Father, we confess before you that there are many of us here who haven't read your word in our own personal devotions, Father, maybe in weeks, maybe in months.
Father, we confess before you that there are many of us here who've maybe never read all of your word or never read all of Isaiah.
Father, we confess before you that we often are ignorant of your word and it cannot form us.
We ask, Father, that you would gently but deeply pour out your Holy Spirit upon us.
Deliver us, Father, from our fear of your word.
Create within us a hunger for your word.
And help us, Father, as we read your word to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest your word so that, gripped by the gospel, we will bear much fruit for your glory in our daily lives.
And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son, and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
So, prophecies and predictions.
I'm old compared to a lot of you.
I'm going to talk about ancient history for some of you, 1968 and 1972.
I know that's like ancient history for some of you.
But for those of us who were, I don't know, older than 10 or 11 at that point in time, you know who you are.
We grew up under the shadow of two very, very significant predictions by technocrats and scientists that in many ways shaped us in a whole range of ways.
In 1968, there was a book put out called The Population Bomb.
It was praised by the prestigious scientific journal, The New Scientist, when they did a review of the book.
And they called it In Praise of Prophets.
And in that book, amongst other things, written in 1968, they said that during the 1970s, hundreds of millions of people would die.
That by the 1980s, most of the world's resources would be depleted.
And that in the 80s, that's the 1980s, 65 million Americans would starve to death.
And they predicted that by the year 1999, which is 17 years ago, the population of the United States, due to the population explosion and the depletion of resources, that the population of the United States would be 22.6 million people.
They're only off by about 300 million.
In 1972, a more prestigious book came out.
It was commissioned by a group of very, very rich people and government leaders called The Club of Rome.
They brought together many of the leading scientists and statisticians and mathematicians from around the planet, and they produced this report.
And amongst other things, they predicted in 1972 that there would be no more gold left to be mined by 1981, that there would be no more oil left to find on the ground, that that would run out in 1992, and that all natural gas would be depleted by 1993.
And I could give you a whole long other list of things which they predicted.
Every single one of them was wrong.
Every one was wrong.
In 1865, a major English group of scientists predicted that all coal would run out by 1900 and that the Industrial Revolution would come to an end in England.
I could keep going, and I could keep going.
But the fact of the matter is, is that on one hand, we human beings have a great love of prediction and scientists who can predict and chart how things are moving.
But the fact of the matter is, is, I mean, they might be able to predict what the weather will be like in an hour or two here in Ottawa.
But as it gets farther and farther away from that, there's just too many variables for scientists and technocrats and mathematicians and statisticians to accurately predict things.
But we have a huge hunger for it.
And at the same time that we often have a hunger for scientific predictions and prophecies, we have a hunger for, well, for others that claim to have some type of special knowledge about what's going to happen in the future.
There's a regular parade of people who go to things like seances to consult the dead about what's going to happen in the future.
Or somebody who's channeling, I don't know, an alien or something like that and can predict and tell you what's going to happen in the future.
There are many people who read astrology to know and understand the meaning of their lives and what's going to happen in the future.
We, a few years ago, were fascinated, or many people were fascinated by the Mayan prophecies.
These things are all wrong.
They don't actually work, but we have a great deep hunger for them.
And so here thing is, if you could put up the first point, here's the problem that faces us Christians, at least if you want to have a robust Christian faith.
In a world of failed predictions, prophecies, and promises, the true and living God predicted and promised.
I mean, you know, if any type of skeptic or critic of the Bible, there's no denying that the Bible contains a variety of predictions and promises.
One's made over 3,000 years ago, one that were made on the lips of Jesus.
And so we live in a world where people have a great hunger to know the future.
And whether it's a spiritualist source or a technocrat source through computers and scientific data, we have a huge desire and hunger for it.
And it's funny that human beings, even after the latest thing fails, it seems like another report can happen within a year and people flock to it because there's such a great hunger.
But is the Bible just like the Mayan prophecies?
Obviously, you can't connect it to science, but is it less like the Mayan prophecies or people who believe that they can channel some being that's lived for hundreds of thousands of years
or lives somewhere in another galaxy or in another plane of existence?
Is the Bible like how does the Bible fit in with all of this?
So we're going to look at one prophecy.
There's well over 300 prophecies that if you read the Bible, Christians would claim that over 300 prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus in his birth and life and death.
And you can't obviously look at all of them, but we're going to look at one in detail that makes a significant set of prophecies about Jesus.
