"Songs of the Savior - Given for Our Glorification" Isaiah 53 Sunday Evening Worship Service

Isaiah in chapter 53, which we read to begin our service this evening, is a text which kind of defies introduction.

It is probably the most famous text in the Old Testament among Christians.

It is a transcendent biblical text.

It was uh Church Father Jerome in the fourth century who wrote that the prophet Isaiah should be called an evangelist rather than a prophet, because this is these are Jerome's words, he describes all the mysteries of Christ and the church so clearly that you would think he is composing a history of what has already happened rather than prophesying about what is to come.

And if there is any text of which that is true, that the prophet really seems to be an evangelist describing the Christian gospel, it is Isaiah 53.

And our pastor Jesse Johnson has preached through Isaiah 53 at length.

All those sermons are available online, and I have really nothing to add to that.

What I'd like to do this evening instead is something a little bit different.

This evening I intend not to be quite as sermonic, uh, but a little bit more of a Bible study.

What I want to do is kind of zoom out and take kind of a bigger sweeping look at where Isaiah 53 fits a little bit more in the scheme of the redemptive plan that is laid out in the scripture.

And the way I'd like to do that is by walking through a problem that presents itself at the outset of this passage.

We'll call it the servant's glorification.

In fact, provide something of a problem that I want to tease out for you.

So let's begin by just reading a verse, the very first verse in this passage of Isaiah 53, which really is in the 52nd chapter.

So look down at your Bibles at Isaiah 52 and verse 13.

Isaiah begins this passage with these words.

Behold, my servant shall act wisely, he shall be high, lifted up, and shall be greatly exalted.

That's the effect this text ought to have on our minds.

What's happening in this text is that Isaiah is ascribing, or in the Lord's voice, in God's voice, language is being ascribed to the servant that in the rest of the Bible is reserved exclusively for God.

This verse says, look at it again, that the servant is going to be high, lifted up, and greatly exalted.

And if you just take those, do a little study in your Bible and you take some of those words, high and lifted up, and you chase those, for example, those two first verbs that occur in the text, you chase those around Scripture, you'll see that those two words occur in 18 other verses in Scripture, always speaking of either exclusive, exalted glory and majesty reserved for Yahweh, the Lord alone, or for sinful people pridefully exalting themselves, and because of this prideful exaltation, they'll be judged and brought down by God.

So, for example, these this language here, high and lifted up, is used in Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 1, where Isaiah says, in the year that the prophet Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up on a throne.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

That language should be ringing in our ears when we read a text like Isaiah 52, verse 13.

Isaiah 52:13

This language of being high and lifted up is reserved exclusively for the Lord.

Only the Lord is high and lifted up.

He alone is exalted, he alone is glorified.

And whenever this kind of language is used of a human being or anyone who's not God, it's used in a negative way.

Someone who's sinfully exalting themselves.

For example, in 2 Kings chapter 19, verse 22, the Assyrian king is said to have lifted himself up and exalted himself, and God is going to judge him and bring him down.

2 Kings 19:22

In a number of other texts, it's said that when people lift themselves up and make themselves high, God will judge them and bring them low.

So do you see the tension that's present in this verse?

This verse is describing the servant as possessing an exalted status that the rest of the Bible says belongs to God alone.

In fact, text like Isaiah 42, verse 8, God says, I am the Lord, that is my name, my glory I give to no other.

Isaiah 42:8

And yet here the Lord Himself is giving that glory to the servant.

So how do we how are we supposed to make sense of that?

That clearly language that in the rest of Scripture is said to belong to God and God alone, in this verse, is clearly given to the servant.

And in fact, what happens in this verse is this little this uh these two verbs, high and lifted up, are even expanded upon.

The language is even intensified further.

He's not only high and lifted up, he's greatly exalted.

How are we to understand that the servant is exalted to the level of Yahweh?

Well, there are a number of ways in which we would understand this.

I think if you're a Christian and you believe in the God of the Bible is a trinity, then immediately you're starting to think, well, Jesus, the servant, shares in the identity of God, and so of course he possesses God's glory.

But we're reading Isaiah here, so let's try to think Old Testament first.

And if we are trying to try to make sense of how it is that the servant can have the exalted status reserved for God alone, what we need to do is zoom out just a bit and take a wide lens view of the scripture.

So what I want to do is go back to the beginning of this book with you.

Go in your Bibles to Genesis in chapter 15.

I told you this would be a little bit less sermonic, a little bit more Bible study, so I'm gonna run you through a number of passages.

The first text I'd like you to turn to is Genesis in chapter 15.

And what I think is a helpful paradigm through which to view this passage is to look big picture at God's program of redemption of salvation in the scriptures.

And that program begins with a covenant that God makes with a man named Abraham.

God makes a covenant with Abraham beginning in chapter 12 of Genesis, where he calls him out of his land and says, Go to a place that I will show you.

And he makes a promise to him.

He makes a covenant with Abraham.

It's a threefold promise.

We won't run through all of the details tonight, but a threefold covenant that God makes with Abraham to give him seed, land, and blessing to the nation.

Seed that is through his offspring, a great nation will come.

It's the nation of Israel.

They'll have a land, the land of Canaan, the land of Palestine, the land of Israel, however you want to term it.

They will possess a physical land.

And through this nation, dwelling in this land, blessing will go to all the nations of the world.

So this threefold promise that God gives to Abraham.

Genesis, that's first given to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

I had you turn to Genesis 15, because Genesis 15 is the first time God reaffirms this promise, and there's a particular affirmation in this text that I think we should take note of.

Let's pick up this little passage in verse 7.

Genesis 15, verse 7 reads, And he that is the Lord said to Abram, I'm the Lord, I'm Yahweh, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.

Genesis 15:7

He's reaffirming, I'm going to fulfill my promise to you.

But much time has passed since chapter 12, and Abraham still hasn't had a single son.

And so, understandably, in verse 8, Abraham answers back to God, but oh Lord Yahweh, how am I to know that I will possess it?

How am I to know you're actually going to fulfill your promise?

And so this is how God proves that he's going to keep his promise.

Verse 9.

The Lord said to him, Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, and a ram three years old, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.

And he, Abram, brought all these out, cut them in half, laid each half over against the other, but he did not cut the birds in half, and when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

And as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and behold, a dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.

Then the Lord said to Abram, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will they will be servants there, and they'll be afflicted for four hundred years.

But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace, you shall be buried in a good old age, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

Now, verse 17.

When the sun had gone down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces.

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your offspring I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, etc., he details the land in the following verses.

What's happening is that God is engaging in an ancient Near Eastern treaty act, an ancient Near Eastern covenant ceremony, in which, this is paralleled for us in Jeremiah chapter 34, and in a number of ancient texts from the Near East that we've recovered via archaeology.

Jeremiah 34 · chapter mention

In this treaty, what would happen is that two parties, when they're going to make a solemn covenant together, would take animals, cut them in half, spread them apart, and the parties would walk through the animals, symbolizing, if I break this covenant, may the same thing happen to me that has happened to these animals.

And God is humbling himself to engage in a covenant treaty with Abram.

He has Abram gather together the animals, and Abram probably in his mind is thinking, I'm going to cut the animals apart, and I'm going to walk through them, and I'm going to say, sure, I'm going to be loyal to you, God.

And if I'm loyal to you, then I'll get all the blessings of the promises that you've given to me.

And if I'm not loyal to you, then I'll be cut in half and I'll be like these animals.

Instead, that doesn't happen.

Instead, God puts Abram to sleep.

And in verse 17, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the pieces.

That is a light symbolizing the Lord's presence passes between the pieces.

God passes through Himself.

I will unilaterally and solely out of grace, I will fulfill my promises to you, even if I have to be broken and have to do it.

Whatever the cost, whatever the consequences, I will fulfill my word to you, I will give you this blessing of a nation land and blessing to the nations.

So what we're seeing in chapter 15 is that God's plan is to redeem a people and all the nations, and that he's going to do it unilaterally.

God himself is going to fulfill this promise.

And this same point of emphasis is just reaffirmed as we read through the rest of the book of Genesis.

So go to chapter 22.

