Jesus Is God's Secret Weapon Isaiah 49:1-6 011914M
My great-great uncle, Johann Carl Gotthilf Müller served as an infantry drummer in the Prussian army. He was killed in the Battle of Spichern during the Franco-Prussian war in the year 1870. Although the Prussians outflanked the French, a new rapid-fire rifle introduced by the French caused a disproportionate number of Prussian casualties. Uncle Gotthilf was one of them; he was shot in the abdomen. Amazing what difference a weapon could make in winning a war, especially when it's kept as a secret from the other side. In a way, that's how our text describes our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Isaiah's words are actually his words, obviously revealed through the power of the Holy Spirit. In this lesson we see how:
Jesus Is God's Secret Weapon
1. To proclaim his Word.
2. To serve for his glory.
3. To rescue all his people.
1. Remember, in the season of Epiphany, we see how Jesus showed himself forth to be the Son of God and the world's Savior from sin. He did this both by his words and by his works which we call "miracles." We speak of Jesus' office of "prophet." A prophet not only foretold the future; he spoke FOR someone, namely, God. And that's what Jesus did. Want to know God's thoughts and his very heart? Then listen to and see Jesus. That's why we can say Jesus is God's secret weapon To proclaim his Word.
Jesus' role as the world's Savior was determined long before his birth in Bethlehem. Jesus was aware of his saving mission long before his incarnation. He says: Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name. Jesus himself is speaking in prophecy through Isaiah, relating how he knew what his saving mission was going to be. Note how he announces this to people near and far. From the beginning, the world was going to be his mission field!
That's where the secret weapon comes in: 2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. Notice what the real "weapon" is here: "my mouth" he says, is a "sharpened sword." That's exactly what God calls his Word elsewhere in Scripture. The Apostle Paul encouraged believers to take up the "sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God" (Ep 6). The writer to the Hebrews says, For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (He 4:12).
What did Jesus SAY with this weapon that was his mouth? He condemned sin. He constantly chastised the Pharisees for their self-righteous attitude because they didn't see their sin. In the Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector, he condemned the Pharisee who thanked God he wasn't like all the other horrible sinners in the world, while he commended the tax collector who simply said, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." He called out the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well when she had been married five times, and the guy she was living with at the time was not her husband. He warned about covetousness, lust and an unforgiving heart. Yet, he forgave the sins of those who were penitent, and said those are people he came for, just as it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but rather those who are sick. He foretold his suffering, death and resurrection, and how he would draw people to God by dying for their sins. He said he was the way, the truth and the life, apart from whom no one could come to God. He said he came to bring rest for weary souls, and that he is the Good Shepherd, the Living Vine, living water, and the Bread of Life.
Jesus STILL speaks God's Word today, albeit thorough his people--like you and me. How did he warm and penetrate your cold, stony heart of unbelief with his love and forgiveness? It was through his Word which he convinced you applied to YOU! He came to live and die for YOU! He won forgiveness for YOU! He used the weapon that is the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. You and I still NEED that word to convict us of our sin and strengthen our faith in Jesus as our Savior.
But others need that Word too. Our ministry at St. Andrew, whether in English or Spanish, will not be successful (at least in the way God defines success) without the Word of God. We can throw the most entertaining block parties, the best children's events, teach the finest English classes in the city, and have the friendliest church in Christendom, but if we never get around to teaching Jesus, we've failed--we won't have saved a single soul. People will never know the heart of God in the saving work Jesus carried out for them--and he did do it for them! That's why, with outreach, the follow-up is actually more important than the event itself. That's why Bible studies and devotions after ESL are more important than the ESL! Yes, we are serving the community by offering these services in Christian love. But we are also a Christian church that exists for one reason: being a place where people can meet their Savior. And we offer no apologies for being what we are!
2. Jesus is God's "secret weapon" to preach God's Word. But he also came to fulfill that Word, and in so doing, he saved the world from sin. So he is God's "secret weapon" To serve to his glory.
