Bread of Life Church of Fresno
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Bread of Life Church of Fresno
007 BoLCF Daily - The Suffering Servant - Teaching from Kyle
Kyle Beeler has a conversation with his wife, Nicole, where he teaches about the Suffering Servant figure in Scripture (hint: it’s Jesus), shares why he has been interested in this figure, and how he finds hope in the life, death, and victory of Christ.
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Welcome to Bread of Life Daily, where we take a few minutes of the day to orient ourselves toward God and connect with a brother or sister in Christ. We hope this episode helps you love God, love people and serve both.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone. My name is Nicole Beeler and I'm a member of Bread of Life Church and today I'm hosting this episode of Bread of Life Daily. Joining me today to discuss the suffering servant is my best friend and husband, kyle Buehler. Kyle, welcome on.
Speaker 1:Hi Nicole, Excited to be here.
Speaker 2:And we're excited to have you. So why don't you start by explaining what the suffering servant is for those of us who maybe aren't familiar with that, and then why you've been thinking about that recently?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course. So for those of us unfamiliar with this idea, the suffering servant is basically a prophetic figure from the book of Isaiah. From Isaiah 42 to 53, there are four chapters that talk about this person, who is a servant of God, who will undergo all sorts of afflictions and torturous experiences at the hands of friends and foes, all ordained by God. But you also see in these passages that the servant will ultimately be redeemed victorious, exalted and a blessing to many nations. So in the climax of the mini-story in Isaiah 53, I pulled a couple of verses, just kind of to illustrate this figure. So the scriptures say Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, and upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed Out of the anguish of his soul. He shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Speaker 2:Okay, so the suffering servant is a person spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, who sounds an awful lot like Jesus of Nazareth that we know so well from the New Testament.
Speaker 1:Right. Jesus learned the scriptures through and through as he grew up, so he knew who the suffering servant figure was. When he began his ministry, with his full self-understanding, he took on the suffering servant's mission, as laid out in Isaiah, and was faithful to God's purposes for that role, despite them being unbelievably brutal.
Speaker 2:Right. So then, the suffering servant has become a name for Jesus ever since he fulfilled that prophetic vision, right? But Jesus has many names and identities associated with him, like the Son of man, the Prince of Peace, the Lion of Judah, the Lamb of God, etc. So why have you specifically been thinking about Jesus as a suffering servant recently?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's because recently I've been reading the story of his betrayal by Judas and his unjust trials and his crucifixion in the Gospels, and it just stuck out to me how full all that was. It's been one of those times where you know something, but the Holy Spirit impresses it on you at a particular time, and at the same time as I've been reading those stories, I've been thinking of the turmoil that our country and world are in. So, for those of you who don't know, I'm a medical student and I've signed up to serve as a doctor for the army after my graduation. So if things in the world go really south in the near future, there's probably going to be a role for me to play as that happens. So I greatly prefer that not happen.
Speaker 1:But something that this brings to mind is the real possibility of personal suffering. Not to be selfish and say woe is me amidst world tragedies, I mean, I also can't just sit here and pretend I wasn't. So to tone down that example, though, and make it more general, we will all suffer in various ways. Christ promises us that if we follow him, there will be suffering. He says that he, our leader, will be persecuted, and so certainly, if we're anything like him, we will also face opposition in this life. Does the story of the suffering servant end in his suffering? Is life just meaningless suffering? No, that we all suffer is a big promise from Jesus, and the enemy can use that as an opportunity to instill fear into the body. So to combat the enemy's purposes in that, my encouragement would be this Jesus says clearly that whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will save it, that if we want to become great in the kingdom of heaven, we must be a servant.
Speaker 1:Paul says in Philippians if we share with Christ in his suffering and his death, we will also share with him in his resurrection from the dead. We'll share with him in his supernatural life. So if you are suffering as you follow God, or if you begin to suffer, you're in good company and you are not forgotten. You are in the company of Jesus himself, paul, peter, other martyrs and millions of others still alive today. And through your experience of suffering you can count it as joy because you can identify with Jesus in a new and difficult way that many can't. You're becoming more one with him as you endorse suffering for the joy set before you. Not only can our suffering produce something really good for the world through our labor. Like how Christ brought about salvation through his death and resurrection, our suffering can also bring about the good of further identification with Jesus.
Speaker 2:Wow, I love that. What a great encouragement. It's that classic upside down thinking of Jesus that to be most fulfilled as a human and to become your best self, you'll need to pour yourself out and suffer for the sake of others. And you know that's a lot to process and to think about, especially if some of us are currently suffering. And so, as we wrap up, why don't we bring that to God in prayer together?
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's do it. So if everyone could take a moment to be still with us. Wherever you are, let's approach God together as a community. Jesus, we thank you for giving us the scriptures so that we can know you more and more. We thank you for becoming the suffering servant and taking our sins and transgressions on yourself so that we can be at peace with God, free from slavery to sin and death, and we can be alive with you. We offer our lives to you, with all our sufferings, and say we'll be faithful to do what you've called us to do, no matter the cost.
Speaker 1:Holy Spirit, I pray you would show us Christ's purposes in our suffering. Jesus, we want to be more like you. Give us the faith and courage to follow in your footsteps so that we can serve you and be a blessing to the world around us. Amen, amen. Thanks for joining us today. We hope this session will help you love God and people more. Now we'd love to hear from you, send comments, suggestions or questions to daily at bolcforg For more about Bread of Life, church of Fresno. Look us up online and reach out or, better yet, come join us. We hope you have a blessed day.