So if you have your Bibles, it would be a great help if you turn to the reading that Rachel read so well just a few minutes ago, Isaiah chapter 52, verse 13.
Isaiah 52, 13 until the end of chapter 53.
And we're going to look at this prophecy that was written.
And it was probably written.
We know that Isaiah, if you look at this historic, there's some debate amongst scholars as to when this was written.
But the debate amongst scholars is by the internal evidence.
This was Isaiah prophesied between the year 740 B.C. and 681 B.C.
It means he was born before 740.
He lived a little bit after 681.
I'm just going to say it's 700 years before the birth of Jesus and the death of Jesus.
You know, some people think it was 600 years before, some 500.
But, you know, listen, that's not much of a big difference for our purposes, whether it's 700 and 500.
But I'll say it's about 700 plus years before the birth and death and resurrection of Jesus.
And that's when this is written.
So let's start.
We'll start at verse 13.
Behold, my servant shall act wisely.
He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.
Now, we're just going to pause here.
This is one of the reasons why it's good to read the Bible together.
And it's, in a sense, part of my job is to help you to learn to read.
One of the things that you can pray for me is that I grow in my ability to read the Bible,
to read it attentively, and to try to help all of us be able to read the Bible more attentively.
Now, it sounds very innocuous.
In fact, it sounds very religious, doesn't it?
Behold, my servant shall act wisely.
He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.
But this is Isaiah 52, verse 13.
And if we don't know something, we don't know that Jesus or Isaiah has just made a shocking claim.
Like, it's something that just go, whoa, one moment.
Whoa, what did he just say?
There's only three places in the book of Isaiah where the phrase high and lifted up is used of someone.
Only three places.
This is one of them.
The first place, if you just turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 6,
the first place that it's used in is Isaiah 6.
Some of you who know your Bibles very well will go, whoa, Isaiah 6.
But the rest of you don't know your Bibles as well.
Here's what it says in Isaiah 6, verse 1.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
He's seen God.
He's just seen God.
And the word Lord there is the word for Jewish people,
the unspeakable name of God because it's so holy.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, Yahweh,
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings.
With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet,
and with two he flew, and one called to another and said,
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called.
And the house was filled with smoke.
And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips.
You know how hard it is to get a baby to cry just when I'm saying, Woe is me?
Once again, this is superior planning by the church of the Messiah.
Verse 5,
And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal
that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips.
Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.
You read this, it's talking about God.
So we look at verse 6 again.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne,
high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
He was exalted.
The only other time in the book of Isaiah that this phrase is used is Isaiah chapter 57, verse 15.
Isaiah chapter 57, verse 15.
And it goes like this.
It's another sort of a messianic prediction.
But verse 15 says,
For thus says the one who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy.
I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
See that?
It's talking about God.
So now let's go back, and we're going to go back to this prophecy.
I know it's not, it's significant for the prophecy.
It's not part of the prophetic thing,
but it's very, very significant for the prophecy.
Go back to Isaiah 52, verse 13.
The third place where high and lifted up is used.
Only places in the book of Isaiah.
Behold, my servant shall act wisely.
He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.
Now, here's the thing.
There's a big riddle here.
In fact, you know, I've been thinking about it all week.
We don't know how it is that the Jewish people,
originally out of all of their writings,
because if you read the Old Testament,
you'll see that there's other writings that exist.
So how out of all of their writings did they pick these ones
as actually being the words of God?
We know they did it.
We know that Jesus authenticates it,
but we don't know how they chose it.
But this is a profound riddle.
How can there be both one God and two gods at the same time?
Like this, for the Jewish people at this day,
they were always tempted towards believing
that there were a whole host of gods like the pagans,
but it's very, very clear that at the heart of the Jewish faith,
they were just like Muslims.
And so you can imagine somebody in Tehran today
saying there is both one Allah and two Allahs at the same time.
Well, you can imagine it for about five minutes
before they were killed,
and then you couldn't imagine it.
But that's what this is saying.
Look at that again.
Verse 13,
Behold my servant.
So God is speaking.
He's talking about my servant.
He shall act wisely.
He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.
There's this deep riddle
right at the very, very start of the text.
And so here, if you could put up the second point,
we seek predictions and prophecies to make us more powerful.
God spoke of the future to humble and save us.
This is going to be the very, very first thing
that's going to be very different about reading a prophecy
in the Old Testament or the New Testament
from our cultural and human longing and yearning
to be able to make predictions
and know the future.
