Would invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the
Old Testament book of Isaiah. Isaiah, we're going to be
looking at the end of chapter 52 and all of chapter 53 Today.
You're using the red Bibles and the chairs around.
You can find the page printed for you in your bulletins,
Isaiah 52, beginning in verse 13 down through the end of chapter
53. It is not an overstatement to
say that what I'm about to read to you is one of the greatest
passages in the book of Isaiah or perhaps in all of Scripture.
Let's listen to God's Word. Behold, my Servant shall act
wisely. He shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you,
His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, and His
form beyond that of the children of mankind, so shall He sprinkle
many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths
because of Him. For that which has not been told
them they see, and that which they have not heard, they
understand. Who has believed what He has
heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a
young plants and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, no beauty
that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by
men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, He was
despised, and we esteemed Him not.
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.
Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with
His wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his
mouth like a lamb that has led to the slaughter, like a sheep
that before it shears a silence. So he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And As for his generation, who considered that he was cut off
out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression
of my people, and they made his grave with the wicked and with a
rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and
there was no deceit in his mouth, yet it was the will of
the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when his
soul makes an offering for guilt.
He shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days.
The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand 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? Therefore I will divide him a
portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong. Because he poured out his soul
to death, and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore
the sin of many, and makes intercession for the
transgressors. Let's pray together.
Father, we pray that as we come to this part of your word today,
that You indeed would open it to us, that through the work of the
Holy Spirit, you would apply it into our hearts, into our minds,
into our lives. Help us to see what we need to
see from this part of Your Word. But above all, Father, help us
to see our great servant and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's in His name we pray. Amen.
Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 says, For the word of God is living
and active, sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing to the
division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and
discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The power of the word of God, the power of Isaiah 53.
Many of us know the story. It's recorded for us in Acts
chapter 8, The story of Philip in the Ethiopian eunuch.
Philip was told by the Angel of the Lord to get up and to get
onto the road that runs S from Jerusalem down to Gaza.
And along the way Philip came across an Ethiopian eunuch.
It was a court official of the Queen of The Ethiopians.
The eunuch had been in Jerusalem worshipping, and he was on his
way back home. And when Philip came across the
eunuch, he, the eunuch, was sitting in his chariot, and he
was reading an Old Testament passage.
The Holy Spirit prompted Philip to go over and to interact with
the eunuch, and so Philip ran over to him.
And when Philip got there, he realized that the eunuch was
reading a passage out of the book of Isaiah.
In fact, he was reading Isaiah chapter 53, verses 7 and 8.
Philip asked the unit if he understood what he was reading
it, and the eunuch said that he needed some help.
He he asked Philip, who is Isaiah 53 talking about?
We're told that starting with that passage, Philip shared the
good news with him about Jesus. The eunuch was converted, Philip
baptized him, and we're told that he went back home
rejoicing, perhaps the first witness of Christ in Africa, the
power of the word of God, the power of Isaiah 53.
It reminds us that as we read these verses today, as we
reflect on them, there is a call for a response to what we read,
a call of response to, to who we are reading about in these
verses of, of what he was like. We've, we've talked about
throughout the early part of Isaiah that a promise is given
over and over again to God's people that a great warrior king
would come. He would lead God's people once
again. He would lead them out of exile.
He would take them back home and also be the ruler of the
nations. But then when we got to Isaiah
chapter 42, we came to the first of these 4 servant songs and we
heard that the, the promise that the king who would come would
also be a servant. Even in that first servant song,
though he would, he would bring justice to the nations, he would
be a servant, but he would have majesty and power and influence.
But then we come here to Isaiah 53, the the 4th of the four
servant songs, and we get the full picture of this servant.
And it's meant to be surprising to us, even shocking.
Now, Isaiah and the people that were in exile, they, they surely
didn't understand the full story, exactly how God was going
to fulfill this promise. But Isaiah 53 is what we like to
call a pastor's favorite passage.
We don't have to wonder what Isaiah 53 is about.
