Isaiah 53:1-5

If you've got your Bibles this morning and you

want to turn along, we'll be in Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

53. This is a book that right before Easter last

year I got to preach from verses 6 to 12 and

it made sense just to go back this year and get

the first five verses. There certainly wasn't

time. There's so much packed in here. But Isaiah

himself was a prophet who ministered at least

40 years. He oversaw the reign of four different

kings and was called by God in chapter 6 of this

book. It would become the most prophetic book

in all the Old Testament, the most quoted of

all the Old Testament books. And during the reign

of King Uzziah, to lay a little context, Israel

became very strong economically, militarily.

They had become very prosperous. But in the wake

of all this social status and uptick, they declined

spiritually. Even King Uzziah, after a long kingship,

attempted to offer incense on the altar, a job

reserved only for priests, and as a result, he

would be struck with leprosy and later die. Isaiah

prophesied of some of the clearest references

in all of Scripture regarding Christ as the coming

Messiah. He's writing under inspiration of the

Holy Spirit here hundreds of years before Christ's

coming. With this idea, we begin looking forward

to Easter this week. We'll dig into Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

53, probably one of the most well -known chapters

in the entire Old Testament. A coming servant

who would redeem God's people and become a light

to the nations. The promise, as we have seen,

a promise that will be fulfilled, has been fulfilled

in Jesus Christ. And here in this chapter, we

discover how He will redeem and suffer for His

people. The first thing we see is the suffering

of the servant. Verse 1, Isaiah writing, Who

has believed our report? And to whom has the

arm of the Lord been revealed? Now verse 1 begins

with two questions. And to understand the immediate

context, we need to back up to chapter 52. No

chapter divisions existed in the original text.

Isaiah writing, Behold, my servant shall deal

prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled to

be very high. Just as many were astonished at

you, so his visage was marred more than any man,

his form more than the sons of men. So he shall

sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their

mouths at him, for what had not been told to

them they shall see, and what had not been heard

they shall consider. Now, in many earlier chapters

in Isaiah up until this point, Isaiah has pointed

out that the Israelites had been spiritually

deaf, spiritually blind. and failed to believe

what God had said to His people speaking through

the prophets. They had been spiritually blinded.

But the Lord promises here in the future that

He would remove their blindness and that they

would trust Him. And as we begin to consider

foremost Christ, but specifically in context

of Isaiah 53 this morning, where He is known

as a suffering servant, we must realize that

belief and trust are always at the heart of every

person's relationship to Christ. There are times

where God reveals particular things within Scripture

that are hard for us to understand and they are

hard for us to accept. And for Isaiah's original

audience, Isaiah 53 was certainly one of those

hard texts for them to comprehend. We'll get

into why that is. God's purposes have never been,

nor will they ever be, thwarted by humanity.

Isaiah quickly here references the arm of the

Lord. Now, as you hear that term, the arm of

the Lord, Many images may be flooding your mind

with many Old Testament scenes. That is specific

language that was used to express God's display

of His power. in the Old Testament. The arm of

the Lord brought deliverance to the Israelites

at the time of the exodus from Egypt. It mightily

brought the ultimate defeat of the nation Babylon.

God powerfully, using that arm of the Lord, functions

positively to rule the earth when He comes to

reign, most triumphantly. It will bring forth

God's salvation to His people, Jew or Gentile.

The triune Godhead orchestrated the plan of salvation,

the rescue mission where Christ would embark

before the foundation of the world as a means

that a holy God could be reconciled to fallen

mankind. Verse 2. For he shall grow up before

him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry

ground. He has no form or comeliness, and when

we see him there is no beauty that we should

desire him. Now, the servant... was not the Savior

that they were looking for. He would not be that.

He was not what they had in mind. He was not

going to ride in on a war horse and overthrow

the Roman government. He was going to hang on

a cross. And this was absolutely the last thing

they would have expected from a deliverer, from

a Messiah. Building on the question from verse

1, who has believed our report? Isaiah begins

to speak of the servant here by referencing his

origin and his appearance. But Isaiah uses poetic

language when he says he was a tender plant.

He was a root out of dry ground. Now that root

coming up out of dry ground, that is a metaphor.

And it's intentional. It ties in with the later

part of this verse. One plays on the other. He's

pictured here as a tender plant, opposed to something

strong and independent as a standing oak. He's

referred to as a shoot, one coming up out of

the stump of Jesse, a keenly Davidic figure is

described, but all in dry ground. What's significant

there about that dry ground? First of all, dry

soil is not fertile. And a person usually does

not find lush plants growing in places where

there's no water. This imagery captures the lowly

background, not only of his parents, but also

the state of the nation when Jesus was born also.