That we like these things,
and in different ways,
it can make us feel superior,
that we have a secret knowledge that others don't have,
that we can make plans that others don't have.
Imagine for a moment that somebody could accurately predict,
and you knew for a fact that you could know
what the stock market was going to be
on every different item in a year's time.
In fact, if I was to say that right now,
that was somehow guaranteed,
and you trusted me because I'd done it before,
a whole lot of you would leave the room
and go make some stock purchases right now
to become rich.
Some of you would ask,
how can I borrow money
to make these stock purchases
and so become rich?
And so we human beings,
part of our great desire and hunger
to know the future
is a desire to be more powerful,
to be more special,
to be exalted.
But we're going to see here
that what happens is that
the biblical prophecies always humble us.
It begins with a riddle
that at the time makes absolutely no sense.
There's only one God
and there's two gods.
Makes no sense.
You'd go,
what on earth does that mean?
For 700 years,
what on earth does that mean?
And then the text takes a huge,
huge, huge zag.
We expect it to be linear.
Okay, it's talking about the servant
who's high and lifted up and exalted,
who's going to do high and exalted
and lifted up things.
And, you know,
there's even a phrase in our culture,
it's going to be biblical, right?
And when they say this thing in a movie,
it's going to be biblical,
what does it mean?
It's going to be a really big explosion.
There's going to be unbelievable catastrophes.
There's going to be widespread death.
It's going to be biblical.
I don't know where they get that from,
but that's an expression in our culture, right?
And so we expect it to be biblical.
Whoa, there's going to be something really big.
But what happens in verse 14?
As many were astonished at you,
his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.
So shall he sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they had not heard they understand.
Here's the big zag.
How can God die a horrible human death?
That's what verse 14 is talking about,
or at least it's going to look like he's human.
And this marred, some of your translations have crushed,
but it's crushed or marred that leads to death.
How can you do that to God?
I mean, that's a common complaint of Muslims
about the Christians.
Like, if God actually existed,
and this was actually God's son,
how preposterous to imagine
that God would allow his son
to be crushed to the point of death.
It is beneath the dignity and honor of God
to allow anything like that to possibly happen.
It's a very, very standard criticism
of the Christian faith.
And here we see,
we're expecting it to be biblical.
Whoa, just watch his power.
Maybe in glory,
maybe in doing good things,
maybe in doing bad things,
but all of a sudden it goes,
rather than going up here,
it goes way down here.
He's going to be marred and crushed
to the point of death,
beyond human semblance.
That last little puzzling part
at the end of verse 15
means that whatever God is going to do
is going to have a double whammy
on human beings.
The Irish have this expression
that somebody's gobsmacked.
It means the deer in the headlight moment
where you're silenced.
And so if you were translating this into Irish,
it would be the people
are going to be gobsmacked.
And they're going to know something by revelation.
So some of you,
and so here's the thing,
if you come up to the next point,
Rebecca, that would be great.
Through his word,
here's going to be one of the problems
with understanding this prophecy
because, you see,
often what we have with prophecies
with scientists and stuff
is they're just going to tell you
the things that happen in the future.
What does it mean?
We might understand a little bit
why it matters for us,
you know,
that global warming
and it's going to inconvenience our lives
or ruin our lives
or lead to a lot of people being killed,
but it's just,
it's a prediction of what's going to happen.
And often,
if you go to hear astrologers speak
or go to seances,
a lot of it's connected to flattery
of the person, right?
But what we're going to see here
mixed into this prophecy
is that it's,
my point,
through his word,
God tells us what he will do
and the meaning of what he will do.
And that's going to be one of the things
that's going to confuse us.
It will always confuse us
when we're reading the prophecies
in the Bible
is because we just want information,
but God doesn't just give us information,
he gives us interpretation
at the same time,
what it means.
And by the way,
if you're a guest here this morning
and you haven't given your life to Jesus,
you're not sure what to think
of the whole Christian thing,
this is huge.
If God exists,
and I know you haven't necessarily,
you haven't agreed with me on this,
but if the God described in the Bible
actually exists,
it means that there is meaning
to human life.
It means that there is meaning
to human life.
That human life is not one
dang thing after another.
That human life is not about
whoever dies with the most toys wins.
That human life is not all about
just clutch whatever meaning
or happiness we can get at the moment
because that's all there is.
That if in fact,
God can tell us
what he's going to do in the future
and the meaning and significance
of what it is that he's going to do,
it means that there is meaning
for human life
that can be discovered
and entered into.
