The Suffering Servant - Part 1

We'll be moving into this passage here this morning on Isaiah. And I just want to kind of go back to one thing. You see those irritatingly hyperactive disks? I just thought I'd throw that in so you get some idea what my third grade teacher went through. Anyway.

All right, as we delve into this passage here, this is the first part of this passage from Isaiah 52 13 through 53 12 that we introduced last week kind of in summary and We have been saying so far that we're galloping into Isaiah 53 if you pardon our strange horse But we're going to change that I'm going to be munching now three verses at a time until we get into the first Sunday of next year and proceeding through this passage. Looking at it unlike last week where we did it in summary, looking at it instead three verses at a time, a little more detail.

So we can munch today and you can munch after the service too. Just go ahead and join us. Now the other thing to reiterate is this is the fourth in this entire passage, this is the fourth servant song of the series we've been seeing beginning in chapter 42. And so we'll be working through this fourth servant song here.

Now, to sum up what we said last Sunday, just to kind of bring people's minds up to speed. Not too fast though, okay? Up to speed. Just, that's all. One of the things we pointed out, that this is essentially a sort of a sandwich. What do we mean by that? Today we'll be starting in the top bun, alright? And this passage, since it is five sections of three verses each, we'll be, as we go through this, looking at each section of this sandwich and looking at the message that comes through in each of those three verse sections. The other thing we brought forward is that this is what's called a chiasm.

It's a mirror image in literary form and in written form. How does that look? The first part, what we'll be looking at today, those first three verses, presents what's an enigma. It's a kind of a puzzling set of contrasts. We'll take a closer look at that as we get into it.

The next part, which consists of starting with verse 1 of chapter 53 into verse 9, are the three parts of Christ's suffering. And then the final part is a solution and a summary of what the passage is laying out. And so the other thing that we put out last week in a little more detail, since we're summarizing here, is that the rabbis used to teach that the Old Testament presented And when I say used to teach, this was back in the time of Christ in the centuries immediately before and after. They used to teach that there were two Messiahs. There was Messiah ben Joseph, Messiah son of Joseph, and by that they meant Joseph the son of Jacob.

And with the idea that Joseph was one who, though beloved, was thought to have been dead. Joseph was one who was sold off to the traveling caravan. Joseph was one who was falsely accused. Joseph was one who was imprisoned. That's what they meant by Messiah ben Joseph.

And Messiah ben David, the one who would reign. And Messiah ben David, however, was far more popular I mean, after all, raining sounds a whole lot more fun than suffering, right? So that was what they presented far more properly. But when they'd come to passages like this, they would teach, oh, that's about Messiah ben Joseph. That's about the other Messiah who would suffer. And so they saw, for the most part, Messiah ben Joseph in this passage here.

It's amazing, they didn't see that this was one person. They saw instead two people, Messiah ben Joseph, who would die and be resurrected by Messiah ben David. That's the sequence that they saw. They did not see that there was one, they saw two, and they saw them coming at the same time.

So when Jesus presented himself and said, hey, I'm here this time and I'm going to suffer, and I'll come back again, and then I'll reign." That didn't click with them. Furthermore, they didn't like it because he had some corrective words for them, and that didn't seem to fit.

Now, looking at the passage here this morning, it says, Behold, my servant will prosper. This word, behold, we've seen that before. As a matter of fact, we've found that Isaiah likes to use that word in a number of places, and this is certainly one of them.

He uses it to draw emphasis. It calls attention to what's about to be stated. If we were to use our modern vernacular, we would say, take a mental picture. Get this idea in your head. Pay attention to this. This is something you want to get a shot of in your mind and think about this. Ponder it for a bit. Don't let this just slip by.

That's what he's conveying here. Now, behold my servant. Who is my servant? My servant here, this is Jesus Christ. Behold Christ. Hmm, where have we heard that message? Beholding Christ. We behold our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ now, when we behold him through our written word. This was an early invitation, if you will, to behold Christ.

2 Corinthians 3.18 that Mike read for us yesterday.

But we all, that phrase, those of the church, 1 Corinthians 10.17, we all, those of us here in the church with unveiled face, not under the Mosaic Law, all the people who were reading in Isaiah's immediate time and even for centuries afterward were under the law. Paul is making a distinction here with the Church. Those of the Church, not under the Mosaic Law, beholding as in a mirror, beholding in God's Word, looking in God's Word, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Behold the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Isaiah's invitation comes to.

