Take your Bibles and open with me this morning, if you will, to Isaiah chapter 53. We looked last week at the end of chapter 52, continuing in this series through the book of Isaiah. If you can imagine, it's taken us 66 messages now to get to the 53rd chapter, and I almost thought about taking a break and preaching something else this morning. You would have thrown things at me. That's why I don't give you hymnals. But as we're here and as we have finally come to this chapter, as we looked at the introduction to the suffering servant last week in chapter 52 verses 13 through 15, there at the end of the chapter, This sets us up for this chapter that is the clearest and most glorious presentation of the gospel for us in the book of Isaiah. This, again, is what he's been ramping up to, and we've heard it. The words that he uses, the way he's speaking them, the vision that he's sharing, as he has anticipated getting to this message, to revealing this vision. We've heard it even in the pace, in the passion that he has, in the poetry that he's using, in the previous chapters, in the first three of these servant songs, to bring us now to this fourth servant song. And as he gets here, a reminder that this is not merely Isaiah. reporting to us what the Lord has told him. But as we began in the very beginning in chapter 1, this is the vision of the Lord to Isaiah. Isaiah is seeing these things. He is seeing the suffering servant. He is seeing Christ on the cross. The things that he describes for us, these are not in the abstract to him. He is seeing this and sharing that revelation with us. knowing that as he shares it, as he preaches it, as he proclaims it, and as he writes it, that the majority of the people who hear it will not understand. They're blind. They're deaf. They can't see. They can't grasp. They can't understand what he's talking about when he's talking about this suffering servant. In chapter 52, we set up what was the enigma or the puzzle. The kings of the earth and the nations wonder, how can one who is so humiliated and debased become so exalted? Looking at how Christ was so humbled, how do you recover from being put under the full wrath of God for sin? How do you recover to that, to be exalted to the highest position in all of creation? And from a human standpoint, from a human way of thinking, once you are that debased, there is no getting up. There is no exaltation. You've fallen, and when you're that low, there is no recovery. We still think that way towards sinners, don't we? And yet we forget how far He had to come down to find us where we were. to bring us to new life in Christ. There is no depth. We read it in Psalm 139 this morning. There is no depth to which we can fall where God cannot be there, find us, pick us up, and bring us back. So, while this might be a puzzle for those who are hearing the message of Isaiah, he wants to give in chapter 53 a testimony, human witness that's based on divine revelation, that shows the facts and the meaning of the servant's suffering and his death. By the time we get to the fourth message here in Isaiah 53, by the time we get to the end of verses 10-12, we're going to see demonstrated the experiences of the servant as explained from the divine perspective. We're going to be given the greatest perspective of all. We're going to see the suffering of Christ from the perspective of the Father. For this message, though, at the beginning, in verses 1-3, this message I've titled, The Shunned Servant. It is a message of revelation. Who could believe that this One, with His birth, with His early life, with His unimpressive appearance, who could believe that this was the servant, the arm of the Lord, the strength and power of the Lord God Almighty? In fact, what we find out, what Isaiah tells us, if you just look at Him, if you just look at Jesus from that human perspective, There is no wonder that he was despised. and rejected. He was not that much to look at outwardly from his beginning in a manger at Bethlehem. And understand, his story, his birth story was so insignificant and actually so offensive to people that by the time he's ministering, they refer to him as being from Nazareth and they reject him as being the Messiah because he's from Nazareth and they all knew the Messiah was coming from Bethlehem. This was an absolute forgotten point in His story. He was just an ordinary man of no measure, of no appearance, nothing that outwardly would have said or declared to those who saw Him that He was the very Creator of the universe by the power of His Word. This is the humiliation of Philippians chapter 2. As we look at this revelation, we begin in verse 1, and the question is asked at the beginning, Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Who's believed the report? Who believes? Who looks and sees this servant and proclaims that He is the Savior, that He is the Messiah? Who is looking at Him and recognizes Him? Now, there were a few that recognized Him right off, weren't there? A few right from the very start. You remember when they took Jesus to dedicate Him at the temple? And those two saints who saw Him, who it had been revealed to them who He was and that He was coming, and now even Simeon saying, his eye had seen the salvation of the Lord. meaning that little baby that he held, he knew he was holding not just the Savior, he was holding the salvation of the Lord. Come for the redemption of his people. But there we see the catch. The answer to the question, who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? The answer is in the second question. In fact, Isaiah asks a question and answers it with a question. Don't you hate it when that happens? You ask somebody a question and they answer you with a question. The question is, who has believed our report, our message, our good news, this announcement about the suffering servant who has come to ransom his people? Who has believed it? Only those to whom it has been revealed. This is not understood on the basis of human knowledge or understanding or wisdom or discernment. When you ask who has believed the report, who has come to the good news, who has come to the gospel and said without any help of the Spirit that they see, that they grasp, that they understand, no, the Bible is clear. There's not even any who are seeking to know. The reason they don't understand and can't hear this report, it's not because they haven't heard, it's because they don't want to know. This is Psalm chapter 14. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They're corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside. They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good. No, not one. We read it in Mark in our gospel reading this morning. Jesus said to the man who came up to him and called him good teacher, why do you call me good? There's only one good and that's God. Now is Jesus there claiming not to be good? Nope. Was he claiming not to be God? Nope. In fact, what he was fishing for was a confession of faith. You call me good, but there's only one that's good, that's God. What he was really asking that young man is, do you see that I'm God? No, no, you're the good teacher. You're going to tell me how to get eternal life. You're going to give me what I need to get what I want. Well, here's how you get it. You give everything away. You lose it all. Ah, I've got too much to lose, that's not worth it. Oh, how short-sighted. But aren't you glad Jesus loved him because there were seeds planted? I wonder if one day we're going to meet that young man in heaven. Because all of us at first, all of us at first, rejected Christ, didn't we? and yet He pursued us with His Spirit. He kept after us with that conviction, with that drawing power of the gospel. There is none good, there are none who seek. This is why I say, if you really want to have a seeker-sensitive program for worship in your church, then you need to cater that church to the very decreed will and desires of God, because He's the only seeker. And I'll tell you this too, if you transform a worship service so that it is fitting to the people on the outside to give them what they want to try to lure them in to hear the gospel, that's blasphemous. Because if a lost person is comfortable with our worship of God, we're not worshiping the God of the Bible. Because when He shows up, people hit the ground. When He shows up, people are on their faces. When He shows up, there's reverence. That doesn't mean that there can't be celebration and joy and shouting to the Lord, but it means that we worship Him. This is the picture of the Old Testament priest. I love this picture. Some of it is lost because we just don't even go to the Old Testament anymore. The ministry of the priest was to minister, not to the people. Every time you read the description, the priest ministered to the Lord. Their ministry was focused heavenward. They ministered to the Lord before the people. So the people got to see them ministering to a holy God who required sacrifice on a daily basis because they were so sinful and needed atonement. And even those sacrifices would not be enough and pointed to the coming of the Messiah who alone would be able to finally take away sin. And the focus then was not on what I can come to get from God for me to make me happy and comfortable, make my children behave and make my marriage work. It was I'm coming to God because I have a sin problem and if it's not dealt with, I need to be prepared for the wrath to come. Once you get the wrath problem settled, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, the rest of these things will take care of themselves. If we're listening to the Word of God, if we're involved in discipling one another, learning those disciplines of godly living, But we confess, when He found us, we weren't looking for Him. He came to seek and to save that which is lost. In John chapter 12, John actually uses this verse out of Isaiah, as we read there, But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe. Because Isaiah said again, "...He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts in turn, so that I should heal them." These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him. Without revelation, without the Word of God, no one will know. That's why we preach and teach the Word of God, not the opinions of man, not stories. Understand, pastors or shepherds, they're to be equipping the saints for the work of ministry, and as that equipping takes place, it takes place through the preaching of sound doctrine. You have to know what to believe, why to believe it, and what it means in the way you live in your daily life so that you're equipped to serve the people around you. If we are preaching anything but the Word of God, and if we think that pastors are supposed to be motivational speakers and comedians, now understand, I will be funny and funny looking. I will not hesitate to use puns in a sermon. The whole book of Micah is pun after pun after pun all about the wrath of God. You've got to love that sense of humor. I want to meet Micah. Micah made jokes about the wrath of God. But he was doing it to make a point that we laugh at sin. We take these things so lightly, and yet they matter so much. We've got to be about preaching the Word of God, because without revelation, no one will know. Matthew chapter 16, Jesus asked the disciples, who do you say that I am? They responded, Peter responded for the group, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. We always get hung up in Jesus' answer about the rock and building the church on the rock and all of that. You realize before we even get there, listen to what Jesus says. Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. How did he know to confess that truth? Was it his own brain? Was it his own understanding? The disciples were right there with the rest of the crowd. Jesus was doing all these miracles, they believed who he was, but then he would teach a parable and they would scratch their heads, what? I don't understand. I don't get it. You said you were going to die and be raised again. Where are you going? No, that's not going to happen. You have to love Peter's passion. Peter's passion to the point that he's not going to allow Christ to die. In fact, he's going to kill people in defense of Christ. And of course, Jesus' response, get thee behind me, Satan. That's not the program. That's not the will. That's not how it's revealed. But here we have an answer based on revelation. In 1 Corinthians 2, verses 9-11, as it's written, "...Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. He is revealing these things to us." It is through revelation. It is through the preaching and the reading, the memorizing, the meditating, the praying, and the singing of the Word of God. What does God have to tell us about Himself? because human observation is simply insufficient. When we ask the question, who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed, we understand that we cannot know who the servant is or what he's done by human observation and reasoning alone. If you want to try to figure out who Jesus is based on human reason alone, go home and around Easter time watch the History Channel. Right? Who is educating these people in the Bible that they claim to be experts and then tell us everything that the Bible says that it doesn't say? Drives me nuts, but I watch it because I want to be informed. What's the latest greatest heresy? What are people who don't know any better watching? What's out there? Well, you're not going to understand it by human reasoning. That irritates the humanists, by the way. They want to be able to explain it all, fit everything in a little box. How dare you try to put God in that box? Try. Watch and see what happens. We cannot know who the servant is. We can't understand what he's done by human observation and reasoning alone. In fact, when we look at the fact that we need revelation, it is the truth that Jesus tells us makes us free. You've all heard that. You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Well, what did He mean? He didn't mean you're going to know the facts. He meant we would know Him, the Word of God, the revelation of the Word of God. It shows to us Jesus. Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed him, If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." What else did he tell us about himself? I am the way, the truth, and the life. There's no other way to the Father. We also see there that we need regeneration. If we want to truly see Christ for who He is, we have to be born again. This is what Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3.3, Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Listen to what Jesus is saying. Jesus is not saying, see Jesus, birth yourself, and then believe. If there hadn't been a powerful work of regeneration applied by the Spirit through the truth of the revealed Word of God, you could not even see Him or your need for Him. That's why in our natural state we repress the knowledge of God. Because we are dead in sin with a heart of stone. We don't need to be revived. We're dead. We need to be resurrected. We need a new heart. We need new life. We need regeneration. Because it's only then that our eyes are opened and that we can believe. We need revelation. We need regeneration. John 6.63 says, it is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. Not only are His words spirit and life, but how is it that you believe? Where does faith come from? We all know that deep down in the human heart, there's a divine spark. A hole, a God-shaped hole that only... No! The lost heart doesn't have a hole in it. It's a solid rock. It needs the hammer of the Word of God to break it into pieces so that it can be removed, so the new heart can be put in, so that then as we hear the Word of God preached and proclaimed, then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the exercise of your free will. Is that what it says? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. This is the good news about salvation. It's all a gift. It's all of grace. It's not of works. God does not look at us and wait for us to do something to save us. Our doing something is proof that He has saved us. It's the fruit of repentance. It's the fruit of regeneration. It's the gospel that is the gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone. He gets all of the credit and the only things we can boast in are the cross and our infirmities. That's it. Nothing else for us to say, look what I did. Nothing there. He's given us the gift of salvation, the gift of repentance, the gift of faith, and He gives us by His Spirit the ability to use it. Philippians 1.29 says, For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. This is a gift that is given to you as the Holy Spirit pursues you. and brings you to life. John 6, 29, Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent. How often do we overlook that? When Jesus was asked, what's the work that God does? Here's what God does. It is the work of God that you believe. What does that mean? Your faith is not your work, it's God's work in you. If He didn't work in you, you would not believe because you could not believe. How amazing is it, when we talk about this grace, that God tells us what is required to have fellowship with Him, and then in Christ, by grace, freely, He gives us everything that we need. It's all grace. He gives to us revelation, regeneration, and faith. When Isaiah asked who has believed our report, the word for report there is actually who has believed our message, our news, this good news. Jeremiah referred to his prophetic word as