A few years ago I was reading an interview they did with a man, who was highly regarded as someone who was very intelligent, and they asked him: “Do you believe in heaven and the afterlife?” And this man answered, “I really haven’t given it much thought.” I was shocked when I read that: a man of that intelligence, highly respected, had “not given much thought” to what is undoubtedly the single most important question in life: whether there is such a thing as eternal life, and if there is, how we can get it?

But let’s take the spotlight off him this morning, and shine it on our OWN hearts: what about YOU? Have YOU really considered the most important questions of life? This morning as we continue our study in Isaiah 53, we come to :8, which asks the challenging question: “As for His generation, who considered …” — Who considered? What things does this verse say that we should be considering about the Messiah that Isaiah 53 predicted?

I. Consider His Substitution 

“He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of My people, to whom the stroke was due” 

The Bible tells us here that the Messiah, when He came, would be “cut off out of the land of the living” — in other words, that He would die. But WHY would He die? It says it would be “for the transgression of My people, to whom the stroke was due.” So WE were the ones who deserved the punishment; WE were the ones who deserved to die. The Book of Ezekiel says, “the soul that sins shall die.” Romans 6 says, “The wages of sin is death.” All those who sin against God deserve punishment. And as Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So since all of us sinned, all of us deserve God’s punishment.

And yet Isaiah says here, it was Jesus upon whom God’s punishment came. It says “HE was cut off … for the transgression of My people, to whom the stroke was due.” The word “stroke” here is a Hebrew word that ALWAYS refers to suffering that comes as a punishment from God: 

— it was used in Genesis of how God struck Pharaoh’s house as punishment for taking Sarah, 

— it is used in another place of when God struck somebody with leprosy. 

— It’s used in Psalm 89:32 of how God punishes transgressions with the rod and stripes. 

This word always refers to the punishment of God for sin. 

But Isaiah says here that the “stroke,” the punishment for sin, did not come upon us who sinned; it came upon HIM, Jesus the Messiah, who was innocent. Verse 9 here says, “He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.” Jesus, the totally innocent Son of God, took the punishment for OUR sins upon Himself. We’ve seen this repeatedly over the past several weeks in Isaiah 53, that HE took OUR place: 

—:4 “surely OUR griefs, HE Himself bore, and OUR sorrows, HE carried” 

—:5 “but HE was pierced through for OUR transgressions; HE was crushed for OUR iniquities; the chastening for OUR well-being fell upon HIM; and by HIS stripes WE are healed”

— :6 “the Lord has caused the iniquity of US all to fall on HIM.” 

And now we see here again in :8, that HE was cut off from the land of the living for OUR transgressions, to whom the “stroke,” the punishment of God, should have come. Over and over in Isaiah 53 we see this idea of the Messiah dying our death, bearing our sins, taking our place; the doctrine of the “Substitutionary Atonement”: that Jesus paid for our sins, in our place, by dying as a Substitute for us on the cross. 

When Cheryl & I were in seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, back in the 1980s, there was a 72-year-old crossing guard who was killed while saving a little girl who had darted out in traffic. It was a tragic incident, because that man died for something that he did not do. There was a little girl coming home from school that day, who all of the sudden she just decided, like little kids sometimes do, to just dart out into the street. By all rights, she should have been hit by the car and died. It was her fault. Undoubtedly, her parents had told her many times: “Do not run out into the street without looking.” The school authorities had probably told her the same thing; and the crossing guard had most likely warned her as well: “Do NOT go out until I tell you!” She had been warned. But she chose to ignore the warnings. She just thoughtlessly ran into the street. The hard truth is, that little girl should have been struck by the oncoming car; it was the consequence of her own disobedience. But that’s not what happened. When that 72-year-old crossing guard saw the little girl dart out, and he saw the car that was oncoming, he himself ran out into the street and pushed that little girl out of the way, and the car hit him instead. That guard had not done anything wrong; HE had not made the foolish decision; it was not HIS mistake. But HE took the blow; he took the brunt of the deadly force that by all rights should have gone to the girl who disregarded the rules. That innocent man died in her place, taking the “stroke” that should have come upon her instead.

And that is what Jesus did for us. Jesus had not done anything wrong. Isaiah makes it clear. “He had done no violence; nor was there any deceit in His mouth.” Hebrews says: “He was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” It was WE who had sinned; just like that little girl. We all know right from wrong; we all know what God has told us to do or not do in His word — but we foolishly disobeyed Him anyway. That is sin. And we have all done it. And we all deserve the consequences. We deserve for the “stroke,” the punishment, the wrath of God to fall upon us. But that’s not what happened. Instead, Jesus, the Innocent Son of God, took the brunt of that wrath for us. As I Peter 2:24 says: ”He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.” Jesus took our punishment, in our place! 

As Isaiah says, have you considered this? Have you ever considered what that really means for you? That the punishment for your sins, which should have come upon you, came upon Jesus instead? That you don’t need to spend your life trying to “pile up an impressive resume” of good works to impress God and make up for your sins. Instead they’ve been paid for!  Consider how YOU can be saved today, if you will repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus as your Lord & Savior.  Consider His Substitution, for you!

II. Consider His Vindication 

“From oppression and judgment He was taken away” 

Hebrew scholars wrestle with the exact translation of this verse; it is very difficult to translate, and very difficult to ascertain the meaning. But I think that Matthew Henry, the trustworthy old Puritan commentator, has hit on perhaps the best interpretation. The first Hebrew word in the verse is actually the word “From” (the Hebrew word “min.”) Many translators wondered in what sense He was taken “from” judgment, when He suffered as He did on the cross. But Henry points out that the following expression, “taken away” is an interesting Hebrew word that means to be “snatched out”! The exact same form of this word is used in II Kings 2:10 of how Elijah was miraculously translated from earth to heaven!  So Henry maintains that Isaiah is saying here that the Messiah, once He has paid for our sins, would be “snatched out” of the grave which held Him, by the miraculous translation of God — in other words, this verse is predicting that Jesus would rise from the dead; that “taken away” refers to Jesus’ resurrection. So in other words you might say it: “From His death of oppression and judgment for our sins, He was raised!”

If this does refer to Jesus’ resurrection, it would not the only hint of Jesus’ resurrection that we have here in Isaiah 53:

—:10 says “He will prolong His days”: literally, He will live long years; His days will stretch out into eternity. He died unjustly, but He will live, and will have eternal life. 

—And then :12 closes with a triumphant note of victory: “Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great.”  That final verse gives us the sense that something has happened, which has snatched victory out of the jaws of apparent defeat. That “something” was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (as we will see on Easter Sunday morning when we finish Isaiah 53!)

All of these verses in Isaiah 53 foreshadow the resurrection of the Messiah, and point to His vindication: that after He had suffered for us, God would demonstrate His satisfaction with Jesus and what He had done by raising Him from the dead. 

As Matthew Henry wrote, “God sent express order from heaven to release Him — for the debt had been paid.” And this is exactly what Romans 4:25 tells us: “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and raised because of our justification.” Jesus was raised, proving that we were justified. As Henry put it, because the prisoner has been released, we can know the debt has been paid! 

Someone gave this example: if you were in a foreign country and were sentenced to serve in prison for a certain crime, but they offered that if you could find a substitute, who would serve the punishment for you, you could. They said, if you did find someone who served your term for you, how would you know when your crime had been paid off? When you saw your substitute out walking free again! If the man who took your place was walking freely about, then you would know your punishment had been paid. 

That’s how it was with Jesus. When He rose from the dead, it demonstrated that our debt for which He died had been paid in full. As Romans 4:35 says, “He was raised because of our justification.”

As Isaiah 53 says: Have you ever really considered all this?  Have you ever considered what the resurrection of Jesus means for YOU? 

— As Romans 1:4 says, He “was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.”  The resurrection of Jesus means that you don’t have to wonder which of all the gods and religions is the right one; God showed us once and for all that Jesus was His Son, and that He did indeed pay for our sins, by raising Him from the dead. So you can confidently place your trust in Jesus, and not in any other religion, for your salvation. 

— And then, you should also consider that because Jesus rose from the dead, you can also be very confident that He can give YOU and your loved ones eternal life. He’s already demonstrated His power over the grave by rising from the dead. 

— And have you considered how, if Jesus rose from the dead to give us eternal life, that you shouldn’t just live for this present world? There is a whole eternity before us, that you should be preparing yourself for, and investing your life in?

We need to consider these things. Consider the vindication God gave Jesus, when He raised Him from the dead! 

III. Consider Your Reaction 

This verse actually begins: “And as for His generation, who considered …”

The word “considered” here means to “ponder,” to “think,” to “meditate” on something; to “give thoughtful consideration or deliberation to.” The Bible tells us here that the people of Jesus’ generation — those who were alive when He walked the earth, His contemporaries — did not give much consideration to Him. They just did not think about Him that much. Here was this extraordinary Man, who fulfilled all of the Messianic signs, who died unjustly, and whom 500+ eyewitnesses testified had risen from the dead — the people of His age should have stopped to think about this; they should have pondered, considered what the meaning of all this was for them. But Isaiah says they did not. This expression, “Who considered?” means that most people did NOT consider it. By and large, they ignored it, and did not give serious consideration what He had done. 

This part of Isaiah 53:8 reminds me of that supposedly “intelligent” man I talked about in the introduction a minute ago. How could someone so intelligent, say that he had “not given much thought” to the most important question in life?  Surely this learned man had heard of Jesus — as one atheist even said, whether you believe He’s God or not, Jesus is unquestionably the single most significant figure of all history. He claimed to be God, and there is credible evidence that He rose from the dead (He was seen alive by 500 people!) and He promised eternal life to all who follow Him. Surely this intelligent man would at least consider Him? Surely at least he’d give some THOUGHT to eternity; to eternal life; to what would happen to him after death? Can you claim to be a wise, intelligent person if you have not even considered the claims of Jesus Christ? 

