Sermon Questions for July 19th, 2009: The Drama of Redemption: Part 3

Isaiah 53

My Personal Journey

  1. What is your idea of a hero?
  2. What are the different ways in which a person might attract a following? What was unbelievable about the message of God’s chosen Messiah? (53:1-3)
  3. If you had grown up next door to “the servant,” how would you describe his childhood to a newspaper reporter who interviewed you about him (53:2-3)? How does that contrast with God’s perspective of him (53:2)?
  4. Why was it necessary for a righteous servant to be the bearer of sins? What spiritual wounds has Christ healed in you (53:5)?
  5. How is the imagery in God’s prophecy of the mission of the Messiah full of meaning?
  6. The New Testament freely applies this song to Jesus (Acts 8:32-34; 1 Peter 2:22-23). From this song, how would you explain the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection? How does it bring reassurance to you of God’s forgiveness and love?
  7. In Romans 10:16. Paul applies Isaiah 53:1 to the ministry of a follower of Christ. How have you experienced rejection from others because of your faith? Has obedience to God ever left you feeling “cut off from the land of the living” (53:8)?
  8. What one goal for your relationship with God can you work on in the coming weeks by contemplating His sacrifice for you?

Journey Into the Word

  1. If all you knew about the servant’s adult life was summed up in 53:7-9, what would you assume must have happened to him? How does this relate to the picture of the servant in 50:6?
  2. How do you account for the paradox between his death (53:9) and his seeing the “light of life” (53:11)?
  3. Verses 7, 10, 12 use sacrificial imagery to speak of the Servant. How does that make his death more than a mere martyr’s death?
  4. What would actually be happening when people were assuming that God was punishing Jesus? (53:4) What opposite reactions would people have to the Messiah before and after His suffering? (52:14-15)
  5. What "satisfaction" did God promise would follow the suffering of the Messiah? (53:11)
  6. Isaiah 42 and 43 indicate that the servant would “be a light to the Gentiles.” How is that idea communicated in the opening lines of Isaiah 53?
  7. What sufferings of Jesus (such as those described in Luke 23:1-56) were foretold in Isaiah 53?
  8. What was the purpose of the Servant’s suffering (53:4-6)? What was the nature of his suffering? What benefits come to others because of his suffering and death?