The Signs of Christmas

 Sermon Series

Sign #4: Prophecy That Describes the Savior: Part One

Isaiah 53

 Introduction

On January 13, 1982, the Boeing 737-200 registered as N62AF crashed into the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River just after take off from Washington National Airport. The Washington Postpublished a story about the then-unidentified survivor of the crash, Arland D. Williams Jr.:

“He was about 50 years old, one of half a dozen survivors clinging to twisted wreckage bobbing in the icy Potomac when the first helicopter arrived. To the copter’s two-man Park Police crew, he seemed the most alert. Life vests were dropped, then a flotation ball.

The man passed them to the others. On two occasions, the crew recalled last night, he handed away a lifeline from the hovering machine that could have dragged him to safety. The helicopter crew who rescued five people, the only persons who survived from the jetliner, lifted a woman to the riverbank, then dragged three more persons across the ice to safety. Then, the lifeline saved a woman who was trying to swim away from the sinking wreckage, and the helicopter pilot, Donald W. Usher, returned to the scene, but the man was gone.”

Arland D. Williams Jr. passed away the lifesaving line five times so that others in the icy waters of the Potomac could be saved. The repaired 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River at the crash site, which had been officially named the “Rochambeau Bridge”, was renamed the “Arland D. Williams Jr. Memorial Bridge” in his honor by the city government of the District of Columbia in March 1985. On June 6, 1983, Williams was posthumously awarded the United States Coast Guard’s Gold Lifesaving Medal in a White House Oval Office presentation to his family by President Ronald Reagan. Arland Williams passed the lifesaving line away to other five times.

Romans 5:7 “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We will see today that Jesus (who was without sin) gave his life for the world (who are sinners). And Christians are called to give their lives up so that others may hear the gospel.

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The book of Isaiah was written 800 years before Jesus Christ would be born into the world, but its’ prophetic descriptions of Christ are extremely precise. Isaiah 53 lists the most remarkable and specific prophecies of the atonement of the Messiah.

When the Ethiopian eunuch read Isaiah 53 in Acts 8:34-35 “And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.” Isaiah 53 is a promise. A promise to send a Savior and it was a promise of good news. The Israelites were eagerly waiting until the day when they could see what is described in this passage.

God allowed Isaiah, as if looking through a time telescope to see what Jesus would be like and then to tell others of his day – this is what the Promised One will be like. Today we know that Jesus fulfilled this prophecy and is exactly as he was described.

Prayer

The Promised King Would Be Rejected (vv. 1-2)

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 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.[1]

The prophet Isaiah begins the chapter is not referencing how many people have believed as a result of his preaching, but “the astonishing factors that would be hard for anyone to believe. Belief and trust are always at the heart of every person’s relationship to God, but sometimes God reveals things that are hard for a person to accept.”[2] He asks “Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” – as though he is looking around and not seeing anyone.

“Romans 10:16-17 “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Jesus’ birth, his appearance, his challenge to the religious leaders – all of his life would stand counter to all the world knew, and when he “turns the world upside down,” (turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, turns the money changer’s tables over, etc.) With this difficult message, it is God has to reveal Him to the hearts of men.

“to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed” God is omnipotent (all powerful), and all that He desires to happen will happen. So this revelation of the arm of God – is God’s omnipotent power displayed in the form of a suffering Savior. But this all-powerful God will show His power in a way not expected by the world.

It is my hope this morning that if you have never believed the Christmas story before that you will accept the good news of the promise of God and discover the true meaning of Christmas – not toys, not trees, or the terror of family coming over – but of a promise by God to send a Savior (a Messiah) to save mankind from his sin – and He is different than the Savior they were expecting.

The promised king is rejected because He enters the world in a quiet way.

“he grew up before him like a young plant” – This Promised One would not come into the world with pomp and circumstance, men would not watch him grow up, there would be no paparazzi.  He would not be in the public eye.  Only God would have His eye upon him. A shoot that grows out of the ground makes no noise – so the Promised One would make no loud noise about His arrival.

Many rejected Christ because of his humble background.  Jesus is called the Son of David – to be from David’s family lineage meant that there was a degree of honor.  But the king’s lineage had dried up and was not and grand as it had once been. A tender shoot would grow and the stump of a once great kingdom.