We saw a similar message, and have seen it before, in Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. In verse 2, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. This fixing our eyes on Jesus is also carried in a message more subtly, but still in Philippians 3, 12-14, the mark or the goal that was being looked at by Paul. He says, I keep my eye on the goal, the skapos, I keep looking at the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the focal point.

As we look at this passage here, one of the things we're also going to see is the two people groups, first one, You, my people, is a reference to the people of Israel. And the second one, many nations, is about the Gentiles. In the Greek Old Testament, the ethnos, the ethnic ones. Many nations. So no longer just talking about Israel, the nation, but many nations.

Isaiah was thinking about all the people in the world. That was his mindset. That's a little odd, but that's for Ingrid's benefit. Isaiah was thinking of all the people in the world. That was this globe that was in his mind. Sorry about that. He had in mind all the people of the world. She's really forgiving, honest. I've talked to her about this sort of thing. This enigma that we made reference to before, it's sure a good thing she is. Anyway, Isaiah began this passage here.

He invited his readers to behold. Did you notice that? He said, I want you to look at this. I want you to not just glance your eyes over it. Look at this. Think about it. Take a mental picture. Ponder the significance of this. This enigma, God's Savior will be one who does well, It will be glorified and it will be one subjected to horrible shame.

Awful, horrible shame from beginning to end. One of the things we'll take a look at on Christmas Eve is the immense shame of the birth of Christ. There is far more shame than meets the eye. Our Christmas cards Don't do the shame message justice. We'll take a look at that. Horrible shame, horrible abuse, physical and otherwise.

Behold my servant will prosper. Begins an enigma, a real puzzling combination. We'll return to that message here in a little bit. Behold my servant will prosper. Something else to take note of here. My servant, who's speaking? This is God speaking, isn't it? Certainly we look at, this is all God's word, it's God's inspired message to us, but right here, this is God speaking. God is saying in here, I want you to understand, God is saying, I'm the one talking. How much attention would we give to God talking?

Let me illustrate this thing. Here is an aerial of the general area that we're in right now. Here we are right about here. Matter of fact, I've looked at this aerial up close. The picture was taken on Sunday morning. It shows our cars. I can recognize our car and the Henderson's and Wayne and Sue's and a few others. Anyway, here we are in this building. Imagine for the sake of illustration, just to get the point across here, Imagine a location right about over here. All right. Imagine this location.

There's these people over on East Bates Drive. So there they are. They're in the house. Now, you also got to kind of put on your night goggles because it's nighttime. All right. So here they are. They're in the house. It's nighttime. 4.12 in the morning. The people in the house are cutting Z's. And a few other letters. Now, all of a sudden, in the midst of this event, when the Z's are being cut and all the other letters are laying all over the floor, there's sawdust everywhere. A light comes on. And all of a sudden, there's this shaking. Psst! Wayne, wake up! Wayne, wake up! Oh, okay. What is it? It's the Lord! I want you to listen to me a minute. Have I got your attention? Oh yeah! That's the scenario. Do you think Wayne's going to listen to that?

I think so, once he wakes up. Which is going to happen real fast. As we look at this passage, I think it's critical to look at it, this is first person from God Himself. This ought to get our attention, just like Wayne at 4.12 in the morning, when the light shines on him and the Lord's shaking him. It's that kind of attention. This passage ought to get our attention. It is God telling us something directly. He's speaking.

Behold, my servant, he says, not just a bunch of servants, not just some, oh, this is a group of them, or these are kind of some sort of, no, my appointed, mine, will prosper. He, Jesus Christ, will be high. He will be lifted up. He will be greatly exalted.

It's emphasized in triplicate. I looked around and this way of emphasizing, I never found this combination of words anywhere else in Scripture. It is a triple emphasis upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is looking at the great glorification of our Lord.

That's the message that comes across here. This same kind of enigma comes through here in Philippians 2, 5-11. The enigma starts off in the first part, 5-8, of the Lord taking this lowly position. Isn't that what he's describing here in Isaiah? This lowly position. Then, in the last part there, the other part of the enigma. For this reason, God highly exalted him. The enigma. The puzzling contrast. Presented by Paul even to the church at Philippi. So what does this word prosper mean? What's that all about here? Does it mean lots of kids? Does prosper mean lots of bucks? Is that what it means? This Hebrew word, sakal, translated here as prosper, it actually has a whole lot more packed into the word.

It means to choose and deal wisely with skill and intelligence rooted in deep insight and based on the context into everything on earth. There is a lot meant and built into that word. My servant, God says, Jesus Christ, will be one who does well, he chooses and deals very wisely, with skill and intelligence rooted in deep insight.

The Lord always deals with us, notice I can use the superlative, always, in ways that are based on a total understanding and a full prior knowledge of the outcome. Isn't that good to know? The Lord always deals with us. that are ways based on wisdom, full understanding. Jesus Christ knew what he was doing, and he knows what he is doing now. Think about that. Jesus Christ always knew what he was doing. That's kind of amazing to think about.

Here is a Roman flagram, a couple of different models based on reconstructions, everything from illustrations to descriptions to archaeological findings. Here are a couple of reconstructions. This is what they first beat the Lord with before they sent him to the cross. The typical Roman scourging went like this.

And by the way, the loincloth, that's just for modern propriety, they usually didn't get that. Besides that, even if they did, it wasn't going to stay on very long anyway. Loss of blood, somewhere 40-50% loss of blood just from this, of the total blood amount. It was a severe beating. Some men didn't make it through this stage.

Did the Lord say, no, no, I won't let you do this? No. He could have protested, at a minimum, to Pilate. He didn't. Pilate said, I find no fault in him, and yet succumbed to the Jewish pressure. A politically savvy move on his part, maybe. As he carried out the cross beam, having lost a significant amount of blood, beaten badly, as they drove the nails in, he knew what he was doing. He dealt wisely. This, believe it or not, was prospering. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Look at the last part of verse 2 that we referred to previously in Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who, for the joy set before him, not, no, no, I don't want to go, I don't want to go, I don't, I, no, you guys can't do this. No. For the joy set before him endured the cross, knowing full well what he was doing, despising the shame, the shame he was born into, the shame he lived, the shame he died. Like I say, the loincloth is for our modern pictures. It probably was not there. And sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. There's the enigma again. The enigma keeps showing up, doesn't it? Amazing contrast. Horrific shame.

Being crucified was so gross that it developed over time that the Roman officials who pronounced crucifixion were allowed to use alternate words because the word staros and its related family of words were considered such foul language that any polite person, especially a Roman governor, wouldn't dare say such a thing.

That's what our Lord endured, voluntarily, knowing full well what He was doing. Think about us, human beings. Things happen to us that, you know, gee, we say, I didn't intend for this to turn out this way. We just wish this hadn't happened, quite like it did. We just have oopsies. To err is human is a commonly heard thought. Things happen in this world, right? However, whatever our good thoughts and intents, however well-intended human beings are, we don't always have a good sense of what the outcome will be, do we?

We don't. But you know, when the Lord endured the shame on the cross, and even when He endured being born into shame, even at those times, He knew what He was doing. He was not saying, oops. He didn't say, boy, this sure didn't turn out like I planned. I had no idea this was going to happen. No. He dealt wisely. God never says, oops. Jesus Christ never said oops.

Behold, my servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. And that so far sounds pretty good. Sounds like a good story, doesn't it? It sounds like everything is going to turn out hunky-dory. But, that's not the full picture. We're going to see in the very next verse and in some of the verses to follow. that there will be some very difficult things, some necessary things, but difficult things in this passage here. The enigma, the puzzling contrast.

Just as many were astonished at you, my people, so his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. Notice the comparison. Horrible, awful things were carried out against the Jews, even in Isaiah's time. The Assyrians prided themselves in their awful cruelty, so much so that they put that, the cruelty, on their palace walls. Isn't that astounding? For the kids to see, growing up in the palace, horrific cruelty, awful things, including pictures of the Jews and the awful things that happened to them. Tragic and devastating illustration is an illustration of what would happen to the Lord Jesus Christ when he would take the penalty that was due to you and me.

The point we made last week. Instead of me, Christ died in our place. I should have been there. Verne should have been the one nailed up on that cross. By all rights, I was the one that deserved the nails and the whipping. but he was there instead of me."

There is a Hebrew poetry pattern here, but even before looking at the details here, we immediately get the idea of a massive contrast in the message with the prior verse. Wait a minute, I thought he was highly exalted. What's happening here? Appearance marred more than any man is form, implying was marred more than the sons of men. If you look at this, what do these words mean? What's the idea here?

Does it mean that Jesus was physically abused by the Romans prior to his crucifixion? Yup. The Romans, once somebody was handed over to them to be beaten and then crucified, the soldiers could do anything they want with them. There were no legal restrictions.

