THIS IS NOT FAKE NEWS

Open Bibles to Isaiah 53:1

Isaiah 53:1 NASB95

1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

INTRODUCTION

In the survey taken in early 1991, interviewees were asked, "Do you agree strongly, agree somewhat, disagree somewhat, or disagree strongly with the following statement: There is no such thing as absolute truth; different people can define truth in conflicting ways and still be correct." Only 28% of the respondents expressed strong belief in "absolute truth," and more surprisingly, only 23 percent of born-again or evangelical Christians accepted this idea! What a telling revelation! If more than 75 percent of the followers of Christ say nothing can be known for certain, does this indicate, as it seems, that they are not convinced that Jesus existed, that He is who He claimed to be, that His Word is authentic, that God created the heavens and earth, or that eternal life awaits the believer? That's what the findings appear to mean. If there is no absolute truth, then by definition nothing can be said to be absolutely true. To the majority, apparently, it's all relative. Nothing is certain. Might be. Might not be. Who knows for sure? Take your guess and hope for the best!

This problem of uncertainty is complicated by the insistence that nothing we hear is true. Elizabeth Geitz says, “Every morning the same words scream out of my news feed and bleed onto the screen. “Fake News! That’s Fake News!” In a few short years, the phrase “Fake News” has earned a place in widely read dictionaries, educational games have been created about it, and legitimate news articles have been written about it. But Fake News is not new. Fake news started in a garden with a conversation between a woman and a snake.

The woman believed the serpent’s claim that God had given her some bad information (fake news) . The result of believing the lie is humanity is still in a ball of Confusion.

A Ball of Confusion...

What do you need in confusion?

CONTEXT OF THE TEXT

Eerdmans Bible Dictionary II. Contents

Commonly known as the Book of Consolation, chs. 40–55 offer comfort to the exiles, promising God’s imminent salvation and the restoration of Israel. Chs. 40–48 specifically address the situation in Babylon, proclaiming deliverance to Jacob (Israel). Following a series of proclamations that the people take comfort and “prepare the way of the Lord” (40:1–11), the prophet exalts God as creator of the universe (vv. 12–31). In ch. 41 he employs the form of a prophetic lawsuit to detail Yahweh’s working in history through the Persian king Cyrus. The first “Servant Song” presents the mission of God’s chosen servant, Israel, to “bring forth justice to the nations” (42:1–4; some scholars include the hymn to God’s glorious victory in vv. 5–9). Israel is further depicted as God’s deaf and blind servant (42:18–43:7), a witness to the nations

Eerdmans Bible Dictionary II. Contents

Chs. 49–55 expand upon the preceding prophecy in the Book of Comfort. In the second Servant Song (49:1–6) the Servant elaborates upon his call and mission as “a light to the nations.” vv. 7–26 are an oracle of restoration. The third Servant Song (50:4–11; some consider vv. 9 the end of the song) expresses the Servant’s firm confidence in God’s vindication despite suffering and rejection. The depiction of Yahweh’s promise for the offspring of Abraham (51:1–16) and his majesty in the redemption of his people (51:17–52:10) culminate in the command to return to Jerusalem (vv. 11–12). The fourth Servant Song (52:13–53:12) proclaims the suffering and death of God’s chosen people as an act of atonement. The collection ends with a song of assurance for Israel and a triumphal hymn celebrating Israel’s restoration

Isaiah 40–66 (Isaiah 53:1)

This verse begins with two questions asked by a believing group of Israelites who have understood and accepted what the Lord revealed to them about the Servant. In earlier chapters Isaiah pointed out that many Israelites were deaf, blind, and failed to believe what God said ISAIAH 6:9–10; 7:9; 29:9–10; 42:18–19; 43:8; 48:4–8; 56:10),

Isaiah 6:9–10 ESV

9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “ ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Isaiah 7:9 ESV

9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’ ”

Isaiah 29:9–10 ESV

9 Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink! 10 For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).

Isaiah 42:18–19 ESV

18 Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see! 19 Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord?

Isaiah 43:8 ESV

8 Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears!

Isaiah 48:4–8 ESV

4 Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass, 5 I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’ 6 “You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known. 7 They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ 8 You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel.

Isaiah 56:10 ESV

10 His watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge; they are all silent dogs; they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.

but the Lord promised that in the future he would remove their blindness and they would trust in him (also discussed in Isaiah 29:18; 32:3–4; 35:5; 42:7, 16).

Isaiah 29:18 ESV

18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.

Isaiah 32:3–4 ESV

3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention. 4 The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.

Isaiah 35:5 ESV

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

Isaiah 42:7 ESV

7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

Isaiah 42:16 (ESV)

16 And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.

SERMONIC CLAIM

I want to argue that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not Fake News.

Text: Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53 ESV

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 had no form or majesty that we should look at 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 whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 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. 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. 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, 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. 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. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the 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 sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not fake news because

IT IS CERTAIN

Evidence: Hebrews 11:1

Hebrews 11:1 KJV 1900

1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

WHO HAS BELIEVED

Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament 116 אָמַן

This very important concept in biblical doctrine gives clear evidence of the biblical meaning of “faith” in contradistinction to the many popular concepts of the term. At the heart of the meaning of the root is the idea of certainty. And this is borne out by the NT definition of faith found in Heb 11:1.

The basic root idea is firmness or certainty. In the Qal it expresses the basic concept of support and is used in the sense of the strong arms of the parent supporting the helpless infant. The constancy involved in the verbal idea is further seen in that it occurs in the Qal only as a participle (expressing continuance). The idea of support is also seen in II Kgs 18:16, where it refers to pillars of support.

In the Hiphil (causative), it basically means “to cause to be certain, sure” or “to be certain about,” “to be assured.” In this sense the word in the Hiphil conjugation is the biblical word for “to believe” and shows that biblical faith is an assurance, a certainty, in contrast with modern concepts of faith as something possible, hopefully true, but not certain.

This is a report by those who now understand what God is doing. The first rhetorical questions are marked by the interrogative “who” (mî), but they also function somewhat like an astonished exclamation. If the verb is used modally, 348 then the first question is asking: “Who would believe our report?” The question is not primarily asking how many people have believed what “we” have reported about the Servant; rather, it is communicating the fact that their report contains some astonishing factors that would be hard for anyone to believe. Belief and trust are always at the heart of every person’s relationship to God, but sometimes God reveals things that are hard for people to accept.

There are some things that I may not know... but there is one thing I am certain of.

PROPOSITION TWO

OUR REPORT

The second question inquires about what group of people received God’s revelation about the arm of the Lord. This question probably implies that most people have not heard about God’s revelation and that some who have heard about the Servant have not understood the meaning of God’s message. God revealed the “arm of the Lord,”349 his miraculous saving power, to the “us” (the Israelites) who have believed what God has said. These are the ones who are now giving the report in 53:2–12. They are sharing what they understand in order to convince more people to believe what God has revealed to them about the Servant.

PROPOSITION THREE

THE ARM OF THE LORD REVEALED

strength ⇔ arm n. — strength understood in terms of an arm; perhaps with an emphasis on the physical or fighting nature of the strength.

CONCLUSION

WHOSE REPORT DO YOU BELIEVE?

A New York evening paper on Saturday, May 21, 1927, the date of Lindbergh’s flight, contained on one of the inside pages an elaborate demonstration by some expert showing that Lindbergh could not make his goal. But the first page of that paper, printed later, had flung across the top of it in gigantic letters the news that Lindbergh had arrived.

Geitz, Elizabeth. 2019. Spiritual Truth in the Age of Fake News. Eugene, Oregon: Resource Publications.

Tan, Paul Lee. 1996. Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.