Sermon preached on Friday, March 29, 2013 at Garden Valley Chapel during our Good Friday service based on Isaiah 53:1-6.

Take your Bible if you will and open it to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter fifty-three.

One Biblical scholar has said, "no other passage from the Old Testament was as important to the church as Isaiah 53."1

Luther said that everyone should memorize this portion of Scripture and rightly so.

Jesus in the NT quoted one particular verse in Isaiah 53 and applied it to Himself -

12 ...And was numbered with the transgressors...

This He did in Luke 22:37 saying, "this which is written must be fulfilled in Me...for that which refers to Me has its fulfillment."

On other occasions, when He declared that He "must suffer many things" and that He had "not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 8:31; 10:45), it seems He may have been alluding to Isaiah 53.

Time and time again the NT authors refer to at least 8 out of the 12 verses from Isaiah 53.

According to John Stott,

"Every verse of the chapter except verse 2... is applied to Jesus in the New Testament, some verses several times. Indeed, there is good evidence that [Jesus´] whole public career, from his baptism through his ministry, sufferings and death to his resurrection and ascension, is seen as a fulfillment of the pattern foretold in Isaiah 53."2

With that in mind, let us turn to Isaiah 53. Stand in the reading of the Word of God. Let us read together this portion of Scripture.

Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12.