Isaiah: Lesson 14

Overview

The Suffering Servant: Isaiah 52–54

Isaiah 52–54 stands as one of the clearest portraits of the Messiah in all of Scripture, written some seven hundred years before the cross. The New Testament cites or alludes to Isaiah roughly eighty times, and these chapters anchor much of that witness. We know with certainty that the servant Isaiah describes is Jesus Christ because Scripture itself tells us so: in Acts 8:34-35, Philip meets the Ethiopian official reading Isaiah 53:7-8 and proclaims to him the good news about Jesus from that very passage. Jesus Himself, on the night before His death, applied Isaiah's words to His own mission: "He was counted among the lawless" Luke 22:37. This is what it means to let Scripture interpret Scripture—the Spirit's witness in one passage confirms the meaning of another.

Isaiah portrays the servant in five movements: He is exalted, despised, wounded, cut off (killed), and yet makes many righteous. The exaltation in Isaiah 52:13 is echoed in Philippians 2:9-11, where every knee bows at the name of Jesus. The rejection and wounding of Isaiah 53:1-6 describe the great exchange Luther loved to preach: the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. Paul condenses the whole chapter into a single verse: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" 2 Corinthians 5:21. Even the detail that the servant's grave would be "with the rich" Isaiah 53:9 finds its precise fulfillment in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb Matthew 27:57-60, and the promise that God's Holy One would not see decay (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27) was kept on Easter morning. The prologue of John's Gospel John 1:1 confirms that this servant is true God and true man—both natures necessary for our redemption, since only a human could stand under the law's demands and only God could reconcile us to Himself.

Isaiah 54 then turns from the suffering servant to the fruit of His work: the church. The barren woman called to sing Isaiah 54:1 is identified by Paul as "the Jerusalem above," our mother Galatians 4:22-27—the universal Christian church gathered through the gospel. The vision of a city built with sapphires and precious stones Isaiah 54:11-12 reappears in Revelation 21, the future splendor of God's people. And the promise of Isaiah 54:17—"no weapon forged against you shall prevail"—assures us that every attempt to destroy Christ's church will fail. God preserves His own.

For God's people today, this study lands in two places. First, our confidence rests outside ourselves. We do not look inward for "my truth"; we look outward to the inerrant, infallible Word that God has breathed out, whose internal coherence across centuries and authors testifies to its divine origin. Second, the gospel we are given is not chiefly comfort or happiness—those are fruits—but the announcement that the God-man has borne our sin and risen from the tomb. As Luther urged, when the law accuses, point it to Christ: "There is the man who has kept it. To Him I cling. He fulfilled it for me, and gave His fulfillment to me." This is the word of life Isaiah saw from afar, and it is the word we are given to hear, believe, and proclaim.

Transcript

Gracious Heavenly Father, we give you thanks. 4s

We give you thanks for your goodness, for your promises, for your graciousness. 7s

We walk in this season of length, we give you thanks for the cross and the empty tomb. 13s

We give you thanks, O Lord, that you've claimed us in the waters of baptism. 19s

And today is just one more day in all of eternity. 24s

We give you thanks, O Lord. 28s

Bless now, this time of study to your praise and to your glory and Jesus' name. 31s

Amen. 36s

Well, we studied last week, chapters 49 to 52, and we took a look at how Isaiah 38s

portrays the servant, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ in a threefold way. 46s

You'll recall that what you see in Isaiah is you see the ideal, d'avidic king. 52s

You see God in person and you see the servant of God. 58s

And we focus particularly on the servant of God in that section. 64s

We were studying. 69s

You recall that as Isaiah gives the portrayal here, Israel is condensed into one person. 71s

It is the obedient Israel who goes to the cross to redeem us and to save us. 77s

We see the validation in the gospels of the level of detail that Isaiah gives with regard to Christ some 700 years before Christ. 85s

We saw how Isaiah looked into the future at the judgment to come from the Babylonians 98s

and how the people were going to drink the cup. 103s

We hear that cup reference in today's study, don't we? 107s

In the worship, that cup is that remembrance, that symbol of the fact that there is judgment, there's suffering with regard to sin. 111s

The people here, they drink that cup of judgment and suffering. 122s

And we see how Jesus drinks the cup of suffering and judgment for the world. 127s

We studied the gracious word of deliverance that came to the people in Babylonian captivity. 134s

And we see the even greater word of deliverance that comes for us through Christ as the word of deliverance to the Babylonians prefigured the word that comes to us. 139s

