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Sunday, November 30, 2014

Giving thanks to the Sin-bearer - Isaiah 53 (Sermon #5)


Isaiah 53 English Standard Version (ESV) 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—every one—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 a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who has 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.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; He (God!) has put him to grief; and when his soul makes an offering for guilt, this God shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 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. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered along with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and even today makes intercession for the transgressors.

Opening Prayer – Great God, in public & in private, at church & at home, may our lives be steeped in prayer, filled with grace, each prayer perfumed with the atonement of our Lord.  Help us, defend us, urged by our need, invited by your promise, called by your Spirit, we enter your presence, we worship you, awed by your majesty, your greatness and glory and we are encouraged by your love.

On our own we are all poverty & guilt, having nothing of our own to repay you with, but we bring Jesus.  We bring Jesus in armfuls of faith, pleading his righteousness to offset our iniquities, rejoicing that He will weigh down the scales of justice for us.  We bless you when great sin is outdone by great grace, that although the least sin deserves infinite punishment yet there is mercy for us, for where guilt is most terrible; there your mercy is free & deep.  Bless us by giving us more of you.  Give us every rest when Christ reigns with in us in every thought, word & deed.  Purify our hearts, Spirit, overcome the world, fasten us to you and ever cling us to that cross.

O Son of God, Son of Man, You were incarnate, suffered, rose & ascended for our sakes.  Your departure was not a token of separation but a pledge of your return; your Word, promises, and sacraments carry us on until your return.  Yet that future Day of Judgment holds no horror to me, your death has redeemed me, your Spirit fills me, and your Love & Word sustain & guide me.  I have trusted you and you have not betrayed that trust; we wait on you, but not in vain.  These corruptible bodies will one day put on the incorruptible; this mortal – immortality; this sick, weak & frail body – a glorified body.  For now we cling to your promises & your words, but beyond the grave is resurrection, judgment, acquittal, and peace.  Every event & circumstance of our lives will be dealt with – from secret sins to disobeying your Word, sins of neglect & violations of conscience – all will be judged.  But for your Elect after judgment, will come peace, rest, life & service.  O God, keep us in this faith, and ever looking for Christ’s return.  And all of God’s children said, “Amen.”

Intro
My sermon is entitled: Giving thanks to the Sin-bearer (Isaiah 53)
Good morning, Calvary.  I am happy to be with you today.  By my reckoning, this is about the 4th time I’ve preached here.  For me one of the benefits of not being the regular pastor at the church is unlike Brian who regularly preaches through a book of the Bible; I get to be a highligher to jump around with you and review, what I feel, are the best passages from the whole of Scripture.  Thinking back to those sermons I’ve already done before, we’ve already looked at John 1 - where evangelism was described as John the Baptist pointing others to the Savior, we looked at Ephesians 1 – where we discussed the generous doctrine of Adoption into God’s family and we’ve looked at Psalm 51 with King David’s repentance & faith & restoration after his affair with Bathsheba and the murder of his lover’s husband.  Today we get to spend a little time in what I find to be one of the single best descriptions of the Purpose & Work of Christ in the whole of Scripture and yes its even in the OT.  Today we’ll be looking at Christ in 3 aspects.  First, will be from the OT’s perspective and looking forward to the coming Savior.  Second, will be focused on our passage and what it says about the purpose & work of Christ.  And finally we’ll jump to that scary book at the end of the Bible and briefly look at how Christ’s work and our particular salvation come together in true worship. 
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As we are now transitioning into the Advent season I picked this particular passage as a reminder of the point of Advent.  Advent or “the coming”, for Christians, is a season that is meant to anticipate the 2 comings of Christ from two slightly different perspectives.  This season offers you 1st the opportunity to share in the ancient Jewish longing for the coming of the Messiah, while 2nd also being alert for his Second Coming.
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One of the things that originally sparked my interest in doctrine and church practice was some issues I was having at my old church.  While often these people where very nice, moral, friendly people the more time I personally spent reading the Bible the more often I would get upset by what was being done there and what was being taught there.  One of the seven beliefs they had in their brief belief statement was an emphasis on the NT, nearly to exclusion of the OT completely.  This emphasis is to such an extent that I personally don’t remember a single sermon on or regarding the Old Testament at all.  Today as someone who better understands the NT, which is absolutely jam packed with OT references and illusions and metaphors and having read the Early Church Fathers who also made great use of the OT in teaching Christ.  I became concerned if other Christians were likewise ignoring 2/3rds of their Bibles.  It was in studying the OT from Church Fathers that I was introduced to a whole new world of Christianity that I’d been previously deprived of.  It was like growing up your whole life only knowing of the AM channels on the car radio and then suddenly being introduced to not only FM but also Sirius Satellite Radio or Pandora. 

