The Servant of the Lord

I would say a friend of this church, and I just appreciate his ministry over the past year even, and just a chance to hear you again preach today. So thank you. Thank you.

Good morning. It's nice to be with you today. It's nice to hear the thunder, some rain, we really need the rain.

Encourage you to be praying for the College Faith Baptist by Bible College and Seminary that we're getting ready to start a new year. And I don't know, you probably have heard that there is a very nice group of students coming this year. I think we're expecting in the neighborhood for the college, in the neighborhood of 400 students or so, which has caught the dorm situation by surprise.

So they are scrambling to try to find new places for incoming students. And so that's a good problem to have, but we're looking forward to a good year. Take your Bible, turn with me, if you will, to Isaiah 52.

We're used to turning to Isaiah 53, but Isaiah 52 and I'm going to read through just a few verses here as we get started. Isaiah 52, beginning at verse 13, behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.

Just as many were astonished at you, so his visage was marred. More than any man, and his form more than the sons of men, so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at him, for what had not been told them, they shall see, and what they had not heard, they shall consider.

Lord, we ask your blessing as we open Your word today. We thank you for the privilege to come before Your throne with not only our prayers, but also our study. And we ask, Lord, that all that we do would bring honor and glory to you.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen. I don't know when you are in a mystery book and you're deep into the book and you've engaged the characters and you're following the plot, and then all of a sudden someone comes up and says, oh, you know, the butler killed him.

Well, some of you would say, I'm no longer even going to read this book. It's not even worth you told me the end of the story. My dad, who is now 90 years old and June turned 90, my dad is famous for doing this with movies.

So you'll sit down at a movie and all of a sudden, my dad will tell you the end of it. And so usually he introduces it with, well, have you seen this before? And then boom, here's the last five minutes of the movie. And so what we say to dad is when he asks that question, you cannot say a word.

You must remain silent. And in fact, it's so prominent in our family that it's called doing a Dwayne. That's my dad's name.

So sometimes when my wife and I are having these conversations. I'll say thanks Dwayne to her because she's told me something that reveals the end of the story. Well, what you have here in Isaiah 52 is we have really in verse 13, that's really our text this morning.

We have the end of the story. Now, you are perhaps aware that the end of Isaiah 52 goes with Isaiah 53. There are actually in Isaiah 53, there are four divisions of three verses, what poetically you'd call a strophe.

And so those four divisions in Isaiah 53 compose what we call the suffering servant. And it is a wonderful description of what Christ endured on the cross. And in fact, if you go to Acts chapter eight, which we're not going to go there today, but if you go to Acts chapter eight, where Philip is talking to the Ethiopian eunuch, you remember where he's stopped at the side of the road in his chariot.

And he has been reading Isaiah. What portion of Isaiah has he been reading? He's been reading Isaiah 53. And Philip, it says there in Acts chapter eight, Philip opens the Scripture and explains from Isaiah 53.

And it says in verse 35, he explains to him, Jesus, the subject of Isaiah 53 is Jesus our Lord and his suffering. Now, there are in the Bible, if somebody has counted them I haven't, I'm borrowing the number 1189 chapters. Most of the chapter divisions are done very well.

This is one that's not in fact, the chapter division really ought to be verse 13, ought to be verse one of chapter 52, because this song that is in Isaiah 53 really doesn't have four stanzas, it really has five stanzas. And verses 1314 and 15 really belong in the same grouping as Isaiah 53. And so there's not four stanzas of this song, there's really five stanzas.

And verse 13 is really the beginning of what is in Isaiah 53. You follow that along with that. But understand, there's a connectivity, a direct connectivity between the end of chapter 52 and what's going on in chapter 53.

They really ought to be together. And so what you have in verse 13 is really the end of the story told at the very beginning. Now, Isaiah is not telling you the end of the story in verse 13 so that you lose interest and all of a sudden you don't care anymore about the story, because then he proceeds to tell us the story of how verse 13 comes to part.

But I want us to understand that as we think of this, it is to engage as Christ suffered through the agonies of the death that he suffered through the cross. And as we think about that, particularly today with the Lord's table and his body and his blood which was sacrificed for us, we understand the horrific nature of the magnitude of the suffering, of the cost of this sin that was paid. It's a little bit like we look at the outward manifestations of the cross and we think about the physical nature and we think about the horrors of the cross and the public nature and the beatings, the crown of thorns, the nails, the suffering, that physical suffering.