It's absolutely huge
if this is true.
Let's continue.
Some of you might say,
okay, George,
all you've said right now,
it's just all like
philosophical speculation.
You haven't actually really talked
about much prophecy whatsoever.
Okay, so let's go.
We get to the prophecy.
It gets into it.
Okay, there's a context
to the prophecy
that's going to be significant
by the end.
Let's look at verses 1 to 3
of chapter 53.
Who has believed
what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm
of the Lord been revealed?
And by the way,
the arm of the Lord
been revealed,
the idea behind it
in the original language
is that God's strength
is personally present.
That's what it means.
The arm of the Lord
being revealed.
It's like when we have
the piano up here
for some services
and it has to be pushed
around the corner
up there
and in there.
It's not good enough
to know that there's
a lot of strong young guys
who had attended
the service earlier
or gals.
What you need is
the arm of the Lord
to be right there
at the end
to push the dang thing
up that hill
and back there.
And that's the language here.
It's the God's strength
is personally present.
Who has believed
what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm
of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him
like a young,
sorry,
he grew up before him
like a young plant
and like a root
out of dry ground.
He had no form
or majesty
that we should look at him
and no beauty
that we should desire him.
He was despised
and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief.
Now remember,
all of this is still
part of that shocking thing
that they're describing
this servant
who's God.
But now we see
a little bit
about some of the prophecies
involved here
specifically
in who this servant
is going to be.
prophecies
that can be taken
to be either true
or false.
We've already seen
that this person's
going to die
a terrible death.
He's going to be crushed.
We see that this servant,
there's going to be
nothing special
or remarkable about him.
He's not as good looking
as George Clooney
or Brad Pitt
or I don't know,
pick your pick
of who's good looking.
He's not famous
like Prince Charles
from a royal family.
He's not somebody
who has a PhD
from Cambridge
or Oxford
and now teaches there
and there's nothing
particularly special
or remarkable
about him.
If you saw a crowd
and he was there,
you wouldn't notice him.
That's what it's saying here.
And you're also seeing
that he's going to be
rejected by human beings,
that when he comes
to the attention
of human beings,
he's going to be rejected.
That's what the prophecy here
is telling us.
That even though
he actually is
the strength of God
personally present,
there's nothing remarkable
about him
and he will,
in fact,
be rejected.
Now,
the next thing
is a bit of another
zag in the prophecy.
And by the way,
just one story,
I really,
you know,
I always feel funny
saying this.
There are grammar geeks
in the room.
You know who you are.
Okay?
So the rest of you
don't fall asleep.
Grammar geek moment.
This poem is really cool
if you're a grammar geek.
There are 15 verses,
but really what it is,
it's organized
in five sections.
And the sections,
the first section,
have nine lines of poetry,
the second,
10,
the third,
11,
the fourth,
12,
and the final one,
13,
because it's building
to a climax.
And within it,
I'm not going to mention it,
in some of them,
the order within
how the lines of poetry
are developed,
because within each stanza,
there's the groups.
And sometimes they go up
to bring you
to a high point,
and some of them,
they go down.
Like,
whoever wrote this
has been a long time
in the poetry.
Okay,
hopefully come back awake,
non-geek,
grammar geek people.
But I just,
I had to tell you that.
I'm sorry.
I'm not really
a grammar geek,
but sometimes,
you know,
I get to study,
I get paid
to read the Bible.
And sometimes,
I come home
to my poor,
long-suffering wife,
and I say,
Louise,
this is so cool
at a grammatical level.
You wouldn't believe
how cool this is.
And I usually
don't inflict it on you.
Anyway,
so here,
we've gone through
the two sections,
and we come to
the third section,
the very,
very center section.
And by the way,
from a grammatical point of view,
the way this poem
is structured
is the whole meaning
of the entire 15 things,
the five stanzas
and 15 verses,
the entire,
the way it's structured,
these verses 4, 5, and 6
are the meaning
of the whole thing.
Just from a grammatical
point of view,
that's how it works.
But it's not a prophecy,
but it's something that
I regularly
have people
leave the church over.
I regularly
have people
leave the church over
because it's,
people don't think it,
they don't like it.
One of the things
they don't like
about the Christian faith,
but friends,
this is the heart
of the Christian faith.
4, 5, and 6.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows.
Yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God
and afflicted.
But he was pierced
for our transgressions.
He was crushed
for our iniquities.
Upon him
was the chastisement
that brought us peace.
And with his wounds
we are healed.
