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Oct 20, 2019

His answer to our plight is passion for our peace

His answer to our plight is passion for our peace

Passage: Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Isaiah: The Story Beneath the Story

How would you summarize the Gospel in its simplest terms? It’s barest outline contains a story about a servant--one who responded to another’s plight with passion for their peace.

Order of Worship

Pre-Service Text: Mark 6:34
Call To Worship: ​Psalm 62:1-2, 5-7
The Lord’s Prayer
New Testament Reading: John 10:1-18
Sermon: His answer to our plight is passion for our peace
Central Text: Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Response: Communion
Confession of Sin (see below)
Assurance of Pardon: Acts 10:43
Benediction: 2 Corinthians 13:14
Post-Service Text: Isaiah 51:12-13

10.20.19 Sermon Notes

Illustration

InView Montage - The Story

Readings & Scripture

Pre-Service Text: Mark 6:34
. . .he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

Call To Worship: ​Psalm 62:1-2, 5-7
Leader: For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
People: For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.
Leader: He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
All: On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, forever.
Amen.

New Testament Reading: John 10:1-18
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

John 10:7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Central Text: Isaiah 52:13-53:12
13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
14 As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
15 so shall he sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.

Is. 53:1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Is. 53:4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Is. 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Is. 53:10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Confession of Sin:
To enrich me will not diminish your fullness;
All your lovingkindness is in your Son,
I bring him to you in the arms of faith,
I urge his saving name as the one who died for me,
I plead his blood to pay for my debts of wrong.
Accept his worthiness for my unworthiness
his sinlessness for my transgression,
his purity for my uncleanness,
his sincerity for my guile,
his truth for my deceits,
his meekness for my pride,
his constancy for my backslidings,
his love for my enmity,
his fullness for my emptiness,
his faithfulness for my treachery,
his obedience for my lawlessness,
his glory for my shame,
his devotedness for my waywardness,
his holy life for my unchaste ways,
his righteousness for my dead works,
his death for my life. Amen.
(source)

Assurance of Pardon: Acts 10:43
43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

Benediction: 2 Corinthians 13:14
Leader: 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

People: And also with you.

Post-Service Text: Isaiah 51:12-13
I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. . .?

Related Scriptures:

  • Exodus 12:5
  • Psalm 22
  • Isaiah 1:5–6; 2:12–14; 11:1–10
  • Mark 6:30-44
  • Luke 15:1-7
  • John 10:1-18
  • John 11:45-50
  • Acts 2:23
  • Romans 3:10-19
  • 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
  • Ephesians 2:1-8
  • Ephesians 2:16-17
  • Philippians 2:5-11
  • 1 Peter 2:18-25

Discussion Questions & Applications:

 

  • What’s something you gave so much of yourself to, but which did not yield what you hoped? Now set aside the spiritual for a moment. What’s something you cherish which cost you nothing to obtain?
  • Quick--what are all the connections you can draw between this description of the Servant and what you know of Jesus?
  • What’s the plight of the “we” here in verse 6 to which this servant responds with action? What does that mean in ordinary, not metaphorical, terms?
  • What did this servant accomplish in the end? Why would that have been good news for those who first heard this promise?
  • How would believing deeply what Jesus has accomplished on your behalf change just one thing you’re presently facing? So what’s keeping you from asking as the father of an afflicted son did (Mark 9:24)?
  • How do the experiences of this servant, and of Jesus as the greater Servant, typify what might be called from those who follow in the Servant’s steps (cf. 1 Peter 2:21-25)?

 

Quotes: 

  • You want unlimited power? You want passion? You want freedom? You want to really feel things? You want a world that is bigger and better and truer and more significant than the one you’re living in, right now? Be prepared to give up something to get it. Be prepared to become someone you don’t recognize. Be prepared to bet your soul. The odd thing about becoming a maenad. . .is that you’re not risking your soul for anything concrete. You’re not asking for riches or worldly power or for one specific person to love you. You’re risking your soul to feel something, to feel the certainty that the world is enchanted, to know that magic exists at all. I wanted to outrun the Nothing. There was nothing I would not have sacrificed—friendships, relationships, the blood from the heel of my foot—to get it. Tara Isabella Burton
  • Unbelievers often appear to be congratulating themselves for foregoing the consolations of belief; their loss is minor indeed, compared to the struggle of the believer to hang on in spite of the silence of God.  - Fleming Rutledge
  • No, it was not the Jews who crucified,
    Nor who betrayed you in the judgment place,
    Nor who, Lord Jesus, spat into your face,
    Nor who with buffets struck you as you died.
    No, it was not the soldiers fisted bold
    Who lifted up the hammer and the nail,
    Or raised the cursed cross on Calvary’s hill,
    Or, gambling, tossed the dice to win your robe.
    I am the one, O Lord, who brought you there,
    I am the heavy cross you had to bear,
    I am the rope that bound you to the tree,
    The whip, the nail, the hammer, and the spear,
    The blood-stained crown of thorns you had to wear:
    It was my sin, alas, it was for me.
    -“He Bore Our Griefs,”     Jacob Revius (d. 1658)
  • Q. Why is it important to you to be a Christian specifically rather than an adherent of another faith, or of various faiths?
  • It wasn’t important to me until I reached a crisis in my life. I floated along like so many modern people, alert to a sense of otherness in some of my experiences but unwilling to give it a name. I’m a Christian because it’s the language I know. I’m a Christian because the doctrine of the incarnation expresses a truth that I intuit with every cell of my being. I’m a Christian because a god that does not suffer with us, a god that is not suffering with us right now, is either hopelessly remote or mercilessly cruel. I’m a Christian because, as my grandfather used to say, at some point you gotta fish or cut bait. (Christian Wiman, author of My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer)
  • So long as your ambition is to stamp your existence on existence, your nature on nature, then your ambition is corrupt, and you are pursuing a ghost.  (Christian Wiman, author of My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer)

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