INTRODUCTION
Peggy Key, of Portage, MI. said, “While driving to church on Easter Sunday two years ago, I told my children the Easter story. "This is the day we celebrate Jesus coming back to life," I explained. Right away, my 3-year-old son, Kevin, piped up from the back seat, "Will He be in church today?"
Will Jesus be in our church today? Only if He is present in the lives of those of us who are here today!
This is a glorious day for mankind. Today is the day that we celebrate and remember the fact that Jesus is not in the tomb!
To the disciples of Jesus, this day did not seem possible. The man they had been following for three years had just suffered a horrible death that was reserved for the worst of criminals.
The followers of Jesus and eleven of the original twelve believed that Jesus was the Son of God, the Lamb of God who came to save the world.
On Friday it did not look good. On Friday there was Jesus, the “Savior” of the world dying on the cross. Many of Jesus closest followers abandoned Him, one of His closest, Peter, denied Him three times that fateful evening of His trials.
After the death of Jesus, the disciples were in hiding (John 20:19), things did not look good, they all feared for their lives.
Throughout His ministry Jesus told His followers that He would suffer and die, but His followers did not want to believe Him.
On Friday, when Jesus was crucified, it looked as if Jesus lost and that Satan had won the battle.
Satan had to beaming from ear to ear as this horrible event was taking place, the Son of God, rejected and defeated. There was something that Satan did not know, but if he had read the Bible, he would have known!
700 years before the ministry of Jesus, Isaiah is going to reveal the truth about Jesus and the suffering that He dealt with when He lived on the earth.
Over the last few weeks we have looked at the rejection of Jesus, the suffering of Jesus and the fact that Jesus did not deserve the punishment that He received.
The accounting department of a large insurance company was working on year-end reports when the computers went down. An emergency call was put in to the systems analyst. Troubleshooting company-wide, the man didn’t appear until three hours later. Yet even then 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 a half-smile. "I remember what they did to the last savior."
Today we are going to look at three things that we need to understand concerning the suffering that Jesus suffered.
Jesus did not turn His back on you, I hope that today you will turn to Him and give your life to Him.
Many of us live our lives for Jesus in such a way that we have not let Him out of the tomb, today, will you have the courage to let Jesus out of the tomb and let Him be the Lord and King of your life?
SERMON
The first thing we need to know is, just when it looked like Satan had won the battle we find that:
I. JESUS SUFFERING WAS PART OF THE PLAN V10
A. The Lord was pleased to crush Him.
At first reading of this part of verse 10, it seems a little twisted, this says that God was pleased to crush Jesus, to put Him to grief.
This does not mean that the Father rejoiced in His Son’s suffering and death? It means it pleased Him to see the work of salvation completed, the sacrifice accepted, and sin atoned for. Now a holy God could, in His grace, save undeserving sinners. Though Christ was slain by the evil hands of men, their deeds were overruled to accomplish the purpose of God.
ACT 2:22-24 "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know -- this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. "But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.
Why would the completed work of salvation please God? It is because He loves us so much that He was pleased that it was now possible for us to be in His presence. God is a holy, perfect, sin free God. When we are without Jesus, we cannot stand before God because no matter how “good” we are, we are still stained with sin. God created us to fellowship with Him, but sin interfered with that fellowship.
The passage in Acts tells us that what happened to Jesus was no surprise, it was a part of God’s plan.
Jesus was literally crushed under the pressure of bearing all the sins of the world.
Jesus was filled with the grief that we would suffer in our lives. This is why Jesus is a God who can sympathize with us in our times of struggle.
Islam is a popular religion right now, all that does is take from you, Jesus, the one and only true way to heaven wants to give you the riches of the spiritual blesses that heaven has to offer to you. People are sacrificing themselves as suicide bombers in the name of their God, Jesus already died for you so that you would not have to die spiritually, and you do not have to physically kill yourself to enjoy the riches of heaven. All you need to do is to give your life to Jesus. We will talk more about that during the invitation time.
B. Jesus is the guilt offering
The idea here is, clearly, that he would be made an offering or a sacrifice for
sin; so that the price for sin would be paid for.
In accordance with this, Paul says 2 Cor. 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
1JO 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (propitiation- an adquate payment for sin)
The idea is, that he was himself innocent, and that he gave up his soul or life in order to make a payment for sin—as the innocent animal in sacrifice was offered to God as an acknowledgment of guilt.
In the Old Testament, God required the death of an innocent animal to pay the penalty for the sins of the people.
C. The result
Just when Satan thought that victory was in His hands, Jesus rose on the third day!
Because Jesus defeated death and Satan, Jesus would be blessed with many who would give their lives to Him, become His children. The language here is taken from that which was regarded as the highest blessing among the Hebrews. So one of the highest blessings, which could be promised to Abraham, was that he would be made the father of many nations Gen. 12:2; 17:5-6. In accordance with this, the Messiah is promised that he shall see many become His children.
PROLONG HIS DAYS- The meaning here is, that the Messiah, though he should be put to death, would yet see great multitudes who should be his spiritual children. Though he should die, yet he would live again, and his days should be lengthened out. It is fulfilled in the reign of the Jesus on earth and in his eternal existence and glory in heaven. ROMANS 6 TELLS US THAT IF WE HAVE BEEN BURIED WITH CHRIST IN BAPTISM, THEN WE TO SHALL BE RAISED WITH HIM.
PROSPER In His hands- under his government and direction. Christianity will be promoted and extended through him. The reward of all his sufferings in making an offering for sin would be, that multitudes would be converted and saved; that his reign would be permanent, and that the work, which God designed and desired, would prosper under his administration.
Jesus is the head of the church and the church will grow and prosper when we allow Jesus to be the head of the church.
Jesus wants you to be one of His children, He wants to have you with Him for eternity!
Just when it looked like Satan had won the battle we find that:
II. HIS PAIN WAS OUR GAIN V11
A. Jesus would be satisfied with what His suffering would accomplish
Isaiah says, as Jesus would reflect on all that happened to Him, that He would be satisfied because of what it would mean for us.
Jesus loves us so much that He gave Himself up for you. Are you lonely, do you sometimes feel that is not worth living? Do you wonder why you were put here?
You will find all the comfort and an answer to the question of why you are here in Jesus!
Jesus did not enjoy what He went through, but He felt that we were worth all that happened so that we could be with Him for eternity. I would hate to stand before Him and try to explain why I rejected the love He has shown to me.
B. By His knowledge
Isaiah says that by the knowledge of Him, we will be made right in God’s eyes.
Christians are not better than other people, God sees them as perfect as He looks at them through the blood of Jesus.
The idea is, by becoming fully acquainted with Him and His plan of salvation, we will grow closer to Him and we will be saved because of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross.
The word knowledge here is evidently used in a large sense to denote all that constitutes acquaintance with him. Not just an acknowledgement, but a relationship.
Let us look at what Paul says Phil. 3:8-11
It is only by the knowledge of the Messiah; by an acquaintance with his character, doctrines, sufferings, death, and resurrection, that anyone can be justified.
Thus Jesus says John 17:3, "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” People are to have a relationship with Him. We need to live by His teachings or we can never be regarded and treated as righteous in the sight of a holy God.
Jesus does not want you to be religious, He wants you to love Him and then let your love for Him cause you to live for Him.
God does not want an outward show, He wants an inward love that shows itself in what we do and how we treat other people.
We cannot fool God. We insult God and the sacrifice that Jesus made by trying to do so.
Jesus stood between the stroke of justice and the sinner, and received the blow himself. He intercepted so to speak, the descending sword of justice that would have cut the sinner down, and thus saved him. Jesus carried our sins;
Once again, notice that Isaiah says that Jesus WILL bear their iniquities (sins). Even today, Jesus will carry your sins from you if you will give them to Him. You do not have to pack around old baggage, give it to Jesus.
Just when it looked like Satan had won the battle we find that:
III. JESUS ON THE WINNING TEAM V12
On Friday Jesus was seemingly defeated, Satan thought He won a great victory.
Victory was snatched out of His hands by the fact that Jesus defeated death!
Everyone loves a winner. Do you want to be on the winning team? That team would be Jesus!
Philippians 2:8-11 says, “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
CONCLUSION
I want to close with a passage out of 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1-8 and 12-19.
In this passage Paul explains to us that the resurrection is the cornerstone of the Christian faith.
What difference has the resurrection made in your life? Because of the resurrection, you can have eternal life with Jesus, if you will give your life to Him.
We will tell you how the bible tells you to do that today.
Steve Winger from Lubbock, Texas, writes about his last college test a final in a logic class known for its difficult exams. To help us on our test, the professor told us we could bring as much information to the exam as we could fit on a piece of notebook paper. Most students crammed as many facts as possible on their 8-1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper. But one student walked into class, put a piece of notebook paper on the floor, and had an advanced logic student stand on the paper.
The advanced logic student told him everything he needed to know. He was the only student to receive an "A." The ultimate final exam will come when we stand before God and he asks, "Why should I let you in?" On our own we cannot pass that exam. Our creative attempts to earn eternal life fall far short. But we have Someone who will stand in for us.
JOHN 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