You remember at his first advent, there was not

much fanfare. Certainly the angels appeared to

the shepherds, the shepherds came and viewed

him, but the whole city of Bethlehem was not.

you know, running around that the Savior had

been born. There was very little celebration

at that first advent. He was born in a place

where animals were kept. Not a palace, not a

place of luxuries and royalties afforded to persons

of royal lineage where they would be born. But

in spite of these lowly images, Isaiah said the

servant grew up before him, before Almighty God.

But he says there was no form, there was no beauty.

There was no impressive form in the servant.

He did not have glorious looks of earthly kings.

There was nothing in his physical appearance

that marked him out, that set him apart. And

when we speak of Christ's coming, we're talking

about the doctrine of incarnation. The scriptures

clearly tell us that Christ emptied himself,

and the Greek word for that would be kenosis,

a self -emptying, a theological term that we

use to describe Christ's self -emptying as he

came in that incarnation. He became the God -man.

100 % God, 100 % man, two distinct natures, yet

without contradiction. And we say that very easily,

but the first four ecumenical church councils

wrestled over that very language that we can

say so easily now and place our faith in. But

when Christ came to earth, He did not cease to

be God. There's some things we need to nail down

here. He did not empty Himself of deity. It was

a self -renunciation in that He veiled His glory,

and He veiled that to take on human nature. But

it was much more than God just taking on humanity.

And this is critical. He did not just take on

a human body. He also took on all our essential

attributes. Christ would feel hunger. He would

feel thirst. He would feel tired. Eventually,

he would even feel betrayal to the point that

he could identify with all of our basic human

needs. He subjected himself to persecution and

suffering. He left heaven's glories to come here

on earth and be poor. where he owned very little.

And even though he had been eternally rich, he

humbles himself in the form of a servant who

would incur the wrath of God Almighty for the

sins of all who had come to him in true faith.

Verse 3, Isaiah would say this, He is despised

and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted

with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces

from him. He was despised and we did not. We

see a title here, Man of Sorrows. We just sang

about it. But the description with the text builds,

who is acquainted with grief and we despised

him. There was nothing, as I said just a moment

ago, in Jesus' physical appearance that marked

him out as Messiah. In fact, if you were to pass

him walking down the street, if you were there

in the first century, you would not have picked

him out. Why? Because, as Isaiah had said, through

the incarnation, Christ became a human being.

He took on humanity just as you and I are in

all respects, yet without sin. The key here is

in verse 3 that he was despised for it. The fact

that He identifies with us becomes the reason

of which He is rejected. Humanity had contempt

for Christ. It was Jesus who was regularly oppressed

by the Pharisees, those who were concerned with

holding position, not losing control with the

people, and contempt ultimately led to the cross.

As He would hang there, it was so appalling,

Isaiah said, we hid our faces from Him. As Christ

was on the cross, think of all the beatings that

he had already endured, all the scourgings, all

of the things. He went through so much severe

cruelty. His body, the text would say, did not

even look like a human body any longer. As you

compare all of the writings, all from the gospel

authors, it was so marred. Humanity as a whole,

in general, still feels contempt. toward Christ.

You say, how? Because each one of us is born

in sin with a sin nature. We inherited this from

our first parents, Adam and Eve. We would call

this the doctrine of original sin when we refer

to it. That through Adam's fall, all humanity

inherits both a sinful nature and guilt, leading

to every person being spiritually corrupt and

unable to turn to God apart from His grace. We

were not born innocent. We were born in sin.

And this is not to be quickly passed over. Because

as we work that out a little bit, that means

in our flesh, in our humanity, we love the darkness.

We didn't just tolerate it. We didn't just exist

in it. We loved it. And it was only through the

mercy of God. that showed us our need of a Savior.

Only through His mercy of drawing us toward Himself,

exposing our sin, could we ever truly turn to

Him and appreciate the grace that He has offered.

Isaiah was pointing out that his hearers here

would hear this message over and over again,

but they would never actually get it. They would

never fully comprehend it. Their eyes would be

blind. Their ears would be deaf to the true grace

of God. For the Romans, The act of crucifixion

marked Christ out as the very worst sort of criminal.

In the eyes of the Jews, Jewish culture, crucifixion

was to be cursed. And it was hard for them to

imagine as they're reading this writing of Isaiah,

anything less likely to be the Son of God, anything

less likely to be the one -way Messiah than a

man hanging on a cross, especially in a culture

where the cross was a symbol of shame. The question

loomed. How could someone condemned take away

sin? The Apostle Paul wrote often of the cross.

