The Suffering Servant

THE SUFFERING SERVANT
A pastor was preaching on the Minor Prophets...all twelve of them in one sermon. After two hours he was only half-way through his message. Everyone was getting restless. Most had stopped paying attention. After four hours, to everyone's relief, he said "Finally...". It was almost over, they thought. Then to their horror, the Pastor said, "Oh my, I forgot about Micah...what shall we do with Micah?". One old lady sitting right in front could take no more. She stood up and said, "Hey, preacher! Micah can take my seat...I'm going
home!".
Many of us associate suffering for Christ or suffering in general with just suffering through a bad service or a long service.
Today I don’t plan on going through all 12 minor prophets but I do want to talk about something very basic to our faith.
Sometimes I ask, what is the message the early Church preached?
This was the question that men that became part of something called the American Restoration Movement started asking a little over 200 years ago.
What was the basic essential message of the Church?
The last two weeks I have looked at the cross. The cross according to Paul and the rest of the New Testament is the linchpin on which all other things hang.
That is the central message for us- the Cross of Jesus Christ
Two weeks ago we talked about Christ’s death as our substitute.
Last week we looked at the cross as victory.
This wee we will look at the suffering of Jesus on the Cross.
We will look at something called the doctrine of the Suffering Servant.
We seem to think of suffering as something foreign and strange. But scripture tells us clearly that those who follow Jesus Christ WILL share in His suffering.
A look at the church’s history over the last 2,000 years shows us that this is true. For example,

At the Nicene Council, an important church meeting in the 4th century A.D., of the 318 delegates attending, fewer than 12 had not lost an eye or lost a hand or did not limp on a leg lamed by torture for their Christian faith.
This idea of the one that Suffers for the good of others was alive and well in the first century when Jesus came upon the scene.
There was a prophecy of the coming of a suffering servant found in Isaiah. There are four songs found in Isaiah called the Song of the Servant.
The Jews were puzzled at the time of Jesus on just how this suffering servant might fit with their idea of the Messiah.
Was the suffering Servant just a metaphor or a symbol? Was the Suffering Servant the messiah they had waited for?
If he was the messiah how would that reconcile with the idea that the Messiah would be a Davidic King?
Today we will tackle this passage and get a glimpse of the cross of Jesus. We will encounter the Gospel preached in the Old Testament.
The book of Isaiah clearly presents a picture of the coming Messiah as a Suffering Servant.
For those of you who are reading Isaiah, you will discover four passages which are often called the “Servant Songs”.
They aren’t actually songs, but they are like the Psalms in their poetic and lyrical style. The four Servant Songs the present a portrait in poetry of the one the Lord calls “my servant.”
1. Isaiah 42:1-7; shows the Lord’s delight with his anointed servant and the gentle characteristics of the servant’s ministry
2. Isaiah 49:3-7; describes the chosen servant of the Lord and the world-wide scope of his influence.
3. Isaiah 50:4-10; Details the obedience of the servant and his vindication after suffering.
4. Isaiah 52:13 – Isaiah 53:12; Explains the atoning sacrifice of the suffering servant who is despised and rejected yet obeys to the point of death and is therefore highly exalted by God
In the New Testament, the four Gospels give us most of what we know about the life of Jesus Christ here on earth. But the “Gospel of Isaiah” also gives us a portrait of the life of Jesus Christ.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us in past tense about the Messiah they knew. Isaiah tells us in future tense about the Messiah who in his day was yet to come.
Isaiah foretold Jesus’ character, obedience, and relationship with His Father in amazing detail, 750 years before He came to earth.
The interesting thing that occurs is that this idea of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah takes center stage in the book of Acts.
One of the first people converted to Christianity was converted through this passage. It would be Isaiah chapter 53 that would help Philip the Evangelist lead the Ethiopian Eunuch.
I find it interesting that if boil it down, and say what was the central message preached by the early Church you come up with a passage like Acts 8.
An Ethoipian official was traveling home from the Temple services and the Holy Spirit sent Philip to preach to him. The Spirit told Philip to go up and talk to the man about Jesus.
The Eunuch was reading this passage from Isaiah 53 and we see that this passage gives Philip the launch pad to preach the gospel to him.
Acts 8: 30-38
30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading ?" 31 And he said, "Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this : "HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO SLAUGHTER ; AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT, SO HE DOES NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH. 33 "IN HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY ; WHO WILL RELATE HIS GENERATION ? FOR HIS LIFE IS REMOVED FROM THE EARTH." 34 The eunuch answered Philip and said, "Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this ? Of himself or of someone else ?" 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. 36 As they went along the road they came to some water ; and the eunuch said, "Look ! Water ! What prevents me from being baptized ?" 37 [And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."] 38 And he ordered the chariot to stop ; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.

Just a quick look at this passage and we can see where Jesus was preached through Isaiah 53.

The formula here is simple. The word of God, the reading and understanding of the Scripture leads to faith in Jesus – faith in His work on the Cross.

With that is an immediate response to that story in which the Ethiopian receives water baptism.

