Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 52. Isaiah chapter 52 for our meditation this evening prior to participating in the Lord's Supper. Isaiah 52 beginning in verse 13 is what's called the fourth servant song of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah sets forth four servant songs.
Songs centered in focusing upon the servant of the Lord, the servant of Yahweh. Those are in Isaiah 42, Isaiah 49, Isaiah 50, and here specifically Isaiah 52, verse 13, all the way through the end of chapter 53. So I'll just pick up reading in chapter 52 at verse 13.
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 52:13–53:12
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, so his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths at him. For what had not been told them, they shall see. And what they had not heard, they shall consider. Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or majesty, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He 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. Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But 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. 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.
He 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. He 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. And 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. Yet it pleased the Lord to crush 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. He 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.
Therefore, 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. He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Amen. Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for this passage of Holy Scripture. We just praise you for the suffering servant of the Lord. How we thank You that He is in fact our Lord Jesus Christ, that You made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Help us to see in this passage the doctrine of penal substitution, the fact that our blessed Redeemer took the penalty the payment due for our sin.
Help us to see in this passage the fact that we are justified freely by your grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. Well,
Introduction
as I alluded to this morning, chapter 52 verses 13 to 15 sort of summarize the entire thrust of chapter 53. Sometimes you'll find that in the Old Testament. There'll be summary statements that that foreshadow all that will follow in a subsequent chapter. And here in chapter 52, verses 13 to 15, we see two concepts set forth, the exaltation of Jesus Christ, and we also see his humiliation.
Now, those two terms refer to the states of Christ. Theologians refer to the states of Christ. Very often that means his pre-incarnate state, where he was prior to his coming in flesh. Prior to coming into this world, Jesus resided in pre-incarnate glory.
Theologians speak of the state of humiliation when Christ came into this world, when he took on the likeness of sinful flesh, when he lived a life under the obedience or under the law of God. And then the final state is the state of exaltation when Christ was enthroned to the right hand of God most high. Well, Chapter 53 expands on those particular themes. Chapter 53 highlights several aspects of Christ's work.
Some have wondered who Isaiah was speaking about here in chapter 53. If you remember, the Ethiopian unit was reading this portion of scripture, according to Acts chapter 8, and when Philip came upon him, The man, the Ethiopian eunuch, said, who is Isaiah writing about? Is he writing about himself or some other man? The history of interpretation, some have taken Isaiah 53 as a description of the nation of Israel.
Well, that simply will not do. If you look specifically at verse 8 in chapter 53, it says, for the transgressions of my people, that's Israel. He, the Lord Jesus, was stricken. We know this is a reference to Christ.
We know Isaiah 53 speaks of Jesus. As we read on, when Philip speaks to the Ethiopian unit, it says that he preached Jesus from this particular passage. The rest of the New Testament highlights and cites this passage as well. So we know it refers to Jesus, who is the suffering servant on behalf of his people.
We'll notice Isaiah 53 by way of meditation prior to the Lord's Supper under a couple of considerations. First, we'll notice his humiliation in verses one to three. Secondly, his suffering, which is a part of or an extension of his humiliation in verses four to six, verses seven to nine, take up his death. very specifically, and then verses 10 to 12 deal with his exaltation or his triumph after having offered himself up unto God for the sins of his people. Now, the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, Wherein did Christ's humiliation consist?
Does Christ's humiliation consisted? It is being born and that in a low condition. made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross, in being buried and continuing under the power of death for a time. And so this particular chapter demonstrates that very clearly. We see throughout the emphasis, He did not suffer for Himself, or He did not suffer as a result of His sin, but rather He suffered as a result of our particular sin.
His Humiliation
Now notice first His humiliation. Isaiah 53, verses 1 to 3. Now here the prophet is including Himself with Israel. And it's as if they are acknowledging the fact that they had missed how glorious this particular servant of the Lord, who has believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord been revealed.
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He doesn't come blasting forth from heaven. He doesn't come riding on a chariot. He doesn't come with, you know, a gun, bullets wrapped around him and M-16s and assault weapons and come into human history to destroy unrighteousness and to destroy the bad guy.
