The Suffering Substitute
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Introduction
Introduction
For the sake of time, there was one teaching point that I had to leave out of our Christmas Eve service the other night. Turn forward in your Bible’s really quick to Luke 2. In Luke’s account of the birth of Christ, Jesus is referred to as the baby lying in a manger. We see this refrain in the message of the angel in verse 12 - it was the sign for the Shepherds. Then we see this refrain again in vs 16 when the Shepherds find their Savior. But then in verse 17 we see a word change. In the shepherds report we see that they revealed what the angels told them about this Child. And the reason this word change is significant is this, the word for child is the same greek word used for Servant in the greek translation of Isaiah. This baby born in a manger who is Christ our Lord is non other than the Servant of the Lord whom we have been studying for the past 3 weeks.
This was the reason for our detour in the Book of Isaiah for these past 3 weeks leading up to the celebration of the first advent of our Lord. The reason for the advent, the reason for the season, the reason why we celebrated Christmas is this, Phil 2:7-9 Christ, “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” As I said, Friday night, Christ did not come just to suffer with us, He came as the Servant to suffer for us.
And this is what is most vividly prophesied of in the final servant song of Isaiah. It is here that we see how the Servant will faithfully bring forth the justice of the first Servant Song. It is here that we see how the Servant will bring the restoration of His people and become the light to the gentiles of the second Servant Song. It is here that we in greater detail the Servant’s faithfulness and obedience from the third Servant Song.
Not only is this text the ultimate conclusion of the Servant Songs. This text is the pinnacle of the book of Isaiah and one of the mountain peaks of the entire Old Testament. And it is for this reason, here we see the ultimate purpose and work of the Servant who was born to us in that Bethlehem manger - here we see the Servant suffering for our sins. Spurgeon described this fourth and final song as the “Bible in miniature, and the gospel in its essence,” German commentator Frank Delitzsch, said that this song , “looks as if it had been written beneath the cross upon Golgotha.”
And this is a wonderful description for it is here that we will see how The Holy God came as a Servant and suffered as our substituted so that we might saved. This is the main idea of my sermon - The Holy God came as a Servant and suffered as our substituted so that we might saved.
And this main point will be seen as we look at our text which is divided into 5 stanzas with 3 verses each. In chapter 52:13-15 we will see The Servant’s Exaltation. In chapter 53:1-3 we will hear of the Servant’s Rejection. At the center of this song, in verses 53:4-6 we will witness The Servant’s Sacrifice. In 53:7-9 we will study The Servant's Submission and in 53:10-12 we will look at The Servant’s Victory.
The Servant’s Exaltation - 52:13-15
The Servant’s Rejection - 53:1-3
The Servant’s Sacrifice - 53:4-6
The Servant's Submission- 53:7-9
The Servant’s Victory - 53:10-12
As you can see from the slide there, these sections are in the form of a chiasm which is a literary device that Isaiah uses to focus our attention on the very center of his song -verses 4-6. And this is where we will see most explicitly how the Holy God came as a Servant and suffered as our substituted so that we might saved.
Now let’s turn back in our Bibles to Isaiah 52 as we begin by studying The Servant’s Astonishing Exaltation.
1. The Servant’s Exaltation
1. The Servant’s Exaltation
Our text today begins at the end of chapter 52 of Isaiah. And in this chapter what we see is God’s people in exile and in need of a new Exodus. In verses 1 and 2 YHWH calls out to captive Israel to rise up out of their captivity. And in verse 12 we see that as in the first exodus, God promises to go before them and behind them as He leads them from Exile to the promised land. So we have a people in captivity, estranged from God because of their sin. And we have a promised deliverance performed by the mighty hand of God to vindicate His name and restore His people to Himself. But what follows this prophecy of deliverence in the first part of Isaiah 52 is is the shocking revelation of how this deliverence will be accomplished starting in Isaiah 52:13.
13 Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.
Isaiah 52:13 “13 Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.” Isaiah the begins his song by saying that the Servant of the Lord will prosper. And yet, in the ESV it reads that, “My servant will act wisely.” The reason for this difference in English translations is that Old Testament concept of wisdom and prosperity are linked. If you know your book of Proverbs you will recognize this truth. The Servant then will not merely be a wise man and he will not merely be a prosperous man. Instead the Servant will both know and do the things that God’s law requires so as to accomplish His purpose.
