The Servant Stricken and Smitten

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0:16Isn't it great to have our children's choir here this morning leading us? Amen. Today we're taking a short break from our Genesis series to look at Isaiah 52 and 53. So we'll be in Isaiah for Good Friday as well as for Easter next Sunday as well. And so we hope you'll join us next week. Now, would you join me as I pray and ask the Lord for help? Father in heaven, we need your help this morning. So would you come in the power of your spirit to give us eyes to see all that you have for us in this passage en live in our hearts? Fill us with a love for you and a greater understanding of who you are.

1:11We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. As you already heard this morning, the week before Jesus' death, as he drew near to Jerusalem, he rode in on a donkey as the crowds gathered and they laid their cloaks before him, and the children gathered palm branches and they cried out Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. It was an amazing scene, the humble coronation of this long awaited king.

2:02But just days later, a very different scene would unfold. Pilate looked out to the gathered crowds and he said to them, whom do you want me to release for you? Baras or Jesus who was called the Christ and the chief priests. And the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Baras. And so Pilate looked to the crowds again, and he says that, then what shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ? And you know how the story goes? The people cried out, let him be crucified, let him be crucify. The crowd is fickle. Uh, I'm sure there were some who cried out Hosanna in the highest and who were also there who cried out let him be crucified.

3:04The crowds cannot be trusted. So this morning, have you ever considered what, what if you were there, what, what if we were there in that final week of Jesus' life, would, would we be among those who cry out Hosanna in the highest and, and wave our palm branches? Or we would be be like the fickle crowds that would be steered by the chief priests and elders and cry out, let him be crucified. And I suspect that if you're a little bit like me, we all think, well, of course I would be among those who would celebrate Jesus' triumphal entry. And yet such thoughts go against the testimony of the scriptures.

3:47The apostle Paul writes in Romans three that Jews and Greeks are both under sin. And then he says this, Romans three 10, none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Quite the pronouncement, in fact, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Actually on our flight from Thailand to the Philippines, the the just came back on Monday. But on our flight from Thailand to the Philippines on this trip that we were on that verse, Romans 3 23 was on the back of the seat tray table.

4:42They can show you the slide. Imagine staring at that for several hours as you hurdle through the sky in a metal tube, a amazing and unusual. So the, the seat next to it was John three 16. And unfortunately it was telling these weird vitamins, uh, in, in the Philippines. Yet the verse is true. Apart from Christ, we are ungodly and guilty and we know it. We have done things we ought not to do, and we have left things undone that ought to be done. We have an unbearable guilt and we cannot make it away. Now, how do we often like to deal with our guilt? We like to shift the blame to someone else. I I do this all the time.

5:36When whenever I'm driving and I have kind of Google maps pulled up, and if my, my wife and I are talking, I will usually get the turn wrong. I'll miss the exit. And it takes us, you know, 15 minutes longer. And I'll almost instinctively every time say, look what you did. It's because you talked to me that I missed that turn. I want to justify my actions by blaming others. I I wonder how many of us do that as well. I don't wanna bear my own guilt. Uh, I wanna shift it to somebody else. I wanna justify my actions and minimize what I've done. I wanna be found right? And deep down though this morning, we all know that we're guilty sinners in need of help and we need something or someone who can remove our guilty stains.

6:28And so we come to Isaiah 52 and 53, which describes the miracle and the scandal of the cross of Christ. An innocent man becomes the scapegoat for sinners. God justifies the ungodly through the suffering of Jesus on the cross. So the main question I want to ask us this morning is, how does Jesus remove our guilt if we're all guilty, if that verse on the back of that seat tray table all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, no one is righteous. No one seeks after God. No one lives up to God's perfect standard and we're all guilty. How does God remove our guilt? How does Jesus remove our guilt?

7:19And so we're gonna jump into our passage, but before we do, just a little bit of context. Maybe you're new to church, maybe this is your first time or maybe you've never read the book of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah was written roughly 700 years before the birth of Jesus. It was written to Israel on the verge of national crisis. And the central theme of the book often is trust in God, especially in light of this messianic and Davidic king that is to come. And Isaiah 52 and 53 is typically viewed as the fourth servant song in Isaiah and describes this suffering servant who is to come. It's a poem, but it's also a prophecy that looks forward to when Jesus would come 700 years later and fulfill every single one of those things that it describes.

8:12And if you look in your Bible, you can see that it's kind of broken up into five paragraphs of three verses each. It goes all the way to the end of chapter 53. And so this morning we're gonna look at the first three paragraphs all the way up to verse six. And then on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, we will look at the rest. So the three sections we wanna see this morning are this the surprising servant, the sorrowful servant, and then the substitute servant, the surprising servant, the sorrowful servant, and the substitute servant. And first we look at the surprising verses 13 to 15. The opening verse is rather surprising.

8:56It begins with the servant's exaltation. It says, this servant shall act wisely, he shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. This is surprising because the servant up to this point has been described as one who is suffering. Uh, Isaiah 49, verse seven says that the servant is deeply despised abhorred by the nation. Or Isaiah 50, verse six says, I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. And so it's surprising to see this suffering servant being described as being exalted. Now, the phrase high and lifted up and shall be exalted is very similar to what other verse in Isaiah.

9:50If you recall Isaiah chapter six, when Isaiah sees this vision, it says Isaiah six, one, in the year that king Siah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne and he's what high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. So this description isn't just describing anybody, it's describing royalty. It's describing a king. And we know on this side of the cross that Isaiah is describing Jesus. Now, Jesus would act wisely by accomplishing God's will and his purposes, and it would lead ultimately to his exaltation. But before we get to his exaltation, we see first his suffering. Verse 14, we see that people are astonished.

10:41Or another way to translate that could be repulsed or horrified or appalled at his appearance. And and we have to ask, well, why are they astonished? Why are they repulsed? It's because he was disfigured and disformed deformed hi. His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and from his form beyond that of the children of mankind. And so he was so disfigured, he didn't resemble a human anymore. It's like when sometimes you take a long road trip, and this is a crude illustration, but it actually gets exactly to the heart of of what Isaiah's describing. You see roadkill on the side and you sometimes can see, oh, that's a deer, that's a raccoon.

11:24And then other times you're like, I can't make that one out. It just looks like hamburger meat. And that's exactly what Isaiah is painting an image of for us. Jesus suffered so badly that you look at his face and you don't say, who is that? But you say, is that human? Now, why does the Bible give such a gory and even grotesque description of Jesus in his suffering? This is not sort of the death that we're used to, right? We want kind of nice sterile death in a hospital surrounded by beeping machines or nurses and fluorescent lighting. Or maybe we'd like to have it at home in the quietness of our sleep.

12:09Why did Jesus' death have to be so extreme? And why is it described in so great of detail? I think it's because of this. What you see at the end of verse 15, now beginning of 14 says, as many were astonished at you. And then the end of 15 says, so shall he sprinkle many nations, Jesus needed to shed his blood in his death in order to ransom people by his shed blood. One Peter one 19, he's like a lamb without spot or blemish, that he's the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so this idea of sprinkling here is throughout the Old Testament. Leviticus eight 11 says, he sprinkled some of the blood on the altar.

12:58This is the priest doing it seven times and anointed the altar in all of its utensils and the basin and its stand in order to do what? To consecrate them. So this is a cleansing. This is purification. Or on the day of atonement, the priest would take all, take the blood of a bull or a goat. Actually, he would take both and he would make atonement for the uncleanliness of the people of Israel. So in the same way Jesus sprinkles his blood over the nations to cleanse them from their sin. This is why he had to be bloodied and beaten. Now verse 15 says, 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.

13:43They understand what, what does that verse mean? It describes that when Jesus fulfills his mission of death on the cross, the kings of the nations are finally going to see and hear and understand what they previously did not see, hear, or understand. Namely, this, the infinite worth of the one true king Jesus. Isaiah is describing and anticipating this day when Jesus is going to come fulfill his mission, cleanse the nations, and then he's gonna be exalted and lifted up. Psalm 72, 11 pictures this day for us. May all the kings fall down before him. All nations serve him. So God makes guilty sinners clean through his crucifixion because his blood brings cleansing and purification and consecration to God's people.

14:45And this was and is so unexpected, the kings of the nations would never have anticipated this, that they're astonished and surprised. They're stunned into silence because God would judge evil by bearing it in his own body so that enemies now become his beloved children. And this is the wonder and the marvel of the gospel this morning. This is what we have come to worship this Jesus who takes away the sin of the world in his own body. He shed his blood so that we might have everlasting life. And unfortunately, many think they can make themselves right with God. If only I just lived, uh, a mostly moral life, then God's gonna accept me.

