark appears, but you know, it'll go away a couple days, maybe apply some ice to it, just give it some rest. In Hebrew, the word for bruised means crushed.
Connor Coskery:It means a deep contusion that has injured a vital organ. To be bruised is to receive a death blow where on the surface things might look like they're normal, but internally you're dying. And we don't live in a farming society, so the second part of the image might be lost on us, but a reed is simply a stalk of wheat. So think of a stalk of wheat in a bruised reed as a stalk of wheat that's been bent over at an angle. And and since it's been bent, it doesn't mean that the reed is entirely cut because of the way that it's bent, the grain that sits on the on the top of the reed, it it will no longer produce fruit.
Connor Coskery:It will no longer produce grain again. The other image that Isaiah uses is that of a candle whose flame barely hangs on by a flicker. It's like looking at a campfire who the final embers are still there, but you look at it and you're like, there's no no real reason to try and revive it after that. Church, this is who the servant king draws near to. To the bruised reeds and the faintly burning wicks.
Connor Coskery:To those who are fragile, hopeless, beaten, and battered, and for whatever reason feel like their faith is almost extinct. He's drawn to those who live each day, living as if everything looks like it's okay, but they're actually dying inside. A servant is drawn to those who feel bent at an angle that their faith can never be restored, that they will never bear fruit again. When I read this verse, I can't help but think of the story in Mark's gospel when the bleeding woman, she desperately wants to be healed and she finds her way through the crowd. She just wants to touch Jesus' cloak.
Connor Coskery:And she believes that if she touches his cloak, then she then she'll be healed. And when she does that, what does Jesus do? Do you remember what she does? Jesus looks at her. He doesn't shout.
Connor Coskery:He looks at her and he says, daughter. She's been an outcast for a long time. She's probably it's probably been a long time since she's heard that phrase, that word. He says, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.
Connor Coskery:Be healed. I also think about the time when that desperate father this is also in Mark's gospel, the desperate father, he brings his son who has been who's filled with an unclean spirit. And we learned that that that his son has been has had this spirit for a long time and that since a small boy, the unclean spirit would try and throw him into the fire, into the water, and try to destroy him. And the father, he brings his son to Jesus, having exhausted all of his options. Even the disciples couldn't heal him, and he brings him to him.
Connor Coskery:And he says, Jesus, I believe that you can heal my son. I believe help my unbelief. In both cases, Jesus doesn't shout. And he's resting in that quiet confidence. He isn't put out by these people.
Connor Coskery:These people aren't distracting Jesus from his mission. They are his mission. Jesus has come to heal. He's come to save your feelings of frustration, failure, and injustice. Even when they're directed at God, they don't irritate him.
Connor Coskery:Instead, he promises to draw near to you in love. So before we move on, I wanna ask, how have you been bruised? What bruises did you carry with you into this space this morning? Are you suffering? Again, whether it's a new suffering or a suffering that you've been wrestling through for a long time, suffering is relentless.
Connor Coskery:Are you angry at God? Maybe it's unanswered prayers, maybe it's unmet longings, maybe it's a pain that you can't escape, a broken relationship, whatever it is. Is there a sin in your life that you can't seem to shake? Have you messed up big time and feel like you can never be restored? Are you exhausted from waking up each morning, walking out the door, living life like everything is normal, but actually inside you're dying?
Connor Coskery:Whatever it is, all of these can feel like death blows. Jesus asks us to take your bruises to him. Just like the bleeding woman believing that he's come to heal you, We have to take our bruises to Him in prayer with whatever faith we have, trusting that He won't look at you sideways, but He will look at you and say, son, daughter, love you. Maybe you resonate with a faintly burning wick. Do you feel like the spark is gone and can never be revived?
