Our adult Sunday school lesson (Gospel Advocate's Companion 2008-2009 series on Great Texts of the Bible), "The Suffering Servant," is broken down in the following ways:
In talking about Jesus Christ as the Servant of the Lord:
His Origins (Isaiah 53:1-3)
1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
His Ordeal (Isaiah 53:4-9)
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
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.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
9 And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
His Offering (Isaiah 53:10-12)
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of His soul,and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.
There is no topic more important or interesting than Jesus, our Saviour. At Jefferson Street, our studies and Bible discussions get very interesting. (Maybe it's just interesting to us, but you won't know until you stop by now, will you?)
We invite you to come and learn with us.
Since we'll be discussing this portion of the Bible in our class on Sunday morning, we thought we'd post a few links to articles from the brotherhood that reference this chapter of Isaiah, as well as the New Testament accounts.
This is just a small sample. Since the death, burial and resurrection are the foundation for Christianity, there is certainly far more material and helpful commentary in helping us to get a clear understanding of the scriptures.
- The Predicted Messiah (from Apologetics Press)
- The Crucifixion of Christ (from the Salisbury Church of Christ in NC)
- Salvation: The Blood of Christ (from Bible InfoNet/Firm Foundation)
- Understanding the Cross of Christ: Parts One, Two, and Three (from Forthright)
- The Death of Christ (from theBible.net) (His death, and of course, His burial, and resurrection.)
