The Suffering Servant - Part 3
Isaiah 53:4-6 · Vern Peterman · Dec 24, 2006
Isaiah, No. 49
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926012435501

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

And a blessed Christmas morning to you. We're going to move into our Isaiah 53 passage here this morning. As we've said before, now that we're into this passage, we're going to kind of slow down a bit and munch on this passage from Isaiah 52.13 to 53.12. We're now right here in the middle of it on this Christmas Eve morning.

This passage has been one that has been a favorite for a long time. It was even a favorite before the Lord came, even though it was not well understood entirely what it meant until after the Lord had come and the apostles had given us additional insight. The Isaiah scroll is one that's found close to two dozen times among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and a significant percentage of the scrolls, I might add.

We've mentioned before that what this passage amounts to is a sandwich of five parts, three verses each. And we're doing this middle section in the sandwich, OK? So hope you're hungry. Not that, well, you know what I mean. The first three verses, we can summarize with this word, enigma. It presented the enigma of Jesus Christ. Here is one who is highly exalted and greatly humbled. Here is one who, though having great and high and glorious position, is one who would come and suffer. The next set of verses presents this idea.

Christ was misunderstood and, as we summarize here, misjudged. People misjudged who He was and what He came to do. Didn't even the disciples themselves find confusion as they saw the Lord? He would tell them, I'm going to be crucified. Oh no, that can't happen. misjudged.

The one we'll see this morning is the three verses, the middle section, summarized in the word substitute. Christ was the substitute for us. He took the sins that were due to us. We've also presented this idea that this passage here has the idea of a chiasm, a mirror image in writing. It has a kind of a reflection point that centers around the very passage we'll be studying this morning. We've noted these kind of enigma, and then revelation is what we're into this morning, or in the middle part of that, and then finally the solution. Alright, looking at the passage, Isaiah 53, 4-6, that Gene read for us, these verses tell us this, in summary, Christ took the penalty for our sins upon himself when he was crucified.

That's the bottom line. That's what these verses are saying, in summary. Now, to start with, I need to tell you that I have a confession to make. The confession is this. I crucified a young man. Now, before you crucify me for having done such a thing, allow me to explain.

Yes, you guessed it. Guess where that is? Texas. When I was down in Texas, there was a time there when Randy was down there as well, and he was about there, roughly speaking, teaching a class which included some younger people. And there was a young man by the name of Kendall who was particularly challenging to Randy. And at one particular Sunday, he said, Dad, I'm going to be gone.

I'm going to need you to have me substitute. I want to let you know there's a young man in the class You have a hard time waking him up. You have a hard time getting his attention. He just doesn't seem to want to wake up. I said, thanks for warning me. I'll take care of it. So we did kind of like this. For today's lecture, I'll need a volunteer for the class. Now, of course, that's not me. There. Vern, her Cayley case. All right. That's her drawing of me. Alright, so now, here is Vern in the class, asking for a volunteer. Of course, I said, oh, it's so wonderful of you to volunteer, Kendall. Now, so what did Vern do?

Alright, all I wanted to do was think, right? So I explained what the crucifixion process was like. Of course, I didn't use just words. I got him up against the wall. And I held my hands up like this, and I held my hands up like this, like I'm ready to swing. Guess what? Do you know what happened? I got his attention.

And as I explained and walked through, he was at perfect demonstration. And he showed all the fear and anxiety that someone would show if they were going through crucifixion. It was perfect. I explained what the physical crucifixion was and also what it meant spiritually. Well, we're going to do that this morning, only I won't ask for a volunteer. Isn't that good? Alright, let's take a look at it. I'd like to introduce to you something briefly here.

This is Psalm 22. It's not a part of today's message, but I would just like to have you be aware of it, because it's a psalm written by David. Rather than doing what we see here this morning, where it's describing from the outside what the Lord did in Christ, Psalm 22 is a first-person testimony. That's why we find the first line, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, is how it starts. Does that sound familiar? Psalm 22. It is the Lord's words and the Lord's perspective as He's being crucified. So, I'll refer to that for you to read.

Surely our griefs He Himself bore and our sorrows He carried, yet we ourselves esteem was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. This is one of those Hebrew poetry patterns. We've outlined it here and also in your handout. In order to be able to show what's in parallel, our griefs and our sorrows.

He and he. And himself, of course, is an extra. We'll take a look at that in a minute. And bore and carried. And then below that, that we ourselves esteemed him three things. Stricken, smitten of God, afflicted. And so we'll take a look at those as we get to each one of them.

Notice, he himself, this is kind of exceptional. He himself in the Hebrew, this is an emphatic pronoun, something to take note of. In both the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament, there is the ability built into the language to emphasize certain things. Why would you emphasize something? You emphasize something because it's important. Scripture has that built in and Isaiah, the author, uses it here.

He Himself bore the emphasis upon Christ. The grief Christ took upon Himself were not approximately put upon Him. They weren't just kind of cast in His general direction. Specifically Him. He Himself. Emphatically Him. Isn't it amazing that Scripture would emphasize and put focus upon Christ, right? That's exactly what he does here. Specifically, Christ took our sins. It's the sins that were due for you and me. But He took them. He took them upon Himself entirely. He Himself.

Now notice we've got a couple of words here underlined. Bore and carried. This first word bore has the idea to lift off of in order to take it upon oneself. How about that? He lifted it off of us and put it on himself. The next one there is carried. This idea has the idea to shoulder it.

He lifted it off, he bore our sins, took it off of himself and put it on himself and then took it and kept it on his shoulder. He carried, shouldered the load of our sins and sorrows. In various kinds of rescue operations, everything from military to fire to rescue operations up here in the mountains that might take place. Even here's a rescue of a sheep. We shoulder a load of someone being rescued or in this case a sheep being rescued. This idea of shouldering is something that we understand well and we understand it as a rescue operation.

What did he do? He shouldered the penalty of our sins. He took the penalty that was due us, took it off of us, he bore, took it off of us, put it on himself, and shouldered, continued to carry the weight upon himself. He entirely took upon himself the penalty for our sins. How much did he intend for you to take care of yourself?

Right? None. Okay? Zip. Christ carried the heavy load of the penalty of sins that would have been ours to bear. An excessive load. A mountainous load. He took upon Himself. Entirely. Think about this. This verse is telling us it wasn't just placed upon Him. Yeah, that was true. Christ voluntarily did this for you.

Can you imagine that? Could he have just said, no, I don't want to go through with this. You Roman soldiers, you go away. Could he have done that? He had the power to do so. He voluntarily did this for you. He laid his hands out. For Verne, I'll do this. For Verne, I'll do this. For Verne's sins.

Hebrews 12.2, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. That's in the active voice. He actively endured it, not just put up with it or was subjected to it. He actively endured it. Why? For the joy set before him.

Galatians 2.20 and twice in Ephesians chapter 5. He loved us and gave himself up for us. A repeated message. He actively did so. He was not given up. Oh no, I don't want to do this. And somehow handed over against his will. He actively and willingly did so. For you. If you're a believer here this morning, you've been identified with Christ. We see that in Romans chapter 6 in his death. You were there too. How about that?

Yet we ourselves, guess what, this is another emphatic pronoun. Like he himself, this is the opposite. That's what he did emphatically, yet we emphatically. This is the sharp contrast between what Christ did on the one hand and how we viewed him. We did this, but he did that, as opposites, in contrast to each other.

How does it describe it next? Stricken, smitten, and afflicted. This stricken here, it's real interesting. It's actually a word that's not used too many places outside of Leviticus 13 and 14. There it's used 60 times, as you can imagine, for the heavy blow of leprosy.

Incredible loss. In those days, if you had leprosy, boy, you were in a bad way. It was bad for you. So severe was it that this word was used 60 times. It's used here in Isaiah, in this passage, and a couple more times and that's it. Mostly for leprosy. The thing is, leprosy was such a heavy blow in those days because it meant that you were isolated from people. It meant that you were going to continue to lose function until you died. It was miserable.

Smitten is a word here that pictures God as the one doing the striking, as if God's the one cursing. Cursing our Lord. We saw Him as being cursed by the Lord. Ah, He got what He deserved. Afflicted. This shows the subjective sense of it. Oh, this heavy load that He's got. that He Himself is taking this and bearing it and experiencing it. So all three of those words are used for emphasis and to give us kind of a fuller sense of what the Lord carried for us.