In our text the Savior recalls words from his Father. You and I are privy to a conversation between God the Father and God the Son held from eternity: 3 He said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor." WHO is the servant? It sounds like the nation of Israel, doesn't it? And Israel WAS to be God's servant, finally being the nation from which the Savior would come. But as a servant of God, glorifying him, they failed. But the Savior God sent from them didn't fail. He took their place as the perfect servant, as well as taking the place of everyone in the world. He carried out his Father's will and brought glory to him. As he prayed not long before going to the cross to die: I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began (Jn 17:4-5).
Jesus saving work was not easy, nor was it well-received. In our lesson he says, 4 But I said, "I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me is in the LORD's hand, and my reward is with my God." "Labored to no purpose?" As far as his saving work, that wasn't true; he accomplished what he set out to do. But as far as people believing in him--even his own people Israel--there were many times Jesus felt like he was banging his head against a wall. Think of people making excuses about why they couldn't follow him: "I just got married; I have to go to a funeral; I just bought a piece of property." He asked his own disciples, "Will you go away too?" How often they were slow to catch on, like fighting over who is greatest in Jesus' kingdom, and telling him the cross wasn't necessary, and deserting him and fleeing when he needed them most. Peter denied him and Judas betrayed him. Of his own people, how he lamented, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who stone the prophets and kill those sent to you, how often I wanted to gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Jesus' own half brothers at first rejected him! But he wasn't out to win a popularity contest. He came to do God's work, and God would reward him in the end. He didn't need to seek any worldly reward or commendation.
There's a warning in this for us. Do WE receive Jesus and willingly follow and obey him as our Lord and Savior? Or do WE make excuses of why we can't serve and follow and obey? There's also a comfort in this for us. When we do the Lord's work, sometimes our efforts seem to come to nothing too. People don't want the saving words we have to offer. But we're not out to please people either. We simply speak and live God's truth in Christ. God is in charge of the results. Our reward is in heaven with him, not in notoriety, popularity, and outward success here on earth.
3. Yet, our mission is the same--reaching people for Jesus with the message of his saving work. That's why he carried out that saving work. And he carried it out for all people. Jesus is God's secret weapon To rescue all his people.
Jesus was a Jew who came from the Jews to be the Savior of the Jews--"the glory of his people Israel," as Simeon said. But he was also to be "a light to lighten the Gentiles," those who are not Jewish or of the nation of Israel. That was God's plan for Jesus from the beginning, and he knew it: 5 And now the LORD says — he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength — 6 he says: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."
That's a comfort for us because we are those "other nations" he came to restore by his sinless life and innocent death. We can be sure our sins are forgiven and we are the people of God too, because Scripture says his saving work applies to all people. But this is also an encouragement to us as WE speak about Jesus to others. He didn't come just for people like us. He came for everyone. That validates the ministry we are doing, striving to reach out across cultures, to all the people living around us. It energizes us for the work we're doing all around the world, bringing the gospel to every place on earth we possibly can. Those are the people for whom Jesus died--just as he lived and died for you and me.
Jesus IS God's secret weapon used by God to win salvation for the entire human race. He is God's secret weapon to speak God's Word, to serve for God's glory, and to rescue all of God's people. Jesus still reveals himself as such a weapon--the only One to defeat sin, death and hell. By his Word he still reveals himself to and through you and me! Amen.
Isaiah 49:1-6
Jesus Is God's Secret Weapon
1. To proclaim his Word.
2. To serve for his glory.
3. To rescue all his people.
Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.
The Apostle Paul encouraged believers to take up the "sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God" (Ep 6).
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (He 4:12).
3 He said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor."
I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began (Jn 17:4-5).
4 But I said, "I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me is in the LORD's hand, and my reward is with my God."
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who stone the prophets and kill those sent to you, how often I wanted to gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
5 And now the LORD says — he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength — 6 he says: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."