15:41Or if I stop cussing or if I'm nicer, if I read my Bible more, maybe if I stop doing bad things, you know, I I'm a pretty decent person. I haven't killed anyone. I don't sleep around. I don't steal. I don't hurt anybody. God's gonna grate on a, on a curve, right? And yet the Bible tells us that there's nothing we can do to earn salvation. We cannot wash away our own guilt and shame before a holy God. But in Jesus, God has provided this solution. Jesus cleanses us from our sin. And Isaiah describes this 700 years before Jesus would come, so that when he came, people would see it and say, finally, the solution that we desperately needed the law was to show us that we're all lawbreakers, all have sinned and fall short of God's law, of the glory of God.

16:40And yet in Jesus, he sprinkles us with his blood. So Isaiah is describing the story of the gospel for us this morning, and that's what we wanna revel in the gospel is gory because it's good news that God has dealt with our sin and shame. Now let's turn to verses one through three. We see this sorrowful servant. Now we see the sorrowful servant. Look at verse one. It says, who is believed and what? Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? So while the nations respond in stunned silence, the believing remnant of Israel, wonder aloud why so few have believed their witness.

17:27And so they raise these two questions. Who is believed what he has heard from us? And throughout Isaiah, the people of Israel are often portrayed as death and blind and unbelieving. Isaiah six, nine says, keep on hearing but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Later in Isaiah 29, it describes them as drunkards and people stuck in deep sleep. Isaiah 42 describes them as having blind eyes and deaf ears and dull hearts. Part of the reason that Israel failed to believe is because Jesus suffering and death was so unexpected. I imagine that there were those among the crowds who cried out Hosanna in the highest because they thought, here comes the humble king to free us from Roman occupation.

18:17And when they realized he's going to be crucified, they said it can't be him. Let him be crucified. He's just another sham poser. When Jesus told his disciples that he would suffer, that he would be killed, that he would rise. And three days later, oh, what did they say to him? You remember what Peter said? Peter took Jesus aside and in striking audacity, he rebuked Jesus. And he said, far be it from you. Lord, this shall never happen to you. Aren't we glad that Peter was wrong? Clearly Peter did not understand what Jesus came to do and how he would accomplish it. Yet this is so true of us as well, isn't it?

19:13I imagine among us this morning, there are many who want to solve our own sin problem. We think if we just work a little harder, try a little bit more, apply a little bit more, pull yourself up by the bootstraps theology. You know, let, let's start a new Bible reading plan and I'll go to that other Bible study and get an accountability partner. And we wanna earn our status, climb the rungs of the ladder by what we can do. And we don't say that out loud, but functionally, that's how we think. That's how we live. If I read my Bible, I'm gonna have a better day. If I don't, oh boy, what kind of day am I gonna have now?

20:01And yet what this verse is revealing for us is that we need God's supernatural revelation to understand him and to see him rightly. And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed without God's revelation? No one can see and believe to see Jesus as he is requires spiritual eyes here this morning. And so do you have eyes to see the beauty and the wonder of Christ? Verse two says, for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. So Jesus is likened to this kind of young plant root and and from dry ground. What kind of roots do you get? You you get kind of shriveled and scraggly roots, the opposite of lush plants.

20:49And so I think this begins to refer to Jesus lowly beginnings. He wasn't royalty, he wasn't born in a palace. He's the opposite here of a oak tree or a Sequoia. He's a young plant, a a, a chute. But the use of these words draws on language from Isaiah 11 where it describes this Davidic king that would come. Isaiah 11, one, a shoot from the stump of Jesse, a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And what it's saying is that Jesus, though he comes from lowly beginnings, unassuming, he's going to be this Davidic king. Verse two goes on, no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.

21:34Jesus' physical appearance is entirely unimpressive. He wasn't beautiful according to human standards. He didn't have the good looks of a Hollywood actor or the chiseled muscles of a bodybuilder or the fame and money of the richest men on earth. He wouldn't be featured in people magazine's, most beautiful people or sexiest man alive issues. No one would mistaken him for a model. There was no holy glow or aura that followed him. There was nothing physically special about Jesus. In contrast, you remember how the King of Sauls described a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he from his shoulders upward.

22:24He was taller than any of the people. Saul was a good looking dude. He looked like a king. People looked at him and said, that's the guy. Let's make him king. He, he just stands taller, he just broad shoulders, good looking. Or David one Samuel 1612, he's described as ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. But in comparison, Jesus had no majesty that we should look at him. And now, I don't know if you've ever considered this before, but this is really surprising. Jesus could have had any look he wanted. He's the creator and sustainer of the world.

23:04He could have been the best looking man to ever walk the earth muscles on top of muscles taller than anybody. Genetically perfect. But his physical form is plain, underwhelming and forgettable. Why? Why? We'll see just in, in just a moment. Let, let's go on to verse three. It says that Jesus 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. So this reinforces that Jesus was hated and rejected and mocked and shunned and ridiculed and people saw him and they quickly kind of turned away not wanting to look at him.

