Christmas 2023, Is.

53

Good morning. What a wonderful blessing to have the children up here this morning,
leading us in singing praise to our Lord Jesus, “bow down and worship, come rest your
eyes on the king!” Hear, hear! And may the reading of the Christmas story from Luke
chapter 2 never grow old, but always bring remembrance and hope to our ears.

I trust you have also enjoyed the advent readings as much as I have. They fill in the gaps
to provide a full picture of the first advent of our Lord Jesus. A couple of weeks ago
Dottie and Walter came up and read Matthew chapter 2, including Herod’s interesting
response when he heard that Jesus had been born and people were already coming to
worship him. And Matt. 2:3 says when Herod heard this, He was troubled, and all
Jerusalem with him. Begs the question, doesn’t it, why was Herod troubled? That gave
me an idea that a fine Christmas text for today might be John 3:19, which says that “the
Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for
their deeds were evil.”

At Bethlehem, Light invaded a dark world, and King Herod provides a classic illustration
of men loving darkness rather than the light. Herod’s deeds were dark indeed. He
murdered his favorite wife, his wife’s brother, and both of his own sons. His favorite
sport was to watch while hundreds of his subjects were crucified in front of him while
he looked on, getting drunk. Herod had the leading citizens in his realm arrested days
before his death and gave instructions that immediately upon news of his own death
that they were all to be murdered. If ever there was a man that loves darkness rather
than the Light, it was Herod. So, when the Light came into the world and Herod heard
about it, what did he do? He sent and murdered the babies of Bethlehem in an effort to
overcome the Light with the power of darkness. But He failed.

Herod wasn’t the only one troubled. All of Jerusalem was, too. One of the reasons I
have observed that people avoid talking about Jesus any time of year, and especially at
Christmas time, is that our Savior troubles them. Many unbelievers are not just
uncomfortable when it comes to Christ. Sometimes they have very visceral reactions,
like Herod. People hate the light because of what it reveals. It shows us as we are—
where we are and what we are. It shows what a dark place the world is, and how dark
and evil human beings are. But anyone who is living by the truth will come to the light
to make it plain that all he has done has been done through God. What a great text
John 3:19-21, and that is not even our main text for today.

I promised last time that we would take a peek under the hood at Isaiah 53 today and
we will read Isaiah 52:13-53:12 in its entirety. I believe this is the ultimate text for any
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day, and certainly at Christmas, as we focus our attention on the gospel, the good news
of Jesus Christ. Let me give you a brief introduction first, and then we will read the
passage and I will draw attention to something that I think we can miss at Christmas if
we are not careful—a key element in God’s plan of salvation, the very goals of all of
God’s plans are made plain for us in Isaiah 53, and there is a key element that I am
convinced the Lord would have us elevate in our thinking as His goal for Christmas,
which of course must then also be our goal for Christmas, too.

What we call Isaiah 53 is really Isaiah 52:13-53:12. It is the greatest prophecy of the Old
Testament and the most quoted OT passage in the New Testament. It has been called
the Mount Everest of Messianic prophecy, from which you can see farthest than from
any other place in the Old Testament. It has been called the most influential poem in
any literature, the most important OT passage for the Church, and the jewel in the
crown of Isaiah’s theology, the focal point of his vision. Puritan minister Thomas Calvert
called it the marrow of the Gospel. Spurgeon said it is the Gospel in its essence. At the
time of its writing by Isaiah some 700 years before the birth of Christ it was perhaps the
most enigmatic passage in all of Scripture. It couldn’t be fully understood in the days
before Christ, when it must have seemed an insoluble riddle. But it is a straightforward
prophecy of Jesus Christ having been solved by the life, sufferings, death, resurrection
and exaltation of the One who is both the Son of Man and the Son of God. Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, and 1 Peter all quote Isaiah 53 as Messianic, as
referring to Christ. Jesus said it referred to himself in Luke 22 when He quoted Is. 53,
saying (Luke 22:37), “For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in Me,
‘AND HE WAS NUMBERED WITH TRANSGRESSORS’; for that which refers to Me has its
fulfillment.”

Now, just a brief word about the structure of Isaiah 53 and we’ll get to reading. We’ve
said before that Isaiah is broken up broadly into two parts: the first 39 chapters
primarily address God’s judgment upon Judah for her sins, with Isaiah addressing the
people of his own day. Then chapter 40-66 looks some 150 years into the future and
makes prophecies of comfort to the Jews in exile, assurance of salvation in the near
future from Babylon, spiritual deliverance in the distant future by the Servant of the
Lord, and future glory of the delivered people of God in the millennium and in the
eternal state.

You may recall our recurring study and interpretation of chiasms. Isaiah uses them
frequently. Chiasm is a way of layering words and themes. In a chiasm parallel lines of
text are arranged in a pattern, such as A-B-C-B-A. The A lines are related in topic or
meaning, as are the B lines, and the C line in the middle is either the central point of
emphasis or possesses an intensification of meaning. Well, in a sense the entire second

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half of Isaiah from chapter 40-66 has an element of chiastic arrangement and emphasis
to it, as Isaiah 53 is the C line of these 27 chapters. It’s right in the middle. And Isaiah
53 itself is an elaborate chiasm, made up of 5 stanzas, 3 verses each. Turn with me now
if you are not already there to Isaiah chapter 53.

The Exalted Servant (Stanza 1), Is. 52:13 {SLIDE 1}

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Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.
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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. 15 Thus He will sprinkle
many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what had not been
told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand.

