The King is -- Our Suffering Lamb -- 03/21/2021
The King is our Suffering Lamb
This morning we fix our eyes on Jesus as God’s Righteous Servant as depicted in Isaiah 53:1-12. The image of the Righteous Servant stands in contrast to the background of human injustice and the will and action of the Father.
[Show Slide] There will be only one image slide for the sermon. For those of you who like to take notes, let me give you the broad flow of today’s message on one slide. Hopefully, you can make some quick notes. Will not make a point of saying when we are moving from one point to another. Here’s the general flow of today’s message:
Review
Representation of Unbelief
Icon of the Righteous Servant
Picture of Injustice
Presentment of Indifference
Image of Acquiescence
Illustration of Action
Depiction of Peace
Portrait of Victory!
Drawn to Respond
The King is a Lamb
The King-Lamb Enters Jerusalem
Jesus enters Jerusalem with a heavy heart, because the evil and perversity of the generation to which he came has blinded people, so that while they shout blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! They do not understand who he is and what he is doing (shadows of confusion). The way out is remaining in Jesus and his word remaining in us (pointing to the lighted path)
Jesus our Unblemished Lamb (via the image of the Passover Lamb)
God requires perfection we don’t deliver, then makes us perfect in Jesus so that as individuals, as families, and as a church family, we do His will and bring Him glory by living where we live and doing what He daily gives us to do. (The darkness of our failure, removed by the light of God's saving and enabling power)
Our passage this morning opens with this question . . .
Representation of Unbelief
Who Has believed our message?
No one (indirect inducted from the remainder of passage)
The blind darkness of an evil and perverse generation
To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
Arm of the Lord - a picture of saving strength (indirect)
Bold flash of saving power piercing the oppressive darkness of unbelief and perversity.
Although present for all to see, it is revealed to the few who has the spiritual sight to see and understand what was going on (indirectly revealed in the remainder of the passage).
Yet, at the moment the Righteous Servant was revealed most people were lost in the darkness of missing it, of holding Jesus in low esteem, despising him, rejecting him - call the blessed one - the cursed one, missing the the light of understanding that Jesus' punishment brings us peace and his wounds bring us healing.
Icon of The Righteous Servant
He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.
The green of new hope that is hard won, emerging from the brown, barren, dusty ground. It is green with vulnerability, with little chance of survival in a hostile environment.
The Righteous Servant had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him (what appears direct - is not - it is an incorrect perception).
The green of new hope was before our eyes, the promise of the true vine rising out of brown barrenness was there - but we could not see the beauty and majesty in it. There was no immediate attractiveness to us. It was only a small green shoot, not likely to survive, not yet distinguishable from all the green shoot before it that died and returned to dust in insignificance. Why should we pay attention to this green, tender shoot?
The light of glory present in the green, tender, vulnerable shoot was hidden from our eyes, because we are people who know the realities of the brown ground upon which we live and from which we were formed and to which we will return. With our eyes fixed on what is, we cannot see the golden, glow of the glory inherent in this green shoot.
Therefore, the righteous servant was despised and rejected by all of mankind
We despised and rejected this green, tender, vulnerable righteous servant because his beauty, his majesty as a man of suffering, as one who was familiar with pain was repulsive to us. We could not bear to look upon the pain and suffering of the righteous servant. We hid our faces from him. We hid our faces, we receded into the shadows denying that it was we who stripped him of beauty and majesty. It was we who inflected his pain and suffering - yet, we did not hid our faces in shame, we hid them with indifference. This green tender shoot, this righteous servant ripe with hope for the world was of no value to us. We held him in low esteem.
Our spiritual vision was a misty grey fog. This fog completely engulfed the blazing glory of righteous servant who took up our pain and bore our sorrows.
All we could see was someone who as stricken, afflicted, and punished by God himself.
Picture of Injustice
Jesus was a victim of the . . .
Injustice of oppression
• He was oppressed and afflicted
• By oppression and judgment he was taken away
• He was numbered with the transgressors
• For the transgression of God's people the Righteous Servant was punished
Lost in the gray mist of our spiritual fog, it was we who oppressed, afflicted, accused, and judged the Righteous Servant.
Here’s the Parodox of Injustice
• he was pierced for our transgressions
• he was crushed for our iniquities
• he punishment that brought us peace was on him
• by his wounds we are healed
Yet, we could not see the beauty, the majesty, the blinding glory of the Righteous Servant
Presentment of Indifference
Who of his generation protested? (climax of the story)
A stark, dark ominous question answered with silence (long pause). There was silence because no one protested. No one noticed, no one cared about the injustice we inflicted upon the Righteous Servant - he's just a green tender shoot that will amount to nothing - why should we care about that which is destined to disintegrate to brown dust.