But it's a little bit like an iceberg. You know what an iceberg is when you see an iceberg, an iceberg is what we're told. An iceberg is 10% above the water, 90% below the water, just the way ice floats.

Well, we'll understand that when we look at the cross and we see the suffering that Christ had on the cross, we are only looking at what is visible. We're only looking at the top 10% of what Christ endured on the cross. The rest of the iceberg, the rest of the suffering and the sacrifice of Christ is accomplished in ways that we can't see as the Father placed upon him the sin of us all.

And so there is now, and I want to turn our focus a little bit here to understanding what is going on in verse 13 as Isaiah introduces the great passage on the suffering of Christ. He starts by telling us, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.

What is he talking about? What is going on in verse 13? I want to land here and develop an understanding, I think of what Isaiah is trying to talk about. It is interesting. The first Phrasing, behold my servant.

My servant is in my new King James. It is capitalized my is capitalized and servant is capitalized my is because God is speaking. God the Father is the one that's talking.

So he says, my servant but you'll also notice that servant is capitalized and I think both are rightly so but appropriately capitalized because the servant is referencing the Son, it's referencing the second person of the Trinity. Just look back with me if you will in Isaiah. Keep your finger there if you want.

But Isaiah 42, I was going to count how many times the word servant referencing Christ is found in the book of Isaiah. I didn't quite get that little task done, but you could do that fairly easily. But look with me in Isaiah 42, verse one, behold my servant again, capital M, capital S.

God the Father is talking about God the Son. Behold my servant, whom I uphold my elect, one in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon Him. By the way, this is a reference to the Trinity.

God the Father is speaking about God the Son, the servant, and talking about God the Holy Spirit. You have a reference here to the Trinity in the Old Testament. Now he says he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

He will not cry out, nor raise his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street a bruised reed he will not break and smoking flax he will not quench, he will bring forth justice for truth and so on, all the way down through this passage. Who is the servant? Well, the servant is none other than Jesus. That is why in Acts chapter eight, Philip, in describing these verses, is talking about Jesus.

That's the interpretation. That's what Jesus means in part when he says he opened up in Luke 24, it says he opened up the book of Psalms, he opened up the prophets, he opened up the teachings of the Old Testament, and he taught to them about himself. That's what this is talking about.

My servant is none other than Jesus Christ. And then the phrase continues, my servant Jesus shall deal prudently. Well, now, when we think prudently, we think generally one sense of the word would be to be wisely.

My servant will deal wisely. And certainly there is the sense that Jesus Christ is the bringer of absolute righteousness and justice. And that is true.

But what is interesting is the same word translated here, prudently is translated in Joshua chapter one at verse seven and verse eight as prosper. And I think that probably is a better sense of what the Hebrew is actually trying to say for us. And the idea here is, My servant shall prosper.

He will accomplish what he is setting out to do. And in fact, if you have a new American standard with you this morning, it actually uses that translation, my servant shall prosper. And I want us to understand that this exaltation of Christ in Isaiah 52, verse 13 is that in the end Christ wins.

I hope that doesn't if you're still reading the Bible for the first time and you're trying to figure out who wins in the end, that's the end of the story. In the end, God wins, Christ wins. And that's really the point of verse 13, is to tell us that in the end, Christ is going to be victorious, he is going to prosper, he is going to accomplish what happens.

And so I want to think just briefly here, the three phrases at the end of verse 13. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. And I have spent a long time trying to figure out what those three verbs actually are trying to teach.

And I've done an extensive amount of reading and tried to spend a lot of time working through what is happening in the three verbs that describe the prospering, the accomplishment of Christ at the end of the cross, at the end of the sacrifice, which is what the context is all about. Here is the end of the story. And how does it fit in with other passages? And so to me, I think this is part of the crux of what's happening.

So as we think about the servant's career, it's very appropriate that we read this morning in Philippians chapter two, and in Philippians chapter two. In fact, you don't need to turn there, but I'm going to flip over and look at it just very quickly. Philippians, chapter two.

We had read this morning who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, becoming in the likeness of men being found in appearance. As a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death. Even the death of the cross.

That's Isaiah 53. Now, look, therefore God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on the earth and those under the earth.

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And understand that's the setting here in Isaiah 52 verse, verse 13, I think that each word, and we're going to look at each word separately in Isaiah 52 verse 13, exalted, extolled and high. And I think that there is a summary embedded in this verse that really helps us understand the career of Christ.

