Isaiah 49:6

0:00 If you had to take a guess of who do you think, which person has had the biggest worldwide influence in the last half century or so, who do you think that would be? If you had to take a single guess of this one person who's changed the world the most in the most tangible way in the last 40, 50 years or so, who do you think that would be? Well, whatever you might think, whatever your opinion might be on that, whether you think you're right or not, I think, unfortunately, we may all have to admit that the person who's had the biggest influence in our lives and perhaps the world is the guy who invented the internet, the guy who invented the World Wide Web.

0:47 He actually wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times a few years ago, and he actually lamented his own invention of the internet. He kind of complains that he had the original purpose of creating the Internet to serve humanity. But now the Internet has led to hate speech or disinformation. He dreamed of some kind of digital dystopia. But the Internet is now in an arena of human corruption.

1:20 His desire to serve the world was good, but it's now spiraled into evil. and in that op-ed piece he vowed to fix the problem well we'll see if he succeeds or not but our verse tonight this evening shows us another servant another servant who serves humanity not with digital blessing but with eternal salvation our biblical text tonight this evening is isaiah Isaiah 49, chapter 6. Isaiah 49, chapter 6.

1:53 You're welcome to look at it on the front of your bulletin. It's also on page 610 of one of the Red Pew Bibles in front of you. Isaiah 49, verse 6. Let's read it real quick. He says, It's too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I'll make you as a light for the nations that my salvation might reach to the end of the earth.

2:28 The main idea of this text is this. You need to be restored to God who shines the light of salvation far and deep. You need to be restored to God who shines the light of salvation far and deep. We're going to look at this in two points. First point is God's grace reaches worldwide. God's grace reaches worldwide. And point two, God's grace reaches the deepest darkness of our hearts.

3:01 So point one, God's grace reaches worldwide. This verse that we just read, it's in the middle of one of Isaiah's very special songs about a very special servant. and you see this throughout chapters 40 through 45 and god's message is a message of comfort and encouragement to the exiles this servant reveals god's glory to the whole world something israel failed to do he obeys god's word perfectly and israel obviously failed at that too and the servant atones for the people's sins as a substitute and Israel obviously could not atone for their own sins so this is no ordinary Israelite this is a preview of the Messiah and here in this song in chapter 49 the servant is God's singular agent of salvation and restoration

4:02 who will restore not only Israel but the entire world. But as you know, Isaiah, he lived and he prophesied over 100 years before Nebuchadnezzar started taking Israelite captives to Babylon. So why does God here speak to this event over a century out? Wouldn't his original hearers have been like, kind of like Hezekiah responded in chapter 39, wouldn't they have been like, well, hey, that's a good word, but, you know, I'm not going to be around, so I honestly don't care. Why does God speak a message of comfort to the exiles this early on? Is he just trying to predict the future? Well, that surely separates the true God from the idols of the world, but there is a deeper, more pressing reason why God comforts the exile a century or so out. Isaiah's intent here is to paint a glorious picture of salvation that goes well beyond the

5:06 historical and physical return from Babylon. They indeed returned to the land a little bit later, but their hearts were still in exile. The people needed not to be just restored to the land, they needed to be restored to God himself and this restoration to God is going to extend to the furthest parts of the earth imaginable and so we as Christians there's this is no doubt no surprise that the apostle Paul who specifically called the apostle to the Gentiles he quotes this exact verse when he preaches to the entire town of Pisidian Antioch in Acts chapter 13.

5:48 The Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled the role of Yahweh's servant. He bore the sins of his people and has become the salvation to the Gentiles via the proclamation of the gospel. But God's message here in Isaiah 49, 6 is very pointed. And his message is this. God's people need to be not just restored to the land, but to God himself. And God has every intention to extend his grace worldwide. Look again at the first part of verse 6.

6:23 It's too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved as Israel. It's too light a thing for God just to bring Israel back to the land. The word for light here is likely paired up with the word for honored in verse 5, which literally means heavy. The servant will be honored. He'll be glorified by restoring Israel. But immediately after, he says, well, that's too light a thing to restore only Israel.

6:56 It's a contrast between light and heavy, small and big, insignificant and glorious. It's too easy for God to just bring the exiles back to the land. That's way too easy. It's not glorious enough. A truly, gloriously heavy display of the grace of God is to bring the Gentiles to join in on this party. Now, is God saying that this is some kind of extremely difficult task to save the whole world? Well, of course not.

7:28 In chapter 40, he says all the nations are like a drop in a bucket. Saving the nations doesn't make God sweat. But God does often speak to us in a way that helps our little human brains understand how marvelous the grace of God is. God did some serious heavy lifting to save you and to save me, to save us Gentiles. Not because it was actually some difficult task for him, but because he gets to show off his grace and mercy, not just to a little nation in the Middle East, but to the entire world.

