The Perfect Servant
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2013 · 14 April 2013
Christ is our model; He is the perfect servant, the perfect minister, the perfect shepherd and leader. Let us learn from the following verses what His model was like so we can imitate Him. We ended last Sunday with Matthew 12:14, “Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.”
Let us tonight pick up at verse 15, “But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. 16 Yet He warned them not to make Him known, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 18 “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will declare justice to the Gentiles. 19 He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory.”
Jesus has many titles in the Scripture. But perhaps none is more wonderful than the title Jehovah God gave Him in verse 18, “My servant, My beloved.” This word appears in Greek to refer to an especially trusted noble servant. It is used in the Old Testament, in Genesis 24, to speak of Abraham's Chief servant. It is even used in the Old Testament to refer to a supernatural servant, namely an angel.
Then God says, "My beloved". The term used is the supreme representation of love, "agape". He is the supremely loved one. It is a reference to the intimate bond of love that exists between the Father and the Son and describes the reality of the incarnation. How that Christ, having that love with the Father, face to face, gave it up to come into the world but was restored to it and exalted highly, as we know in Philippians 2.
As you read verses 14-21, you will see a number of character statements about the Messiah. There are at least nine of them. The first statement that comes out in this passage is this; the Beloved Servant Son was condemned by false servants. The whole description of Jesus Christ here is set in a context of Jewish hatred and rejection.
The Jews had decided that Jesus Christ functioned under the power of Satan. And so these Jewish religious leaders had concluded the exact opposite of the truth. They were trying to destroy Jesus, but God had Him set for exaltation.
The rejection is open now. The religious leaders attacked Christ, and yet there was a certain measure of indifference, after all, "If He's not anybody special, let's not get too excited about it." That rejection ultimately ends up in blasphemy, for which, Jesus pronounces upon them damnation, and tells them basically, "You'll never be forgiven."
They were offended greatly before when Jesus broke their traditions on the Sabbath and they had planned to kill Him and now it was just moving along collecting momentum. They believed that they were God's beloved servants; but they misunderstood, and Jesus clearly explained that to them. So their only discussion now was when, where and how they would kill Him.
The true prophet of God is always attacked by false prophets; the true preacher is always attacked by false preachers. This war is always a spiritual war because Satan wants to counter the true with the false, the Anti-Christ, the ultimate false Messiah.
The second statement describes that Jesus was devoted to God's plan. Look at verse 15, "But Jesus knew this, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him." Verse 16 says, "Yet He warned them not to make Him known." Jesus knew what they were plotting. John 2:25 says, "Nobody needed to tell Him what was in the heart of a man, He knew what was in the heart of a man.”
The real reason they wanted to kill Him was fear, jealousy and guilt. As you look at those words, "Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there," we should have a certain sadness in our hearts. The pattern was like this; Jesus preaches, positive response, opposition comes, withdrawal, find a new place. Jesus preaches, good response, opposition, withdrawal to a new place. That cycle went on and on like that for a two year period.
Daniel had predicted, to the very day, a period of 69 weeks, of seven years, until Jesus Christ would come as King. Everything had to happen and every prophecy had to be fulfilled. Everything had to be fulfilled to the letter because that's how God planned it. And Jesus, realizing that His time had not come yet, moved away.
Jesus was totally committed to the Father's will; He would only operate on the Father's timetable. Many times He said, "My hour has not yet come." The time was not right, it wasn't to happen yet. That's characteristic of the Servant Son, the Beloved One. So He said to these people, "Don't make me known."
Some people wondered why He said this. In Matthew 8:4, "See that you tell no one," He said, after having healed a man. Again, in Matthew 9:30, "Their eyes were opened and Jesus sternly warned them saying, 'See here, let no one know about this.'" Jesus was doing everything He could, on a human level, to prevent His early untimely execution. He wanted to work on God's timing.
There's a third element that we see in the character of this Beloved Servant, He was compassionate toward the needy. In verse 15 it says, "And many followed Him when He withdrew." Those were the ones He warned, not to make Him known, not to tell the religious leaders who He was or where He was going. And it says, "He healed them all." That is an insight into the heart of God.
Christ is moving away to save His own life, He is preoccupied with a great eternal plan, and yet, in the midst of all that, He is concerned about their physical condition and He healed them all. This was the opposite of the Jewish leaders who did not care about the poor and the widows, and who mistreated the sick.
They forced on the people heavy burdens and Jesus condemned them by saying in Matthew 23:4, “but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” Those burdens were all these extra man made laws they created. They had no concern for the people, while it says in Matthew 9:36, “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”
The heart of God is especially tender toward those who suffer. The Old Testament says in 1 Samuel 2:7-8, “The Lord brings low and lifts up. 8 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap.” The Lord cares about the people who suffer and Jesus exhibits the heart of God.
And when Jesus came, it says in Matthew 8:17 that, "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.” Ultimately in eternity He will cure all our diseases. In the new Heaven and the new Earth there will be no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more tears and no more death. The work that banishes that, was done by Jesus on the cross.
Then notice in Matthew 12:17 it says, "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, then follow verses 18-21 which are taken from Isaiah 42:1-4. But Matthew does not quote it verbatim but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he gives us an interpretation of it.
Now, remember the Jews are expecting the Messiah to be a great political leader, a great military conqueror. They're expecting the Messiah to be a warrior like individual. They're also expecting that the Messiah would be recognized by all of their religious leaders who, supposedly, are the servants of God who best know His word.
But Jesus is the opposite of all of this. He's condemned by the religious leaders, they are even plotting His death. He seems to be ministering on a timetable that involves long lasting humiliation and rather than being a strong warrior, He is gentle and compassionate and trusted by the Gentiles.
So then Matthew tells us about the prophecy of Isaiah, Jesus is chosen and cherished by the Father. Verse 18, "Behold, my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased." It's an obvious use of personal pronouns; "MY servant, whom I have chosen; MY beloved, in whom MY soul is well pleased."
The Father chose the second member of the Trinity to be the Servant Son. God said that at His baptism, right? Matthew 3:17, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased." God said that at His transfiguration in Matthew 17:5, “This is my Son, in whom I'm well pleased.” The Beloved Servant is chosen and God is pleased.
The fifth statement comes out in the character of the Beloved Servant, He was empowered by the Spirit; verse 18, "I will put my Spirit upon Him." You might ask, "If Jesus Christ is the second member of the Trinity, why does God need to put His Spirit on Jesus?” If He is already God with the power of God inherent in His very nature, does He not already have the Spirit?
And in asking that question, you have to understanding the depth of how much He emptied Himself. Because Jesus Christ has set aside the use of His deity and He is, in effect, saying to us, "I have surrendered Myself to the Father's will and to the Holy Spirit's power." That is how deep He descended.
In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus said, "“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Jesus was anointed with the Spirit of God in some unusual way which we may never understand. But Acts 10:38 says this, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power."
That is why, when the Pharisees say in Matthew 12:24, "This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons," Jesus doesn't say in Matthew 12:31, "You have blasphemed Me," He says, “blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven." The Holy Spirit formed the link between Christ's deity and His humanity. That is true submission. Jesus humbled Himself; He emptied Himself such that He was empowered by the Spirit.
That's a wonderful because it makes Him in some way like us, right? For, we have the same need of the Spirit of God, because we are helpless and desperate and without power from the beginning. So He is a perfect model for all of us, who desperately need the power of the Holy Spirit.
There's a sixth statement, Jesus was faithful in giving His message. The end of verse 18 says, "He will declare justice to the Gentiles." God's Beloved Son would bring the message of righteousness. That means the truth about man, about his sin, about his guilt, about his judgment and about the righteous standard of God and about what Christ can do about that.
The seventh characteristic, He was full of humility. Verse 19 says, "He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets." The Pharisees and the Sadducees were always arguing with people in public. Jesus spoke with wisdom and dignity and He had force and authority. No nasty public wrangling, no fuming. Zacharias said, "He would be meek and lowly”; and He was.
The Lord would never seek to show His preeminence through carnal force, through shouting or public debate. His method was the opposite of violence. He would not shout down the opposition, He would proclaim righteousness in meekness. They were in a fury, He was quiet. They were frantic, He was composed. His humility is evident.
There's an eighth character statement: the Messiah encourages the weak. Verse 20, "A battered reed, He will not break off and a smoldering wick He will not put out." I suppose every human has a trait of destruction in him. A little boy walks down the street, sees some ants; he'll stop for a few minutes to exercise his power over these tiny little creatures; crushing them and then walks on.
The prophet was telling us that within the character of Jesus Christ you cannot find that, He will never further injure those that are already injured. Often reeds were used to make flutes but eventually, as people blew and blew, the moisture from their mouth would cause it to crumble in a few spots, so they would just throw it away and get another one. Jesus wasn't like that; He could take what was bruised and make it whole again.
And you know what a wick does that's almost gone, it only makes smoke. It doesn't give light, only black smoke. And somebody would say, “let's put it out." But the Lord would come along and find the little wick that was smoldering and fan it back to a full flame. This is His compassion; this is His tenderness toward the weak.
This is what God is calling elders of the church to do in James 5, to come along side those that are broken and those that are spiritually weak and hold them up in prayer. Jesus treats the broken people with genuine concern. He gives strength to the weak, He lifts up the fallen, He heals the sick, He saves the tax collectors, He loves the prostitutes, He comforts the mourners, He cheers the fearful, He reassures the doubters, He feeds the hungry, He forgives the sinners; because He is God with us.
The end of verse 20 says, "Until He leads righteousness to victory." "He will overcome the world," it says in John 16:33. He will overcome opposition; He will ultimately fulfill God's word and establish God's kingdom and win the victory. He will bring righteousness to its triumph. Sin will be banished forever. As Isaiah 11:9 said, "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
Now, apart from just the glimpse of Christ, what does this say to us? I say, "I too, am a son of God. I too, have been called to be a servant and I am His beloved. And by His love He saved me before the world began and that was granted to me in Christ. If that is the case in my life; then Jesus is my model, Amen?
Christ is our model; He is the perfect servant, the perfect minister, the perfect shepherd and leader. Let us learn to follow His model in our daily life, even though we know that we are far from perfect. And that is why we have to love our fellowman knowing that none of us are perfect and we need much forgiveness the same way our heavenly Father forgives us through Christ. Let us pray.