Isaiah 53: The Event

: The Event

The Event

Today is what we call Palm Sunday and it marks the beginning of Passion Week. Most of us know what happened this week. On Sunday Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and was heralded as the coming king of Israel who would liberate His people. Literally 2/3 of the Gospel of John covers the rest of the week. Jesus taught at the Temple, in the streets and in households all week. Then on what most people believe was Thursday evening, the evening prior to Passover He and His disciples observed what we call the Lord’s Supper. He clarified that His body would be broken for them and His blood would be spilt as sign of the New Covenant that had been declared all the way back in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. He then told them that one of them would betray Him and even made it clear to Judas that He knew it was him. He told Peter that he would deny Him and that the others would desert Him. They went from there to the Garden of Gethsemane and there He prayed the prayer of the true High Priest that we have talked a little about the last couple of weeks. He prayed for Himself, that He would be glorified and that He would glorify His Father. He prayed for His disciples that His Father would keep them as He had kept them. He then prayed for you and me that we would become one as He and His Father are one. Then men came from the Levitical High Priest, led by Judas, and arrested Him. He had to endure at least five mock trials and finally was condemned to hang on the cross as the Jews insisted and the Roman Governor agreed to. HE was hung between two thieves with a sign over his head proclaiming that He was the King of the Jews. He uttered seven last words the last three of which was; “My God, My God why have you forsaken Me?” “Father into Your hands I commend My Spirit. And finally “It is finished”. Then Scripture says that He gave up the ghost or His spirit left Him, He was dead. They thrust a spear into his side just to make sure He was dead and immediately water and blood came flowing out. They took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a borrowed tomb of a wealthy man and sealed upon threat of death.

Those are the facts of the event. However it is often one thing to know the facts of an event and quite another to know what really happened in that event. So this morning we are going to be reading in its entirety beginning in verse 1 to see what happened at the event of the cross. Let’s pray.

1Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes 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. 7He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9And they made His grave with the wicked—But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 11He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.

In verses 1-3 we see the saddest part of the entire Gospel message. Not everyone who hears the Gospel will believe. God poses it as a question through the prophet Isaiah but the answer is obvious, very few believe. You may be wondering how I can say that just from those two questions found in verses 1-3. If you were to go and look at you would see that the Lord is proclaiming to the people that He would be “lifted up and being lifted up He would draw all peoples to Him or some of all people groups to Him.” Then John goes on and gives a commentary of this exchange with the people and in verses 37 and 38 of chapter 12 this is John explanation: 37But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, 38that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke:“Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Since seeing the miracles of Jesus and the healings and the teachings did not persuade those who saw them to believe then very clearly just the words of His disciples will not cause everyone to believe. In Jesus parable of the wedding feast He makes it very clear that many are called to the feast, or many are made aware of the gospel but few are chosen. The prophet Isaiah goes on and demonstrates some of the excuses people have for not believing. 2For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. In the book of Hebrews we can see that Jesus was a man just like any other man. There was nothing about Jesus that would attract you to Him. Contrary to the movies or pictures you have seen that attempt to depict our Jesus He did not glow when He walked down the street and His feet actually touched the ground He walked on. I have heard people say that there was just an attraction that Jesus had to people that drew them to Him. If that is the case then the prophet Isaiah is a liar. There is something about God that drew some men to Jesus. In Jesus says: 44No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ £ Therefore everyone who £has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. The word “draw” in verse 45 does not mean to entice or urge it literally means to drag along. It is the same word used for drawing water from a well. You never sit a bucket at the top of a well and urge the water to come to it nor do you entice it to come to the bucket. You drop the bucket into the well and you drag the water or draw the water from the well. There was something about God that drew some men to Jesus. Jesus was not from a wealthy family, He was a root out of dry ground. He was not the most handsome man in Nazareth, He had no form of comeliness, He had no beauty that one would desire Him. Because of His message of repentance He was despised and rejected, no one wants to hear that they are sinners. He did not even live a life that the people of His time thought would indicate being blessed by God. He had experienced grief, pain and sorrow; He wasn’t rich and famous so the people of His time did not see Him as being a man of any consequence. In fact today this is a stumbling block for some. Why would God send His Son to die, or why would God send His Son to be a servant? To those who are perishing the cross, the passion of Jesus, is foolishness at least that is what we read in 18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Many will not believe the gospel.

