Sermon Tone Analysis

Unmistakably chapter 53, speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Only men with blinded eyes, and deafened ears, and hardened hearts, and darkened minds can read Isaiah’s 4th Servant Song, compare it to the Passion Week of Jesus, and not see in Isaiah 53 an obvious prophecy of the life of Jesus.

Every detail of the prophet’s words correspond 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 atoning death of Christ, Isaiah is going to tell us about the oppression that our Savior would face at the hands of His own countrymen.

Blaise Pascal, was a 17th century French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher.

He is one of the greatest and most influential scientific minds of all time.

He once said, “The greatest of the proofs of Jesus Christ are the prophecies.”

And surely, Isaiah 53 is one of the, if not the greatest, of those prophecies.

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

The Righteous Servant’s entire life, from birth to death, was one of suffering and rejection.

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.

This last servant song has five stanzas to it.

We have looked at three:

* Stanza 1: The destiny of the suffering servant: 52:13-15

* Stanza 2: The career of the suffering servant: 53:1-3

* Stanza 3: The agony of the suffering servant: 53:4-6

With that background, let’s look at the 4th stanza of this last of Servant Songs: The submission of the suffering servant.

STANZA 4: THE SUBMISSION OF GOD’S RIGHTEOUS SERVANT

!

I. HIS OPPRESSION WAS SUFFERED SILENTLY v. 7

* /“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 her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”/

(Isaiah 53:7, NIV84)

#. why does the Righteous Servant of Isaiah suffer the /slings and arrows of outrageous fortune/?

#. because it was the express will of God the Father

* /“Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.”/

(Isaiah 53:10, NIV84)

#. but although the Lord was the ultimate cause of the Righteous Servant’s suffering, the servant endured that suffering with patience

#. the words /he was oppressed and afflicted/ convey the passage’s main idea, and the following clauses illustrate how the Righteous Servant responded to his afflictions

#. in his oppression and affliction /he did not open his mouth/

#. in his oppression and affliction /he was like a young sheep about to be slaughtered—he remained quiet/

* ILLUS.

I read this week that when cattle are led to slaughter, the moo and moan.

When pigs are led to slaughter, they squeal, well, like a pig.

When chickens are slaughtered, they flap and squawk.

But when sheep are led to slaughter they are mute.

#. there are many ways in which we can deal with oppression

#. some will vociferously protest their treatment

#. some will hire legal counsel to represent them in their mistreatment

#. some will retaliate with similar treatment

#.

Jesus chose to deal with his oppressors with silence

#.

He was silent before /Caiaphas/ (Matt.

26:62–63)

#.

He was silent before the /Chief Priests and Elders/ (Matt.

27:12)

#.

He was silent before /Pilate/ (Matt.

27:14; John 19:9)

#.

He was silent before /Herod Antipas/ (Luke 23:9)

#.

He was silent when the /soldiers/ mocked Him and beat Him (1 Peter 2:21–23)

#. no self-defense or protest or resentment issued from his mouth

#. we cannot read this prophecy without thinking of the fulfillment, when before the judgment seat of Pilate the Righteous Servant answered not a word

* /“When he was reviled, He reviled not against.”/

(1 Pet.

2:23, KJV)

!! A. HE WAS OPPRESSED AND AFFLICTED

#. as we look at verse 7, the first thing that jumps out at us is the fact that Jesus was /oppressed/

#. the word /oppressed/ literally means /to drive/ as /a teamster would drive a mule/, or as /a taskmaster would drive a slave/, or as /a collector would drive debtor/, or as /a general would drive an army/

#. the word came to be used of those who /tyrannized others/

#. /tyrannized/ aptly describes the final 24-hours of Jesus’ life

#. he was not only oppressed, but also /afflicted/

#. the word afflicted means /to bring someone down/

#. it implies /humbling someone by humiliating them/

#. humiliation is also a word that aptly describes the final 24-hours of Jesus’ life

* ILLUS.

Crucifixion was not only meant to be a painful death, but a humiliating death.

While most of the great art portraying the death of Jesus shows him wearing a loincloth, Jesus was most likely crucified like the vast majority of victims—naked.

#. throughout his oppression and affliction he neither rebuked nor retaliated

#.

Isaiah illustrates this remarkable response by portraying the Righteous Servant as sheep headed to slaughter

* ILLUS.

Seeing many sheep sheared for their wool or killed as sacrifices, Israelites were well aware of the submissive nature of sheep.

#. neither the dreadful treatment by men nor the terrifying judgment of Yahweh upon Him for our sins brought a word of protest from His smashed and bleeding lips

#. in this verse we see /wicked hands/, and a /willing victim/

#. the Righteous Servant is oppressed and afflicted because /he allows himself/ to be oppressed and afflicted for the sake of others

* /“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.

This command I received from my Father.”/

(John 10:17–18, NIV84)

#.

Isaiah’s Righteous Servant is a willing volunteer of his oppression and affliction

#.

Jesus, who is Isaiah’s Righteous Servant, had legions of angels at his disposal

* ILLUS.

Remember the incident in the Garden of Gethsemane?

Peter has taken a sword and hacked off the ear of one of those who have come to arrest Jesus.

Jesus responds by telling Peter, “Put your sword back in its place,... for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.

Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?

But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26:52–54, NIV84)

#. and Isaiah 53 are the Scriptures that teach about what is to soon take place in Jesus’ life

#. the Righteous Servant’s silence springs from love and faith, not from weakness or prudence

#. more than any other Old Testament passage, these verses speak of the arrest, trials, flogging, crucifixion, and death of our Lord

!! B. LESSON: JESUS IS THE LAMB OF GOD WHO QUIETLY SUBMITTED TO HIS DEATH

* /“When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.

Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

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 2:23–24, NIV84)

#. the /life of Jesus/ is often described by theologians as /the humiliation of Christ/

#. his humiliation began the moment of his incarnation and ended the moment of his resurrection

#. the humiliation of Christ refers to that brief thirty-three years of his life where the Righteous Servant—the Second Person of the Trinity—existed outside his eternal glory

#. at the end of his earthly life we see a life that oppressed and afflicted

#. the interesting thing about this is that Jesus did not have to allow Himself to be oppressed nor afflicted

#. the humiliation of Christ poses many questions:

#.

Why didn’t He do anything to stop the oppression?