Verse 4 here pictures burdens and blows, to summarize it, but verse 5 shifts the picture to piercing and crushing. Interesting, as we look at this, I'll just preface this by saying that this verse here has the heaviest, most extreme words in the Hebrew language for being brought to punishment to the point of death. There are no heavier words available in the Hebrew language to express the weight of the penalty that brings death. but he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the chastening of our well-being fell upon him, by his scourging we are healed." Here's the Hebrew poetry pattern that repeated, he was, and he was crushed, and then for our transgressions, for our iniquities, then the next part, the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and then restatement, by his scourging we are healed.

Let's look at the pierced through and crushed words there. Pierced through means pierced to the point of death. This piercing is not just painful, it's going to kill you. That's the kind of piercing it is. This isn't just body piercing. This isn't the kind of stuff you go pay for and you walk out and say ouch and live through it. No, it's not that.

The word crushed here, do you like that? Crushed here, the words used are someone being trampled to death elsewhere in scripture, or enduring crushing agonies to the point of death. The idea is that this is going to hurt, you're going to get crushed, and it's going to be fatal. The two strongest words that could be used in Hebrew for some penalty that's going to bring death.

This word transgressions here, These are deliberate and willful sins against the Lord. I know this is wrong, but I'm crossing the line. Crossing a moral line that runs counter to God, God's holy character, as He has revealed. Transgressions are sins with a view to crossing a line. Let me illustrate that. You can't see that. Here, holy and unholy. Standing here, What does this mean? Transgression across the line. Do you know what's wrong? Yep. Is it unholy and you know it? Yep.

Transgression, knowingly, willfully crossing lines. Transgression sins with a view to crossing a line that violates God's character. Iniquities are actions stemming from the bent and perverted human that is sinful nature. the nature of each one since Adam. This word iniquities has the idea of bent over. There is a great distortion implied in the word. Iniquities are sins with a view to the source, to the source being warped and doubled over. Iniquities, sins with a view to the source, the sin nature.

The last part of that verse, chasing for our well-being fell upon him and by his scourging we are healed. So what's the last half of this verse saying? Think about that. What's it saying exactly? He, Christ, took the punishment that we well deserved upon himself so that we could be made spiritually well. Spiritually well. Healthy. He took the scourging that we deserve, it was fully ours, entirely upon Himself so that we could be healed. Not just a little bit, not just superficially, but from the inside out. What about healing? Good question here for Christians to think about. Among the Jews, the Jews had a promise of freedom from disease and healing from disease as long as they would obey God.

There were 316 laws, 365 just like the number of days in a year where things don't do this, don't do that, don't do this, stop that, don't you dare do this. 365 times. Got them all memorized? Including as we illustrated before, don't eat the worm and the apple. That's against the law. If you don't do all those 365 things and the remainder of the 613 you do all those things in the positive sense, then you'll be blessed and protected. That was the idea.

Both Christ and the Apostles healed. We have multiple demonstrations of that. They didn't heal every possible disease that they encountered. For example, when Peter and John came to the temple and healed the lame man. The lame man had been there for years. Jesus had most likely walked right past him. Why? Here's the opportunity coming up. But both Christ and the apostles healed as vindications, as validations, as testimony to who they were. Are you really Jesus Christ? Yep. Are you really an apostle? Yep. Let me show you. But in the church, while the Lord is able to heal physical diseases, if He so chooses, we shouldn't look at healing as something promised to us. Is the Lord able to heal? Yes, He certainly is.

I give this example here, and I say, Vern and Nancy, half a healing. I've shared previously before, sometime before we came here, Nancy and I both had a physical problem that was bothering us substantially. And Nancy and I kneeled down and were praying and said, Lord, you know, we realize that, you know, you can heal or not heal and it's your choice. And so we would ask for your healing. But if, you know, if you say no, if you deny that, we understand. Well, before we said amen, Nancy was healed. I was not. The Lord is able to heal if he so wishes. but it's not up to us to demand it or expect that the Lord must do that. It may in fact be that the healing that we don't have is precisely the trial for our benefit that we're appointed to.

So we look at the healing in Isaiah 53.5, 1 Peter 2.24, that the 1 Peter class is going to look at next week. We look at similar passages. What happens? The Lord is looking to physical Healing is basically a last priority.

Spiritual healing is first. Our position is completely healed, is it not? Our position in Christ is completely healed. It's because it's not been some modified character for the sin nature, but we are entirely in Christ. We have His history. Emotional healing comes over time and may not ultimately be entirely accomplished until we see the Lord face-to-face. Physical healing may, in fact, be when the Lord takes us face-to-face with Him and we have a new body.