Chapter 22, and the next text I want to show you in the book of Genesis, actually the last text we'll look at together in the book of Genesis, is a famous text, the binding of Isaac.

You know the story.

God tells Abraham to take your son, your only beloved son, your son Isaac, to bind him and to offer him as a sacrifice.

And at the last moment, God stays his hand, and we'll pick up this story.

Let's start with verse 9, chapter 22 of Genesis in verse 9.

It says, When they came to the place which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, Here I am.

He said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for I now know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns.

And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called the name of the place, the Lord will provide, as it is said on this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.

Abraham gets the point of the lesson is that God's made a promise to you, and God is going to provide what is necessary to achieve it.

If there's a sacrifice necessary, God will provide the sacrifice.

And God reaffirms this same point emphatically in another vision, starting in verse 15.

Look, just look down in your Bibles.

In verse 15, it says that the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said to him, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withhold your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gates of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

You see the emphasis there?

By myself I will do this.

God will fulfill his covenant.

Particular little phrase that God opens this announcement with Venishbati is used four times in the whole Hebrew Bible, every time in the mouth of God, to solemnly and emphatically declare, God alone will do this, God will act.

God saying, I swear by myself, because there's nothing higher than myself on which I can swear, and by the way, only God can swear to God, that he will fulfill his covenant.

Not not allowing anyone else to do it, not because of Abraham, but God will solemnly, sovereignly, singularly fulfill his covenant.

Alright.

So we've seen in the book of Genesis God has a plan of redemption.

Let's go back to the book of Isaiah.

Go to Isaiah chapter one.

We've seen in the book of Genesis we could run through many other scriptures to see that God has a plan of redemption, a covenant plan by which he's going to redeem a people and the nations.

And he's going to do it sovereignly, unilaterally.

He's going to do it.

Get to the book of Isaiah.

And the book of Isaiah reaffirms this: that God is going to fulfill this promise to Abraham.

There's going to be this threefold blessing of seed, land, blessing to the nations, and that God Himself is the one who does it.

Let's look at, for example, chapter 2 of chapter of the book of Isaiah.

Now, Isaiah chapter 1, I would love to rehash, but it's a long chapter.

Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

We won't do it tonight.

Isaiah chapter 1 is a courtroom scene in which Israel gets a subpoena to come to God's courtroom, and they are charged for their sin.

Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

They're condemned.

They're said they're going to be judged, but at the end of the verse, God says, Through this judgment, I will purge you and I'll redeem you.

And then chapter 2 is a new oracle, a new prophecy, a new word from the Lord that says, That redemption is going to look like the promise I gave to Abraham.

My original plan is not failed.

You see this in chapter 2, verses 1 through 4.

So notice chapter 2, verse 1.

The word that Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

So you see, this promise is for Abraham's descendants.

This is for the seed.

He's reaff this vision is a vision of salvation for the seed of Abraham, just as the Lord swore in the book of Genesis and throughout Scripture, really.

Then verse 2 of chapter 2.

It says, It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and will be lifted up above the hills, and all the nations shall flow to it.

That's a reaffirmation that the land part of the Abrahamic promise.

That the land will be possessed, that the land will be blessed, and that all the nations will be blessed through this people dwelling in this land.

Verse 3.

And many peoples shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths.

For out of Zion shall go the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into ploughshears and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

See the vision?

As a vision of salvation in the last day, and it's this salvation is a reaffirmation, is the final fulfillment, the ultimate vision that God gave to Abraham.

Abraham's descendants would become a nation, they would dwell in the land, and through them all the nations of the earth would be blessed, and the entire the entire world would be recreated in an identic paradise as God had originally planned.

That's the promise of the book of Isaiah, is reaffirming this promise to Abraham, this great salvation, and that it's God himself who does it.

Now I've been walking you through some of these texts to try to draw out a specific point for you.

That is, and you can turn to Isaiah 53, because we're getting somewhere, I promise.

That is from the beginning of Scripture, we have this plan of redemption that God is going to do, God alone is going to do, by myself I do I swear, says the Lord.

In the book of Isaiah, it begins to show us that that plan of salvation, the people of Israel in their land, being a blessing to all the nations, that God said, I alone will accomplish.

