The Servant Paid the Cost
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ME: An Appalling Servant (52:13-15)
ME: An Appalling Servant (52:13-15)
Last week, we were in Leviticus 16,
Seeing how the Day of Atonement pointed to Christ as our atonement.
One objection to this idea of atonement is that it is simply meaningless today.
What I mean by that is that this idea of atonement is not talked about or considered by the average person.
Because atonement includes words like sin and punishment,
And the average person does not use or even understand these words.
But atonement is not just some abstract philosophical concept.
It is the truth, taught in the Bible, about Jesus Christ offering forgiveness by taking the penalty we deserve.
He is our substitute.
This morning we are in the book of Isaiah.
The mood of Isaiah 52 shifts beginning in vs. 13.
God draws our attention to His Servant in Isaiah 52:13-15.
This passage is the final of four passages in Isaiah referred to as the “Servant Songs.”
The key figure of these songs is the “Suffering Servant.”
It is clear today that the suffering servant is Jesus Christ.
The NT alludes to this passage often.
And next week, Lord willing, we will continue our series on substitutionary atonement in Mark 10:45.
For our passage this morning, our outline is as follows;
An Appalling Servant (52:13-15)
We Abhorred the Servant (53:1-3)
He Atoned for our Sins (53:4-6)
He Accepted our Suffering (53:7-9)
From Anguish to Satisfaction (53:10-12)
Isaiah is a book of prophecy written several hundred years after the passage we looked at last week.
Meaning, the timeline of the OT has gone by Joshua and David and Solomon.
The nation of Israel has been founded, it has flourished,
It has since divided, and has declined.
This is the state of Israel at the time of Isaiah.
The prophet Isaiah communicates God’s great plan for His people.
And this plan seems to indicate that the world will turn upside down on a specific person.
Isaiah 28:16 summarizes this well;
therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
Earlier, God’s people looked to a king for protection and deliverance.
But God revealed that a Messiah-King would come.
This Messiah-King would end the need for a human king.
Isaiah 32:1 simply prophesies this;
Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.
This prophesied King will be more than just a good king,
He will be the King of kings.
The government will be on His shoulders,
There will be no end to the increase of His government,
In fact, He will reign over the kingdom of David forever.
This is what the famous Christmas passage in Isaiah 9:6-7 says.
But Isaiah does not only prophesy about a King,
It also speaks of His Servant.
A Servant that will be exalted, like a King.
But the question hanging over Isaiah is this:
How will a holy God forgive and restore sinful people?
The answer to that question is The Servant Paid the Cost.
Our passage this morning has been described as the jewel in the crown of Isaiah’s theology.
Jesus uses this passage frequently as He teaches about Himself being the Messiah.
He made the connection between the prophesied king and prophesied servant of Isaiah.
He clearly applied the Servant to Himself,
Which the authors of the gospels were able to rightly recognize as well.
Many Jews have come to faith in Christ by understanding this passage prophesies about Jesus.
Our passage begins by introducing the Appalling Servant in Isaiah 52:13-15;
I describe the servant as appalling in these verses,
Because it summarizes His humiliation.
(52:13) Our passage begins with the end,
The exaltation of the servant.
The result of His suffering is His glory.
So, God introduces His servant by declaring the wisdom of His Servant.
This Servant will know and follow through with God’s will.
He will be successful at realizing God’s glorious purpose.
It says, He will be exalted,
Something only used to describe God elsewhere in the Bible.
Immediately, this Servant is both surprising and difficult to understand.
He is a very unique Servant.
Then, in vs. 14, the description of this servant takes a dark turn.
God describes this servant as astonishing.
But not in the good way,
Other translations more closely translate this verse; “as many were appalled at you.”
Why is this servant so appalling?
Because His appearance will be so marred that He did not look like a human.
This is Jesus Christ.
He suffered such great abuse at the hands of the Roman soldiers that He was disfigured beyond human recognition.
Vs. 15 is a bit of a debated verse regarding the meaning of the servant sprinkling many nations.
The reason this has been debated is because it does not specify what the servant will sprinkle.
It is implied that this is referring to either Exodus 24:8,
When Moses took the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled it on the people.
Or the OT practice of splashing water on an object to ceremonially cleanse it for worship.
Either way it communicates the ministry of this Servant
Through the Servant, all the nations will hear, see, and believe in God.
As Jesus Himself said, He did not come to be served, but to serve.
He came to bring salvation.
What does this mean for we who follow Him?
We exist not to be served, but to serve.
First and foremost, we seek to serve the Servant.
We join the Servant’s work of taking the message to those who have not heard.
Have you considered how you are helping in this task?
How are you ordering your life?
How are you making decisions?
What are you putting your time and resources into?
And how are your answers to these questions contributing to the spread of the gospel to the nations?
Think about the things you do and how you can get to know people to share the gospel with them.
This is not the main point of these opening verses,
But it is an important undertone throughout the entire Bible.
This opening section, however, is a shocking introduction to the appalling servant.
Despite this shocking introduction,
The Servant remains center stage throughout this entire passage.
WE: We Abhorred the Servant (53:1-3)
WE: We Abhorred the Servant (53:1-3)
Not only is this Servant appalling,
We see in Isaiah 53:1-3 that We Abhorred the Servant.
Ch. 53 shifts from God speaking about His Servant,
To the nation of Israel speaking about God’s salvation to all people!
The question in vs. 1 implies unbelief.
It is incredible that after everything the Servant will go through,
Unbelief remains.
As John quotes this passage in John 12:37-38 saying;
Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
And Paul quotes it in Rom. 10:16 to bring our attention to the widespread rejection of the gospel.
However, the arm of the Lord symbolizes the victorious power that is ironically revealed through the suffering servant.
This is so ironic because this suffering servant will be unappealing.
As vs. 2 says, the servant grew up like a young plant,
Like a root out of dry ground.
A young plant in dry ground would be meek and withered.
This is the same as the suffering servant.
He was not impressive,
He had no majesty that made Him worth looking at,
His appearance did not make Him desirable.
He was not particularly beautiful.
He would not be a telegenic TV preacher,
He would not be on a magazine list of most beautiful men.
He is unappealing.
And He came from very humble and uninspiring roots.
As Nathanael asked Philip in John 1:46,
Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
But did you catch how we suddenly have a place in this story?
It says He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him,
No beauty that we should desire Him.
We come up again at the end of vs. 3.
We esteemed Him not.
What does our part of this story tell us?
It is an implication of our guilt.
We do not value God’s servant as we should,
In fact, it says we consider Him of no account.
What does this mean?
Perhaps, you may think “I have no qualms about Jesus.
He was a good guy or a good teacher.
But I just don’t worship Him.”
If that is similar to how you feel,
It is important you understand that either you trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior or you do not.
There is no third, in between option.
As Jesus said in Matt. 12:30;
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
In isolation this seems like a harsh stance Jesus is taking.
But why would He make such a polarizing claim?
Because, as Isaiah 53:3 shows,
He was a man of suffering,
He knew grief and sickness.
And like a withered plant would be uprooted and thrown away,
Jesus was despised and rejected for us.
This also means, as His followers,
We should not be surprised when we are despised and rejected.
Like Jesus, we will be despised and rejected by coworkers, classmates, neighbors, and even family.
Despite this, we must cultivate in our heart the reality that our main responsibility is to the Servant,
Not to others and not to ourselves,
But to God and God alone!
We give thanks to God that He has revealed Himself to us in His Word,
And He grows a desire for Him in us,
A desire that we do not have ourselves.
Mark Dever comments on this;
“He clearly picked us, for we would never have picked him on our own. We didn’t esteem Jesus; we looked down on him and spurned him.”
How many non-Christians have expressed that they might believe in Jesus if they had the chance to meet Him face to face.
This prophecy from Isaiah reveals that not to be the case.
Jesus was despised,
People avoided Him,
They hid their faces from Him,
They passed by Him and turned away from Him.
The truth is, this has been our response as well.
This is why we do not add to the gospel to try and make it “more attractive.”
We do not make things up to try and get people interested.
We are honest.
Honest about our sin, honest to confess, and honest to call people to do the same.
If we only flatter people, they will not know that they have sinned,
And that they need a Savior.
GOD: He Atoned for our Sins (53:4-6)
GOD: He Atoned for our Sins (53:4-6)
But God has a plan to deal with our sins.
Clement of Rome said it well;
“Because of the love he had for us, Jesus Christ, our Lord, in accordance with God’s will, gave his blood for us, and his flesh for our flesh, and his life for our lives.”
