Today is Easter Sunday, the day when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The resurrection was the most important event in salvation history, for it proved that Jesus truly is the Son of God, and that He has power over sin and death; giving Him the right to proclaim Himself as the long-awaited Messiah and Savior. The resurrection is the foundation of our Christian faith.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the apostle Paul dealt with those trying to dismiss the resurrection as being a fable, much like we contend with today; and Paul responded by saying, “If Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty” (1 Corinthians 15:12-14). What Paul said is so true. If there was no resurrection, then our faith is empty; and that’s why so many people today want to disprove the resurrection. They want to shake our faith and attempt to dismiss the authority that the Creator has over their lives.
Now, there’s something else that Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Listen as I share the basic gospel message, according to Paul. He said, “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you . . . that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1, 3-4). In addition to believing in the resurrection, we must also believe that Jesus died for our sins and was buried. His death is also important, but it too is something that many people doubt; and something which they refuse to believe.
This morning, we’re going to look at a detailed report concerning the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. It is an account of the Passion story written centuries before it ever happened; and the very first question we will encounter in our passage is this: “Who has believed our report?” (Isaiah 53:1); and that is a really good question to be asking today. Thus, I’ve entitled our message, “Who Has Believed?” and I’m hoping to answer the question, “Why should I believe?”
The Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53:1-12)
1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, 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.
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. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 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.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You 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. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Let’s begin by looking at verse 1, where we read, “Who has believed our report?” This statement was declared by Isaiah ben Amoz to the captives who were from Gilead and Galilee, during the Assyrian captivity of 721 B.C. Isaiah was preaching repentance to Judah, which was the southern half of the divided nation of Israel. Judah had gone astray from the Lord by becoming allies with the Assyrians; thus, they were seeking to serve a heathen and godless nation. The result was that God allowed them to ultimately end up becoming captives of the Assyrian.(1)
Isaiah was preaching to the captives about repentance and acceptance of the Messiah, or the one who would be their deliverer. This Messiah was to be more than just a deliverer from the Assyrians. He would deliver Judah from her sins by bearing the weight of the people’s transgressions. If the people would receive this Savior, then they would be forgiven of their sins.
Isaiah preached what he received from God, but the Lord did not reveal to him the exact time in which this revelation would be fulfilled. The revelation he received wouldn’t be fulfilled for another 720 years! But what is truly amazing is that the revelation Isaiah received is like an eyewitness account concerning the suffering of the one true Messiah, Jesus Christ, even though the events had not yet occurred.
So, let’s now look at verse 2. What is this root out of dry ground? In Isaiah 11:1, there is a more detailed account of what the “root out of dry ground” is. Isaiah 11:1 says, “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” The Messiah was to come forth from the seed or lineage of Jesse. In Matthew 1:6, we learn that Jesse begot King David, and it was through David’s lineage that the Messiah would eventually arrive. In Matthew 22:41-42, we read, “Jesus asked them, saying, ‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?’ They said to Him, ‘The Son of David’.” The Pharisees even acknowledged that the Christ would be from the lineage of Jesse and David.
Let’s now look at verse 3, which speaks of the Messiah being despised and rejected. This prophecy of Christ is fulfilled in John 1:11, which says, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” Jesus’ own people, who were the Jews; they did not receive Him. Even though He was prophesied about, they did not believe in who He was when He arrived. And this leads me to ask some questions of those who are here today. How many of us are aware that Jesus is the Messiah? How many of us realize that He was sent into the world to save us from our sins? How many of us know that He died for our sins on the cross? And then, tragically, how many of us have rejected who He is and what He did on our behalf; thus, refusing the gift of grace and the indescribable gift of eternal life that He has mercifully offered to us?
Look at verse 4, which speaks of how the Messiah bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. This prophecy was fulfilled in Matthew 8:16-17, which says, “When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses’.”