a message. I have heard a message from the Lord, and an ambassador has been sent to the nations. We've been given good news, a message, a report to proclaim. And how many people are we going to preach it to that will not believe it? That's okay. Do you understand? That's okay. In fact, if you judge the faithfulness of ministers and ministries based on the response of the hearers, Noah was the worst preacher in the history of the world. Seriously. Noah preached a hundred years, warning about the judgment to come, and how many converts joined him and his family in the ark? Not one! And yet, Noah found grace. Look at Jeremiah. Jeremiah went and preached and they hated him. They threw things at him. They threw him down in a pit, left him to drown in the muck. Didn't want to hear anything about him. The other prophets that they wanted to put to death. Isaiah himself, who tradition and history tells us that at some point in time he was taken, he was abused, he was actually stuffed inside a hollow log and sawn in two. Because he wouldn't stop preaching. He wouldn't be quiet. So they silenced him. How could he do that? How could anybody do that? Well, it's not our own strength. We're not saved by our own strength. We're not kept by our own strength. This message that we proclaim, it's the message that is from the Lord. It is the good news. And what about those who need to hear it? What if they don't respond? That's okay. Sow the seed. Here's the other truth. We don't know when that seed is going to germinate and sprout. My favorite story about this is Rene's grandfather. Rene's grandfather was saved in his seventies. grew up an angry, abusive alcoholic. And in his young life, he actually was supposed to be drafted to go into World War II, failed for physical reasons, couldn't be drafted, so he went to work in a leather shop. And as a mad, bitter alcoholic, sat next to a guy, of course, you know how God works these things out, He always puts you next to the most annoying person at work, and the guy that worked next to him spent all day working on leather things for the war effort, singing hymns. despised that man, talked badly about that man his whole life, until finally God brought him to his knees, and when he fell on his knees and came to Christ, he said, it was those songs. It was those songs from 50 years ago, resonating that I couldn't get out of my mind, telling me about Jesus who saves. Plant the seeds. You never know when God's going to send somebody to water, but God is going to give the increase. We push for response now. I'll be honest, I would rather you stew on it a little bit. Because if you pop right up and you're ready to go, I'm a little worried because three out of the four soils, it didn't work out. People who gladly receive the word, now I'm right there with you and where are they next week? He said, don't look for the convert next Sunday. They're probably there to get baptized then. That's a big deal. Don't look for the new convert the next couple of months. You come back in a year and you show me where that person is faithful, plugged in, being discipled and discipling and following Christ. You look for the fruit where that seed is growing and not just growing and springing up and being choked out. Now, some have said that then there's work we need to do tilling the soil. Don't till the soil, sow the seed. The farmer did, some of it fell on the hard places. Fine. Some of it fell on the shallow soil. Fine. Some of it fell among the thorns. Absolutely fine. Some of it fell on the good soil, sprang up, and bore fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. You see, the farmer doesn't care where the seed goes as long as he's out there faithfully sowing it so that he'll have a crop to harvest. Sow the seed. And you'll look at people and think, oh, they won't respond. They're going to, nah, they, nah. Sow the seed. You never know where the Holy Spirit has somebody at that moment. may be ready at that very moment to hear that word and for that to make an eternal difference in their life. Sow the seed. Who's believed the good report? This good report of this good news. In John chapter 3, after John 3.16 and verses 19 and 20, Jesus says, "...this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world. And men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed." We preach, we preach the message, and we leave the fruit and the response up to the Holy Spirit. When he talks there about the arm of the Lord, where might the power of the Lord be seen better than here? That God is revealing Himself in His strength to save the lost. When he asks who's believed the report, to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed, remember in the previous chapters, this arm of the Lord, this is not just the Lord's power, not just the Lord's might, it's not just the Lord acting on behalf of people, this is the Lord Himself coming and doing a work. In Psalm 44, verses 3 and 4, they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them. But it was your right hand, your arm, in the light of your countenance, because you favored them. You are my King, O God. Command victories for Jacob. Isaiah 51 verse 9, just two chapters ago, "...awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. Awake as in the ancient days and the generations of old." A call for God to come and to demonstrate and to show His power. In Isaiah 59 verse 16, "...he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought salvation for him, and his own righteousness, it sustained him." this arm of the Lord that's going to be revealed to us in this chapter. It is the Lord Himself, not just His power at work, not just the message, not just the gospel, but it is the Lord Himself present with power. We saw that in chapter 52. In verse 6, "...therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am He who speaks. Behold, it is I." Remember