Isaiah 50:4-9 – The life and death of Jesus gives us power to live as Christians

We don’t care. We don’t care what people think, we don’t care how people act, we don’t care what they want us to do, we are Christians. We think of some of the heroes of faith, John Hus, who was burned at the stake for his faith. Cassie Bernall in the Columbine High School shooting. All the early church martyrs who faced wild lions and were killed for their faith.

And not just those killed for being a Christian. We think of people like Martin Luther who stood before kings and princes and declared his faith, saying "Here I stand, I can do no other." We even know some people like this, people who show their faith and talk their faith even when it’s really hard, even when everybody else around them doesn’t want them to talk like that and act like that. But they don’t care, and neither do we.

At least, we’d like not to care, like these other people. While we’re sitting safe here in church, with people who think and act like we do, we’d like to think that under pressure, we could stand up and declare Jesus as Savior and Lord. But when it does get real, could we? Even here, where it’s safe, could we stand up in front of other Christians and say that we love Jesus with a clear loud voice and confident look in our eyes? We don’t really like to get up in front of other people, do we? How would we make this clear statement of faith in front of unbelievers?

We want to be able to do this, right? We know that we should be able to, but it’s even more than just the should. We love Jesus so much, we see what He’s done for us in our lives, we hang on the assurance of our salvation, we stand on His grace. We want other people to know this. They should know it, and we want them to get it. We just get a little nervous about telling them. Just using the name of Jesus in a conversation with an unbeliever gives us the jitters. Just being friends with an unbeliever is a little uncomfortable.

So how do we do it? Just we just buck up and try harder? Do we just will ourselves into saying that name, gather our courage before making that phone call? We’re going to spend time with an unbeliever, and tonight, this time, I’m going to bring up Jesus. Is that how we get that done?

No. So don’t worry. You don’t have to work harder at this. We just let the life of Christ do it’s work in us. We just let the Holy Spirit turn our mouths into Jesus’ mouth, and our eyes into Jesus’ eyes, and our minds into the mind of Christ.

Want to know what that looks like? Check out Isaiah 50. We’re going to go through verses 4-9 twice, because these verses are talking about two people. Isaiah 50:4-9 is about Jesus, and Isaiah 50:4-9 is about you.

First, Jesus. Verse 4:

This gets a little strange when we think about the Trinity, but God gave Jesus knowledge and the ability to share that knowledge. God gave Him the ability to tell stories, parables, that got under people’s skins, that kept their interest right up to the end of the story and them slammed home the point. The Sovereign Lord gave Jesus the ability to say it like it is, to call tight, legalistic church leaders names like repulsive tombs that are painted to look nice, or blind men leading blind men. God gave Jesus the words to say to a woman caught in adultery, words that didn’t judge or condemn, but did motivate her to go and sin no more. God gave Jesus the ability to speak with authority, an authority that no one had ever heard before. When Jesus spoke, thousands of people wanted to hear what He had to say. Jesus had huge crowds gather around Him to speak, and He didn’t even need advertising. God gave Him an intelligent tongue.

He gave Jesus listening ears. Verse 4:

Jesus woke up listening to God. He went to sleep listening to God. Throughout the day, as He ate breakfast and supper, as He walked and talked, as He cleaned up, took a bath, He was listening.

And that listening was translated into action. He obeyed. He did what the Father told Him to do. When the Father told Him to go somewhere, He went. The Father told Him to go to Jericho, and He went and He found a man who couldn’t see Him because of the crowd, who had climbed up in a tree. And Jesus went to His house and He was saved. And the Father told Him to go to a lake, and Jesus went to a lake, and He found some guys fishing, and since the Father told Him, Jesus told those guys to follow Him. And they followed. Jesus listened and Jesus obeyed.

And sometimes, that obeying landed Him in trouble. He was mocked, ridiculed, almost stoned. People were disappointed in Him. Disciples left Him. And finally, because He was obedient, because He told the truth and acknowledged that yes, He is God, He was put on trial. He was beat and mocked and spit on. Verse 6:

Like a lamb goes to the slaughter, Jesus went to the beard-pullers and back-beaters and face-spitters. And He went willingly, because His ears listened and His feet obeyed.

