Well, good morning, Christ the King.
It really is a joy to be with you.
I'm making eye contact with very familiar faces to me.
Mike Salvati has been a really significant friend and mentor in my life way back to when
I was a seminary student serving in student ministry at Crossway, and he was the youth
pastor, and I remember when God started to stir his heart about leading a church plant,
and I cannot believe that the bulletin says the 10th anniversary is coming up.
I just rejoice at God's goodness to this church.
So it's fun to be here, to kind of release him to go on sabbatical.
It's fun to see you guys again, but the great privilege of this morning is getting to worship
God together and open scripture together.
So would you please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 52 and verse 13.
We'll start reading there.
If you don't have a Bible with you, there should be Bibles in the pew in front of you, and Isaiah
52 and verse 13 is on page 729.
So I'll give you a moment to get there, and then I will read that, and we'll pray.
Isaiah chapter 52, verse 13.
Please follow along with me as I read.
Behold, my servant shall act wisely.
He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his
form beyond that of the children of mankind.
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.
Who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For 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.
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.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
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 the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
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.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
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.
By oppression and judgment, he was taken away.
And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
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.
The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
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.
Therefore, 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.
Yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Let's pray together.
Our Father, we say again what we're just saying, which is show us Christ.
Your Son is the bread of life, the food that our souls need.
He gives living water.
Those who believe in him, never hunger, never thirst, are satisfied forever.
So, what we need above all this morning is for you to give us Christ.
To show him to us again, so that we might believe and live.
And so, God, thank you for your love for your people, and your commitment to your word.
And we pray that you would come and speak.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, we're kind of hopping in midstream in Isaiah.
But if you were to read this book from the beginning, you would encounter again and again this mysterious figure
whom Isaiah calls the servant.
He's the subject of four poems in Isaiah's book.
And we have, Christians have traditionally called them the servant songs.
And in the servant song in chapter 49, Isaiah tells us that the servant, this servant who's coming,
will be called from his mother's womb, set apart from birth for a very specific task.
God was going to use him to gather his people back to himself.
God's people had repeatedly turned away from him.
That's the backdrop of Isaiah.
Though he had been steadfast in his love for them, they had over and over gone astray.
Gone after other gods, after idols.
And so, they had eventually been conquered by Babylon, taken into exile.
Israel had to leave the promised land.
But God was promising, even before it happened in the book of Isaiah,
that God would gather them back to himself.
That he would bring them home.
And he would bring them back to himself through the servant.
And not just that.
He says in chapter 49, just bringing Israel to himself isn't enough.
It's too small a task.
Isaiah said that the servant would be a light for the nations.
That God's salvation would reach to the ends of the earth.
Those who had never even heard of the God of Israel would receive his love and come to know him as Savior.
And the immediate question that raises is how.
How will the servant do that?
How will he gather God's people back to him and reveal salvation to the whole earth?
Through military conquest?
You could imagine the servant as a great warrior.
Raising an army.
Just marching across the earth.
Saving God's people.
And bringing good news to all of them.
That would bring the people back to the land.
But the people's greatest problem isn't geographic.
It's not their physical exile from the land.
It's their spiritual exile from God.
If the servant is going to gather them back to God, he's going to have to do something about their hearts that always go astray.
His work is going to need to go deeper.
They don't just need to be brought home.
They need to be healed of their wayward hearts.
And so do the nations.
And so do we.
Isaiah tells us that the servant doesn't save through power.
Not that kind of power anyway.
How does he save?
Well this passage starts off with a striking paradox.
Look back at chapter 52 verse 13.
He says,
Behold, my servant shall act wisely.
He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.
God said, my servant is going to succeed.
He's going to triumph.
He's going to be exalted.
And we see the effect of his triumph in verse 15.
So shall he sprinkle many nations.
In the Bible, sprinkling is a way of making something holy.
Of purifying it.
Of cleansing it.
Of setting it apart for God.
Sometimes it's water that's used to sprinkle.
Sometimes oil.
Sometimes it's the blood of a sacrifice.
But sprinkling sets something apart to belong to God.
And Isaiah says, what the servant does is going to sprinkle the nations.
He's going to set the nations.
The nations will belong to God.
And what he does will be so amazing.
It's going to render world leaders speechless.
He says, kings shall shut their mouths because of him.
So what is this great success?
What is this triumph?
What has he done?
Look at verse 14.
