Pastoral Letter 146
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and Peace to you all.
By God’s grace and mercy, we have started the New Year 2023 with great hopes and anticipations. As I said last week, the year is new, the journey is new, but our loving and caring God is the same. He kept us safe and blessed us in the past year in so many ways, for which we have to be grateful.
In the first week of the year some of us were still in the mood of celebration, as with all Armenians we celebrated the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on Friday 6 January, once again reminding ourselves that God with His loving grace has come to us in the form of a humble servant to save us and give us hope.
This Sunday we celebrate Epiphany and/or Baptism of Jesus. We celebrate the revelation (theophany) of God incarnate as Jesus Christ. In Western Christianity, the feast commemorates principally the visit of the Magi, and thus Jesus Christ’s physical manifestation to the Gentiles. Eastern Christians, on the other hand, commemorate the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, seen as His manifestation to the world as the Son of God. In both cases it is the revelation of Jesus to the world, but the case of His baptism proclaims the start of His earthly ministry, which was over three years leading to His crucifixion, death and triumphant resurrection. This Sunday we will reflect on His Baptism and look at Christ as God’s Servant.
Next Sunday, 15 January, I will not stay for Morning Tea to join the Armenian Brotherhood Church Service in Ryde to share the gospel with them, as I do usually at least once a year. The following Sunday, 22 January, I will join the Willoughby Armenian Evangelical Church to preach and to be present at the long overdue appreciation that the church has decided to do for Dee’s Mum, Manoushag (Violet) Sarmazian, as she retired from her role as one of the Deaconesses of the church for health reasons. We are glad that our friend Bob Minton has accepted to take the service here at Longueville. Our thanks and appreciation to Bob for his kind service.
Our regular programs will resume on the first week of February. Please check the Notices as well as Newsletter for dates and times.
If you will not be able to join us for worship tomorrow, please light a candle and worship with us from home following the attached Order of Christmas Service.
Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love and let me know if any member of the congregation that you know of needs our help and prayers.
Here are some prayer points for this week:
- Pray for the New Year to be a good year for all and ask God to be with us, as He was in the past.
- Pray for the people of Artsakh, men, women, young, old and children, as they face humanitarian crisis with the blockade continuing for the 4th consecutive week by Azerbaijan, while the International Community keeps silent, including the Australia and the sadly the Uniting Church in Australia.
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, the struggling and the stressed.
- Pray for those who are unwell and struggling with different kinds of medical issues.
- Pray for world peace and ask for God’s blessings.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Best Regards,
Krikor
MESSAGE
Christ – God’s Servant
Isaiah 42:1-9
The three of the four Readings in our Lectionary for this Sunday, have one common thread or theme running through. Isaiah 42:1-9, Acts 10:34-43 and Mathew 3:13-17, clearly speak of Christ, the promised Messiah to be God’s faithful and obedient Servant with whom the Father will be well pleased.
The fourth Reading, Psalm 29, speaks of the powerful and life changing voice of the Lord. Christ was going to be that Voice; powerful, majestic, breaking, striking, shaking, twisting and striping. Jesus was and is that Voice, who changed and is changing the course of history and the world. But this Voice is different from all other voices. Tough it is powerful, majestic, breaking, striking, shaking, twisting and striping, but yet it comes in love to bring peace on earth and goodwill in men. Though God’s presence moves the earth and the mountains, as it happened on mount Saini and on other occasions that we read about in the Scriptures, God speaks in a whisper, gently and tenderly. That’s why Jesus, being the Voice of God, came to lay down His life for us the sinful humans. And He did this in a very loving and caring way.
In Isaiah, Acts and Mathew we see Jesus Christ pictured as a servant, who was willing to give His life to save the lost and the drifted. As a result of His willingness to be the sacrifice, all those who believe in Him and trust Him, have hope. Peter in his brief message in the house of Cornelius proclaimed that God accepts people from every nation who fear Him. And tells how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and power to go around and do good to all. And when He was killed, God raised Him from the dead, so that we will have rebirth after being dead in our sins. This deal was sealed and announced at the Baptism of Jesus, where He is proclaimed to be God’s Servant.
We will focus on the passage from the book of Isaiah, where we read about the Servant of God.
The book of Isaiah mirrors the Bible.
Isaiah has 66 chapters.
The Bible has 66 books.
Isaiah has 39 chapters dealing primarily with the history of Israel.
The Bible has 39 Old Testament books dealing primarily with the history of Israel.
Isaiah has 27 chapters dealing with the future of the Israelite people including some beautiful prophesy about Christ, the coming Messiah.
The New Testament has 27 books dealing with the story of Christ.
Isaiah has been called “The Gospel of the Old Testament” because of its abundant treatment of Christ.