Matthew tells us that Jesus bore the weight of those were demon-possessed and had diseases by healing them, and that this was the fulfillment of the Isaiah 53:4 prophecy; but I must point out that Jesus also bore the sorrows and weight of the entire world’s sin on the cross; thus, providing the forgiveness of sin. What Jesus did not only applied to those of His day and time, but it also applies to those of us today who choose to trust in Him as Savior and Lord.
Verse 5 speaks of how “He was wounded for our transgressions” and how “by His stripes we are healed.” After Jesus was tried and awaiting His crucifixion, He was beaten and whipped. In Mark 15:15, we read of Pilate that “he delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be crucified.” This scourging with a “cat of nine tails” whip accounts for the statement “by His stripes we are healed.” Listen, as I read from Matthew 27:27-31, which shares more of what Jesus endured:
“Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.”
Jesus suffered for “our” sins. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” – that is, each and every person on this planet – and according to Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” This is referring to the cost of sin; but if we will choose to accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, then He will step in and take our place. That’s what the cross is all about – Jesus dying on our behalf and stepping in to take our place. Jesus was wounded for “our” transgressions, Jesus was bruised for “our” iniquities, and Jesus bore the sting of the whip meant for “us,” so that by His stripes we can be healed.
In verse 6, Isaiah spoke of how we have all gone astray like sheep. Listen, as I read Matthew 9:35-36: “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.” In our iniquity and sin, we have all strayed from the Lord, but Jesus came to be our Shepherd to guide us into the fold of God.
In Matthew 26:31-32, Jesus made a reference to His disciples being scattered like sheep. We read this: “Then Jesus said to them, ‘All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee’.” Even Jesus’ own disciples were offended because of Him. Like Peter, who denied Christ three times before the rooster crowed (Matthew 26:75), they all refused to acknowledge Him because they were afraid for their own lives; and in this action, they committed another sin that would have to be borne by Jesus on the cross.
Look at verse 7, which speaks of Jesus opening not His mouth. The fulfilling of this prophecy came in Matthew 26:62-63, during Jesus’ trial that occurred before His crucifixion. Here’s what we read, “And the high priest arose and said to Him, ‘Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?’ But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, ‘I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!’” Jesus held His peace when He was questioned by the high priest. He allowed Himself to be led as a sheep to the slaughter, because He knew that this was what He had to do. This was His destiny.
Take a look at verse 8, which speaks of how Jesus was taken from prison and judgement. Jesus was taken from prison in Matthew 27:25-26, which says, “And all the people answered and said, ‘His blood be on us and on our children.’ Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.” Both Jesus and Barabbas were being held in prison, but the people demanded Barabbas to be released to them. After Barabbas was released, Jesus was “taken from prison” to be scourged and crucified; and through His crucifixion, He would die and be cut off from the land of the living.
In verse 9, we read about how the Messiah would make His grave with the wicked and with the rich. Now, we know that Jesus was “crucified” between the wicked, as Matthew 27:38 says, “Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left.” But as far as being “buried” among them, I cannot attest to that fact. However, the part about making His grave with the rich can be verified in Matthew 27:57-60, which says this:
“Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed.” Jesus being buried in a rich man’s tomb would fulfill the prophecy seen in verse 9.
In verse 10, we read how it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. I believe it pleased the Lord that His Son was obedient to undergo this bruising; to die on the cross to atone for the sins of mankind. In Mark 1:11, we read where the heavenly Father said of Jesus, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God was pleased with His Son, Jesus. Why? In John 17:1-2, we learn that God was pleased with Him, because His death would bring glory to the Father. We read this: “Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him’.”
Let’s now look at verse 11, which speaks about how many people will be justified by the death of the Messiah, because He would bear their iniquities. 2 Corinthians 5:19 and 21 tell us that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation . . . For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus bore our sins when He died on the cross; therefore, we will not be “imputed,” or rather “charged,” for our iniquities. We will instead be forgiven and reconciled unto God to spend eternity with Him.
