Isaiah Lesson 69

of everything that you have to teach us and that you've given us through the words of your prophets,

Isaiah, and as we get into this section, the fourth servant song includes a lot of overviews, but now we're into this section that can be just read without titles or verse numbers, and people will see it and they say, well, that's talking about Jesus.

So now as we get to open it up, we pray, Father, that you give Jeff just the words to say that not only will our hearts be drawn in encouragement to you, but our hearts will be drawn in relationship with you, knowing who you are.

In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was created to mediate blessing to the world, and the way that they were to do that was to worship the true

God and under his covenant blessing be so blessed that the nations would stream to Jerusalem and meet the true

God. Solomon was kind of the high point of that magnet -like drawing of the nations.

You hear about the Queen of Sheba coming up to offer worship and learn about the true

God and listen to the wisdom of Solomon. Well, there was also an

African who was a eunuch in the court of Ethiopia, of Candace, and this is in the first century.

This man may have been a Jew in kind of diaspora, or he could have just been a

Gentile who was wanting to worship and learn about the true God, but in any case, he came to Jerusalem to learn.

And there among the scribes and the Pharisees, he heard much of the Torah, but he was not satisfied with what he was given.

As he was returning to Ethiopia, he opened the book of Isaiah, and it fell to the 53rd chapter, and he read, he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, but he did not open his mouth.

He's reading out loud on his chariot when the Lord says, Philip the Evangelist, to go alongside the chariot and cry out, do you understand what you're reading?

The eunuch said, how can I unless somebody explains it to me? So he invited him onto the chariot, and he, from that very passage of Scripture, explained that the lamb is

Jesus. Jesus is the prophesied suffering servant that the songs are written about in Isaiah 40 through 50.

This is the beautiful story of the Lamb of God, the suffering servant, and this gospel message will be preached by Philip on this desert road heading back to Egypt, and then on the roads extending from there to the ends of the earth.

The story of the suffering servant, it is the gospel, and the ground of the gospel, the epistemology, the way that we know that our gospel is true, according to many places,

Luke 24, 1st Peter, Romans in chapter 3, over and over again, the ground or the way of knowing that our gospel is true is that these things were prophesied ahead of time and fulfilled in the person and work of Christ.

That's why Isaiah 53 is so important, because in crystal clear living color, we see

Christ crucified hundreds of years, 700 plus years before the events came to be.

Only God can tell the future. In the trial of false gods, Isaiah 40 to 48, we have

Yahweh held up over against the idols of the nations. They're just wood and stubble.

The same person who fashions the idol also makes a fire with the leftover wood, and he has to prop up this little idol in order to bow down in worshiping.

The ironies are thick, but none of them can speak, and none of them can tell the future things as if they're present, nor can they explain the things that have gone before and the reason for their occurrence, but Yahweh knows all, including the future.

And so in the book of Isaiah, we have four servant songs, chapter 42, chapter 49, chapter 50, and here in chapter 53.

Now, even between the servant songs, you have these glorious pictures of salvation building.

The 51st chapter, the 52nd chapter, and now open with me to the end of chapter 52.

So, the fourth servant song actually begins at the end of chapter 52, not at the beginning of 53.

I would like you to look on your notes, if you will. We're looking at the fourth servant song, and it's a sweeping overview of the astonishing story of the suffering servant.

That's in the beginning, the introduction. It begins that way, and then it fleshes out in deep detail.

But look at this chart I've given you at the top under my main introduction. It indicates that the 53rd of Isaiah, and then also the ending of chapter 52, is actually five three -verse segments.

So, it's 15 verses, but it's divided into sets of three.

And if you look at the structure of it, A, where we begin at the end of chapter 52, is an introduction to the suffering servant, but it pictures him already vindicated, which is also where we will end.

So, you begin and end with the exaltation of the Christ. Then, this middle layer, which

I've labeled B, corresponds to 53, 1 to 3, and 53, 7 to 9.

This is the physical, and emotional, and spiritual suffering of the

Son. So, it's his suffering. But the grand and culminating pinnacle of Isaiah 53 is which verses?

4 to 6. That's the top of the pyramid, the top of the mountain. It is this idea of substitution.

Okay? So, you have vindication, suffering, and substitution.