The Promised One’s family would be nothing great. Galilee especially was a looked down upon region.  People would even say, “Is this not the carpenter’s son?” (Matt. 13:55). “and like a root out of dry ground”, nothing green, nothing great, was expected, in a country of such bad reputation that it was thought no good thing could come out of it.

John 1:45-46 “Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”  Can this Jesus really be omnipotent God?

The promised king is rejected because of how he looked.

“he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” Many of the Jews would reject Christ simply because of the way He looked. Isaiah tells God’s people what the Christ would look like – he would be a man who would not stand out in a crowd, average in appearance but extraordinary in purpose.

Our world is so focused on image, name brands, trends, and fashion that we exchange our purpose for popularity. We swap the sacred for the secular – but the Promised One never would.

Philippians 2:8 talking about Jesus “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross!” Jesus was obedient to His Father His whole life, all the way until he said “It is finished.”  It was not His face that people would be drawn to, it would be His love. His face would be beaten beyond recognition, but there is no question of recognizing His love.

Christ’s face would be painted thousands of times by thousands of artists – but it is the story of his love told millions of times over that continues even today to turn the world upside down.

But why would the world reject such love? He was so lowly and unimpressive that our aspirations for power and reputation felt evil. His happy poverty made our wanting more and more feel foolish. His willingness to suffer for others made our craving for comforts feel selfish.  When we stand next to Jesus all of our flaws are shown as a light in the darkness. So, when we look at him, and our sin is exposed we despise him.

Are these feet ugly or beautiful?

Romans 10:14 “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?3 And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”” Whether you see Jesus and being beautiful, or someone to be despised and rejected all depends on if you understand His purpose.

This revealing of our flaws is not for condemnation but to show us that we need a Savior.  John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”[3]

The promised king is rejected because He takes on himself the pain and “suffering” of the world.

 “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.”

In Luke 2:52 in describing Jesus as a young man, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” Jesus had men’s favor but eventually these same people would grow to resent him, to reject him, and to despise him.  It was when he went out and began his ministry and to call out sin, to expose hypocrisy, and he showed where the world had turned from God.

“esteem” is an accounting term, so when mankind observes this suffering savior, they would add up where he came from, how he looked, all of it – and as a result of their addition it would result in zero; they “esteemed him not.”[4] In fact when they observed him, they would grow to despise him and reject Him from their lives.

(v. 3) Luke 23:18-19 “But they all cried out together, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas”— 19 a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder!” (v. 3) John 1:11 “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

Isaiah tells us that his will be “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” – The language indicates that this man would be known because of his suffering. It is not that he experienced suffering, “others connected his life and reputation to a time of great suffering. Suffering was not something that he was peripherally acquainted with on the rare occasion; it was a pivotal factor in his life.”[5]

Because of Christ’s humanity, He would completely understand what it would be like to be rejected, to be despised, He would know the humiliation in suffering, He would know what it is like to be looked down upon. This Messiah would know how you feel and will be able to help you through your heartache and despair because He has been through it Himself. There is one who knows; there is one who can empathize with your pain.

There is one who can carry you through.  There is one who is very acquainted with what you are going through. In Isaiah’s day they did not know His name – but they knew He would come.  Their Messiah would understand.  Today we know the name of the God who became man.  We know the name of the one who understands and can comfort us. His name is Jesus.

“He was despised and rejected by men, and as one from whom men hide their faces” – this is depicting a scene where people hide their faces because they do not want to see him or be reminded of this person. They would see a man suffering all this pain but they did not understand why. There are so many people who wear a cross of gold around their necks, but have no idea what it means. When we look on Jesus on the cross – what do you see? Like the feet of those who bring good news,” it all depends of what you do with the good news of the gospel.

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[1] Isaiah 53 is mentioned three times in the NT and each time is reference to Jesus; Matthew 8:17, Acts 8:32-25, 1 Peter 2:21-35.

[2] Gary Smith, The New American Commentary, Volume 15B, Isaiah 40-66 (Nashville, Tennessee; B& H Publishing, 2009) 444.

[3] “The first-person plural pronoun occurs ten times as Isaiah describes Christ’s suffering for us.” Herbert M. Wolf, Interpreting Isaiah, The Suffering and Glory of the Messiah (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Publishing, 1985) 216.

[4] J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, An Introduction & Commentary (Downers Grove, Illinois; IVP Academic, 1993) 429.

[5] Smith, 447.