BEHOLD THE PROMISE OF GOD
Isaiah 53:10-11
BEHOLD THE PROMISE OF GOD Isaiah 53
April 17, 2022
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 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. 1
Are you the kind of person who watches movies, especially mysteries, and tries to figure out who done it before the reveal? Whether it’s the latest version of “Death on the Nile” or maybe “Knives Out” I am intrigued by these stories where the great detective finally unveils the true culprit at the end of the film all while I was trying to figure it out beforehand.
With the growth of the internet and various YouTube channels and blogs focused on reviewing and explaining, and discussing any known “Easter Eggs” (appropriate for today – but in this case Easter Eggs refers to those elements in a story or film that point to secrets or callbacks to other stories or things the director or author just finds interesting) the phrase “SPOILER ALERT” often appears.
The warning is intended to keep those who do not want the surprise ending of stories or films ruined before they have the chance to see them. In other words, if you don’t want to know the surprise ending...stop reading or watching now. That’s the warning.
As we come together today to celebrate the pinnacle moment in Christendom, there truly should be no spoiler. The story has been told for over two-thousands years throughout the world. Yet, even so, there are many in our own community who do not truly know the story. There are many around the world, even in developed nations where Christianity has a storied history, where cathedrals and crucifixes abound, where many do not know the story.
I remember a few years back I was in the UK and talking with a missionary friend from Ireland. He was telling me how they share the gospel and the story of Christ through storying the Scriptures and how they have made some ground in their strongly atheistic, but overly religiously adorned village in western Ireland. It was a few weeks into the storying of the gospel where the neighbor stopped the story and said “Wait a minute? You mean we’re talking about Jesus? You mean the guy on the cross was real? This really happened? He was really killed on a cross? He did nothing wrong! That’s not just decoration in the chapels?”
Spoiler alert – it is real!
Happy Easter. Happy Resurrection Day.
It seems that there’s more to this day than pastel clothes, egg hunts, baskets, and those incredible Reese’s peanut butter eggs.
And surprise, surprise...God did not intend for his plan of redemption to be a secret. In fact, he had prepared his people for centuries prior to the cross for the day to come.
Look at these peeks into the future written hundreds of years before Jesus was born.
Psalm 16:10
10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption. 2
David, the Old Testament king wrote this psalm. It is a prayer to God. The word abandon along with the Hebrew preposition before it refers to leaving someone behind. In other words, this is not just a psalm speaking of God’s rescue from immediate danger, but of God’s resurrection from the dead. David does not want merely to be rescued in the now from the danger he faces, but to be saved from the death that is everyone’s destiny.
So...in this passage, David speaks of resurrection from the dead. Life beyond this life.
How does this relate to Jesus Christ? Because in what is known as the Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7) the word translated into English as “your holy one” is uniquely used to describe the coming Messiah.
So...when David says God will not “let your holy one see corruption” he is referencing the coming Christ.
It leads to David’s writings in Psalm 22. This Old Testament song reads like a play-by-play of Jesus’ death on the cross.
Psalm 22:1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my
groaning?
Christ even quoted it upon the cross. Then...we have Isaiah 53:10-11
The entirety of the chapter is clearly referencing Jesus Christ, and that is clear to us with Holy Spirit gifted 20/20 hindsight in our reading.
The Messiah spoken of in David’s covenant with God suffers, dies (Psalm 22), and is raised (Psalm 16:10.)
The prophet knew these psalms and knew the prophetic words describing the coming Messiah. Isaiah states “he shall see his offspring” states that the Messiah must be resurrected to see these who follow him, those who become his disciples, who live for him.
“He shall prolong his days” is stated and that word translated as prolong is often used to point to an everlasting afterlife.
Jesus, the coming Messiah, the Suffering Servant of God the Father, the Sacrifice for humanity, the bridge, the way, the truth, the life...was to die. But he would not remain dead.
We sing “Up from the ground he arose” and the triumph was clear in that moment. Out of the grave he came. From Sheol he marched free.
And these passages in the Old Testament lay the ground for our understanding of this truth.
These words in the Davidic Covenant and the psalms along with Isaiah’s prophetic statements clearly spoil the story.
Others were used by God to prepare the unveiling of Christ. Jonah’s three days in the belly of the fish correlate to the three days in the tomb. Hosea speaks of the third day where he will raise up. The word “revive”
appears throughout messianic prophecy and the defeat of the grave is stated over and again.
Christ arose on the third day. The third day is essential. It was the third day in God’s creation narrative of Genesis where it states...
Genesis 1:11-13
11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. 4
It was on day three that something from the ground came up and showed life. The plants yielded fruit on the third day. Trees bore fruit on the third day. Before the third day there was light and water and dirt. Yet on day three life sprung forth. You know how plants grow right? Seeds are planted and the seeds must die for life to sprout from them.
John 12:24
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.5
Spoiler Alert: That’s Jesus who said that and was telling his followers he would die just like that seed, then be resurrected.
People, I may not be able to convince you that Jesus rose from the dead, but by faith I believe it occurred and by faith, I believe God had been spoiling the story for centuries prior. Why? Because his plan was for the redemption of the lost, salvation for the people far from him, cure for the sick, and as Jesus stated himself when quoting the book of Isaiah, he came to...
Luke 4:18-19
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 6
But, back to Isaiah.
Isaiah 53:4-6
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
Rembrandt, one of the great artistic masters of history painted “The Raising of the Cross” around 1633. In this painting you can see Christ on the cross and people surrounding him seeking to raise him up. What’s
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.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7
interesting is in the middle of the painting, highlighted on the image here is a man with a beret seeking to help raise Christ.
That’s odd. Though Christ was not the European white guy depicted here, it was even more out of place to have some random guy with a beret on his head helping raise the Messiah to his execution.
Who is that guy?
Well...it’s Rembrandt.
He painted himself into the image.
There is much debate on what that meant. Some say it was emblematic of his struggle to make the image well. Yet, others see it more personal. More deeply personal.
Rembrandt is depicting the reality that he, though not physically there, was there at the cross. Just as you and I were there. How? Because it was our sins, the sins of all humanity throughout time that was being purchased, paid for, redeemed, and settled by the shed blood of Christ on that cross.
Jesus “carried our sorrows.” He was the “man of sorrows.” Not his sorrows, but our sorrows. The theological term is imputation – meaning that payment for guilty sins was to be paid, but in this case paid by one who did not deserve it, by one who did not sin. Paid on that cross for your account. For my account. And for all our accounts.
We...can now have a clean slate. If we would but receive this payment.
And Sunday, Easter, Resurrection Day is the key! For it is three days later after this cross that Jesus was revived, resurrected, alive again. Perfect and prepared for the next portion of the story.
The Messiah was to die and come back to life. – Spoiler Alert – God told us all this.
He would be like a see that would die so a plant could grow and sprout life – Spoiler Alert – Jesus told us this.
You can have life too, if you would but repent of your sin, acknowledge the depth of the deserved separation from God, and surrender your life to Christ as Lord. Be born again – anew. Be made over new. Be redone. Be cleansed.
Spoiler alert – He told us all this was the plan. This was the way. This is the way.
And today...this is your opportunity to say yes.
Footnotes
1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Is 53:10–11). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
2 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ps 16:10). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
3 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ps 22:1). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
4 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ge 1:11–13). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
5 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 12:24). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
6 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Lk 4:18–19). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
7 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Is 53:4–6). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
