He Was Pierced

Isaiah 52:13 – 52:12

 

I was already 18 years old when I finally learned the truth of what it means to be a part of something bigger than yourself, to be a part of a group of people, a team. It wasn’t the years spent playing youth baseball, or playing soccer in high school. No, this all important lesson came while travelling the country as a part of Hilmar FFA’s dairy cattle judging team in 2005.

 

In the spring of my senior year, our judging team won state finals and earned the right to represent California at the national contest in Louisville, KY that fall. The team was made up of four of us, all boys. Two of us, myself and another (we’ll call him Levi), were 18 years old and had just graduated from high school that summer. The other two (we’ll call them Marcus and Josephus) were sophomores.

 

Marcus had quite a wild side to him, he had a real knack for getting himself into trouble. Long story short, he got himself into some serious trouble while we were in KY by trying to make an illegal purchase using a fake ID, except he didn’t actually have a fake ID on him. He got busted by the cashier while Levi stood at the door of the convenience store watching.

 

Me and Josephus were completely oblivious to all of this going on because we were hanging out by the hotel pool when Levi walked up to tell us the story. Almost immediately, we got word that our coach wanted to see all four of us up in his hotel room. I’m sure you all can guess what happened next.

 

Certainly my troublemaking friend and teammate earned himself quite the tongue lashing from our coach, as did Levi, my best friend at the time. But the lesson I learned about being a part of something bigger than myself was this, me and my other teammate Josephus, who had no part in this trouble, also had to sit and suffer through this intense rebuke.

 

We had to sit and suffer for the sins of someone else, those two knuckleheads who I still consider friends today. And I learned that when you are a part of a team, something bigger than yourself, you are a part of the successes and failures, even the individual ones, even if that means bearing the weight of their wrong choices, the weight of their sins.

Last week I preached on who Jesus is. He is the eternal Word, the Logos of creation. He is God the Son incarnate, who took on flesh and tabernacled among us, perfectly revealing God the Father to His creation that was made through Christ. I preached about how understanding that Jesus Christ is God, that He is the second person of the Trinity, is key to understanding what He did on the cross and what His resurrection means.

 

Today, we will take a closer look at the cross of Christ and what actually happened on the day we now call Good Friday, and what that means for you. Let’s read God’s Word together: Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12.

 

We’ve all had moments when we were absolutely sure we were right… and you were completely wrong. I’m sure right now that you all can think of such a moment in your life, and if I’m wrong don’t tell me so, ha-ha.

 

Seriously though, you saw something unfold and you made your judgement. You thought you understood exactly what was going on, and later—you realized—you didn’t just miss a detail… you missed the whole thing. That’s how our passage begins today. It’s an odd beginning because it’s making seemingly contradictory statements, which many have misunderstood and missed entirely.

 

The book of Isaiah is so long that it encompasses many years of ancient Israel’s history, from the rise and fall of kings to the Babylonian exile, this book demonstrates Israel’s sin and fall as God’s chosen people to the promise of their vindication by God and return to their land, but more importantly, God promises that spiritual restoration and salvation from sin for His people will be accomplished through His Servant.

 

In Isaiah, we’re told this is accomplished by God’s Servant, the promised Messiah, through 4 Servant Songs in the second half of Isaiah, 40 – 66. Our Scripture today is the fourth, and most extensive and detailed of the Servant Songs. And it makes it clear for us, when viewed through the lens of the crucifixion, who the Suffering Servant is, Jesus Christ.

 

Our passage opens in Isaiah 52:13 with God saying, “See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.” That’s praise and glory language. That’s the language of victory… of triumph… of kings. That’s the kind of stuff we sing as we praise and worship our God for who He is and what He’s done.

But then—immediately—we’re told something that doesn’t make sense with that language, something that doesn’t fit. God says in v.14, “Just as there were many who were appalled at him,” Appalled? What could be so appalling about God’s wise servant who will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted?

 

He goes on to add, “his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness,” whoa. When people look at God’s Servant, who God is exalting like a conquering king, rather than rejoicing they are shocked. They are shocked because his appearance is so marred… so disfigured… that He barely even looks human.

 

Look at what God goes on to say in v.15, “So he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.” God’s wise and highly exalted servant who is at the same time marred and disfigured is going to shut the mouths of kings and sprinkle many nations.

 

This sprinkling isn’t explained here, but it does introduce the idea of sacrifice. The word used for sprinkle is the same word used in Leviticus that refers to the sprinkling of sacrificial blood on an altar. So God is saying that His wise and exalted servant is going to also going to shock many by his appearance, while offering some sacrifice that will cause kings to shut their mouths, as well as reveal to them the things they were not told.

 

Right away we have confusion here about God’s servant. Is He exalted… or is He destroyed? Is this glory… or is this suffering? Which is it? Somehow the answer is both. God wasn’t kidding when He says later in Isaiah 55:9, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

 

The answer is somehow both, and we don’t need to fully understand how but we do need to accept it because it’s the truth. But at this point in our passage, and in history, no one sees that.

