Isaiah 61 - Second City Church- Guest Speaker Peter Ahlin
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Introduction
Isaiah lived in a city and region characterized by intensified moral darkness and corruption. Isaiah said that he was a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips. He lived during the reign of several Judean kings, including Ahaz, a king who bowed to foreign idols and had his own son sacrificed in fire, and Manasseh, who sacrificed his own son, practiced sorcery, and led the people to do more evil than the pagan nations that had lived in Judea before them.
Isaiah lived in a time of deep national division. God's people started out as one family, twelve tribes within one nation. Because of the sin of King Solomon, ten tribes out of twelve were torn away from David’s family and given to someone else to rule. The strength that should have come from the diverse skills, abilities, and propensities of these twelve tribes was greatly attenuated in the separate nations of Israel and Judah.
Isaiah had every reason to feel insignificant and powerless to bring about any real change. Just one man, dwelling among a people of unclean lips! He felt the magnitude of the task before him, and he clearly saw the extent of the depravity in the culture around him. Yet by the Spirit of God, Isaiah received a prophetic vision of how Jesus would come in spiritual power to transform everything, and by extension, how the Spirit could fill and empower all His people.
Exposition
Isaiah spoke prophetically about how Jesus would come in the power of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus cited this very passage in the course of launching His earthly ministry. He then told His followers that they would receive the same Spirit, to be poured out on all believers (see Acts 2:17-18 and Joel 2) to usher in the:
Power of the Lord (verses 1-2a) – The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God.
We don’t seek the power of the Lord to create a spectacular or dramatic show; we seek His empowerment to minister to others and build His kingdom. Specifically, as the Spirit was upon Jesus to anoint Him for this ministry, the same Spirit will be poured out afresh among this church to: (a) preach the good news of salvation (b) bind up brokenhearted people (c) see people brought into healing and deliverance (d) proclaim God’s favor.
Moody:
“Now I want this thing clearly understood. We believe firmly that [if] any man...has been cleansed by the blood, redeemed by the blood, and been sealed by the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost dwells in him. And a thought I want to call your attention to is this, that God has got a good many children who have just barely got life, but not power for service.” “Let us look and see what God says, and if you will look in the third chapter of Luke you will see that all these thirty years Christ had been in Nazareth He had been a son, but now the Holy Ghost comes upon Him for service, and He goes back to Nazareth and finds a place where it is written: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, to recover sight to the blind, and set at liberty them that are bruised.' And for three years we find Him preaching the kingdom of God, casting out devils, and raising the dead, while for thirty years that He was at Nazareth, we hear nothing of Him. He was a son all the while, but now He is anointed for service; and if the Son of God has got to be anointed, do not His disciples need it, and shall we not seek it, and shall we barely rest with conversion?”
Planting of the Lord (verses 2b-4) – To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.
Rather than shielding His church from any adversity/difficulty, God allows us to pass through many diverse trials in this season, for three very specific reasons: (a) that we would learn to receive His comfort (rather than the comfort of what does not satisfy) and share it with others; (b) that we would grow up as mighty trees of righteousness (rather than shallow weeds), planted by the Lord for His glory; (c) that we would have the faith and spiritual might (rather than doubt) needed to go raise up the old ruins, the desolations of many generations which is the great city of Chicago.
The Chicago Evangelization Society of the 1800s was created in the wake of the Chicago Fire, to minister to those who had lost nearly everything with material help and the eternal, life-giving gospel. They came to minister the comfort of Christ, standing as trees of righteousness, in the spiritual might and faith needed to raise up a burned-down city.
Priests of the Lord (verse 6) – You shall be named the priests of the Lord, They shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, And in their glory you shall boast.
God selected one tribe of twelve to be priests for the Jewish nation, but now the privilege of participating in the priesthood extends to all believers. 1 Peter 2 describes all believers as members of a holy and royal priesthood! God’s heart is that all of His people move in the priestly function of ministering to others (see Numbers 11:29) and He intends to raise us up to do so.
Moody:
"I tell you what I want, and what I have on my heart, I believe we have got to have gap-men: men to stand between the laity and the ministers; men who are trained to do city mission work. Take men that have the gifts and train them for the work of reaching the people." Not everyone enters full-time ministry, but everyone is to be trained to reach the city with the gospel!
Praise to the Lord (verse 11) – I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its bud, As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
We have been rescued from a death sentence and brought to salvation, to freedom, to joy. We are responding by wanting to see God’s righteousness and praise spring forth to the nations. We aren’t trying to expand in order to bring glory to our church; we are doing this so that His praise can spring forth before our great city and all nations.
Application
(1) The most effective minister who ever lived, Jesus, began with seeking the Lord in fasting and prayer, and when He returned to Galilee, He came back in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14 and ff.) and this is the passage He read to announce His ministry. It would all be done by the Spirit’s power. Jesus told His disciples after the resurrection that they had a big job to do, but they couldn’t get started yet – they needed to wait until they received power from on high (Luke 24:45-49). Scripture tells us to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. Would you like prayer for a fresh, mighty filling of His Holy Spirit?
(2) Are you experiencing discouragement, grief, or despair that seems beyond what you can bear? Would you like to pray that God Himself will give you beauty for ashes, and the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness?
(3) It will take not just a pastor, but this entire church family, moving in faith as a kingdom of priests, to build what God is calling us to build. This is not so that people will praise the name of Second City Church, but that praise to Jesus Christ will spring forth! Will you embrace the calling of priestly minister? Where will you serve?
Second City Church- Guest Speakers Missions & More Series 2014