Set Free to Free Others
Sermon Recording
Sermon Outline
Speaker: Rev. Charles Drew
Sermon Series: Suffering
Isaiah 58:1-12 (ESV)
1 "Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. 3 'Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?' Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. 4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD?
6 "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? 8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, 10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. 11 And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. 12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.
Sermon Outline
I) God hates heartless faith
v. 1 "Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.
A) Worshipping God without “getting” him
v. 3c—On the day of your fasting you do as you please
v. 4—Behold …you fast only to quarrel)
v. 3c—Behold in the day of your fast…you oppress all your workers)
v. 9—“pointing the finger”
B) The church’s complicity in slavery.
Thomas Affleck’s “Plantation Record and Account Book”
Affleck increased the productivity of the average slave by 400% over the 60 years between 1801 and 1861.
C) Not treating people the way God treats them
II) God loves faith that cares.
vv. 6-7: "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
A) Illustration and applications.
• “Why should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham (a person, not a beast!) whom Satan has kept bound for 18 long years, be set free on the Sabbath Day from what bound her” (Luke 13:15-16).
• William Wilberforce’s 46 year-long assault on slavery:
• Safe workplaces.
• Safe children, before and after birth.
• Praying for mercy and justice.
• Reflecting on racism in the American story.
“Breaking every yoke” (v6)
III) How do we deal with the “yoke” of our failure with Isaiah 58?
Outside help
A) Isaiah 58 and Jesus’ life
• Jesus “broke every yoke…pouring himself out for the hungry and satisfying the desire of the afflicted” (vv.6, 10):
• Jesus refused to “point the finger” (v 9):
B) Isaiah 58 and Jesus’ death.
None of the promised kindness of Isaiah 58 comes his way.
• v. 8: “Then (if you love the way I do) shall your light break out like the dawn”.
• v. 8: “…and your healing will quickly appear”
• v. 8c: “Then your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard”
• v. 9: “Then you will call and the LORD will answer”
C) Why did the promises of Isaiah 58 not come to the one man who deserved them?
Jesus and the hope of Isaiah 58:9-10.
9 Then, dear friends, because of what I have done in your place, you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' [For I have taken] away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, 10 [I have] poured myself out for the hungry [including you] and satisfied the desire of the afflicted [including yours], [and so] shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.
Representative John Lewis: There is “something in the very essence of anguish that is liberating, cleansing, redemptive.”
Our Hope:
By his Spirit Jesus is making our bones strong; he is making us like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
• “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water'” (John 7:38)
Take away: Lift one yoke this week.
“Come to me, all who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. And you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11).
Prayer of Confession
God our Liberator, you have freed us from the guilt and power of sin. And you will one day free us from every other yoke as well—from every institution, every cultural influence, and every person that stands in the way of the nobility and fullness you intend for us. You delight when we celebrate our freedom by extending it to other people—when we forgive, when we help out, and when we fight injustice. You grieve and grow angry when we misrepresent you by withdrawing into ourselves. We confess our uneven response to your grace. We are sorry for those times when our Bible study, prayer and worship have been fervent while we have persisted in anger towards each other and indifference towards the needs of our neighbors. We are sorry for paying too little attention to those moments when you have put your finger on injustice and callousness in our hearts. We are sorry for those times when we have expressed sorrow but haven’t really changed. How greatly we need your Spirit’s help: we need his help to be honest, we need his help to fear your anger, and we need his help to change. Come Lord, and renew us. Make us into well-watered gardens, sources of deep refreshment to friends and enemies alike. Make us a delight to you. We pray in the name of Jesus who has borne our sins. Amen.
Questions for Reflection
According to verses 2-3 and 5 Israel was very active in her religious practices (take a moment to itemize them). Nevertheless, according to v. 1, God was grief-stricken and furious with them. Why?
Reflect on the following: “It is easy, perhaps, to sit in judgment of those “good Christian” southern planters and northern industrialists whose slavery practices broke the heart and raised the fury of God. But before we do, we should examine ourselves: Do we consistently treat people the way God wants us to treat them? Do we hate to see people dehumanized, whoever they are—even people whose political choices we abhor and whose life-styles we find incomprehensible—even people who have personally wounded us—anonymous people on the internet? Do we hate to see people exploited and hurt, by whatever means—whether by greedy bosses or market forces or by climate change? Do we find intolerable and strive to overturn workplaces where efficiency dwarfs every other value?”
Read Isaiah 58:6-7, where we discover how deeply God loves faith that spills over into care and social justice. Try to recall a recent occasion where your faith or the faith of a friend showed itself in this way—on the home front or in the work environment or in the neighborhood.
How do you cope with the discrepancy between what God wants in Isaiah 58 and how you live?
When we reflect on Isaiah 58 as a description of the life and destiny of Jesus, we encounter a startling irony. Jesus far surpasses us in living up to “the fast that God chooses” (think of his life and ministry in the light of vv. 6-7, 9-10); and yet Jesus experienced none of the blessings promised in Isaiah 58 (see vv. 8-9). There is a reason for this. Jesus came to lift off of our shoulders the yoke of sin by offering his lovely life in substitute for our hypocritical and self-centered ones. He was denied the blessings so that we might have them. Spend a few moments thanking him for lifting the yoke of your sin and guilt off your shoulders.
According to v. 11, we experience God’s refreshment (we become “like a watered garden, like a spring of water”) when, with the help of Christ, we begin lifting the burdens off our neighbors’ backs. Representative John Lewis, a follower of Jesus and a founder in the civil rights movement who endured much violence for his quiet determination to lift the yoke of racism in our country, tasted this refreshment, writing, “there is something in the very essence of the anguish of redemptive suffering that is liberating, cleansing, redemptive.”
Have you tasted this?