The Cross of Christ Pt 1

give you praise, God. Help us to glorify you this morning, God. We're worthy of all honor and glory and praise, God, so help us to glorify you, Lord, this morning. Just be glorified as he sings in your precious and holy name. Amen. Would you guys stand with me for this last one? We just welcome you this morning. God, let your Holy Spirit come and do its mighty work this morning. I invite you

this morning. This morning, as Pastor Ryan comes, I pray that your Holy Spirit would just speak mightily through him, Lord. Prepare our hearts to receive the word that you have prepared for us, Lord, God. And we just invite you in this place. Speak mightily through Pastor Ryan, God, and prepare our hearts to receive from you. Father, we love you, and we praise you, God,

because you are worthy of all of our praise. We pray these things in your precious and holy name. Am I what God's people said? Amen. Let's have some. The process of finding your seat. Grab a bulletin. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of in your bulletin. As always, on the left-hand side of the things going on throughout the week, lots of studies to get

plugged into, so please take note of those. In the middle section of your bulletin, just a reminder that Grief Share is still going on. You can jump in there anytime you wanted to, so take note of that. And then also, we have a night of worship coming up on Wednesday, March the 27th. Really looking forward to that. A couple of other things. Not this week, but the week after is Holy Week

leading up to Easter. And so, the Ministerial Alliance every year puts on a series of Holy Week services that take place at noon at different churches. And there's a little insert in your bulletin for the different services. And so, we're going to take a look at that. And then also, places where you can go and fellowship with other believers throughout the community during that

week. So, and then two things that are not in your bulletin that I'm going to invite some people up to make announcements for. First of all, Jana is going to come up and make a quick announcement about our fundraiser for missions. Good morning. I don't know how many of you, I'm curious, how many by a show of hands were able to hear Jeff and Esther from Guatemala a few months back?

When they were here? Good. So, you kind of have a working knowledge of God Said Go, their mission organization down there. We've had a heart for a long time to get missions trips going here at Calvary. And so, this is kind of a first for us, but we're excited about it. Right now, we have 11 people signed up to go May 27th through June 3rd. And so, we thought we would do a kind of just a

whole lot of fun, I hope. March Madness here, just to raise some support to help with the project. A pretty good chunk of the $2,000 cost to go is for the work that we're going to be doing down there. They expect you to finance your own project. You might remember when Jeff was here, he shared about the small village that they found where kids were actually eating paper. They were so hungry.

And so, initially, we were going to do a little bit of a work that we're going to do down there. And so, initially, he had told us that we were going to put concrete down in their kitchen. They now provide a meal a day for the kids down there. And initially, that was what our project was going to be. When he was here, he kind of, I'm not sure what we're doing, honestly. So, he hasn't at this

point told us what we're going to do specifically. But we are expected to finance it. So, don't really know what that looks like. But regardless of what we do, we are going to plan on leaving them a pretty good chunk of the $2,000. So, we're going to do a little bit of a work that we're going to be doing down here. So, don't really know what that looks like. But we are going to

plan on leaving them a pretty good chunk of the $2,000. So, don't really know what that looks like. So, I know that not everybody can go, but a lot of you have asked how you can help and that you would love to go. And several people have said, I really want to go next year. And we would love for the trip to get bigger and bigger. But so, this March Madness, of course, you know I love

basketball. I used to coach a lot of basketball. So, this is kind of the only fundraiser I know how to do. And so, our guys, our Calvary guys are going to play some basketball. And Between quarter breaks, we're going to have some fun games for all the ages. We'll start with elementary at the first quarter. Halftime should be extra special. Now, here's how this is going to work.

It's musical chairs. We've done this a lot, never done it quite this way. Musical chairs, you can put anybody's name in a bucket that you would like to see participate in musical chairs. But we ask you to donate. So if you donate $20 to see Mr. Ryan play musical chairs, he can pay $21 to get out of doing it. So that's kind of how that's going to work. So I'm going to need a lot of help.

There's a sign-up sheet back there. We're going to have taco salad after, I think, that starts at 6, probably about 6.40. We're hoping to clean all that up and by 7 be starting. So we hope you come. We hope you have a lot of fun. And we hope to do it, maybe make this a fun event we do more than once.

Yes, yes, yes. It is a donation at the door to come in and eat the taco salad.

Oh, thank you. Yes, you had an insert in your bulletin. There is a baking contest.

There's always brownies, hopefully brownies. But, yes, we're going to crown a CCAC baking champion. Based on, for your dessert, we ask that you make a donation. Whoever brings the dessert that has the most donations will be crowned the Calvary baking champion. So we're looking forward to having some fun with that. Oh, yeah. Last week I said, and some of you have last week's insert that said ladies, but, hey, guys can bake too.

So. That's right. And if you have any other questions, catch me afterwards. But if you have a few minutes that evening to help, I'm going to need some people. I'll go ahead and just say this now. If you're coming and you have kids, we're using the South Gym down there. And they have an area off to the side that is their gymnastics area. We can't get behind that curtain.

We have promised them we will not get behind that curtain. So we're going to need some, we're going to need all of you to watch that. And just help us keep the kids on the gym floor side of that curtain. So I think that's it. Thank you.

It's been on for a second. Okay. And then Kurt Solomon is going to come up and make an announcement because it's time to start cutting the grass.

So I've done this for the last couple of years by myself. Last year, Michael reached out to me and said that he wanted to help me, like, be in charge of this and hand out the key, take phone calls for people that can't take their mowing. And he said, you know, we've been mowing duties for the week that we haven't signed up, find somebody to take their place. We switch out on and off people that can't make it.

We rotate and find somebody else to take their place. So anyway, last year, we didn't start mowing until April 22nd. If anybody drove in and they saw the lawn out here today, I think we need to start a little sooner. Kind of caught us off guard. So we'll take care of the first couple of mowing sessions. Until we leave the sign-up sheet out there for a couple of weeks to get a lot of participants.

Last year, we had more than we've ever had before, people signing up. What it consists of is you can sign up by yourself and ask for somebody to be matched up with you. You can sign up as a team, like husband, wife, or we've had parents and grandparents sign up. Parents and grandkids, excuse me, sign up. But anyway. If you don't have somebody that you want to sign up with, we will match you up with somebody.

We usually ask you to sign up or start mowing on either Wednesday evening. We don't want anybody to mow before Wednesday evening. The prime time to mow would be Friday evening or Saturday before the Sunday service. Mowing, weed eating, and edging is what we do. We ask the people that sign up, we ask them to take care of all three of that. We have, like I said, a lot of new people.

The church has its own mower, which we have locked up out here. And that's what Michael and I will do as far as getting the key to the people that are signed up for that week. A lot of people, they sign up and they have their own mower and their own weed eaters. And they just assume to use their own equipment. And we have no problem with that. We also, again, we take care of the gas.

The oil and gas for the weed eater. We will take care of getting the oil and gas mixed and have it in the can out here. We will take care of that. I'm sitting here. I don't like getting up in front of people talking, but it's something that needs to be done. We do appreciate all the people that have signed up. I'm going to hand over the microphone to Michael.

Michael might have something to add here and introduce himself. Hello. If you don't know me, I'm Michael Aerosmith. Something that Kurt had kind of missed. If you do bring your own mowers, we do ask as a church, you don't mow shorter than three inches. Three to three and a half inches is the prime target that we like to do when we mow if you bring your own equipment.

That's about the only thing that I. Okay. Again, we have a sign-up sheet out back on the table as you walk in the doors. Please, if you have any questions, reach out to Michael or myself. Our phone number is on the sheet. If you want to call us, ask us any questions. But again, last year we had a lot more people sign up than we've ever had, and we were very appreciative of that.

I will say last year, most people only had to mow the yard. They were on the schedule two times. There was a few of us that were on the schedule three times. So it's not a lot. I will say Michael made a comment to me. He said, if you need me to do it. If you need me to do it every month, I will do it every month, which if you want to do it more, he loves doing it.

I enjoy doing it, too. So if you want to sign up for more than like twice a year, you can sure reach out to us and let us know that, and we can get you on the schedule more frequently. Again, that's about it. Pastor Ryan might have something else to add to here. But again, Kurt Solomon and Michael, thank you all. Thanks, guys. Okay. Very good. So if you're interested, get signed up for that.

So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 47. Psalm 47. Looking at the New American Standard so we all sound the same for this part. If you need a copy of the New American Standard, it should be one in the row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 47, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 47. As we step one more step apart from each other. For the choir director, a psalm of the sons of Korah. Oh, clap your hands, all peoples. Shout to God with the voice of joy. For the Lord most high is to be feared and great king over all the earth. He subdues the people under us and nations under our feet.

He chooses our inheritance for us. The glory of Jacob, whom he loves. Selah. God has ascended with a shout. The Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises to our king. Sing praises. For God is the king of all the earth. Sing praises with a skillful song. God reigns over the nations. God sits in his holy throne. And read verse 9 with me.

The princes of the people have assembled themselves. As the people. The people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is highly exalted. And Father, we come to you now. And Lord, we do just praise you for who you are, Lord. That you are the God who is highly exalted. And so, Father, I pray that you would be with us as we spend time in your word this morning.

And Lord, as we sang in that song, Lord, we just invite the presence of your Holy Spirit to overflow this place. Lord, ministering to our hearts in the way that only you can. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. We typically would continue on in our study in Philippians.

However, we're coming close to Easter. So I thought it good to put together a little three-part series on Easter. Now, and so what I've entitled this book is, I'm going to read it to you. The title of this is simply The Cross of Christ. And this first one is called The Cross of Christ Part 1, The Promise. And one of the things that always sticks out to me in the reading of Scripture,

in particularly the Old Testament, is that the cross was always the plan. From the time of the fall of man, the cross was always the plan. And as I put this together, I was thinking about the fact that there's really two significant holidays that we celebrate as believers in Jesus Christ. We, of course. We celebrate Christmas, which is the birth of Christ. And then we celebrate Easter, which is the death and resurrection of Christ.

And so when we got close to Christmas, I put together that three-part series, much like this, about the first coming of Christ or the birth of Christ. And I thought, wouldn't it be great to show how this also correlates with the cross of Christ? Because I always feel like we spend a lot of time talking about Christmas and not nearly as much time talking about Easter, even though without Easter, Christmas doesn't really mean anything. And so.

So as we look at this, I got to thinking about the fact that the cross was always the plan. And so I want to give a brief survey and I'm going to mention some scriptures. And I don't want you to turn to those scriptures, but I did have her put it up there. So you might write them in your notes or in the margin of your Bible or something along those lines, because the cross was always the plan.

And I want to introduce a handful of scriptures here to you that remind us of this. The first of them, of course, is Genesis chapter three, verse 15. In Genesis chapter three, verse 15, we are given the first promise of the cross. It was right after the fall. We won't go into it because I spent a great deal of time talking about it around Christmas time. But it, of course, is right after the fall of man.

Satan had tempted Adam and Eve and they gave into the temptation. When they gave into the temptation, punishments were handed out. There was a punishment for the woman. There was a punishment for the man. But then there was the punishment for the serpent. The serpent was always to crawl on his belly. And there would always be enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman.

And the seed of the woman, of course, is none other than Jesus himself. And we are told that the seed of the woman would ultimately crush the head of the serpent, giving us the very first promise that God would deal with sin. But he would deal with it in a unique way, because though the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, it would not be until the heel of the seed of the woman had been bruised. Speaking of the fact that there would be some sort of a sacrifice that would take place in order for the head of the serpent to be crushed.

And so that's the first promise. That's given to us to tell us that the cross was always the plan, because that was the plan that was in God's mind. The second place that we see a promise, of course, is Genesis chapter 12. In Genesis chapter 12, we have the calling of Abraham. Adam and Eve lived in the garden. They were kicked out of the garden, and they began to be fruitful and multiply.

But as they began to be fruitful and multiply, of course, mankind became so sinful that God had to deal with it. And so God wiped out all of the earth except for one family. One family under Noah who found... Grace in the eyes of the Lord. And as he found grace in the eyes of the Lord, his family was preserved. Noah had three sons, him, Shem, and Japheth. And, of course, through Shem came about Abraham.

And God made a promise to Abraham. He said, That was the promise of a coming Messiah through whom a blessing to all of the nations would come. Of course, the next opportunity that we really see the promise of the Savior, the promise of the cross, comes in Exodus chapter 12. And in Exodus chapter 12 comes the story of the Passover. Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob, and Jacob had the 12 patriarchs.

The 12 patriarchs moved down to Egypt in order to preserve the nation. And a group of 70 people turned into a nation of over a million people. And while they were in Egypt, they were being oppressed. And so they cried out to the Lord, and God sent a deliverer named... And through Moses, nine plagues were brought upon the Egyptian people that brought them almost to the brink.