Okay? And you can see the verses that correspond with that. So, if you don't have these notes, you can email me, get the notes, and we'll be able to look at that.

So, today, we're going to look at the introduction, which is 52, 13 to 15, and then the first part of his suffering.

Then, next week, we'll climb the pyramid and come back down to where we began with the vindication.

So, who will be my first reader? We need someone to read 52, 13 to 15.

John. That John, not this John. 52, 13, and 15.

He was pierced for our transgressions. Behold, my servant shall act wisely.

He shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so large beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.

So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him.

For that which has not been told them, they see. And that which they have not heard, they understand.

Amen. So, this is the introduction, and right away, we see

Jesus vindicate, exalted. A parallel passage to this would be in Philippians chapter 2, where we see the humiliation of the

Son, but then it ramps back up. Therefore, God has exalted him to the highest place, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is the

Lord, to the glory of the Father. That's the vindication that comes after the humiliation of Philippians chapter 2.

Amen? So, this is where we begin, in verse 13. Behold, my servant shall act wisely, or another word there that can be translated from the

Hebrew is prosper. He's prospering, he's wise, he's doing well.

He shall be high and lifted up. Philippians 2 picks up on that language.

And shall be exalted. He is exalted, he's high, he's worshipped even.

He's exalted to the highest place. Now, how is it that God could exalt someone to the place of worship?

Angels don't accept worship, do they? What does an angel do if someone falls down to worship an angel? No, no, get up.

I'm a servant of the Most High like you. But the Father is pleased that the Son would be worshipped, because he is

God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are rightly worshipped. So, here, when it says high and lifted up, this means high as in to the most high place.

Lifted all the way up, exalted, worshipped.

So, what we're about to read is to the glory of God. To the glory of God the

Father, in the exaltation of the Son. These two are not contradictory, but they're mutual.

In the exalting of the Son, we glorify the Father. This is God's plan to glorify

Himself in the Son. So, it begins there. Isn't that great that it starts at the highest point, and then it's going to bring us down to His suffering before coming back up to exaltation?

Verse 14. And here is this jarring shift. So, we have this high exalted one, but look at verse 14 right away, as many were astonished at you.

His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the children of mankind.

Now, notice what would almost appear to be hyperbolic language. Beyond human.

It says beyond human semblance, beyond that of the children of mankind. So disfigured that a person doesn't even look like a person.

Is that ever true of Isaiah the author? No. Is that true of Israel as the nation?

No. Who in all humankind was treated and disfigured to this level?

Of course, we know it's Jesus. So, how was He disfigured? What do we remember of the crucifixion story?

He was beaten, he was slapped, he was punched. Yes. They hit him with a rod on the head.

Rod on the head, crown of thorns in the brow, beard plucked, tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth, cat of nine tails, the scourging which would almost kill a man, tear his flesh off, rip skin.

The picture here is such a brutalizing that you can hardly see that He's a human anymore when you look at Him in the fullness of that suffering.

Mel Gibson did a pretty good job of that in the And you know what they said about it? Mel Gibson, they said, we couldn't go all the way.

We could have depicted it more gruesomely, but we knew we'd lose the audience. There was a certain point they said, this is as far as we can go and it will still be able to be shown.

And that's just in depicting it with, you know, artificial graphics.

Imagine the real thing. And that's, we jarringly go from the highest place to this.

This is the mystery of the gospel, that God Himself would suffer this way and be so mistreated, allow

Himself to be beaten beyond semblance of a man. Wow.

And it's written right here, this far before the actual event happens. Already it's enough to prove our gospel because there's nothing else like it in the history of the world.

The great kings and rulers that are esteemed, this didn't happen to any of them.

This didn't happen to Muhammad or Buddha or anyone else. Jesus alone was disfigured beyond semblance of a man.

And it seems like the rabbis knew it because they won't read it. Yes, right. So picture now this introduction is like a big cosmic picture of what we're going to get into the details of in chapter 53.

In the end of 52, it's like this big picture. And you go from full exaltation to the horrible suffering.

And now look at verse 15, the meaning of it, the reason for it.

So shall He sprinkle many nations.

Kings shall shut their mouths because of Him. For that which has not been told them, they see.

And that which they have not heard, they understand. The meaning of the suffering.

We're pointed back through a very key word here, sprinkled. What does the word sprinkle mean?

