What do you reckon is our greatest problem? You're probably thinking heat. No, it's not the heat.
What is the most fateful thing that we face with the greatest prospects of undoing us?
Aggressive dictators, scourge of pandemics, political polarization, economic disparities,
global warming, racial tensions. There are a good number of plausible contenders.
How about personally? Financial stress, chronic debilitating health issues,
bad or abusive relationships, a seeming unshakable destructive habit,
the long wearying failure to find love. These are hard things. And even harder
is the question, what do we do about them? How can they be overcome? Well, the passage before us this
morning takes up this very question. What is our greatest problem? Both corporately, the whole of
the world of humanity, and individually, each one of us. What is the thing we face that can crush us,
that will really sink us? And our passage gives us its answer to that vital question, but further,
it gives us an answer to the inevitable and urgent follow-up question, what can be done about it?
Is there any hope in the face of this, our greatest problem? Now, we ought not to be surprised if our text
strikes us as modern hearers, with modern ears, as somewhat strange and alien in parts. After all,
the author, a Hebrew prophet Isaiah, is writing from a time and a culture very different from our own.
Some would suspect that Isaiah's distance from us is so great that nothing he says could possibly have
any relevance to us today. But this, I think, a mistake, for surely the fact that we don't share
things like cell phones or cellophane matters far less than the fact that we do share flesh and blood.
We are of a common humanity. So, as we read our passage, don't be put off by its foreignness.
It contains a message well worth our effort to understand. Let me read it for us.
It can be found in your pew Bibles on page 574. 574. Isaiah 52, picking up in verse 13 and carrying on
through the next chapter.
We have chapter 573.
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 have not heard they understand.
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 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.
And as one from whom men hide their faces,
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
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.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth.
Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like sheep before its shears is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment, he was taken away.
And as for his generation,
who considered that he was cut off
out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people,
and they made his grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth,
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.
He shall see his offspring.
He shall prolong his days.
The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul,
he shall see and be satisfied.
By his knowledge shall the righteous one,
my servant, make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors.
Yet, he bore the sin of many
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
The word of the Lord.
So, what is identified here as our greatest problem?
It's most clearly stated in the first part
of chapter 53, verse 6.
Big number, first numbers, chapters,
small numbers, verses.
53, verse 6.
And it may strike you as a rather odd reading practice
to jump right in the middle of a piece,
but it really isn't.
For with Hebrew poetry,
and this is an instance of Hebrew poetry,
the themes often work themselves from the outside
in toward the middle,
with the heart of the matter right in the middle,
right in the center.
So, the heart of the matter
is at the center of this poem.
And here we find Isaiah expressing
the heart of the matter
when it comes to our biggest problem.
Here is how he puts it.
All we like sheep have gone astray.
Each of us has turned to his own way.
I wonder if you find that a surprising answer.
It's not that in Isaiah's day,
people didn't face things like plagues
and hunger and ravages of war
and disease and deportment
and inflation or poverty.
No, all of these things were conspicuously present.
It's simply that Isaiah identifies
a more fundamental root-level problem.
Our going astray.
Our turning to our own way, as he puts it.
So, what does Isaiah mean?
Straying from what?
Turning away from what?
Notice, his image is that of sheep.
The picture is of sheep straying from the path
marked out by the shepherd.
So, who is the shepherd?
Well, of this, there was no question
in Isaiah's hearers' minds.
The picture was perfectly clear
and very familiar to them.
As their minstrel King David
opened his famous Psalm 23,
The Lord is my shepherd.
So, the shepherd is God, our creator.
It is from the path that God marks out
that we stray.
When we go our own way,
we are turning aside from the creator's way.
So, Isaiah is saying that common to all
is waywardness with respect to God, our creator.
Ours is the attitude which says,
I don't care what path you've marked out.
I will be in your world as I jolly well please.
I shall set my course without regard to you.
I will make my own way.
Thank you very much.
And really, a moment's reflection
reveals that to go our own way
is to make ourselves our authority.
It is to repudiate our shepherd God.
It is to regard the very creator as a rival.
It is to take the defiant stance of a rebel.
I shall play the part of God in my own life.
I shall be the arbiter of what is good, right, and just.
The effects of this turning aside
from the ways of our creator
are varied and terrible.
From genocide to lack of generosity,
selfishness to suicide attacks,
sex trafficking to spoilation of the earth,
we have made a ruinous mess of things.
We have vandalized God's world
and victimized God's creatures.
Yes, the effects of our chosen paths
are bad enough.
Bad enough for us to think
that they are our worst problems.
They are not.
But it is the essence of our chosen path
that is supremely morally horrifying.
We have substituted ourselves for God.
We put ourselves in his place.
That, according to Isaiah,
is our greatest problem.
Tell me you do not know
Isaiah's description to be true of you.
It certainly is true of me.
Isaiah knew that it was true of him.
Notice his statement
is in the form of a confession,
and he places himself in the company.
All of us, like sheep, have gone astray.
I wonder, can you make that confession?
I have a problem.
I have substituted myself for God.
I have made God my rival.
If so, our second question
forces itself upon us.
What can be done about this?
Now, the people of Isaiah's day
had been long taught to understand
that such a stance toward God
was deserving of his terrible
but just judgment.
Death.
That much was clear.
The whole sacrificial system
acknowledged and reinforced
that death was due transgressors.
An endless parade of bulls
and goats and sheep
were offered on altars
to atone for the sins of the people.
But the sense was
that the blood of bulls or goats
couldn't really constitute
atonement for sin.
It was simply a postponement.
Animals were no ultimate answer.
So the question remained,
both for them and for us,
what can be done about the fact
that we keep piling up capital offenses
against the very judge of the universe?
It doesn't look good for us.
To be sober-minded is to grow pale.
But look at the remarkable answer
Isaiah gives to deal with this,
our great, truly our greatest problem.
God is sending someone,
his servant.
This is the opening verse of our passage,
52 verse 13.
Behold my servant.
Now Isaiah has made reference
to the Lord's servant before.
Sometimes it refers to Israel as a nation,
then more narrowly to the faithful remnant
within the faithless nation.
Once the title is given to a pagan king Cyrus
who does God's bidding.
But this time it's different.
For this time the servant is identified there,
verse 53, 1,
as the arm of the Lord.
This is remarkable.
For the designation,
the arm of the Lord,
is none other than a metaphor
for God himself.
The arm of the Lord is God
rolling up his sleeves
to act himself
in great power.
Now, a quick observation
to hopefully clarify
where there's typical confusion.
Notice how God's solution
to humanity's problem
involves his arm,
not just his mouth.
It's not enough to send a prophet,
a mouthpiece,
a spokesman
to tell us how to get out of this mess
that we've made.
It takes his coming down himself
and acting.
And if your notion is
that Christianity is fundamentally
about instruction,
how we ought to live,
and in a way,
who could be faulted for thinking so
because it's such a common error?
And so many religions
seem to consist
in simply that,
instruction on how to live.
But if we get
what Isaiah is saying here,
we realize this
is something
very different.
It is not fundamentally
religious instruction.
It's about God himself
coming down and acting.
That's what makes Christianity
very distinctive here.
It's not advice.
It is announcement.
Not,
this is how you need
to change your life.
Rather,
this is what happened
that changes your life.
It's fundamentally news,
or as the first Christians
called it,
the good news
to be declared.
So,
what can be done
about our terrible plight?
God is sending someone,
his servant,
but this servant
is none other than
the arm of the Lord.
God himself
come down to act in power.
No wonder he says
at the start,
behold,
behold.
Yeah,
you're telling me
this I'd like to see,
God himself
coming down to act?
We've seen him
bear his arm before.
Plagues of Egypt,
angel of death,
splitting the Red Sea
and the Jordan.
Surely,
we're going to see
some remarkable fireworks.
But this is the odd,
the very odd thing.
The profile,
the servant,
of the servant
that Isaiah gives us
is not at all
what we would expect.
In fact,
it's closer
to the opposite
of what we'd expect.
No, no,
thank you.
Fashion must be maintained
in these parts.
It's the opposite
of what we'd expect.
Even as Isaiah
describes his servant,
Isaiah recognizes this.
Who's going to believe this?
He asks in verse 1.
So,
what's so unlikely
or implausible
about this profile?
Well,
for one,
the servant,
who we've heard
is God coming down,
is an unimpressive,
inglorious figure.
Verse 2,
he has no stately
former majesty.
Clearly,
this servant
is not the hero
of folk legends,
the glorious warrior God
from Valhalla.
in fact,
supremely,
the suffering servant,
sorry,
the servant
is a suffering figure.