That brought Pharaoh almost to the brink of breaking, but he wasn't quite there yet. And so there was one last plague that God brought on him. And God told Moses, You need to be ready because when this one comes, you guys are gone. But you need to know that you guys are subject to this plague as well. Because the angel of death will move through the nation of Egypt.

And... Every firstborn will be killed. Unless you take a lamb, a perfect lamb, a lamb without spot or blemish that you have had time to examine. And you take that lamb and you kill that lamb. And you take some of the blood of that lamb and you paint the posts of your door with the blood of that lamb. And then when the angel of judgment comes to your house, he will see the blood of that lamb.

He will see the blood of the lamb and he will pass over. And you will be free from judgment because of the blood of the lamb. The cross was always the plan. Well, the next time that we really see the cross being the plan actually comes in the book of Leviticus. Again, nobody likes Leviticus. But when you read the sacrifices, you find in each one of them the perfect picture of Jesus Christ.

The perfect picture of a sacrifice that would not only... Atone for sin, that would pass over the sin, that would cover the sin. But it was also the place where they found fellowship, the place where they found consecration, the place where they found holiness before the Lord. And so each of those Levitical sacrifices always points to what we call a substitutionary death.

As a matter of fact, we knew it was a substitutionary death because throughout the book of Leviticus, you always found one common theme of what they were supposed to do with the sacrifice. It was, first of all, supposed to come from an individual. But when the individual offered the sacrifice, what they would do is they would lay their hands on the head of the sacrifice, showing that their sin was transferred to the sacrifice, and that sacrifice was a substitute for them. Because God wanted them to know that he had a plan for redemption, and that plan for redemption would always mean a substitutionary sacrifice.

It's interesting because as you go on, one of the more vivid pictures of sacrifice that you see, one of the more vivid pictures... One of the more vivid pictures of the cross that you see actually comes in Psalm 22. I want to read a handful of sections for you out of Psalm 22. Psalm 22, of course, was written by David, and it accompanies Psalm 23, but it presents the Messiah and his suffering in a pretty phenomenal sort of way.

I want to read a handful of sections out of Psalm 22. In verse 1, it starts out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Which is pretty familiar, it's exactly what Jesus said from the cross. Verses 6 through 8 say this, But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me, and they separate with the lip.

They wag their heads, saying, Commit yourself to the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, because he delights in him. Which is exactly what the religious leaders said about Jesus while he was hanging. On the cross. And then it really gets vivid in verse 12. It says, As many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me as a ravening and roaring lion.

I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws. And you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers have encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me.

They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing, they cast lots. It's almost like God painted the picture of the cross through the writing of David so that they would be prepared when it happened. The piercing of the hands and the feet was nothing that took place in any form of capital punishment until the times of the Romans. And yet, God wanted them prepared because the cross was always the plan.

Well, for our text this morning, there is nothing that presents it quite as clearly as Isaiah chapter 53. So, if you're there, please take a look at it. Isaiah chapter 53. We'd like to read it to you, and then we'll go. We'll go through and discuss. Starting off in verse 1, it says, Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom we hid our face. He was despised, and we did not esteem him.

Surely our griefs he himself bore, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone, each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearer, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due. His grave was assigned with the wicked, yet he was with a rich man in his death, because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth.

But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief if he would render himself as a guilt offering. He will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. As a result, of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors. Psalm 53 is actually a part of a greater work known as the Suffering Servant chapters in the book of Isaiah. But Psalm 53 encapsulates everything that Jesus went through, everything that the Suffering Servant went through from his life to his death to his resurrection and his glorification.

So I would like to take each of these sections and show you the Suffering Servant in these ways. There's three things about the Suffering Servant that we see in Isaiah chapter 53. Number one, we see the life of the Suffering Servant. He says, That speaks of both the weakness of Jesus in his humanity, but also the humble way in which he started his life, the humble means from which he came from.

Remember, Jesus wasn't born in a palace, like you would think that a king would be born in. He was born in a stable. He wasn't from a town that was really well known. He was born in Bethlehem. And the town that he grew up in was not a town of a great reputation. It was the town of Nazareth, of whom everyone said, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? He was born in the wrong place.

He was raised in the wrong city. And quite frankly, he came from maybe parents that were despised by just about everyone around him. After all, he was a child who was miraculously born, immaculately conceived by the Virgin. And there were rumors that surrounded him constantly as he grew up. He was from the wrong side of the tracks. He grew up in the most humble way possible.

