By His Wounds We Are Healed

"By His Wounds We are Healed"

Isaiah 53:4-6 "Surely He took up our infirmities and

carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by

God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced

for our transgressions, He was crushed for our

iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was

upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all,

like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to

his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the

iniquity of us all."

Today, I want to take a walk with you and Jesus to

Calvary. We'll begin at Gethsemane and the betrayal.

It was Thursday night, Judas had brought the religious

authorities to the garden where Jesus had been

praying that perhaps the Father would let this cup

pass. Judas kissed Jesus on the cheek which was a

sign to let them know He was the one.

Jesus was just arrested in the garden that night. They

took Him to the High Priest and the elders. They were

hoping to find evidence that would allow them to put

Jesus to death but they found nothing.

The High Priest stood and said: "Are you the Christ, the

Son of God?" Jesus said, "Yes I am."

When Jesus said this the High Priest began ripping his

own clothes off and he yelled "He is worthy of death!"

Ah, they finally had Him. Jesus had done the what is

unthinkable, He had proclaimed Himself to be the very

Son of God. This was blasphemy in it's highest form, at

least that's what the Priest and Elders believed. They

said "No man can make such a claim and live!"

Then they spit in His face and some of them covered

His head and began to hit and slapped Him. Mocking

Him telling Him to "prophesy Jesus, if you are the Son

of God, who it was that was striking you".

This went on late into the night. By early Friday, Jesus

was handed of to Pilate.

As He stood before Pilate, the Priest and Elders falsely

accused Him of all kinds of things. They lied over and

over and yet, Jesus never opened His mouth.

Pilate, in attempt to satisfy the Jews, had Jesus

flogged. This special beaten was done with a whip with

pieces of metal or bone tied to the ends of the straps.

This was so when they beat Him it would rip deep into

the flesh tearing away the muscle from the bone. Many

didn't survive this type of beating.

When this beating was over, Pilate escorted Jesus out

before the people to seek their will. Pilate wanted to set

Jesus free, he knew He was free of guilt.

Three times he said, "I find no basis for a charge

against Him." But still the crowd shouted "Crucify Him!

Crucify Him!"

Finally Pilate called for a bowl of water and he washed

his hands in front of the crowd saying, "I am innocent of

this man's blood."

Still the crowd cried out, "Take Him away! Crucify Him!

His blood be upon us and upon our children." So,

Jesus was taken and prepared for crucifixion.

Are you still with me on this journey? I know it's difficult

to continue our walk but we must.

After they beat Jesus some more, they stripped Him

and put a purple robe on him. They weaved a crown of

thorns and pushed it deep into the flesh on His head.

Then in an attempt to humiliate Jesus even more, the

soldiers bowed before Him and cried out "Hail, King of

the Jews!"

As part of the preparation, they tied the cross to the

arms of Jesus then He was made to carry this cross to

Calvary where they would crucify Him.

Why did the sinless, Son of God endure all this

suffering and shame? The Bible says that Jesus did all

that He did for you and for me even though we don't

deserve this ultimate sacrifice He made.

The Bible tells us that He didn't do this because we

loved Him, remember, He loved us while we still

enemies of God in our sin. Listen to what God's Word

in 1 John 4:10 "In this is love, not that we loved God,

but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the

propitiation for our sins."

In the old testament there were many prophetic

examples of Christ's death on the cross. The story of

Abraham when he was told to sacrifice Isaac was a

great example of this.

God told Abraham in Genesis 22 to "Take you son,

your only son Isaac, whom you love". Abraham's love

for his son Isaac is a picture of the love of God the

Father for His Son, Jesus Christ.

This was the first time the word "Love" appears in the