He Was Pierced for Our Transgressions
Notes
Transcript
Introduction & Series Introduction
Introduction & Series Introduction
Transition from Kingdom People, outline
- He Was Pierced for Our Transgressions // The Righteous One Makes Many to Be Accounted Righteous
- Father, Forgive Them (Forgiveness); - Why Have You Forsaken Me? (Punishment of Sins); - It Is Finished (The Cross as God’s definite plan for our redemption); - Was It Not Necessary? (Victory, triumph over sin & death)
The word “atonement”
The Lexham Bible Dictionary Introduction
Atonement is one of the few theological terms with roots in the English language. It is the process by which two (typically estranged) parties are made “at-one” with each other.
The way God reconciles people to Himself
The Problem: Alienation from God through sin
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.
15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.
isa
Sin is the overarching word that covers all the terms we come across here in and 53 - iniquities, transgressions, wickedness, gone astray like sheep. Sin is at once foolish, tragic, and wicked. It’s foolish because it’s always a rejection of the wisdom that God has given us. When God told Adam,
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
To eat was folly, but he did it anyway. The Bible tells us that sin is never wise, it never gives the happiness it promises, and there’s a part of us that knows it. But when the truth goes off like an alarm, we press snooze and go ahead.
Sin is also tragic - Sin brings physical and spiritual death, judgment, separation from God, poisons every other relationship, and replaces peace - God’s shalom - with every kind of hostility. It’s also a trap we cannot escape. Lured into rebellion, we quickly find that we become slaves of sin.
Sin is also Wicked - rebellion, rejection of God’s rightful place
11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
The entire universe proclaims God’s glory - and we were meant to do the same. (ADVENT - remember discussion of what GLORY means)
- “Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, o ancient doors that the King of Glory may come in”
That word, GLORY, refers to something’s weight, and value. Glory is God’s worth.
He is glorious because He is everything this Psalm celebrates. He is Creator. He is holy. He blesses those who turn to Him for salvation. And He has won the greatest victory and handed it to His people.
Jesus, the King, is worthy of our praise. His victory is worthy of our celebration. His might is worthy of our trust. He is mighty and able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him.
- ) -
Glory is a shiny word. It glows. Glory has to do with God’s worth. Glory is everything that makes God wonderful and praiseworthy. Salvation with eternal glory means God doesn’t just rescue us from our sins; He promises to make us like Jesus, to make us shine with His glory - to glow with His goodness, and holiness, and love.
Nothing in creation can compare with God’s value and worth. Sin is wicked because it exchanges God’s glory for self glory.
And the folly, tragedy, and wickedness of sin means we have set ourselves at odds with God. We are born into this world in need of rescue.
Sin is wicked because it exchanges God’s glory for
Atonement is God’s answer to our problem.
And all of this foolish, tragic wickedness puts all of us in a
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
In other words, atonement is not something we do. It’s something God does.
We see God’s plan for atonement - for reconciliation - most clearly in the sacrifices that He commanded in the Old Testament Law - especially in the book of Leviticus.
We see God’s plan for atonement - for reconciliation - most clearly in the sacrifices that He commanded in the Old Testament Law - especially in the book of Leviticus.
William Tyndale,
Of all the sacrifices in the Old Testament system, nothing demonstrates this better than the Day of Atonement, found in . On one day every year, one man and one man only was allowed to enter into the innermost room of the Temple, the Holy of Holies. That one man was the High Priest, in Leviticus the brother of Moses, the high priest Aaron. Early in the morning of that one day, he would put on his High Priestly garments that symbolized the fact that he was standing in the place of all the people of Israel.
The answer is atonement. Of all the sacrifices in the Old Testament system, nothing demonstrates this better than the Day of Atonement, found in . On one day every year, one man and one man only was allowed to enter into the innermost room of the Temple, the Holy of Holies. That one man was the High Priest, in Leviticus the brother of Moses, the high priest Aaron. Early in the morning of that one day, he would put on his High Priestly garments that symbolized the fact that he was standing in the place of all the people of Israel.