Not only that, it says that he has no stately form, middle of verse two, or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. Now, I think we need to understand something. Some go so far as to say Jesus was just ugly, right? Because it says there was nothing about him that would attract us to him. And I don't think that's actually what's being said here.

I don't think Jesus was so ugly that you would have noticed him. And I don't think he was so attractive that you would have noticed him. As a matter of fact, I think Jesus was one of the most average looking guys that lived. Wouldn't swerve to hit him, might not swerve to miss him because he was just a guy, right? Because he was not known for his good looks.

Actually, the only thing that made him special was the calling that he had on his life, was the divinity that he was born with. It goes on to say, he was despised and rejected by all. The religious, the religious leaders didn't like that he changed their religion. The rich people didn't like that he supported them in their wealth. The poor people wanted him to bring them

out of their poverty. And to each of them, he was just Jesus. He was just the savior. Not one who was going to make them wealthy, not one who was going to deliver them from the Romans. He was only going to deliver them from their sins. And so he was despised and rejected by so many that were around him. And yet notice what he's referred to as a man of sorrows,

and acquainted with grief. Now I want to point something else about Jesus. I remember growing up, every movie that I ever saw about Jesus, this was the look that Jesus always had on his face. Right? He always looked sad. You ever notice that? I don't think Jesus was sad all the time. And I'm going to point out what I think he's saying here in just a minute.

I don't think Jesus was sad all the time. I think actually Jesus was an incredibly joyful person. Do you know why I think that? Because what's one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit? Joy, right? Right? When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove, meaning he had as much of the Holy Spirit as one could possibly have. And so I think joy exuded from his life.

As a matter of fact, we're told in Hebrews that for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. So when it says that he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, I don't think that that means he never had a smile on his face. I think he was constantly full of joy. But I think he also knew what it meant to hurt. He knew what it meant to carry the burdens of other people.

He knew what it was like to see the sorrow of humanity and to look at people in their sinful state and to allow that to affect him to the depth where it simply shook who he was. I am reminded when he looked over Jerusalem. He looked over Jerusalem not long before his death and he said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets, how I have longed to gather you under my arms as a hen, and gathers the chicks under her wings. I think that's what it means when he says he was a man of sorrows because he felt the depth of the penalty of sin in the lives of the people that were around him.

And he was acquainted with grief because he saw people hurt. He saw people die and it hurt him. Even though he knew he was the one that could deliver from death, he still allowed the grief of people to be what affected him. I'm reminded of when he showed up to the grave of his good friend, the grave of one who he had known so well. And he looked, and even though he knew

he was gonna raise Lazarus from the dead, he still wept. He still wept because he bore the grief of the people that were around him. Jesus lived a hard life when he was here on this earth and that's exactly what Isaiah said this suffering servant would do. He said he would live a hard life when he was here on this earth, but that life would have a purpose. He says,

and like one, from whom men hid their face, he was despised and we didn't esteem him. Well, now as we come to verse four, we see the sacrifice of the suffering servant, the sacrifice of the suffering servant. Notice what it says in verse four. It says, surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him. Stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

He wasn't just acquainted with those things. He bore those things. Interestingly enough, David Guzik in his commentary pointed out the fact that when it says he bore our sorrows and he carried our griefs, literally what he means is he put them on his back and he carried them away from us. That's what he was. That was part of the sacrifice that he made, not only in the life that he lived,

but in the death that he died. He bore those. But he gets really vivid in verse five. It gets really vivid with the description of what's going to take place. It says, but he was pierced through for our transgressions. How was Jesus pierced? He was actually pierced in three different ways. First of all, his hands were pierced with the nails that held him to that cross beam.

Second of all, his feet were pierced, one laid on top of the other with his knees bent just enough that he would be able to push up to take in a breath and speak and then exhale as he let back down. But it wasn't just his hands and his feet that were pierced. He had given up the ghost long before everybody else had. And so the Roman soldier, to ensure that he was truly dead, took that spear and right between the hip bone and the ribs, shoved the spear up into his side, piercing his heart and blood and water flowed out as it pierced not only the pericardial sac, but the actual heart itself.

And why was, he pierced? He was pierced through for our transgressions. I would like to point out what it does not say. It does not say he was pierced through for our mistakes, even though he covered our mistakes. It doesn't say he was pierced through for our shortcomings, even though he covered our shortcomings. He uses the strongest word possible to say what he was pierced through for,

and that is our transgressions. Because the word transgression carries with it the idea of rebellion against God. You see, the cross had to be the plan because you and I were rebellious against God. We were rebellious against God in the way that we thought. We were rebellious against God in the way that we spoke. We were rebellious against God in the way that we lived.

We were rebellious against God in the way that we believed. Everything about us was in rebellion against God. And the only way that he could make us right was with a sacrifice. And the only way to truly pour out the wrath of God on the son of God was if he was, first of all, pierced through. for our transgressions the cross was always the plan the next thing it says that he went through

in his suffering for us is it says that he was crushed for our iniquities he was crushed for our iniquities the word crush can also be translated bruised but even more vividly beaten to pieces and can we not understand that that's exactly what jesus went through that he was beaten to pieces for us it started in the garden it started when they uh smacked him in the face when he was there in the garden it carried on as he went into uh the the trial before the sanhedrin when they blindfolded him and then they began to hit him and and say prophesy to us oh teacher who was it it hit you and then it carried on to when he was with the roman soldiers and they put the crown of

thorns on his head and they beat the crown of thorns into his head until the blood flowed down over his face and when they did that they said hail king of the jews of course they whipped him although we'll get to the stripes in just a moment he was certainly crushed beaten to pieces for what for our iniquities for the things that you and i did wrong i don't know if you ever watched the movie the passion of the christ i i'm kind of back and forth on mel gibson and how i actually feel about him even though every time every time i watch the other movie that he made i want to charge and say no one can ever take our freedom but anyway uh in in the movie the passion of the christ something interesting took place i don't know if you knew this he directed

that movie and there's a place where you see a hand holding the nail against the arm of jesus right before it's driven into his hand and the hand that held that nail was mel gibson himself he said because i know that it was my sin that put him on the cross and i thought what a what a vivid picture of what you and i need to remember that he wasn't just crushed for everybody else's iniquity he was beaten to pieces for my iniquity because the cross was always the plan it goes on from there to say the chastening or the discipline for our well-being fell upon him this last part of verse five always gets me and by his scourging we are healed i always prefer the old king james in this because that's

what i memorized it in when i was a little kid and by his stripes we are healed there's a lot of debate about that word healed there does that mean physical healing or healing of the body of jesus or does that mean spiritual healing and i know that chuck smith even taught that there's an aspect of physical healing that comes into play here i lean more toward the spiritual healing myself because the greatest healing that comes in my life is knowing that he bore the stripes for me that with each of those stripes comes another place of healing to the damage of my heart that sin had done and he endured those stripes for us if you don't know very much about the stripes it was quite the situation that they went through

again this had not been done up to this point in time if jews were going to discipline somebody it would be with the rod if jews were going to put someone to death it would be through stoning crucifixion uh the the scourging crucifixion didn't even begin until the persian empire and of course the romans perfected it and the scourging was another thing that the romans perfected he's describing things that nobody did at this point in time but he wanted them to be aware of it and they would take that whip and lay it across their back and if you had sins to commit or if you had sins to confess if you had crimes to confess then the beatings would get easier but if you didn't have any crime to confess the beatings would continue to get greater

and greater and greater and so while he endured those 39 stripes he had nothing to say which we'll get to in just a moment and so the beating continued what goes on from there because not only did he do those things but notice what it says in verse six all of us like sheep have gone astray each of us has turned to his own way but the lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him isn't that great i'm reminded of what took place in the garden for adam and eve after they committed that very first sin do you remember what took place god laid out the punishments and we have that proto even angelicum and that statement of the fact that you will bruise the heel of the seed of the woman

but he will crush your head but after we have that we come down to the very end of the chapter because remember the first thing adam and eve noticed after they sinned is they noticed that they were naked and so what did god do for them well after adam had provided really poor coverings of fig leaves for them god said let me give you a real covering so he provided for them a covering of the skins of animals and so in the very first section of the book of genesis in chapter three we see the very first sacrifice for sin we see the very first time that the iniquity of man was laid upon another pointing us to the fact that there would ultimately be a perfect lamb that the iniquity