The career of Christ after the cross, the first term that is found in verse 13, he shall be exalted. He shall be exalted. I think that this is a reference to the resurrection.

He is going to be lifted up. The word means to rise up or to ascend. Now if you're going to rise up, if you're going to ascend, if you're going to be exalted, you first need to be brought low.

And that is what happens to Christ on the cross. Christ dies physically. He gives his physical life and literally dies on the cross.

And his body is put into a tomb. We know some of the New Testament gives us some of the evidences of that. For example, it was a new tomb, a wealthy man's tomb.

It was a borrowed tomb. It was a tomb that wasn't used very long. Okay? So all those things are true, but Christ was brought low in judgment and in the circumstances of the cross so that he could be brought high.

This humiliation, this death, was so that he could have the career after his death, which begins with resurrection. And Jesus Christ physically rises from the grave bodily. It's not just a spiritual resurrection, but it's a bodily resurrection.

The body that was laid in the grave, that physical body that was laid in that tomb in Jerusalem rises physically. And it's the same body that was placed in the tomb. It's a bodily resurrection.

And he is, if you will, he is exalted. He is risen from the dead. I mean, that is what we celebrate on Easter, you understand? Easter Sunday is a little bit of a moving target.

Okay? We believe that he was resurrected on the first day of the week on Sunday, which is, by the way, why we meet today. It's why we meet on a Sunday instead of, as the Jewish custom was on a Saturday on the 6th day or 7th day, we meet on Sundays because of the Resurrection. And so Christ is going to prosper, first of all, because having been brought low now, this is the end of the story.

Having been brought low through the cross, he now is victorious in the Resurrection. There's one commentator named Jennings who translates this verse this way raised shall he be, that's the Resurrection. Extolled shall he be, high shall he be yea, the highest.

And I think what we have here, first of all, is understanding that if you're going to experience the valley of Isaiah 53, the depth of the suffering, that not only is physical in nature, but it's spiritual in nature because of the judgment of sin that was placed on Christ. If you're going to experience the depth of the weight of sin, how do you come out of that? How do you recover from that? Well, the first step is to be exalted. It is to be raised up.

It is to be resurrected to new life. And in fact, even in understanding the Resurrection is to understand that the resurrection demonstrates God's acceptance of what happened in the cross. And so there's a validation that what Christ did on the cross was accepted by God to the point that he raised Him up again from the dead.

He will be exalted. The second phrase here is he will be extolled. He will be extolled.

Well, what does extolled mean? Well, I think extolled, as exalted has to do with the resurrection. I think extolled has to do with his ascension. Has to do with his ascension, the Hebrew word.

And I don't like to do a lot of Hebrew words, but the Hebrew word here is NASA, which is spelled NASA if you bring it into English. Now, I don't know that this is true. I suspect it's true.

I'm always up for a good conspiracy. Do you like conspiracies? I do believe there was somebody on the grassy knoll in Dallas. I like a good conspiracy, but I think that the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, which is what we call what how do you NASA, okay, now, same spelling as what this word is, okay? Now, I'm not saying they're connected, but I think it's possible that it's not coincidental that NASA is actually a Hebrew word for being lifted up, okay, which is what you do in space.

That's kind of an aside. That's kind of an aside. But what I want you to understand is that that is actually what is happening in the Resurrection, or excuse me, in the Ascension, Christ is being lifted up.

He is being carried or raised or lifted. Look with me, keep your finger here, but turn with me to Acts chapter one, which is you find the ascension in some other places, but Acts chapter one, is the clearest description of what the ascension is. So we just have a statement of the Great commission in verse eight you'll receive power after the Spirit has come upon you.

Now look at verse nine. Now, when he had spoken these things, Acts nine while they watched, he was taken up, which is the meaning of Nassau. He was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel. It doesn't identify them as angels, but we would understand them as being angels, who also said verse eleven men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven. And so we see several aspects about his ascension.

This is the time when Christ is leaving the earth and going into heaven. So it is gradual, it's not boom, he's gone. They visibly see Him lift off into the clouds.

It's gradual, it's visible, it's bodily, just like his resurrection was bodily. So that same body is being taken into Heaven and he is received in the clouds, disappears into really what we would call the first heaven, the first layer of our atmosphere. He disappears.

And what is interesting is it's the same thing that will happen when he comes back again, when he returns, which we are still waiting for his second coming, he will return visibly, gradually, bodily and in the clouds, we are told. Interestingly. And so this ascension is really the culmination of his earthly ministry.

