We will spend the spring and summer of 2023 walking through Isaiah 40-66. The great prophet was given a series of clues about the mysterious Messiah who was to come, presented as “the Servant of the Lord.” At times this servant is clearly Isaiah himself or the nation of Israel, but at other times (most notably chapter 53) it has to be the Messiah. This constellation of prophecies not only reveals the glory of the Lord Jesus but also calls us to live ourselves as servants of the Lord!
11. The Conquering King
Isaiah’s rich and detailed prophecy concludes with a dramatic vision of the future and eternity. Justice for sinners and joy for God’s people intermingle in a mashup of imagery that ties together Israel’s past, the time of Isaiah, the coming Messiah, His millennial...
Isaiah 61
https://youtu.be/d_Q6WkD_Pas And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the...
10. A Foreshadowed Messiah
The Servant of the Lord in Isaiah speaks in 1st person in Isaiah 61, and Jesus confirms in Luke 4 that He is the fulfillment of this. He is the One who is anointed to preach the good news to His chosen people who are spiritually destitute, broken, and bound. His first...
9. True Spirituality
The Jewish people appeared to be very spiritual, very religious. They were observing the sabbath and all the annual festivals, they were presenting animal sacrifices and saying their prayers. But God was disgusted with their fake spirituality and exposed it as such in...
Living Water
"On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”' Now this he said about the...
8. The Living Water
While the book of Isaiah has many sections of dark impending judgment, it also has beautiful promises of salvation (chapter 53) and even open invitation (chapter 55). Through Isaiah God promised living water to everyone who was thirsty enough to come to Him to receive...
7. The Suffering Servant
Nowhere in the Old Testament is the gospel as clear as it is in Isaiah 53. 700 years before Jesus was born the Lord showed Isaiah the kind of Savior the world needed - a suffering servant. We will see the three stages of Jesus’ ministry: the downward movement of His...
6. Light to the Nations
Isaiah represented all of Israel and all of God’s people (including us). He was chosen and created to glorify God and accomplish a specific task. In Isaiah 49 we are privileged to listen in on a conversation that Isaiah has with the Lord. As the prophet expresses...
5. The Servant King
Around 700 B.C. God spoke through Isaiah about a future ruler named Cyrus, who arose in Persia and in 539 B.C. issued an empire wide edict that enabled the Jews to return to their homeland. In Isaiah 45:1 Cyrus is called God’s “anointed” (Heb. Messiah), a term...
4. Fearless Witnesses
As much as we face situations that cause stress and worry, the Israelites in the days of Isaiah (and the believers in the early church) had much more tangible reasons to be afraid. But God provided these words of comfort and assurance to not only address their fears...