Easter Sermon - Pierced For A Purpose

Pierced for a Purpose

Isaiah 53:1-6 John 19:16-18

This morning I would like to ask you to get a hold of your Bibles and open them up to the book of Isaiah chapter 53 lets read at verse 1

We are going to read 6 verses:

1 - Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 - He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 - He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 - Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 - 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.

6 - 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.

The Bible also says in Psalms 22:16 -

For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet

This morning I would like to speak a message that I believe The Lord has placed upon my heart. The tilte of the message is "Pierced for a Purpose..."

The Bible says in the book of Isaiah that Jesus was pierced for our transgressions, how many are thankful that Jesus was pierced for a purpose?

That purpose was for our transgressions, it was for our iniquities, it was for our peace and it was for our healing.

This morning I would like to take a look at what Jesus went through for you and I that we might be forgiven, that we might be saved, that we might walk in peace, and that we might be healed.

As we get into this message keep this in mind that - No one took the life of Jesus, but He laid down His Life.

The book of Isaiah is describing all that Jesus went through when He was crucified on the cross of Calvary.

Cruxifixion was an ancient method of execution in which the victim's hands and feet were bound and nailed to a cross.

It was one of the most horribly painful and disgraceful methods of capitol punishment.

The word crucifixion comes from the latin "crucifixio," or "crucifixus," meaning "fixed to a cross."

Let me read to you something that describes what Jesus went through when He was being crucified...

Crucifixion

What is crucifixion? A medical doctor provides a physical description:

The cross is placed on the ground and the exhausted man is quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood. The one doing the crucifying feels for the depression at the front of the wrist.

He drives a heavy, square wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and movement. The cross is then lifted into place.

The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed. The victim is now crucified.

As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain--the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves.

As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of his feet.

As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breathe. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled.

He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath. Finally carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen.

Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation(as fik si ation), searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber.