Sermon Title: Serving God [Sermon]
Sermon Text: Isaiah 45:1-7
Sermon Summary: God is served under His power even by those who do not know Him, by Christians through willing faith, and at last in glory when the church sees Him face to face.
Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. Jackson
Liturgical Date: Pentetcost 21, Proper 24 A
Calendar Date: 2026-10-18
Location: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County. Address: 316 W. Main St., Forestville, WI 54213. Phone: 920-856-6420.

Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church serves Sister Bay and other area in Northeast Wisconsin.

The following transcript has been cleaned and lightly edited with the assistance of AI:

TRANSCRIPT

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today we are going to be taking up the theme of serving God. We’re going to talk about how God is served. First of all, we’re going to talk about how God is served in His power and His providence, what sometimes is called His kingdom of power or His reign of power. Second of all, we’re going to be talking about how God is served by means of faith, and so sometimes that’s called the kingdom or the reign of grace. And then finally, we’re going to be talking about how God is served in glory. And God is served no matter what. No matter whether one is a believer or not, whether one acknowledges God or not, God is always served. His ends always are brought to a fulfillment. That’s a big part of what our Old Testament lesson was about for today, which really leads into our first point, that God’s first way He is served is that He is served according to His power and providence.

Serving God According to His Power and Providence

Isaiah 45, what we just read, it’s one of the most absolute most remarkable passages in the Holy Scriptures for so many reasons. We’re not going to get into all of those reasons here, but one of the most interesting things about this is the fact of what Cyrus is named, the title that he is given. So the very first verse, we encounter this word, “Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus.” Shocking that Cyrus would be called anointed.

The Hebrew word there for anointed is mashiach. We transliterate that into English as messiah. And in the Old Testament, various people were anointed as messiahs. Take, for example, King David, who was anointed to protect the people of God, to free them from the tyranny of the Philistines, and to extend their political power. And of course, this was just a little glimpse into the ultimate Messiah, the Messiah Jesus Christ. Christ meaning actually Messiah, actually. That’s the Greek term for Messiah. And here Cyrus is called a messiah. Now, why would that be so surprising? It spells it out there. Cyrus doesn’t even know God. He’s named by God even though Cyrus does not know God.

Now, that only begins to fill in the picture here. So let’s fill in the picture of what’s being talked about here, because Cyrus is probably one of the most important figures in the scriptures, while at the same time being one of the least well-known figures in the scriptures.

Cyrus was the emperor of the Persians, the emperor of the Persian Empire. Now, who was the Persian Empire? In the time of Isaiah, Isaiah foretold various political powers and how they were going to impact the people of God, the kingdom of Judah. In Isaiah’s time, several hundred years after the time of David and Solomon, by the way, by that time, the people of God had laid aside God’s Word. So many of them were worshiping false gods and goddesses. They were engaging in idolatry, to put it another way. And so they were failing to love the Lord their God with all their heart and soul and strength and mind, as had been commanded all the way back in Deuteronomy. But also, they were failing to love their neighbor as themselves.

I’m convinced, by the way, that so many of the Old Testament laws were there to reinforce the brotherhood of the descendants of Abraham. But instead of treating one another as brothers, instead, they were hurting and harming each other, taking advantage of each other, manipulating each other. And because of this, in the time of Isaiah, God, through Isaiah, prophesied that foreign nations would descend upon Jerusalem, and that eventually one would overcome them. And that when that one would overcome them, that people would be taken off to a strange land. This was fulfilled when the Babylonian Empire came and conquered Jerusalem. And Babylon, which was originally centered in what we would now call southern Iraq, when they came and they conquered the region they emptied the region of its treasures.

One of the treasures that they emptied from that region were the leaders of the people, their greatest merchants, their greatest statesmen, their greatest generals, their greatest scholars, their greatest religious leaders. They carted all of them back to their own land in what you might call just this massive brain drain so that, in their eyes, they could utilize their abilities to extend their empire even more.

So you’re familiar, you remember Daniel and all those stories from Daniel, like the lion’s den, right? And the fiery furnace of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And how Daniel refused to eat the meat offered to idols, but instead ate vegetables alone, and how he yet still had this marvelous appearance. All of that happened among those exiles to Babylon. Daniel was one of these aristocratic leaders of Israel who had been carted back off to Babylon.