It reminds me of when they took the hyssop and they dipped it in blood and sprinkled the congregation and the altar.

That's right. A couple of places. So this is Moses with the law in Exodus 24.

He takes hyssop branches and he goes out among the assembly with blood dipped on this hyssop branch and sprinkles blood on the people.

Then in Leviticus 4, when the offering is given, they're to sprinkle the altar with blood.

This idea of sprinkling. There's a context for what we're reading here. It is the Old Testament sacrificial system.

Leviticus 1711, without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness. He is given the shedding of blood to make atonement on the altar.

The sprinkling of blood on the altar atones for sin. An innocent life substituted for a guilty sin.

That's how atonement was made. Blood atonement. So that word sprinkle is key.

It points to sacrifice, blood atonement. This suffering was not gratuitous.

It was meaningful. Oh, interesting.

Yeah. Sprinkling reaches more people. Yeah. The idea is it's going out over the full assembly.

That's well said. And then it says kings shall shut their mouths because of him.

So now we have the most highly exalted men of earth that we would regard, right?

The king. Even they fall silent before this. Why? Because it says that which has not been told them, they see.

Galatians, before your eyes, Jesus was clearly portrayed as crucified.

The Galatians never saw the sprinkling of Jesus's blood. They weren't there at the cross.

But when Paul came preaching through words describing the suffering of Jesus, he's clearly portraying

Christ as crucified. And that's how they were born again. And so it will be to the ends of the earth.

The preaching of the cross. A very select few people saw the crucifixion of Jesus. The centurion, some

Roman soldiers, a few disciples, and crowds from a distance, not even really wanting to go up that hill.

And especially in the darkness and the earthquake, people backing off. Just that generation, a few people saw, and yet all the world is going to see through the foolishness of the preaching of the cross.

And that's what we have here. Kings, when they hear of this king, they have to shut their mouths.

There's nothing like him. This is the ultimate king with the ultimate sacrifice, sprinkling nations.

For that which has not been told them, they see. And that which they have not heard, they understand.

Because now they're being told. They're hearing the message of the cross. Which leads us in to chapter 53, verse 1.

So that's the introduction. It's this grand metanarrative of exaltation of the son through suffering, purposefully to sprinkle nations.

And so he's exalted. It's a beautiful intro. And now we get into 53. Who'd like to read 1 to 3?

Sure, I've got it. Thanks, Bob. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the

Lord been revealed? 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.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Okay, now we move into the suffering of the son.

Despised, rejected. But before we get into what he does, look how this section begins.

Who has believed what he has heard from us? It's the preaching.

The kings of the nations, they had no knowledge. They were in darkness.

They hadn't seen. But now there's something being sent to be told.

Like Philip talking to the Ethiopian, he comes and he explains this is

Jesus who died. This is the message of the cross. Who has believed what he has heard from us?

So the question here is who gets faith? Faith here is presented as a gift from God, because it says to whom has the arm of the

Lord been revealed? Turn with me to John chapter 12 verse 39.

John 12 39. Before we read the verse,

I have a question for you about faith. Who is able to believe?

Only those that God has opened their eyes. Only those whom God has given them eyes to see and ears to hear.

In fact, in Romans chapter 7, it says that those who are of the flesh cannot please

God. Indeed, it is impossible for them. Is faith pleasing to God?

It is. Can the unregenerate dead sinner believe and please

God by exercising faith in Christ? No, he cannot. So now let's look at this verse.

I'm going to prove it. It says in John 12 verse 39, referencing this passage that we're studying right now in Isaiah 53, therefore they, what does it say?

Could not believe. Now go up a verse, go up two verses to verse 37.

Even in the midst of physical evidence, miracles being done in their presence, verse 37, though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.

Is that amazing? And then 38, so that the word spoken by the prophet

Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he heard from us?

To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? The arm of the

Lord is revealed in one sense in a miracle. When blind eyes are opened, you say, wow, that had to be supernatural.

And yet some Pharisees said by Beelzebub, he does the signs that he does.

Other people might have scoffed and said, ah, some trickery, some magic.

To see a miracle is not the same thing as to be given faith. And that's the distinction we have in Genesis 12, in John chapter 12.

It says in verse 38, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.

Lord, who has believed what he heard from us? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

It requires a supernatural work of God to bring faith into a human heart because we're dead in our trespasses and sins.

Have you guys heard the analogy of a shipwreck? And a person has fallen off the boat and the ship has gone under and he's treading water.

God sends a helicopter and they dangle a rope and they offer to save this man.

What is required of the man? He simply has to grab the rope that you will find in second opinions, chapter four, verse three, or maybe it's in Hezekiah, a non -existent book of the

Bible. Because let me tell you how Ephesians chapter two describes us in our sins, dead in our trespasses and sins in which we used to walk as we follow the prince of darkness and the course of this world and our flesh.

So going back to our analogy, when that ship wrecked, you were stuck in the boiler room and the boiler room filled with water and you drowned to death.

And that ship went 10 ,000 leagues under the sea. Well, 10 ,000 leagues under the sea, that actually meant that's how far it went vertically while being submerged, so not a good analogy.

But however deep the ocean is, that's how far underwater you are. You're dead and buried.

And the analogy of the gospel is we have a savior who resurrects the dead.

Lazarus, come forth. He sends forth his word to heal them.

He sends forth his gospel and that outward call of the gospel comes to your dead ears.

You wouldn't believe it. You wouldn't want to hear it. To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? But the arm of the

Lord must be revealed. His power to resurrect a dead heart comes in and the inward call of God, John 6 44, the drawing of the father, makes the dead heart begin to beat.

And these stopped up ears come open and these blind eyes see. And the gospel call is

God revealing the truth of Christ, the hope of glory.

This is a revelation from God. This is why John chapter 3 says you must be born again.

Flesh can only give birth to flesh, but you must be born of above. The wind blows where it wants. No one knows where it's coming from or where it's going.

So it is with those born of the spirit. He sends forth the spirit to revive that you would believe.

I don't remember who said this, but I remember the phrase regeneration precedes faith.

Yes, yes. Now, does regeneration proceed faith chronologically or logically?

Logically. Meaning this, it's not like the spirit just zaps you one day and then six weeks later a gospel preacher comes and because you're regenerate you believe.

No, it's not a chronological order. We're logically saying it takes the work of the spirit to make you alive unto belief.

But this all happens in gospel preaching. When Bob goes to his next door neighbor and tells him about Jesus, it's that the spirit is quickening him unto belief.

It's not that he's digging deep and finding belief inside of himself. And so he believes and then becomes born again.

It's a logical priority, not a chronological priority. So faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.

It's in that moment of preaching that God makes the person alive. But unless God does that inward miracle, nobody would believe.

That's what Isaiah is saying here. It's very important because as precious as this chapter is to us, the

Jewish people had this chapter of the Bible when they rejected their Messiah.

They have it today. Dennis Prager has it today. And I went up to Princeton University and listened to him talk one day.

And afterwards, I stood in line and I spoke to him for five minutes. And he doesn't believe that Isaiah 53 points to Christ.

He says he's read it. I asked him about Psalm 22. He didn't have any clue what that said, even though it describes the sufferings of the

Messiah. There is a blindness. There's scales on his eyes, just like Saul had on his eyes until the

Lord gloriously regenerated him. So this is the point. Let's go back to Isaiah 53.

And guys, remember that chapter out of John 12 because that's so important. It quotes from Isaiah 6 and Isaiah 53.

And it goes on to say that Isaiah was seeing

Jesus. Remember that? In Isaiah 6,

I take it for granted you guys remember at this point, but Isaiah 6 is that great chapter where Isaiah is transported to heaven and he sees the glory of God.

He sees the train of his robe filling the temple with glory and the angels singing, holy, holy, holy.

And he's undone because he's unclean until an angel takes a coal and touches his lips.

Here I am sending that was Jesus. John 12 tells us

Isaiah was seeing Jesus on the throne. And then when we see the servant song we saw in Isaiah 49, the father, the son, and the spirit, that was

Jesus. Isaiah is seeing Jesus all throughout. And it just builds to this point in Isaiah 53.

He's seeing Christ who has believed it to whom has the arm of the

Lord been revealed. Verse 2, for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.

What would that indicate about Christ? Why is he compared to a plant, a young plant?

The root of Jesse, I think of. The root of Jesse. Yeah. A shoot will come up from the root of Jesse.

