Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you, we thank you that you send your son to die on our behalf. We ask you, Lord, that you open our hearts and our minds as we read your word, oh Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Before I was a Christian, my mother used to take me to a cathedral in the town in Mexico where I used to live. And I remember going in and the first thing you would see, the first thing that would catch your attention was this huge crucifix in the middle of the church of a man in a wooden cross that looked dead. Weak and powerless. Completely beat up and only a piece of cloth covering him. That was my impression of who Jesus was, a weak, dead man. Tonight, as we see the image of Jesus, as we look at the prophecy of Isaiah that gives The idea or the prophecy of the coming Messiah 700 years before he was born, we see that Jesus is not presented as a weak man, but rather a man of power and glory. See, to the Jews, the coming Messiah was going to be their king. The word Messiah literally means the anointed one. And it means that this person would be anointed like kings are anointed. Interestingly enough, Jesus was anointed in many ways or for many reasons. He wasn't only our king, though that's the main point today that I want to make, but he is also our priest and our God. Let's read the passage that we have in hand. Isaiah 52, 13 through 15. The word of God says, 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 marred 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. Isaiah 52, 13 through 15 gives us an overview of what Isaiah 53 talks about. It's very interesting to see how we see a Messiah in these two chapters. And Isaiah 52, 13 through 15 actually gives us a short version of Isaiah 53. Here we see a Messiah that is a suffering servant. but that will be an exalted king. At a glance, we will see him as one who is humiliated and then raised up to glory. But in all of this, the Messiah is simply like no other. Again, the language here emphasizes that everything about the Messiah is astonishing. It begins with the word, behold, verse 13. And then in verse 14, the word astonished appears. And then in verse 15, with the word sprinkled or startled. I'll explain that in a moment. And then you have speechless kings and nations. The language, behold, astonishing, startled, speechless, all indicate that this is a startling, shocking, stunning picture of the career of the anointed king. Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up. and shall be exalted. Here we see a word that is specifically exciting in a sense. Behold, literally means listen up, look at him, pay attention. And that's because Jesus' life was one of recognition. He wasn't a beautiful person, but his life is something to behold. His life was amazing. To say that a person can be seamless on this earth is not a small feat. It's amazing. It's incredible. And that is exactly what Jesus did on this planet. He lived a perfect, seamless life. So look at him. Behold him. And how did he live this life? Well, the passage tells us, my servant shall act wisely. He is first and foremost a servant. He lived a servant life. Here, the Hebrew word is ebet, which literally means slave. One who is under a master. It is a special word. One that is used often in the New Testament in the Greek language when it talks about being bond servants of Jesus Christ. Talking about us, the church, being slaves of Jesus. Now I know that in our culture, the word slave can be very problematic. There's a lot of trouble with the word slave. But this is not the same type of slavery. This is a slavery that you want to be the slave. He wanted to come and do the will of God. He lived a perfect life because he wanted to. He shall act wisely. Now, act wisely is an expression, a Jewish expression, that actually means he will prosper. The idea is actually mentioned in Isaiah, I mean, in Joshua 1, 8. When it's translated, you will make your ways successful or prosperous. Christ did all he came to do on the earth. He did not fail. He came to live the life we should live so that he could die the death we deserved. In other words, Jesus being on the cross, which is what we're gonna see, it's not a failure for Jesus. That's why he came. That is his victory in a sense. He lived a perfect life only because he needed that to die for his people. This is why he is lifted up, the passage say. And when you look at the passage, it says, he shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. It almost seems like the prophet is repeating himself. And you might think that the prophet is repeating himself. He is high and lifted up. He will be exalted. But in a sense, he's actually talking about Jesus's life. He's talking about how he will be lifted up from resurrection and the resurrection part. He will be lifted up when he is lifted up into heaven. And he will be exalted when he is crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords in heaven. It's almost like high, higher, highest. Jesus is lifted up to the ultimate position. He is seated at the right hand of God. He is going to be so successful that God is going to raise him from the dead. God is going to take him into glory. God is going to sit him at the right hand. God is going to give him a name above every name, the name Lord. And at that name, every knee will bow. God is going to make him the ruler over everything in the universe. He's going to be the king of the universe, as well as the head of the church. The astonishing revelation of the servant of Jehovah is this. will come. He will succeed. He will accomplish the purpose of God by his great effort. And God will validate this by raising him up from