Verse 3,
he was despised
and forsaken of men,
a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief.
But there's something
haunting about him.
While suffering
is the common lot
of us all,
there is something
extreme
in his.
He is,
verse 5,
pierced,
crushed,
scourged.
And all this
naturally generates
the impression
that he must
somehow be under
the special judgment
of God.
And in a way,
Isaiah tells us,
this is true.
Verse 10,
the Lord
was pleased
to crush him,
putting him
to grief.
His fate,
it would seem,
compels the conclusion
that he must have been
terribly guilty
and God gave him
what he deserved.
But,
we discover
the fact is,
the odd,
inexplicable thing is,
he was innocent.
Verse 9,
he has done
no violence,
nor was there
any deceit
in his mouth.
If not for his own
sin and offenses,
then,
why is he punished
by God?
Why is he marked
out for horrendous
suffering?
Happily,
where clarity
is most needed,
Isaiah is most
transparently clear.
And what he says
is astonishing.
Verse 5,
he was pierced
through
for our transgressions.
He was crushed
for our iniquities.
Why does the servant
suffer?
Because he is,
verse 10,
a guilt offering,
a sacrificial lamb,
verse 7,
an offering to God
to compensate
for the violations
of transgressors.
Ours.
The background
here is very familiar.
The very familiar
world of ritual
sacrifice
in which the
Hebrews lived.
The guilty party
would lay their
hand on the head
of the sacrificial
animal
in identification.
This is the fate
I deserve
and symbolizing
a transfer
of my guilt
to the offering.
So the servant
suffers
as a substitute
for sinners.
Were it not
so clear,
we would scarcely
dare believe it.
He,
God himself,
comes down,
gives his life
for us.
He takes the lash
for rebellion
for us
to whom,
verse 8 says,
the stroke
was due.
The servant
is treated
by God
as if he
had done
every vile
thing
we have done
and do.
the innocent
servant
takes hold
of everything
that blights
our lives,
our griefs,
our infirmities,
our sorrows,
our afflictions,
but our follies
and our rebellion.
He takes them up
and he faces
their consequences.
In short,
and this is the
summary so far,
if you get nothing,
get this,
our great
calamity,
we substitute
ourselves
for God.
Our only
rescue,
God
substitutes
himself
for us.
And what
does this
great substitution
accomplish?
Chapter 52,
15,
a sprinkling
of many nations.
Drawn from
the language
of Jewish ritual,
sprinkling meant
cleansing,
as a leper
would be sprinkled
and declared
clean.
And it is a
cleansing by
removal.
For the servant
to have borne
away our
iniquities,
verse 4,
is for him
to have borne
them away.
To have our
sin placed on
him is to have
them removed
from us.
Verse 11
expresses what
this substitution
accomplished in a
slightly different
light.
Ah, but a
wonderful light.
It justified
many.
That is,
it gave them
a perfect
moral record.
In this
substitution,
there is a
double exchange.
Not only does
the servant
take the
consequences of
our wicked
and wayward
lives,
we in
exchange
receive the
credit for
everything the
servant did
and was.
My righteous
servant will
justify the
many.
That is,
provide
righteousness,
a perfect
moral record,
his own
record,
for our
very,
very shabby
one.
He steps
into our
shoes,
and we
into his.
Really?
I mean,
this sounds
altogether too
remarkable.
Can it
really be
so?
As Isaiah
would later
record,
just beyond
our passage,
my ways,
says God,
are not
your ways.
As high
as the
heavens are
above the
earth,
so much
higher are
my ways
than your
ways.
And another
remarkable
thing,
notice that
though the
servant was
smitten,
cut off,
yet he
strangely lives
to see the
fruit of his
work.
The servant
will see the
travail of his
soul and be
satisfied,
verse 11.
So here
then is
Isaiah's
portrait of
the suffering
servant.
And although
Isaiah the
prophet presented
it, he
himself could
not penetrate
it.
We're later
told in 1 Peter
that the
prophets
themselves puzzled
over their own
words, seeking
to know what
person or time
their prophecy
referred to.
Ah, but
friends, there
would come a
day when
there would
be no doubt
who this
suffering servant
really was.
And it would
be this very
passage of
Isaiah which
would prove
most precious
and important
to the first
Christians.
for it, above
all others,
help them to
grasp what
God was
doing and
how it
related to
this Jesus
who had
turned their
world upside
down.
