Today, I am going to talk about something that I don’t think I’ve ever talked about before, except during communion. In fact, I thought about holding off on this topic for a week, but the Lord kept prompting me to do this sermon this week.
It’s a great sermon for not only communion Sunday, but also for Easter. It’s also a sermon topic that I think is easy to take for granted because we pastors think everyone knows this already, so we just move on.
I was having yet another one of those lengthy Facebook Messenger conversations that kept going around in circles. And it occurred to me that the person I was talking with is further away from evangelical theology than I thought. It’s easy to take things for granted, especially when you’re a pastor. It’s easy to think that they automatically know where I’m coming from.
So today, I want to tackle a topic where we look at something fundamental, but no matter who you are, we all need reminding.
If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Isaiah 53. We’re going to read the whole chapter, but we’re not going to discuss the whole chapter. The main point will be verses 4-6, but in this instance, the concept of those verses is surrounded by the whole chapter.
As you’re turning there, I came across something that I wrote in seminary, and I would like to read it to you this morning.
When we read through the Lord’s instructions for Israel’s commemoration of Holy Days in the Old Testament, we often just read through—sometimes skipping over—not understanding its meaning for us today. But there is a New Testament connection which God had ordained in the celebrations of the Holy Days that, upon a closer look, points to Jesus as the Messiah.
In the book of Leviticus, God ordained five major Holy Days: Passover (with the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Feast of First Fruits); Pentecost or Shavuoth; Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah; The Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur; and The Feast of Tabernacles or Succoth or Feast of Ingathering.
We can look at each of these in particular to examine the Christ symbolism, but for the sake of brevity, let us just take a look at one: The Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. “This is considered Israel’s most solemn Holy Day since it was exclusively concerned with atoning for the sin of the people” (biblestudytools.com). To read the stipulations of this covenant in full, the texts can be found in Leviticus 16 and 23:10-32.
In short, “The Day of Atonement comes in the 10th of the seventh month and is a day of awe or fasting and repentance. It is the day that the High Priest would enter into the Holiest of Holies and offer the sin offering for the whole nation” (Edwards, 117).
The high priest would have two goats, and with the casting of lots (Matt. 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:24), would choose one to sacrifice and the other as a scapegoat, which would be released into the wilderness to symbolize the taking away of our sins “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12).
The high priest would sprinkle the blood of the sacrificed goat and a sacrificed bull onto the mercy seat of God, which was on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant, between the two Seraphim. The Ark was placed behind the inner veil of the tabernacle, called the Holy of Holies, where God dwelt.
The Book of Hebrews, Chapter 9, explains this entire concept in further detail. Christ is our high priest who, “did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12).
“The Gospels, similarly, teach that the curtain between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place split open at the moment of Christ’s death in proof that the final and perfect atonement for sin had been made (Matt 27:51 ; Mark 15:38 ; Luke 23:45 )” (biblestudytools.com).
So let’s take a look at how our scripture in Isaiah correlates with this.
1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, 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.
Sounds like someone you may have heard of? How could that have been written 700 years before Christ?
But unfortunately, our Jewish friends still don’t understand that that prophecy, along with about 400 other ones, was fulfilled in one man, Jesus, the Son of God.
And because Jesus fulfilled all of those prophecies, we can have right standing before God because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever, whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
I said earlier that I am going to emphasize verses 4-6. David Thompson comments that “The general consensus of serious Bible expositors is that when we come to Isaiah 53 we better tread lightly, kneel reverently, and speak softly because “the Lord is here.” Never is that reality truer than when you come to Isaiah 53:4-6.”
Verse 4 again says,
“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.”
It isn’t fair, is it, that we live in a world where some people are healed, and others aren’t. We don’t know why. It’s like the sermon I gave a few weeks ago on why the wicked are prospering. We’re seeing that in the news yet again, and even still.