8:06 It's too small a thing for God to rescue just one little percentage of the world's population and leave the rest of the world out to dry and go to hell. No, it wasn't enough to confine the boundaries of God's grace to one little nation. He's going after the Gentiles. Now that is just a colossal magnitude of the grace of God. The Lord Jesus Christ committed to saving you, to saving me.

8:38 Gentiles cut off from God. He committed to save us from sin because it was too lightweight for him not to. God can bring about much more than just a physical return to a narrow strip of land. He can lift the full weight of an eternity in hell that was reserved for you. He's no lightweight Savior. It would have been easy for Jesus. It would have been too light a thing for Jesus just to say, no, I'm not going to go through with this.

9:12 I'm not going to go to the cross and bear the full weight of my Father's wrath against these people. That would have been the easy way out. And he would have been totally justified in doing that. But he didn't do that. He was resolved. he was set on seeing it through to the end. Set on seeing our salvation won and restoring us to God forever. Doesn't that encourage you if you're a Christian? What an incredible comfort that is.

9:47 Jesus is 100% fully and unwaveringly set on bringing you home. If you've been doubting that lately, You've been uncertain whether God will carry you all the way to the end. Look at Jesus' commitment to you. It was too light a thing for him to leave you in your sin. He lifted everything necessary to remove your guilt and rescue you.

10:18 You're going to make it home. You'll make it to the other side because he's strong and faithful. again isaiah's message here is that god will restore his people to himself and these people will come from the end of the earth and isaiah becomes crystal clear that the gulf of alienation between god and his people was caused by not circumstances but or the foreign nations but it was caused by sin, rebellion, our dark spiritual condition without God. Israel didn't need to just be restored to the land. Their hearts needed to be restored to God, and they needed to be delivered from a deeper, much more extreme captivity, a captivity far worse than the oppression of a foreign nation. They needed to be delivered from the deep, dark, wretched condition of sins

11:21 captivity. And that's the second point. God's grace reaches the deepest darkness of our hearts. God's grace reaches the deepest darkness of our hearts. Let's look again at the second half of verse six. He says, I'll make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. The suffering servant becomes the light of God's gracious deliverance because humanity is captive to sin this shining beam of the divine light to the end of the earth it's not only an extension to the furthest longitude and latitude it's not just a distant geographic location the end the ends of the earth it's a deep dark spiritual condition it's a penetration into the deepest places on earth which are our hearts down in verse 9 of

12:22 chapter of this chapter 49 the lord says he'll restore those who are in darkness and the next chapter in chapter 50 verse 10 the servant tells the one who walks in darkness and has no light trust to trust in the name of Yahweh and rely on his God. Jesus himself said that people love the darkness rather than the light because their works are evil. Friends, without Jesus, we're just hanging out in the darkness of our sins against God. For Jesus to be a light to the nation, that's no compliment to us the necessity of light assumes the presence of darkness and the theologian once said that Jesus came to save the world not because the world's so bad but not because the world is so big but because the world's so bad so if you're not a Christian here tonight if if you haven't trusted in Christ for your salvation

13:23 Do you realize that your only way out of the darkness is through the light of King Jesus? That's the only way. There's only one light to the nations. There's only one light to you. If you want to be truly spiritually enlightened, you must put your trust in the only light to the nations. You know, people often say, well, I'm trying to find God, or I'm searching, I'm trying to find God.

13:54 They'll look for God in nature, or art, or health, in fitness, you name it. Those are all good things, but the reality, friend, if you are not a Christian, you don't have the spiritual eyes to see him because you're in the darkness and he's the light. Jesus must find you. He must shine his light on you. He's got to shine his light into your dark heart with the grace of God. And the good news is, he's doing that right now.

14:29 God's light of salvation has come to you through his word. So turn from your sin and turn to Christ and be saved. And for the rest of us who are, if you are a Christian, you and me, Jesus has saved us from the darkness. And what's the only proper response? As the Apostle Peter says, the proper response for the light coming to us is to proclaim the excellencies of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous lights.

15:09 and that's our commitment to each other as a church right we're committed to live for his glory as it says at the end of our church covenant we're committed to live for his glory who has called us out of darkness and into his glorious light a complete 180 of grace has happened to us we who were once destined to perish are now privileged to proclaim we who once lived in darkness now get to point the light to others how awesome is that for some of you that might that might mean going thousands of miles away from here for many of us it's probably going to be right here with those we see most often co-workers classmates family our children whatever our proximity we are people who've been lit up with God's grace and who aim to light up others with the same grace that's reached us so let's not fear this dark world let's go into it

16:13 with the light of salvation let's pray father thank you that your light has reached us thank you for your grace thank you for the gospel thank you that you are committed to seeing us there is. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.