Today I want us to set our hearts and minds on Jesus. Jesus is our gift and we are His inheritance. When I think about this gift that our Father bestowed upon us I am overwhelmed because it is a perfect gift, it is what everyone needs and longs for. There is a missing piece within each of us that only this gift can fill. I love the imagery in the bible of Jesus it captures His beauty, His power, His humility and His tender heart. I want us to spend time this morning gazing upon the Son of God, who became a servant and a sacrifice in order to show His love and worship for His Father and gain the desire of His heart a Bride that the Father could adopted, embrace and accept. We will see how their love and devotion for each other has given us a hope and future.
In the book of Isaiah the title of Isaiah 52:13 is – The Sin-Bearing Servant The word servant in the Hebrew means slave and worshipper of God. Jesus came without any authority or rights he was to fulfill His life without any entitlement and it would be an act of worship to His Father as He bore the sins of the world.
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant (devoted to another to the disregard of one’s own interest),and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point ofdeath, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This picture of Jesus is beautiful. It is an example of humility, obedience and devotion. He was devoted to His Father and disregarded his own interests. He took on the likeness of men. Man’s likeness was defiled in the garden. He wrapped Himself in weakness, and with weakness comes pain, sorrow, and anxiety. Jesus did not allow this weakness to overtake Him, but He still lived with it because His spirit was now enclosed by it. He felt and experienced our every emotion and every physical weight. By coming He shows us His love, submission and devotion to the Father, but He also shows us He ability to fully understand and identity with us because He chose to come and live as a man. I do not think we realize what a sacrifice it must have been to come in the likeness of a man. Jesus is pure and perfect and full of wisdom and knowledge and He limits Himself to fit into a man’s existence, so that we can have complete confidence in His understanding of mankind.
As we continue to read this scripture it goes on to describe the Father’s response to Jesus’ obedience and humility. He will be exalted He will be given a name above every other name. In the end His identity and Deity will be acknowledge by all.
I want us to now look at the prophecy of the Sin-Bearing Servant. I want us to gaze on His character, His heart and His relationship with His Father. I want us to see His great love that propelled Him into this world in order to save it.