A fast sermon THE STORY Chapter 18 3/23/14

A fast sermon

THE STORY Chapter 18

3/23/14

SLIDE #1

I KIND OF TRICKED YOU THIS WEEK… I PROMISED A FAST SERMON, I DID NOT PROMISE A “QUICK” SERMON. Actually, today we are talking about fasting.

SLIDE #2

In Chapter 18 of THE STORY, we will start reading about Daniel and one of the first things we read is about Daniel fasting from all the wonderful royal foods.

Let’s back up just a little. Daniel and his friends were among the Jewish exiles to Babylon. They were young, strong perfect specimens of humanity so the king chose them to be among the young men he was training up as government leaders. This was a mixed bag to say the least.

Since Daniel, Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah were prisoners, being part of the royal court was a great opportunity to improve their lives. Being Jewish in the royal household, however, presented some challenges. They were accustomed to Jewish clothes, a Jewish diet and Jewish worship. Back in Judah, virtually everyone was Jewish so it was easy. Now 500 miles away from home in Babylon, and especially in the royal court, they were in the minority. It was much harder to be Jewish in Babylon than in Judah.

Daniel was apparently willing to wear the clothes of Babylon. He was willing to learn the language and customs of Babylon. But he drew the line at the food. King Nebuchadnezzar’s palace, no doubt, had the finest meats, and wines, and sweets available to Daniel and his friends. I suspect Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were looking forward to good steak and some fine wine. The king, however, had no reason, however, to follow Jewish dietary law, and Daniel had no intention of breaking Jewish dietary laws. You know there are a bunch of them. Daniel, therefore, asks for a simple diet of vegetables and water. After some negotiating, Daniel arranges for this simple diet for 10 days to prove that it isn’t going to make him sick. At the end of 10 days, Daniel and his friends looked better than the other young men in the king’s court did.

I think the important thing here is not what he ate or didn’t eat. The important thing is not the length of time. The important thing is not whether God wants us to be vegetarians. (Frankly, I hope not) The important part of this story is that Daniel did it for God. Daniel fasted from the king’s foods because he didn’t want them to come between him and his God. Daniel fasted from the king’s food because he wanted to be closer to God.

Honestly, that is the only valid reason for a religious fast: To be closer to God.

SLIDE #3

How does that work? Think about it. Our lives revolve around food. We break the day into morning, afternoon and evening, separated by what? Meals. When we are bored or nervous, what do we think?... I wonder what I have to eat around here? When we celebrate, we eat. When we grieve, we eat. When something good happens, we eat. When we get depressed, we eat. What else has such a hold on us, rightly or wrongly,… what else has such a hold on our lives besides food? Nothing.

Isn’t that what the snickers commercial says?

<<<<<< PLAY VIDEO               >>>>>>

SLIDE #1

Richard Foster says that our stomach is like a spoiled child, and spoiled children do not need indulgence, they need discipline. Even snickers commercials speak to the control that our stomachs have over our lives. We are not to be controlled by our stomachs, but controlled by the Spirit of God. Fasting is spiritual training in self-control.

SLIDE #2

+++Fasting, then, is a way of saying, “God, I want you even more than food. God I love you more than food. I want to depend on you even more than food. I want to turn to you even before I turn to food.”

SLIDE #3

+++Secondly, fasting defies our dependence on food. It disrupts the cycle of meals and opens up room for something else. It breaks through the routine of our lives and tills up fresh new soil in which we can grow closer to God and God can grow closer to us. Fasting breaks down the barriers created by our comfortable habits and provides, for God, a new route to our hearts. What if every time your stomach growled it was a call to prayer?

Richard Foster Writes, More than any other single Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately. … Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear—if they are within us, they will surface during fasting. At first, we will rationalize that our anger is due to our hunger then we know that we are angry because the spirit of anger is within us. We can rejoice in this knowledge because we know that healing is available through the power of Christ.

