Sermon: Names of Jesus: Suffering Servant

We pray for us, uh, before we open God's word together this evening. Let's pray together, Lord and our God, we do exalt through this evening. We say, how great thou art

our creator, God, our God, who is our sustainer, our God who is our redeemer, A God who has chosen to draw us near and to make us children of yours, A God who is our refuge and our fortress and our mighty tower.

A God who is our peace in the midst of the storm.

A God who is the shepherd of the sheep makes us to lie down in green pastures and leads us beside stillwaters. A God who chooses to work in this world, who chooses to speak into it, the power of your word,

and to minister to such finite creatures as us,

to give us the great privilege of being those who will enjoy you day after day for all of eternity. Truly how great thou Lord God, who has overcome all of our adversaries, who's making them all a footstool beneath the feet of your dear son

God who loves us with an everlasting love. A great thou, we join our voices with the angels and the saints triumphant before your throne. We say that you are worthy. We're thankful for this church that you have given to us. We thank you for the men and women labored hard to establish this church and who have ministered in it over the generations. And we are thankful that in our generation that you have kept us pray that you would continue to keep us.

We look to you with the eyes of faith even this evening, we pray that you would lead us by your spirit and according to the truth of your word, that you would continue to safeguard us as a church.

And we say there are no better hands that we would want to be in how great thou are. And we pray all of this in the strong name of Christ, the king and head of the church and of this church. Amen. We turn this evening, uh, to Isaiah. We're doing a sermon series through the names of Jesus in the evening services in the morning. We are preaching through the book of, uh, Hebrews the evening service. We're thinking through the different names of Jesus

in the scriptures. And tonight, just very briefly, I want to think with you about the name Suffering servant. Suffering servant. He is the suffering servant from Isaiah 53 if used in a pew Bible. You can find it there on page 613 in the Pew Bible.

Let me just briefly read, I wanna read from Isaiah 53 verse one, and we could read the whole chapter. The reality is, is the suffering servant passage backs up to chapter 52. Verse 13 goes all the way through verse 12.

But I want to read, especially tonight through verse six, we'll focus on that. Hear the word of the Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 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, rejected by men, man of sorrows, acquainted with grief,

and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him. Not surely he is born, our griefs carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him, stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. Oh, we, like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way,

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of a soul. The grass withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Verses four through six here of Isaiah 53, they especially are bringing out the, the fact of the suffering servant. He is mentioned there as this man of sorrows acquainted with grief in verse three, and he speaks about him in verses four through six. This one that has born griefs, who has carried our sorrows, acquainted with grief. Uh, this is the suffering servant passage. If you ask a a Jew what they think about this passage,

who is this passage referring to? They will say, well, it's speaking of the, the nation of Israel. Israel is the suffering servant. Uh, but what's interesting is that he says this, if you go down to verse eight, he says, by oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off outta the land of living stricken for the transgression of my people. It's not the people of Israel

that are the suffering servant. There is one that is distinct and Christians have always seen that this is a great messianic text that speaks about the Christ to come, the true Israel of God, Jesus, and that he was the suffering servant.

You'll notice that verses four through six, they tell us of his suffering. The reason esteemed him, stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, and it wasn't because there was something wrong with him, but because there was something wrong with us. It it, it's against conventional wisdom in the Old Testament, and you see this in the Book of Job when job is going through affliction and he is suffering, that his friends will surround him

and they'll say that the reason you are suffering must be because of what you have done. That's why you're afflicted job. And so this is contrary, that what this passage is about is not that he is stricken for his transgressions.

What we thought were his, again, people esteemed him, not he was despised and rejected by men. Why? Because he was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. He was as one from whom men hide their faces. He is one that is being judged.

Turn your face from him what awful things he must have done. This is where it flips from the suffering. Servant passage verses four through six, he has borne the pronouns or agree. He's carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace With his stripes, we, our healed. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. This is the turn in verse four.

In verse three, we see a man acquainted with sorrows and acquainted with grief, and now in verse four, we see he is born our griefs. He's carried our sorrows. We were the sheep that had gone astray and each turned his own way. The suffering servant is he in our place?

Isn't the suffering servant because he simply suffered with us the due penalty for our sin? That's not what the Isaiah says. Like a good friend that's willing to walk along with you in your suffering, he's suffering with you in your suffering. That's not what he does. That's not what this passage is about.

Now, it's more than that. Neither is he the suffering servant because he suffered as a result of our sins. That that's not what it says either. It happens all the time. My children suffer every day as a result of my sins. I'm a father who sins and they suffer as a result of my sins. That's not what this passage says. He is a suffering servant and uniquely different because he suffered for our sins, for our sins.

He doesn't share the suffering that is our due. He takes it all. He bears the guilt. He bears the shame. He bears the judgment. He bears the wrath upon the cross. He takes it all.

That's why he's the suffering servant.

And John sees Christ from afar. I mentioned this morning when he sees Jesus from afar coming towards him. He says, behold, behold, see the lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

Jesus said, I came not to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many suffered for us, for our sin.

That's how Isaiah says he was pierced for our transgressions. It's a strong term there in the Hebrew. It, it's violent, it's catastrophic, it's excruciating. He says he was crushed for iniquities. That that, that, that word it has a range of meaning, but at the very least it, it means that he, he, he was beaten but as most extreme range of meaning and it means that he was pulverized, crushed for our iniquities upon him was the

chastisement that brought us peace. Isaiah says, chastisement not in the sense of a, a father in love chasing in his child, but rather an act of punitive justice, wrath.

The Lord Isaiah says, laid on him the iniquity of us all, all our guilt, all of our sin, all of our due penalty, all the wrath of the Father.

Why? Because it was the only way.

It's the only way to save wretched sinners like me, like you. The only way Jesus in fact will quote this in Luke 22, he will quote from Isaiah 53, speaking of himself and he'll say that he must, that's what he says and must be numbered among the transgressors.

He must. It was the only way to save sinful men. As Paul wonderfully said, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.

He's a suffering servant.

Was thinking this afternoon, thinking about this thinking. You know, you think about this passage and you think about this title and you have to come to this conclusion that there's nothing else like this out there.

Try and think of something. There's, there's no religion that has anything near this. No savior like this. There's no fiction book. There's no imaginative story. There's no sci-fi, the best of sci-fi writers have never come up with something like this,

that God would send God

as a servant to suffer for sinners so that sinners might inherit and dwell with God.

There's nothing like it.

There's no greater savior narrative out there.

It just doesn't exist because it can't. This is the greatest story there is. It's the greatest story there could possibly be that God sends God to suffer his own wrath so that sinners might be saved.

Greatest story.

Getting ready to head into a congregational meeting. That's the story of this church. That's what we're about. That's what I hope you're about. We're on a mission that more would hear this story or on a mission that we would grow in love and affection for such a God as this. We would come to delight in such a suffering servant as this and not just now, but for all of eternity. What else can you do?

I hope tonight you know that suffering servant, you pray for us, Lord Jesus. We are thankful you are a suffering servant who came into this world not to be served, but to serve and to, if your life is a ransom for many,

you came not just to make a way for salvation, but to secure a way of salvation for your people.

You are willing to suffer for sinners such as us and that you give us the greatest story there is that it is to be in our hearts and it is to be upon our lips and to shape all that we do, not just now, but for all of eternity. May that be true of each of us in this room. We pray this in the strong name of Christ Jesus. Amen.