All we like sheep
have gone astray.
We have turned everyone
to his own way.
And the Lord
has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
So,
the,
from a final
grammar geek moment,
this is,
this is one,
it's not obvious
in English
because of the way,
the way they've set up
the poetry,
but it's,
it's four lines,
four lines,
three lines
because the last line,
they automatically,
he goes,
in Hebrew,
it goes too long.
And it shows
this descending idea
and,
but more in particular,
the long line
means that you really
have this emphasis
on the Lord
has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
And the image
behind the word
iniquity
is bent double.
And so,
it's trying to present
the idea that
we understand
that human beings,
when they're completely
healthy and whole,
that we stand
relatively straight
like this.
And the image here
is that human beings,
by having iniquity,
the image is bent double.
The image is
that we human beings,
without realizing it,
are walking around
every day like this.
And when sociologists
and psychologists
describe what is natural,
what they're describing
is what is
modal characteristics
or means
or medians
of human experience,
but all they're doing
is measuring human beings
who walk around
like this,
saying,
I am God,
but that's a separate matter.
And that's the image
behind iniquity.
And just before,
I'm just going to say
a few words about this,
but could you put up
the next point, please?
If you think about it
for a second,
just think about it
for a second.
You don't have to necessarily
accept these words,
but just think about it
for a second.
If there is,
only the God
who creates
and sustains
all things
would know
what is needed
to make right
his bent creatures
and the entire
created order.
If there is a God
who exists,
who's created all things
and sustained all things,
if you grant
that that happens,
is real,
then surely
only he
would know
what is needed
to make human beings
like ourselves
who are bent
and who will die
make us right
with himself.
Only he would know it.
Only the God
who creates
and sustains
all things
would know
what is needed
to make right
his bent creatures
in creation.
And so what we see here
is that in this prophecy
of the servant
who's described
in the very, very
opening stanza
as God,
but then increasingly
we see that he's going
to be human
and he's going
to be born,
he's going to grow,
he's going to be despised,
he's going to be rejected.
And then you have
this other deep riddle
and I think it's
the final riddle
I'm going to mention
in this.
There's others,
but the final riddle
I'll mention.
How can a man
or how can God
be a sacrificial lamb?
How can a man
or how can God
be a sacrificial lamb?
This is all sacrificial language.
Surely he has borne
our griefs.
These are a variety
of different images
to try to help us
to understand
the human condition
and our separation
and alienation
from God.
He has borne
our griefs,
carried our sorrows.
We esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God.
We thought that
just like sometimes,
you know,
when something bad
happens to us,
many people wonder
why is God punishing me?
And so by implication
when bad things happen
to other people,
we wonder why is God
punishing that other person?
And when people
would look at Jesus,
many people,
not his enemies particularly,
would say,
why is God punishing
that man to die
such a horrible death
of crucifixion,
to be rejected
by his friends,
to be rejected
by his people?
Why is God
doing that to him?
Verse 5,
but he was pierced
for our transgressions.
And the word here,
pierced,
means pierced
until you die.
It doesn't mean
having like piercings
in your ear
or your nose
or your lips
or your tongue
or I'll stop
mentioning body parts there.
It means
pierced until you die.
But he was pierced
until he died
for our transgressions.
He was crushed
until he died
for our bent-overness.
Upon him
was the chastisement
that brought us peace.
And with his wounds
we are healed.
All we,
like sheep,
have gone astray.
We have turned
everyone to his own way.
And the Lord
has laid on him
the iniquity,
all that causes us
to be bent over
and separated from God,
our human condition,
our alienation,
our sadness,
our shame,
the evil we do,
the good that we fail to do.
This is the profound,
it's the,
it's,
and it's all just riddled
with language
and imagery
that goes back
to the book of Leviticus
that describes sacrifices.
If you go to the
going deeper section,
I give you one of them
in particular.
And this is all
the language
of sacrifice.
Only it's not
the sacrifice
of a lamb
or a bull
or a goat
or a ram.
It's the sacrifice
of a human being.
And at the heart
of all of those things,
if you go back
and read the book
of Leviticus
mindful of this,
there's this profound idea
that there can be,
that there's this,
that an animal,
that,
that the innocency
and the purity
of the animal,
that it can be
a substitute for us,
for all that separates
us from God.
And that when we
put our hands,
that the priest
puts his hands
on the head
of the lamb,
in a sense,
what's happening
is all that,
all of my bentness,
all of my shame,
all of my wounds,
all of my death,
all of my evil
is being placed
on the head
of the innocent one.
