A few days before Jesus went to the Cross there were Greeks who asked Jesus’ disciples, “We would see Jesus.”
Many want to see Jesus. Many would like to see Jesus Christ to see if this Jesus Christ, the Son of God is real. Are you such a person?
You may have heard a lot about this man Jesus Christ, the Son of God but you may never have met Him.
Might He manifest Himself to you as you read through this brief article!
I have been reading and studying Isaiah Chapter 53 where we read about the coming of Jesus Christ into our world and how Jesus Christ would do His most significant and important and vital work.
There was a boy at school who read the lesson in the days when there were daily School Assemblies in Scotland and he said, “We read from the Gospel according to Isaiah”. Some cringed, but then one Christian teacher said afterwards, “What you have just said is far truer then you realised.”
This Chapter, Isaiah Chapter 53, has had such an influence upon the New Testament writers, and it is a most quoted passage.
The apostles used these sentences from Isaiah frequently, and Jesus must have used these words from Isaiah time and time and time again.
Even on the Emmaus Road the risen Jesus refers to the Suffering Servant mentioning, have you not understood that?
Isaiah began back in Chapter 42 to speak of this coming Suffering Servant.
This ‘suffering Servant’ is a shadowy figure to begin with. Isaiah gives us four poems or songs, about the coming Messiah, but Isaiah is now given a fuller revelation of this ‘Suffering Servant’.
This fourth Song we read of in Chapter 53, although it really starts in the closing verses of Chapter 52. Do read it and read it slowly and read it carefully.
There are five sections or stanzas.
It begins with the exultation of the Servant, and ends with the exultation of the Servant.
Check out Chapter 52 verse 13 and then the closing sentences in Chapter 53. It always pays to check out what is in the Word of God.
This amazingly prophetic passage has a shape, similar to what we have in Philippians Chapter 2 and also in John Chapter 13 in the Upper Room, where Jesus Christ stoops and does the job which nobody else would do.
He had come from God and was returning to God, and in the middle, He takes the role of the lowest Servant in the household, and He washes feet.
He had been exalted and following such service and ultimately death, he would again be exalted.
The Servant’s triumph is wholly unexpected.
Look at my servant who acts wisely. He is to be so marred and disfigured.
We do not ask, is this He who was to come, but is this human?
‘Sprinkle’ which is used in verse 14 is the language of Leviticus, speaking of sacrifice and forgiveness, and God is speaking here of salvation going to the nations and not just the Hebrews.
This is radical. This is revolutionary. This is Isaiah, and this is all being prophesied some 600 years prior to Jesus being born in Bethlehem.
Read the Scripture text. Meet the risen and living Jesus. Follow Him faithfully, and loyally and lovingly and obediently, and receive all that He has for you.