In Our Place
Notes
Transcript
In Our Place
Isaiah 53:4-6
I remember being out and someone had a fairly large nativity set, not life-size but close, out front. They had a stable, sheep, shepherds, Mary, Joseph, a manger but no baby Jesus. After a couple of days, I finally asked where He was? Did someone steal Him? Did He get lost? What happened? Why isn’t baby Jesus in the manger? They told me that you can’t put baby Jesus out until Christmas because up until then we’re anticipating His coming.
Christmas came and baby Jesus was put out in the manger and I’m pretty sure, it was twelve days later, he was put away with all the decorations until He could make His cameo appearance the next year.
Sometimes, it can be hard for a lot of people to connect baby Jesus laying in a manger is also the Christ who died on a cross for our sins, was buried, raised back to life on the third day, ascended into heaven and is coming again someday.
Baby Jesus grew up and went to the cross. Baby Jesus is the same as cross Jesus.
We’ve been spending our time leading up to Christmas, by looking at what the prophet Isaiah had to tell to tell us about the coming Messiah.
We’ve seen that Jesus lights the way for those living in darkness. The original birth announcement was made in the midst of grief and gloom. We also learned that the birth of Christ will bring light to a world of despair and darkness.
We looked at the uniqueness of the name of Jesus as “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” from Isaiah 9:6-7.
Last week, we saw that Jesus is “Immanuel.” He is God with us. He came into the world for us and to be with us always.
Today, we’re going to be looking at Isaiah 53. It’s one of the most amazing chapters in the Old Testament. Someone has even called it “the text upon which the rest of the Bible is a sermon.” It’s one the foremost passages in biblical prophecy and quoted 41 times in the New Testament.
The book of Isaiah was written some 700 years before Christ was even born and yet these verses describe in great detail the life (1-4), death (5-8), burial (9) and exaltation (10-12) of Jesus.
We could actually sum up this section of Scripture with one word: substitution. At its core, substitution is “a putting in place of another.” What’s really going on is that this is teaching us that because of grace, Jesus was born to die in our place.
Let’s pray and we’ll read just three verses of this amazing chapter.
Pray!
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.
Today, I want us to focus in on three big reasons on why He came. The first reason that is:
Jesus came to take our pain
Jesus came to take our pain
Verse 4 begins with the word, “surely,” which is the idea of something coming unexpectedly. It can also be translated as “truly.” This word means that an amazing truth is about to be given.
And here is that truth:
He has “borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,” which means Jesus came to carry our deep despair and our sad sufferings. This phrase in Hebrew has the idea of lifting up and carrying away a heavy load.
Hebrews 2:18 says this about Jesus:
For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
I’m even reminded of the words to a hymn: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.”
Jesus came to take our pain.
Jesus came to take our punishment
Jesus came to take our punishment
Jesus was born to bear our sorrows, but He also came to be our sin bearer.
We see this in verse 5:
5 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.
The flesh of Jesus was pierced when He hung on the cross, with nails penetrating His hands and feet, and a spear slicing through His side. He went through all of that “for” our transgressions. On top of that, He was “crushed,” which means to be pulverized or beaten down “for” our iniquities, which refers to our guilt.
This is fleshed out even more by the apostle Peter:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
The punishment you and I deserved was placed upon Him so we can experience the peace the angels promised to the shepherds.
This is stated in a different way in:
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt…
Christmas is important but it has to lead us to the crucifixion.
If Jesus wasn’t born in Bethlehem, He couldn’t have been crucified at Calvary. Someone put it like this:
“Here’s a side to the Christmas story that isn’t often told: Those soft little hands, fashioned by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb, were made so that nails might be driven through them. Those baby feet, pink and unable to walk, would one day stagger up a dusty hill to be nailed to a cross.
That sweet infant’s head with sparkling eyes and eager mouth was formed so that someday men might force a crown of thorns onto it. That tender body, warm and soft, wrapped in swaddling clothes, would one day be ripped open by a spear. He was born to die.”
On top of all this, think of the unbelievable pain of crucifixion and the suffocating weight of our accumulated and offensive sins. He was under more weight and stress than any of us have ever experienced.
When you think about Christmas, remember the important truth that Christ came in order to die for your sins. His substitutionary death fully satisfied God’s righteous and holy wrath. Jesus took our pain and our punishment in order to give us peace.
He came to take our pain, our punishment and:
Jesus came to take our place.
Jesus came to take our place.
Check out verse 6:
6 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.
Here we are compared to sheep, which is anything but a compliment. Notice that we “all” have gone astray, we have all, everyone, all of us, turned to his own way.
Psalm 119:176
176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep…
The “Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
The word “laid” means “to cause to strike with great force; to punish by violence.” The strong and powerful arm of the Lord came down on Jesus with an unthinkable great force as He judged our sin on the Savior’s shoulders.
The iniquity of us all fell upon our Substitute.
Substitution is a major theme in the Scriptures.
Right after Adam and Eve sinned, God sacrificed an animal in order to cover their nakedness. God then gave His people the Law, which they continued to break. As a way to avoid the punishment, He granted them substitutes to pay the price for their sins, when a flawless animal would die in the sinner’s place, allowing the sinner to go free.
The Passover vividly portrayed how a substitute saved people from slaughter when the only way to avoid the avenging angel was to have the blood of a perfect male lamb applied to the doorposts of their homes.
God said in Exodus 12:13: “And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.”
But Hebrews 10:4 tells us that we have a serious problem.
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
The only acceptable offering is a perfect offering, so Jesus was able to pay the perfect price for our sins through His substitutionary sacrifice. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, this is what he said in John 1:29: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
John Stott writes:
“The concept of substitution may be said, then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for man.
Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be. God sacrifices Himself for man and puts Himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone. God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.”
Let’s put it this way:
The INNOCENT was punished as if guilty, so that the guilty might be rewarded as if INNOCENT.
We really do deserve the penalty and punishment, but God has poured out His wrath against sin on His own Son.
There’s a progression of thought in this passage from we to me to He to free.
We
We
I count 10 times that “we” or “our” or “us” is used. We are sinners in desperate need of saving.
Tim Keller says, “Christmas is the end of thinking you are better than someone else, because Christmas is telling you that you could never get to heaven on your own. God had to come to you.”
Me
Me
Until I move from we to me, I won’t own my horrible offenses against God. It’s one thing to say that every one’s a sinner, it’s another thing altogether to admit that you are a sinner.
Back in verse 6: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned…”
That’s we. Isaiah then individualizes the illustration: “Every one to his own way.” That’s me.
He
He
The words, “He,” “Him,” “God,” “His,” and “Lord” are used 9 times in these verses. Jesus took my place as my substitute and made a full and complete payment for my sins. He has carried all my griefs, every one of my transgressions, and all my iniquities. I deserved death but He died in my place. I sinned and as my Substitute He paid the price for my sins.
If you’ll notice the use of the word “for” in verse 5. He did all this in our place, instead of us, as our substitute:
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities…
When I move from we to me and then to He, I can be free.
Free
Free
I receive peace and pardon, forgiveness and freedom. The word “peace” is the Hebrew shalom, which refers to human wholeness. It’s more than just the absence of hostility and aggression. The only way to have freedom from your sin problem, or your selfishness, is to trust the Savior as your substitute.
Because of grace, Jesus was born to die in our place.
Let’s bring all this back to Christmas. Without Jesus becoming a baby and then dying in our place, we would never be saved from our sins.
I like how someone puts it:
“The Incarnation is an especially joyful and important doctrine for Christians because, not only did God align with man, but through this alignment Jesus gained a human body that could in turn be sacrificed to endure God’s wrath. This was the only way that man could be saved.”