In Galatians 6 .14, Paul would say, But God forbid

that I should boast, except in the cross of the

Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been

crucified to me and I to the world. Now, Paul

could have very well boasted. He could have boasted

in his intellect. He could have boasted in his

influence. He could have even boasted in his

apostolic authority. But he absolutely refused

to take pride in any of the abilities, education,

or accomplishments that he had. Now this is contrary

to our fallen nature, which constantly seeks

grounds for boasting. We like to say good things

about ourselves. It's in our flesh. It is our

natural desire to brag and boast and build ourselves

up. But Paul said he wouldn't do that. He said

he was only going to boast in the cross of Jesus

Christ and Him crucified. And in fact, Paul would

say it again and again in his New Testament letters.

I mean, if we just thought about them quickly,

he would say things like, I have been crucified

with Christ. We preach Christ crucified. I decide

to know nothing else amongst you except Jesus

Christ and Him crucified. And finally, he preached

about the wonder of the cross as we consider

those letters. Christ is the only one who we

can boast in church because He is the only one

who can take away our sin. We fall so short.

Our humanity, in every way we fall short. We

can build ourselves up. We can brag on ourselves.

We can build empires around ourselves. But they

are nothing. They will be reduced to nothing.

When we leave this life, it will not matter.

Christ came as the second Adam, the last Adam,

the true and better Adam to fulfill what the

first never could. In every way that we fall

short, our Savior never did. As we think about

verses 4 and 5, we see the substitution and the

work of the servant. We'll hold these two verses

together. Surely He has borne our griefs. and

carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded

for our transgressions, and He was bruised for

our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace

was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

If you notice the text on the screen, you'll

see every our and every we is underlined. And

if we look at the text critically, we can make

a very easy summation. He was pierced for our

transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

Now, very quickly though, as we consider verse

4, Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God,

and afflicted. It would almost appear on the

surface that Jesus was somehow being punished

by God. But we deduct very quickly from verse

5 that it was not for any sins He had committed,

but for ours. Martin Luther would say, each time

the crime is ours, our pain, our suffering, our

transgressions, our iniquities, and each time

the suffering is his. He took, he bore, he was

pierced, he was crushed. It was Christ who lived

a life free from sin. He was tempted in every

way, but without sin. Righteously angered to

the point that he turned over temple tables,

yet without sin. If we think about the Old Testament,

there is shadow after shadow where God raised

up a deliverer, delivered His people for a little

while, and then more oppression would return.

Chasing after false gods would come again. It

was only temporary and it pointed toward the

need for a greater Savior, a greater deliverer

who would not lead the nations in any false worship.

In every way, none of those deliverers were enough,

but Christ was more than enough. But as we consider

this text that we just read, it is He who was

smitten, stricken by God, and afflicted for no

transgression of His own. It was for our sin

for which He died and it was for our salvation

that He secured. Christ was numbered among the

transgressors despite living a perfect life in

His humanity. God has a righteous anger towards

sin. It is detestable in His sight. Cannot even

look upon it. And satisfaction, atonement, had

to be accomplished. It was Christ who drank redemption's

cup of wrath fully to the bitter bottom, and

he did so on the cross. The central idea of verses

4 and 5 is substitution, specifically the idea

of penal substitution. Don't get caught up in

that. That just means that Christ took the legal

penalty. He took the legal punishment. for our

sin, in the place of sinners, satisfying God's

holy justice. This is at the very heart of our

salvation. Christ is our substitute. He died

in our place. He died for our pain. He died for

our suffering. He died for our transgressions,

our iniquity, and our rebellion. Because of that,

He was crushed and He was pierced for us. But

it was not partial. And it was not temporary.

The writer of Hebrews would say, But Christ came

as a high priest of good things to come, with

the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not

made with hands that is not of this creation,

not with the blood of goats and calves, but with

His own blood He entered the most holy place

once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

Praise be to God for the goodness of His Son.

Christ served as our head church. He was a representative.

To this day, He is still the head of the church.

His bride. The punishment that brought us peace

was placed upon Him. God had passed sentence

on sin. It had to be accounted for. It had to

be reckoned. And that sentence was born by Christ.

It was carried by Christ. He endured the judicial

wrath of God for you. for me, for all who would

ever come to Him. And He offered His own blood

as a payment for sins for all who would come

to Him in faith. Tim Chester would put it this

way so wonderfully. God's attributes cannot be

played off one another. God does not stop being

holy so He can show mercy. He does not suspend

His justice to extend forgiveness. But through

the substitutionary death of His Son, He is true.

God is true to every aspect of His character,

showing mercy while remaining just. Paul would

write in Romans 3, Christ, whom God set forth

to be a propitiation by His blood through faith

to demonstrate His righteousness, because in

His forbearance God had passed over sins that

were previously committed to demonstrate at that

present time His righteousness. that He might

be just and the justifier of the one who has

faith in Jesus. The substitute in this case is

Christ. He bears the penalty while sinners may

receive pardon. Our pain, our suffering, our

transgression, our iniquities are imputed to

Christ here. In exchange, we receive peace with

God and the adoption of sons. Isn't that amazing?

