Weekly Messages - Prairie Presbyterian Church Prairie Presbyterian Church

Matthew 25:34-40

John 10:22-30; Revelation 7:9-17; Psalm 23




 
 
 

John 21: 1-19

Luke 19:28-40

The audio and the full text of the sermon are below. There are also questions for reflection at the bottom. Feel free to discuss on our sermon discussion group on Facebook.
This is part five in a five part series on The Servant Songs.




Isaiah 52:13-53:12 (NRSV)
13 See, my servant shall prosper;
    he shall be exalted and lifted up,
    and shall be very high.
14 Just as there were many who were astonished at him
    —so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,
    and his form beyond that of mortals—
15 so he shall startle many nations;
    kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which had not been told them they shall see,
    and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.
53 Who has believed what we have heard?
    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,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by others;
    a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him of no account.
4 Surely he has borne our infirmities
    and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
    struck down by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,
    crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
    and by his bruises we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
8 By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
    Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people.
9 They made his grave with the wicked
    and his tomb with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
When you make his life an offering for sin,
    he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.
11     Out of his anguish he shall see light;
he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
    The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out himself to death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.
Scholars have disagreed about the interpretation and application of the fourth servant song for as long as we have been reading it. This does not mean that we cannot understand what it says, but it does mean that we cannot claim to fully grasp everything that this servant song means.
As we’ve moved through the servants songs, we’ve concluded that they do, in fact, point to Jesus. This becomes even more pronounced in this fourth servant song. If it does point to Jesus, we shouldn’t be surprised that no matter what we say about this servant song, it will never be enough to describe the reality of God in Christ, nor will it ever be exact. Jesus is like that. Jesus is greater than any description we can apply to him. We will say one thing about him, make some conclusion about him, and we automatically leave something else out.
This is even more true when we confront the mystery of his suffering, death and resurrection and the mix of human and divine elements in it. Did he die at the hands of sinful human beings? Was he betrayed? Was he put on trial