Who is that? Looking past the shadow #18

Thousand people here and chances to preach the gospel to share the truth with people. At it was good, it was good to go back for a second to the

That day at the toy drive, with the toy thing. Today, was great. We had we filled up the auditorium, like, every seat 5 * think. I did two messages. Tim did too. And Sean did one. And so it was like and then we have already go out the door that they had a bunch of delineators made a line to go into the fellowship hall. Then people would get into Fellowship Hall, if the kids would get their toy, then they come out the back and Sammy and our church what we were doing. And some of those people we were hot chocolate and cookies and stuff and then there was also a jumpy out there and face painting and so people stayed and it was good, it was really good. We had a good time and it was a real blessing and getting so many people just to come into the building and talk and get a chance to share the gospel with him. It was a huge blessing so that was good. I wanted to talk today. I'm going to go to change gears and kind of get into what are actual messages for today. And we're, we're kind of, I was, I've been doing the whole thing on the shadow of the Cross before she before Thanksgiving. And I Go back to that. But I also want that kind of come back to Also kind of like to introduce your friend also very into Christmas season. So there's a couple things that I thought would work out. Well, one in Israel, on the Eastern side of his real, it's just west of the Dead Sea, there's these Cliffs and mountains that are very dry, and that's a picture. And this is the place called where they found the Dead. Sea Scrolls. And the Dead Sea Scrolls are really kind of an interesting thing and they really help with understanding a lot of more about what the Bible is one. Here's a example of 100K. You would have meant, what the hell pit? What did you really didn't do with that? It looks pretty but you know, they've taken them and clean them and they supposedly have more play. The kind of explains it a little bit more precisely than me just rambling about it. So let's do this.

It's kind of interesting things went there ended 40s, 1946 Sheppard. I guess is what we call a sheepherder. Was he discovered jars that had these old rolled up manuscripts and they had them at the bed with camps, and they kind of hung them all up to. It was pretty crazy at the time, it was like, wow, what is this? And, and, and then, they realize what these old man is. The prize manuscript of all of them is that there's a manuscript of the book of Isaiah. And I, when I was in Jerusalem, I went to the place where they have this stored. So, it's this whole manuscript and you don't know if you go through, its the whole book of Isaiah. All it is in the thing, that's amazing about this, which have another look at the end. But the thing that's really amazing about the Dead Sea. Scrolls is before the Dead Sea Scrolls, there was, what was called the masoretic text. That was dated to around, you know, almost close to 1,000 ad. Okay. And these were discovered and they were they were there from a time period of 300 BC to 100 AD. So there's like a man, use this. Manuscript of Isaiah is about 1000 years older than the previously previous oldest one that existed. So in the thing that's cool about that, is it what if you compare the one? Cuz you know everybody? I'm sure if you've ever talked to anybody about the Bible, you've heard him say Well, yeah but it's copies of copies and translate it and then it's retranslated from that. And it's all this. So then what what happened We have the manuscript and then that's from, you know, it was from about fifteen hundred years or so. Before you do the actual events were fifteen hundred years ago. Okay, well in fifteen hundred years lot of stuff could happen. Okay. Well what if now we just find another one over here and this is a thousand years older than that one. Well, that kind of gives you a clue of how much changing is going on because you let us a snapshot hear of a thousand years before and now you can compare it to when Jeff and they're they're like this, they're so close. You can't say they're not identical. There's you know, they'll go if you talk 4% or 5% of differences to the differences. Are you can see somebody transposed the letter somebody you know, they misspelled the name but those are the kind of mistakes and that's like 99% of the differences. So what we're saying is it went from a thousand years it from you know, before Christ to round 8 900 after Christ and it was a big gap and you could and they're basically no change. No change. So, one of the things this tells us is that those the scriptures were very reliable, like what we have is very, very, very as close as Could Be Imagined to what existed, what was actually written down. The first time is it called the first writings are called the autographs. So I found a baseball and here I was going to autograph it. So, you know, that's my handwriting on it. So I want to just kind of talked a little bit about Isaiah. One of the people Jesus mentions is Isaiah, the prophet. So I'm going to read a passage where he talks about him. Then I want to talk about three things, that Isaiah said, men will bring it to close. So that's what we have here. This morning, indeed, Their case in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfill that says you will indeed here but never understand. You will never, you will indeed see but never for Steve for this people's heart has grown tall and with their eyes they can barely hear. I'm sorry with their ears, they can barely hear. And with their eyes, they have closed. They should see with their eyes and hear with their ears at understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them. But blessed, are your eye for faces and your ears for they here. For truly, I say to you many prophets and righteous people want to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and do, not hear it, until Jesus is talking and he's telling them, you know, he's the Messiah, he's the Fulfillment of the Prophet. One of the Prophecies of Isaiah was like people aren't going to get it. They're going to close their eyes. Stop their ears. Their heart is going to be hard, but they're not going to listen. And Jesus is having his followers and people, and he was just telling them the parable of the, he comes in a context where he's at. And he said, you know what's, so we're went out and sewed and then he talks about the wheat that, you know, somebody weeds coming up in the weed and different thing and he said, look, because you keep get it, you got it. And if you don't get it, you don't get it. And if you don't get it cuz you're closing your eyes and closing your ears. And he said, look the truth is here and he'll say it in a parable. In other words, he tells the whole story, but if you listen to what he saying, if your hearts open and your hearing and you're listening and watching you'll get it And then you referred, that's what Isaiah, the thing I thought was interesting is, let's just take a couple of things. Isaiah said, Instead of going directly to that quote like I've done other things, I want to talk about a couple things that Isaiah said and specifically where we find Isaiah talking about cried Isaiah 7:14. And it's interesting that this is written basically 700 years before Christ. And we have manuscripts to go back to about 300 or 400 years before Christ. And this is what he said. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel, which means god with us. And, and one of the prophecies, I desire of Isaiah is a virgin would give birth, like, a lot of times. People read the prophecies, even the future prophecies. That can't be. That can't happen. Cuz this can't happen. So it can't happen. So then well then it has to mean something different than what it says. Well or maybe we just have to wait and see. May we have to wait and see. Maybe it is something. We'll see what God does. But he did send an angel to a virgin and she told her you're going to Bear a child. She's like oh it's going to be a miracle. Mary's response was Lord. You do what you want to do. You're trying your servant. I'll serve you and then you know when you go to Joseph well you know your future wife is pregnant. He's like okay well he was future wife now, it's not future wife and then an angel, this is of god kind of take an angel for you to believe it. And he's like it's not but this was a sign that this is something special about this baby that's going to be born and and then he goes on and says something else. About him and Isaiah 9. It says For unto us a child is born. To us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders. And his name Shall be Called wonderful, counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting. Father, the Prince of Peace in your pocket. We're referring to Jesus again and he's going to be Nala, born of a virgin. He's going to be somebody that's like he's he's given and and he is the one that the weight of the world is going to be on him. And his role will be not only a priest as a priest making intercession for us. Not only as a prophet telling forth the truth of God. But he'll be the king that we look to him as a wonderful counselor. He's the Mighty God, the Everlasting father, the Prince of Peace. He is these the one that we're going to worship, And Jesus, Jesus recognized Isaiah + Isaiah beforehand. Recognized Jesus, his name is Jesus, his name. He is going to be this one born of a virgin and he's going to have, this is who We're going to worship. and then I thought, the third thing I wouldn't want to mention which is little longer about Isaiah, and Jesus, Because there's a one of the chapters of Isaiah, that's really like amazingly presents Christ is Isaiah 53 and I'm going to read the I just did these other versus, okay, he's going to be this child is given to us, but then Isaiah 53. It really talks about the the

The sacrifice of Christ, called The Suffering servant is what do people call it? And there's different people. If you read this and you go, wow, that is Jesus, will read it but you can judge for yourself and your Google. How could you not see Christ in this people go? Well, the Jewish Orthodox, interpretation is, but this is, instead of this being the Messiah Christ, this is the Jewish people. I don't agree. It doesn't, it doesn't make a mean there's been suffering among Jews. There's no doubt about that, but will read it. You make your own decisions. Okay, here we go. Isaiah 53. 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 has no for Majesty that we should look on 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 for whom men, hide their faces. I'm sorry, as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not look. This is picture of Jesus when he was here. No, he's not an end. There were followers that Jesus talk about the disciples that were that their hearts were open. Their eyes were open. Their ears were open, but there were many whose Hearts were hard, close, their eyes closed off their ears. No, this can't be. They didn't want to look on him. We don't believe in him. He's not it. Surely he Borne our griefs and carried our sorrows and afflicted.

But he has. He was pierced for our transgressions. 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.

Okay, all we like sheep have gone astray.

we have turned everyone to his own way and the lord has laid on him on Jesus, on the Messiah, on this suffering, service on him, his play 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. Takes me to where Jesus is before Herod and he's asking, will I dare say you're the king of the Jews and Jesus isn't answering? He's like, don't you know, I have authority to kill you, put you to death and Jesus doesn't answer. You can't know. Jesus, those look, you don't have any Authority unless God gives it to you.

We kept it. Buy impression and judgment. He was taken away and ask for his generation, who consider 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 and they took Jesus off the cross to the tomb of a rich, man named Joseph of Arimathea, and they buried in there.

Yet, it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He was put to gris-gris when his soul makes an offering for Guild. He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his day, the Lord at the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Look, Jesus went to the Cross, he paid the price, but he was raised again. And we he lives today and if we believe he offers us eternal life,

Out of the anguish of his soul. He shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge shall the righteous one. My servant make many be accounted righteousness, righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. You see that's the picture of the Gospel right there. Weird. We are all like sheep and we've gone astray. We've all sinned. We've all done things wrong. We've all looked nobody. If you Every one of us has done something that if we look back on, we go in and I was supposed to stay, cuz that was wrong. I feel bad about. I feel guilty about it. I thought this thing is sin, so guilty feeling about everything. You know what, like hate. How does, how does this work then? But he's just look. He is, and I like this B. By his knowledge shall the righteous one. My servant make mini to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities suffering servant that his pierced Eddie's beaten and struck. And he's the one. This is all a picture of Christ and the gospel is, I like that. I like that version in the New Testament where it says, he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So, what what this is saying is he, he shall bear their iniquities, we deserve the punishment, but he took the punishment. We deserve to be punished and Jesus. The whole point he was born of a virgin. He did come and was born and we're celebrating and like the lights in the everything's going on. But the whole purpose in coming wasn't to be a baby that we worship. It was to live a life and go to the cross and die and pay for your sins in my sins. And when we go to the manger, we actually have the shadow of the Cross falling on the manger. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with 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 sins of many and makes intercession for the transgressors, not for the transgressions. But for the transgressor, the transgressors are people who transgressed the law. God told you to do something, and you didn't do it, or God told you not to do something. You did it, anyhow? And then you've transgressed God's command. And so the way that we because we are transgressors, then the way we we get, right? Is he went to the cross and he bore the sins of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. He is our intercept intercessor. Our intercessor is kind of the idea of an advocate or lawyer or the person that's going to argue in favor of us. I remember when I was in college, when friend of mine, his name was Bob Sharpton. He said, he was leaving his Bible study, we're going to go see at back then you know you had like projectors. Some of you might not the old enough to remember these but they had like reels of film on them and then you shine it on a wall or something that shines up a light and it made a lot of crackling and track package. and you see the movie and

And I remember Bob those hay when we one of these days, what Jesus did is, he bore our iniquities? He bore since he bore our transgressions, so that when we get to the, we stand before God and they put on the film of our life. And they start shining at Jesus will stand in front of the projector and block and know who nobody's going to see that because Jesus Paid It All. And that's really what. Look, the gospel is about, Jesus Paid for our transgressions. Christmas is all about us celebrating that he came here to live a life and he connects with Isaiah and, you know, he mentioned the whole bunch of people in the Old Testament in the New Testaments, really open with that. But the gospel and what Isaiah says he's going to die for our sins. He's you know, you can't look on it and so we're going to go Isaiah to Jesus, right? Jesus quotes, Isaiah But Isaiah points to Jesus. And part of life is, I think that this is a really important lesson, because we got to understand that when we start talking about the Bible, one of the big things going back to the to the to the Dead Sea Scrolls. We go back to the bike. The Archaeology is really strong. I know when I was in, when I was in Israel, a few years ago, one of the guys who was there, he was lived in Africa and he was a missionary down there and I think it was in

he lived in Dar es Salaam Tanzania. I think it's a country and he said, you know, he's working with a text every day and he was leading a team of people translating the Bible into a local language and we had no her team, he works with them. They work with the Hebrew degree, they work with the English, the local language, and you don't getting as many helps as they can to try to get as accurately as they can. And he goes, you know, when you study the Bible day in day out like that, it's like it becomes part of you and he says it just changes your life but then we were in Israel. He's like, yeah, but here the archaeology and just the history and archaeology slapped in the face. Like you can't get around that. Like oh, there's the Dead Sea right there. Okay, there's these case. They found these manuscripts right here from 300 years before, Christ and hears this. And then here's the temple where Jesus stood and here's where this is in here, and he's like, okay, here's the Sea of Galilee like all the stuff. It's like, wow, it's amazing. But all the Jesus always quote, Isaiah + Isaiah point so much to Jesus to the fact that he's going to come. And I have a little video that want to play this one work clothes out of

What you doing?

Hey man. I'm in so you can believe in Jesus because you can't believe it. By you can't believe the Bible because it's true. And you see that look, I think one of the things that we see in our line is we we

Recognize that the truth is there in the Bible is like the truth in our lives. I know we we go through on Tuesday nights, we go through the little more detail and kind of interactive about the text that we use on Sunday. in a lot of it's like when you start reading about this feels like, will they do stuff just like I do or just like my friend does, or just like this does because it's It's our life and people's live human beings are not really changing. Human beings are human beings. We have the same motivations the same drives the same. We want to do this or what and it all operate on a. You don't like As it's been since Adam and Eve. You're going to be wise beyond your naoki. I'll take this dog. I told you. I said, I still want that. We've all said, we've all while it is we've all and end. Jesus says it all says it. Peter says it, you know, John's has it Luke, Matthew Mark, all of them have the same message and Isaiah from 700 years. Before that said, Here Comes this guy. And then like to hear the Dead Sea Scrolls. Well, you know that that was he wrote that 700 BC in here. We don't even have a copy until 17 years later. So that's how can you really believe that it's closer and it's the same. It's the same. Jesus quotes. Isaiah Isaiah point to Jesus, in the Bible is true and because the Bible is true, you can have confidence and what it says you can have. You can believe that when Jesus Paid the price for your sins, he did pay the price. You can believe that. If, if Jesus Paid the price versus and you put your faith in him, your sins will be forgiven because that's what he says. And you like, I think this coming to the realization that, you know, Yeah, people maybe talk to you about Jesus. I remember we had a conversation with some kids ones and married and I were meeting we had some when we lived in Spain. We had some young boy, so we went out for ice cream after church. And they've all said, oh I'm saying I'm saying that's good and I think you need to take but I remembered and asked a question a little bit of purple on it and it kind of threw them a little bit with this whole thing about the Bible and Jesus and all that that it was true. And you really got the feeling that maybe that hadn't gone on some of them already and I realize you don't half. That's not necessary but it is true that if you if you well I don't believe the Bible and I'm going to decide what I want to believe and what I'm not going to lie to the the way it works isn't. I'm going to change the Bible to fit me. It's know, the Bible changes me. That the one that if there's a disagreement with me in the Bible, I'm the one that needs to change. And that's at, that's how it works. But the Jesus will, I believe in Jesus will Jesus. Go to Isaiah and Isaiah pointed the Jesus, and you know what? The only reason you know anything about Jesus as the Bible and it's true. So look, I just want to encourage you today. Like it was, we had a great time with all the kids coming through here at it. Was it was, it came together quite that many kids. Sean was really excited about before the last group came in here. Sean comes over to me, what's going on. I think we're going to run out of toys for the boys. I told me to tell you, no use trying to make plans of all this stuff is going to do. I'm like look John it is what it is there free toys just you know if it runs out it runs out if it's good. And then, at the last one, he was super excited because the toys the last boy took the last boy, the last toy for boys. And then there were three toys for girls left over last year. He had like a whole room full of toys leftover, he had like way bought plenty. And this year, there was more kids. He did advise me to panic. You know what, God know, it's God knows what's going on. And God took care of the situation. And I'm just, I'm just thankful and thankful. I'm just thankful for each one of you. I'm thankful that Jesus quotes, Isaiah and thankful that Isaiah points to Jesus. And I'm thankful that the Bible is true and we can have confidence that we can trust it. But I think I I realize this, if you would ask me, when did I realize the Bible's really true and I have confidence in him. I know when it was it was July 28th 1976.

Been a while. But you know what? I've also found over the past. What is that 48 years? that, that You could trust it and you can let it. If you just follow. What the Bible says, is that she can look nobody's perfect. Follow the Bible, the best, you can put it into practice. Make it a priority in your life. You know what? That'll change your life and you know what it works and you know when you get to the end of your life and you're there and you're like, wow, what's going to happen that you know what? Where can I have peas in the middle of whatever? Yes. Are some things disturbing? Yeah that happened. That's when you need. What? How could you go? How could God allow this to happen? How can I do this?

Like so much of life. Depends on what the question I ask is. He wants to work in your life.