Can you
see how
this prophecy,
such a mystery,
was seen to be
in the light
of Jesus,
such a match?
If you're at
all familiar
with the
gospel accounts,
I don't think
you can fail
to see it.
As with the
servant, so
with Jesus,
nothing about
his origin
nourished hopes
of greatness.
Jesus of
Nazareth
sputters
Nathaniel in
incredulity.
Can anything
good come out
of Nazareth?
Special?
Him?
Is this not
the carpenter's
son?
Just a
local nobody?
Reckoned to
be a zero?
Was Jesus
a man of
sorrows,
acquainted with
grief, as
the prophet
foretold?
Grief was
his intimate
acquaintance,
sorrow, his
constant
companion.
Scarcely had
he started
his ministry
when the
religious leaders
of the day
were planning
on how they
might dispatch
him.
The pressure
of sorrow
was so intense
it came out
in sweat
like drops
of blood.
You, a
king, scoffed
Herod in
derision.
His only
royal robe,
Herod's,
draped in
mockery.
His only
crown,
thorns.
Those
hoarse cries
of the crowd
yelling,
crucify him,
only interspersed
by Pilate's
thrice repeated
verdict,
he's innocent.
He's innocent.
They cry out,
but he holds
his peace.
Like a lamb
that is led
to the slaughter
and like a
sheep silent
before his
shearers,
he opens
not his
mouth.
He is
crushed
beneath the
burden of the
cross,
then pierced
through upon
it.
Yes,
and as Isaiah
foretold,
his grave was
assigned with
the wicked,
verse 9,
for his body
was to be
flung in a
common grave
with the
criminals who
flanked him
on the cross.
But the
wealthy
Joseph of
Arimathea
interposed,
asking for the
body to be
placed in his
own tomb,
and so he
was indeed
with a rich
man in his
death.
But as
Isaiah's
prophecy
cryptically
indicated,
his inglorious
death was not
the end for
him.
4,
verse 10,
he will
prolong his
days.
He would
see his
offspring.
The Lord
himself takes
up the final
words of
Isaiah's
prophecy as
a final
verdict upon
his servant.
Verse 12,
therefore I
will allot
him a
portion with
the great,
and he will
divide the
booty with
the strong.
The servant
proves to be,
despite all
appearances,
Jesus, a
victor.
Friends, the
life, death,
resurrection, and
exaltation of
Jesus fits
Isaiah's profile
like a hand in
a glove.
Jesus is the
suffering servant.
He is the
arm of the
Lord.
He is God
come down to
act in power
for our rescue.
This the first
Christians saw
with clarity,
and as we
saw with
the Philip
and the
Ethiopian,
proclaimed it
unhesitatingly.
The mystery
was dissolved,
and it was
dissolved both
ways.
Jesus dissolved
the mystery of
Isaiah's cryptic
prophecy, but
Isaiah's prophecy
also dissolved
the great mystery
of Jesus.
For the great
inexplicable
question for
Jesus'
followers was
this.
If Jesus
was God's
chosen servant,
whom he
greatly loved,
and we heard
the Father say
so from heaven,
how could
God let
Jesus come
to such a
terrible end
on a cross?
Indeed,
as they knew
from Scripture,
anyone hanged
on a tree is
especially cursed
of God.
Deuteronomy,
Galatians.
How could
the anointed
of God be
the cursed
of God?
How could
the faithful
servant of God
suffer the
frightful judgment
of God?
It just didn't
add up for them,
but it was
Isaiah's prophecy
which provided
the answer.
The servant
of God
was
as our
substitute,
and it all
came together
as the
strangest
and most
glorious
good news.
Now,
it's possible
that some of you
are thinking,
well,
I'm really glad
for them
that it all
made sense
to them,
but I'm glad
they got their
questions answered,
but I still have
a few.
for one,
this whole notion
of sacrifice
at the center
of Isaiah's
vision sounds
so primitive.
You know,
on the order
of propitiating
angry gods
by dropping
victims in
volcanoes,
you can't expect
modern people
to credit
such a thing.
And this is
certainly an
understandable
reaction,
given that we
in our
sensibilities,
largely heirs
of the
enlightenment,
for whom
primitive
simply means
unenlightened,
aka stupid.
