The Sin Bearer
(Isaiah 53:4-6)
1. Many clearly Biblical, crucial beliefs are under assault these days. One of those beliefs is our conviction that Christ died as our substitute, that he took our sins upon himself when he died on the cross, and that he paid the penalty for our sins and offered himself as a sacrifice to the Father, and the Father found this sacrifice pleasing and atoning.
2. This is evidenced by the ancient beliefs of the Jews, for their Bible is our Old Testament. Jews long believed that the righteous suffered to atone for the sins of the people. Orthodox Jewish historian and Rabbi Berel Wein writes,
"…It was an old Jewish tradition dating back to Biblical times that the death of the righteous and innocent served as an expiation for the sins of the nation or the world…the death of the righteous as an atonement for the sins of other men."
Wein then quotes a 17th century Jewish work titled Yeven Metzulah, "…For since the day the Holy Temple was destroyed, the righteous are seized by death for the iniquities of the generation…" (quoted from Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, Volume 2, p. 155).
3. Yet this misses the point of Psalm 49:7-8, "No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him— the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough."
4. This is why God the Son had to become man to be the sacrificial lamb. Only God in the flesh could pay the sin debt.
Main Idea: Six hundred years before Jesus was born, Isaiah prophesied about his atoning work on the cross as God’s "Suffering Servant." What would this Suffering Servant accomplish by his death?
I. He Bore the MISERIES Due Us (4)
A. He CARRIED them off of us
B. He PLACED them upon himself
C. We receive some benefits now, others LATER
Our souls are redeemed when we repent and believe, but our bodies are not fully healed until the resurrection.
1. Our souls redeemed NOW
Acts 10:43, "To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
2. Our bodies LATER
Romans 8:23-25, "And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."
3. Sometimes God graciously gives us an ADVANCE preview (Matt. 8:17)
Application: In my Tribune article today, I mentioned new studies show emotional pain registers in the same part of our brain as physical pain. It really is pain. Do you ever feel alone in your miseries? God cares. I Peter 5:7 says, "casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." That’s how we experience a preview of what is to come later.
II. He Was PIERCED for Our Sins (5)
A. Transgressions, Iniquities, and SINS
• What these words tell us about ourselves and others
B. Pierced, bruised, (crushed) and PUNISHED
C. This brings us PEACE (Shalom) and HEALING
1. In Hebrew thinking, the greatest blessing you could wish upon someone was "Peace." Shalom Elechem.
2. In a state of wrath or peace? Christ died to reconcile us to God.
D. A PREDOMINANT theme in the New Testament
I Corinthians 15:3-5, "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…"
Mark 10:45, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Romans 3:23-25a, "…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation [the punishment that brought us peace] by his blood, to be received by faith."
E. Connected to OTHER Old Testament Passages
Zechariah 12:10, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn."
III. He Bore ALL Our Sins (6)
A man under deep conviction by the Holy Spirit caught up to an evangelist as he was boarding a train. He said, "How can I be saved?" The evangelist said, "Turn to Isaiah 53:6; come in at the first all and leave with the last all."
A. All have gone ASTRAY like sheep
1. Implications staggering: All – no exceptions except this Servant;
2. Sheep have no sense.. Their one saving grace is that they recognize their master’s voice. That is the believers, too.
3. Even today in the Middle East, shepherds use community pens
4. "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep … I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice." (John 10-:14-16a)
Peter obviously has this passage in mind when he writes in I Peter 2:24-25, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls."
B. The iniquity of ALL were laid upon the Suffering Servant
I John 2:2, "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world."
• The two Yom Kippur goats (if time)
C. Note that the LORD laid our iniquities on the Suffering Servant
• Isaiah 53:10a, "Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him…"
1. All our sins were FUTURE back then
2. Did he only bear the sins we committed before we came to know him? NO
D. Christ provided salvation; we appropriate it by FAITH alone
Acts 16:31a, "… Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved"