Looking at this 1 Peter passage here, Isaiah 53, 4-7, looking at the verses we're looking at this morning, plus the first verse of next week's passage, look at the number of times that Peter draws upon the message of this very passage we're looking at here this morning. For you have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you." Isn't that what Isaiah 53 just told us? Christ suffered for you. Yes. Deliberately. It wasn't a mistake. He didn't just say, oh, I guess I'll put up with it. No. He most certainly did it intentionally. While being reviled, he did not revile in return. That'll be next week's passage.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross. And you see how that starts? He himself, what do we see in this passage in Isaiah 53? The emphasis upon Christ, built into the words of the original language. And Peter draws upon that without dropping even the slightest detail. He himself, the emphasis upon Christ, bore our sins in his body on the cross. Notice that the last part of that says, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. A summary, if you will, of Romans chapter 6.

Here in 1 Peter 2.24, crucified, we were identified with Christ in his death, died to sin, buried, most certainly dead, and raised. to newness of life, alive to God, alive to righteousness. Peter summarized what Paul wrote in more detail there in Romans 6. For by his wounds you were healed.

The verse we just looked at here. For you were continually straying like sheep. Ah, that's the next part. So now, we look at this part here. Take a look at this picture. I want you to look carefully, because this is a puzzle. Ever seen those Where's Waldo? This is a Where's Waldo, only not quite. Can you find the lost sheep in this picture? See the lost sheep? Finding the lost sheep? Or are you lost? All right, look over. No, that won't do. Here, this side. There is a sheep over here.

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. Each one of us is like that lost sheep way off in the distance. The Lord pursued us and paid the price that we would be found. So, the sheep say, what? Us going astray?

Nah. Now, I have to tell you, having spent some time around sheep, they can be absolutely nuts. They can be just crazy. This goes, by the way, I wouldn't go astray. That's not right. It's, I wouldn't go astray. And by the way, see this behavior of this ram here? I've experienced that personally. So anyhow, just so you know. Sheep can be nuts. They can be really crazy. Let me give you an example.

Here's my folks' ranch there where they live and there's the house in the circle. There's the barn where I used to go out morning and night to milk the cows. Milk the cows and milk the cows. After a while, Nancy helped me milk the cows, which was great. How about that for a date?

Over here, I remember going out to milk the cows one time and right at that spot right there, I remember looking at this sheep just beating his head against the fence. Beating his head against the fence. I looked at the fence and I looked at the grass on each side. The grass is the same on this other side as it is on the side that he's eating. Why is he doing this? It doesn't make any sense. Sheep are nuts. Let me show you another one. This is more illustrative of the situation that we're talking about here.

Over here was a shallow well, and walking by on the road, I heard this noise coming out of the well. A sheep had gotten out and fallen into the well. I got a friend, and he and I pulled the sheep out of the well, but it had already gotten too far gone and had gotten pneumonia, so the sheep died. The going astray ended in death.

There was a sad illustration of the biblical truth. All we like sheep have gone astray. Were it not for the Lord's saving, which is more effective than what my friend and I did, were it not for the Lord's saving, we would be lost. We're good. The end resulting in death. Isn't that what Romans tells us?

All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us. This all of us talks about the universality. Everyone. The next part, each one of us, each individual one. If you want to summarize it, all. How about each individual? Yep, each one. It's a good summary either way. How can this be?

The answer for us is given in the historical account in Genesis and explained in the New Testament. Human beings are born in Adam. In Adam, everyone gone astray, everyone like the sheep, everyone like the sheep in the shallow well, headed to death unless saved. There are some truths that we brought out a year ago. I'll repeat them again here.

There are some things given in the Old Testament and the New which are the same across all groups and times, universals. Once having fallen, all those in Adam have the same nature. Scripture says that from the beginning to the end. So Isaiah will tell the same message as the Apostle Paul. We see here in Isaiah, all like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.

Isaiah 53.6, what does Paul write? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Summary statement. Everyone. All. Salvation for all those in Adam. all those having fallen at him, is always by faith in God's provision. Enoch, who walked with God before the flood, by faith in God's provision.

Abraham, told to offer up his son Isaac, by faith in God's provision. Us, here, this morning, at Holly Hills, by faith in God's provision. God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. We saw it in Isaiah some chapters back, Isaiah 12-2. Faith in God's provision is salvation at all times.

