INTRODUCTION
• SHOW BY HIS WOUNDS VIDEO CLIP.
• SLIDE #1
• We are closing in on Resurrection Sunday. As we get closer to that wonderful time of celebration I want to take you back to the book of Isaiah again as we return to the 53rd chapter.
• I want you to remember as we look at our text today that Isaiah wrote this some 700 years BEFORE the birth of Christ. Isaiah, with great precision almost as a man who saw the events unfold before him, wrote about what would happen to Jesus when He came to earth to save mankind.
• In our last message Isaiah told us that Jesus was going to be rejected by His own people and we still see that rejection today.
• In our passage today we are going to see that Isaiah not only spoke of the rejection Jesus would face some 700 years before it happened; but he also spoke of the suffering that Jesus would endure, giving the people of his day insight as to the why it happened.
• In our society people have the mentality that they do not need Jesus because they are too good to need a savior or they feel that they can follow the path of their choosing to heaven.
• I saw a T-shirt once that showed a picture of Jesus’ bloodied body on the cross with the something that basically said, “If I am alright and you are alright, then why did this happen”?
• Today some look at Jesus and wonder that if He was the Son of God, why did He die like He did? People have a hard time believing that a loving God would allow His one and only Son suffer and die.
• Today I want to talk to you about why God allowed His one and only Son suffer and die on the cross.
• The Easter season is a unique time because it is a time in which many people will come to church that do not usually come. It is a time when we need to really think about what Jesus has done for us.
• It is my hope that after today’s message that we will all have a clear understanding as to why Jesus suffered and died on the cross and by the way why He rose on the third day!
• I hope that today, we will all walk out of here with a renewed commitment to love and commit ourselves to Jesus because of what He did for us.
• SLIDE #2
SERMON
I. WHY THE SAVIOR SUFFERED 4-5
• Let’s look at Isaiah 53:4-5 for the answer to this question.
• SLIDE #3
• Isaiah 53:4-5 (ESV) Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
• Let’s begin by look at the misconceptions concerning His suffering.
• SLIDE #4
A. The misconception concerning His suffering (4)
• In verses 3 and 4 Isaiah tells his listeners that when the Messiah suffered, people would turn their backs on Him because they believed that He had to have done something to deserve the punishment that He was receiving.
• This is part of the reason that verse 3 says that He was despised. At the end of verse 4 we see that we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. People could justify His treatment because they thought He deserved it.
• In Matthew 27:39-44 we see this played out.
• SLIDE #5
• Matthew 27:39-44 (ESV) And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
• The only way that people could be so cruel to Jesus was to write Him off as a sinner.
• Today people write Jesus off as just a good teacher, a fable or anything else to justify not following Him.
• The religious leaders incited the hostile feelings toward Jesus because they did not want to lose their power structures.
• Today we put Jesus on a lower level than we should because we do not want to have anyone tell us how to live our lives.
• The Jews of the day were very black and white in their thinking. In their thinking if you are being punished, you must be guilty. Seeing Jesus hanging on the cross made many of them forget all the great things that Jesus had done over the course of His ministry.
• Isaiah and the rest of the Bible tell us the real reason that Jesus suffered.
• SLIDE #6
B. The reasons for the Saviors’ suffering
• In our passage we can see five reasons. The first reason that Jesus suffered:
• SLIDE #7
1. He suffered so He could bear our griefs (4)
• Isaiah says that one of the reasons that Jesus suffered was so that He could bear our griefs. The word griefs in many contexts referred to diseases and sickness.
• In Matthew 8:17 said after Jesus had healed many people of various illnesses and possession we are told, “This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: "He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases."
• The word for grief means “sickness, disease, anxiety, and affliction”. It does not refer to sins, but to sufferings.
• This means that the Messiah would take upon himself the suffering of people, and would remove their sources of grief. It does not refer here to the fact that he would take their sins. That is stated in other places Isa. 53:6, 12.
• He was so afflicted, that he seemed to have taken upon himself the sicknesses and sorrows of the world; and taking them upon himself he would bear them away.
• The word “bore” means as when one removes a burden from the shoulders of another, and places it on his own. The word means “to take up, to lift, to raise”
• Jesus wants to lift your source of grief from you; He wants you to place ii on His shoulders so that He can carry it for you. You do not have to bear your griefs alone.
• SLIDE #8
• The second reason that Jesus suffered:
2. He suffered so He could carry our sorrows. (4)
• The difference between “griefs” and “sorrows” is that “sorrows” refers to the pains of the mind, or anxiety and trouble of the soul.
• Jesus suffered so that He could carry our sorrows. Many of us are fighting fears in our minds about many things; Jesus wants to carry those for you.
• SLIDE #9
• Hebrews 4:15 (ESV) For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
• SLIDE #9
3. He was pierced through for our transgressions. (5)
• Jesus did not suffer for His own sins (of which there were none to suffer for), but for OUR transgressions.
• Look at some of the verses in the New Testament.
• SLIDE #10
• 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
• Jesus was pierced or wounded by thorns, nails and a spear for our sins.
• SLIDE #11
4. He was crushed for our iniquity. (5)
• This verse refers to the fact that Jesus was crushed under the weight of OUR sins.
• The weight of the world’s sin would crush Jesus.
• The word “crushed” means to be broken to pieces, to be bruised, or crushed.
• Applied to mind, it means to break down or crush by calamities and trials.
• The use of the word here, no doubt, is meant to imply the most severe inward and outward sufferings.
• It was my sin that sent Jesus to the cross. We must understand that in was not only the Adolph Hitler’s of the world that sent Jesus to the cross, but it was also the sins of every person ever created, it gives us a sense of appreciation of what Jesus has done for us.
• SLIDE #12
5. He was punished (chastened) for our peace. (5)
• The word chastening refers to punishment inflicted by a parent to their child in order to correct their faults.
• An article in the National Geographic (9/91) tells of a young man from Hanover, Pennsylvania, who was badly burned in a boiler explosion. To save his life, physicians covered him with 6,000 square centimeters of donor skin, as well as sheets of skin cultured from a stamp-sized piece of his own unburned skin. A journalist asked him, "Do you ever think about the donor who saved you?" The young man replied, "To be alive because of a dead donor is too big, too much, so I don’t think about it." Difficult to do, yes, but Christians have also received a similar gift--overwhelming, and worth thinking about.
• Jesus was punished for our well-being or for our peace.
• SLIDE #13
• 1 Peter 2:24 (ESV) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
• Jesus died so that we could have peace with God through Him. When we sin we are at war with God and Jesus died so that we could have our sins forgiven. That allows us to be at peace with God, which in turn leads to eternal life!
• SLIDE #14
• Colossians 1:20 (ESV) and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
• Jesus stepped in and took the punishment that was we deserved!
• (Strips healed)The healing here referred to, is spiritual healing, or healing from sin. Pardon of sin, and restoration to the favor of God, is represented as an act of healing.
• When we are awakened and convicted about our sins we are often crushed, broken, bruised by the weight of our sins, and the removal of the load of sin is represented as an act of healing.
• SLIDE #15
II. THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE BEHIND THE SAVIORS’ SUFFERING 6
• We see the why He suffered, but let us look at the purpose behind the suffering. Look at verse six with me.
• SLIDE #16
• Isaiah 53:6 (ESV) 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.
• SLIDE #17
A. The ultimate purpose behind His suffering was so that the lost sheep would be able to come home.
• Verse six tells us that we have like sheep gone astray.
• We see this theme repeated in 1 Peter 2:25
• SLIDE #18
• 1 Peter 2:25 (ESV) For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
• Jesus suffered and died so that He could be the shepherd who leads us home.
• Actor Kevin Bacon recounted when his 6-year-old son saw Footloose for the first time: He said, "Hey, Dad, you know that thing in the movie where you swing from the rafters of that building? That’s really cool, how did you do that?" I said, "Well, I didn’t do that part--it was a stunt man." "What’s a stunt man?" he asked. "That’s someone who dresses like me and does things I can’t do." "Oh," he replied and walked out of the room looking a little confused. A little later he said, "Hey, Dad, you know that thing in the movie where you spin around on that gym bar and land on your feet? How did you do that?" I said, "Well, I didn’t do that. It was a gymnastics double." "What’s a gymnastics double?" he asked. "That’s a guy who dresses in my clothes and does things I can’t do." There was silence from my son, then he asked in a concerned voice, "Dad, what did you do?" "I got all the glory," I sheepishly replied. That’s the grace of God in our lives. Jesus took our sin upon himself and did what we couldn’t do. We stand forgiven and bask sheepishly triumphant in Jesus’ glory.
• SLIDE #19
B. Jesus was our scapegoat.
• In the Old Testament, in the book of Leviticus chapter 16, we have what has been called the scapegoat.
• In our day a scapegoat is someone who takes the blame or the fall for something they did not do.
• On the Day of Atonement (the day that the sins of the people were forgiven) two goats were taken to the priest, one was chosen to be slain as a sin offering. When this one was slain, the blood of the goat was sprinkled on objects to cleanse to alter cleanse the altar, the sanctuary, and the tent of meeting from defilements of the past year.
• The second goat was said to be “the scapegoat.” By laying his hands on the goat’s head, the priest transferred the sins of the people to it and then had the goat led away into the desert, picturing the removal of the sins.
• Jesus had your sins placed on Him so that you could have eternal life.
CONCLUSION
• Who sent Jesus to the cross? I did, you did.
• The contemporary Christian music artist Carmen has a song called “This bloods for you.”
• While Jesus was being mocked and beaten, while He was dying an agonizing death on the cross, He was thinking about you.
• When we have accepted Jesus and then when we just toss that aside, we are telling God that the death of His Son was not good enough.
• Today we have a choice to make, are we going to live our lives like we believe there is a God in heaven who sent His Son to die for us so that we could have peace with God and eternal life? Or are we going to live like God is some fairy tale?
• The choice is yours today, just as Joshua said in Joshua 24:15, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.
• I hope that during this Easter season you will come to realize how much God loves you and how much He wants to be center of your life.
