WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.040 Good evening, I'm Neil, Neil McMillan, so if we haven't met before, I am a minister 00:00:09.040 --> 00:00:12.200 in Morningside here in Edinburgh. 00:00:12.200 --> 00:00:19.920 We're going to spend a little time now just looking together at Isaiah chapter 53 and 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:21.719 the final verses. 00:00:21.719 --> 00:00:26.120 So I was doodling earlier this week, came up with a little sketch for you, so there you 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:28.920 go. 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:37.439 This is Rembrandt and it's Rembrandt's painting of the prodigal son. 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:46.320 So there you have the old father at the centre of the picture and the son, the wandering son 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:48.400 has returned home. 00:00:48.400 --> 00:00:55.200 He kneels before the father and the father embraces him. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:01:01.520 So there's a Dutch Catholic theologian who comments on this painting, Henry Nowan, and 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:07.879 he said, as he looked at this painting, he asked himself a question and this is a question 00:01:07.879 --> 00:01:18.640 that he asked, he said, had I myself ever really dared to step into the centre, kneel 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:25.000 down and let myself be held by a forgiving God? 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:33.159 Had I ever myself ever really dared to step into the centre, kneel down and let myself 00:01:33.159 --> 00:01:36.840 be held by a forgiving God? 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:41.280 Now when one went on to say this, he went on to say, the journey from teaching about 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:48.799 love to allowing myself to be loved proved much longer. 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:53.400 So I can put the picture, I mean thanks, Glenys, but that's just the kind of question that 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:58.320 I think I want to look at with you for this little while about this idea of not just knowing 00:01:58.320 --> 00:02:05.680 about God's love, but allowing ourselves to be loved. 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:11.319 Moving away from the idea of God's love simply as an abstraction that we understand to a 00:02:11.319 --> 00:02:15.439 reality that we experience. 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:19.800 Because I think a lot of us would identify with what Nowan says. 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:24.439 We know about the love, but we don't know the love. 00:02:24.439 --> 00:02:29.800 We talk about the love, but we don't experience it. 00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:37.360 And God's love, like honey, is better tasted than described. 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:46.040 And we need to allow ourselves to be held by God despite our great reluctance. 00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:51.719 We're thinking through the Christmas season, the Advent season, the Christ who has come 00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:59.680 to us so that God might be with us, so that God might hold us. 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:04.439 And what that means then is that as we look through these verses of Isaiah 53, I want 00:03:04.439 --> 00:03:12.639 to do so just thinking through this idea of knowing and experiencing the love of God. 00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:19.719 Because for all of us, Christianity cannot be true unless love is at its center. 00:03:19.719 --> 00:03:22.879 There's anything people understand about Christianity. 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:28.559 It is that it proclaims itself to be a religion of love. 00:03:28.559 --> 00:03:32.519 If you're not a Christian this evening, then that might be part of your question or your 00:03:32.519 --> 00:03:35.239 skepticism or your inquiry. 00:03:35.239 --> 00:03:37.159 Where is the love? 00:03:37.159 --> 00:03:38.839 Is the love real? 00:03:38.839 --> 00:03:41.319 Can the love be experienced? 00:03:41.319 --> 00:03:47.000 And is that love working its way out in the life of this Christian community? 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:54.479 And so it's really important that we are individuals who know the love of God, hold the love of 00:03:54.479 --> 00:03:59.719 God at the center of our beings, but it's also very important for us as a community that 00:03:59.719 --> 00:04:04.120 love lies at the center of who we are and what we are together. 00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:05.919 So I'm going to think about three things. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:11.000 The language of love that we find here, the action of love and the joy of love. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:16.519 So the language of love, the action of love, the joy of love. 00:04:16.519 --> 00:04:20.560 So let's think about the language of love. 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:28.319 I am a man who loves a bit of crime drama, Nordic noir or Wallam down and all these kind 00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:34.040 of books and films and TV shows or Harry Bosch if you like Michael Connelly's books. 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:40.519 So detective novels, there's always a post mortem and a detective novel. 00:04:40.519 --> 00:04:47.120 There's always something about the cause of death as blunt force trauma or gunshot wounds 00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:48.120 or exsanguation. 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:54.199 And here I just want to say that there is an awful lot about the language of death, 00:04:54.199 --> 00:04:59.839 the cause of death in the text of Isaiah 53. 00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:07.919 And that as we read all that's said about how Jesus died, God is communicating his heart 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:18.400 of love to us because this detailed and intimate graphic portrait of the suffering servant 00:05:18.400 --> 00:05:19.720 is Christological. 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:21.960 So Corey said that to his last time. 00:05:21.960 --> 00:05:24.879 This is great Christology. 00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:30.879 Jesus himself in the Last Supper describes himself as the suffering servant of Isaiah 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:33.800 53. 00:05:33.800 --> 00:05:41.840 So here Jesus is giving you and I an incredible glimpse into the way in which he loves us 00:05:41.840 --> 00:05:45.759 and the extent to which his love takes him. 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:52.319 So what we're seeing here then in the language of love is the suffering that Jesus experiences, 00:05:52.319 --> 00:05:58.199 a suffering experiences because he loves us. 00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:04.000 If you wonder if God loves you, come to the text. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:08.479 I've rolled back a couple of verses into verse five first of all where Corey was speaking. 00:06:08.479 --> 00:06:12.719 I'm not going to go through every single experience of the suffering but I just want to look at 00:06:12.719 --> 00:06:15.879 some of the language that's used. 00:06:15.879 --> 00:06:23.919 So in verse five we read that he was pierced for our transgressions. 00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:28.920 The word actually means that he was pierced through. 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:32.720 It's the idea of receiving a deadly wound. 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:34.400 It is a deliberate assault. 00:06:34.400 --> 00:06:36.879 It is non-accidental. 00:06:36.879 --> 00:06:40.600 It is a violent strike. 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:47.680 In verse five and in verse ten we read about Jesus being crushed. 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:49.480 He was pierced for our transgressions. 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:52.480 Verse five he was crushed for our iniquities. 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:57.280 Verse ten it was the will of the Lord to crush him. 00:06:57.280 --> 00:07:01.080 That means being ground into dust. 00:07:01.080 --> 00:07:05.840 Sometimes I grind my coffee because I'm from Morningside so I grind my own coffee. 00:07:05.840 --> 00:07:07.319 I get the little grinder out. 00:07:07.319 --> 00:07:12.120 I get my beans and I make myself a delicious espresso or whatever it might be. 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:18.720 So I just take the bean and it's ground and it's ground until it's a fine powder. 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:25.440 That's the idea of grinding, crushing, breaking into small pieces. 00:07:25.440 --> 00:07:32.760 It speaks of emotional and spiritual pressure placed upon the sufferer. 00:07:32.760 --> 00:07:41.720 It's an idea of unmitigated agony, merging in a crushing destructive experience that 00:07:41.720 --> 00:07:46.280 causes a sufferer to disintegrate. 00:07:46.279 --> 00:07:49.239 This is the love of Jesus. 00:07:49.239 --> 00:07:53.919 In verse seven we read that he is oppressed. 00:07:53.919 --> 00:07:59.159 That's a word that's used in the book of Exodus for the way that the Egyptian slave 00:07:59.159 --> 00:08:05.359 taskmasters treated the Israelite slaves. 