God's amazing way of bringing about a resurrection world

My Servant

(Isaiah 52:13-53:3, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 31, 2019)

[13] Behold, my servant shall act wisely;

he shall be high and lifted up,

and shall be exalted.

[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—

[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.

[53:1] Who has believed what he has heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

[2] 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.

[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.

My Servant – Songs for a friend, what we learned, 42:1-9, 49:1-7, 50:4-9

In Isaiah 42:1-9 we learned that there would be someone God calls his “servant” and his “chosen” in whom his “soul delights.” This man would “bring forth justice to the nations.” In 49:1-7 we heard that the servant, God's “polished arrow,” would be strengthened by the word of God and through that word would bring God's “salvation” to the very “end of the earth.” In 50:4-9 we found out more specifics about the suffering of this great warrior. His enemies would “strike” him on his back, “pull out the beard” on his face, and spit at him. Despite the fact that he would know all this in advance, he would set his face “like a flint” toward “disgrace” and pain. This was God's plan.

Which brings us to the fourth and most revealing song of these works known for centuries before Jesus was born. We will take three Sundays to go through this final poem as God gives us opportunity. Today we see that despite the preparation God gave his people to be ready for the coming of this great suffering servant, 1. the man and his ministry would astonish many people, 2. only a small percentage of these would actually put their trust in him, and 3. he would be both “despised” and “rejected.”

Many were astonished

First, the suffering servant of Jehovah would astonish many people. He just would not fit what they might have expected from the Lord's right hand man. Though he would “act wisely” and would ultimately be highly “exalted,” his natural appearance would be unimpressive. Even worse, something would happen to him that would be so violent, that people would think of him as “marred” even “beyond human semblance.” Still the most powerful people on the face of the earth would one day be unable to even speak in his presence because of his overwhelming majesty.

This ordinary looking man (53:2) who was to be so disfigured at the hands of others, would “sprinkle many nations.” (Think blood, water, and spirit.) The result of that trial would be so powerful that even the highest and mightiest among the empires of the world would see him as Lord. This is astonishing, first because he is too low for a great savior, and then because he is too high for us to fathom. He is the unexpected Jesus. Given our reading of these striking portions of Isaiah, how could he have been missed in a world where John the Baptist was drawing great crowds and pointing to him, where he himself was fulfilling the words of Isaiah before their eyes, and where Christian preachers were using these songs to say that Jesus was the man they were looking for?

Who has believed?

Israel was clearly warned about God's servant by the prophet Isaiah. The faithful had centuries to consider his inspired words. Nonetheless, so few would be truly ready for the man described in these chapters, that the prophet would write, “Who has believed what he has heard from us?” (Notice the quote of this section in John 12:37-38.)

Despite all of the warnings about a messiah who would win his biggest victory through his greatest suffering, very few people would be prepared to put their trust in him. Does that surprise you? Does it shock you that when Jesus came to the most important battle for our souls and for the coming of a new world of righteousness, even his best friends ran away from him and the crowds would be shouting for him to be crucified without understanding that this was the suffering servant?

Despised and rejected by men

Jesus was “despised.” He was ignored by some, rejected by many, but why would he have been despised? What had he done to make him the object of such strong hatred? Humanly speaking, to the most scrupulous Jews, he simply would not submit himself to their understanding of God and the Bible. His own understanding of himself as one who needed to be received did not find ready hearts among the great majority of the chosen people. See John 1:11-12. We are told that none of that was accidental or merely to be explained by those who insist on explaining every miracle without God. The Scriptures tell us what most do not want to acknowledge: He was “hated without a cause” (John 15:25), and the Old Covenant people had a veil over their eyes. (2 Corinthians 3:15-18.) But many Gentiles kings, would lead their people to bow before this shocking savior.

According to his enemies, the very center of the hatred of Jesus and his rejection, particularly by religious leaders, was his insistence that Isaiah was right—that the messiah needed to be a suffering servant. Yet more central then the hatred of man was the unusual plan of God, both among those who dismissed him and those who received him. “To all who did receive him” as the king on the cross, “who believed in his name” as their Lord, “he gave the right to become children of God.” (Consider 53:3, John 1:11-13.)

The New Testament quotes of this beginning of the fourth suffering servant song of Isaiah reinforce two points: 1. the unbelief of the Jews (John 12:37-40), and 2. the understanding and spiritual eyesight of a remnant among the Gentiles (Romans 15:18-21.) This was not accidental: When God brought the resurrection world upon this dying earth, he did it his way. He 1. confronted our pride, and 2. glorified himself. Good for him and good for us. Why? 1. We are creatures, and 2. With God alone is assurance.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 102 – The prayer of one afflicted

New Testament Reading—1 Cor. 15:21-49 – So with the resurrection of the dead