The Redeemer’s Song (Isaiah 61:1-62:12)
The sermon outline can be found in the ministry guide.
What gives you joy? Perhaps some of us find joy in food. Some of us find joy in various forms of recreation. Some find joy in books and still others in going for holidays. Living in Singapore, the majority of us are not deprived when it comes to food, travel, leisure etc.
However, when the pandemic hit the world, many of us find ourselves deprived of the things that we love and find joy in doing. As a result, we saw a rise in mental health issues, marital issues and heightened tensions even among us as believers. This leaves me to wonder what is our joy dependent on? Is our joy dependent upon our circumstances?
The early church faced a lot of hardships. The early Christians lived a hard life like many people during their time. the apartment buildings of ancient Rome were so shoddily built that “the city was constantly filled with the noise of buildings collapsing or being torn down to prevent it; That was the setting in which the Roman Christians raised their families. The classical world was not all gleaming marble and flowing white togas and sumptuous banquets. It was messy. The streets of Rome were deepest darkness after nightfall. There was no medical care as we know it, no inoculations for children, no retirement benefits, no air-conditioning, no refrigeration.”
Apart from the harsh living conditions, the early believers had to face persecutions for following Jesus. Do you know what was their response?
In Acts 5:41, it is written, “Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name.” They rejoice. What was their source of joy?
The passage for this morning in Isaiah 61-62, is addressed to a faithful remnant who were living in exile, a people forsaken, despised, rejected, afflicted and hated. In our sermon last Sunday, we learnt how the prophet brought to the people a message of hope in the midst of darkness. This morning we are going continue on a similar vein, still bringing before us a message of hope only this time round we are going to add a joyous tone to it. For the tone of the message from the prophet in 61 and 62 to the faithful remnant living in miserable estate isone filled with joy. It is a joyful song of hope and glory.
In Isaiah 61 it contains for us the fifth Servant Song. Although this song does not contain the title servant, but it is part of the same set of descriptions of the Messiah as the earlier Servant Songs and the role of the anointed in Isaiah 61 is similar to the role of the Servant who was chosen and empowered by God. Ultimately for us the anointed like the Servant in the four servant songs points to Christ.
The Lord is the faithful Redeemer who takes delight in the salvation of His people.
The big idea for our sermon this morning is: The Lord is the faithful Redeemer who takes delight in the salvation of His people.
As we listen to the words of Isaiah 61-62, let us put ourselves in the shoes of the original hearers, let our ears be filled with a joyful song. Let us open our hearts and let it be filled with the melodious joy of our redeemer’s song.
The sermon has been divided into four parts we can think of these four parts as four stanzas of a joyful song. The four stanzas we are going through are
The song of the Anointed (Isa 61:1-4)
The song of the blessed (Isa 61:5-11)
The song of the loved (Isa 62:1-5)
The song of the redeemed (Isa 62:6-12)
The song of the Anointed (Isa 61:1-4)
As we read Isaiah 61:1-4, we do not know if the original hearers associate the anointed with the Servant, perhaps they may be left wondering who is the anointed who have been chosen to bring good news. But what we can be reasonably certain of is the good news itself would have been clear to them. This is because the language would have reminded them of the proclamation of the year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25:8-10.
Hearing that the anointed hear the same message of liberty that was spoken to their ancestors, their hearts would be filled with the liberating sound of the trumpet, anticipating the loosening of the chain of bondage and the offering of much comfort to their mourning and their griefs. Their heart would be overflowing with hope and comfort as they hear the words of restoration of their ruin cities.
Indeed, I can imagine ringing in their ears would be the comforting song of liberation and restoration. For this is what the anointed has come to proclaim to the people.
There will be comfort in place of mourning, instead of ashes on their head they will be adorned with a beautiful headdress. Ashes are worn on the head as sign of mourning but when comforted ashes are replaced with headdress befitting the new found joy. They will be adorned with the garment of praise. This is the promise comfort to the people. The people who were once weak and vulnerable will now be strong and sturdy like the oak because the Lord Himself plants them.
As they hear these words, it would certainly have reaffirmed what they heard Isaiah declaring earlier in Isaiah 51:11 and reading from the KJV, “Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.”