How much do you want to shame this guy? It's up to you. Whatever you want. How much abuse do you want to hurl at him before you scourge him and nail him up on the cross? No limitation. Whatever you want. If you've got a sadist among the group, let him have at it. How about that? No protections. It's just going to happen real bad. It's only a question of how much. That's all.

But, it does mean more than that. Here is the rock floor of the Fortress Antonio where Christ stood before Pilate. You can even see some etchings on the floor where the Romans played games. That was the games that they played between playing games with the people about to be crucified. They were cruel.

Christ would also just simply appear as lowly and vulnerable, not as someone we'd have regard for. You can have any regard for that guy? Nah, not him. He's nothing but shameful. From his birth, to his life, to his death. Nothing but shame. All shame. All the time. Among human beings, nobody would have any regard for him. None.

And look at this. He will sprinkle many nations. So what's that mean? This? Is that what it's about? Turning on sprinklers in some part of the world is just not a good idea. You can imagine some places it just does a lot of problems. But what is he talking about here? The sprinkling many nations? It's certainly not this.

The priests would sprinkle blood before and that is in front of and in the temple and on the altar and on themselves for atonement for sins. That's the picture that Isaiah is drawing from here. They would sprinkle it on different parts of the temple, make atonement on the holy place, because of what? The impurities of the sons of Israel. And because of their transgression in regard to all their sins. That's why you're going to do it.

Next part of that passage, when he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, that is the very most holy part of the temple no one shall be in the tent of meeting until he comes out that he may make atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel for himself those in his house and all the Israelites verse 19 with his finger he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it seven times to cleanse it seven is the number of completeness in the Bible you see it is repeatedly as we saw in our study of Revelation It is a number of completeness, of totality. So what does that mean? Seven times to cleanse it, of complete cleansing. Jesus Christ is the only ultimate fulfillment of this picture.

And from the impurities of the sons of Israel to consecrate it. Sprinkling blood about the temple here, It was one of the temple rituals to atone for the sins of the people of Israel, all the way down to the priests themselves, and they were even to sprinkle it upon their own clothing. Cleansing from sin.

Isaiah 52.15, this sprinkling of the nations, the Gentiles. Notice the verses we looked at?

It was all for the sons of Israel. This is for all the nations, the Gentiles. I'd say it's probably a pretty safe bet. It's most of us here this morning. The Gentiles. The Law of Moses never anticipated that this would be for the Gentiles. We saw the verses there. It was for the sons of Israel. No, it's for the Gentiles. It would be for atonement of sins.

Isaiah 52.15 includes the atonement for sins of the Gentiles. Amazing. Here is Jesus Christ, the one who was at the time considered to be unclean. Unclean. That one who was unclean would be the one who would cleanse the whole world. Christ's birth was shrouded in shame. an illegitimate birth.

How do you like to go from Nazareth, a town of about 80 people? How do you like to hide in a town of 80 people? Yeah, maybe about as many people as are here. That's about the size of Nazareth. Now, you go from there to Bethlehem, about 2,000. Oh boy, now I can water this down a little bit. But guess what?

They're all related to these people. and they go to the town of Bethlehem, they're not going to a town full of strangers. Why? Because since the time of Nehemiah, the tribe of David would gather in Bethlehem every year to cut wood for the temple, including Joseph. So Joseph comes into Bethlehem, it's a family reunion.

He doesn't get to be anonymous. He goes from one place of shame to another. So pick your shame. He says, is there a place anywhere in this town that will offer me some place where my wife can have a baby? Ah, but it's that baby and we know you have not been married. No, you may not have your baby in this house. Go. Christ's life was called unclean by some because he healed on the Sabbath. Different things like that. The Pharisees said that Jesus was unclean. After all, he healed on the Sabbath.

In fact, on these steps down into the pool of Siloam. Right nearby. He ate with tax collectors and sinners. The worst of the worst. The scum of the earth. His disciples would eat without doing the ceremonial washing that was required in order to be perfectly holy and cleansed. His birth, life, and death were unclean. He died between two criminals on a cross that was reserved for Rome's lowest of the low, the worst of the worst. A living billboard for don't mess with Rome. loincloth optional, blood not optional. He'd cleanse this world's worst from sins. He'd sprinkle many nations. The one who was considered lifelong from birth to life to death, unclean, would cleanse the entire world by his death.

First Peter, that of course the first Peter elective looked at some weeks back here. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. And looking at the map here a little closely, it's roughly the northern part of what today we call Turkey. Most of those were Gentiles.

