Radio Broadcast Monday 12/14/2020

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Jesus Christ P28 (12-14-20)

Synopsis

As we ponder over the prophecies from Isaiah concerning the events surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, we are amazed at the precise details and how they were all fulfilled in the person of Christ Jesus. We know about this because there were eyewitnesses of these things, who wrote down all they saw and heard. These were the disciples of Jesus, primarily Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And the apostles proclaim the truth of what his death, burial and resurrection accomplished for you and me, even as the prophets foretold He would come to do. Surely He is Immanuel, God with us!

There are well over 300 prophecies fulfilled from the Old Testament prophets, who lived anywhere from 500 to a 1000 years before Christ was born. These are a sampling of the prophecies fulfilled just in Isaiah 53 alone. These were written down through Isaiah around 700 B.C.

As we ponder over these prophetic events fulfilled, let us not just be in wonderment over its fulfillment, just merely being amazed that these were events that happened, but look into the plan and purpose of God to save mankind from their sins, even before the foundation of the world. Ponder over the fact that you too were the reason Jesus went to the cross. Your sins, as well as those of the entire world, were nailed on the cross, never to be remembered anymore. While He was on that cross, He was interceding to God for you? Love, not spikes, held Him there on that cross.

Do you recognize your condition of spiritual death, being born without the Spirit of God, due to the fall of Adam in the garden of Eden? Do you recognize that you too have sinned, and that because you are a sinner, and that you are blind, poor, and wretched, in need of new spiritual life. That is why Jesus came and spoke with Nicodemus, a religious leader at night, to explain to him that unless you are born again, not another physical birth, but born of the Spirit, that you cannot enter the kingdom of God. That is why Jesus came to die, be buried, only to rise again for you and me. Would you receive His offer of eternal life, His Spirit to be placed inside you, so you may know Him and experience what true living is, Christ in you, your only hope of glory?

Transcript

Let us continue in our study in A Closer Look at Jesus Christ, in Chapter 7: A Magnified Look at the Crucifixion. Let us turn to Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53:1-2
¹ Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

Jesus was rejected by His own. We see that in John 12:37-38.

John 12:37-38
³⁷ Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. ³⁸ This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:

“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”[Isaiah 53:1]

Of course, we see that also in John 1:11.

John 1:11-12
¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

So we see there that in the prophecy of Isaiah, is who has believed our message? The answer is that there are not too many. The same is true today. We have an opinion that just because there is a cross on top of a building, that is called a church, that everybody in that building, including the pastor believes in the deity of Christ. But that is not so. There are many people whose names of their denomination is something about Jesus, but they do not believe he is God. You have people by the thousands running around, going door to door, who call themselves Christian, but do not believe Jesus is God. Even in prophecy, that a virgin is going to be with child and you are to call him Immanuel, God with us. I do not know how you can deny Deity when the prophecy and prediction of His coming, called Him Immanuel, which means God with us. Despite all of that, we have to understand that all people who call themselves Christians are not born again.

Isaiah 7:14
¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Matthew 1:22-23
²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[Isaiah 7:14] (which means “God with us”).

In my own life, I grew up going to church. My mom and dad took me to church, where as a child, and you had to be baptized to be in that church. People probably equated that to salvation but I do not think anybody knew what salvation was. My motivation for getting baptized in that church was not to be saved. I never heard the word “saved”, and I know mom and dad didn’t, but in order to take communion you had to be baptized. That grape juice under my nose, I could only take that for so long. How am I going to participate in that grape juice, because I like grape juice. So mine was to lead me to the waters. So I got dunked three times, in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Spirit. I went under the water three times on that deal and got to get my grape juice.

But church was boring. There was another church in town that had a basketball court in the basement. The ceiling was only about eight feet high. That is okay. It was high enough for that at that time. Children seemed to go there and have fun. The pastor really loved children. He would take us to the park and we would play football and baseball. It was a fun place to be. So we sang in the choir. It was the biggest youth choir, probably the largest in Indiana at one time. Children love to go there. But honestly, I do not ever remember hearing the gospel as I know it today.

That continued on in my life. In college, not much interest in those things. Why should there be? Into our early life, there was not much interest in that. Never adamant toward God. I just did not realize you could know Him. I prayed. Yes, of course. I believed in Jesus. Of course, I believed Jesus so much I beat up my fraternity brother over that and was arguing over it.

I was not a Christian. I did not know the Lord from an apple tree. I had some appearances of religion, but I was not a Christian. People are sitting in churches today by the thousands and thousands. But until you have come into a personal and vital relationship with Jesus Christ, not religion. Come to grips with yourself. No one is going to be saved by going to church. Salvation does not come by singing in a choir. Salvation does not come by being dunked in water. Salvation comes when you recognize your need, your spiritual death, need of forgiveness, and you run independently, by yourself, to the living Christ, who reaches out to you and me. God is reaching out to you and me, saying “I love you. I forgave you. I gave Myself for you and now I give Myself to you”. Now accept Him into your life as your personal Lord and Savior. That is what salvation is.

