Sermon Tone Analysis

Unmistakably chapter 53, speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Significantly, the Jewish Targum interprets this portion of Isaiah’s prophecy as referring to the Messiah.

Every detail of the prophet’s words corresponds so closely to the person and work of the Lord Jesus that no one with normal powers of thought could reason otherwise.

Written over 700 years before the sacrificial death of Christ, its predictions are so specific that no mere man could possibly have written them, nor fulfilled them.

This chapter is an unanswerable proof of the inspiration of the Bible and the divinity of Christ.

The clear teaching in this stanza is that deliverance for all people comes by the substitutionary suffering of the Servant.

He does not suffer because people are sinners, but in the place of sinful people.

He suffers for them, and because of that, they do not need to experience the mandated eternal consequences for their sins.

Now restoration of relationship with God is possible for all who will come and confess their sinfulness and turn to follow Christ Jesus.

With that background, let’s look at some more of this Fourth Servant Song.

If you remember, I told you that the song is broken up into five stanzas.

Last Sunday we examined the 2nd Stanza—The Career of the Righteous Servant.

Tonight we will look at The Agony of the Righteous Servant.

The three verses reveal that the Righteous Servant Bore Our Burdens, Received Our Punishment, and Was Crushed for Our Rebellion.

!

III.

STANZA 3: THE AGONY OF GOD’S RIGHTEOUS SERVANT

* /“Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”/

(Isaiah 53:4–6, NIV84)

!! A. BEARING OUR BURDENS

#. in verse 4 the passage states the true reason for the Righteous Servant’s suffering

* /“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”/

(Isaiah 53:4, ESV)

#. notice the contrast between He and our

#.

this stanza of the poem reports that although "we" did not recognize it at first, the sufferings of the Righteous Servant were not His own fault, as "we" thought, but were in fact the result of "our" sins, and resulted in "our" healing

#. the Righteous Servant is indeed characterized by griefs and sorrows, but they were not His own

#. it was all for us that He suffered and died!

#. the “we” is probably the prophet identifying himself with his people and speaking for the whole

#. but all persons who recognize that their sin has caused the Righteous Servant to suffer may include themselves in the all-inclusive "we"

#.

We should have been whipped

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We should have been spit upon

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We should have stood before a howling mob

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We should have been traded for a murderer

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We should have carried the cross up that hill

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We should have been stripped naked

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We should have been hung on the cross

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We should have been in torments and thirsted

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We should have died...died once physically... died a second death in hell

#. the atoning death of Christ is a truth so profound that scholars have been unable to fully plumb its depths

#. think of it—Jesus, God’s Son, died to pay the penalty for our sins!

#. various theories have been advanced to explain what happened on the cross, but Scripture teaches that /substitution/ lies closest to the heart of this great mystery

#. the /innocent substitute/ bore the sins of all God’s Elect

* ILLUS.

Cliff Barrows tells of the time his two young children did something wrong.

Although they were gently warned, they repeated the offense and needed to be disciplined.

Barrows writes that his heart was pained at the thought of having to punish the ones he loved.

So he called Bobby and Bettie into his room, removed his belt, and then bared his own back.

He then knelt by his bed, and told each child to whip him 10 times.

At first they were incredulous.

But Barrows told them that a penalty had to be paid.

The children sobbed as they lashed their daddy’s back.

Then Cliff hugged and kissed them, and they prayed together.

Cliff Barrows writes, "It hurt, but I never had to spank them again."

#. are you haunted by the memory of some cowardly, selfish, or shameful acts?

#.

Jesus took the lashes for the sins of sinners

#.

He invites sinners to accept His forgiveness and devote the rest of their lives to Him

#.

He wants us to know the greatness of His Father’s love

* /“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”/

(1 Peter 2:24, NIV84)

#. the Righteous Servant of Isaiah has borne—literally took up—our griefs and sorrows

#. the language of /carrying/ and /bearing/ sets the stage for the substitutionary understanding of the Righteous Servant’s suffering

#. he took up our sin in order to take it away

#. this is the language of the /Jewish sacrificial system/—especially from Leviticus

#. there the sacrificial animal /carries/ (nasa’) the sins of the sinner away, so that the sinner does not carry them anymore

#. the animal does not merely die /because/ the sinner sinned, but /in the sinner’s place/, doing what the sinner must do otherwise

#. in the same way, the word translated as /bear/ or /took up/ implies the /bearing of a burden for someone else/

#. the Righteous Servant is not suffering /with/ His people, but /for/ them

#. in bearing our griefs and sorrows the Righteous Servant was stricken, smitten, and afflicted

#. if you remember from last week, this Righteous Servant’s appearance is /disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness/ (Isa.

52:14)

#. it’s Isaiah’s way of saying that our Lord was beaten to a pulp

#. he submitted to such treatment in order to carry our griefs and infirmities

#. in the KJV the word griefs is translated as infirmities and refers to illnesses of the soul

#.

I can’t think of a better way to describe sin

#.

Jesus’ healing of many people’s physical illnesses during his earthly ministry anticipated his greater work of healing that would take place on the cross

#. that greater work is the healing of souls

#. in Matthew’s Gospel, the Apostle quotes Isaiah 53:4 as a fulfilment of Jesus’ healing ministry

* /“When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.

He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.

When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.””/

(Matthew 8:14–17, NIV84)

#.

Isaiah also tells us that the Righteous Servant will /carry our sorrows/

#. loss comes to us all, and we often carry our sorrow for many years

#.

we struggle with our emotions—is there a place where we can leave our sorrows and find healing for the wounds of life?

#. but nothing makes one more sorrowful then when he or she comes to the realization of just how monstrous their sin is before a holy God

#.

only when a human heart is thrust into the depths of sorrow over the sinfulness of their sin can they know God

#. the Messiah is the One who has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows

#. at the foot of the cross there is help and healing and closure at the cross for the deepest pain of our hearts

!! B. RECEIVING OUR PUNISHMENT

* /"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”/

(Isaiah 53:5, NIV84)

#. the word but in the Hebrew is a disjunctive and emphasizes the contrast between God’s Righteous Servant and us

#. we had thought God was punishing this Man for His own sins and failures, but in fact He was /pierced through/ as a result of our rebellion

#. he was crushed on account of our twistedness

#. the images Isaiah employ have now shifted from illness to injury and have become more severe

#.

I like the KJV reading of /he was wounded for our transgressions/

#. however, that reading does not do the Hebrew word justice

#. it literally means to be /pierced through/

#. one who is pierced through usually died