It is for this reason that He will receive a threefold elevation. He will be high and He will be lifted up and He will be greatly exalted. Immediately our minds should think back to that famous passage in the beginning of Isaiah that Pastor Greg preached on a few weeks ago. Remember that Isaiah receives a vision of the throne room of Heaven where He hears the angelic hosts exalting YHWH singing Holy, Holy, Holy. It’s in that first verse of Isaiah 6 that the prophet writes, “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up”. Here we see the first clue of who this Servant in our passage is. No mere man is ever described as high and lifted up. In His book, Isaiah has only used that phrase High and Lifted up to describe God. This is our first clue that the Servant is Divine.
14 Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.
Now, Verses 14 and 15 act as a summary or thesis statement for the rest of the song. They give a brief outline or picture for the reason for the Servant’s Exaltation. In verse 14 we see that the Servant will be the recipient of astonishment and shame. Isaiah 52:14 “14 Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.” See how Isaiah writes that this will mirror the shaming and shock that Israel recieved on behalf of the many as they were conquered and made into captives by Assyria and Babylon. “The many” in this verse and in this song is a reference to the many nations. Israel was shamed by the nations for their destruction and defeat and so to will the Servant be shamed because of His marred, almost inhuman appearance.
15 Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand.
But then in verse 15 we see something interesting, Isaiah 52:15 “15 Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand.” The Servant will perform a work so mighty, so glorious, so astonishing that even the mighty kings of the many nations will stand in awe. And what will this work of the Servant be? He will sprinkle the many nations. In the Old Testament the act of sprinkling was the action of a priest where he would sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat of the Temple to cleanse the sinner of their sin. In verse 15 we see that the many have ceased from mocking the Servant and instead stand in awe of His work of atonement. Thus Isaiah leaves us leaning forward on our seats wondering what exactly is this work?
Now before we move on and find out it’s important to notice the different tenses of time in this song. In this past stanza, almost all of the verbs have been forward looking, in the future tense. And that’s what we would expect from a prophecy. But that will not always be the case throughout this prophecy. So listen carefully because that is significant.
With that let’s move on to our next section The Servant’s Rejection Look with me at chapter 53:1
2. The Servant’s Rejection
2. The Servant’s Rejection
1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
“1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” As we just saw, at some future point there will be a people who will be atoned for, who will believe. But that has not occured yet in this Song. So the true reply to this question, “who has believed” is no one. This passage is quoted in the NT by John and by Paul to describe the people’s refusal to believe in Christ and follow after Him though He had performed many signs and wonders. And in verses 2 and 3 we see the reason for His rejection.
2 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.
Isaiah 53:2-3 “2 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.” See how Isaiah uses the metaphor of a tree. The Servant did not grow up as a mighty oak planted by a river stream. He was not a choice cedar used by the famous builders of the Temple. No he grew up like a little shoot, an unwanted sprout that grew out of an exposed root from a withering desert tree. He was not majestic, he was not good-looking, he was not eye catching. He was not extraordinary. He was in fact incredibly ordinary. And the people of Israel have always had a bias toward picking leaders that were attractive and convincing. The people expected a warrior king coming in great splendor, standing over 6 feet tall with a chiseled jaw line. But this Servant, says, Isaiah will come with none of that. He would not be attractive or beautiful or majestic
3 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.
And as a result the eyes of the people can not see. Their ears cannot hear his message. Instead we see in verse 3, the people despise and forsake the Servant, “ 3 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.” The people hide their face refusing to even recognize his existence. This was an act of public shaming. In that culture you refused to acknowledge the presence of the blasphemer, the leaper, the immoral, and the unclean by hiding your face. Instead, He was deemed a man of sorrows. The people esteemed that the Servant was suffering as a result of His sin. In their minds it was God’s justice to punish the Servant with such suffering and affliction for He was a transgressor, a rebel.
And it is the next three verses, in the heart of this Servant song, that we see the shocking realization that their estimation and their assumptions about the Servant were so incredibly wrong. Look with me at verse 4 as we move to our third section The Servant’s Sacrifice.