And lastly, we took a look at the cohesiveness, the truthfulness, the reliability of Holy Scripture. 151s

Well, today we're going to look at chapters 52 to 54. 159s

And this is going to be a variation of last week's theme about the reliability of Scripture. 162s

We're going to see the use of Isaiah in Scripture, the use of Isaiah in Scripture. 168s

There are 80 references either direct or indirect in the New Testament from Isaiah, 80 references either direct or indirect. 176s

Let's go to chapter 52 of Isaiah. 190s

We'll pick up in verse 13. 193s

And here Isaiah, writing under the inspiration of the Spirit here, he says, 203s

Again, this is Jesus, the suffering servant. 218s

Now, how do we know here that he's talking about the servant, the Messiah, the come, the Lord Jesus Christ? 222s

Well, Scripture gives us proof here of that very thing. 230s

That's not the nation of Israel that's being referred to, but it is the suffering servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. 235s

In Acts 8th chapter, you've got the Ethiopian treasure who is traveling from Jerusalem to his home. 242s

And he is reading in a chariot. 251s

He's reading verses 7 and 8 from chapter 53 of Isaiah. 253s

The Lord calls Philip to join there in the chariot. 258s

And Philip says, do you understand what you're reading here? 263s

Do you understand that? 267s

And so then Philip explains, we see from Scripture, and here's the principle again, 269s

you let Scripture interpret Scripture, we see here that in Isaiah 52, the servant being referenced, 274s

is the Messiah, the come, and a proof text for that is to go then to the book of Acts, 281s

and we see that being proofed. 288s

We see why we can stand on shore ground, that Isaiah here in this passage in 52 is talking about the servant, 290s

the Messiah, the come, the Lord Jesus Christ. 298s

So let's keep our fingers here in Isaiah, and let's go over to Acts 8th chapter, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 301s

and then Acts 8th chapter 8, verse 34. 308s

And you'll see in verse 32 there's the quotation from Isaiah, verse 34, the unicast Philip about whom I ask you, 322s

does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else? 333s

Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this Scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 340s

So if there's any ever any doubt, when you go to Isaiah 52, the servant being talked about, is that servant Messiah? 349s

Well you see the answer here, one of the proof texts is in Acts 8th chapter, where the Ethiopian is reading the very portion of Scripture here. 358s

With regard to the servant. 368s

We also see it, just before leaving the upper room for the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is preparing his disciples. 372s

Let's go over to Luke chapter 22, Luke 22, verse 37. 383s

22, verse 37, and here once again you have a reference to Isaiah. 405s

For I tell you this Scripture must be fulfilled in me, and he was counted among the lawless, and indeed what is written about me is being fulfilled. 412s

So here we see Scripture either directly or indirectly referencing the passages from Isaiah. 422s

There are important points that Isaiah makes with regard to the servant, the Messiah to come. 433s

And we see that he makes the point that the servant is exalted, will be despised, he will be wounded, he will be cut off. 443s

And he makes people righteous. 472s

So here then Isaiah, given the word from the Lord in terms of who the servant will be exalted despised, wounded, cut off, and made righteous. 479s

We see this in 52 and 53. 490s

Let's go back to 52. 493s

Pick back up in verse 13 again. 498s

See my servant shall prosper. 505s

He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. 508s

Okay, let's keep our finger there. 515s

Are your fingers warmed up by the way for today? 517s

We're going to be doing a lot of turnings, so if you need to do some calistetics here with them to get them going here. 520s

Let's go now to Philippians chapter 2 in the New Testament. 525s

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, and then Ephesians, then Philippians. 529s

So Isaiah here in 52 says, 545s

Notice what is written in Philippians the 2nd chapter beginning with verse 9. 554s

Therefore, God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 561s

so that the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 566s

and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 573s

We see then that the servant Messiah will be exalted. 582s

Let's go back now to Isaiah chapter 53, 587s

and we're going to see that he is going to be despised. 590s

So Isaiah 53 will pick up in verse 1, 595s

Who has believed what we have heard and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. 601s

For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. 607s

He had no former majesty that we should look at him, 612s

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 616s

He was despised and rejected by others a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity, 620s

and as one from whom others hide their faces, he was despised and we held him of no account. 627s

What you see here is you'll see sometimes that the prophecy is written in the present tense 636s

or if it actually already happened. 642s

That's a statement of confidence here that indeed this prophecy is so sure that you can write about it 645s

as if it's already happened or if you're in the present tense with regard to it. 652s