A branch from his root will bear fruit. Isaiah 11, Jesse, the father of David, and then

David, whose son will be the Christ. So you have this promise lineage from 2

Samuel 7 that David will always have a seed to sit on the throne.

The messianic promise that it would be a son of David. So he's from the stump of Jesse.

Okay, so I think that's right. But what about this idea of a young plant?

Anybody here into gardening? Do you grow plants? What kind of things do you grow? How many hundreds do you want to know?

Hundreds. Lots of us. Yeah. So when you plant the seed in the ground and when it first sprouts up, how easy is it to destroy?

How easy is it to what? To destroy. Very. Very easy.

Isn't it so tender? That's the idea here. He, the one that has been introduced as exalted and high and who will be disfigured but then exalted, he's made tender.

The idea here is a newborn baby. A tender, vulnerable, helpless child.

Do you see that? He grew up. He has to grow up. Imagine that.

We're talking about the exalted one. He has to grow up. The idea here is incarnation.

He's going to grow up like, he's not a plant. He's like a plant. It's a simile.

It's like a plant. He grew up before him like a young plant.

Can you imagine that? This is the humiliation of Christ in Philippians 2 that he would take on a human form.

The creator. It's truly beyond us that the creator who simultaneously in his divine nature is upholding the universe by the word of his power.

Yet he's adding humanity to his deity without losing any deity. By the way, canonic theology has

Jesus leaving attributes of his divinity behind in heaven in order to become a man. That's heresy.

Absolutely. I was just going to say, kenosis, which is in Philippians 2, that word for emptying.

He emptied himself. Canonic doesn't mean he left his divinity behind.

He left some of the prerogatives of being worshipped where he was in the presence of the angels and constantly in glory and exalted to the humiliation of taking on flesh.

So it's humility through adding on something vulnerable. Flesh. To be made human like us.

So that's the idea here. He's going to become a human. A baby.

And how vulnerable is a baby? Helpless.

Helpless. The most helpless. So as a little aside, who should we be most active in rescuing when they're under assault?

Babies. The voiceless. Those who can do nothing to defend themselves. And so that's why we go and we cry out at the abortion clinics.

But Jesus was made a baby, meaning he was dependent on Mary to nurse him and Joseph to provide and protect.

This is the idea here. He grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground.

That root could be cut, severed, and yet in God's providence, he would see through the protection of this child to grow up even as a man.

He could have been killed prior to the cross, right? When did he almost die prior to the cross?

In his hometown? They tried to throw him off the cliff, but it wasn't

God's time. Providentially, he restrained their wickedness. We're going to talk about the restraint of evil on Sunday in about a month.

When we get to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, it helps us understand this world so much better. The wickedness of man, the total depravity of dead sinners, is so much worse than what we realize.

But our God restrains evil until the restrainer is taken out of the way in the tribulation.

But for now, human depravity is restrained. And so what did God do when Jesus was about to be thrown off the cliff?

He restrained their evil, and he walked right through the midst. He protected that vulnerable plant providentially, and God has the power to do that.

So this is what's happening here. He's like a root out of dry ground. He himself is made vulnerable in his humanity, and yet in his divinity, he's still upholding the universe.

Look at the second part. He had no form or majesty that we should look at name one exceptional physical characteristic of Jesus.

Or none. There were none. He's just like an ordinary man. But wasn't he at least as tall as Goliath or Saul or Pastor Jeff?

Or the halo around his head? Did he have a halo? Was he as attractive as John? He didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes?

Blonde hair, blue eyes. Yeah, did he look like that picture that you get from the renaissance of Jesus with the flowing hair and he's holding a lamb?

No. What would be the complexion of Jesus's skin? Yeah, Middle Eastern, dark.

What would his hair probably have been? Brown, dark. Yeah, dark brown. Brown eyes.

Probably brown eyes. Yeah. More like Jonathan Ruby in The Chosen. Yeah. What about his stature?

He probably, he never would have sinned, so he never would have overeaten, so there'd be no gluttony, so he wouldn't be overweight in that sense.

He's probably really pretty strong as a carpenter. I think as a carpenter, he would be strong, yeah. But he wouldn't be like, you know, the physical specimen that Da Vinci draws the picture of, the ideal man, you know, the arms out and all that.

He wouldn't have been perfect in his physical appearance to make everybody say, oh, this is the one we need to follow, he's the messiah.