Now, if He had done this just on His own, without God telling Him, then I’m not sure what would have happened. But since God told Him to do this, verse 7:

Disgraceful things were done to Him, but He wasn’t disgraced, because the Sovereign Lord sent Him and the Sovereign Lord helped Him. Therefore,

His face was set like stone, His eyes didn’t flinch, His hands didn’t shake. He was confident in front of the church leaders, He stood composed and assured before the king, and He quietly made the governor speechless with His certainty and conviction.

How did He do this? Well, He knew something that none of the others did. He knew verse 8:

Remember the 12 legions of angels that Jesus could have called to defend Him? They were there, and He knew it. But even more than that. He knew that the Sovereign Lord that sent Him there was standing there. The Lord that with a thought could make all of those people disintegrate into floating atoms, with a blink turn all their air off and make them gasp. He didn’t, but He could have and Jesus knew this.

And Jesus knew something else. He knew that the Lord would set things straight. He knew Psalm 16:9:

Which gives Him the confidence to boldly say, verse 8:

That ability to teach, that ability to obey, that ability to stand up to opposition, that was Jesus.

And that is you. Isaiah 50 is Jesus and Isaiah 50 is you. Because if you’ve given your life to Jesus, then Jesus has given His life to you. That means that we will suffer like Jesus suffered. Jesus said, in John 15:20:

We will be mocked. We will be ignored. We might get pushed out, out of a group of friends, out of a job, even out of a church. We might even be beaten, and we could even be killed.

But not only will we suffer like Jesus, we’ve also been given His power, His ability. In fact, Jesus said, in John 14:12:

Because Jesus died and rose again for you, you have His mouth, His intelligent tongue that knows words that sustain the weary. You know what to say, what hope to give to those who are grieving. You know when to stay quiet. You know the answer for the hope that is in you, and you have the ability to talk about it, even with people who don’t believe.

Verses come to mind, verses that you’ve learned a long time ago, that just match what people need to hear. When they’re overwhelmed with sadness, you remember God saying in Isaiah 43:2:

And you tell them. When someone is confused, all turned around, they just don’t know where they’re going, you know to say, from Psalm 119:

And you tell them. And because Jesus is working in you, you might even be able to tell them specifics, give them direction as to what to decide. Because you have Jesus tongue.

And you have His ears. You wake up in the morning, and God is talking. And more and more, He’s waking your ears up to listen to Him. It’s taking shorter and shorter time to turn your attention toward God to hear what He has to say. It used to take you all day to finally turn to His word, His scripture at night and hear Him speak, just before you went to bed. But that time has moved up. You started checking in at supper time. Then, you found yourself listening at noon. Then, maybe, it was 10 o’clock. And now it’s getting closer and closer to the moment you wake up. And the first thing you do is listen. What is God telling me to do? Where does He want me to go? What does He want me to say? You’re listening, and you’re not drawing back. You’re doing what He tells you to do.

Even if it means suffering. You tell them comforting words, you give them wise counsel, and they tell you to go blow it out your ear, and maybe in not such nice words. They scorn you. They make fun of you. They don’t return your phone calls or emails. But that’s okay. You don’t draw back. You keep doing what you heard that morning from your Sovereign Lord.

And maybe the scorn will get even worse. This is hard to imagine here in the U.S. I mean, for 300 years, Christians have been pretty much free from any physical persecution for our faith. I want us to be clear. This will not last. I’m not trying to sound all doom and gloom, but if the Bible is right, and it is, Christians will experience physical, financial, real persecution. We’re not that there yet, but we’re going there.

And we need to be ready. It won’t work to get ready for that, when it starts to happen. We need to be willing to offer our backs to those who beat us, our cheeks to those who pull out our beard, our heads to those who pull out our hair, our faces to those who mock and spit on us.

And that might seem scary, or if it’s not scary, maybe it seems so impossible, and we feel better because we can’t imagine it. But denial is not what makes us ready for this. Pretending this could never happen is not what makes us able to handle this. We are able to face this and triumph when, again, we remember verse 7:

Just like Jesus knew, you know. He’s there. 12 legions of angels surround you, not to mention the Sovereign Lord. If He told you to do it, He’ll make sure it gets done. If He sent you into a situation, He’ll make sure you’re okay. We might face mocking. We might be beat. We might even be killed. Jesus was. But even death can’t win against the Sovereign Lord.

Therefore, we are confident. Our face is like flint. Our eyes don’t waver. Our faces don’t flinch. We know the truth and we walk the truth and we talk the truth, and no one, not anything gets in the way. Because, verse 8:

And we say,

We know this. And so we stand. Jesus did it, and so do we.