The Death and Resurrection of God’s Servant
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Today, I felt it necessary to leave our normal verse-by-verse exposition of the Gospel of Matthew to focus our attention on the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since I already preached from Matthew’s account of the resurrection last year, I thought it would deepen our understanding and strengthen our faith if we fixed our gaze on the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus as the prophet Isaiah described it 700 years before it happened. In Isaiah 53 we see the content and the confirmation of the resurrection of Christ.[1] God revealed to Isaiah the purpose of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If you were here Friday evening, you know that I focused on Isaiah 53:4-6 in answering the question, “Why Did Jesus Die?” But this morning, I want to give you a broader understanding of the whole passage in Isaiah 53. Isaiah was a prophet in the nation of Judah during the time that the northern Kingdom of Israel was exiled by the Assyrians. And he prophesied that the southern Kingdom of Judah would face a similar judgment by God at the hands of the Babylonians.
All scholars recognize that the sixty-six chapters of Isaiah divide into two major sections. In the first 39 chapters, Isaiah’s prophecy majors on God’s judgment on Israel and the coming judgment on Judah. There are hints of hope in those chapters, but the theme is judgment. Isaiah 39 ends with Isaiah giving a prophecy to King Hezekiah about the Babylonian captivity.
The second section begins in Isaiah 40. And the tone of this section is completely different. Isaiah 40:1 begins, “‘Comfort, yes, comfort My people!’ Says your God.” Isaiah is writing to comfort the future generation who will return from exile. The theme of these chapters is grace and salvation, encompassing not only the deliverance of Israel from Babylon, but also the deliverance of sinners from sin and the deliverance of the nations from the curse into the Kingdom of Christ.[2]
In the heart of this second section of Isaiah, are four “Servant Songs” (cf. 42:1-7; 49:1-6; 50:4-9). The final and climatic Servant Song is Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12. The New Testament directly quotes this text no less than seven times and alludes to it another forty times. It is no exaggeration to call this passage “The Mt. Everest of Old Testament prophecy.”[3] Nowhere in all the Old Testament does the gospel of Jesus Christ shine more clearly than here.
In this song, there are 5 stanzas of 3 verses each. By creative contrast and regular repetition, Isaiah weaves the twin themes of exaltation and humiliation into a beautiful tapestry of theological truth.[4] The first line of each stanza captures its theme and beautifully summarizes its content. Isaiah 52:13, “Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently”—here we see the exalted servant. Isaiah 53:1, “Who has believed our report?”—here we see the rejected servant. Isaiah 53:4, “Surely He has borne our griefs”—here we see the suffering servant. Isaiah 53:7, “He was oppressed and He was afflicted”—here we see the executed servant. Finally, Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him”—and here we see the resurrected servant.
We could spend weeks studying the details of this amazing prophecy. But today, I just want you to see the big picture in hopes of deepening your love for our risen Lord Jesus Christ.
First, I want you to see…
1. The Exalted Servant (Isa. 52:13-15)
This opening stanza serves as the prologue to the song and a summation of the entire prophecy. Isaiah 52:13 begins the same way the first Servant Song does in Isaiah 42:1, “Behold, My Servant…” God, through the prophet, calls on us to look at His servant and be astonished. Who is this Servant of Yahweh? Sometimes in Isaiah, the servant of the Lord is the people of Israel. Isaiah 41:8 says “But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, The descendants of Abraham My friend” (cf. Isa. 49:3). Sometimes, the servant is Isaiah himself (Isa. 49:5). But in this Servant Song, the servant cannot be the people of Israel or the prophet because the Servant substitutes Himself for both the prophet and the people.
As I said on Friday evening, the New Testament is clear that the servant here is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 8:17; Acts 8:35; 1 Peter 2:24; Mark 10:45). He fulfills this prophecy perfectly.
