Suffering Servant Series, Part 4

Isaiah 53:7-9

The Servant Silent

 

I have felt for a long time that one of the best things we can do as believers is to spend time at the foot of the Cross.

A) To consider, remember and to contemplate and meditate upon the Sacrifice of Christ.

 

B) To think about that it was my sin that He hung on there for.

 

C) To think about what the Cross accomplished for us.  Peace w/ God – Love of God

1) What the cross modeled for us.

 

John 15:11-15

11 "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.  12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.  14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.

 

D) Modeled for us – Life of self sacrificing love

1) Laying down our lives to better someone else.

 

E) We can’t spend too much time looking at the Suffering Savior – our Servant King – Jesus

 

That is why we have taken the time to camp out here in Isaiah 53 – MT Everest of the OT

A) Looking at Jesus and His sacrifice. – Given to us in great detail

 

B) Noted it is a message with 5 Stanza’s

1) Stanza #1 Ch52:13-15 The Servant Exalted

 

C) Behold my Servant: Look gaze/ study/ be in awe of

1) Verses that Lay out for us the Death Rez and 2nd coming of Christ – Life of Christ capsulated

 

Stanza #2 Ch.53:1-3 The Servant Humbled

A) His beginnings – His Character - He came in humility – concealing His glory

 

B) Nothing about him outwardly that we should desire him!

1) He was despised and rejected by men.

 

Then we came to Stanza #3 v. 4-6 – last time

The Servant – our substitute.

A) He was wounded for our transgressions and Bruised for our iniquities

 

B) The Chastisement for our peace was upon Him

 

C) He took our place – our Sin – in order to give us His life – His righteousness

1) Sum of the role of the Substitute in this way:

 

Tonight we come to the Stanza #4 Ch. 53 V.7-9

The Servant Silent:

 

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

So He opened not His mouth.

 

 

Now we should not take this as indication that Jesus was a helpless victim of circumstances, and was helpless as a lamb.

A) Quite the contrary; even in His suffering and death, Jesus was in control.

 

B) I love the scene in John 19 where Pilate is trying to get Jesus to defend Himself  John 19:10-11

“Then Pilate said to Him, "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?"

Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."

 

C) Pilate was stirred – V.12 From then on Pilate sought to release him.

 

Pilate is an interesting study: Definitely conflicted. A) His wife warns him – have nothing to do with this – suffered many things in a dream …. This man

 

B) Pilate was moved by the way that Jesus handled himself with such strength and dignity

1) Even in the midst of being beaten, bloodied, beard plucked out.

 

C) He stood there in dignity – and grace led Pilate to say, “I find no fault in this man”

1) Made the sign: Behold the King of the Jews

 

Pilate is a great case study in the person who chooses

Popular opinion over Choosing Christ.

A) He was more concerned about his standing before his constituents than he was his standing before God

 

B) Interesting thing about Pilate is he ended up losing his position not long after this.

 

C) And we are not sure what really happened to him after this: One report – Suicide

1) Another report – Believer – later martyred

 

D) The 2nd idea would be cool.

 

Jesus was silent in His suffering. Submitted to the fathers plan.

A) Doesn’t mean didn’t cry out at the beating – He was human – felt the pain – or didn’t speak

 

B) Silent in the sense that he didn’t try to defend Himself – He didn’t make excuses

1) He didn’t cast blame on others

C) That was the normal reaction of the criminals

1) I am innocent – this is not fair

 

D) The would beat a criminal in hopes of getting a confession out of him – or that he would implicate others

1) Jesus could have implicated us! He could have started blurting out our names – He didn’t

E) The Soldiers mocked him and made fun of him – “he was reviled, he did not revile in return and when he suffered, he did not threaten.” (1 Peter 1:23).

 

F) Think about what He could have done!

1) Meekness in action – Power under control.

 

Jesus was in Full control!

A) Question: How do you handle your power and authority?

 

B) Home – husband? Father? What about at work?

1) In a friendship

 

C) Being Christ like in our sphere of influence is being willing to lay that authority down in order to help others – serve others

 

D) Meekness Power under control

 

E) His silence was a display of his meekness – think about that the next time tempted to lash out.

                              Continue V.8

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment,

And who will declare His generation?

A) He stood alone – no one stood with Him – no one stood for Him. {

 

V.8b For He was cut off from the land of the living;

For the transgressions of My people He was stricken

A) Picture of the sin offering – part  Taken outside the city and burned

 

Aa) This is the first indication in this passage that the suffering Servant of the Lord, the Messiah Himself, would die.

 

B) Up to this point, we might have thought He would only have been severely beaten.

1) But there is no mistaking the point: He is to be cut off from the land of the living.

 

C) The suffering and the attack – was meant to end in death!

 

9 And they made His grave with the wicked —

But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth

A) Jesus died in the company of the wicked and it was the intention of those supervising His execution to cast Him into a common grave with the wicked.

