In this sermon, we are going to answer the FAQ, what is the meaning of Isaiah 53.

The meaning of Isaiah 53.

The whole of Isaiah 53 is a complete prophecy of the life of Jesus Christ by the prophet Isaiah.

In this chapter of the bible; the prophet Isaiah takes the time to give an account of how the life of Christ is going to be on earth.

And in this sermon, we are gong to explain the verses in Isaiah 53 one by one in it’s context.

Verse 2.

In Isaiah 53 verse 2, we find out that there was nothing attractive about Christ. In fact, one will be forced to hate Him whenever He comes in view.

And for that reason, there was no way He could be noticed or become a public figure.

That is to say, ‘stand out’; as our false teachers urge their congregations to do today as well as practice it themselves.

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

Verse 3.

In Isaiah 53 verse 3, we find out how people hated and treated Him as an outcast. He was even rejected in His hometown (Mathew 13:53-58). And for that reason He was always filled with sorrows and grief.

He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Verse 4 to 6.

In Isaiah 53 verses 4 to 6, we discover that He went through all these for the sake of others; who even mistook his condition as a punishment from God.

But that did not stop this same people who went astray to be healed by His wounds. God had to lay their sins on Him.

Surely He has borne or griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteem Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him.

And by His stripes 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.

Why Christ suffered.

Now if you study the above three verses carefully, you will find out that they sum up the false teachings we talked about earlier i.e. that Christ had suffered all things for us and at such we need not to suffer again.

But going to the book of Titus chapter 3 verses 3 to 7, we will discover that Christ sufferings is the reason we were all delivered from the life of sin that we used to live in the past while we were still unbelievers:

For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.

But when the kindness and the love of God our savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit., whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

In other words, we who once were gone astray like sheep and turned to our own ways were being delivered by God who laid our sins on Jesus so He could destroy it on the cross of Calvary, and in doing so enable us to live a righteous life:

Who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness- 

(1 Peter 2:24)

That is why the concluding part of the scripture before last, strongly advises us whom Christ save to emulate Him by maintaining good works that will benefit other human beings in the world we are living in:

This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.

(Titus 3:8).

Verse 7.

In Isaiah 53 verse 7 that Christ went through all these things in silence, That is to say, He did not complain as most of us believers are fond of doing when we are faced with miseries in our Christian life.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.

Please I’d love us to note at this point that complain is one great sin that most people commit today without knowing.

That is to say we are quick to blame God whenever misfortune knocks on our doors or that of our fellow believers, forgetting those other good things that God has been doing in our lives.

So we need to understand that it was this same sin that made God to destroy the Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 14:26-38, 16:41-50) as our main writer observed in his first epistle to the Corinthians.

“nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor murmur, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer”

(1 Corinthians 10:10)]

Verse 8 and 9.

In Isaiah 53 verses 8 and 9, we discover that Christ suffering ended with His death on the cross; being buried with the wicked by the rich, Joseph of Arithmetia; meaning that He did not receive the reward of His good deeds while here on earth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked – but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Verses 10 to 12.

But the concluding Isaiah 53 verses 10, 11 and 12, reveals to us the many benefits He will receive, even though He has been dead and buried.

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.

When you make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.

He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

For further comments on the concluding verses above; majority of us Christians wants to be rewarded by God while here on earth, you will hear many say ‘I must experience heaven here on earth before I get to the real heaven’.

But they are ignorant to discover that Christ did not experience the earthly heaven before He was rewarded with resurrection and afterwards glorified by the Father in heaven.

Conclusion.

Beloved, I want you to ponder on this point and as our main writer would say:

‘Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you’.

Philippians 3:15