We are told that it is by His knowledge that many will be justified. This knowledge is brought unto others through His ministers of reconciliation. Remember, He “has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19); the word that brings the life-giving knowledge. In Philippians 3:8-9, Paul tells us about this knowledge, that “I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord . . . that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.”
Paul said that a person’s righteousness, or justification, before God comes through “the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,” and not through the knowledge of man or by the works of man. The “knowledge of Christ” is the knowledge of how Jesus paid a debt too large to be paid by any mere human being. It cannot be paid for by our own righteousness, or good deeds, or by observance of the law. It can only be paid by the One who is called Lord; the One who is Lord and Master of all, owing nothing to anyone.
Jesus is Lord of all, yet He acted as a servant to atone for our sins. We read in Philippians 2:6-8, that Jesus “being in the form of God . . . made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Jesus is the prophesied “righteous servant” who will “justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11). He is often referred to as the “suffering servant.”
Now, let’s take a look at our last verse, which is verse 12. It says that the Messiah was numbered with the transgressors. The fulfilling of this prophecy is found in Mark 15:27-28, which says this: “With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left. So, the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors’.” Allow me to share more of the account concerning these two robbers or transgressors.
In Luke 23:39-43, we read, “Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.’ But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise’.”
The basic message found in Luke’s account of the two robbers is that doubt and a lack of faith in who Jesus is will lead to missing eternity in paradise; whereas, faith in who Jesus is will lead to receiving eternal life. So, who is Jesus? The robber who had faith recognized Him as 1.) being without sin, as being the spotless Lamb of God who could atone for our sins; and 2.) the robber called Him “Lord,” and in doing so, he followed the command of Romans 10:9, which says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” The robber confessed Him as “Lord,” and so must we.
If all the thieves, robbers, and liars of today – which includes all sinners, or each and every one of us – if they will acknowledge Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and confess Him as Savior and Lord; they will be among the many whose sins were borne and for whom intercession was made with God. In Hebrews, we read of Jesus that “He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them . . . for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself” (Hebrews 7:25, 27), or as Isaiah said, when “He poured out His soul unto death” (Isaiah 53:12).
Time of Reflection
As I said at the beginning of this message, I have entitled our sermon, “Who Has Believed?” and I said that I hope to answer the question, “Why should I believe?” – or rather, “Why should I believe the Passion story and the account of Jesus’ death on the cross?” The first reason why we should believe is the fact that Isaiah shared a detailed, eye-witness-like account of the Passion and crucifixion 720 years before it ever happened! Fulfilled prophecy speaks to us about God’s hand being at work, and leads us to having faith in God’s existence and His providence.
The second, and most important, reason to believe in Christ’s death on the cross is because it is a vital piece of information that we need in understanding salvation; a piece which will lead to our surrender to God. In Romans 10:16-17, Paul said, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ So, then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The Word of God tells us about Jesus’ death on the cross; and Paul says it is a basic tenet of the gospel message (1 Corinthians 15:1-4); and by believing in His death – and His burial and resurrection – this knowledge will lead to obedience to the gospel. So, what is obedience to the gospel? Obedience is repenting of our sins, confessing Jesus as Savior and Lord, and committing our lives to live always for Him.
In Romans 10:8-11, Paul tells us how to be saved. He declares, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame’.” If the Lord is leading you to surrender your heart and life to Jesus Christ this Easter morning, then I want to invite you to come.
Should you choose to receive the Lord’s gift of salvation today, or if you are already a believer in Jesus Christ, then I want to remind you of a very important part of obedience to the gospel. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:15, “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” So, I not only want to extend an invitation today to confess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; I also want to encourage you to recommit your life today to living for Jesus Christ. If you feel led to share with me about anything the Lord has put on your heart, then please do not hesitate to come.
NOTES
(1) Lasor, Hubbard, and Bush, Old Testament Survey (Grand Rapids: Cambridge, 1996), 279-280.