This is what we see in this next section of our passage.
It is the answer to the opening question asked which was,
How can a holy God forgive sinners?
Isaiah 53:4-6 teaches that He Atoned for our Sins;
The atonement of the servant justifies the ungodly.
This passage is filled with suffering and anguish.
Vs. 4 tells us why.
Because this servant suffers on behalf of others.
It says the servant bore our sicknesses and grief,
He carried away our pains and sorrows.
He was cursed by God.
This is amazing!
This servant deserved none of this,
Yet God, who is perfectly just, cursed Him.
God is not dishing out punishment for no reason,
Someone deserved this punishment.
So, if it is not the servant, then who?
It is us.
God cursed His servant, not because He deserved it,
But because we did.
And the Servant willingly took our suffering and carried our sorrows.
He was not a pitiful victim.
He chose to pour out His life and bear our sins.
It is a perfect pairing of God’s will and the Servant’s willingness.
The Father is not punishing the Son for doing something wrong.
This is God’s plan to atone for our sins.
At the crucifixion, the onlookers thought Christ was suffering what He deserved.
But the reality is that He was experiencing pain and anguish for His people.
The length to which Christ suffered reveals the extent of His compassion.
Dane Ortlund writes;
“He wasn’t only punished in our place, experiencing something we never will (condemnation); he also suffered with us, experiencing what we ourselves do (mistreatment). In your grief, he is grieved. In your distress, he is distressed.”
Hebrews 2:18 shows why this is such a great comfort to us.
For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
(vs. 5) 1 Peter 2:24 summarizes this lesson so beautifully;
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Peter uses almost identical wording here as vs. 5 in Isaiah 53.
This vs. is the climax of our passage this morning.
The suffering servant brought us salvation!
Christ was pierced because of our rebellion.
His suffering removes the punishment that we owe.
He undoes the effects of our sin.
He brings us peace.
What an image!
The language here; pierced and crushed, communicate a violent death.
This was foreshadowed back in the very first prophecy God spoke to the serpent in Gen. 3,
When He told the serpent that the offspring of the woman would crush his head,
And the serpent would bruise the offspring’s heal.
Jesus died so that by His death, He would destroy death.
Rom. 4:25; 1 Cor. 15:26; Heb. 2:14;
We need to be delivered because of our sin.
Vs. 6 shows both the reach and the depth of sin.
It says all of us, like sheep, have gone astray.
This simple phrase holds two very important Christian doctrines.
First, it says “all we”
Meaning sin reaches to all people.
Since we all have sinned,
He died for all of us. (2 Cor. 5:14-15)
Second, it says “like sheep have gone astray.”
This lost nature shows the depth of our sin.
Our sin draws us away from God. (1 Peter 2:25)
So, let us unpack the first part of this,
Let us talk about the reach of our sin.
Throughout the history of the church,
A doctrine has formed out of this passage in 2 Corinthians.
It is called Definite Redemption or Limited Atonement.
It was formed during the reformation as a structured way to understand God’s intention in the death of Jesus.
It understands the Bible as teaching that Jesus died to ensure all who are His sheep will be brought to faith and preserved through faith.
In this sense, Jesus’ death does not cover all people.
What this means is that both Scripture and experience teach that not all are saved.
Now, this does not undermine the infinite worth of Christ’s sacrifice.
Christ’s death has the capability to cover all,
God’s invitation to the gospel is for all,
But only those who Jesus refers to as His sheep in John’s gospel are actually covered by His sacrificial death.
To say that because Christ died for all therefore all are saved is universalism.
Limited atonement teaches that Christ’s death was infinite in value,
But it only saves those who were known before the foundation of the world.
Limited atonement focuses on the purpose of Christ’s death.
Multiple places in the NT teach that God chose salvation for some of the fallen in this world,
And He sent Christ to be the means of this salvation.
John 6:37-40; 10:27-29; 11:52; 1 Peter 1:20;
His death secures the salvation of those people.
John 10:16-18; Rom. 5:8-10; 8:32; Gal. 2:20; 3:13; 1 John 4:10; Rev. 1:4-6; 5:9-10;
In John 17:9, Jesus prays for those the Father had given Him,
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
Then explicitly says that He is not praying for the world, but for those whom the Father had given Him.
