Sermon Questions

1. Behold, my servant shall act ___________; he shall be high and ______ ___ , and shall be _______.
2. In Hebrew this word means to look at:_____________________.
3. What Psalm does Pastor Grimm refer to for the wisdom of the servant?
4. What is contrasted in the Psalm referenced in question 3?
5. TRUE or FALSE: Pastor Grimm described the arm of the Lord as a symbol of the earthly manifestation of Yahweh's power.
6. In 1 Corinthians Paul refers to the wisdom of the cross but for those who are perishing the cross is ______________.
7. What was the feast day when Jesus Christ was suffering on the Cross?

Discussion Questions

1. Isa 53:1 “Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
2. Discuss in your groups the message that the first question is referring to: what have they heard from us? Who are the they in our lives?
3. Has the arm of the Lord been revealed to you? From Pastor Grimm’s message what does it mean to have the arm of the revealed?
4. Isaiah 52:13 says of Christ: “He shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.”
5. Regarding the exaltation of Jesus Christ: Is our worship confined to our presence at church?
6. What forms of worship of Christ do we live out in our daily lives?
7. Imagine that Jesus is going with you on a normal day in your life:
8. How would your speech be different that day?
9. How would your thoughts change that day?
10. How would you treat others differently that day?
11. Would you be more thankful that day?
12. Now, realize that Jesus is going with you everyday, always.
13. What does it mean for the Servant to be "despised and rejected"? How can we respond when we feel similarly?
14. What significance does the Servant's silence have in the face of unjust suffering? How can we apply this in our own lives?
15. How can you relate the Servant’s sacrifice in Isaiah 53 to the sacrifices you see in your life or in the lives of others?
16. How does the suffering of God's servant make many nations clean (Isa 52:15)?
17. What implications does this have for us as believers?

Sermon Outline

We are in the fourth servant song of Isaiah in a series of messages through Easter.

The Messiah comes humbly; He comes gently; He comes with a mission to restore all things, to bring justice to the nations and to renew and restore Israel and fulfill their mission- that they did not accomplish.

Last week we looked at how we follow the servant in his sayings, in his suffering, and his surrender as he entrusts himself to God. As we are called not to live by the light of our own torches, we are to live by the light of Christ. We are going to continue to look to our servant, to see that God has exalted him. He is demonstrating his strength and he is putting His Majesty on display through His servant.

In the early 90s when I was in college, I think way back when there was this kind of fad, this craze that came about that a lot of people were buying these 3D image posters, they were called Magic Eye posters. There was this colorful design, kind of like what's on the screen here of many different types of things. But then embedded within them was this 3D image. There's actually a 3D image embedded within that picture. The goal was to stare at it and let your eyes glaze over. And then your mind would just adjust to the pattern, and the 3D image would just appear. This particular picture has a 3D image of a shark embedded within it. And that they say the secret of it is, is to kind of pick a point on the that original image and focus on it and almost kind of kind of look through it somehow to the other side. And as you do that, this image would appear

You know, I think that sometimes we think about Jesus this way. The message of the gospel that we have embraced, you understand it, you're like something's happened, I just get it and understand it. Yet other people seem to be looking at the same thing and don't see it right. Maybe even my job as a pastor or even us as witnesses that it's our job to help reveal the magic eye to people, that there's some kind of mystical thing going on that we have to do. But I don't really think that's the case. That's really the work of God.

That's really what Isaiah is doing when he says, behold, he's asking us to pay attention. It's more like to my dog Susie at dinner time. Hey, pay attention to me -I'm here, I'm hungry, I need to eat, right? Behold. I'm here! Feed me!

The word that we have in our scripture today- Behold. That's an attention getter in Hebrew. It is literally to look at, but it's used in such a way to look here. Pay attention, pay attention to what I'm about to say, because it's very important. Because God is exalting his servant, and he wants us to pay attention.

Isaiah actually uses this word in this in this second section of Isaiah earlier, not just to behold the servant, but to behold the fact that their idols are worth nothing. Talking about the animals and work is less than nothing. It's an abomination. Behold. Look, pay attention. They're just a delusion. Their works are nothing- empty wind.

We even create things in the world, that we think they are going to bring us life and power and strength. And the servant he's been telling Israel, no, you have to look to me and you have my provision. Stop beholding, stop paying attention to all those other things, and pay attention to the one who I'm going to bring

Behold my servant- my chosen whom my soul delights in, who I've put my spirit in. He will bring forth justice to the nations he's behold him. He's the one who will redeem all things. He's going to be the exalted one. Our main overall message day is because God has exalted his servant God is exalting him, we must behold him. Our attention needs to be on the servant who came and is accomplishing God's thing.