What about us as people living on this side of the cross? What do we hear? We must hear the words of Jesus echoing in our ears as He reads from this passage in Isaiah in Luke 4:18-19 — “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
As we fixed our eyes on Jesus as He finished proclaiming these words, we hear Him say, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).
And we now turn our attention to the cross and see with our eyes how He died to liberate captives like us from the bondage of our sins.
And then we shift our attention to the empty tomb and see the victory of our Lord and the liberation of our captive souls.
The remnant, the original hearers, could not see beyond the liberty from their exile but the glory of salvation has been revealed to us. In Christ we can now truly experience what true freedom is. It is freedom from the bondage of our sins. It is freedom from the eternal curse that condemns all sinners without Christ forever and ever.
If we truly know and understand the freedom we have in Christ, we will want nothing else and no matter what the world hurls us at us it cannot and will not take away the joy we have in our hearts, the joy of our salvation. The psalmist in Psalm 51, certainly know and yearn for this salvation when he cries to the Lord, “restore to me the joy of Your salvation.”
Let us open our eyes to see how blessed we are. We who mourn for our sins, we who hunger and thirst for righteousness, we who have been made pure by the blood of Jesus. Let our joy be found in our salvation and not our circumstances.
The remnant, despite their faithfulness, have had to deal with their miserable estate for a very long time and they have been living in darkness. They have had their freedom suppressed and living under constant oppression. For years they have to suffer in exile and be in the service of foreign rulers. But now in our Redeemer’s Song there is hope of future blessings.
The next stanza of the Servant’s song further reinforces this hope of future glory. Open now our ears to the song of the blessed beginning with Isaiah 61:5-9,
The song of the blessed (Isa 61:5-11)
Such is the joyous hope that awaits those whom the Lord has blessed (Isa 61:5-11). The shame that theyhave to bear will be replaced with honor. The nations they once served will in return serve them, they will tend their flocks, they will plough their fields. The blessed shall be restored back to their original responsibility as a kingdom of priest and through them the world will come to know the creator God. Instead of the shame they suffered formerly because of God’s judgments, they will enjoy the double portion of blessings.
However, we must be careful not to read these verses as a reversal of role. For even though there is in one a sense a reversal of role for the former oppressor will become the ones who serve the remnants but the remnant are not the new oppressors and the oppressors become the oppressed. No, the role of the blessed is not that of an oppressor but they are to a be a kingdom of priests. This is the appointed role of the nation of Israel, this was what they were supposed to be. These are the words in Exodus 19:6 that was spoken by God and addressed to the nation, “and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”. Their role is to be a mediator between humans and God, assisting humans in their worship of God and teaching humans the ways of God. So let’s be clear it is not a reversal of role but a reinstatement of the role they were originally meant to play.
Today if we are in Christ, this is what scripture reveals about us in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”
What is our role? “To proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light”
We proclaim with our mouth, thus knowing what we believe is of vital importance, we proclaim with our lives, we must heed the call to no longer to conform to the ways of the world but be transformed by the renewal of our minds, we are called to a life that stands out for the Lord , husbands and wives how you play out your role is a display of Christ and His church, so make sure you display it well. Church, we are the body of Christ, people must see a different culture in us, how we govern, how we conduct our life together, how we make decisions as a body, the relationships that we have with one another, does it reflect the transforming power of the gospel. We have a different culture and it is called the gospel culture.
The good news for the people does not end with the promise of future glory. There is more. There is the promise of an eternally secured future glory, meaning it will be fulfilled, it is guaranteed for the redeemed.
When Moses gave the covenant to the people in Deuteronomy 28:30-33, he told the people that if they broke the covenant than their enemies will reap the results of their labour but in this everlasting covenant the curses for covenant breaking will never occur again. Now put yourself in the shoes of the remnants when they hear God saying He will give to them an everlasting covenant. It totally blows their mind. What God is saying to them He will give them an everlasting covenant pointing to the assurance of eternal security. What this mean is the covenant is no longer dependent upon the people’s ability to keep it but it solely rests on the strength and faithfulness of God alone.
Our assurance today in Christ is our salvation is sealed by the Holy Spirit implying that it is eternally secured.
