The Fifth Gospel

Thank you, Walt Barrett.

He likes us a lot better than we like him.

But that's to be expected, I suppose.

My wife and I had a uh house, not a house fire, but a garage fire a few years ago, and I had uh about, I don't know, maybe nearly 2,000 books in that garage.

And sermon notes from about uh 20 years were in vinyl folders and they all melted and the paper burned up, and and so um I feel about that the same way I feel about doing multiple services when you're preaching the same message.

I felt like God was telling me, uh, okay, do it again, and this time get it right.

So all my sermons are kind of from scratch these days.

So uh I did it this uh earlier, and this time he's telling me to do it again but get it right.

So hopefully I'll get it right this time.

But what we're going to do today is um zero in on a very important portion of scripture, especially as it relates to sharing the gospel with Jewish people.

And uh don't ask me why a nice Gentile boy like me got involved in such a Jewish thing as reaching out to Gentile people and going to New York to work in Brooklyn of all places, which is where our center is, our Feinberg Center for Messianic Jewish Studies.

But um last night I shared with you one of the most important things that is used in uh communicating the gospel to Jewish people, that is the Messiah and the Passover demonstration.

Uh this passage in Isaiah 52, 53, is perhaps the most significant passage that is used in sharing the faith.

And as we go through this today, I would like for you to uh try to imagine, if you will, that you're sitting across the desk or table from a Jewish professional and he's agreed to read something about Isaiah 53, and you're trying to explain to him that centuries before Jesus walked the earth, there was a prophet named Isaiah who was inspired by God to write this chapter, which explains uh who the Lamb is going to be when he comes to earth and to suffer and die for us.

So the suffering servant is the fifth gospel in the Bible from my perspective and from the perspective of a number of scholars.

Uh an interesting story to tell you has to do with uh one of the mentors that I had at New York University, uh great Hebraist, uh wonderful scholar, and teaching a class in Isaiah and getting to Isaiah 53, where the students are reading through in Hebrew, and they're all Jewish students except one or two of us.

And um somebody in the group kind of shouted out, kind of surprised, saying, This sounds like Jesus.

And of course, it does sound like Jesus, and that's the whole point.

And so as we look at this, um, this it's called the Fourth Servant Song, and it's where it becomes personalized to the extent that the servant of Israel could not be Israel uh herself.

But the servant of God is Jesus in this passage.

And that's how we want to approach it.

So you'll need to turn into your in your Bibles and follow along with this passage.

And one of the things that we learn from it is that God tends to show his greatest power in his ability to return love and forgiveness for hatred and injustice.

And that's what we see in this passage.

We see the love of God as opposed to the rejection of God's servant.

It's the humiliation versus the exaltation of the suffering servant.

And I know you've seen this passage, you've studied this passage a good bit in the past.

It's one of the passages that is used at Easter time, it's used at Christmas time, it's used at communion time, but very seldom do you see the whole picture, and that's what I'd like for you to do with me today.

And we're going to see it by looking, first of all, at the outline.

And it's an outline that uh for those who study the scriptures uh really seriously, they see a literary form come right out of the scriptures.

It's as though Isaiah knew what he was doing when he put this together.

And it looks something like this.

First of all, there is the exalted Savior.

And the first few verses, which are the last few verses of Isaiah 52, describe for us the exaltation of the Savior.

And then, beginning in 53, 1 through 3, another three-verse segment or stanza, it's a song that describes the despised servant.

Following that is the discussion of the actual suffering of the suffering servant when he is wounded, and that's verses 4 through 6.

It's quite likely we won't get much further than verses 4 through 6 in our presentation, because I want to go into some detail about each of these three areas.

But linguistically or literarily, I should say, the next couple of stanzas kind of complete the thought, with the wounded servant being right in the middle.

This is called chiastic form, and it means that the first stanza represents the last, or kind of repeat the sorry, the fifth stanza repeats the ideas of the first stanza, and the fourth stanza, the rejected servant, repeats some of the same ideas of the despised servant.

And then that last stanza, the satisfied servant, goes back to the beginning.

It's like the bookends of the passage.

So just so you'll understand a little bit about the literary value of it.

Now, it's only appropriate that we be talking about this.

Today is the first day of Passover in the Jewish community.

Uh today is the beginning of our understanding of Passion Week, Palm Sunday, and just keep in mind that Jesus must go through the suffering servant part of this before he is raised and exalted and satisfied because of what he accomplishes.

So let's go through each one of these stanzas, at least the first three in some detail.

And um, I even have it written down here to say because it's funny.

I'll be sure to honor your time and stop at noon.

Unlike your interim pastor.

They did laugh again.

That's nice.

Okay, let's begin with the exalted servant.

Would you look at 52, 13?

And it says, See, my servant will act wisely.

He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.

Just as there were many who were appalled at him, his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of man, and his form marred beyond human likeness, so he will sprinkle or startle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him.

For what they were not told they will see, and what they have not heard or understood, they will understand.

So you see, this is the eventual exaltation of the one who's going to go through hell on earth on our behalf.

So looking at the first one, sorry.

I think this talks about the preeminence of the Lord.

It's his exalted state someday.

And uh he's going to prosper.

Uh Isaiah is looking from his perspective and he's saying, this suffering servant is going to prosper.

Now the word prosper is translated in various ways deal prudently, act wisely in the NIV.

And I think the whole import of it is suggesting that there will be a fulfilling of the purpose for which he has come.

So he will prosper in that regard.

And I love this statement that describes what Jesus accomplishes in his life.

Think of the accomplishments of Jesus.

Not only did he provide eternal and abundant life for us today, but he will return to grant the ultimate kingdom experience of righteous rule and extreme happiness and overflowing knowledge of God.

So this suffering servant will eventually prosper, and it's because he fulfills God's will.

Secondly, he's going to be described as God Himself, and that's why in the verse we just read, he's raised and lifted up and highly exalted.

Those words are used to describe God, and this becomes one of the motifs in the book of Isaiah to use similar terms for the human suffering servant as are used for God, God Almighty.

And that is exactly what we have here.

So when we look at this, we we think about New Testament portions, and I'm talking to a Dr.

Goldberg or somebody across my desk, and I want to say to him, well, you need to know that the New Testament describes this same person found in Isaiah, because 80 times or more the book of Isaiah is quoted in the New Testament, and the majority of those times it's from right, it's this passage, Isaiah chapter 53.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

And I love to share these verses.

For example, Acts 2.33.

It simply says that having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you both here see and hear.

And that's talking about Pentecost, of course.

In chapter 3, verse 13, it says, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.

Speaking about the ascension, I believe, that aspect of his glorification.

And the Philippians 2.9 says, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow.

That's a direct quote from Isaiah 45 that is used by Paul in Philippians 2.9, and he goes on to say, and that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

So we have a suffering servant here in chapter 53, but that's not the end of the story, is it?

It's a glorious future, the exalted one.

He's described as God because he is God.

And also he's going to be the cause for astonishment in 52, 14.

It says, just as there were those who were appalled at him, his appearance was disfigured, his form marred beyond human likeness, so he will sprinkle many nations.

But the word appalled is the word also astonished.

I think it's probably better to look at it this way.

And so what happens when he is an astonishment?

Why is he an astonishment to those to whom he came?

Maybe you've thought about this, maybe you haven't, but you know that they expected a Messiah, a king who would come.

I think there was astonishment when people said this Jesus is the Messiah.

And it's part and parcel because of who he was and the way he did things.

He was commonplace.

And I really want to underscore that.

He was commonplace in his appearance and in what he did.

He allowed people to treat him so adversely as we shall see.

He was beaten in this passage beyond recognition, it says.

His face was disfigured, it was marred, to the point that no one would even recognize him during the Passion.

And his scars remain even today, I believe.

So we we have someone whose face has been changed, and it's an astonishment.

How could this possibly be the Davidic king, the promised Messiah?

They were truly astonished at him.

I said last uh last time, and I'll repeat it again, that the motto that we used to have in the church that I pastored for 20-some years was uh seeking his face and sharing his grace.

Well, this passage is about seeking his face and really finding more and more about Jesus.

And it's a disfigured face in this passage, and we certainly don't want to dwell on the agony of the crucifixion because Sunday's coming, right?

There's a resurrection, there's a glorified Christ.

But I think it's important for all of us to remember uh what he went through, and that's why the uh emphasis on this passage.

But that's one of the reasons he's going to be a cause for astonishment.

And and to be more precise about the disfigurement in uh 5214b, if you'll notice there, uh it is a disfigurement that is based upon some major uh uh punishment that he went through.

And you can think perhaps of the Passion, uh Mel Gibson's film.

And although I disagree with a good bit of what went on in that film, uh certainly the passion and the disfigurement and the beating occurred.

And so keep that in mind.

Now, we also have a verse that says that someday there's going to be a sprinkling of many nations.

It's either the sprinkling of many nations or it's the startling of many nations.

The translation could go either way, and those who believe that it says he's sprinkling many nations has to do with the role that a priest would play and bringing people to God in some way, or representing men before God.

And so there are many who feel that when Christ comes back, he will have sprinkled many nations, so the church of all nations, and so it really would include that kind of thought.

I rather think that it's in keeping with what we just studied about the astonishment.

He's going to startle nations when he returns.

You can go either way with this, but why is it he's going to startle people in this way?

It's because they're going to be so surprised that this same Jesus who suffered on the cross is the one who's coming back to rule and reign.

So they'll be very, very surprised.

Both meanings are true, but it's going to be quite a shock to everybody when he returns.

Now, notice also that he is going to, in his return, cause authorities to be silent.

And it says simply that the kings will shut their mouths because of him.

Now, I believe that that's an important thing for us to keep in mind because as we live for him and try to witness for him, we find that there is tremendous derision on the part of the nations of the world.

And it's increasing, it's going to wax worse and worse.

I don't think it's going to get better.

I think that the emphasis and the influence of Christianity, instead of continuing to spread, may result in a great deal of persecution.

And mankind continues to mock Jesus as they did in the first century.

So that will be continued because his claims are mocked in theology.

His people are mocked in society.

Perhaps you've already experienced some of that.

Try living in the Northeast with us.

It's even worse, I'm sure.

His morality is being mocked.

The biblical standards for living are certainly mocked and replaced by others and his righteousness, and people are mocking his very return.

And yet, this passage is saying that he will be exalted, he will be preeminent before the entire world.

And I love that passage.

Now, remember I said that suffering in God's service leads to exaltation and glorification.

Can we do a WWJD moment here?

What would Jesus do?

We want to be like Jesus and live for him and witness in the way he did.

Take a lesson from Isaiah 53 when we look at how he responded to the opposition.

And I think we can follow in the same path.

He was obscure most of the time.

What about you?

Do you feel like you're serving the Lord in relative obscurity?

Or perhaps you're struggling with personal weakness, and yet so did he.

It seems as though he went through life as a man of sorrows, as it says, acquainted with grief.

Maybe you're suffering in some way, and you don't seem to be getting much recognition for it.

To me, I think those are application points that need to be made in this.

So not only do we seek his face and get to know him better all of our days, we also want to share his grace, and we want to do it in the same way he did.

I'll have more to say about that in a few minutes.

Let's move on, however, to the second stanza, the second stanza of three verses, and that's 53, 1 through 3.

This is where the person of the Messiah seems to be emphasized.

And there's a lot of overlap in these stanzas, but it seems to me that his person is being emphasized, and primarily the rejection of his person.

So he's despised.

He's going to be rejected.

It says in 53.1, talking about the message, Isaiah says, Who has believed our message?

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

Our message here, what message is that?

I think it's Isaiah's message to the people of Israel, and it's also the message that goes beyond the people of Israel, offering salvation through the nation, right?

That's what Israel was about.

It's called the missionary mandate of the nation of Israel.

They were supposed to introduce everybody to the priesthood of Israel, which would present them before God.

So it was a ministry to the Goyim, to the Gentiles, just as we have a ministry back to Israel today.

But that was the message.

And what is the message that was rejected and still is being rejected?

It's the message of substitution.

It's saying that there has to be some kind of a bloody exchange.

There has to be an exchange of life, a substitution for my sins.

Otherwise, I cannot stand before a righteous God.

That's the gospel, folks.

It's what Christ has done for us versus what we are trying to do to impress a holy God.

But he's going to be rejected.

The message is going to be rejected of Isaiah as well as the Messiah.

Now, furthermore, there's an interesting statement here.

He's going to be powerful.

The arm of the Lord will be revealed through this one, but he's also going to be extremely unassuming.

The arm of the Lord, and yet the tender shoot or the root.

One man said that it's not going to be a brawny arm, it's going to be a scrawny arm by comparison.

And that's exactly what Jesus was like: unassuming.

And he went through, he's called it the tender shoot from a tree or from a root.

It's like a sapling that you get rid of.

He's called something that springs out of a dry ground.

And, you know, it seems that there's no purpose for him.

He's nondescript and he's not going to function.

But oh the accomplishments of our Lord Jesus and all the strength of those who trust in him.

Well, he's not going to be powerful in the way of the world, but he will be powerful, I think, in the way that God wanted him to be.

