"The King is Coming" Pt 1 : The Prophecy : Pastor Ryan : Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM

Hello, everyone. Good morning. All right, let's start with a word of prayer. Dear Jesus, thank you for allowing us all to come together today and to just refresh our minds and our hearts and to turn all of our attention back to you after a long week of dealing with everything that goes on in our lives. Please help us to sing the words of these songs as if we've

never sung them before and to focus on the words and to not go into autopilot, but instead to truly worship you for the great and amazing God that you are. In Jesus' name, amen. Will you guys stand with me for the first song? Thank you for being a God who is so faithful. Thank you that anything that comes our way, we can put our trust in you and we know that

you have everything under control because you are a faithful God. And thank you that wherever you send us to go, we can follow you, whatever you tell us to do. We can trust that you have everything under control and all is in your plan. And whatever you need us to do, we will go and we will do it. You guys all stand for the last.

What a blessing it is that we can rest in the goodness of you. There's a peace that comes with knowing you that you just can't experience until experienced it. Thank you so much for everything that you do for us every day in the way that we can trust in your plan and in your goodness. We just are so thankful for you and how amazing and wonderful you are to us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

You guys can all turn and greet one another.

Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seats. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. As you take a look at your bulletin, a few things. On the left-hand side, there's one change for this week. Instead of Wednesday night service, we're going to have a little bit of a break. We're going to have a little bit of a break. We're going to have a little bit of a break. We're going to have a little bit of a break. We're going to have a little bit of a break.

We're going to have a little bit of a break. We're going to have a little bit of a break. We're going to have a little bit of a break. We will all, everyone's invited to come over to the courts of praise activity that's taking place that FCA is putting on over at the college. I've got a worship team coming in from Ozark Christian College and I've got several of my college kids that are going to be giving

testimonies just like fields of faith, but inside the gym. So everyone's invited to that. So if you show up here Wednesday night, no one's going to be here. And that starts at 630. So make plans to join us over there. um the guatemala mission strip there are still some spots there's quite a few spots available if you're interested in going on the guatemala mission strip that's going to be july 28th

through august the 3rd and if you're interested janice phone number is down there and while we're talking about it we had a great time last night at the march madness event so thank you to everybody that did anything for that yeah it was a great time and uh good job old guys for you guys won right old dudes won how about that um and then you not all you're not leave what you will all right um we raised okay yeah the yeah there they are have we rifled through all the dinosaur was amazing appreciated him they made a lot of appearances that yeah that was good that was good times i'm just glad no one was injured in any of those things so uh and last night we raised about 56 hundred dollars to go towards the mission strip so that's pretty cool

that is pretty awesome again if you're interested in going make sure that you get a hold of janna lumbert also um it's time to get signed up for the mowing ministry uh all the property that we have here we don't hire anyone to do that we kind of fill that within house and so um we try to get teams together if you don't have a team to sign up with usually teams of two if you don't have someone to sign up with no problem we'll find you a friend and um and if you don't have any friends that may be a great way for you to make a friend and um so sign up out there um i think mowing begins like all what did it say on there april 11th so um all that sign up sheet is out

there by where you picked up your bulletin and then there's one other announcement i'm looking to see if he there he is in the back jared's gonna make a little announcement about young christians weekend coming up all right good morning um so this coming weekend is young christians weekend so if you're signed up to go there's a couple of things that we're going to talk about um we're going to talk about some of the things that you still need to do if you haven't gotten me the rest of your money that is due as soon as possible i will be at courts of praise wednesday i will have my i'll have my laptop with me you can bring your money there i also need permission slips that is an absolute must if you show up you've paid all your money but you do

do not have permission slips sorry i can't go i have to have those um we are leaving friday from here at 12 noon so if you need a permission slip come see me afterwards and i'll get you one uh and then if you are a sponsor on this trip i'm going to have just a quick meeting with you guys uh at the other end of the hall after service just super super quick so other than that that's what i got thank you yeah he did a fantastic job he really does um okay those are the things that are going to happen so i'm going to go ahead and get back to you guys and i'll see you guys next week all right thank you so much for joining us today we'll see you guys next week will see you guys next week

In 142, a mascal of David, when he was in the cave of prayer, I cry aloud with my voice to the Lord. I make supplication with my voice to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him. I declare my trouble before him. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, you knew my path. In the way where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see, for there is no one who regards me.

There is no escape from me. No one cares for my soul. I cry out to you, O Lord. I said, you are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Give heed to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. And read verse 7 with me. Bring out my soul out of prison, so that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me.

And Father, we come to you now, and I praise you for the confidence that we can have in you, Lord. Sometimes it feels like we show up like David did in the beginning of this chapter, going, Lord, where are you? And I feel abandoned, Lord. But when we begin to put our eyes back on you, we see the confidence that we can have in you, knowing that you are for us, so who can be against us?

And so, Father, be with us as we get into your word this morning. Move as you see fit, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah. Chapter 52. Isaiah chapter 52. Well, we've come to the time of the year when we draw near to Resurrection Sunday. Sometimes we call it Easter Sunday. But we more accurately call it Resurrection Sunday.

