Fourth Song of the Servant (Isa 53:1-11)

호걸영웅 2018. 4. 13. 01:28

Fourth Song of the Servant (Isa 53:1-11)

Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
²For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
³He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

⁴Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
⁶All 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.

⁷He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
⁸He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
⁹And they^[^a^] made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

¹⁰Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
¹¹He shall see the labor of His soul,^[^b^] and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.

Intro)

Today’s sermon is about prophecy theologian is calling God’s servant as messiah’s fourth song. In fact, Messiah’s prophecies are introduced from here and there on Old Testament in bits in pieces. Today’s verse was main part of prophecy about messiah. Here Prophet Isaiah is giving prophecy about how Jesus will be born, how will he live his life, and how he will die and meaning about it. Very detailed prophecy about Jesus was given.

There is an old story that is cant laugh about. on front line soldiers were pulling guard. Later on it was time for them to switch swifts. Other soldier came from the bush and said “hey it’s time to switch swift.” Other soldier on guard replied “what is the password?” password is “key (but in dialect, so other people can’t understand if they are from other region)”, solider on guard started shooting at him, because password was different than what he knew. Although it had same meaning the word didn’t translate the same way.

Our Jesus’ prophecy is like a password. Prophecy about Messiah from God has to fit in password. Not everyone becomes messiah. That is why book of Isaiah chapter 53 is called gospels.

Body)

A) His birth

One of things mankind can’t control is the place for himself/herself to be born. Otherwise we could all choose to be in rich household. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and prophecy said he will be regular body shape, and not handsome either. Family wasn’t rich born in where animal sleeps. Prophecy was made 750 years ago and it has fulfilled.

B) Jesus suffered for us

1. Check verse 4-6 it explains why messiah is suffering.

⁵But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.

Especially, verse 5 is what we have to take a close look. He was wounded for our transgressions, and iniquities.

We have a sin that we can’t fix it. It is about a sin we born with. With our sins we will be living a life and that is it, but God sent Jesus and sacrificed him to give us salvation. This is gospel

2. Here we sinners are described as sheep. Sheep is nearsighted so only can see short distance, so it’s very weak animal. Plus there is no weapon to protect themselves. Male sheep has horn but not so powerful. Jesus however, died for us.

C) Attitude towards hardships

1. on verse 7-9 it shows what kind of attitude Messiah will show towards hardships. In fact when Jesus was on the cross he didn’t say anything.

Many people who are on the cross usually curses world, but Jesus didn’t say a word. When soldier was making fun of Jesus saying “if you are messiah save yourself”, but didn’t fall for it. Jesus remained calm to fulfill God’s word.

⁹And they^[^a^] made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death, this means he was on the cross with criminals, and when he was dead his body was stored in rich man’s tomb and fulfilled prophecy of God. This is God’s password.

D) Meaning of hardship

Verse 10-12 talks about result of hardships.

Messiah receiving hardships and sufferings are because that is what God wanted. God created human to live forever and live happy, but mankind commit crime and lost what is given to us.

Therefore, Jesus’ life was given as offering of salvation. So, God and Jesus were satisfied on how things were done. Anyone believes in Jesus sin will be forgiven and receives eternal life.

Con)

Jesus may have died on the cross like a criminal, but his death was for redemption as prophecy says.

Book of Isaiah chapter 53 is pretty much self explanatory. Just reading it tells how Jesus lowers himself in this land, received hardships and death, amazing God’s love. Think about it if you are God would you let your eternally living son get killed by mankind?

Today’s sermon shows how powerless and evil existence. We should be thanking God on no matter how hard situation is we are going through God always give us hopes and courage.

Today as facing Easter let’s praise the Lord and be pleased about God’s grace and work hard as God’s servant.

033118 By Ik sun Ahn