1474 - Isaiah 53, A New Perspective.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecy. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Chris.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is Podcast 1474. Over the last couple of days, I have been dealing with Isaiah 53, both from an Old Testament and New Testament perspective. We're going to continue that today, but I want to begin by reading to you Isaiah 52, verses 13, 14, and 15, which are the beginnings of what we call Isaiah 53. And then I want to read all of Isaiah 53, the entire 12 verses. And then we're going to look back in the New Testament as well as some Old Testament passages concerning the great import of this passage. And we're going to gain a perspective by reading through this passage about Isaiah's perspective. It's fascinating to me, as I have translated through the verses that I just named to you, and I listed every verb. I parsed every verb, and an astonishing similarity came about throughout the first ten verses. All of the verbs, the primary verbs are in past tense. This means that Isaiah was looking at the perspective from way in the future to the end of days, to the time that is far beyond where we are today. And he's looking back from a Jewish perspective. It's almost as though it is a lamentation. Because you see, there is coming a day when the Jewish people, and remember, the Bible is a Jewish book. It is written by Jews, to Jews, primarily for Jews. And we as non-Jews are grafted into the great spiritual promises, the spiritual aspects of the nation of Israel and the promises to Abraham. You see, we never replace Israel, but God allowed us into the spiritual blessings. How do we access that? By becoming a part of his family, by being born again. Not of flesh and blood, that is concerning Abraham and his seed, but we are not of his seed as non-Jews. And so the promises of land, of lineage, all of those things are to the nation of Israel, and we will never replace the nation of Israel as the church of Jesus, which by the way is made up of both Jew and Gentile. All of the early believers for the first decade were all Jews. So the thousands upon thousands that turned the world upside down in the early decades of the church of Jesus after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus were Jews. Don't ever forget that. We, now two thousand years ahead of them, we look back on everything from a Gentile perspective. That's not the perspective of the Bible. And Isaiah is just one of the prophets that spoke of the day that is coming. You see, Messiah is coming again. Jesus is coming again. That was his last promise that he gave before he ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives. And that was forty days after his resurrection. But there is coming a day when God will restore Israel, when God will do exactly what he said, the promises he made to Abraham God will fulfill. And all of the land, from the Euphrates River all the way to the river of Egypt, will be given just as God promised to the nation of Israel. And the Lord Jesus Himself will rule from Jerusalem, and all the nations will look at Jerusalem as the delight of all the land, and the Messiah will reign for a thousand years. The Bible says in Zechariah chapter twelve, and I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will look on me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for his firstborn. That is Zechariah chapter twelve. In the very next chapter, because of Israel and their eyes being opened to see whom they have pierced, that's all past tense. But it is in the future that they will look back and see that indeed the one that was pierced on Calvary, on Calvaria, Skull Hill outside of Jerusalem is indeed the Messiah. And Zechariah thirteen says in that day when they mourn, when they look upon him whom they've pierced, a fountain shall be opened for the house of David, and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and that fountain is for sin and for uncleanness. And the Lord is going to cleanse Israel. And according to the Apostle Paul in chapters nine through eleven of the book of Romans, the book on salvation, the Bible says in that day all Israel will be saved. Hallelujah. But now back to Isaiah fifty three. It starts out by saying in fifty two thirteen, Behold my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, so his visage was marred, more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations, kings shall shut their mouths at him, for what had not been told them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider. Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comliness, and when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. 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. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of 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. 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 its share is silent. So he opened not his mouth, 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. 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. 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 intercessions for the transgressors. What an incredible passage. All you have to do is read the New Testament gospels and you will see exactly that it is a reference to Jesus. No doubt in Luke twenty four, Jesus shared with those two disciples as he broke bread with them, as he walked with them by the way. He explained to them in great detail that he was the Messiah. No telling how many psalms he referenced during those times. No telling how many times he referenced the passages in Deuteronomy that spoke of him, and of the other prophets. And as he talked with his disciples, the scripture says in Luke twenty four forty five, and he opened their understanding that they might comprehend, that they might synthesize, that they might put it all together. The word there that is used for understand is to put it together, to connect the dots. He put it all together for them. And as I spoke yesterday about connecting the Messianic dots, Jesus made it all make sense to them. He opened up their eyes. No wonder the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter eight, as he was reading Isaiah fifty three, we know exactly the passage where he was. The scripture says that when this eunuch was returning back to Ethiopia, and the Spirit of God drew Philip near to him. And it says as he was sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, Go near and overtake his chariot. So Philip ran to him and he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. Yes, he was reading it out loud. That's what most Jews do. That's what now I do as I've talked with you before, because you hear it, you see it, and you speak it, and it becomes real to you. So Philip ran near to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, Do you understand what you're reading? Are you connecting this all? Same concept. Are you connecting the dots? And he said, How can I unless someone guides me, unless someone helps me, unless someone teaches me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him in the place where the scripture where he was reading, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shares is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation his justice was taken away. And who will declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch asked a great question. I ask you of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or some other man? And Philip was all too ready to give him the answer. Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this scripture at Isaiah 53, he preached Jesus to him. Now, as they went down the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? Well, of course he did, because he was a proselyte and he knew that baptism was identification with a new message that once you didn't believe, but now you believe. A new master that you're going to serve. And this was not a new rabbi, this was God Himself, who was a teacher, a rabbi of the Jews. And so this Ethiopian eunuch didn't have to be told to be baptized. He already knew about baptism and the identification that it brings forth. And so he said, I want to be baptized. Why? Because now I know the rest of the story. Now I know the message, the Euangelion, the good message, and I receive it. And now Jesus is my new master. Oh, I pray to God. I pray for you. I've already prayed for you today, even before I did this podcast, that you would understand, the Holy Spirit would open up the eyes of your understanding, that you would see Jesus as the only Lamb of God that will take away the sin of the world. Every verb that was used in Isaiah 53 in the first ten verses was past tense. And the reason is Isaiah said one day all Israel will look back and see that indeed Jesus is the Messiah, and all Israel will be saved. But until that time, thousands now are coming to Messiah Jesus. And millions of Gentiles now, by the grace of God, have been grafted into the spiritual promises that God made to Abraham. May God make this real to your heart, connect the dots, make it all come together, open up your eyes. Lord, do it, and send revival among your people and bring salvation to some of those that will hear this. In Jesus' name. For on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

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Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org, then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.