Isaiah 52:13-53:12

[0:00] My father-in-law, Randy Matthews, got back from Myanmar on Wednesday, as you guys know. And he experienced some serious spiritual warfare in Myanmar.! He's taking the gospel to this war-torn country where Christianity is, you know, a very small percentage.

[0:15] And what he's doing is just, you know, key work to bring the gospel to Myanmar. And for, from 12 a.m. to 3 a.m., every night for a week straight, he could not go to sleep. Just plagued with thoughts and accusations and different things.

[0:30] And the church from Connecticut, Living Hope, they actually had him zoom in to a prayer meeting. And he shared what was going on, and they prayed over him. And they committed to get up, or not to get up, to set their alarms for 11.30 a.m., which is 12 a.m. Myanmar time, and to pray and just go to battle against the devil in prayer.

[0:50] And the Lord did a work and was able to, Randy was able to sleep the rest of the week. But it's just a sign that, like, the devil does not like when the gospel of Jesus Christ is being preached.

[1:02] He doesn't like it. He doesn't like his arch enemy being exalted and being spread among the nations for God's glory. And today, I don't know if you noticed, the gospel is on full display.

[1:14] You know, from the beginning to the end of this service, the gospel is the center. And it's the center of the life of this church. It's the reason that we're all here. Brittany, your story was beautiful. It's just the gospel of Jesus Christ to rescue sinners and to bring us into the family of God.

[1:28] The devil does not like that. But we're going to keep preaching the gospel this morning. You guys okay with that? All right, cool. And before we do that, let me pray one more time here. Heavenly Father, God, you are worthy of all the glory and all the praise and all the honor for who you are in your perfection of character.

[1:49] We adore you. We ascribe worth to you and for what you have done by saving us in the person, the work of Christ, who was born to die.

[2:01] Lord, as we come to this sublime word from Isaiah 53, that you help us, Lord, to behold the beauty of Christ and to worship him with all that we are.

[2:13] In his name we pray. Amen. Well, good morning. Shoreline, my name is Mike, one of the pastors here. And I'm so glad that you guys have joined us in worship this morning.

[2:25] You know, perhaps one of the few longings that everyone in our culture and even in our world shares is a longing for peace, right? You know, we long for all injustice, for all violence to come to an end.

[2:41] Who doesn't? We long for all pain and conflict to be only a distant memory. And, you know, for a brief moment in history, some believe that World War I would actually bring about worldwide peace, the war to end all wars.

[2:57] But it was quickly realized that was just delusional thinking, right? Human conflict could bring about relative peace for a brief period of time, but there's something human conflict could never do, and that's transform the human heart.

[3:13] You know, we long for lasting peace, but cannot obtain it because of the corruption of the human heart. And that ought to scream to us the reality that the shalom, the peace, the wholeness, the wellness, the completeness that humans and all of creation long for, it must come from outside ourselves.

[3:34] Now, this makes complete sense within the biblical narrative, because in the beginning we find that humanity broke relationship with the only true source of peace, the Lord God.

[3:47] See, apart from God, there is no real peace, right? Apart from God, who is the very definition of good, there is no goodness. But what will it take to deal with human corruption?

[4:02] What will it take to restore our broken relationship with God? What will it take to bring about the peace that all of humanity and all of creation so desperately longs for?

[4:14] And the answer is found in today's passage. So if you haven't already, please turn to Isaiah chapter 52, beginning in verse 13.

[4:25] If you don't have a Bible, there are Bibles on the back table. They're bookmarked to today's passage. You're welcome to take one of those as our gift to you. Now, we found ourselves last week on the edge of this sweeping, breathtaking vista, right?

[4:40] Like God showing Moses the promised land. God, through his prophet Isaiah, in this lofty and beautiful poetic language, described the glories of what he has in store for his people, which is all those who trust in him.

[4:54] He is going to end the punishment for their sin. He's going to transform their spiritual wasteland into this luscious garden like Eden. He's going to turn all of their sorrow and sighing into joy and gladness and song.

[5:08] And this, as Andrew said last week, is mysterious mercy. How could God forgive their sin when what they deserve is punishment, right?

[5:19] How could their broken relationship with him be restored? In short, how could they have peace with God?

[5:30] And here in today's text comes the climactic answer that we've been waiting for. By God's chosen servant, bearing their sin upon himself in their place.