But,
the question
for us
is,
dare we
be so
dismissive
of all
things primitive?
For in
this case,
by primitive,
we are
identifying
a strong
instinct
and deep
intuition
as ancient
as history
itself
and near
universal
across cultures,
an instinct
that we are
and live
in relation
to a reality
beyond us,
not just
forces,
but a being,
and that we
are alienated
from that being
and need
reconciliation,
and that
some cleansing,
some propitiation
must transpire
to affect
that reconciliation.
And we may
pronounce all
such mumbo
jumbo,
but let us
at least
be aware
that in
doing so,
we part
company with
the overwhelming
majority of
mankind
across time
and cultures,
and that it
is Isaiah's
framework
work which
stands in
deep and
profound
resonance
with those
abiding
human instincts.
Perhaps that
should give us
pause
if we find
ourselves
dismissive.
Others here
may find
difficulty with
the notion
of substitution.
How can
a God
be considered
just and
good
who,
in remedy
for the
offenses of
some,
punishes,
in their
stead,
an innocent
third party?
Well,
of course,
on that
apprehension
of the matter,
the revulsion
is understandable.
But this
would be
a grave
misapprehension.
For the
suffering servant
is not
an innocent
victim seized
upon,
but rather
one who
willingly
put himself
forward
as a
substitute.
His life
was not
taken from
him.
He laid
it down
voluntarily.
Neither,
as we
discovered,
is the
suffering
servant
some
third party
God
punishes.
No,
he is the
arm of
the Lord,
God
himself,
taking the
lash of
his own
judgment.
Here,
substitution
is the
voluntary
self-offering
of God,
and rightly
understood,
evokes not
scandal,
but marvel.
Now,
some of
you are
probably
still thinking,
okay,
but this
is all
still so
strange.
Well,
was this
not Isaiah's
point precisely?
Who would
have thought
this,
the arm
of the
Lord?
Who would
have thought
this,
the saving
action of
God in
the world?
Well,
will you,
friend,
miss of it
for its
strangeness?
Let me ask
you,
through what
lens are
you looking
for God?
What fancies
dictate your
expectations in
relation to
God's action
in this world,
in relation
to you?
And may I
further ask,
what good
reason do
you have for
those fancies
to dictate,
to form the
lens through
which you
will look
for God
and discern
His working?
be very
careful
that you
have not
screened out
the divine
provision,
the only
provision there
is for
your greatest
problem,
a problem
so great
it will
ultimately
crush you.
Will
yours be
as the
eye of
Sauron
scanning
the landscape
for the
ring,
never thinking
to look
for a
hobbit,
but a
hobbit
was the
ring bearer.
But some
of us here
perhaps face
a different
challenge.
The arm
of the
Lord is
for us
not unfamiliar
but over
familiar.
We've been
instructed from
Sunday school
up, heard
sermons and
sung songs
about Jesus
the suffering
servant,
but let us
be careful
here for
familiarity
does not
mean
beneficiary.
And it
is very
possible to
penetrate the
identity of
the suffering
servant and
yet his
sacrifice not
propitiate for
your sins.
As with the
sacrificial goat,
one must place
one's hands on
the head of the
victim in
identification.
My sin
rightly would
place me
there.
the Hebrew
word for
placing the
hand on
implies
leaning
hard,
placing the
weight of
one's reliance
fully upon
the sacrifice
for there is
no other way
of expiation.
Have you
done this?
Placed your
full weight
upon God's
suffering servant?
Admitting your
transgressions against
God would
rightly put you
in the place
of death and
adhering to
him as your
substitute with
all the weight
of your complete
reliance.
In the Hebrew,
the final word of
Isaiah's appeal that
we have read
together is the
servant's appeal for
transgressors.
And this is my
appeal for you.
place your
hand upon
the substitute
and put
the full
weight of
your reliance
upon him.
If you have
never done
so,
why not do
it now?
Let today
be the day
of salvation.
Well,
we have
sought to
unfold
the meaning,
challenge,
and appeal
of this
mysterious
servant song
of Isaiah.
If you
have begun
to grasp
it,
three things
you can
know and
what a
difference
they make.
And I
conclude,
briefly,
I assure
you,
with these.
First,
you are
not alone
in your
suffering.
God,
your creator,
is not
remote.
Do you
see it?
He is
with you
in your
suffering.
