Isaiah 53:11-12 - The Servant Crushed Yet Victorious

Well, good morning, beloved.

Good morning.

Let's take our Bibles and go to the book of Isaiah, chapter 53.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

If you're visiting with us, you'll find a Bible in front of you in the pew.

And you can turn to page 650.

650.

Let me take you back to December 20th, 1995.

American Airlines Flight 965 was making a trip from Miami to Cali, Columbia.

And it looked like it was just going to be a routine flight.

Passengers were relaxed, the crew was experienced, the weather was clear.

But as the plane approached its destination, something went terribly wrong.

The aircraft's waypoints had been uh programmed, and there was wrong information inside uh the navigation system.

And the plane began to veer off course and began to move in a direct uh movement toward the mountains.

And as they descended, the onboard ground proximity warning system suddenly blurted out terrain! Terrain! Pull up! Pull up! A voice cut through all the chatter of the cockpit and interrupted everybody.

And the crew was instantly disoriented, and they didn't realize how close to the mountains they actually were, and they didn't respond in time, sadly.

And tragically, just a few days before Christmas, 159 people lost their lives.

It's very sobering.

But here's one of the most sobering parts is that warning system worked.

It made very clear, loud statements about what to do.

But the crew, situational awareness, wasn't able to comprehend just how close to tragedy they were and why they were getting the messages that were there.

And they didn't heed the warning in time to the loss of all those people.

For the past few weeks, we've been working through Isaiah chapter 53, but let's back up just a little bit into Isaiah chapter 51 and just notice some statements that are made there very quickly.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention Isaiah 51 · chapter mention

Verse 1, chapter 51, listen to me.

The end in the middle of verse 1, look to the rock.

Verse 2, look to Abraham.

Verse 4, pay attention to me.

Verse 6, look to the heavens, verse 7, listen to me, verse 17.

Wake yourself, wake yourself.

Verse 21.

So listen to this.

Chapter 52, verse 1.

Wake up, wake up.

God has his early warning system blaring.

God is saying, listen, wake up, look here.

But what does he want us to pay attention to?

Chapter 52 and verse 13.

See or look or behold my servant will be successful.

He will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted.

You would think after all those warnings that all these people had been rattled with, pay attention, look, listen, pulled out of their beds, yanked out of their living rooms, called out of their fields, brought away from all of their duties, were to gaze expectantly at God and say, What is it?

What is it?

What do you want me to hear?

But what happened?

What happened in Isaiah's day?

What happened in Jesus' day is found in chapter 53 and verse 1.

Who has believed what we've heard?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Nobody was listening.

Nobody was paying attention.

The warning system is blaring.

Pull up! Pull up.

The question is, it's our day now.

Are we listening?

And so before we step into the final stanza of Isaiah 53, this fourth servant song, let's remember where we've been.

Last week we traced this ark of the servant, this descent from divine glory down into silent obedience and putting himself under divine justice.

When we looked last week at this, we saw that the servant was not merely a man of sorrows, he was the arm of the Lord.

He was the visible expression of God's redemptive strength.

And instead of clutching to the prerogatives of deity, this arm of the Lord descended in submission to the Father's will.

And in that submission found himself despised and rejected and not valued.

And his silence, as we saw, was not one just of meekness and weakness.

It was one of willing submission.

Because it's what the Father wanted him to do.

And he was cut off from the land of the living, and he bore our iniquities with silence.

We saw this ark, this descent from glory to death.

And we understood that this descent, as we looked into the New Testament, was not only descriptive of Christ, but it was also formative for our lives and shaping how we're to think of ourselves in this world.

The servant's posture becomes our pattern.

His silence teaches us to trust.

His suffering teaches us to endure.

His obedience teaches us to submit to the will of God, even if it costs us a lot.

Or everything.

But like I said last week, that's not the end.

It's not the end of this arc.

It's not the end of the story.

Today we come into the radiant conclusion of Isaiah's fourth servant song.

Last week we stood at the foot of the cross and we stood there in silence as we watched a submissive Savior.

But today we're going to lift our eyes up.

We're going to lift our eyes up to the ascending Christ and the reigning King.

Because that ark that began in glory and descended down even to death doesn't stop there.

It rises.

Unstoppable.

And it moves toward exaltation, enthronement, and eternal glory.

And so if we're listening, we're going to hear something astounding.

We're going to hear something beyond our ability to comprehend, but how sweet to our soul.

Because the scriptures say, eye has not seen, nor is ear heard, nor is it entered into the hearts of people, the things God has prepared for those who love Him.

If we're listening, we're going to capture something beyond our ability to comprehend.

Wonderful, life-giving, spectacular in its content.

Because we're going to follow the Savior still into a place where he's risen, reigning, and redeeming his people.

So let's wake up.

Let's listen.

Let's learn.

Let's watch the Savior as he steps into the fullness of his mission.

And let's trace the final moments and movements of this ark.

The first thing I want us to recognize is that we are going to view a risen Savior.

Let's take a look at verse 10 of chapter 53.

In our study of this, we've walked through the crushing of this servant, pierced, rejected, silent before his accusers.

And verse 10 brings us into that.

Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely when you made him a guilt offering.

But the rest of the verse continues.

He shall see his offspring.

He will prolong his days, and by his hand the Lord's pleasure will be accomplished.

The ark moves now very quickly and suddenly into a new direction.

Until this time, it started there and it's descended and descended and descended into trouble and rejection, into opposition, and what seems like utter defeat.

But now it turns and it moves swiftly upward.

This is victory.

I dare say this is resurrection from the grave.

And let's look at verse 10 and just follow the couple phrases in there because they're so important for us to learn.

We'll start with the phrase, he shall prolong his days.

Now, in the old covenant, this phrase of prolonging days was a term or a phrase of covenantal blessing.

Long life.

Listen to a few passages out of the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 5.33.

Follow the whole instruction the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live, prosper, and have a long life in the land you will possess.

Chapter 6 and verse 2.

Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands I'm giving you, your son and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life.

Deuteronomy 30 in verse 20.

Almost word for word, what we see here in Isaiah 53.

Love the Lord your God, obey him, remain faithful to him, for he is your life, and he will prolong your days.

As you live in the land, the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

This phrase, prolonging days, is a term used of those who are remaining faithful in the covenant, and they'll receive the blessings of their attachment to the Lord in obedience.

But here it seems so out of place.

Why is this so out of place?

Because the prolonged his days follows the statement that this person's dead.

Two verses earlier, he was taken away because of oppression and judgment, and he was cut off from the land of the living.

And he was what assigned a grave in verse nine.

And verse nine says, at his death.

How do you prolong the days of a dead man?

You don't born April twentieth, eighteen seventy-three, died some indeterminate amount of time because maybe, just maybe his days will be prolonged.

No, there's there's etched in stone there a date.

But not this one.

This servant dies, but this servant will see the prolonging of his days.

This is exactly what we see in the New Testament: a declaration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Acts 2, Peter preaching at Pentecost.

God raised him up, loosening the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by them.

And he quotes just a couple verses later, Psalm 16 and verse 10 You will not abandon my soul to the grave, nor will you let your holy ones see corruption.

The resurrection.

Revelation 118, I died, and behold, I live, Jesus says, and I have the keys of death and Hades.

Here is one of the clearest prophecies of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And it's not a comment that speaks of a myth or a metaphor.

This is not, you know, the spring coming out of the barrenness of winter.

You know, new life follows our difficulties and troubles.

Life springs anew in these wondrous cycles.

No, this is not the recycled pattern of dying and rising gods from pagan lore or dying and rising of seasons.

This is not a symbol of seasonal renewal or cosmic rhythms.

This is a real person in real history who really rose from the dead.

And it gives us hope because we are real people in real history who lay our real loved ones in a grave.

But the grave cannot hold this one.

The grave cannot hold Jesus.

And the prophecy is because he so willingly took on the descent, in order to fulfill the will of the Father, in order to give himself on the behalf of others, he would have his days prolonged.

And then that leads us to the next phrase.

Or as it says in the CSB, the Lord's pleasure will be accomplished.

This is not just poetic flourish.

It is poetic flourish, but it is talking about mission accomplished.

He came to do exactly what the Father called him to do.

In fact, in John 6, he says that I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it on the last day.

And we'll look at that in just a moment.

What is this verse telling us?

That the resurrection is at the guarantee that the servant has actually accomplished exactly what the Father's redemptive plan entails.

He has secured righteousness for others, and this servant is going to reign.

And this is exactly what the beginning of this song hints at in chapter 52 and verse 13, when it says, My servant shall act wisely, he shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.

This is exactly why Paul in Philippians 2 pulls this chapter out, and he gives you the essence of it.

And he talks about Jesus who didn't hold on to the prerogatives of deity, but in love descended in obedience into the place of death, even at death on the cross.

But also that God highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name.

And here's why.

Hebrews 1:3.

Hebrews 1:3

After making purifications for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, exalted and enthroned.

Now, what does all this mean for us?

It means a lot of very important things for us, actually.

First of all, it validates the cross.

The resurrection is God's declaration that the Savior's suffering was acceptable and accepted.

