Becoming Like Christ?
Imitating the Jesus of
Isaiah 53
Introduction
Good Morning! It is good to be back with you. Well were on the home stretch – finishing up
our Lenten journey and on the home stretch towards Easter / finishing up our
time together and on the home stretch towards Jason.
This week I want us to look
at Is 53 – the crown jewel of OT messianic prophesy. It is a unbelievably powerful passage. This morning I would like to begin by doing
some Bible study together – so I would like you to have your bibles open – we
are going to go verse by verse just highlighting how this chapter was fulfilled
by Jesus. Hear the Word of God.
1Who has believed our message?
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been
revealed?
2He 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.
3He 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
4Surely He took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered Him stricken by God,
smitten by Him, and afflicted.
5But 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.
6We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all.
7He 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 descendents
For he was cut off
from the land of the living
For the
transgressions 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
Isaiah
53:1-7 (NIV)
This is a powerful passage but
there is an enigma and a mystery about it as well. There is much to reflect upon. For over 2600 years seekers have wanted to
know who Isaiah was writing about. Do
you remember the story from Acts 8 of the Ethiopian eunuch who was reading this
chapter. He asked that question and
Philip climbed up on the chariot and preached Jesus to him from this chapter.
Want to get to know Jesus – then get to know this prophecy.
To help you in this I have
placed in the back series of 14 Lenten reflection questions – one for each day
between now an Easter based on this
chapter. I would encourage you to take
one home with you and get to know the Jesus of Isaiah 53.
This Old Testament chapter
is quoted in the New Testament more times than any other.[1]
How Isaiah 53 was Prophetically Fulfilled in Jesus:
12 ways That Jesus fulfilled this prophecy
1 Not everyone would believe the Messiah’s message
John
12:37But though He had
performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This
was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: 38 "LORD,
WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN
REVEALED?"
That truth should give us
both comfort and pause. Jesus did
miracle after miracle and spoke with an authority unheard of at that time, yet
most were not believing his message. We
shouldn’t be surprised if that happens to us.
2 The Messiah would not come as a mighty warrior king
but as a tender shoot
2a He grew up before Him like a
tender shoot
He was the branch – a little
shoot (remember my Christmas message about Jesus the twig/the branch)
3 Jesus’ beginning would come from barren soil
2a and like a root out of dry ground.
This may be an allusion to
the virgin birth - Jesus lineage – his
root came out of unfertile soil/barren.
Jesus did come from the place the Jews expected the Messiah to come
from. “We don’t even know where this fellow comes from[2]
4
Jesus was God in Disguise
2b He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to
Him;
nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.
It is unimaginable to think that
God could appear and not be attractive.
He’s Almighty God! I am going to
say more about that later.
5 The
Messiah was going to be despised (verse 3)
We know that Jesus was mocked and spit upon
6
Messiah was going to be rejected (verse 3)
John
1:11 He came to that
which was his own, but his own did not receive him
7 Messiah’s ministry was to be one of healing (verse
4 “took up our infirmities” and verse 5 “by his wounds we are healed”)
Matt
8: 16When evening came, many who were
demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word
and healed all the sick. 17This was to fulfill what was spoken
through the prophet Isaiah:
"He took up our infirmities and carried our
diseases.”
8 The
Messiah would be pierced (verse 5)
19:33
But when they came to
Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead,
one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of
blood and water.
9 The Messiah would not respond to false accusations
(verse 7)
Jesus also fulfilled the
prophecy about not opening his mouth. We
will talk about that a little later.
10 The Messiah would be killed following arrest and
trial (verse 8)
“By oppression and judgment” - NIV in the margin says that an alternate
rendering of the word for oppression is arrest or the Hebrew word can be
translated restraint or binding. The
word that is used for judgment is the word that is used for civil justice and
judgment in a court of law. Jesus
fulfilled this because his death followed his arrest and 3 trials before Caiphas, Pilate, and Herod.
11 The Messiah’s grave would belong to a rich man
(verse 9)
Finally, Jesus death between two thieves and his subsequent burial in
the tomb of rich Joseph of Arimathia fulfills the
final verses we are looking at today.
Only the rich had the kind of tombs Jesus was buried in.
12 The Messiah would be resurrected
(verses 10-12) – We will save this for Easter
Application
But I want to take us back
to our series on becoming an Imitator of God.
Part of our call as Christians is to walk as Jesus walked – to do the
things He did. I want to highlight three
things from this passage and apply it to our walk.
Becoming Like Christ -not
overly concerned about appearances
2b He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to
Him;
nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.
Jesus did not become the
savior of the world through his appearance.
We have no other descriptions in the gospels of what He looked
like. But what we learn from the
prophet, is that people weren’t attracted to Jesus because of his
appearance.
Our culture is obsessed with
appearances.
To give you an example -
Have you heard about the product - Spray on Mud. [3] Spray-on-mud is a specially formulated spray-on
product for anyone that wants to give friends, neighbors, colleagues or just
anyone at all, the impression that they have been off-road or, at the very
least, out in the country for the weekend.
That is just the tip of the
iceberg. We are daily carpet bombed by
marketers who are trying to tell us that appearance is everything. And that we need their product to look good.
Jesus made every choice –
not based on how it will look – but is it right / based on what God was calling
Him to do right now.
We desperately want to
appear desirable – to have beauty – to carry a certain appearance of having it
together.
I need to know it. I drive a wonderfully reliable, comfortable
14 year old car. However, my desire to
appear a certain way makes me want to sell it.
It is not costing me a lot of money to repair. It doesn’t look real bad. It just doesn’t convey the kind of appearance
I want to project. Some Sunday’s I drive
into your parking lot and think – “If they see me driving this old car, they are
going to think that I am a loser.”
We need to know the Jesus of
Isaiah 53. We are called to imitate the
one for whom substance was more important than beauty. Obeying His father was more important that
appearing desirable.
Becoming Like Christ –
silent before false accusations
7He 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.
As I mentioned earlier, Jesus was silent before his accusers. In the face of false accusations, he did not
open his mouth. Three times the prophet
tells us this. Listen to the words from
Matthew 27:11
27: 11 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor,
and the governor asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"
"Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied.
12 When
he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate asked him, "Don't you hear the
testimony they are bringing against you?" 14 But
Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the
governor.
I like to call this
application “God’s Plan for the Department of Defense.” To become Christ-like means that we need to
learn to walk this earth as He did. And
He did not have an over-active Department of Defense. He was able to stand before false accusations
and be silent – to not open his mouth.
On the other hand, I have an
overly active overly funded department of defense. Sometimes I will be driving along
and maybe going a little to fast, my department of defense kicks in and begins
to make a defense to an imaginary officers as why I was going so fast. I actually begin to form arguments in my mind
defending myself.
Or like Friday, I pulled
into a parking space and noticed that I was a little to close to the car next
to me. I looked to see where I was
position in the parking spot – and bingo – the old DOD kicked in and began
making up a defense that I was really in the right and he was parked a little
to close to the line.
Or when I forget to call
someone this week, the DOD hopped right to it and began to create an elaborate
set of reasons as to why I hadn’t called them.
Can anyone relate to this?
Several years ago – God
spoke to me about a time ahead where I would have to appear wrong even as I
obeyed him. He prepared me for that time
in which I had to stand before others and appear completely and totally
wrong. Yet I knew that it was what God
was calling me to do. But O it was hard.
Well I have news for
us. God’s plan for our personal
Department of Defense is the cross. He isn’t interested in budget cuts. If we are going to become imitators of God,
we need to learn to be able to appear wrong as Jesus did. We need to allow the Father to mothball our
Department of Defense.
I am not saying that we
never speak to our defense – but the obsession with defending ourselves at all
times has got to go. We need to deeply
know the Jesus of Isaiah 53 – who did not open his mouth in the face of false
accusations.
Becoming Like Christ - becoming
instruments of healing
Finally, I want to mention
one other aspect of the Jesus of Isaiah 53.
3He 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
4Surely He took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
Jesus is a man of sorrows
and deeply knowledgeable with suffering.
He took up our illnesses and carried our sorrows. There are two things I want to say about
this.
First, some of you out there
are carrying deep sorrows inside of you.
The Jesus of Isaiah 53 wants you to know that He is intimately
knowledgeable of those sorrows. In fact,
right now, He is telling you that He wants to carry them. Jesus took up our sicknesses and illnesses
and carried your sorrows. You both don’t
need to carry them. Jesus is saying to
you, I want you to lay down your sorrows – all the things from the past that
have deeply hurt you. Because I want to
carry them. We were not made to carry our “Issues in our tissues.” It’s harmful to us.
But the paradox in this
truth, is that for us to become Christ-like, means that we too will become men
and women who are deeply acquainted with the suffering of others. Not to carry
their sorrows – but to share in the burdens with others so that we can be an
instrument of healing by helping them give their sorrows to Jesus.
The closer we get to Jesus, the
more we will see the deep sorrow and deep wounds of the people around us. We don’t need to be afraid of this.
Dr. Diane Komp
is a retired Pediatric Oncologist from Yale New Haven Hospital. She has written several books about how
working with children with cancer brought her to faith in Christ. She writes about how, at first, she was
afraid to enter into their suffering.
“Tonight I think back on the pain that I tried to avoid by distancing
myself from these children [with cancer] and realize how much greater the pain
of avoidance is - than that of their embrace.
“The closer you come these
children, the less the pain. If you risk your heart being broken, you just may
find it healed.”
She has learned to imitate
Christ and was healed in the process.
And so can you and I.
Let’s pray.
[1] Verse 1 John 12:38 Context: Jews not believing Jesus; Romans
10:16 Context: not believing the good news
Verse 4 Matt. 8:17 Context: Jesus healing all who were
demonized and all who were ill
Verse 5 1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body
Verse 6 1 Peter 2:25 All we like sheep have gone astray
Verse 7 1 Peter 2:23 Did not retaliate or respond to the
threats
Verse 7-8 Acts 8:32-33 – Ethiopian Eunuch – Led like a lamb to
the slaughter
Verse 9 1 Peter 2:22 Committed no sin – no deceit in his
mouth
Verse 12 Mark 15:28 crucified with 2 robbers (numbered with
the transgressors -NASB)
Verse 12 Luke 22:37 Jesus himself says that he fulfilled
numbered with the transgressors
[2] John 9:28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from."