The Sufferings of Christ (Prophets) 20230326 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org
03/26 Lent; The Sufferings of Christ; Prophets; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20230326_sufferings-of-christ.mp3
Moses and The Prophets All About Jesus
In these weeks leading up to Good Friday, we are digging it to Jesus’ statement that the entirety of Scripture is all about him. In Genesis, we saw that God created everything good, but we rebelled, sold ourselves into slavery; we created the need for a rescuer. And God promised that one day the Seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, but it would come at great cost. The serpent would inflict a deadly blow, crushing his heel.
The Torah or instruction of Moses is all about Jesus. From the ark that brought 8 people safely through the waters of God’s just judgment, to the sacrifice of the only Son, in God’s provision of a ram as a substitute, in the Exodus rescue out of slavery, in the Passover blood that protects, in the pillar of light that guides, in the gracious provision of bread from heaven and water gushing from the stricken rock, in the tabernacle, where God pitched his tent among us, in the blood of bulls and goats that could never take away sin, in Moses and the priests who mediated between God and man, in the curse lifted up on a pole, that all who look would live, all of this and so much more point us to Jesus.
Jesus said that everything written in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms about him must be fulfilled (Lk.24:44). Today I want to look at the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be ours (1Pet.1:10-11), We could look at all the prophecies that predict with unfailing precision that Jesus was to be virgin born (Jer.31:22), called Emmanuel, God with us (Is.7:14); born in Bethlehem (Mic.5:2); born in poverty (Is.53:2; Lev.12:8); that he would begin ministry in Galilee (Is.9:1-2); that he would be a descendant of Jesse and David (Is.11:1; Jer.23:5-6; 33:15); anointed by the Spirit (Is.11:2; 61:1-2); that he would be hailed as King, humble, riding on a donkey (Zech 9:9).
But what Jesus was focused on, and what we want to see today is specifically the prophecies about the sufferings of the Christ, and this is the majority and most detailed of the prophecies.
Peter said in Acts 3
Acts 3:17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.
In the Jewish collection of Scriptures, the Prophets included Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve (what we call the minor prophets; Hosea thru Malachi).
Joshua
We see Joshua, whose name in Greek is Jesus, YHWH is Salvation, leading the people through the Jordan river and into the promised land, extending mercy and salvation even to Gentile sinnners like Rahab. Jesus is the scarlet thread woven throughout the Old Testament.
Judges
After Joshua, God’s people spiraled down in sin, but God sent Judges, savior deliverers to rescue them. In Gideon, we see God’s power on display through weakness and foolishness. Jesus humbled himself, became weak, in order to rescue the weak.
Jesus is the greater Samson, with perfect sinless moral integrity, was betrayed for money, bound, publicly humilated, mocked and shamed, yet filled with the Spirit, willingly stretched out his arms and gave up his life to bring a great deliverance.
Samuel
Hannah, a barren woman, is given a son; she rejoices in God’s salvation, who will raise up the poor and needy and humble the proud. The prophet Samuel, dedicated to the Lord, would anoint for the people a king who would save them from their enemies.
Kings
The people rejected God as their king and demanded that they have a king like the nations around them. God gave them kings who demonstrated that every human king would fall short of what they longed for. Jesus would be the greater David, man after God’s own heart, who would stand in the place of the people, fight their battle; one champion in place of many, and destroy the giant who threatens them. But Jesus is also the greater David, who in great anguish of soul, as rejected king, crossed the brook Kidron, flowing with blood from the temple mount and filth from the city, crying out and sweating as it were great drops of blood, as he anticipated being rejected not only by men but by his Father in Heaven.
Jesus is the greater Solomon, Jesus the greater temple where we enter in to meet with God. Jesus the greater sacrifice that once for all takes away our sins.
The Prophets – Suffering Servant of Isaiah
The prophets were given a vision of this coming Messiah-King who would conquer and reign victorious over his enemies. But they were also given a vision of the Suffering Servant of YHWH, which was unexpected, difficult to understand.
Isaiah 49 says:
Isaiah 49:14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands...
