Easter and the Third Servant Song

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

The servant of the LORD is the prepared and empowered one. He is the one who will not turn back but sets His face like flint to complete his mission. He is the one who is armed with compassion and tenderness, and who will establish justice in all of the earth. And He is the servant who will experience untold suffering. He is the suffering servant of the LORD.

When is the last time that you simply stopped to ponder the depths of the work of Jesus? That’s what I want to do with you this morning. I want to step into the gritty reality of the blood-stained cross so that we can more deeply rejoice in the empty tomb. We won’t understand the glories of passages like Romans 8:31-34 if we don’t first ponder this deeply.

Romans 8:31-34- What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

How does this happen?

The man of sorrows

Who has believed?

John 12:37-38- 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?”

This continues to be true even today

Romans 10:16- How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

He was despised and rejected

The Creator of the world came to us and we rejected Him

There is no greater outrage in the universe

He was acquainted with grief

He knew grief more fully than any other man

He knew more of rejection

He knew more of the hatred of others

He knew more of the spiritual anguish over the lost

He knew more of physical pain and suffering

You can trust Him in your sorrows

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows

He has died to purchase peace for your soul in Him

You can come to Him and He will give you rest and peace and joy

By His wounds we are healed

We all like sheep have gone astray

We have turned to our own way

Romans 3:10-12- as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

He brings us to Himself

1 Peter 2:24-25- 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. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our sin

Who’s sin?

Not His but ours

The flesh-tearing lashes of the whip should have been across our backs

The thorns should have been pushed into our scalp

The nails should have pierced our hands

The naked shame of a criminal should have been ours

And then we should have been sent into eternity to suffer forever and ever

But His drank the full cup of the wrath of God to the last drop

This is substitutionary atonement

This is the great exchange of the gospel

He took our sin upon Him

He gives us His perfect righteousness

2 Corinthians 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.

If one of these doesn’t happen you don’t get saved

Many people today hate this doctrine and will think that you are wicked for believing it

We must not become angry with them or distance ourselves from them

We must pursue them by faithfully calling them to faith and repentance

Point them to the only real hope for their eternal souls

It was the will of the LORD to put Him to death

Who killed Jesus?

Was it Pilot?

Was it the Jewish Leaders?

Was it the crowd who cried out “crucify Him”?

Was it, as some may say, us?

No, it was God

God killed His Son

It pleased the LORD to bruise Him

To put Him to grief

God was the one who put Him to grief and it pleased Him

Why?

This was always the plan and it is infinitely wise

It reflects the heinousness of sin

It reveals the fury of God’s wrath against sin

It shows the the extent of God’s everlasting love for His people

It shows His perfect righteousness- He doesn’t brush sin under the rug

It shows the infinite worth of the glory of God

It serves as the supreme example of suffer for His people to follow

He reigns forever for your eternal good and His eternal glory

Your soul was made to be satisfied in Him

Seek Him today for the satisfaction of your soul

His desire is to give you fullness of joy forever

Psalm 16:11- You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Do you trust Him?

Or have you been spending so much time and energy pursuing things that will ultimately fail you

The main truth that will resound around the throne room heaven forever and ever is the proclamation of the beauty and worthiness of the Lamb of God because He was slain for sin

This is because by His wounds we have been healed and will one day inherit all things

Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery

Verse 3

Come behold the wondrous mystery

Christ the Lord upon the tree

In the stead of ruined sinners

Hangs the Lamb in victory

See the price of our redemption

See the Father’s plan unfold

Bringing many sons to glory

Grace unmeasured, love untold

Verse 4

Come behold the wondrous mystery

Slain by death the God of life

But no grave could e’er restrain Him

Praise the Lord; He is alive!

What a foretaste of deliverance

How unwavering our hope

Christ in power resurrected

As we will be when he comes