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In Christ Alone - an Easter Message (Isaiah 53)
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In Christ Alone - an Easter Message (Isaiah 53)
Prepare the Way of the Lord! :: A study of Isaiah
Easter Sunday Message recorded 04 Apr 2021
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
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Transcript
Opening and Introduction of Isaiah 53
00:00:00
Speaker
Wow. Powerful singing today. Thank you so much, Church family, for singing with all your heart. What a blessing it was just to hear you. Praise the Lord. Would you open your Bibles to the Old Testament book of Isaiah? Isaiah 53.
00:00:17
Speaker
You know, we're going to look at a song today, but the song is not in the hymnal.
Exploring the Prophetic Nature of Isaiah 53
00:00:22
Speaker
The song is in the Bible. Isaiah 53 is actually a song. So we're going to be talking about that. It's an Old Testament prophecy with the New Testament gospel. It was written seven centuries before Christ was ever born, and yet
00:00:41
Speaker
This ancient message proclaimed boldly and loudly Christmas, it proclaimed Good Friday, it proclaimed Easter Sunday, and it proclaims the salvation that you and I enjoy today in 2021. As a matter of fact, Isaiah 53 is quoted 85 times
00:01:04
Speaker
in the New Testament. Do you remember when the Ethiopian eunuch was in the chariot? What was he reading? This is what he was reading, Isaiah 53. And so Philip was able to take him from where he was and lead him right in the direction of Jesus Christ.
00:01:21
Speaker
I don't know if you've ever felt like the Old Testament and the New Testament. If you ever felt like they don't match, they interlock perfectly. As a matter of fact, the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. That's why I wanna call this message today, In Christ Alone. I love that song. I think it's such a gospel song, has so much theology and so much scripture just built right into it.
00:01:50
Speaker
But this Old Testament chapter has been given several nicknames. You ever have a nickname?
Isaiah as a Songwriter and Personal Anecdotes
00:01:56
Speaker
Well, this Old Testament chapter was given the nickname of the Gospel of the Old Testament evangelists. Another one was the Mount Everest of Old Testament prophecies. Someone even said this is like the John 3 16 of the Old Testament.
00:02:15
Speaker
So did you know that this preacher man named Isaiah in Isaiah 53, did you know that he was also a songwriter? Oh yeah. Theologians say that he wrote four songs. They're called servant songs. And the servant songs are found in Isaiah 42.
00:02:32
Speaker
49, 50, and right here in Isaiah 53. Did you know that I wrote three, maybe three, maybe four songs in my lifetime? I'm not gonna sing them today, so don't worry. I see somebody get nervous. No, don't do that. I remember writing a song when I proposed to my wife. I called it, Will You Be My Valentine? And she said yes during that song.
00:02:55
Speaker
But then I also wrote a song about the first bear that I killed when I was serving up in Canada, and I called that Good Times and Bronco Creek. Now these two songs have nothing to do with each other, so don't think that there's a hidden message. There is no hidden message, okay? I'm just saying that was two of the songs. But anyway, I better move along, but let's go back to Isaiah's song, okay?
Connection Between Isaiah's Song and Gospel Music
00:03:17
Speaker
Isaiah's fourth servant song is as much of a gospel song as
00:03:23
Speaker
in Christ alone or other gospel songs that we sing. When you sing in Christ alone, you're singing the essentials, the essential truths of the gospel. Likewise, when you are reading the lyrics of Isaiah's song recorded for us in this chapter, did you know that you are also reviewing the basic notes of salvation?
00:03:48
Speaker
We love to honor God's word here at First Baptist. So let's stand in honor of
Reading and Analysis of Isaiah 53
00:03:52
Speaker
his word. You can follow along in your copy. But Isaiah 53 verses one through 12. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.
00:04:15
Speaker
He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hid their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
00:04:37
Speaker
Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
00:05:00
Speaker
And with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have grown stray. We have turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 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.
00:05:25
Speaker
that before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people,
00:05:46
Speaker
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days.
00:06:15
Speaker
will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities
00:06:34
Speaker
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many.
