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God In Our Place 53

Gift giving – Desire to give that perfect gift!

Charles Spurgeon described as “A in miniature, the gospel in its essence,” Frank Delitzsch, OT commentator, said, “The most central, the deepest, and the loftiest thing that the prophecy, outstripping itself, has ever achieved…. It looks as if it had been written beneath the cross upon Golgotha.” Another commentator argues, “Without any exaggeration, [it is] the most important text of the Old Testament.” (Engnell)

Today, we peer into the glorious promise that God would send a suffering servant to deliver us from our sins. Somebody may preach the message better, but there is no better message this: in our place, for our sins!

Treasuring Christ in Isaiah - God With Us – , 9 - God Our Everlasting Joy – - God For Us –

All of these are true in their fullest sense because of Isaiah 53. - :10 – “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.” (:1-7) - :4 – “Give attention to me, my people, and give earl to me, my nation; for a law will go out form me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples. My righteousness draws near, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait.” (Isaiah 42:1-6) - Isaiah 51:11 – “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (direct quote of Isaiah 35:10)

God ultimately came to be with us that He might die in our place. God can be to us our everlasting joy because He suffered in our place. God is for us fully and forever because He came to die in our place and for our sins.

Starting in , we have seen a consistent message that God is going to comfort His people, He will deliver them from exile in , He will rescue them not just from physical captivity but even their own spiritual bondage because of sin. He calls them to repentance, to turn to Him, and to trust in Him. Woven throughout this section are 4 chapters called the —Isaiah 42, 49, 50, and 53. God’s comfort and deliverance is going to come through this promised servant. Last week, we looked at Isaiah 42, where we see that God’s glory is revealed through His servant and His servant will bring about global worship. Today, we see a surprising twist: the promised servant not only reveals God’s glory and brings about global worship, but he does so through His suffering.

Isaiah 53 answers the question: How can the gracious promises of God come true for guilty people? (Ortlund)

Answer: The Suffering Servant

Behold the Servant

His Exaltation – 52:13-53:1

“He will act wisely” means to be successful. He knew what he came to do and was able to accomplish it. Because of this, he is highly exalted. This is the same language used of Isaiah’s vision of God in chapter 6.

Isaiah 6:1 – “In the year that King died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his rob filled the temple.”

The servant is exalted in the same manner as God is in . But what did the servant come to do? What led to his exaltation? His suffering.

Verse 14 describes his suffering. Physically, he was marred. Isaiah 50:6 describes the servant in this way, “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.”

Through His suffering, He has cleansed many nations. To “sprinkle” is what the priest did in the Old Testament, whether in cleansing a leper or preparing the alter for a sacrifice. Even the priests had to be cleansed by sprinkling before going into the presence of God to make a sacrifice. Isaiah is saying that the servant’s suffering will make grant access to the unworthy to enter into and enjoy God’s presence. This astonishes everyone who thinks about—“kings shall shut their mouths because of him.”

God’s plan to deliver those far from him, to rescue sinners, hinges on the suffering servant.

His rejection – 53:1-3

Verses 1-3 describe how people responded to this startling promise of a servant who is exalted through His suffering.

Disbelief – Isaiah 53:1 states it well, “Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Contrast: the servant is the arm of the Lord revealed; yet he is so ordinary – He grew up without much distinction, nothing particularly desirable about him. No pomp or circumstance. Just a humble servant.

Rejection – Verse 3 sums it up, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hid their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” There is a calculation made—people look upon the servant a count him as nothing. He will be despised. He will be rejected. Here is the bad news of the human condition: we can look upon God’s provision for our salvation and deem him as nothing. To look upon the servant and see no beauty and majesty reveals not the shortcoming of the servant but the bankruptcy of our own hearts.

His Sacrificial Suffering

We have previously seen that this servant would suffer. Now we see that the Servant’s suffering was not because of a weak constitution, but because he was indeed a sacrificial substitute. He was called a man of sorrows because “he carried our sorrows.” Notice the distinction between “he” and “we”—the servant and those for whom He suffers.

- He has born our griefs - He carried our sorrows - He was wounded for our transgressions - He was crushed for our iniquities - Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace - With his stripes we are healed

How can we sum up the servant’s suffering? In our place, for our sins

Verse 10 will say that “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him he has put him to grief, when his soul make an offering for guilt,” The servant is a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins, a guilt offering for our sins.

Verse 6 explains humanity’s dire condition and God’s gracious provision: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every pone—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

His Innocence – 53:7-9

These verses further describe the servant’s suffering—like a lamb led to the slaughter, a sheep before its shearers, oppressed and judged, cut off out of the land, stricken. Verse 8 shows us he not only suffered terribly but he died for our sins—they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death. But notice how verses 7 and 9 bookend this section by highlighting his innocence—a sheep silent before its shearers is evidence of both his innocence and his willingness to be our sacrificial substitute. But verse 9 makes it especially clear, “although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.”

His Victory – 53:10-12

It was God’s will to bring about redemption (victory) through substitutionary sacrifice of the servant. Verse 10 says it most strongly, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him.” And then verse 12, “he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many; and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

Yet, it is through this suffering the servant is exalted and triumphs. The servant dies, but he will—“he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”

The Servant triumphs means our good, our justification—being made right with God.“Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”

Behold Jesus Christ

John 12 & In :36-38 and Romans 10:16-17, we that Jesus is the arm of the Lord rejected by men from Isaiah 53.

In John 12:36-38, John says, “Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the : ‘Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’”

In Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, he quotes Isaiah 53:1 along with numerous other Old Testament passages in describing good news about Jesus. Listen to Romans 10:16-17:

“But not all the accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”

Matthew 8:14–17 In the Gospel of Matthew, we see that Jesus’ life and ministry was the fulfillment of how the Servant of the Lord would bear our sorrows and heal our diseases:

Listen to :14-17

“When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.’”

1 Peter 2:19–25

Peter takes us into the heart of the gospel and shows us that Jesus is indeed the suffering servant who brings God’s grace to guilty sinners.

Peter’s first epistle refers to Isaiah 53:4–6 and 9.

‘For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’ For ‘you were like sheep going astray,’ but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Matthew and Luke tell us that when Jesus stood on trial before Pontius Pilate and Herod, he did not open his mouth.

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth” (Isa 53:7)

Acts 8:32-35 In the Book of Acts, Philip encounters a eunuch who happens to be reading Isaiah 53:7–8.

“This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

‘He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.’

The eunuch asked Philip, ‘Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?’ Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.”

The willingly sacrificial lamb of Isaiah 53 is Jesus. If we believe in him, we will be saved.

Luke 22:36–38

In the , on the very last night before his crucifixion, Jesus quotes Isaiah 53:12, as he prepared his disciples at the Last Supper for what was going to take place with his death.

“He said to them, ‘But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. It is written: “And he was numbered with the transgressors”; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.

Question: How can the gracious promises of God come true for guilty people? (Ortlund)

Answer: Jesus in our place, for our sins Isaiah 53 helps us understand both the cross and the Christian life:

The Cross

It shows us that substitution is at the heart of the cross.

The concept of substitution may be said to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives that belong to God alone; God accepts penalties that belong to man alone. – John Stott

All humans have gone astray. All of us have turned to our own way. This is called sin. Turning from God and making ourselves our own master and our own treasure. But God was not willing to leave us in this guilty and condemned condition. He planned from ages past to send a Suffering Servant, not mainly to model love for us, but to bear our sins as a substitute for us. – John Piper

Rejection was His. Acceptance is ours. The wounding was His. The healing is ours. The stripes were His. The salvation is ours. The price paid was His. The forgiveness is ours. The death was His. But life is ours.

The Christian Life

The Christian life is dying to self that we might live to Christ. The Christian life is humbly serving in the pattern of our Savior, the suffering servant. Substitutionary sacrifice should be the pattern of the Christian life.

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. - Luke 9:23–24

Generosity – Give of our own to meet the needs of others. Love – Give of ourselves for the good of another. Service – Sacrifice our time, energy, and resources for the good of others.

The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.” – C. S. Lewis

Conclusion: From the Cradle to the Cross

When the shepherds ran to see Jesus on the night of his birth, they found him lying in the place where the sacrificial lambs were kept. So ordinary, nothing that we would desire. The cradle and the shadow of the cross. Jesus in our place, for our sins. This is why He came. This is what Christmas is all about.