Sermon - Good Friday - Isaiah 52:13-53:12 - Littleby Baptist Church - April 2, 2021

Good Evening… tonight we are going to take a look at some words written roughly 790 years before our Lord hung on that cross.  

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

“¹³ See, my servant will be successful; he will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted.”

Through the prophet Isaiah God the Father proclaims that the Servant, Jesus, will be successful in everything that He sets out to do. He will come to this earth, He will live a sinless life, He will pay for our sins, and He will defeat death.

Jesus will be ‘greatly exalted’, meaning He will be praised, He will be lifted up, He will be given the name that is above every name.  

^“14 Just as many were appalled at you— his appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man, and his form did not resemble a human being—”

Saying that Jesus was not treated like a man, is likely a significant understatement. He was severely beaten, and it would have been hard to look at Him after the beating took place.

“¹⁵ so he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of him, for they will see what had not been told them, and they will understand what they had not heard.”

Under the Old Testament Law, the priests would sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on those needing cleansed. Jesus will bring cleansing to all who seek Him, Jew or Gentile alike. The kings of the day, Pontius Pilate and King Herod, did not understand or believe who Jesus was when He stood before them. At some point though, either on earth or as they stood before Jesus in judgement, they finally understood who Jesus is.  

“53 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

The prophet is raising a question, who believed them about the Messiah? Who believed Jesus when He spoke? When we read the Gospels and see the multitudes that followed Jesus, we need to remember that in all reality the number of people who truly followed Him was small in comparison to the population of the cities He visited. Most of the people rejected Jesus, rejected the ‘arm of the Lord’, rejected the manifestation of God’s Power when it was right in front of their eyes.

“² He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him.”

The people were looking for a coming king who was ready expel the Romans from Israel. They did not expect a carpenter’s son, a man who did not look as polished as the one we tend to picture. The people did not recognize Jesus because they did not see Him for who He was.

“³ He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him.”

Jesus did not come as a wealthy influential man. He was born to a simple carpenter and to a woman that some wanted to stone to death. He had no value in the eyes of those in charge. Some speculate that Jesus may have had some physical impairment, something that made Him even more of an outcast. He was not what people expected in a Messiah.

“⁴ Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.”

Jesus came to this world and performed miracles. He cast out demons, healed many, and took on all of our sin, our pain, and our lostness. God the Father raised Jesus up to fulfill His mission, part of which was for Jesus to take the fall for us. To be struck down and afflicted on our behalf.

“⁵ But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.”

The prophet is telling all who will listen that the coming Son of God will be pierced, crushed, and punished for the sins we have committed. Jesus was punished for the sins of all humankind. He was sinless but endured the pain, humiliation, and death so that He can bring Peace to those that follow Him. He endured everything to restore us to our rightful place in the family of God.

“⁶ We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.”

These words were spoken to the people of Israel, but easily apply to us. At some point in our lives, we are all like sheep without a shepherd. As sheep without a shepherd, we went were we wanted to go, we did what we wanted to do, and strayed away from our God. Instead of letting us suffer the consequences of our choices, Jesus endured the punishment in our place.  

“⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth.”

Matthew 26:42 “Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.””

Jesus did reach out to the Father, but He did not beg to be released. He did not plea with the Father for another course of action. He said, ‘if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’ Jesus willingly became the Perfect Lamb that died for our sins.

“⁸ He was taken away because of oppression and judgment, and who considered his fate? For he was cut off from the land of the living; he was struck because of my people’s rebellion.”

Jesus did not deserve to die; He had done nothing wrong. He was struck down because of the sins of the people of Israel, He was struck down for the sins of the world, He was struck down for our sins.

“⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.”

Jesus died with criminals and would have been buried in a mass grave with them if it wasn’t for Joseph who asked Pilate to release Jesus’ body to him. Joseph buried Jesus in a tomb, which would be equivalent of being buried in the fanciest coffin available today and then it being placed in a nice mausoleum. Jesus was buried by a rich man.

“¹⁰ Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.”

Jesus died as a guilt offering to wash away our sins and to fulfill the Plan they had put into place.

But like so many other times in Scripture, thankfully it does not end there. After Jesus follows through with the Plan, His days were prolonged. He will live long after He paid the price for the sin of those who repent and follow Him. Jesus will live for all Eternity.

“¹¹ After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities.”

After His death, Jesus will Live, He will see the Light, He will rejoice in knowing that He has paved the way for those who turn to Him. His blood will carry away our iniquities. When we give Jesus our life our sin is no longer ours. When we turn to Jesus we are redeemed!

“¹² Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.”

Jesus followed through with the Plan. He willingly climbed on that cross to become the offering for all of us and the spoils are His. The spoils of war in this case are all who have been made righteous through His sacrifice. The spoils are you and me and our Lord takes great Joy in knowing that He made it possible to spend an eternity with us.

Our Jesus interceded for us when we were still His enemy. He died for us, knowing that we did not deserve it.

1 John 2:1-2

“2 My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one. ² He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.”

Jesus died so that all who seek Him will be restored.

John 14:6

“Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

These is only one way to spend an eternity in Glory and that is through Jesus Christ. If He is the Lord of your life, Praise God. If not, I would love to pray with you.

May the Lord be with you!

Robert