Isaiah says that's going to be accomplished by a special servant.

There's a particular individual that Isaiah now says is the one through whom all of that is going to be accomplished.

And we've on Sunday mornings for the last couple weeks walked through chapter 42, chapter 49, chapter 50, and this evening chapter 53.

Traditionally we call these the servant songs.

Those prophecies, if you look at them with this wide lens, connect to all of the other great prophecies of salvation in the scripture.

And what they're doing is they're showing that the salvation that God promised to Abraham and said, I alone will do.

Now Isaiah is saying, the servant will do.

I want to walk through some of this, but I'm going to give you my thesis here at the beginning.

What's happening in these texts is that the servant is being so identified with Yahweh that he can share in Yahweh's very glory.

From the beginning, God says, I alone will accomplish the salvation.

And then in this book of prophecy, it's the servant who accomplishes the salvation, the servant who does what only Yahweh can do.

And in so doing, in describing the servant this way, what Isaiah is doing is he's so uniting, so identifying the servant with God Himself, that the servant can share in the very glory of God Himself.

Now let me walk through that with you.

What I want to do just for a couple of minutes, as we're thinking about this, is show you three ways in which Isaiah tells us that the servant accomplishes the salvation that God alone accomplishes.

That is, three ways the servant does what only God can do, and so can share in the glory that only God is due.

First, let me show you this in the context.

Isaiah chapter 53 has a chapter that comes before it and a chapter that comes after it.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

And if you look at where chapter 53 is sandwiched, in one long speech that Isaiah gives, you will see that chapter 53 serves to show us that the servant is the means by which God accomplishes the blessing promised to Abraham.

The servant is the means God achieves the Abrahamic blessing.

Now, let me show you what I mean by that.

Go to Chapter 51.

Chapter 51 and Chapter 52, two chapters that precede Chapter 53.

Our long vision of God finally achieving the Abrahamic blessing.

Look at chapter 51.

And verse 1 reads Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the Lord, look to the rock from which you were hewn, and the quarry from which you were dug.

Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you.

For he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.

The Lord comforts Zion, he comforts all her wasteplaces, he makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord.

What's that?

Chapter 51 is saying, Remember where you came from, Israel.

Remember the reason that you're here is that I made a covenant with your forefather Abraham.

The only reason that Israel exists is because I called a man out of the Middle East and said, By your seed I'll bless all the nations of the earth.

And you better believe, Israel, I'm gonna do what I said.

I will do what I said.

You read through chapter 51 and chapter 52, and you see God expanding on this, saying, I am gonna act in history to fulfill my word to you that I first gave to your forefather Abraham.

And this little vision in chapter 51 to 52 culminates and go to chapter 52, culminates in verses eight through ten, where you actually get an explicit reaffirmation of the threefold promise to Abraham.

So chapter 52 and verse 8 says, The voice of your watchman, they lift up their voice, together they sing for joy, for eye to eye, they see the return of the Lord to Zion.

That is the physical land, Zion, Jerusalem, your land.

I'm gonna come there, and you're gonna possess your land.

And in verse 9, break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.

There's going to be a salvation for Israel in their land.

And through that, verse 10 will be fulfilled.

The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Salvation for Israel in their land, and through them a blessing to all the nations.

You see what's happening is this is an explicit affirmation of what God promised to Abraham.

I'm going to do that.

And then you come to chapter 54, where there first there's this weird interruption, all of a sudden, this awesome scene of God's going to return and he's going to fulfill his promise to Abraham, and then all of a sudden there's this interruption, there's this guy who's ugly, and he's being beaten and dying, a brutal, horrible death.

And then the end of that song gets to chapter 54.

Chapter 54 rings out with a celebration that that salvation is accomplished.

Chapter 54, verse 1.

Announcement, everything that God promised to Abraham will be achieved.

And you just walk through this verse and you see the same reaffirmation of this threefold blessing to Abraham again.

Verses two to three say that all the nations are going to be saved.

Verse 2 enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out.

Do not hold back.

Lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes, for you'll spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations, and will people the desolate cities.

The nations will be blessed.

Look at verse 8.

The specific nation of Israel be blessed.