John 12:47
⁴⁷ “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

To this day, He is coming to His own, to those who want to be saved. He did not come to judge the world but to save it. But His own did not receive Him. They would rather be a denominational name than a child of God. To as many as received Him you become a child of God. To those who do not, you remain lost.

John 1:12-13
¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Isaiah 53:2
² He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

We have such a tendency to take note of someone very handsome. Just an awesome figure that walked in. That is not the case of Jesus. He was obviously a very normal looking man in his humanity. He did not want people to be drawn to him for that. He wanted people to be drawn to Him internally, not externally. That is the very opposite of what the world does. If anyone is going to be a successful minister, you have to have hair right, exercise and keep your body in shape. There is an image here that everyone wants to grab a hold of. We have the tendency to worship man instead of the one who created man. Jesus did not do that.

Isaiah 53:3
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

The fulfillment of that is in Christ Jesus and recorded in Matthew 27.

Matthew 27:22-25
²² “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked.

They all answered, “Crucify him!”

²³ “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

²⁴ When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”

²⁵ All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!”

Now, what took place there is obvious. That the religious world took great exception to this person called Jesus of Nazareth. They were continually trying to do away with him. On one occasion, Jesus asked them, “Why do you want to crucify me? What sin have I done?” We do not judge you that, but that, you, a mere man, claim yourself to be God.” So his claims of deity were stirring up all kinds of wrath in people. The referred to him as a winebibber, a glutton and even as someone demon possessed.

John 10:32-33
³² but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

^{33/sup> “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”}

Luke 7:34
³⁴ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’

Man in our flesh, have the tendency to say, “if there is smoke, it cannot be far”. How much fire was there in those accusations? Do you think Jesus was demon possessed? Do you think he was a wine bibber? Do you think he was a glutton? No, it is man’s evil heart to perpetuate rumor in order to destroy. If you do not have anything concrete then come up with whatever you can in order to destroy someone. This comes from an evil heart. There is no possibility of a renewed heart to continually want to perpetuate evil upon another human being. That is an impossibility.We have people today who say they are born again but they want to perpetuate evil on someone. It makes no difference whether crying “crucify him” meaning to nail him to a cross, or to beat him to death psychologically or beat him to death with a fellow man. How much do we see that take place in the Christian world. I have seen people, and we certainly have seen a rage and wrath of this type of thing, but you have seen people in ministry who have fallen in one way or another. I think of one who I think we all would know his name, of seeing him hand-cuffed to prison and crying like a baby. How can man, whether you agree with his theology or not, whether agree with what he did or did not do, but if that man is indeed a child of God, how could you look upon that scene without having compassion on your heart. I do not care how much you disagree with such a person. It is only a person who has been full of ego and pride who would rejoice in such a thing.

Romans 3:10-11
¹⁰ As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one; ¹¹ there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.

Romans 3:22-24
²² This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

That is true of any man. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God. There is not one righteous; not one. There is not a single person on earth without sin. That is why Jesus said, “he who is without sin, cast the stone. If you are not, don’t”. There is not a person on earth who would be able to escape the scrutiny of another person from the time of birth to the time of death, if they so choose.

I thought so many times that the newspaper writers and television commentators, and those who try to expose people, I think it is time for people to investigate the investigators, to see what right they had to expose anyone. Why does’t someone investigate them to see if they have the right to do anything? We live in society where people try to crucify others. If people tried to crucify God, why should we be shocked if people try to crucify people today.

That is what was taking place. Pilate was there. Of course, that was the Jews yelling, for they did not agree with his theology. They were using the Romans to carry it out. That is also a phenomenal technique of people who work with the vantage point of cowardice. Let us get someone else to do our dirty work. We will sit in the background and fan the crowd. Then give them all the information that we need, then turn it over to someone else to do the dirty work. We will sit back, fold our hands, and say “Me? I had nothing to do with that!” Of course, that is what was taking place. Pilate was smart enough to say, “I am not going to have that blood on my hands. If you want to crucify him, you can do so, but it is not going to be on my hands.” They said, “that is okay. Let that blood be on us.”

I think that is taking place here with God. If I am a perpetrator of trying to ruin somebody, even though someone else carries it out, that blood is on me, for I am the perpetrator of that. All it was doing is shifting the guilt back on who it belonged to.

Now, who killed Jesus? You did. I did. The Jews did. The Gentiles did. Everyone is involved in carrying out the process. The Jews initiated it and the Romans ultimately carried it out. So who is responsible for this death? Everybody. There have been so-called Christians down through the ages who are totally anti-semitic, saying those Jews killed Jesus. Not realizing, “No, the Romans killed Jesus”. The Jews fanned it. All of us are responsible for it. There is not any group that is innocent of the death of Christ Jesus. The Jews fanned it and the Gentiles carried it out. That means all have sinned. All of the world is under the bondage of death. That is why Jesus came to save the world.

