Suffering Servant Series

A. In this next stanza, we see a very brief summary of the Servant’s life...

People from Isaiah’s day...

all the way down through history...

up until the current time...

people are incredulous at the thought of a suffering Servant...

and they are even more incredulous at the thought that through the suffering...

the Servant will provide salvation for many.

Our text says, "who has believed our message"?

I’m sure there were plenty of doubters in Isaiah’s day...

Just as I’m sure there were plenty of doubters on that day that Christ actually fulfilled this prophesy...

and paid the ultimate sacrifice when He was crucified...

and I know that there are still many people who doubt even today.

B. Verse 2 tells us that this Servant "grew up...like a tender shoot".

The word that’s translated as "tender shoot"...

actually has the meaning of a plant that sprouts forth new growth after the tree has died.

In botany, they actually have a word to describe plants that do this..."soboliferous"

Perhaps you’ve seen a tree trunk after a tree has been cut down...

and suddenly, new, fresh growth will begin out of what once was dead.

That’s how it was when Christ came 2,000 years ago...

it was an extremely dark time of history...

spiritually, financially, politically, in almost every way...

but Christ came...

bringing new life out of something dead...

Isa_11:1 tells us, "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit." Isaiah 11:1 (NIV)

C. Is 53:2 also says that Christ was "like a root out of dry ground"...

this doesn’t refer to the land around Galilee at this time...

it is a reference to the lineage of Jesus Christ...

even though He is in the line of David...

His father was a poor carpenter...

and His mother was a virgin...

and it was in these humble circumstances that Christ would "take root".

D. Isaiah also tells us that Christ had no special beauty or majesty...

some people use this to tells us that Christ was ugly, or deformed...

I’m sure that Christ’s appearance was at least of average attractiveness...

what this verse is referring to is the humbleness of His surroundings...

He wasn’t born in a castle...

to parent’s who were King and Queen...

He wasn’t born in an important capital city...

to parents who were high religious leaders...

Jesus was born to poor parents...

in a part of the country that was despised...

in a town that people said "nothing good can come from there"...

He lived in a cottage...

He worked at a trade...

There is certainly nothing about His life and His beginnings...

to suggest that He might become a prince in that part of the land...

Let alone Messiah of all mankind...

E. "He was despised and rejected by men"...

"a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering"

He came and began to minister to the people...

and the religious establishment refused to accept Him...

He was cursed...

He was falsely accused of things...

He was hated...

And although there were a few people who accepted Him and followed Him...

many people "esteemed Him not".

3. Third Stanza: The Servant’s Vicarious Suffering Isa_53:4-6