In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord your Redeemer.

This is like the days of Noah to me.

As I swore to the that the as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and I will not rebuke you.

For the mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you.

My covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord who has compassion on you.

God's going to redeem his people in their land, and through them all the nations.

Now, do you see chapter 51 and 52?

The blessing of Abraham reaffirmed.

Chapter 54, triumphantly the blessing of Abraham reaffirmed.

Why is 53 in the middle of that?

It's kind of a downer.

Before is like singing in 54, singing in 53 is painful.

Why is it there?

Why would you interrupt such good music with such horrible shrieks?

The reason is that the only way that that salvation can be achieved is if sin is removed.

And 53 is put in between these two salvation songs so abruptly to show that the way God is going to remove the sins of his people so that he can fulfill this salvation is through the servant.

The servant is the means by which God will remove the sins of his people and fulfill the salvation that he promised to them all the way back in the days of Abraham.

He is the one who will achieve what only God can achieve, and he'll do it through suffering.

So, just in the context of these few chapters of Isaiah, we see that the reason that Isaiah 53 is where it is in this book is to show that this servant and his suffering is accomplishing the salvation that God said only he can accomplish.

Because of that, the servant can be glorified in a way that only God can be glorified.

Now there's a couple other things I'd I'd love to show you.

There I think we could tease out about seven different connections here, but I'd like to show you just a couple other things, ways in which the servant is identified with God in this text.

One is that the servant is doing the cleansing and justifying that only God can do.

I'd like to take you through a number of texts, but let me just have you flip to um Isaiah in chapter 45.

Isaiah in chapter 45.

Isaiah chapter 1, we kind of skipped over a moment ago.

Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

Isaiah chapter 1 is the opening vision, kind of sets the scene, sets the agenda for the whole book of Isaiah, and it says that Israel has sinned against God, they will be judged.

Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

But through that judgment will come salvation.

Now, let's just listen to a couple verses where God says, Through this judgment will come your salvation.

And listen to who's doing that.

Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes.

I will turn my hand against you and smelt away your drosses with lie, and I will remove all your ally, all your alloy, I will restore your judges as at the first, and afterwards you shall be called the city of righteousness.

Who's doing that?

Who's the one who's taking away the sins of Israel?

It's pretty obvious.

It's God.

God alone is the only one who can do that.

God is the only one who can take away Israel's sin.

God is the only one who can purify his people.

And I had you turn to Isaiah chapter 45, because the last two verses of that chapter affirm the same thing.

Isaiah 45 · chapter mention

Isaiah 45, look at the verse 24.

That verse reads, Only in the Lord it shall be said of me our righteousness and strength.

To him shall come and be ashamed, all who are incensed against him.

In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.

Only God can justify, only God can purify, only God can make his people righteous.

This is everywhere in Scripture that only God can save.

He alone is a savior.

Now go to chapter 53.

Let me just zoom in on one verse and then maybe we'll look at a couple others.

But Isaiah 53 affirms something that is a touch scandalous.

Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 11 says, Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and by be satisfied.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

The verse that we just read says, Only in me is there righteousness, only I can justify.

And then this verse says that the servant is righteous, and he will justify.

See, what's happening is that the servant is doing what in the rest of the Bible, and including the book of Isaiah, it's emphatically declared, only God can do this.

God declares to Abraham, I will do this.

And now Isaiah says, the servant will do this.

And the servant will do it through suffering.

What Isaiah is affirming is that the is that this servant is doing what only God can do.

And so it's only right that the servant would be glorified as only God can be glorified.

Now, let me kind of jump ahead a bit.

I want to show you one other way in which the servant is identified with God in this text.

Um, if you look at verse 10, we've seen that contextually, Isaiah 53 shows us that the servant is achieving salvation only God can achieve.

We've seen that the whole point of this chapter is the servant is justifying God's people, and God says everywhere else in Scripture that only God does that.

There's one other way in which the servant is identified with God in this passage, and that is through his identity with God in his will.

The servant shares in the will of God.

The servant shares in the will of God.

Look at verse 10.

Verse 10 says, Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him, he has put him to grief.

When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days.

The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

See the the the term will of the Lord occurs in that text twice.

