The chapter before us today wraps up the movement that Isaiah has been writing about since chapter 40, a movement which Isaiah saw would one day be unleashed on the world through the mysterious work of the suffering servant, who was particularly highlighted in Isaiah 53. As I mentioned last week, many Christians are familiar with Isaiah 53. We know how that prophecy looked forward to the cross and to the achievement of Jesus as Isaiah’s suffering servant. We often don’t think much beyond Isaiah 53, and yet in chapter 54 we are told how the work of the suffering servant fulfills the long-awaited promises to Israel, inaugurates the new covenant that God promised to his people, and assures the redeemed community of their eternal inheritance.

Now, if indeed God has acted in the Messiah in the ways Isaiah has predicted, then this news must go forth. It must be shouted from the housetops. It must be proclaimed to everyone. And that is precisely what we find in Isaiah 55.

Here we see the mission of God. This is Evangelism 101, and for today’s sermon wrapping up Crosstown Basics 2025, we look at Isaiah 55 to see what it has to tell us about the importance of mission in disciple-making.

Mission is critical to discipleship, not just because a person must hear the good news to be a disciple but also because we who call ourselves disciples cannot grow into true disciples of Jesus without engaging in God’s mission ourselves. Or, to put it another way, we best persuade others to enter the kingdom of God by being joyful participants of it ourselves.

Here in Isaiah 55, the mission of God can be summed up with three key words: invitation (vv. 1-5), urgency (vv. 6-9), and expectation (vv. 10-13).

Invitation

First, see the invitation of God’s mission in verses 1-5. The mission of God is like a great invitation welcoming anyone and everyone to come and have a taste of what God has done through the ministry of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53.  

The Gospel Offer

The invitation is proclaimed here like the throwing open of the doors of a well-stocked market. Everyone who is hungry or thirsty can come in and get whatever they want, and there is no check-out counter to worry about. You can buy whatever you need “without money and without price.”

That this is in fact a gospel invitation is clear from the fact that Isaiah 55:1 is cited at the very end of the Bible. In Revelation 22:17, we are told that “the Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.” The Bride in Revelation is the church, so this is what we are called to proclaim through the Spirit: “let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” What good news to proclaim!

The offer represented here as having this “water of life” without price also fits the gospel invitation we see throughout the New Testament. There are no conditions that have to be met, no price that has to be paid in order to anyone to accept this invitation. The conditions have already been met, the price has already been paid by the suffering servant. Jesus said, in John 7:37, clearly referencing Isaiah 55, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”

Alternative Options

We can see in verses 2-3 that this gospel invitation makes its appeal over against various alternative options. You can come and accept what is being offered to you freely or you can go a different path and “spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy.”

But what does the metaphor mean? What is being promised? What is being denounced?

The answer comes in verse 3. Those who hear the invitation and come are promised that their “soul may live.” Here is perhaps where we have become most confused, because many, many people hear the word soul and immediately think of some part of a person that is separated from the body at death. This simply will not do. The Hebrew word translated soul refers to the entire person—everything about you, which most certainly includes your physical body—and so the promise is that in accepting this gospel invitation the “whole you” will find real life satisfaction.

The mission of God is not first about answering the question of where a person’s immaterial substance will go when they die. This invitation is about abandoning the futile ways of life, becoming a disciple of Jesus, and finding how deep and flourishing, how beautiful and satisfying his way truly is. “Come, hear that your soul may live!”

False Advertisement?

Now, really, who believes this? Can this gospel offer really deliver on that promise, or is it to be dismissed as just another one of the world’s false advertisements?

If you are skeptical, I understand. It does seem too good to be true, doesn’t it? Of course, the so-called “Prosperity Gospel” preachers talk like this, building up their own lavish lifestyles on the pittances of the poor and the gambles of the middle-class. But the invitation here is from the mouth of God himself, and you don’t have to pay anything to accept his offer. The inviter is no charlatan.

In the second half of verse 3 on through verse 5, he tells us how it is that he can deliver on the promise “that your soul may live.” To those who accept his invitation, he says, “I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.” Now this sounds quite obscure to us modern readers, but this verse is quoted by Paul on his first missionary journey. “We bring you good news,” he said, “that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus [from the dead]” (Acts 13:32-33). He cites Isaiah 55:3 as proof that having raised Jesus from the dead, he will never “return to corruption” in Acts 13:34. It seems that Paul sees here in Isaiah 55:3 that the “David” spoken of is Jesus as the new Davidic king who has fulfilled the human obligations of the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7. In other words, “my steadfast, sure love for David” is better translated by David. The “faithful or obedient acts of loyal love are those of the servant-king in Isaiah 53,” who by his sacrificial death and bodily resurrection have brough about the fulfillment of God’s promises and established a new and everlasting covenant.[1]

It is on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus—and only on that basis—that we find the assurance of God’s invitation. He has made this David a witness, leader, and commander for all the peoples of the world. Verse 5 speaks of the world-wide Christian movement moving on to impact all the nations of the world and all because of God’s exaltation and glorification of the crucified and resurrected Christ.

This is the way to life, both now and in the future. It is the way of discipleship, of following our leader and commander, and his way is cross-shaped and Easter-inspired. There is no other way to real, satisfying life. We follow our leader through suffering and death with the assurance that he is leading us into the resurrection power of a new creation.

Urgency

Now, notice the urgency that comes with the invitation, in verses 6-9.

Limited Time Only

“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near” (v. 6). The invitation, it seems, is “for a limited time only.” So, say “yes” to God’s invitation before it is too late.

When does the offer expire? Here again we need to get clear on what it is that is being offered. The urgency is not based on the fact that none of us know when we are going to die. The message is not that God holds open this invitation until the moment we die and then says, “Too late! You had your chance.”

