Good Friday: Isaiah 53

[0:01] We're going to look at Isaiah 53. Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

[0:15] ! He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

[0:30] He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

[0:49] Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering. Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted.

[1:02] But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

[1:16] We, all like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

[1:30] He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

[1:48] By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living.

[2:01] For the transgressions of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. Though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

[2:18] Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days.

[2:31] And the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.

[2:42] By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great.

[2:54] And he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

[3:15] Just a few thoughts from Isaiah 53. Jesus grew up with nothing out of the ordinary about him. He wasn't beautiful or majestic.

[3:27] He was just like us. He learned to trade, started work. And he was described as a man of suffering and familiar with pain.

[3:38] He'd had hard times. Not just on the cross, but before that in his life. He went through pain. My God, our God, understands when we go through suffering.

[3:52] And experience pain, because he did. For me, I find this amazing and comforting. That God was truly human and went through ordinary things that we go through and understands.

[4:13] In verse 4, Isaiah says, Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. And some people today will still look at others in their suffering and say it's punishment from God.

[4:30] They didn't have enough faith or worked hard enough. But it wasn't true of Jesus, and it isn't true of us. And we should remember this. In verse 5, Isaiah says, He suffered for us, and by his wounds we are healed.

[4:51] I don't know why healing doesn't always happen here and now. A few of us were at Spring Harvest last week. And somebody there was sharing about his son who has severe learning disabilities.

[5:08] He's never had a proper conversation with him, and he's now 30. But he said that this wasn't the story he wanted for his son or for their family, but that in heaven all will be made new and whole.

[5:26] It's never wrong to pray, but our answer may be in eternity, where God redeems all things. In verse 8, Isaiah said, Who of his generation protested?

[5:43] No one. This was at the injustice of Jesus' crucifixion. But I wonder what we would have done if we had been there.

[5:57] How do we react now to injustice? He bore us in.

[6:10] All the wrong we have done and will ever do. And he prayed for us. Because he loves us.

[6:23] Hallelujah. If you want to, there are post-its by the cross and pens.

[6:37] If you want to write anything down, because we're going to have a time now to come into repentance. If you want to write anything down on a piece of paper, and at the foot of the cross there, screw it up, and then stick it in the bin, where nobody will ever look at it, because it will go straight into the bin outside.

[6:58] Then please do that. Or just sit quietly and bring anything that you feel you want to repent of, or bring to the foot of the cross, to God, to Jesus.

[7:11] Because that's what he died for. We'll just have a few minutes. Thank you.