Bible Talks - Family Church (9:45am)
Series: From Darkness to Dawn · Talk No. 4
The greatest message ever told
Sunday, 09 October 2005
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People are fascinated with prophecy. They want to know their future. You only have to look at the amount of space given in the women’s magazines to horoscopes, mediums, clairvoyants and others to grasp some of this. Others are fascinated by Nostradamus, the 16th Century French prophet who left voluminous prophesies in obscure verse which enable people to interpret them almost any way they like.
I looked up Nostradamus on the web and you’d be amazed at what people reckon they can find in his writings. According to some Nostradamus predicted WWI and WW2 but WW3 is so far 3 years overdue. They claim he predicted two antichrists, Napoleon Bonepart and Adolph Hitler, with a third still to come. Some claim he predicted 9/11/01. And the list goes on.
Others love to read the book of Revelation and find in it all kinds of fanciful conjectures of the return of Christ and the end of the world. I found one purportedly Christian website called Prophecy News Watch that linked just about anything bad that has happened recently with the imminent return of Christ.
The Bible gives a number of tests for a true prophet and the most fundamental is, “Have the prphet’s prophesies come true. If they haven’t don’t listen to that prophet any more.”
Well on this score Isaiah is a true prophet. Isaiah 53 is a wonderful example of God’s faithfulness, as we see such clear fulfilment of something written over 700 years before the event.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947, included portions of the book of Isaiah dating back to about 500BC confirms that Isaiah 53 predates the events of Jesus by at least 500 years and probably to the 700 or so years BC when Isaiah wrote. So the book of Isaiah is interesting in the sense that it’s prophesies are true prophesies but it is also even more interesting for more reasons than just its predictive prophecies.
From verse 13 of Isaiah 52 to the end of Isaiah 53 we have the fourth of the Servant Songs that we first met back in Isaiah 42.
This fourth song is the most elaborate and the most poignant. Some have called it the jewel in the crown of Isaiah’s theology. The Servant steps forward and insists that we focus on him and acknowledge that nothing that Isaiah is prophesying is possible without him. The Servant is the key to the future as revealed by God, and yet at the same time he is self-effacing. In this song he never utters a word. He is as silent as a Lamb. His presence is powerful, but it is others who bear witness to him, not he himself.
This Servant Song introduces the Servant as the Suffering Servant.
In verse 13 he “will act wisely; be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.” But in contrast to this in verse 14 “there were many who were appalled at him, his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness”
Yet in spite of this physical unattractiveness he is going to sprinkle many nations and shut the mouths of kings. The sprinkling refers to Leviticus 14 in which the priest sprinkles the people with the blood of the lamb and purifies them from their sins. And shutting the mouths of kings refers to bringing judgement on them such that they have no reply to the accusations against them.
The Servant is the “man of sorrows” who will himself bear the iniqities of the world and in fact we most often use this passage on Good Friday when we remember that Jesus Christ bore the sins of the world on the cross. This Servant Song tells us that the Servant will be rejected not just by man but by God himself. It has that terrible but at the same time wonderful statement, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
The Servant is depicted in this song as the priest who makes the offering and himself as well as being the actual guilt offering offered by the priest and it is through his sacrifice that the people of God are themselves cleansed and can act as priests to the world.
In the first stanza of the song in 52 vs 13 to 15 we see God displaying his wisdom in a way that utterly confounds human wisdom. And you might see the parallels between this and the second half of 1 Corinthians 1 where the Apostle Paul says, “18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Which is actually a quote from Isaiah 29.
In 53:1-3 we see the Servant despised and rejected yet despite this in 53:4-6 we are healed by the Servants wounds. In the next stanza verses 7-9 a lone witness, probably Isaiah himself speaks up and we start to get some answers to the questions that Isaiah has been putting and then in the final stanza the Servant is crowned with glory and honour.
Back in chapter 40 we saw that the Servant is not Isaiah, nor Israel, for he deals with the sin of both. He provides for the forgiveness of Isaiah and Israel. Big themes of atonement and forgiveness find their climax in this chapter. Jewish theologians, the Rabbis of Jesus’ time struggled with this picture of the Suffering Servant. They saw the Sevant songs as being Messianic prophesies but they couldn’t reconcoile their ideas of the Kingly Messiah, descended from great King David, and this Suffering Servant.
The Jews’ expectations of the messiah was of someone who would re-establish the monarchy, kick out the Romans, and extend Judah’s influence from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River. And yet here was the Servant who was going to suffer and die and be buried.
As I said last time many Jews are still waiting for the Messiah. For a Messiah who will restore Israel to its former glory. Many Jews have decided that it was all just figures of speech and there never was going to be a real Messiah, and many Jews have just given up. But we Christians know that when Jesus of Nazareth came he fulfilled the messianic prophesies of the King and the Suffering servant.
In his account of the Last Supper in Luke 21 Luke records this interesting conversation:
“a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. 25Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. 26But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. 28You are those who have stood by me in my trials. 29And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, 30so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
31“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. 32But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
33But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”
34Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”
35Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”
“Nothing,” they answered.
36He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. 37It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’ ; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”
Jesus saw that he was the fulfillment of the prophesies of Isaiah, and as we look at the events of his life, death and resurrection we can only agree that it is true. The connections are prolific and precise. Jesus came in obscurity and poverty. Nothing is told of his appearance. He was despised and rejected – a man of sorrows. He did no violence, nor deceived anyone. His trial was a miscarriage of justice. He didn’t speak up in his own defence. He was executed, with criminals; pierced with nails and a sword; and placed in a tomb owned by a rich man. He was stricken by God, crying out “My God, my God…” He arose again from the grave. Who could this be – but Jesus? esus described himself as the servant in that quote from Luke 22.
The early Christians also saw Jesus as the servant described by Isaiah. Listen to this incident from Acts Acts 8:
26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
31“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”
34The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
It is not merely the facts, but their meaning and significance take us even deeper into the comnnection between the Suffering Servant in Isaiah and Jesus.
Jesus understood that he must suffer, die and rise again. He spotlighted these things again and again. In Mark 10:45 he described his mission in Isaiah 53 terms saying:
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
John the Baptist calls Jesus the sacrificial lamb of God. The book of Revelation 5 describes Jesus as the Lamb who was Slain. The central event in the New Testament is the cross and resurrection of Jesus in fact in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 the Apostle Paul says that if Jesus hadn’t died then risen again Christianity is a load of hogwash. The whole NT resonates with the Servant Song from Isaiah. We see the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecies everywhere in the New Testament.
Are you one of those people interested in prophecy? If you want true prophecy look at the bible. Things prophesied hundreds of years previously came true. Things prophesied thousands of years ago are coimg true right now with the spread of the gospel. It’s an incredible encouragement to us that the story of our salvation was written hundreds of years before it took place. We not only rejoice in God’s saving work, but in his promise-keeping faithfulness. Our confidence in God is deepened. Israel was called to faith in God’s Servant without seeing the full picture, whereas we see things now in the light of day. We look back and see what God has already accomplished of the things he has promised and that gives us confidence to put our trust in the Servant for the things that God has promised for our future.
Let me conclude by reading the Song of the Suffering Servant from Isaiah 52 and 53 again.
13 See, my servant will act wisely;
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him—
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man
and his form marred beyond human likeness—
15 so will he sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.
1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD’S will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
AMEN
