Behold Christ: The Suffering Servant

Isaiah 52:13—53:12

¹³ Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. ¹⁴ As many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— ¹⁵ so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.¹ Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? ² For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. ⁴ Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. ⁵ 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. ⁶ 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. ⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. ⁸ 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? ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ 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 prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. ¹¹ 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, As He will bear their iniquities. ¹² Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty 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.

Overview of Isaiah 42

Last week, we looked at Isaiah 42, the first of four prophetic “Servant Songs” in Isaiah foretelling of the Messiah—more than 700 years before Jesus’ birth. We saw, in context, the prophetic warning against idolatry of any and every form. We took the warning as a caution against idolizing even God’s good gifts—including his servants such as Cyrus, King of Persia. Isaiah had spoken of Cyrus by name about 100 years before his existence. He foretold that God would use him as his ‘servant’ to rescue the Jewish people from their captivity in Babylon.

Isaiah 42 began with God saying, “Behold my servant,” referring to the Messiah. It seemed a fitting reminder for us on the first weekend of Pastor John Piper’s absence. Our aim week in and week out—with and without Pastor John—will be to behold Christ—to worship, love, trust, hope in, and rest in him above everyone and everything else.

The Fourth and Final Servant Song

This week, our text is Isaiah 53, the last of the four servant songs. It actually begins in Isaiah 52:13 and ends in 53:12. What this servant song makes very clear is that the promised Messiah will suffer in his saving mission. In Isaiah 42, the servant is described as a king. In Isaiah 53, he is a sufferer. Putting these two together, we see how the messiah is going to accomplish his mission. In the description of this “Suffering Servant” in Isaiah 53, we see a glorious description of the gospel. But it is going to take a revelation to see how the king will come as a sufferer.

A Story of a Seeker

First, I want to tell you the true story of an African man who was earnestly seeking God. In his search, he had traveled thousands of miles from home for several days—even weeks—to worship with the people of God. He was single. He had no family with him. Although he had gone to corporate worship, the place he thought he would find God, he left without finding him. Discouraged and empty, he set out for the long journey home. He read his Bible on the long trip home, from which I infer that this seeker was serious. He was spiritually desperate.

Have you ever felt desperate for God? Have you ever felt a nagging sense of your own emptiness without him? Have you ever felt a yearning to know him? Maybe your story is similar. You’ve been to church, maybe once or maybe a thousand times. You’ve read your Bible, and you not only feel far from God, but you know that you don’t know God.

My prayer for you is that—like the one in my story—God might draw you to himself through Christ by this text before us. I pray that you are seeking God because he is drawing you to himself. Let me encourage you, “the one seeks finds” (Luke 11:10) and “God rewards those who seek him” in faith (Hebrews 11:6). Do what this man did and open the Word.

Who is this “seeker” I am talking about? The man of whom I am speaking is the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. Keep your finger in Isaiah 53 and turn to Acts 8.

He was a royal treasurer of the queen, Candace of Ethiopia. The text says he was a “eunuch.” The term is sometimes uses as a synonym for a trusted official in general and sometimes used literally of an official who had been neutered. In his instance, it seems reasonable to believe both since he is described as an official and a eunuch. He had been emasculated, castrated, neutered—that is why he was permitted to work in close quarters in the queen’s royal household.

The reasons I infer that his trip to the temple in Jerusalem left him dissatisfied in his search for God are these:

1. He was an outsider. He was not Jewish but a foreigner; he was perhaps one of those Gentiles referred to as “God-fearers.”
2. He was prohibited from joining the assembly. According to the Old Testament law, he would not have been allowed into the worshiping assembly; the law said no one like him “shall enter the assembly of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 23:1).

The Gospel According to Isaiah

In Acts 8, the Holy Spirit had directed Phillip to the eunuch. When Philip came upon him, the eunuch was reading aloud our text, Isaiah 53. So Philip asked, in verse 30, “‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ And he said, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.”

They read Isaiah 53 together. Then, after reading from Isaiah 53, the eunuch asked Philip in verse 34, “‘About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus” [emphasis added]. There is my aim for the rest of this message. My aim is to tell you good news about Jesus from Isaiah 53 for the advancement and joy of your faith.

In our text, I want you to see that Isaiah foretold four things. He prophesied the Messiah’s…

1. rejection,
2. death,
3. submission,
4. and triumph.

Rejection: Isaiah 53:1–3

Isaiah foretold the rejection of the Messiah…

1. Because he appeared in an unexpected manner. Verse 2, “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground.” This is figurative language. In gardener’s terms, “We expected a large cultivated oak tree and instead found a sapling growing out of the sidewalk.”
2. Because his appearance was not what people expected. Verse 2b, “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” The word translated “majesty”[1] is a word that means “ornament, honor, splendor.”  Normally kings were decked out in the finest, richest and most beautiful outward garments of royal colors (such as purple). Yet the Messiah would be rejected because he would have no such outward splendor or kingly presentation. 
3. Because he suffered. Verse 3, “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” The Hebrew word translated “despised” means to “consider something or someone to be worthless, or unworthy of attention.”[2]

Isaiah foretells of a Messiah who would be hated, rejected—one whose life would be characterized by sorrow. One who would be dishonored. He would be a sufferer. He is a man of pain and problems. He would be a man of sadness and sorrow. Since “everybody loves a winner,” he would be rejected because most people would see him as a loser.

