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Oct 20, 2019

Pierced By His Story

Passage: Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Speaker: Chip & Craig Co-Sermon

Series: Isaiah

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: story, redemption, sacrifice, hero, rescue

(THIS IS THE 4TH “SERVANT SONG”)Isaiah gives a very clear and powerful prophetic message about Jesus, the coming Suffering Servant. In this passage we see the vast depths of our rebellion and sin against God, matched by the depths of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, culminating in Jesus Final and Perfect Triumph. It is the clearest summary of Jesus sacrifice in scripture and thus the greatest Story ever told.

Order of Worship

CALL TO WORSHIP: 1 Peter 1:3-4;6-7 & Romans 12:1

READING: John 10:9-11

MUSIC:  

  • Build My Life
  • Heal Us
  • How Deep the Father’s Love
  • All the Poor and Powerless
  • Doxology

PRAYER: To Live In Christ (The Valley of Vision) 

LEADER: Jehovah God, creator and upholder of all things. It is our privilege is to be

under the care of your wisdom, righteousness, mercy, and grace.

ALL: It is the discovery of Your goodness and mercy alone that can banish our fears, allure us into Your presence and help us to confess sin. For in You there is mercy and kindness. Exceeding riches through the finished work of Your Son.

LEADER: May we always feel our need of Jesus. Find all joy and strength in Him. O Blessed Spirit, enliven our hearts. Renew our mind.  Work in us the image of the heavenly.

ALL: That we may know the love of Christ and live in this good news.

MESSAGE (Parts 1&2): Pierced By His Story

CENTRAL TEXT: Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12

ILLUSTRATIONS:

RESPONSE: Communion

BENEDICTION: Hebrews 13:20-21

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Exodus 12:5
  • Psalm 22
  • Isaiah 1:5–6; 2:12–14; 11:1–10
  • Mark 6:30-44
  • Luke 15:1-7
  • John 10:1-18
  • John 11:45-50
  • Acts 2:23
  • Romans 3:10-19
  • Romans 5:7-8
  • 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
  • 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
  • Ephesians 2:1-8
  • Ephesians 2:16-17
  • Colossians 1:15-20
  • Philippians 2:5-11
  • Philippians 3:7-11
  • 1 Peter 2:18-25

MEDIA:

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. What’s something you gave so much of yourself to, but which did not yield what you hoped? Now set aside the spiritual for a moment. What’s something you cherish which cost you nothing to obtain?
  2. Quick--what are all the connections you can draw between this description of the Servant and what you know of Jesus?
  3. What’s the plight of the “we” here in verse 6 to which this servant responds with action? What does that mean in ordinary, not metaphorical, terms?
  4. What did this servant accomplish in the end? Why would that have been good news for those who first heard this promise?
  5. How would believing deeply what Jesus has accomplished on your behalf change just one thing you’re presently facing? So what’s keeping you from asking as the father of an afflicted son did (Mark 9:24)?
  6. Consider some of the famous stories (books, films, etc.) throughout history. Quite often a major theme is sacrificial love (giving up life for another). Why do you think all of humanity is drawn to this type of story? List some of the classics / favorites.
  7. In 53:11, the text speaks of the Servant being “satisfied” by what was accomplished. What was this satisfaction (hint: it comes later in the text). What would motivate the Servant (Jesus) to leave the comfort and unity of heaven accomplish this?
  8. This passage is considered one of the greatest summaries of the gospel in all of Scripture (and the New Testament writers repeatedly referred to it). How might reflecting on these words regularly, lead to gratitude, transformation, and a sacrificial life for others? 
  9. Contrast and compare His Story to any other stories (books, films, etc.) that come to mind. Consider the numerous points of uniqueness and unparalleled beauty of His Story (for us).

QUOTES:

  • “Anguish was not his final emotional experience. His anguish led to a dawning light of victorious joy. Looking on what he accomplished by his passion, Christ is satisfied. Why? Because he’s the kind of person who enjoys clearing sinners of their guilt and accounting them righteousness, though it demands that he bear their iniquities upon himself” - Ray Ortland
  • “The cross guarantees that even in your darkest moment God will never turn in disgust and walk away. There is no rebellion, no weakness, no foolishness, no evil of heart that the cross can't defeat and grace can't transform.” - Paul David Tripp
  • “The Cross is not simply a lovely example of sacrificial love. Throwing your life away needlessly is not admirable — it is wrong. Jesus’ death was only a good example if it was more than an example, if it was something absolutely necessary to rescue us. And it was. Why did Jesus have to die in order to forgive us? There was a debt to be paid — God himself paid it. There was a penalty to be born — God himself bore it. Forgiveness is always a form of costly suffering.” - Timothy J. Keller
  • “In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?” - John Stott
  • “Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.” - John Stott
  • “The most sublime act is to set another before you.” - William Blake
  • “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” - Spock (The Wrath of Kahn)
  • “What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” - Albert Pine
  • “It’s the nature of all tragedies, the hero dies, but the story lives on forever.” - Professor Hilbert (Stranger Than Fiction)
  • “Self sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all the reported miracles grow.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “You want unlimited power? You want passion? You want freedom? You want to really feel things? You want a world that is bigger and better and truer and more significant than the one you’re living in, right now? Be prepared to give up something to get it. Be prepared to become someone you don’t recognize. Be prepared to bet your soul. The odd thing about becoming a maenad. . .is that you’re not risking your soul for anything concrete. You’re not asking for riches or worldly power or for one specific person to love you. You’re risking your soul to feel something, to feel the certainty that the world is enchanted, to know that magic exists at all. I wanted to outrun the Nothing. There was nothing I would not have sacrificed—friendships, relationships, the blood from the heel of my foot—to get it.” - Tara Isabella Burton 
  • “No, it was not the Jews who crucified, Nor who betrayed you in the judgment place, Nor who, Lord Jesus, spat into your face, Nor who with buffets struck you as you died. No, it was not the soldiers fisted bold. Who lifted up the hammer and the nail, Or raised the cursed cross on Calvary’s hill, Or, gambling, tossed the dice to win your robe. I am the one, O Lord, who brought you there, I am the heavy cross you had to bear, I am the rope that bound you to the tree, The whip, the nail, the hammer, and the spear, The blood-stained crown of thorns you had to wear: It was my sin, alas, it was for me.” - Jacob Revius (He Bore Our Griefs 1658)
  • “We tell stories because  we’re broken creatures hungering for redemption,” - Mike Cosper (The Stories We Tell)
  • "The Gospels contain a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories...But this Story has entered History and the primary world...There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many skeptical men have accepted as true on its own merits." - J.R.R Tolkein (On Fairy Stories)

BOOKS / ARTICLES

SERMONS / TALKS: