The incarnation is God giving the servant - Isaiah 42:1-7
This is a sermon by Abraham Overvoorde from the Riverside Church service on 4th January 2026.
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The Incarnation Is God Sending The Servant Isaiah 42:1-7
Justice! It’s something we all want, isn’t it? Justice for the bully in your class that keeps kicking you when you walk by. Justice for the person, smoking on the bus as you sit there. Justice for the colleague at work who is so lazy and doesn’t work as hard as you, but they are given that promotion because they are pals with the boss. Justice for the politician who lied when they promised not to raise taxes but did it anyway. Justice for the unknown person in a news story where we hear about a child being killed. Or justice for Russia and Putin over the war in Ukraine. Whether it’s big or small, we are designed to want justice and we feel we know exactly what the perpetrators should receive. Let’s think about that, I want you to have one situation in your head, maybe something from TV or something you are dealing with now. Imagine what it would look like if in that situation, if justice was delivered…
We want it don’t we. We want it in some ways because it is part of God’s character, he is the one who brings justice, he is holy and burns with a zeal for justice to be done, but done his way, the right way.
Well here in our passage today we are shown a servant sent by God, one who we will see will bring justice, give comfort and free captives. To get some context here, in Isaiah ch 40-48, we see God use the word servant to refer to the nation of Israel or his people, but the identity of the servant in this chapter is not the same. In the surrounding chapters, servant Israel is spoken of as being; unfaithful, fearful and blind, but loved by God and will eventually be delivered. The contrast to the servant in our verses today is striking, he is always obedient and responsive to God and his mission is to bring justice to the nations, to be a light to the nations and a covenant to the people.
But I wonder where your thoughts go when you hear the word servant, it brings a picture of often a poorly treated person who does their masters bidding because they must out of necessity or force. Maybe you watch Downton Abbey and see the treatment of the servants on the show, I suspect it paints a picture of a more idealised supportive environment, rather than the often-harsh treatment, ridged discipline, long hours and poor conditions that servants in the early 1900s endured. What I want you to see is that the king of the universe, came down as a servant, in poor conditions, treated harshly under a Roman rule with ridged discipline. Jesus is God’s servant, not out of force or necessity, but out of having the same mindset as God the Father, knowing that there is a task to do and he humbly takes up his role to be the one to go. We heard at our Carol service of this in Philippians where it speaks of Jesus humbly taking on the form of a man, bringing justice, coming to give comfort, and humbling himself even to death, for our sake. It is the mission of the godhead. Matthew 12:15 speaks of the character of this servant, which says:
Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill.
It's not a surprise to us who this servant is, we know it’s Christ! He is the one who came to the world to bring justice. It is what we’ve seen as Pete’s explored the prophesies of Jesus in Isaiah the last couple of services. It’s been brilliant to see the servant as King, Jesus Christ coming to rule and reign, sitting on the throne in heaven. Not dominating through power but in humility and sacrifice. Here in our verses today we see the king as Servant, this king we know will rule and reign, being completely obedient to his mission, coming to serve, not be served, coming to do the dirty work rather than sitting in majesty, where he deserves to be.
I wonder if you can appreciate the wonder and the magnitude of what is being said here.
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.”
God the Son, came down....
From His throne in heaven, from the incredible glory and majesty, the creator and sustainer of all the heavens, came down to the earth that he created. He was born a baby who would have cried and done all the things that babies did. Was laid in a feeing trough as Mary tried to keep him warn in the cold nights. The contrast of where he could have been as king is astonishing.
To understand this deeper, he’s an extract from Melvin Tinker’s book Veiled in Flesh:
In 1989 newspapers reported the discovery by two Harvard astronomers of a 'Great Wall' of galaxies stretching hundreds of millions of light years across the universe. It is supposedly five hundred million light years long, two hundred million light years wide and fifteen million light years thick (a light year is six trillion miles). It consists of no fewer than fifteen thousand galaxies, each with a million stars, and was described as the largest single coherent structure seen so far in nature'."
Hold on to that thought and couple it with this one: as the tiny baby Jesus was gurgling in the animal trough in which his mother laid him for convenience's sake, he, as the eternal Son, was holding that 'Great Wall' in place.