[5:45] Now, the title of today's sermon is giveaway of the answer here. Jesus, suffering servant, exalted sin bearer. Jesus is the one that Isaiah is prophesying about here.

[5:57] So I'm just going to give it away right up front. This is Jesus, a portrait of Jesus Christ from the Old Testament, prophesied in 700 BC and then come to fulfillment hundreds of years later.

[6:09] Jesus, suffering servant, exalted sin bearer. And the main point is this, that God's eternal presence and peace among his people, his eternal presence and peace, it comes through Jesus, the suffering servant and exalted sin bearer of the world.

[6:30] To bear with me in my weak voice today. So in this final servant song, you know, we've seen these servant songs in Isaiah. There's been three of them. And this fourth one, one of the most quoted passages in the New Testament, Isaiah is masterfully tying together numerous things that he's been weaving throughout his prophecy.

[6:50] And he does so in five distinct three-verse stanzas. So we're going to move through each of these stanzas in turn. And in the very first one, we see this, the confusing image. The servant will be exalted, yet appalling.

[7:06] This is in 52 verses 13 to 15. Look at your Bibles, verse 13 of chapter 52. Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.

[7:20] That behold, it's pointing us back to the very first servant song in chapter 42 when it started, behold my servant. So it's the climax of these servant songs. And it's also the climax of all the beholds that we saw in 51 and 52.

[7:34] Behold, behold, behold, behold my servant. Here it is. Now the word translated wisely in the ESV, it also connotes success. The servant acts with effective wisdom.

[7:47] He knows, as one commentator says, exactly what to do in order to bring about the intended result. And he's not only successful, right? He's exalted, high and lifted up.

[8:01] Now if you've been reading Isaiah, you would know that the only time so far that that phrase, high and lifted up, has been used is when Isaiah had the vision of the throne room of the Lord God, the Almighty, the Lord of hosts, who is high and lifted up and sitting on his throne.

[8:20] The servant is high and lifted up. So the servant will be successful and exalted, and yet he will be marred beyond recognition.

[8:32] As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.

[8:45] Now just a quick note. In prophetic poetry, the speaker and the subject often switch back and forth. And typically this is just for literary emphasis and force, and it can be confusing, but the context helps us to understand, you know, who is talking and to whom.

[9:00] And here, this shift from third person to second person, back to third, it's heightening this sense of astonishment. The servant will be successful and exalted, but then we see that he's going to be marred and disfigured to such a degree as to be beyond recognition, right?

[9:20] Not even appearing as human. It's going to be appalling to behold. And then in another striking turn, we see that in this way, the nations will be purified and speechless.

[9:36] Verse 15, So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him. For that which has not been told them, they see. And that which they have not heard, they understand.

[9:47] The mystery here of verse 13 and 14, it's heightened all the more by verse 15. Like, what do you mean this disfigured servant will sprinkle many nations?

[9:59] Like, what do you mean kings will shut their mouths because of him? That word sprinkle would remind Israel of the sacrificial system. How priests would sprinkle blood to purify sinners, to cleanse them of their sin.

[10:13] But its usage here would be very confusing to Isaiah's audience. The last two lines of verse 15 remind us of God's words to Israel back in chapter 48, verse 6.

[10:24] From this time forth, God said, I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known. These new things now brought to pass in and through the servant will leave rulers and nations utterly speechless.

[10:43] Now this confusing image of verse 13 to 15, it leads us right into the opening verses of chapter 53, which begin to shed light on this mystery.

[10:54] So verses 1 through 3, we see the unbelievable message. The servant will be the Messiah, yet rejected. Verse 1. Who has believed what he has heard from us?

[11:07] And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? See, what was evident in verses 13 to 15, Isaiah is now testifying. He's saying this message, it is hard to believe.

[11:22] It's hard to believe. And yet, it is the very arm of the Lord revealed. Now last week, Andrew talked about the arm of the Lord and how we see references to God's arm all throughout the Old Testament.

[11:34] The arm of the Lord refers to the power of God at work in the world. And more than just his power, it's his very presence. We're like, God's power is never detached from his person, his presence.

[11:49] We read last week in chapter 52, verses 9 and 10. Break forth together into sinking, you waste places of Jerusalem. For the Lord has comforted his people.