After offering up a bull as a sin offering for his own sins, he took two goats. One of them was sacrificed as a sin offering for the people, and the other was set aside. The high priest took some of the blood of the bull and the goat and used it to sprinkle various things within the Temple, even within the Holy of Holies, to cleanse and consecrate the Temple, the altar, and the Holy Place from all of the sins and uncleanness of the people.
When he came out again, the high Priest took the live goat, and
21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. 22 The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.
lev 16.21
Every part of the Day of Atonement is full of meaning and symbolism, but the most important parts for us:
There can be no atonement without death - because the wages of sin is death. Writing after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews points to the Day of Atonement and says,
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Sins, iniquities, transgressions require
Day of Atonement also teaches us that sin requires cleansing - The blood of the bull and the goat are sprinkled in the Temple to show that the pollution of sin must be replaced by the purity of the sacrifice.
Day of Atonement shows us that we require a substitute to bear our iniquities. The goat sent into the wilderness, the scapegoat, takes away the sins of the people.
Sin requires atonement -
Sin requires the life
tells us that on one day every year,
The sacrificial system & the Day of Atonement
The sacrificial system & the Day of Atonement
But the OT sacrifices, including the Day of Atonement were actually shadows pointing toward the decisive, perfect, once-for-all sacrifice that would truly cleanse people from their sins and bear their iniquities away.
Isaiah was a prophet who spoke God’s Word beginning in about 762 BC. After warning the people of the coming devastating judgment they would face at the hands of Assyria and Babylon, beginning in chapter 40, Isaiah uses a series of poems to tell Israel of the coming Messiah. He would redeem Israel, but He would also be the true Israel, the light to the nations who would bring God’s salvation to the ends of the earth.
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.
isa 42.1-
Here in , we see the climax of God’s plan of salvation, the mystery of how God would perfectly fulfill His own justice and also shower mercy on the nations. Here is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, prefigured. The symbols of atonement are applied to the one called the Servant. Here, the prophet gives us a glimpse of the reality that all those sacrifices were pointing to. A substitute who would cleanse and redeem, whose wounds would heal.
But first, we read these words and find that Isaiah has put us in the story, whether we like it or not. Every generation since Jesus Christ died and rose again has had to grapple with the question calls us to answer:
Q. How will I respond when I look upon the servant of the LORD?
Org: and then to the table
Look in verses 13-15 with me as we see the call first to behold the Lord’s plan -
I. Behold God’s Plan (vv13-15)
I. Behold God’s Plan (vv13-15)
I. Behold God’s Plan (vv13-15)
<<READ 13-15>>
That first word, “behold,” is an incredibly common one in the Old Testament. It’s the kind of humble word that we’re likely to overlook. Stop and consider how often we miss the most important things because we’re too busy to stop and consider.
“Behold.” It’s a call to look where we’re likely to overlook. “Behold,” the LORD says, “my servant.”
Notice the surprise here - that the servant would be exalted. This is glory language. Elsewhere in Isaiah, “high and lifted up” is a phrase reserved for God himself -
1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
“Stop and consider this lowly one,” God says. Look carefully here. God says this servant will be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. This is glory language.
15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
This is the first clue in that the Servant is someone very unexpected.
Our hope, our expectation, is that when God acts, everybody sees and says, “Yep, that’s power and might.” We’re accustomed to the mighty doing mighty things. But when the Creator of everything - the almighty - sets His plan in motion, it’s through a servant who suffers.
The word “astonished” in verse 14 is a summary of how God’s plan would affect everyone straight through today. God’s plan shuts kings’ mouths when they behold it. His plan astonished even those who were waiting patiently for the Messiah to come.
The word “astonished” in verse 14 is a summary of how God’s plan would affect everyone straight through today. God’s plan shuts kings mouths when they stop and behold it. His plan astonished even those who were waiting patiently for the Messiah to come.