This was a prayer for those whom He was dying for.
It was a promise that His death would not fail to save them.
Some like-minded believers argue that this understanding undermines the reach of the gospel.
But all believers must agree that all who come to Christ find mercy,
John 6:35, 47, 54-57; Rom. 1:16;
The offer of the gospel is Christ Himself.
And He knows His sheep,
He died for His sheep,
He calls His sheep by name,
And His sheep listen.
This is the gospel we have been commanded to preach to all the world,
To save His sheep from our sin.
Because, as our passage this morning states,
All of us like sheep have gone astray.
Christ’s death is sufficient to save us all,
But only those who are His sheep,
Will be actually saved by Christ’s death.
His sheep are those who place their trust in Him as Lord and Savior.
Now, let us turn our attention to the second part of vs. 6,
Let us talk about the depth of our sin.
In Psalm 51:5, David is in the middle of a repentant prayer to God when he says;
“I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
David rightly diagnosed himself with something wrong.
In fact, God’s Word diagnosis all humanity with this deformity called sin.
1 Kings 8:46 says for there is no one who does not sin.
Romans 7:18, and 1 John 1:8, 10; also teach this:
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
The Bible describes sin as rebelling against God.
It is falling short of the mark God sets for us.
It is breaking God’s law,
Defiling oneself,
Offending God,
Impurity,
Being guilty before God.
And moral deformity.
R.C. Sproul summarizes it as;
“An energy of irrational, negative, and rebellious reaction to God. It is a spirit of fighting God in order to play God. The root of sin is pride and enmity against God.”
The outward actions and reactions of sin reveal deep down either thoughts or desires of a fallen heart that is in opposition to God’s rule over our lives.
So yes, sin is breaking God’s law.
It is failing to conform to God’s law in both thought, word, or deed.
As we say at WOL,
Sin is anything we think, say, or do that displeases God.
There are many examples of different sins throughout Scripture:
Jer. 17:9; Mark 7:20-23; Rom. 8:5-8; James 2:10; 1 John 3:4; 5:17;
The early church father, Augustine, introduced a phrase that has been adopted by the church to better understand this,
Original sin.
This concept does not teach that sin is a part of our human nature per se.
God made people upright when He made us in His image.
Original sin also does not teach the human process of reproduction and birth as something inherently sinful.
Original sin is the idea that from birth, all our hearts are inclined toward sin.
So, before we ever sin,
There is this deep-rooted sinfulness in us that is the source of our actual sins.
This started in the first man, Adam, and has been transmitted to every human born since.
With one exception, Jesus Christ, Who was born of a virgin,
Keeping Him from receiving the transmission of that original sin.
What this means then is our sin does not make us sinners,
Rather, because we are sinners, we are certain to sin.
This is the NT idea of being a slave to sin.
So, because of our original sin,
Later Christians have adopted the phrase that we people are totally or universally depraved.
This teaches that our moral and spiritual nature is totally corrupt.
Meaning, there is no part of our being that is preserved from sin,
And none of our actions are as good as they should be.
If you have ever seen the TV show Friends,
Joey is arguing with Phoebe that there is no such thing as a selfless good deed,
Because people do good deeds to make themselves feel good.
So, Phoebe sets out to disprove Joey’s theory and after repeatedly failing,
She donated $200 to PBS, a network she despised, to prove her point.
Well, Joey was the one who took the call when she donated,
Which happened to break the record for most money raised during their phone-a-thon,
So, Joey ended up being on TV as a result.
When Phoebe saw it while watching the phone-a-thon,
She was so happy and excited that her donation got Joey on TV,
Until she realized that once again she failed at doing a selfless good deed.
Now, I am not suggesting we get our theology from Friends,
But this is the basic idea that total depravity teaches.
Nothing we do humanly speaking can earn God’s favor.
That is why we are saved by grace alone.
Without God’s grace, we are utterly lost.
Because of this depravity,
John 6:44 implies that we are unable to believe in God without His grace.
As Jesus said,
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
The Westminster Confession teaches it this way;
“Man by his fall into a state of sin, has wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself.”
This idea of total depravity is not intended to be depressingly hopeless,
Or unrelentingly mean.
It is the pure dark background of us and our world,
Against which the Word of God, and those God redeems shine exceedingly bright!
As Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:6;
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
It is these iniquities of us all which the Lord laid on the Servant.
The Servant atoned for our sins.
The guilt of our sins was transferred to Christ.
He gave Himself as the sacrifice in our place.
This is the truth of 2 Cor. 5:21;
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is our only hope because,
As Isaiah 53:6 continues by saying we have all turned to our own way,
Every one of us!
But instead of the Lord punishing you,
He laid the iniquity of us all upon Christ.
This is why we began with the two most important Jewish holidays;
The Passover and the Day of Atonement.
These days teach about God’s holiness,
About our sin,
And about our need for a God-ordained substitute.
God wants to drill into your mind the fact that He is holy and you are not,
And that you need the substitute that He provides.
Here in Isaiah we see that this Servant is the substitute.
The Servant is slaughtered so that you and I, and all His sheep, will be saved.
This imagery of sheep may be strange to some.
But many of you have had your fair share of interactions with sheep.
They are not the cute and clean little stuffed animal that kids play with.
They are dumb.
They are filthy.
They are nasty.
Generally speaking, being called a sheep is not likely a compliment.
It communicates your helplessness and foolishness.
And Isaiah says,
Like a sheep, you have gone astray,
All of us have.
We are not presented as an elegant or extravagant animal.
So, do not let someone tell you to think of yourself that way.
According to the Bible, you are a sheep,
You have gone astray,
And you need someone to save you.
If you are not a Christian,
I plead with you to understand that you have sinned,
The Bible teaches that you are responsible before God.
You will have to give an account of every sin you commit.
And those sins must be punished by a holy and just God.
So, you can endure that punishment yourself when your life on this earth ends.
Or, you can trust in the Servant who has already suffered for all of those sins,
Even the ones you have not yet committed.
Trust in Jesus, confess your sins, and follow Him.
God made you in His image to know you and to love you,
And for you to know Him and love Him.
But like a sheep, you have gone astray.
You have sinned against Him.
And God would remain perfectly fair if your life on earth ended and you were punished for those sins.
But His merciful love for you could not allow Him to do that without giving His Son to take that punishment on your behalf.
And God remains perfectly just in doing this because Christ took on flesh,
Lived a perfect life, the life we could never live,
And died the death He did not deserve.
So, because Jesus never sinned,
His death bore our iniquities and transgressions.
But after Jesus died,
He was raised from the dead and has been highly exalted to show that He is an acceptable sacrifice.
All of these events prove the prophetic claims of our passage true.
Now that He is alive with the Father in heaven,
He invites you to confess your sins, turn from them, and to trust in Christ.
You do not try to explain your circumstances to justify your guilt,
You do not make yourself the victim,
You acknowledge your sins and you entrust them to Christ.
As our substitute, He takes your penalty,
And you are, by His grace, forgiven.
This means your disobedience is not ultimately disobedience to another or to yourself,
But disobedience to God.
Therefore, you cannot take care of your sins any other way.
You cannot be successful enough to counter-balance your sins.
Christ is the only Atonement for your sin.
And it is our sins that put Him on the cross.
Think on what God has done.
Continue to remind yourself of His sovereign reign to provide such a means.
Meditate on how this passage reveals this truth.
And never forget what the Servant has suffered on your behalf.
YOU: He Accepted our Suffering (53:7-9)
YOU: He Accepted our Suffering (53:7-9)
As we see in Isaiah 53:7-9, He Accepted our Suffering.
When we were looking at the Passover,
We talked about how Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God.
He is declared as the Lamb of God twice in John 1.
Paul calls Christ our Passover Lamb in 1 Cor. 5:7,
And John sees Jesus as a slain Lamb standing in Rev. 5.
This truth about Christ as the Lamb continues here in Isaiah.
But now, as the Lamb, it shows that Jesus quietly accepted our suffering.
This suffering was not for His own sins.
He perfectly submitted to the Father’s will like an obedient lamb.
He never opened His mouth.
He did not protest, He did not defend Himself,
He obeyed the plan the Father had in place for Him.
And He allowed Himself to be led to the slaughter.
Matthew explicitly records the accusations in Matt. 26:63; 27:12-14.
Can you picture it?
Even when His disciples tried to fight on His behalf,
He told them to put away their sword.
He did not dispute it because He knew this was the Father’s will.