[12:00] He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all nations. And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

[12:13] What Isaiah is saying here in verse 1 of 53 is that this exalted yet appalling servant is himself the very arm of the Lord.

[12:25] He is himself the power and the presence of God in the world. The very means of God's redemption, salvation, and comfort for Israel and the nations.

[12:37] But few are going to recognize this. And then we're given a glimpse of the servant's birth and life in verses 2 and 3. What we see in verse 2 is that the servant will be undesirable, and yet the very Messiah.

[12:53] Verse 2, For he, the servant, grew up before him, which is the Lord. He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.

[13:09] See, outwardly, the servant of the Lord would be unimpressive, right? Unattractive. Just your average Joe. The random branch shooting up out of the tree roots that you just kind of snip off, right?

[13:23] You know, when Israel first wanted a king, they looked for the tallest, strongest, and most attractive man they could find, right? Those are the kinds of leaders that we look for in this world.

[13:35] But the servant would fit none of those categories, would he? But if we look below the surface, there is something glorious to behold right here. See, when Isaiah says that he is like a root out of dry ground, he's not only asserting the servant's lack of appeal to the world, but also of his greatness.

[13:57] Now listen to this. Isaiah had declared in chapter 11, There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse. Jesse is the father of David, the king of Israel, the greatest king, who received the promise that his reign would never end, right?

[14:14] This is the Davidic Messiah. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.

[14:25] So this root out of dry ground is none other than the promised king from the royal line of David, the very Messiah. That's what Isaiah is saying here.

[14:38] Okay, but can this unimpressive, unattractive man really be the savior and redeemer of Israel? I mean, surely not, right?

[14:48] Surely not. Well, verse 3 shows us that the servant will be rejected by his own people. Look at verse 3 in your Bibles.

[15:01] He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.

[15:15] His own people, right? The people to whom he was sent to save would not see below the surface, right? They would ostracize and reject their very Messiah.

[15:29] Now, that word esteemed there, it's actually an accounting word. The people, you know, using their own worldly intuition, using their human vision, their human reasoning, they would conclude based on their estimation that the servant is worthless, right?

[15:43] They would reckon him of zero value. And so they would despise and reject this servant. And so we're left asking, okay, Isaiah, if this servant is to be the Messiah, come to save Israel and the world, how then could he possibly be rejected?

[16:02] Well, the apostle John writes in the prologue to his gospel about Jesus, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

[16:14] He was in the world, and the world was made through him. Yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

[16:26] Yes, Jesus Christ was and is this servant of the Lord, was and is this rejected Messiah, again, foretold by Isaiah in 700 BC.

[16:38] Here we see him in the gospel of John. And, you know, John, after recounting the conclusion of Jesus' public ministry, we saw this as a church, he provides his own reflection of these events in chapter 12, 37 and 38.

[16:52] John says, though he had done so many signs before them, you know, like healing the eyes of a blind man and raising Lazarus to life, though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.

[17:09] And then John goes and quotes Isaiah 53, verse 1. You see, the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus' day, they reckoned him worthless, right? One to be despised and rejected.

[17:21] He, the very arm of the Lord, revealed the promised Messiah from the royal line of David, come to save them. They hated. And they plotted his death.

[17:35] Now, this is a sad commentary on the state of the human heart, is it not? We despise what is truly good. And we seek after that which is not.

[17:48] We call evil good and good evil. And Isaiah says in chapter 5, Give woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.

[18:02] This is the tragic state of the human race. Our hearts are corrupted by sin. We desire wrongly. We think wrongly.

[18:14] We feel wrongly. We rejected God in the garden. And we rejected him again when he came down and took on human flesh. But, you know, not all rejected Jesus.

[18:27] John says, again in his prologue, But to all who did receive him, who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

[18:43] Now, perhaps you're sitting here, and you're one of those people who to this point have rejected Jesus. Perhaps you despise the thought that Jesus would be the only means of salvation.

[18:54] How arrogant. Perhaps you've stiff-armed all of his approaches to be the Lord and Savior of your life. I want you to see and consider now from this third and central stanza what Jesus has done for you that you might become a child of God today.

[19:13] Now, in this third stanza here, the central stanza of this poem, we see the great exchange. The servant will bear our sins and sorrows.

