The Despised Servant of Yahweh
Isaiah 53 • Sermon • Submitted
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· 18 viewsExtended and detailed outline on a sermon on Isaiah 53:1-3. Not a word-for-word script, though many points can be read word for word. Part 2 of a 5 part series on Isaiah 53
Notes
Transcript
Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Introduction
Last week we started a series on Isaiah 53
We looked at 52:13-15
This is an introduction and serves as a summary to the entire chapter
The Servant of the Lord is put forth
The Servant will be horrifically abused and disfigured
This will lead to the cleansing of many nations
The Lord Jesus will accomplish what he set out to do
This week: Israel's rejection of the Messiah
Story of the little boy paid in silver quarters
The boy had no appreciation for the value of what he possessed
The majority of people today don’t recognize the value of what God has given us
Who has believed our message?
Isaiah 53 is written from the perspective of national Israel looking backwards
They are looking back in shock at their former rejection of the Messiah
They lament that their forefathers did not appreciate the value of Christ
The speaker: Israelites
Some argue that it’s Isaiah speaking here
Better rendering: “Who would have believed what we just heard?” NET
The Israelites are asking who has believed the gospel that they had heard
Rhetorical question with the implied answer of “No one”
The rejection of the gospel is unbelievable to them
Though Jesus is the Jewish messiah, the majority of Jews today and in the days of Jesus reject him
In Romans 9:3-5 Paul laments the fact that so many Jews reject Christ
For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Paul: They did not all heed the good news
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
The arm of the Lord: the power of God displayed in Jesus
The Israelites weren’t only guilty of rejecting a message, but refusing to believe the very works of God that they saw Jesus performing
John 12:37-38 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?”
During Jesus public ministry he performed many signs that pointed to the fact that he came from God and that his message was true
John 5:36 For the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”
Even the Pharisees recognized this John 3:1-2 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
Miracles, both now and then, were a very rare occurrence
The world was created with structure, order, laws, and physics. Miracles, by definition, are supernatural. Only one with power outside of the natural realm can manipulate reality to perform a miracle
God operates outside of time and space. When a miracle occurs it is the work of God. It is a display of God’s power and authority over creation, including his power and authority over us
This immense power was on display through Jesus, our God in the flesh, for all of Israel to see
The arm of the Lord: God’s salvation on display
All of the miracles that Jesus performed (with the exception of destroying the fig tree) are miracles that point to his saving and restorative power
The greatest miracle is the salvation of a rebellious sinner
Isaiah 52:10 The LORD has bared His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the earth shall see the salvation of our God
This power was on display in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus
In Isaiah 53, the people of Israel are looking back and asking “How could they have missed this?”
This demonstrates the absolute blinding effect of sin
Men constantly suppress the truth in unrighteousness
We would rather believe a lie than the truth
Isaiah now transitions into a description of the Servant For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
Israel expected a king. What they got was a carpenter's son
Rather than being born in a palace he was born in a stable
In their eyes, material wealth was the indication of divine blessings
Rather than kingly parents he had commoners for parents
They were indeed godly people, but they were perfectly normal people
What sets them apart from any other godly couple is the blessing they received from God by being the earthly parents of his Son
Jesus spent most of his life growing up in the backwater town Nazareth in Galilee
A town of ill reputation in a region of ill reputation
Nathanial asked “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
In the minds of the people the Messiah couldn’t possibly come from Galilee
John 7:41 Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” Still others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He?
John 7:52 They answered him, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.”
Rather than establishing himself with the religious elites he spent his time ministering to the dregs of society
Rather than gather an army he had 12 disciples of meager origins, some of ill reputation
A tender shoot, a root out of dry ground
The Davidic dynasty is described as a flourishing tree Ezekiel 17:22
Here, what we have described is a tiny, helpless twig
A tiny shoot growing in the desert
Insignificant, unimportant
Jesus, as far as anyone was concerned, was just another commoner
We see the confusion and anger of his own hometown in Luke 4
Upon reading words concerning himself in Isaiah, Jesus proclaimed that no prophet is welcome in his hometown. The Nazarenes were all too eager to demonstrate this and they tried to throw him off a cliff
His family thought he was insane
Mark 3:21 When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”
John 7:3-5 Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. “For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” For not even His brothers were believing in Him.
Even John the Baptizer had some doubts and sent disciples to confirm that Jesus was the Messiah
Luke 7:19 Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?”
It is rightly said that “Familiarity breeds contempt
John 6:42 They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”
Matthew 13:54-58 He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? “And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.
John 7:27 “However, we know where this man is from; but whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where He is from.”
