May
06
2012

Past Easter

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With Easter now almost a month past, I find myself reflecting on the church experience with memorizing Isaiah 52:13-52:12 (the “Suffering Servant”). On one level, I have no idea how many participated in learning these fifteen verses. We did not ask anyone to sign up. I was hopeful that many would work on it since it was a shorter passage than the Sermon on the Mount. Yet, the few folks I knew working on it were not able to completely memorize the passage. Maybe the flow of the ESV threw off some who tried; it did take some getting used to. Although I really enjoy using the ESV, maybe a different translation would benefit more people.

On another level, I am very grateful for our pastoral staff, David, Jud, and Billy, who had a hand in weaving the passage throughout the church life during the five weeks prior to Easter. We read the passages together aloud in church. We received emails with the passages to remind us about the church-wide memorization effort. We listened to parts of this “servant song” set to music. We studied all the “servant songs” on Wednesday nights. We used the words of Isaiah to frame our Maundy Thursday and Friday Tenebrae services. I was pleased and encouraged by all the staff did to make this relevant to the church, to bring this passage alive to everyone. It was beneficial to me personally as well. I was not merely learning and studying a passage from a dead prophet. I was seeing the crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus again, with fresh eyes, having witnessed the inner thoughts of the “Arm of the LORD” as revealed by Isaiah.

 

Apr
23
2012

Salt and Light

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Believers are to be “salt.” Salt works better if it’s scattered. I love salt, but even I don’t like to pour myself a big bowl of salt to eat. When salt is scattered, however, it brings the natural flavors out of food, and can preserve food from going bad too quickly. The people of God should be like this. We are to preserve and we are to add beauty. To do this, we cannot be contained in “Christian community.” We need to be scattered into every dimension of society, promoting justice and equality and mercy. We are to be in every dimension of society (art, music, Hollywood, politics, etc.) preserving, promoting justice, and adding beauty.

Believers are also to be “light.” Light works best when it is gathered. Put yourself in the shoes (or sandals) of a camel rider at the time Jesus preached this sermon. If it’s the middle of the night and you are looking for a place to rest. I’d say there is a better chance that you will be able to see a group of lights from a distance rather than the faint glow of someone’s Yankee Candle in the window. When the people of God are together in love and fellowship, the beauty of their community becomes a bright light, a beacon of hope, for all the world to see. The local church is God’s demonstration community, putting on display in its love for one another the beauty of Christ (John 13:35; Acts 2:42-47; Ephesians 3:10; Matthew 5:16).

via Between The Times.

Apr
23
2012

The Doctrine of Vocation in the Sermon on the Mount

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Seeking the kingdom of God first does not require a life lived apart from the world. Matt Perman wrote a short post about the myth (excerpt follows):

Jesus says “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6).

In the Middle Ages, before the Reformation, it was thought that life was divided into two areas — the “perfect life” and the “permissible life.” Those in “full time Christian service” lived the perfect life, and everyone else was relegated to second class — your life was acceptable, but not most important. If you wanted to live a truly important life, you had to be in “ministry” (which was also conceived of very differently then).

Jesus explodes this error.

He doesn’t do this by saying “the things of the world are as important as the things of God.” The teaching of the Bible is not that there are no priorities in life. Seeking the kingdom of God is the most important thing.

But the revolutionary teaching of Jesus and the Bible is that you don’t have to be a pastor or missionary or full-time Christian worker to do this.

Wherever you are, whatever your job, you can and must seek the kingdom of God first.

via The Doctrine of Vocation in the Sermon on the Mount : What’s Best Next.

Apr
16
2012

Authority from Ray Ortlund’s blog

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“The Rabbis spoke from authority, Jesus with authority.  Those who heard Him ‘were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes’ (Mark 1:22.  C. H. Dodd renders ‘He taught them like a sovereign, and not like the Rabbis’).  W. Manson . . . cites the saying of Justin Martyr, ‘His word was power from God.’  ‘Thus says the Lord’ is typical of the Old Testament, but Jesus’ characteristic expression is ‘Truly, truly, I say to you.’  The difference is significant.  Jesus appealed to no other authority as He spoke to men of the deep things of God.”

Leon Morris, The Lord from Heaven (Downers Grove, 1974), pages 13-14.  Italics his.

via Authority – Ray Ortlund.