[19:24] I'm going to read all three of these verses here. Verse 4 of chapter 53. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

[19:36] Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was a chastisement that brought us peace.

[19:50] And with his wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

[20:02] Ten times in these verses, we see we, our, us. And Isaiah is making it clear that what the servant is enduring, he is enduring on our behalf.

[20:17] Right? And Isaiah, he's using third person here for first person plural. We, our, us. Isaiah is including himself in this right here. Right? This is Isaiah. This is Israel.

[20:27] This is the people of God. This is all mankind. So the servant, all the more clearly, is a singular person. It can't, he can't be Israel. He can't be Isaiah. The servant is another.

[20:40] Now, ten times, so, Isaiah is making it clear. What the servant is enduring is on our behalf. Right? The sorrows, the sins, placed upon the servant's shoulders are not his own sorrows. They're not his own sins.

[20:52] They are ours. That's the first thing. Our sorrows. Our sins. And seven times in these three verses, it mentions he, him, or his.

[21:04] And again, Isaiah is making it crystal clear that the servant, with no help from us, is taking upon himself our sins and sorrows.

[21:15] And he's then bearing the punishment and incurring the wounds that we deserved. His punishment. His wounds. His wounds. His wounds.

[21:26] This is the great exchange that took place when Jesus Christ was condemned and beaten and crucified to a Roman cross.

[21:37] The mysterious mercy of God removing his cup of wrath from Israel in the previous chapter is mercy flowing from the wounds of Christ. He has substituted He has substituted Himself in their place and in our place, right?

[21:55] Bearing our sins and the punishment that we deserved. Now, the language of verse 4 might sound familiar to you. Because several chapters earlier, God declared to Israel that He has borne and carried her from before birth, right?

[22:12] and He will bear and carry her even to old age and gray hairs. And now we have the ultimate proof of such a promise. God in Christ bears and carries His people by bearing and carrying all of her sorrow and all of her sin.

[22:31] This also helps us understand what is meant in verse 3 by Jesus being a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. See, verse 3 by itself tells us that Jesus lived a life of sorrow, a life of grief, which is true.

[22:47] I mean, He entered fully into the post-fall human experience. But verse 4 tells us that the sorrow and the grief was ours, right?

[22:57] It was ours. It did not rightfully belong to Him. He took upon Himself our sorrow, our grief, our pain, as the Puritans would say, our infirmities, the ones brought about by our sin.

[23:13] And He did so without any trace of sin. He bore it all in perfect righteousness. And I just want to pause here and say, church, consider the tender yet fierce compassion of your Savior, Jesus Christ.

[23:33] See, He not only bore! He bore your sin to grant you an objective legal justification, He bore your grief and your sorrows. All that subjective misery that mars our lives in this broken world, He bore that, too.

[23:50] All that the curse has ruined since the fall, Christ came to redeem. Saints, this means that Jesus knows from experience the griefs and the sorrows that you carry.

[24:04] Like, are you lonely lonely this morning? Jesus Christ experienced loneliness. Do you feel misunderstood this morning by a friend, by a family member?

[24:15] Jesus Christ, He knows what it is to be misunderstood more than anybody else in this world. Have you been mistreated? Jesus Christ was more mistreated.

[24:26] Do you feel forsaken? He actually was. He was forsaken by His Father so that we would not have to be forsaken, so that we would not have to be lonely, right?

[24:40] He has carried all the griefs, all the sorrows that we have experienced, and He will help us to carry them now. He will help us. And you know what?

[24:52] His death on the cross. It means that one day those griefs and those sorrows that we experience in this broken life, they will be swallowed up in victory. Amen? Swallowed up in victory.

[25:06] Now, on the other hand, what good would it have been if Jesus bore our sorrows alone and didn't bear our sin? You see, it's our sin that broke fellowship with God, resulting in the curse, right?

[25:22] Our sin is the origin of all grief and sorrow. Our sin is the ultimate burden needing to be carried, the ultimate bondage from which we need rescue, and it's for our sin that He was pierced and crushed.

[25:40] We, you, you and I, we're the wayward sheep here, right? that the foolish, stubborn, rebellious sheep turning to our own way, putting our backs to the Lord, and God laid upon Him, the suffering servant, right?