Notice also that there's nothing to draw us to him.

I've always been amazed at this because uh I like those uh portraits of Jesus that have been done that show him as a, you know, as a Kind of a strong person carrying lambs on his shoulders and walking through the desert.

I identify with that kind of macho kind of thing.

I don't think he was that way at all.

In fact, if you read this and we take it literally about the suffering servant, it says that he had no beauty, he had no majesty.

Those are two words that are used elsewhere in Scripture to describe a king.

But he had nothing like that.

And nothing that would attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should even desire him.

Now, that means that he was not attractive.

He wasn't a celebrity type.

And I'm going to cut down a little bit on what I read the first time around, but there's one passage that, or one quote that I love to share, and it's from Martin.

He says, while there is no reason, or I'm sorry, while there is reason to believe that from other passages that he had a winsome character and that he appealed to some of the most hopeless men, yet this prophecy makes it clear that that which some Christians have not fully comprehended.

And it is that the Lord Jesus Christ did not appear in such a way as to attract natural man.

The power of his deity was evident on occasion when he did miracles, of course, and his presence was no doubt commanding in his personal relationships with individuals.

But there was no glamour in him.

And sometimes I think celebrity and glamour has become the name of the game.

And unless ministries are doing that, they're not going to be successful.

So maybe we should tap on the brakes a little bit when it comes to that approach to ministry.

Maybe we should not perform so much or entertain, but rather meet people on the level where they are and show the kind of love that Jesus showed to those around him and be willing to suffer and serve.

So how do we impress people?

We impress them through servant leadership and that kind of approach.

But he was despised.

He was despised because of these things.

He didn't have this outward beauty that was attractive to people.

And furthermore, he's going to be despised or scorned.

Now, I use those words on the screen because there are two words in Hebrew that are extremely strong, and you don't get that unless you spend some time in the language, but nibze vahadal is the words, are the words, and it's a very strong statement for being unworthy of attention.

So he's despised, he's scorned.

He's called in this passage a man of sorrows.

In the gospel accounts, and I might share this with my Jewish friends, Mark 10.33 says that they're going to mock him, they're going to spit on him and scourge him and kill him.

He's going to be hastily dismissed as something, the off-scouring of the earth.

John 1.10 says that his own people did not receive him.

And so that's another indication that he was despised and he was scorned.

And people would even look away from him.

It's as though he had some kind of an appearance that would cause people to shun him.

I don't know what that was.

Although the Jewish tradition says that the Messiah must be a leper.

And so sometimes in rabbinic writing there is that reference.

All I'm trying to say is that there is the image of Jesus, and I don't mean that we should become like him in this way, but isn't there an emphasis in society that is just wrong-headed?

It seems to me there is, and maybe this by way of application, especially if you struggle in some of these areas, but I've noticed that man values what God deplores, such as, I made a list, self-confidence that borders on arrogance.

Man loves that.

They're attracted.

Physical attraction over depth of character.

A problem-free, larger than life, individual has no trouble whatsoever in his life.

That's the one that is attractive.

Or dominant leadership versus servant leadership.

Or a kind of charisma versus a spiritual maturity that comes usually through pain and the work of the Holy Spirit in someone's life.

I'd rather be on God's side of this equation, wouldn't you?

I'd rather be the kind of person that Jesus seemed to be as he's described by Isaiah.

So what kind of witness do we present to the watching world?

What would Jesus do?

How would he act?

How would he serve?

That's what we need to keep in mind.

Well, let's move on to the last or to the third segment, which is the wounded, the passion of the Messiah.

This is the passage that really talks about his suffering and death.

It's part of the Passover demonstration from last night, so is the next stanza as well.

But it says simply that he's going to die for others as a substitute.

Now, you might kind of overlook that, but the vicarious substitutionary death of Jesus is something that is criticized in modern theology today.

But here it says, He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.

He bears them away, he lifts them up, he takes them away.

His punishment wasn't his own fault, you see.

So he didn't die with the people, he died for the people.

He died in their place.

He was the substitute.

It was the exchange of life.

Here's an interesting way of putting it.

Since sin is against a holy God, it does not just require physical suffering, which Israel had experienced in abundance, but spiritual suffering, and I think that's the healing that is provided for us.

It's separation from God.

It's animal sacrifices covering human sin temporarily, but a perfect, sinless human sacrifice was necessary to remove the sin of humanity.

So all of the physical description of the woundedness of Christ in the past in the crucifixion story, it's important, but it stands for the spiritual suffering that he did when his father turned his face away from him.

And he said, Eloy, Eloy, Lama Sabatani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

It's because he was wounded spiritually, so that we could be healthy spiritually.

Well, um, the New Testament is replete with statements concerning this kind of thing about him taking our infirmities, our weaknesses, and exchanging them for eternal life.

He's also going to be accused of being punished by God.

When it says stricken and smitten and afflicted by God in the second part of verse 4, we considered him stricken and smitten and afflicted.

What we're learning here is that all of Israel assumed that he was dying because of his own sin.

You know, he was a criminal.

He needed to be executed by the Romans because he was trying to promote sedition.

And therefore, he, by his own sinfulness, deserved to go to the cross like the other criminals hanging there beside him.

That's the basic attitude.

And some people feel the same way.

If you talk to them enough, they feel like, well, Jesus went to the cross because he was a criminal.

He deserved to die, that capital death.

And so, does that describe someone like we know as Jesus?

Yes, it does.

He will suffer excruciating punishment as well.

And that exceedingly brutal punishment is described in the two words, pierced and crushed, just like that matza from last night has to be crushed down, has to be pierced in order to grow.

And it's got stripes on it and bruises.

Well, he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, but the punishment that brought us peace was upon him.

So, on the one hand, it's a brutal punishment that he went through, but he provides peace and healing by his suffering.

By his stripes, we are healed.

And I wanted to be sure to emphasize this before we conclude, and that is that Jesus solves the sin problem for you and for me.

It's most clearly expressed when he uses the description of sheep.

Now, I I know that there are probably some sheep farmers in the audience.

I are you a sheep farmer?

No, you're not.

I I have I have a uh I heard that, South Dakota.

I uh I have a little bit of insight into this because my grandfather actually uh had sheep.

And I would spend the summers with him.

Sheep stink.

I remember that as a child.

Sheep are not very bright.

Sheep just go from one thing to the next.

They follow the leader, and usually the lead sheep is just as dumb as they are.

So, and there's a great application there for the pastorate, isn't it?

But you know, it's just like going around and around.

They go whatever way they want to go.

And that's an apt description of your sin and mine.

I don't want a shepherd.

I want to follow one or the other sheep.

And so he says here, we, all of us, are like sheep.

We've gone astray.

And it's each one of us, it's not just the nation, it's each one of us, he says, has turned to his own way.

And you might think, oh man, it's time for a licking.

Let's get that sheep in line.

Let's go out and beat him with a rod, make sure that he comes back into the fold.

But what does God do through the suffering servant who is wounded for you?

Well, it says it right here.

The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

That means that this suffering servant, and I would dare anyone, and I often dare my Jewish friends, to think of anyone else in history who fits this description.

And it's like that student in the class that I was in.

This looks like Jesus.

Doesn't it look like Jesus to you?

Aren't we convinced that God in his sovereignty predicted the death of the suffering service?

Years and years and years before it happened?

And isn't it true that back in the 1500s, 1400s BCE before Christ, that that Passover Lamb was the predicted Lamb, the Lamb who would come, and that John would say, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

It's just, it's it's just too much to take in.

If you meditate on this, how is it possible that this is all true?

It's the greatest story ever told, which you've probably heard before.

Well, last night we talked about the switch in the imagery.

So now the lamb is described as the obedient and submissive lamb, and I think that's the next part.

He's the rejected lamb, and it's the passivity of the Messiah.

He's going to be submissive as a lamb, not opening his mouth.

He's going to be misunderstood by his own people.

They oppressed him and they judged him.

He's going to be childless.

He will be buried in a rich man's tomb.

What does that make you think of?

If it doesn't make you think of Joseph of Arimathea, I don't know what else it would.

And he will be absolutely innocent.

No violence, it says in verse 9, no deceit.

He's the uh impeccable Lamb of God, that lamb without blemish, you know.

But he's going to be exalted.

He's going to be satisfied.

And the last few verses, the last three verses, just to summarize it for you.

He's going to have a spiritual offspring.

That's us.

He will see his offspring.

And the resurrection is in this passage, folks.

He will live after his death.

He will see the light of life.

And he will be satisfied by justifying many and bearing their iniquities.

And he will, back to the first stanza, he will be exalted.

And he'll have his portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the victors.

Because he's coming back to rule and to reign.

And guess what?

You get to join him in that effort.

Well, thank you for uh listening.

Let's bow in prayer, shall we?

My gracious father, we are so