Overview of Easter Prayer Meeting – April 5th, 2026
Happy Easter and Happy Resurrection! We praise the Lord as we remember the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In prayer today, we were led to read the full chapter of Isaiah 53. As we read this chapter and reflected on the meaning of it, we couldn’t help but realize that to the Jew, it is almost forbidden to read as it points directly to Jesus Christ, whom they deny as Messiah; it reflects on ‘so called’ religious Christians who are that in word only but not in deed, not truly being born again; and it points to the unsaved Gentile who refuses to believe that Jesus came into the world first as the suffering servant and will one day soon return as conquering King.
We decided to use some commentary from The Dake Annotated Reference Bible as he gives an in-depth breakdown of each verse, giving cross references to other scriptures. We won’t reference everything, but only some points which he makes. We added more in this review than what we did in the service. It will be in italics so will be easy to identify. We’d highly recommend to avail yourself to this Bible and use it as a study guide. You can access this link for more information on it. We’ll also offer our thoughts throughout the review also.
Isaiah 53
“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 [a]form or [b]comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no [c]beauty that we should desire Him. “3 He is despised and [d]rejected by men, A Man of [e]sorrows and acquainted with [f]grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
Today, so much emphasis is placed on appearance and image, yet with Jesus it wasn’t that way. With the nonspiritual heart or earthly rational, one would think that because He was despised and rejected by men, must surely have meant that He did something wrong. But that was the farthest from the truth as the humble and meek thronged to Him. For the most part, it was the majority of the religious who rejected Him. Jesus, speaking of Himself, said that if they (the world) rejects you (Christian), know that they reject you because of Himself. So we are not greater than our master, He was despised and not esteemed and that can and will happen to us as Christians.
Dake’s Commentary says this; “Even when they saw Him in His life before His sufferings such could not have been true except in the case of enemies, filled with satanic hatred. Christ was no doubt the most handsome and attractive man who ever lived, but the sufferings described here would cause anyone to think there was no beauty about Him.
He was a man of sorrows because He carried our sorrows. He personally had no sin, sickness, pain or suffering on account of His own self and sins, but we have these in abundance; and since He came into the world to carry them for us, He had to become identified with us in our sufferings by taking them upon Himself and bearing them unto death, so that we might be free from them.”
“4 Surely He has borne our [g]griefs And carried our [h]sorrows; Yet we [i]esteemed Him stricken, [j]Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded[k] for our transgressions, He was [l]bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes[m] we are healed.”
Dake’s Commentary says this; “The words grief and griefs should have been translated as sickness, as the Hebrew word is translated elsewhere and recognized by many versions....Christ was not only acquainted with diseases and sicknesses in the sense of being able to discern and diagnose them, and by being familiar with them in others, but He actually bore them in His own body while hanging on the cross, and becoming a substitute for others.”
According to the Hebrew (as in versions quoted above), verse 10 plainly says that He (Jehovah) has made Him sick, depressed Him with pain, laid on Him sickness – in addition to His soul being made an offering for sin. He was made sick for men as he was made sin for them. He became the sickness offering as well as the sin offering for man.....Likewise, He did not personally experience all the sicknesses and diseases, but He became sick in the sense of becoming an offering for sickness. He made atonement for sin and all its effects. Both sin and sickness were a part of the one curse, and both became a part of the one redemption. Christ atoned for and made provision for sickness to be healed, as well as for sin to be forgiven.”
When a person becomes a Christian, we exchange our sickness, disease and suffering for His healing. Our transgressions then are removed from us as far as the east is from the west. There is no loss in becoming a Christian.
“6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord [n]has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Dake’s Commentary says this; “we have turned, every one, to his own way”. This has been the way of man since the Fall. Each one pursues his own interests, makes his own plans, and seeks to gratify his own selfishness, regardless of the interest and good of the whole.”
“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.”
Jesus is referred to as the Lamb of God many times in the Bible. As at Passover, Easter, a lamb was slain to symbolize what the Israelite's had to do when they fled Egypt. They were commanded to slaughter a lamb and put the blood of it over the top and sides of the door so that the angel of death would pass over their homes. Likewise, when Jesus was crucified at Passover (Easter), His blood was shed for us who would believe, so that death would have no power over us when we receive Him as Lord and Saviour.
“8 He was taken from [o]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.”
Dake’s Commentary says this; “Christ was never kept in prison, not did He have a fair trial; so the idea here is that He was cut off, justice and judgment being denied Him. Who will be able to declare the wickedness of His generation? He was considered too wicked to be given a fair trial. Though He was declared innocent by His judge and others, (Mt.27:4b), He was denied freedom by His enemies. They pressured His judge who then thought it best to turn Him over to them that he might save himself from being accused of treason to Caesar.”
“9 And [p]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.”
Jesus was crucified between two criminals and he was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Aramathea, who was a rich man.
“10 Yet it pleased the Lord to [q]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.”
Dake’s Commentary says this; Why God was pleased with the death of Christ. The only reason it pleased Jehovah to let Christ be crucified was to bring about the redemption of the whole creation so that His eternal program could be carried out with man on earth (v10). He could not have been pleased with the mutilation of His beloved Son, because He punished men for this (Acts 2:22-24, 1 Th.2:16). Both the Father and the Son volunteered to suffer such indignities for the salvation of men (Jh.3:16; 10:18). Such a sacrifice on the part of God showed His divine perfection, justice, mercy and boundless benevolence. The law was upheld, sin was judged and a basis of pardon and eternal reconciliation was made possible.”
He continues; “Himself – His entire self, not His personal soul only. It took His body, soul, and spirit to make a complete offering for sin and sickness. He was a complete substitute for man. Since the body, soul, and spirit of man had sinned and were under the sentence of death, it took the whole being of the Messiah to take man’s place. The word soul is sometimes used as an individual (Gen.12:5; 41:26). There is no such thing as sinning with the flesh and not with the soul and spirit, as taught by some. The flesh cannot be filthy and the soul and spirit be holy. The body became sinful, depraved, and diseased by sin in the fall, and the body must be redeemed from these things if redemption is to be complete.”
There are those who wickedly believe that what God did was sadistic and evil and that’s what the devil wants mankind to believe. But it was all about Jesus bearing the worlds iniquities. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. So if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgiveness us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Had Jesus not done this, we would have never had the hope of eternal life, but be eternally condemned to hell. Without the death of Jesus, there would be no resurrection for us from death. The god of this world, the devil, wants to blind the minds of the unbelievers to the truth of what Jesus did at the cross. The only way to heaven and to live eternally in heaven, is to believe and receive into your heart, Jesus Christ as Lord, knowing that everything He did was for our salvation, spirit, soul and body.
So regarding the Jewish people, the Apostle Paul says that there is a veil over their eyes, which is only removed in Jesus Christ. That’s why both secular and religious Jews don’t read Isaiah 53, because it points to the historic fact that Jesus Christ is their Messiah, that He had to be the suffering servant before He could be the reigning King. 2 Corinthians 3:12-18says; “12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— 13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as [b]by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Isaiah 53:11-12 ends with; “11 [r]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 [s]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.”
Dake’s Commentary says this; Messiah Bore Iniquities; He bore iniquities, not because He became a sinner or that sin was transferred to Him, for that would be impossible. Guilt is a personal quality and cannot be transferred. The consequences of sin may pass from one to another, and sufferings for sin can be assumed by another. This was done by Jesus Christ; He stood between God and man and received the blow of the sinner upon Himself. He took the punishment the sinner should have received, to save the guilty. When a sinner accepts this by faith and surrenders his life in gratitude to God, he becomes justified. There was a transfer of consequences to Christ, and we partake of the results of His sufferings and death on our behalf.”
So as the Jews continue to wait for their Messiah, who they believe will be like King David militarily and deliver Israel from all her enemies, their Messiah has already come and they refuse to acknowledge Him, although not all. We know that the majority of the early church were Israelite's and we know that there are many Jews coming to the knowledge of Jesus Christ as their Messiah even today. But they’re not the majority. Romans 11 is an illuminating scripture as to the future of the Jews. Verses 25-32 says; “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written; “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; 27 For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” 28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, 31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. 32 For God has [h]committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”
What it comes down to is being born again... John 3:16-18;“16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
We see then that this salvation message is for the religious Jews, the religious believers who are not born again, and for the Gentile or heathen. We prayed for these groups today at church. Included was prayer for family members who are not born again. We prayed for Holy Ghost boldness to continue to preach the word of God even in the midst of persecution, rejection, intimidation and when it’s not convenient to preach. The devil will lie to you to make you think that you have to apologize for being bold in your preaching and tries to intimidate your declaration of truth, making you think that you’ve inconvenienced the sinner by preaching the truth. We prayed for more boldness to rescue man’s soul from the clutches of the devil, more boldness to preach into the eargates of the unsaved who have the smell of smoke on their clothes, those that are destined for hell. We prayed that their destination would change by the preaching of the gospel. We choose to let our light shine before everyone; louder, bolder, brighter, not intimidated by the religious no matter who they are. We prayed for those who refuse to attend church and that Christians would be sent across their paths to boldly speak of their need of salvation and not to be stubborn and rebellious against the word of God.
We pray in faith believing that the Lord has heard our prayers. As we do in every church service, we broke bread in communion, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King!