But rather he is born, born in a lowly condition, born of a woman, born in a manger. He has no pomp and no majesty attending to him. The prophet goes on and says he has no form or majesty. And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He was a very common man among men. It was nothing that stood out. Very often you see pictures of Jesus and he's got sort of this halo around his head. Well, that's not the way it was.
Isaiah doesn't say we saw a halo around his head and that identified for us that he was indeed the servant of the Lord. That's exactly the opposite. He had no form. He had no appearance.
He had no majesty. There was nothing about him that looked unique. He was made like us in all respects. He was tempted like us in all respects, yet without sin.
Notice in verse 3, He is despised and rejected by man. Remember when that one man wants to follow the Lord Jesus in Luke chapter 9, and Jesus says, the foxes have their holes and the birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. He was rejected. He was despised.
He was not looked upon with any sort of favor by the rank and file of Israel at the time of his appearance. Notice it says he's a man of sorrows and he is acquainted with grief. He is familiar with suffering. He is familiar with agony.
He knows what it's like. That's why the author in the book of Hebrews so often encourages us with that particular view of Jesus. We have such a high priest. You cannot say my suffering, my trial, my grief is so hard that nobody can understand.
Well, your God can understand. Your high priest can understand. He lived a life of rejection. He lived a life of being despised.
He was, as we see here, characterized as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The prophet goes on and says, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. As I mentioned this morning, this we did not esteem him has more of the idea of we just didn't pay any attention to it.
Several years ago, or just a few years ago, it must have been, John Van Oort and Josh and Micah and I went out and did some camping in East Harrison. And while we were driving around one day, we met up with a Sasquatch research team. Sasquatch, or you might refer to him as the Bigfoot, or the Yeti, whatever you choose. He's the big ape-like creature, big, all that sort of thing.
Well, as this man, who was totally into this, There's actually people that are very much into this. The Sasquatch research team was on their little rhino vehicle. And we talked, and they showed us some pictures, and it was quite interesting. And the one man said this.
He said that various reports of persons who have spotted Bigfoot identify it sort of like this. They were looking at the forest, and they didn't really focus in on something. They sort of glanced by, and then, what was that? And then they looked back, and they saw Bigfoot, and then off he went.
It wasn't like he had a sign that said, hey, I'm the Bigfoot. I'm the Sasquatch. I'm the big thing that you're looking for. We could just easily pass by him without giving him a second thought or a second notice.
That's more in line with what the prophet is saying here. It's more along the line of when Jesus said, I am the bread sent by God. I am the bread of life. And in John 6, 42, the people said, is this not the carpenter's son?
Is this not the son of Mary? What's he talking about? He's the bread of life. He grew up with our kids.
He is nothing special. There's nothing about him that would endear himself as a Savior to any of us. And so what the prophet is doing here in verses one to three is sort of making a corporate repentant confession. We've missed it.
We misunderstood. We didn't realize what God was doing. We would have preferred the heavens opening up and a chariot blasting and guns blazing to destroy the Romans and to put them down. But we missed it.
We weren't thinking about the fact that God would send one like us and yet different. One like us and yet different in order to save us from our sins. It's interesting. He's described here completely as man.
If you look back for just a moment in Isaiah 52 at verse 13, it says, Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Well, that language has already come up in the prophet Isaiah. It was in Isaiah chapter 6, when the prophet is rehearsing his call to the prophetic ministry.
He sees Jehovah. He sees the Lord. What? He sees Him high. and exalted.
He sees Him lofty. He sees Him above everything. So what we find here in Isaiah 53 is that this human servant of the Lord bears the characteristic or bears the essence of deity Himself.
His Suffering
Now let's move on to His suffering in verses 4 to 6.
Suffering as Solitary and Substitutionary
Notice that His suffering was solitary. It was solitary. That means it was all alone. It was nobody who could participate with him in this.
Misery loves company, doesn't it? When we're suffering, or when we're tried, or when there's difficulty, it's good to know somebody else has had that too. Not so we can revel in their misfortune, but so that we can identify with them. When we are suffering, it's good for brethren to come alongside of us and to help us out, to encourage us, to read with us, to pray with us, to just be in our presence.