This is what God the LORD says—
the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,
who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
...Astounding to consider and try to grasp the magnitude of these thoughts, God didn’t become weak and unable when Jesus was born a baby. He was still 100% God, and he was still upholding the universe and giving breath to Mary, his mother who cared for him in his humanness. That verse from Matthew about the servant goes on to quote our passage from Isaiah today if you were in any doubt about who these verses in Isaiah speak about:
Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. He warned them not to tell others about him. This was to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
“Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the
one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and
he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not quarrel
or cry out;
no one will hear his voice in the
streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and
a smouldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he has brought justice
through to victory.
In his name the nations will put their hope.”
This chosen one of God, the servant of the Lord who comes in apparent weakness is not weak at all, he is coming not on his own, he is completely upheld by the Father, who delights in him, such a difference to the usual masters of servants. The Father also sends the Spirit to come upon him, this isn’t a servant enduring the treatment and struggling to make ends meet. The whole godhead is involved, giving immeasurable strength that cannot fail. The servant is sent with a mission, he came to serve, and that in it its self, is absolutely astonishing.
So, this servant who is the creator, came and for the rest of the sermon we’re going to take a look at how the servant serves; we’ll see how he brings justice, how he gives comfort and how he frees captives.
The word justice is so important in these verses because it is repeated, when a word or a phrase is repeated in the Bible it means that it should be noted, this is important. So, we see that the servant will “bring justice to the nations”, “In faithfulness he will bring forth justice”, and “he will establish justice on the earth”.
This isn’t just the kind of justice we imagined when I asked you to consider a situation at the beginning. It is more than that. The whole world has been disarranged since sin entered the world. The servant Israel could never restore or bring about ultimate justice, why?
The Hebrew word for justice is mispat, it means more than merely legality. Rather it is the idea of “right order”, so the justice that Christ will bring will be to restore God’s right order on the earth. This is not often the case in the justice system today or with leaders, they often wish to enact their own justice based on their own selfish needs.
Justice is big on the servant’s agenda, renewing a right order, the divine order that sin has disarranged. This cannot be solved by a judge, a regime or government change or a new CEO.
Christmas fulfilment is Christ coming to set in motion a chain of events that led to the cross, that is where we must look for real justice, not just for Israel but also for the nations. The world’s injustices were righted at the cross of Christ and will ultimately be fulfilled on the day he returns. He will establish his eternal justice which will restore God’s right and perfect order on the earth once and for all time. This reminds us of the chapters 9 and 11 that Pete preached on, the Servant king will eventually once again be seated on his throne reigning over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice, judging in righteousness and bringing peace on Earth.
This ultimate fulfilment is shown in Revelation where it says:
‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”
Christ the King as a servant also comes with a tender heart of compassion, which cares for his people. We see this in the verses as he will not shout or cry out or raise his voice. He is gentle. It doesn’t mean Jesus in his ministry never raised his voice in passion for God’s glory. It means that he was never out of control, never hot headed, always acting in the interests of bringing glory to God.
We expect most people with special abilities to run to the nearest spotlight, hire a promoter, or in some other way strive for as much fame as possible. With Christ, he is not like that, there is no self-promotion, no pride or selfishness. In fulfilment of prophecy, He did not “shout” or make a scene. He worked quietly at times purposefully avoiding the public eye, to accomplish God’s will. This speaks of tenderness and humility, the justice that Christ will bring will be for the glory of God, the one who created and sustains. Our verses speak of:
“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out”. This bruised reed is weak, to the world it is worthless, should be cut down and discarded, it is condemned, without help it is irreparable. A smouldering wick may soon be about to lose its fire, but it can still be reignited.
We’re all that damaged and diminished bruised reeds and smouldering wicks and the reality is that both of these are weak even before the bruising or smouldering. A small child could easily break a reed or blow out a flame. We are all desperate, helpless and needy, we will fail.
To the world, if you are weak and feeble, you are dispensable. If you have lost all your energy and can’t go on, your fire is about to go out, the world says just go quietly and don’t bother me.
Not with Christ, he comes to the bruised and the weak, those who are about to spiritually go out. You see Jesus fulfilled this prophesy, He would be the ultimate bruised reed, but he would not break, because on the cross, he fulfilled his mission. You see in flesh he became weak and weary to come for us, the weak and the weary, he knows because he has lived it, God taking on his own creation’s flesh to come for us. He says take my yolk, put your hope in me and I will give you rest.
And just like God gave the Servant the Spirit, as God’s people, he has given us the Spirit to live in us, his power will be made perfect in our weakness, and we are made alive in the Spirit. We can know that our example, our Servant King, will not falter or be discouraged, he cannot fail in bringing fulfilment of this prophesy and because of that like the islands in verse 4, we should say that will put our hope in Him.
So we’ve seen the true nature and character of this Servant, he is Christ, the Messiah sent from God to do all that is required to bring about perfect justice, God’s right order. But we also saw that he is gives great comfort to all. Finally we will see that this servant came to free captives:
I will
keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for
the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to
free captives from prison
and to release
from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
The Creator of the cosmos, the Lord whose glory is incomparable, came with the mission of dying for the sins of all. The verses refer to a Jesus being a covenant for the people, this is the language that the Jews would have understood to mean God’s rescue for the nation of Israel, the old covenant is satisfied in this servant. But then the verse goes on to say that Jesus would be a light for the Gentiles, or the nations, so everyone else in all creation can be part of God’s chosen people because of Jesus the Servant who came and ultimately give his life as a ransom for many:
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45
The results of this are that a blind world can see and be released for their captivity, the captivity of sin and this fallen world.
Jesus’ ministry on earth was to the blind, the lame, and the oppressed and this demonstrated that he had the power to heal the spiritually blind and release the imprisoned. The God of all Creation, our Servant King is the Lord of both the physical world and the spiritual world.
What should our attitude be to all this, of course we should rejoice and praise the Servant King but also as servants of God ourselves, He delights in us too because of Jesus, he longs for us to follow Jesus’ example. So have the same mind as Christ, be servant hearted, it’s not our job to enact justice but we can long for God’s right order and we can forgive others. We should comfort others but point to the greatest comforter remembering that we have freedom from sin in Christ and we can tell of that great news today.
Let me finish with this moment from the story, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, while walking through the snow filled woods the Pevensie children notice that the ice and snow is beginning to melt, it had been winter in Narnia for 100 year but the buds of Spring are finally seen once again, there is the chatter of birds in the trees, the frozen waterfalls and lakes begin to turn to running water once again and the sleigh can no longer move easily along the ground. This is happening because of the return of the king. The poem goes like this
“Wrong
will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows
will be no more,
When he bears his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”
I love the that picture of Spring coming back because of the coming king but the reality is that for CS Lewis this is a picture of a present reality, Aslan the lion king was pointing to the Jesus the Servant King. He is the one who has already begun to bring about his perfect right order, and his divine justice.
If you’ll allow me to rewrite that poem for us today in a way that I hope honours the writer’s intent. So that we can move away from the picture of Aslan and towards CS Lewis’ desire to point to Christ:
Wrong will be made right when Jesus comes in sight,
At the sound of his voice, all with sorrow will rejoice,
With the Servant final breath, sin has met its death,
And when the King returns to reign, God’s right order will come again.
Let me pray
Intro: Where is the justice?
Context: Isaiah 40-48 – Two contrasting servants.
What is our perception of a servant? (Downton Abbey?)
Jesus the Servant’s character:
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.”
‘The Great Wall’
Justice ~ Mispat: ‘God’s right order’
The Servant King will eventually once again be seated on his throne reigning over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice, judging in righteousness and bringing peace on Earth.
‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”
~ Rev 21:4-5
“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out”.
Christ the King as a servant knows our weaknesses because he became flesh.
Given the Spirit – His power is made perfect in our weakness.
“I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
The God of all Creation, our Servant King is the Lord of both the physical world and the spiritual world.
Spring in Narnia
| Questions to think more about:
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| Memory verse: Isaiah 42 v 1 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.”
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| My own questions for later:
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