What are we slaves to? What are our bottom line passions? Fasting is a way of saying, “I want you more than anything God.” “I want you even more than food.” Fasting is a way of revealing to ourselves and confessing to God what is in our hearts. And the aim of fasting is that we come to rely less on food and more on God himself. [i]

SLIDE #4

+++Third, fasting opens up time. If you add up all the time it takes to grocery shop, prepare, eat, and clean up from meals you might have as much as 30 hours a week. What could you do with an extra 30 hours in a week? What if you dedicated them to prayer and reading scripture and doing the things that bring you closer to God? Where would you be in your spirituality if you increased your face time with God that much? Now I am not suggesting that we change our lifestyle here and stop eating. That would be a really bad idea. What I am saying is that occasionally it wouldn’t hurt us, and might actually help if, by fasting, we opened up some time and dedicated it to God.

SLIDE #5

Let me stop to define fasting. Fasting means to voluntarily lay aside any pleasurable and/or vital activity for a period of time in order to intensely pursue God.

Let’s take that apart…

It is voluntary… I am not going to tell you that you have to fast. I will tell you that you might grow closer to God if you do. However, just like your relationship with God, it is entirely voluntary.

It is a laying aside any pleasurable and/or vital activity …fasting is giving up something that is important to you. Customarily we fast from food, but technically one can lay aside anything that is important from TV to hobbies to social interaction to alcohol to sex.

For a period of time… we aren’t talking about a lifestyle change here. Fasting is for a finite period of time to allow you to intensely pursue God.

Jesus fasted for forty days. Moses, on two separate occasions, fasted for forty days. Joshua fasted for forty days. Paul fasted for three days and then God healed his eyes. Peter fasted for three days. Daniel fasted for 10 days. The Bible teaches about half-day fasts and twenty-four-hour fasts. The entire nation of Israel fasted for three days. A fast is for a period of time.

SLIDE #6

There are a lot of misconceptions about fasting. So, Let me tell you what fasting is not.

·        I already said it is not mandatory.

·        But fasting is also not an oddity. Jesus says, when you fast… notice not if you fast, but Jesus took it for granted that we would fast. Remember all the people I mentioned earlier including New Testament people who fasted? Fasting is definitely Christian.

·        Fasting is also not for show. Jesus says, “When you fast do not do it to look dismal like the hypocrites.” What he is talking about is that the hypocrites would stop their personal hygiene practices in order to look pathetic. Then they would put ash on their faces in order to garner the attention of others saying, in essence, “Look at how holy I am.” Jesus says do not fast for show. Do it in private. Because it is between you and God. 

·        So if you are discovered does that ruin the fast? Of course not. There is a big difference between fasting in order to be seen and being seen fasting. It would be a really good idea, for instance, to tell whoever cooks at your house that you are fasting so you don’t create more problems at home than you have to. So first Fasting is not a show.

·        Also, fasting is not magic. It is not a spiritual hunger strike that compels God to do whatever we want. It is not like blowing out the birthday candles to get our wish. Fasting is not a prayer trick, but a prayer enhancer. Fasting can deepen and intensify our prayer time with God. It can focus and clarify your prayers as you enter into God’s presence, but fasting does not make magic.

·        Finally, fasting is not an end in itself but rather a means to a greater end; that of making room for and drawing close to God. Just fasting is fine, but it is not a spiritual discipline if it is not combined with prayer. To stop eating might have some health benefits, but it has no spiritual benefit if we don’t use the time and energy to connect to God.

If that is what fasting is not, then what is fasting?

First, how? That’s rather self evident. Stop eating. Except there is more to it than that.

There are two broad kinds of fasts

·                    Complete fasts where no solid food is consumed, only water or sometimes juices.

·                    Then there are partial fasts like Daniel’s fast in the book of Daniel. One might fast from meats, or sweets, or soda, or some other food. Or it might be for one meal a day. That is a kind of partial fast as well.

The important thing in deciding how to fast is to be smart about it. Most people can do a 24 hour fast with no problem. There are people, however, who have medical conditions (diabetes comes to mind) or take medicines that would make fasting unwise or even dangerous. Being prone to migraines for instance limits how long I can fast, so I will make sure that I eat at least one meal each day. Bottom line, if in doubt, check with your doctor.