 

Now the voice shifts. It’s no longer God talking, but a group of witnesses. The “we” speak. Isa. 53:1 begins with “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Who actually saw this for what it was? Clearly, they’ve figured something out after the fact. Hindsight sure is 20/20. The truth is almost no one. What’s said here about God’s Servant is hard to believe! It contains some astonishing truths that anyone would have difficulty accepting. But belief and trust are always at the heart of every person’s relationship to God, but God sometimes reveals things that are hard for people to accept.

 

Our passage tells us that he grew up like a tender shoot, like a root out of dry ground. While that language certainly points us to other Scripture that refers to the Messiah, to Jesus, as the root of Jesse and a shoot from the stump of Jesse (a descendant of David), the more telling part is the dry ground.

 

Israel’s climate is a lot like ours. They get the majority of their rain for growing crops twice a year, and the rest of the time they are a desert. If not for the rain they could grow nothing, their land would be desolate. But the reality is that because of their sin, they were living in a spiritual desert, a desolate and spiritual wasteland where nothing could grow.

 

But this report from the witnesses says that the Servant grew up before God, but that He grew up like an ordinary man. No beauty, no majesty, nothing that made people want Him. Instead of being drawn to the Servant… the Servant was despised. Instead of being desired… the Servant was rejected.

 

Remember my sermon last week? When the Word, the life that was the light of all mankind, came into the world that He had created, the world didn’t know Him. When He came to His own people, they did not receive Him; they rejected Him.

 

Instead, the Servant was a man of suffering, He was familiar with pain. And the people hid their faces. He was despised, and even though God said His servant would be highly exalted, at this point He was held in low esteem.

 

That’s not just ancient history. That’s the natural posture of the human heart. Because of our sin we also lived in a desolate and spiritual wasteland where nothing could grow. We looked at Him and decided He wasn’t worth our attention. Left to ourselves we don’t run to Christ, we hide our faces, we turn away.

But then, right in the middle of the passage, everything changes. V.4, “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering.” Do you hear the shift? At first it was: “We saw… we judged… we dismissed… we hid our faces and turned away.” But now: “We were wrong.”

 

Now they see. Now those who witnessed the ministry of the Suffering Servant see that they were wrong. We considered him punished by God, stricken and afflicted by God, but surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering.

 

We thought God was punishing Him, we thought He was suffering for His own sin. But the truth they realized is found in v.5 – 6… He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. By His wounds we are healed. Every one of us like sheep have gone astray, we have willfully turned to our own way, and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

 

They have finally seen the truth; they have finally seen the light. The truth out passage reveals today is that God saved His people by placing their sin on His servant and judging and punishing Him in their place.

 

This is not general suffering. This is not an example of suffering for us to relate to. This is substitutionary atonement. This is God taking the full weight of sin… the sin of every single believer… and placing it on a substitute.

 

Paul wrote in Romans 6:23, “for the wages of sin is death…” Sin, all sin, always comes with a price, and that price is death. And God’s Servant took that punishment on Himself for His people to make atonement, to pay the price of their sin.

 

This is not potential atonement. This not Christ making salvation merely possible. This is Christ actually bearing sin… actually satisfying God’s wrath and justice… actually securing righteousness for His people. Our passage says, “He will justify many.” Not He might, not potentially, but certainly and effectively.

 

By His wounds, we are spiritually healed, washed by His blood and the living water only He gives, our relationship with God restored.

 

And how does the Servant respond? V.7, “He was oppressed… and He was afflicted… like a lamb being led to slaughter… and a sheep being sheared… yet He did not open His mouth.” No defense. No resistance. No escape. Silent. Why? Why did the Servant of God remain silent while all of this was happening?

 

Because this isn’t happening to Him. It’s happening for His people. By oppression and judgement He was taken away, He was cut off from the land of the living, He was killed! And yet, no one protested. Not even the ones He came to save.

 

The ones who should’ve known Him, the religious elite of Jesus’ day should have known who He was, and it was them who had Him crucified. It was the crowds that came to watch Him heal and drive out demons that later yelled in unison, “Crucify Him!” Even His disciples remained quiet. All but John scattered and hid, while John stood at the foot of the cross and just watched.

 

But again our passage tells us, all of this was for His people. For the transgressions of my people He was punished. He was killed for the sins of His people. And He was assigned a grave among the wicked, criminals, and the rich. Understand that often the rich were guilty of being wicked. But also look at the tomb Christ was laid in. Scripture tells us that Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy man, though not seemingly wicked.

 

The Servant of God was cut off from the land of the living, struck down and killed, and buried even though He had done no violence, He had never spoken any deceit. He was completely innocent. And yet the innocent one, the righteous one, was dead.