Peter also teaches it in 1 Peter 2:23;
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
Vs. 8 is actually where we first learn that the servants suffering results in His death.
It says that Jesus was put to death as a result of injustice.
His trial was not fair,
His death was not deserved.
But it happened to make atonement between God and people.
As John says in 1 John 3:5;
You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
God sovereignly had Philip use these verses to teach the Ethiopian eunuch the gospel in Acts 8.
After leading Philip to the eunuch by the Holy Spirit,
The eunuch asked Philip who this prophet was talking about.
You cannot get a much better setup than that.
Atonement is the theme of this entire series,
So, I have already talked about it a good amount the past two weeks.
But it is such a rich concept that I would like to go into a little more detail on atonement this morning.
Atonement is the reconciliation of a broken relationship.
It is accomplished by making amends or giving back for wrongs done.
And as we looked at already,
The Bible teaches that we all sin,
Therefore we all need to make atonement,
Yet we all lack the ability and the resources to do so.
God hates sin and He punishes sin.
Psalm 5:4-6; Rom. 1:18; 2:5-9.
Our sin offends God.
As a result we cannot be accepted into fellowship with God unless atonement is made.
As we have talked about, even the best of our actions are plagued by sin.
So, any of our own efforts to atone for our sins will not improve the situation,
If anything, it will increase our guilt.
As Proverbs 15:8 says; “the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord.”
This means there is no way for us to establish our own righteousness before God,
It cannot be done.
Our works are like filthy rags to the Lord.
So, it is against this dark background of human hopelessness,
That the grace and mercy of God revealed in His Word shines bright!
God provides the atonement that is made necessary by our sin.
This is the amazing grace we sing about!
This is the focus of the Bible.
And it shines bright throughout every page of God’s Word!
As we have looked at the past two weeks,
When God brought His people out of Egypt the night of the Passover,
He set up a system of sacrifices,
Highlighted by the Day of Atonement,
As a part of a covenant relationship with people.
At the heart of this system is the idea of the shedding blood to make atonement for our souls.
But these OT sacrifices pointed forward to a better sacrifice.
As Hebrews 10:4 says, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
It is only the blood of the sacrifice that all the OT sacrifices pointed toward that takes away sins.
The blood of Jesus Christ,
Who died on the cross to atone for all sins.
Sins that have happened and sins that will happen.
His death was the price that pays for our guilt and our slavery to sin.
Gal. 4:4-5 and Col. 1:14;
God reconciled us to Himself with Christ’s death.
Overcoming His wrath that our sins are deserving of.
Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; Col. 1:20-22;
The cross is the propitiation, the payment, that atones for the broken relationship between us and God.
What I mean by this is that on the cross,
Jesus drank the wrath of God for our sins,
Permanently removing our sins from God’s sight.
John explains this in 1 John 2:2; 4:10;
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
The cross was able to be the propitiation because Christ took on our identity when He suffered.
He endured the judgment that is for us.
He suffered as our substitute,
It is our transgressions that are nailed by God to His cross,
And now we bear them no more.
This is what the Servant in Isaiah prophesied about.
And Jesus fulfilled it.
This Servant was not violent,
Was not evil or unjust,
And He was not a liar.
Yet He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
But it says He is also paired with a rich man in his death.
If you remember the account of Jesus’ death.
Pilate declared he could find no fault in Christ.
Yet He was still slain alongside two actual criminals.
After His death, the wealthy Joseph of Arimathea, intervened to have Jesus placed in his tomb.
Resulting in Jesus being buried in honor.
Most importantly, Jesus is undertaking the work of salvation in the crucifixion account.
But we would be foolish not to also look to Him as an example of humility as well.
Do not retaliate for wrongs done against you.
He was perfectly righteous, yet remained humble, never once proclaiming His rights.
How much more, should we who are unrighteous, remain humble, instead of proclaiming our rights?
You must feel very righteous in order to proclaim your rights.
Does anyone here struggle with a sense of righteousness sometimes?
Or am I the only one?
Well, just in case any of you are like me,
Let me remind us all that we are eternally indebted to God’s mercy.
Even when I do, think, or act righteously, it is so little compared to what God has done for me in Christ.
When we act out in love that reflect the Servant Jesus,
It is not coming from this innate virtuous merit,
Rather, from our understanding of how greatly we have been forgiven by God.