the dead, taking him into glory, and sitting him at the throne. That is astonishing. That is the astonishing thing about the Messiah. But not only his glory is astonishing, but his humiliation as well. Verse 14, as many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. When the Bible uses many, it always has a clause that means they're not all. Not everybody saw how Jesus was beaten and crucified. It was the Jews and the Romans that saw that. The Jews saw the crucifixion. His own people saw him like this. His humiliation was great. Crucifixion is one of the most humiliating ways to die. You are stripped of your freedom, your dignity, and your life. People who were crucified were not crucified with clothes on. They would take their clothes off. They were beaten. They were spit on. They were deformed, in a sense. And that's the point that the prophet is making, was so marred beyond human semblance. Christ was beaten, whipped, punched, and so disfigured that he was unrecognizable. John MacArthur put it this way, this looks at his crucifixion and what led up to it, where he was so disfigured, so mutilated, so distorted as to be beyond looking even human. Psalm 22, where the psalmist describes this occurrence, Before it happens, says this, I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It's melted within me. My strength is dried up like a broken piece of pottery. My tongue cleaves to my jaw. You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me. A band of evil doers have encompassed me. They pierce my hands and my feet. I count all my bones. They look, they stare at me. That is the sacrifice that Jesus took on for us. His humiliation was great. This is why this was such a big deal. And it's astonishing to us that God would dignify himself to come down for us when we were still his enemies. when we were still hating him, going against him, actively sinning against him. But he didn't stay in the tomb. After his crucifixion, he was buried, but he didn't stay there. He came out of that, and he was exalted. And his exaltation will be astonishing as well. Verse 15, 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 word sprinkled that is translated here is the word nasah. In the English, it literally means to sprinkle or to sprout. Sometimes to sprout up. The idea is liquid hitting something. Drops coming off, sprinkling off. That's the idea of the word. But metaphorically, it can also mean to startle. Kind of when, you know, I go behind Melody, and she's not looking, and I go, boom! And she jumps. That's the idea, in a very poetic way. And I think that makes more sense in the passage when you look at its context. Why startled? When we look at the context of the passage, we do see a pattern. They were astonished at the mirroring of the man, and thus they will be astonished at his exaltation. You see the pattern. The effect he produces by his exaltation needs to be parallel or equal to the effect produced by his humiliation. The effect produced by his humiliation was astonishment or startling. And so the effect produced by his exaltation is startling as well. The day will come when the nations of the world will be trembling with astonishment. When he comes back, the king of the nations will be freaked out. They will jump in fear. And that is his exaltation. The sun will go out, the Bible says, the moon will go out, the stars will go out, and the sign of the son of man in blazing glory will appear in heaven, Matthew 28, 25. He will come in a blazing glory. This is why it says in the passage Kings shall shut their mouths because of him. They will be scared. For that which they have not been told, to them they see. And that which they have not heard, they understand. In other words, what they don't understand about Jesus, his glory, his magnificence, his power, they'll finally get it. We learn as well in the book of Revelations, people will cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them and to hide them from the face of his coming. Every eye shall see him. And why does he pick on the nations and the rulers? Because when he comes again, he will literally take over the world. This is the true Jesus. Not the one that is still on the cross, weak, humiliated, but the one that Isaiah is prophesying about. One that is, in every aspect, astonishing. An astonishing revelation, an astonishing humiliation, and an astonishing exaltation. That is the Jesus we believe in. He's not on the cross anymore, my brothers and sisters. He is victorious. He gives us victory through his death and resurrection. The question is, do you believe that? Do you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose again from the dead for your justification? and one day will come as the exalted king and take his people into the kingdom promised to them. Do you believe that he couldn't come to reign until he came to save? Do you believe that he couldn't receive his glory until he suffered? That's the gospel, but it is so but it is also the example Jesus gave to us. We should live lives where we sin less and less every day. We should live lives where we are willing to suffer as obedient slaves. And we should live lives affected by the knowledge that he has He has won the victory for us. One day we will be rewarded so that Jesus can be exalted for all eternity. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you. We praise you because you loved us so much that you sent your son to die on our behalf. You loved us so much that you were willing to send your son and be humiliated for us, oh Lord. We praise you, oh Lord, that he took our sin and that now we can call you Father and that now we can be part of your people. We praise you in Jesus' name, amen.