On Good Friday we spoke on Isaiah 53: 4-6 discussing the Universal Depravity of man and the Universal Sufficiency of Christ. Sometimes Christians find that concept hard to grasp. Dr. Barnhouse used this illustration to portray this simple truth to his congregation and I would like to share it with you.
A young man, suffering from amnesia, lived a new life amid his old surroundings; he could remember nothing that had happened before he fell off a haywagon. As he fell, observers noticed, he cried out these words, “Hand me that pitchfork and I will...”
He was eighteen when the accident occurred; ten years of his new life had passed. One day he got into a fight, and received a sharp blow that knocked him to the ground. His head struck a rock and he cried out again, this time finishing the sentence he started ten years earlier - “...spread the hay.” He rose, thinking that he was still eighteen years old, still on the haywagon.
The blow that stuck the race in Adam made all his sons unconscious of the true nature and being of God. In that unconsciousness we were born; and in that unconsciousness we live until the moment we are saved. Immediately we are made aware of the holiness of God. We go back to a comprehension of our own creaturehood and of our total dependence upon the Savior.
This morning, Easter morning, once again we will dwell on that act. An act of such sacrifice that the world will never again be the same. On Easter morning, the church around the world celebrates the culmination of that act in the Resurrection. And as we watch the sunrise, we are well aware that another age has begun. An Age of our Lord and of our Christ. An age begun and an age that will never have an end.
In our preaching through Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12 we have seen, The Surprising Appearance in Isaiah 52:13-15; The Strange Attitude in Isaiah 53:1-3; The Substitutionary Atonement in Isaiah 53:4-6. And this morning we will look at The Sacrificial Act in Isaiah 53:7-9.
Follow as I read our text from Isaiah this morning:
See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him-- his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness--so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light [of life] and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.i
This morning let us look at the Servant’s Obedience; The Servant’s Response; and finally The Servant’s Passion.
I. The Servant’s Obedience
As we look at the servant’s obedience, I would like us to look at something that we probably should have addressed earlier in our messages. I want us to look at God. We have spoken a lot these past few weeks about the Suffering Servant. We have seen who the servant was and what he did. But we have not given enough attention to whose servant he was.
Those of you who may be more astute may have already observed that Isaiah presumes a bit about the ownership of the servant. For we notice when he identified this servant in verse 13 of chapter 52 he addresses him as “my” servant. Well, to whom is this word “my” addressed? It refers to its antecedent. Okay pastor, there you go again using big words. Let’s make is simple then. Over and over in chapter 52 we see Isaiah using the word LORD. Some of you may have even noticed that Isaiah uses the phrase “Thus saith the LORD...” many times. So let us look back at chapter 52 verse 4. Here Isaiah is quoting the LORD. Notice too in your Bibles how the word “Lord” is spelled. It is in all capital letters. Now I want you to realize this is a very important point. We have discussed it in Sunday School but I don’t want you to forget it or overlook it.
To the Hebrew mind, it was sinful to use the personal name of God. We call that name Yahweh. In Hebrew it is spell with four letters, hwhy (Yod He Waw He). Or for those of us who are not Hebrew scholars, Y H W H. It is the word that the King James Version translates Jehovah. The Hebrew is clear that the Israelites only had one God. His personal name was Jehovah or Yahweh and they were not to use his name carelessly. So, to guard against this, they would write the letters Y H W H but when they read the words they would not say Jehovah instead they would say Adonai. And Adonai is the Hebrew word for Lord. That is why in our Bibles we write the word Lord, but so we know that it is God’s proper name we write it in all capital letters.
Why is this so important? Because I want you to know that it just isn’t the Lord God Almighty to who the servant obeys. It is the personal God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is the covenant God. When we see the personal name of God, Jehovah, we see that God is the guarantee. God is the “I am” of his people. God is using his covenant name, and in this name we see his grace and faithfulness. But when our text uses the word “God” it implies the First One, the God above all other Gods, the warrior God. The God who is strong and mighty. So we see that it is the Strong and Mighty God who has struck the servant but it is the gracious Jehovah, the personal covenant God of Israel who is the guarantor of his people who has placed the iniquity of the his people on the servant.
