Isaiah 53- God's Servant (2)

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Alan Bruns 12/17/2023
Good morning.
During this Advent season our sermon texts are from messianic prophecies found in the OT book of Isaiah written 700 years before the birth of Christ.
If you have your Bible turn to Isaiah 53.
This is often called the 4th or the last servant song in Isaiah.
It is a Hebrew poem composed of 5 stanzas with 3 lines each.
Chapters are not inspired. This poem actually starts in Chapter 52:13.
Hear the Word of the Lord
Read
Isaiah 52:13–53:12 (ESV)
13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
14 As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
15 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.
1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 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.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 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.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 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?
9 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.
10 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.
11 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.
12 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.
Prayer: Our Heavenly Father, guide us with your Holy Spirit as we hear your Word preached. Provide us wisdom, insight and application concerning your servant and our savior, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Introduction:.
During this Christmas season, we take time to celebrate the birth of Jesus with family and friends.
We are reminded, too, during the holidays that life is filled with suffering, pain, and sadness as we reflect on those who are no longer in our lives.
The world appears more chaotic now than it has ever been.
A recent article in Harvard Business Review titled ”Managing in the Age of Outrage,”
the author notes a perfect storm of several forces. The first two are
1. Many have feel hopeless as they believe the future will be worse than the present and past.
2. They feel a loss of control over their life by oppressive societal powers and that is unfair.
These concerns are not new for today.
Isaiah is a prophet to the nation of Israel who has been in a state of rebellion against their God for generations.
God allows the Babylonians to raze the city of Jerusalem and destroy the temple in 586 BC.
Those who survived this destruction are then sent into exile.
Their future looks bleak and they feel hopeless.
“What happened to God’s promises and his future kingdom?”
“Why are we suffering?”
Isaiah 53 is a message to these exiles, and to us, that God’s plans have not been thwarted.
He still has a plan of redemption for His people, but this will not initially be a military mission to deliver them out of physical bondage from the Kings of World. (As Peter thought in our scripture passage today)
The Gospel message in Isaiah 53 is that God will save His people who are in captivity to sin and death, with the life of a perfect servant who will come to suffer and die in their place.
The NT writers identify the servant in Isaiah 53 as Jesus Christ, and so we will as well.
One example is in Acts 8.
The Ethiopian finance minister is reading Isaiah 53 in his chariot.
Philip is prompted by the Holy Spirit to help him understand the text and Philip explains to him clearly the good news of how Jesus is the fulfillment of this suffering servant prophecy.
The Ethiopian’s spiritual eyes are opened. He became a follower of the risen Christ, and baptized that very day.
Isaiah 53 is considered the first complete Gospel and points clearly to Jesus Christ as our messiah.
As a reminder, Messiah is the Hebrew word and Christ is the Greek word for “God’s anointed one” and will be used synonymously.
The theme of this chapter today is, that God’s Servant will come to Suffer as we suffer; and he will become the Sacrifice to Save His people from their sins, and this will all be for His Satisfaction.
Three points today.
1. God’s Servant will come to Suffer as we suffer
2. God’s Servant will become a Sacrifice to Save His people from their sins
3. God’s Servant, Jesus, will be Satisfied
First point
1. God’s Servant came to Suffer as we suffer.
52:13 Behold, my servant
He is not just a servant, but God’s Servant
This sets the tone of the narrative.
Matthew 20:28
28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
But, why does God’s Servant need to suffer?
In order for Jesus to become our advocate, he had to experience the complete range of suffering that you and I experience while living a sinless life from birth to death.
Thus, as we suffer socially, emotionally, physically and spiritually, so does God’s Servant. We will look at each of these areas of suffering.
a. God’s servant came to suffer Socially-
Isaiah 53:2 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground
Dry ground is not a normal place for a healthy plant to sprout up.
It is not like the Blessed man in Ps 1 who is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season.
God brings His servant to life in a literal and spiritual desert.
King Jesus was not born in a palace.
He was born in the small village of Bethlehem, and slept in a feeding trough.
Jesus then grew up in Nazareth. The son of a carpenter. He was a nobody.
Vs. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Unlike King David. 1 Sam 16:12 who is described as having beautiful eyes and was handsome.
Jesus is not the attractive conqueror.
There was no halo over his head.
John 1:10–11 states
10 [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
Thus, Jesus understands us when we are mocked, ridiculed, slandered, and insulted
But, Jesus responded without revenge, anger, or jealously because His focus was to serve his heavenly father.
Hence, that should be our response as well.
b. And, Jesus suffered emotionally.
Isaiah 53:3–4
3 … he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken...and afflicted.
Why was Jesus a man of Grief?
He was a man of grief because of our sin and troubles, and not his.
He bore our griefs and our sorrows
We esteemed him stricken.
Jesus’ family in Mark 3:21 thought he had lost his mind.
Jesus is recorded as weeping 3 times in scripture.
Jesus in his humanity understands our sorrows and grief.
c. Jesus suffered physically
Isaiah 53:5 (ESV) 5 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.
Jesus Christ’s life was characterized by suffering, and His worst experiences were reserved for his final days leading up to his crucifixion.
Jesus understands our physical suffering
d. Jesus suffered Spiritually
4b. smitten by God,
We sometimes use this verb as a positive affection. I am smitten with my wife, Joyce.
This Hebrew word however means beaten, struck and killed.
It is important to note that the one who afflicted him was not the Jewish leaders, the Romans, or Satan, but God himself.