As we saw earlier in this very passage, who has believed our message? What matters? Do you believe the message? Do you believe the message? The gospel, as we pointed out, is in 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4. And what we see is the first of the three points of the gospel shown here. Christ died for our sins, as Paul says twice in this passage, according to the scriptures. What scriptures? Numerous ones, but including this passage here in Isaiah 53. Christ died for our sins. He died for you and for me. He died to take upon himself the sins that were due us. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on who? On Him.

In this verse here, Butt contrasts God's focused and direct and amazingly gracious action with the humans having, like sheep, gone astray. Doing crazy things like the one keep budding the swing set, right? Human beings are doing things that make no spiritual sense. Each one has turned to his own way. So what did the Lord do? Oh, well, those are just sheep.

No. God is the one responsible for causing all the iniquity of us all to fall on Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ also voluntarily took it upon himself. Amazing, amazing grace. In 1 John 2.2, it says, "...and He Himself." Hmm, where have we seen that before? He Himself.

Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins. Not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. Ever get propitiation all over you? No. What is propitiation? Okay? This is a word that's not real commonly used in our culture. So, it's the satisfaction of God's holy character. It was not that God was just an angry, mad, really ticked off God that couldn't wait to just vent the anger somewhere. Instead, what it was, it was a holy God who said, not only am I absolutely holy and I cannot tolerate this sin before me, but I'm also an infinitely loving and gracious God and I will pay the price myself. for that sin for those who are lost. Every last one. He is the full satisfaction paying the full price for every single human on the planet. Every single one. Each one.

The only question that remains is the one that Isaiah presented and the one we've addressed before. Who's believed the message? Who? Which ones? Who's believed it? Why did He do that? For relationship with us. Amazing. These lost sheep. Yeah, I'll pay the price for those, He says. John 3, 16 and 17, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Here's this giving again.

Here's this love again. that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. There will be a time of judgment, but the Lord has sent Jesus Christ in his first coming, not to bring about judgment, but to bring about salvation. The price paid for everyone on the planet, effective for each one that believes. God's son was sent to save. The judgment is only for those who don't believe.

As we look here at this passage in this last verse, all of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Him, the One whose birth we're celebrating in this season. Him whose birth we're anticipating as we gather together tonight. He's caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

Think of this, imagine this, if you are Joseph. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. So they had a choice of two court systems, if you can imagine. Joseph was going to choose the no fault, you know, don't ask, don't tell. court system where you could get a divorce and nobody knew about it and kept it quiet because he figured Mary had really blown it but he didn't want to disgrace her. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for what He will save His people from their sins. Go ahead and take Mary for your wife. Your wife, and if we were to look at the culture of the time, likely about Kaylee or Erica's age, about to be married to Joseph, may have been as young as John Doyle. Go ahead and take Mary for your wife knowing that this birth will not be respected. Go ahead and take Mary for your wife knowing, look at that, He will save His people from their sins.

Do you know what that's going to cost? You are going to be father to this child who will die for all. Your wife will give birth to a child who is born in order to die. Isn't that amazing? What things must have gone through Joseph's head? Save the people from sins. I know what that costs. That's my job? Yeah, yeah, you Joseph.

As we think about this season and this time, the Lord gave, and remember when we see the Lord giving, this is but the start of giving. He loved us and gave himself up for us. This is what the Lord gave. And what we celebrate this time of year is but the beginning of the giving. This, this is what the Lord gave. He loved us and gave himself up for us. Of course, we know it doesn't end there, does it? We know that there is a death. in which we're apart, buried. We know that there's a resurrection in which we're apart. We know that there's an ascension and a seating in which we're apart.

But imagine Mary and Joseph, they don't have the insight that we have now, but imagine having been chosen to bear the one who would die for the world's sins, every last one, to each one who believes, salvation. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, what an incredible thing that you have done. Would we have done it that way? Almost certainly not. We might have selected and chosen some other path, designed something different. And yet you did a marvelous and wonderful thing, glorious as it was. It was not respected that way by even those whom Joseph and Mary cared for. And yet you had something in mind, that we be saved from our sins, us here 2,000 years later, us here in a place a hemisphere away, because we believe we are marvelously and amazingly saved by your grace. In Jesus' name, amen.