The world complicates this message we come today to bring clarity. Today lets just boil it down to simplicity.

The Gospel message is not complex – it is needed so bad.

We need to bring clarity to a confused world. – we need to simply preach Jesus and Him Crucified and raised, we need to cut through the clutter and tradition that stand in the way of just being a follower in Christ.

The cross is central to that mission. We must put the cross of Jesus back in the center of our message.

It is said that one of the Roman Emperors commanded a fleet of Roman ships to sail to Alexandria, Egypt and bring back loads of sand to be used in the arenas of Rome.

The commander of the ships said he would bring wheat back no matter what the Emperor said. There were people starving in Rome.

How could he bring them sand?
Likewise there are souls starving for the pure, simple gospel of the cross.

Churches are bringing people sand, or stuff that is just worthless, we are not a social club or self help seminar – we are the vehicle of the Gospel we are the pillar and ground of truth.

So lets turn to Isaiah and just see what a compelling picture Isaiah paints for us 750 years before Jesus.
HIS APPEARANCE:
Isaiah 53:2
2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground ; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
We tend to put a lot of importance on physical appearance. But when God “put on flesh” and came to earth as a man, notice that he did not choose to come as one of the “beautiful people.”
Jesus was evidently an ordinary, average-looking person. And yet, all through scripture you find people are drawn to him. The attractiveness and power of Jesus did not come from outward strength or beauty. Jesus was a man of astounding magnetism and power
But his attractiveness did not come from physical beauty. And his authority did not come from a forceful, assertive personality. Look at this description in Isaiah 42:

HIS PERSONALITY:
Isaiah 42: 1-3
1 "Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold ; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 "He will not cry out or raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard in the street. 3 "A bruised reed He will not break And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish ; He will faithfully bring forth justice.

Jesus will bring justice to the Earth but will do so gently. He will cry out for the common man that is oppressed by the rulers of this world.

Jesus will do this so gently that he would not break a vulnerable reed or extinguish a dimly lit lamp.

This is the personality and character that draw men to Jesus – this is His ultimate love demonstrated.

Can you feel the tender gentleness of this Messiah? He will be able to bring justice to the nations without even raising his voice. How unexpected and astounding that the King of the Universe would come so quietly.
I love the idea that children ran to Jesus, the outcasts that on one would talk to Jesus talked to. Do you think about Jesus in this way? Do you ever sit around and think about his gentle heart? What does that say about the grace and love He wants to give you?
HIS MINISTRY:
Isaiah 42: 7
7 To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.
Isaiah predicted the amazing healing ministry of the Messiah. He also predicted that his teaching ministry would be unparalleled.

Look in Isaiah 50:4:
The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.

Here the Messiah is speaking in first person through the prophet Isaiah. Jesus spoke with wisdom that came straight from His Father, the Sovereign LORD. This reminds me of the words Jesus spoke in John 14:
John 14: 10
Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing the work.

The Obedience and Innoncence of the Suffering Servant
Isaiah 50: 5-7
5 The Lord GOD has opened My ear ; And I was not disobedient Nor did I turn back. 6 I gave My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard ; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. 7 For the Lord GOD helps Me, Therefore , I am not disgraced ; Therefore , I have set My face like flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.

Just as Isaiah foretold, Jesus NEVER rebelled against the will of God. These words were written hundreds of years before Jesus was beaten and mocked.

And yet they not only tell us the specifics of what the Messiah would suffer. They also give us a glimpse into the very MIND and HEART of Jesus Christ.

Jesus consciously offered his back to the whip of the Roman soldiers.
He offered his cheeks to those who pulled out his beard.
He offered his face to those who mocked and spit on him. And here are the very thoughts of Jesus – foretold hundreds of years before the events.

These are the thoughts of Jesus Christ as he was flogged and tortured and mocked: Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.

Isaiah 53 adds to this that he was quiet like a sheep about to be slaughtered. He was willing to go quietly and innocent.
Isaiah 53: 7, and 9
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
Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

Jesus is described as a lamb being led to the slaughter.

One painting of the crucifixion concentrates on the actual nailing of the two thieves and our Lord to their respective crosses. The two thieves were fighting.
They were scared and angry. Jesus, however, was calmly lying down with outstretched arms. He was not struggling as he was about to receive the nails. He was like a lamb that is led to the slaughter.

Think for a moment at the anger that is aroused in the human heart over the suffering of an innocent person.

This is what makes so many people angry at the wide-open stance on abortion of our society where abortion may be performed at any point of pregnancy for any reason.

Many movies and television shows are built around the theme of the innocent suffering. The show "Quincy" had its appeal in this way.

Quincy was always right, but to prove it he had to fight against his boss and half of the local government officials.
As you watched the show you got angry and felt like you were fighting with him against the apathetic establishment.

WHY that suffering was necessary.

Isaiah 53: 5
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.

I want you to think a moment about the wounds of Christ. These were wounds he accepted willingly so that we could be healed.