Connor Coskery:Maybe you're new to learning about Jesus and you would say that, Conner, there is just a flicker of faith there. Take that spark, take it to Jesus and ask him to fan it into flame. We're not saved by the quality or the size of our faith. We are saved by the object, by Jesus, the object of our faith. Or perhaps your faith feels stale, where it's been months or even years since your faith felt vibrant, where you would have said, man, I am on fire for God.
Connor Coskery:But now you feel like you're going through the motions and you're just wondering, like, is it really worth it to keep going to church and home group? Take your faintly burning wick to Jesus. Pray like the desperate father, I believe, help my unbelief, knowing that Jesus hears you and He loves you and He will not snuff out the faith of His children no matter how small it is. I wanna be careful here friends. I am not being trite.
Connor Coskery:This isn't pastor speak just handing out Christian feel good platitudes. I believe God's word is true and it promises that Jesus never breaks the bruised reed. He never quenches even the smallest of flames. So wherever you are, whatever you have with you right now, come to Him trusting that He is there to heal your broken heart. He's there to bind up your wounds.
Connor Coskery:The servant king has come to heal his people, but healing is just one part of his mission. Isaiah tells us that if this servant king is going to bring justice to the earth, then he's also going to have to suffer on behalf of his people, which takes us to our final point. Look with me at verse four. Verse four says, He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands wait for his law. Now I'm gonna need you to bear with me for a moment.
Connor Coskery:We're gonna do a little bit of sentence analysis. So if you need to put on your seventh grade English hat, this is the time to do so. But if you look with me look with me in verse four at the words grow faint and discouraged. Now those words, they match with the corresponding words quench and bruised in verse three. And the difference between the way that these two verses are constructed is is the servant's action.
Connor Coskery:In verse three, the servant is offering. He's providing the care. But in verse four, the servant inserts himself into the human condition. Now I'm not a Hebrew scholar, I read them. And they point out that in verse four, that verse four is constructed to interact with verse three in such a way as to say that the servant will one day experience the things that bruise and quench.
Connor Coskery:But in experiencing that, he will triumph and be victorious so that he can fulfill his mission to establish justice. What this means is that the one who cures our bruises will be bruised. The one who tends to the faintly burning wick will be snuffed out. The servant king is going to have to suffer in order to bring justice. You can begin to see the cross coming into view here.
Connor Coskery:And what's amazing is that this was actually the plan from the beginning of time. The first place that we read about bruising is actually in Genesis chapter three. Genesis chapter three, if you remember, Adam and Eve, they're living in perfect relationship with God, but the serpent, he comes in. This is Satan disguised as the serpent and he he tempts Adam and Eve to eat from the forbidden fruit and they do so. And sin in that moment entered the world.
Connor Coskery:In that very moment peace is replaced with chaos, unity with disunity. And God, He immediately curses the serpent, but then He also immediately promises his eventual defeat. And He says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. And catch this, and he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. This verse is called the Proto Angelian.
Connor Coskery:It's the or first gospel. It's seen as the first promise of the coming savior who will ultimately defeat evil. In Genesis three fifteen, it points directly to Calvary on where on the cross, Jesus, the long promised offspring of the woman, He crushed the head of the serpent. But in doing so, what happened? His heel was bruised.
Connor Coskery:He received a death blow. On the cross, Jesus, in that moment, He took all the poison of sin, the brokenness between you and God, the brokenness between you and others, even that inward brokenness that you feel within yourself. Jesus took it all upon himself, but he came out on the other side victorious. The apostle Paul, he says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Jesus took the judgment of God against sin in our place so that he could bring justice to the nation, so that he could restore unity to the earth, so that he could make all things new without removing us.
Connor Coskery:Jesus was bruised for you so that you can trust him to bring your bruises to him. On the cross, Jesus was snuffed out so that your faith, no matter how weak, even if it's just a dying ember, will never be quenched. God is He's hardwired our hearts to desire justice. But I'm afraid that often our view of justice is far too small. We parcel out justice in its different forms in hopes of creating this utopian fair society.