And so, it's time to start a series. I kind of debated on when to do that, but this felt like a really good time. And so, over the next few weeks, there's a four-part series that we're going to go through. And I've entitled it, The King is Coming. And so, there's four things that we're going to look at. Over the next few weeks, there's a four-part series that we're going to go through.

And so, over the next few weeks, today, we're going to look at the prophecy of the king. Next week, we'll look at the arrival of the king. Then we'll look at the sacrifice of the king. And then last, on Easter Sunday, we will look at the victory of the king. But for today, we are going to get into Isaiah chapter 52. But before we do, before we start to look at the prophecy,

I want to give you just a little bit of background on Isaiah. So, we have a little bit of context to use as we get into this passage. So, Isaiah was a prophet to the southern kingdom in the Old Testament times. He prophesied about 700 years before Jesus came along, or at least before the incarnation of Christ. And Isaiah was given the difficult task of handing out the word of God's judgment.

But he was also given the pleasant task of talking about God's hope. So, the book of Isaiah is oftentimes referred to as the Little Bible because it has 66 chapters. In the first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah, there is a declaration of judgment. Much like the Old Testament, it seems like it's filled with a lot of God's judgment. But then there is a stark contrast that takes place as you move into chapter 40.

Because the last 27 chapters of the book of Isaiah are a word of hope. As a matter of fact, it's so stark that there at times have been liberal theologians that have tried to say there had to have been two Isaiahs because they are so distinctly different from each other. Proven that there was only one. But it's so different because in chapter 40, he starts talking about this hope.

And this hope that he talks about has, first of all, to do with the nation's deliverance from Babylon, who would ultimately be the one that God would use as the instrument of judgment. But to an even greater degree, Isaiah gives us the message of the hope that we have in the Messiah, who he refers to as God's servant. Now, most, especially of the Jewish people, viewed the Messiah as a conquering king. But this prophecy of Isaiah is going to present Jesus not as a conquering king, but it's going to present this Messiah instead as a suffering servant.

And so we pick up in chapter 52, verse 13, because it actually goes with chapter 53, and it says this. Behold, my servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted, just as many were astonished at you, my people. So his appearance was marred more than any man. And his form more than the sons of men. Thus he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths on account of him.

For what had not been told them, they will see, and what they had not heard, they will understand. Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of the parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor any kind of power that we should look upon him,

nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hid their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions.

He was crushed. For our iniquities, the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. He was oppressed and was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his consideration, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living? For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due. His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death,

because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring. He will see his offspring. He will prolong his death, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul,

he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.

And he was numbered with the transgressors, and he was numbered with the transgressors. And he was numbered with the transgressors. The prophecy of the coming king. Four things that I think that we should pay attention to out of these verses in Isaiah chapter 52 and 53. I will briefly go through these, and then we'll talk through each one individually. We're going to see the surprising servant.

We're going to see the suffering servant, the silent servant, and then last of all, the successful servant. If you didn't get those written down, it's okay. We're going to go through them one by one. The first thing that we're going to look at is we are going to look at the surprising servant. The surprising servant. He says in verse 13 of 52, Behold, my servant will prosper,

and he will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. He starts off by presenting this servant. He says, Behold, my servant. Or pay attention to, or take a look at my servant. If we had looked at some previous verses to this, we would know that starting around, oh, I think chapter 49, is when Isaiah begins the theme of the servant. And so really there's more

that we could have discussed on it, but I've only got, I don't have so much time. But he had begun this discussion on this servant of God, but now he gets real serious about this servant. He says, Behold, my servant. He says, My servant will prosper. Some of your translations may say, My servant is wise. And the idea is that he is wise in the way that he prospers things.

And if you look at it, Jesus was very wise in everything that he did. He always handled himself prudently. But then it says the servant is high and lifted up. And you're going, Now wait a second, Ryan. I thought you said this was a surprising servant that was going to prosper. I thought you said this was a surprising servant that was going to prosper. It's true.

But we should pay attention to the verbiage that's used here of high and lifted up. It's the exact same language that Jesus uses in John chapter 12 when he says, If the Son of Man is lifted up, he will draw all men unto himself. And then John gives us the commentary of what Jesus meant right below that when John says, This he said speaking of the death by which he would die, because the death by which he would die would be the death of the cross. This idea of being high and lifted up and drawing men to himself comes from a story that we read in Numbers.

You see, in the book of Numbers, the children of Israel are in the wilderness and they complain again. And God's really irritated with the fact that they're complaining because ultimately it is pride on their part complaining that they are not having their way. And so God sends judgment amongst the people. And the judgment that he sends amongst the people is in the form of what's referred to as fiery serpents.

And they begin to bite the people and they're crying out to the Lord. And Moses says, God, what do I do? The people are dying. They're crying out to you. And God tells him, he says, I want you to fashion a bronze serpent. And I want you to put this bronze serpent up on a pole so that everyone who will look at the bronze serpent that has been lifted up onto the pole will live.