Rather, the reason why there is urgency here is because the party, as it were, has already started.

Remember how Isaiah 54 began with the summons to sing and rejoice? If the work of the servant in Isaiah 53 has already been accomplished, then the day the world has been longing for has already dawned. The new creation has already broken in, overlapping with the old one.

So why wait any longer? Why spend another day throwing away your money to acquire the “junk food” that cannot satisfy. Why wait for tomorrow when you can enjoy the promises of God for you today? The urgency here is based on the quite tragic reality that the longer we go on living in the old world the more accustomed we come to accept its miserable conditions.

The “limited time offer” is not because God will shut the door on us but because we might well shut the door on him. Just think about how this tends to work in all kinds of ways that are common to human experience. For example, you know it is good for you to exercise or to “eat clean” or to stop “doom-scrolling” on your phone. So stop it! Stop it now! Seek a better life for yourself while you can. Because you know how addicting it is to go on with the bad habits. The time to break the habit is now.

Repentance Required

Easier said than done, of course. It will not suffice to exercise just one day or to avoid the drive-through lane just one time or to go on a one-day digital detox. But you have to make a start, and the longer you wait the harder it becomes. And yet another day of opportunity is wasted.

And so it is with this gospel invitation. The mission of God cannot be boiled down to a “one-time decision” that secures your eternal destiny and that’s that. Of course there certainly is a “day of salvation,” much like many addicts can point to a “soberversary.” That’s important, no doubt, and many Christians can point to a certain day in their life as “conversion day.” Wonderful! Praise God.

But we might do well to take up this acronym used in AA for gospel mission: ODAAT, one day at a time. Let that add some color to what we see in verse 7.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

I know how that verse often sounds. The “wicked” and “the unrighteous man”? We know who those people are. Certainly not us. After all, we voted for . . .

My, oh my. The repentance that is urgent here in verses 6-7 is for all of us, and it is ODAAT, one day at a time. As the great Reformer, Martin Luther, wrote in the first of his 95 Theses: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ (Matthew 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

The Path of Recovery

Thus, the mission of God is never something you move on from. If “mission” to you means “evangelism,” fine. Just remember it is you who needs to be evangelized every single day.

You see, we are all addicts when it comes to spiritual formation. We have become so acclimated to the ways of the old world that we never even imagined there could be another way.

Verses 8-9 contrast God’s ways and thoughts with our ways and thoughts. They are not the same. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,” God says. This is why repentance is required as an on-going way of life. “Our ways and thoughts have been perverted by original sin, and it is only as we turn from them to God and his mercy that we can ever have peace with him and live lives that will be truly productive.”[2]

Brothers and sisters, at the very heart of the Christian faith is the urgent invitation to stop saying, “That’s just the way it’s always going to be.” No, it isn’t. You don’t have to make peace with the misery of sin and death that you encounter in your marriage or in your other relationships or in the sufferings you’ve been called to endure.

It's time to turn from our wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts and accept God’s invitation into his new creation.

Expectation (vv. 10-13)

It’s time to expect new and better things. Expectation is what we find in verses 10-13.

God’s Effective Word

Verses 10-11 compare God’s word which goes from his mouth to the effectiveness of rain and snow on the ground.

The color of my grass tells a story. We don’t have a sprinkler system, so usually by mid-July at the latest my grass is yellow. How sad. Except then I don’t have to mow for several weeks in the hot Oklahoma summer. But not this year. We had so much rain that the grass has kept its color for the most part. And the boys and I have to get out and cut the grass usually every week.

Now let the elements of God’s creation preach the gospel to you, the gospel of the kingdom of God which has already come near, broken in on the old world marred by the miserable ways and thoughts of sin. Just as water comes down from the sky and nourishes the grass and causes it to grow, so God’s word has come to this dried-up world and will surely bring out a new era of flourishing.

This is what Psalm 85 anticipated, when God would act in a way that would cover the sins of his people, revive them again, and cause faithfulness to spring up from the ground. The work of the servant in Isaiah 53 has brought it about.

Is this not what Jesus was talking about in his famous Parable of the Sower? The sower sows the word, he explained, and when that seed falls on good soil, defined as those who hear the word and accept it, it bears fruit, 30- or 60- or 100-times over! (Mark 4:13-20).

Wherever God’s word is proclaimed—the word of the kingdom that has come near to us in Jesus—we can expect to see results. His word will not return to him empty, but “shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

God’s Glorious Work

Verses 12-13 conclude the chapter with a stirring—albeit surprising—refrain. What kind of effect will God’s word have on his world? What kinds of things might we expect God’s word to do?

The answer that is given is remarkably applicable. “You shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands” (v. 12). The effect that God’s word will have will be seen primarily in his people who accept his invitation. Back in Isaiah 35, the prophet spoke of “the ransomed of the LORD” returning, coming to Zion with singing. “Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isa 35:10). Here now is the great reversal which brings the prophecy to its fulfillment. And where will it be seen? In the servant-shaped community who resemble the ways of their leader.

Verse 13 continues this theme of reversal, the removal of the thorns and thistles that have plagued the world since Genesis 3. God will plant a new community within the old world that is passing away, and they will go on being God’s people right there, announcing and signifying to the world that God’s new creation has indeed begun.

This new community, verse 13 says, will “make a name for the LORD, and everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” God’s glorious work of new creation is predominately displayed in God’s new creation people who dare to believe his word-made-flesh and follow his lead. Jesus-shaped people will show to the world who God is, and they will be the community of people who will never be taken out of the world.

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[1] See Peter John Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum (Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants, Second Edition [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018], 464-479) for the thorough discussion and argument on this interpretation.

[2] John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40–66, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, ed. Robert L. Hubbard, Jr. (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 445.