Second how long? Again, that might be controlled by medical concerns, but what we are calling for is a 24 hours of fasting and prayer in whatever way you can do that. From 7am April 19^th to 7am April 20^th (Easter morning) You might want to institute weekly fasting for the rest of lent, or make it part of your regular spiritual life, but April 19-20 is our target for communal fasting and prayer.

Third, Why? I’ve already said an individual fast has one purpose, which is to get closer to God. A communal fast, however often has a focus. Our focus is revival. Praying for God to work powerfully in our church and community. For God to work powerfully in our lives and the lives of neighbors and friends, and for us to reach more people this Easter than last.

SLIDE 7

Over the next 3 weeks, we are asking everyone to pray for revival and specifically for 2-3 friends whom you will invite to worship on Easter Sunday

Also over the next three weeks, you will sign up for the prayer vigil on Saturday and Sunday of Easter weekend.

SLIDE #8

Then, when they prayer vigil comes, we are asking you to fast and take your prayers to the streets. If you can, we are asking you to walk or drive down your street, around your block or all over town praying for revival- for God to work powerfully in the lives of each family as you pass their home. Make sure that you include the people you are inviting to worship. If you can’t get out walking or driving, do it in your imagination. Imagine their house or their faces, praying that God will work powerfully in the lives of each person. Of course, the church will be available for you to pray, but this year I want to encourage you to take your prayers to the streets.
The goal then, is that every family in town would receive prayers for revival during this 24-hour prayer vigil, asking God to work powerfully in their lives.

SLIDE #9

Then Easter Sunday morning, we will be praying for to reach more than 173 people with the Easter gospel. Is that clear? That’s the plan, and that’s why I am preaching on prayer and fasting today.

John Piper writes in his book, A Hunger for God,
If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. I invite you to turn from the dulling effects of food and the dangers of idolatry, and to say with some simple fast ‘I want you, O God’” (Pg 23)[ii]

Let’s take the rest of this lent to drink deeply.

To pray deeply

To study deeply

And to fast deeply.

To drink deeply from the well of God’s grace and God’s power. To be nourished and filled and draw close to God. AMEN

---

[i] Foster, Celebration Of Discipline

[ii] Piper, A Hunger for God

Hope in Death Valley Reinbeck UMC Chapter 17

It seems like there has been a tremendous amount of death in the community lately. Just this week we held the double funeral for the Adairs, the Browns lost a father and grandfather, and many of us were touched by the outpouring of grief from the High School students as they buried a classmate.

Personally, I have had enough death for this week. How about you?

I think Ezekiel had enough death too. Ezekiel had witnessed the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. Who knows what terrible things he saw, and how many bodies he saw piled up. In that same siege, Ezekiel lost his wife to the Babylonian sword. Ezekiel had firsthand experience of death. He intimately knew the sting of death, the stench of death, and the stupor of grief.

THIS IS THE MAN TO WHOM GOD SENT A VISION OF A VALLEY OF DRY BONES.

Ezekiel also knew spiritual death. Remember that Ezekiel was a child during King Josiah’s reign. Josiah was one of the few good kings in Judah’s history. He led a conservative religious reformation and spiritual revival, taking Judah back to the Law of Moses. Ezekiel had seen what life with God should be like.

When he grew up, however, he saw bad king after bad king take the throne, each of whom did more evil in God’s eyes than the one before. Ezekiel became a priest and he saw the end of Josiah’s reforms and the spiritual death of the nation. People were worshipping idols and defiling the temple. Then the Babylonians burned the temple to the ground. Ezekiel knew the sting of spiritual death, the stench of idol worship, and the stubbornness of a defiant kingdom.

THIS IS THE MAN TO WHOM GOD SENT A VISION OF A VALLEY OF DRY BONES.

In addition, to personal death and spiritual death, Ezekiel witnessed the death of his nation. Remember that Ezekiel was among the 10,000 Israelites carried off to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. He marched in that long line of refugees leaving his home, his country, and the promise of God behind in order to live in a foreign land 500 miles away.