that that phrase there in the Hebrew, when God says, Behold, it is I. It is I is not the way that should be translated. It should be translated, Behold Me. God says, you want to see? You want to see salvation? Look at Me. Look at me. Behold, here I am. And in chapter 52, verse 8, your watchmen shall lift up their voices. With their voices they shall sing together, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord brings back Zion. They will see the wonder of salvation. In verse 10 there of chapter 52, the Lord has made bare His holy arm. In other words, God's rolling up His sleeves in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. This is not merely a man through whom the Lord works. This arm of the Lord that is coming, it is this suffering servant. It is God Himself injected into the creation that He has created so that He might work a work of salvation within it. But you look at where Christ came from. You look at who He is. We have the benefit now of looking back instead of looking forward like Isaiah and those to whom he was writing. But he told them what Jesus was going to be like. He's going to have an absolutely ordinary appearance. In verse 2, for he shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, 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. Absolutely, pitifully, Ordinary. This is why the arm of the Lord is met with dismissiveness, because those who thought the Messiah was coming, and who thought Jesus was the Messiah, believed that meant He was going to overthrow Rome. They believed they were going to elect Jesus president, and He was going to kick all the bad people out, and He was going to give salvation to all the people who wanted it, deserving or not, and that Jesus was going to rule in righteousness, and by rule that means kick the Gentiles out and let the Jews do what they want to do. There's nothing new under the sun. And every generation and every nation that seeks salvation in the realm of politics should know and should learn rather quickly, if you are looking to a mere man for salvation, it won't work. It just won't work. There is only one Savior. He has been revealed. And when He was revealed, He was rejected. This is not how it's supposed to be. Even the disciples at the end before Jesus ascended, are you bringing in the kingdom now? Are you kicking Rome out now? You see, the problem that the disciples were missing, Rome wasn't the problem. And in fact, it was thanks to Rome and thanks to the persecution of the church that the gospel spread where it did. It was in that dispersion. And understand, the dispersion was not an easy thing for people to go through. It was horrible. They were fleeing as refugees to go to other places to try to find safety, to have jobs where they wouldn't lose them, to have a family where their family wouldn't be taken away from them and horribly and violently killed. They were seeking safety and refuge. And as they went, what did they happen to take with them? The gospel. and it spread, and it kept going, and it couldn't be stopped, and the Romans couldn't figure it out. The more they tried to kill, the more were born again. The more the gospel was preached, the more the faithful were awakened. as we see this man, this ordinary man, this man born in Bethlehem, in a stable, laid in a feed trough, this man who by all accounts had a completely holy earthly origin and was a nobody. When it tells us he was a tender plant, a shoot out of the ground, this refers to his natural generation. Everybody just thought, Matthew 13.35, is this not the carpenter's son? He's just a carpenter. I can't believe he can preach like that. He's just a carpenter's son. Every preacher gets asked this all throughout their ministry. Was your dad a preacher? What happens if your dad's a carpenter? Mine was. My dad wasn't a preacher. I'm a preacher. I can be a carpenter if I have to be, but Jesus, they didn't see it. They didn't make a connection. He's just a carpenter's son. I mean, the people to whom the angels even announced His birth were the lowest people of society, people who immediately would have been not believed for what they told, that they had seen. They were the shepherds out in the fields. Who's going to believe these low lives? It says he grew up before Him. And this really was the question. If the Messiah had to come and grow up before the Lord, how could He be the Lord? Now, from a human way of thinking, that makes sense, right? If you're growing up before the Lord, how are you the Lord? How could you be both? People ask the question, have you ever seen Clark Kent and Superman in the same room? Well, the answer is yes, because that's who he is, right? Duh. But have you ever seen Jesus and the Father? Oh, that's right, no man has seen the Father. Well, that doesn't work. Well, how can he claim to be growing up before the Lord and be the Lord? I invite people with that question to come to our systematic theology Sunday School lessons on the Trinity. We'll get into it. This is how that works. But from the standpoint of human reasoning, it's a disconnect. In Matthew 26, as Jesus was being tried, in fact, the high priest arose and said to him, Do you answer nothing? What is it these men testify against you? But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to him, I put you under oath by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. The high priest tore his clothes, saying, He spoke blasphemy. What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard his blasphemy. What do you think? And they answered, saying, He is deserving of death." He was the Lord. This to them was blasphemy. A man couldn't claim to be the Lord. That's not God's program. God's not going to do it that way. No. God's got to do it our way and how we expect and how we're comfortable. John 14, Jesus said to the disciples, if you'd known me, you would have known my father