00:08:05.359 --> 00:08:06.359 They were oppressed. 00:08:06.359 --> 00:08:08.719 They were treated harshly. 00:08:08.719 --> 00:08:12.959 As the idea of being whipped, beaten, battered. 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:22.279 It's the experience of physical violence from those who have power over you. 00:08:22.279 --> 00:08:28.000 In verse seven we read that he is slaughtered like a lamb. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:35.399 Jesus, the lamb of God, is butchered for the people of God. 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:45.279 In verse eight we read that he was cut off from the land of the living. 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:52.319 The idea of being cut off is of a violent and abrupt ending. 00:08:52.319 --> 00:08:57.559 In Psalm 88 it says, I am cut off from your care. 00:08:57.559 --> 00:09:01.960 The Sammest is a relationship with God broken. 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:05.639 He is isolated, lonely and desolate. 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:10.519 In Lamentations chapter three it says the waters rose over my head. 00:09:10.519 --> 00:09:14.639 I thought I was about to be cut off. 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:20.400 A abrupt rupture in relationship. 00:09:20.400 --> 00:09:26.080 In verse nine we are told that they made him aggraved with a wicked, with a rich man and 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:28.360 his death. 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:34.200 So Jesus, although he is shamed by humanity, he is honoured in death. 00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:40.639 The plural of death in verse nine, or the word death in verse nine is in the plural. 00:09:40.639 --> 00:09:46.080 So if you read the Hebrew it would say he was given a grave of the wicked with a rich 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:49.159 man and his deaths. 00:09:49.159 --> 00:09:55.120 So I'm not a linguist, but linguists tell me when I read them that that's a plural of 00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:57.840 intensification. 00:09:57.840 --> 00:10:03.560 It's an intensifier, his death, his deaths. 00:10:03.560 --> 00:10:11.440 That intensifier means his utterly horrendous death. 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:17.240 In verse 11 we are told about the anguish of his soul. 00:10:17.240 --> 00:10:24.280 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. 00:10:24.279 --> 00:10:32.919 The word anguish speaks of toil and pain in the most difficult and wearying kind of endeavor. 00:10:32.919 --> 00:10:40.120 The kind of effort that drains us and drains our whole being. 00:10:40.120 --> 00:10:49.839 In verse 12 we are told that he poured out his life, gave everything, exposed himself 00:10:49.840 --> 00:11:00.040 completely, took himself to the furthest extreme, even to death itself. 00:11:00.040 --> 00:11:10.519 All this language is very stark, very harsh, and it is the language of God's love for us. 00:11:10.519 --> 00:11:12.800 It's a catalogue of horror. 00:11:12.800 --> 00:11:16.519 It's a litany of terrible woe. 00:11:16.519 --> 00:11:21.439 It's a record of extreme human suffering. 00:11:21.439 --> 00:11:25.519 What causes Jesus to suffer in this way? 00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:27.240 Only love. 00:11:27.240 --> 00:11:30.480 It is love that holds Jesus there. 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:34.519 It is love that keeps Jesus there. 00:11:34.519 --> 00:11:40.120 The love of Jesus is real and it's costly. 00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:48.000 It's a really important lesson for us to know that that's a way that God loves us and cares 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:49.000 about us. 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:53.440 It's also a really important lesson for us as we think about what it means to love others. 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:56.679 Because often in life we want kind of cheap love or easy love. 00:11:56.679 --> 00:12:02.600 We want love without the effort. 00:12:02.600 --> 00:12:06.759 Love always proves to be costly. 00:12:06.759 --> 00:12:09.039 Sometimes we resist that and we take the easy path. 00:12:09.039 --> 00:12:11.679 We avoid hard relationships. 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:15.039 We avoid the cost of relationships. 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:19.480 I was watching a film last night that I'm told is a good film, but I don't know if it 00:12:19.480 --> 00:12:20.480 really is or not. 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:25.799 But anyway, about time is about a father and a son who can both time travel. 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:31.879 So the son uses time travel to go back and fix any little problem that comes up in his 00:12:31.879 --> 00:12:32.879 life. 00:12:32.879 --> 00:12:34.879 He can only travel back through his own lifetime. 