[26:00] Jesus Christ. God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. So here we have mysterious mercy now revealed in the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus Christ upon the cross for sinners like you and me.

[26:16] What a Savior. So in this great exchange, Jesus gets our sorrows, our sins, the punishment that we deserved, but what do we get?

[26:29] What do we get? Verse 3, upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed our peace, our healing, right?

[26:46] This is what we get in return. We get peace. And particularly in view here is peace with God. In 48.22, God had said to Israel, there is no peace for the wicked.

[27:01] Well, here is peace for the wicked if only they would repent of their sin and believe in the servant Jesus Christ who has borne their punishment in their place. in 44.22, God declared, I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, this wispy cloud, right?

[27:19] And your sins like a mist return to me for I have redeemed you. And now we know by what means God has done this through the atoning sacrifice of His servant, His Son, Jesus Christ.

[27:35] In Him, in Jesus, sinners are given peace, reconciliation, restored relationship with God. This is what we were meant for.

[27:46] We get it through Christ. Not only peace with God, but healing. Healing in the total sense that results, that shalom that we have talked about today.

[27:57] If God is the source of life and peace and goodness, then to be reconciled to Him will inevitably lead to the experience of those things.

[28:09] And this is all made possible because the suffering servant, Jesus Christ, bore upon Himself the punishment that we deserved, substituted Himself in our place.

[28:24] The world would tell you today, you just need to look within yourself to find meaning and purpose. Just look within your ultimate happiness. That's something that you decide.

[28:36] You need to discover it for yourself. That's not what God declares in His Word, right? God declares that the answer to your deepest problem, the way to ultimate happiness and satisfaction is found completely from outside yourself.

[28:51] It's found in Jesus, the sin bearer of the world. So won't you turn to Him today? Won't you find peace and healing today in His name?

[29:04] Won't you cease despising and rejecting the One who has borne all your sorrows and all your sin upon Himself? He was under no obligation whatsoever to do so, but He did it out of love.

[29:18] Out of love. Having brought us then to the center of this mystery revealed, the suffering servant in our place, right?

[29:30] to free us from sin, to reconcile us to God, to bring us total peace and healing. Isaiah now, he resumes this biography of the servant that he began in verses 1 through 3.

[29:41] So there he spoke of Jesus' birth and life, and now he's going to speak of his trial and death and burial. The fourth section of this poem is the unbelievable injustice.

[29:55] The servant will be unjustly yet willingly oppressed unto death. So in verses 7 through 9, we see three different images that Isaiah uses to help us enter in.

[30:08] In the first, we see that the servant is the silent lamb. The silent lamb. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.

[30:22] Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In case we were beginning to think that Jesus was a powerless victim, Isaiah corrects our thinking.

[30:40] See, Jesus, with calm, regal poise, befitting the Son of God, he suffered and died willingly, willingly, at the hands of unjust men.

[30:54] Do you see the irony of this verse here following on the heels of verse 6? We are the foolish, stubborn, rebellious sheep, but he substitutes himself for us, becoming the innocent lamb, taking our place.

[31:07] See, he places himself under the oppression of Caiaphas and the Jewish religious leaders and of Pilate and the Roman system, silently bearing up under the weight of injustice.

[31:21] We saw that and we walked through the Gospel of John and he did that for us, for sinners like you and me. See, you and I, we can hardly bear a single word of injustice against us.

[31:34] You know, we, maybe it's just me, we lash out in prideful defensiveness, right? The second we feel our reputation being maligned, and I think we, we come out of the womb like this.

[31:44] We have lots of walking examples of that, don't we? But Jesus, he remains silent, letting his false accusers deliver him over to death on a cross.

[31:58] Saints, if Jesus himself was willing to do this for our sake, should we not then be willing to endure far lesser injustices for those around us?

[32:11] Right? For the sake of love, for the sake of unity, ought we not be willing to endure the injustices from our brothers and sisters in Christ or family members? And I want to speak particularly here to husbands because, you know, we're called to love our wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

[32:32] this is a selfless, humble, sacrificial love that denies self for the sake of the beloved. You know, this same principle, though, it's not just for husbands.

[32:45] It's for all believers in every relational context, in our life together, in the body, in our sibling relationships, in the home, in our professional relationships, in the workplace.

