The Resurrection of the Servant

We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, let's read together from Isaiah 53 and then we'll think about it for a time together.

So Isaiah 53 from the beginning, but we'll think about verses 10 to 12.

Who has believed our message?

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

He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering.

Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment that brought us peace was on him and by his wounds we are healed.

We all like sheep have gone astray.

Each of us has turned to our own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away, yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living.

For the transgression of my people he was punished.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer.

And though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.

By his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

So we've been thinking for the last two Sundays now this one about the gospel, the good news that there is in the suffering servant of Isaiah 53.

And we come here to part three and we're going to focus on the resurrection of the servant as we think about Easter Sunday.

But I want to begin with the story of a man from Cameroon called Francis Ngannou.

And maybe you've heard of him. I suspect most of you haven't. I certainly hadn't until last week.

If you're interested, he is an ultimate fighter. He's in the UFC, mixed martial arts.

I don't follow it, but I always like to read those sort of personal interest stories, those interviews that reveal sort of glimpses into the sort of the backstory of athletes.

And Francis's story is a story of being a refugee from Cameroon to becoming a rising star within the MMA.

So I was reading and listening to him talk about being like many thousands from Africa, leaving that continent on migrant boats in order to sail to France.

And then he spent months homeless and penniless in Paris until eventually he found a gym and then he began to train.

And now he's on this path towards success in the MMA.

And so I read that in the morning. And then later that day, I discovered that he had a championship fight, which he won.

And he is now crowned as heavyweight champion in the world of UFC.

And it's sort of now in my head, those two stories of agony and struggle and victory, they belong together.

When I think about Francis and Gannou.

And isn't that true when we think of the story of Easter and the story of Jesus?

Here we have Isaiah 700 years before the arrival of Jesus.

And what he's done in the first verses that we've looked at, he's taken us into the agony, to the depths of the suffering and the death of Jesus, the obedient suffering servant of the Lord.

And today, in verses 10 to 12, we're going to see how the agony and the victory of the resurrection are then woven together as essential elements in the gospel.

They are two sides of the same coin.

So that hopefully we will recognise that we are called to respond to the Jesus of Isaiah 53.

The Jesus who is both crucified for us and risen in glory.

So the question is, will we worship this Jesus or will we walk away from him?

So we're going to think about the resurrection of the servant of the Lord and see how that connects with the Lord's will.

And then think about what that says about the satisfaction of the servant and the triumph of the servant as we move through this text.

So let's begin with the resurrection and the Lord's will.

Verse 10.

Look how it begins.

Yet it takes us right to the heart of the crucial question.

Who killed Jesus?

And it takes us beyond the religious leaders who plotted and planned against Jesus.

It takes us past the Roman soldiers who conspired with the Jews to put Jesus to death.

Ultimately, we see it was the father who planned to kill Jesus.

Notice it begins, verse 10 begins with a yet.

It's saying, although we have seen all this truth, although we have seen the servant despised, abused, rejected, killed, buried by those who hated him and opposed him.

Yet as the curtain is pulled back, beyond human actions, we see it is the Lord's will and the Lord's pleasure to do what?

This is a remarkable statement, isn't it?

Look at verse 10.

It was the Lord's will.

It's the Lord's pleasure to crush his servant.

To cause his servant to suffer.

To make his servant's life an offering for sin, a guilt offering.

Now remember, the servant is Jesus, the sinless Son of God.

The dearly loved Son of God.

So the question is that, how do we make sense of this?

How can the Father delight in the death of his Son?

And the answer must lie in what the death of his Son, the Lord Jesus, achieves.

Now to just take a step back for a moment.

Imagine the Bible, not as a book, but as a symphony.

And if the Bible was a symphony, we'd hear over and over again the great melody of salvation ringing out.

God is a God who delights to save sinners.

But within this symphony, we'd have interweaving themes that come and go throughout the whole Bible.

And two dominant themes are, one, that God is passionate for his glory and his honour.

So he cannot turn a blind eye to sin and he cannot just brush sin under the carpet.

He must be just and he must maintain his holiness.

So God's passion for his glory and honour.

But also, the other theme that we see is God's electing love.

He is passionate to do good to sinners who rob him of glory, who deny him the honour he deserves.

And what we see and what the Father delights in is that Jesus, in his death and resurrection, he brings those two themes together.