3. The Servant’s Sacrifice
3. The Servant’s Sacrifice
4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53:4, “4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.” The word “surely” is emphatic. They are shocked and amazed at the unexpected reality. They esteemed him to be a man of sorrows, but His sorrow was not His that He carried it was theirs, it was ours. The grief He bore out of pain and suffering was our grief. The language of bearing and carrying is the language of the sacrificial system. Each year the sins of the people were placed upon a goat, called the scapegoat. And this scapegoat bore the sins of the people and carried that sin outside and into the wilderness never to be seen again. That’s what is envisioned here.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
The people esteemed the Servant to be stricken and smitten by God just as the Lord struck down the first born of Pharoah in the Exodus. And the people were right. But he was not afflicted for His own sin. No, Verse 5 “5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.”
It is here that we see more clear why the Servant suffered. He suffered because of our sin. See in these verses the seriousness and offensiveness that our sin is to the Holy God. The Servant was pierced through for our transgressions. This language of piercing describes the ancient method of execution by impalement or hanging. In Psalm 22 David prophecies of a future time when the enemies of his Messianic descendant would pierce his hands and his feet. And here we see that not only is the Servant linked with the Messiah, that the Messianic Servant would be pierced for our sins. As the song goes, it was our sin that drove the bitter nails and hung Him on that judgement tree. Luther is famous for saying that "we all carry about in our pockets His very nails.” And this is so true.
It was because of our sin that He was pierced, that he was crushed. In ancient Hebrew the language of being crushed is the strongest term to describe the most violent and excruciating of deaths. It suggests utter pulverization and torture. And the Servant experienced the most torturous, most excruciating death, a death that went on for hours, for our sins. He was crushed for our iniquity.
Now not only did the servant die for our atonement. He died for our redemption as well. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.” This word well-being doesn’t just describe a satisfactory quality of life. It is the word shalom. His chastisement purchased for us peace with God. What existed before the work of the Suffering servant was enmity between us and God. Our sin separated us from Him. But, in the words of Paul to the Corinthians, “God reconciled us to Himself through Christ.”
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
Listen also to how Paul describes this reality in Romans 5:1-2 “1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”The servant was punished so that we may have peace with God.
Moreover, the Servant also brings us healing. At the very beginning of the book of Isaiah, the prophet describes Israel’s sin as a sickness, as a festering mass of wounds that went from head to toe. In our text today, the word grief in verse 3, He was “acquainted with grief”, and verse 4, “he has born our griefs” can also be translated as malady or sickness. Isaiah’s point here is that we are sick with sin. Our nature has been stained and ruined by sin so that we do not desire God or righteousness, we do not love God or the things of God. Even the good that we do is nothing but filthy rags, like the yellowed bandages that cover over an open wound. And yet here we see that we are healed by the Servant’s scourging. By His wounding, our fatal wound of sin is remedied.
24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
The apostle Peter makes it clear that this verse is dealing with a spiritual healing from our spiritual sickness when he writes, 1 Peter 2:24 “24 He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” That body of death, riddled with the cancer of sin has been put to death so that we can now live to righteousness.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
Isaiah concludes this stanza with a powerful illustration in verse 6, “6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.” The picture of the straying sheep demonstrates the inadequacy and the error and the folly and the destructiveness of our nature. Instead of following the way of the Lord, we go astray as sheep without a shepherd, we are destined to fall into the thicket or just plain off a cliff. This is our fate apart from divine intervention. And that is exactly what is given to us in this verse. The Lord intervened by causing the iniquity of us all to fall upon the Servant. Again, this is sacrificial language. As I described before, in the sacrificial system, the guilt of one’s sin was transferred on to the sacrificial lamb. The punishment for one’s sin was executed upon the lamb. But as the author of Hebrews writes, “4 it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” That system was merely a sign a picture of what Isaiah describes here. He was substituted in our place so that the Holy Judge caused the iniquities of our straying to fall upon him. As John the Baptist proclaimed John 1:29 “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The Servant came as a Servant and was pierced and crushed, and stricken, and smitten and wounded and scrounged for our sins, in our place, as our substituted so that we might have peace, so that we might be healed, so that we might be saved.