One of the reasons that I picked this OT passage was to emphasize how fulfilling studying the OT can be and to warn against this impulse some have in ignoring the majority of the Bible simply because it’s old or because their culture was so dis-similar to ours today.  So that is my first admonition to you, read the bible & don’t skip the OT.

Section #1 – Jesus as seen in the OT
As I said the Apostles in the NT and the Early Church Fathers seemed to find Christ hidden behind every burning bush, wooden ark & sacrificial lamb in the OT.  Often the way they did this was in 3 different aspects and I won’t go into great detail on each of them but my hope is just being introduced to these it will give you a whole new avenue in which you can read and study the Bible.  So these 3 aspects were: by Christophany, by theme, & by Messianic prophecy.

So what’s a Christophany?
A funny thing when studying diverse modern religions is that all religions seem to make a big deal about Jesus.  It’s as if Jesus were actually true & to hold to their particular beliefs they have to justify their view of Jesus.  Muslims honor him as an exalted prophet.  Mormons, Hindus & ancient Romans often saw him as just one of many gods.  Even atheists see him as some grand teacher of morality combined with myths of the supernatural.  But Paul & John in Scripture spend a lot of time in describing him as the very God of Heaven himself, made flesh & come among us.  So a Christophany is a term that describes a meeting with Jesus prior to his birth in Bethlehem.  That might sound like an odd sentence; meeting someone before they are born but remember that Christianity teaches that Jesus is God himself made Man, an eternal being not someone who only existed as of roughly 5 BC to AD.  You might call it a pre-existent appearance of Christ.  Many theologians even argue that when the term The Angel of the Lord appeared in the OT was also an example of a Christophany.  As the term angel really only means a messenger of God’s Word.  A few examples of a Christophany are: God walking with Adam in the Garden of Eden (Gen 1-3); Abram meeting with the Lord (Gen 12 & 18); Jacob wrestling with God (Gen 32); the 4th man in the fiery furnace protecting Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego (Daniel 3); and the Commander of the Army of the Lord from the Battle of Jericho (Joshua 5).  And all of these images were used to describe to believers that the very point of Scripture was the person & work of Christ.

Theme
The Apostles and Church Fathers also taught Christ from the OT in themes, symbols & types.  You might say in the same way that Adam was Man’s representative before God in sin, Jesus now becomes a Christian’s representative before God in salvation or the work of the wooden cross in salvation is prefigured in Noah’s salvation from the raging waters of God’s judgment in his wooden ark.  And on and on they would go breathing new life into old stories and finding deeper and richer meanings for OT passages that continually pointed forward to a better & more righteous leader - a king, a Savior who was to come.
And that brings us to Messianic prophecies.  The NT frequently cites OT scriptures to support the Early Churches claims that Jesus of Nazareth was the ultimate Messiah “or the anointed one” that the Jews were foretold to expect.
Messianic Prophecy
There are many Old Testament prophecies about Jesus Christ.  Some interpreters place the number of Messianic prophecies in the hundreds.  A few which are considered the clearest and most important are… Isaiah 7:14: the virgin birth, Isaiah 9:6 God becomes a man, Micah 5:2 the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, Isaiah 40 the ministries of John the Baptist & Jesus are prophesied, Isaiah 50:6 accurately describes the beating that Jesus would endure, Zechariah 12:10 predicts the “piercing” of the Messiah, Zechariah 9:9: says, “See, your king comes to you, O Jerusalem, having righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey,” Psalm 22:16-18 says, “a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.  Yet I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.  They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing,” and our passage Isaiah 53:9 even describes Jesus as occupying a rich man’s tomb (think Joseph of Arimathea) & that he was killed even though he was neither violent nor a liar.
Now to be perfectly honest, individually they are defiantly vague & often disputed but I find from the mass of them, as a whole, they create a collage (if you can imagine an art collage) of bits & pieces of information that all taken together form an elaborate picture to the person and work of Christ, who he is and what he came to do.  

