An Isaiah 53 Believer. Isaiah 53:1-6NKJV
When reading Isaiah 53 one could almost believe the prophet Isaiah lived during the days of Jesus and was at the cross when he died. However these words were written approximately 700 years before Jesus. Again, 700 years before Jesus Christ. Yet it captures Jesus’ pain and His death on the cross.
Think for a moment, the details given by the prophet Isaiah concerning the forthcoming pain and suffering of Jesus are amazingly precise. (Only the Bible).
Isaiah 53:1NKJV Who has believed our report??And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
If the arm of the Lord has been revealed to you, you my friend are very special. The Bible calls you precious.
Precious, by definition, means of great value; not to be wasted or treated carelessly. In Genesis 1:27, God created all of us in His image, male and female, thus we are all precious.
The question is, “Who has believed our report?”
Isaiah 53:1TM Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this??
Paul writes in, Romans 10:16NKJV But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?
The question is, Who? Who hears? How well do you hear? What do you hear? What will you do with what was heard?
John 12:37-38NLT But despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in him. 38 This is exactly what Isaiah the prophet had predicted:“Lord, who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?”
The disciple, John. The apostle Paul. - Who will believe? Through out the NT there is a constant repetition of these words.
We should praise our God, because God’s arm raises the dead, God’s arm saves, God’s arm delivers, He keeps, God’s arm is mighty!
Remember this, Believer’s grow into their destiny? In other words, keep believing.
In Mark 6:30..., Jesus feeds 5,000 people with only five loaves of bread and two fish.
Later that evening, Jesus sees His disciples boat in trouble. The wind and waves seem to bring certain destruction. Jesus proceeds to walk on the water, He attended to walk right pass them, but they cried out for help, thus Jesus rescues.
Mark 6:50-52NLT They were all terrified when they saw him. But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage! I am here!” 51 Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were totally amazed, 52 for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in.
Have you considered your past relationships with and without Jesus? Are you aware of your future?
Mark’s gospel writes, They did not consider the loaves, consider the past! Jesus will do it again! 1,2,3....
Isaiah 53:2NKJV 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.
One commentary writes, Jesus, the Messiah will spring out of the earth without notice; low in its beginning, slow in its growth, liable to be crushed with the foot, or destroyed with the frost.
No great birth place could Jesus claim. No flamboyant parent, just God’s people. That’s enough.
Isaiah predicts, Jesus wasn’t renowned, He had no political favor, He didn’t belong to any social clubs.
But yet, He was God’s only Son!
Isaiah 53:3KJV He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
No one thought a thing about Jesus. He wasn’t the who’s who. He wasn’t popular. Born in a stable. However, He grew... The Son-servant grew!
It was necessary for the man of sorrows to suffer. It was the main thing that He came to do, paying the price for our sin and rebellion, so that we could be reconciled to God, and one another, (2 Cor 5:18).
Again, Verse 3b...A man of sorrows...
Most of our sorrow is really just self-pity. It is feeling sorry for ourselves. Jesus never once felt sorry for Himself. His sorrow was for others, and for the fallen, desperate condition of humanity. (Enduring Word)
A man of sorrows. Now hear, Isaiah 53:2-3TM The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field.?There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look.?He was looked down on and passed over,?a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.?One look at him and people turned away.?We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
Thank God Isaiah is writing about the unregenerate Man! You, I...thought He was scum.
Isaiah 53:4NKJV Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
Jesus did it anyway; Regardless of mans opinion, Jesus did it anyway!
Verse 4TM But the fact is, it was our pains he carried - our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.
Once more, “Jesus did it anyway!”
Again, Who’s report will you believe?
Isaiah 53:5NKJV But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
CECC, We teach and preach that healing is in the atonement. That upon Jesus’ crucifixion and his resurrection, Jesus made a way for you to be physically healed. And If it’s His will, you will be healed. (And you should praise only Jesus)!
However, the greatest healing is a sin sick soul.
Every beating, piercing, cursing, spiting on, every sly remark and every slanderous word, Jesus died for every sin.- All sin!
Testimony- Some 16 years ago, occasionally I’ll see some of our old CECC bus kids, they’re in their 20’s now. -They always bring up CECC with their salvation.” P.H
Isaiah 53:5TM But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed.
Always be in thought of His divine transfer. Our rags, for His riches! -Divine transfer!
According to legend, when the Knights of the Round Table returned to King Arthur’s Court after battle, they were carefully examined. If their bodies did not there any battle scars, they were sent back into the battle with an exhortation; go and get your scars!
** Jesus bore our scars!
Isaiah 53:6NKJV 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.
We have turned– against God’s way, everyone, to his own way. We were all defeated-Temptation won.
Notice, the grace of God. Isaiah 53:6b... And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Paul writes in, Colossians 2:13-15TPT This “realm of death” describes our former state, for we were held in sin’s grasp. But now, we’ve been resurrected out of that “realm of death” never to return, for we are forever alive and forgiven of all our sins! 14 He canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all—our sins, our stained soul—he deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved! Everything we once were in Adam has been placed onto his cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation. 15Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner; they were his!
Colossians 2:15bTM....He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.
Picture this, Jesus marching the devil naked down the street. Lol.
Colossians 2:15b...He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
Again, we turned and ran, but Jesus ran faster. You and I ran away, while Jesus ran to the cross!
Always remember, the cross won. Jesus wins/ we win! All your sin, nailed to the wall.
Jesus bore/He took something you could never handle. Our humanity isn’t capable of dealing with sin. -Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23.
We needed a Savior! The only question is, “Do we need Savior?”
Benediction.