God gives us the conclusion at the beginning, “Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.” This is the end-result of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He will ultimately succeed in His mission. Christ is exalted because of His success. “My Servant shall deal prudently” could also be translated, “My servant will act wisely or prosper.” The Messiah will be triumphant. He shall be 1) exalted (raised, high), 2) extolled (lifted up), and 3) be very high.
“Exalted and extolled” or “high and lifted up” are used in combination 4 times in Isaiah and no place else in the Old Testament (cf. Isaiah 6:1; 33:10; 57:15). All three other instances they describe God. Listen to one of them, Isaiah 6:1, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.” This Servant of Yahweh is exalted and extolled just as Yahweh Himself. The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians, that after Jesus humbled Himself being obedient to death on the cross, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, … and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-10).
Jesus is exalted in His success—but His success is due to His suffering. Isaiah 52:14 says, “Just as many were astonished at you, So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men.” People are astonished, appalled, shocked at His appearance. The center three stanzas of this Servant Song will tell us why this is so.
He is exalted in His success, because of His suffering, and for His service. Isaiah 52:15, “So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider.” The verb “sprinkle” is the Hebrew word, נָזָה (naza). This word most often appears in the book of Leviticus and describes the sprinkling of blood for atonement. Jesus, the Messiah, is our perfect High Priest (Hebrews 3:1). And the blood of the sacrifice that He will sprinkle the nations with is His own blood.
God’s Servant will astonish not just His own people, but many nations and their kings. The Messiah will sprinkle and redeem the nations. The Gentiles will see the Messiah for who He is, despite not previously having heard about Him. What God accomplished in Christ could never have been done by the nation of Israel or dreamed up by any man. It was God’s plan.
So, this song begins with the servant’s exaltation. Next we see…
2. The Rejected Servant (Isa. 53:1-3).
In the first stanza, God described the exaltation of His Servant. In the next three stanzas, Isaiah speaks as the redeemed people of God. You will see the pronouns “we”, “our”, and “us” repeatedly. This is the testimony of the redeemed as they look back on what God has done in Christ. They look back and lament and mourn over the fact they misjudged the Lord’s Servant and did not believe the message about Him. Isaiah 53:1 asks, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” The nations did not believe because they did not know. Israel knew and yet she did not believe because she failed to recognize the “arm of the Lord” when it was revealed in the Suffering Servant. Instead, they rejected Him.
How did they misunderstand and reject God’s servant?
They misunderstood Him and rejected Him because he appeared to be insignificant and unattractive. Isaiah 53:2, “For 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.” The Servant lacked the regal splendor necessary to attract the nations. Jesus, the Messiah never held any titles, nor did He hold public office. He did not look like an earthly King. He had no earthly majesty or official authority from man. Jesus arose out of humble circumstances and lowly conditions—from a poor nation, impoverished parents, born in a stable, a carpenter by trade. The people thought, “This is not what ‘the arm of the Lord’ should look like!”
Isaiah 53:3 shows how most responded to God’s Servant, “He 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.” Because Jesus was not who they expected Him to be, they did not believe His message and they rejected Him as Messiah. Instead of honoring Him for who He is, men hated Him. John explains in his Gospel how this prophecy was fulfilled even though Jesus had performed so many signs, and still the people did not believe Him (John 12:37). John 12:38 says, “that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?””
All that led to Him being …
3. The Suffering Servant (Isa. 53:4-6)
In these verses we find the Servant wounded, bruised, chastened, and whipped. Those who saw this happen or have heard about it since considered Him “stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4). Many in ancient Israel believed suffering was the judgment of God for your sins and therefore they wrongly assumed that when the Servant suffered, He was getting what He deserved.
But now, seeing the true picture, they know that the griefs and sorrows He carried were indeed deserved, but not by Him, but by us. Listen again to Isaiah 53;4-6,
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But 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. 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.
The language of substitution could not be clearer. It was not for His own sins that Jesus suffered—He had none. He is the sinless Son of God, the Holy and Righteous One. 1 Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.” God took the punishment and weight of your sins and mine and laid them upon his only Son at the cross. He suffered for sinners.
