With His Wounds We are Healed

Isaiah 53:4-6

Intro:

Are Christians obsessed with Blood?

Some criticize us and say that it’s horrific or downright foolish to make a man’s death at the core of your religion.

Micheal Gungor who tragically announced he was no longer a Christian and no longer accepted the gospel has repeatedly posted online about how he’s fed up with the notion of the blood of Christ: I am currently sitting in a worship service and the guy is singing about the “precious blood of Jesus Christ.” I just came because I wanted a space to be in my heart and be in prayer/peace for the world. Can we not give the bloodlust a rest even here?

Bloodlust. Interesting, but these accusations don’t come from nowhere.

In our services we repeatedly thank God for the blood of the lamb.

We sing songs that say, “Oh the blood of Jesus, oh the blood of Jesus, oh the blood of Jesus it washes white as snow.”

“Thank you Jesus for the blood applied”

“THere’s power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the lamb, in the precious blood of the lamb!”

What’s going on here? Why is this central to our faith? Are we just out to lunch or trying to be morbid like Gungor accuses us of doing?

As we turn to Isaiah 53, and sing Isaiah 53, we’re coming away with the centrality of the sacrifice of our redeemer.

Main Point: We magnify the wounds of Christ because it is His blood alone which heals our sin-sick souls and His sin-sick creation.

There’s a real sickness that needs to be cured, and we are looking at the cure tonight. As Isaiah has been prophesying about Let’s look at these 3 verses and see three things:

The Mystery of His Wounds Vs 4-5a

His Wounds and our sick souls Vs. 5b-6

His Wounds and His sick creation Matthew 8:16

The Mystery of His Wounds Vs 4-5a

In Verse 5 Isaiah specifically zeros in on blood—he looks to the wounds of this suffering servant as a basis for some kind of hope. How did Isaiah get here in this text? Or one pressing question for us is “why?” Why this discourse on a suffering servant.

This book and vision Isaiah receives is situated within a time of history when a people group known as the Assyrians rose to power, and the crisis that takes place, which was predicted by Isaiah himself, that led to the exile of the northern tribes in 722BC and the trajectory of the nation after this is the exile of Judah by Babylon and her future restoration—Those final events are in the minds of the readers as Isaiah is speaking forth God’s truth in the final section of this large prophesy.

Isaiah’s central thrust is the judgement and salvation brought by the sovereign God to His people which flows from His own cleansing that he received in the vision of the Lord Himself seated upon the throne (Is. 6)

Scathing judgement has been poured out upon the people making for, up until chapter 40, a pretty bleak situation, but then chapter 40-55 begins the assurance and comfort for God’s people and the salvation that He will bring as His preserves a remnant that will stay faithful to him even through exile.

So to give Israel the proper comfort and assurance that was needed amid many prophesies of divine judgement, our attention is turned to Yahweh’s servant. Who is this?

There can be a dual explanation, as most early jews would have seen, the Servant spoken of starting in chapter 40 is the Nation of Israel itself, but as the chapters progress to chapter 52, this servant becomes a singular figure who now suffers a substitutionary death for His people.

What we’re beholding here in Isaiah 52-53 is none other than a coming suffering Messiah. the fulfillment of course being Jesus Christ. The New Testament authors read Isaiah 53 this way and we see numerous quotes and allusions to this chapter by Matthew, Peter, and Luke. And here the hope is seen: A suffering servant and king will decisively deal with the sin problem.

The means of dealing with the sin that has so infected humanity and our hearts will be a gruesome, bloody death on a cross where He will be pierced and wounded. This was God’s only means of salvation.

And this is what we’re referring to when we talking about Christ’s wounds.

When we speak of the power of the blood, what do we mean by blood?

Are we saying that the blood itself that spilled from Christ’s human body has some kind of intrinsic healing power? Is it like the healing potion that hung around Lucy’s neck in the Chronicles of Narnia? If we were alive to catch Jesus’ blood dripping off the cross into a little vile and keep it would it have some kind of redemptive property so that we can sprinkle it on people and automatically they are infused with grace? No. That’s absurd.

When the Bible speaks of and exalts the blood, it is exalting what the blood represents. Look the wounds of Christ, the cross of Christ, the death of Christ as what we call in the english language a synecdoche. It’s a figure of speech where when part of a thing is said, it’s speaking of the whole. In other words, when I say, “Hollywood has been getting this wrong for years.” You know that I don’t just mean the city Hollywood, I mean the city which hosts on of the largest film industries and all that it represents and produces.

So when we say the blood of Christ, we’re not just talking about physical blood poured out, but the whole of Christ’s redemptive work including His resurrection, ascension, and return. The blood of Christ is made effective and truly redemptive only because of the resurrection and so on.

So when we behold the mystery of Christ’s wounds in Isaiah 53, what we are looking at is the sorrow taken upon Himself, we’re seeing the first of the fulfillment of the sacrificial system as this servant is described as a sheep led to the slaughter, we’re seeing the slaughter as God Himself taking the place of the guilty and making many righteous as He bears every one of their innumerable sins. His wounds ratify or make official the covenant that He makes with His people. This relationship is sealed with blood.

The cross happened because it needed to happen. Without His wounds, we are not healed.

His Wounds and our sick souls Vs. 5b-6

His Wounds and His sick creation Matthew 8:16