First half, look at the first half of verse 10.

It was the will of the Lord to crush him, which is a crazy verse in and of itself.

This word crush is used in Job chapter 4 to speak of the way that God could crush a man like you would crush a moth.

Job 4 · chapter mention

Crushed a moth before?

And you felt just the grainy, just it just disintegrates.

That's the idea here is that in order to achieve salvation, the servant is crushed.

He just endures tremendous suffering.

He's coming apart, he's disintegrating, he's being obliterated.

The wrath of God that should fall upon sinners is coming down on him, and like a moth that would just disintegrate in your in your fingers.

The servant is surrendering to the will of the Lord to endure the judgment that God's people deserve so that it can be removed from them and they can be brought into fellowship with God.

So the first half of the verse, the servant is surrendering to the will of God and enduring judgment for God's people to redeem them.

But the second half of the verse opens up an opportunity for us to consider the will of the Lord in a new way.

The second half of the verse, look at the last line, says that the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

I don't know if you've considered that before, but that's a really interesting phrase.

The will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

The phrase there is that the Lord is surrendering his will into the servant's hand.

You see this like converse relationship?

The first half, the servant is surrendering himself to the will of the Lord, and in the second half, the Lord is surrendering his will into the servant's hand.

So there's this reciprocal relationship going on.

In fact, this is the only time in all of Scripture where it is said that the Lord surrenders his will to anybody.

No one else in all of Scripture has the will of God in his hand and causes God's will to succeed.

Just to make sure that we are getting the metaphor right, this metaphor of putting something into someone's hand speaks of giving something up and surrendering it to their control.

For example, Potiphar in Genesis in chapter 39, when he is handing over management of his estate to Joseph, is said to deliver his estate into Joseph's hand.

That is, Potiphar's got other things, and he says, I trust you, and I give this to your hand.

You execute my will.

And here we have that language speaking of the relationship between God and the servant.

God delivering his will into the servant's hand, and the servant is executing God's will.

That's a unique relationship.

It's a relationship that will sound familiar to us if we fast forward a minute to John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

Why don't you flip forward to John chapter 10?

John 10 · chapter mention

And three little verses pick up this same idea.

In John chapter 10, Jesus is speaking to a group of Jews, and in verse 28, he's describing his role as the good shepherd.

John 10 · chapter mention

John 10, 28, Jesus says, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.

No one will snatch them out of my hand.

Jesus has his people in his hand.

Verse 29, My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

Okay, so they're in the Father's hand.

I in the Father are one.

One will, one divine act, one hand.

Jesus is claiming identity with God.

And the Jews know exactly what he's saying, because in the next verse, the Jews pick up stones again to stone him.

And he says, I have shown you many good works from the Father, for which of these are you going to stone me?

And the Jews answered, It's not for good work that we're going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you being a man make yourself out to be God.

They knew exactly what he was doing.

Saying that I and the Father, our will are in the same hand, is blasphemy because it's making himself out to be God.

But Jesus didn't make that language up.

Our language was already in the prophet Isaiah when Isaiah looked forward and spoke of him.

There is a unique relationship between this servant and the Lord.

There's a way in which this servant can surrender himself to the Lord's will.

There's also a way in which the Lord has delivered his will into the servant's hand because their will is one.

This servant does what only God can do.

This servant shares in the very will of God.

This servant is so identified with the God of Israel, with the God of the universe, that it is only right that the prophecy would open by saying He will be high, lifted up, and greatly exalted.

Because he does what only God can do.

Yahweh swears that he will fulfill his salvation by himself, and the servant does it.

The servant is so closely identified with God in this act that he is God and he shares in his glory.

And you fast forward through the New Testament.

I've been giddy to try to fast forward to a bunch of New Testament texts, and I've restrained myself this evening.

But you fast forward through to the New Testament, and you see the New Testament is just telling us exactly what was already here in the book of Isaiah.

The writer of Hebrews opens his letter by exclaiming, He's the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of his nature.

And Jesus says to his disciples, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

Of course I deserve this glory.

I've always had this glory.