Connor Coskery:By comparison, the Hebrew word for justice is mishpat. And mishpat is much more comprehensive. It's concerned with absolute well-being. It refers to a society where everything is in right relationship with itself. A synonym for mishpat is shalom.
Connor Coskery:And shalom means, much more than just peace, but a state of flourishing and rightness in all aspects of life. Unity, rightness, flourishing. This is what our hearts actually long for. And it's only through the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus that true justice can be established on earth. Contrary to popular belief, Jesus didn't come to make the world a cleaner, happier place.
Connor Coskery:He didn't even come to improve your relationship with God. We see this in the amount of people that He didn't heal, that He didn't raise from the dead while He was going about His ministry. From the moment Jesus arrived, He was laser focused on crushing the head of the serpent. Sin and death. And and in doing so, usher in a world that is fully and finally in right relationship with itself.
Connor Coskery:The exiled Israelites in Isaiah's day, they received this promise and they had to they had to look forward in faith. And they would experience glimpses of justice. God will use rival nations to end their exile to return them home. But they still longed and waited for this individual servant, for this Messiah to come. And where Israel was supposed to be God's servant, bringing blessing and peace to the world, Jesus is finally the fulfillment.
Connor Coskery:He is the true Israel who brings justice to the earth. As I've meditated on this passage this week and continue to sit in grief and sadness over all the brokenness that is in this world right now, but even more acutely to what I experienced a couple weeks ago, with my friends in Washington, I I can at least grieve with hope because I know that the body of Christ is sharing with these people there in Yakima the good news of this servant king. And I praise the Lord that he is drawing them to himself. But still I keep praying for my friends in White Swan, Washington in the Totus Park housing project. I pray for my friends Dominic, Tocari, Trixie, and Plume that one day they will run into the arms of their savior and be adopted into the family of God.
Connor Coskery:Where one day they will be gathered with us, with the nations, no longer having to wonder where their next meal comes from, no longer fearing their caregiver, no longer carrying the weight of trauma through life. Justice will reign. Jesus has dealt with the greatest enemy to humanity, far greater than rival nations, exile, or evil rulers. Jesus defeated sin and death fully and finally. And he promises us a future in the new heavens and the new earth where we will experience full mishpat, full shalom.
Connor Coskery:Every wrong will be made right. All things will be made new. But until that day, we work out our salvation with that hope. We're gonna go out from these doors in just a few moments as ambassadors of this servant king, And we're gonna be charged with a mission to bring justice and peace to the places He sends us. And we're gonna keep telling people about this servant king and pleading with them to give their lives to Him.
Connor Coskery:He can heal you. He can breathe life into you. But even before we do that, wherever you are today, whatever injustice you carry and long for it to be made right, whatever feeling of that's not fair is just weighing you down. Take those bruises. Take that faith that feels impossibly small to Jesus.
Connor Coskery:He will not shout or raise His voice. He won't make a scene in the street. He desires your pain. He desires your fears. He desires you.
Connor Coskery:And he receives our cries. He receives your cries for justice, and he responds with love saying, son, daughter, I delight in you. Come to me. Let me heal you and give you rest. Amen.
Connor Coskery:Come, Lord Jesus, come. Let's pray. Lord, the more times I sit in this promise, Lord, I am feeling the weight of injustice upon my heart, upon my shoulders, and upon just living in this world that is so broken, Lord. And so in this moment, Lord, I give you this weight, these bruises, this pain. And Lord, I rest in the promise that you will never break the bruised reed, that you will never quench even the smallest of flames.
Connor Coskery:But Lord, you you have proven yourself trustworthy, that Lord, you draw near to us to heal us because you have suffered on behalf of us to save us and provide an eternal future for us. So Lord, I pray your rest and your peace upon us now, Lord. And I pray that we would be quick to run to you knowing that this is what you came for and that you love us. We love you Jesus. We pray this in your name.
Connor Coskery:Amen.