We see then this word of prophecy about the servant, 659s

and we know here from what Scripture tells us, Scripture interpreting Scripture, 662s

that the servant we're talking about is Jesus. 666s

So he's exalted, Philippians 2, he's despised here, he's wounded, let's go to verse 4. 669s

Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases. 682s

Yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. 687s

But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. 693s

Upon him was the punishment that made us whole and by his bruises we are healed. 700s

Remember what Luther talks about, the great exchange where Jesus Christ takes the punishment that belongs to us, 709s

he takes that upon himself and he gives to us of his righteous perfect life. 717s

Here you have the very word punishment here. 724s

God's wrath over sin, God simply can't wink at sin, he can't simply say, 728s

let bygones be bygones here, no, this is an act where justice has to occur. 732s

And so the sin and the punishment for it is laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. 739s

And he bears that sin and the great exchange occurs on the cross. 746s

He's exalted, he's despised, he's wounded, what else do we see with regard to the Lord Jesus? 751s

He's cut off or you can probably an easier way to understand it, he's killed. 760s

He's cut off, he's killed. 769s

Let's go to verses 7 to 9, 53. 773s

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth, 779s

like a lamb, catch the image there, right? 785s

Like a lamb that has led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shears is done. 788s

And we sing the spotless lamb of God. 795s

Like a sheep that is before its shears, a silet soul that he did not open his mouth 799s

by a perversion of justice, he was taken away. 804s

Who could have imagined his future? 808s

For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. 811s

They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, 819s

although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. 824s

Exalted despised, wounded and killed. 831s

And he makes people righteous. 836s

Verse 11 of 53. 839s

Out of his anguish, he shall see light. 842s

He shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. 846s

The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous. 851s

And he shall bear their iniquities. 857s

These verses are going to be part of the liturgy on Good Friday. 863s

And so as we move through the liturgy on Good Friday, 869s

there's going to be references here to Isaiah 53. 872s

And you'll see exaltation being despised, wounded, killed, 876s

being making others righteous. 881s

It is an incredible chapter of Isaiah. 884s

Isn't it this incredible word of prophecy? 886s

The Holy Spirit takes this section here of 53 and these concepts 890s

and can summarize it. 896s

Let's go to 2 Corinthians, the 5th chapter, Matthew, Mark, 899s

Luke, John, Acts, and Romans. 903s

First Corinthians, and then 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 21. 906s

Here's a summary of what we just read. 916s

Paul writing into the inspiration of the Spirit writes this. 923s

2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. 927s

For our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, 930s

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 936s

And in the chapters of Isaiah 53 here, 943s

the price of our redemption is so graphically displayed 947s

and will be included then in the Good Friday service. 953s

Okay, back to Isaiah 53, verse 9. 958s

Isaiah here gives a glimpse into what happens. 966s

Back into verse 9 again, 971s

they made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, 974s

although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. 978s

Okay, finger here, you ready? 984s

Let's go to Matthew 27 and see it. 988s

Matthew chapter 27, verse 57. 990s

Matthew 27, verse 57. 1000s

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, 1012s

who was also a disciple of Jesus. 1016s

He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, 1018s

then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 1022s

So Jesus took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth 1025s

and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. 1029s

He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb 1033s

and went away. 1036s

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there sitting opposite the tomb. 1038s

David prophesied with regard to this in Psalm 16. 1045s

Let's go there, please. 1049s

Good way to find the Psalms. 1050s

This is just open up to the middle and you'll land on the Psalms. 1051s

Psalm 16, verse 10. 1056s

Psalm 16, verse 10. 1072s

For you do not give me up to Shio, 1076s

NIV translates it maybe a little bit easier to catch as the grave. 1079s

For you do not give me up to the grave or let your faithful one see the pit 1085s

or translate it, NIV is just easier to catch upon first reading. 1090s

See decay. 1095s

Here's a prophecy here through David recorded in Psalm 16 1097s

that you do not give me up to the grave. 1103s

In other words, the grave is not the final place or let your faithful one see decay. 1106s

In other words, there's no decay here. 1114s

There's resurrection. 1116s

As you go from Isaiah, you go to the Gospels, you go back to the Psalm. 1118s

They're all singing the same Psalm, aren't they? 1124s

It's all the same Psalm. 1127s

That's that, what we talked about last week, that cohesiveness and that truthfulness 1129s

and the reliability of Scripture. 1132s

When you get in to Scripture and you turn back and forth and you watch how those 80 passages 1136s

with regard to Isaiah are used in the New Testament, then you see it echoed elsewhere in prophecy. 1143s