Imagine how devastating it was to be taken from your own home, your job, and your homeland. Then add the grief of seeing your whole nation carried off as prisoners. Then multiply that by 10,000 and you’ll understand the death of the nation of Judah. Can you imagine how devastating it was to lose the land God had promised to your ancestors many generations ago? In Ezekiel’s mind, the promise died with the exile.

THIS IS THE MAN TO WHOM GOD SENT A VISION OF A VALLEY OF DRY BONES.

Ezekiel knew death: personally, spiritually, and nationally. He knew death from every conceivable side, but he had never seen anything like this.

In his vision, he found himself standing over a valley looking at a great holocaust. There were thousands and thousands of skeletons, broken and strewn across the desert. Not one bone was connected to another, and they were white. They were so dry and hard, a dog wouldn’t even bother chewing on them. It was a hopeless sight.

One of the worst insults a Jew could suffer was denial of a proper burial. Here is a valley filled with the bones of the dead; defeated by their enemies and left to rot where they fell. Ezekiel saw a vision of death on a massive scale. It was a literal death valley.

We know that death valley, don’t we? As we peer over the edge of a casket containing the earthly remains of someone we loved.

We know that death valley, don’t we? As we look at the sorry state of the church in America.

We know that death valley, don’t we? As we read the statistics that the nones, “N.O.N.E.S”; those with no religious affiliation, are on the rise. One out of 5 Americans now claims no religious affiliation. That number increases to one of the 3 for those under the age of 30.

We know that death valley, don’t we? As our culture becomes more and more alienated from our neighbors, more and more callous to the needs of those around us, more and more focused on our own little lives.

We know that death valley, don’t we? As we watch the decline of our culture into increasing violence and pornography.

We know that death valley, don’t we? We sure do.

As Ezekiel looked over Death Valley, God said to him; (Ezekiel 37:3) "Son of man, can these bones live?"

"Ezekiel, can this carnage of death, this expanse of waste, can it be reversed? Can those who are lying disjointed and without life, can these victims of this catastrophe be brought back to life? Can they live, Ezekiel?"

I am sure that Ezekiel’s head said, “Of course not. There is no way this can be changed.”

I am equally sure that Ezekiel knew that the question came from the Lord of Life, and his heart probably had a very different answer from his head.

He evades the trick question by saying, “You know lord!”

Did you see that? Just a little glimmer of hope. Just a sliver of optimism.

And it is not empty hope. It is not vacant optimism because God is here.

Because God is here, there is good reason to have hope.

It was God, after all, who created the earth and all that is in the first place.

It was God, after all, who brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

It was God, after all, who went before the Israelites with an angel army to collapse the wall around Jericho and defeat the Canaanite kings.

It was God, after all, who chose David and Solomon, making Israel a great nation.

From our perspective, it was God, after all, who came miraculously in the baby Jesus.

 It was God, after all, who raised Jesus from the grave.

It was God, after all, who took a spiritually dead Saul and transformed him into the great evangelist Paul.

It was God, after all, who grew the church and made her the greatest influence on western culture.

It was God, after all, who gave you new life by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It is God, after all, who saves us and loves us and brings us to this place today.

And it is in that same God that both Ezekiel and we find hope.

There is no hope outside of God. All the hope that ever existed, comes from God and rests in God.

As Ezekiel looked over that valley of dry bones, the God of hope spoke to the prophet and told him to do two things. Ezekiel was given a personal responsibility to that valley of dead, dry bones. I want you to see this because the same responsibility that rested on Ezekiel's shoulders then rests on our today.

First, He Was Commanded To Preach - “…Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” (v 4)Ezekiel was commanded to preach to a valley filled with skeletons! Nothing could be more foolish or ridiculous than to preach to a bunch of dry bones. 

Yet that’s what he did. He stood up and he preached to a valley of dry parched, dismembered skeletons. Behold, there was a rattling among the bones. The bones began to vibrate. The bones began to shake. The bones began to assemble themselves. The bones began to grow ligaments, and tendons, and muscle, and skin. Finally, there stood before Ezekiel a great army.

