The Lord’s Servant, Isaiah 52:13-53:6
Introduction
“After a mission service, the preacher of the evening was hurrying away to a late train. He had just three minutes to catch it when he saw a man running after him. “Oh, sir,” he said breathlessly as he came up, “can you help me? I am very anxious about my salvation.” “Well,” replied the preacher, “my train is just here, and it is the last one; but look up Isaiah 53:6. Go in at the first ‘all’ and go out at the last ‘all.’ Good night.” The man stood staring after him until he had disappeared into the station and then he muttered, “Go in at the first ‘all’ and go out at the last ‘all.’ What does he mean?” When he arrived home he took down his Bible and turning to Isaiah 53:6 read these words, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” “Go in at the first ‘all,’ “he repeated. “ ‘All we like sheep have gone astray.’ I am to go in with that ‘all.’ Yes, I see. It just means that I am one of those who have gone astray. And go out with the last ‘all.’ ‘The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.’ I see. Yes, I am to go out free with those whose iniquity has been laid on Christ.” At last he realized his individual lost condition and his individual redemption. This is actually the message of John 1:9. The eternal Light of Christ illumines the individual who responds affirmatively. “Go in at the first ‘all’ and go out at the last ‘all.’”
Transition
This morning we will immerse ourselves in the beauty of Isaiah’s account of the Suffering Servant of the Lord. The beauty of this passage is the promise of God to bring about ultimate victory for His people Israel, and the entire world, through the Jewish Messiah.
Here it is foretold of His redemptive suffering. As we travel through various Old Testament literary genres this summer I long for you to see the importance of the connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Christ is their common theme. My desire is to make this plain in concrete ways.
The Bible is unified. The Scriptures are one revelation. In them is contained the message of the redemptive history of God’s people; all of which hinges upon Christ alone.
The thesis for this message is as simple as it is rooted in the text. The Lord’s victory over sin was born of suffering. I will flesh out ways that applies to us in the here and now of the Christian life.
Exposition
Many seek gain by conquest. Surely there are near countless examples of this. There are overly ambitious preachers whose desire is for personal fame rather than the Lord’s glory. There are excessively shrewd businessmen climbing the latter of success by stepping on the heads of others.
There are those in power and authority who abuse their position to further their own greatness rather than for the good of others. The Lord’s victory over sin, that greatest of conquests, was born of suffering.
We are partakers of His glory when we are witnesses of His sufferings. The Lord’s victory over sin was born of suffering. Our ultimate purpose is to identify with Christ in His suffering. The trouble is that we are not built that way. Human nature is invariably bent toward conquest, not submission; conquest and not yeildedness. What is our calling? What battles were we (the elect, God’s covenant people) enlisted by the sovereign hand of God to fight?
I am a Marine. The desire to train and to fight has never left me. I seem always to be on the prowl for the next battle to fight. But what should our battles be? What is our conquest supposed to look like? Does not the Bible use imagery of the soldier to describe believers?
In II Timothy 2:3-4 the Apostle Paul tells Timothy to “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.”
Christ died for the ungodly, us. We are to identify with Him in His suffering and share in it to bring life, His life, to this dying world. We are soldiers in the sense that we are to be well trained and focused on our task.
It is not that our task is to conquer in the conventional sense. The might of God was revealed in Christ, the Suffering Servant of the Lord. God invariably works in ways designed to confound the wisdom of this world and that elevate His grace and worth.
In 53:1 Isaiah refers to the “arm of the Lord.” Obviously Isaiah is not talking about the physical literal arm of God. God is spirit (non-corporeal) in nature. In Jesus the Word became flesh, but in the strictest sense God is far greater than our minds can even comprehend and word pictures like this point to His power.
This is a reference to the strength of His arm, doing His will, exercising His power and authority. All have gone astray. God alone saves perfectly, according to His will. To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
It has been revealed to mankind in the wondrous paradox of the strength of God displayed through the suffering of Christ; the beauty of God displayed in the marred brokenness of Christ; the power of God displayed in submissive, chosen weakness. “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (John 10:18)
Jesus, one the Cross said that if He chose to do so He could call down legions of angels. God has chosen in His Servant, Christ, to put His awesome power on display in humility, in meekness.
“On the 10th of June, 1770, the town of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was utterly devastated by an earthquake. From one of the destroyed servant’s housing buildings the slaves had fled, except a black woman, the nurse of her master’s infant child. She would not desert her charge, though the walls were even then giving way. Rushing to the child’s bedside, she stretched forth her arms to protect the babe. The building rocked to its foundation; the roof fell in. Did it crush the hapless pair? The heavy fragments fell indeed upon the woman, but the infant escaped unharmed, for its noble protectoress extended her bended form across the body, and at the sacrifice of her own life, preserved her charge from destruction.”
He has conquered sin through sacrifice. He has crushed sorrow through love. He has destroyed wickedness through the holiness that Christ offers us in His suffering. All have departed from the flock of God’s perfect security through sin. Indeed, that is what sin is.
It is any act of our corrupted will which is contradictory to the perfect will of God. That’s it. It’s that simple. Sin’s definition is found in how perfectly we disobey His perfect precepts.