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:36.439 He can't go to previous generations. 00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:41.440 Anyway, he can travel back through his own life to fix things as they come up. 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:42.600 So he goes out on a date. 00:12:42.600 --> 00:12:43.880 The date goes wrong. 00:12:43.880 --> 00:12:47.560 Then he time travels back to the beginning of the date and does it again until the date 00:12:47.560 --> 00:12:51.640 goes right and the girl starts to really like him. 00:12:51.640 --> 00:12:59.720 Or his sister crashes the car so he time travels back so that he can prevent the car crash. 00:12:59.720 --> 00:13:06.840 And so he uses his time travel gift to make life easy, to make love easy without cost. 00:13:06.840 --> 00:13:11.360 He doesn't have to suffer because he can love people in the simplest way. 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:15.920 He can fix everything until one day his dad dies. 00:13:15.920 --> 00:13:19.700 And he finds out that love really does have a cost. 00:13:19.700 --> 00:13:26.519 We often want love that feels easy and pleasant, but love will always involve sacrifice, dying 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:29.600 to self and living for other people. 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:32.440 How can we love others like this? 00:13:32.440 --> 00:13:34.759 Because he is loved is like this. 00:13:34.759 --> 00:13:38.440 It's out the strength of his love. 00:13:38.440 --> 00:13:41.360 It's because he first love does. 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:48.480 That we can love others, lay our lives down for them, sacrifice our good, give ourselves 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:52.279 freely and do so without resentment. 00:13:52.279 --> 00:13:57.480 So that's just the first thing I really want to say then is the language of love shows 00:13:57.480 --> 00:14:00.120 as the reality of love. 00:14:00.120 --> 00:14:02.759 I want to talk about the action of love secondly. 00:14:02.759 --> 00:14:10.360 It's very clear that Jesus is suffering for us in this passage. 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:17.840 He's going through all this, not for anything he's done, but for us. 00:14:17.840 --> 00:14:19.399 So I just want to look at that more closely. 00:14:19.399 --> 00:14:22.920 Two or three ideas in here that I want to pick on. 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:29.559 So very clear idea in this passage of substitution. 00:14:29.559 --> 00:14:32.039 So love is not just emotion. 00:14:32.039 --> 00:14:33.039 I've said that. 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:38.360 It's not just feelings, good, beautiful feelings. 00:14:38.360 --> 00:14:42.759 Love is always a determination to seek the good of the other person and that involves 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:47.599 concrete, deep, discrete, distinct actions. 00:14:47.599 --> 00:14:50.240 Love moves towards the other person. 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:56.399 Love will do what it has to, to secure the interests of the beloved. 00:14:56.399 --> 00:15:02.159 So when Jesus is suffering, it's because he is moving towards the beloved. 00:15:02.159 --> 00:15:06.720 He is securing the good of those that he cares for. 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:09.560 God is not just suffering for the sake of it. 00:15:09.560 --> 00:15:13.039 He is suffering for our salvation. 00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:14.919 So verse tells us this. 00:15:14.919 --> 00:15:19.600 It tells us that he is numbered with the transgressors. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:21.680 He's bearing the sin of many. 00:15:21.680 --> 00:15:27.000 He makes intercession for the transgressors. 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:29.639 So verse 12 there, he's numbered with the transgressors, means this. 00:15:29.639 --> 00:15:33.120 He's counted as a sinner. 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:37.639 Your sin has become his sin. 00:15:37.639 --> 00:15:41.720 Our sin goes on him. 00:15:41.720 --> 00:15:49.560 Our lies, our anger, our greed, our injustices, our pride is all made his. 00:15:49.559 --> 00:15:53.719 He is made sin. 00:15:53.719 --> 00:15:56.159 He's made liable for sin. 00:15:56.159 --> 00:16:01.959 He pays for our sin even though he's innocent. 00:16:01.959 --> 00:16:04.719 So there's the idea of substitution. 00:16:04.719 --> 00:16:08.000 There's the idea of justification. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:13.519 So in verse 11 we read that he will make many to be accounted righteous. 