As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.
What has he done?
What has he done to triumph?
He's been beaten to the point that he is no longer recognizable.
Not just as himself, but as a human.
You see the paradox.
The servant succeeds through failing.
He succeeds, he triumphs through being defeated.
He saves through suffering.
That's what this passage is about.
It's simultaneously one of the most sobering and one of the most magnificent passages in the whole Bible.
It's quoted at least seven times in the New Testament.
On the night before Jesus died, he said, Isaiah 53 explains what I'm about to do.
He says, this is what's going to happen.
And he was numbered with the transgressors.
Isaiah 53 verse 12.
If you understand what this passage is saying about Jesus, you will understand the heart of Christianity.
And if you believe what this passage teaches about Jesus, you will have a personal assurance of the love of God and a fountain of joy that nothing in this world can touch.
Isaiah highlights three facets of Jesus' suffering.
He tells us that his suffering is submissive, it's substitutionary, and it's saving.
Jesus' suffering.
He suffers as a substitute, and he suffers to save.
So first, he suffered submissively.
Jesus' suffering was neither incidental nor accidental.
It was central and willful and purposeful.
It was the mission on which he had been sent, to which he submitted entirely.
It's why he came to earth.
Why he concealed his divine glory in human flesh.
Look at chapter 53 verse 1.
Who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
The arm of the Lord is God's saving power.
You can look back at chapter 52 verse 10.
Isaiah says,
The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
God rolls up his sleeves, as it were.
He exposes his arm.
He goes to work, and he saves his people.
But the arm of the Lord isn't just God's power disconnected from himself.
An arm isn't just an instrument you use.
Your arm is part of yourself.
Where the arm of the Lord is, the Lord is.
The arm of the Lord is God present in power to save.
And Isaiah tells us that God's arm, God's presence and saving power, is a person.
The servant.
And he asks,
To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Who has recognized him?
And the implied answer is no one.
Almost no one recognized that Jesus of Nazareth was God himself come near to save.
Who would imagine that God would be born as an infant and have to grow up?
Look at verse 2.
For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground.
Who would have expected that God would come not as a royal prince, handsome, clothed with majesty,
but as a carpenter's son from a backwater town.
He was nothing special to look at.
Look at verse 2 again.
He had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
If you passed him on the street in Nazareth,
there is nothing about him that would make you do a double take.
He was nondescript.
And yet he was the image of the invisible God.
He perfectly reflected God's moral purity,
his love,
his truthfulness.
And people hated him for it.
Look at verse 3.
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.
Now, note that he doesn't say,
they esteemed him not.
He says, we esteemed him not.
All of us who now follow him can say,
there was a time when we esteemed him not.
John tells us in his gospel,
he came to his own,
and his own people did not receive him.
When they heard about his miracles,
they said,
isn't this the carpenter's son?
How could he be anything special?
Even his siblings didn't see who he was.
He was God's saving power in human flesh,
and he seemed to almost everyone
like no big deal.
Maybe he seems like no big deal to you.
You know that he taught about religion and morals,
but that may be of no interest to you.
You know that he allegedly did some miracles,
but there are lots of reports like that
from the ancient world.
What makes Jesus different
from any other ancient religious teacher?
Well, Jesus did something that no one else did.
He came to die.
He didn't just encounter rejection,
he came to be rejected.
He didn't just experience suffering,
he came to suffer and die.
Look at verse seven.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth.
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.
When Jesus was taken off to death,
he didn't protest.
He didn't try to get out of it.
It's why he came.
You can read the gospel accounts of Jesus' trial
before the Jewish council
and before the governor, Pilate.
They are amazed.
He doesn't respond to any of the accusations against him.
He doesn't open his mouth, fulfilling this.
And that's not the only way Isaiah's prophecy
was fulfilled in Jesus' death.
If you are unsure what to make of Jesus,
one of the things that you are going to have to decide
is what to do with the fact that Isaiah predicted
details of Jesus' death 700 years before his birth.
Look at verse 8.
By oppression and judgment, he was taken away.
An unjust trial?
Check.
And as for his generation,
who considered that he was cut off
out of the land of the living?
Condemned to death?
Check.
Verse 9.
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death.
Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man,
laid Jesus' body in his own tomb.
Check.
God foretold the plan seven centuries B.C.
and Jesus submitted to it completely.
He came to die.