This is what brings the Father delight.

That Jesus is passionate for the glory of God and Jesus is passionate in his desire to save sinners.

And so Jesus becomes our guilt offering.

And Jesus' guilt offering is a suitable offering.

He is perfect.

He is blameless, as the law demands.

Jesus, coming as our substitute, he meets the demands of God's justice against sin, as every sacrifice did.

And Jesus also meets the needs for sinners like ourselves.

We cannot make ourselves good enough for God.

We need the sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus.

And in his becoming our guilt offering, he brings God glory and he saves sinners and God is pleased.

Of course, that's not the end of the story.

The story doesn't end with Jesus' death.

Verse 10 continues.

He will see his offspring and prolong his days.

And the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

Beyond agony, there is victory.

The will of the Lord prospers in his hand, Isaiah says.

What does that mean?

It means that beyond the death of Jesus, there is life.

And in his risen life, Jesus continues the Lord's will.

God's purpose and plan is worked out in and through the Lord Jesus.

And what is his plan?

What is the will and the pleasure of God?

Well, again, to go back to verse 10, Jesus will see his offspring.

Jesus, in his dying and rising, purchases a spiritual family that belong to God,

who with Jesus share in his resurrection life.

And so we are invited by Isaiah and in the good news of the gospel to look to the cross

and to see there at the cross both the Lord's plan and the Lord's passion.

His desire to uphold his glory and honour and his desire to save ungodly rebel sinners

by laying our sin on Jesus, by Jesus enduring our shame so that we might receive his honour.

So we are not ashamed to say Christianity is a rescue religion.

The great song of the Bible is the song of salvation.

And we want to sing that joyfully.

Nothing in my hands I bring simply to the cross of Jesus I cling.

So we look to the cross, but we also look to the risen Jesus,

the one who accomplishes the Lord's will as he becomes that guilt offering,

the one who accomplishes the Lord's will as he establishes that family of faith that enjoys eternal life.

As that family covers the globe, the global church, the church through history,

Jesus accomplishing the Lord's will.

The death and resurrection of Jesus enthrones him as victorious king.

So this was the Lord's will for Jesus.

I wonder how often we think about the Lord's will, the Lord's desire for you and for me.

Paul, as he writes to Timothy in his first letter to Timothy chapter 2,

says that God desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

What is that?

What is that truth?

That in Jesus we can be part of the family of God rather than being enemies estranged from God.

That we can receive eternal life and not eternal death.

That we can enjoy forgiveness.

That we don't have to live with guilt.

That's the gift that God desires to give.

Now of course, we can resist that.

We can say no to that.

But why would we?

Do we know Jesus as Saviour?

Do we worship him because of all that he has done?

There's the resurrection and the Lord's will.

Verse 11 moves from there to think about the resurrection and the servant's satisfaction.

The satisfaction of Jesus, the servant of the Lord.

Perhaps you are familiar with performance assessments.

I know boys and girls that that's something you sometimes have to do in school.

Maybe in a workplace you have end of year reviews or end of a project reviews.

It's part of life for many of us.

Asking questions like, you know, am I happy with how things went?

What would I have done differently?

Could things have been done better?

Could things have turned out better?

Now Isaiah here pictures, anticipates the servant of the Lord giving his assessment of the cross as he looks back on it as a finished work.

And the servant is totally satisfied.

He would change nothing because he has performed, he has achieved the Lord's will.

And of course the Lord's will is the will of the servant because Jesus is the Son of God.

So he is totally satisfied with what his performance has achieved.

Let's see that in verse 11.

Look at the beginning with me.

After or literally because he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.

Here is a reward anticipated satisfaction that will be experienced because of this suffering that has been gone through.

So the flow of the first part of the verse is because Jesus has suffered and died and Isaiah has laid that out in verses 3 to 9.

Because he was despised and rejected, because he suffered, because he took up our pain and suffering,

because he was pierced for our transgressions,

because the punishment that brought us peace was on him as he was oppressed and afflicted but bore that silently.

Now as he was cut off from the land of the living and assigned a grave with the wicked,

after that comes resurrection.

He will see the light of life and he knows the satisfaction of the plan of salvation being completed.

So Jesus can look on the cross and be satisfied,

knowing it is both the Lord's delight in upholding his glory and his delight in saving sinners.