23:50He was immediately written off despised at first glance. And he wasn't popular and charismatic, he was rejected. Even his own family thought he was crazy. Despite his miracles, many didn't believe no one saw Jesus from afar, looked at his body, looked at his face and said, this is it. This is the Messiah. This is the guy we've been waiting for. Look at him. It was the exact opposite. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Why did Jesus lack physical attractiveness? Why does the Bible make such a point about that? I think it's this because if Jesus was really handsome, really good looking, he would draw people not in the right way.

24:39Jesus attracted people not because he was physically attractive, but he draws people to himself by giving them spiritual eyes to see his internal spiritual beauty and his true identity. Jesus attracts people with the truth of who he is rather than with his good looks. And this is true today as well. Jesus is unattractive to the spiritually blind. You can read your scriptures and think just a guy, yeah, he lived a pretty good life, did a lot of stuff, taught a lot of things, good teacher, right? But to see the beauty of Jesus, not just the beauty but the royalty, that he's God incarnate. To see that level of depth, to see that about Jesus one needs to be born again.

25:34And to do that, we have to see the terrible state of our sin. We, we need to see rightly our estrangement from God. We need to see the condemnation that we've earned and we deserve. And then and only then will we have open eyes and open hearts to see the beauty and the majesty and the wonder of Christ. And so this morning, do you see the beauty and the majesty and the wonder of Jesus? Do you have open eyes and open hearts? Do you feel the very wonder of who he is afresh that all of my sins that stand against me, everything I've done over my lifetime and even last week, Jesus takes upon himself so that I would have life in peace.

26:31Jesus' ministry is surprising or astonishing. He's sorrowful and rejected. And now this leads to our third stanza, that he's the substitute servant. And this third section focuses on Jesus suffering for us. So why don't you follow along as I read verses four to six and just see all the language where Jesus doesn't suffer for his sins, but he suffers for ours. So verse 4 53, verse four, surely he is born our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him, stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

27:16And with his wounds, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Throughout this entire section, we see again and again that Jesus did not suffer for his sins, but for ours, and this is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, it refers to Jesus dying as a substitute for sinners and that he would give bring about atonement for those sinners. So sinners are dead in their sin. They've earned the wages of death. They're estranged and separated. But Jesus died in our place on the cross atoning and paying for our sins.

28:03And he cleanses us by his blood. He serves as the substitute for what we rightly deserve, which is what Second Corinthians 5 21 summarizes. For our sake, he made him who is Jesus to be sin, who knew no sin. So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This is amazing. This is one of the most amazing truth in all of scripture. We will spend eternity pondering this verse, this truth, and never exhausted that God who did not sin at all ever once in Jesus became sin, suffered the punishment that we deserve so that we might have his righteousness. The perfect and blameless lamb took our scorn and suffering.

28:58He became our scapegoat. He dies for our guilt and shame. And we see throughout the Old Testament kind of allusions to this, don't we, Moses in Exodus 32, and God said he He, he was gonna hold Israel's sin against them. And Moses says to God, blot out my name from God's book of life, from your book of life. If you don't forgive them their sin. Or later in Exodus, Israel puts the blood of the dead lamb over the doorposts of the house so that the angel of death would pass over. Or throughout Leviticus we see this idea of a guilt offering or a scapegoat that bears the sins of the people and takes him out into the wilderness.

29:43This is the magnificent and marvelous love of God. This morning, God sends Jesus to die in our place. We get life and joy and relationship with God and forgiveness of sins. Hear the words of verse five. Again. 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. It's at the cross that love is victorious. And mercy rains and grace flows down to sinners who don't deserve it.

30:26Love bleeds and our sins are washed, clean as white, as freshly fallen snow. Jesus declares his love at the cross. John 1513, he says, greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. And amazingly, God calls us now friends. He takes the suffering that we deserve and gives us the love that we don't deserve. He takes the punishment that we've earned to give us the forgiveness that we could never earn. He absorbs the wrath that we have stored up for ourselves and gives us the lavish grace of God that we would receive all the days of our life. And this is the wonder and the majesty of the gospel.

31:13And so this morning I imagine that there are many who have never come to Jesus regardless of what you're guilty of, whatever your chains of bondage, whatever the brokenness of your past or the sins of your youth or the sins of yesterday, or the scars that you've accumulated from decades of living apart from God, you can come to him. He will receive you. He says, come to me all who labor and our heavy laden and I will give you rest no matter how far and how long you have run away from him. No matter how many times you've tried to do it in your own strength and tried to solve your own guilt problem, how you've tried to just wash away your own shame.