would be laid upon that the sins of humanity would be laid upon because all of us like sheep we'd all gone astray we were going our own direction we were going our own way we were going our own way we were living in rebellion we were not seeking after god we were not searching for god we were not trying to be right with god and yet god because of his great love that he had for us said i know that they're going astray like sheep but i'm still going to chase them and i'm going to start chasing them by providing a sacrifice and so the lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all i got to tell you this picture of what was just described in verse 6 became one of the greatest places of freedom in my life because i lived much of my life feeling like

i was still carrying around the guilt of the sins that i had committed when i wasn't walking with the lord and i carried things that were just weighing me down and i'll never forget reading in the book of leviticus about the uh the day of atonement and the sacrifice of atonement because on the day of atonement there were two lambs one was of course or two goats one was the sacrificial goat whose blood would be taken in to be sprinkled on the all but the other was called the scapegoat what they would do is the high priest would lay his hands on the head of the scapegoat and confess all of the sins of the nation from the previous year to where the scapegoat would carry all of those sins away from the nation of israel for another

year it was at that same time that i had just read that that the passion of the christ was in the theaters and so i watched as jesus carried the cross outside of the city which is exactly what the scapegoat was supposed to do and it's like the lord told me that the scapegoat was told me that's what i did for you all of your sin that you're carrying i took it on me and i carried it away from you and you don't have to deal with it anymore why because i was like a sheep that was going astray going my own way and god laid upon christ my iniquity that i was carrying and now i can live in freedom and now i can live in peace because of the sacrifice that the servant

made for me why because the cross was always the plan verse 7 it says he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he didn't open his mouth and as a sheep that is silent before its shearer like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers so he did not open his mouth remember what i said about the scourging that he endured he didn't have anything to confess well do you notice how silent jesus was through his entire trial if you've not read it before let me tell you he didn't say a word it's interesting to have a red letter bible in the trial of jesus because the only time he spoke was to say it's as you say that's it was the only red letters that

show up because the rest of it is him just taking it taking it not because he deserved it but taking it because he didn't deserve it taking it because you did taking it because i did and he just stood there silent as he was accused falsely accused and lied about and disparaged and despised and rejected brothers and sisters i want you to think about what jesus had to do there because what jesus had to do was maybe one of the most difficult things in the world to do because i don't know about you but when people start telling lies about me you know what i'm not silent i'm really good at that point in time of being like oh no you and yet jesus just sat there because as a lamb before it shears is silent he didn't open his

mouth he never once defended himself he never once tried to escape he never once tried to bargain he just endured why because jesus knew the cross was always the plan it goes on from there in verse eight to say by oppression and judgment he was taken away and as for this generation who considered that he was cut out or cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due verse eight starts out by saying by oppression and judgment i want to point that out to you because that tells us that it was both the work of men and the work of god sometimes jesus is considered a martyr right i've heard people say oh he was a he was a martyr who was wrongfully treated no jesus was not a martyr he

was in control the whole time he could have stopped anything anytime that he wanted to but man had to be involved in order for it to be the proper sacrifice so it was by oppression but it was also by judgment what does it mean by judgment because the judgment of god for sin was all poured out upon him and so by oppression and judgment nobody realized exactly what was going on but jesus was cut off out from the land of the living what why did he say that because he needed us to understand that it would require death that it would require death because the only way that the sacrifice for sin could be accomplished was through the death of a substitute and so he was cut off out from the land of the living why

i love the end of verse eight for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due in other words he took it for the people who rightfully deserved it and then we close out the suffering part or the sacrifice part by saying this his grave with the wicked. In other words, he died with sinful men, which is exactly what Jesus did with a thief on the right and on the left. Yet middle of verse nine, he was with a rich man in his death because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. Do you remember what happened when Jesus was crucified? After he gave up the ghost, there was a disciple who had

been a disciple in secret. His name was Joseph of Arimathea, a very wealthy man who came and said, can I please take the body of Jesus and bury it properly? And they said, yeah, that's fine. So he laid him in his own personally bought tomb because though his death was with the wicked, with a thief on the right and the left, his grave was with the rich, Joseph of Arimathea.