On the Cross Jesus cried out in Matthew 27:46 quoting the Psalms, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus experienced the ultimate in spiritual suffering for our transgressions in being separated from God the Father at his death.
So, God’s servant came to suffer as we suffer while living a life of righteousness.
Hebrews 2:17–18 explains
“17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
He was fully God, but he was made like us, fully Human, and will help us during times of sorrow and temptation.
The first questing in the WCF SC. What is the chief end of man? We are “to glorify God and enjoy him forever” even during our suffering and temptations.
When we do suffer, our response during these difficult times should demonstrate to the world, that our faith is in the Sovereign God who brings good out of evil for His purposes and our joy.
Point #2. God’s Servant came to become a Sacrifice to Save his people from their Sins.
Christ did not come to suffer just to identify with his people who suffer, but to be a perfect sacrifice.
a. Why do we need salvation?
vs. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah is talking about our nature, not our deeds.
The sheep are the illustration. Sheep go astray- That is their nature.
Sheep tend to wander together without meaning or purpose.
I just learned about a cast sheep. If a sheep is overweight, or pregnant, it can fall on its back and often is unable to use its legs to right itself.
Their upright stomach creates a toxic gas that is lethal in about 24 hours.
That is why they need a shepherd.
We, like sheep, have all turned away from God, and are now lost/ cast on our back.
Sin is part of our fallen nature and we continually find ourselves turning away from God.
Our post fall nature is found in
Psalm 14:2–3 (Romans 3:10) 2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
b. Atonement
God was not willing to leave us in this guilty and condemned condition.
We are the sheep who have gone astray and have abandoned God, yet the LORD has laid on Jesus our iniquity.
Vs 5…he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
He planned from ages past to send a Suffering Servant, and "The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all."
According to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’ biography written by Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer preached on Isaiah 53:5 on the day of his execution in a WWII Nazi concentration camp. “With Jesus wounds we are healed.” After he finished, the guards came to take him. As he approached the gallows, Bonhoeffer spoke, ‘This is the end—for me, the beginning of life’.
With Jesus’ wounds we are healed and he gives us everlasting life.
1 Peter 3:18 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit
Isaiah 53:7
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
He was charged unjustly, but did not protest in his own defense.
His mission was to die like the lamb of the Passover
Vs 10
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
In God’s Sovereignty, Christ’s suffering and death has meaning, purpose and hope for His people.
This gives meaning, purpose and hope in our suffering and death as well.
John Oswalt in his commentary states, The Servant did not come to tell people what God wants, rather, he came to be what God wants for us.
vs 9
And they made his grave with the wicked
When he died on a cross between two thieves some determined his “guilt by association.”
After a crucifixion, criminals were thrown into the Valley of Gehenna and burned with the trash.
9b and with a rich man in his death,
When Jesus died, a wealthy Jewish leader named Joseph of Arimathea took his body and buried it in his own tomb (Matthew 27:57-60).
Jesus was buried with honor.
Back to our outline.
1. God’s Servant will come to Suffer as we suffer
2. God’s Servant will become a Sacrifice to Save His people from their sins
3. God’s Servant, Jesus, will be Satisfied
God’s servant suffered and died and then Jesus is raised from the dead for HIS satisfaction.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
Jesus on the other side of the cross at his resurrection appreciates all of the riches of redemption that he accomplished for His people.
In 10 he shall see his offspring.
Who are is offspring? We are, if we are In Christ. We are now a part of the spiritual seed of Abraham.
We have become his adopted sons and daughters
whom he now calls brothers and sisters.
These are the ones in vs 11 who are declared righteous, because he bore their iniquities.
2 Corinthians 5:21 explains the transfer of our sin to Jesus, and the transfer of HIs righteousness to us.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
We can now experience joy in suffering, and joy in the journey knowing that we are In Christ.
Because of Christ’s victory, in Isaiah 53: 12 he will divide the portion and the spoil with his people.
As stated back in Isaiah 52:13, he is now high and lifted up.
He is exalted.
This Jesus who did not open his mouth when being led to the slaughter, will return again visibly for His people to finally defeat sin, death and Satan.
When this happens, Isaiah 52:15 states all those worldly leaders will recognize his authority, shut their mouths, see and understand the full story of God’s suffering servant, Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 53 is summarized in Philippians 2:6–11
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
In Conclusion
Gods’ Servant came to Suffer because we suffer in order to become the perfect Sacrifice to Save his people from their sins, and all for His Satisfaction.
The good news for those suffering in exile in Babylon and the good news for us today, is that by the work of God’s servant, Jesus Christ, your sins can be forgiven, you can be declared righteous before God.
This is called Grace. This is God’s gift for us this Christmas.
Isaiah 53:1 states, Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Do you believe the Gospel message of Isaiah 53 that brings peace, joy and satisfaction now and for all eternity?
If you do not know Christ, is God calling you now to faith and repentance?
Ephesians 2:8-9 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
If you are a believer, you are declared innocent and righteous in works of Christ alone by faith alone. But our faith is never to be alone.
Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Good works that come out of faith are to be used by believers to serve God and serve one another.
Until Christ comes again, there will still be suffering, pain and death.
Someday we will know why and will be satisfied to see how God worked out all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Rom 8:28.
Christ is coming again to establish His everlasting kingdom.
At that time according to Revelation 21:4-5
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Let us pray. Lord God, Thank you for the gift of grace given to us through your suffering servant, Jesus Christ. Help us to focus on your gospel message as we celebrate the incarnation of Jesus this Christmas. In Christ’s name we pray,~
Amen
Have a Merry Christmas.
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