Without the resurrection, the cross is just a tragedy.

But with the resurrection, the cross is a triumph.

And what does this mean for us?

That our forgiveness is not just a wish.

It means it's an accomplishment that Christ has gotten for us.

That his death was not just sufficient, but successful for all who believe on him.

And if you're here this morning and wondering if God could forgive your sins ever, oh, you don't know what I'm like.

Oh, you don't know the things that I've done.

Oh, the things that run through my mind.

Oh, you don't know.

Look at the empty tomb.

Look there.

It's empty.

Because that Savior conquered sin and death.

And he wants to bring you with him into the realms of God's presence.

The second thing it does for us is it guarantees our justification.

Romans 4 25.

Listen to these words.

That Christ was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Now we'll look at this a little more in just a second.

But the resurrection is the seal that is deemed us righteous before the holy judge.

We're not only forgiven, we're declared righteous in God's sight.

How do we know that?

Because of the resurrection of Christ.

It also inaugurates a new creation.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul calls Christ the first fruits, meaning that his resurrection is the beginning of a new humanity, that death is defeated and new life has begun.

And so if you're in Christ, you are part of that new creation.

The new has come.

You are now in membership of a brand new created order that's been inaugurated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It also assures us of our future resurrection, also.

Because He lives, we live.

The servant's prolonged days become our eternal days.

But it also assures us that resurrection is our destination.

The servant's resurrection was not only his vindication, it's our future.

For those who follow the ark of Christ who walk the path of humility, obedience, and yes, even sometimes suffering, there's always a tendency to it, a promise, a promise that will rise.

This is why Paul, at the end of a discussion about the resurrection, said to the believers in Corinth, Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know your labor will never be in vain in the Lord.

Ever.

You see, our service and our suffering is never wasted.

Our submission is never forgotten.

And our hardships are never the final word.

Ever.

Because Christ rose, will rise.

And so in the middle of the ark, like many of us are right at the moment, part of this downward slope where it feels like where is the bottom?

We can carry on.

We can carry on through that low spot, even if it means years, because of a savior who himself was faithful in obscurity and patient in affliction and joyful for the hope that was set before him.

And if we are following the ark of Christ, we too can sit in the midst of that, patient in hope.

The hope of what?

The rest of the ark.

The rest of it heading up into glory.

So Paul said, I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that'll be revealed within us.

That's resurrection life.

That's the fullness of Christ that we're talking about.

Yes, the servant was crushed, but he was not conquered.

Yes, he died, but he lives, and his days have been prolonged.

And the ark of Christ into this place is not just a model, but our destiny as well.

Now let's take it a little deeper.

The risen servant doesn't rise alone, he rises to see his offspring.

And that leads us to the second point of the justifying servant.

Take a look at verse 10.

He will see his seed or see his offspring.

Again, this is covenantal language.

In the blessings of the old covenant, if you were faithful and faithfully obeying them, you would see prolonging days such that you would see your children and your children's children.

We're like, yeah, it's 2025.

We got modern medicine.

You know, we can we can we can keep a lot of people alive for a long time that are just barely existing.

Not back then you couldn't.

But if you were a part of the covenant and there was covenant, covenant, faith, and fidelity, God says, I'll give you long life.

I'll give you the ability to see your children grow.

I'll give you the ability to see your grandchildren grow.

And so here, this servant is going to see his offspring.

But he didn't have any children.

He was cut off from the land of the living.

He died single.

What does it mean?

He's going to see his offspring.

It means that though he dies, and through his death, there's going to be a new people born.

There's going to be a new family.

There's going to be a redeemed community.

There's going to be a people justified by grace.

The Apostle Paul in Galatians 3 connects all of this back to some very early chapters in the Bible, Genesis chapter 12, in which Abraham was shown a promise that though he didn't have any offspring at that time, that he was past the days when he and his wife could conceive in all human possibility, that he too would see an offspring.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

And the Apostle Paul said this.

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring, referring to one and to your offspring who is Christ.

Galatians 3 16.

So Christ is given this offspring promise.

But he dies without children.

What children is he going to see?

Well, Paul's not finished with his argument in Galatians 3, because in verse 29 he says, if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

The people who believe in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, who have the faith that Abraham had to believe God's promises in the face of all impossibilities, would be his children.

The children of Christ.

And so Isaiah here is pointing to this moment when the resurrected Christ, this risen servant, will gather a justified people that were not born of the flesh, but born of the spirit.

And so the shape of his reward was not land or riches or power.

Sorry, prosperity preachers, you're going the wrong direction.

He was going to receive a people, a people who were once far off, but now brought near.

A people who were once sinners, but are now declared righteous.

A people who were without God and without hope in this world, but are now called the children of God.

How?

After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied.

And by his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities.

This is the heart of the gospel right here.

This is that the Lord would have an offspring that are gathered on account of his bearing their iniquities, on account of the fact that he has made them accounted as righteous.

Not because they've earned it, not because they've cleaned themselves up, but because the servant has stood in their place for them.

And because the servant stood in our place, if we're in Christ, we're going to stand in his place in glory, in his eternal place.

Presence.

Paul in Romans 5 and verse 9 said, Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more we shall be saved by him from the wrath of God.

And again, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might be made the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

This is not abstract theology.

This is personal redemption and this is particular redemption.

Because Jesus wasn't just making salvation a possibility, he was purchasing a people, he was taking their place and making them his offspring.

He died to gather a people, and the people would be his reward.

Verse 6 tells us who those people are.

All we like sheep have gone astray.

We've turned everyone to his own way.

But verse 10 tells us that the wandering ones are now welcomed, and the rebels are now redeemed.

And this is why Hebrews 12, 2 says, For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross.

Again, what does this tell us?

This tells us that justification is a gift of God, not a reward.

It says here, the servant makes many to be accounted righteous.

This is legal language.

And the activity of that being accounted righteous is not ours to do, but his.

He doesn't descend into the background after accomplishing this work.

He is exalted, and he reigns.

And as it be started here in verse 13 of chapter 52, it says that kings will shut their mouths.

Verse 15, rather, kings will shut their mouths, for they will see him who they've not been told, and understand him whom they've not heard.

What does this reigning king do now?

Well, first of all, he intercedes for the transgressors.

This Savior continues his ministry.

He bore the sins of many, and he did that on the cross.

Luke 22, 37 quotes this verse.

When Jesus said, For I tell you the scriptures must be fulfilled in me, and he was numbered with the transgressors.

But now a phrase is added.

He makes intercession for them, not just numbered among the transgressors, but interceding for them.

And so Hebrews, the writer, says, He is able to save to the uttermost all those who draw near by him, because he always lives to make intercession for them.

This Savior who descended into death on the cross has been vindicated in his resurrection, who has been granted a people, and his ministry in the present days is on behalf of them still, because he intercedes for them.

What does that mean?

There's no limit to his saving power.

There's no sin too deep, there's no shame so lasting, there's no weakness so persistent that he can't save to the uttermost all those who come to him.

In verse 2, or that, or not verse 2, back to chapter 53 in the verse 12.

I will give him the many as a portion, and he'll receive the mighty as spoil.

Another translation puts it this way: He will divide the spoil with the strong.

This is battlefield imagery.

And this is telling us that the war is over, and that the victory has been won.

And it tells us that the servant is the one who is the victor.

And he gathers the spoils.

Now, how did he win this fight?

Not with sword, not with spear, but in silence, submissiveness, and suffering.

He poured his soul out to death.

But he won.

And here's the irony of ironies, the divine irony of all ironies, that in his weakest moment, death on the cross, Jesus crushed the powers of darkness.

He crushed them.

Colossians 2.

He has erased the certificate of debt with its obligations that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away, nailing it to his cross.

He has disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly, and he has triumphed over them in him, in the crucified Savior.

And now risen, he's ascended on high and led a host of captives captive and gave gifts to people.

This is not only a reigning king, this is a rich and rewarding and benevolent and generous king.

Because he doesn't clutch to those riches, he pours them out freely to his people.

About believers in just a second.

But if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ, I want to let you know that this king has conquered sin and death.

And he is calling you to bow to him, not in fear, but in faith, to trust this king.

If he could win this rich reward through his obedience to the Father's will in the giving up of himself on the behalf of people just like you, you turn to him, he will save you to the uttermost, just like he saves any of us to the uttermost.

And so put your sword down.

Put your sword down of self-will and self-assertion, of resistance against God, because you're fighting a God who loves people just like you.

You're fighting the very one who had souls written on his heart when he was nailed to the cross.

You're fighting against the one who said, I lay my life down.

And I'm not calling the righteous, but sinners.

You give him your sword.

Submit to this king.

He'll receive you.

One last note about this.

The servant's glory.

And this arc of Christ-likeness that we've talked about.

Believer, you're not fighting for victory.

Christians in our day are not fighting for victory.

Do you hear me?

We don't have to align ourselves with other people who have power and influence as though we needed to find victory.

We have a savior who's already won.

Okay?

We are living in victory.

We don't need to find it.

We trace this ark.

And God's people are following that ark.

And yes, our life is in the midst of the bottom of it, but the ark isn't finished yet.