Now you might say,
other people have given their lives for a loved one
or for a cause.
Jesus is not the only person who chose to die.
Now, listen.
Many people have chosen when to die
or how to die,
but they didn't choose to die.
They were going to die sometime.
Only Jesus chose to die
because only Jesus didn't deserve death.
Death came into the world as the wages,
the payment for human sin,
and Jesus alone has never sinned.
Look at the end of verse 9.
Although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth,
Jesus died innocently.
He had not just done nothing deserving execution.
He'd done nothing deserving death.
Jesus came to die.
He volunteered.
He did not seek to get out of it,
but submitted to it.
Why?
Well, the second facet of his suffering
is that he suffered as a substitute.
Look at verse 4.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows.
He was a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief,
but the sorrows and the grief were ours.
Now, even that is remarkable.
We will have several opportunities this morning
to marvel at the love of God,
but let's not miss this one.
Jesus came from the presence of his Father
where there is no grief,
and there is no sorrow,
and he freely entered into ours.
He experienced the whole range of trouble
that comes with human life here on earth.
Suffering Christian,
your Savior understands what it is to suffer.
He knows grief and sorrow.
You have a sympathetic high priest.
But this is describing much more than sympathy.
When Isaiah says in verse 4,
he has borne our sorrows,
he doesn't just mean he has felt them.
The word borne means he has lifted them off of us.
So you imagine a father and son
on a backpacking trip,
and over the course of the day,
the son's pack has felt heavier and heavier,
and finally he can't go on.
So his father reaches down
and takes the pack
and puts it on himself.
He takes,
Jesus has taken on himself
our griefs and our sorrows.
And Jesus was so marked by grief and sorrow
that he seemed to those around him
not a man blessed by God,
but a man cursed.
Verse 4 again,
we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God,
and afflicted.
And of course,
on the cross,
that's exactly what he was.
So this passage,
this song,
from 52.13 to 53.12,
it has five stanzas
with three verses in each stanza.
So if you find the center stanza,
and you find the center verse
of the center stanza,
you will find the very heart
of this song.
And the very heart of this song
is verse 5.
And it's not just the center of the song,
but of Christianity
and of human history
and of all reality.
Look at verse 5.
There are two parties here.
There's he
and we.
There's the one
and the many.
So whose transgression
is in view?
It's ours.
Right?
Transgression describes
our rebellion against God,
our breaking of his law.
Whose iniquity
is in view?
It's ours.
Iniquity is our inner bentness,
that thing in us
that always makes us go
astray.
The transgression
is ours.
The iniquity is ours.
But who gets pierced?
He does.
Who gets crushed?
He does.
He gets chastised.
He gets disciplined.
He gets wounded.
But who gets the peace?
We do.
Who gets healed?
We do.
He suffered as a substitute.
The one in place
of the many.
The heart of Christianity
is nothing but this.
Christ died
for our sins.
He suffered
as a substitute.
Because we're the ones
who go astray,
aren't we?
Verse 6.
All we like sheep
have gone astray.
We have turned
everyone,
everyone
to his own way.
Isn't that right?
Don't we choose
our own way?
God has purposes
for everything
he's given us.
Our time,
our money,
our words,
our kids,
our sexuality.
But we choose
our way.
We might go
his way
when it's the way
we want to go anyway
or when it doesn't
cost us very much
or when we might
get seen doing it
and admired.
But when it's hard,
when we're tested,
apart from his help,
we so quickly
go astray.
even if only
in our hearts
and our imaginations.
Prone to wander,
Lord,
I feel it.
Prone to leave
the God I love.
Isaiah says,
we wander off
like sheep.
And what happens
to sheep
when they stray off
from the shepherd
who feeds them
and protects them
and heals them
when they're injured?
Sheep that go astray
die.
And yet here,
it's the shepherd
laying down his life
for the sheep.
Look at the end
of verse 6.
And the Lord
has laid on him
the iniquity
of us all.
If you've read
the Old Testament,
you might remember
the annual
Day of Atonement
described in
Leviticus 16,
the day when
God would graciously
forgive and cleanse
his people
of all their sins.
And on the Day
of Atonement,
the high priest
takes two goats.
And one goat
he kills
and takes the blood
and sprinkles it
on the mercy seat
over the Ark
of the Covenant
in the most holy place
and the other goat
he takes
and he confesses
over it
the sins of the people.