Before we go to verse 7, I want you to notice again the verb tenses of these verses. “He bore, He carried, We esteemed Him stricken, smitten afflicted, He was pierced.” These are all said in the past tense. And yet the Servant’s would not come to suffer for more than 700 years. You see Isaiah’s prophecy here is not just a prophecy of Christ on the Cross. This is a prophecy of a future time when God’s people will look back on Christ on the Cross and realize the sin of their rejection.
10 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
This moment is actually foretold by another prophet, Zechariah who actually uses language from this Servant Song. Zechariah writes that on the Day of the Lord, God Zech 12:10 “10 “will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.” These verses, then, in Isaiah 53, are the confession that believing Israel will make on that Day when with eyes opened by the Holy Spirit they look on the One, on the Lord, whom they pierced.
But these words are not just theirs to make. They are ours to make as well. These verses are the confession that every saved sinner must make.
May we willingly and passionately proclaim with the hymn writer, “And can it be that I should gain An interest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me?” And all God’s people said, Amen.
Now we’ve rightfully spent a lot of time here so let’s move to our next section, The Servant’s Submission.
4. The Servant's Submission - Isaiah 53:7-9
4. The Servant's Submission - Isaiah 53:7-9
In this stanza, the language of these verses will sound familiar. And that is because this stanza intentionally mirrors verses 1-3. That’s the nature of a chiasm. It was in verses 1-3 that the Servant’s birth and his life were misunderstood and it is here that we see his suffering and death were misunderstood. But the emphasis is slightly different in this stanza. It is in these verses that we see the attitude and nature of the Servant shine forth. Let’s look at verse 7,
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
Isaiah 53:7 “7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.” We are straying sheep, He was the silent sheep. We wander in our unrighteousness, He willfully goes to the slaughter house. The Servant’s silence must not be confused with apathy, but instead it is the mark of submissive obedience. In the last verse we saw that the Father caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon Him and here we see that the Servant did not open His mouth to protest.
23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;
And this is exactly what we see in the gospel accounts of the Passion of Christ and from the Apostle Peter, 1 Peter 2:23 “23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;” As Christ proclaimed in the Gospel of John, He laid down His life for His sheep. John 10:18 “18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.”
8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
And he willfully laid down His life to be oppressed and taken away by the judgement of sinful men, verse 8 Isaiah 53:8 “8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?” This is the hardest verse in this passage to translate and interpret. I prefer the Legacy Standard Bible’s translation which reads, “By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living, That for the transgression of my people, striking was due to Him?” You see the judges of Christ’s day unjustly testified against Him which led to their unjust verdict of blasphemy and their unjust sentence of death. And then the people of his generation considered that he was cut off from the land of the land of the living because he was guilty.
9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
In verse 9 we see that not only did the Servant suffer willingly, He was an innocent substitute, Isaiah 53:9 “9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.” Here we see an extraordinary prophecy that He was to be buried with wicked men, presumably with whom he was executed, and yet he would be with a rich man instead. This prophecy was fulfilled when the body of Christ was buried by the rich man Joseph of Arimathea, in his garden tomb. But what was the reason that He was not buried as a criminal? He had done no violence nor spoke any deceit. This was a way to say that He was righteous both in word and deed. He was without sin both in his outward behavior and in his heart from which the mouth speaks.
His sacrifice then was both willing and innocent. And it is for these reasons that the Servant was the perfect substitute and His sacrifice was fully sufficient. Which brings us to our final section, The Servant’s Victory.
5. The Servant’s Victory
5. The Servant’s Victory
It is in this last stanza that our point of view of the Servant returns from the people of Israel to heaven. In our first section today, we heard the Father’s proclamation and exaltation of the Servant. And here in these last 3 verses we look on the Servant from the perspective of the Father starting with a startling statement in verse 10, “10 But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.” When the question is asked who killed, Jesus I think the most common and natural answer for a Christian would be, “I did...I killed Jesus with my sin”.
But here Isaiah tells us exactly who was behind the death of Christ. It was the Father.
Why? It was His pleasure to crush the Son for our iniquities .
Who put Him to grief? The Father.
Why? It was His will to accomplish our healing.
The Lord bruised the Servant.
He caused our iniquities to fall upon Him.
He poured out the full cup of His furious and righteous wrath open Him.
He was pleased to crush Him.
When the Servant hung on the cross, in the midst of being crushed He cried out to His Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And what did He hear from heaven? ....Silence? Why? Because it was the will of the Lord to crush Him for my sin, for your sin. Listen to the words of Sinclair Ferguson in relation to this, “When we think of Christ dying on the Cross, we are shone the lengths to which God goes in order to win us back to Himself. We would almost think that God loved us more than He loved His Son.”
Oh dear friends look at the cross, contemplate the Son of God being crushed for your sins, in your place, and see the immense love of God for you. How can one walk away from Calvary with lukewarm affections? How could we remain apathetic to a God who loves us this much? When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see Him there, who made an end to all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For God the Just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me.
It was the Father’s will to Crush His Son for us, but His will and purpose was ultimately for the exaltation of His Son, the Servant. This is what we see in the rest of our passage. When the Servant made Himself the guilt offering for our sins He was granted blessing and honor and exaltation from the Father. To see one’s descendants and have one’s days lengthened are blessings commonly promised to the favored of God. And at the end of verse 10 we see that the Lord was pleased to proser the Servant’s hand.
This is a reference both to the beginning of verse 10 and the beginning of the song. Remember the first words of Isaiah 52:13, “Behold my Servant will prosper.” And here we see that He will prosper because it was the pleasure of, the will of God, to prosper Him through the act of crushing Him.
You see, and here’s the point of the entire song, the Servant does not prosper, He is not exalted and High and lifted up, He does not receive an offspring nor have His days lengthened after His death, if He does not die, if He is not crushed. On the other hand, He prospers, He accomplishes His purpose of delivering His people by being crushed for His people.
Yes the Father was pleased to crush His Son because He so loved us. But ultimately, the Father was pleased to crush His Son because in doing so His Son would be greatly exalted as Savior and Deliverer and Redeemer. He would be High and Lifted Up through His humiliation and suffering.
11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.
And we see this with even greater clarity our last two verses Isaiah 53:11-12 verse 11, “11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.” The fruit of the servant’s anguish, of His suffering, of His pain, of His sorrow, will be so sweet that He will look upon His work and be satisfied. And what fruit could be so satisfying? The justification of His offspring. As the author of Hebrews puts it, it was for the joy set before Him that He endured the cross and despised the shame.
Notice that it is by His knowledge and His righteousness that He accomplishes this justification. The Servant knows exactly what is required, exactly what must be done to accomplish justification. And as the righteous one, the Servant of God is fully capable of making the many righteous. That is what justification means. The word for justify comes from the same exact root word as righteous. He makes right the many before the Holy God. And the reason that He can fully deal with the sin of the many, is that He is free from sin. Only the spotless lambs were permitted to be sacrificed. And here we see that we are made righteous by the spotless sacrifice of the servant. He bears our sins and He clothes us with His righteousness so that now we stand before the Holy God as His holy people.
12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.
And in our last verse we see the result of this act of justification: victory. I much prefer how the ESV translates this verse which reads, “12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors." What is pictured here is a victory parade for the Servant. And the reason why I prefer the ESV is that they preserved the phrase, “the many”. This is that group of people that was referred to in the first stanza of this song. In 52:14, Israel was astonished at the Servant’s marred appearance just as the many were astonished at their destruction. In 52:15, the many were sprinkled by the Servant’s blood. And then in verse 11, the Servant justifies the many by bearing their sin. So then, who are the many? We are the many. The many are the whole congregation of the redeemed who, in this final verse, will be invited to join the Servant’s victory march and share in the fruit’s of the Servant’s triumph. Because of his work, because of His faithful obedience to the pleasure of God, the Servant will be exalted among the redeemed when His deliverance is accomplished.
And the reason for this victorious moment? Isaiah 52:12 - He poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors."He poured out his soul to death, dying with the transgressors, for the transgressors. He is the mediator who makes intercession. And this last phrase is so important. In verse 6, Isaiah wrote that the Lord caused our iniquity to be placed on the Servant. The Father sent the son to be the bridge between Him and us. Between holy and unholy. And here we see the Servant comes voluntarily to intercede on our behalf before the Holy Judge. He was sent by the Father to bear our sins and He returned to redeem us back to God. The Servant came to suffer as our substitute so that He might become our Deliver.