Nothing could be more foolish or ridiculous than to witness to a bunch of dry bones. Nothing could be sillier than to witness to God in our culture where God is increasingly considered irrelevant. Nothing could be more uncomfortable than to share our faith with our friends who don’t really want to hear.

 But when we do, the bones begin to shake. The bones begin to vibrate. The bones begin to shake. The bones begin to assemble themselves. The bones begin to grow ligaments, and tendons, and muscle, and skin. Maybe, just maybe your friend starts to see God putting his life back together.

“But,” you say, “I’m not a preacher.” That’s OK. If you have a tongue, you can tell the story of God’s Good news. If you have lips, you can tell the story of what God has done. If you have a mouth, you can share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with people around you who are broken and dead.

Look around you… you’ll see dry bones or hopelessness everywhere: in your families, at your neighbor’s house, at work, in government, in our culture, even in the church. Do we have some dead dry bones around here? Absolutely! SHH! If you’re quiet you can hear them rattling. Do you hear them vibrating?

Wherever you see dry bones is a great place to share what Jesus has done in your life. Wherever you see lifelessness is a great place to speak of the resurrection of Jesus. Wherever you see brokenness is a great place to testify to the wholeness that is available in Jesus Christ. Wherever you see hopelessness is a great place to tell the story of God in Jesus Christ.

But… but, if you don’t tell it… if you don’t share the story… if you don’t testify to the power of God the bones remain still, and lifeless, and dry.

There was something else Ezekiel was told to do.

He Was Commanded To Pray - “…prophesy to the breath..” ( V. 9) With the preaching or the witnessing, there may be a noise, a shaking, a coming together of bone to bone, and even the appearance of sinews and skin, but the scripture says “…there was no breath in them,” v. 8. Ezekiel had preached the Word of God to the bones. They had the appearance of life, but they were still dead. They needed the touch of God before they could live. He was commanded to pray that the Lord would breath on them and make them live.

Ezekiel did and, the bones took on life. “and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.”

Talking about it is not enough. For us telling the story is not enough. For us testifying to God’s power is not enough. There must be prayer that the power of God will do the work of bringing life. We can put the bones together, but God must make them live and that only happens through the power of prayer.

          We are called to share and prayer. We are told to say and pray. We are taught to preach and beseech. Use whatever words you like… it all means the same…it means there is hope. There is hope when we work with God to bring the good news of life to a dead and dying world.

God has the power to bring new life. That is a Fundamental truth of the faith. But another fundamental truth is that God uses us to get his work done.

·        God can bring new life to our nation. Tell of God’s guiding and grace-filled hand guiding her, and pray that God will bring us peace and prosperity.

·        God can bring new life to our culture. Testify to the transforming power of a relationship with Jesus Christ, and pray that God will create a ripple effect among the people who hear it to begin transforming our culture.

·        God can bring new life to your friends. Share the story of the Good news of Jesus with your friends, and pray that God will make that a living and breathing reality in their lives.

·        God can bring new life to this church. Witness to the power of Christ in the church, and pray that God will push us off dead center into new and exciting ways to reach God’s people.

·        God can bring new life to your family. Proclaim the power of Jesus Christ to your family, and pray that God will heal you of the broken relationships and mistrust.

·        God can bring new life to you. Tell of that power that has brought you to this place and time, and pray that God will continue to work in you to bring you new life and new hope.
AMEN

The servant of God Week 16 THE STORY On the servant songs

This is the first Sunday of Lent. Actually, that is not quite true because Sunday’s are not counted in the 40 days of lent. This is, therefore, the first Sunday of the Lenten season.

What is lent about? Some of you may be giving up something; caffeine, smoking, and deserts you know the list. Others may be taking on something new, as I have suggested in the past. Take on the discipline of daily scripture reading, prayer, and devotion. Take on a commitment to serve either in our own community, or at the food bank, or somewhere else. Take on a commitment to sponsor a compassion child or commit to tithing. Take on a commitment to the Lenten study.