Isn't that great? Isn't it amazing what God told us about the sacrifice of this suffering servant because he knew that the cross was always the plan? Well, it didn't stop there. And I love this. And I never noticed this in Isaiah. 53 before I didn't even expect to teach this on Isaiah chapter 53. I was surprised by the beauty of this chapter because I also want us to see the victory of the suffering servant. Notice what it

says in verse 10, but the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering. Okay. So the first part is that God was pleased with the sacrifice. It didn't mean that God was pleased to see him suffer because it hurt his heart to see him suffer. That's why God had to turn his back, not only because he was covered in the sin of humanity,

but also because he couldn't stand to see him suffer. No, what pleased him is what the death accomplished, that what it accomplished was the satisfaction of God's righteous wrath on man, which is why when Jesus cried out, it is finished. There was that earthquake in the veil of the temple was torn in two, giving us access to God. It pleased him to crush him. But this is what I

want you to take note of in verse eight. He, he will see his offspring and he will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. How does a dead guy see his offspring? How does a dead guy prolong his days? That brothers and sisters is the resurrection because the suffering servant rose again. Is that not awesome? I never, I never paid attention to this before. This one's new on me,

right? Because this is the resurrection. Of the suffering servant. This is why no Jewish Bible that has the, uh, uh, commentary on all of the old Testament has anything to say about Isaiah chapter 53. I used to go hang out with a guy named Truman page and Truman page is one of the smartest guys biblically I've ever been around in my entire life. He used to teach old Testament theology and he gave me a deep love for the old Testament that

will not be quenched. And he had the Bible that he was reading through that year because he chose a different translation every year was the Jewish Bible. And he said, I'm going to read you a Bible and he was reading through it. It had a commentary on every single chapter. And he said, Ryan, you're not going to believe this. There is detailed commentary on every chapter of the old Testament,

except Isaiah 53. You know why? Because they can't explain who the suffering servant is. They said, there must be two of them. There must be two suffering servants because how could one servant die and one servant see his offspring and prolong his days? And he said, I'm going to read his days. It's easy, Jesus. Because while the cross was always the plan, the resurrection was

always the victory. And he wanted us to know that. He said, the Lord was pleased to crush him and he will prolong his, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. And as a result of his anguish, as a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. How was God? Satisfied. Well, the old Testament prophecies were satisfied. The guilt of sin was satisfied

and he was satisfied with the sacrifice. And so he brought him back to life by his knowledge and the righteous one or by his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great and he will divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.

Brothers and sisters, the cross was always the plan. Sin is the greatest issue that we deal with in life. Sin is the greatest problem that we face in life. But from the moment that sin entered the world, God had a plan. And throughout the old Testament, he wanted his people to know exactly what the plan was, that there would always be a sacrifice, but the sacrifices of bulls and goats would never be enough.

The sacrifices of Passover lambs would never be enough. There would always be one who would come. There would always be one who would come, who would be born of a woman, and yet he would be completely God. He would come through a family. That family would come through the line of David and he would be the one who would ultimately be the king. But before, he would become the king, he would first be the savior. And he would be the savior by bearing the

sin of humanity and the most awful death anyone has ever died. But the victory would be assured when he was raised from the dead. As I was thinking about putting this study together, there was one verse that kept going through my mind, and it's a verse out of the book of Romans. And it's Romans chapter five, because if there's anything that I want to continue to convey to all of us, there's one thing I want to continue to convey to all of us that we would truly understand it's this, but God demonstrates his own love for us. And that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. Friends, it will take all of eternity to fully grasp the depth of God's love. That's why Paul prayed to the book of Ephesians, Lord, that they would know the height and the depth and the width and the length of your love, that they can know the love of Christ that passes all knowledge. And my prayer is that seeing God's plan for the cross would give you a little glimpse into the great love that God has for you and me. Amen. Would you bow with me? Father,

we come to you now. And Lord, I praise you that you always had this plan. Lord, I praise you that though sin was a great problem, you are a great savior. And Lord, I thank you for the love that for each one of us. Lord, for the love that you have for the unlovable. Lord, for the love that you have for the people that sometimes we don't think deserve it. But Lord, there is no one who

can go beyond the reach of the love of Jesus Christ because of the cross of Jesus Christ. And so, Lord, may your love sink deeply into our hearts that we would understand the great love with which you saved us. And so, Father, be with us as we go out from here. And may you continue to minister to us. And may you continue to minister to us. And may you continue to

be with us as we go out from here. And may you continue to minister to us. And may you continue to by the power of your Holy Spirit, in Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.

We praise you and we give you glory and honor because it is all due to you. We love you, Lord, and we praise you. We thank you in your precious and holy name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.