The eunuch might have asked in astonishment, “What? You mean he came…like this…and wasn’t received or honored?” Yes he did. Jesus is this Messiah, the Christ. In writing his gospel, the Apostle John put it this way, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:10-12). 

Again the eunuch asks, “So the Messiah who was to come was to be rejected—like Jesus? Where’s the good news?”

Death: Isaiah 53:4–6

As Isaiah foretold of the Messiah, he was killed for a purpose. This is the heart of the good news. Verse 4, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” The eunuch asks in response, “So, he took on our griefs and our sorrows?” Our griefs, he bore. Our sorrows, he carried. And most people didn’t understand, and they still don’t understand.

Observe the gracious substitution here concerning his death in verse 5, “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”

For our transgressions—our sins against God—he was wounded. The word means ‘pierced through’ or ‘run through,’ pierced as with a sword right through the body. For our iniquities—the guilt our sins—he was crushed. For the achievement of our peace, he was chastised. The word “peace” being “shalom,” referring to that state of being reconciled to God, unified with him, restored to wholeness. For our healing, he was stripped or beaten or whipped.

The eunuch asks, “Was this true of Jesus? Was he killed for the sins of others? Killed for our sin?” Jesus said about himself, that he “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This is the substitutionary death of Christ. This is the heart of the gospel: Christ died in our place, for our sins. Consider these texts:

1. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13)
2. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed (1 Peter 2:24).
3. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10).
4. 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). Christ is not only our sin bearer, but also our righteousness.

This is the center of the good news, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Our peace. Christ’s kingly rule. God for us and not against.

The eunuch asks, “Did he die for me?” Isaiah says in verse 6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” As in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ came for sinners, “By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11). That’s the other half of Christ’s substitution. He not only bore our sin but his righteousness is counted to us.

Submission: Isaiah 53:1-3, 7-9

As Isaiah said, the Messiah’s submission was even to mistreatment—and even death. Verse 7, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Just like Isaiah foretold, the Messiah willingly submitted to this suffering—even slaughter—although he himself had done no wrong.

Again the eunuch asks, “That’s good news? Suicide?” This is no suicide mission. Before he died, Jesus told his disciples, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Luke 9:22). God alone has authority to give and take life. Jesus said, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father” (John 10:18). In his God-given authority to lay down his life, Jesus humbly submits to suffering and death. And in his God-given authority, he takes up his life again after death to rise again.

And the eunuch responds, “So, the Messiah, Jesus, is he dead or alive?

Success: Isaiah 53:10–12

Isaiah foretold the success, or exaltation, of Christ. He is not dead. He is alive. Look at verse 10, “When his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.” In other words, after his death, the Messiah will see his offspring and be satisfied at the redemption of his blood-bought people. God raised him from the dead.

Verse 12, “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” See the end of verse 12? His work is not done. He died for our sins, yet he lives again and “makes intercession for the transgressors.” 

His saving work continues, not to die again but in praying for us, his people. “He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he ever lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

As Isaiah foretold of the Christ, Jesus was exalted and victorious. His mission has been accomplished in his death once and for all.

A Seeker Saved

The eunuch found what he was looking for in the person of Isaiah’s prophecy, Jesus. He was saved and baptized on the spot. Church tradition says he became a missionary to Ethiopia.[3] And through him, God began to fulfill the prophecy of Psalm 68:31, “Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God” (NAS95).

Implications for the Christian Life

As I said at the beginning, I want to call us at the onset of these eight months to behold Christ as the Sovereign King and Suffering Servant, to fix our eyes on him. It doesn’t matter what is going on in our life and in our church. Let’s worship him, love him, trust him. Let’s behold Christ.

Also, let’s rest in his work. In Christ’s death is our peace and acceptability with God. We have freedom from sin and from moralism. We have God! We don’t have to try to earn God’s favor with our lists of obedience. We get to rest in the work of Christ. God is pleased with you because his Son was bruised and crushed for your transgressions. Resting in his work is the end of our boasting.

Third, rest in his love. It’s Mother’s Day and we know there is joy and grief with this day. I say rest in Christ’s love for us because we don’t want to interpret the ups and downs of our life as measures of the love of God for us.

Last, I pray that in all the various arenas of our lives that the gospel would be spoken and that it would be shown. I so much want my life, my home, our church to smell of the gospel. May we live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us. If we have him, we have everything.

[1]1926h. hadar  from 1921; an ornament, honor, splendor;

[2] Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, 383.

[3] Irenaeus, Against Heresies iii. 12.8