He lays on the goat
the iniquities
of the nation
and he sends it off
into the wilderness
and the goat
bears their iniquities
away,
never to be seen
again.
In the same way,
we've all gone astray
but the Lord
has laid on Jesus
our iniquity
and he bears it
all away.
He suffered
as a substitute.
He was,
as Isaiah says
in verse 10,
an offering
for guilt.
Every person
here
is going to have
to decide
what you are going
to do
with your guilt.
Not just your sense
of feeling guilty
but your awareness
that you have done
actual wrongs.
And I can imagine
three options.
One,
you can deny
that there is even
such a thing
as guilt
by denying
that there are
moral absolutes
you have to obey.
If there are no rules,
there can be no guilt
from breaking the rules.
But are there
really no rules?
We all recognize
that some things
are just wrong.
Not wrong
for some people
in some places
under some circumstances
but wrong
for all people
at all times
in all circumstances.
Murder,
child abuse,
racism.
There are moral laws
and they come
from somewhere.
Some moral lawgiver.
You can't evade guilt
just by evading
moral reality.
Or second,
you can acknowledge
that moral laws exist
and guilt is possible
but deny that you're guilty
because you've done
basically everything right.
But that delusion
is only possible
until you have
a relationship
with another human being
and they will let you know
right away
that you're not perfect.
Which leaves
the third option.
You can have your guilt
taken away.
Someone outside you
can take the guilt
from you.
A substitute.
Someone who has
no guilt of their own
so they can suffer
the punishment
your guilt deserves.
Behold the servant.
This is why Jesus came
to live a morally
perfect life
so he could die
for our transgressions
and our iniquities.
Do you see his love?
Not just that he died.
Although that is astounding.
But how he died.
He chose a violent death.
A criminal's death.
A punitive death.
He died in a way
that showed
how terrible sin is.
How serious.
How deserving
we all are
of being pierced
and crushed
and wounded.
His death showed
the full evil of sin
but also the full extent
of his love
for sinners.
Paul says in Romans 5, 8
that God shows
his love for us
and that while we were
still sinners
Christ died for us.
John says
in this is love
not that we have
loved God
but that he loved us
and sent his son
to be the propitiation
the sacrifice
for our sins.
He means us
to see his love.
If you try to discern
whether God loves you
by looking at the
circumstances
of your life
you will despair.
Think if Jesus
had done that
or Joseph
or David
or Job
or Peter.
Don't look there.
Look at the cross.
Where God suffered
out of love for us
where he substituted
himself for us.
He suffered
as a substitute.
And what did he accomplish?
The third facet
of his suffering
is that he suffered
to save.
In verse 9
the servant
has been laid
in the grave.
He is dead
and gone.
Which makes
verse 10
extraordinary.
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.
Did you see that?
After
he gives his life
as a sacrifice
he sees his offspring.
He is reunited
with those
he died to save.
He prolongs
his days.
He lives.
After suffering
Jesus rose
victorious
over death
and he shares
the spoils
of his victory
with all who trust
in him.
Look at verse 12.
Therefore I will
divide him
a portion
with the many
and he shall
divide the spoil
with the strong.
So what spoils
does he share?
What has he won
that he freely gives?
Well he shares
his righteousness.
Look at the middle
of verse 11.
By his knowledge
shall the righteous one
my servant
make many
to be accounted
righteous.
So just as our sins
were accounted
to him
so his perfect
obedience
is accounted
to us.
We are made
right with God.
He sees us
as though we had
always obeyed
with the perfection
of his son.
Don't you want
a clear conscience?
We have all
done things
we look back
on with shame.
And God
never minimizes
sin
but he forgives
it.
And he covers
it with the
righteousness
of his son.
All who trust
in Christ
have his righteousness
and because of
that we have
look back
at verse 5.
It says
upon him
was the chastisement
that brought us
peace.
Because of what
he's done
we have peace
with God.
We have assurance
that there is
no longer
any anger
in God's heart
towards us.
No hostility
that keeps us
at arm's length.
Nothing that can
ever separate us
from his love.
He is for us.
He is a father
and a friend.
We have peace
with him.
In verse 5
again
by his wounds
we are healed.
Not just forgiven
but healed.
Made whole.
Made well.
Throughout this book
Isaiah has
repeatedly looked
ahead to a future
for God's people
in a perfected
creation
in which
everything wrong
has been made
right.
Has been healed.