Jesus gives the commentary on that in John chapter 3. He says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that everyone who looks on him will be saved. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. That's the idea of what Isaiah is saying here about Jesus is that he will be prosperous.

He will be high and lifted up. And so that we truly understand that that's what he meant. Look at the next part. He says, Verse 14, Just as many were astonished at you, my people, so his appearance was marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. The appearance of Jesus was so disfigured by the things that he went through that he was unrecognizable.

If you remember, and we'll get to this in a few weeks, if you remember, after Jesus was scourged and after he was beaten and had the crown of thorns on his head, Pilate brought Jesus out to the multitudes who were gathered to pass judgment on Jesus. And as his face was swollen and bruised from all of the beatings that he had received and the blood was running down his face and he looked, he was hardly human anymore, Pilate looked at the people and he said, Behold the man. Because this was a part of him being high and exalted that would ultimately draw all men unto himself. He says, He will be high and greatly exalted just as many were astonished so his appearance was marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men.

Again, another surprise is in verse 15. It says, Then he will sprinkle many nations. That word to sprinkle means to purify. It's a high priestly term. It's the exact same words that are used for the high priest sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice onto the altar during some of the sacrifices. The idea here is that this servant would not only be the suffering servant

but he would ultimately play the role of high priest. I thought that went perfectly with what we talked about last week with Jesus as our high priest. It was unheard of that this Messiah who they thought of as a conquering king would also be the one who would make the sacrifice for their sins. But this suffering servant, this surprising servant would ultimately be the high priest who would make atonement for their sin.

It goes on from there. It says, Kings will shut their mouths on account of him who would have not been told them. They will not see what they had not heard. They will understand. In other words, everyone will be shocked when they find out who he really is. Pretend there's no chapter division here. Just keep reading. It says, Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm?

Of the Lord been revealed. This servant is so surprising that people will struggle to believe the message. Of course, the first people to struggle to believe the message were the Jewish people themselves. Because when Jesus arrived on the scene, they had a hard time believing that this could be the Messiah because he wasn't exactly what they were looking for.

He wasn't what they thought he would look like. And so they struggled to believe the message. But do you find that people today still can kind of struggle to believe the message? When the message of the gospel is given out to people, they're kind of like, wait, there's got to be something else. I've got to do. There's no way that this has got to be the answer, right?

In the New Testament, it says it like this. It says, The cross of Jesus Christ is foolishness to the Greeks because in their minds, the only people that were crucified were slaves and criminals. So it couldn't have been the Messiah that hung on that cross. And it was a stumbling block to the Jews because again, they didn't view the Messiah as someone who would die a horrific death.

They saw him as someone who would come in and conquer a land. Who has believed our message? It still is. It's presented today. Those who have great pride, like both the Jews and the Greeks that were spoken of there in the New Testament, struggle to believe the message. It's only those who have been really broken by the truth that are able to receive the report.

And so this surprise continues and he begins to talk about the humanity of Jesus. It says, For he grew up before him like a tender shoot. Like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. It really talks about his humble beginnings. How did it word it here? He grew up like a tender shoot.

In other words, this great Messiah would grow up in a very normal home. He would grow up in a very common sort of way like a tender shoot. But then also it says that he would be like a root out of parched ground. And it's interesting because if you think about the place where Jesus was born, first of all, the topography of it is that it was parched ground, right?

Like the climate that he was born into is a desert-like area. But politically it was also a parched ground because there was no freedom in Israel. They were under the domination. They were under the control of the Roman Empire. But the greatest of these is it was spiritually parched ground because while the people were thirsty for truth, all that they had been given

was either the law of the Pharisees or the license of the saints. They were the Sadducees and they never really understood the truth of who the Messiah would be. And so he came to this very dry time where he would present himself as the Messiah. But he still was not someone that they were looking for because in his humanity, do you notice what it says about him?

It says, he has no stately form or majesty that we should look at him and no appearance that we should be attracted to him. Do you know this is the only account we read in all of scripture of what Jesus looked like? This is the only, nowhere in the gospels are we told what Jesus looked like. This is the only moment that we have of this. In the moment that we have of this,

we are given the most common figure that we could possibly think. In other words, he wasn't the biggest guy that there was, but probably not the smallest guy that there was. He wasn't the best looking guy that there was, probably not the ugliest guy that there was. He was just, listen, he was just an average guy. He wasn't the guy that you would stop and go,

I want to follow that guy because he's so good looking or I want to follow him because he's so strong. I want to follow him because he's so powerful, so big. He was just a dude. He was the guy that you would pass by on the street. The only thing that made him unique was the very divinity that he carried with him. If you will, the only thing that made him unique

was the love that he showed and the spirit that carried him. That's what made him unique. But as far as the outward look, he was just average. And I think that this is a really important thing for us to pay attention to in the 21st century church because in the Western culture church today, we want to dress Jesus up as much as we can, right? Like, we want to dress Jesus up

and we want to make him look as good as we possibly can to the world. No, no, you don't understand. Let me tell you about Jesus, right? And we try to make him something that he wasn't. Jesus was just average. But Jesus didn't need a cheering section. Jesus didn't need a makeover, right? Jesus didn't need a new stylist. He handled things just fine on his own

because the truth that he brought carried more power than the look that he had. So we're presented with this very average human being and everyone was shocked. They were surprised. This isn't what a king is supposed to look like. Remember what a king was supposed to look like? That was King Saul, right? Everybody saw Saul and they were like, now that's a king.

The best looking guy in the entire land. Head and shoulders taller than everybody else in the entire land. And yet he was rejected by God. Instead, a small shepherd boy is who was chosen. I'm not saying if you're tall, it means you're not filled with the spirit. I'm just saying God rejected the tall guy. Average short guys, maybe we're the way to go. Just kidding.

That's not in the Bible. But in his humanity, he was just the average human being. One last thing he tells us about this surprising servant is that he was despised and forsaken of many. He didn't win any popularity contests. We talked about that last week. He was a man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Now, I don't want you

to misunderstand me. I think Jesus was one of the most joyful men that ever lived. I think Jesus laughed a lot. I think he told jokes a lot. They probably weren't very good, but I think he told jokes a lot. I think he enjoyed being with people and it was a joyful human being. But at the end of the day, he bore the burden of humanity. In his humanity, he bore the burden of knowing

what was really going on in the world. The burden of knowing what his mission was, but also the burden of being able to see into the hearts of people. The burden of knowing what people were carrying on themselves. And he knew grief. He understood it. It tells us here he was acquainted with grief. And he knew what it was to feel that for himself. I know we've talked about this

a lot for the past few weeks, but for some reason it just keeps coming up in scripture. I'm reminded of when Jesus was at the grave of Lazarus. Right? So Jesus gets this phone call from his friends and they're like, hey, your bro Lazarus, he's not going to make it, okay? If you don't show up soon, he's going to die. He's really sick. So Jesus stuck around for a couple of more days

and Lazarus died. He says, it's time for us to go down and visit Lazarus. He knew what he was going to do. He knew he was going to heal him. But as he stood at the edge of the tomb where he knew he was about to call Lazarus forth, he felt the grief of what it would have been like to lose his friend and he felt the grief of the people that were around him and we're given the shortest verse

in the entire Bible. Jesus wept. Why? Because he was a man of sorrows and he was acquainted with grief. He knew it well. He was a surprising servant. But not only that, not only was he the surprising servant, number two, he was the suffering servant. Interestingly, he carries this same thought over in verse four when he says, surely our griefs he himself bore

and our sorrows he carried. Those are two very interesting words in the Hebrew. There's actually three that I want to point out to you there. The first is the word grief. The word grief is literally translated sickness and it finds its original root in the Bible back in the book of Deuteronomy when God tells the children of Israel, if you keep my laws, I will not put on you

any of the sicknesses or the plagues that I put upon Egypt. So we realize that when this says sickness, what it's talking about is judgment for sin. He says, if you follow my law, I won't put any of the judgment for your sins upon you. Well, what had Isaiah, what did Isaiah proclaim for the first 39 chapters of this book? Judgment for sin. And so when we look

at this suffering servant, we realize that one of the things he's going to do is he's going to bear the judgment for our sin. But it does says another thing. It says he also bears our sorrow. The word sorrow means pain physically, but it also means pain mentally. In other words, it's the fullness of all of the pain that we carry. Can I just say as an aside,

I don't think the church always does a real service to people that deal with mental health issues. Like, like I think sometimes we, we discount that or act like that some major, like, oh man, you know, you must, you've clearly done something wrong if you're dealing with depression or you've clearly done something wrong if you're dealing with these kinds of mental health issues. And it's like, no, I mean, Jesus was to bear that stuff for you too. He wants to carry those things for you as well.

But as we look at the grief and as we look at the sorrow, the mental and the physical pain that Jesus wants to carry, it says, let me read this to you again. Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried. The idea of those two words is to pick up like a bag. That's the idea of to bear or to carry. Now, I don't know if you've ever traveled with small children or not,

but if you travel with small children and they start to carry the bag, that lasts 29.25 seconds. And then they go, that's too heavy, dad. Will you carry it? And, and then you reach down. They, they lay the burden down and then you, you carry the bag, right? Can I just be honest and say that doesn't end when they're teenagers, right? Like, like I'm still carrying bags

for girls, for two teenage girls. Like, I don't know how many times I've been standing out there greeting people and by the time I'm done, I've got three Bibles in my hand. I'm like, I don't even know where these Bibles came from. My daughter's hand, they handed me somebody else's Bible one time. They're like, I don't want to carry this anymore either. Here, dad,

you hold it. And next thing I know, I'm bearing the burden of all of these Bibles, other children and my own. But that's what Jesus does for us. Now, if Jesus is going to pick up your burden, if Jesus is going to carry your grief and your sorrow, what is it incumbent that you do? You have to lay it down. You can't be the one that carries it. See, here's the problem

as we go, Jesus carry my sorrow and he's like, okay, and you're like, not now. When I'm done. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet, we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. I think this is an interesting one to pay attention to because we esteemed him. In other words, we valued him as someone who is stricken by God,

somebody who is judged by God. But we also saw him as he truly was smitten by God and afflicted. There's always the question, who crucified Jesus? There's been a lot of hatred for the Jewish people. Over the years. And it's starting to happen again. And this is the hatred for the Jewish people. They crucified Jesus. Did they? No, the Romans crucified Jesus.

