Moving Closer To The Cross - Part 1

Moving Closer to the Cross - Part 1

Isaiah 53:1-12

Sermon by: Rick Crandall - March 25, 2007

*Today we begin a new series: Moving Closer to the Cross. It will take us to Easter, when we will have a Sunrise Service, breakfast and two worship celebrations led by our Choirs.

*I hope you are praying about many people to invite! This is the invitation card we are using for Easter this year. On the front is a scene from an Easter egg hunt, but the attention-grabber is this question: “Hunting for more this Easter?”

*Many people are hunting for something more, because life runs into trouble along the way, and because nothing in this world can give lasting satisfaction. We know that Easter is about infinitely more than eggs and chocolate bunnies. Easter is about the Cross of Jesus Christ, and how it can change our lives forever.

*700 years before Jesus came into the world God spoke through the prophet Isaiah to help us understand the cross, and in vs. 1, Isaiah asked an important question: “To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

1. It will be revealed to us, as we move closer to the Cross. So first of all, let’s see the Lord’s sacrifice.

*We need to understand how much Jesus sacrificed for us. He is the LORD Jehovah in vs. 1, the one with His arm stretched out in perfect power.

-He is the LORD of all, who created this universe and everything in it.

*As Paul said in Col 1:16-17,

16. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

17. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

*One of the greatest scientific advances of our lifetime was placing the Hubble Telescope into space. Astronomers found that the universe is twice as large as they previously thought, not 100 billion galaxies, but at least 200 billion.

-Each one containing billions of stars.

*But Isa 40:12 tells us that the Lord measures the heavens with the span of His Hand. And Psalm 147:4-5 tells us:

4. He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name.

5. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.

*Scientists don’t know how big the universe is, but Jesus does, because He created the universe!

*And He is the One who came down to Mt. Sinai to meet with Moses.

-Exodus 19:16-21 described it this way.

16. Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

17. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

18. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

19. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.

20. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

21. And the Lord said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the Lord, and many of them perish.

*Later on, Moses asked the Lord. -"Please, show me Your glory.’’

-Then [the Lord] said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’’

-But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.’’

(Exo 33:18-20)

*Jesus Christ is the Awesome, Almighty God, and yet He sacrificed Himself to become a man. Isaiah began to describe the Lord in vs. 2&3.

2. For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

3. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

*In these verses Isaiah shows us 10 ways the Lord humbled Himself for us: