Who Has Believed Our Message
Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:
Matthew 5:3-5
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse is:
1 Peter 3:15
“In your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”
Today we will be reading from Isaiah 52:13-53:12
This is a long section of Scripture. This is also an important section of Scripture.
As we approach Resurrection Sunday, commonly known as Easter, it is a good idea to take a good look at Jesus, Himself.
We spend a lot of time in the teachings of Jesus and in teachings of those who spent time with Him. We also spend a lot of time talking about the salvation that was made possible by His life, death and resurrection.
At Christmas time we spend a lot of time searching the Scriptures about Jesus’ birth and the events surrounding that event. We talk about Nazareth and Joseph and Mary and the angel and the shepherds and the wise men and the Roman census and the trip to Jerusalem and the birth in the stable. And, that is all good and we should look at such amazing events.
But, sometimes we miss the amazing things that are written about Jesus in the Old Testament. What did it say about Jesus in Genesis? What did it say about Jesus in the Psalms? What did it say about Jesus in Isaiah?
Let’s take the time to read Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and see …
(Prayer for help from the Lord)
For centuries this section of Scripture was considered by the Jews to be about the coming Messiah. But then He came and even though it prophesied accurately about Jesus they rejected Him and reoriented their view of the passage.
Since then it has been largely a forbidden topic and interpreted in a way so that, according to their rabbinical teaching and tradition, it points to Jeremiah.
With that in mind let’s take a look at some of this incredible passage.
Isaiah 53:1a, “Who has believed our message …?”
In order for a message to have the potential to be believed it requires a series of events. Let’s look at these events as they are involved in transmission of the message from God to the person in need of the message.
- The message must be sent (by God)
- The message must be received (by the Prophet or Apostle)
- The message must be declared (by the written Word, by a pastor/teacher, family member, friend or even an complete stranger)
- The message must be heard (by someone needing the message)
- The message must be responded to (accepted or rejected)
So, what IS the “message?” There are various messages.
There are messages of God identifying who He is to His people.
There are messages of blessing when the message is obeyed.
There are messages of destruction because of long periods of willful disobedience.
There are messages holding out reconciliation.
There are messages in the OT about the coming Messiah.
There are messages about the eternal life that comes when a person finds salvation through grace and faith in Jesus.
There are messages about eternal death that is the result of rejecting Jesus’ offer of salvation.
In this case, the question of, “who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of (Yahweh) the Lord, been revealed?”
The message is the message of the coming Messiah who in this case, is being has been prophesied in the Old Testament.
How do we know the message is about Him? We know because the first word we see in the next sentence is, “He …”.
And that “He” pronoun begins an incredible description of the Messiah, the Christ, who would appear approximately 700 years later.
Let’s look at the first part of the prophetic description of Jesus.
“He grew up before Him …”
If “He” is Jesus then who is “Him”?
Isaiah? Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father? Who?
Jesus the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, grew up before God the Father, the first person of the Holy Trinity.
That is who the “Him” referred to in, “He grew up before Him”.
Jesus did this in a physical sense.
As it says in Philippians 2:6-7,
“(Jesus) being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
What an amazement this is when it says, “He grew up before Him”.
God is watching God grow up!
Luke 2:52 gives us a report of Jesus at the age of 12 where it says, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”
And this would be consistent with the rest of the first sentence in Isaiah 53:2 where it says, “He grew up before Him LIKE A TENDER SHOOT, AND LIKE A ROOT OUT OF DRY GROUND.”
“Like a tender shoot …” Don’t you love that as a beautiful description of the young Messiah? We can only imagine what Jesus must have been like as an infant or young boy, “like a tender shoot …”
But, what else does it say, “Like a root out of dry ground.”
Don’t you expect a root in dry ground to just sit there and die or at least to remain dormant until a rain comes along?
That’s not how it was with Jesus.
This “root out of dry ground” Who “grew up like a tender shoot” was certainly in dry ground but He grew anyway.
How was Jesus in “dry ground?” Think about the situation into which He was born.
The nation of Israel was a wreck. They had been under the control of foreign nations for literally hundreds of years dating back to shortly after king Solomon. Occasionally they would have a righteous king and a brief period of peace and independence but then they would turn their backs on Yahweh the God of Israel and they would be defeated again or totally conquered and taken into captivity. And now they were under the dominion of the Roman Empire. Their nation was “dry ground”.
