Date:   10/04/09

Text:   Isaiah 6:1-13

Title:   A Most Unreasonable Commission

Theme: When the holy and gracious God extends a call, His children are to humbly submit and obey.

Introduction:

  This is indeed an honor to be invited to speak at this church's mission month. Now I can add on my resume: mission conference speaker.

We have certain defining moments in life. We clearly remember the occurrence of certain events. Some of us remember where we were when J. F. Kennedy was shot in 1963. Others can vividly recall where and what they were doing on 9/11, 2001. This week I thought of another defining moment; the Saturday night massacre in 1973. You may have read this week's news report that Governor Perry removed 3 individuals from a panel that was investigating the possible wrong execution of an innocent man. The critics compared his decision to the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973. On October 20, 1973, in the height of the Watergate scandal investigation, Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor asked the Nixon White House to handover the tapes. The White House refused, not only that, it also proceeded to ask Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson refused, he and his deputy immediately resigned. Nixon then assigned the task to US Solicitor general Robert Bork. He also considered resigning, but Richardson convinced him to stay and subsequently, Cox was removed. These all happened in a matter of several hours and this incident was known as the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973. One can imagine when Elliot Richardson received the order from the president, the turmoil he must have been undergoing: should he obey or not obey the president?

  This morning we want to take a look at one defining moment which the prophet Isaiah experienced in the year of 739 B.C. It was an encounter with God and the angels. This encounter concluded with a mission, a task given to Isaiah. Looking at it, it was a most unreasonable commission.

I •  Isaiah was brought into the presence of God. 1-5

In the year king Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the undying King sitting on a throne in the temple.

1 •  A Holy God. At that moment Isaiah was given a vision into the invisible world. He saw the seraphim. By the way this is the only place in the scripture that a supernatural creature is called a seraph. Each had 3 pairs of wings, singing to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” Isaiah saw God's holiness. God is totally other, pure and perfect. As the seraphim sang to each other, the foundation of the temple shook and the place was filled with smoke. To Isaiah, this brought back the imagery of Mount Sinai ; God's appearance and judgment.

2 •  A sinful man. What was Isaiah's response at the sight of this holy God and the imagery of judgment? “ Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts !” This is the first time Isaiah spoke in this book. Woe is me, literally means ‘I am being silenced'. Isaiah recognized his personal sinfulness and the sins of his nation. He knew that people with unclean lips could not see God, but only deserved judgment. He was speechless before God.

In recent years, we have read and heard of individuals giving accounts of their encounter with God or Jesus . Many shared about the light and the warm feeling they felt. We need to watch out for any encounter with this holy God, for without recognition of sins, it is to be treated with suspect. It is important to remember, encounter with this holy God, will inevitably lead to a deep sense of our sinfulness. Before the holy God, a contrite and broken heart is the only proper response.

II •  Isaiah experienced God's grace. 6-8a

What happened after Isaiah acknowledged his sinfulness and he was silenced? “ 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. ” A burning coal means that there was a sacrifice on the altar. What does this tell us? For Isaiah's sins to be taken away, there was a substitute being offered in his place. Because of the sacrifice, Isaiah was forgiven. This is grace, and not because of his merit, for he had none.

With his sins taken away, we notice next: Vs.8, “ 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” ….” With his experience of God's grace, Isaiah was brought one step closer to God. Previously he saw from a distance of God and his holiness. After the cleansing, he entered the heavenly court and heard God's voice.

As I was preparing this sermon, this song was playing on the radio: “I want to see you, I want to know you, I want to hear your voice, I want to touch you, I want to touch your face.” These lyrics are touching, and the music good. It expresses our desire to come close to God. People are hungry for God, longing for a deeper relationship with him. Yet, we also need to know that as we come close to him, not only do we see our sinfulness, we also need to accept God's forgiveness of our sins. There is nothing we can do to have our sins taken away. It is all God's grace. You and I have to give up trying to be good, to do good, in order to redeem ourselves. This does not work. We simply need to come to God, acknowledge our sinfulness and receive his forgiveness. You see, for our sins to be taken away, Christ died on our behalf on the cross. He was our substitution on the cross. As we experience God's grace, the unconditional grace, we are brought into God's presence. Now that Isaiah had heard God's voice, what was his response?

III •  Isaiah was commissioned by God. 8b-13

Isaiah heard, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Go where and for what? There was no detail given. Can you imagine if your boss came and asked you, “Will you take this assignment?” Where? I can't tell you. What for? I won't tell you either. I need an answer by the end of this week. This is unreal. But this is what happened. Not knowing where and what, Isaiah said, “Here am I! Send me.” Yet, this is understandable, is it not? When we face this holy God, see our sinfulness and then receive his unconditional grace, what else can we say but, Here am I! Send me. I also want to point out this is how God operates in our lives. We want to know all the details, pros and cons before we make a move. But God wants us to be obedient first. If he would have told us all the details of what lies ahead, we properly will be too scared to go anywhere. If God would have told me all the details about my ministry 31 years ago, I don't think I will be standing here today.

After Isaiah said ‘here am I, send me”, God began to tell him where to go and what to say. Vs.10, “ Go, and say to this people: “ ‘ Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' 10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed .” God was sending Isaiah to the Israelites. The message was not spelled out here. But from the book of Isaiah we know it is God's word of compassion, judgment and plea for his people to return to him. What is unusual about this is not the message itself but the consequence of Isaiah's mission. God is telling Isaiah that you go and preach to them, but they will not listen to you. If they listen to God, they will return and be healed. But no, they will not listen. The more you preach my word, the more their hearts will be dull, ears heavy and eyes blind. The essence is not so much about the content of the message, but the fruitlessness of the message. What a strange commission.

This is something we cannot fathom. Today we hear men and women say, ‘God has called me into the ministry to build a church like Joel Osteen, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, Ed Young Jr, Andy Stanley, Mark Driscol or Francis Chan. When I preach, many will come, thus I'm building a mega church.” Or “we'll teach a large class and everyone responds enthusiastically.” Really? The mission given to Isaiah was nothing like this. As a matter of fact, the more he preached, the more people would turn away from God.

Not only this, this commission of Isaiah was quoted 5 times in full or in part in the NT. Jesus quoted this to describe his ministry. He came to preach but people would not listen. Paul also quoted this to describe his audience's hardened hearts. Who are we that we dare to arise above Jesus and Paul?

Isaiah in vs.11 asked, “ “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “ Until cities lie waste

without inhabitant s , and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, 12 and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. 13 And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.”The holy seed is its stump. ” If we are Isaiah, we too want to find out how long. If God would say, oh, this condition will only last about 4 or 5 years, then everything will be rosy. Just be patient and hang in there for the next few years. Afterwards, it will be cool. No, that was not the case. People will remain hardened until they were judged and punished. At that moment, Isaiah did not know how long it would last, but we do. This condition lasted through Isaiah's entire ministry, about 60 some years. In other words, during his whole life, he labored to preach God's word of love, grace and judgment, yet he would see little fruit coming out of it. Isaiah was commissioned to a task that was really unreasonable. If he would have found out the nature of the mission, he probably would not have said, Here am I! Send me.

The same is true today. we are given a mission, a task, that at times, can be unreasonable. Not too many of us have the privilege of speaking to a hungry group, latching onto every word we say. Instead, every time we preach God's word, we are either bringing a person one step closer to God or away from God. If a person chose to go his own way, the more he listens to the word, the more his heart will be hardened.

But this is not the end. In vs.13 God said, “.. like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.”The holy seed is its stump .” God explained to Isaiah, that even if the tree fell, there would be a stump remaining. The holy seed, is some who heard and received the word. The word is full of life and vitality. It will take root in a few people and start to sprout one day. Our responsibility is not to see this stump start growing, but just to go and preach the word.

Conclusion:

  On the evening of 10/20, 1973, Attorney General Elliot Richardson received that unreasonable mission of firing Archibald Cox. 3000 years earlier, the prophet Isaiah also received an unreasonable mission. Richardson did the right thing by turning down the mission. Isaiah did the right thing by submitting himself to that mission. Yes it was a mission given to Isaiah. It was Isaiah's commission. Yet, several hundred years later, the messiah, Jesus Christ, also commissioned us, each one of us, his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. The commission is not to be like Joel Osteen, Bill Hybels, Ed Young Jr or Andy Stanley, but to preach and teach the word.

  On the other hand, God has also called some of us specifically to serve him full time in a local church or missionaries to a different culture. When I was in high school, I first became aware of the possibility that God may be calling me into ministry. In those days I knew little about what it meant. After high school, I went to Japan for college, then Purdue for graduate study. Afterwards I went to Stanford Medical School for post graduate research. At each step, the transition was rather smooth, therefore there was no reason to further explore this calling. However, 6 months after our arrival in Taiwan in 1977, I began to realize that this calling may be real. To make a long story short, after another 6 or 7 months, I was certain that God was calling me into full time pastoral ministry. I remember at my ordination in 1982, my professor, Dr. Rayburn said, “William, you are to be a preacher of the word.” I can never forget this commission. When I face disappointing moments in ministry, Cynthia would always remind me, “don't forget who first called you into the ministry.”

  I will be the last one to tell you that being called, being commissioned is the most joyous moment in your life. However, when the call comes to you from this holy and gracious God, can we say No? Isaiah responded, Here am I! Send me. How about you?