Go! And Behold The Suffering Saviour - Isaiah 53 Series

Go! And Behold the Suffering Saviour - Isaiah 53 (NLT)

Opening Prayer:

Gracious Father,

We come before You in reverence and humility, asking that You open our eyes to see Jesus afresh through the power of Your Word. Speak through the pages of Isaiah 53. Let us behold the suffering Saviour, exalt Him in our hearts, and respond with repentance and faith. In Jesus’ powerful name we pray. Amen.

Introduction: The Most Misunderstood Messiah

Church, one of the most beautiful, powerful, and heart-wrenching chapters in all of Scripture is Isaiah 53. It reads like an eyewitness account of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ—yet it was written over 700 years before He was born.

This chapter is often called the Gospel in the Old Testament. If you want to see Jesus—who He is, what He’s done, and why it matters—you will find Him here.

Isaiah 53 (NLT):

1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?

2 My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground.

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.

3 He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.

We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.

4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.

And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!

5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.

He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.

We have left God’s paths to follow our own.

Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

7 He was oppressed and treated harshly,

yet he never said a word.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,

he did not open his mouth.

8 Unjustly condemned, he was led away.

No one cared that he died without descendants,

that his life was cut short in midstream.

But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people.

9 He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone.

But he was buried like a criminal;

he was put in a rich man’s grave.

10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief.

Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,

he will have many descendants.

He will enjoy a long life,

and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.

11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,

he will be satisfied.

And because of his experience,

my righteous servant will make it possible

for many to be counted righteous,

for he will bear all their sins.

12 I will give him the honours of a victorious soldier,

because he exposed himself to death.

He was counted among the rebels.

He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

Point 1: The Suffering Servant Was Despised – But He Came for Us

(Isaiah 53:2–3)

We expect a Messiah to come in splendour—but Jesus came in simplicity. He didn’t arrive with fanfare, but in humility. The people of His day missed Him because He didn’t fit their image of a saviour.

Hebrew Word Study: "Despised" – ?????? (bazah) – to regard as worthless, to treat with contempt.

Jesus was not merely overlooked—He was rejected. He felt what it was to be abandoned and misunderstood.

John 1:10–11 (NLT): "He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognise him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him."

Charles Stanley said: "God’s plan for your life may not look like what you expected, but it will be far better than what you imagined."

And Church, that is so true of Jesus. He didn’t come as we expected—but He came as we needed.

Point 2: The Substitutionary Sacrifice – Pierced for Our Rebellion

(Isaiah 53:4–6)

This is the heart of the Gospel. Jesus took our place.

This passage reveals penal substitution—Christ bearing the penalty of our sin. He was pierced (Hebrew: chalal – to bore through, fatally wound) not for His sin, but for ours.

1 Peter 2:24 (NLT): "He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed."

John Piper wrote: "The wisdom of God devised a way for the love of God to satisfy the wrath of God without compromising the justice of God."