Did they? It's right there. It says he's smitten by God. Later, we're going to read that it pleased God to crush him. That God laid all of our iniquity on him. So, so who crucified Jesus? Well, my sin was involved and your sin was involved and the Jewish people's sin was involved and the Roman people's sin was involved. But who actually put Jesus on the cross?

Well, the Father did. Because that was the only way to salvation. Because that was the only way to atone for sin. We esteemed him stricken of God, smitten of God and afflicted. And then it says this in verse five, but he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him and by his scourging

we are healed. It's interesting that he starts off by saying he was, he was pierced for our transgressions. Now, the word transgressions means sin on purpose. That's Ryan's translation of it. But that's the general idea. Sin with knowledge. That's what a transgression is. To know that you're crossing a boundary. I think it's the actual definition of it. But the idea

is sin with knowledge. But that sin with knowledge, Jesus did something about and says he was pierced for our transgressions. Now, why is that interesting? Well, I'm really glad you asked. It's interesting because the form of capital punishment for the Jewish people was death by stoning. They would literally, literally, literally, literally, literally pick up giant rocks

and throw them at you until you died. Piercing was not the way that they did that. As a matter of fact, the idea of piercing someone or crucifying someone would not come about until much time later with a group of people known as the Persians. Which, by the way, the Assyrians were who were in power when Isaiah was writing this. And then soon, the Babylonians

would be in power that would take the southern kingdom into captivity. And then the Persians would take over the Babylonian kingdom. So, this is hundreds of years away from ever even being thought of. And yet, Isaiah presents this as if it's a foregone conclusion. He was pierced in the past tense, pierced for our transgressions. The Romans then took what the Persians did

and they modified it and they perfected it into what we know of as crucifixion. So, it's fascinating that Isaiah, hundreds of years before, presents that this is how this Savior is going to be crucified. This is how this Savior is going to be put to death for our transgressions. Unless we have a question about the intensity of this death, he says he was crushed for our iniquities and the chastening for our well-being fell upon him.

And then we're given a fascinating line at the end of that verse. It says, and by his scourgings we are healed. I do not prefer the New American Standard translation on this. I'm not saying it's not accurate. I'm saying I don't prefer the wording. Because I memorized this in the Old King James. In the Old King James it says, and by his stripes we are healed.

I don't know why I prefer that I just do. But there's a lot of conjecture about what does he mean by his stripes we are healed. Does it simply mean spiritual healing? Or does it mean physical healing? There are some movements who say you've got to go out and claim your healing, claim it in the name of Jesus because by his stripes we are healed. And then there's some

people who completely disagree with that. I'm going to fall somewhere in the middle. You know me. I like to use biblical language. Do you know in the New Testament we see both of those things, being used. We see that this idea of healed by his stripes carries with it the idea of physical healing. But it also definitely carries with it the idea of spiritual healing.

Both contexts are used in the New Testament. So how do we know which one is correct? Well they both are. The stripes of Jesus Christ bring about spiritual healing into our life because as he bore our penalty in him we can claim the spiritual healing that comes from Jesus bearing the sacrifice that rightly belonged to me. But do you know that there's also physical healing

in Christ? Sometimes that healing takes place on this side of eternity. I've watched it happen. I've seen God heal people. And I've seen God choose not to heal people. And yet I know a lot of people that were never healed on this side of eternity that are now completely healed on the other side of eternity. And listen they were by the stripes of Jesus. So yes

it's true there is healing in Jesus because of the penalty that he bore in his own body on the tree. He goes on to talk about this sacrifice of the servant or the suffering servant as he says he was oppressed or excuse me nope that ends that part. Now we move into the silent servant. So not only is he the surprising servant not only is he the suffering servant but he is the silent servant.

Notice what it says in verse 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearer so he did not open 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 the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due.

His grave was assigned with wicked men yet he was with a rich man in his death because he had done no violence nor was there any deceit. In his mouth. It says he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth. It's always interesting to read the account which we will in a couple of weeks to read the account of everything that Jesus went through and how silent he was.

He only spoke when he needed to answer a question. For instance when they showed up to the garden they said are you Jesus of Nazareth? He said I am. Pilate asked him are you the king of the Jews? And he says it is as you say. Pilate said don't you know that I have the power of life and death over you? And Jesus said you only have power because it's been granted

to you from above. Those are the only things that he needed to say to simply answer questions. Other than that as the accusations were being hurled he kept his mouth shut. As he was being beaten he had nothing to confess so he opened not his mouth. He was a silent servant in the moment. Is it because he was a helpless victim? No it was because he was in complete control.

