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The missionary prophet Isaiah 6 Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 11 May, 2008 |
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IT IS interesting that the Old Testament makes little distinction between the prophet and the missionary. That makes sense, because both roles are similar. Don’t let anyone ever bully you into thinking that prophecy has ended. People who say that generally have a hidden agenda. Do they think that, if you allow prophecy, those words will now belong in the Bible? What nonsense! How many prophets in Old Testament times didn’t add anything substantial to the Bible? Micaiah prophesied against King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah in I Ki 22. But he didn’t add any books to the Bible. What about Agabus in the New Testament, who prophesied about Paul’s imprisonment? Is there a book of Agabus in the Bible? Are there the first, second, third and fourth letters of Philip’s daughters to the churches in Syria? Philip’s four daughters all prophesied, but none of them added books to the Bible. None of the prophets that Irenaeus, the second century bishop of Lyon in France, said were in his church and prophesied every Sunday ever added a book to the Bible. The old Calvinist, John Knox, prophesied accurately; so did the Catholic reformer, Savonarola, who was burnt at the stake in Florence. None of them wrote extra Bible books. The book of Acts tells that even the male and female slaves will receive the Holy Spirit and prophesy. So prophecy is part of the equipping that God gives to his church, but it doesn’t mean additions to the Bible. Don’t be afraid that admitting prophecy will let people come and push us around, claiming special authority over ordinary Christians. That is a problem of abuse of power, not a problem of prophecy. Prophecy is vital to the Church, because it is a corrective ministry. It provides feedback to the Church. It encourages us to swing back to where we should be. And missionaries are very similar. The missionary does for unbelievers what the prophet does for believers. The missionary calls people to where God wants them to be, the place of blessing, and of peace with God. So God sends the prophet, Jonah, to Ninevah. As a prophet, Jonah has experience with believers, telling them to turn back to God, so it isn’t much more of a task to say the same to unbelievers. And God sends Isaiah to proclaim God’s judgment to Israelites who have heard the truth but have given up obeying the truth. Prophets and missionaries are very similar. We need both.
THE MISSIONARY CALL I want to start with the call to be a missionary. We see an example in Isaiah’s life. Isaiah experiences the majesty and the power of God. He sees the Lord, high and lifted up. He is in total awe. And his life is transformed. Scholars debate why Isaiah’s call comes in Chapter 6 instead of in Chapter 1. Some scholars think that chapter 6 is just out of place. I am not a scholar, but I think it is in the right place, because I think that Isaiah was a devout man and a skilled prophet before he experienced his personal call. When was John Wesley converted? Some scholars say he was really already converted when he went to America as a missionary. Others suggest May 1748, when his heart was strangely warmed in a Bible Study meeting. Still others say it was at the Methodist Pentecost that New Year's Eve, when a gathering of Methodists had a fresh experience of the Holy Spirit in power. I am sure that Wesley believed when he went to America. But he was not yet transformed. There is a belief which touches our mind and even influences our will, but which does not touch the soul. There is a belief which we cling to, and there is a belief which clings to us. Most people who are converted at an evangelistic outreach have only come to cling to a belief, and they need to go further in their faith, further in their experience. They need to know that God has spoken into their life, and put his hand on them for good. That was what Isaiah discovered in the 6th chapter. He was in the Temple. He was not a careless person, who gave lip service to God. It was in the year when King Uzziah died, and most scholars think that Isaiah mentions that because the death of Uzziah was troubling him. Now that Uzziah was dead, what was to come for the nation? Perhaps he went to the Temple to pray. Perhaps he just wanted the comfort of the constant Temple ritual. But God stopped him at the doorway. On Thursday night, I was wandering out the gate at Marrickville Station with all the other passengers, oblivious to the wider world around me, and suddenly I realised that I was walking right into the arms of the police. Three constables were checking tickets at the barrier. That kind of thing focuses your mind. I was about to rummage in my pocket and find my wallet, but then I realised that they were all occupied with other passengers. One was arguing loudly about why they wanted to see her ticket. So I just walked on. But Isaiah came to the entrance and was arrested by God; no one was arguing. It was just God and the heavenly beings and, facing him, Isaiah. There was nowhere to go. Someone once said to me, “Never go into full time ministry, never become a missionary or anything of the like, unless you can do nothing else.” There’s sense in that. It’s not something for the hobbyist. There are many good preachers. There are many evangelists, there are many pastoral carers. But to do any of these things as your main activity is a very different thing. Isaiah had to get to the point where there was nowhere else to go. It was like Martin Luther before the Diet of Worms. He had to choose whether he would continue to stand for the truth which God had revealed to him, or whether he would give in and go the way the Diet wanted him to go. He said, ”Here I stand, I can do nothing else. God help me!“ That‘s how the missionary call comes. There is a time when you know that God is confronting you, and there is only one way to go. There will be hard times, sometimes incredibly hard times. Sometimes you will want to give up. Sometimes you will nearly come apart at the seams. You will need to be able to look back and say, “The Lord has led me this far.”
A TIME OF CLEANSING But then there is a second aspect.It is one thing to see God; it is another to be ready to serve him. There must be a point of cleansing. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he knew that he was unworthy to be there. ISA 6:5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” When we see God, we also see ourselves. Revival came to a Welsh church in the early 1800s. It was the practice to have an after–meeting where the people discussed the sermon and the service. One of the deacons said, “The pastor was far too harsh with us this morning. We didn’t deserve that.” Then he fell silent, and, after a while, began weeping. And the move of the Holy Spirit swept through the entire gathering, as they all “saw the Lord” and realised their own sinfulness in the light of the holiness of God. Do you know who Isaiah saw? You’ll find the answer in John’s gospel, Chapter 12. John writes, ...they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes 12:41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him. Isaiah saw the Lord. He saw the Lord Jesus. And that was the first step to transformation. When we see Jesus as he is, we see ourselves as we are. You know, some preachers tell people how bad they are. But that is to ask them to measure themselves against the preacher’s standards. We need to spend a lot more time — and this goes for me — a lot more time showing people how to measure themselves against Christ. I’ve told you before about how, in a time of stress and of re–assessment, I experienced a vision. It was not something I have done before or since, but it showed me Jesus. And, as I sat — in that vision — and talked to Jesus, I suddenly realised that I needed cleansing. As soon as I began to list the many things for which I needed his blood to wash me, he raised his nail–pierced hands, and I knew he had already done all I needed for salvation. Those hands are already pierced. The blood is already shed. Five bleeding wounds he bears And when Isaiah recognised his sin, when he cried out in terror at his insignificance before the majesty of God, God acted. 6:5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” Isaiah is creating his own funeral dirge. He knows that he is a dead man, because who can see the Lord and live? But immediately the angel flies down to him and touches the hot coal from the altar - from the place of sacrifice - on Isaiah’s lips, burning away the filth. 6:6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” At the point where Isaiah most feels his need, that is where God meets him. The issue is that it is never enough to know that God exists, nor even to understand some deep secrets of God. Until we come to a point where we surrender, until we come to the place of letting go of our own sense of self–sufficiency and trust in an all–sufficient Saviour, we have not yet begun. We are saved to serve, but we are not saved through serving. Isaiah had to be cleansed first. There was no probationary period. God didn’t say, “Believe in me, do what I say, and, if you do well, you’ll be saved.” At the moment that Isaiah realised his sin, the angel came down and brought cleansing from the throne room of God.
THE CONTENT OF THE MESSAGE I know a young man who is a believer, who is keen, who loves to tell people his story, but he doesn’t know what to say. He is all over the place, and he can lose a crowd in seconds. He wants to say something, but his message has no content. As soon as Isaiah was cleansed for service he was called to service and given a message to serve to the people. He heard the voice of the Lord: “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Isaiah held nothing back. He was transformed from a frightened observer into an empowered preformer in a moment. When God called, he was ready to answer. When God’s call came to me, it was sudden and unexpected. I saw no visions, I heard no heavenly choirs. For the first time that I know of I prayed about what I should do with my life, and it was as though a friend walking beside me answered. I nearly stopped mid–stride. The word was, “Full–time service.” There was no voice, and I was not willing to take a single step without confirmation. I told God as much. So on Sunday our pastor confronted me. “I think you have pastoral gifts, and I want you to help me...” I had nowhere to go. But Isaiah heard and responded, and was ready at once to hear what he was called to. It was a heavy message, a sad message: 6:9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
It was a message t people who would never really pay attention, who were too calloused and hardened to respond. What a difficult calling! God never said it would be easy, though. 11 Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?” It was a message of judgment and ruin. It was a message to keep on preaching until its burden was fulfilled. We aren’t called to preach joy and happiness. We are called to preach what God tells us to preach. We aren’t called to preach judgment. We are called to preach what God tells us to preach. And God’s message will be joy and salvation to those who walk in darkness awaiting the light of God, and it will be sorrow and judgment to those who are hardened of heart and careless about their future. God will speak his word into our hearts.
UNIVERSAL AND PARTICULAR CALL In one sense, Jesus calls us all to be missionaries. He calls us to make disciples of all people. But some are specially called and equipped to be leaders in mission, just as Isaiah was specially called and equipped to be the leader who spoke to the deepest needs of his nation. I can’t tell you what your calling is. It is a personal thing between you and your Lord. Perhaps I can help clarify or confirm a call you receive — or suggest you think again! But, if the Lord speaks to you, trust him, and don’t disobey the heavenly vision. And God will bless you abundently. AMEN |
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© Peter R. Green 2007. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.) |
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