Was God Angry At Jesus? Series

I need your help in choosing two topics for an upcoming sermon series entitled, You Asked For It. On the two Sundays directly following Easter Sunday, I want to answer your questions about God, Life, What’s Right & What’s Wrong. This is simply a two week sermon series so we will only highlight two biggest questions with the most votes. Visit our website to vote for the topic you wish we would deal with and you’ll have an opportunity to even write in your question. Thanks for doing this ahead of time and I look forward to seeing your questions.

Turn with me again to Isaiah 53. This chapter is so good it should be written on a parchment of pure gold and written in letters of pure diamonds. Consider this as Jesus’ biography 700 years before He was born in Bethlehem.

“Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. 1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 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 pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds 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; 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. 8 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? 9 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. 10 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; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 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. 12 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, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 52:13–53:12)

In a moment, I am going to focus you on a funnel or a tornado. But let me just offer you one insight in Isaiah 53:9. This is a poem or a song if you will that makes predictions about One who is to come.

Honorable Burial, Dishonorable Death

In verse eight we are told that One coming will die or, “cut off out of the land.” So in verse nine, we are told this Servant is to be buried. It also says in verse 9 His grave is with the “wicked” and with the “rich.” The mysterious Servant is to be given an honorable burial after a dishonorable death. Honorable burial: “they made his grave … with a rich man in his death” Dishonorable death: “they made his grave with the wicked.” Did Jesus have a dishonorable death? “Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left” (Matthew 27:38). Did Jesus have an honorable burial? “When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus” (Matthew 27:57). Look also at Matthew’s words: “And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.” (Matthew 27:59–60)