But notice, surely, He, and it's emphatic, He alone has bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. There was no one fit to accompany Him. There was no one equipped to help Him. He alone, as the suffering servant of Jehovah, was the one who could do what God had called him to.
Notice that his suffering was substitutionary in nature. This is one of the most blessed doctrines in all of the Bible, the substitutionary suffering and the death of our Lord Jesus. Children, you know what a substitute is. If I would have got hit by a truck on the way here tonight, Pastor Cam would have preached.
He would have been a substitute. He would have stood in my place. He would have preached the word. When you go to school, maybe your teacher got the flu and you have a substitute.
Somebody stands in for your particular teacher. Well, Jesus was our substitute. Remember that He did not suffer for His own sake. He did not die because He was, in fact, a lawbreaker.
But rather, look at what the text says. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Notice in verse 5, He was wounded for what? For our transgressions.
That's why Christ went to the cross. That's why Jesus did what He did. It was because we're transgressors. It's because we're rebels.
It's because all we light sheep have gone astray. It's because we have sought out many devices. It's because we busy ourselves in rejecting the law of God and in seeking to cast it off. So Christ was our substitute.
He was wounded for our transgressions. Verse 5, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. Drop down to the end of verse 6, And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Verse 8, we already read this, For the transgressions of my people He was stricken. We mustn't ever, you know, shave that off. Our presentation of the gospel and our discussion of who and what Jesus did and the significance of Christ in history. We're not just pointing to him as a good religious model.
We're not just pointing to him as a good example. We're not just looking to him as the way men look to philosophers, but we're looking to him as the substitutionary curse bearer. The one who took the wrath of God on our behalf. So his suffering was solitary.
It was substitutionary in nature.
Suffering as Comprehensive
And notice it was comprehensive. It was comprehensive. He has borne our griefs. He has carried our sorrows.
He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him. By His stripes we are healed.
Every need of man is answered in this passage. Every particular need that sin has created in our lives is answered by the suffering Savior. on our behalf. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement for our peace was upon him." We all want peace, don't we? I have yet to meet somebody who says, I thrive in chaos. I just love turmoil. It just makes me so happy when my life feels like it's unraveling.
Nothing pleases me than when there's everything undone and my life is a big mess. No, we want peace. But the peace that is being addressed here isn't first and foremost, you've got a tidy house, you have well-behaved children, you have a good social standing in your community. The peace that is addressed by the suffering servant is peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is that justified by faith peace that Paul speaks of in Romans chapter 5. He says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. There's nothing better than peace with God. Jesus said in the upper room, my peace I give you, my peace I leave to you.
Not as the world gives. The world offers a form of peace. You can get it in a bottle. You can get it in a pill.
You can get it in a crack pipe. You can get it in sex. You can get it in power. There's a form of peace that the world offers.
But Jesus says not as the world offers. The peace that Christ delivers answers to man's most desperate need. Standing with God. The ability to be able to pillow your head at night realizing that God is for you. that should you die before you wake, you'll stand in the presence of God Most High and not be cast off into eternal suffering.
So Jesus' suffering was solitary, substitutionary, comprehensive, and it
Suffering as Submission to the Father
displayed His submission to the Father. Isaiah 53 tells us this. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Now notice in verse 7, He 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." Why? Because He couldn't answer them? No, because He was submitting to His Father.
Read the Gospel according to John sometime with an emphasis upon Jesus doing the will of Him who sent Him. Jesus says, My meat is to do the will of Him who sent Me. I always do, He says, what pleases the Father. He was a submissive, willing sufferer.
He didn't go grudgingly. He didn't go rebelliously. He didn't go kicking and screaming. But rather, he laid his life down of his own accord, according to a statement in John chapter 10.
And that displays something of his love, yes, for the Father, but for us as well. He is going to submit himself to the Father and go to such lengths and such an extent to save us from our sins. Absolutely amazing.
His Death
Well, let's look thirdly at his death. Again, the idea of willingness we've already touched on. Verse seven. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent.