The mystery of the Gospel is that God chose to reveal His might in what looked like weakness, to reveal His glory in what looked like ordinariness. To reveal His triumph in what looked like failure.
So why is it that we need to be reminded to “behold” the plan of God?
It’s because His plan does not look like wisdom to us as sinners. He says, “My servant will act wisely.” Wisely here doesn’t just mean He will do the right thing. The end of says the same thing a bit differently
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, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
“My servant will act wisely” means He will act in exactly the right way to bring about the intended result. And that result is to “sprinkle many nations.” To atone for us.
But human beings, caught up in the self-glory of sin, don’t want to believe they need atonement. We react with astonishment, revulsion, and objections.
Man-made religion has the universal character of self-help, DIY, climb-the-ladder, thinking. We either minimize sin or minimize God until we’ve got a system that doesn’t require too much of us.
It offends us to hear that God is angry at sin, that we are foolish, tragic, wicked, enslaved rebels in need of absolute rescue.
It astonishes us when someone says that the wages of sin is death. But stop for a moment. There are things we know are evil, and left to our own devices, we approve of them.
32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
And so, our own opinions about how God ought to behave, and our assumptions about ourselves, and our desire to be accepted by those around us lead us to ignore and overlook the only plan that has any power to rescue us.
So the LORD calls us to behold His servant and His plan. And the best way to do that is to continue with the beginning of chapter 53. And we’ll read through verse 6
APPLY:
It astonishes us when someone says that
His plan will prosper in his hand.
As we continue into chapter 53, keep considering that word, “Behold.”
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
II. Be Amazed at God’s Love
II. Be Amazed at God’s Love
<<READ 53:1-6>>
EXPLAIN: Through the end of chapter 53, the LORD is giving us a poetic picture of the whole ministry of the Messiah. In verses 1-3, we see the Servant’s starting point and rejection, in verses 4-6 explain the purpose of His suffering, and next week Pastor Steve will take us into verses 7-12, where we will see the Servant’s trial, death, and burial, and the astonishing revelation that after He dies childless, He will live and see offspring.
From the earliest days of the Church, Christians have understood that these verses are pointing to the life, trial, brutal crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. When Philip the disciple approaches the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch in , it is from that Philip proclaims the Gospel. says that when Jesus healed the sick, it was in fulfillment of Isaiah 53.
So why doesn’t everyone believe? Verse 1 gives us the answer: It is not enough to hear the message. We need more than information. We need the arm of the LORD to be revealed.
Who is the Arm of the LORD? Earlier in Isaiah, in 51:9, the Arm of the LORD is the One who delivered Israel from Egypt in the Exodus, some 4-600 years before Isaiah. And in , we find out that when God looked and saw that no man could bring His justice to the world, His own arm brought him salvation. The Arm of the LORD is God Himself in action for salvation.
1 Thus says the Lord: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
And yet, verse 2 says, the Arm of the LORD grew up before the LORD. As vulnerable as a young plant, as unexpected as a root growing up in dry ground,
the Gospel of John begins,
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
john 1.1-4
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
john 1.14
Here we have the astonishing plan of God, hidden in plain sight - that God, the Word would become flesh and dwell among us. That the Almighty would take to himself our nature - our weakness - our feebleness. The Son of God, the Arm of the LORD, grew up before His heavenly Father.
Take a moment and consider the love of God on display here in verse 1-2.
The One to whom all glory is due chose to humble Himself for you. He chose no majestic entrance, no beautiful form. He set his eyes on your salvation and chose to be laid in a manger on the night of his birth. He considered your sorrows and chose the path that led to the cross.
If the LORD did not reveal him to us, we would all respond as verse 3 says - despised, twice it says he was despised. Turning away in embarrassment from His sorrows & grief. “We esteemed him not,” verse 3 says - we overlooked him. Discounted him. In fact, verse 4 says, not only did humanity turn away in embarrassment, "we esteemed him smitten, stricken by God, and afflicted.”
