The Rejected Savior

INTRODUCTION

 Today we are going to step out of the series on the Sermon on the Mount to do a short four message series from the book of Isaiah.

 I wanted to take us to Isaiah because of the fact that Resurrection Sunday is coming in a few weeks. The book of Isaiah is a great place to go as we close in on the most celebrated of holidays in the church.

 The book of Isaiah contains the second most Messianic prophecies of any other book in the Old Testament, only the Psalms contain a larger number of Messianic prophecies.

 James Smith in his book, The Major Prophets says, “For the Christian the Book of Isaiah is extremely important. Forty-seven chapters of this book were directly quoted or alluded to by Christ or the Apostles. With more than four hundred allusions, Isaiah stands second only to Psalms as the most cited book in the New Testament.”

 It has been said that Isaiah predicted Jesus more clearly than any other of the prophets and he has been called, “A prophet of the Gospel before the Gospel.”

 In the book of Isaiah, we find many predictions about the coming Messiah, ranging from the virgin birth, to the ministry of the Messiah, to the suffering and death the Messiah would undergo.

 The thing that we need to understand about Isaiah is that his ministry took place from 740 BC to 680 BC, a span of 60 years. Jesus was born in about 6 BC, so we have about a 700 year gap between Isaiah’s prophecies and the coming of Jesus.

 The part of Isaiah we are going to study over the next few weeks is the 53rd chapter. In Isaiah 53 we have what many have called the “Suffering Servant Poems”. In the 53rd chapter of Isaiah will paint a picture of the Rejected Servant in verses 1-3, the Suffering Servant in verses 4-6, the Despised Servant in verse 7-9 and the Victorious Servant in verse 10-12.

 This week we will look at the picture Isaiah paints of the Rejected Savior.

 Over 700 years before Jesus came to Earth, Isaiah will share with us the fact that the Predictions about and the message of the Savior would be rejected, the Power of the Savior would be rejected and the Person of the Savoir would be rejected.

 Today as we look at the prophecy of the Rejected Savior, if Isaiah were alive today, would he be able to write this about you?

SERMON

I. THE PREDICTIONS ABOUT THE SAVIOR WERE REJECTED V1

 READ ISAIAH 53:1a

 Who has believed our report? This is the question Isaiah was asking his fellow countrymen with amazement.

 Isaiah uses an emphatic “WHO” in the opening of this chapter. The great mass of Isaiah’s countrymen had rejected the message of the promised messiah. Isaiah was trying to get the people to understand the important roll that the nation would play in the salvation that would come through the promised seed of Abraham and throne of David.

 In the book of Romans, look at chapter 10 verse 16. (READ ROMANS 10:14-17)

 Paul was saying that even in his day many of his fellow countrymen were still rejecting the message of and about the messiah and therefore they were crossways with God.

 Paul was dealing with people who had heard what Jesus said, but they still rejected Him.

 The evidence of the scriptures is overwhelming proof of the fact Jesus is the Messiah. The Jews recognized the fact that Isaiah’s prophecies in chapter’s 52-53 dealt with the coming Messiah until about 1150 AD when the Jews abandoned the traditional interpretation if these chapters in favor of saying that Isaiah was really talking about Jeremiah, Josiah or the people of Israel.

 I wonder why they tossed almost 2000 years of interpretation? Maybe Jesus fit the passages a little too much for comfort?

 Today we are still rejecting the prophecies that were made concerning Jesus, people are still rejecting the message of Jesus.

 READ 1 CORINTHIANS 1:18-25

 READ ROMANS 1:16-17

 Who has believed our message?

 A soap manufacturer and a pastor were walking together down a street in a large city. The soap manufacturer casually said, "The gospel you preach hasn’t done much good, has it? Just observe. There is still a lot of wickedness in the world, and a lot of wicked people, too!" The pastor made no reply until they passed a dirty little child making mud pies in the gutter. Seizing the opportunity, the pastor said, "I see that soap hasn’t done much good in the world; for there is much dirt, and many dirty people around." The soap manufacturer replied, "Oh, well, soap is only useful when it is applied." And the pastor said, "Exactly, so it is with the gospel."