Marla Kiley, from Denver, Colorado, tells the story of an accounting department of a large insurance company. They were working on year-end reports when their computers crashed. So they put in an emergency call to a systems analyst, who arrived three hours later. He was late, because when he first got the call, he began troubleshooting the computer network company wide. Then, when he finally arrived, several clerks cheered, “He's here! Our savior.”
Without a word, the systems analyst turned to leave. Panicked, the accounting manager cried, “Where are you going?”
“I'm leaving,” the analyst said with half a smile. “I remember what they did to the last savior” (Marla J. Kiley, Denver, Colorado. Christian Reader, "Lite Fare;" www.PreachingToday.com).
You call an IT expert when your computer crashes, but what do you do when your life crashes?
That was happening to the nation of Judah, 700 years before Christ. Their sins nearly destroyed them. The world came crashing down upon them, and they were headed for Babylonian captivity.
But Isaiah delivers a message of hope in the midst of all the chaos. He tells of a Savior, a real Savior, who can restore broken people—not only the ancient Jewish people, but people like you and me today. If your life has crashed and you need restoration, then I invite you to turn with me to Isaiah 52, Isaiah 52, where Isaiah introduces us to our real Savior.
Isaiah 52:13-15 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand (ESV).
God’s Servant will “sprinkle many nations” clean from their sin. This is the promise of Messiah, which the New Testament identifies as Jesus. The angel tells Matthew, “You shall call his name Jesus (which means “YHWH saves”), for he will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Is that what you want? Do you Jesus to save you from your sins. Then...
BOW BEFORE JESUS AS YOUR SOVEREIGN KING.
Submit to Christ as your Lord and your God. Surrender to His authority in your life.
Isaiah makes it very clear (vs.13): God’s Servant will be “lifted up” and “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 sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up (same words we have here), and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1). Then in Isaiah 33:10, YHWH says of Himself, “now I will LIFT MYSELF UP; now I will be EXALTED.” Well, here in Isaiah 52:13, those same words are applied to God’s Servant, and that can only mean one thing. God’s Servant is none other than God Himself. Jesus is Deity!
He is the Sovereign Lord of the universe even though He was disfigured more than any other man, verse 14 says. You see, “[God] became flesh and dwelt 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 you want Him to take away your sins, if you want Him to remove the “virus” that caused your systems to crash, then bow before Him as your Sovereign Lord. Like the kings, shut your mouth 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 (Philippians 2:10-11). So do it now before He has to put you in your place.
If your life has crashed and you need Jesus to restore you, then bow before Jesus as your Sovereign Lord. More than that…
BELIEVE IN JESUS WHO WAS SCORNED.
Put your trust in Jesus who was despised and rejected by so many people. Depend on the One that others detested.
Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? (ESV)
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, “Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, 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 looked ugly in their eyes.
Isaiah 53:2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him (ESV).
Jesus was like a young plant—very fragile—and He was like the root of a plant (e.g., a potato) 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, 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 form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”
He’s not pretty to look at, is He? The fact is very few people believed in Him, because He was ugly in their eyes, 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 acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not (ESV).
This was God in the flesh, but people treated Him like a tramp.
As a supermodel, Tyra Banks is used to the stares of others and the snap of camera shutters every time she steps out in public. Then she experienced scrutiny of another kind when several years ago (2005) she put on a “fat suit” that made her look like she weighed 350 pounds. Banks wore the suit for an undercover taping of her talk show in an attempt to learn how it feels to be mistreated as an obese person.
Banks said, “The people that were staring and laughing in my face—that shocked me the most. As soon as I entered the store when I went shopping, I immediately heard snickers. Immediately! I was appalled and hurt!"
Through bus rides, shopping, and blind dates, Banks put herself in the shoes of large people and experienced their feelings of hurt and rejection. “There's no excuse for rudeness. There's no excuse for ugliness. And there's no excuse for nastiness, and that's what I experienced,” Banks said (abcnews.go.com; submitted by Hugh Poland, Kingwood, Texas; www.PreachingToday.com).
In essence, that’s what Jesus did. The glorious Son of God put on a “fat suit” (so to speak) when He became a man. And people despised Him. They laughed at Him and eventually hung Him on a cross.
However, if your life has crashed and you need Jesus to restore you, you must appreciate who Jesus is unlike others who despise Him. 1st, Bow before Him as your Sovereign Lord. 2nd, Believe in Him who was scorned. And 3rd …
BANK ON HIS SUBSTITUTIONARY SACRIFICE.
If you want Jesus to restore you, accept the fact that you are a sinner and that Jesus died in your place for your sins. Then depend on His death as sufficient payment for all your sins. Jesus died because of OUR sins, not His own.
Isaiah 53:4-6 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 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 (ESV).
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 to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
The Green Mile is a movie set in the south in 1935. Paul Edgecomb (played by Tom Hanks) is head guard of death row in a Louisiana prison. It is called “the green mile” because of the long, lime-colored floor prisoners walk to get to the electric chair.
John Coffey (played by Michael Clarke Duncan) is a slightly retarded, seven-foot black man who has been falsely charged with the murder of two little white girls.
Paul discovers John possesses a mysterious gift. He can absorb another's disease and cure them. When the prison warden's wife is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, Paul arranges for his guards to secretly transport John to the woman's home in the middle of the night. As the guards escort John into the house, the warden's wife is screaming like a possessed woman. John goes to her bedside and looks into a face contorted by pain. Take a look (show video: The Green Mile—Healing Scene, www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIa2ob3zHdA).
The woman suddenly relaxes and asks him his name. John smiles, "John Coffey, ma'am. Like the drink but not spelled the same." He then leans over her face and says, "I see it!" Sensing something mysterious going on, the woman begins to whimper, "What's happening to me?"
John says, "Shhh! You be still now. Just be quiet and oh so still!"
As the warden looks on, John places his mouth next to hers. The inside of her mouth begins to glow as a swarm of bugs streams out of her mouth into his. The room grows bright. The pendulum on the grandfather clock stops and the crystal shatters. The house rocks as if hit by an earthquake. As John sits up, the woman's face is peaceful and serene. The disease has left her body. But John doubles over in pain and begins to cough uncontrollably, because he has exchanged his health for her sickness (The Green Mile, Warner Brothers, 1999, rated R, written and directed by Frank Darabont; 2:14:22 to 4:45:22; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s a picture of what Christ did for us on the cross. Falsely accused of crimes He did not commit, Jesus exchanged our sickness for His health. He swapped our sin with His righteousness. But none of that does you any good unless you believe it. You cannot benefit from what Christ did for you on the cross unless you trust Him to do it for you. Jesus died for our sins.
He was punished instead of you, so you could live for Him, and He did it willingly. No one forced Jesus to die for you. He chose to die without resistance.
Isaiah 53:7-9 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth (ESV).
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, “But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” But [Jesus] gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.” (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.PreachingToday.com)
Sometimes, you wonder, “Does God really love me?” At those times, you just need to look to the cross. What more could He have done for you?
Romans 5:8 says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Bank on it!
If your life has crashed and you need Jesus to restore you, then #1, Bow before Jesus as your Sovereign Lord; #2, Believe in Jesus, who was scorned; #3, Bank on His substitutionary sacrifice; then #4…
BENEFIT FROM HIS VICTORY AND SUCCESS.
Enjoy new life in the resurrected Christ. 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 will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors (ESV).
After “He poured out his soul to death,” after “the anguish of His soul,” and after the Lord “crushed Him” as an “offering for guilt,” after all that, Isaiah says, He will see his offspring and prosper; He will see and be satisfied; and He will see the spoils of victory and share them with many.
Jesus’ offspring are the millions and billions 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 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 benefit from His victory and success over the grave.
Several 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 people 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!