It seemed as if Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel had turned His back on them, but, in fact it was they who had turned their backs on Him.
There had not been one single word from the Lord through a prophet in over 400 years. There were many groups within the Jewish leadership.
The Herodians were more political than religious and some of them believed that the wicked Herod was a type of messiah in that He brought a form of peace and feeling of false independence with Rome through his position.
The Pharisees had created so many laws that no one could ever obey all of them. As Jesus is recorded as saying in Luke 11:46, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”
The Priests, both the descendents of Aaron and the Levites, were turning the Holy Temple into a market place on the High Holy Feast Days. This was an indication of their spiritual condition.
So, you see, the Jewish religion was “dry ground”.
All of the circumstances around Jesus’ birth caused gossip and suspicion. Both Joseph and Mary were condemned by those in Nazareth. And, Nazareth itself was a town about which Nathanial had said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46)
Jesus’ supposed origin was a “dry ground”.
The town where Jesus was raised was a “dry ground”.
And, yet, “He (Jesus) grew up before Him (God the Father) like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.”
What are some of the other things in Isaiah 53 that it says about the Messiah who would come 700 years later?
It says that:
Jesus would have no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him.
Jesus would have nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.
Jesus would be despised and rejected by men.
Jesus would be a man of suffering and familiar with pain.
Jesus would be like one from whom men hide their faces.
Jesus would be despised, and we would consider Him to be of no value, worthless.
And, we see that these attitudes about Jesus were true throughout His life, throughout the life of His disciples and continue to be true even now.
Why is that? To answer that question we need to back up to verse Isaiah 53:1a where it asks,
“Who has believed our message?”
Who has believed what you have told them about Jesus? Anyone?
What do you know about Jesus?
Do you know enough about Him to be able to relay the message accurately?
Do you know what the message is?
Do you know enough about the character of God?
As it says in our Scripture memory verse we reviewed today …
1 Peter 3:15
“In your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”
Why is it important to have a message to tell?
Why is it important to know what the message actually should say?
In the past there would be a flood of people coming to church on two specific Christian holidays, Easter Sunday and Christmas Sunday.
On those Sundays the people who only came on those days, of course, would hear about Jesus birth, death and resurrection. And, they would probably hear the same hymns and similar messages. This would be a very limited exposure to the Gospel, a very limited exposure to the ENTIRE message.
Nowadays, even this has dwindled to the point where the only additional people attending on those two days are the ones who are most likely forced or guilted into coming to church.
And, if there is no other influence after they leave the church we have to ask as a church, “Who has believed our message?”
What do they see on TV or in other media? In the secular realm they see a world that dismisses, ridicules or hates Jesus.
What else do they see? What if they are flipping through the channels and see a preacher on TV? What if they see a preacher in a simple setting, faithfully declaring the Word of the Lord? In this fast paced world it probably would not hold their attention for more than a few seconds unless they were experiencing some sort of trauma in their life, something that is causing them to question their life.
And, of course, there are mega TV churches, some faithful to the Word and some not. How are those who know nothing about the Scriptures able to discern truth from half-truth and falsehood?
And, after they have listened, the question from Isaiah 53:1 will still be asked, “Who has believed our (true and genuine) message?”
Praise God, we are not responsible for anyone but ourselves.
Do WE know the message?
- Are WE in God’s Word?
- Are WE faithfully and regularly hearing the Word of the Lord proclaimed by pastors and teachers?
- Are WE applying the truth from the Word of God to our own lives?
Are WE sharing the message found in the Holy Bible?
- There are no prophecies in the Bible of waiting until mass communication is invented so that someone else can declare the message.
- I praise the Lord for mass communication for those who are unable physically to be part of a local body of Christ, a church but that should be the exception and not the rule.
We need to ask the same question as Crossroads Church of The Nazarene, “Who has believed our message?”
Do WE believe it ourselves?
Do WE know the message well enough to tell it?
Do WE know the Giver of the message?
Do WE have a passion for the Giver of the message that compels us to proclaim the message?
If we do not know the message, if we do not personally know the Giver of the message, if we do not have a passion for the Giver of the message we have two choices …
1) Get to know the Giver of the message, study the message, come to love the Giver of the message and start proclaiming the message.
2) Stop pretending to be witnesses for Christ who IS the message.
Final thoughts and prayer