And the innocency
of the lamb
is being given
to me.
And,
and that's what's
being described here.
But it's saying
that God is the lamb.
It's saying
that there is this,
the servant,
who's also God
and a man,
that he is the lamb.
You see,
brothers and sisters,
friends and guests,
at the very,
very heart
of the Christmas,
Christian message,
is that when Jesus
dies upon the cross,
that he is dying
as that lamb.
I haven't proved it
to you yet,
but that's,
obviously,
this is where
all of the New Testament
is coming from.
And here's the profound
message for us,
that a lamb
or a sheep
is a very,
very temporary thing.
And there's a very
profound sense
within anybody
who would do it
that obviously
a human being
is worth more
than the sheep
and that in some ways
it's a very imperfect
and inadequate sacrifice.
But that when we
reach out to Jesus
and,
of course,
there's an infinite gap
between us
and God
and so when we
put our hands
out to Jesus,
when we put our
hearts out to Jesus,
God himself
has to cross
that infinite distance
of being,
that infinite time.
And so he comes to us
but we put our hands out
and when we put our hands
in him,
in a sense,
we are putting our hands
on the head
of the Lamb of God
who comes to take away
the sin of the world
and we just come,
like when I first came
to Jesus,
it was because I knew
that there was a profound
emptiness in my life
and I worried
that my life
had no meaning
and I had a sense
that if I gave my life
to Jesus,
that there would be
a type of fullness
and meaning
that would come to my life.
That is all I understood
when I gave my life
to Jesus.
But God
is so shameless
in his mercy
that even if we have
a very,
very imperfect knowledge
of who Jesus is,
when we put our hands
out to him
and ask him
to be our savior,
what we are doing
is we are putting
our hands
on the Lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the world
and from the moment
of my conception
to the moment
of my death,
everything about me
that is bent double,
everything about me
that is broken,
everything about me
that I feel ashamed about,
every accusation
made against me
by other people,
every single thing
that I should have done
that I did not do,
all of those things,
even though I don't
entirely know it,
when I call upon him
as savior,
they go on him.
He is the perfect substitute,
fully God
and fully human
and they go on him
and his innocence
and standing
and being right
with the father,
come on me.
That is what the gospel is
and if you come here
and you didn't know
that happened
when you put your hands
in the hands of Jesus,
I am here to tell you
that's what happened.
And if you are wondering
whether to give your life
to Jesus,
that's what will happen
because he turns
no one away.
And this is the center
of the poem.
And so you can say,
well, George,
why believe this?
Where's the prophecy?
It just sounds like words.
It sounds like beautiful words
and wonderful words,
but they're just words.
So let's just summarize.
Up until now,
the prophecy has said
that there will be one
who will die
a terrible death.
There's nothing special
about him
that will be rejected.
Verse 7 to 9
gets far more deeply
into the actual prophecy
part of it.
Verse 7,
he was oppressed
and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth
like a lamb
that is led to the slaughter
and like a sheep
that before it shears
is silent.
So he opened not his mouth.
When it was said
he was oppressed,
he would suffer
an unjust trial.
He would be oppressed
by oppressors,
by an oppressive
imperial power
of Rome.
He would be unjustly
accused
by his own people.
And that he would
go into this crowd
just as we read
just a few moments ago,
silent to the charges.
Silent to the charges.
Verse 8.
Oh, and the other thing
about it here,
and this,
you have to read
all of the Gospels
to realize this.
You know,
it's so cool.
I can't remember
which one of the Gospels
it is.
I don't know
if you've ever seen
some charismatic things
where people get slain
in the Spirit.
And I know a whole pile
of Reformed and Evangelical people,
they get their knickers
in a twist over it
and they have problems
with it,
but there's a thing
in the Bible,
it's Jesus.
There's one of the Gospel accounts
and Jesus just says
who he is
and all the soldiers
just fall down like that.
Just,
they fall down.
I have a good,
good friend
who was a very Reformed
Evangelical type,
completely and utterly
did not believe
in any of this stuff.
He went to one
of these services
and he said,
you know what,
some of these people
they just want to fall down,
but I was going up
to get prayed about
because I was going
to show people
that I wouldn't fall down.
And I was 20 feet away
and the guy put his hand
up to me
and I went down.
I just went down.
I know it sounds
really weird,
but you know
platypuses are weird.
Light is weird.
Talk to Dick
or somebody
about quantum mechanics.