I don't know if you've ever seen anyone that's being beaten for no good reason. They usually let the whole world know I'm being beaten for no good reason. Right? Nobody's silent in those kinds of situations. And yet Jesus did not open his mouth. He was a completely silent servant. He goes on to say 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 the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due. We are reminded first of all that it was an actual death that Jesus died. This is the first time this is actually mentioned in this chapter. Up to this point in time you would have thought he just suffered a great deal with the stripes and the beatings and things like that that he went through.

But here we are told that this suffering servant will ultimately be silenced because he will ultimately be put to death as he is cut off out from the land of the living. And in that we are reminded that he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due. In other words the death that he died is what we call a substitutionary vicarious death. It was a death on behalf of another.

And I'm always reminded that the greatest way that we continue to understand the love of Jesus Christ is if we A. understand the depth of our need for him which you know usually involves the depth of my knowledge of sin in my life and B. understand the depth of the sacrifice that he made for me. I had a question posed to me here recently and I never thought about it before.

Somebody sent me this question they said okay we want to hear your opinion on this. Is there a difference between loving Jesus and being in love with Jesus? And I had never thought about that before and I thought fascinating question so I kind of sat and thought about it. And I answered back I said my initial gut reaction is to say that I agree with you there is a difference but I think the difference comes with maturity because when you first start following Jesus you love Jesus right?

But the more you realize Jesus has forgiven you of which comes with maturity because your initial understanding of sin in salvation is much different than the depth of your understanding of sin in maturity because the greater you get to know the light the more you see the darkness. The greater you get to know the light the more you see the more is revealed in you. And so as God continues to reveal things in me I continue to love Him to an even greater degree because the light has revealed more of who I am or who I was or what I still struggle with. And so my depth of love continues to grow in Christ.

My depth of love continues to grow as I realize that those belonged to me. That death belonged to me. That suffering belonged to me. And yet He took that on my behalf. He took that for me. And so the depth of my love continues to grow. After all, remember what Jesus told His disciples? He who has been forgiven much loves much. And so I would tell you if you want to love

Jesus more you need to allow Him to show you the depth of what He's done in your life. I remember reading about Billy Graham right before he passed away. And right before Billy Graham passed away he went through this intense period of fearing for his salvation. And going, oh man, here I've walked with the Lord my entire life. I've loved lots of people to the Lord.

And here I am in this place of fear because he knew death was coming. And he said, I just had to pray through it. And as I prayed through it God showed me the depth of my sin but God showed me the depth of His forgiveness. And I was able to meet death with and I know I can meet death with peace. And it's a fascinating truth about somebody like that. And I remember

when my dad was in those last days of his life and him saying, I can appreciate that. I can agree with that because the enemy comes in against you and reminds you of everything that you've done wrong and all you can do is own up to it. And then you find the love of Jesus Christ is even greater in your life than it ever has been before. Because that's that depth of understanding that that sacrifice belonged to me.

That death belonged to me. And Jesus took it on my behalf. That's how the depth of your love for Jesus continues to be. Because as you realize not only his power over sin in your life but that he continues to love you even in your failures. Because can we be honest and say that when we start walking with Jesus it's not like we all of a sudden become perfect.

It's not like I'm never going to screw up again. No, because now all of our sin is just with knowledge, right? Like that's how we truly become the transgressors. Because we're like, oh, and I still fail in these ways. And God's like, I still love you. My love for you hasn't changed. If anything, it's grown deeper. And so he, as this silent servant was cut off

from the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due. In verse 9 it says, his grave was assigned with the wicked men. This silent servant had his grave assigned with the wicked men. And if you remember when Jesus was on that cross, those wicked men were accusing him. They were reviling him. One of them finally gave his life to the Lord

in those last moments. But they were reviling him and Jesus didn't say a word. Jesus just kept his mouth shut because he endured all that. He was with the wicked in his death. But notice what it says next. Yet he was with a rich man in his death because he had done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth. If you remember when Jesus died, when he breathed his last,

there was a man by the name of Joseph of Arimathea who went to Pilate and said, can I please have the body of Jesus? I would like to bury. And praise God, he provided a little three-day Airbnb stay for Jesus and his dead body because he just needed it for those three days and he folded up, cleaned up after himself. I'm sure he got a great review on Airbnb, five stars.

Because that's all he needed it for. But he was with the rich in his death. The suffering, silent servant. For the last thing that we see, he was the surprising servant because he was not the one that they saw coming. As a matter of fact, one thing I failed to mention to you in that first part about the surprising servant is do you know that this is the only,

the only chapter in all of the Old Testament that's never read in synagogues? Nobody ever reads this in a synagogue. One of my friends and mentors, his name was Truman Page, always read through the Bible in a different translation every year. And one year he found an Old Testament that had a Jewish commentary by a rabbi on every single chapter of the Old Testament except for the Old Testament.

And he said, except Isaiah 53. That was the only chapter that had no commentary by a rabbi because this was not the Messiah that they saw coming. They cannot understand who he was because they refused to come to Jesus. They could not understand who it was because if it wasn't the nation of Israel and it can't be the nation of Israel because of everything that's described here, then who was it?