Injustice in life turned into injustice in death.
Though the righteous servant had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth, he was numbered with the transgressors. The green tender shoot was cut off from the land of the living. He was not wicked was consigned to darkness of the grave with the wicked. He who oppressed no one, he who had no place to rest his head was ironically in death was lodged with known oppressors - the rich.
Yet the Righteous servant acquiesced to the harsh injustice of humankind.
Image of Acquiescence
To acquiesce is to cooperate with a force that is beyond our control in order to achieve a desired positive outcome.
Acquiescence is not the dark resignation:
• fatalism, "I can do anything."
• not giving up, "I quit."
• indifference, "I don't care."
Acquiesence is the glorious act of our will which gives consent rather than resistance to the will of God. Acquiescence says,
• I believe!
• I trust
• I know
God is working all things together for my good.
Jesus acquiesced to the injustice of humankind toward him and he also acquiesced to the will and acts of the Father
It was the Father's will to
• Crush him
• Cause him to suffer
• Make his life a sin offering
• To lay on his Son, Jesus Christ, the iniquity - the wickedness, the sin - of us all
To the human eye there is no beauty and majesty in this, nothing that attracts us to this suffering, we hide our faces from this man of sorrows who is familiar with pain, for it explodes our idea that suffering is an unnecessary feature of our existence. If God sends his Son to suffer, not because the suffering couldn't be avoided, but because it was necessary for good reasons, then God might determine it necessary that we suffer for good reasons too. We resist the idea that a good God, knowing introduces suffering in our lives. When we refuse to acquiesce to suffering, we miss its beauty and majesty, because our Good God intends all our sufferings to do us good and to make us good.
Acquiescence is not passive it is the decisive and free act that says, "I will to do . . ."
Illustration of Action
The Righteous Servant, Jesus the Messiah, said
• I will to take up your pain
• I will to bear your suffering
• I will to bear your sin
Because Jesus had to will to act
His punishment brings us peace
We have peace with God. God does not count our sins for all of our sins were laid on Jesus. This is the only peace that really matters. It really does not matter what kind of chaos is going on in our world, in our nation, in our family, or in our personal lives - if we have eternal peace with God all is well. If we do not have eternal peace with God - any sense that we have that things are well with us is mere illusion. We can bear any chaos we must bear in this life, because eternal peace is ours.
By his wounds we are healed
In Christ all of our wounds and suffering have meaning. God is using our momentary suffering to make us into the one and only thing we need to be that is to be like Jesus. We are comforted with the knowledge that whatever brokenness we bear, whatever wounds we nurse, whatever suffering we endure we are healed by the life of Jesus flowing through our suffering making us more like him. This we know, when we step into the Lord's presence we will be completely healed, completely whole in mind, body, and spirit - and we will be like him.
Until then we can acquiesce to the will of the Father in our lives by saying, "I will step into the flowing river of God's will knowing the current will take me exactly where where I want to go - to be like Jesus that is, above all, my purpose in life. I can not fail to be transformed into the image of Jesus if I cooperate with the movement of God in my life."
Our passage closes with . . .
Portrait of Victory!
In acquiescing to the injustice of humankind and the will of the Father . . . Jesus, the Righteous Servant . . .
• justifies many by his knowledge of the Lord's will
• He sees the light of life and is satisfied
• The will of the Lord prospers in his hand
• His days are prolonged eternally
Much could be said about each of these, but they can be summarized in two words:
JESUS WON!!
Finally we hear the Father say, "I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with the strong"
We are "the strong". God rewards Jesus for his do his will. Jesus enjoys his reward with us. What is given to Jesus is shared with us. In short, because Jesus won, WE WIN!!
How does God expect us to respond to so great a victory?
Drawn to Respond to Such A Great Victory
God expects us to answer the question!
Do we believe the message?
Do we believe that “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5, NIV)
This is the flame of hope dispelling the murky shadows of a meaninglessness life.
Has the arm of the Lord been revealed to us?
Can we believe and receive the fact that the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6, NIV)
Can we see this bold flash of saving power piercing the oppressive darkness of our unbelief and perversity not only for us personally, but for all humankind?
Will we allow the Holy Spirit to etch in our minds, heart, and soul this picture of the deep love of the Father and the Son for us and how they have taken every measure to ensure that we are never outside their love and care?
This is the verdant green of the true vine, a tender shoot breaking through the hard ground of our indifferent lives and culture.
Who in this generation will protest the low-esteem in which Jesus is held?
If we believe the message, if the arm of the Lord has been revealed, then what would keep us from kindly and gently standing for Jesus when we have the opportunity?
Can we see Us as individuals and as a church family - being the saving light of Jesus standing in bold relief against the unbelief and perversity of our generation?
I hope we will say together, “we will, God helping us.”