And yet, God promised deliverance. And deliverance through a really curious means, right? Moses was from among the people and knew the one true God. David, the same thing. But here in Isaiah 45, God promises another different deliverer, Cyrus. And Cyrus, as we said, was the leader of the Persians, and under his remarkable leadership, Persia grew from a small kingdom to conquer first a larger kingdom, a very warlike kingdom called the Medes. They conquered them first, and then after conquering the Medes and probably taking a lot of their warriors, then he was prepared to take on the wealthiest empire in the area, Babylon, which we heard about their wealth in Isaiah 45, right? These storehouses of treasures.

And how, and what did the Lord do for him? Babylon fell in a surprisingly fast manner, and Cyrus had access to all this incredible wealth. Wealth, by the way, which was very much associated with idolatry, because back in those times, they didn’t have banks. The storehouses of wealth were ziggurats. Maybe you learned that in history class. They’re ancient temple complexes which, yes, had worship areas, but also had accumulated vast amounts of wealth and had storehouses where it could be held. Buildings, as we read, with gates of bronze and bars of iron that the Lord would open to Cyrus even though Cyrus didn’t know Him.

Now the Lord did this for the purpose of blessing His people. We’re going to get to that here in a minute, but I want you to see this fact, that Cyrus, even though he didn’t acknowledge the Lord, was still a servant of the Lord. God is God over all. He is not just the God of Christians. He is the God of the world. Even more than that, He is the God of the universe. And so even things and even people that do not acknowledge Him, and that maybe to our eyes might even seem to be opposed to Him, yet serve Him and His ultimate purposes. This is God’s reign of power, and all things serve Him under His power and under His providence.

This, by the way, is why Jesus commended the payments of taxes to Caesar. See, the Pharisees put this question to Jesus because Caesar, the Emperor of the Romans, he also was an idolater. Didn’t acknowledge the one true God, but rather worshiped many false foreign gods. And so the question sort of is this: Jesus, isn’t paying taxes to Caesar a form of serving Caesar? And if we are serving Caesar and he does not serve the one true God, aren’t we becoming servants of false foreign idols and gods? And Jesus rejects this, right? Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. And part of the upshot is that insofar as Caesar does not demand you to do anything contrary to the word of God, that even as you render taxes to him, you’re still serving God. And by the way, St. Paul makes that absolutely explicit. Romans chapter 13: “Let every person be subject,” in other words, serve, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God.” If we fast-forward to verse four it says this: “For he is God’s servant for your good.”

And before I talk about for your good, I want to mention that there are multiple ways in which these servants who do not acknowledge God work for our good. First of all, in ordering our civil life here on Earth. But also, there’s another sense in which all things work to the good of those who love the Lord. We’re going to get to that here in our final point. But the point is this, there’s no question who these civil authorities are that St. Paul is talking about. He’s writing to the church in Rome. And the people who were in this authority were Roman politicians, Roman authorities. Almost every single one of them at this point, in all likelihood, idolaters. And he’s saying that these people who do not acknowledge God, yet are servants of God. And so therefore, as they are servants of God, you are called to serve them. And as you serve them, ultimately you are serving God.

All things serve the Lord under His power and under His provision and providence. But we as Christians are called to serve the Lord in a different way. We have a hint at this, by the way, in our epistle lesson.

Serving God by Means of Faith

Today in 1 Thessalonians, Paul talks about a different kind of service. So Paul says, reporting about the believers in Macedonia and Achaia, how they were inspired by the Thessalonians, he says, “For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God.”

And here we come to the Christian service of God, service of Him under His reign of grace, service of Him according to faith. We serve God not under external compulsion, but rather we serve God under joyful, willing obedience as His sons. We Christians are those who have received the good news of the gospel, the message that through the blood of Christ our sins are forgiven, our righteousness fulfilled. And the Holy Spirit uses that message to transform our hearts so that hearts that once were set against God, hearts that once were hard and idolatrous instead become hearts of love towards Him and hearts of love as well to the neighbor as the Holy Spirit has poured the love of God into our hearts by means of faith.

And so therefore, while God’s will always be done, we do God’s will for a different reason and according to a different power. In his explanation to the Lord’s Prayer and the petition that goes, “Thy will be done,” Martin Luther says in the Small Catechism, he says this: “God’s will is always done even without our prayers.” And this just is because of the fact that He’s God, right? But we pray in this petition that His will would be done among us also. And how is God’s will done? God’s will is done when the word of God is taught and kept in His truth and purity. This is the first means by which God reigns over us by means of faith.

My prayer for you, brothers and sisters in Christ, is that you would be attentive to the Word of God. That week by week here at St. Peter’s you would hear the Word of God as it is read and as it is preached. That in your homes as well, in a daily devotional life, that you would also encounter the Word of God. And so the Word of God would enter into your ears and enter into your eyes, but not just remain there. But also that you would consider it. Think on it. As an ancient prayer of the church goes, a hundreds of years old prayer, that you would learn it and mark it. Consider it. The way the Word of God works is that it encounters our eyes and it encounters our ears, but then it works upon the mind. My prayer for you is that the Word of God would not just simply remain in your mind, but that as you consume it, it would go down into your heart. Or as an ancient prayer of the church which we pray here sometimes, that you would inwardly digest it. My prayer is that the Word of God will become a part of you, that it would become a part of your heart, held above all, where your will resides, so that it would shape and form your life. And here we come to what Luther continues to say in his explanation to that petition: When we lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Lord. This is how God reigns over us Christians, by means of faith.

Now sadly, my brothers and sisters in Christ, this side of heaven we have many enemies that would seek to prevent us from serving the Lord according to faith. We have the enemy of the world, which wants to distract us so that instead of being mindful of heavenly things, we only pay attention to worldly things. All the distractions of this life that are always crowding in, that’s an enemy. We have the enemy of those who would pervert the Word of God with their false teachings and interpretations of the Word. We have the enemy of those around us who would seek as well to make us look not to the Word of God for guidance in our life, but rather to those around us. And maybe here we could talk about the enemy of our sinful flesh, because we’ve got this fleshly desire to be acceptable to those around us. And so therefore we seek to conform so often in our sinfulness our lives to the expectations of those around us, the things that they consider to be good, right and salutary instead of the things that the Word of God teaches us to be good, right and salutary. So many enemies around us. Therefore, we need the assistance of others. And here we come to the final way in which God is served, that God is served in his glory and according to his glory.

Serving God in His Glory

Speaking of glory, we have a psalm that was probably composed by those who were delivered by Cyrus. Who when Cyrus came to power, he said to them, “Go back to your homeland. Go back and rebuild Jerusalem, rebuild the walls, and even rebuild your temple.” This is the way that Cyrus was a deliverer from the Babylonians.

Psalm 126: When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. That our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad.” The way I like to envision this is that it’s depicting the shouts of joy of the exiles returning back from Babylon. And maybe, I’ve never been to Jerusalem, so I don’t know what the roads are like there, but I imagine they’re coming around a bend in the road, in the mountain passes leading to Jerusalem, and then all of a sudden they see it. Mount Zion, the place where God promised to be, where they could encounter God.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, there are those who do in fact see God in His glory, the holy angels. Christ says that our guardians, the angels, they never fail to see the face of the Lord. They behold the glory of God. And I truly believe that the angels bless us and exercise power and authority over this world. This is one of the ways in which God exercises his reign of power by means of the holy angels to direct all things to our wellbeing.

Remember a few minutes ago I pointed out where it said that the authorities work for our good? They work for our good civilly, but also all things in this world work for the good of those who love Him. Romans 8, all things work for the good of those who love the Lord. And in which way is that? The Lord is directing the entire course of this world, and in fact, I’d say the entire course of this universe for the sake of His holy people, for the sake of Christians, to bring us to Mount Zion. As Christians, we look forward to the day when Christ will return in might, in power, and glory.

And on that day, his reign of power will end. He will not reign invisibly through all the invisible ways that he works his will, even over those who do not know him. On that day, even his reign of faith will end because on that day, we will see eye to eye and face to face. Now, we see as in a mirror dimly, and we see by means of faith. Then we will know even as we are known. And on that day, we will become a part of his reign of glory as we see him eye to eye and face to face. And on that day, we will give a shout of joy. On that day, our mouths will be filled with songs of joy. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus, and hasten the day of your reign of glory.