Our assurance today in Christ is our salvation is sealed by the Holy Spirit implying that it is eternally secured.
Such great an assurance for the remnants is further strengthened by the Anointed in His response to such great a blessing in Isaiah 61:10-11. In these verses, the Anointed One rejoices (a) over what God has done to prepare Him for His work of bringing salvation (Isa 61:10) and (b) over what God will accomplish through His work (Isa 61:11).
In the first half of verse 10, the garments of salvation and robe of righteousness are metaphors that describe how God has empowered the person wearing the clothes to accomplish the task (Isa 61:1-3) of establishing salvation. And in having the character and the ability to grant salvation and righteousness, it will enable the possessor of these qualities to deliver people from their former unrighteous state and will prepare them to enter into God’s glorious kingdom.
What we see in the second half of the verse is the comparison of God’s preparation of the Anointed One with the image of putting on the finest, richest, and most beautiful finery that people would wear at a wedding. This imagery is to help display the fullness and magnificence of God’s work.
Isaiah 61:11 expresses what God will accomplish by making a comparison between the earth’s ability to cause plants to spring up and the Lord’s ability to cause righteousness to spring up. The original readers living in a largely agricultural economy would know that when the rain falls on the soil, shoots will spring up out of the dormant roots of grass; seeds that were sown in a garden or field will start to grow. These undeniable facts of nature are compared to what the Lord will do to cause his seeds of righteousness and praise to spring up.
What does all these mean for us? It must open our eyes and fixed them on Jesus. For He is the anointed whom God has prepared to do the work of salvation, He is the anointed who will and has accomplish the work of salvation.
We see this accomplishment in the death and resurrection of Jesus our Lord. In Christ alone is our salvation. This is the single most important reason for our rejoicing and even in our rejoicing there is much to learn from this song of the blessed.
As we listen to this song of the blessed, I want us to pay close attention. What is the reason for the praise, what gives rise to the joy and exultation? Notice the focus is not on the liberation that the people will experience but it is on the liberator. The praise is not in response to the rebuilding of the ancient ruins but on God the builder. The joy is not found in their new situation but in the Lord.
Remember when the apostle exalts his readers to rejoice in Philippians 4:4, what did he tell them to rejoice in? “Rejoice in the Lord, always”. Their rejoicing is in the Lord.
When we rejoice in the Lord and not our circumstance, we will have everlasting joy.
Friends we can rejoice in the Lord and we rejoice always in all occasions and in very season of life.
What is the reason for our rejoicing? Jesus is our reason.
We rejoice in Jesus alone.
In Jesus alone we can rejoice because in Him is our salvation.
In Jesus alone we can rejoice because He is our righteousness.
In Jesus alone we can rejoice because He is our hope, our light, our strength.
The list can go on and on.
When we rejoice in the Lord and not our circumstance, we will have everlasting joy.
Do you believe?
We have sung the song of the anointed, we have sung the song of the blessed, now let us continue to sing the song of the loved.
The song of the loved (Isa 62:1-5)
In Isaiah 62:1-5, while the theme of the covenantal promises continues in this chapter but the identity of the speaker seems to have changed. Now God has become the speaker.
These verses contain the lyrics of a love song filled hope and a melodious song filled with joy. This is God’s personal message addressed to the remnants living in exile, living in a state of desolation and it contains the loving promise that their desolation will be replaced with delight. But this delight is not just about the delight of the people. It is much much more.
The passage reveals to us that God will bring about a new state of affair, His people will be a display to the watching world as “a crown of beauty”, “a royal diadem” (Isa 62:3).
They will be given a new name. Names are especially significant in Israel culture and that of the ancient near east. Names and character are often intimately connected. So to the original hearer this would be especially meaningful indicating a totally new state of affairs, since downtrodden Israel will become the envy of the world.
While this certainly is a delightful news to the people but what is even more astonishing is all of this is a reflection of God’s delight in His people. A delight that is liken to a bridegroom taking delight in his bride.
The Lord takes delight in His people. The Lord takes delight in His people? Have you ever considered this fact? It is not a question of whether the Lord takes delight in us, it is a fact that He take delight in us. Psalm 147:11 tells us, “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.”