Romans 3:22-24
²² This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

John 3:16
¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Now we will also see in verse 4, the pain and grief Jesus bore.

Isaiah 53:4
⁴ Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.

Now Matthew recorded what he saw. Isn’t that something? Here is a killer. They were, in essence, saying, “We would rather have him. Take that Jesus and get rid of him.”

Matthew 27:26-27
²⁶ Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

²⁷ Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him.

A company has a lot of people. Those are not lightweights. Those were the muscle men, the rambos of the day.

Matthew 27:28-31
²⁸ They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹ and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. ³⁰ They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. ³¹ After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

The blood would have been already hardening on his body, so the ripping of the robe would be an excruciating experience.

Isaiah 53:5
⁵ But 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.

Now, again, I think we have to realize in the fulfilment of this verse, that this whole thing is talking about a death by crucifixion, where Christ came to bring salvation to man, to forgive sins. There is no question that all physical healing is going to come from God, but this is not the verse to substantiate that. This is talking about by his scourging we are healed. This is not talking about physical healing. Jesus died. We are talking about the healing of our souls and the healing of our spirit and the healing of our sins. To do anything beyond that is to water down the true meaning of Christ’ death. He came to die for the forgiveness of sins.

Tying into verse 5. “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.” Turn to Romans 5:8.

Romans 5:8
⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

His death is what enabled us to go free and to have an experience with the forgiveness of sins.

Matthew 27:26
²⁶ Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

John 19:34
³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.

John 19:37
³⁷ and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”[Zechariah 12:10]

Now, we are told he was oppressed and afflicted yet he did not open his mouth. We see that prophesied in Isaiah and fulfilled in Christ as recorded by Matthew.

Isaiah 53:6-7
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers was silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Matthew 27:12-14
¹² When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. ¹³ Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” ¹⁴ But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge – to the great amazement of the governor.

Now, there again, that whole deal prophesied 700 years prior to that time by the prophet Isaiah, that he was going to be led like a lamb to the slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before his shearers, he did not open his mouth.

Later on, it was amazing to me, what Pilate said to Jesus, and Jesus’ response.

John 19:10-12
¹⁰ “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

¹¹ Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

¹² From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”

Once again, the fulfillment of prophecy was he was not going to open his mouth. He did not answer. He corrected that in a quick minute. You would not have the right to do anything if it were not given to you from above. I wonder sometimes, in our lives, we all have trials and tribulations, don’t we? And our tendency in the midst of those trials and tribulations is to say, “Where is God?”, “Where is He?”, or “Why is He allowing this to happen?“. And, that is the most natural thing in the world we have to look at. Then we pray, and say that will do it, and we are still in the same situation we were in. “Where is God?” “Why is He allowing this to happen?” We have to come to the conclusion, as children of God especially, that there is nothing that happens to you and me, whether of our doing or someone else’s, there is nothing that takes God by surprise. There is absolutely nothing He said that He will not cause to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. That is why we have the unbelievable privilege to give thanks in all things. That is very difficult to do in trials and tribulations.

Romans 8:28
²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

1 Thessalonians 5
¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

We realize the timing on things is so vitally important. Our ways are not His ways. Our timing is not His timing. And we want results immediately. Yet God is saying, “I have got something in mind over here.” It is like this. Sometimes people will come and say, “Why aren’t I married?” “Well, it may be that the guy that is going to ask you, God has got a lot of work to do on yet. It depends on whether you are going to do the work or let Him do it. Quite frankly, you would be better off to wait for Him to work on this guy rather than him driving you crazy after you get married.” All of these things we do not know, do we? It is all in timing. It comes down to the point where, many times, like Jesus, it is better off just to not and try to answer.

Now we read that his grave was to be with wicked men, and with the rich in his death. So that is what Isaiah prophesied.

Isaiah 53:8-9
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. ⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Now, let us look at what is recorded down by Matthew.

Matthew 27:57-60
⁵⁷ As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. ⁵⁹ Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, ⁶⁰ and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.

There again was a prophecy 700 years prior to the fulfillment, talking about the grave assigned with wicked men yet with a rich man at his death. Here it is fulfilled with this rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, fulfilling the prophecy, fulfilled as to where he was going to be buried and with whom.

Isaiah 53:10-11
¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. ¹¹ After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

Isaiah 53:12
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.

Again, we see this also fulfilled as recorded here, where he was crucified beside wicked men, numbered with his transgressors.

Matthew 27:38
³⁸ Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.

Isaiah 53:12
¹² For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

What transgressors? The ones that He was going to be numbered with, the ones He was going to be crucified with. Some 700 years before the event, not only was He going to be poured out to death with transgressors, but he is going to intercede for them, making intercession for His persecutors, for those people he was there with.

Remember what one of the thieves said on the cross? Remember me.

Luke 23:39-43
³⁹ One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

⁴⁰ But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹ We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

⁴³ Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Not only did He intercede for the thieves but for those who perpetrated this most horrible event in history, nailing to the cross, God Himself. What did Jesus say from the cross?

Luke 23:34
³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

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