Jesus knows satisfaction as his offering purchases offspring for God's family.

He dies so we might live.

To use the language of the book of Hebrews from a different section,

Hebrews chapter 12, speaks of Jesus who for the joy set before him,

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

so this is looking forward to the cross,

who for the joy set before him endured the cross.

Now what was the joy anticipated by Jesus?

The joy of completing the Father's plan,

of upholding the Father's glory and bringing salvation to sinners.

And now here in Isaiah, he's looking back and seeing that same joy.

Now the second part of the verse is interesting.

Take a look at that verse, the second part.

By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities.

Now our instinct might be to read that to say that knowing Jesus is the key to being justified in God's sight.

If we are to be declared perfectly acceptable, we can't do that on our own strength or merit.

We need to know the Lord Jesus.

And that of course is true.

But the focus here isn't what do I know about Jesus?

The focus is what does Jesus the servant know?

And what Jesus the servant knows, and he alone knows, and knows fully,

he knows the Lord's will.

The Lord's will to uphold his honour.

The Lord's will to save sinners.

Jesus, as he comes, as he suffers and dies, he knows that.

Jesus knows what the Lord requires.

For us as sinful people to be acceptable, Jesus must, to use the language of verse 11,

he must bear our iniquities.

He must suffer the judgment of God for us.

He must go under the curse for us.

Jesus must become, as it were, unacceptable, that we might be made acceptable in God's sight there at the cross.

What we discover in verse 11 is that our hope rests in Jesus.

Jesus, who is God's righteous servant.

And that word righteous is so important.

That he is righteous is good news for us.

Because the only way for his offering to be accepted is if he is righteous and blameless.

Just like in the Old Testament, the animals had to be pure and blameless.

It was a picture of the sacrifice God requires to deal with our sin has to be a righteous one.

That's Jesus, the righteous servant.

And the only way his righteousness can be extended to us is if we receive it as a gift.

God can only be satisfied with us because he is satisfied with his son and we are in Christ.

By faith we are united to Christ so that when God looks at us, he sees us perfect in the Lord Jesus.

And it brought Jesus satisfaction to do that for God's glory and for the church.

That's an amazing thing to think about considering the events of Easter.

When Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones sang and we still hear it,

I can't get no satisfaction.

I expect then they were voiced in the feelings of many.

And I think now we still have that sense of discontent.

Perhaps in this last year especially, feeling a sense of discontent.

Perhaps we're not sure where we look for satisfaction.

Maybe we've tried various things to give our life a sense of meaning and purpose and identity.

And as the foundations of life have been shaken, we find that we're not sure where to turn.

Well, the Bible says the one source of true and lasting satisfaction is in Jesus.

So we look to Jesus and we consider what brought Jesus satisfaction.

Here in Isaiah, we're reminded that the sinless Son of God took on himself the sin of the world,

the judgment that we deserve so that we could be justified,

so that we could stand in God's presence and not be condemned,

so we could be declared righteous in God's eyes.

And that brings Jesus satisfaction.

There's love, isn't it?

Jesus both has satisfied the requirements of the law by becoming our blameless substitute,

and Jesus is satisfied that the plan of salvation is complete,

that the price has been paid, that the gift has been offered

to a needy, hurting, broken world, to you and me today.

Your longings for love, for purpose, for security, for hope, for forgiveness,

they are found in the risen Lord Jesus.

Look to him, turn from sin and turn towards God

and to put your trust in Jesus as saviour.

And you will find your heart's desire in him.

And now let's have a look at verse 12

and the resurrection and the servant's triumph.

Now I want to suggest there's a picture here

as we read verse 12 and we'll read it in a second.

And the picture is of a victory podium.

You imagine perhaps a medal ceremony

and there's a gold medalist on the top of the podium

and he's receiving, she's receiving glory.

Now the question,

who is it that receives glory and victory in Isaiah's prophecy?

Now in the translation we have here,

first half of verse 12,

therefore I will give him a portion among the great

and he will divide the spoils with the strong.

Now that can sound like and perhaps suggest

that if this is a podium,

then the whole team are on the platform together,

sharing in honour.

Now perhaps Jesus is captain,

but he is first among equals.

That might be the impression we get,

but it's better to think of it this way.

There is only one who stands on that podium.