So far we have seen the exalted servant, the rejected servant, the suffering servant, and now…
4. The Executed Servant (Isa. 53:7-9)
All of the Servant’s suffering culminated and climaxed in His death. Here we see the submissive obedience of Christ in His suffering.
7 He 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. 8 He 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. 9 And they 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. (Isaiah 53:7-9)
There are so many prophecies in these three verses that we could spend hours detailing how Jesus fulfilled them in His suffering and death. Peter writes about it in 1 Peter 2:
21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: 22 “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; 23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Pet. 2:21-25)
Jesus died for our transgressions. He was cut-off from the land of the living. It was not an accident. It was an execution. These verses clearly prophesy the death and burial of God’s Servant—a death that was not for Himself, but for others. This is the Executed Servant.
But, praise God! That is not the end of the story. Finally we see…
5. The Resurrected Servant (Isa. 53:10-12)
At least three times Isaiah tells us that the sacrifice that the servant made in dying results in a resurrection triumph. He does not use the word “resurrection,” but the reality is plain. Listen to Isaiah 53:10-12,
10 Yet 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. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.
First, I want you to notice this. The death of the Servant was not merely a murder or a martyrdom. It was nothing less than a divine appointment! It was the Lord’s will to bruise Him. It was God who put Him to grief. God made His soul an offering for sin. The chief priests, the Pharisees, the Jews, Pilate, Herod, the Romans—they all played a part and are culpable for killing Jesus. But as we have seen, it is not just them that are guilty—so are we. We all sinned and Christ died because of our sin. But ultimately, it was the Father’s will. It was God who sacrificed His Son. It was His eternal plan and purpose that accomplished our salvation through the death of His Son.
But God’s plan was even bigger than what Christ accomplished at the cross. His death was not the end. The Servant’s life and sacrifice was not a waste, a loss, after all. In fact, He will see His seed (offspring), His days will be prolonged (lengthened) and the best of all: the pleasure (will, desire) of the Lord shall prosper (be accomplished) in His hand. Yes, He was bruised by God, but He is also blessed by God. Look at three results from His death and resurrection: 1) He sees the fruit of his death and is satisfied. He is not dead. He is living and satisfied. His work is complete, and He is glad. 2) He justifies many – all those who trust in Him. If you trust in Jesus, you are declared just and righteous before God. That is what “justify” means. A dead Christ does not justify. A living Christ justifies. Romans 4:25 says, “[He] was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.” 3) “He will bear their iniquities.” Yes, he bore these iniquities when he died. But He goes on making intercession and bears them forever in the sense that as long as He lives it is plain that His death was utterly sufficient to pay for all your sins.
He is satisfied. We are justified. And all our sins are carried away by Christ forever. We will never bear them again.
This song began with the Exalted Servant and it ends with the Risen Servant being exalted in His redeemed people. He divides the spoils of His victory over sin and death with all those whom He has redeemed. Hebrews 7:25 says, “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
Jesus is the exalted, rejected, suffering, dying, and risen Servant. What will you do with Jesus today? Will you turn to Him in repentance and faith, trusting in His death for the forgiveness of your sins and in His resurrection for your justification?
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[1] John Piper, The Risen Christ: Satisfied with His Suffering, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-risen-christ-satisfied-with-his-suffering.
[2] John MacArthur, The Astonishing Servant of Jehovah, https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-435/the-astonishing-servant-of-jehovah.
[3] Kyle Yates, quoted by Daniel Akin, The Suffering Servant of the Lord, http://www.danielakin.com/wp-content/uploads/old/Resource_157/The%20Suffering%20Servant%20of%20the%20Lord-sermon.pdf.
[4] Daniel Akin, The Suffering Servant of the Lord, http://www.danielakin.com/wp-content/uploads/old/Resource_157/The%20Suffering%20Servant%20of%20the%20Lord-sermon.pdf.
