YouTube video sermon

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

The scripture I will be reading is printed in your program. All I want you to do is follow along with me. As you do, I want you to pick out a word or two, perhaps a phrase, something that seems especially significant to you, and I want you to write that down on one side of your little red card. Follow along as we read together:

13 Behold, My Servant shall act wisely; He shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you – His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the children of mankind – 15 so shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of Him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He grew up before [God] 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. 3 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.

4 Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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. 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.

7 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. 8 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? 9 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.

10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush Him; [God] has put Him to grief; when His soul makes an offering for guilt, [God] shall see His offspring; [God] shall prolong His days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. 11 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. 12 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.

It was all real.

There was a man named Jesus, this much the Roman historian Tacitus tells us. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, He was called the Christ.

His feet swept the dust and sank in the dirt. His hands – cracked and lined with age – held the dead and the dying, the loved and the lying.

Where He went, the people followed, and where He went, the Spirit surged, and where He went, the Father smiled because it was all real.

And because it was all real, our debt that was due came calling. The payment had to be real, and the payment had to be permanent, and the payment had to be rendered. That which was wholly unclean had to be made holy and clean.

So, the man named Jesus, the One who, out of His parted lips came the words, “I AM,” confessed that it was all real.

Thus, the beatings were real, and the lashes were real, and the blood was real, and the thorns were real, and the spit was real, and the mocking was real, and the shame was real, and the scorn was real, and Mary’s pain was real, and John’s pain was real, and HIS pain was real.

And the Cross – not old and rugged but fresh and ruthless, not gilded with gold but jagged with splinters, not clean but cutting – it was real.

The celebrated became lonely, and the skeptic believed. His death, long predicted and predestined was real.

There, at that precise moment in human history, our Savior – the Lord Jesus Christ – both God and man, hung on a cross and became real . . . sin . . . for . . . us (2 Corinthians 5:21).

It was all real.

When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

As Ray begins to play, I want you to take just a few minutes and meditate upon the word(s) that you wrote down. I’d also like to invite you to think about the griefs and sorrows, the transgressions and iniquities and sins that you need to lay upon the cross, and then write those on the other side of the card. When you’re ready, I want to invite you to come forward and pull a nail out of the cross and pierce your red paper and put the nail and the paper into the cross. Perhaps you want to stay here at the front and offer a word of prayer. Maybe you just want to remain near the cross for a moment. Feel the wood. Hold the cold nail. Reflect upon the sacrifice that was made for your sin. Let’s pray:

“Our God and our Father, help us to know that the events of this day are indeed real, that they aren’t myth or fairytale, but are instead actual facts. In light of that reality, help us to embrace the spiritual truth that our sins have been covered by the blood of Jesus. May we, once again, experience your grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness. Into Your care and keeping we commend one another. We pray for our loved ones and for our families and our friends. And we pray that ‘the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit may rest upon and remain with each one who believes, tonight and forevermore. Amen.’” (2 Corinthians 13:14, adapted).