also, and from now on you know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father, that's sufficient for us. Jesus said to him, if I've been with you so long and yet you have not known me, Philip, he who has seen me has seen the father. So how can you say, show us the Father? He and the Father are one. He is God in human flesh. This is who He is, and people simply could not see the truth. At times even His own disciples did not understand there was a disconnect. He had no evidence of any speciality. of any distinctiveness. Again, in John 7, others said, this is the Christ, but some said, will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem where David was? I love this because what you have is a group of people who know where the Messiah is coming from and reject Jesus because He's not from there. He's from Galilee. But not one of those people stopped and asked Jesus, were you born there? How simple could it have been to solve this dilemma if somebody had just asked Jesus, where were you born? I was born in a hospital because I wanted to be close to my mama. No, I was born in Bethlehem. But nobody asked. They just assumed. They'd heard the rumors. He was from Galilee. He was from Nazareth. He can't be the Messiah. And I love it that people who were refusing to submit themselves to the testimony of Scripture and live in obedience to it were quoting it to the disciples saying, he can't be who he said he is because we know the Bible better than you. That's fallen humanity. I know better. I figured it out. I understand. But here He is, and in this everyday ordinariness. we miss the hidden holy seed of God. In Isaiah 4, verse 2, we're told that, "...in that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing." In Isaiah 6, verse 13, we read about a terebinth tree or an oak returning from being consumed, whose stump remains when it's cut down, so the holy seed shall be its stump. Isaiah 10, "...behold the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will lop off the bough with terror, Those of high stature will be hewn down, and the haughty will be humbled. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by the mighty one. There shall come forth, though, a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." They missed who He was, who He had come to be. They couldn't see through the ordinariness of Him. There was no beauty, there was no majesty, there was no outward appearance to indicate that this was the King of kings and Lord of lords. Now, flip forward to the book of Revelation, chapter 1. Look at Jesus as John sees Him there. Do you think there's going to be any mistake the next time who He is when He appears? That's why that whole book is referred to as the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is Him revealed in all of His glory. And there will be no doubt even for the fallen mind to see who He is. Why was He masked like this? Why was His appearance like this in the first place? Why is it that He was not impressively built and handsome? He was not impressive. He was not imposing. Being found in appearance as a man. He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Because God had a program, and His program was not to do what men expected. And in fact, as men did not expect the way He did it, they did not see in Him the Savior. He was clouded in their eyes. They couldn't understand. It was not revealed to them who He was. As you look at Him here in verse 2, no former comeliness, no beauty that we should desire Him when we look at Him as just an ordinary man. There was someone else in Scripture that was overlooked for being ordinary or even less than ordinary, even below average. Samuel was called to anoint a king. And he didn't start with the youngest, he wanted to go through all the brothers first. Because every one of them would have made a better king, it was more fit and more obvious to be a king than the little boy out there tending the sheep as a teenager. Surely not that one. But what did God say? The Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature. because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." One quick note, by the way, that doesn't mean God only looks at the heart, so some of us need to take care of what's on the outside because it does matter what we look like. But he doesn't just look at the outside appearance. And most of the time, how true is it that we can make people believe whatever we want them to believe about us by manipulating what they see on the outside? There's a whole industry to do that. Right? What do you want to be? I want to be a cosmetologist, but not a cosmologist. One's about the stars, one makes you look like the stars, right? I want to be a cosmetologist. What does that mean? I want you to lie. Lie about who you are and what you are to everybody who looks at you. Just make it up. Get it? Just make it up. We are good at fooling people when it comes to the outward appearance. All it takes is a little attitude and confidence, and you can make people believe just about whatever you want them to believe about you. And God says it's not about that. Jesus did not come to strong-arm, no pun intended, the arm of the Lord, to strong-arm His way into being believed. He came and He was not believed because nobody could believe it. And yet there He was. Because God does not look at the outside, He looks at the heart. And how fitting that it is that verse, that it is David that the Lord is talking about, whom Jesus is the descendant of and upon whose throne He will sit. The King David was not chosen for His outward appearance, and His descendant Jesus follows along the same line. He's just an ordinary man. But look closer. Look deeper. Look at what's there on the inside. Did anybody ever see what was on the inside when it came to Christ? Peter, James, and John did. When Jesus invited them to come up on the mountain, and he was transfigured, and there was Moses, and there was Elijah, there he is transfigured on the mountain. It came to pass about eight days after these things, they took Peter, John, and James, went up on the mountain to pray. As he prayed, the appearance of his face was altered, and his robe became white and glistening. And behold, two men talked with him who were Moses and Elijah. The description of the transfiguration is that what was inside radiated out, and not his flesh or his robes could hide the glory of God coming through. because Christ was simply revealed for who He was. I think there was something similar that happened in the garden when they came to arrest Him. And they said, Are you who they say you are? And His answer was, I am. And in that proclamation of the holy name of God, those who had come to arrest Him were blown backwards from Him. That power, that glory, it was there all along in Him, and yet He veiled it in human flesh. How significant then that when He died, that veil in the temple was torn from the top to the bottom. Now we have access to the holiest place, to the presence of God, to the throne of grace, and we can come boldly, because look deeper, look at who Jesus is. He's not merely this ordinary man who was humiliated and who suffered and who bore the penalty for sin. Verse 3 tells us, 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." He was not followed. To be despised and rejected means literally that Jesus was rejected and shunned. Those who saw Him would not follow Him. They would not bow the knee to Him. They would not yield to Him. And many of the times that the crowds did come and adore Him, it was for what He gave them. And when He didn't give it to them again, They left the very next day. "...Feed us again, Jesus, like you did yesterday with the loaves and the fishes." And He didn't. And great crowds turned and went away. They didn't stay. They came for what they could get. When they didn't get it, they left. It's no wonder when we look at John chapter 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. But listen to verse 5. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. They didn't see who He was. They didn't know who He was. And honestly, it's not even a matter of the fact that they didn't see and they didn't know. When it says the darkness didn't comprehend it, it's not just, duh, we don't get it. It's an act of rejection. Why? Because Jesus tells us, men are lovers of darkness rather than the light. They don't want that light to expose who and what they really are. But here He is, and Him was life. Can you imagine? John penning this gospel, sitting down to write. He, who was the most beloved disciple, and he's writing these words, "...in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." And while John is writing this, he's reflecting on the three years that he ministered with Jesus. saw the miracles, saw the transfiguration, saw the grief in the garden. It was John who was at the foot of the cross who saw Him die. It was John who saw the trial the night before. It was John who was there, one of the first to the tomb, to see that He was raised. It was John who, at that time, in the upper room, before all this even unfolded, was laying upright against Jesus with His head on His breast. And now He's writing, and you just have to wonder, When did it dawn on John, as he wrote this, to see who Jesus is? Because even to the disciples, at times He was just the good teacher. He was just Jesus that was there every day with them in their everyday life, trying to figure out how to get fed, where to find food, where to find shelter, dealing with the struggles of daily life. And yet, who was He? He was God. It tells us that He was a man of sorrows. and acquainted with grief. The way this is phrased though, some have actually taken this to mean that Jesus moped around a lot, that He wasn't very happy. I think Jesus probably had to have been one of the happiest people on earth ever to be on earth, because He knew that His Father was God, was in absolute complete control, that His program was going to be carried out according to how God decreed it when He prayed and told the disciples to pray, Your will be done on heaven as it is on earth. That's not a request, that's a confession. God, Your will is going to be done on earth As it is in heaven, nobody can say no to you. Nobody can stop your hand. Nobody can stay your arm. And here He is. Why is it then that He's a man of sorrows? Why is it that He's acquainted with grief? Well, we find out just a few verses down. In fact, in the very next verse, surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted." And verse 10, "...yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When you make a soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper his hand. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, because he took our sorrow and our grief upon himself." He was esteemed as of no value. We hid, as it were, our faces from him. meaning when he would come, people would duck and hide, didn't want to be even associated with him, despised. When he says, we did not esteem him, this is to assign a value to. When you look at the value that the human eye would have assigned to Jesus here on the earth, it was a big zero. It was nothing. He was esteemed as worthless. Worthless! How much sweeter than the song. In Revelation chapter 4 and chapter 5, worthy is the lamb that was slain. From all outward appearance, worthless. To the human eye, to the human mind, the servant added up to zero, nothing here to see. To find no beauty in Christ reveals the bankruptcy of human emotions. To despise and reject Him exposes the misguided human will at work. To conclude that He is nothing and worthless condemns our mind as corrupted by sin and self-seeking. But let's all confess, before He opened our eyes and showed us who He was and how He loved us, we did not value Him either at all. There was no beauty there to proclaim. And now you look at Him. Now you see the beauty of the Lord in holiness. Now you declare, fairest Lord Jesus. There is nothing, there is nothing in all of creation more beautiful. And we have this hope in Him that one day our eyes will be opened and we will see Him. While we put off this fleshly body and death, we will be awakened to new life and we will see Him face to face. Just see no beauty here. To see that he was despised and rejected. To see this is sin at work. To devalue what God values. To cheapen what God shows us is priceless. To look at something that looks like nothing and to deny that God could ever accomplish anything with it. And yes, this is exactly why He came, as He came, because it was only as this ordinary man, walking in absolute perfection, that a suitable sacrifice for our sin could be found. We really do judge others by ourselves. The Bible tells us it's to be the opposite. We're to esteem all others as better than self. to look at others, to see in them the value that God has created in them, to see them created in the image of God. This, by the way, is why we don't war against lost people, we war against bad theology, against ideas, against imaginations, against principalities and powers. The people who come against us are not our enemy, they're the mission. And we look at them, and we at times even look at them and ask, how could God ever use them? I've heard it! How could God ever do anything with that? Start by buying yourself a mirror. The fact that God can do anything with any of us proves that He's sovereign and we're not. That He's holy and we are not. That salvation is a gift that He has given to us, not because we deserve it, but because He is seeking to glorify Himself by accomplishing His will in the salvation of sinners. Look at Christ. He was in the world. The world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Romans 1 reminds us, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, the birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. Ephesians 4 tells us about this lack of understanding among the lost. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ. if indeed you have heard Him and been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus." What we find at the beginning of this revelation of the suffering servant is that every avenue, every path to learning, every way to walk and to live, which by nature might lead us to arrive at the truth of who Christ is and respond to God, every avenue, along which by nature we might arrive at the truth and respond to God, is closed to us. Without Christ we are lost, we are blind, we are dead, we cannot on our own come to Him. Praise God, then, that He sent His Son to come to us. It is divine revelation that makes the servant known to us and that draws us to Him. Listen to Jesus. He says in John 6, "...therefore they said to Him, What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat." Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger. He who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at that last day." The Jews then complained about him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. They said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he says, I have come down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said to them, Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught by God. Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me." At the end of that chapter we read, From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, Do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and also we have come to believe and to know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. When this confession is made, Jesus' response the first time Peter said it, "'Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.'" It is this revelation. So that we might ask with Isaiah, who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? People wonder why this chapter in Isaiah 53 is ignored. Why it's not preached in the synagogues? Why it's as though it doesn't exist? Because in this chapter is revealed for us the suffering servant who is Jesus, the Messiah. He's come to give Himself for His people. We're going to see next week the Suffering Servant. The week after that, the Sacrificed Servant. We'll close this series of messages in this chapter looking at the Satisfied Servant. But we begin this morning with one who is shunned. More than ordinary. Despised. Rejected. Valued as if He were nothing. And yet to us, the sweetest name we can ever know. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank you for your word this morning. We thank you that in its pages you reveal to us yourself and your Son, Jesus, who himself is the Savior, the Messiah, the arm of the Lord, the suffering servant, who has come to bear the sins of many. Father, remind us it's not our own mind or will, it's not our own brilliance or education that brings us to trust in you. It's the fruit of the work of the Spirit in giving us new life, granting to us faith and repentance so that we might turn to you and believe. We thank you for accomplishing this work in our lives, for your will being done on earth as it is in heaven. for sending this message to those who, before their eyes are opened, despise and reject you, shun you and run headlong into all kinds of sin. Father, we thank you that in the humiliation of Christ we see that there is nowhere that is too low that you might not find us, pick us up, and restore us, redeeming us, adopting us, reconciling us. We thank you that this one who looks so ordinary on the outside, so meaningless and insignificant, counted worthless by those who saw him and knew him, we thank you that this is the Lamb of God who alone is worthy. We pray these things to His glory and in His name. Amen.