Suffering Servant Series, Part 3

Isaiah 53:3-6

The Servant Our Substitute

 

MT Everest of the OT – incredible views of Christ

Isaiah 53 is referenced or alluded to some 40 times in the NT – Incredible passage.

A) We are taking our time to go thru it – allow ourselves to be moved by the views

 

B) 1st Stanza – Ch.52:13-15 The Servant Exalted

 

C) Last time we looked at the 2nd Stanza Ch. 53:1-3

The Servant Humbled.

 

Tonight we come to the 3rd Stanza of this passage and we notice right away that it gets very personal.

A) We get inserted into the message here:

 

Surely He has borne –OUR griefs

And carried OUR sorrows.

     OUR transgressions

     OUR iniquities

The chastisement for OUR peace

And by His stripes WE are healed

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

WE have turned, every one, to HIS own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of US ALL.  

 

B) But in the midst of all of that – He wants to make sure that we don’t miss JESUS

 

4 Surely HE has borne our griefs

HE carried our sorrows;

HE was Stricken HE was afflicted

HE was wounded HE was bruised

 

Our Chastisement was upon Him

The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

 

Note this} In order for the Lord to put us and Jesus in the same Stanza of the song.

A) He must include words like: Smitten, afflicted, sorrowful, and wounded.

 

B) Break this section down in this way:

1.) V.4 Tells us of the REALITY of these things.

2.) V.5 The REASON for these things.

3.) V.6 The RESULT of these things.

 

v. 4 Surely HE has borne our griefs

HE carried our sorrows;

 A) Borne and carried are interesting words

 

B) To bear something for someone means to lift it

off of that person and to place it on another.

 

C) Speaking of the Vicarious placement of all of the ramifications of sin.

1) Griefs = sickness, bodily pains, and weakness.carriedcabal to bear a load

Sorrows = pains of the mind. the emotional stress.   

 

D) The image is that He loaded them up and carried them on His back, so we wouldn't have to.

1) Hard to fathom – He felt all– He carried all the physical and emotional pain and ramifications of sin

 

How many people carry around pain - griefs and sorrows - that Jesus really carried for them?

A) He took them from us, but for it to do us any good, we must release them.

 

B) The next time life’s problems seem about to overwhelm you, remember this advice from Peter:

“Throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon Him, for you are His personal concern.”  1 Peter 5:7 Phillips

 

C) He went to the cross because He loved you and He loved me.

 

V4b Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.

A) We thought it was because of something he did

 

B) The typical thought in the Jewish mind – they linked sin and suffering

 

B) Job’s friends – Job there must be sin in your life

 

C) John 9:2 The Disciples – “Who sinned – this man or his parents …. Born blind?”

 

D) So the general conscious of many at the cross – thinking he must have done something really bad

1) Man saw the suffering Jesus, but didn't understand the reasons why.

 

V.5 We are told the reason:

5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

 

A) Wounded = to wound (fatally), bore through, to pierce. 

 

B) What an appropriate word to describe the One whose hands, feet, and side were pierced.

C) David prophesied

Psalm 22:16  For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

 

This passage and that passage in Psalm 22 tell us that the Messiah would not die until there was a government in place that exercised – Crucifixion

A) This passage in Isaiah was written over 700yrs before Christ was born –

 

B) And 300 yrs before Crucifixion was even invented by the Persians – Invented in 400 BC – by the Persians – Romans LATER perfected it

 

C) Written 700 yrs before Christ was Crucified – the exact way – he would die.  PIERCED

1) That is powerful pp – Accuracy of the Bible

 

 

Wounded for our transgressions: Bruised for our iniquities.

A) Bruised = to be crushed, be shattered. 

 

B) The word seems to speak of both inward and outward pain, both mental anguish and physical pain.

 

C) Seems this is something that the Lord really wants us to see and understand

1) This was not just a Physical thing

 

D) Deeper was the emotional anguish – that started the night before in the garden……drops of blood. 

1) Heart pierced – blood and water – broken heart

 

E) The weight of what He was to endure – broke His heart.

 

F) He endured that – Know this He can handle anything that you can throw His way tonight.

 

Transgressions = Willful disobedience  

Trespass to Cross a known line – barrier.