And in 1 Corinthians 4:5, we read, “Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”
But why does He take delight in us? The answer can be found in the closing verses of Isaiah 61:10a — “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God.”
Where were the praises of the anointed directed towards? It is directed towards God.
Friends, God takes delight in His people because they take delight in Him.
The psalmist declares in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Paul also exhorts his readers in Romans with regards to our salvation, “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom 5:2).
God delights in His people because His people delights in Him.
Friends, what this means is the focus of our praises must be directed towards God. Our delight must be in God.
God delights in His people because His people delights in Him.
But what warrants God to take delight in our delight in Him? We are sinful beings. There can be only one answer and the answer is Christ. God take delight in us because Jesus has redeemed us from our sins, He has saved us and cover us with His righteousness.
In Christ we can and must encourage one another, spur one another, help one another to take delight in the Lord. In our praises, in our worship, in our thanksgiving, let it be directed wholeheartedly to the Lord and not what He has given us.
As we come to the final stanza, let us lift the voices of our heart to sing the song of the redeemed.
The song of the redeemed (Isa 62:6-12)
As the exile awaits the fulfilment of the promise of future glory, Isaiah 62:6-12 focus on the responsibility the people must play if the waiting time is to result in glorious completion.First his summons the watchmen. The watchmen (or overseers) are the committed guardians of the city, whose most important role is to be entirely dependent on God for the city’s blessing and to be unceasing in their prayers to Him to act (Isa 62:6-7) in the faithful fulfilment of His promises (Isa 62:8-9) to preserve the city in security and prosperity.
Secondly, they are to prepare the way for the arrival of many people from all the nations of the world. They are encouraged to pass outside the gates of Jerusalem and make all necessary road repairs by building up low places and clearing unwanted stones.
There is a future glory that waits us the redeemed people in Christ. As we wait for this future glory we too must pray and we pray to the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth His labourers.
We must fulfil our responsibility as a church in the Great Commission, preaching the gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected, making disciples who are being taught to obey everything the Lord has commanded.
In Isaiah 62:2, there was the promise of a new name for the remnants and in the final verse of Isaiah 62, we learn what this new name is:
The Holy People,
The Redeemed of the LORD;
Sought Out,
A City Not Forsaken.
There is no better than this in the world wide world. There is no surer assurance than this. There is no better security than this.
As a holy and redeemed people, they are a people who belong to God, a chosen and special people. There can be no greater privilege. They are a people who are being cared for and not forsaken points to the wonderful promise that they will always come under the loving care of God and never neglected or abandoned again.
What about us?
Remember 1 Peter 2:9. We, too, have been given a new name, we too are special, for we also the redeemed of the Lord, a people called to represent God, a special people set apart for God, a people belonging to God. we are to proclaim His glory. Friends, is this not reason enough for us to rejoice? Let us enter into the joy of the Lord because He is the faithful Redeemer who takes delight in His redeemed people.
Let us the redeemed of the Lord rejoice in the Lord.
In a while, we will be taking the Lord’s Supper together. It must serve as reminder to us of what our Lord Jesus did on the cross to redeem us from our sins. Let us be reminded of how great a salvation we have Jesus, let it be a renewal of the joy of salvation.
Our joy is in the Lord and no one can take that joy away from us.
The world finds joy based on circumstances and based on things that the world can give but our joy is found in the delight of His people who delight in Him. Our joy is in the Lord and no one can take that joy away from us.
In all things, let us rejoice in the Lord. In all our celebrations, be it new birth, new year, weddings, promotions, graduation etc, let us be rejoicing in the Lord. We do that by fixing our eyes on Jesus and filling our hearts with joyful thanksgiving acknowledging that,
As James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
When we face trials in our life, let us consider it pure joy trusting in the word of God this testing of our faith produces steadfastness. And when steadfastness has its full effect, that we will be made perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Even when we are facing abandonment or overwhelmed by the fear of abandonment know that in Christ we have an everlasting covenant and we have a Saviour who will always be with us. We will never walk alone. Let us rejoice in the Lord because He will always be with us.
We can rejoice in the Lord be because there is nothing more precious than Jesus, there is nothing in the world that can offer us greater joy. When we come to truly understand this reality, we will truly be able to resonate and declare together with Paul, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”