We continue our study of the book of Isaiah for this Lenten season. Over the next seven weeks, we’ll study Isaiah 49-55 which focuses on the great rescue and help that we need through God’s Servant, Jesus. The servant in Isaiah 1-48 is the people of God, Israel. Now (Isaiah 49-53) the focus shifts to a particular servant, one who will do everything God’s people should have done but failed to. He will serve faithfully, obey completely, lead humbly, establish justice, and bring the knowledge of God to the ends of the earth. Though innocent he will suffer in place of God’s guilty people to reconcile them to God.
The Servant Who Saves
Sermons in this series
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Water! Wine! Milk! Bread! We’ve got what you’re looking for! No cost to you, it’s already paid for!” Using the cadence and language of an Ancient Near Eastern market vendor, Isaiah calls us to a feast with God, to enjoy the blessings of God’s love for his people. The invitation will soon end, so come now, while God is near!Join us for your invitation to “The Servant’s Feast” from Isaiah 55:1-9.
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On Good Friday we remember Jesus’ sacrifice. We’ll hear the accounts of his last supper (and share communion), and of his betrayal, trials, suffering, and death that our sins deserved.
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Isaiah has shown us how the Servant of the Lord would be crushed and killed – because of the sins of God’s people. But the point is not to berate or shame God’s people; though we are guilty and our sins are shameful, God wants us to know us to know even more restoration, confidence, and hope in Him. Join us as we see “The Joy of the Servant’s People” from Isaiah 54:1-8.
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At the end of it all, was it worth it? For the Servant, the answer is a resounding “yes!” Even though he was stricken, smitten, afflicted, pierced, crushed, punished, and wounded, Isaiah 53:10-12 teaches us that the Servant was satisfied with what saving his people cost him. Join us as we read Isaiah 53:10-12 together and see “The Satisfied Servant.”
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We rounded the corner on this five-part Servant Song, reading how Jesus, the Servant, stepped in front of us to take the wounding that brings us healing.
We’re continuing our march toward Easter focusing on the Isaiah 53:7-9, where we discover that Jesus was no passive participant in God’s plan to rescue the world. He willingly submitted himself to God’s plan, exchanging our rebellious wills for his submissive will. Join us for “Willing Submission” as we find rest for our rebellions in Jesus’s submission.
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The centerpiece and middle part of the five-part Servant Song that is Isaiah 52:13-53:12 brings to the foreground the Servant’s suffering. He was indeed characterized by grief and sorrow, as 53:3 taught, but those sorrows were not his own: they were ours, which he lifted off of us and placed on himself. Carrying our sins and sorrows made him our substitute, the one who suffered on our behalf, the one whose suffering saved us and brought us peace.
Join us as we dive into “Substitute Suffering” from Isaiah 53:4-6 and see how all of our griefs, all of our sins, and all of our defects are healed at the cross of Jesus Christ.
Sermon Notes
As we begin studying the last of the Servant Songs in Isaiah, we are immediately disoriented by the sight of a supremely exalted Servant so disfigured by suffering that those who see this Suffering Servant cringe in horror, asking, “is this guy even human anymore?” So unfathomable is the wisdom of God that this Servant was despised, rejected, and considered insignificant.
But in his untold suffering comes our unearned salvation and his unending exaltation! So join us as we study “The Insignificant Savior” in Isaiah 52:13-53:3.
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As we enter into the Christian season of Lent leading up to Easter, we focus on what it took for the Father to rescue and reconcile us to himself. We see Jesus’ obedience in place of our failure, and the terrible price he willingly paid out of love for us. We see the Servant of God who hears and speaks God’s words, faithfully obeys God, and persists by faith in the face of opposition. Join us as we look at “The Faithful Disciple” from Isaiah 50:4-9.
Sermon Notes
Start this year’s Lenten season with a service of prayer, humility, and the reminder of our frailty and need of a savior.