Today I would like to talk about “The greatest love” from the first part of Isaiah 53. This is one part of the 4th servant’s song which began in Isaiah 52:13. Here the reason is written as to why the Lord’s servant must suffer. That is because of our sin. In other words it was a substitutional death.
Since Jesus Christ began his work up until now, many people have misunderstood the cross. They say that if Jesus was the Messiah, why did he have to be put on a cross and die. The cross is “a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (I Cor. 1:23) However, “to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (I Cor. 1:18) It is the greatest love. Today let’s look at 3 things about the greatest love.

I. Who has believed? (Vs. 1)
First let’s look at verse 1. “Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? “Our message” (1) is the good news concerning God’s salvation. “Who has believed” (1) this wonderful message of salvation? These words are quoted in John 12:38 and Romans 10:16. In these passages even though this prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus, no one believed. That was because Jesus’ appearance was so far from their image of the Messiah. The Messiah that they believed in would restore Israel politically and militarily. Although they waited expectantly for a political Messiah who would set them free from their Roman control, Jesus wasn’t like this. Jesus came to save us from sin which was the root cause of such problems. Therefore, they weren’t able to receive Jesus as the Messiah.
Every age is the same. No matter how much the Gospel is preached, not many people try to believe. Even if we speak about the message, about what we have experienced, about the good news that we have received, people don’t try to believe. However, even so we must not stop talking. That is because we have been changed into believers.
“Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)
Faith begins by hearing, by hearing Word of God about Jesus. Therefore, if we want people to believe, we must tell them about the good news of Christ. Without hearing they can’t believe. You may think that it is meaningless to tell someone about Christ because you think they won’t listen or that they have no interest in the Bible and no desire to believe, but even so we must tell them. That is how wonderful the news is. If so, even among people that you would think no one would believe, God will definitely raise up people who believe.
II. The servant who was despised (Vs. 2-3)
“To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” (1) Please look at verses 2 and 3. “He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men.”
In 11:1 too the word, “a tender shoot” (2) appears. This “tender shoot” (2) and the “tender shoot” that appears in 11:1 are different words. This “tender shoot” (2)　is a sucker. A sucker is a shoot which grows from a bud at the base of a tree or shrub or from its roots. It is called a sucker because it sucks up the energy from the mother plant. Therefore, it is like a baby, powerless, and can’t live without its mother. It means he will be born in a weak appearance. His beginnings will be humble.
Also it says, “like a root out of dry ground.” (2) There isn’t much promise for “a root out of dry ground”. (2) In the same way Jesus’ origins brought little promise. “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (John 1:46) He grew up in such humble, unpromising circumstances.
Therefore, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (2) “He” (2) is of course Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ “had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (2) Usually we have an image of Jesus having long hair, a beautiful complexion, blue eyes, wearing white clothes with a glow about them, but this passage is different. We have such an image because of paintings and movies about Christ, but in reality he was much different. “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (2)
If you look at the Gospels, when Jesus was arrested by the Roman soldiers they didn’t know who Jesus was. Therefore, so they would know, Judah kissed him. It was a sign to show them who Jesus was. He was an average man, no different from the people around him, so if he wasn’t kissed, then the soldiers wouldn’t know who to arrest. Within him he had God’s glory and brilliance. He was overflowing with kindness and love, but “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (2)
Please look at verse 3. Here it says, “He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Even though Jesus didn’t do even one despising thing; even though he didn’t do one bad thing, he was rejected, “a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.” (3) Men hid their faces from him and no one esteemed him. Even so, he gave his life, and from his heart served other people for their happiness. He healed the sick, cast out demons, comforted the tired and struggling. He forgot that he didn’t have time to eat, gave up sleeping, and grounded himself to powder serving others. Even so people rejected him and continued to shout “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
He was “a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.” (3) The Hebrew word for “sorrows” (3) is used for both physical and mental pain and refers to all various kinds of sorrows including to those hurts that are so deep that they lead to death. He was “familiar with suffering” experiencing all the sufferings that we experience. He took upon himself the curse of sin, “painful toil…all the days of your life.” (Genesis 3:16) “Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (3)
This is because Jesus was not the Messiah that they had hoped for. What they were looking for after all was a Messiah that would set Israel free from Roman rule and bring the kingdom of God on this earth. However, Jesus wasn’t like this. How weak he was. He was all withered up, “He had no beauty…. to attract us to him.” (2) He wasn’t a striking Messiah. Said in one word, it wasn’t what they were expecting, a disappointment.
Therefore, few “believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed.” (1) “The arm of the LORD” (1) is the power of God, especially God’s power to save. In other words, “the arm of the LORD” (1) was revealed through the suffering of the servant especially by his substitutionary death on the cross. However, people didn’t believe in either the message or the power of “the arm of the LORD” (1) The servant “was despised and rejected by men.” (3)

III. The servant who took our sins (Vs. 4-6)
The reason why the servant was so despised is given in verse four. Please look at verse 4. “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.”
“He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.” (4) However, we were wrong. We thought the servant was punished for his sins and iniquities, but in reality that is not so. It was for us. “He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.” (4)
Please look at verse 5. It says, “But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us
peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.”
The servant was pierced and crushed for our sins　and iniquities. Here the words “pierced” and “crushed” are used. This truly express the suffering that Jesus Christ received on the cross.
This prophecy was told 700 years before Christ was born so Isaiah didn’t see the cross and prophesize. However, the description is as if people who stood looking at the foot of the cross are talking. Some people say that this servant is the Persian King Cyrus or the Israelites, but if you look at the description you will clearly see that that is not so. This is expressing perfectly Jesus being pierced on the cross and crushed.
However, for what purpose was the servant’s suffering? Why did Christ have to be put on a cross and die? It was for us: for our sins and iniquities. “He was pierced” (5) and crushed and suffered that much as a substitute for us. By his punishment we have peace “and by his wounds we are healed.” (5)
In verse 6 it says, “the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” God put the sin of all of mankind on top of him. The sin of all of mankind! It wasn’t just my sin, one person’s sin. It was for all of mankind’s sin. Though my sin, one person’s sin, is considerably heavy, if you say the sin of all of mankind, how heavy it must be!
At present there are approximately 7,145,000,000 people. It is increasing by 137 people every minute, 70,000,000 every year. When I studied this in Junior High school, if I remember right, it was 4,300,000,000 people so since that time we can see that it has increased considerably. Moreover, it isn’t just the sin of the people living now, but includes the sin of all people who have ever lived on this earth since the beginning of history. “The LORD has laid on him” (6) the sin of all men from the time the first man Adam was created up until now.
“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (I John 2:2)
Jesus became “the atoning sacrifice for…the sins of the whole world” (I John 2:2) and died on the cross. That was for our sins. He became the substitution for our sins. That is “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (II Cor. 5:21). Please also open your Bibles to II Cor. 5:21. Let’s read together.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (II Cor. 5:21)
In Israel so that many people’s sins would be forgiven a lamb was slaughtered instead. By the blood being poured out, men’s sin was forgiven and by eating the meat, life was kept in man’s body. In other words, lambs were animals that showed the power of salvation and the power of atonement. Then Jesus Christ became the lamb of God and died.
As you know, when Israel was set free from slavery in Egypt, lambs were slaughtered and their blood was put on the top and sides of the door posts. By that the Israelites were safe from God’s plague and were able to leave Egypt. In reality, this event of the Exodus became a reality by blood of the Passover lamb. Jesus was truly the lamb of the Passover. Jesus set those who are slaves to sin free by His blood. Therefore, when John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said, “look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) John is saying that by the slaughter of the Lamb of the Passover, the sin of the entire world was removed. In this way atonement became a reality. The cross of Jesus that appears in the Gospels is for me and also for you and is also the atonement for the entire world.
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way” (6) The Bible calls this sin. The meaning of the Greek word for sin is “missing the mark”. In order to forgive our sin God laid the punishment of our sin on the servant. By the servant receiving our punishment as a substitute of us, all of our sin is forgiven. “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (5)
How thankful we can be! The people of this world say the cross is stupid or a failure, but it is the greatest show of God’s love for us.
An orphanage in France had a special rule. That was when a child that caused a problem was being punished, if someone wanted to be punished instead of the that child, that person would be punished.
One day a huge incident occurred. A child stabbed another child’s arm with a knife. The child who swung the knife around was locked up in dark room. The director of the orphanage asked the children, “Is there anyone among you that wants to substitute being punished by being locked up in a dark room?” Then surprisingly, the child that had been stabbed by knife raised his hand. Finally, the child who had been stabbed by the knife as a substitute was locked up in the dark room and the child who had swung the knife around was set free. The child who was set free was deeply moved. Even though while by his fault the other child had been badly hurt, that child said that he would receive his punishment. When he was touched by the other child’s love, a little at a time his heart showed change.
Like the child who had been injured being closed up in a dark room as a substitute, God’s child, Jesus, was trampled upon and whipped for us who are suffering from the punishment of our sins and infirmities. The Lord became a substitute for us and was smitten on the cross. “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (5)

You may be suffering from some kind of problem. If so, please look to Christ who was hung on the cross. Christ took on all your sufferings and died. So that you would not have to suffer Christ became your substitute. Of course, all people Christians and non-Christians suffer, but Christ has become your substitute for the root problem of our sufferings, sin. Therefore, the only thing that is necessary for you to do is to believe in Jesus Christ who died in place of you as your Savior. If so, the root cause of all of your worries, all of your pains, all of your suffering, sin, will be healed. The cross of Christ is the greatest love of Christ. It is the root of your life’s blessings and glory. Please accept God’s love for you. If so, you too can receive God’s love and forgiveness and peace and healing in Christ.