What is it that we must behold? The first thing that we see in our passage is that we must behold his wisdom. We need to behold the wisdom of the servant. In the Hebrew scriptures, wisdom is the application of God's instructions for the purpose of flourishing.

We see this in expressed in the wisdom of Psalm 1. We have the contrast in the righteous man and the wicked man, the wicked man who sits in the seat of mockers and stands with sinners. Then the righteous man- who meditates on the instructions of God day and night.. He what happens to this servant? He's like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit and season, and his leaf does not wither, and all that he does, he prospers. That's what we have in the servant who's acting wisely. He's will prosper in his mission to bring forth justice to all the nations. In his acting, wisely, he is going to prosper in his mission to fulfill God's purposes. It. Only it doesn't look the way. It doesn't look the way that Israel is expecting. It's astonishing to look at the cross.

How did Jesus accomplish his mission? Through the cross and the resurrection and on the cross he his appearance was so marred, he's beyond human resemblance. He actually enters into human existence, as one of us and then in order to accomplish mission, he actually is being treated subhuman. He's being marred, he's being disgraced, he's being physically tortured. That this is the means that God would use. This is how he's acting wisely.

So shall he sprinkle many nations, the sprinkling of many nations is talking about the fact that he does this to accomplish his mission. It is the word sprinkle where they actually sprinkle the blood on the altar ,where they sprinkle water for the purification and cleansing of the tabernacle. The Tabernacle is a holy space. It's a place where God dwells among his people for an unclean and sinful people to dwell with God. They needed to understand through the ritual sacrifices and cleansings that God is pure and holy. The sprinkling among the nations that the nations will begin to see through the sacrifice of Christ. How God is not just going to be purifying one people for himself, but all nations. The kings are going to shut their mouths and are going to have nothing to say in response to this thing that God has done through his wisdom.

About this ritual practices, they're going to see and they're going to understand through the sacrifice of Christ, how they can be brought back into right relationship with God; the wisdom of God on display through the cross. Paul talks about in Romans as he's as he's taking the gospel to the Gentiles how the nations are going to see and understand he says for when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature they do what the law requires. Even though they don't have the law, how's that possible since they show the work of the law is written on their hearts? That's the new covenant promise of Jeremiah 31 that he's going to write the law on the heart. And now here these he's these gentiles who have received and accepted the gospel in Rome. Paul is saying they have it written on their hearts. They're bearing witness of the secrets of God on display in Christ Jesus.

We see demonstration of that throughout in Paul as he's explaining his gospel ministry to the Corinthians, he talks about the wisdom of the cross. It's folly to those who are perishing. But to us, who are being saved, it's the power of God. I'm going to destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning.? For, since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through that wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach, that's the preaching of the cross and the resurrection to save those who believe. Jews want signs and Greeks want wisdom. But we preach. Christ crucified a stumbling block to the Jews, folly to the Gentiles. Christ is the power of God, the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men; man's wisdom is power through strength. Men's wisdom is power. Through my achievement, men's wisdom is power through the way of the world. And the strength and the wisdom on display through the cross for the foolishness of God is wiser than man. The weakness of God is stronger than men, which leads us to the next thing we're to behold is we're to behold not only his wisdom, but we're to behold his strength

We don't look at the cross and think strength is getting killed on a Roman crucifix. But that's what God is doing. He's displaying his strength. How do we see this in Isaiah? Who has believed this? He said he's going to be showing us how even the Jews despise and reject him. They don't believe to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He is doing this throughout history. Why is this talking about strength here? That's what this expression arm of the Lord is referring to. It is talking about the strength of the Lord, but in particular, it's talking about his strength to save.

John Berry and his commentary in the FAITHLIFE study Bible says the phrase Yahweh's arm is used in Exodus to describe Yahweh's victory over the Egyptians and his future victories over Edom, Moab, and Canaan. Yahweh's Arm is spoken about in the description of the Exodus event. To describe his plans to be victorious in his battle against the other divine beings as they go in and take conquest of the land, and they remove the worship of the false gods and bring in the true worship of Yahweh and. Berry says the arm of the Lord symbolizes the earthly manifestation of Yahweh's power. The phrase invokes the image of Yahweh as divine warrior. Battling for his people is how the servant is described, he doesn't look like a warrior but he's using arm of the Lord to say this is my divine warrior.