There were some Jews here. but they were of the nations, notice the last part there, sprinkled with his blood, cleansed. Now in verse 15, thus he will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account of him. Christ was of closed mouth, voluntarily, remember he knew what he was doing, before Pilate. Now it would turn around, kings on seeing what Christ had done, on understanding what Christ had done would be dumbfounded, absolutely speechless. What could they possibly say? Here's the Hebrew poetry pattern here, the last part there. Kings and other rulers in biblical times had not come up with God's solution.

And isn't that amazing to ponder here? Here is a sin-sick world, drenched, dripping with sin. Every last descendant of Adam stained with sin. How do you fix it? Imagine being a king. You've got a rule over all these people, and you and all those people are stained by Adam's sin. How do you fix it? The kings have an answer?

No. Absolutely speechless. Because when they finally come to see, when they finally come to understand, they will have nothing to say. The Lord has done and said it all. the one who had been lowly, having even a shameful birth of no earthly consequence to them. Rome didn't give one whit. They didn't give a hoot about Jesus Christ born in a little tiny podunk town on the far-flung eastern edge of the Roman Empire. They didn't care about it one bit. They never heard about it. Eventually, the word gets out. And eventually they see and understand. And they're dumbfounded. Speechless. Romans 6, 3 and 4.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into His death? As we go through Isaiah 53, we're going to see that. Not the baptism, but the death. The baptism is a new message here for the Church. Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death so that Christ was raised from the dead. This baptize is immersed so as to be changed by the immersion. A couple of ways in which this word baptize was used in New Testament times and times thereabout was dipping a cloth into dye, baptized, so that it comes out changed. It was used also of a sword that was heated very, very, very hot, and then suddenly plunged into water to be heat treated. Changed by the immersion.

That's the picture here. Ephesians 2, 4-7, what do we see here? But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Amazing. Amazing. We were identified with Christ. And so these things have come to pass.

But I'd like us to ponder something here. Isaiah didn't know the church was coming. Isaiah didn't know about the verses we just got through reading in Romans and Ephesians. He didn't understand that there would be a people of Jews and Gentiles who would be identified with Christ, placed into Christ, immersed in Him so as to be permanently changed, never to be the same again. Having been identified with Christ, we share His history. Like I was saying last week, I was there when they crucified my Lord. I was there when they laid Him in a tomb. You and I, as believers, were identified with Christ. We share His history.

There at the crucifixion, the Roman soldiers, they just had a job to do. It's a job. You get your paycheck, so to speak, and then you're done. But they had a job to do. And so they just did it like they did with all the other criminals. You drive the nails in. You watch, make sure nobody takes him down. You hang around. By the way, they weren't allowed to sit down. They had to stand. Stay standing until this guy was dead. So guess what they were hoping for?

Death fast. But it didn't usually happen that way. But we were identified with Christ in that death. Christ who knew what he was doing. We were identified with him in that enigma. That puzzling thing. Buried with Christ. In the Jewish understanding of things, once you're buried three days and you're really officially dead, okay? Buried with Christ. Buried with Christ. You and I were there. Did the people who were there watching it, as the stone was rolled away, did they know it? Walked into the tomb? Did they know that we were there?

No. None of these things were immediately evident. And yet, here, being raised was something that we were present for. Ascended. When Christ ascended there from Mount of Olives, the disciples, eleven of them then, looking on as Jesus went up into the clouds. You and I were there. Seated at the right hand of the Father. Seated in the heavenlies. You and I were there.

Think of this enigma. Puzzling contrast. You and I are part of that puzzling contrast. The enigma that we see in those three verses we've just looked at this morning at the end of Isaiah 52. We're a part of that puzzling contrast because we've been identified with Christ, as amazing as this contrast is, in incredible shame. Can you imagine being born into shame, living shame, dying as shamefully as was even possible in that culture? We were identified with Christ as He died, most shamefully. And we're identified with Christ in these things, all the way to being seated with Him. What an enigma! What a puzzling contrast!

God knows what He's doing. He knew what He was doing. Christ knew what He was doing. And He wants us to know what He was doing. Amazing, amazing enigma! What an incredible thing the Lord has done! Amazing grace! Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, there is so much in here that's so astounding.

How would we ever fathom putting together such an astounding contrast like this? So puzzling. We would never have invented it, but you did. You invented it before time began, before you said, let there be light. And Lord, in a ways that will continue to amaze us. You will show us your grace into the unfolding ages to come for eternity. We give you thanks for it all. In Jesus name, Amen.