Max Lucado, in his book Facing Your Giants, talks about Rogers Cadenhead, who upon the death of Pope John Paul II, registered www.BenedictXVI.com as a new internet domain name before the new Pope’s name was even announced.
Now, the right domain name can prove pretty lucrative. For example, another name, PopeBenedictXVI.com, surpassed $16,000 on eBay. Cadenhead, however, didn’t want money. A Catholic himself, he was happy for the church to own the name. He would give it to them without asking for any money in return. He quipped, “I’m going to try and avoid angering 1.1 billion Catholics and my grandmother.”
He did want something else in return, though. In exchange for the name, Cadenhead sought: One of those hats; A free stay at the Vatican hotel; Complete absolution, no questions asked, for the third week of March, 1987.
Makes you wonder what happened that week, doesn’t it? It may even remind you of a week in your own life. (Max Lucado, Facing Your Giants, W Publishing Group, 2006, p.131-132; www.PreachingToday.com)
All of us have done some things for which we wish we could receive complete absolution. There are failures that we would like to forget and wish they never happened, because they have brought some damage into our lives, our relationships, and maybe even to our own families.
So what do we do in those cases? What do we do when we’ve messed up so bad that we can’t fix it? What do we do when our failures are too great to overcome? What do we do to take care of the sin that brings irreversible damage to our lives and our relationships?
Well, there’s an Old Testament prophet, who wrote to a group of people whose own sins brought damage not only to them personally, but to their entire nation, the nation of Judah. They were headed for Babylonian captivity as a result, but that prophet gives them hope for complete absolution and recovery from that failure.
That prophet is Isaiah, and his words are relevant not only for the ancient nation of Judah, they are just as relevant for us today. So if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Isaiah 52, Isaiah 52, where Isaiah tells us how we can recover from great failure and sin.
Isaiah 52:13-15 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him— his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness— so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand. (NIV)
The answer is found in God’s Servant, who will “sprinkle many nations” clean from their sin. Now, this Servant is none other than Israel’s Messiah, Jesus, who was going to come and save his people from their sins. So if we want complete absolution for our sins and full recovery from our failures, then we must come to God’s Servant, Jesus Christ. We must…
BOW BEFORE HIM AS OUR SOVEREIGN KING.
We must submit to Christ as our Lord and our God. We must surrender to His authority in our lives.
Isaiah makes it very clear (vs.13): God’s Servant will be “lifted up and highly exalted.” These words in the original Hebrew language are used only of YHWH God in the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah says, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, HIGH AND EXALTED (same words we have here), and the train of his robe filled the temple.” Then in Isaiah 33:10, YHWH says of Himself, “Now will I be EXALTED; now will I be LIFTED UP.” Well here in Isaiah 52:13, those same words are applied to God’s Servant, and that can only mean one thing. He is none other than God Himself. Jesus is deity.
He is the Sovereign Lord Himself, even though He was disfigured more than any other man, verse 14 says. You see, “[God] became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14), but we struck Him and whipped Him and spit on Him. Then we nailed Him to a cross.
People were appalled or astonished at his appearance on that cross, but that astonishment will be turned to awe as He dazzles kings and nations with His cleansing power (vs.15). The word, “sprinkle”, in verse 15 was used of the priests in the Old Testament who cleansed objects and people by sprinkling blood on them (Leviticus 14:7; 16:14-15). Well, here God’s Servant is seen sprinkling his own blood, shed at the cross, on many nations to sprinkle them clean from their sins. This is what is so amazing. This is what shuts kings’ mouths: that One so disfigured would have the power to forgive sins. Jesus, as God, is the only one who can forgive sins.
So if we want complete absolution for our sins and full recovery from our failures, then we better bow before Him as our Sovereign Lord. Like the kings, let’s shut our mouths in his presence, and listen to Him.
Craig Larson talks about the time when his wife worked as a temp at a bank. In the first two weeks that she had the job, she quickly noticed some extremely unprofessional behavior among the team of four people that she worked with and their supervisor. The supervisor, who was a generation older, was very friendly with the younger staff, taking long coffee breaks with them. College-aged staff would sit on her desk to chat and gossip.
The supervisor and her team were so friendly that the group’s behavior toward one other new member of the team was a stark contrast. This person, a woman in her 30s who had come on staff just a week before my wife, was shunned. If she walked up and tried to join the conversation during a coffee break, the conversation ended. The group, including the supervisor, made jokes about her behind her back and laughed at the way she dressed. They rolled their eyes and winked at each other when she was present. It was obvious that this middle management worker was perceived as an unnecessary intrusion.
Two weeks into the temp job, Craig’s wife walked into the office on Monday morning and was surprised to find a much different scenario. No gossiping, no kidding around, no long coffee breaks. All the workers had their eyes riveted on their work. The previous supervisor had been replaced. The cliquish team addressed the new supervisor with formal, businesslike respect. Mrs. Larson thought she even saw fear in their eyes.
The new supervisor was not a stranger. It was the 30-something woman who had been shunned and mocked. It turned out the bank had hired her to be the new supervisor from the first day she came on the job three weeks before, but the bank had concealed her true identity so she could observe the work style of the team. (Craig Brian Larson, www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s what it was like when Christ came to this earth. Most of the people didn’t recognize His true identity. They shunned and mocked him, but there is coming a day when they will recognize Him for who His is, and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
So let’s do it now before He has to put us in our place. If we want complete absolution for our sins and full recovery from our failures, then let’s bow before Christ as our Sovereign Lord. More than that, let’s…
BELIEVE IN HIM WHO WAS SCORNED.
Let’s put our trust in Jesus who was despised and rejected by so many people. Let’s depend on the One that others detested.
Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? (NIV)
When Jesus came the first time, very few people believed in Him. They didn’t believe in His words or His works. They didn’t believe in His message or His miracles – “the arm of the Lord” speaks of His might.
John 12 says, “Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (John 12:37-38).
Very few people believed in Him, because He was not beautiful to them. He was not attractive.
Isaiah 53:2 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. (NIV)
Jesus was like a twig on a tree – easily broken off. He was like the root of a plant (e.g., a carrot) pulled out of dry ground – all shriveled up and not much to look at. After all, He was born to a peasant girl and laid in a feeding trough.
Pulbius Lentulus, the Roman governor who succeeded Pontius Pilate, was supposed to have written a physical description of Jesus Christ. It turns out that the document was a forgery, actually written in 1514, but it’s the picture many people still have of Jesus today. This is what it says:
“He is a tall man, well-shaped, and of an amiable and reverend aspect; his hair is of a color that can hardly be matched, falling into graceful curls... parted on the crown of his head (show Sallman’s portrait of Christ), running as a stream to the front after the fashion of the Nazarites; his forehead high, large and imposing, his cheeks without spot or wrinkle, beautiful with a lovely red; his nose and mouth formed with exquisite symmetry; his beard of a color suitable to his hair, reaching below his chin and parted in the middle like a fork; his eyes bright blue and serene.” (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew; www. PreachingToday.com)
Isn’t that nice? Who wouldn’t love a person like this? There’s only one problem: this is NOT the Jesus of the Bible. Rather, the Bible says, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (show head of Christ on the cross)
He’s not pretty to look at, is He? The fact is very few people believed in Him, because He was NOT attractive, so they despised Him. They looked away from Him with rejection.
Isaiah 53:3 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. (NIV) This was God in the flesh, but people treated Him like a tramp.
On January 12, 2007, Joshua Bell emerged from the Washington D.C. Metro and positioned himself against a wall beside a trash basket. He was a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and a Washington Nationals baseball cap, pretty nondescript. From a small case, he removed a violin; and placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money and began to play.