Baby Jesus is the same as Cross Jesus. Jesus was born to die so you can be born again.
Maybe you think you don’t qualify because you’ve messed up too much. You’ve done way too much wrong and screwed up way too often. Listen. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done; what matters is what Jesus has done. There is grace for everyone. Because of grace, Jesus took your place.
When we think about Christmas, let’s see it as one scene in the unfolding narrative of God’s redemptive drama. While we moved from Christmas to Good Friday pretty quickly, we actually shouldn’t skip over His life. While it’s true He was born to die, He also was born to live so He could fulfill all the righteous requirements of the Law.
This began in Luke 2:22-24:
And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord
(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”)
and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”
Why was Jesus circumcised on the 8th day and why did Mary offer sacrifices for purification? God’s law commanded these things. In fact, we see the word “Law” used three times in this passage.
Why is this important?
Because it shows the unflinching obedience of Jesus from the very beginning to the Father’s commands. There are only two ways to fulfill God’s Law – obedience or payment.
Remember what Jesus said in:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Paul tells us:
For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Here’s an important truth. Jesus fulfilled God’s Law twice. He perfectly obeyed and paid the penalty as if He hadn’t.
The Father didn’t send Christ to the cross as an infant, and He didn’t send Him to earth as a fully formed adult on Good Friday morning. He sent Christ into human history as an infant, not to die for thirty something years, so that He could both live for our righteousness and also die for our sins.”
Jesus Christ came to earth, lived the life we could not live, died a death we should have died, and was raised to new life so we can live forever.
Let’s consider some other connections between Christmas and the rest of the story…
· The angels appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:11) and angels appeared in the garden to announce His resurrection (Luke 24:4).
· It’s likely that Jesus was born in a cave and when He died, He was put in a tomb cut out of stone (Luke 23:53).
· The baby Jesus was wrapped in swaddling cloths (Luke 2:12), and the dead body of Jesus was wrapped in a linen shroud (Mark 15:46).
· One of the gifts of the wise men was myrrh (Matthew 2:11), a spice that was used by Nicodemus to prepare the body of Jesus for burial (John 19:39).
But some people doubted it all. They didn’t believe. They didn’t want to believe. It didn’t work in their belief system. It didn’t add up in their minds. They couldn’t comprehend the enormity of what God was doing.
They were cynical and skeptics.
As He hung on the cross, putting paid to sin, they still weren’t sure. They minimized His death. “If you’re really the Son of God, why don’t you just come down from that cross. Maybe we’ll believe you then. But maybe we won’t.”
They were cynics and skeptics. There are always some in every crowd and every gathering. Maybe you’re one this morning.
These cynics and skeptics, they look down their noses at those who believe that Jesus is truly the Son of God. They think its absurd or just some story that people like to hear.
But I want to tell you something. You aren’t a sinner because you’re a skeptic. You’re a skeptic because you’re a sinner. Your unbelief doesn’t come out your head. It can show up there but ultimately it comes out of the heart
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
You might say that you have problems with this whole thing. It just seems too farfetched and beyond reason to believe. I’m an intellectual and I can’t believe it. But the truth is that you have dirty, rotten sin in your life.
And you might argue that you know some pretty intelligent people that don’t believe. But I know some that do. You might make the point that there are some pretty foolish people who do believe. But I know plenty of them that don’t.
Understand this today. What we believe is not contrary to reason. It is beyond reason
God is working out His plan right here and right now.
Because of grace, Jesus was born to die in your place. Baby Jesus is the same as Cross Jesus.
· Jesus came to take your pain
· Jesus came to take your punishment
· Jesus came to take your place
Are you ready to repent, to believe and to receive the free gift of forgiveness and eternal life?
You can know Jesus Christ. You can know whether this thing is true. But don’t let your skepticism lead you to hell. There are atheists in the world today, but there are no atheists in hell. All atheists in hell are now believers. They believe because they know the truth.