The Suffering Servant (Stanza 2) {SLIDE 2}

53 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been
revealed? 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. 3 He was despised and forsaken
of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men
hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
{SLIDE 3} (Stanza 3) 4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 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.
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All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But
the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
{SLIDE 4} (Stanza 4) 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. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken
away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land
of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? 9 His
grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
{SLIDE 5} (Stanza 5) 10 But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will
prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 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.
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Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with
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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.
May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His precious word. Now we are going to
spend time in future weeks studying this immense passage, but there is something the
chiastic structure of Isaiah 53 points to which I think we may not always emphasize as
much as Scripture does. I would encourage you to go back and re-read Isaiah 53 and
these 5 stanzas and consider a few things.
Stanzas number 1 and number 5 both deal with the exaltation of the Servant and the
glorious success of His mission. For example, let’s look at the beginning, chapter 52 at
verse 13. And for those of you in David Hungate’s learning center, this has something in
common with what we looked at in Joshua chapter 6 last week. Before anything in the
chain of events in conquering Jericho happened, the Lord told Joshua, “I have given
Jericho into your hands.” He tells Joshua the goal, the end before the beginning, the
conquest, had even started. That’s what’s happening here in Isaiah 52:13. God
announces the outcome of the Servant, Jesus the Messiah’s, life at the very beginning,
in effect announcing to us the goal of God’s plans before He tells us His plans.
Verse 13, Behold, My servant will prosper. The Hebrew word translated prosper there
means my Servant will be successful. He will accomplish the task I have set out for Him.
We aren’t going to spend a lot of time on it this morning, but the servant’s task is
detailed for us in the center of the chiasm in stanza 3, verses 4-6, where his
substitutionary death on behalf of His people is described. As a consequence of the
servant’s success, God will reward Him. Verse 13 continues, He will be high and lifted
up and greatly exalted. Three Hebrew verbs reveal the Servant’s successful dealing and
His reward.
The first Hebrew verb translated high means “to rise up” so a more literal translation
would be He will “rise up.” The second verb translated “lifted up” literally means “to be
lifted up,” and the third verb translated “greatly exalted” means “to be very high.”
These three Hebrew verbs I am persuaded (along with the likes of Franz Delitzsch and
others) denote the commencement, the continuation, and the result or climax of the
exaltation. There are three principal steps of Christ’s exaltation in view here that are
historically fulfilled: His resurrection (He will rise up), His ascension (He will be lifted up),
and His final exaltation to the Father’s right hand (where He will be very high.) The
Apostle Paul speaks to that final exaltation in Phil. 2:7-9 {SLIDE 6} when he says Jesus
emptied and humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross, and
for that reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name above every other name
that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW…in heaven and on earth and under

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the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father. Now that is exaltation!
We’ve got a whole lot more to dig into here in Isaiah chapter 53 in future weeks. In the
middle three stanzas we are going to learn that before the exaltation of the servant
comes, He’s going to suffer. That is the task He was commissioned to do. He will in fact
suffer so severely that no one would ever expect that He would be exalted. Observers
will be shocked, silenced, in part because they will misunderstand why the servant
suffered. Stanzas 2 and 4 will address the misperceptions by the servant’s people, of His
birth and life in stanza 2, and of His death in stanza 4. Stanza 3 in the center, verses 4-6,
are going to tell us why He suffered. In short, He suffered as a substitute for us, taking
on himself the guilt for our sin and God’s punishment against our sin on himself instead
of that punishment falling on us. We’ll dig into all of that, and end where we began,
exalting Jesus, the Servant-Messiah in stanza 5, all in the fulness of time, Lord willing.
We’ve been studying with David Zinn on the life of Joseph, and Joseph of course is a
type of Christ. By that I mean God’s plan of salvation through the life of Christ is
illustrated in the life of Joseph, including his exaltation to the highest seat of power in all
the land of Egypt, just as Christ was exalted to the highest seat in the universe, at the
right hand of God the Father. And we have seen that exaltation earlier in Isaiah, at his
commissioning back in chapter 6, when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up in the
temple.
I am persuaded that the goal of Christmas for us must be to give equal emphasis, equal
remembrance, to both our Lord and Servant-Messiah’s coming to suffer on our behalf
and on His consequent exaltation. They are revealed to us in Isaiah 53 with equal
emphasis. Christian author Matthew Bates writes that “…arguably, the cross is the
dramatic center of the gospel story, with the resurrection as the denouement. The
cross is essential to the gospel and is theologically central. Yet, the gospel climax, the
theological point that receives the most emphasis in the Bible’s own descriptions of the
gospel, is that Jesus is the Christ, the king.”
I think we do well to remember Jesus at Christmas from his humble beginning born in
the flesh at His first advent….but let’s complete the thought by remembering all of
God’s plan as we remember Jesus’ ultimate exaltation to glory as Lord and King by the
Father and let us exalt Him at Christmas accordingly. God the Father exalted Him to His
rightful place; that was the Father’s plan, His goal. Should we not also? He was
resurrected, ascended to heaven, exalted to the highest place in the universe and He
shall reign, high and lifted up, forever and ever. Amen.
The music team is going to come up now, and we will sing praise to our king and exalt
Him. I pray that your goal for Christmas will be to remember the Lord Jesus’ birth, His
coming to be our substitutionary sacrifice at the Cross, and His exaltation to glory as
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Lord and King for us, for all that He has done. That should be the ultimate goal of
Christmas. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for the wonderful gift you provided to us at the first
Christmas through the birth of your Son. Love come down to live among us, and make
himself a sacrifice for our sins. We thank you for it, we know God the Father has exalted
you for it, and so we exalt you for it. We lift you high, esteem you above all else, and we
lift your name on high, and confess that you are Lord, to the glory of God the Father,
amen.
Is. 9:6-7