You want to talk
about weird.
That is weird.
Really weird.
And God does,
but Jesus,
in all of the Hebrew language
here,
everything about it
is that the person
is not compelled,
but it's voluntary.
It's voluntary
what he does.
It's not our plan,
it's God's plan.
And the servant
does it voluntarily.
Continue in reading
verse 8.
By oppression
and judgment
he was taken away.
And as for his generation
who considered
that he was cut off,
cut off out of the land
of the living,
another image of death,
he will die,
stricken for the transgression
of my people.
Then look at verse 9.
And they made his grave
with the wicked
and with the rich man
in his death.
In the Hebrew,
wicked is plural.
He will die
with multiple criminals.
And he will be buried
and rich man
is singular
in Hebrew.
He will be buried
in a rich man's grave.
Although he had done
no violence,
in other words,
what did
Pilate's wife
send to him?
This man is innocent,
have nothing to do with him.
You read the accounts,
people couldn't come up
with a charge
that would stick
against Jesus.
They knew he was innocent.
They had to trump up
charges against him.
And he was killed
by Pilate
for political expediency.
This man will die
with more than one criminal.
He will end up,
though,
not like the other criminals
who will just go
to whatever happens to them.
He will die singular
and be buried
in a singular man's tomb.
Although he had done
no violence
and there was no deceit
in his mouth.
We get right
to the prophetic aspect.
And some of you
might say,
well, you know,
maybe if you troll
through all of history,
you could find
some other people
who, you know,
they didn't look like
they were important.
They died with
several criminals
and they got buried
in a rich man's tomb.
And you would be right.
Maybe you'd be right.
I don't know.
Maybe it's just coincidence,
statistically coincidence.
But then you get to verses 10 to 12,
the end of the poem,
which is really crucial.
Look at verse 10.
Yet it was the will of the Lord
to crush him.
Notice this.
Remember,
this thing,
verses 4 to 6,
human beings didn't cook up
this plan.
We didn't demand this of God.
This is God's plan.
And the servant
enters into it willingly.
And he does it for us,
not for himself.
Yet it was the will of the Lord
to crush him.
That is,
to crush him
until the point of death.
He has put him to grief.
When his soul
makes an offering for guilt.
Remember I said to you
that we all have
a basic sense
that even with this
Old Testament image
that a lamb's death
can't possibly really
substitute for mine.
This,
his soul,
makes an offering of death.
His life.
This is the servant.
This is God himself
making an offering for us.
Surely,
that can count
not just for me,
but for every human being
who is born,
who puts their faith
and trust in Jesus.
He is the one
perfect sacrifice,
the one
perfect substitute
who can bring
one perfect
completed salvation
for people
who put their trust
in him.
because he is God.
When it says earlier
that he was pierced
for our transgressions,
we can easily understand
that every single
wrong thing
that George has ever done
and every good thing
that George should have done
that he did not do
and every shameful thing
and everything about George
that just isn't right,
every one of them
individually
is a piercing
in the heart
of God
and every one
of yours as well.
All pierced him.
All born
by him.
Yet it was the will
of the Lord
to crush him.
He has put him to grief.
When his soul
makes an offering
for guilt
and now the zag,
he shall see
his offspring,
he shall prolong
his days,
the will of the Lord
shall prosper
in his hand.
It's not as obvious
here in English.
It's there,
but it's very,
very powerful
in the Hebrew.
In the Hebrew,
every time,
it talks about
in the Old Testament,
they believed
that people lived
after death.
And so there's
Old Testament passages
where it might talk
about Jacob
seeing his children.
But in all of those cases,
the way it's structured
in the Hebrew,
it's as if,
you know,
it's sort of as if
there's a separate world
right here
and there's Jacob
and he's died,
but now Jacob
can watch us
and there's Abraham
and he's died
and Abraham
can watch us.
But he can't do anything,
he can just watch.
But here,
the Hebrew changes
and it's that
the servant
is alive amongst us
seeing us,
that he's present
and can affect things.
So here's the powerful thing.
Could you put up
the next point, please?
What do we know
about death?
Death,
death,
thrones.
How important,
how many executive decisions
does Steve Jobs
make right now?
And,
I mean,
Harper,
he's not even dead.
How many decisions
does he make
that matter?
Death,
dethrones.
But what happens here,
the next point,
please?
Jesus dies
and is not dethroned.
He is exalted
and alive.
That's what the text
is saying here.
