Where Can You Find Good Service?

22nd Sunday after Pentecost, 10/28/12
Isaiah 53:10-12


Where Can You Find Good Service?
I. Find it in Christ who justified you.
II. Find it in Christ who redeemed you.


For a good percentage of the purchases you make, the price of the item is only half of it. The other half is customer service. So what if you get a rock-bottom price, but down the road you can’t get parts when service is needed. Getting a low monthly rate on your cable or satellite TV provider is admirable, but it’s the service that counts. If you can’t get a qualified technician in your house within hours, what good is your provider?

And what do you look for in a restaurant? Great food is only half of it. The other half is the service. If you have to wait 30 minutes to get a glass of water, your dining experience is frustrating at best and ruined at worst.

But all too often those unfortunate situations are what we experience. We can’t get the customer service representative on the other end of the line to understand what we’re talking about. Our vehicle still makes that funny noise and we’ve had it at the dealer for service twice. A recording tells us to press 1 for this and 2 for that, but neither of those were the reason for our call. And when we do press 1 or 2, we get put on hold, on hold, on hold until our arm and ear are sore. And then our patience runs out and we hang up, thoroughly disgusted.

Where can you find good service anymore?

That’s our frustrated question in this life with all its problems and disappointments. But thank God it’s not our experience when it comes to what really matters, what eternally matters—your spiritual life, your life with your Savior, Jesus Christ.

This morning’s worship focus is on the sacrificial service that Jesus rendered for us. His service to us is our motivation and our model in serving others. The Prophet Isaiah was granted the blessing of seeing the Savior’s service for every sinner 700 years before it occurred. The Holy Spirit used him to foretell the sufferings, death and resurrection of Jesus. In doing so, Isaiah tells us exactly where we can find good service. It’s in Christ. Let’s remind ourselves of that answer as we ask the question, “Where can you find good service?”

Part I.

When we’ve had a less than satisfying service experience, we’re tempted to jump to the conclusion that the person who rendered the service was either incompetent or absolutely didn’t care whether we get the help we wanted or not. But that’s not always the case. There are times when the service person tried their best, but they just weren’t able to accomplish what we wanted, and it’s no fault of their own. Their best efforts at serving us left us no better off.

Some misguided people take that same view of Jesus. They know the story of his life and death. They hear and read the loving words he spoke. They see how he truly cared for others. But that’s all they see. They view his well-intentioned efforts at service leaving them no better off.

Others see him as a total loser. That’s what his enemies saw after
they succeeded in nailing him to the cross. Here was the one who claimed to be the Messiah, the promised Savior. Some Messiah! He couldn’t even prevent his arrest and crucifixion.

But what saving irony! That was exactly God’s plan of salvation. Jesus wasn’t some imposter, some “Messiah wanna-be.” Nor was he simply a good prophet whose life ended tragically and therefore is the object of our sympathy. Listen to the holy God describe him, “My righteous servant will justify many.” That short phrase is packed with saving truths. “Righteous servant” isn’t simply a description of Jesus, it’s his title. He is THE Righteous Servant. He is the holy Son of God, the One who always did the will of his heavenly Father perfectly in order to serve us, an entire world full of sinners. He is the holy One, the sinless One.

So why was he crucified? The God of our salvation states the purpose for Christ’s death. “He will bear their iniquities.” In the greatest act of service ever, Jesus, the holy One, took the sins of the world upon himself and suffered the punishment for them. “It was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer.” Yes, the death of Jesus was tragic—tragic in that our sins made it necessary. But it was also the most blessed event in the history of the world—Jesus is our great Substitute.

So, when the Righteous Servant serves you, what kind of results can you expect? Nothing less than the declaration of being holy. When Jesus died for the sins of the world God declared the whole world of sinners to be holy. That’s justification, the best news that any sinner can hear. Imagine standing in a court of law knowing that you’re as guilty as sin of the crime with which you’ve been charged and yet hearing the judge declare, “Not guilty. Innocent.” That’s the sweetest news that any guilty person could hear. That’s exactly what our Savior has done for us. By serving you with his life and his death and his resurrection, Jesus has won your innocence, your holiness, your righteousness. No one else could have served you and accomplished that eternal blessing.

So, where can you find good service? Find it in Christ who justified you.

Where can you find someone to help you? That’s your anxious question when serious health and financial and relationship problems arise. We just want someone to help us make life better. And then the thought occurs, why doesn’t God help you? Why doesn’t he make this situation better? Why doesn’t he make our entire lives better? That can’t happen in a sinful world. In fact, God wouldn’t be so cruel to us to give us a trouble-free life here in this sinful world which is obsessed with denying our God and his saving truths. Instead, he has done something far better. He has won a perfect life for us. That’s what the service of the Righteous Servant was all about. His service for you won the life you’re looking for, waiting for, longing for—a perfect life with him. That’s not just good service; that’s perfect service and it’s found only in Christ.

Part II.

I don’t know how you feel, but service on the vehicle I drive is one of the tasks I dread the most. Anything the mechanic does turns out to be a real financial pain. As I mentioned earlier, problems with the vehicle often persist in spite of the mechanic’s best efforts. And then there’s the hassle. It’s a hassle making arrangements to drop the vehicle off as well as pick it up when the service is completed. I thought my hassles were over when I bought a vehicle with an extended warrantee. It’s bumper to bumper. What security! Then the battery died. Guess what? Battery replacement is not covered. Some security!

Could it be that we have a false sense of security in the service that Jesus has rendered for us? Sure, Jesus has justified us, but what about our eternal security?

Wonder no more! Our Savior has completed his work of redemption. That means he bought us back. He paid the price so that we can belong to him forever. That means we have the eternal security of being members of his eternal family. How can I be so sure about all that? Because of his resurrection.

Isaiah foretold it like this: “He will see his offspring and prolong his days.” How did the Lord prolong the days of Jesus? By raising him from the dead. That’s the very cornerstone of our Christian faith. The resurrection of Jesus assures us that he is true God. And, if he is true God, then his death paid the price so that we could belong to him forever.

And not just belong to him like some piece of property. Isaiah wrote, “He will see his offspring.” Jesus had offspring? Yes, in a spiritual sense he gave us birth and then life in his family. That isn’t some fuzzy idea or spurious myth that our God uses to make us feel better during difficult days. It’s his eternal plan for us. He loves us so much that he wants us in body and soul to be his forever.

In fact, our Savior’s reward for serving us by living and dying for us is…are you ready for this?...his reward is you. His reward is every Christian. That’s what the Lord meant when he said through Isaiah, “Therefore I will give him a portion among the great.” That portion is us. It’s as if God the Father has told Jesus, “My Son, you did a perfect job of redeeming the world full of sinners. Here you go. You bought them with your holy blood and washed their sins away, making them holy in my eyes. Here, they are yours forever.” We belong forever to a Savior who loves us with a perfect, everlasting love. It doesn’t get any better than that! It can’t get any better than that!

Where can you find good service? Find it in Christ who redeemed you.

What’s your identity? But that I mean much more than what your name is. Really, who are you? The short answer is that you are a redeemed child of God. That’s what your Savior made you. He redeemed you with his life and his death. That truth drives away any feelings of not belonging. That truth refreshes and renews hearts burdened by guilt. That truth shuns despair and loneliness. That truth brings purpose—eternal purpose—to our lives. We live as his children. And one of the highest ways of doing that is to serve others as Jesus served us. Perfect service is found only in Christ. May that service move you and me to service in his kingdom. Amen.