God has
not shared
your humanity
in some
sanitized
way,
staggering as
that in
itself would
be.
He has
known it
intimately,
at its
worst.
He has,
as Isaiah
says,
borne our
griefs and
suffered our
sorrows.
He has
taken upon
himself the
deep wounds
of life,
sunk under
its woes,
and carried
its terrible
scars.
In the
horror of
trench warfare
of World War
I, and in
the maimed and
amputated
aftermath, the
anguished cry
went up,
where is God
in this
horror?
In this
context, one
survivor composed
these lines as
he looked at
Isaiah's
servant.
The other
gods were
strong, but
thou wast
weak.
They rode, but
thou didst
stumble to a
throne.
But to our
wounds only
God's wounds
can speak, and
not a god
has wounds, but
thou alone.
let the
servant
song seep
into your
soul, and
you will
know you
are not
alone in
your suffering.
And let
the servant
song sink
into your
soul, and
you will
begin to
feel that
you are
loved to
a
breathtaking
degree.
For why
did the
servant take
on those
scars?
It was
for you.
For you,
he laid
aside his
beauty and
became marred
beyond human
semblance, as
one from
whom we
hide our
faces.
All this
to have
you as
his
beloved
forever.
Take this
servant
song into
your soul,
and not
only will
you begin
to feel
beautiful in
the eye of
your beloved,
his love
will begin
to make
you beautiful
in the
ways that
really matter.
Finally,
take the
servant song
into your
being, and
you shall
have a
record that
finally lets
you rest.
Do you feel
crushed under
the burden
to achieve?
By your
performance to
cut a figure
that garners
approval and
applause?
are your
nights haunted
with terrors of
failing to
meet the
standard, of
being found
out of
failure?
You toil on
frantically to
make the
grade, to
get the
record that
gains the
verdict approved,
accepted, all
the while knowing
you are ever
only as good as
your last
performance.
such toil is
unending, and
your record is
fragile and
faltering.
But remember, the
servant offers to
exchange your
record for his.
He steps into
your shoes, you
into his.
His record, by his
record, not yours,
you are justified.
He took your
place in court, and
the verdict is in,
accepted.
You are in the
sight of God the
judge, as good as
his, the servant's
record.
What resting joy is
this?
What more security
do you need than to
know that the one
whose verdict really
matters, the one who
knows all you are
and everything you
are not, has
declared immutably,
you are in the
beloved servant,
perfect in God's
sight.
There and there
alone is real
deep rest for the
soul.
Oh, friends, take
this message of
Isaiah into your
heart.
Lay your full
weight upon the
substitute, and you
may, as did the
Ethiopian that we
read of earlier, go
on your way
rejoicing.
May it be so for
each one of us.
Well, how Isaiah's
description of the
suffering servant
illuminates the
death of Christ,
setting it forth as a
substitutionary sacrifice
on behalf of his
people.
Will we come now to
another setting forth
of that substitutionary
sacrifice of the
suffering servant in the
bread and the cup that
the suffering servant
himself gave to his
disciples?
Hopefully you've
received one of these
and you came in,
otherwise the ushers
can help you.
When Isaiah was
called as prophet,
he describes an
angel touching his
mouth with a
burning coal taken
from the altar.
Behold, this has
touched your lips,
and your guilt is
taken away, and
your sin is atoned
for.
Notice the
purifying coal
touched his lips.
lips, speech,
words.
You would think that
that a prophet's
best part.
But even at his
best, where he
might naturally
have taken pride,
he was guilty.
He needed cleansing
and atonement.
And that atonement
could come alone
from the altar
of sacrifice.
brothers and
sisters,
if you know
that even
at your best,
you need
cleansing,
and if you
know it
comes from
nowhere else
but the
altar,
the sacrificial
death of
Christ,
the bread
and the cup
is for you.
Friend,
if this is
not yet true
of you,
while the bread
and the cup
is not yet
for you,
the Savior
that they set
forth is
for you.
Take him.
The apostle
writes,
the Lord Jesus
on the night
when he was
betrayed
took bread
and when he
had given
thanks,
he broke it
and said,
this is my
body,
which is for
you.
Do this
in remembrance
of me.
Do this in Ganon
remembrance
of me.
Do this in remembrance
of me.
Do this in remembrance
of me.
Do this in remembrance
of me.
Do this in remembrance
of me.
Do this in remembrance
of me.