Conclusion
Conclusion
There is so much more I want to say and there are myriads of ways that we can and should apply this text. Every single book of the New Testament either quotes or refers to this text so this won’t be our last time hearing from this Song. But I want to conclude by drawing out two main applications. And I will be taking them from the book of Isaiah, from the main commands of the two chapters that come after the Servant song.
The main imperative in Isaiah 54 is to sing. In her exile, Israel was made destitute and disgraced. In response to the work of the Servant, in response to His sacrifice and His salvation and His deliverance, Israel was to shout for joy.
And we see this same shout for joy, this same response to the work of the Servant in heaven as well. In revelation 5, John describes the heavenly vision where the Lamb who was slain is deemed worthy to take the title deed of ownership and rule over all of the earth, and in that moment the heavenly hosts began to sing a new song. Listen as I read revelation 5 starting in verse 11. 11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” 13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” 14 And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.”
And this is my point, future Israel and the heavenly hosts look at the work of the Servant and immediately moved to praise. Oh dear saints may we never get over the cross. May the substitutionary work of our Savior never grow dim or too familiar in our hearts. We are so prone to be distracted by the glitters and the gleams of the mud-pies of this world when at the cross we find a never ending stream of hope, of peace and of satisfaction in our Savior. We must value the cross of Jesus Christ now and forever more! This is in fact a Core Values of our church, “If there ever was an act of divine wonder to worship and glory in, it is the cross of Jesus Christ!”
So then let us sing. Let us look upon the Servant who was bruised, and pierced, and crushed for our iniquities, who justified us, who intercedes for us, who will deliver us unto eternal victory, let us look upon Him and shout for joy. May we be Let us sing with the lips and the hearts that He has healed with His wounds. Dear church, let us proclaim with our hearts and with our mouths and with our lives the excellencies of Him who has called us out of the darkness into His marvelous light.
The second application I want to make comes from the main command of Isaiah 55. And that is to come. If you are here and you have not yet received this great salvation by the Servant, listen to the words of God from Isaiah 55, “Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David... 6 Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.” Call upon the Lord to save you! Forsake your sin and your unrighteous desires and come to Christ. His ways aren’t your ways. He is not like man he won’t receive you begrudgingly. He does not unenthusiastically welcome you with an angry scowl. No He will have compassion upon you. He will abundantly pardon you with His unending mercy and love. Dear friend do not leave here neglecting so great a salvation. Repent of your sins and come to Him in Faith who will justify you with His righteous blood. He is mighty to save.
Today we have seen that the The Holy God came as a Servant and suffered as our substituted so that we might saved. Come to Him and join the redeemed as we sing His praises.
As we sang, “Man of sorrows what a name for the Son of God, who came ruined sinners to reclaim: Hallelujah, what a Savior!”
Let’s Pray
Prayer
Prayer
Your ways are not our ways
Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me?
Forgive us for our sins
Thanksgiving
Give us eyes to see, ears to hear
Refresh our affections anew
Today we have the privilege of responding to these very truths as we partake of Communion together. Let us take time t prepare our hearts to celebrate this family meal together and then we will pray for the emblems.
Officiate the Lord’s Supper
Officiate the Lord’s Supper
I want to ask Pastor Greg and Pastor Jeff to join me here to pray a prayer of thanksgiving for the bread and the cup.
In writing to the Corinthians, Paul spoke thus, 1 Corinthians 11:23-24 “23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.””
Pastor Greg, will you pray before we partake of the bread.
Let us partake of the bread together
1 Cor 11:25 “25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.””
Pastor Jeff, will you pray before we partake of the cup?
Let us partake of the cup together
1 cor 11:26 “26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
Dear Church just as we joined together in proclamation of our Lord’s death on our behalf with our bodies, let us join together in proclamation of our Lord’s death on our behalf with our voices as we sing our final song.
Benediction
Benediction
Please know that us elders stand ready to pray with you after the service if you desire counsel or wish to know how to come to know Jesus as Savior and Christ and Lord.
I’ll close by reading the doxology from Revelation 5 again, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing...To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”
Amen, you are dismissed.