We sometimes see pictures or sculptures of Jesus hanging on the cross.
His suffering is obvious in these pictures, but the reality of the wounds of Christ are obscured.
We see little marks where the nails went in his feet and hands.

We may see trickles of blood on his face from the crown of thorns. Even though the Romans crucified people without clothing, piece of cloth is always added for modesty.

We could not bear to look upon the reality of the wounds that brought us healing.

Isaiah foretold how hideous he would look after the terrible beating he endured. He wrote in

Isaiah. 52:14,
14 Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.

When the Romans hit him in the face and planted a crown of thorns on his head those weren’t playful slaps.

We forget that Jesus was beaten severely, we want to sugarcoat it because it makes us feel better.
It is because of the terrible nature of sin that Jesus took on this punishment.
Realize that most victims of the Roman 39 lashes with the cat-o-nine-tails did not live through the experience.

It was like being skinned alive. Most of Jesus skin and outer muscles on his torso were hanging in ribbons. No wonder he didn’t have enough strength to carry his own cross all the way to Golgotha.
Jesus had to be a man of uncommon vitality to even make it to the cross let alone endure it for those horrible hours before he succumbed to death.

The torture at the hands of the Roman Soldiers was so intense that he was severely dehydrated and probably in some stage of shock from blood loss. As Isaiah had predicted, “he was marred beyond human likeness.”
Crucifixion was a terrible way to torture and kill a person.
Cicero, an ancient Roman author, had witnessed many crucifixions. He said the victims often became raving madmen before they died from fever, thirst, infection, pain, exhaustion, and other problems.
Sometimes the tongues of men on a cross were cut out to stop their terrible cries and screams.
It was clearly one of the worst methods of punishment ever devised by mankind.

If you are ever tempted to under-rate the ugliness of Sin, remember the horrific kind of wounds that were necessary to bring us healing.
You may think that I have lost my mind to bring up these unpleasant realities this morning but I believe that is what drove Paul to say that he desired to know nothing other that Jesus Christ and Christ crucified.

The cross reminds us of the terrible nature of sin. Every time we want to sin or do something that God would not approve of we should consider the pain and suffering of Jesus.

Is that sin worth the crucifixion of the Son of God? I guess what I am saying is, How much does Jesus sacrifice mean to you?

He died to set you and me free, why would we go back into the muck and mire of sin?

Why would we ever want to hate again or commit sexual sin? Why would we not want to just go and sale everything and preach the gospel to all people.

The story of the cross is that compelling that you want to just live for Him.

Our SALVATION:
Isaiah wants to remind us, he tells us that there is a reason for all of this.

This beating, this suffering, this marring of the most innocent man that ever lived is for one reason.
Isaiah 53:11 -12
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.
He will Justify the many – that is us, we have all sinned, we have all gone astray, we are justified or made right with God through this sacrifice of Jesus.
He bore our sins, he took on our sin and our iniquities.
He bore our sins but also intercedes for us – He died so that we can be saved.
One man supposedly had a dream that he was witnessing a soldier cruelly flogging Jesus.
He was disturbed by the viciousness of the punishment and rushed forward to try to stop the soldier. When the soldier turned around to speak to him, it was himself.
The meaning, of course, is that our sins caused Jesus to have to suffer.
In Norway there is a church building that has the figure of a lamb carved on it.
A traveler asked what it meant. Did it refer to Jesus as the lamb of God?
As the story went, when the building was being constructed, one man was working high above the ground.
He lost his footing and fell. Rather than dying from the fall, though, he fell on a sheep in a flock that was being herded past the building at that moment.
It killed the lamb, but it probably saved that man's life by cushioning his fall. It was a vivid reminder to the people of that locale that long ago another lamb had died so that we might live.
You see that Jesus the Lamb of God came to take away the sins of the world.
We have no hope without Christ – sin is so terrible – it is so evil that the cross vividly reminds us that it was so bad that it crushed the Son of God.
We need to take a minute and just think about that. Put all other things in this life on hold and just consider this for a minute.
God who Created us, who made this world and all the beauty that we see loves us so much.
We rebelled – man had everything – God wants to give us all that we need but we are rebellious, we want to do what we want to do.
But instead of just sentencing us to eternal separation – which is what we really, really deserve God who made us becomes one of us.
Takes on flesh and then dies on our stead, takes on the punishment that we deserve and says now the way is open.
You can be saved – things can be different.
In North Carolina two horses pulling a wagon were rushing down the street of a small town.
A man ran out and grabbed the reins to try to stop the wagon. The horses dragged him, but he would not let go.
Finally he brought them to a stop. He was severely injured and died after a short time, but before he died people were able to ask him why he did it?
Why should he have risked his life to stop a wagon? He told them to look in the wagon.
In the straw in the back, resting peacefully, was his tiny, baby boy. He died to save his child.
God is imploring like this man – God doesn’t want you to be carried into destruction.
He has done all the can do to get our attention – He sent His Only Son to die – what else can He do to jolt us out of rebellion and bring us back home to God’s family?