Apr
03
2012

Don Carson’s Meditation on the Suffering Servant

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NOW THE IDENTITY OF THE perfect Servant comes into sharp focus. Isaiah 53, or better, Isaiah 52:13–53:12, is the fourth of five Servant songs that describe him. “See, my servant” (Isa. 52:13), God says, echoing the introduction to this Servant in Isaiah 42:1. The “arm of the LORD,” God’s saving power, has been promised in Isaiah 51:9 and 52:10. Now the question becomes, “[T]o whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” (Isa. 53:1). The implicit answer in this high point of Isaiah’s prophecy is that God’s saving power is nowhere more clearly seen than in the work of the Servant. In the previous chapters God has repeatedly promised forgiveness to his people, but its basis has not been established. Here all becomes clear: “my righteous servant will justify many … he will bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11). He is a priest, sprinkling the unclean (Isa. 52:15); he is a guilt offering, removing their iniquities (Isa. 53:10).

The first of five sections (Isa. 52:13–15) anticipates the whole: “My servant will act wisely,” God says, anticipating the conclusion. Beginning with the Servant’s exaltation (Isa. 52:13), this stanza descends to his appalling suffering (Isa. 52:14) and ends with the “sprinkling” of many nations and the stunned reaction to it. “Sprinkling” with blood, oil, or water is in the Old Testament bound up with cleansing, i.e., with making a person or thing fit to come before God. Normally this has reference to Israel or its institutions, but not here: this is for “many nations” (Isa. 52:15). The stunned reaction testifies that God’s wisdom overthrows and confounds all human wisdom (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18–2:5).

In the second and third stanzas (Isa. 53:1–3, 4–6) the speakers are witnesses. God has repeatedly called on his people to bear witness to him (Isa. 43:10, 12; 44:8), but they have been blind and deaf. Now, not only do they attest that the Lord alone is God (Isa. 43:12), but they bear witness to what God has done through his suffering, vindicated, exalted Servant. At first, reactions to him are cautious, and then negative (Isa. 53:1–3). He grew to be despised and rejected by men: “we esteemed him not,” the witnesses say. Indeed, when he was barbarically killed, many thought it God’s providential judgment (Isa. 53:4)—and they spoke better than they knew. But the witnesses come to grasp that “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities”—a substitutionary lamb (Isa. 53:5–7). In the fourth stanza (Isa. 53:7–9) Isaiah reflects on the Servant’s silent suffering and ambivalent death and burial (Had God accepted his work?), to end in the fifth (Isa. 53:10–12) with resounding affirmation of the purposes of God. God’s Servant will act wisely (Isa. 52:13); “by his knowledge” he will (literally) cause many to become righteous, “and he will bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11). Reflect on Matthew 1:21. Hallelujah! What a Savior!

via Deuteronomy 26; Psalms 117–118; Isaiah 53; Matthew 1 – For the Love of God.

Apr
01
2012

Week 5: Isaiah 53:10-12

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[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.

 

Mar
25
2012

Week 4: Isaiah 53:7-9

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[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.

 

Mar
20
2012

The Servant’s Substitutionary Suffering

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Isaiah’s description of the servant in Isaiah 53:4-6 shifts back and forth between the servant’s work and the resultant blessing on God’s people. The following chart highlights the numerous links.

 

Suffering on behalf of others
VerseThe Servant's PartThe People's Part
Isaiah 53:4he took
he carried		our infirmities
our sorrows
Isaiah 53:5he was pierced
he was crushed
his punishment
his wounds		for our transgressions
for our iniquities
brought us peace
we are healed
Isaiah 53:6laid on himthe iniquity of us all

 

These verses, perhaps as much as any in the Bible, highlight the servant’s substitutionary (vicarious) suffering on behalf of others.

 

(Taken from Sidebar 17.2, page 207, in Encountering the Book of Isaiah by Bryan E. Beyer)

 

Mar
18
2012

Week 3: Isaiah 53:4-6

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[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.

 

Mar
15
2012

The Suffering Servant in the New Testament

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The significant usage of this passage (Isaiah 52:13-53:12) by many New Testament writers provides early testimony to the link the early church made between Isaiah’s words and the life and ministry of Jesus.

 

Links between Isaiah's words and Jesus
Isaiah's Verse(s)New Testament Citation(s)
Isaiah 52:15Romans 15:21
Isaiah 53:1John 12:38; Romans 10:16
Isaiah 53:4Matthew 8:17
Isaiah 53:7-8Acts 8:32-33 (Septuagint)
Isaiah 53:91 Peter 2:22
Isaiah 53:12Luke 22:37

 

(Table taken from Sidebar 17.3, page 211, in Encountering the Book of Isaiah by Bryan E. Beyer)