[32:56] Let us lay down our weapons of self-exaltation. So lay them down. Let Christ-like love govern all. The first image here is of a silent lamb.

[33:08] The second, Jesus is the cut-off outcast. This is verse 8. The cut-off outcast. By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

[33:20] And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? So here, for the first time, the death of the servant is explicitly mentioned.

[33:38] This term, cut-off, is significant in the Old Testament. It describes those who have been severed from the worshiping community because of some sin or uncleanness. But here, Jesus is not just cut off from the community, but cut off from the land of the living.

[33:54] This oppressive judgment will carry him unto death. And Isaiah reminds us why. It is for the transgression of my people.

[34:08] He's not letting us get away from this. Everything that Jesus endured, he endured for us. It was not his own sin. Substituting himself in our place.

[34:20] Yet few among his generation would consider and understand this. Right? Jesus is the silent lamb, the cut-off outcast. And then verse 9, he is, and this is kind of strange, but the mysteriously buried.

[34:33] The mysteriously buried. And they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death. Although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.

[34:46] Well, again, we see explicitly that the servant is the righteous one. No violence, no deceit. But the first half of this verse, it would be a very bizarre and puzzling thing for Isaiah's audience.

[34:59] Particularly that second phrase, and with a rich man in his death. Like, it makes sense that his grave would be with the wicked if he's cut off. But with a rich man in his death. But you know, it's not bizarre, it's not puzzling to those who have read the Gospels, is it?

[35:13] You know, this obscure and strange detail that Isaiah prophesied, again, in 700 BC, it came to pass exactly as he said in the person of Jesus Christ.

[35:26] His grave was made with the wicked. He was condemned as a criminal, right? And he was to be buried as such. But then, a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, he went to Pilate and he asked for the body of Jesus and he gave Jesus a proper burial in a newly hewn garden tomb, bringing this ancient prophecy to light and fulfillment.

[35:49] Now, why would God reveal this little detail to Isaiah so many years before its fulfillment? But to confirm and validate the truth of the Gospel, right?

[36:00] Saints, this whole passage, but this verse especially, this ought to bolster our faith and confidence in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. the Gospel message, saints, the Gospel message that we proclaim, the Gospel that's at the center of our lives individually and as a church is the true and powerful life-giving message.

[36:21] May we never wander away from this. Let us guard it and herald it with our lips and our lives. May ours be the feet upon the mountains that publish peace, that bring good news of happiness to the world for their eternal life.

[36:37] And again, if you're here and you've doubted the truthfulness of this Gospel, if you've doubted the exclusive claims of Jesus and Christianity, I pray that this word from Isaiah 53 would lead to your salvation and eternal life in Christ today.

[36:52] These words have been fulfilled, written 700 years prior, fulfilled in Jesus Christ. You know, it's actually this word, these verses from Isaiah that an Ethiopian official was reading in Acts chapter 8 when an angel sent Philip to minister to him.

[37:11] The man said to Philip, about whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

[37:26] Who would ever come up with such news? Who would make this up? That God would come to earth as a man, live a life of rejection, suffer unjustly at the hands of wicked men, unto death on a cross, be buried in a tomb, all to cleanse us from sin and restore us to himself eternally.

[37:48] This is the Gospel. And we come finally to the glorious and clarifying conclusion in these last three verses, this last stanza.

[37:59] The servant will be vindicated for fulfilling God's will, which is the redemption of many. So in these last verses, what was confusing at the start becomes clear and it is stunning.

[38:14] Verse 10, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days.

[38:27] The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. So this verse shows us that this is God's will carried out willingly by the servant. The in-our-place sacrifice of Jesus is the very will of God.

[38:44] Like this, this isn't plan B, right? This is plan A, decided from before the foundation of the world that this is how God would bring about the salvation of sinners.

[38:56] And you know what mankind intended for evil, God intended for good. And I just want to say, if God could turn the greatest evil this world has ever known into ultimate good, will he not work for you?

[39:11] In every circumstance, you're good if you are one of his children. He will do that. He will do that. Romans 8.28. You know, this verse also affirms that this is not something forced upon Jesus.

[39:23] Again, we see that he willingly submits himself to carry out the will of the Father. He willingly lays down his life for the sheep.

[39:35] The cross of Christ is not some cosmic child abuse. It is the plan of the triune Godhead ordained from before the world began.

[39:47] Right? At every single moment in Jesus' arrest and trial and crucifixion, he could have ended the misery with a word. With a word. But he didn't. He stayed.

[39:58] He endured. He loved us to the end. Note, secondly, that through his suffering, many will be made righteous.

[40:10] Many will be made righteous. Verse 11. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

[40:28] In verse 10, we saw that the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross is the guilt offering. The guilt offering that takes away the sin of mankind, that reconciles them to God and makes them his offspring.

[40:42] And now in verse 11, a similar concept here, but the anguish that Jesus experienced, being forsaken by his father as he bore the full weight of God's wrath for sin, he did so that he might give us his righteousness.

[41:02] With his righteous standing now, we are reconciled to God. We become his children. We can enjoy the presence and the peace of God forevermore because we have the righteousness of Christ.

[41:16] Therefore, verse 12, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.

[41:30] Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. Finally, we see here in verse 12, that because of his obedience, he will be exalted to glory, along with all of those whom he has saved.

[41:50] So finally, the confusing message of verses 13 through 15 of chapter 52, it's made clear. The suffering servant, Jesus Christ, he is the exalted sin bearer of the world.

[42:04] He has made himself low, marred, and disfigured, pierced, and crushed through his suffering, through his death on a cross, and in obedience to the Father, right?

[42:16] And as a result, he will be vindicated by God and given the spoils of his victory. That's what we see here. He is going to be returned to his exalted state, high and lifted up over all powers and authorities, so that, Paul says in Philippians 2, at his name, the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord.

[42:44] And notice here, he shares these spoils with the many and the strong. Now, who are these many? Who are these strong? They're those in verses 14 and 15 that have been sprinkled by his blood, right?

[43:01] They are those from every tribe and tongue and nation, even kings and queens, who turn to God, who turn to his exalted sin-bearer, Jesus Christ, and so are saved.

[43:15] And they shall be co-heirs with Christ, right? They shall enjoy the presence and the peace of God forevermore. So at the conclusion of this majestic passage, Isaiah has cleared up one mystery, and yet he's encroached upon another.

[43:38] How could God forgive the sins of his people, and again give to them his presence and his peace? Now we know, right? Now we know, through Jesus Christ, the exalted sin-bearer. But here's the greater mystery of this passage, one that's going to take us an eternity to understand how could God love us this much?

[43:59] How could God love us this much? And how are we to respond to such a majestic love? A love so freely, so vastly given to undeserving sinners like us?

[44:15] Just four quick things that we see in these passages. First, we turn to Jesus in repentance and faith. That's how we respond. We turn to him in repentance and faith.

[44:27] The servant is light to the nation, salvation to the nations, a covenant to the people. We turn to him in repentance and in faith. Secondly, we bow down in worship.

[44:42] This scripture is calling us to bow in reverent adoration of our exalted sin-bearer, Jesus Christ. Third, we're going to see this more next week, and we saw it last week, we stand up and sing.

[44:56] Right? This is the song of redemption that all the saints have in their mouths forevermore. We stand up and we sing to his praise and his glory. Turn to Jesus.

[45:08] Bow down in worship. Stand up and sing. And finally, go and proclaim this gospel of peace to the world. Go and proclaim it. Let our feet, again, let our feet be the ones upon the mountains that publish peace in the streets, that proclaim the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ.

[45:27] Go and proclaim this gospel of peace to the world. What a Savior we have in Jesus Christ. Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we're just scratching the surface of this text, which is so rich and filled with glory and wonder.

[45:51] God, we cannot even begin, we can hardly begin, to understand and appreciate what you have done in the person and work of Jesus Christ. God, we have so much sin, even as redeemed children of God, we have so much that's keeping us from understanding your heart and seeing what you have done for us in Jesus Christ, Lord.

[46:13] Would you remove all the more the blinders and help us to just adore you for what you've done, to revel in the gospel?

[46:27] Jesus Christ, our substitute, in our place. Lord, let this gospel go forth. Let it go forth to the nations. Let it go forth here in New London and in this county, in this state, in this country, in this world.

[46:40] Lord, this is the good news, the greatest news that there has ever been, Lord. And as it does, would you be glorified for you alone are worthy of the highest praise.

[46:53] I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Won't you stand and sing with us?