It doesn’t take great insight to realize there are many problems in the world. Anyone who has listened to the news for any period of time can see there is much wrong. Daily there are reports from the Middle East about suicide bombings. School shootings are becoming less surprising than they once were. Divorces occur at an alarming rate, tearing apart the foundation upon which children’s lives rest. And we could point to many more evils and problems in our society.

However, there is one great problem that we would not necessarily know about just from observing life around us, and it is that every man is enslaved to sin, following Satan, and held captive by death. This has been the case from the point that Adam sinned in the garden. And it is the great problem which Scripture poses. God’s good creation has become enemy occupied territory, including his people. Man has chosen to worship the creation over the creator, to rebel against our Lord, and has become captive to Satan, sin, and death. As I mentioned last week, this is the problem which the rest of the Bible after Genesis three seeks to answer. How will this great problem be solved? How will God redeem his people?

Throughout the book of Isaiah, there have been many hints along the way. It’s as if Isaiah gives us a peek at the solution here and there, with the hints becoming greater as he progresses through the book. Yet, in Isaiah 52:13-53:12 Isaiah shows us the answer in about as clear of terms as we can see it. He shows his audience then (Israel) and the world now how it is that God will go about redeeming his people.

Therefore, this morning as we look at our text, I want to answer three questions: 1) What has God done to redeem his creation and his people which had fallen under the reign of another?, 2) What reality is brought about now that God has done his redeeming work?, and 3) What must be our response to what God has done?

Thus, let us now turn to our first question: What has God done to redeem his creation and his people which had fallen into captivity under the reign of Satan, sin, and death?

The Death, Burial, and Resurrection of the Christ (52:13-53:12)

The answer, briefly stated, is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Now, at first glance, that sounds odd to us. And without more information it would to anyone. After all, how does the death, burial, and resurrection of one man solve the problem of all of God’s people and all of creation being under the rule and reign of Satan, sin, and death?

The answer is in something that you would not have been able to see simply looking at Jesus death, burial, and resurrection. There was something more going on there than one could see with his eyes. And it is those details of what really went on with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ that Isaiah gives us in the text.

Isaiah begins the section in 52:13 speaking of the servant (whom we have identified as Jesus of Nazareth) being exalted, which would not have made sense to one witnessing the crucifixion. But soon the images Isaiah describes would fit what someone would have seen on that Friday as he was crucified. Isaiah describes his suffering in great detail. In 52:14 and 53:2-3 he describes what men thought of him, writing, “As many were astonished at you – his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind … For 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 and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Then in 53:7 and 9 we read more of his suffering as Isaiah writes, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. … And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.” And the end of 53:4 gives us the picture of what people thought as Isaiah writes, “We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

Thus, we read of the suffering, death, and burial of one who claimed to be the Son of God. No wonder those witnessing this scene esteemed Jesus to be stricken and smitten by God. To claim to be God’s Son is to claim equality with God. And in Deuteronomy 21:23 God had made clear that to be hanged on a tree is to bear the curse of God.

Therefore, what did the Jews think of Jesus as he hanged there on the cross suffocating and drowning in his own blood? They thought what any rationale person would have thought, namely, he is bearing the curse of God. He had claimed equality with God and now he was bearing the curse of God. And they were right!

There is simply no getting around that fact. As Jesus hanged there on the cross, suffocating and drowning in his own blood, he was bearing the curse of God for sin. The Jews’ estimation that Jesus was being stricken and smitten by God was indeed right.

What they didn’t understand (and what is the answer to how one man’s death could affect all of God’s people) is that he wasn’t dying for his own sins but theirs. Again, Isaiah writes, in 53:4-6, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every on to his own way; [we know this, this is our problem. And the solution?] and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

As Isaiah asks in 53:8, “Who considered that he was … stricken for the transgression of my people?” The answer is, “No one.” But that is exactly what happened?

As you could have looked up on the cross that day, you could not have seen merely with your eyes what was going on there. For it’s more than the suffering and blood and suffocating. It’s more than the mocking he received. What was going on there is that Christ was bearing the curse of God on the cross for their sins, for God had made him who knew no sin to suffer the penalty for sin that should have come to us. Christ paid our penalty as our substitute. Again, that’s why the title of King above his head is so important, for just as the king in the OT represented all the people, so Christ as our king represented all of us. And he died for us.

