The Suffering Servant

Introduction To Isaiah

Ruth and the terminology of kinsman redeemer

Jonah and the ark as the only means of Salvation

Joseph as the despised brother that was sent ahead to save an entire nation. Started his public ministry at 30, was sold for 30 pieces of silver, delivered up to the Gentiles and eventually everyone including his conniving brothers would bow the knee before him.

We wrap up this series on the Gospel BC with Isaiah 53 what many have called the

Isaiah 53 is THE FULCRUM OF UNIVERSE: the pivot point of all history

We have studied and talked about Isaiah before. But we need to review a little before we examine the “checkmate” of all of history. You may have this already in your notes as we were studying the titles given to the Messiah in Isaiah 9:6 back in December. Nevertheless as a refresher for some and brand new information to others, we need to know that recorded history has Isaiah whose Hebrew name means “the Lord is Salvation”:

Ministered throughout the reigns of 4 kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah from 739- 686BC... 700 years BC.

He was perhaps a member of the nobility he had access to the royal court.

Isaiah gladly accepted even volunteered for the call to his prophetic ministry in the year that king Uzziah died, (when He saw the Lord high and lifted up Isa 6:1) even though he understood that his ministry would be fruitless from his standpoint: Isa 6:8-10 (speaks a about a people that will hear and see yet they will not understand what they hear and reject what they see).

Isaiah's Importance

It is directly quoted over 65 times in the NT

Quoted far more than any other prophet in the OT

He is mentioned by name over 20 times in the NT

He is called the evangelical prophet.  He speaks more about Messianic activity than any other.

Chapter 7, 9, and 11 describe the entrance, characteristics, and glorious future reign of the Messiah, but chapter 53, toward the end of the book gives a much different picture.

Chapter 53 is such a neon sign that directly points to Jesus as the Christ that many in the past insisted on hanging their hats on the notion that this chapter is a latter insertion into Isaiah’s writings done by Christians who wanted to promote their fallacies. That is until the dead see scrolls (Pic).

In 1946 a couple of teenage brothers stumbled upon the greatest discovery ever:  while searching for a lost goat along the shores of the dead see in Qumran, these kids bumped into The dead Sea Scrolls. And within the scrolls they found entire copies of Isaiah 53 with its wording virtually unchanged from what you read in your modern translated Bibles today which is a stumbling block to the unbelieving historian and scholar.  This copy of Isaiah dates to the second century before Christ.

That is 200 years that predates the birth of Jesus, so at least 200 years before the birth of Christianity, 200 years before even a dream of a possible Christian conspiracy to make the historically verifiable facts about Jesus a later insertion.  Isaiah 53.

Today we will only examine the first 6 verses of this Holy Scripture but for the sake of context we will read the chapter in its entirety (stand).

Isaiah 53 (NIV)

1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

The passage begins with:

Isaiah 53:1 (NASB95)

1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

The implication is that in spite of these and other prophecies, only a few would recognize the Servant when he appeared.

John quoted this very passage as he saw its fulfilment:

John 12:37–38 (NASB95)

37 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.

38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Back to Isaiah the NASB reads:

Isaiah 53:2 (NASB95)

2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

He was not particularly handsome or impressive in appearance

He did not look majestic nor did he appear like royalty or nobility.

Even the prophet Samuel in looking for the next king of Israel was looking for someone that looked like a king.

1 Samuel 16:6–7 (NASB95)

6 When they entered, he looked at Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.”

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Barrack Obama, I am not here to say anything neither positive nor negative about his presidency, but I will tell you he looked presidential. And the vast majority of people could not tell you what he stood for or against all they knew is that he looked the part…

When God gave Israel their first king, He gave them what they wanted to see. Saul was an impressive massive looking man. And he became the shame of the nation.

God was now going to show that His choices are better than man’s. When it was time to crown another king, the lot fell upon the youngest of Jesse’s son who became the first born of Israel.

David was not as impressively looking as Saul, who looked like a manly man. However the Bible still describes David as ruddy and handsome, a pretty boy that is why Goliath looked upon him with disdain.

Jesus was going to come even lower than what David looked like because acceptance and submission to Him needed to be real and not based on anything superficial like his physical appearance. No no,

Isaiah 53:3 (NASB95)

3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

mankind would not just dismiss him but despise Him, see him as worthless.

How much must you hate Jesus to use His name in combinations of profane words, cuss word-formulas are common by the use of His name like no other name. There are no cuss-word formulas that include Buddha, or Muhammad, or Allah. No one cusses using the names of Shiva or Brahma.

But of the sacred name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Name under heaven by which we must be saved, this name is the name of global contempt.

And so He suffered not only the external abuse but also the internal grief of his utter rejection by those He came to save. We hid our face from Him and did not esteem him at all.

Matthew 23:37 (NASB95)

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.

In spite of that, the Bible reads that

Isaiah 53:4 (NASB95)

4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.

Do not forget that this, from Isaiah’s perspective is a future that has not happened he has not seen it, nor will he see it because it is some 700 hundred years in the future. Yet he writes in pass tense as he is reflecting the sentiments of those who would come across the Messiah in His day.

although it was our griefs and our sorrows that he was carrying (consequences of sin), his brutal execution we considered it to be a just action towards Him by God.

John 19:7 (NASB95)

7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.”

In other words, He broke the law so that is the reason for his punishment. All sin must be judged and punished. He deserves to die as payment for His wrong doing… That is how he was viewed, that is how He is still viewed.

Isaiah 53:5 (NASB95)

5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

The Suffering Servant did not suffer for His own sin since He was sinless. “Pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities…this is language of substitution. He took what was rightfully ours upon Himself. By his wounds, his scourging we are healed. We are reconciled. We are made whole.

In the Acts of the Apostles, the Spirit of God sends the apostle Philip to a specific location by a specific road (Acts 8:26). While on that road, he encounters an Ethiopian eunuch of the royal court of Ethiopia (v. 27). Philip can hear the Ethiopian reading from the prophet Isaiah, chapter 53, and approaches him.

Acts 8:34–39 (NASB95)

34 The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?”

35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him.

36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?”

37 And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.

39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing.

When he put his faith in Jesus and was baptized, the Ethiopian eunuch was not healed of his affliction—his body wasn’t restored to its prior status. But he was still healed; he was healed in his relationship with God. Ethiopians were formerly forbidden from worshipping God (Deuteronomy 23:1), but now one could be baptized and join the family of God. This is what healing by the Suffering Servant Jesus looks like.

1 Peter 2:24 (NASB95)

24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

Isaiah 53:6 (NASB95)

6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

The manner in which God laid our iniquity on Him was that God treated Him as if He had committed every sin ever committed by every person who would ever believe, though He was perfectly innocent of any sin.

He was slain for the sins you have committed and the ones you have not even committed yet.

This was done to the Holy One so that wrath being spent and justice satisfied, God could then give to the account of believing sinners the righteousness of Christ, treating them as if they had done only the righteous acts of Christ. This is all substitution. Him for us, and us for him. The apostle Paul puts it this way:

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB95)

21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

There is no reason for anyone here to walkaway without being covered by the substitutionary blood of Jesus Christ