Just sort of ordinary. Isn't that amazing to think, in the humility?

And this is what it says, he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

It's not any outward, as man looks on the outward, it's the beauty of his holiness that should attract us to him.

The beauty of his character, that's what God looks at and that he finds precious.

It's not the outward, this is just a tent. Did you just quote that to me the other day,

Rich? 2 Corinthians 4, this tent is wasting away. Yeah, this outward man is wasting away.

This outward man is being renewed day after day. Yeah. Verse 3, now we get into his suffering.

So we have him as a baby, we start with incarnation, dependent on his mother.

He's growing up like a tender plant, like Barbara raises plants. You just see it come from this vulnerable thing to the full -grown man, but then he's just an ordinary guy.

He's a carpenter, just doesn't look the part of the Messiah. And then it says, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Yeah, that's why you think the neighbor said, isn't this just Mary and Joseph's son? Right, yeah.

Would somebody look up for me Mark chapter 9, verse 12? He's hated and rejected.

Mark 9, let's go look at the Messiah in his ministry. Jesus replied, to be sure

Elijah does come first and restores all things. When then is it written that the

Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? So the prophet comes and he's the forerunner, proclaims that this is the

Messiah. And how is it written of the Son of Man? And where is it written?

In Isaiah 53, verse 3, that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt.

Jesus was very polarizing. He was believed on in the world, but he was also rejected.

And wherever he went, it had a polarizing effect. Those, even in some cases, like in John 6, all of the crowds came to him because he fed them.

And having thousands attending to him, he then said, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in me.

And they all turned against him. And then by the end of the chapter, the only ones that are left are the 12. And he says, are you going to go too?

And they say, you have the words of life. Where else would we go?

Jesus was rejected. His suffering was not only in the cross. It was throughout his ministry.

He was rejected by men and he suffered many things. Being taunted, being accused of being a demoniac, acquainted with grief.

He probably suffered the loss of his father, his earthly adopted father.

Nobody knows exactly when, but Joseph never appears in the ministry narrative, only up through age 12.

So some part of his early teenage years, it seems that he died.

And imagine, we understand the grief of Mary, right? When we're told in Luke that she would be pierced with the sword, and we can always picture her on the road, on the

Via Della Rosa, and watching her son. And then at the foot of the cross, she's right there, and John is going to care for her.

Imagine the suffering of Jesus to know what she's going through, because he knows how much she loves him.

And he could come down from that cross. But he does that, because guess who else needed her sin paid for?

Mary. She was a sinner too, contrary to the Catholic doctrine. She needed blood atonement just like we do.

But Jesus suffered all of this, his whole life knowing, and setting his face like Flint to go to Calvary.

It loomed over him, and yet he was joyful. He was acquainted with sorrow, but he was a man of joy.

Sorrow and joy existing in one. And then finally, we'll end with this part. John, you want to read it?

The second part of verse three. And as one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Okay, where does that tie back to? The introduction. He will be lifted up.

He will be exalted. But here in this moment, as he's heading towards Golgotha, he's not esteemed.

He's rejected. He will be. The entire nation will turn against him, once they don't get what they want.

They wanted him to be Messiah and conquer. He is Messiah, but he didn't come at first to conquer.

And so, they all turn, and what do they shout? Crucify, crucify. He's not esteemed.

He's rejected. In fact, who do they choose instead of him as their leader? Barabbas, the false son of God.

Barabbas, yes, or Abba. Bar, son, Abba, father. But the true son of the father is

Jesus. Rejected. Not esteemed. Not recognized. Despised.

Men hide their faces from him. So, we have here the introduction, which gives us the grand, sweeping picture of the exalted

Christ, who would first of all suffer, but to sprinkle nations, and that even kings will look on him and shut their mouths before him.

That's the glorious, grand narrative, and then we start getting into it by the detail, and we have him born, vulnerable, growing up, being rejected by his own people.

So, where do we go next week? To the pinnacle of the mountain, and that mountain is

Calvary, where he will be the substitute lamb, where he'll be, why don't we just read it before we close, because it's just glorious, and then

John will ask you to close in prayer after I read it. So, next week we pick up here, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, 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 everyone to his own way, and the

Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Lord God, I am a sinner.