So he opened not his mouth. He 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. Now, from all accounts that I've read, that's a tough verse to translate. Verse eight. One man has translated or he's gone with the NIV margin.
The margin of the NIV says, yet who of his generation considered that he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the blow was due. In other words, he says it's the idea that this is almost a challenge or it's almost a, it's incredulous. Nobody's really considering what's happening here. A righteous, just, holy man is being arrested.
He's being led into a criminal courtroom. He's being tried as an offender. He's ultimately being executed and punished. Has anybody noticed this?
Does anybody understand this? Is anybody conscious of this? He was taken from prison and from judgment. Yet who of his generation considered that he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the blow was due?
He is not being led away. He is not going to the slaughter because of his crimes. He's going because of our crimes. He's going because of our sins.
That's the thrust of the passage. Remember, Isaiah 53 envisions Israel in a better time of repentant confession and repentant extolling of God. He was taken. He was led away.
He was slaughtered, ultimately, not again for his sins and crimes, but for ours. Notice in verse 9, And they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death. Remember, Joseph of Arimathea. Remember that man who offered up his tomb so that the Lord Jesus would be buried there.
All of this programmatic, everything here 700 years prior to the actual fulfillment is being specified to the very detail of where Jesus would ultimately rest after he died. 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. Interestingly, Peter appeals to this particular passage in verse nine in his first epistle when he's highlighting the sinlessness of Christ and he's calling us to follow Christ's example. He says this of Jesus.
He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Peter said that of Jesus. Think about that for a moment. Peter knew Jesus, didn't he?
I mean, we know Jesus to be sure. We have the written revelation of God, propositional truth. We can read and understand and know who Jesus is. That verse has always intrigued me that Peter would quote that and cite that.
I reflect upon Peter and his relationship with Jesus. The longer you know me, the more you'll see me sin. I guarantee it. I guarantee it.
I'm sorry, please forgive me. And who do we generally send the most against? It's not the guy at the corner store. It's not our mechanic, even though he might make us mad, sorry to any mechanics in here.
It's usually the people we're closest to, isn't it? How many times you have to confess in your wives or husbands? I'm not trying to poison the well for any potential married candidates here. Marriage candidates, get married, enjoy it, it's blissful, it's wonderful.
But realize, the more you get to know each other, the more you realize He's not perfect. For three years, Peter was one of the closest earthly associates of our Lord Jesus. John is the beloved disciple. John laid his head upon Jesus bosom in the upper room.
I know there's an argument, not an argument, an intramural in-house debate. Who was closest to Jesus? Why we'd even argue such things is crazy. But you've got the 12 disciples, the 12 apostles.
But amidst that 12, there were three. You know whose name always comes up first among the three? It's Peter, James, and John. Peter knew him. as well as anybody else.
Three years he spent with this man. Three years he moved around with him. And this is what he was able to cite from Isaiah 53.9. Nor was any deceit in his mouth.
It's obvious in the text, isn't it? His death was not due his sin. It was not due his crime. It was due to us.
He was our substitute. He took our place. He got in our stead and he took the very wrath of God Almighty upon his own head for our sin.
His Exaltation and Triumph
And then notice finally his triumph or his exaltation. The Westminster Shorter Catechism goes on to say, Christ's exaltation consists in his rising again from the dead on the third day. In ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day. Notice, with reference to his triumph, the first statement in verse 10.
Divine Pleasure Behind the Cross
Yet it pleased Yahweh, it pleased Jehovah, to crush him. It's one of the more perplexing statements in the entire chapter. When we read through this, we see Him taking our suffering, taking our punishment, taking all things for our peace. And we see who is behind this.
It is God the Lord. This did not happen happenstance. It wasn't a lucky arrangement. It wasn't as if, oh, wow, Jesus just thought he would do this.
It was orchestrated. It was decreed. It was in the mind of God. Reverend, I believe here we find great joy and great comfort.
Some people shrink back and they say, well, that sounds like predestination. That sounds like God is in control of all things. Absolutely. Praise God.