For the next 45 minutes, Bell played Mozart and Schubert as over 1,000 people streamed by, most hardly taking notice. (Start playing YouTube Video: Joshua Bell Playing in a Washington D.C. Metro Station) If they had paid attention, they might have recognized the young man as a world-renowned violinist. They also might have noted the violin he played – a rare Stradivarius worth over $3 million. It was all part of a project arranged by The Washington Post, what they called “an experiment in context, perception, and priorities – as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste.” The Washington Post wanted to know, “In a banal setting, at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?”
Just three days earlier, Joshua Bell sold out Boston Symphony Hall, with ordinary seats going for $100. In the subway, Bell collected about $32 from the 27 people who stopped long enough to give a donation. (Gene Weingarten, “Pearls Before Breakfast,” The Washington Post, 4-10-07; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s what they did to Jesus (stop video). Very few people paid Him any attention, much less believed in Him.
But if we want complete absolution for our sins and full recovery from our failures, we can’t do that. We can’t look away from Him. Instead, Unlike so many others, we must look TO Him in faith. 1st, We must bow before Him as our Sovereign Lord. 2nd, We must believe in Him who was scorned. And 3rd, We must…
BANK ON HIS SUBSTITUTIONARY SACRIFICE.
If we want complete absolution for our sins and full recovery from our failures, we must accept the fact that we are sinners and that He died in our place for our sins. Then we have to depend on His death as sufficient payment for all our sins. Jesus died because of OUR sins, not His own.
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. (NIV)
When Jesus died on that cross, He bore the pain of our sin (vs.4) – “he carried our sorrows;” He bore the punishment for our sin (vs.5); and He bore the perversity of our sin (vs.6). The word, “iniquity,” in verse 6 literally means perversity or crookedness. We were the crooked ones. We were the crooks – not Him! Jesus didn’t die for His own crimes; He died for ours!
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
It’s like a transfer of funds took place in the bank of Heaven. Our account was overdrawn because of our sin. Jesus’ account was plenty full, but when He died on the cross, God gave him the debt and transferred all His funds to our account!
In his book, Putting the Amazing Back into Grace, Michael Horton talks about the trip he made to Europe after his junior year in college with some friends.
He says, “Having misjudged my expenses by several digits, I phoned home for help. My parents transferred money from their account to cover outstanding bills and included an additional sum from which I could draw until the end of the trip.”
Then Michael Horton asks, “Now, was this money, which I was going to draw daily as I needed, strictly speaking, my money? No, it belonged to my parents; nevertheless, because they had transferred it to my account, it was my money. My account was now filled with money I had not earned but which was mine to use nonetheless.” (Michael Horton, Putting the Amazing Back into Grace, Baker, 2010, pp.148-155; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s what our Heavenly Father did for us in Christ. He transferred Christ’s riches, His righteousness, to our account. This not only paid our debts, but gave us more than enough to draw from until the end of our time here on earth.
But none of that does us any good unless we believe it. We can’t benefit from what Christ did for us on the cross unless we bank on it. By faith, we must go to the Bank of Heaven and accept the payment made on the cross for our sins. Then, by faith, we can go and make the daily withdraws we need to keep on living as God wants us to live until our time on this earth is done.
That’s what we mean when we say, “Jesus died for our sins.” He was punished instead of us, so we could live for Him. And He did it willingly. No one forced Jesus to die for us. He chose to die without resistance.
Isaiah 53:7-9 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. (NIV)
Jesus was our silent, sinless, substitute. He did not open His mouth when he was cut off for our transgressions even though He had done no wrong.
Matthew 27 says, “When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate asked him, ‘Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?’ But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge – to the great amazement of the governor” (Matthew 27:12-14).
Even when He was falsely accused, Jesus did not answer; because He was giving Himself up willingly for you and me.
Author and speaker Brennan Manning has an amazing story about how he got the name “Brennan.” While growing up, his best friend was Ray. The two of them did everything together: bought a car together as teenagers, double-dated together, went to school together and so forth. They even enlisted in the Army together, went to boot camp together and fought on the frontlines together. One night while sitting in a foxhole, Brennan was reminiscing about the old days in Brooklyn while Ray listened and ate a chocolate bar. Suddenly a live grenade came into the foxhole. Ray looked at Brennan, smiled, dropped his chocolate bar and threw himself on the live grenade. It exploded, killing Ray, but Brennan’s life was spared.
Later, Brennan went into the ministry and considered changing his name. He thought of his friend, Ray Brennan, so he took on the name “Brennan.”
Years later, he went to visit Ray’s mother in Brooklyn. They sat up late one night having tea when Brennan asked her, “Do you think Ray loved me?”
Mrs. Brennan got up off the couch, shook her finger in front of Brennan’s face and shouted, “What more could he have done for you?”
At that moment, Brennan suddenly realized something he had been struggling with for some time. He saw himself standing before the cross of Jesus wondering, Does God really love me? Then he saw Jesus’ mother, Mary, pointing to her son, saying, “What more could he have done for you?” (James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful God, IVP, 2009, p. 142; www.Preaching Today.com)
Sometimes, we wonder, “Does God really love me?” At those times, we just need to look to the cross. What more could He have done for us?
Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Bank on it! If we want complete absolution for our sins and full recovery from our failures, then #1, We must bow before Jesus as our Sovereign Lord; #2, We must believe in Him who was scorned; #3, We must bank on His substitutionary sacrifice; then #4, We can…
BENEFIT FROM HIS VICTORY AND SUCCESS.
We can enjoy new life in the resurrected Christ. We can profit from His victory over sin and death. For you see, Christ’s death on the cross is not the end of the story! Three days later, He arose from the dead so He could give light and life to all who trust in Him. Look at how Isaiah describes Jesus’ resurrection 700 years before it happened.
Isaiah 53:10-12 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (NIV)
After “He poured out his life unto death,” after “the suffering of His soul,” and after “the Lord crushed Him, making His life a guilt offering,” after all that, Isaiah says, He will see his offspring and prosper; He will see the light of life and be satisfied; and He will see the spoils of victory and share them with many.
Jesus’ offspring are the thousands and millions of people who will become a part of God’s family through faith in Him. These are the people that Jesus justifies, that He declares righteous. And these are the people with whom Jesus shares the spoils of victory.
The word for “strong” in verse 12 also means “numerous.” In other words, Jesus shares the spoils of his victory over sin and death with the numerous people who over the years have put their faith in Him. Ephesians 4:8 says, “When He ascended on high, he… gave gifts to men.”
Do you want to get in on all that? Then trust Christ with your life. Bow before Him as your Sovereign Lord. Stop trying to run your own life and let Him take control. Believe in Him who was scorned, and bank on His substitutionary sacrifice. Then you will benefit from His victory and success over sin and the grave.
A couple of years ago, Christian recording artist, Carolyn Arends, shared a unique insight passed along to her from her pastor during a jubilant Easter service. Carolyn said his words “stopped me in my mental tracks. This is what he said: “The world offers promises full of emptiness, but Easter offers emptiness full of promise.” Empty cross, empty tomb, empty grave-clothes… all full of promise.
Then Carolyn asks the question, “What is it about God that makes him so favor this kind of paradox?” She continues, “I guess this is what we should expect from the Servant King – the God who decided that the best way to save the world was to let it kill him. I don’t understand the way God thinks. But on those days when I feel hollowed out and broken – half-dead, even – it makes me glad to remember that for Easter people, even death is full of promise.
“The world makes a lot of promises [too],” Carolyn says. “Smoke and mirrors, mostly. Frantic, cartoonish attempts to distract us from the gaping holes in the middle of our souls (or to sell us the latest product in order to fill them). There’s no life in those promises.” (Carolyn Arends, What’s So Good About Good Friday? Kyria.com, 4-10-09; www.PreachingToday.com)
So stop pursuing the things of this world. Stop pursuing its wealth and power, which leaves us so empty, and start pursuing Christ. Trust Him with your life and really live! That’s the message of Christmas, which points to Easter and beyond: Trust Christ and live!