I don't have to figure it out. So I can tell you we don't have
to extrapolate. There are many places in other
places in the Bible that specifically tell us what Isaiah
53 is about. Matthew in his Gospel quotes
Isaiah 53 verse four. He says it describes Jesus's
healing ministry. We already saw in Acts chapter
8, Philip told the Ethiopian eunuch that Isaiah 53 is about
Jesus. Peter quotes five of the verses
in Isaiah 53 and says they describe the work and the
suffering of Jesus and Jesus himself in Luke chapter 22, the
night before his crucifixion told the disciples that Isaiah
53 was about him. He would be numbered with the
transgressors. Spoiler alert, Isaiah 53 is
telling us about our great and ultimate servant, the Lord Jesus
Christ. So let's look at these verses
and reflect on how servant Jesus is described.
He's he's described as being astonishing, as being ordinary,
as being substitutionary, and as being satisfied.
First of all, he's described as being an astonishing servant.
You can see that at chapter 52, verses 13 to 15, what we're told
there, that the servant would act wise and proper.
He would be high and lifted up and exalted.
And that jives with the other things that we've heard about
the King's servant to come. But that's what made him so
astonishing to those who would see him, because we read in
verse 14 that his appearance would be marred beyond human
semblance, his form beyond that of the children of mankind.
His appearance wouldn't connect with His Majesty the King, the
servant king. He wouldn't be like the people
would expect. He he won't measure up to the
worldly standard and expectation.
He'd be so astonishing that we read in verse 15.
Kings would shut their mouths because of him.
They would be so amazed at this one to come.
He would be an astonishing servant unlike anything the
world had ever seen before. But then notice he would also be
an ordinary servant. You can see that in chapter 53,
verses one to three. Yeah, earlier in Isaiah we were
told that the servant king would be mighty in power.
He would be great in majesty. He would rule over the nations.
But then we come here to the beginning part of chapter 53,
and he's described just as being ordinary.
Look at verses 2 and three. He would be like a young plant,
like a root out of dry ground. That means unimpressive, unlike
the the grand and the powerful Cedars of Lebanon that we've
read about earlier in Isaiah. He would have no form or majesty
that would make us look at him, not particularly good looking or
handsome, no beauty that would cause us to desire him.
People would despise him. People would reject him.
He would be a man full of sorrow, a man who understood
what grief is. People would hide their faces
from him. People would not hold him in
high regard or respect him or admire him or value him.
He would not have any of the things that the world looks to
for success and power and influence.
This would not be one who would be a mover and shaker in
leadership circles. People were going to pay
thousands of dollars to go hear him speak at a leadership
conference. He wouldn't be hired by large
companies to come in and do consulting work or executive
training. The servant to come would be
ordinary, described as one who would not have a lot of
significance and notoriety. But then notice the servant is
also described as living a substitutionary life.
Now the description in these verses, verses 4 through the end
of the chapter of chapter 53, they are nothing less than
extraordinary, stunning. Look at, look at all the ways
that we're told that the servant would substitute himself for us.
Verse four, He will bear our grief.
He will carry our sorrow. Verse 5, pierced for our
transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, taking our
chastisement. And just as a reminder,
transgressions are all the ways that we disobey God's word and
our thoughts and words and deeds and our iniquities is our fallen
nature. It's the inner heart depravity
because of the fall. The end of verse 6, our iniquity
would be laid on him. The end of verse 11, He shall
bear our iniquities. The end of verse 12, He was
numbered as one of us, a transgressor, and He would bear
our sin. Yeah.
And not only does the servant live a substitutionary life by
taking all of our grief and our sorrow and our transgressions
and our iniquities and our sin on himself, but look at what he
gives us. The end of verse 5.
He brings us peace. He brings us healing.
And then the end of verse 11, he makes us accounted as righteous.
This is what the servant Jesus did for us.
He endured violent suffering, stricken, smitten by God,
afflicted, pierced, crushed, chastisement from the Lord God
Almighty, put upon him wounded, oppressed, afflicted, like a
lamb that has led to slaughter, judged, taken away, cut off,
stricken for us, crushed by the Lord, put to grief a soul filled
with anguish, and eventually he would pour out his soul to death
and be buried as the wicked. And did you notice that even
when he had the chance to defend himself, what do we read at the
beginning and the end of verse 7?
He opened not his mouth. Why not?
Because he was guilty. Oh yes, he was guilty.
He had nothing to defend. And why was he guilty?
He was guilty because he took our guilt upon himself.
He took our sin and our transgressions and our iniquity
upon himself. He didn't defend himself because
there was no defending us. We were guilty.
And since he substituted his life for ours, he took our
guilt. And then he poured out his soul
to death to pay for every ounce of that guilt.
The servant died to bring, to bring death to death.
Jesus, our great servant, is a substitutionary servant.
This is brothers and sisters in Christ.
This is the heart of the gospel. This is the good news of God's
grace. This is what makes Christianity
different from every other religion.
Only in Christianity does God Himself come to the earth and
serve as our substitutionary servant, taking our grief and
sorrows and guilt and sin and paying for it with His own life,
and substituting it for righteousness and peace and
healing. This is the gospel.
Lastly, notice that the servant is described as being a
satisfied servant. Look at the end of verse 10.
When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his
offspring. That's us by the way.
He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul.
He shall see and be satisfied. The servant was satisfied.
Of course he was. Jesus looks at His offspring, He
He looks at His people, He looks at His bride, He looks at the
body of believers, and he is satisfied.
Why? Because He accomplished and
finished His work. The righteous one, through His
substitutionary work, made many to be accounted righteous.
His work was successful, it was completed, it was finished, it
was efficacious, it was accepted by the Father, and so Jesus is
satisfied. Now we're going to come back to
that in just a minute, but can you take just a moment and
meditate on the fact that if you are in Christ Jesus, Jesus is
satisfied with you? Jesus, the long promised great
and ultimate servant that Isaiah describes.
He was astonishing, unlike anything the world had
categories for or had ever seen. But he was also ordinary.
He didn't measure up to what the world thought of as a
successful, powerful, influential, important leader.
He lived a substitutionary life. He he substituted his life for
the lives of his people, taking their guilt and their grief and
their sin and giving them his righteousness.
He's also a satisfied servant, looking at his offspring, his
people, the work that he did, and he's satisfied.
So what do we do with this for us today?
Three things. First is this God's power in our
lives comes to us from ordinary things.
As we have seen, Jesus was ordinary.
And yet look at what we read in verse 1 of chapter 53.
Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Jesus, it was ordinary and yet through him the arm of the Lord
and notice, notices in all caps, the arm of Yahweh is revealed.
Now we've seen this phrase that the arm of the Lord earlier in
Isaiah we saw that it refers to the power that the might of God.
And what we're being told here is through the ordinary servant
Jesus, the power of God is displayed.
The power of God is at work, and that's still how God works in
our lives today. His power, his might at work in
our lives through ordinary things.
Ordinary means. The power of God at work in our
lives through the ways and things that look unimportant and
unimpressive to the world. Things like reading the Word of
God, thinking about it, meditating upon it, listening to
it. Things like prayer, spending
time talking to the Lord, praising Him, and sharing our
pain and our sorrows and our needs.
Things like participating in corporate worship with our
brothers and sisters in Christ. Things like participating things
like baptism in the Lord's Supper.
Things like hanging out with and spending time with other
Christians, getting to know them, sharing time with them,
having meals together. Growing in the unity that we
have because of the gospel, right?
These are these are ordinary things.
These, these are the ordinary means of grace.
And yet through the ordinary means of grace, the power of God
is at work in our lives. It seems like there should be
something more extraordinary, doesn't it?
It feels like there should be something more spectacular,
extravagant, like we somehow plug ourselves into the power of
God and download his power into our lives.
But God has chosen to display and to work his power into our
lives through an ordinary Jesus, an ordinary means.
What a blessing it is that He has given us these tools, these,
these means of grace. The question we have to ask is,
are we making use of them or are we taking them from granted and
disregarding them? Make use of the means of grace,
not with a sense of drudgery or obligation or punishment, but
out of a sense of gratitude and Thanksgiving and joyful
expectation that as we participate in the means of
grace, the power of God is at work in our lives.
Secondly, our suffering does not mean that God does not love us
or care for us, right? It's a question that many of us
wrestle with. How can, how can God love us?
How can God care for us and allow or even bring suffering
into our lives? Right?
That's a that is a real and honest and understandable and
vulnerable question. But our passage today helps us
to see that our suffering doesn't mean that God doesn't
love us or care for us. We're told clearly in these
verses, Jesus suffered. He was smitten by God.
It tells us that it was the will of the Lord to crush him, to put
the Lord to for the Lord to put him to grief, that he bore our
griefs and was a man of sorrows. Jesus suffered greatly.
And yet we are told over and over again in the Scripture that
the Father loves the Son. The first person of the Trinity
loves the second person of the Trinity.
In Matthew chapter 3, at the baptism of Jesus, a voice from
heaven was heard saying, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am
well pleased. John chapter 3 verse 35.
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
John chapter 5 verse 20. For the Father loves the Son and
shows him all that he is. He Himself is doing.
John 15 verse 9. Jesus speaking says, as the
Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Abide in my love. Jesus suffered more greatly than
anyone ever will. He even suffered at the hands of
His Father. And yet we're told over and over
again that the Father loves the Son.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, that's true for us as well.
Our suffering doesn't mean that God doesn't love us.
It's often the case that we don't understand why we are
suffering when we are in the midst of it, or even ever
sometimes. But what we can know for certain
is that the Lord loves us and cares for us, that He is at work
in our lives, and that our suffering is not meaningless,
but that God is at work through it and loves us in the midst of
it as He brings us through it. Thirdly and lastly, remember the
gospel. Isaiah 53 is one of the greatest
passages in all of Scripture explaining the gospel
substitutionary atonement of Jesus for His people.
He takes our grief, our guilt, and our sin, and then He goes to
the cross and has the wrath, the punishment, and the judgement of
God poured out on Him for our sin.
He pours out his soul to death to pay for our transgressions
and our iniquities, and in exchange we get his
righteousness. We get peace with God,
reconciliation of the relationship with the Lord that
was ruptured at the fall. We get adopted into God's
family, made a child of God and heir of the promise.
We get eternal inheritance that's being kept in heaven for
us. All of this is ours simply by
receiving it by faith in Jesus, by being in a relationship with
Jesus. This is the gospel.
Now let me get the attention for just a minute of our young
people, especially our young people who have not yet made a
profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, or for that
matter, anybody that's here who hasn't made a profession of
faith in Christ. This is the gospel that must be
believed to go to heaven, to understand and to believe that
Jesus became a substitute for us, that he took our sin, He
took our guilt, and he put them on himself.
And then he died on the cross and paid for it all.
And in exchange, when we believe in Jesus, he puts his
righteousness on us and he gives us peace with God.
He makes us his children and gives us eternal life.
This is God's grace. This is the gospel.
This is what we are to believe to go to heaven.
But this gospel, this good news of God's grace, it's not just
for those who haven't yet made a profession of faith.
The gospel is for believers in Christ as well.
As we've been talking about and seeing in our study of Galatians
in in the adult Sunday School class, the human heart is
utterly prone to wander from the truth of the gospel.
The human heart, even the Christian human heart, is prone
to slip into thinking that contradicts the gospel, that we
have to earn God's love and acceptance and satisfaction.
That if we're not reading our Bibles enough or praying enough
or fellowshipping enough with God's people, then God is angry
with us That he is dissatisfied with us.
That if I give into that besetting sin one more time, the
Lord will love me just a little bit less.
And that is not what the Bible tells us.
Isaiah 53 tells us that Jesus looks at his offspring.
He looks at you and me, and he is satisfied.
Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 17. Listen to these words.
The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will
save. He will rejoice over you with
gladness. He will quiet you by His love.
He will exalt over you with loud singing, and that was being said
to Judah just before they went into exile.
Now I don't know what it means for Yahweh to exalt over us with
loud singing, but it has to be pretty cool.
Psalm 149 verse 4 says the Lord takes pleasure in His people.
He adorns the humble with salvation.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, do you believe this?
The Lord is satisfied with you. The Lord does rejoice over you
with gladness. He does quiet you by His love.
He does exult over you with loud singing.
The Lord takes pleasure in you. So as God's people, when we
forget, when we forget and start acting and living like this
isn't true, what are we to do? We come back to these verses and
the many more that are like it throughout the Scriptures and we
remind ourselves what is true. We remember the gospel.
We say to ourselves that the way that I'm feeling, the way that
I'm thinking, it's not true. God's Word is true.
And then we choose to believe what God has said in His Word,
choose to put off the wrong feelings and thinking and put on
the truth of God's Word. That reminds us of the gospel.
It reminds us of what has been accomplished.
It reminds us of how our Father in heaven sees us, how He thinks
of us, how He is satisfied with us, how He rejoices over us, how
He takes pleasure in US. Let's pray together.