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The Turning Point
Wednesday July 29, 2009 Preached at Brother Bryan Mission
Tonight, we will be taking a look at the last part of the Servant Songs which are an Old Testament prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ written some 800 years before Christ was born. Please turn with me to Isaiah 53.
We began several weeks ago with the first Servant Song from Isaiah 42, where we learned that this Servant was chosen by God to bring forth Justice to the world, to strengthen the weak and needy, and that because He is supported by the Lord God, He will not fail. In the Second Servant Song from Isaiah 49, we learned that this Servant is God’s instrument, not only to redeem Israel, but to redeem, and bring light to every corner and dark place, of the entire earth. And then we learned from Isaiah 50 about how Jesus was humiliated, but was not ashamed because the Lord God would help Him. And last week, Dominic told us about this Servant, Jesus, who was both an exalted Servant, as well as a Suffering Servant who was nailed to the cross for our sins.
Tonight, I want us to look at the Dying Servant. I want to look at the death of Jesus on the Cross. This is indeed the turning point in history. It is the event which has led us to separate history into BC and AD. And it is the event which many of you and I look to as the point at which we have passed from death to life. It is the moment that believers were transferred from this perishable, dying world into life everlasting and imperishable. Indeed, this Servant died in order that you and I might live!
Read with me verses 7 and 8. Here we see that this Servant, Jesus, died willingly for our sins.
“He [Jesus] was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open 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 For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?”
In these verses, we see some themes which we have seen in the Servant Songs before. Remember in the Third Servant Song, we discussed the Humiliated Servant who willingly gave His body to be beaten and He did not turn back. And last week, we discussed how Jesus was willingly put on the cross to take up our sins. So here again, we see that Jesus did not open His mouth to defend Himself, just as an innocent lamb that is led to the slaughter. And He was just like a sheep going to get his hair cut. He remained silent. He “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross” a most vile and painful way to die.
And He did die. He hanged on that cross for hours, gasping for breath as He pushed Himself up in excruciating pain with His nail-pierced feet trying to catch a breath. And then He would fall back down, resting on His nail-pierced hands. This would pull His arms up which would cut off His breathing—He would slowly suffocate to death. You will remember that the Jews would not allow a man to hang on a cross on the Sabbath, so as night fell, they went to break His legs, but found Jesus already dead. To be sure He was dead, they threw a spear through His side, which went up into His heart, and He gushed blood and water. The King of kings, and the Lord of lords was dead.
But the reason the Father God asked Him to die was to pay the penalty for your sins. For as Scripture tells us, again and again, “The penalty of sin is death.” When Adam and Eve first sinned in the Garden of Eden, it was because of their sin that the Lord God proclaimed, “You will surely die!” And we too, like our forefathers, Adam and Eve, have “all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
We have sinned against friends. We have sinned against enemies. We have sinned against family members. We have sinned against strangers. We have sinned against ourselves. And greatest of all, we have sinned against God Almighty. The Wages, the penalty, the payment for sin is death—separation from the Living God.
You are a sinner. I am a sinner. We deserve death. That is what we owe. That is what we are due. This is why Jesus Christ came to die. He came to pay the penalty for sin.
A few months ago, I had a bill of several thousand dollars that I could not pay. My wife and I prayed that the Lord would provide, but the date that it was due came and went. We simply did not have the money. We continued to pray even past the due date. We were about to be punished severely for the lack of payment, so I went to inquire and see if the Lord had provided. When I looked, the balance that was due was ZERO. The payment had been made in FULL.
This is what Jesus came to do. He came to pay our debt of death. But He did not come just to pay anyone’s debt. He came to pay the debt of those the Lord calls in verse 8, “my people” to whom the penalty was due. So you need to ask yourself: Are you part of the people of God? If not, your payment of eternal death and misery will be demanded.
So far in these Servant Songs, there have been glimmers of hope for the Servant Jesus, but also a lot of pain and misery. But in verse 9, we see a turning point. Previously, we had seen a lot of hope for us, but not much hope for the Servant who would be humiliated and killed. But here in verse 9, we come to a turning point. Read with me in verse 9.
“His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.”
You will remember that when Jesus died, a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of Jesus. He took the body of Jesus and laid Him in a tomb—a beautiful tomb for a wealthy person—a tomb in which no body had been laid—a tomb which could not, which would not hold the Lord Jesus Christ. He remained for three short days before rising again to life. This is why we can taunt with Scripture, “Death was swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory. O death, where is thy sting?” It is we who are in Christ Jesus who have victory over death, for He conquered death for us.
This is not a sermon on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but I had to say something about it. For Jesus Christ was not just a martyr who died for a good cause. He was not just like Martin Luther King, or Perpetua, or even the Apostles Peter, James, Andrew, Thomas who were martyred for following Jesus. They are all dead. But Jesus Christ is not dead. He is alive!
His death is also more than a martyr’s death as we see in verse 10. His death paid the penalty of our sin and makes those who believe in Him children of God. Read with me in verse 10:
“But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”
“The Lord was pleased to crush Him.” Is God some sick, sadistic God who delights in the pain of His Servant? NO! We see throughout Scripture what God delights in: He delights in unchanging love (Micah 7:18), in loyalty rather than sacrifice (Hos. 6:6), in lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness (Jer. 9:24), in truth in the innermost being (Ps. 51:6). And in Psalm 51 it tells us that God delights in righteous sacrifices (Ps. 51:19). And what sacrifice is more righteous than the righteous sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God was pleased with this most perfect, blameless and holy sacrifice—the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
You may be wondering what it means that this Servant is a Guilt Offering. You are probably at least familiar with the fact that in the Old Testament, the people were required to go up to the Temple in Jerusalem and offer sacrifices in faithful obedience as payment for sin. The Guilt Offering as well as the Sin Offering were the first of the five offerings offered as a worshipper entered into the Temple Courts.
You see, when Adam and Eve sinned, they lost that sweet, precious open and immediate access to God. Sin separated them and it separates us from God. The unrighteous cannot enter into the presence of God. It was in the sacrifices of the Temple that God provided a way of access for sinners to Himself.
The Guilt Offering in particular is the sacrifice offered by one who has sinned against God Himself even if unintentionally or unknowingly. In our sin, we have robbed God of the glory that is due to Him. This offering calls on us to repay what we have stolen from God. If we have stolen from people, we are to repay what we stole. The sacrifice would offer to God the rest of what we have owed to Him—His glory and honor which we have taken in our sin.
Just before Jesus died as He was hanging on the cross, He cried out, “It is finished!” Payment for sin was made. And in the Temple—where sacrifices were made—the veil, the curtain, which separated humanity from the holy presence of God, was torn in two. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was sufficient to cover the sins of the whole world. And there was no longer any need for the Temple. / But you and I still need an offering in order to enter into the presence of God—in order to enter into eternal life in the New Heaven. For we cannot enter in as sinners without a payment for our sin. We must bring our offering. We must bring our payment. But the only way you can claim Jesus Christ as your payment for sin is if you confess your sin and repent from your sin and put your faith and trust in Him. It is when you confess your sins and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ that you can hear those precious words from 1 John: “He is faithful and just [righteous] to forgive you your sins, and to cleanse you from ALL unrighteousness.” And then we can sing that glorious hymn:
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
And this is what we see in verse 11. We who know Jesus Christ are made righteous. Read with me:
“As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge [or by our knowing] the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify [He will make righteous] the many, As He will bear their iniquities.”
Let me read this one part again : “By knowing the Righteous One, My Servant, He will make the many righteous.”
I mentioned before that the unrighteous cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven or into the presence of God. Scripture tells us that “there is none who is righteous.” We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But we see in this passage that when we come to know the Righteous One, the Servant, Jesus Christ, He will make us righteous and able to enter into His presence and into His kingdom. For we who have believed, Romans 3 tells u,s have been “justified [made righteous] as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25whom God displayed publicly as a payment for sin in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness…so that He would be just [or righteous] and the justifier [One who makes righteous] of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
What more blessings could one ask for? To know Jesus Christ is to be made righteous—it is to have access to God Himself—it is to have admittance into the kingdom of heaven. But—there is more.
Read with me in verse 12.
“Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.”
This Servant has been promised a great reward for His obedience. Like a victorious warrior who has returned from battle with great treasure, this Servant, this King has been given all praise and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever. “He is the radiance of God’s glory…and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Heb 1:2ff). He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the Prince of Peace, the Almighty God, the Alpha, the Omega, the First and the Last. He is the Savior, Redeemer, Deliverer and Intercessor. And His Great and Glorious Kingdom will never end.
Will you be a part of His Kingdom? Will you accept Him, and trust Him as your one and only sacrifice for sins? Will you become one of “His people” for whom He died? Will you be one of His offspring—one of the children of God? Scripture tells us: “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.”
As children of God we get to share in the inheritance of Christ. The treasures which we gain from our Great Redeemer are incomprehensible, unfathomable, glorious and completely satisfying. Will you take part in this inheritance? In this sharing in the reward which Christ has gained for us?
Have you had your turning point? We saw tonight how Jesus had His turning point. He was the Servant who was humiliated, and who greatly suffered and died on the Cross in order to save you and me. But He had a turning point. Because of His obedience, He was appointed to a grave which could not hold Him. He turned from death to life.
But have you had that turning point in Christ where you have passed from death to life? If not, I pray that you will turn your life to this most wonderful Servant who gave His life for you.
In order to receive this most wonderful gift of forgiveness, you must confess that you are a sinner. Then, you must repent from your sin, and turn to trust in the love and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s pray.