The King of kings grew up the adopted son of Joseph, a carpenter. His own brothers mocked and disbelieved Him.
If the LORD did not reveal him to us, we would all respond as verse 3 says - despised, twice it says he was despised. Turning away in embarrassment from His sorrows & grief. “We esteemed him not,” verse 3 says - we overlooked him. Discounted him. In fact, verse 4 says, not only did humanity turn away in embarrassment, "we esteemed him smitten, stricken by God, and afflicted.”
Those who looked on as He endured the agonies of the Cross mocked Him, presuming He was getting what He deserved. The sorrows, the griefs.
But look in verse 4. Here is an exchange beyond hope, beyond imagining.
When Pilate offered to release Him, the crowds rejected Him in favor of a true criminal named Barabbas. Pilate knew he was innocent, but handed him over anyway.
Whose griefs and sorrows did He carry as He stumbled under the weight of the cross down the narrow streets of Jerusalem? His blood began to spill in the courtyard of Pilate’s administrative palace, when the guards whipped him half to death, and on top of the excruciating torture of crucifixion, the passersby wagged their heads in mock sadness and said, “if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” The chief priests said, “He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down from the cross, and we’ll believe in him!”
Yet every pain he endured, verse 5 says, was for us. The griefs he bore were ours. He was indeed smitten by God and afflicted, but it was for you.
Because the only way for atonement to be made - the only way for us to be at one with God - was for another to pay our debt. For another to be pierced for our transgressions.
Peace with God - shalom - came through the just punishment of our sins.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
rom
The wonder of the Gospel is seen here. The Arm of the LORD has won salvation for despisers and mockers, not because we deserved it - quite the opposite. He was crushed - pulverized - for our iniquities precisely because it was glorious for the almighty God, the Holy One, the righteous judge, to take upon Himself the punishment that our sins deserved, because the glorious God loves us.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
III. Believe in God’s Lamb
III. Believe in God’s Lamb
And I want to bring us to the Table with one final call. How should we respond when we look upon the Servant of the LORD? We should behold God’s plan, we should be amazed at His love, and finally, we should believe in God’s Lamb.
<<READ v6>>
Remember that the LORD began this song with the call “Behold, my servant shall act wisely.” But here in verse 6 we’re reminded why we need Him to do so. We, all of us, have done the opposite. We have followed our own way into foolish, tragic, wicked lostness.
And as the high priest laid his hands on the goat and proclaimed all of Israel’s sins, so the goat could bear their iniquities away, God has promised that He will do the same for you. Every sin, and transgression, and iniquity, and grief, and sorrow - every rebellion and every shameful deed - the promise of Atonement is that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Arm of the LORD, the Lamb of God, will take all of it away when you answer the question from 53:1 - “Who has believed what he has heard from us?” When you say, “I believe that Jesus died for my sins and rose again in order to reconcile me to God,” all these things become your story.
So, like in the
The we of verses 2-3 are universal - until we come to Christ in faith, we have all despised and rejected Him. But the we of verses 4-6 are only true when we claim those promises for ourselves.
To take us back to another Day of Atonement symbol in 52:15, the blood of the sacrifice is a picture of reconciliation with God. To sprinkle the nations is to cleanse them of their sins.
How many of us here today need to know that you are cleansed from some sin? To know that there is no stain that remains, no pollution, no barrier between you and God?
How many of us here today need to know that you are cleansed from some sin? To know that there is no stain that remains, no pollution, no barrier between you and God?
You don’t have to wonder if you are reconciled to God. The sacrifice that Jesus has given is enough. <<CLOSE w/ GOSPEL CALL>>
And consider this: Sheep don’t know they’re lost. They don’t know they need to be rescued. Today God is calling out to you to behold His plan and recognize your need.
SHALL ACT WISELY
SHALL SPRINKLE
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
phil 2.5-1