We must diligently remind ourselves of God’s mercy to us,
Because it is out of that mercy that we will be able to love those who sin against us.
We have been given such great mercy,
How can we not reciprocate that mercy to others?
Pray for this!
Pray God would grow this in you.
Pray God would grow this in your family.
Pray God would grow this here in FBC.
Pray that we would reflect the humility of the Servant,
Who, out of His great love for us and for His glory, suffered in our place.
WE: From Anguish to Satisfaction (53:10-12)
WE: From Anguish to Satisfaction (53:10-12)
Isaiah 53:10-12 brings our passage to a wonderful conclusion,
Showing the Servant goes From Anguish to Satisfaction.
If there was any question behind the purpose of all this,
Vs. 10 eliminates it.
Remarkably it says, it was the will of the Lord to crush this Servant.
In fact, the word in Hebrew implies that the Lord was pleased to crush Him,
And crush Him severely.
This sounds evil,
But He was pleased to do it because the servant’s suffering and death justifies many.
This harsh act is an act of grace.
Acts 2:23 says, Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”
Jesus was the Servant, whose pain, suffering, and death,
Make Him function as our guilt offering.
Lev. 19:21-22 explains how a ram would be brought to the tent of meeting as a guilt offering.
Guilt offerings were offered in cases of private sins.
The priest would make atonement by offering the ram before the Lord for the person’s sin.
As a result, the person who brought the ram would be forgiven for his sin.
Proverbs 14:9 says;
Fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy acceptance.
Jesus, the Servant, our guilt offering, was mocked at his crucifixion,
And fools still mock Him today.
But this anguish was not permanent.
The upright enjoy the acceptance Jesus secured as a guilt offering.
As Isaiah says, the servant shall see His offspring and prolong His days.
This speaks to the eternal life Jesus gives to His children,
Who come to be adopted into the family of God through His death.
Vs. 11 similarly shows how from His anguish,
His soul will see light and be satisfied.
He will rest contently,
Knowing that He did the Lord’s will.
His knowledge is His wisdom.
It is different from being an expert in the field of God,
Though He is,
It is about knowing God and bringing others into that same knowing of God.
Jesus was fully aware of God’s plan to make people righteous through His suffering death.
It is His righteousness that is imputed to us,
And in return,
Our guilt is imputed back on to Him.
As vs. 11 ends by saying,
He shall bear our iniquities.
We are justified by Christ’s merit and not our own.
This doctrine of justification was the center of the conflict of the Reformation.
Because as Paul shows in Acts 13:38-39, justification is at the heart of the gospel.
R.C. Sproul defines it this way;
“Justification is God’s act of pardoning sinners and accepting that as righteous for Christ’s sake. In it, God puts permanently right their previously estranged relationship with Himself. This justifying sentence is God’s bestowal of a status of acceptance for Jesus’ sake.”
It is so strange for God to do this!
He pronounces sinners righteous.
And He does so in perfect justice,
Because our pronouncement as righteous is on the basis of Christ’s righteousness.
He is our representative head acting on our behalf.
He obeyed God’s perfect law that bound us,
And He endured the punishment for lawlessness that we deserved.
This is what Rom. 5:18-19 teaches;
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
This punishment is God’s judgment,
Which determines where we will spend eternity,
And there is nothing Satan can do to change God’s judgment.
God’s judgment is eternal.
You are justified by grace through faith in Christ as your crucified Savior and risen Lord.
Faith is not some admirable quality that we flex like a muscle,
It is the required grasp of desperation to the cross of Christ,
Which is the only thing that can save us from our sin.
And as we cling to the cross of Christ,
Jesus gives us His righteousness as a gift,
Resulting in the acceptance of God that cannot be received by any other means.
Gal. 2:16, 3:24;
This was the issue Luther saw in the Roman Catholic tradition.
The Roman Catholic church historically included attained righteousness as required grounds for justification.
Meaning, throughout your life, you would have to progressively make yourself righteous in order to eventually be accepted by God.
The difference Luther pointed out, which we now believe today,
Is that the moment faith in Christ takes hold of our heart,
We are immediately accepted by God.
Then, for the rest of our life,
Because we have been justified by Christ,
We are progressively made more righteous by Christ.
Baptism, for example,
Historically, the Catholic Church taught that it was an act of righteousness required in order to be accepted by God.