 

And if you can picture yourself standing there watching that moment… you think you understand it. You think it’s defeat, you think it’s judgement on Him. You think it’s the end. But the rest of our passage reveals what’s really going on here.

 

V.10, “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer…” This was not tragedy, this was sovereignty.” This was not an accident; this was by design. God was not reacting in that moment; He was accomplishing what He had purposed from the very beginning. Why?

 

 

God’s punishment of sin, His love for His people, and His plans to ultimately establish his worldwide kingdom required the removal of guilt to form a holy people. And the Servant willingly offered Himself as a guilt offering for His people. He willingly offered Himself as the payment to God for the sin of His people.

 

Because the Lord made his life an offering for sin. God willed, desired, and was pleased to do this to His Servant because of what it would accomplish for sinners, for you, and for me.

 

It was God’s will that the Servant’s death would pay the price required for reparation and atonement so that guilt, your guilt, could be removed and a new relationship restored between God and sinners. Because through His suffering, many would be counted righteous, justified by faith in Christ in alone, because He bore their iniquities on the cross.

 

And then—just as suddenly as the suffering came in our passage today—the victory appears: “He will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand,” and “After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.”

 

The Servant died, Christ died, but He didn’t stay dead. He rose from the dead because He is the light of life, the grave could not hold Him, and He was given a portion among the great, indeed Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

 

On the cross, Christ’s work of redemption was completed. As our passage ends, “because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

 

Because Christ gave Himself fully for you, paying the price for your sin, today I want to encourage you to give yourself fully to Him.

 

The Servant lives. The One who was crushed… didn’t stay in the grave and instead He is risen and exalted. The One who bore sin… now justifies sinners. And He intercedes for you before the Father. So now the question is simple… but it’s everything: When you look at the cross… what do you see?

 

Because last week I said: If you want to know what God is like—look at Jesus. And now you are looking at Him… on the cross. Crushed. Pierced. Despised and Rejected. Do you understand what you’re seeing?

 

Because if you don’t, you’ll walk away thinking it’s just another tragic death. You’ll walk away believing that His suffering, His sacrifice, His death has no bearing on your life.

 

Paul sums it up so well when he writes in Philippians 2:6 – 8, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

 

Do you see the progression here? You have to get what I preached on last week right, that Jesus Christ is God and then you have to get this week right, that He humbled Himself and willing went to the cross for your sin.

 

If you get this right… then you’ll realize that this is the moment where God Himself was saving His people. God the Son took on flesh and dwelt, tabernacled, among His people to perfectly reveal the Father. That revelation included revealing God’s will in saving His people. That revelation is that God Himself came down to save you from your sin.

 

This was your sin… placed on Him. This was your guilt… paid in full by Christ on the cross. And that means you don’t walk away from this realization unchanged. You can’t. God’s grace is irresistible. When you truly recognize and receive God’s grace, it’s so amazing you can’t resist.

 

This is the good news of the gospel, that you were dead in your sins, and you were powerless to save yourself. But as Paul writes in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

Christ did this for you so that you could know God and have a relationship with Him. So here’s my question for you, what are you going to do with that? That’s life changing news. It’s news that calls you to surrender your life to Christ.

Not partially, not casually, not when it’s convenient, but fully. Your sin laid down, your striving laid down, your life laid down because Christ laid His down for you. And here’s the beauty of it, you’re not giving yourself to Christ to earn anything. You can’t earn your salvation.

 

You’re giving yourself to Christ because He’s already accomplished everything. He already bore your sin, He already secured your place and justified you, and He already finished the work so trust Him.

 

So, you can stop carrying the guilt Christ already carried for you. Maybe you keep going back to sins He’s already paid for, maybe you replay your guilt, carrying the shame from your sin, trying to make up for it.

This week, when that guilt comes back, don’t sit in it—sit in the finished work of Christ on the cross. Say to yourself, “Christ already paid for that.” Then thank God—out loud if you have to—for the cross.

 

You can replace performance with trust in your daily walk with God. Maybe you’re still living like God’s acceptance depends on you, like the gospel isn’t enough.

 

So, I want you to pick one area this week where you might try to “earn” God’s favor (Bible reading, prayer, serving, helping those in need, etc.) and consciously shift your mindset. Remind yourself: “I’m already accepted because of Christ.” Then do it from joy—not pressure.

 

You can give one area of your life fully to Christ this week. You might have something in your life you haven’t surrendered to Christ yet. A sin. A habit. Control. Don’t leave it vague, I want you to name it, confess it to God, and intentionally turn from it this week—and tell another believer that you trust for accountability so you don’t go back. And once you’ve fully surrendered that area to Christ, surrender another.

 

And all of us need to go and tell someone about Jesus. Not a sermon, just a sentence. Just tell someone this week: “Jesus didn’t just die… He died in our place.” And let the conversation go from there.

 

Because Christ gave Himself fully for you… paying the price for your sin… so now— give yourself fully to Him. Not halfway, not later, but fully. That’s the cross, and that demands a response.