 

B) Joseph of Arimathea steps forward asked for the body - Bury in his personal tomb / Nicedemous

Joseph is mentioned in all four gospels

A) Told he was a just man

A man seeking the kingdom of God

A member of the Sanhedrin – Jewish ruling council

He didn’t agree with the Sanhedrin’s decision to Crucify Jesus

 

B) Mark 15:43 – He is referred to as an Honorable Council member – KJV –

1) Josephus notes that in the entire history of the Sanhedrin only 14 people were given that title

 

C) He is also very rich – Matthew

1) From Arimathea – Hill country outside of Jerusalem – But he had purchased a burial spot inside Jerusalem

 

D) Beautiful garden area – Where he was going to have a tomb constructed for his entire family

 

E) Now a normal rich man would just buy a cave – to use for a tomb –

1) A very rich man would have a cave made {carved

 

Visit Israel there not far from the site of the Crucifixion is a site known as Gordon’s Calvary- Garden tomb

A) Interesting about this site – A tomb that was hand carved out of solid rock– Big enough for an entire family

 

B) But when British scientist did research on this tomb they noted some interesting finds

C) The tomb was never completed – there is only a spot for one person. {Big enough for several pp

1) And there are no signs of decomposition – it seems that it is a tomb that was never used

2) Very rare – such a huge expense.

 

D) Only 3 days –

 

Imagine Joseph thinking about Isa 53:9 He made his death with the wicked – but His grave with the rich

A) Imagine him thinking was that written about me

I am the rich man – providing his grave

 

B) Imagine him determining I would rather be a part of Prophecy – than the Sanhedrin

 

C) Imagine these two wealthy men climbing up a ladder w/ a pry bar – prying out the nails

1) Rich men didn’t do that sort of thing

 

D) Them getting all bloody themselves –

1) Carrying his lifeless body – to the tomb

 

E) Preparing it for burial – Wash the wounds – body wound be cleaned and bathed

1) Pull out the thorns form his head

 

 

Imagine Nicedemous lugging thru the Streets of Jerusalem 100lbs of Spices/ fragrant herbs

A) Someone asking Nicedemous where are you going with all those spices and fragrant herbs

 

B) He responds to a Burial {Someone commenting – that is enough for a King! {EXACTLY

 

C) Pilate – King of the Jews – Joseph and Nicedemous Our King!

 

D) They risked a lot to align themselves with Jesus

1) Too bad they waited so long – missed out on a lot

 

Dd) The Cross was the thing that finally moved these two men to come out in the open.

1) To express their allegiance to Christ

 

E) Thinking: Our risk living here in the USA isn’t so great to align ourselves with Jesus

1) Yet so many are reluctant too – Secret agent Christians

 

Time for being Bold – outspoken – Now!

 

He was silent – He tells us to shout it out – to proclaim the good news

 

Before we approach the table tonight –I want to consider one more thing.

You know there is a remarkable parallel between the five stanzas of Isaiah 53 and the five offerings of Leviticus

A) In the first chapter of Leviticus, Moses describes the burnt offering.  In chapter 2, he describes the meal offering. 

 

B) Ch.3 he describes the peace offering. 

1) Ch. 4 he describes the sin offering. 

2) Ch. 5-6 he describes the trespass offering.

 

Now the Burnt offering was fully consumed on the altar

A) It is an offering which presents the ministry of our Lord typically as one who gives himself whole heartedly to do the will of God, to serve God in a completely obedient life. 

 

B) Now that is surely set before us here in the first stanza - Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; accomplishing the purpose from which He came

 

C) He shall really carry out the will of God and the will of God is the work of his death, resurrection, ascension, and 2nd coming. 

 

The second offering was the meal offering.  Offering of fellowship –

A) Part of the offering to God – part of the offering to the priest – Part eaten by the worshipper

 

B) The grain offering was made with fine flour which was a beautiful picture of the perfect humanity and character of Jesus Christ.

 

C) Which is presented for us so perfectly in the 2nd Stanza!

1) Our Lord’s humility – His tenderness – His humanness as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief is presented before us.

 

D) Speaks to us of His ability to understand our struggles that He was touched by them.

 

The third offering, was the peace offering. 

A) It was the offering that the priests brought which was designed to represent atonement that issues in peace. 

 

B) In this 3rd Stanza – Jesus is presented as the Substitute – and we are told in that section that chastisement that brought our peace was laid upon him. 

 

The fourth offering was the sin offering. 

A) That was an offering in which the transgression of Israel was covered and when a man sinned, he brought a sin offering.  –

 

B) Part of that offering was taken and burnt on the altar as a sweet savor to God. 

1) And then the great majority of the animal was taken outside the camp and there it was burned. 

2) A token of judgment.

C) And you will remember that Jesus when he died, He did not die in Jerusalem

1) He went outside the gate, outside the camp. 

 

D) It was as if they were typically saying to everybody we do not think that Jesus of Nazareth even belongs in the fellowship of Israel

 

E) And so they slew him outside at the Calvary

 

Depicted in this 4th Stanza V.8

V.8 “He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living

 

The final offering was the trespass offering.

A) Trespass = rebellion – willful disobedience

 

B) We read here in V.10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.

When You make His soul an offering for sin,

 

C) The word used to describe the phrase an offering for sin is  asham, and that’s the very word that is used of the trespass offering, the fifth of the offerings. 

 

D) So what the offerings were meant to represent of Jesus we have described for us here in Isaiah 52/53

 

1. He offered himself holy to God, the burnt

    offering. 

 

2. He was the perfect man. Which qualified him to be

   the final sacrifice.  The meal offering. 

 

3. He provides peace through his sacrifice.  The

    peace offering. 

 

4. He dies for sin, for the failure of man -  the sin

    offering. 

 

5. Trespass offering – He also died for man’s

     rebellion.