Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. the founder and perfecter of our faith. Jesus came in poverty that we might be rich. In fact, according to the prophecies of Isaiah, he came as a servant. Today we continue a look at Christ the Servant, the one whose life, death, and resurrection make Christmas possible.
Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, there is so much deep truth in Isaiah, and you're digging into it as you teach us about Christ the servant. You know, Dave, when you look through the Old Testament, you discover that it is scattered with references and prophecies to Jesus.
But you're right. The book of Isaiah very explicitly describes what Christ is going to be like. And of course, we all know Isaiah chapter 53. But there are other portions And they, of course, relate to our topic today, which is Christmas, the coming of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. It's a true story.
It's one that I love to hear. I've heard many, many times, but it never grows old. At the end of this message, I'm going to be mentioning to you a very special resource, and this is one of the last days for you to get your copy of a book that we believe is going to be a blessing for you throughout the entire new year. And now let us listen to God's Word. Yeah.
Um Someday I'm going to preach on this, but actually, there are five stanzas, and the first is the last three verses of Isaiah chapter 52, and then the other are. In chapter 53, four of them are in chapter 53, making a total of five. And so the chapter division should have actually begun three verses earlier. Isaiah, of course, the great, the great prophecy in chapter 53. But notice what it says about the servant in verse 13: Behold, my servant shall act wisely, he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
It's a picture actually of Jesus Christ in his going to heaven, in his ascension, and in his position at the right hand of God the Father. But now, notice the descent. Notice the jarring contrast. Between him being high and exalted and what he endured when he was here on earth. Verse 14, as many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance.
and is formed beyond that of the children of mankind. That's a description of the crucifixion. Jesus marred, one translation says very accurately, disfigured. more than any other man. Just look at him for a moment.
with his beard plucked out. Look at him for a moment with the crown of thorns. the lacerations along his back. The weakness because of a loss of blood carrying his cross. See him there in his weakness and in his apparent defeat.
and see how mangled his body was. when they nailed him to that cross. He was severely disfigured. But he was the servant of God. You'll notice I read in verse 13, Behold, take note, don't let this escape you.
That's what the behold means. My servant shall act wisely. In obedience to God, this is what he endured. In chapter 53, tells us that in detail, does it not?
So it says in verse 15, so he shall sprinkle many nations, kings shall shut their mouths because of him.
Now, some translations say that he shall startle many nations. You say, well, why do some translations say startle and then others say sprinkle? The reason is because in the ancient Hebrew, oftentimes the vowels of the words were missing.
So you had these consonants. And then you had to figure out what vowels they would be, and some of those words, therefore, could have a different set of vowels and therefore have a different meaning. Either way. It's a powerful passage. He shall startle many nations.
Yes, nations shall be startled because of him. They may wonder who he is, and when he returns, they shall indeed be startled. But I think that the better translation is sprinkle. He shall sprinkle many nations. We're reminded of the book of Leviticus chapter 14.
It says that the blood was sprinkled on the houses to cleanse the houses. Chapter 16: the blood is sprinkled. and the Holy of Holies, in the holy place. And then you get to the 36th chapter. Of Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 36, and this is what it says: I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you. A heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to obey all of my rules. God says I'm going to do that for the nation. Sprinkle clean water on you.
What is the symbolism here? the cleansing of the nations. And when you get to Hebrews chapter 9, it says that our consciences can be cleansed and can be sprinkled. Figuratively speaking, remember you can't take steel wool to your conscience and cleanse it. But God can cleanse the conscience.
God can purify your memories. He can break the power of the past. He even breaks the power of canceled sin and sets the prisoner free. He's able to do that. He does set us free.
This past week.
Some of us saw the uh the movie. Uh Narnia. Right now while I'm preaching I have in my mind a picture of Edmund sitting with a ball and chain around his foot eating Turkish delight. I thought, what a picture of the human race. Enjoying these things, but in bondage and in prison.
Wow. And Jesus comes along and says, I can cleanse you. Those of you who come today with an evil conscience, by evil conscience, you are plagued even during this sermon. with what happened this past week, maybe even last night. God comes and cleanses you as you confess your sin and expose all that is in your heart into his presence.
And so, no wonder the text says here in Isaiah 52 that kings are going to come and they're going to bow down and their mouths are going to be shut because, in the presence of the Lord God, they'll realize that they are in the presence of someone who is greater than they are. That's the statement of this servant and what he is able to do. in the lives of people. How do we boil all this down and relate it to Christmas wars? First of all, I think we learned from this very quick snapshot of Jesus as servant in the book of Isaiah that Jesus does not ask us to do anything that he himself has not done.
He's a servant. And we also are servants of God. We don't fit into His class, but we are servants. What do servants do? Servants are pointers.
They always point to their master. They don't draw attention to themselves. Jesus continually said, The works that I do, The Father that dwells in me, He does the works. And even the Holy Spirit comes now, and He in turn speaks of Jesus. There's a sense in which the Spirit also is a servant, and the Son is a servant.
And you and I always have to point beyond ourselves. And we have to point to him. I'm reminded of the person who said to another, you know, you pointed to the moon, but all that I saw was your finger. And it's possible for us to try to get people to Jesus, and all that they see is who we are, and they don't see who He is. And if that's what happens, we have failed.
as servants. Servants are also givers, aren't they? I see Jesus in the upper room. And I see him there as the disciples come in and their feet are dusty, and it was the role of the servant to wash the feet of the guests. Jesus begins to wash the feet of His disciples.
Um You see, to Jesus, it didn't matter whether he was washing the feet of disciples or whether he was preaching the Sermon on the Mount. That was not the big issue. The issue was: am I doing what the Father wants me to do, and am I pleasing to the Father? The content. of the action didn't matter.
It's the father that mattered. And so Jesus was a giver. Another characteristic of servants is that they always have to be forgivers. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That's what servants do.
And by the way, what did the servant get for serving others? He got crucified. You're here today. You see yourself as a servant. I hope that you are.
Have you ever been crucified? Have you ever been misunderstood? Have you ever given your best to somebody and you've said, I've done all that I possibly can, my motives were pure, and now look what happened. I am being vilified and I am being crucified. Jesus would come today and put his arm around you and say, I've been there, I've done that, I know all about it.
Jesus said, I'm a servant, you be one too. Let's leave here today looking for someone whom we can serve. other than ourselves. Second lesson is that his mission His mission gives meaning. to the manger.
His mission gives meaning to the manger. See, in an ultimate act of servanthood, he gave himself for us so that we could be exalted, so that we could eventually rule with him. And the whole message of Jesus was that he came to save his people from their sins. And this leads us to the business of Christmas wars. I'm going to say a few things with which some of you maybe take exception or you disagree.
That's fine. I'm going to ask more questions and I'll let you answer the questions. In this whole business of Christmas wars, I think we have to ask ourselves this question: what kind of a Christmas? Are we as evangelical Christians defending anyway? I see on television when some of our friends are on TV and somebody says, Yeah, but why should everybody be saying Merry Christmas?
Because we belong to a different religion or we're atheists. And the answer is, well, Christmas is actually a secular holiday, so everybody should be able to participate. Saying to myself, oh, I see. What we're doing is we're making Christmas safe for pagans, aren't we? Isn't that what we're doing?
You can see here that you folks don't know where this is going. You're a little nervous. It's all right. I'm not nervous. There was a Supreme Court justice I read this week who said that.
A Christmas creche is perfectly legitimate as long as it has some plastic reindeer. Serious. If it has some plastic reindeer, I don't know what would happen if they had real reindeer, but. If it has some plastic reindeer, that shows that it's basically secular.
So I need to ask the question and let you answer it: is this kind of a Christmas really worth defending? The question should be asked. Second question we have to ask is this: Have we won the battle? as some people are claiming. Just because stores are forced to put Merry Christmas in their windows.
What have we really won? Has any soul been saved? Has anybody's mind been changed about the value of Christmas now that? In some stores, the checkout counter people are actually saying Merry Christmas. I mean, have we won a whole lot by that?
I'm even going to be more specific. We don't have a service this evening, so I'm going to relax this afternoon, so I'm keeping going. Should we really expect target? To promote Christianity for us by telling everybody Merry Christmas? I'm only asking the questions.
Letting you answer them. Third question is. There is a war against Christmas. There's no doubt about that. And I recognize its seriousness.
Even Hitler, one of the first things he did was do away with Christmas and change it into winter solstice and. Easter was spring break.
So there is a war against Christmas, no doubt about it. I do have to ask myself the question, have we properly identified the enemy in all of this? Is it the left that would like to see all Christmas references to Christmas stamped out in the public sphere? Is that really it? Or is it the commercialism?
That all of us seem to embrace, and nobody seems to be troubled by the fact that we have parking lots filled with people, and we have stores filled with people buying all kinds of things whose minds and whose hearts are far away from Jesus. Does that trouble us? Is that okay?
Well I'm going to think about this a little more, but I have more questions to ask you. Could it be that we as Christians should think through what a real Christian? Christmas. should look like. There's a thought.
What if instead of giving our money to Walmart, what if we actually gave it to the poor?
Now that's a thought. What if we, as Christians, began to realize that the real authentic Jesus is not being represented in our Secular Christmas, he does not happily share the same stage with plastic reindeer. Because our Christ is quite different than that. Our Christ is a servant who serves gently and confidently. He's also a king who rules effectively, and he's a savior who reigns.