I wonder of Thomas thought of these verses when he put his finger in the marks of the nails? (Jn.20:25,27)
Isaiah 50 says:
Isaiah 50:3 I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering.” ...6 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. 7 But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
Luke tells us (Lk.9:51) that Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. When accused of blasphemy before the high priest, and again by the soldiers before Pilate ‘they spit in his face and struck him’ (Mt.26:67; 27:30). Pilate had Jesus scourged or flogged (Mt.27:26; Jn.19:1). The gospel writers tell us when Jesus was crucified, from noon to 3pm there was darkness over the whole land (Mt.27:45).
Isaiah 51 talks about the wrath of God against his people.
Isaiah 51:17 Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering. ... 21 Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine: 22 Thus says your Lord, the LORD, your God who pleads the cause of his people: “Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more; 23 and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have said to you, ‘Bow down, that we may pass over’; and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over.”
Isaiah and Jeremiah point to the cup of Gods wrath being passed to the enemies of Israel; the Lord says he will take it from your hand and you shall drink no more. But Matthew tells us that Jesus prayed in the garden ‘if it is possible, let this cup pass from me… if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done’ (Mt.26:39, 42).
Isaiah 52 says:
Isaiah 52:3 For thus says the LORD: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.”
Peter tells us that we were ransomed ‘not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot’ (1Pet.1:18-19). Isaiah 52 goes on:
Isaiah 52:10 The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
YHWH has bared his holy arm to bring about salvation, but not in the way we would have expected. Verse 13 says:
Isaiah 52:13 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.
The Son of Man was lifted up like the serpent on a pole, so that whoever looks to him, whoever believes in him may have eternal life (Jn.3:14; 12:32). The prophet goes on in Isaiah 53:
Isaiah 53:1 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 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. 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; 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. 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.
He bore our griefs, he carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement that brought our peace fell upon him. YHWH laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was striken for the transgression of my people. He had done no violence, spoken no deceit, yet YHWH crushed him as an offering for guilt. YHWH was satisfied with the anguish of his soul. And his righteousness makes many to be counted righteous. He bore our iniquities, he poured out his own soul to death. He bore the sins of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.
This is vicarious or substitutionary atonement; He stood in my place, he took the punishment I deserve. He paid my price. Jesus is my proxy. My griefs, my sorrows, my transgressions, my iniquities, my guilt, my sins were imputed to him, credited to his account and he paid the price in full. He is the only perfectly righteous one, and he makes me to be accounted as righteous.
The sufferings of Christ were because of me. I created the need, I created the debt, that he gladly paid.
1 Corinthians 15:1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
The good news is that Christ died for our sins – my sins – in accordance with the Scriptures. He suffered in my stead. He bore my sins in his body on the tree (1Pet.2:24).
John 19:30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Τετέλεσται – It is finished. Paid in full. The debt is cancelled.
Colossians 2:13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things, and enter into his glory? (Lk.24:26-27)
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2023.03.26 Sermon Notes
The Sufferings of Christ; Jesus in the Prophets
Everything written about Jesus must be fulfilled
Luke 24:44-45; Acts 3:17-18
Engraved on his hands
Isaiah 49:14-16; John 20:25, 27
Darkness, scourging, spitting
Isaiah 50:3-7; Luke 9:51; Matthew 26:67; 27:26, 30, 45; John 19:1
Taking the cup of God’s wrath
Isaiah 51:17-23; Matthew 26:39, 42
Redeemed without money
Isaiah 52:3; 1 Peter 1:18-19
High and lifted up
Isaiah 52:10-15; John 3:14; 12:32
He bore our griefs; carried our sorrows
Isaiah 53:4
He was pierced for our transgressions; crushed for our iniquities; our chastisement was upon him
Isaiah 53:5
YHWH laid on him the iniquity of us all
Isaiah 53:6
He was stricken for the transgression of my people
Isaiah 53:8
YHWH crushed him as an offering for guilt and was satisfied
Isaiah 53:10-11
By his righteousness he counts many righteous
Isaiah 53:11; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; John 19:30; Colossians 2:13-14
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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org