Lord God, I have no right to even come to you except because of your son, who willingly, obediently went to the cross, was pierced for my transgressions.

Lord God, as he hung on that cross, my every sin, the

Lord was laid on him to the point that he cried out, my God, my

God, why have you forsaken me? Lord, we know the rejoicing moment when he said, to tell us

I and our sins are paid for in full. All that I deserved was laid on him.

We can only sit in awe that this was foretold 700 some odd years before, and it is true, and it's true today, some 2200 years later, our sins taken to the cross.

Lord, we are sheep who have gone astray in need of a Savior, and your love gave the way,

Lord. We praise you in Jesus' name, amen. Any more thoughts or questions?

I like your invocation.

Oh, yes. What about John 3 .16? What's that? John 3 .16,

whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

Yep. But not everyone can believe. Oh, okay.

Yeah, there's some that would teach that. John 3 .16, the emphasis there is whosoever, meaning it's the onus is on you, and you're able to do it.

Okay. The actual Greek there is pas, ha, pastuo. Pas, every.

Ha is just the indefinite article with rough breathing mark, and then pastuo, believing ones.

Every believing one. So if you're reading the Greek, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that every believing one will not perish, but have everlasting life.

The actual emphasis of John there is that there is actually a distinction between the world who will not believe and those that are granted faith.

Every believing one will not perish, but have everlasting life. So I think the unfortunate thing is

King James is a translation, right? 1611. And when it said whosoever, it's just saying pas, it's saying every.

But the Southern Baptist preacher so seized on that translation and emphasized what in our culture would indicate that it's your job to do and preached it that way, that it's deceived a lot of people.

So if you preach it, whosoever believes in him and say, if you want to, you can, that's not the point of the text.

It's calling, it's offering it to everybody. So every believing one will be saved.

And we are to shout it on the mountain. Go tell it on the mountains. We're not to make any distinction. We don't know who

God's going to regenerate. We go and tell everybody. But the point of the verse, and this comes out real clear in the following chapters there in John three, but also in John six, it takes a supernatural work for them to believe

John six 44, unless the father draws him, no one will come.

No one can. Thank you. Yeah. So that's, that's a great question. That, that new reference where Mary, you know,

Simeon was, was it Simeon who said a sort of yes. I often wonder what that, how she processed that and because here she is with this sweet child and right.

And obviously I'm sure he was a joy of ladies, but it, I wonder if that rethought returned to her.

If she wondered what that meant, you know, and then it's like, oh, okay. That I remember those words now.

This must be. And I think she thought about it her whole life because it says Mary pondered these things in her heart.

I think she knew it all along. Yeah. It's intriguing. It's really intriguing because that in itself is a prophecy that there was something more to that child.

Yeah. You know, the word spoken to her. Amen. Yep. And it's awesome as her blessings and benefits were in being the mother of the

Messiah. She still had to be saved. Like you said, it's a Roman Catholic church, right in the magnificat.

Luke chapter one, she says, why God does rejoice in God, my savior. Yes. She wouldn't be a savior if she wasn't a sinner.

Amen. And suffering doesn't indicate that you're out of God's will.

I mean, it could be disciplined, but very often the people who are most specially chosen to serve

God will suffer the most. Yeah. Acts nine, I will show him how much he must suffer for my sake.

And then Paul will say through many tribulations, you must enter the kingdom. Yeah. When you look at the great missionaries, the

Adoniram Judson's and the people who have broken into new uncharted territory with the gospel, these people suffered so much more than we could imagine.

And yet they were specially chosen of God to be favored to suffer for his sake. And that's what they would say.

David Livingston, who suffered all those times in Africa. He said, I never made a sacrifice from his perspective.

It's like all the benefits that I get of knowing Christ and the opportunity to do these things for him.

He felt like he was the most blessed man on earth. And yet he was suffering dysentery and malaria and all of these horrible things.

And people would look at him like, why do you do this? And he said, I never made a sacrifice.

I feel like the most blessed man. That's how Paul was. Even in jail, Philippians, it's all about joy.

And yet he suffers everywhere he goes. He starts a riot in every city. Second Corinthians 12.

Bring the beasts on. Bring the beasts on. And if Jesus suffered the way we read about now, then we shouldn't think that we wouldn't also suffer.

We've been spared. Yes. All right.