00:06:51
Speaker
and makes intercession for the transgressors. Let's go to the Father in prayer. Would you ask God to speak to your heart today? Lord, I want you to speak again to my heart all week long. You have been speaking to my heart about this passage. I'm so excited to share what you have placed in my heart. But I pray you would also prepare everyone else's heart as well. Lord, let us see Jesus high and lifted up. You said, if we lift you up,
00:07:19
Speaker
that you would draw all men unto yourself. And that's what I pray happens today. Perhaps, Lord, there's someone here today and they're not aware how greatly you love them. Lord, don't let them miss it today. Also, maybe someone here is in despair. Someone's depressed and discouraged. They need hope. Help them to see that even though you died on the cross, even though they laid your body in a tomb,
00:07:45
Speaker
that you rose again three days later, and that you can give them hope of a better life that's ahead in heaven. So thank you once again for this passage of scripture. Make it come alive, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you, you may be seated.
00:08:03
Speaker
You know, they said it was similar to the Mount Everest of Old Testament prophecy. So I want us to look at these four peaks and see what we can see from Isaiah
Reflections on Jesus' Sacrifice and Human Response
00:08:13
Speaker
53. You're going to be amazed. First, I can see Jesus mentioned in verses one through three. Can you see Christmas mentioned in these verses?
00:08:23
Speaker
I believe it does talk about that when he was born. It says, for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. What would it have been like to have been with the Father for all eternity past and to enjoy all the praise and the glories of heaven and to come to this broken world where we have so many problems. Just think about how it would have been like parched ground and how Jesus was bringing life whenever he came.
00:08:54
Speaker
But I want you to notice something that is written here that describes Jesus that maybe you've never thought about this before. It says he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. So here's my question. Does God ever experience grief? I know we experience grief. Have you ever been sad? Have you ever really been sorrowful in your life?
00:09:19
Speaker
Well, what this passage is telling us is Jesus has already been down that same road. He knows exactly how we feel, and yet it's amazing that sometimes we accuse God of not caring. What was it that broke God's heart? Whenever Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, do you know it says that he was in so much agony in Luke 22, 44, it says that he began to sweat.
00:09:44
Speaker
great drops of blood. It was something like great drops of blood. Hematohydrosis is an extreme condition brought on by extreme stress where the capillaries that go to the sweat glands, they rupture because whatever's going on in your life, it's so stressful that it actually begins to look like you're sweating blood. And that's what happened to him. But what was going on? I want us to look closely at these.
00:10:13
Speaker
three verses, because I think they give us some clues as to what would break God's heart. Why was He such a sorrowful servant? Well, the first thing I think is found in verse 1. You know, I think it breaks God's heart when all that He has revealed to us in Scripture, think about Old Testament, New Testament, think about all that He's done, He even sent His Son,
00:10:36
Speaker
And what do we do sometimes? We still don't believe. We still don't believe. Disbelief, despite his revelation, I think breaks his heart. Look at verse one. Who has believed
Understanding Jesus' Substitutionary Sacrifice
00:10:48
Speaker
what he has heard from us and whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? God sent his son. And there's still some of us that are saying, could you just give me a little more and a little more? Look at verse two.
00:11:02
Speaker
For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form of majesty that we should look at him, that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. I think some people are just disinterested. It's like indifference. And so all that he's done, he'd left heaven. Think about the relocation.
00:11:28
Speaker
He left heaven and came to this earth. And despite all that, some people are saying, yeah, I'm still not interested. So there's disbelief and disinterest. I think there's another one, dishonored, dishonored. You know, if Jesus, when he was in heaven, like he's in heaven now, but back when he was in heaven before he came to this earth, he was honored.
00:11:51
Speaker
And can you imagine the dishonor? I wonder if all of heaven was like ready to come and pounce. And the father was saying, nope, nope, this is my son's choice. This is my plan. This is what I wanted to happen. And look at verse three. When he came down here, it says he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hid their faces.
00:12:20
Speaker
He was despised, it says, and we esteemed him not. Dishonored, dishonored despite his reputation in heaven. This is the Son of God, right? This is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Someday, those who have dishonored him will regret it. And they will say, I'm so sorry, I just didn't get it. I didn't understand who you were.
00:12:44
Speaker
But I think there's another thing and that is not only the despise and the dishonor but the discarded. Because he's coming and reaching across the table his hand. He knows we're broken and he said, I'm here to help.
00:12:59
Speaker
But what did it say that we did? Rejected him. He's here for reconciliation, but despite his reconciliation, his hand that's extended, some people say, you know what? I'm going to discard this whole thing. I don't really want the gospel.
00:13:16
Speaker
So we see his sorrow, but here's the thing I want you to notice. Don't miss our sorrows. What does God do with your sorrows and my sorrows? You're not gonna wanna miss this. Look at verses four, five, and six. As we move from the sorrowful servant to the substitutionary sacrifice. The substitutionary sacrifice. You see, when Jesus died on the cross, he was dying as a substitute for my sins.
00:13:46
Speaker
He hadn't done anything wrong. I'm the one that blew it. I made all kinds of mistakes. This morning, if you were at the early service, you saw how I made mistakes playing the guitar. Man, every time I get a guitar in my hand, something happens. But here's the thing, God says, you know what?
00:14:04
Speaker
I'm going to take all of the sorrow and the pain, all of the hurt from all the sin and everything people have done wrong that have hurt you. You know who took that? Listen to this one more time. Surely he, that's Jesus, surely Jesus has borne our griefs. And you know what he did? He carried, he carried our sorrows. Don't say to the Lord, you don't know, you don't know what I'm dealing with. You don't know how I feel.
00:14:34
Speaker
God would say, Oh no, I know exactly how you feel. I actually took your pain, your sorrows. I died on the cross for all the pain that you have been through. If you want to understand the atonement, then what you have to do is you have to track the pronouns because it's going to talk about our and we and us, but it's also going to talk about he and his and him.
00:15:02
Speaker
Listen to this. Surely he has borne our, that's all of us right here, our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds,
00:15:31
Speaker
We are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all, including me, including you, all of us together. Can you imagine this?
00:15:50
Speaker
You see, all of our sins, you know, the Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Doesn't Isaiah 53.6 sound exactly like Romans 3.23? All we, like sheep, have gone astray? So you know what? In this room, there's not one church member who would stand up and say, I've never sinned.
00:16:12
Speaker
No, if you're visiting with us today, I want you to know we're all standing on the same place in front of the cross. All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You see, we've all transgressed. But the good news of the gospel is all of our guilt. The Lord said, I'll take it. I'll pay the price.
00:16:33
Speaker
It's like me inviting you to go to a restaurant. We go to a restaurant and I say, you know what? I forgot my wallet. And somebody leans over and say, I knew he'd do that to us, you know? But you say, I forgot my wallet. Could you pay for my meal? And so you pay what I owe. That's what Jesus did for you and me. You see, we had such a heavy debt that we could not pay and he paid for it.
00:16:58
Speaker
First, we heard the prophet sing of the sorrow of the servant experience when he was rejected by so many that he came to save. But then secondly, we heard Isaiah sing of the substitution to pay our redemption. But thirdly, the next stanza heard in Isaiah 53, look with me at verses seven, eight, and nine, seven, eight, and nine. It exalts his response.
00:17:26
Speaker
When he's going through this suffering, he said at one point, you know what I could do? I could call 10,000 angels. I could call 12 legions of angels. I could just call all that I wanted to to come to my rescue. But you know what? He didn't. Why is that?
00:17:42
Speaker
He was the son of God. He could have just wiped out everybody that was on that hill that day. He could have popped those nails out. And as a matter of fact, the people were standing down there mocking him and saying, if you're the son of God, why don't you come down from that cross? I don't know about you, but I'm such a sinner. I'm so glad he didn't come down from the cross. I'm so glad he died on the cross for my sins. He could have, but why was he silent? Why did he go along with this willingly?
00:18:13
Speaker
It's love, it's grace, it's mercy, it's compassion. That's why I want you to look at these verses. Have you ever examined his suffering? Have you ever just gone through the New Testament gospels and said, what exactly did Jesus go through to pay for my salvation? Well, if you were to ever just examine it, examine the facts.
00:18:38
Speaker
And here's what you would find, exactly what Isaiah was saying in verse 7. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. All of these words that he uses, he was pierced. He was led through judgments and so forth. Have you ever been judged? If you were to go through the evidence one by one, these are the things you would discover. Do you know that Jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples named Judas?
00:19:03
Speaker
Do you know that Jesus was abandoned by every one of those that he had just spent three years of his life pouring out his whole life and they all left and ran away. Do you know that he was falsely accused in six trials? Do you know he was spat upon, he was slapped, he was mocked. They put a wreath on his head that was composed of thorns. He was whipped with a cat of nine tails, they call it.
00:19:30
Speaker
He was nailed to a wooden cross by his hands and his feet. I mean, it was really tough, but here's the thing that I think was the hardest for him all. Remember when I said he was in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane? Because he knew that whenever your sins and my sins, the sins of the whole world, he knew that when that was placed on him for the first time in all eternity, he and the Father were gonna be separated.
00:19:58
Speaker
And the father would have to turn away because of all of our sin and all of our guilt that he took upon himself. And I thought to myself, wow, no wonder he cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me at that moment? Because really, that's what he was going through for us. You see, it's not Jesus that deserved to be separated from the father, it's me. It's you, it's us.
00:20:24
Speaker
you examine his suffering, you would find those kind of things out. You would also say, okay, I want to know how he went through his suffering. What if it ever became
00:20:34
Speaker
God forbid, but if ever it was where if you were a Christian in America, you had to suffer, would you be willing? I want you to see how he suffered. He was such an example during his suffering because he suffered silently. Two times it says in verse seven, he opened not his mouth. Are you a screamer? You know, sometimes you go to get a shot like,
00:21:00
Speaker
But what about him? He didn't scream. He didn't get upset. He suffered silently. He suffered submissively. There's a reason why it says he was like a lamb gone before its shearers. What was the extent of his suffering? Well, it's pretty easy to tell if you know the Gospels and if you can look at this passage just when it says he was cut off out of the land of the living.
00:21:29
Speaker
How about that? You see, he actually died. He died. He died for you, he died for me. And so I'm thinking, wow, that's how far he went. He died for us. But also it says that he died with these wicked, he said they made his grave with the wicked. Do you realize that Jesus was treated like a criminal? Even though he hadn't done a thing, there were two thieves on each side of him.
00:21:56
Speaker
And I think, wow, that's amazing, all that he went through and he died there like a criminal with criminals, and yet he hadn't done anything. But then it says, and with a rich man in his death, what does that mean? There was a man named Joseph of Arimathea. If you were to read the gospels, you would see where this man said, I'm gonna let Jesus be buried in my tomb. And so Matthew 27, 57 to 60 describes that.
00:22:24
Speaker
And so as we come to the final note in this servant song, the music builds. What's he going to do? Verses 10 and 11, 12, tell us what he's gonna do. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days.
00:22:50
Speaker
He's not gonna stay dead. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many, it's all of us in this room that have trusted Christ, make many to be accounted righteous. And he shall bear their iniquities. Oh man. This is just incredible if you keep reading it.
00:23:20
Speaker
You know, I believe that this crescendo tells us three things that I wanted to close on today. His plan of redemption, his proof through resurrection, and his pleasure over his righteousness. Let me just touch on each one of those. The first one is, was this just sort of a mob violent type thing? Is that what happened here? That things just kind of spun out of control the way mobs can? Is that what happened here?
00:23:48
Speaker
Look at verse 10 carefully, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. Who are we talking about? Talking about the Father has put the Son to grief. The Father, it was the Father's will that he'd be crushed. You see, I want you to understand that it's the plan of redemption. This was God's plan.
00:24:13
Speaker
And so it's so sad when you think about it. I'll never forget one of the Japanese men that I led to Christ, Mr. Okita. He couldn't believe it when we were, you know, giving all these movie tickets away to the Passion movie back in the Dark Age. There was a movie back there called Passion.
00:24:29
Speaker
But he couldn't believe it, and you know what he said? He told me himself, he said, I thought that the Jewish leaders, those religious guys were the ones that put Jesus to death. If it wasn't them, I thought that Pilate put Jesus to death. He said, if it wasn't Pilate and it wasn't them, then I thought, those old Roman soldiers, they're the ones that killed him, they put him to death. And he said, then I got to thinking, you know what?
00:24:55
Speaker
It's me. My sin put him to death. But it's right if you want to go ahead and say, my sins put Jesus on the cross because he did come for us. But the thing that really will challenge you is the Father. You mean that much to him.
00:25:13
Speaker
that he would put his own son on that cross to die for you and me. That's why I think there are passages like Revelation 13.8 that says the lamb, this is Jesus, it's a code word for Jesus, the lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. It was the plan of God all along. And so it was hard to understand, but what's the father gonna do?
00:25:39
Speaker
Well, the Father's going to accept that offering because Jesus says, I'll die for them. He spread out His hands just like He's giving an offering. He died on the cross, but you know what? The Father said, my son, he doesn't deserve to die. He's dying for all of them, but he doesn't deserve to die. My son never sinned. My son deserves life.
00:26:02
Speaker
And so the father raised the son from the dead. And I think that's when it says he shall see his offspring. You know, we're like disciples. We're the followers of Christ. And we're what he's talking about there. And it says he shall prolong his days. Man, I'm so excited.
00:26:23
Speaker
that Jesus truly is alive. And that was the father saying, you want proof? You know, if I were to die for you, the father's not going to give any proof because I'm a broken sacrifice. I would be a broken offering, but not his son.
The Resurrection and Believers' Redemption
00:26:38
Speaker
His son was perfect. That's why it made a difference when he died.
00:26:42
Speaker
And so the last thing I want you to see is found in verse 11, out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. You see, I think that the father was pleased when Jesus died. He died obediently, he died lovingly, he died selflessly. The father was pleased.
00:27:04
Speaker
because Christ's life was perfect. And so it took someone perfect to pay the penalty for our sins, right? But there's something else. It's our position in Christ because, get this, my sins were placed on Him.
00:27:23
Speaker
But when I prayed to receive Christ, guess what else happened? His righteousness was placed on me. His righteousness, I can't explain it because I'm still so broken. But all I know is that in heaven, spiritually, if there's something similar to a bank account, there's a bank account that says Victor is such a broken guy. We know that.
00:27:46
Speaker
but he is covered in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And so that's why the father looks at you and the father looks at me and he doesn't see us with all of our faults and our failures and our brokenness and all that. He looks at us and he says, wow, covered by the blood of my son. So the righteousness of God. That's why he said, look at it in verse 11, out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. So where does he go with it?
00:28:16
Speaker
By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous." See, I'm not righteous, but I'm accounted as righteous because I'm putting my faith and my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He bore my iniquities, but he also covered me with his righteousness. Wow.
00:28:38
Speaker
There's only one way out of the sin problem. And that's to say, Jesus, I need what you did for me.
Concluding Prayer and Invitation
00:28:44
Speaker
Let's go to the Father in Prayer. Lord, thank you. Thank you so much for Scripture. Scripture is objective. It's not subjective. No, it just tells us the truth. It's like a mirror. Lord, we look into the mirror and it's going to show us exactly where we stand.
00:29:01
Speaker
And we don't stand in a good place because it says that we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It says that we all, like sheep, have gone astray, turned to our own way. But, oh Lord, the other thing is, it says behind us stands this Savior who said, I'll take all of their sin and rebellion, all their transgressions. I'll take the guilt and I'll exchange it with my righteousness.
00:29:28
Speaker
Lord, thank you. If there's anybody here that doesn't know that on a personal level, they don't have a personal relationship with you yet, I pray this would be the day. What a day it could be. What an Easter it would be to meet the resurrected Lord in person. In Jesus' name we pray.