He shall,
when his soul
makes an offering
for guilt,
he shall see
his offspring,
he shall prolong
his days.
In other words,
he's living forever.
It's poetic Hebrew language
which is very concrete
for living forever.
And the will of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand.
In other words,
he's alive,
he's exalted,
he's,
everything he does,
it's,
he's the,
he's the golden boy,
the golden child.
Everything he touches
is now just going
and flourishing.
And then it continues
out of the anguish
of his soul
and it just goes on.
He's alive.
You see,
here's the thing.
Here's the reason
you should believe
the prophecy.
There is good
historical evidence
that Jesus rose
from the dead.
In fact,
I would say
that the only thing
that accounts
for the explosion
of belief
in Jerusalem
that Jesus was alive
was the fact
that the grave
is empty
and he really was alive.
They could never
produce the body.
He is alive.
There's good reasons
for it.
Explosive growth
of the Christian faith.
Not because of military power.
Far from it.
Jesus had no military power.
People flocked to Muhammad.
Why?
Because he was able
to successfully win battles.
Jesus won only one battle.
And the one battle
that he won,
he won not for his own glory
but for his own sake
but for yours.
He defeated death.
He defeated that
which causes death
which is our rebellion
and alienation from God
and he does it for you
and you,
ordinary people in me
can share in that
when we put our faith
and trust in Jesus.
Jesus predicted
he would die.
He predicted
he would rise from the dead.
The Old Testament
predicts
Jesus' coming
and his death
and his resurrection.
The resurrection of Jesus
vindicates who he is
and what he did.
Could you put up
the almost final point
please?
Remember
at the beginning
of the service
I said
the world
have failed
predictions,
prophecies and promises
the true and living God
predicted and promised
and now we see
that he kept his word
in the person
and work of Jesus.
Three things
very briefly
you're going to have
to put them up quickly.
The first one
know him as your
savior and your lord.
There is no better time
than now
to reach out your hands
to Jesus
that he would be
your savior and lord.
Know him as your savior
and your lord.
He died for you.
He knows you.
He loves you.
He died for you.
The second thing
put it up please.
Christians
know his word written.
Trust it
and seek to obey him.
Know his word written.
Trust it
and seek to obey him.
Read your Bibles
brothers and sisters.
Read them cover to cover.
When you have questions
ask others
but know it.
And finally
many of us
like to know
what God's will
is for our lives.
700 years
between this prophecy
and its fulfillment.
700 years.
Seek God's will
for your life
but remember
the Lord
is always playing
the long game.
This will take away
a lot of anxiety
that we feel.
Why am I going
through this?
Well I don't know.
You know I don't know
why you're going
through this
because you know what
maybe you're going
through this
because you're going
to say something
to little Liam
in five years
about what you're
going through
and little Liam
will tell somebody else
or do something else
and he'll do something else
and in 300 years
if Jesus comes back
it's the new Billy Graham
and in heaven
God will show you
how he was playing
the long game.
and even with your will
you know we want
to know what to do
tomorrow
and he will give us
guidance about
what to do tomorrow
but he's always
playing the long game.
He has your eternal
happiness
in mind.
Please stand.
Let's bow our heads
in prayer.
Father, many people
make us promises
and they don't keep them.
Father, we confess
that we make promises
and we don't keep them.
And Father, many people
claim to be able
to predict the future
but they're almost
always wrong.
And many people
claim to have
special connections
or special interior knowledge
and they're just wrong.
Father, we give you
thanks and praise
that in a world
where we want to know
the future
we want to know
if there's meaning
to our lives
that you spoke
and you talked
about the future
and you kept
your promises
you kept your word
and you kept
your promises
in a word
and your word
in a shocking way
in a way
that both humbles us
but provides
the means by which
we can be reconciled
to you
and where we can
now begin to live
as your adopted children
knowing that we will
live with you forever.
That death is not
the final word
about us
that death will be
just us being
in your presence
until you make
the new heaven
and the new earth
where we will continue
in your presence forever.
Father, fan into flame
within us
a longing and yearning
to see you.
Fan into flame
within us
a longing and yearning
for the new heaven
and the new earth.
Make us disciples
of Jesus
who are gripped
by the gospel
who are living
for your glory.
And Father,
if there are any here
who have not yet
given their lives
to Jesus,
pour out your Holy Spirit
upon them.
Help them, Father,
to throw out
their hands to you,
throw out their hands
to Jesus,
that he might be
their Savior
and their Lord.
All this we ask
in the name of Jesus.
Amen.