No one knows so we won't try to figure it out. This is why when the Ethiopian eunuch was traveling and was reading Isaiah 53, remember the book of Acts? He was reading Isaiah 53 and Philip comes up to him and he says, what are you reading? And he says, well, I'm reading this passage of Scripture. Who is he talking about? Is this of himself or from someone else?

He says, that's a really good question. Let's talk about Jesus. But the Jewish people couldn't see that and they still can't see that because of the blindness that's on them at this point in time. And so, the last thing that we'll look at, not only is it a book but it's a book that we'll look at not only in the book not only is he the surprising servant, not only is he the suffering servant, not only is he the silent servant, but last of all, he's the successful servant.

Notice what it says in verse 10. But the Lord is pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. That doesn't sound very successful, does it? And yet, that statement represents the success of the cross. This is a book and this one's a hard one for people to deal with. This is a difficult statement for people to take in because how can the Father be pleased to crush

the Son and put him to grief? Who does that? How could that be? Well, first of all, it pleased the Father because it was the only way to salvation. It was the only way that you and I could be saved. Once again, if you want to know the great love that God has for us, then you will understand that God, saw that there was no other way to salvation other than through a sacrifice.

And since the sacrifice of bulls and goats were not enough to cover, were not enough to do away with sin, he had to come up with another plan. And the plan that he had was to take off the robes of glory, to put on the robe of humanity, to come down and dwell among us. And the Father would place all of the sin of humanity upon the Son and ultimately crush him. And it pleased the Father.

Why? Because it saved us. Because it saved us. Because it saved humanity. And it's one of the most beautiful truths about the love of God given to us in Scripture. And so how was the servant successful? Well, first of all, because the Father was satisfied. It pleased the Father to crush him. It goes on from there to say, if he would render himself as a guilt offering,

which he did, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and all the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. Do you remember how in the part about the surprising servant we said that the surprising thing was that the servant would be the high priest who would offer the sacrifice? Well, we could also throw this into the surprising part because the servant would not only be the high priest who would offer the sacrifice, but the servant would actually, he would actually be the sacrifice. Because you see what it says right there?

If he would render himself as a guilt offering, that's the success of the servant is that he was the appropriate guilt offering. And since he offered himself, notice what it says, he will see his offspring and he will prolong his days. Who are the offspring of Jesus if he didn't have any kids? It's a great question, right? Who are the offspring of Jesus? Well, that would be us.

We are all the offspring of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We're the offspring of the Lord because we are his children through faith because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. But it doesn't end there. Notice what it says. It says, he will prolong his days. How can you prolong the days of a dead man? Well, you prolong them by bringing him back to life. See, this is the resurrection

given to us in Isaiah chapter 53. That's the only way that you can prolong the days of someone who has died is if you bring them back to life. And that's what he did for Jesus. And so the success of the servant is not only that the sacrifice pleased the father and that he would have many offspring that would come about from it, but that ultimately he would be raised from the dead.

Notice what it says in verse 11. And as a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. Jesus himself was satisfied with the sacrifice. You know how we know that? Remember, there were many sayings that Jesus gave from the cross. Cried out for God to forgive those who had crucified him.

We'll talk about that in just a minute. He cried out that he thirsted. He cried out about John taking care of his mother. There was that last statement that he made from the cross. And that last statement that he made from the cross was the most powerful of the ones that he made from the cross because he yelled out, it is finished. Paid in full. We could probably attach

another word to that if we wanted to. It's been satisfied. Because the righteous wrath of God was satisfied. And so as he saw the sacrifice that he was making even in the moment, he said, it's enough. It's finished. Because the work had been done. The wrath was satisfied. The wrath of God. And so this servant was successful because it was a satisfactory sacrifice

that was made. And it says, and by his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify many and he will bear their iniquities. This is the first time one of the first times that we see the word justification used in the Bible. He will justify many, which is a legal term, which means to declare innocent, which was unknown in the Old Testament and something that will be expounded upon and explained to an even greater degree in the New Testament, particularly in the book of Romans, that he will justify the many, that he will declare innocent the many.

Why? Because all of the iniquity of mankind, he will bear in his own body. He goes on in verse 12 to say, therefore I will allot him a portion with the great and he will divide the spoil with the strong because he poured himself out to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. It says,

I will allot him a portion with the great. Well, we know where Jesus is now, right? Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. He's been allotted a portion with the great. But then he divides the spoil with the strong. Who are the spoil? Well, that's us, right? We are the spoil. And he divides the spoil with the strong. In other words, the Father. We're who he ultimately came in

and took captive. He led captivity captive. If you will, he went in and robbed hell, right? Like that's what God did through Jesus Christ is he ultimately robbed hell and led us out. I love that song that has that line, hell lost. Hell lost another one, right? Hell lost another one. I am free. We won't start singing it now because nobody wants that to happen.

