Servant Songs - The Vindicated One

Sermon from CCM:City Centre
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LISTEN

This sermon was preached by Tom O’Toole at the CCM:City Centre site of Christ Church Manchester on Sunday 1st December 2019.

SERIES

 

This message was part of the ‘SERIES NAME’ series, preached at Christ Church Manchester’s church in Fallowfield in EARLY/MID/LATE YEAR. The full series included the following sermons:

BIBLE VERSES

This sermon was based on Isaiah 50:4-9.

Isaiah 50:4-9

4 The Lord God has given me
    the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
    him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
    he awakens my ear
    to hear as those who are taught.
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
    and I was not rebellious;
    I turned not backward.
6 I gave my back to those who strike,
    and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
    from disgrace and spitting.

7 But the Lord God helps me;
    therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
    and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
8     He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
    Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
    Let him come near to me.
9 Behold, the Lord God helps me;
    who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
    the moth will eat them up.

KEY POINTS

The Lord Prepared the Servant to Teach

  • Teachable. Jesus – has been taught. Being equipped to teach starts with being ready to listen. – Be slow to speak and quick to listen  – Learn to ask good questions  – Go to the Father and learn from him.
  • Obedient. In the life of Jesus … perfect obedience to God’s word. Not Rebellious – Do you ever do ‘rebellious’?  Often people who grow up a a Christian household go through this phase. Not turning backwards – Jesus did not look back … and the path wasn’t always easy. We mustn’t turn back to the life we knew before.  You need to have learned and be doing something with it to have credibility as you then teach it to other people.
  • Speaking. Given a tongue – speaking. Two issues – speaking too much when you don’t know, speaking too little when you do know. Jesus was ready to speak. But to what purpose? To sustain with a word him who is weary. It’s never about being right, or proving you are right. What will help? What will serve? What will sustain? Jesus had a way with words to say what needed to be said, when it needed to be said, but no more… by doing so, he drew people in.

The Lord Sustained the Servant in Suffering

  • The Servant’s Suffering. Describing things that happened to Jesus in the build up to the crucifixion. Struck. Spat upon. Disgraced {crucifixion}. Sometimes we get the wrong idea of Christianity – We are following a guy who suffered. We shouldn’t expect and easy life.
  • The Servant’s Reaction. … [Rob Bell] “It takes quite a spine to turn the other cheek. It takes phenomenal fortitude to love your enemy. It takes firm resolve to pray for those who persecute you.”  JESUS PRACTICED WHAT HE PREACHED. There’s a sense we just can’t do it. These words from Jesus are some of the hardest and most challenging – make us all reflect.
  • THE SERVANT’S HELP. “The Lord God helps me.” That is the only way, to be led and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Jesus – those early mornings with the Lord – Learning, filling and a strengthening. “I know I will not be put to shame.” What will happen because of this? What will people think of me? A certain hope for the future. Christ knew where it was going. We do too. That is something that can sustain us in suffering.

The Lord Vindicated the Servant

  • THE SERVANT’S BIG HOPE – VINDICATION.

  • RESURRECTION AS VINDICATION
    • [Geerhardus Vos] “Christ’s resurrection was the de facto declaration of God in regard to his being just. His quickening bears in itself the testimony of his justification. God’s through suspending the forces of death operating on Him, declared that the ultimate, the supreme consequence of sin had reached its termination. In other words, resurrection had annulled the sentence of condemnation.”
  • We share this vindication – IN CHRIST

MORE SERMONS

 

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