"God Promises A Suffering Servant" - Richard Andrews - 1.8.2023
New Life Fellowship of Baltimore, Maryland Worship Service 1.08.23 Weekly Christian Worship Service of Grace Communion Baltimore Time codes 0:00 – Intro 4:49 – Welcome/Who We Are 11:46 – Congregational Prayer 15:16 – Offering 22:46 – Gospel Message 1:22:06 – Sharing in Communion/The Nicene Creed/Conclusion Summary and Goal In this session, we will examine how God showed mercy to us by transferring our sins to His Son, the Suffering Servant. Though people often look for a Savior who is a bold, charismatic leader, the Servant—Jesus—came to serve the least of these and ultimately redeem us by His blood. It is in living by faith in His sacrifice for us, following His example, that we will find a life of satisfaction and fulfillment. Session in a Sentence Jesus is the Suffering Servant who was rejected and struck down on our behalf in order to win the victory. Christ Connection God opened the eyes of Isaiah to see the coming Savior with detail no one had seen before. Isaiah prophesied about a faithful Servant who would be rejected and despised and yet accomplish salvation through His suffering. The New Testament shows that this prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus and His work. Missional Application Because we have received life through the sacrifice of Jesus, we embrace a life of service and suffering on His behalf as we share the gospel with others. "Isaiah 52 (The Message) 13-15 “Just watch my servant blossom! Exalted, tall, head and shoulders above the crowd! But he didn’t begin that way. At first everyone was appalled. He didn’t even look human— a ruined face, disfigured past recognition. Nations all over the world will be in awe, taken aback, kings shocked into silence when they see him. For what was unheard of they’ll see with their own eyes, what was unthinkable they’ll have right before them.” Isaiah 53 (The Message) "Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this? 2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him. 7-9 He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off— and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true. 10 Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him. 11-12 Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many “righteous ones,” as he himself carries the burden of their sins. Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly— the best of everything, the highest honors— Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep."