We need to remind ourselves that the whole Christian faith is based on this publicly witnessed historical event of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian faith is not our speculation or our spirituality or ‘how I have found God and you could too if you had the same kind of faith as me'. The gospel is good news. It is not a good idea. It is not good advice. It is good news about something that has happened which has been undeniably witnessed. Part of our problem and one of the reasons why we find Christian witness often difficult is that we have allowed ourselves to privatise our faith. Just as our culture for the past 200 years has been separating public and private realms, sacred and secular realms, so we have accepted the resurrection of Jesus and taken it out of public truth and confined it to private piety. And really we aren’t aware of how much we have done it.

Chris Wright: Proclaiming God’s Saviour: Deuteronomy 4 & Acts 4
Taken from the 2011 Keswick Convention Ministry Book “Word to the World”
Details on how to order are available here.

Now finally, how does all this relate to the sons and daughters of God, the servants of the King of Kings? Well, we are called to be like him, aren’t we? We are to be receptive, teachable, listening, persevering, open, obedient, trusting - do we see these marks in the lives of Christ’s followers today? Are these marks of our churches today? Has obedience a high-octane priority? Is perseverance a mark of our lives? Do we just give up easily? There is a cost to obedience and sometimes we don’t want that cost, yet Jesus says we are to take up our cross and follow him. And there is a big question here we need to answer in the final part of this passage. Look at verse 10: ‘Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.‘ You see, there is a choice here: obedience in verse 10 or disobedience described in verse 11: ‘But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze.’ To a society and a culture that is all about self we need to hear these words. And what if we choose to go the self way - what is the outcome of that? Well, that’s the latter part of verse 11, ‘This is what you will receive from my hand: you will lie down in torment.' That way is literally a dead end, a place of torment, a Godless cul-de-sac. The path of obedience is the way the servant King went and it is the way we are called to go. The choice is ours: disobedience, or the way of the true disciple, the faithful servant. The path of obedience was costly for Isaiah, for Jesus the Servant King, and it will be for us.

Ken Clarke : The disciple and mission (Isaiah 50)
Taken from the 2011 Keswick Convention Ministry Book “Word to the World”
Details on how to order are available here.

And then, the Sovereign Lord is our helper. Look at [Isaiah 50] verse 7: ‘Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced.‘ And verse 9: ‘It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me. Who is he who will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up.’ In verse 7, the servant knows the Lord’s help in the midst of opposition and suffering. And in verse 9 he knows the Lord’s help in the midst of accusations, of criticisms, of condemnation. Whatever the believer faces, and sometimes it is not very pleasant, God is our helper. And I wonder, is that the truth that some of us need to take away to meditate on after looking at this passage? The Sovereign Lord helps us and he wants to.

I’m sure these words have come into your mind this week in this beautiful setting of Keswick: ‘I will lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth‘ (Ps. 121:1-2). You know, I used to think I knew what the Psalmist meant by those words. You look at the hills and the mountains - aren’t they beautiful, aren’t they stunning? It was the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, who made them and wants to help us. But one Bible commentator I was reading gave a very interesting insight to those words. He said, ‘The context of this is very often, in the time of the psalmist, fertility rites, occult practices, and the worship of false gods would take place in the hills.’ So what the Psalmist is really saying is, ‘I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Up in the hills are all those people seeking help from false gods. Where does my help come from? It comes from the Lord, the maker of the heavens and earth.' Isn’t that a wonderful insight? God and God alone is our helper. Isn’t it amazing along how many avenues people are looking for help today? The stars, horoscopes, fortune tellers, tarot cards, crystals, stones, on and on we could go. Our help comes from the Lord. The help we really need is from the Sovereign Lord.

Ken Clarke : The disciple and mission (Isaiah 50)
Taken from the 2011 Keswick Convention Ministry Book “Word to the World”
Details on how to order are available here.

The Sovereign Lord is the maker of heaven and earth, the teacher, the provider, the helper, the giver. John Piper compares biblical revelation as just the tip of an iceberg. Most of God’s majesty is out of sight, and even what is revealed in the Bible is so massive that it extends beyond our ability to comprehend it.

I have to say that Isaiah 50 is a classic example of this; we are catching a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg. But, dear friends, if we only catch a glimpse of who the Sovereign Lord is, we will be astounded, we will astonished, we will be humbled, we will be overwhelmed, for he is in control; he is supreme; he is God; there is no other. And in this servant song the Sovereign Lord prepares the servant for ministry, he stands by the servant in adversity and he helps the servant in difficulty. As we read it we discover our Sovereign God is the giver, the teacher, and the helper.

Ken Clarke : The disciple and mission (Isaiah 50)
Taken from the 2011 Keswick Convention Ministry Book “Word to the World”
Details on how to order are available here.