Those are all noble Lenten pursuits; but what is their goal? What is the point of giving up something? What is the point of taking on something new? The whole point of lent is not what we give up or what we take on. The point of lent, and the point of any Lenten discipline you choose, is to become more like Jesus. To think, and act, and talk, and serve more like Jesus Christ.

We have, however, been studying the Old Testament as we work through THE STORY. How can we learn about Jesus when we are reading old stories that were written 500 -700 years before he was born? Let’s see.

The book of Isaiah is an interesting book. It mirrors the Bible...

·        Isaiah has 66 chapters...The Bible has 66 books...

·        Isaiah has 39 chapters dealing primarily with the history of the Israel...The Bible has 39 Old Testament books dealing primarily with the history of Israel...

·        Isaiah has 27 chapters dealing with dealing with the future of the Israelite people...including some beautiful prophesy about Christ, the coming Messiah...The New Testament has 27 books dealing with the story of Christ.

It is in this book of Isaiah that we find some answers to those questions.

Let’s back up just a little because this 16^th chapter of THE STORY bridges 200 years of history.

Remember, when Solomon died the kingdom of Israel was divided into two kingdoms known as Israel and Judah. Israel, the northern kingdom, was by far the largest and it contained 10 of the 12 tribes. There were a variety of kings in Israel, but every single one of them was wicked and did evil in the sight of the Lord. God’s patience ran out and in 720 BCE. They were conquered and deported to Assyria, which roughly corresponds to modern day Syria. Those 10 tribes were assimilated into Assyrian culture and have since disappeared into the backdrop of history.

That left only the southern kingdom. They, of course, had a variety of kings, not all of which were bad, but most were. They found themselves between two of the greatest armies in the world: the Assyrians to the north and the Egyptians to the south. This week we read the story of Hezekiah dealing with the Army of Assyria and the Lord handing him victory by killing 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. This was the time of Isaiah’s ministry.

In the next chapter, we will see this conflict play itself out over the next 100 years, and over that time, in three separate deportations, we will see Judah exiled to Babylon and the temple destroyed.

Now I am not trying to spoil the next chapter, but I have to get to where this Isaiah passage fits in.

 586 BCE was the last deportation and the exile lasted 48 years. We will read more about that time in chapter 17 and we will read about the return in chapter 18. The exile was not a dark ages for Israel. Don’t get me wrong, it was bad, but there were still prophets writing, not the least of whom were Daniel and Ezekiel. There was also a prophet whose name we do not know. Because he seems to have been a disciple of Isaiah, and because his work was published as part of the book of Isaiah, we call him Deutero-Isaiah. (Which essentially means second Isaiah) He wrote about 200 years after Isaiah. It is from this second Isaiah that we receive the beautiful servant songs we are talking about today.

The last three pages of this week’s reading contain one of the servant songs from chapter 53. The other three we read just a few moments ago. Scholars have spent their whole careers studying just these 4 passages but I am going to try to make sense of them for you in the next few minutes.

The first song from chapter 42 introduces the servant. The Lord says, “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom I delight

Then he lays out the servant’s mission, “I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth Justice to the nations.” There’s that word justice again. Remember that last week I listed Justice as one of the 4 prophetic themes? Here it is. The Hebrew word here is not a legal justice, but a religious justice. It can be defined as true religion. “He will bring true religion to the nations.” That is his mission: to bring holy justice or true religion to the nations. Where have we heard that before? Isn’t that God’s upper story plan: to bring true religion to the entire world so that all people will live in love with him and lovingly toward each other? Sure it is.

How will he do that? He will not do it by force, as many expected, not by might, and not by military action.

Isaiah says, He will not cry

He will not lift up his voice

He will not make it heard in the street

He will not even break something as fragile as a bruised reed

He will not even put out a dimly burning candle.

He will not grow faint

He will not be crushed

·        He will establish justice on the earth.

·        He will bring right religion to the world.

·        He will be a light to the nations.

The first song then lays out the servant’s purpose and methodology.

The second servant song from Isaiah 49 points to the great difficulty he will face.

It begins with the servant calling out to the nations, to the coastlands far away for everyone to listen. Apparently, that doesn’t work because in the next line he is saying, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing more than nothing.”

It’s hard to be a light to the world isn’t it. We have tried and at times if we are truthful, it is just plain old discouraging and disheartening. Just like he says here, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for vanity.”

Do you ever feel like you are working for nothing? 

·        Kind of like the dishes, as soon as they are done it seems that more appear.

·        Or the Laundry

·        Or shoveling the walk

·        Or any number of chores.

Do you ever just want to throw up your hands and Quit? That’s how the servant felt. But he goes on to say, “My reward is with my God.”

He knows that the world is a hard place. He knows that people don’t change easily. He knows that in God’s eyes he is not judged by results, but by faithfulness. His reward is in God and God alone.

The second servant song deals with the difficulty the servant faces.

The Third servant song, in Chapter 50, continues that theme and talks about how he will suffer for the cause of bringing right religion.

“I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard. “ OUCH! But it is more than the pain, it is about the humiliation he endures.

“I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.”

That is beyond what any of us have endured, but who do we know who has endured that.

JESUS!

Do you see how this begins to connect to Jesus?

We have never had to endure that kind of humiliation for our faith, but would you? Could you? People do it every day in faraway places like Vietnam, China, Korea, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. However, in our world, those places are not really so far away.

When is the last time you took a risk for your faith? When is the last time that you actually risked even for Jesus? Would you risk your reputation, or a friendship? Would you put your heart on the line for Christ? How about your money? Do you put your money on the line for him by tithing?

The reason we don’t suffer for our faith is not for lack of opportunity, but for lack of  risk taking. We are pretty comfortable in our faith and resist taking risk even for the sake of serving the one who risked everything for us.

So the third servant song is about the suffering of the servant for the mission he has been given.

The final servant song- the one printed in THE STORY is probably the best known because there are so many New Testament references to it. Along with 18 references to the servant songs there are 8 direct quotes in the New Testament. 6 are from this last song.

The last servant song describes the redemptive nature of the servant’s suffering. In other words, he does not suffer in vain.

It starts with describing how many will be astonished by the servant and the servant’s appearance. It describes how he will be rejected and despised. But moves into “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our suffering… he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed” It concludes with the statement that his life was an offering for sin…. “He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”

Who does that sound like? To 6^th century Judeans it sounded like hope.

They were alienated from their temple and their God because of their sins, their parent’s sins and the sins of the nation. Can you imagine what it was like for the Israelites to lose the Promised Land and live as captives in a foreign country? I don’t know that we can, but just try for moment to imagine it. Then try to imagine hearing these Isaiah passages.

·        Imagine hearing “Here is my servant…I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth Justice to the nations.”

·        Imagine reading that he understands failure “I have spent my strength on vanity.”

·        Imagine hearing that he is willing to suffer in order to set you free.

·        Imagine hearing that his suffering would itself actually take away the sin for which you are being punished, so that you might go home. You may be set free.

That was the original context of those who heard this song.

They might have thought that the servant was Isaiah, or Jeremiah or even king Cyrus who ultimately sent them home. For them that may have been true.

As for us… as for us, we know the true identity of the servant of God.

·        We know that God himself came as the servant placed his spirit in Christ and he came for all the nations.

·        We know that God himself in Jesus Christ encountered all kinds of barriers and difficulties but didn’t let that stop him.

·        We know that God himself in Jesus Christ suffered terribly for the sake of the mission. That he was beaten, and mocked, and broken.

·        We know that God himself in Jesus Christ was ultimately killed for speaking the truth about his identity and his mission.

·        And we know that somehow … somehow, miraculously, mysteriously, inexplicably, and astonishingly somehow his death leads to our life.

o   In his suffering and death, we receive life.

o   In his suffering and death, we receive forgiveness.

o   In his suffering and death, we receive salvation.

o   By his stripes we are healed, by his wounds we are redeemed, by his death we are saved.