Jesus took our pain and bore our suffering. Is that a promise as to everyone who is in Christ being healed of everything all the time? If we’re not healed, does that mean we’re far away from Christ, or that we committed some sin, or that we need to repent of some sin in order for God to heal us?
I’m sure you’re aware of some people–even in the pulpit–who thought so.
John MacArthur, who recently passed away, said both physical healing and ultimate victory over death are guaranteed by Christ’s atoning work, but these will not be fully realized until the very end (1Co 15:26).
But if we go to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 8, we read, “16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.””
If we go to 1 Corinthians 15, the great chapter on the Resurrection, we read, The last enemy to be destroyed is death. If we skip down to verses 54-57, we read, 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written [in Hosea] will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice, the victory is through Jesus, because of the cross.
Warren Wiersbe adds that “Every blessing we have in the Christian life comes because of the Cross, but this verse does not teach that there is “healing in the atonement” and that every believer therefore has the “right” to be healed. The prophecy was fulfilled during our Lord’s life, not His death.”
That does not mean, however, that God can’t and won’t heal still today. We’ve seen it happen through our prayers, through the gift of physicians, and maybe even miraculously. God does still work miracles, and it’s because of the cross. The blood of Jesus. We can’t predict who, when, where, or how. And that’s because healing is not dependent upon us; it’s dependent upon God’s sovereignty. He chooses based on his sovereign will.
God said to Moses, and Paul reiterated in Romans, God’s own words: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
And just as an aside, I believe that’s where those who have never heard the gospel–and I would even go so far as to include at least some Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Progressive Christians come in. Because I think they want to know God deep down, but I don’t think they understand they’re being deceived. I can’t say whom in particular, only God can, but God, again in his sovereignty, can and will have mercy on whom He chooses.
So pray for your friends and family members. That God would have mercy on them, better yet, that they would come to know Him. That they would come to know what we are about to read next.
Verse 5, which kind of sandwiches healing with redemption.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
I like the way the King James puts it:
KJV Isaiah 53:5 “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
The New Living Translation says:
NLT Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.”
You’ll notice that in each translation, it doesn’t begin with ‘he,’ it begins with ‘but he.’ After having read that verse dozens of times, it struck me. Why is that? Why does it start that way?
It’s a continuation of verse 4: we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. Cursed by God. In Galatians 3:13, we read, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written [in Deuteronomy], ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (ESV). Jesus was cursed for us, hanging on the cross as a substitute for our sins. The Mosaic law was a foreshadowing–or yet another one of the 400 prophecies of Christ.
Another interesting detail is that in the Book of Acts, the cross of Christ was referred to as a “tree.”
Acts 5:30 states, “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree” (ESV). Acts 10:39 says, “They put him to death by hanging him on a tree” (ESV). See also Acts 13:29. But he was not. Instead, he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
Dr. S. Lewis Johnson called this “The Great Reversal.”
We are cursed because of our sins, yet Jesus became a curse for us so that we may no longer be cursed. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. We don’t have to suffer to be at peace with God. That’s not even in the cards.
Professor Edward Young said this, “So prominent is the idea of substitution that one scholar, by no means a conservative felt compelled to write, substitutionary suffering is expressed in this divine oracle, in not less than five sentences. It is as though God could not do enough to make this clear.”
And God certainly makes it clear by saying it over and over again in the New Testament. I’ve given you several quotes from Matthew, 1 Cor., Galatians, Acts, here’s another from Colossians:
And through Him [Jesus] to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say [that is Paul], whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach (Colossians 1:20-22+).
Another flashback to seminary. When we studied the cross, we also studied a long theological word, propitiation. The word propitiation carries the basic idea of appeasement or satisfaction, specifically toward God. Propitiation is a two-part act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person and being reconciled to him.
Jesus was the propitiation of our sins. The Gospel of John begins with Jesus being “The Word.” If you remember from sermons past, it’s an odd translation because we don’t have a word for the Greek word, logos.
