Scripture: Isaiah 53:1— 10
Title: “The Unbelievable Gospel”
Introduction: Isaiah begins this portion of Scripture with the words, “Who hath believed our report?” From the time of Isaiah until now people have looked upon this prophetic idea of a suffering Messiah as something “INCREDIBLE.” Isaiah lived 700 years before Christ and for him to be talking about the coming “Messiah” could understandably be DIFFICULT to believe.
As Isaiah pours out the description of the coming “Messiah” it is next to “Unbelievable” that someone like this could really be a reality.
There’s still a lot of “Unbelief” around us and it’s not hard to understand when we take a look at the way a lot of Church people conduct themselves in front of the unsaved community.
Let us not forget the tremendous letdown during ushering in of the year of 2000 when almost every Christians had a pretty good feeling the Lord was going to come back for the Church (Rapture). And it didn’t not happen!
When our predictions fail to come to pass be sure the unsaved community notices it.
One fella predicted the Rapture of the Church with such accuracy prior to the turn of that century he climbed up a tree and at 9:04am, on June 21, 1896, he lept out to meet the Lord in the air. Surely he met the Lord that day, but not in any way he expected. He was so sure of the outcome… but he was wrong. But at least he knows he was wrong. Our Jehovah’s witness friends will to this day debate you that Jesus did return in 1917 and did set up his kingdom on Earth. They are sure of it… and they are wrong.
Listen to what Isaiah says of the Messiah. But listen again with fresh ears. Imagine for a moment that you are a first century Jew, and you are sure that the Messiah will be a political leader, who will not only liberate Rome, but will destroy Rome completely, including her soldiers, civilians, women and children. Now with that picture of Messiah in mind hear Isaiah again.
Isaiah begins where I began this morning.
Who can believe it? And not only that but look to the people who understood it, the ones to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed. They weren’t the ones who were supposed to get it. But the eyes of faith saw what the sure expectations could not.
Isaiah is PROPHESYING that there is coming an “Unbelievable Gospel” to bring the whole world into the Kingdom of God.
I. AN UNBELIEVABLE GOSPEL. Because of:
a. An “Unbelievable PERSON.” – Because of His “Unbelievable “Entrance” into the world – “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: . . . ” (Isa. 53:2) –
b. This is an “Unbelievable” Event. – “The Virgin Birth.”
c. The “Messiah” did UNBELIEVABLE things, “Miracles.”
d. The “Messiah” lived an UNBELIEVABLE life – “Without Sin.”
e. The “Messiah” did not have a “Desirable” APPEARANCE – “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” NIV
II. AN UNBELIEVABLE GOSPEL. Because of:
a. This “Gospel” DEMANDS an “Unbelievable” PRICE! – “Jesus” the son of God – Was given to a Sin-Cursed world to bring them to God.
b. The DEMANDS for SIN’S “Debt” to be SATISFIED were of ENORMOUS Proportions – “A “Supreme Sacrifice.” – The “Sinless Son of God.”
c. This GOSPEL “Required” a person without SIN and a life lived COMPLETELY without a MISTAKE or a SIN – Only Jesus could fill that REQURIEMENT!
d. The PERSON of this GOSPEL had to be COMPLETELY WILLING to DIE for the SINS of the ENTIRE WORLD.
III. THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST IS UNBELIEVABLE BECAUSE:
a. This Gospel ACCOMPLISHES an “Unbelievable Purpose” – It satisfies God’s DEMANDS for JUSTICE. (When Jesus finished His work here on earth as the Messiah God put His stamp of APPROVAL on the “Plan of Salvation” – “Paid in FULL!
b. When an unsaved person ACCEPTS God’s plan for salvation ALL that person’s sins are as if they never happened. (Wow!)
c. This Gospel is FREE to whoever BELIEVES! – But it isn’t CHEAP!
IV. WHAT MAKES THIS GOSPEL BELIEVABLE?
a. It takes the HOLY SPIRIT to MAKE the Gospel of Jesus Christ BELIEVABLE! – “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:” (John 6:44)
b. It takes the EXAMPLES of other Christians LIVING OUT the Christian Life – For EXAMPLE: “And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.” (Mark 15:21)
c. It takes FAITH to make this Gospel BELIEVABLE! – There comes a time when it becomes our RESPONSIBILITY to MAKE a CHOICE as to what we do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION: Look around you today and see the EVIDENCE that BELEIVING the Gospel message of Jesus Christ has made in so many of the lives of so many people.
Faith in God sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible.
A little girl had been attending Sunday school session where each student had made a little plaque with the words “Have Faith in God” as the motto. She boarded bus that would take her to her home, and as the bus was starting to move, she realized that she did not have her little motto with her. She jumped from her seat, and dashing up the aisle to the driver, she shouted, “Stop the bus! I’ve lost my ‘Faith in God.’”
Could it be that we have FORGOTTEN how wonderful Jesus is?
Could it be we have NEGLECTED to tell a LOST world the wonderful MESSAGE of the “Messiah?”
Could it be that we could say, “We have lost our Faith in God?”
The “Gospel Package” contains more that Forgiveness of Sins!