So you could
think of chapter
11
in verse 6.
The wolf
shall dwell
with the lamb
and the leopard
shall lie down
with the young goat
and the calf
and the lion
and the fattened
calf together
and a little child
shall lead them.
The nursing child
shall play over
the hole of the cobra
and the weaned child
shall put his hand
on the adder's den.
They shall not hurt
or destroy
in all my holy mountain
for the earth
shall be full
of the knowledge
of the Lord
as the waters
cover the sea.
Or amen.
Or chapter 25
verses 6 to 8.
On this mountain
the Lord of hosts
will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food
a feast of well-aged wine
of rich food
full of marrow
of aged wine
well refined
and he will swallow
up on this mountain
the covering
that is cast
over all peoples
the veil
that is spread
over all nations
he will swallow
up death
forever
and the Lord God
will wipe away
tears
from all faces.
We need healing
of the bentness
of our hearts
of the infirmity
of our bodies
this world
needs healing
of its brokenness
of tears
of death
and because of what
Jesus has done
on the cross
that healing
will come.
Paul says
in Colossians 1
God was pleased
to reconcile
to himself
all things
whether on earth
or in heaven
making peace
by the blood
of the cross
sin
death
tears
tragedy
all of it
came into the world
because of the sin
of Adam
and all of it
will ultimately
leave the world
through the salvation
of Christ.
There will be
true healing.
Now I don't want
to deny
that a degree
of real healing
is possible now.
For those
who have trusted
in Christ
God really does
heal patterns
of sin
he helps
us to walk
in new freedom
at times
he really does
heal bodies
in ways that
medicine can't
explain
but the fullness
of healing
awaits Jesus'
return
and the new
creation.
He will share
it freely
with all those
who trust in him.
When Isaiah
says in verse 11
out of the anguish
of his soul
he shall see
and be satisfied
he means that
as Jesus
suffered the horrors
of the cross
he looked ahead
he looked beyond
to the future
I've just described
a future
with his people
with us
in a new creation
in which all is right
and all is healed
and all is well
he looked
out of the anguish
of his soul
ahead to that future
and he was satisfied.
He considered
the cross
worth it
for that
to bring us
complete salvation.
Jesus
suffered
to save.
So how should we
respond?
What is this passage
calling us to?
Isaiah is calling us
to behold
and believe
in Jesus Christ
who saves
his people
by suffering
for their sins.
God tells us
what he wants us
to do right
in chapter 52
verse 13
where the passage
begins
he says
behold.
He wants us
to look.
he wants us
to consider
he wants us
to meditate
on what this passage
tells us
about Jesus.
The arm
of the Lord
the Son
of God
has humbled
himself
to death
for us
and been
exalted
on high.
What he has
done
is amazing.
It leaves
even kings
speechless.
Understanding
what Jesus
has accomplished
through his death
and resurrection
gives us
assurance
of God's love
for us.
It gives us
hope
for the future.
It gives us
joy
even in the
sufferings
of this life.
Don't look
away from it.
Don't neglect
it.
Behold him.
Behold him
in this book
as you read
it and hear
it proclaimed.
Behold him
in the words
that we sing
as we gather
on Sundays.
Behold him
in his work
in and through
his body
the church.
Behold him.
And as you
behold him
believe
verse 1
who has
believed
what he has
heard from us.
If you have
seen that
Jesus
is the arm
of the Lord
that he's
God's saving
power
then believe
in him.
Trust him.
Trust that
he loved
you
and gave
himself
for you.
Trust that
his righteousness
is yours
and that
you have
complete
peace
with God.
Trust him
and in
trusting
follow him
forever.
Let's pray.
Our Lord
Jesus
we
are
amazed
at what
you have
done.
At the
greatness
of your
love.
At the
greatness
of your
humility.
At the
greatness
of your
perseverance.
That you
chose
the cross.
That you
chose
the thorns.
That you
chose
the scourge.
Out of
love for us
amazes us.
And we
worship you
and we
trust you
and we
pray that
you would
so shape
our lives
by your
grace
and by your
salvation
that in
us
others
would
encounter
you
as
well.
I pray
your
blessing
on
this
church.
I pray
your
blessing
on
Mike
and
Jenny
and
Mary
as
they
travel.
God
use
Christ
the
King
church
for
your
glory
in
this
city.
I
pray
in
Jesus
name.
Amen.