32:07Jesus says, come, stop trying to clean yourself up before you come to me. You just can't do it. Receive the free gift of my sacrifice. He gives us life and joy and new hearts as we believe in him. By faith, though we have like sheep all gone astray each one to our own way. God lays on Jesus our iniquities. If we believe and trust in Christ alone, notice that Jesus was pierced and crushed and smitten by who? By God. God carried this out, not because Jesus sinned. This is not divine child abuse if some have called it. Jesus says in John 10 15, I lay down my life for the sheep or John 10 17, I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

33:00Or Hebrews 12, Jesus saw the joy that was set before him and endured this cross scorning the shame and sat down at the right hand of God the Father. Jesus willingly went to the cross so that he could accomplish all that God had called him to. Jesus said to Peter as he was being arrested, put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? And he says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. This is the wonder and the glory and the majesty of the gospel. Why were the people waving their palm branches hosanna in the highest?

33:46Because they thought here was coming. The king, the Davidic king, who would liberate us from Roman occupation, put us on top again. And he didn't do that. Not the way that they thought that they wanted. Jesus came as a suffering servant, despised, shamed people turned away from him. He was crucified, nailed to a cross, died only to rise again so that he would redeem his people and deal with their greatest issue, which is their sin that condemns them to hell. And he's coming back. He is going to come as the king who will liberate all of his people and we will rule and reign with him. And so that was coming.

34:39It just wasn't coming in the way that the people thought. So Isaiah 52 and 53 reveal Jesus'. Glory and majesty are not found in his physical appearance or attractiveness. It's not because he had the gift of woo or charisma or the kids like to say today, Riz Jesus crowning glory, majesty, and beauty is revealed in his suffering and his dying on behalf of sinners. Or as this commentator writes, he says, God's power is at its greatest, not in his destruction of the wicked, but in his taking all the wickedness of the earth into himself and giving back love. Jesus suffered in our place. That's the main point of the sermon this morning.

35:35He's our substitute. He's our substitutionary atonement. Jesus obtains for us all the benefits of the kingdom and takes away all of our sin and guilt and shame. But the only way this happens is by faith in Jesus as the suffering servant and the lamb of God. And many want a king they can crown but not the suffering servant. And yet the cross is not a just a symbol, not just a piece of jewelry. It's where God's power and love is revealed for sinners. Jesus descended into unimaginable depths of pain and suffering, and then rose again to be enthroned with God Almighty on high. And he stands before the Father and he makes intercession for the ungodly.

36:27And some are gonna hear this message and they think it's too good to be true. How can my sin and guilt be taken away? Uh, that's too easy. Or there's others who think that's nice and all, but I don't need forgiveness. I'm perfectly content with life as it is. I'm not that bad. And yet, the other response is to believe in Jesus and to believe in the gospel, to see our sin, to see our guilt, and to see our shame that hung Him the cross. And to acknowledge our inability to cleanse ourself from our sins and to throw yourself at the mercy of Jesus and to say, oh, if that is true, what you have accomplished on the cross, oh, may it be for me.

37:16May it be true. And for all those who are in Christ this morning, this is a fresh opportunity to declare in your heart, thank you Jesus for being my substitute. I don't have to keep working harder, trying harder to earn my way, to climb the rungs of the ladder towards spiritual acceptableness that has been purchased once for all in Jesus as we sang. Who alone is worthy to open the scroll and to usher in the final age of his kingdom? It's Jesus. Thank you for the forgiveness of sins, for taking my guilt and cleansing me and purifying me and transforming me into likeness of Christ. And so this morning, may we be filled with gratitude and joy as we marvel and worship this glorious savior.

38:17Yes, he's the Davidic King. Yes, he's the Messiah. Yes, he's the suffering servant, but he's the king who is coming back and he is our Lord and Savior. And he calls all of his people who come to him, my beloved friends, he receives all those who will trust in him. Don't delay. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we ask that you would awaken our hearts and minds for those who are dead in their trespasses. Oh, that they would find life for those who've walked in without hope. Oh, that they would hear the hope of peace that is found in the gospel of Jesus. And for all those who are trusting in Jesus Christ alone in this life and in the next, oh, would you fill our hearts with fresh waves of joy so that we would worship in spirit and in truth, and we would delight in this glorious reality?

39:21Oh, Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is the name of the Lord. Oh. Blessed is the name of Jesus Christ alone. All God's people said amen.

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