The Gospel According to Isaiah, Part 6, Sheep and the Lamb

The Gospel According to Isaiah

Part 6: Sheep and the Lamb

Isaiah 53:6-7

John 10:1-21

Matthew 27:11-14

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Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Music: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing by Robert Robinson and John Wyeth (Public Domain.) Arranged and performed by Ginger Manning. Recorded and mastered by Gordon Manning. 

Transcript

The Gospel According to Isaiah

Part 6: Sheep and the Lamb

Hello everyone and welcome to part six of “The Gospel According to Isaiah.”

We are continuing our study through this section of Isaiah fifty-two and fifty-three, so if you are able to, I invite you to get your Bible and open to Isaiah chapter fifty-three verses six and seven.

If you have been following along in our last few episodes of this series, then you will know that we have identified the Suffering Servant as Jesus of Nazareth.

You will also know that we discovered that, one day, He will return to establish His kingdom here on the earth, that His kingdom will be one of perfect peace, and that He is high, exalted, and lifted up by God the Father.

We discovered that at His first coming, He was rejected because He was so ordinary; He looked just like everyone else and did not have any majestic features, therefore, only a few people of the day followed Him.

Then we looked at why He is called the Suffering Servant.

We looked at what was done to Him during His trials, His beatings, the mocking He endured, and, ultimately, the cross He bore.

Last time we looked at the worst part of that day on the cross; the wrath of God the Father that was inflicted upon Him.

Today, we are going to look at Jesus’ own response to what He was going through. 

If you have your Bible, let us read today’s verses.

Isaiah 53:6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 

Isaiah 53:7  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

Let us pray.

Father God, we thank You for another opportunity to come together and study Your Word. We thank You for opening our ears to hear and our minds to understand what Your Word has to say. Help us to know You through Your Word. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

As we get started today, I want you to notice something.

I want you to notice that we have a small comparison here between the people of Israel and Jesus. 

Remember that we are still looking at past events through the lenses of the people of Israel at some point in the future, after the day of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

We do not know exactly when they are looking back from; some speculate different time periods, but I am not going to do that. 

All we know with certainty is that it is after the resurrection.

Let us look at verse six together.

“All we like sheep have gone astray”

Again, we see some introspection coming from the people of Israel.

We see that they realize their own shortcomings and are coming to terms with them.

“We have turned—every one—to his own way” 

Have you ever seen a flock of sheep?

While they are interesting creatures to watch and study, they are not exactly the brightest.

Sheep have a natural tendency to be stubborn.

They do what they want to do, when they want to do it, and they ignore any warning signs against the thing they are trying to do.

Left to their own devices, they will run away from the rest of the flock and find themselves in trouble, sometimes in a life-or-death struggle.

That is why sheep need a shepherd, someone to watch over them, to guide them, to protect them, and to keep them from running away from the rest of the flock.

Which is why Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd and compares those who are His to sheep.

Go and read John chapter ten verses one through twenty-one and you will understand what I am saying here. 

“And the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Once again, the people of Israel are continuing to marvel at the fact that it was God the Father who was the chief architect of Jesus’ death. 

Remember from last time that iniquity is defined as gross injustice or wickedness.

They are saying to themselves, once again, that it was God the Father who put those things on Jesus, when He was free from those things Himself.

The big question is, how did Jesus respond during all of this torment, this torture, and this agonizing brutality?

Let us look at the next verse and see.

Isaiah 53:7  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

It is amazing to me that anyone could suffer the things that Jesus suffered and never say anything in defense of their case.

But that is exactly what Jesus did. 

He went through a betrayal by a close friend, an arrest where He stopped to heal a man’s ear that had been lopped off by one of His disciples, a mock trial in the middle of the night where He was beaten and slapped mercilessly.

Then He was taken to Pilate, who had Him examined, flogged, and sent to Herod. 

Herod questioned Him and sent Him back to Pilate who asked the Jews what they wanted done with Him.

His own people turned on Him and demanded that He be crucified. 

And yet we read this:

Matthew 27:11 – 14  Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You have said so.” But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?”  But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. 

Jesus never answered the charges against Him. 

He never said anything to His accusers.

Instead, He stood silent against all the false accusations that were being raised against Him.

We see people following the example that Jesus set many times throughout church history.

If you read the letter of Second Timothy, you will see Paul in his last letter that we have preserved in Scripture, continuing to instruct, exhort, and comfort Timothy.

Paul is writing this letter from the Roman dungeons, awaiting the day that he will be taken out of the city and his life taken from him.

As a Roman citizen, Paul will be taken from the dungeons to the outskirts of Rome, and beheaded.

During the time of his imprisonment, Paul did not complain about the harsh treatment he received.

He did not, even once, (at least that we have recorded for history) complain about anything during the time he was in prison.

He did ask that Timothy bring his cloak when he comes to Rome and that he comes before winter.

He also explained to Timothy the people who fell away from supporting him during his arrest and imprisonment.

However, Paul never complained about being arrested for preaching the gospel and sharing Christ with others.

He never opened his mouth to answer the charges against him, following the example set by Jesus when He stood before His accusers.

We see, also, Peter who was in prison in Rome for preaching the gospel and being a Christian.

Peter would be crucified for his crimes because he was not a Roman citizen and at that time, being a Christian, and especially a preacher, was punishable by the most severe punishment the Roman law could muster.

Instead of answering the charges brought against him, it is said that Peter asked to be crucified upside down because he was not worthy to die the same death that Jesus died.

It is said that Peter’s wife was brought in to be executed as well. 

When she was taken to be crucified, Peter exhorted her and reminded her that they would soon be with Christ once again.

As we look through the timeline of church history, we see many martyrs who never once opened their mouths against their accusers.

John Fox, in Fox’s Book of Martyrs, gives an overview of many lives that were taken by governments and authorities throughout history.

If I may take a moment, I would like to highlight a few of those for you.

First, we have Polycarp.

Polycarp was a Christian teacher during the late first and early second century. 

He was a direct disciple of the Apostle John.

Fox records his arrest and martyrdom in this way:

“Polycarp, the venerable bishop of Smyrna, hearing that persons were seeking for him, escaped, but was discovered by a child. After feasting the guards who apprehended him, he desired an hour in prayer, which being allowed, he prayed with such fervency, that his guards repented that they had been instrumental in taking him. He was, however, carried before the proconsul, condemned, and burnt in the marketplace.

The proconsul then urged him, saying, “Swear, and I will release thee; — reproach Christ.” Polycarp answered, “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never once wronged me; how then shall I blaspheme my King, Who hath saved me?” At the stake, to which he was only tied, but not nailed as usual, as he assured them, he should stand immovable, the flames,

on their kindling the fagots, encircled his body, like an arch, without touching him, and the executioner, on seeing this, was ordered to pierce him with a sword when so great a quantity of blood flowed out as extinguished the fire. But his body, at the instigation of the enemies of the Gospel, especially Jews, was ordered to be consumed in the pile, and the request of his friends, who wished to give it Christian burial, rejected.

They nevertheless collected his bones and as much of his remains as possible and caused them to be decently interred.”

It is also said that the proconsul said to him, “Swear, away with the atheists,” speaking of the Christians because they did not believe the same as the Romans.

Polycarp stretched out his hand and waved toward the crowd of Romans and said, “Away with the atheists.”

Next, we will look at Timothy and Maura, a married couple who were arrested and tortured for being Christians.

“Timothy, being apprehended as a Christian, was carried before Arrianus, the governor of Thebais, who, knowing that he had the keeping of the Holy Scriptures, commanded him to deliver them up to be burnt; to which he answered, “Had I children, I would sooner deliver them up to be sacrificed, than part with the Word of God,” The governor being much incensed at this reply, ordered his eyes to be put out, with red-hot irons,

saying “The books shall at least be useless to you, for you shall not see to read them.” His patience under the operation was so great that the governor grew more exasperated; he, therefore, in order, if possible, to overcome his fortitude, ordered him to be hung up by the feet, with a weight tied about his neck, and a gag in his mouth. In this state, Maura his wife, tenderly urged him for her sake to recant; but, when the gag was taken out of his mouth, instead of consenting to his wife’s entreaties, he greatly blamed her mistaken love, and declared his resolution of dying for the faith. The consequence was, that Maura resolved to imitate his courage and fidelity and either to accompany or follow him to glory. The governor, after trying in vain to alter her resolution, ordered her to be tortured, which

was executed with great severity. After this, Timothy and Maura were crucified near each other, AD 304.”

This is typical of the kind of treatment that Christians endured during the Roman persecutions.

Finally, we will go into the time of the Reformation, to William Tyndale.

Tyndale was an English reformer before the Reformation came to England.

He wanted to translate the Bible into the English language and was told by the Archbishop of Canterbury that it would be “unlawful and extremely dangerous” for the people to have the Bible in their own language.

At this time, England was still under the authority to the Roman Catholic Church and subject to the Pope.

One day when having dinner with the family he was working for (he was a private tutor for a wealthy merchant in England) and a visiting Roman Catholic Priest, Fox records the conversation as this:

“Not long after, Master Tyndale happened to be in the company of a certain divine, recounted for a learned man, and, in communing and disputing with him, he drove him to that issue, that the said great doctor burst out into these blasphemous words, “We were better to be without God’s laws than the pope’s.” Master Tyndale, hearing this, full of godly zeal, and not bearing that blasphemous saying, replied, “I defy the pope,

and all his laws;” and added, “If God spared him life, ere many years he would cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than he did.”

Soon after that conversation, Tyndale escaped England and fled to Germany where he began the work of translating the Bible into English, a crime punishable by death under the laws of England at the time.

During his lifetime in exile, he translated the entire New Testament, the Pentateuch, Joshua through the Chronicles, and the book of Jonah.

When he was finally discovered by the son of a merchant, who had lost his father’s money through gambling and was promised by the Roman Catholic Church that they would pay back everything he lost if he would find Tyndale and have him martyred, he was betrayed in a horrendous way. Fox describes it this way:

“So Master Tyndale, being a man of no great stature, went before, and Philips, a tall, comely person, followed behind him; who had set officers on either side of the door upon two seats, who might see who came in the entry. Philips pointed with his

finger over Master Tyndale’s head down to him, that the officers might see that it was he whom they should take. The officers afterwards told Pointz, when they had laid him in prison, that they pitied to see his simplicity. They brought him to the emperor’s attorney, where he dined. Then came the procurator-general to the house of Pointz and sent away all that was there of Master Tyndale’s, as well his books as other things; and from thence Tyndale was had to the castle of Vilvorde, eighteen English miles from Antwerp. Master Tyndale, remaining in prison, was proffered an advocate and a procurator; the which he refused, saying that he would

make answer for himself. He had so preached to them who had him in charge, and such as was there conversant with him in the Castle that they reported of him, that if he were not a good Christian man, they knew not whom they might take to be one. At last, after much reasoning, when no reason would serve, although he deserved no death, he was condemned by virtue of the emperor’s decree, made in the assembly at Augsburg. Brought forth to the place of execution, he was tied to the stake, strangled by the hangman, and afterwards consumed with fire, at the town of Vilvorde, A.D. 1536; crying at the stake with a fervent zeal, and a loud voice, “Lord! open the king of England’s eyes.” Such was the power of his doctrine, and

the sincerity of his life, that during the time of his  imprisonment (which endured a year and a half), he converted, it is said, his keeper, the keeper’s daughter, and others of his household. As touching his translation of the New Testament, because his enemies did so much carp at it, pretending it

to be full of heresies, he wrote to John Frith, as followeth, “I call God to record against the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus, that I never altered one syllable of God’s Word against my conscience, nor would do this day, if all that is in earth, whether it be honor, pleasure, or riches, might be given me.””

When Tyndale was martyred, he was strangled by a chain, burned, and blown to pieces by gunpowder. 

During the Reformation period, and especially the English Reformation, many, many people were killed for their faith.

Under Queen Mary, also known as Bloody Mary, hundreds of men, women, and even children were brutally killed for the simple crime of not being Roman Catholic.

This “crime” went on being punished for centuries more, even into the colonization of the American continents.

All throughout these persecutions people have been silent when facing their accuser.

They have followed the example that Jesus set for all of us when He faced His own persecution and eventual death.

Where does that leave us today?

What are we to do when faced with certain death for our beliefs?

Should we fight back?

Should we make a stand?

Or should we follow the example that has been set before us for over two thousand years? 

I would like to think that I would be able to follow the example of Jesus and just go quietly. 

I know that would be the right thing to do according to the Scripture.

But I also know that in my flesh I would want to do everything to protect myself and those around me.

Jesus gives us pretty clear instructions on what we should do in these kinds of situations in Matthew 5:38 – 42.

Matthew 5:38 – 42  “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. (ESV)

In other words, when we are faced with persecution, whether it be from the established church, the government, or anywhere else, we are not to retaliate in any way.

We are to follow the example that Jesus set when He faced His accusers.

“Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

He remained silent and did not open His mouth except to answer the questions that He felt it necessary to answer.

If you read all four gospel accounts, you will see that Jesus only answered direct questions. 

I challenge you to go and read the accounts of Jesus being questioned by the Sanhedrin, Pilate, and Herod.

He answered them in the way that He felt was absolutely necessary for them to understand what He was doing. 

Jesus willingly laid down His life so that those who would believe in Him, would come to salvation.

He stood there silent as He was beaten beyond human recognition so that those who would believe will be saved.

May we never forget what happened that day, for us.

May we never stop sharing with others what happened that day, for them.

Let us pray.

Father God, once again we are thankful for Your word. Seal Your word in us through the Holy Spirit. We are thankful for the countless men, women, and children that we can look at as examples of how to live our lives, being silent before our persecutors like Your Son. Should any of us ever face the day where we are forced to choose between our faith and our lives, I ask You to give us strength to make the decision that honors You. Help us to be like Your Son in this situation, where we would be silent before our accusers. We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.

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Thank you and may God bless you.