The Suffering Servant

 

LIMAVADY BAPTIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 12 MAY 2024 – MR BEN DALY

ISAIAH 52 VERSE 13 – CHAPTER 53 VERSE 12

We are coming to the jewel in the crown of the Old Testament, certainly in the book of Isaiah.  The clearest prophecy of redemption accomplished at Calvary.  700 years before Jesus came to earth Isaish sees through the eye of faith.  You could divide the book of Isaiah in 2 – first half is Isaiah pronouncing God’s judgment.  The people had turned their back on God while the second half of the book is a word of comfort.  The Messiah will come and execute righteousness, set up a kingdom on the earth.  Throughout the book we see the themes of judgement and mercy.  There are so many chapters with that theme running through it.  I want us to see 3 things in this section of our reading:

1.       The servant’s suffering

2.     The Father’s sovereignty

3.     The servant’s success

First look at the servant’s suffering – verses 13 to 15.  There is the shocking horror or reality – that the Messiah will be the one who will suffer greatly.  What a word of comfort though.  The people who rejected their God – imagine reading this.  The Messiah’s visage will be marred.  He will suffer so much.  In chapter 53 the theme of substitution comes through.  The Messiah will suffer in the place of his people.  Verse 3 “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”  Verse 4 “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried out sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.”  Verse 5 “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed.”  We hear so much about pronouns today.  The pronouns here in these verses are essential to our understanding of the heart of the gospel.  Substitution is taking place here in Isaiah’s prophecy.  All that we deserved was laid on this suffering servant.  Substitution is at the heart of this chapter.  Jesus Christ took our place at the cross.  What we deserved as rebels who had turned our backs on God.  God had led this people out of exile in Egypt.  All they deserved was laid on the son of God who would come as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 verse 8.  As the hymn writer said, “It was my sin that held him there”.  Why did Jesus die?  He died for you and me.  Isn’t that obvious today?  Never move past eh reality that the Messiah would leave the splendours of heaven, come into this sin cursed world, although innocent would take the place of rebellious guilty sinners, would go through the agonies of Calvary to bear our sins on his shoulders.  Never let it be said that Christ did not directly die in our place.  2 Corinthians 5 verse 21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”  Through what Christ died for us on the cross we would be made the righteousness of God.  He who knew no sin became sin for us today.  Stand in awe of what he has done for you today.  It is finished.  The Messiah dies.  He has completed the sacrifice.  The great redeeming work is in a suffering servant, suffering for you and me.  Not for anything he has done or what the Old Testament people have done.  Suffering for you and me.

The Father’s sovereignty.  Verse 10 “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”  Who killed Jesus?  What would be your answer to that question?  Through the pages of the bible, we might say the Jewish crowd – they cried out “crucify him, crucify him.”  Surely, they bear some responsibility.  They were rejecting their Messiah even though he stood in front of them.  Surely Pilate bears some responsibility too.  He heard all the evidence against Jesus.  3 times he said, “I find no fault in this man”.  He had no reason to condemn his to death.  He handed him over to be crucified.  Pilate is only remembered in history for one reason – “Jesus suffered under the Roman Pontius Pilate.”  The Roman soldiers could be held responsible for killing Jesus.  You and I must all be responsible.  The sin that held him on the cross was ours.  We must fall in with those people who heard Peter on the day of Pentecost “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” (Acts 2 verse 23)  We bear the responsibility of the death of Jesus.  All these people bear some level of responsibility.  Secondary agents.  Isaiah 53 verse 10 “It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief.”  Verse 6 “and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”  The son was a willing sacrifice.  The Father is sovereign even at the cross.  The suffering servant would take the place of his people, bearing our sins.  The substitutionary death would accomplish our salvation.  It was the Lord’s will to bruise him.  There is no way of beating around this.  The Father’s will was to crush his son and yet this is the testimony of scriptures – Acts 2 verse 23 “Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”  The responsibility on the people for what they have done.  God’s responsibility – he would die.  God did not lose control of events.  This was the plan of salvation – to redeem a people who would be his for eternity.  Sovereign in setting forth his son to be the propitiation for our sins.  There is the same root word found in this verse as in chapter 1. The pronouncing of judgment against Israel for their false worship.  Verse 11 “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”  Delight is the word found in Isaiah 53 verse 10.  It did indeed please the Lord to bruise his son.  He took delight in the suffering of the Messiah. How can this possibly be?  Why would a father take pleasure in bruising or crushing his own son?  Verse 11 tells us “by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”  By crushing the son many would be justified.  Who is that?  You and I today.  We see the great love displayed for us in his substitutionary sacrifice of his son.  We have the great plan of salvation as the Father lays on the son the iniquities of us all.  We see God’s righteousness displayed.  The anger of sin being satisfied fully in his son.  Romans 3 verse 25 “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are pat, through the forbearance of God.”

The servant’s success.  Isaiah takes us through 3 different stages – the death, resurrection and return of Christ.  Verse 10 – the success in his death at the cross.  Through the crushing of the Son this would lead him to bring to himself a great number to belief in Jesus.  Jesus did not lose at the cross.  There is much modern music based around this, that Satan won the day at the cross.  That is not true.  Jesus won the victory over sin, the devil and the grave.  Now he lives in the power of an endless life.  The crushing of the Son was the means he shall see his seed.  Many could be made righteous, brought into the family of God.  Brought out of darkness into the marvellous light.  At the cross the servant was crushed and suffering greatly.  This is indeed a successful victorious servant.  Jesus paid it all.  Nothing more to bring to himself.  A nation to himself.  He shall see his seed.  When his soul is made an offering for the guilty.  The cross was not the end of the story.  3 days later he arose.  He had suffered and died for us.  Verse 10 “he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands.”  A dead servant will not have his days prolonged.  Isaiah not only saw a suffering servant but a successful servant.  Not hidden in the grave but risen again.  He would rise again and lives never to die again.  The Lord’s purpose was achieved.  In this age Jesus is sitting on the throne.  His purposes are being achieved all over the world today.  Jesus Christ is on the throne today.  He is alive, never to die again.  The pleasure of the Lord prospers in his hand.  The successful servant at the cross, in the empty tomb and one day he will come to rule and reign.  To receive one day the great inheritance achieved at the cross.  Verse 12 “Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death; and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”  It is interesting that all of the servants success is linked back to what he achieved at the cross.  He will one day come to receive his people as his own.  He will come to bring to himself the many.  Those he justifies Christ will not be disappointed with his inheritance.  There are today 2 billion people in the world who profess to be Christians.  Imagine if those who are truly born again will arise on that day surely Isaiah 53 verse 12 will be fulfilled.  The CSB translation reads “I will give him the many as a portion.”  The portion that this suffering servant will receive will be the many from countless nations – Revelation 7 talks about every tribe, tongue and nation.  Those are Christ’s reward.  What a wonderful day that will be when the sacrificial servant achieves success.  But there will be a greater day – when around the throne a great company will be singing “worthy is the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the earth.”  Those from all the corners of the world, with different backgrounds – how can there be division among us?  One day there will be one nation worshipping the Lamb.  The suffering servant of Isaiah 53 will be praised by his people.  Praised for all the countless ages of eternity.  Praised for his substitutionary death on Calvary.  We will worship our successful Saviour.  He lives now never to die again and will rein one day on the earth with his people.