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Its interesting that many of these Messianic Prophecies come from the book of Isaiah which has been immensely influential in the expression of Christianity.  The regard in which Isaiah has been held is so high that the book is frequently called "the Fifth Gospel".  In effect we’d have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John & Isaiah.  Isaiah was the one prophet who spoke the most clearly of Christ and the Church than any other OT prophet.  

Section # 2
Before we look at the ministry of Christ I want to tell you a quick story- Its probably no surprise to you that before Sandra & I had 3 kids we had a bit more money to spend on ourselves & we went on a few tropical cruises.  It was a great time.  Cruising is fun: people dress up in eveningwear, there are fancy dinners, drinks, gambling, Las Vegas style entertainment, a bedroom that travels with you and lots and lots of food.

Now picture all of that & then imagine the exact opposite of a vacation.  Instead of clean it was dirty; instead of a nice wait staff people wanted to kill you; instead of stuffed you were hungry; instead of a place to stay you were homeless; instead of fun you were beaten, lied about, mocked, spat on & worst.  That is what the ministry of our Lord was like & not for a short week’s vacation but for a 33-year…I don’t know, let’s call it an “anti-vacation”.

Maybe nowhere in all the OT is it so plainly & fully prophesied what Christ must come & suffer, before he would enter into his glory than this chapter.  Friends it would take a year to do justice to this passage.  A year to point out every parallel from this OT passage to the NT fulfillment in the life & especially the Passion of Christ & he fulfills all of this for you because you (no matter how great you think you are) you are not righteous enough for His heaven.  It is this realization of personal unworthiness and his work to earn that righteousness for you that leads sinners to repentance and calls beggars to God’s table where he sets a banquet before the unworthy.  
If I had to condense all of this passage to a FB post, to distill its gospel it would have to be vs. 4-6, which state this “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 [with God], and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

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So few people today concern themselves with this most authentic & important report – that Salvation has come for Sinners, through the Son of God.

The low condition he submitted to and his appearance were not what the Jews were looking for in the Messiah, he should have come from good stock, be handsome, proud, regale, wealthy, a warrior, a king.  Instead he was mocked as the bastard child of a Roman soldier, the spawn of a knocked-up teen-mom.

In this section are the accounts of his suffering and the design for his suffering.  It was for our sins (vs. 5), in our place (vs. 11) that the Prince of Heaven had to descend to earth.  We have all sinned, come short of the righteousness God requires (vs. 6).  These sins deserve all grief and sorrow that come our way, probably even worst than we get.  But we are saved from ruin, by laying our sin on Christ and receiving from him his righteousness (vs. 11).  This is the only way of Salvation.  Our sins were the thorns in his head, the nails in his hands & feet, the spear that pierced his side.  He was delivered to death for our offense (vs. 12).  And from this we’ve been taught to love him who first showed his love for us.

Come & see how he loved us!  We could not drag him down out of heaven so he came on his own.  We could not force him to obey the Law for us so he did it out of love.  We could not make him die for us so he showed his compassion in acts of self-sacrifice.

And note that he did not send another, no angel took his place, and no devoted disciple fulfilled his task.  He will not commit the care of His family to another, no God does it all himself by putting on flesh & doing what we did not and could not.  God’s purposes take effect, so he shall see the conversion & the salvation of sinners.  There are many he gave his life for, many still he intends to draw along this path of salvation.  By his work & by his free grace, we are saved through faith & repentance.  Through gifts and reminders like baptism and the Lord’s Supper we are sanctified, soon glorified.  But we must know him, believe on him.  We must repent to him, trust him, as the one who bore our sins and saved us from sinking under the load, by taking our burden from off our backs and taking it upon his own.

As we survey these sufferings designed for the Son of God, let us remember our own catalogue of transgressions and consider him as suffering under the load of our guilt. Here he has laid the firm foundation for the trembling sinner & rest for the weary soul. We Calvary are the purchase of his blood; we are the prizes of his grace as he continually pleads & intercedes for us before the Father.

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Despite the fact that many modern Jews teach this passage as referring to their own perseverance in the face of anti-Semite persecution, many from Jewish history taught otherwise:
So pretend you are a Jew from ancient times for a moment and listen to these words about this passage, that we’ve already read.  This is from Rabbi Mosheh Kohen Ibn Crispin: who described those who interpret Isaiah 53 as referring merely to Israel as those who quote "have forsaken the knowledge of our Teachers, and inclined after the `stubbornness of their own hearts,' and of their own opinion.  I am pleased to interpret it, in accordance with the teaching of our Rabbis, as the prophecy of the King Messiah....This prophecy was delivered by Isaiah at the divine command for the purpose of making known to us something about the nature of the future Messiah, who is to come and deliver God’s people, and his life from the day when he arrives until his advent as a redeemer, in order that if anyone should arise claiming to be himself the Messiah, we may reflect, and look to see whether we can observe in him any resemblance to the traits described here; if there is any such resemblance, then we may believe that he is the Messiah our righteousness; but if not, we cannot do so."
Now I’m not a Jew I’m one of the goyim (a gentile) but that may be the best Gospel call I’ve ever heard so let me say that to you.  Here is my 2nd admonishion.  For you who know you are saved if Jesus sounds like the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 then believe on him as your Savior & your righteousness & worship Him….and for you who know you are not saved Jesus said it even clearer, “Repent & believe the Gospel.”  This is the gospel.  And for you who fall somewhere in the gray (in between) not sure if you are saved or not.  For you I say, give some time to be reminded of our Lord, his life and his message of redemption.  Read Isaiah 53 again before Christmas & the Gospel of John for the New Years and see if getting more of Christ makes your heart swell for joy or you really couldn’t care less about him, that’ll tell you better than I could if your really saved or not.
Section # 3

Having looked at one of my favorite OT passages regarding the coming (or advent) of Christ I’d like to move on to one of my favorite NT passages – Revelation 5.  After all that we’ve reviewed from thousands of years of OT prophecies & promises of the Messiah to come, to the very Gospel of the Salvation of sinners, done by the Son of God described in Isaiah 53, we now see what all of that is intended to culminate in, True Worship. 

These are the words of thanksgiving for our Sin-bearer from Revelation 5.  The assembled masses of heaven cry out: “Worthy are you…for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.  Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! To him who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever and ever!”

Now when I say worship I don’t merely mean to sing or clap or raise your hands in the air, although those things are fine.  What worship is, especially for Baptists, begins with attitude.  Is your heart in the right place?  Are we worshiping according to what the Lord has revealed in Scripture?  But if worship is not just a type of music, then what does it involve?  For Christians its setting aside a day of the week in honor of Christ, the Son’s Day.  It’s Communion, commemorating Christ’s life, death and resurrection until his return.  It’s prayer, which should be directed only to God, not to angels, or dead saints, popes or even to Mary.  It includes singing and making music from your heart to the Lord, which is giving thanks to the Father for everything!  It’s offerings, giving back to the Lord with a thankful heart.  At Christmas time we find it not odd thing to give gifts to our loved ones.  Offerings are like that to God, except they have the added benefit of carrying on the mission of the Church & caring for the poor.  Worship is preaching & teaching, learning more about God & his Word from men and women dedicated to imparting what they know to others.

The author of Hebrews has this to say, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.”  True worship is not confined to what we do in church.  True worship is the acknowledgment of God and all His power and glory in everything we do. When we eat, sleep, work, serve, and live from sunup to sundown, all that we do is to be in a spirit of worship & thanksgiving to God.  True worship is offered to God from the depths of our inner being in praise and prayer, in song, in giving, in learning and in living, but always based upon His revealed truth.  So that is my final admonition to you, to review your life to see if it is one of worship of God or yourself or anything else that you need to repent of?

As I wrap us up this morning I’d like to recommend a book to you – David Murray’s Jesus on Every Page.  Its only $5 used on Amazon & this book will walk you through 10 simple ways to seek & find Christ in the OT.  Secondly, even though my sermon’s focus was on the gospel, one of the most amazing miracles in all of Scripture is the incarnation.  There is no more apt title for Christ between Thanksgiving & Christmas, this Advent season, than Immanuel “God with us.”  And finally there was 1 last point of Worship that I left out, service.  Much like thanksgiving, there isn’t a more “Christian” thing to do that reflects the service & self-sacrifice of our Lord than to serve others.  If it’s a soup kitchen, an assisted living facility, or an orphanage I’d like to challenge every one of you to find an area in which you can show love & serve the sinners of this world, as an act of Worship to our Lord.  This advent season; take the time to give thanks to the Sin-bearer.  Thank you.  

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