 

Something in us - Wet paint don’t touch

Stay out of the cookie Jar – all we are thinking of

Iniquities = being twisted, our perversity. –  the perversion of man was put on Jesus

Every sick sin ever committed 

 

V5b The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

A) Chastisement = the discipline, chastening, correction.

peaceshalowm completeness, soundness, welfare, peace

B) Our sins brought us into a state of war with God. 

1) The thing that was required to make peace, the chastisement for our sins, was put upon Jesus.

 

C) When the sin of the world was placed upon Jesus

He cried out – “My God ……. Forsaken me?”

1) The Father answered with wrath

 

D) {Thinking about Elijah’s sacrifice on MT Carmel – The father fully consumed the sacrifice the altar – the water the whole deal

1) That sacrifice like every sacrifice pointed to Christ

 

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

A) Not only did Isaiah prophecy that He would be crucified – but He also prophesied that He would be scourged or whipped.

 

B) As the blood flowed from those stripes – healing was flowing forth.

 

C) I believe the context is both physical and spiritual

Healing from sin – spiritual {He Always does

D) Healing from Physical and emotional pain – which He also ALWAYS DOES!

1) Might not experience it here in this life –

 

E) My hip – not healed – still pain – limited

1) But ONE DAY!

 

F) Basketball in Heaven – I am there!

 

His stripes remind us to Ask!  James call for the elders anoint with oil………

 

The Result of these things! V.6

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

 

 

Isaiah now uses the image of wandering sheep as an illustration of sin.

A) Throughout the last two stanzas the prophet has spoken in the first-person plural, "our" sins.

 

B) But just in case someone started to think – that doesn’t apply to me.

1) He gets very specific here in v. 6

 

C) Isaiah says that "all of us" have gone astray.

 

 

D) And just in case we were tempted to think – hey a little wandering is not that big of deal.

1) Accidental – sheep wander off / kids wander off - Boys will be boys { He clarifies it yet again.

 

E) We have turned, every one, to his own way;

1) All of us are guilty of willful departure.

 

Frank Sinatra made a song popular years ago,

I Did It My Way."

A) When you hear that it sounds like something admirable, something everybody ought to emulate.

 

B) How proud we feel that we did it "our way."

1) But when you turn to the record of the Scripture, you find that that is the problem, not the solution.

 

C) Indictment against Israel in the book of Judges “every man did what was right in his own eyes.”

 

Everyone is doing things "their way," so we have a race that is in constant conflict, forever striving with one another, unable to work anything out, because we all did it "our way."   Not HIS WAY

 

Paul, describes the breadth of sin in Romans 3:11-12 "There is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside"

 

This is the essence of sin—rejection of the Lord and the worship of something else. It’s idolatry.

A) It is really the worship of self over the worship of God.

 

B) That is our main problem – We turn to our own way.

1) Even now – We don’t trust our shepherd

 

C) He loves us and will pursue us!

 

When we were doing our own thing – Enemies of God – worshipping self – Pursuing MY WAY.

The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

A) This is God’s BAIL OUT PLAN!

 

B) Here as it were God balances the books of the world with two debit entries and one credit entry.

 

B) The two debit entries: "All we like sheep have gone astray" - there is the whole fallen human race; "we have turned everyone to his own way"

 

C) Followed by the Credit entry that clears it all on the books if men would receive it.

"The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

 

D) The way to lay hold of the redemption of Jesus is to admit that "All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way";

 

E) That is me I am a sinner! – No question But then to believe the next line,”

1) But the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

 

One Christian put his testimony in a rather quaint way. He said, "I stooped down low and went in at the first 'all,' and I stood up straight and came out at the last all."

 

The first is the acknowledgment of our deep need.

All we like sheep have gone astray"  "we have turned everyone to his own way"

 

The second shows how fully that need has been met in the Cross of CHRIST.

"The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

 

 

Literally, the Lord caused our iniquity to "meet" him.

A) If we met our own iniquity, it would be a devastating encounter.  Instead, the Servant meets with sin.

 

B) It is the meeting we have been dreading our whole lives, the meeting when we have to face into everything we’ve done. Jesus went to the meeting in our place.

 

C) Now we can go to a different meeting—a meeting with our Father, who waits with open arms.

 

D) Because Calvary was not the end of the story –

He rose

The Resurrection is what makes what happened on Calvary mean something.

A) 1 Corinthians 15 If Christ did not rise from the dead your faith is in vain.

 

B) He did rise –