It is to this personal God, Jehovah that the servant obeys. It is into the hands of this personal God, Jehovah that the servant endures his lot of suffering and in doing so he does it patiently. He submits to the authority of Jehovah because he knows him, he trusts him. This is why he submits to the pain of death voluntarily and vicariously.
So often in our culture, submission is thought of in terms of humiliation. Wives submit to your husbands, children obey your parents. Men submit to those to whom God has given the authority over you. Submission is God’s pattern. But behind submission lies trust. Behind submission lies a confidence in God to rule those who have authority over us. Too often these men and women misuse their authority. Too often husbands and fathers are cruel, demeaning those under his authority. This is a consequence of sin, but God still demands that we submit to those who have the rule over us just as his son submitted to the whip of Pilate. Just as he submitted to the Father, enduring the cruel humiliation of the death on the cross.
II. The Servant’s Response
One day, one of my children came out of the dining room with me as I went to study. They had a question about the way a certain matter was to be done. As I sat down I gave them specific instructions. But my child broke in with a question. “But Daddy...” the child insisted, and phrased the matter in another way. Just then, Mom came by to find out why the task wasn’t done. The child answered “But Mom, I am just trying to find out what Daddy wants me to do.” At this point I broke in: “No you are trying to get me to change the conditions so that you will be able to do what you want to do instead of doing what we want you to do. Now go and do it!”
How many times does our Heavenly Father have to deal with us this way. Look closely at how Isaiah said that the servant would respond to this humiliation. Again he uses parallelism. See how the first part of the verse is echoed in the last “Yet he did not open his mouth” and “so he did not open his mouth.” In the Hebrew the words “yet” and “so” do not appear. The phrase is exactly the same.
At this point the parallelism breaks apart a bit. The Hebrew says he was “silent before his shearers like a ewe.” This phrase is paralleled with “brought to the slaughter like a lamb.” How can we overlook the fulfillment in the New Testament. For look at the words of Mark in verse 55 to 61 of chapter 14. “The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree. Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him: "We heard him say, ’I will destroy this man-made temple and in three days will build another, not made by man.’" Yet even then their testimony did not agree. Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?" But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.”
Mark is really John Mark, the young lad that abandoned Paul and Barnabus on their first missionary journey (Acts 13.13). But it is interesting to note that the Gospel of Mark is written from the perspective of Peter. Look how Peter describes the events of Jesus in 2 Peter 2:23 “’He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” What Peter observed first hand, John Mark wrote. But even before that Isaiah proclaimed this would be true of the servant of Jehovah.
Isaiah also compares the servant to a sheep. But here again we miss the nuance of the Scripture. Often we hear the Scripture refer to the Servant as the “Lamb of God.” But he is also the Sacrificial Ram. Isaiah uses two distinct terms to describe this Ram. First (the order is reversed in the Hebrew compared to the NIV) as a ewe. Second as a lamb. Why two different terms? Why doesn’t he just say “a sheep?”
The Bible doesn’t utilize a great deal of frivolous words. You will not see a great many adjectives describing people, places or things. So when you do notice them you need to pay a great deal of attention to them. When the Bible says something it does so for a very important reason. So when the Scripture describes the throne room of King Xerxes in Esther 1 it is of great importance. And when Scripture again describes the young boy David as “ruddy” in appearance it is important. And now the Bible does the same thing. Here the Ram of Sacrifice is compared to a ewe. Why? Because of the behavior of a ewe as contrasted to the behavior of a ram.
