CRUSHED for Glory

Isaiah 53:10–12 NLT

But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

Today is a celebration, year in and year out, we shout, give praise glorify God, thank him and give him honor unlike any other Sunday. It’s a sight to see, a day of doctrines unified and denominations rendered useless and void of significance. Regardless of your ethnicity, social, financial or mental health status, the Christian community and even non Christians can all agree on one thing. There was a report made that a man who was severely beaten, after being wrongfully accused, and then killed in a most heinous way, suddenly rose from the dead. Not only did he rise, but he himself was the cause. He possessed a power than no human before nor since possessed because he was able to rise up all on his own.

To the believer, this is confirmation, this is cause for celebration, this is the pinnacle of your faith and it is why you can so boldly proclaim what you are and whose you are. Why? Certainly if the report is false or if you really don’t believe in the report then, you lose. We are empowered to be who we are by this day. How can I be saved if Jesus didn’t rise, how can The Holy Ghost be in me if Jesus didn’t go back to be with the Father and ascended into the heavens, how do I have access to eternal life except I believe in the Life, death, burial and resurrection of one Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It all means nothing if today does not happen. Yet since it did, we celebrate.

We lift our hands,

we open our mouths,

we shout to God,

we come with glad hearts,

we leap for joy,

We know how to have, the believers that is, a good time in God. The question that I have for the church today though, is do we appreciate it? You see it’s easy to adore God, when you know how the story ends. Movies and various shows and other forms of framed storytelling has groomed us to expect a glorious ending despite how murky, uncomfortable and bleak the internal sections are. As a matter of fact many people have ceased to enjoy the thrill of storytelling and have started skipping to see how it ends. Because if I know how it ends I will have nothing to worry about. The problem with skipping chapters, is that you get to a place where you simply adore the story but you’re in a place where you don’t appreciate the process. We adore the finished work of God but we lack appreciation for his labor.

I had a conversation with my wife through our rough years in our marriage. At this time we’re probably on our 2nd or 3rd stint of marital counseling, and we just could not seem to get along. If walking on egg shells is really a thing, we couldn’t even fly over one without upsetting the other one. At times it seemed as if there was an all out war ready to break out at any time. Well here we are on the precipice of another argument and, me being tired of arguing, just said “What is your problem!?” and my wife said “ I know you love me, but I really don’t feel like you like me”. I’m stuck, I said “Of course I like you, that’s how we got together of course I like you” she said no, you liked me then but I don’t know if you like me now. Do I like you now?

I

Compliment your cooking

Satisfied with our lovelife

Congratulate you business ownership

I think I act like I like you. She said yes you affirm my results, but you show no interest in my process.

The anxiety that comes from insecurity about her cooking

The mental toiling that takes places to be satisfactory as a lover

The exhaustion that comes with integrating Motherhood, being a wife and being a business owner.

And she was right! I’d shown none of those things, at that point. Not that I did it on purpose, it just was not apart of my husband make up at the time. I was so satisfied with the end that I paid no attention to the process.

Not only am I here today to celebrate the end, but I want to bring understanding that thereby power to us, not just by looking at the end but by highlighting the process.

You can never truly celebrate the end without appreciating the process.

The Suffering Servant

The Prophet Isaiah, was known not simply just for prophesying but for accurate prophesying and having many of his foretelling prophecies coming to pass. So even those prophecies that he would give that had not yet happened during his lifetime, did not diminish the appreciation for his gift it was just understood that it was going to happen later, but it was going to happen. So here we see in chapter 53 that infamous section of the Suffering Servant which is a prophetic foretelling of Jesus. He says-

Read and Paraphrase Isaiah 53:1–9

Isaiah 53:1–9 KJV 1900

Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, And as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: And we hid as it were our faces from him; He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, And carried our sorrows: Yet we did esteem him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: The chastisement of our peace was upon him; And with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned every one to his own way; And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, Yet he opened not his mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, So he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: For the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, And with the rich in his death; Because he had done no violence, Neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Now in all of these we see a vivid description of Christ, the colorful painting of Christ’s lack of popularity and underwhelming human desire for him as a person. We see an insightful look into his mistreatment and lack of consideration by those who were in the same generation as he. Then we see the ultimate and final view of his earthly ministry. Isaiah 53:5 is one of the most remembered, rehearsed and recited verses of all time, and not for nothing because every word in it is nothing but factual. He was wounded for my sins, bruised for my iniquities, he suffered for my peace and I am healed but only by his stripes. All true. We read in the Gospels that he stood before the Sanhedrin, Caiaphas, Herod and Pontius Pilate in silence, taking abuse both physical and verbal, be silent despite false accusations, and then after he came down from the cross we see where he was laid. Yet it’s the next 3 verses that got me. This it the purpose of the Author, the author being God and not Isaiah.

Isaiah 53:10–12 NLT

But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

It was the Lord’s Good plan to crush him? This is not the God of every preacher, teacher, evangelist, pastor, prophet, apostle that the world promotes. That God, is mushy and cute and only wants me to be happy. That God loves me and tells me I can do whatever I want because God is love and surely if he loves me he will allow me to be me even if I am nothing like him. That God is completely happy with me only being in his image and has no interest in me being in his likeness. That God?

This ain’t him. This God had a plan, and his plan was to crush the servant and cause him grief. Why would God ever anyone or anything to be crushed and for them to feel grief?

He was crushed-crushing was important

Why did Jesus have to be crushed, because crushing brings out the best!

In mining, Gold Crushing is necessary so that the miner can prepare the minerals for separation from Gangue.

Jewish act of the sin offering instructed people to “transfer” their sins onto the sacrifice, Gangue is worthless and has no value-God crushed Jesus to separate the high value of his son from the worthlessness of our sins.

Why did Jesus have to be crushed? Because crushing produces more!

In construction, rock crushing is necessary to produce reusable material

Jesus when approached by his family during his teachings said these are my brothers and sisters, the ones who do the will of my father, he established a new understanding of family, that had nothing to do with DNA but had everything to do with the will of God.

God Crushed jesus so that he could produce more sons and daughters who would carry out his will on the Earth. The Mind, heart, authority and power that is in Christ has been made available as reusable materials for us to carry out the Father’s will

SO as, we read of a good plan. there’s a contingency, Crushed for Glory

For the grief he had to endure there would be:

Many Descendants -results from the rock crushing

A long life- results from the gold crushing

Lords good plan prospering- 2 Peter 3:9

2 Peter 3:9 NLT

The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.