It reminds me of the testimony of Dr. Bill Tolar, my former professor at Southestern Seminary in Ft. Worth, who as a young adult was an atheist, and proud of his intellect. One day a friend asked him, “Bill, I know you are very intelligent; have you ver read the #1 best-selling book in all history?” He thought, well if I am going to be a respected intellect, I need to have read the #1 best-selling book in all history. So he asked his friend, what is it? And his friend said, it is the Bible! So, undaunted, Bill Tolar began to read the Bible — but he said he didn’t get very far until he began to be convicted, that if this book was true, his life was all wrong. And soon, after reading and really considering what the Bible taught about Jesus, Bill Tolar surrendered his life to Jesus Christ as his Lord & Savior. 

My question to you today is: HAVE YOU considered Jesus? Have YOU really stopped to ponder, and think, and give serious attention to these things?

Have you considered why Jesus would volunteer to leave heaven, as we saw last week that He did, to come to Earth as a humble servant, to die on the cross as a sacrifice for sins that He had not committed? 

Have you considered WHY He have done such a thing? 

Have you considered that the only reason He might have done something like that is because it was the only way we could be saved?

And have you considered that if He is who He says He is, then He deserves your full attention and devotion?  

And yet it might not a stretch to say that most people today do not give serious consideration to Jesus. In a very real way we can say today just as Isaiah did in his day: “As for THIS generation, who considered … ?”, because not many people REALLY consider! 

The wise person will give some time and effort to consider what the word of God should really mean to them.  The Bible tells us in the Book of Acts that when Paul and Silas had preached at Thessalonica, the Jews stirred up a crowd and drove them out of town. But then it says they next came to the city of Berea. And the Bible says that “these were more noble than those at Thessalonica” and “they … examined the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” The Bereans gave God’s word some serious consideration. And you will too, if you are wise. 

In C.S. Lewis’ book, The Screwtape Letters, which we studied in our Discipleship class about a year and a half ago, Lewis portrays some letters of advice that a “senior demon” by the name of Screwtape wrote to his “nephew”, “apprentice demon,” “Wormwood.” In the first letter of that book, Screwtape told Wormwood how he once “steered” a certain man away from the Lord. Screwtape writes: 

“I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way… before I knew where I was I saw my 20 years’ work beginning to totter…. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch… Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past … he’d had a narrow escape … but he is now safe in OUR father’s house.” 

Lewis’ book is fictitious, but it vividly describes what really DOES happen to many people: a thought about the Lord and what He should mean in our life flits through our mind — only to be replaced by some trite idea about “lunch”, or “the bus” or “the paperboy” or a million other things that don’t really matter. And we never really, seriously give consideration to the most important thing: to the meaning of Jesus Christ, and how we should respond to Him. How many people sit through messages just like we are hearing THIS MORNING — and have the same thing happen to them as happened to that man in the British Museum?

If what Isaiah 53 and the other scriptures teach us about Jesus is true, then He deserves our utmost attention, consideration and response. As C.S. Lewis also wrote: “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” 

But that is exactly what most people today try to do with Jesus: they try to make Him of “moderate importance”:

I’ll go to church “when I can.”

I’ll obey Him when it’s convenient.

I’ll serve Him if it’s not too difficult.

I’ll add Jesus to the other priorities of my life.

Isaiah says: CONSIDER HIM! Really consider who He is! That He is GOD HIMSELF who came to earth. That He loved you enough to die for YOUR sins. That He has eternal life to give you. That He has eternal pleasures to give you in heaven that eye has never seen and ear has never heard, and which have not even entered into the heart of man! CONSIDER HIM! Give Him the time and the attention and the thought and the consideration that He deserves.  

What real consideration are you giving to what the Bible tells us God has done in Jesus?  So many of us are JUST like that man in the Screwtape Letters. That’s a fictitious work, but it pictures reality for millions of people today. Satan has got so many of us so tied up, so busy, so distracted in an unending stream of television and music and media and games and activities, that it keeps us from any serious consideration about what Jesus should mean to YOU, and the difference He should make in the way you live your life. 

Would you consider this morning; would you ponder your life? Where are you? Where are you headed? Would You ask yourself today: how should I respond to Jesus? If what the Bible says here about Him is true, then how should I live? Don’t foolishly allow some demon Satan’s assigned to you, to bring you “safely to his father’s house”!  Don’t you get trapped in his web of busy-ness. Think! Think about these things. Let God’s Spirit speak to your heart today about what all this means. Consider Him! Consider what the Jesus of Isaiah 53 should mean to YOU!

INVITATION

Would you take some time to “consider” the things you’ve heard this morning? 

— Would you consider how Jesus died on the cross, for you?

— Would you consider how He rose from the dead?

— Would you consider what all this should mean for you?

If these things are true, then how should you now live? What do you need to do differently than you are right now? How should it affect the way you spend your time, the way you spend your money, what you make your priorities … 

— and most importantly, consider your own personal response to Jesus as your Lord & Savior … don’t be like that foolish man, who said, “I haven’t given it much thought …”. Give it some thought, right now, and commit your life to Jesus!