Gotquestions helps clear this up: Logos is the Greek term translated as “word,” “speech,” “principle,” or “thought.” In Greek philosophy, it also referred to a universal, divine reason or the mind of God.
So Jesus is the divine reason, the mind of God, God himself, and came as a bridge between God and man. On the cross, Jesus truly became that bridge. He bridged that gap between us and God. He gave us a right relationship with God.
Speaking of Greek, before we move on to verse 6, I do want to tackle the subject of healing again, because it appears at the end of verse 5.
According to Precept Austin, the Greek phrase, “we are healed,” comes from (rapha/rophe), which means to be made healthy, to be cured. Sin gave us a mortal blow, but the scourging of our Suffering Servant reversed the curse and gave us an eternal cure.
It goes on to say that this phrase has the basic idea of restoring something to its original condition, its original wholeness. Adam originally was perfect (“whole”) but his sin left a “hole” (“God shaped vacuum”) in his soul (and our soul, cf Ro 5:12+, cf 1 Cor 15:22), one which the Redeemer will repair to its original wholeness for all who by faith receive the miraculous, regenerating treatment from the Great Physician. In fact, all who receive Messiah’s “healing” touch shall be healed even more than Adam even in his original sinless condition (when apparently he walked with God in the Garden in perfect fellowship – cf Ge 3:8+), for John says “We know that when He (MESSIAH) appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” (1 Jn 3:2+, cf 1 Cor 15:42-45, 51, 52, 53, 54). Glorified in immortal, imperishable bodies and forever like our Suffering Servant!
Imagine our loved ones in Heaven, ourselves one day.
I’m going to go through verse 6 rather quickly.
It sums up verses 4 and 5 by saying: We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Of us all. Not just the Jews, but everyone. Remember, at the beginning of this sermon, I quoted John 3:16 and emphasized “whosoever?” Paul says in Romans, 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
I used to be all for the death penalty. I’m not sure exactly where I stand on it now because there are people on death row who have waited there a long time who have come to Christ. Those who have been in prison for life have come to Christ. What if someone on death row is executed, but had they not been, would have come to Christ?
Not to get into that whole subject, but we have to realize, even the hardest hearts–those who have done the unthinkable can and do turn to Christ. The invitation is for ‘the whosoever will,” as my dad used to phrase it.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Last week, I mentioned mortal sins vs. venial sins. I never knew what those words meant until I was studying for that sermon. There are no such things as big sins or little sins when it comes to separating ourselves from God in the here and now, and eternally. I believe there is a difference in the way in which a person is eternally punished. But not the overall separation.
Who is guilty? Who is worthy of separation? We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to our own way. We are all guilty, aren’t we? So what is the answer? It is simple, yet profound. It is an amazing relief, a burden off our shoulders, yet offensive.
How is it offensive? Because it is free for all–like I said, the whosoever will, but with a condition. You must place your faith in Christ alone and repent.
6 Jesus [said], “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
And how did Jesus make a way through him? The Lord [God the Father] has laid on him, Jesus, the iniquity of us all.
There is no other way. We can’t be good enough, we can’t be religious enough. Just because I am a pastor, I do not get a free pass; I do not have any diplomatic immunity; no special privileges; no exemptions. In fact, I’m judged even more. Last week, when I quoted out of James regarding taming the tongue, he also said, in that same passage, that “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”
So what is our great hope? How can we make ourselves right with God? Like I said, it is a simple, liberating answer. Paul said to the Ephesian church (paraphrasing), it is by faith in the cross. It does not come from ourselves, but it is a gift from God. Remember when Jesus said that we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, and asked how much more will our Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him? Talk about a good gift!
The gift of salvation.
But like I said, there is one condition to the gift. Repent, which means to turn around and follow Him, not the world and not ourselves. Turn around, abandon our old self, and increase in Him through the power of the Holy Spirit.