But there is more in this text, for we have only seen his death and burial, but that alone is not the gospel. The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Let me say this in clearer terms. The gospel is not simply the death of Christ for us. If I were attempting to share the gospel with someone on a deserted island, and I tell them of Jesus’ death and burial, and then as I’m getting ready to share with them the resurrection a helicopter comes down to take me back to the mainland so that the noise muffles the sound and they do not hear it, and so I say, “Oh well, I’m heading back.” That person has not heard the gospel. For if we are going to be vindicated before God, Christ must be vindicated, and that is done in the resurrection. This is why Paul can write in Romans 4:25, “He was raised for our justification” and in 1 Corinthians 15:17, ‘If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

However, Isaiah does address Christ’s exaltation, beginning the section declaring in 52:13, “Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.” Then he ends the section writing, “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see [seeing requires life] his offspring; he shall prolong his days [there it is again]; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered wit the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors” (53:10-12).

Just as Jesus is obedient to death, so the Father lifts him up, raising him from the dead and giving him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord. God has raised Jesus from the dead and declared him to be both Lord and Christ. We esteemed him smitten by God, which was right, but for our sins. God, however, has shown us who he truly is, the exalted King of the universe, both Lord and Christ.

So, how does this solve the problem of men being held captive by Satan, sin, and death? The answer is that in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, he deals with all that holds us captive. Through his death he deals with the penalty of our sin, taking the punishment we deserve. On the cross, he dies but also crushes the head of Satan, dealing him a lethal blow. And through his death and resurrection he destroys death, showing that in a world where death reigns, death does not reign over him, for he has overcome it. This is the answer to the great problem from the garden – the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, even foretold in Isaiah.

But what is the result of what Jesus has done.

God will therefore have a people for whom he will be their God (54:1-17)

The answer is that Jesus will gather many who will worship God as their God, as they will be his people. The answer is that from this world where God’s people are held captive, in enemy-occupied territory, God will gather a people for himself. He will have a people. Abraham’s offspring will be many. There will be a multitude who benefit from the work of Christ.

This is the declaration of Isaiah 54. Throughout this chapter God pictures Israel as hopeless in the terms of having many offspring. How will Abraham’s seed be a multitude is the question when they are rebellious and held captive by their sin? The answer was Isaiah 52:13-53:12. The result of that work by the servant is that now, though things looked helpless, Abraham’s offspring will be many. Israel will be numerous.

In Isaiah 54 God compares Israel to a barren woman in 1-3, a widow in 4-5, a divorced woman in 6-8, and a ruined city in 11-17. But God declares that the barren woman will have more children than another who is married and her offspring will possess the nations (54:3). He proclaims to the widow that he is her husband and redeemer (54:5). And he proclaims to the divorced woman that with great compassion he will gather her and pour out his everlasting love on her (54:7-8). Then, of the afflicted and ruined city he says that great shall be the peace of its children and no weapon that is fashioned against it will stand, for he will vindicate them (54:13, 17). But how can all of this be?

The answer goes back to the theme in Isaiah 52:13-53:12, reiterated in 54:9-10. There, Isaiah declares, “This is like the days of Noah to me; as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

That is to say, just as in Noah’s day, his wrath was satisfied toward those who lived after his judgment, so now God is free to pour out his mercy and love on his people, for his anger and wrath toward them has been satisfied in Christ. Therefore, God is now gathering a redeemed people for himself from all over the face of the earth. Abraham’s offspring will be many.

What then must be our response?

We must come to the Lord, being united with his Christ by faith (55:1-13)

Our response must be to obey that invitation in Isaiah 55:1: “Come.” God tells his people in Isaiah 55:3, “Come to me; heart, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.” Then again in verses 6-7, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near … for he will abundantly pardon.”

God’s command to come is not a burdensome command. It is not a command to come earn his approval. It is a command to come and buy without money to enjoy because of the work of another. It is to delight and be satisfied in him. His word goes out and will indeed bring people to him, so we must come (55:11).

And we know that to come is to believe. For the NT can say again and again that we are justified by faith, and if we believe in Christ, then we are in Christ, and if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise (Galatians 3:29). Therefore, we are part of that people of God as we place our faith in Christ. And as we place our faith in Christ, what is true of him becomes true of us. We are justified, vindication, and declared a son of God.

This is what God has done, the result, and what must be our response. And for those who respond in faith, we will know the blessings of a new, redeemed earth, one in which the results of the fall will be reversed. This is the vision Isaiah has as he ends Isaiah 55, writing in verse 13, “Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

Therefore, today, I urge you, if you do not belong to Christ, to believe. The command of the gospel is to believe or remain under God’s wrath, which you will know forever in hell. However, there is a great invitation because of what God has done in Christ. So, believe.

And if you are a believer this morning, may our response be to marvel at what God has done in Christ, to fight to exemplify the righteousness which has been bestowed on us, and to go and proclaim to others this message of the gospel that they too might respond in faith.

His grace will be with us. Amen.

THE SUFFERING SERVANT AND THE GREAT INVITATION