One interesting aspect of the Book of Isaiah is what is called the “Servant Songs” in Isaiah 40-55 (49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12).
There are 4 passages of Scripture in the 2nd part of the Book of Isaiah that beautifully describe the ministry of Christ specifically using the word “Servant“.
In Isaiah 42:1-4 we are introduced to Christ by God who says: “Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight“.
Many years later, when Jesus was baptised by John; God referred to His Son in a very similar language when He said: “This is My Son, whom I love and with Him I am well pleased“. (Mt. 3:17)
God introduced us to Christ, and He called Him “My Servant” meaning that Christ will obey Him. He spoke at the outset of Christ’s public ministry when Christ literally begun to fulfil these words in Isaiah 42.
Israel as God’s servant was supposed to help bring the world to knowledge of God but failed to live up to these privileges and responsibilities. But the Lord’s will would not be put down by Israel’s failure. The Messiah, the Lord’s Servant, will become God’s means to fulfil God’s will to bless His world.
Three important facts about the Servant of God:
1. His Manner of Ministry (1-4)
Verse one describes the Servant’s relationship to God.
The title Servant is one of honour sent in the Spirit. The servant will gain power for His mission from the divine Spirit as earlier rulers and prophets had.
His mission was not to deliver Israel from captivity and exile but unlike the foreign conquerors of the day, God’s Servant wouldn’t come shouting His decrees in the streets, nor would He crush the oppressed or discourage the disheartened. He would not be a city street preacher or political rebel inciting the population, nor a royal messenger reading the king’s proclamations.
The meek and mild Saviour showed the world the meaning and hope of justice even as He suffered under the injustice of His own people and a foreign government. As God’s Servant, Jesus did what Israel could never do. He perfectly carried out the will of the Father so that people everywhere may believe in the Holy One of Israel and have access to God’s justice.
2. His Sovereign Purpose (5-7)
“This is what God the Lord says, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to the people and life to those who walk on it.”
Having introduced the Servant to the audience, God here speaks directly to the Servant who was going to do a new creative thing as the only source for breath and life among earth’s inhabitants. God will empower Him to restore the right in the world – that is, to bring salvation. God’s purpose for the Chosen Servant was clear. He represented God’s covenant, God’s promise to the nations to bring light into their darkness. He would be a light (42:16; Luke 1:79) for the nations or Gentiles (Isa. 49:6) He will open blind eyes, bring out those who dwell in darkness from the prison.
This means help for the helpless, sight for the blind, and freedom for the prisoner. Spiritually unredeemed Israel and the Gentiles are blind, and they are captives in darkness.
Because Jesus was obedient to God’s call, all the promises in Isaiah 42:6-7 came true and more. As Christians today respond to God’s righteous call on their lives, others will see God’s light and experience the liberation that God’s transforming power offers.
3. His Glory (8-9)
“I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another, or my praise to idols.”
The Lord God will accomplish the prophecy recorded in verses 6-7 and He will not let idols take credit for it. Isaiah was affirming that God, unlike idols, can tell the future and this divine ability adds to His glory.
Yahweh alone must receive proper honour and praise. This Servant therefore must be One with Him. Worship of other gods or their images was forbidden. Why? Because God alone had proven Himself to be God through His acts in history and He would do so again through the Servant. He had done former things, including the exodus from Egypt, and He would do new things, such as the delivery from exile of sin’s slavery.
Which is what verse 9 declares. “See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.”
Verse 9 is the last word of the Judge, summarising His verdict on world history and pointing to the future. In view of all that God had already done for Israel (the former things) these new things (48:6) of which He had been speaking would certainly happen. These new things will be the work of the Servant. No other god can foretell such things, nor do such things.
This something new was Jesus! He came in the unassuming form of an infant who grew into a meek and humble Saviour. God’s answers to our prayers and needs may exceed our expectations.
God announces His way of salvation and deliverance not only for Israel but for the nations. He will send His Servant, who will be empowered and guided by His Spirit. He will establish justice on earth and bring salvation even to the Gentiles. Only the One true and powerful God can announce something this remarkable and then do it.
We can see the traits of servant humility that characterised the Messiah during His life on earth. Jesus did not create uproar or make a scene, so to speak. He restored the most broken of lives. He was the very fulfilment of God’s covenant promises to Israel, and He brought light to the Gentiles. And above all, Jesus came to be the SERVANT of all.
This passage is a wonderful reminder that Jesus Christ can mend broken lives. All of us are broken to some degree. Where do we feel the weakest and most inadequate in our lives and service for Christ? That’s the place where He desires to show us His power. He can exchange our weakness for His strength today.
Jesus is the Servant of God. The obedient servant, who gave His life to save us and to give us a great hope for life eternal with Him and sharing His glory forever and ever.
Amen!