Eternally.
Now there is a Christ. Whose Christmas we can defend? As I read the Bible. And even this brief study that we've done today of Isaiah reminds us. That Jesus is so unlike the world's view of him.
There's almost no parallel because there's this tremendous disconnect between his mission and the manger. People Zero went on the manger. If they know anything about Christmas, they know that Jesus was born. They have no clue, for the most part, as to what he did or why he came. And it's up to us to make the connection, to help them to see the dots, to know that when we're in the presence of Jesus, we are in the presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
And we need to have this culture help them to understand that that's what Christmas is all about. We have someone to proclaim. who's changed us, who's forgiven us, who's sprinkled our hearts from an evil conscience. and the Christ of contemporary Christmas. Can't do that.
Let's pray. Our Father, we want to thank you today that Jesus is the servant. We grieve today, Lord, that so many people who are celebrating Christmas. Really do not understand him, why he came. They don't understand that he came to cleanse his people from their sins.
Even some listening to this message today. May have heard for the first time that Jesus is actually able to get down into the human heart and do what no psychiatrist Or no teaching. or no self-help book. can ever do. We pray that many will reach out to him and say, Jesus, I want to receive you as the light.
I walk in the light, I expose myself to you. In all honesty, Inviting you to be my sin-bearer and the one who comes to cleanse me. Would you talk to Jesus now if Jesus has talked to you? Let's have a moment of silent prayer. Father, we pray that you will help us to exalt your Son at Christmas.
Help us to understand that in this book we have a revelation of one. that will cause the kings of the earth to shut their mouths. A one before whom every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And we ask today that we shall love him, represent him, speak of him, and serve him all the days of our lives. We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. Okay. Mm.
Well, my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. Can I have a moment of your time? I know that we are in a very busy season. But you know, I've dedicated my life and I trust that you have dedicated yours as well. To proclaim a message to the world that the real purpose of the cradle, even as we think about Christmas, the real purpose of the cradle is the cross.
Jesus came to save His people from their sins. It's a message that we have to hear again and again. And of course, after the cross, He was buried, He was raised again, and then taken into glory. And someday we shall be with Him. What a message for a very weary, suffering, and confused world.
But I have something I want to share with you. We have a very special resource that I think will be a blessing to you every single day of the new year. And this is one of the last days we're making this resource available for you. I have written a devotional. D.
L. Moody wrote a devotional. And so what I've done is I have taken his ideas, a verse of Scripture, his comments, and I have added to them. And I think that what you'll find is that every day you will be refreshed, your mind will be renewed, even as you think about Jesus Christ and you think of the thoughts of D.L. Moody.
and then of course that which I also have written. For a gift of any amount, we're making this available for you. And let me thank you from the bottom of my heart. For the many of you who support this ministry, day in and day out, running to win is heard around the world because of people just like you. I sure hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because this is how you can connect with us.
You can go to rtwoffer.com. Of course, rtwoffer is all one word. rtwoffer.com or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1-888. 218-9337. Right now, go to rtwoffer.com.
It's time again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Dr. Lutzer, people listen to every word you say, and Diana in Connecticut takes issue with one of your comments, and here's what it is. I was disturbed by your recent comment that God is not safe. If God is not safe, then who is?
Well, Diana, I'm so glad that you gave me an opportunity to clarify what I meant. You know, the statement that God isn't safe actually comes from the writings of CS Lewis. He's talking about Aslan the lion, which represents Jesus Christ, and he's not safe. What Lewis means there is that God is also a God of justice and judgment. And furthermore, I would like to add that the reason that God isn't safe, I put that in quotes, is because we cannot predict what God is going to do.
I know, for example, in certain situations what my Father will do, but I don't know what my Father in Heaven might do.
So, when we say that God isn't safe, we mean don't toy with God. because God is a God of justice and righteousness.
Now having said all that, Of course he is safe in the sense that we can trust his promises. You know, the Bible uses wonderful figures of speech like that we have come to trust him and that he hides us under his wings. At the end of the day the promises of God are sure. but from here until we arrive at the heavenly city, many difficulties, many hardships, and we can never predict what's going to take place. God is safe if you look at it from the standpoint of His promises and ultimate grace.
And that's some safe counsel from Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, you can.
Go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer or call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337. Yeah. You can write to us at Running2Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life.
In a Nazareth synagogue, Jesus opened a scroll of Isaiah the prophet. He began to read of good news for the poor, freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind, and liberty for the oppressed, ending by saying, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears.
Next time I'm running to win, some high drama from Luke chapter 4 as we hear about Christ the Deliverer. When to join us. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