All have gone astray. Everyone has turned to His own way. Blessed be the Lord God Almighty! The Lord has laid upon Him, the servant, messiah, Christ Jesus, the iniquity of us all! Why do we tend to judge others so harshly?
We were once a part of that “all” that Isaiah is talking about. Except for the grace of Almighty God we would have been swept away like unbelievers are so easily carried away by every empty promise that the world sends their way.
When we get that, I mean when we really get that down deep in our souls, in the inner most parts, that we were once a part of all of them who had gone astray and that God laid our iniquity (wickedness, vileness, filth, injustice, vice) upon the shoulders of the one who had known no sin; when we really get that how much more should our heart break for a world still burdened by its own iniquity?
How much more humble should we be in the sight of the God who rescued us from the path of destruction that we were on?
That’s what the text means. That’s what it is saying. It is saying that we (all) had gone our own way. We had departed. We had strayed. We, me, you, personally, had walked out on God. We know what’s right.
God has woven a moral compass into the heart of every man, woman, and child. We don’t have to be told what is right. When men and women argue from the point of ignorance of God’s law we are merely arguing in favor of what we want to believe to be true, not from what we know to be true.
The human will is bent toward rebellion. Ask any parent. We are all born, more or less, with a rebellious spirit. “Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know, and beforehand, that we might say, “He is right”? There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words.” (Isaiah 41:26) In his letter to the Romans the Apostle Paul echoes this sentiment when he writes “… as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10)
That’s the bad news. The good news is that He (Christ) was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. This is only good news, though, when we recognize the reality of the bad news about our rebellion and sin. The need for Isaiah’s Suffering Servant, Christ who was crushed to give us peace, is rooted in the reality of our rebellion.
This is the major stumbling block for so many. It is only when sin is seen for the affront to God that it is that the beauty of His sacrifice is visible.
In his book “The God Who Justifies” Christian Apologist James White, says it this way. “It is good news to those who believe the bad news about their sin and who desire, by God’s grace, to be at peace with Him; for everyone else, it is foolishness.”
Isaiah writes, “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.” (Isaiah 52:15)
The revelation of the Suffering Servant of the Lord confounds many. It is foolishness to those who have not received the “eyes of faith” to comprehend its beauty. It has confounded even the wisest and the leaders of the world. It still confounds us today.
The Lord’s victory over sin was born of suffering. Our ultimate purpose is to identify with Christ in His suffering. Yet often we are no more aware of this reality now than the original audience was to these words in the day of Isaiah.
Conclusion
Christina recently gave birth to our first daughter. After three sons I am very pleased to have a little girl. Recently I was speaking to the academic dean of the seminary where I am pursuing doctoral studies. The school had asked for individual and family photos of students like me who are working by extension on their degrees, in an effort for staff to get to know the student body better. I emailed the family portrait that we had only taken a day before the schools request. In it 2 week old Felicity is smiling along with the rest of the family. It was amazing. She smiled just as the photo was taken, right along with the rest of us! I emailed that to the school along with the message, “Here is the proof that I really had a baby and needed to reschedule the weeklong course on campus that took place the very week in which she was born.” The reply from Dr. Stephens was appropriate. “How does your wife feel about you saying that here is the proof of the baby which you (I) had? Make sure you duck when you tell her what you said.” It was amazing that Felicity smiled right as the photo was taken. It was an amazing experience to be in the delivery room and watch my daughter come into the world. What is truly amazing, though, is the way that a woman’s great pain, anguish, near misery, that is incurred while giving birth completely vanishes the moment that the little baby is laid upon her chest. There is great pain in child birth. We come into this world in the most marvelously violent way.
Our salvation, reconciliation with God, has come to us at the highest cost. “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4)
The beauty of our salvation is rooted in the depth of its cost. The Lord’s victory over sin was born of suffering. Our ultimate purpose is to identify with Christ in His suffering and thereby receive the grace of God by faith in the one who was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquity.
The punishment that brought us peace was placed upon His shoulders. Dear saints of God our calling is to identify with His suffering by faith and having been consumed by the lover which He showers us, serve the world in like fashion.
Our calling is to receive the overwhelming weight of grace, reflect it back to God in worship, and pass it along to others through acts of charity and the spreading of the Gospel message.
There are many willing to follow after a Jesus who promises to deliver gold plated luxury. There is no shortage of those who will accept a Christ who delivers only peace and prosperity. The first verse of our text is well translated “Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.” (Isaiah 52:13) The prosperity of the Suffering Servant is wisdom and salvation, not earthly treasure, comfort, or peace born of worldly security.
The text says that He will prosper and then in the very next verses says that He will be bruised beyond recognition, suffer, and that His blood shall sprinkle (cleans) the nations. The prosperity of God in Christ is the salvation of the elect! It is the freedom from sin and reconciliation with God that comes through the grace of God according to the instrument of faith. Man’s prosperity: a Rolls Royce which one day shall rust. God’s prosperity: reconciliation with His creation, eternal worship which shall never end.
“Accept suffering graciously. When you have reached such a point, all misery will seem sweet and you will relish it for Christ’s sake and think that you have discovered paradise on earth. As long as you object to suffering you will be ill at ease. Accept it, and you will find peace.” When we identify with Christ in His suffering and likewise display a willingness to suffer with and for the world, we look like Christ. It is then that we go in through the first all and go out through the last all. Amen.