My grandfather raised a number of animals on his farm in southwestern Minnesota. He had a number of Polled Herefords, Muscovi Ducks, Chickens, Pigs, and Sheep. I loved to watch the lambs and the sheep. But I hated the Rams. Those arrogant, aggressive, stupid rams who loved doing nothing better than running into you with their heads lowered. They probably are a little more docile than a bull but not a whole lot.
There is a radical difference in the behavior between a ewe and a ram. Probably in some way the same difference can be seen in a cow and a bull. But cows have a pecking order but not ewes. When you take a ewe to be sheared she is humbled. She will stand still not moving a muscle. Not a ram. He must be tethered and approached with caution. But the ewe she just stands, petrified - perfectly still. This is the picture the author wants us to see. But those city folks who have not spent time with sheep miss the picture.
The ewe and the sheep. Profound silence and profound innocence. This is the picture the author wants us to see. Here Christ, has the power to call ten thousand angels yet he stands alone and does not open his mouth.
III. The Servant’s Passion
These are the events Isaiah sets before the generation to whom the Messiah will appear. A servant of humble means. A servant of whose appearance does not stand before the people claiming royalty. A servant whom God saw fit to make an example. A servant who would be disfigured for all and before all. A servant who would be taken away through oppression to judgment. A Servant who would be cut off from the land of the living. A Servant of the living and true God, cut off from the covenant blessings, laid on a tree - cursed by his very death on the cross (Gal. 3:13)
But again Isaiah plays on words. For to the Hebrew mind, m[I (‘am) is the word “people” and is used when specifically referring to the Covenant People of God. It is for the “transgression of my people” that the Servant was stricken. But the word transgression should be noted here has the implication of rebellion. It was not for the world, the nations, the goyim, but rather for the ‘am that the servant was punished.
Christ was crucified not for the sins of the nations, the goyim but for the sins of the ‘am. Christ was not crucified for the sins of pagans but for the sins of the covenant people of God. It has meaning for the goyim, the nations but it only atones for the ‘am, the covenant people of God. So Christ’s Passion, the Passion of the Servant of Jehovah goes beyond the Covenant.
His passion goes beyond death as well. In verse 9 we see the death of the Servant as he is assigned a grave with the wicked as he dies on Calvary yet he is not buried in a mass grave of paupers, but with the Rich. For it is Joseph of Arimathea who requests the body of the Servant of the most high and places him in his own grave (Lk 23:50-53). Here what was given to the servant by men was a place of dishonor and disgrace but God honored him even in his burial. God assigns him a place with nobility.
And why did Jehovah honor his servant in such a manner? Because as Isaiah explains it - “he did no wrong and there was no deceit found in his mouth.” Our words are just as sinful and damning as our actions. For even the Scriptures declare that God honored his servant because he did not revile. He did not speak empty words. We ought be more careful with the words we say. God’s servant found a place of honor through his words, but we often times have earned a place of dishonor in our churches, in our communities through our words and callous hearts. God blessed his servant in death by giving him a place of honor because he was silent.
Last the Servant’s Passion is beyond the Grave. For that is our purpose this morning. We have life because the grave could not contain it prey. Paul told us that Christ conquered even the last enemy - death.
Week before last I received a telephone call from my son at school. He was sick and wanted me to bring him home. So I got in my car and drove to the school and went to pick him up. When we got back to the car, much to my dismay I found it still running but the doors were locked. I walked home with Micah only to find another set of keys to unlock the car door so I could bring the car home. This is the resurrection. My car was running. But it could go no where. Our lives are running. But we are dead. We will run around aimlessly unless Christ opens the door. The Scripture tells us that Jesus holds the keys. He has conquered death and hell. It is on Easter morning that he opened the doors and will give us life. Have you surrendered your life to the one who has the keys. Or are you still trying to find a way to do it yourself. Martin Luther said “What is it in our arrogance that makes us think that anything we could ever do would be more sufficient than the blood of God’s own son?” He died for his people so they could live. He died so that we could have life and have it abundantly. Why do we still refuse to obey? Why did he rise again that first Easter morn? You think about that.