Okay?

It's not.

Here is the completion.

This isn't just Christ's ark into glory and exaltation and enthronement.

It's ours as believers.

It's ours.

You can clap.

You should.

My servant shall act wisely, he will be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.

And that exaltation is not just for Christ alone.

It's for Christ's people.

Paul said in Romans 8:17, if we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified with him.

Romans 8:17

1 Peter 1 6, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief and all kinds of trials.

For a little while, these trials result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

The ark bends upward.

The suffering's real, but so is the glory.

And Peter doesn't limit this to abstract theology and submission to unjust authority in 1 Peter 2.

He tells us that Christ's resurrection is the vindication of our hope.

In marriage, he calls for humility and gentleness, but you see a rich reward, heirs together of the grace of life.

In community life, he urges us to bless others even when wronged.

Why?

Because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.

In leadership in 1 Peter 5, don't do it out of selfish ambition.

Don't do it for gain or reward.

Be examples to the flock.

Give yourself wholly to God's people.

Serve them gently, warmly, godly.

Then what?

When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

First Peter 5:10.

1 Peter 5:10

After you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

He will set you on a solid place.

This is the ark.

This is not quiet submission forever.

This is not suffering without end.

This is the glory of Christ, restored, confirmed, strengthened, established, reigning with Him.

Don't lose heart at the bottom of the ark.

You're not going to stay there.

You're not.

Lift your eyes into the throne room of the heavens.

And last night, I'll tell you what.

Ethan brought us there.

And he was braver than all of us.

He sang without a compliment.

I am not going to do that.

But I want to repeat those words if I can't repeat the way he said them.

Here is Christ in cosmic celebration.

Okay?

Okay.

Cosmic celebration.

The Lion of Judah.

Who is also the slain lamb.

Standing at the center of heaven's worship.

Right?

Is that not the image?

Yeah?

Yeah.

And he takes the scroll, the scroll of what?

The title deed to the heavens and the earth.

All of God's design and purposes and plans that none of us could grab a hold of.

And he takes it from the hand of him who sits on the throne, and all creation erupts.

You are worthy to take the scroll and to open the seals because you were slain.

And your blood, with your blood, you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.

Does that not sound like Isaiah 53?

Of course it does.

But this is not just exaltation that we're talking about of the Lamb.

This is enthronement.

Okay?

This is not just him being honored.

This is him being crowned.

Okay?

But the glory is not solitary.

You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to serve our God and they will reign.

His people reign too.

This is the ark fulfilled.

We're not spectators of his triumph.

We're participants in his triumph.

We're not just merely forgiven, we're going to be enthroned as well.

Whatever that looks like.

The Lamb reigns, and those who are redeemed by his blood will reign with him.

And so this is the crescendo of the Christian.

From sorrow to song, from wounds to worship, and from the cross to the crown.

It's ours.

The will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

And so behold, look.

My servant.

Keep your eyes fixed on Christ.

Keep your eye on him.

Maybe look at him for the first time.

But look at Jesus.

And hear all of those sounds.

Listen.

Look.

Wake up.

Rouse yourself.

Pay attention.

Because God's going to do something none of us could believe.

But do it he did.

And does it he still.

And the day will be when we'll be with him in that place.

Let's pray.

Father, we do want to behold your servant, Jesus.

He who started high and lifted up, yet became pierced and crushed for us, is so wondrously risen and reigning.

And we see the arc of his mission.

To let go of heaven's glories, to come to this world of woe and sorrow, to be brought to death in order to gain in triumph a song out of that silence and life out of that death.

And Lord, not only do we want to behold the servant, Father, in naked trust and in dangerous acceptance, we accept the early bend of that ark.

We accept the path of humility.

We accept the possibility of the sting of rejection.

And we accept the weight of obedience to suffering.

We want to follow the Savior who is numbered with the transgressors and who poured out his soul to death.

Teach us, Father, to walk as he walked, to suffer with him, to serve like him, to speak as he speaks.

Let our lives be shaped by his cross, but Lord, may we have always in our heart that we'll be lifted by his resurrection.

And so let us be conformed to his image, even when this world doesn't understand.

Help us never to shrink from the early bends of this ark, the humility, the rejection, the submission.

But Lord, help us not to be left there and to linger there.

Let us remember that He was raised for our justification and that He reigns to give us hope, and He intercedes, and therefore we're never alone.

So lift our eyes to the end of that ark, to the hope that is set before us, to the day when we'll stand in His presence without blemish and with great joy.

And so may we say now, in anticipation of that day, to our only God and Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's sing.

Let's sing.

Let's sing.