It's just an incredible word. 1151s

For the sake of time here, you can also look at Acts 2.27 because Peter is quoting it 1154s

in his Pentecost sermon. 1159s

It's just an amazing thing to see God's Word and to see the truthfulness of it. 1164s

That's why we proclaim from God's own witness with regard to the Word that the Word is inerrant. 1171s

It contains no errors. 1180s

It is infallible. 1181s

It is incapable of having error. 1183s

Why? Because as the New Testament tells us God exhaled the Word out to us. 1186s

That's what the Word inspired there means when Paul uses it with regard to the Word, 1192s

that God has exhaled his Word out to us. 1197s

And as you start getting into the internals and you start turning the pages back and forth, 1202s

you see the reliability and the truthfulness of God's Word. 1209s

When you think here, Isaiah is writing this 700 years before Christ. 1214s

And he's given this level of detail of what's going to happen here. 1220s

When you see, we've talked about it, about the freeing of the people from Babylonian captivity from the Persians, 1226s

King Cyrus, when Isaiah is writing, obviously, King Cyrus is in the live and the King of a Persia 1234s

wasn't even historically in existence at the time. 1239s

You see the truthfulness and the reliability of the Word. 1243s

That's why when we talk about the Word as being that which forms everything we believe, absolutely. 1247s

Because we don't turn inward in on ourself, we don't turn to borrow a phrase that unfortunately is increasingly more popular in our world today. 1257s

We don't turn into my truth. 1268s

You hear the shallowness of that? 1271s

When people say, well, this is my truth, my truth. 1273s

Well, that could be different from your truth, but it's my truth. 1277s

You hear the emptiness of that where the person is turning inward upon themselves to determine truth. 1281s

Instead of, in Orthodox Christianity, you turn outward to the Word of God and it forms the truth. 1287s

I used to ask the Comframans, I would say, lesson one. 1298s

Here's a small catechism and here's the Bible. 1305s

The small catechism are like sermons coming out of the Bible. 1307s

I said, if something were ever to be discovered in the small catechism, that was an error and I said, by the way, it won't. 1312s

But if anything were ever to be found in the small catechism, that was an error, what would change? 1319s

They said, well, the small catechism. 1327s

I said, if I preach something in error on Sunday morning, who has to change? 1329s

The Bible or me, and gleefully they said, you. 1336s

But they got the point, right? They got the point that what we say comes from the Word of God. 1341s

God has done what needed to be done to rescue the world. 1352s

Let's go to John the first chapter, John chapter one, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 1358s

And we see the prophecy of Isaiah. We see it lived out now. 1370s

John the first chapter, in the beginning was the Word, and notice that's capitalized because it's just another word for Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ. 1377s

In the beginning was the Word, the second member of the Trinity, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. 1388s

Now, down into verse 14, and the Word became flesh and lived among us. 1398s

And we've seen His glory, the glorious of a Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. 1406s

We confess that Jesus is true God and true man, the two natures of Christ, and that is required for the redemption to occur. 1415s

Jesus had to be truly human and truly divine. 1430s

Only a human being could be placed under the demands of the law. Only a human being could be placed under those demands. 1437s

Only a human could receive the wrath of God for humankind's rebellion with regard to sin. 1446s

As divine, it made Jesus possible to be able to unite God and us by His obedience. 1458s

As a human, He makes the substitutionary life possible for us. 1469s

If Jesus isn't truly human and truly divine, you can't affect reconciliation. 1477s

So as Isaiah here is talking about the Messiah, and you obviously see that the Messiah is going to be truly human, that's lived out then in these pages. 1486s

Another aspect of that is to, and I'll just touch on this as we've touched on it before, is what's called the passive obedience and the active obedience of Christ. 1500s

What we see here in Scripture, the passive obedience of Christ, is the understanding that Jesus willingly went to the cross. 1510s

The active obedience of Christ allows then for His perfect life to be credited to our account. 1520s

Luther put it this way. 1529s

He satisfied the law. He fulfilled the law perfectly. 1531s

For He loved God with all His heart, with all His soul, with all His strength, with all His mind, and He loved His neighbor as Himself. 1537s

Therefore, when the law comes and accuses you of not having kept it, bid it go to Christ. 1546s