00:16:13.519 --> 00:16:19.519 So that's the word justification that we often use is to be accounted righteous, to be held 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:23.639 righteous, to be seen as righteous. 00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:31.919 And so Jesus, by his substitutionary death, by his vicarious, violent and voluntary death, 00:16:31.919 --> 00:16:38.759 he puts us back in right relationship with God. 00:16:38.759 --> 00:16:45.799 In verse 11 we're told that he gave himself up. 00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:54.719 In verse 10 we read that he was made an offering for guilt. 00:16:54.719 --> 00:16:56.199 He becomes a sacrifice. 00:16:56.199 --> 00:17:00.159 So the offering of guilt, of course, is a recent reference to the Old Testament, to 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:07.799 the guilt offerings and sacrifices of the Jewish religion. 00:17:07.799 --> 00:17:16.879 And within Judaism sacrifices were to be perfect and unblemished. 00:17:16.879 --> 00:17:22.399 Hands were laid in the animal to be offered, a goat or a lamb perhaps. 00:17:22.399 --> 00:17:27.159 And as you laid your hands in the head of the animal that's about to be sacrificed, 00:17:27.159 --> 00:17:35.399 you were transferring your guilt symbolically onto the animal that is about to die. 00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:44.480 And so when Jesus is made a guilt offering, we're being told that our guilt is transferred 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:47.759 onto his head. 00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:51.280 Our guilt is laid on him. 00:17:51.280 --> 00:17:52.680 He's offered up. 00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:54.880 He gives himself up. 00:17:54.880 --> 00:18:00.759 He becomes the sacrifice for our salvation. 00:18:00.759 --> 00:18:06.039 He bears our inequities. 00:18:06.039 --> 00:18:10.519 There's substitution, there's justification, there's intercession. 00:18:10.519 --> 00:18:13.240 He bore the sin of many and made intercession for transgressors. 00:18:13.240 --> 00:18:17.480 Now we often think of the intercession of Jesus as the fact that he pleads with us before 00:18:17.480 --> 00:18:18.799 God. 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:22.599 He prays on our behalf. 00:18:22.599 --> 00:18:26.720 But here the idea of intercession is not simply that he pleads on our behalf, but it 00:18:26.720 --> 00:18:35.120 is this, that he stands between us and the punishment that is due to us. 00:18:35.120 --> 00:18:42.600 He stands between us and the wrath of God and he takes it on himself. 00:18:42.600 --> 00:18:49.480 And he makes restitution for us, satisfying the judgment of God. 00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:56.519 That whole process, so costly to him that's at the heart of restoring right relationship 00:18:56.519 --> 00:19:01.440 with God. 00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:05.519 Substitution, justification, intercession. 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:15.200 Christ acting on your behalf, out of love, at great cost for your salvation. 00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:20.039 Such an important lesson for us that love takes the steps it needs to, to secure the 00:19:20.039 --> 00:19:24.160 interests and the well-being of the beloved. 00:19:24.160 --> 00:19:29.640 So Christmas is coming up and Christmas means that you're going to be forced into spending 00:19:29.640 --> 00:19:33.360 lots of time with people that you find difficult and who annoy you. 00:19:33.360 --> 00:19:40.040 Okay, that's usually family gatherings, can be tense occasions, can they? 00:19:40.040 --> 00:19:51.400 There you are, sitting around the table, full of turkey, feeling annoyed about something. 00:19:51.400 --> 00:19:56.200 And it's in all these little kind of irritating situations of life or difficult situations 00:19:56.200 --> 00:20:06.360 of life that grace has to become real, that the action of love has its opportunity to 00:20:06.360 --> 00:20:09.280 be made concrete. 00:20:09.280 --> 00:20:14.480 So if you want a Christmas survival pack, I want to say to you first of all show grace, 00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:18.440 because this is a story of grace, isn't it? 00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:29.160 God love, favor shown to those who do not merit it, and we need to show grace. 00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:34.080 And to show grace, we need to receive grace. 