Only one who receives this glory and honour

anticipated in Isaiah 53 in the first instance,

and that's the servant,

Jesus,

our risen Lord.

And that we then appreciate that our victory

is totally dependent on that of Jesus.

Jesus is for us,

our champion.

Think back to the Old Testament,

David against Goliath.

Rather than having Israel and the Philistines

as whole armies battle it out,

champions were chosen.

And whichever one was victorious,

their army would share in the victory.

So Jesus,

as our champion,

wins the battle against sin

and the devil and death and the grave.

He pays the price that we owe

because we have broken God's law

and in him and only in him

are we conquerors.

So that all the glory

and all the honour

must return to Jesus

even as we share in his victory.

To him be the glory.

Look at the verse 12 again.

Therefore,

in light of

having perfectly completed his task,

there is now a victory,

there is now reward.

Therefore,

I will give him a portion

among the great,

among the many.

This is a picture of Jesus

receiving all the redeemed people of God

as his reward.

What is the reward for Jesus

after his death and resurrection?

It's the church.

Don't ever devalue the church.

It's Christ's reward.

It's the people he died to save

and to love

and to bring into fellowship with him.

And then verse 12,

the second line in verse 12,

slightly different note,

he will divide the spoils

with the strong.

It's a picture of the spoils of war.

You know,

to the victor belong the spoils.

Well,

the spoils of war here

are actually

the strong.

It's a reference to those

nations and kings

in the book of Isaiah

who resist

God's will.

Those who resist

Jesus

ultimately

will be defeated.

Decisive action

of judgment

will be taken

against those

who oppose

Jesus as Lord.

Here is total triumph

in other words.

Here is the risen Jesus

in joy and glory,

saving his people,

bringing judgment

on those who oppose him.

And how does that victory,

how does the reward come?

Read with me in verse 12.

Because

he poured out

his life unto death.

So because of his death

and

because he was numbered

with the transgressors,

because he identifies,

self-identifies

with sinners,

and because

he bore

the sin of many.

Jesus

in love

was willing

to be regarded

as a rebel.

Jesus

out of love

and mercy

was willing

to take on himself

and be punished

for those thoughts

that you have,

those actions

you have committed,

those words

that you have spoken

that cause you deep shame

and you would love

to hide

and to bury him

for no one else to see.

Jesus

died

for those,

identified with those

and bore

those.

And here

is the triumph

and the victory

of salvation.

Through the cross

and the resurrection

there is

reward,

there is honour

for Jesus.

But how does

reward and honour

and good news

come to us

because he does

it for us.

And notice

in particular

this last phrase,

Jesus made

intercession

for the transgressors.

Here is Jesus

standing as

go-between.

You know

in friendships

when people are

sort of face-to-face

but then there's

a falling out

and people then

turn their backs

on one another.

Jesus comes

as mediator,

he comes as that

party looking

to reconcile.

And Jesus

is the perfect

mediator because

between God

and man,

Jesus is both

God and

man.

And Jesus

stands and he

takes that

sin that

separates.

He takes the

anger of God

that is against

us so that we

might be reconciled

through faith

in him.

And it's important

that we understand

that the intercession

of Jesus

wasn't a one-time

thing there at

the cross.

Jesus continues

to make intercession.

Again to go to

Hebrews,

Hebrews chapter 7

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

and verse 25,

Jesus ever lives

we're told to

make intercession.

Jesus in other

words is constantly

claiming his

finished work

as the basis

for his people

to be accepted

and welcomed.

He is pleading

before the

father on the

basis of

those wounds

that he received

on the cross.

The reality

that he has

suffered and

died in our

place for our

sins that justice

has been done

so that by faith

in Jesus we

can be welcome

and accepted.

We are a

people who

long for

security.

It's been

profoundly

unsettling times.

There is

complete security

for now and

eternity in

knowing the

risen Lord

Jesus.

we have his

power in

us.

We have his

presence with

us and we

have him in

heaven and he

is praying

for us.

So we have

seen the

agony and

the victory

of the

servant and

we see it

in the

story of

Easter.

Here is

Isaiah led

by the

spirit anticipating

700 years

later the

agony of

the suffering

of the

being forsaken

of the

death of

the

resurrection

triumph of

Jesus.

How do we

respond?