Say, there's the man who has kept it. 1554s

To Him, I cling. 1558s

He fulfilled it for me, and gave His fulfillment to me. 1560s

Thus the law is silent. 1565s

And that's the gospel, isn't it? That's the gospel. 1569s

The gospel is not. Jesus makes me feel good. 1574s

The gospel is not. Jesus gives me peace. 1580s

The gospel is not. Jesus gives me happiness. 1586s

Peace, joy, those are fruit of the gospel, right? 1594s

But it's not the gospel. 1602s

The gospel is the good news of the substitute, the God-man, true God, and true man, who has borne the sin of human race for us and has been raised out of the tomb. 1604s

That's the gospel. 1624s

And as Luther said, the people in the pews should demand to hear that every single week. 1627s

Now, it's interesting when I'm on vacation. It's hard to be on vacation. 1641s

And because I have to click off, well, I might have done something different there, or, oh, I like what He did there, or she did there on the sermon, but I found myself at the time saying, come on. 1646s

Come on. 1660s

Bring the gospel. Come on. 1663s

And that's what Luther said. We should demand it, because that's the word of life for us, isn't it? 1666s

Isaiah saw the details, and he proclaimed the gospel of what Christ would accomplish. 1675s

Okay, last bit here. We'll show how you use the Scripture to interpret Scripture to stand on solid footing of interpretation. 1685s

So let's go back to Isaiah 54, verse 1. 1694s

Sing, O'Baron 1, who did not bear, burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor. 1706s

For the children of the desolate woman will be more than the children of her that is married, says the Lord. 1718s

For the children of the desolate woman will be more than the children of her that is married, says the Lord. 1729s

See, you come to that point in Isaiah, and how can you be sure that you're interpreting that portion of Isaiah correctly? 1736s

Galatians 4, chapter 4 helps us. Let's go to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, then Galatians. 1745s

Galatians 4. 1762s

We'll pick up in verse 26. Galatians 4, 26. 1769s

But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above. She's free, and she is our mother. For it is written. 1776s

Rejoice, you childless one, childless one, you who bear no children, burst into song and shout, you who endure no birth pangs. 1787s

For the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than the children of the one who is married. 1797s

So then you say, well, what's the context of those verses here? 1806s

And we go into verse 22 of chapter 4 of Galatians. 1813s

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman. 1820s

One the child of the slave was born according to the flesh, the other the child of the free woman was born through the promise. 1829s

Now this is an allegory. These women are two covenants. One woman in fact is Heghar from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery. 1838s

Now Heghar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem for she is in slavery with her children. 1849s

But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above. She is free, and she is our mother. 1860s

When there is a reference here then to the use of Scripture prior to this. 1872s

When there is a reference here to the Jerusalem above, what we see here is Paul is telling us, you understand here how to interpret Isaiah 54. 1877s

And that is the Christian church and its growth, the universal Christian church, the communion of saints. 1890s

So you let Scripture interpret Scripture, you come to Isaiah 54 and you say, well, how are we to interpret this correctly? 1901s

Does this appear in any place else in Scripture? You let Scripture interpret Scripture and then you have the interpretive key right there to where you can say, yep, this is what Isaiah is talking about, he is talking about the universal church, the communion of saints and one stands on solid ground. 1910s

Let's go back to 54 of Isaiah. 1931s

Verse 11, 1938s

Oh, afflicted one storm tossed and not comforted, I am about to set your stones in enemy and lay your foundations with sapphires. 1941s

I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all your wall of precious stones. 1953s

You say, hmm, we will see that picture again, we see that in Revelation 21. 1961s

We see the picture of the future splendor of what, of the church. 1970s

And so you say, okay, am I interpreting Isaiah correctly? 1976s

Yep, because we see it appear once again in Revelation. 1979s

The promise in verse 17 of 54, 1986s

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, says the Lord. 1999s

He's talking about the church, what he's saying then, is all attempts to destroy the church will fail. God will preserve his church. 2008s

Oh, if I am, or buts about it. 2019s

We see then the majesty of Isaiah. 2024s

We see the 80 references direct or indirect in the New Testament. 2028s

We let scripture interpret scripture. 2033s

It's as if Isaiah were on the scene as he writes this. 2037s

This event settle curses 700 years later. 2043s

And God gives him the words to share about our Lord. 2048s

We are a blessed people, aren't we? 2054s

How precious is our Savior? 2057s

How precious is His Word? His Word. 2060s

We'll continue. 2066s

Next week, Isaiah 55 to 57. 2067s