Praise Him that He's in absolute control. Praise Him that this isn't a happenstance universe. Praise Him that we didn't have to sort of rub our thumbs and hopefully get lucky with a surety and a Savior that would take our spot at Calvary. The Lord was pleased to bruise Him.
Peter, the apostle, in preaching in Acts chapter 2, makes essentially the same statement. You can look there at Acts chapter 2, verse 22. He says, Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, the man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death." It was a sin for them to murder Christ.
It was evil. It was wicked. It was despicable. But it happened according to the predetermined plan. and for knowledge of God so that we could have deliverance from our sin.
Paul says essentially the same thing in Romans chapter three. I highlight this to make sure you understand your salvation was orchestrated at the divine level. You didn't fall into this. You were predestined by the grace of an almighty God who operates according to an eternal decree.
Notice in Romans chapter three, verse twenty one. But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now notice whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because it is forbearance.
God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. You see that God set him forth as a propitiation. Propitiation speaks of God's wrath. Propitiation is what we desperately need.
God's wrath is targeted upon the sinner. Jesus steps in our place. He takes the wrath in himself so that it doesn't come upon us. It was God who set him forth. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, God made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Brethren, I think this helps us to understand that we are part of a much bigger plan. Our salvation was orchestrated by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So in Jesus triumph, we see behind it the divine pleasure goes on in verse 10. He has put him to grief.
When you make his soul an offering, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Definite Atonement and Justification
It doesn't sound like a hypothetical salvation. It doesn't sound like he might possibly win some seed. It sounds like definite atonement. When Jesus comes, when He is delivered up, when the Father is pleased to crush Him, there is a very specific reason in it.
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Notice the servant is satisfied. Verse 11, He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. That's a beautiful statement.
It reminds us of Hebrews 12, where it tells us that Jesus went to great lengths on our behalf. Who for the joy that was set before Him. There was joy set before Him. There was satisfaction.
There was the securing of a seed. There was the salvation of a people. Who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. That is precisely what the prophet is saying here.
Says, by his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. It's that beautiful doctrine of justification. Jesus gives us a righteousness. How does He secure it?
He bears our iniquities. And then verse 12 comes to a crescendo. Therefore, 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. Great, wonderful statement.
A beautiful emphasis in this particular passage. We see, as E.J. Young says, in chapter 53, the work of redemption is described as spiritual. In this present chapter, the prophet turns to the redeemed ones, the church, and speaks of its glorious exaltation.
He speaks of this as happening in the lives of God's people. It's not just to be delivered from our temporal problems. That's what Israel was looking for in the first century. They wanted relief from Rome.
That wasn't it. That's why they rejected him. That's why they despised him. He came to save His people from their sins.
We need to understand that, get our minds wrapped around it and appreciate it. One man says Isaiah 53 anticipates something that will become explicit in the New Testament. The animal sacrifices of Leviticus are ultimately fulfilled in the sacrificial death of a person, even our Lord Jesus Christ.
Application
So in conclusion, we see his humiliation, we see his suffering, we see his death, we see his exaltation. And in this, we learn that the servant suffers for others. The servant suffering brings benefit to others. This is why Paul can say he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
The servant suffered willingly and deliberately. The servant was delivered up ultimately by his father. The servant is himself sinless and righteous. The servant suffered for the sins of others.
And the servant was an offering for sin. This picks up the whole Levitical sacrificial system when he says that in verse 10. When you make His soul an offering for sin. This is why John, in John 1.29, John the Baptist says, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Well, let us praise God for His mercy and His grace and the sending of His Son. And we'll ask that He will bless our time of remembrance of the death of the Savior. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for this picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You for His state of humiliation. We thank You that He came into this world and that He went through such suffering, not for His own sin, but for our sin.
We thank You for His death as a sacrifice and as a substitute. We thank You that it availed with You, the Father. And we thank You, God, for the exaltation of Christ to Your right hand, where He ever lives and reigns and rules over His enemies, and He lives to make intercession for His people. May these things encourage our hearts.
May You bless us now, and may You cause us to reflect on the death of our Lord Jesus. And we pray in His most blessed name, Amen.