Now, his earthly ministry, the 33 and a half years or so that he was on the earth, the death that he died, being resurrected, the 40 days of ministry between the resurrection and the Ascension, all of that comes to an end when he ascends into the into the, into heaven. And so there is the end of an earthly ministry and there is now a transition to a heavenly ministry. No longer is Christ on the earth.

Where is Christ? He's now? In heaven. One of the, maybe we could call it forgotten doctrines in the Bible is actually the doctrine of the ascension because there is a lot that has to happen in the ascension. There's a lot of theology that is connected to the ascension.

So for example, Christ says in John 14, Thomas says the question is, well, how do we get to you? But what does Jesus say? He says, I go to prepare a place for you. Well, Christ needed to leave in order to do that. What has Christ been doing for 2000 years? He's preparing a place for us.

Not only that, but Christ's ministry of intercession is one of the primary things we think about Christ performing today. One of the primary ministries of Christ today is this ministry of intercession where we pray to God through Christ. He intercedes for us.

And then we understand that Christ, the relationship between Christ and the Holy Spirit is so close. We understand that Christ, he says in John 14 and John 16, I must leave so that the Spirit can come. And it is the Holy Spirit.

Because Christ has ascended, now the Holy Spirit can be sent. Understand here that this whole experience of the ascension is part of the transition. It's the transition between the earthly ministry of Christ and now the heavenly ministry of Christ.

Isaiah says, the servant who will prosper will be exalted. He will be lifted up. He will be lifted up.

The third word in Isaiah, chapter 52, verse 13, he will be exalted, I think, is the resurrection. He will be extolled. I think that is the ascension.

And now in verse 13, he will be very high. This, I think, has to do with his glorification. It has to do with the ultimate coronation of Christ in heaven.

This now is Philippians, chapter two, in action. This is Christ receiving, if you will, the crown here's, the fulfillment of Psalm 110, verse one, where we are told of Christ, he sat down at the right hand of the Father. This is where Christ takes his place beside God in heaven.

And understand that the idea of being high or great or very high, and the idea is the highest. He takes this exalted word, and then he adds in English, we'd call it a superlative. It's very high.

It's the highest that you possibly can be. Isaiah begins here with this exaltation. Look with me, if you will, in Ephesians, chapter one.

We've already read Philippians, but look with me in Ephesians, chapter one. Now, the chapter is filled with these astounding terms and expressions of what God is doing. And I'm just going to come in on the end of this.

Let me look at you. Look at verse 19. I'm jumping in the middle of a sentence.

And what is the exceeding greatness? Just think of the magnitude of the words that are used here. What is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised Him from the dead, that's resurrection, and seated Him at his right hand in the heavenly places? That's psalm 110, verse one. Far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age, but also in that which is to come, that's the highest.

That's the expression in Isaiah. And he put all things under his feet, that's the God the Father put all things under Christ's feet and gave Him to behead over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. I find it amazing that what we have, I think, embedded in Isaiah's beginning of the suffering servant.

We have a statement of the end of the story. Here is the magnificent exaltation of Christ, of what comes after the cross. He is raised from the dead, he is ascended into glory, ascended into heaven, and he is glorified, he is magnified, if you will.

He is coronated and sits at the right hand of the Father. What a wonderful career that our Lord has and is still experiencing today. Listen, we experience the blessings today of Isaiah 53 52, verse 13.

We experience those blessings today. We have the presence of the Spirit of God because Christ was ascended. We have the benefit of the intercessory ministry of Christ because Christ has ascended, and he today is exalted because of what he did on the cross.

I think it's a wonderful expression that we have in the book of Isaiah. And I would encourage you today, I don't know today if you know the Lord as your Savior. I don't know today if you are here and have received Christ, if you've received the forgiveness of sins.

And we would encourage you today if you have never received Christ as your Savior, to do that by faith. Simply receive what Christ has done for you on the cross. And as we go to the table today, we want to encourage you in what we have in the table is a statement of the cross.

It's a statement of the sacrifice of Christ. But there is a lot that comes after for Christ. There's a lot for Christ that we have engaged in our lives on a regular basis.

What a blessing that is for us. Let's have a word of prayer as we prepare ourselves for the table. Father, we thank you today for the Lord Jesus Christ and for not only his cross, but we thank you today that he was raised from the dead, that he did ascend into glory, that he is today seated at your right hand, and today he is ever our intercessor.

Thank you for Christ the Savior. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.