He fights and he displays his strength through the weak. What appears to be the weakness of the cross of laying down his life. That's the arm of salvation, He bared his holy arm before the nations, before the eyes of the nations that they would see that they would behold they're going to behold with their eyes of the nations and the ends of the Earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Who has believed? Has it been revealed? We'll see the strength of the Lord is also on display in the way he brings the servant, but also in the fact that it's the Lord who needs to reveal it. Because when people just look at their eyes, when the people of Israel just look, they say, well, this is just a guy who grew up among us. He grew up before him like a young plant. He's going to grow up in Israel like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He's just this Carpenter's son from Nazareth. He's not like the king of the nations like Israel wanted with Saul, who was a head taller with it than everyone else. He's more akin to David, who was a servant after God's own heart. By his spirit and his power. OK, that's the power of God to us who believe, right? And so when he goes on then to talk about his preaching of the crucifix, preaching of Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and Gentiles. Those who are called in Scripture are those whom God through the gospel called through the preaching of the gospel. God is calling. He's bringing the spirit. He's enabling us to understand.

For the foolish of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. On in the cross we have on display the wisdom of God. And the strength of God, and we also have the majesty of God and the servant we're to look upon His Majesty. The fact that he is exalted, that he this is the kind of king that we need, and that he brings to us. But this kind of king is unrecognizable to the people. Jesus being brought by the Sanhedrin, who accused him of blasphemy and want to get him crucified. They drum up charges. He's an anarchist who's trying to overthrow Caesar. And so Pilot interviews him. Pilot doesn't see him guilty of anything. From then on, pilots sought to release him. But the Jews cried out: If you release this man, you're not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. So when Pilot heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat. He says now it was the day of preparation of Passover. It was about the 6th hour and he said to the Jews, behold your King. Same words that we have for the servant. Behold your servant God is using a gentile authority to present to the Jews their king. He says, behold your king. Pay attention; this is your king. These are the religious leaders of easier who are paying homage and allegiance to Caesar over Jesus. So he delivered them over to be crucified. See, this is what Isaiah is telling us in the 4th servant song. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, his own people looked him and they did not see him, majestic King. They say that he had no beauty, that we should desire him. He was just this common, ordinary Nazarene.

They despised and rejected him. He was the way, the truth and the life. And so he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, one who men would hide their faces because he was despised and esteemed not they esteemed him not. And much of the world today still esteems him not, they look at the message of the gospel as weakness, as folly.

How do you look upon Jesus? Do you find yourselves at time following after the wisdom of the world, do you find yourself wanting to rely on the strength of armies and politicians and jobs and your own ingenuity and strength? Or do you see the Majesty, the exalted one of the king who came? Who lived and died in your place. The King didn't come riding on a white horse with a sword in his hand. He came and lived as one of us and died for us

We can't come to our God and say, why haven't you done something? Why don't you fix this? You don't understand what it's like to live in this broken world. And he's says, behold my servant. I have done something in my servant. He knows what it's like to live in a world filled with pollution and brokenness and corruption and crime and murder and hate. He felt it all. He was despised and rejected by his own people. See Jesus, the king. He didn't just endure the physical torture of the cross. He actually endured the spiritual, intellectual, emotional humiliation of having to bear all the crud, all this pollution, all the sinful brokenness. He bore that weight upon his shoulders, and just as we rejected God, he had to experience the rejection on the cross. A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

Do you behold him? Do you see him? Is that the servant that you look to every day and say, Jesus, let me see your glory. Let me see how wonderful it is that you would do live, die, and be raised again in such a way that I could have life and participate in that.

At Cornerstone, we want to be discipling you. We want to be leading you into a life of following Jesus to love God and love others. And we do that by beholding Christ. Christ is at the center of all these things.

We have 4 main things that we want you to participate in with us to behold Christ:

Sunday worship. We come here to gather today and each Sunday to lift up the name of Jesus. We come to grow and have our minds and hearts transform more and more that we would be focused upon and paying attention to Jesus.

When we get together in our small groups and in in our communities, we do to encourage each other to behold Christ. We study the scriptures together. We pray together so that we would keep our minds.

Like Christ, we serve out in the community we serve with the heart of Christ. He's calling you to help out with parking at the extravaganza, to stuff things like hold babies in the nursery, to work with third graders on Wednesday nights to go down to Military Ave. and tutor kid

We live every day out in our communities, at school, at work, at the gym, wherever with the mind of Christ to shine his light, to behold him, to exalt him, to be just telling each other in the world. Jesus is the answer.

We close today with these words from Paul and Philippians: That our mind, our hearts are drawn to this:

“ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped^] 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Friends, behold this servant who is exalted. Behold him in his wisdom and his strength, and in His Majesty.

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