But this idea of substitution, it did not originate

here in Isaiah 53. This wasn't something that

was just revealed to him. The idea of substitution

is the centerpiece of the Bible and of our salvation.

It had much precedent long before Isaiah 53.

This was not something he just came up with.

The idea of substitution was all the way back

in the beginning. in the garden. It was God who

took innocent animals, slew them, took skins

and clothed Adam and Eve and shed blood for the

first time for sins that they had committed.

It was this idea of substitution that was very

present as Abraham held the knife over his son

Isaac as he was on the altar and the Lord cried

out and a ram was in the brush to be offered

in the place of his son. It was this idea of

substitution that was there in the Passover as

the death angel passed through the land of Egypt.

that night every firstborn was struck dead but

yet in the land of Goshen where the Hebrew children

were innocent lambs had been slain blood applied

over the doorpost and if that blood was there

that sign that they had trusted in God's words

he passed over and an innocent animal died so

that that firstborn could live it was there daily

in the worship of Israel at the tabernacle as

blood was shed daily to cover the sins of the

people this idea of substitution had much precedent

but it was all pointing to one who had shed His

blood one time for all, never to be offered again.

And church, at the end of that verse, by His

stripes, we are healed. What the Old Testament

was in shadow, the New Testament is in substance.

Because of this great act of substitution, we

have reconciliation with God. And that is, it

rolls off the tongue so easily, but that is such

a deep... thought the servant Christ has suffered

greatly and achieved peace. The cross brought

peace while sin is an act of rebellion and we

were rebels, everyone, by natural origin. We

were enemies of God. Christ has healed us. He

has reconciled fallen, broken humanity living

east of Eden, still to this day, to a holy, righteous

God. You say, what about us? What about the church

gathered here at Mamre today at Kitts Hill? Church,

first of all, we must humble ourselves and confess

that we've went astray, every one of us. We have

deliberately turned aside. We have went our own

way. It was not accidental. We have not always

loved God. We have not always loved His ways.

We were born in sin, and we have transgressed.

We have crossed lines that God said, do not cross.

But we have to understand our fallen condition.

We have to understand our true state of sinfulness

before we can ever begin to truly value redemption

that is offered by God through His Son and appreciate

what took place on the cross because it was there

where atonement and full satisfaction was made.

The suffering of Christ was not by happenstance.

It was not by chance. It was not accidental.

Nor was it merely a result of unjust human judgment.

It was for us. As we read this text, every our

and every we in the passage presses a truth upon

us. That it was our sin that is the reason for

His wounds. And as we consider this text, it

doesn't allow us to remain neutral towards Christ

or His cross. There is no fence we can ride here.

We cannot do that. It brings us face to face

with the weight of our great need. And Isaiah

began with the question, who has believed our

report? It's not enough to just intellectually

know these truths about Christ. It's not just

enough to know all the things of the Bible and

have some sort of head knowledge. The call of

the gospel is to believe, to turn from sin, to

repent, and rest completely in the finished work

of Jesus Christ. Church, He has borne our griefs.

He has satisfied the wrath of God for all who

will call on the name of Jesus. The same cross

is so wonderful that exposes our sin. also provides

our salvation. It is in God's rich and abundant

mercy that the Spirit of God opens our hearts

and opens our eyes to see that the cross is no

longer a symbol of shame and judgment any longer,

but a symbol of true love. One where Christ offered

Himself for us, taking on our pain, bearing our

suffering, crushed on our behalf, so that by

His wounds, we might be healed. We might have

peace with the Holy God. Last word. By His stripes

we are healed. We're no longer enemies. We've

been reconciled. No longer are we under wrath,

but we are at peace with God if we are His children.

And as Easter approaches, we look toward it with

reverence. and awe of this servant, knowing that

while he suffered greatly, he now reigns and

serves as our Savior and King. All praise be

to his name, church. Powerful text this morning.

I pray that we let that set on us and we meditate

on it as we transition from this time of preaching

to come to the Lord's table. This is a specific

time we set aside every week. It's a very important

time as we come to take these sacraments, one

that we do not take lightly. If you're here this

morning, we want to invite you to come to the

table with us. We take this this morning not

only as a memorial, but we do it as we engage

in a common means of grace gathered together

here as a church body where many become one at

this table. It is a privilege of believers that

as we finish the Word, we come and we hold the

elements together. The Lord just gives a couple

qualifiers to take the supper. It is His. It

is not our table. It is the Lord's table. That

is that you have confessed Jesus Christ as Savior

and you have been scripturally baptized. And

if you have done those two things, we would invite

you to take that supper this morning. If you

have not, we're just asking you to pass the tray

on. As the elements come and they're distributed,

hold them. We'll pray together and then we will

take them together. Deacons, if you would come

and begin to pass out the elements.