Through His death and resurrection Jesus will create a new community of mini-suffering servants founded on the righteousness that the Suffering Servant won for them.
Well, if you like surprises for Easter, you are going to love our text for Easter Sunday! It totally has a surprise that even the most discerning would not expect. In this re-new-ed heavens and earth text (reminiscent of Revelation 21-22) we see there is one driving question: What will happen to the “Suffering Servants” offspring? Bam! There it is: your Easter surprise!
You all know about the “Suffering Servant” in Isaiah, but did you know He had offspring? This could be a total surprise to most Bible readers and even some pastors. You have to go back to the fourth “servant song” in Isaiah to get this. In Isaiah 53:10 it says:
Yet, it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring;
he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Nestled between the suffering, death, and revelation of resurrection is this promise of the “offspring” of the “Suffering Servant.” This means the Suffering Servant will have suffering servants! It also means that through His death and resurrection Jesus will create a new community of mini-suffering servants founded on the righteousness that the Suffering Servant won for them.
If you need more proof of this, go on to Isaiah 54:17:
No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.
Apparently, there is an inheritance of the servants of Yahweh! The servants of Yahweh are the offspring of the Suffering Servant, and they have an inheritance which was given to them freely as a gift! Their righteousness is a forensic kind of righteousness. It is a vindication which comes from outside of them and was accomplished for them by the Suffering Servant (53:11). The many “justified ones” are the servants of Yahweh. These servants are called servants in our chapter in verses 8,13,14, and 15. The promises of the renewed heaven and earth are for those who receive by faith the righteous standing of the Suffering Messiah and are declared in verse 22 “my chosen ones.”
Their righteousness is a forensic kind of righteousness. It is a vindication which comes from outside of them and was accomplished for them by the Suffering Servant.
This is the surprising Easter gift that the Suffering Servant and Risen Lord Jesus Christ gives to His people. Here on Easter, we get to see the indescribable beauty of what it will be like when God recreates reality. Just a glimpse though, not the total vision yet.
A nice clean expository sermon might be good on this text. It allows you to mine the riches of the Easter surprise while easily bringing in other texts and explicit references to the Easter story without bogging down the sermon. The challenge on Easter, as a preacher, is to surprise people who already know and have been anticipating the events of the day. Here, you can easily bring in a surprising angle which will bless them with a fresh vision of the renewed heaven and earth in their resurrected Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Perhaps a quick structure before we unpack the construction more fully:
- Verses 17-20: Joyful people because of the Good News of our Risen Savior.
- Verses 21-23: Completely secure people who witness our Lord’s triumph over all things.
- Verses 24-25: People who are perfectly at peace because of their risen Prince of Peace.
An expository sermon can take a couple of different forms. We will use the “Verse-by-Verse” form:
“This structure uses the versification of the text to lead the hearers sequentially through the reading. Rather than follow the arbitrary division of the text into verses, however, the preacher often divides the verses into sections that can be considered according to their content (for example, the communication of a complete thought), their form (like the first articulation of a refrain in a psalm), or their function (for instance, the creation of an experience of tension in the opening conflict of a narrative).
The sermon can open deductively by highlighting a topic that will be addressed for the hearers through a close reading of the text or inductively by communicating a need on the part of the hearers which will be answered by a closer reading of this particular text. The introduction is important in that it communicates the value of walking slowly through the text and invites the hearers to join the preacher on the journey. The preacher then focuses upon one portion of the text, offering textual exposition and hearer application before moving to the next selection of verses. Ultimately, the preacher seeks to trace a consistent theme throughout the sequence of verses for the hearers and relate this theme to the proclamation of God’s gracious work in Christ. This approach should not simply offer the hearers random exegetical comments and various reflections without a coherent theme.”[1]
------
Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Isaiah 65:17-25.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Isaiah 65:17-25.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaeching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
-------
[1] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/textual/verse-by-verse/