00:20:34.080 --> 00:20:37.680 One of my favorite sayings, there's a book I think called Relationships Making a Mess, 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:42.840 or a mess worth making, one of my favorite quotes from that book is this, that our need 00:20:42.839 --> 00:20:49.480 for grace is as great when we are sinned against as when we sin. 00:20:49.480 --> 00:20:53.839 Our need for grace is as great when we are sinned against as when we sin. 00:20:53.839 --> 00:21:00.919 So we need grace to show grace when people are getting up our nose, or rubbing us up 00:21:00.919 --> 00:21:07.439 the wrong way, or pushing our boundaries or whatever it might be. 00:21:07.439 --> 00:21:10.639 Be generous at Christmas, okay? 00:21:10.640 --> 00:21:15.840 Not just with extravagant great gifts, but with extravagant love. 00:21:15.840 --> 00:21:24.240 We can spend a lot of money on people, but we can hardly bear to give them a kind word. 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:30.320 But love is shown in thousands of small acts. 00:21:30.320 --> 00:21:35.960 And be gentle, be gentle. 00:21:35.960 --> 00:21:41.400 God is so gentle with us. 00:21:41.400 --> 00:21:45.120 Why is God so gentle with us? 00:21:45.120 --> 00:21:52.559 Because Jesus suffered so brutally, God can be so gentle with you. 00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:59.000 And yet we're not very gentle with each other a lot of the time. 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:02.279 So be gentle. 00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:06.519 Love acts on all these beautiful ways. 00:22:06.519 --> 00:22:08.039 The action of love. 00:22:08.039 --> 00:22:11.960 Just want to speak for a few minutes about the joy of love. 00:22:11.960 --> 00:22:15.759 So there's a language of love, which is a language of suffering and cost. 00:22:15.759 --> 00:22:22.279 There's the action of love, which is about substitution and justification and intercession, 00:22:22.279 --> 00:22:29.839 and making real steps, real efforts, moving towards people to show them grace. 00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:33.959 And then there is the joy of love. 00:22:33.959 --> 00:22:36.199 So we read this, don't we? 00:22:36.199 --> 00:22:41.480 It's quite extraordinary when we read what's going on in Isaiah 53. 00:22:41.480 --> 00:22:48.319 So I just want us to have a look at verse 10. 00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:52.359 It was the will of the Lord to crush him. 00:22:52.359 --> 00:22:55.279 He has to put him to grief. 00:22:55.279 --> 00:23:01.399 That's devastating language if you begin to think about it. 00:23:01.399 --> 00:23:06.279 It was the will of the Father to crush him. 00:23:06.279 --> 00:23:09.160 How? 00:23:09.160 --> 00:23:19.720 How can it be that God the Father would grind his Son into the dust of the earth? 00:23:19.720 --> 00:23:23.480 How can it be? 00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:29.440 Jesus cries out from the cross, why have you abandoned me? 00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:32.440 The Father doesn't reach down in love. 00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:37.480 He reaches down with a sword and he smites the Son. 00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:42.759 It is the Lord's will. 00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:47.640 So Peter says in Acts chapter 2, when he's preaching in Jerusalem after the resurrection, 00:23:47.640 --> 00:23:54.880 he was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge. 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:59.440 This is the will of God that Jesus should suffer for sinners. 00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:05.200 Why would the Father turn his face away from the cross, from the cries, from the tears, 00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:08.200 from the anguish of the Son? 00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:10.720 Because he loves us. 00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:14.080 Because he loves us. 00:24:14.079 --> 00:24:21.879 There is a joy in being loved in this way if you can experience this love. 00:24:21.879 --> 00:24:24.279 And we read that Jesus is willing, isn't he? 00:24:24.279 --> 00:24:29.399 I can't remember what the sermon was called, the silent sheet, maybe something like that. 00:24:29.399 --> 00:24:31.399 That's verse 7. 00:24:31.399 --> 00:24:35.039 He was oppressed, he was afflicted, he opened not his mouth, he's not protesting, he's 00:24:35.039 --> 00:24:36.039 not fighting back. 00:24:36.039 --> 00:24:43.319 In fact, we're told this, that the will of God prospers in his hand at the end of verse 00:24:43.319 --> 00:24:44.319 10. 00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:48.839 He's doing the will of God and he's bringing it to fruition through his suffering. 00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:52.079 This is not cosmic child abuse. 00:24:52.079 --> 00:25:00.079 This is the eternal Son giving himself to achieve the purposes of the Godhead. 00:25:00.079 --> 00:25:01.439 He gives himself willingly. 00:25:01.439 --> 00:25:05.559 In John chapter 10, Jesus says, no one takes my life from me. 00:25:05.559 --> 00:25:09.919 I lay it down of my own accord. 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:17.279 He gives himself willingly, but not easily. 00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:21.160 If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. 00:25:21.160 --> 00:25:31.960 He pleads, he prays, he weeps, he's on his face in the dust, pleading with God. 00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:37.920 Let the cup pass, but not my will, but your will be done. 00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:47.039 He submits himself to the will of the Father and the God's rescue plan prospers in his 00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:49.160 hand. 00:25:49.160 --> 00:25:51.840 And he is delighted at the outcome. 00:25:51.840 --> 00:25:53.600 He's delighted at the outcome. 00:25:53.600 --> 00:25:59.080 Verse 10, it was the will of the Lord to crush him, he has put him to grief. 00:25:59.080 --> 00:26:03.800 He makes his soul an offering for guilt, but he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong 00:26:03.800 --> 00:26:04.800 his days. 00:26:04.799 --> 00:26:13.200 The Lord shall prosper in his hand, from the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. 00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:16.559 So there's a real interesting line there in verse 10, he shall see his offspring, he 00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:18.359 shall prolong his days. 00:26:18.359 --> 00:26:23.000 That's a connection back to Genesis 12 in the covenant with Abraham, where this promise 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:30.879 is made to Abraham that through your seed, the nations will be blessed. 00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:38.120 The offspring of Abraham will be a blessing to the whole world. 00:26:38.120 --> 00:26:42.320 The offspring, that's the key word here. 00:26:42.320 --> 00:26:47.680 Abraham was told that his offspring would be more numerous than the sand in the seashore, 00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:50.600 the stars in the sky. 00:26:50.600 --> 00:26:55.800 It was God's promise to create a family, a people. 00:26:55.800 --> 00:26:58.760 It was God's promise of rescue. 00:26:58.759 --> 00:27:06.119 Written in the book of Revelation is a great number that nobody can count. 00:27:06.119 --> 00:27:11.359 So Jesus by his suffering is the one who rescues his people. 00:27:11.359 --> 00:27:18.759 He sees his offspring, he sees the multitude that no one can number. 00:27:18.759 --> 00:27:24.200 We are his reward, in other words. 00:27:24.200 --> 00:27:29.360 Through the joy, the reward, the treasure for which he suffers. 00:27:29.360 --> 00:27:33.200 Why is he satisfied with the fruit of his suffering? 00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:35.960 Because through his suffering he gets you. 00:27:35.960 --> 00:27:40.880 Hebrews 12, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross despising its shame. 00:27:40.880 --> 00:27:47.640 Tim Keller says about that in the sermon, what joy did Jesus lack in heaven? 00:27:47.640 --> 00:27:51.360 What was the joy that Jesus did not have in heaven, that he wanted so much that he would 00:27:51.359 --> 00:27:54.959 come and endure the shame of the cross? 00:27:54.959 --> 00:27:59.439 And the answer to that is you. 00:27:59.439 --> 00:28:04.119 You're the joy that Jesus wanted with him in heaven. 00:28:04.119 --> 00:28:09.199 You're the joy that was set before him when he endured the cross. 00:28:09.199 --> 00:28:12.479 He's satisfied when he sees that he has rescued us. 00:28:12.479 --> 00:28:14.479 He's delighted. 00:28:14.479 --> 00:28:18.000 He knows it was worth it. 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:27.400 We are his joy, his reward, and so he becomes our joy and our treasure. 00:28:27.400 --> 00:28:32.440 Jesus said this, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. 00:28:32.440 --> 00:28:36.160 When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy he went and sold all he had, 00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:38.599 and he bought that field. 00:28:38.599 --> 00:28:42.319 Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:46.440 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything that he had and bought 00:28:46.440 --> 00:28:48.600 it. 00:28:48.600 --> 00:28:54.799 You are Jesus's great treasure. 00:28:54.799 --> 00:28:57.440 Is he your great treasure? 00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:03.380 Is he the one that you would sell everything for? 00:29:03.380 --> 00:29:10.120 Because he is your treasure, your joy, your great reward. 00:29:10.120 --> 00:29:14.080 When we really treasure something, we think about it a lot. 00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:21.599 You might want a relationship, somebody you see, and you would treasure a relationship 00:29:21.599 --> 00:29:22.599 with that person. 00:29:22.599 --> 00:29:26.319 You would give up anything to be in a relationship with them. 00:29:26.319 --> 00:29:28.039 You think about how can I meet them? 00:29:28.039 --> 00:29:30.799 How can I hang out when they're hanging out? 00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:33.519 How can I talk to their friends so that I can get an introduction? 00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:40.519 You start to think about this person all the time because you treasure them. 00:29:40.519 --> 00:29:45.599 You might want a job or a certain kind of career, and you think a lot, and you talk 00:29:45.599 --> 00:29:49.759 to the right people, and you pursue it, and you make sacrifices for relationships, you 00:29:49.759 --> 00:29:51.759 make sacrifices for careers. 00:29:51.759 --> 00:29:55.440 When you treasure something, you will give everything you have to get it, and that's 00:29:55.440 --> 00:29:58.079 what Jesus is saying. 00:29:58.079 --> 00:29:59.079 Treasure. 00:29:59.079 --> 00:30:00.079 Treasure me. 00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:07.720 What will you give up so that you can kneel before Jesus, kneel before the Father and 00:30:07.720 --> 00:30:08.720 feel his embrace? 00:30:08.720 --> 00:30:12.160 So there's going to be a lot of feasting going on this Christmas. 00:30:12.160 --> 00:30:16.759 I don't know what you're planning to binge on. 00:30:16.759 --> 00:30:17.759 Vegan haggis? 00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:19.480 I don't know. 00:30:19.480 --> 00:30:21.480 Some people will. 00:30:21.480 --> 00:30:24.720 Turkey, yes please. 00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:29.039 Some of you will binge on box sets and Netflix. 00:30:29.039 --> 00:30:33.160 Some of you will binge on wine perhaps. 00:30:33.160 --> 00:30:37.319 Please feast on Jesus. 00:30:37.319 --> 00:30:41.399 Feast on Christ. 00:30:41.399 --> 00:30:44.200 Set the time aside. 00:30:44.200 --> 00:30:46.319 Kneel before him. 00:30:46.319 --> 00:30:50.319 Ask God to help you to engage with the story of Jesus' birth. 00:30:50.319 --> 00:30:54.559 I've read a prayer this morning from a book of prayers for Advent, and part of the prayer 00:30:54.559 --> 00:30:55.759 was just this. 00:30:55.759 --> 00:31:02.799 Fill me again Lord with childlike wonder and renewed hope about the story of the birth of 00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:03.799 Jesus. 00:31:03.799 --> 00:31:11.599 I pray that familiar scriptures would come alive in fresh and transforming ways that my 00:31:11.599 --> 00:31:18.839 heart would be inflamed with gratitude and praise. 00:31:18.839 --> 00:31:25.799 So many things you could feast on this Christmas, but only one of them is a true and lasting 00:31:25.799 --> 00:31:30.480 treasure, and that's Jesus. 00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:33.279 Let's get the picture up again, Glen, just as I finish. 00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:34.559 So there we go again. 00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:37.039 What can I say from this passage? 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:39.119 He loves you. 00:31:39.119 --> 00:31:40.960 He loves you. 00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:42.839 He loves you. 00:31:42.839 --> 00:31:47.680 His love is costly, it's extravagant, it's a rescuing love, it's a life-giving love, 00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:49.680 it's a joyful love. 00:31:49.680 --> 00:31:51.399 It's a love for you. 00:31:51.399 --> 00:31:56.039 The love you read of in Isaiah 53 is a love for you. 00:31:56.039 --> 00:32:06.799 And so I invite you to kneel before him, in your inner person kneel before him now. 00:32:06.799 --> 00:32:17.119 Kneel before your Father in heaven and ask him to place around you the arms of his love. 00:32:17.119 --> 00:32:25.279 Ask that he would give you a taste of his joy, and as you ask, ask boldly when you ask God 00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:28.000 for things. 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:30.599 Ask for great joy. 00:32:30.599 --> 00:32:33.359 Ask for a great feast. 00:32:33.359 --> 00:32:36.440 Ask for a great embrace. 00:32:36.440 --> 00:32:38.440 Ask for great love. 00:32:38.440 --> 00:32:44.200 We're going to pray very briefly, and then we're going to sing a song. 00:32:44.200 --> 00:32:49.799 Lord, we do pray that as we think of Jesus this evening, that we would have an appetite 00:32:49.799 --> 00:32:52.639 and a desire for him above everything else. 00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:59.680 Well, God, may we kneel before you now in humility of heart. 00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:03.720 May we come to you now and ask. 00:33:03.720 --> 00:33:12.280 Father receive us, and Father hold us, and do not let us go. 00:33:12.280 --> 00:33:14.280 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:33:14.279 --> 00:33:24.279 Amen.