Then, after a person was baptised,
They have to perform penance to continue to become more righteous,
As a way of securing God’s acceptance.
R.C. Sproul helps contrast this Roman Catholic thinking against what we understand as truth;
“On the Roman Catholic view, believers effect their own salvation with the help of the grace that flows from Christ through the church’s sacramental system. The Reformers pointed out that this view of salvation undercuts the sense of confidence that only free grace can provide to those who have no merits. Paul had already showed that all people…are without merit, and need a free justification if they are to be saved. A justification that needs to be completed by the recipient is no resting place.”
Our passage comes full circle,
With the last verse summarizing the whole passage.
The Servant’s suffering makes way for His exaltation.
This is the testimony of Jesus,
His suffering culminated in His death on the cross,
Which then gave way to His resurrection.
Then, as vs. 12 says,
God will give to the servant many as a portion,
He will receive the spoils for willingly submitting to death and being counted among the rebels.
Because He bore your sin and interceded for your rebellion.
As 1 Peter 3:18 and Hebrews 9:28 summarizes;
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,
so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
The animals we looked at last week in Leviticus pointed forward to the one who would truly bear our sin,
The suffering Servant.
And the Servant takes away the sins of all who trust in Him instead of trying to defend our own record before God.
The Servant’s life went from suffering to glory,
From anguish to satisfaction.
Because He will enjoy the many who are justified by His suffering.
He shared the will of the Father,
And by doing so, will share this joy with the Father.
Jesus fulfills this closing vs. of this prophecy through His resurrection.
So, not only through His death and resurrection are we forgiven by Christ,
But He takes satisfaction in forgiving us.
This satisfaction is not based upon what we do,
But what He has already done.
We do not carry the weight of Christ’s satisfaction on our shoulders.
And once again, we see Christ as an example for us.
Our satisfaction can not be found in our marriage, our children, our friends, our work, our favorite teams, or our hobbies.
Trevor Lawrence, the QB for Clemson who is almost guaranteed to be the first overall pick in the NFL draft this year,
Has been pegged as one of the best prospects coming into the NFL in an extremely long time.
He has been under heavy criticism regarding his motivation because he said in an article;
“It’s not like I need [football] for my life to be O.K.”
So, Lawrence decided to address that criticism this past week,
He wrote;
“I don’t need football to make me feel worthy as a person,…I have a lot of confidence in my work ethic, I love to grind and to chase my goals. You can ask anyone who has been in my life. That being said, I am secure in who I am, and what I believe. I am a firm believer in the fact that there is a plan for my life and I’m called to be the best I can be at whatever I am doing.”
As you can tell by these comments,
Trevor Lawrence is a Christian and his satisfaction is in Christ,
Not in his football career.
This is what Christ calls us to.
And when this satisfaction in Christ is held up against the way the world looks for satisfaction in so many other places,
We see why Lawrence’s comments are criticized.
Because the world struggles with the thought that God loves them.
If you struggle with that too.
Meditate on the satisfaction Jesus finds in suffering for you.
The cross is the pinnacle of God’s justice and God’s love.
It is the greatest act of love that has ever been done for you!
So, if you are looking for circumstances in life to give you this type of satisfaction,
Please stop.
Whatever circumstance you find will lie to you.
It will not satisfy you.
Satisfaction can only be had in Christ.
Pray that God will help you to be satisfied in Christ,
In the same way that Christ is satisfied through His suffering.
For Jews that do not believe in Jesus as the Messiah,
This passage is described as too easily misunderstood,
And is sometimes skipped in public readings altogether.
Because this passage has led so many to see and understand that Isaiah prophesied about Jesus Christ,
Coming to die as the substitute, atoning for the sins of many.
Our passage this morning deals with one of the deepest mysteries in life.
His suffering teaches us that suffering is not insignificant.
Because He willingly accepted it.
But most importantly, the Servant teaches us that our own fates are at stake.
This account forces us to confess that we are the ones who have gone astray like sheep.
But the Servant transforms us from rebels to redeemed.
His mission is a success.
This is redemptive suffering.
And Jesus knew the life of the Servant,
He knew of this prophecy,
He knew the Servant would suffer.
But He suffered through the anguish,
And is satisfied in His suffering.
So, we too can be satisfied in the Servant as the Servant is satisfied in His suffering.