In verses 4-6 we see the true problem. 4Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6All 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. In this passage God says very clearly through Isaiah that the sin bearing servant has been put to grief and carried sorrows but none of them for Himself. Of course the Jews of His day believed He must have been an unrighteous man because of the treatment He was receiving. But He received our stripes, our correction, our wounds, our bruises, our grief and sorrow because we are the ones who have turned, everyone, to his own way. So the LORD has laid on Him our perversity, our depravity, our iniquity. The major problem between God and man is that God is good and we are not. In we can see clearly the depravity of man and how man has exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. In Paul tells us that God gave us over to a debased mind that is filled with all unrighteousness. Then he gave us a list of descriptions of behavior that demonstrates the debased mind. Go back and read for yourselves in . That is the depravity, the perversity that God has laid on Christ on our behalf. There is the idea here of some sort of exchange, His for our or ours for His. He knew no sin yet was separated from His Holy, Holy, Holy Father by our sin that had been laid upon Him. This must be why He cried out in anguish: My God My God, why have You forsaken Me? But it is not as if Jesus did not know this was coming. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed three times, if it is possible Lord let this cup pass from me, none the less, Your will be done, not mine. Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, knew that the wrath of God had to be satisfied; the cup of God’s wrath had to be poured out. God had promised man that the law of sin and death would be carried out on all who sin and justice must be done. The lamb slain from the foundation of the world was laid upon the altar to atone for all who would believe. However this sacrifice was not outside His own will.

Let’s read verses 7-9 7He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9And they made His grave with the wicked—But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. Jesus did not once open His mouth to defend Himself. He did not attempt to speak to the injustice being done. He made no persuasion to save Himself. When they asked if He was the Son of God He gladly admitted so, in fact He used the Jewish covenant name of God, I AM to answer the High Priest. As He had told Peter He could have stopped this in a moment by calling legions of angels to come and release Him. He had no need to defend Himself because no one was taking His life, He was laying it down. “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” In verses 8 and 9 the prophet Isaiah is making certain that we understand that this perfect, sinless, spotless lamb was dead. He was not a swooning savior but a crucified, sinless man who was stricken as verse 8 says for God’s people. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us… And He had a purpose.

10Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 11He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. Why did it please the Lord to bruise and put to grief His only begotten Son? When I was a child my parents said the same thing your parents probably said to you when you were in trouble and about to get a spanking: “This hurts me worse than it does you”. I want you to know that I never said that to my children. I didn’t say it because it was not the truth. It did not hurt my bottom to discipline my kids. But the truth of the matter is I knew the benefit of the correction, so it pleased me to discipline my children. Jesus required no correction nor did He require payment for sin but we do and it pleased our God to place upon His only Son our sin so that we would be His seed, and the pleasure of the Lord in our redemption would prosper in His hand. Jesus, the perfectly obedient Son of God, would be able to look upon His labors, His crucifixion bringing many sons to glory and be satisfied with His workmanship because we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that He prepared beforehand that we should walk in them according to says. In verse 12 it says that He will divide a portion with the great and divide the spoil with the strong because He poured out His soul unto death. Paul must have had this in mind when he wrote 5Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Because of Jesus’ obedience unto death God has given Him a name above every other name and every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Our passage for today ends like this: And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. When Jesus hung on the cross, after the abuse by the Romans and after the thief and religious leaders had ridiculed Him. After the depravity and perversity of God’s people had been laid upon Him and He cried out My God My God why have you forsaken me, He said two more things: Father into your hands I commend my spirit then He said It Is Finished. Everything necessary for the redemption of God’s people was complete. The wrath of God had been poured out on the only one who could bear that wrath, God Himself, Emanuel, God with us, the Word made flesh satisfying the justice of God making all who believe heir of God and joint heirs with Jesus. Not for a moment and not for a season but for all eternity. The Father laid on Jesus our sin just as if it were His own and He laid on us Jesus’ righteousness just as if it were our own. This is what happened that day: God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him: Our sin for His righteousness, what a great exchange. Let’s pray.