We don’t have many details of his life
We have the account of his birth, and the account of him being found in the temple at 12
There are heretical gospels that have outlandish stories of Jesus when he was trying to fill in the gaps, but have no basis in reality
Every few years a new documentary is made about how Jesus traveled to some far off land and practiced some far off religion, also with no basis in reality
Recently a movie was even made of Jesus when he was a child
The fact of the matter is the New Testament is silent, and all evidence points to him living a perfectly normal life
He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
Jesus did not look the part of the expected Messiah
Despite how art portrays Jesus, he looked like the average first century Jew
Jesus did not have a halo, he didn’t glow as he walked down a dark street
Many in the Old Testament had a certain majesty about them
Joseph became a ruler over the entire land of Egypt and helped it become the greatest nation on earth
Moses grew up in a palace as royalty
David was a handsome man who was overwhelmingly popular among the people of Israel
Solomon became the richest and most glorious of all the kings of Israel
Now, the King of kings and Lord of lords has come in the form of a servant
Despite the apparent mundaneness of his life before his ministry, we know that he was pleasing to the Father
He wasn’t anyone that the average Jew would look twice at.
God, however, looks beyond physical appearance
1 Samuel 16:7 “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
Luke 2:52 And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
God pronounces his pleasure in his Son at his baptism, before he even began his public ministry
Jesus always does his Father's will, and that will was to live 30 years working as a carpenter
Even the most seemingly mundane life, if lived to the glory of God, is precious in his sight
Francis Schaeffer: “With God there are no little people,... there are no little places.”
Despite his outward appearance, we cannot forget who he is
Colossians 2:9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
1 Timothy 3:16 By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.
“His appearance afforded no clue to His identity. He looked like a young Galilean peasant, an artisan from northern Palestine. Only a divine revelation can unfold to men the truth about this lowly One, that in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, that He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, the outshining of God’s glory, the express image of His person, the Son of God become the Son of man, from everlasting to everlasting” - Day to Day: Moments with the Master
He was despised and rejected
The Servant of Yahweh was absolutely perfect in everything he did
If we were to go out on the street and ask people about the character of Jesus, the response we would receive would be overwhelmingly positive
If we were to say to someone “I love Jesus,” odd’s are they would say the same of themselves
Even those who hate Christianity say that Jesus was a good man
They say the church would be better off if only we “acted more like Jesus.”
Gandhi: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
In the days of Jesus the Messiah was highly sought after
When John, the first prophet in 400 years arrived on the scene, the Pharisees asked whether or not he was the Messiah
John, the forerunner, was immensely popular
The prophets were held in high regard by the religious leaders of the day
He has done all things well, and garnered the praise of the Father
There was no one more loving, compassionate, merciful, caring, or self-sacrificing than Jesus
Anyone who came to Jesus with a need found that need met
He is the perfect human being, the light of the world
At the same time, there was no one hated more than Jesus during his ministry here on earth
At the end of his ministry the overwhelming majority cry was to crucify him
R.C. Sproul: “Why did the multitudes scream for His blood? Why did the Pharisees loathe Him? Why was such a nice, upright fellow condemned to death by the highest religious court in the land?”
He points us to the monument to the prophets in Jerusalem: “In Jesus’ day the Old Testament prophets were venerated. They were the great folk heroes from the past. Yet when they were alive they were hated, scorned, rejected, despised, persecuted, and killed by their contemporaries.”
Matthew 23:29-31 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ “So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
“People have an appreciation for moral excellence, as long as it is removed a safe distance from them. The Jews honored the prophets, from a distance. The world honors Christ, from a distance.”
R.C. tells the story of a student of his who was seemingly too smart for her own good
She had broken the curve, and was ostracized for it
“I can’t ever recall the students rising to their feet to offer the brain a standing ovation. Nobody likes curve breakers. They make us all look bad. Jesus Christ was a curve breaker. He was the supreme curve buster. He was the ultimate super-competent. The outcasts of society loved Him because He paid attention to them. But those who held the seats of honor and power could not tolerate Christ.”
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face
John 1:10-11 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
The all holy Creator of all things that cannot stand sin was now surrounded by sin day and night, and rejected by those whom he came to save from their sorrowful condition
Man of sorrows - indication of the true humanity of Christ
To be sorrowful is a very human thing. Animals, computers, and rocks do not feel sorrow
Jesus was acquainted with our sorrows. As a man, he sympathizes with our griefs
In Scripture we never see Jesus laugh. However, we do see him weep
The shortest verse in the NT is “Jesus wept.”
Jesus wept at the reality of death, he wept at the sin of man, he wept at the rejection of his people
He was sorrowful to the point of death on the cross, where even the Father forsook him
His sorrow fueled his compassion
He healed their sick
He fed the crowds of hungry people
He warned them of the terrible hellfire that awaits them
He called on them to trust in the only thing that would save them and offered everlasting life freely
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
An accounting term, he was accounted as nothing
A zero, of no value
They preferred the murderer Barabbas over Jesus
The Jews ask “What good is a crucified Messiah?”
The cross is a stumbling block to the Jews
To the world there is no value in Christ
He may have been a good teacher, but what does his death have to do with me?
Do we see the value of Christ?
Is he the ultimate treasure that we value above all things?
Or is he just another compartment in our lives?
Have the attitude that Paul had in Philippians 3:7-11 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
God offers Christ, the one whom he values most, free of charge to undeserving sinners
Will we recognize the value in what is offered and embrace Christ?