A Suffering Savior

A Suffering Savior

Isaiah 53:1-12

How many of you believe that God performs miracles? One aspect of Christian faith is that God is a miracle working God. C.S. Lewis, the writer of The Chronicles of Narnia, defines a miracle as “an interference with nature by a supernatural power.” How many of you have witnessed miracles take place? I have seen with my own eyes a girl healed from a central nervous disease, I have seen God work in what would have been failed marriages, and God saved my wife when she could have been killed during a tornado. Miracles took place all throughout scripture. The Red Sea parted so the Israelites could escape from the Egyptians, Jesus was born of a virgin, and Jesus healed the sick and caused the blind to see and the mute to speak. Miracles are at the center of our Christian faith, but so many times we get hung up on God performing these miracles. Christianity is miraculous through and through, but sometimes we get so stuck on that fact that we totally miss the most incredible miracle that is at the very center of the Gospel and that is “God justifies ungodly people.” That is the main idea of Isaiah 53.

The Report (52:13-53:1)

The two questions that Isaiah asks is,” Who will believe this message and who will God reveal His power to.” We learn what this message is in Chapter 52:13-15.

“13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

14 As many were astonied at thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, And his form more than the sons of men:

15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; The kings shall shut their mouths at him: For that which had not been told them shall they see; And that which they had not heard shall they consider.”

Isaiah’s message is the unveiling of a servant that will be exalted but also humiliated. The message will be revealed to many nations, and they will be amazed and speechless because of the immense nature of the message. The message is that a savior is coming to take on the weight of sin for all mankind, not just for the Jews but also for the Gentiles.

But who will believe this because the message is contrary to human logic. Who is going to see the “Arm of God revealed?” Roman 1:16 says.

” For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.

But this message is hard to believe for those who lack faith. The nations responded to the message of a suffering servant with an awe filled silence as they were exposed to the worth of Jesus Christ. The amount of people that could not believe the message was unbelievable. It took faith to believe, and it still requires faith to believe today.

The Rejection (52:2-7)

The Gospel is the most important message preached today and it surpasses all other messages in its evidence. But it is so important and so authentic that it is commonly rejected because it works against human nature, there is a lack of application when it is heard, and there is a lack of faith that it comes from God. How are we able to break this faith barrier? It can only be broken with the help of God. God enables it to be broken when He reveals the truth of His word. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17). We need God’s help to believe because the truth of the matter is we are more superficial than we realize. We look at the surface of things. We seek for logical explanations. We judge things by how they appear and when something takes place that cannot be comprehended by the human mind, we simply have trouble believing that it happened. Such was the case with Jesus Christ.

The command of God was rejected in the Garden of Eden and thus sin entered the world, the Laws of God were broken, and God turned His face away from the children of Israel and they were taken into captivity, and God manifested His self in flesh, performed miracles, but He was rejected. The result of our unbelief leads to the rejection of the greatest work that has ever taken place in history, and that is the work that was accomplished by Jesus at Calvary. God left His throne in Heaven only to be continually rejected by man. He grew up as a “tender plant” “a root out of dry ground.” Jesus would literally arrive in the humblest way, weak and feeble. He would arrive during the time of Roman oppression of His people. “He would have no form or comeliness.” Movies and pictures like to paint Jesus as an attractive person, but scripture says that people would fail to desire Him because His beauty was hidden because people looked at Him from a human standpoint. The failure to desire Him lead to rejecting and despising Him and refusing to even look His way.

He was thought little of and forsaken by people. He was “a man of grief and sorrows,” physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering. He was shunned and misunderstood. His sorrow didn’t come from sickness, but because He took the weight of the world’s sorrows as His own. The world saw an ordinary man who had no value. They called Him unfortunate; they chose not to follow Him, and they turned away from Him. The world appraised what they saw, and they counted it as worthless. The world did not see His value and the worst part is the world did not care. If Jesus was God, then why would He allow Himself to sink so low? He had to become like us so that we could become like Him. He was rejected then, and He is still rejected now.

When we hear the Gospel and do not follow it, we reject Christ. When we willingly commit sin, we reject Christ. When we do not have faith that God can save, heal, and provide for us, we reject Christ.

The Resolution

Because of our sin, unrighteousness, and rejection of a Savior there was a price that had to be paid. There is a resolution to the problem that was caused by rejection. The resolution is called substitution.

When you read in Isaiah 53 you can find no less than 7 times where Jesus will suffer in our place. He borne our griefs. He carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. He was chastised for our peace. His stripes heal us. He carried the iniquity of us all. Let me read this in a more descriptive way. He carried our sickness and injuries. He carried our emotional and spiritual distress. He was defiled, violated, and dishonored for our transgressions. He was violently crushed and harmed for our sins. He suffered our punishment so that we can have peace and well-being. He was violently beaten and flogged so that we could be healed and made whole. In a way that we don’t understand, Jesus was our substitute on the cross. He did what no man would ever be able to do. He shifted the blame for sin to His self and He died for guilty people.

What is everyone’s favorite car? Ferrari, Bentley, Land Rover, Ford? Imagine saving your money for a long time and purchasing your dream car. A few days after you buy it someone runs a red light and crashes into you. The accident is their fault, not yours. After all, they broke the law, they ran the red light, and they crashed into you. Your car is damaged because someone else did wrong. The damage does not disappear on its own. We expect the person that is guilty to pay for the damage. But what happens if they do not pay? As a matter of fact, if nobody pays, the damage remains. Someone must pay for the damage! We should be responsible for the weight of sin! The price of the damage should be charged to us! But there is no way that we can justify ourselves because the truth is that there is nothing good in us! Even on our best day the Bible compares our righteousness to filthy rags.

Consider this, in the Old Testament when someone sinned there had to be a sin offering. That meant that there was an innocent lamb that would be brought to be slaughtered. The priest would even have a ceremony to transfer the guilt to another animal and appoint a person to go on a journey to the middle of nowhere with the animal to carry the sins of the people far away. This is what Jesus did! He charged the cost of our sin to His self. He carried the unbearable weight of our guilt, and he sank under it.

Sin could not be ignored. Justice had to be carried out! We are guilty, but He was sinless! The crucifixion was the single greatest act of love for God’s creation, but it was also the greatest act of God’s hatred of sin. Sin cannot be ignored. The damaged cannot be left unrepaired. Guilty and ungodly people had to be justified, but it took place by the biggest miscarriage of justice ever. Jesus a sinless savior became a suffering servant. “He became sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

It was not only that Jesus died for our sins, but He also took our place! We should have been punished! We should have been crucified! The fact is that sin cannot enter Heaven. So, what did God do? He left His throne in Heaven, He suffered, He carried our sickness, disease, mental and spiritual insecurities, our sins, but he also carried the violent weight of justice for every man and woman that has ever lived. That is the most incredible miracle to ever take place!

The question is do you believe this message?

The Reaction (closing)

Turn in your Bibles to Acts 8:26-38

“And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.

This Ethiopian man was reading the same scriptures that we have read tonight. This man believed the message. The message received a reaction because He believed. He desired to be baptized. He desired to be saved!

I believe, in this service at the Ibis Hotel in Sector 1 of Bucharest, Romania, that we will remember tonight as the night that we surrendered ourselves to God. We will remember that tonight is the night that we decided to no longer reject the message of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that someone can remember that on March 24, 2024 you made the decision that you need to be baptized in Jesus name. I believe that now can be a time where we all repent and turn to God and be filled with His Spirit.