Well I think

about the

story of

Francis Ngannou

knowing all

he'd gone

through it

made me

root for

him to

have

success.

It made

me feel a

sense of

happiness that

he would

have victory

beyond his

struggles.

How much

more should

we have

joy in

the victory

of Jesus?

How much

more should

we delight

in Jesus

knowing that

the agonies

he went

through he

went through

for us?

It's

Jesus who

delighted in

carrying out

God's plan

of salvation

who is

satisfied in

justifying

ungodly

people like

us who

intercedes

for us so

that we

might share

his resurrection

life and

victory.

That's the

good news of

Easter.

That's the

heart of

the message

of the

gospel.

I wonder

if that's

the story

that's central

to your

heart

bringing you

joy today.

If it is

then worship

Jesus,

enjoy him,

trust him

and if not

turn to

him as

your Lord

and Saviour.

Let's pray

together.

Lord,

there is so

much mystery

surrounding

Easter.

It is a

mystery that

you could be

pleased in

sending your

son to be

the sin

bearer so

that people

like us

might be

forgiven and

redeemed and

justified and

adopted and

have the hope

of glory.

But yet we

know it's

true.

Lord, we

are amazed

at the

satisfaction

that Jesus

felt in

completing your

plan and in

saving people

like us.

In seeing

your love

for the

church.

Help us to

know that

this is

true.

Father, help

us to see

in a fresh

way the

glory, the

triumph, the

victory of

the Lord

Jesus, to

know that in

him we have

security and

hope for now

and for

eternity, that

we would live

as a people

with hope and

joy.

We pray in

Jesus' name.

Amen.

aram

Leifa

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me old again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh, precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow.

No other fount I know.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my pardon, this I see

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my cleansing, this my plea.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh, precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow.

No other fount I know.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can force in the tone

Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Not of good that I have done

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh, precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow.

Oh, precious is the flow

No other fount I know.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

This is all my hope and peace

Nothing but the blood of Jesus

This is all my righteousness

Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Oh, precious is the blood of Jesus

Oh, precious is the flow

Oh, precious is the flow

Oh, precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow

Oh, precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow

No other fount I know.

Oh, precious is the flow

Oh, precious is the flow

Oh, precious is the flow

Oh, precious is the flow

Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Now by this I'll overcome

Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Now by this I'll reach my home

Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Now by this I'll reach my home

Nothing but the blood of Jesus

And oh, precious is the flow

Oh, precious is the flow

Oh, precious is the flow

Oh, precious is the flow

The flow that makes me white as snow

No other found I know

Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Crown Him with many crowns

The Lamb upon His throne

While heaven's eternal anthem

Drowns all music but its own

Awake my soul and sing

Of Him who died to be

Your Savior and your matchless King

Through all eternity

Crown Him the Lord of life

Triumphant from the grave

Who rose victorious from the strife

For those He came to save

His glories now we sing

Who died and rings on high

Who died eternal life to bring

And lives that death may die

Crown Him the Lord of love

Who shows His hands and side

Those wounds yet visible above

And beauty glorified

No angel in the sky

Can't fully bear the sight

But downward bends His burning eye

Crying high at mystery so bright

Crown Him the Lord of peace

His kingdom is at hand

From pole to pole

From pole to pole let warfare cease

And Christ rule every land

A city stands on high

His glory it displays

And there the nations

Holy cry in joyful hymn of praise

Praise

Crown Him the Lord of years

Crown Him the Lord of years

The potent saint of time

Creator of the rolling spheres

In majesty sublime

All hail, Redeemer, hail

For You have died for me

Your praise shall never, never fail

Through all eternity

All hail, Redeemer, hail

For You have died for me

Your praise shall never, never fail

Through all eternity

I'll praise the Lord my God

Whose counsel guides my choice

And even in the night

My heart recalls instructions' voice

Before me constantly

I set the Lord alone

Because He is at my right hand

I'll not be overthrown

Therefore my heart is glad

My tongue with joy will sing

My body too will rest secure

In hope unwavering

For You will not allow

My soul in death to stay

Nor will You leave Your Holy One

To see the tombs decay

You have made known to me

The path of life divine

Bliss shall I know

At Your right hand

Joy from Your face will shine

Anytime

To see the tombs till there

You have made known to be

And for the mind

Of The

Caitlin

And the journkas