In fact, this text that I talked about at the beginning, Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 1, excuse me, Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 1, where Isaiah sees the Lord seated on a throne high and lifted up in this exclusive divine glory.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

John chapter 12, the Apostle John says, in that vision, Isaiah was seeing the Lord Jesus Christ and writing of him.

John 12 · chapter mention

And you ask, this is pretty cool.

Servant is glorified to the level of Yahweh because he's so identified with Yahweh, he is Yahweh.

But we ask, what does that have to do with me?

And the simple answer to that question is that the servant's glorification is your glorification.

John writes that that king on that high and exalted throne got off his throne and became a servant who suffered and died for his people.

Resurrected from the dead, and the great New Testament doctrine of salvation is that through faith in Jesus Christ, God's people become united to him, so united to him that in this union with Jesus Christ, they share in his glorification.

Why don't you fast forward to Romans chapter 8?

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 8, and we'll just briefly look at one New Testament text that kind of ties up some of these loose strings.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 8 picks up a conversation that obviously the Apostle Paul has been engaging in for a number of chapters.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

One of the things that the Apostle Paul is eager to let us know is that believers are united to the Lord Jesus.

You die to yourself, you're re you're resurrected to a new life, united to Jesus Christ.

He reaffirms this in Romans chapter 8 and verse 10.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Notice Romans chapter 8 and verse 10 says, But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

To be a Christian is for Christ to be in you.

You're united to Jesus Christ, you share in his life.

And here's a consequence of that.

If you're united to this Jesus, who forever existed on this throne, high and lifted up, got off his throne, came into the world, suffered, bore the wrath of his people, and then resurrected from the dead to regain his throne.

If you're united to him, what's the consequence of that?

Verse 16 says that the Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God, and if we're children, then we're heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him.

The outcome of being united to Jesus Christ is that just as he is now glorified, you too will be glorified.

His glorification will be your glorification.

This is reaffirmed at the end of the chapter.

Look at verse 28.

A famous passage that says, And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Those whom he predestined, he also called.

Those whom he called, he justified, and those whom he justified, he glorified.

All things work together for good, but the good is not necessarily the job that I want in this life.

The good is something far greater.

The good is that I would be called, justified, and then glorified, that I would be raised to an exalted, glorified status, just as Christ is, because I'm united with him, I would share in his glorification.

This is all over the New Testament.

Ephesians chapter 2, verses 5 and 6 says he has seated us with him in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 2:5

And then if we fast forward to the very end of this book, we started in Genesis, we should finish in Revelation, obviously.

Revelation chapter 3 and verse 21, Jesus gives this promise.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

Isn't it easy for Bible words to become dull?

Glorification.

Sweet, what does that mean?

I'll be shiny and life will be a little bit better.

The doctrine of glorification in Scripture is that in some way that seems almost blasphemous, I will share in Christ's eternal divine glory.

At this infinitely glorious creator of the universe, humbled himself to the point where he endured wrath on my behalf and is now resurrected and seated far above every earthly or heavenly power and is bringing me with him.

In a way that, as I said, almost seems blasphemous, I am going to share in that glory forever.

The servant of Isaiah 53 is none other than the eternal God.

He was always glorified as God, he will evermore be glorified as God, and if you are in him in some mysterious, infathomable way that is far beyond anything you could ever hope, think, imagine, or expect for yourself, so will you if you are in Jesus Christ.

Like good news?

Why don't we pray together?

Father, we're so thankful that what you have for us in Scripture, what you have prepared for us before the foundation of the world, is more than we could ever ask, think, or imagine.

So, God, we ask that as we read texts like this and we look into your word, that you would evermore cause us to decrease and Christ to increase in our hearts.

So give us small views of ourselves and great, grand views of Christ.

Make us an awe of him, make us love him, and make us ready for his service.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

You have been listening to Emmanuel with Pastor Jesse Johnson.

You can find more resources like this at ibcba.com.

Here is a parting word from Pastor Jesse.

If you have any questions about what you've heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, ibcva.com.

If you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.

area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.

We're located in Northern Virginia, and for more information about when and where we worship, check out our church website.

I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.

But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.

Now may God bless you this week that you speak to Jesus constantly.

Serve the Lord faithfully and share the gospel forward.