But I love that line because that's exactly what's being spoken of here when it says he will divide the spoil with the strong because we are the spoil. We're the ones who God robbed out of hell, who God saved out of that judgment. And we're the spoil that he saved. And then he goes on to say, because he poured himself out to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he himself, bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.

Jesus was numbered with the transgressors. In other words, he went with all of the guilty people and bore the guilt of us and he intercedes for the transgressors. Again, this is an interesting way to present Jesus because the interesting way to present Jesus is usually that we see him as interceding for the saints. As a matter of fact, we'll talk about that in a few weeks in the book of Hebrews that Jesus intercedes for you and I as saints.

But in Isaiah 53, we see that he doesn't just intercede for the saints. He intercedes for the transgressor as well. In other words, he intercedes for the most lost of sinners. He actually began that process when he was on the cross. If you remember, one of the things he said is, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. In other words, everybody who was involved

in the crucifixion, which I believe even involves us, he says, Father, forgive them. I think he was interceding for the transgressors. And then, he begins to intercede for each of us individually, which is that process of you looking back on your life when you did not know the Lord and you looking and seeing God and all of the little things that he did to bring you to the truth of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. That was him interceding for you, getting you to where you needed to be in order for you to come to the place of salvation.

See, that's where Jesus is so different than any other high priest because ultimately, he looked at a world that was lost, a world that was lost, a world that was lost, a world that was lost, a world that was lost, a world that hated him and he interceded for us. That's why you are never nearer to the heart of God than when you are interceding on behalf of someone else. And I don't know why I'm supposed to say this, but I feel like I'm supposed to say this. Someone in here is praying for someone to get saved and you need to not stop.

You need to keep praying for them because God's not done yet. And so just don't give up. Keep interceding for them because you are never nearer to the heart of God than when you're doing that. So whoever needed to hear that, keep up the good work. Don't stop today. You never know when you're going to be near a breakthrough. And so, so he says, he bore the sin of many

and he interceded for the transgressors. And so as we look at this section of scripture, we see that he was the surprising servant. He was not who anybody saw coming, that he was the suffering servant because he took all of the sin of humanity upon himself. That he was the silent servant that he did so without saying a word because he had nothing to confess.

And he did so with the strength necessary. But then last of all, he was the successful servant. It was a sacrifice that was accepted. It was a sacrifice that was satisfactory. And he ultimately is the transgressor or the interceder for all of those who transgress the truth. And so now comes the questions, right? Things that only you can answer. I've just presented to you

the servant, Jesus Christ. And as is often the case, I have to ask you the question. So what are you going to do with Jesus? Is he your servant today? I know it's a strange question to ask about Jesus, but if that's who he's presented to, presented to us as, is the servant, is he your suffering servant today? See, it's one thing to know about it. It's one thing to read about it.

It's one thing to understand a little bit about it. It's a whole other thing to own it for yourself. He took, he took the sin of humanity or he took my sin. He heals those people with his stripes. He heals me with his stripes. He's their suffering servant. He's my suffering servant. What are you going to do with Jesus today? As always, I know that when I talk

to a group of people, there's going to be someone in here that doesn't know the Lord. And you've been fighting it your whole life. You've been fighting it for a long time. You've had a religious idea of who God is. You've had a religious idea of who Jesus is or you've had no idea who Jesus is. And now you've got to make a decision with what you're going to do with Jesus.

Are you going to say, I want you to be my suffering servant. I want you to be my savior in my life. Or will it be one more week of, not this week, not this time. And then I know that there's a whole other group of people in here that need to grow in your understanding and your love of Jesus Christ. I always ask myself a question when I put a series together.

What's my point? What's my goal? What's my end game with this series that I'm going to present? And my end game with this series is much like it's been with a lot of other series that I've done here lately. I want you to grow in your knowledge of the love of Jesus. And I want you to grow in your knowledge of the power of Jesus in your life. Because if he was powerful

enough to take your sin, then he's powerful enough to do everything else that's necessary in your life. If he didn't spare his own son, how much more will he not withhold every good thing from you? So what are you going to do with Jesus this morning? I want you to grow May today be the day that you grow in your knowledge and in your love for him. May today be the day

that you come to know him for the very first time. Amen? Let's all stand.

And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come before you. I just thank you for the day that you've given to us, the opportunity that we have to be in your word together. And Lord, I thank you that you have presented us this time and given us your word. And so Lord, as it has gone out this morning, I pray that only the things of you would remain. God, that the things of Ryan

would fall by the wayside. And Lord, I just pray that people would be drawn near to you. Holy Spirit, you've begun work in the hearts of people this morning. You've continued work in the hearts of people this morning. And so I pray that, I pray that you would bring it to a completion, that we would see you more clearly, that we would love you more deeply, that we would trust you more fully.

And so Father, we thank you and we praise you for who you are. In Jesus' name. Amen. I love you all. Be blessed.

I pray that not only we're,

and that they'll see something different in us and the way that we live and the way that we talk and the way that we act and the way that we treat each other. And I pray that just your will will be done through us, but that our focus will always be on you. In Jesus' name I pray.