What Did Jesus Look Like? Series

Do you have a friend who is upset about what God has not done? More and more people seem to be upset that God has not stopped some type of tragic event. One young lady is upset because God did not stop her father from dying at a relatively young age. Another father cannot believe in God because God hasn’t stopped his child’s cancer from advancing. “I cannot believe in a god who allows so much pain and suffering in the world.” Maybe you know someone who wonders why God doesn’t seem to care. For the next 7 Sundays, I want to show you what God has done. Let me show you what God did – Christ died for you.

Nowhere in all the Old Testament does the gospel shine more brilliantly than in Isaiah 53. This one chapter is quoted seven times in the New Testament and it is alluded to another 44 times in the New Testament. This is such a remarkable and unique passage that we are going to spend the next seven weeks allowing Isaiah 53 to prepare our hearts to celebrate Easter.

One of the most surprising items for the earliest Christians was Jesus death on the cross. Yet, shortly after His resurrection, the early Christians were surprised again to discover the Old Testament had predicted Jesus but also His mysterious death for sinners. Can you imagine the impact of knowing much of Jesus’ life was predicted hundreds of years before He existed?

Yes, there’s a lot of pain in this world and focusing on this may convince you God doesn’t care but I want to show you for the next few moments that God does care. This is a poem and it is a quotation from the very voice of God Himself.

Chapter 53 really should begin at verse 13 of Isaiah 52 and it’s there we begin reading.

“Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. 1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 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, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 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.” (Isaiah 52:13–53:12)

There is a mysterious figure described in this chapter who is to come in the future. Remember, Isaiah’s ministry was around 2,700 years ago or approximately 700 years before Jesus. This is the Mount Everest of Old Testament predictions. Again, this is a mysterious figure who is to come and bring salvation. Isaiah calls this mysterious person a “Servant” and this “Servant” achieves something that makes infinite and eternal difference in the lives of people. The New Testament will come many years later and tell us that this mysterious figure is Jesus.