At The Cross

Palm Sunday sounds like victory, but we don’t let the noise distract us from what’s around the corner. We walk straight into Isaiah 53 and let the text do what it always does when you listen closely: it slows you down. This is Jesus as the Suffering Servant, not the polished hero people expect. No stately form. No crowd-approved image. A rejected King who still chooses the cross.

We talk about why Christians can know the story and still miss the weight of it, treating Jesus like less than Savior in the way we live. We unpack “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities” with a clear Good Friday focus, connecting the thorns, the stripes, and the silence to the true cost of sin and the depth of grace. “By His stripes we are healed” isn’t a throwaway line, it’s a call to holy reverence and honest repentance.

Then we link Isaiah 53 to Leviticus 16 and the Day of Atonement, where the sacrifice and the scapegoat together paint a fuller picture of atonement. Jesus becomes the innocent offering and the sin-bearer sent outside the city, fulfilling the gospel logic of substitution and redemption. And when we land on “It is finished,” we frame it as triumph, not defeat: Friday is sad, and Friday is victorious.

If this message helps you see the cross with fresh eyes, subscribe, share it with someone who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find it. What line from Isaiah 53 stays with you the longest?

Transcript

Opening Hymn At The Cross

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Jesus keep me near the cross is a precious fountain free to all year and it flows from God freeze mountain the cross me my glow re cross in the cross near the cross be my glory raptured so sweet be on the read my savia bleed and my saw that sacred head for such was it for Christmas it for crime that have done an igrant the tree grace unknown well mad the sun well mad the sun shortness glory when Christ the my good for men the creatures send the smart I hide the smide my blushing face while his negros of these of my heart is thankfulness and kiss but drops of grief and repay the love I love I give myself it was at the cross at the cross at the cross where I face over the light and the burden of my heart rolled it rolled away it was dead my face I received and now I am happy it was at the cross at the cross at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled it rolled away it was defy received my sight and now I am happy once more at the cross at the cross of the light and the burden of my heart was it rolled away it was by faith I received my sight and I'm happy all today think I lost you somewhere in verse three and verse four of that song yeah I I I I I realized you were with me for verse one verse number two verse three you started and then it was like we don't know that verse verse four sounded like a solo and then you came back at verse five got you back at verse number five um I think I need to check your songbooks to see how many verses are in that song but uh in my songbook the one in my head there's five um Isaiah Isaiah chapter number 53 Isaiah 53 commencing at verse number one and making our way to verse number seven scripture says who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed for he grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of parched ground he has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him nor appearance that we should be attracted to him he was despised and forsaken of men a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief and like one from whom men hide their face he was despised and we did not esteem him surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken smitten of God and afflicted but he was pierced through for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities the chastening for our well being fell upon him and by his scourging we are healed all of us like sheep have gone astray each of us has turned to his own way but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us to fall on him he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers so he did not open his mouth for the time that I stand before you from this perigope of scripture I want to title our sermon at the cross at the cross it is around this time historically annually that people pause everywhere within Christianity to recognize that almost two thousand years ago an event took place that was so magnanimous that was so effective that was so important we need to celebrate it every year around the world at this time people are pausing to remember that there was a man named Jesus of Nazareth who is on his way to the cross today is commonly called Palm Sunday today is the day similar to when almost 2000 years ago Jesus is re-entering into Jerusalem it is his last week and as he enters into Jerusalem the disciples are with him his crowd is with him and as he walks into Jerusalem on a donkey as he rides into Jerusalem the people are shouting Hosanna Hosanna save now they are excited because the king is coming they are excited because the anointed one of God is here they are excited even though they don't know Friday is coming Friday is coming and Friday is the day that he hangs on that cross and because I'm not going to see you on Friday I want to tell you about Friday on Sunday I want you to go with me to Golgothers Hill I want you to travel with me to Calvary's tree and on that tree we're going to see our king crucified on that tree we're going to see our king as he's described here in Isaiah 53 and then I'm going to tell you come back on Sunday because we're going to move from the cross to the grave from the tree to the tomb and on Sunday we sing different songs because the grave is still empty but let's remind ourselves about Friday.

Palm Sunday And Friday Coming

The Rejected King We Miss

Pierced For Us And Healed

Sheep Go Astray Doing Right Hurts

Leviticus 16 And The Scapegoat

It Is Finished Friday Victory

Anderson George 11:04

Now I know some of you may be saying right now we don't need to do that because as Church of Christ Christians we remember him every Sunday when we partake of the emblems I understand that you do this every Sunday but it still requires us every now and then pausing to reflect on what he did and what it meant not just when we partake Isaiah 53 is a passage written prophesying of a servant of God a servant to come who will bring salvation a servant who is coming to free God's people deliver them not just from Babylon not just from Egypt not just from Rome but from the devil from sin and from the dangers of self a servant is coming a messiah is coming a king is coming a Lord is coming and with him is all power in his hands with him is everything that you need to make it in this life into the next one but the truth is this is not a king that was properly celebrated. The truth is this is not a king that was that that that was shout and proclaimed about everywhere this is not a king that we celebrate as we should even today even though we know what he did for usaiah describes him in this passage in a way that should cause you to to feel sorrow. Isaiah describes him in a way that you would not normally describe a king or someone of great importance as Isaiah describes him in a way that makes you question how could we not see what this great king of God was doing for us in verse number one who has believed our message who who has listened to this news of salvation Isaiah is a shouting is prophesying that salvation is coming deliverance is coming freedom is coming liberty is coming all your hopes your dreams and your prayers are going to be answered you are going to be drawn near to God again heaven is on the other side it's coming your answers are here Jesus is here Emmanuel is with us he's coming but no one saw him the way God sent him so the mind of the people was one where King would normally have pomp and circumstance he would be born to a noble family he would have riches and gold and and he would have thousands of men to command but this this servant didn't come that way Isaiah says he grew up like a tender shoot that is to say he appeared out of nowhere he was not someone you quickly took notice of because of where he grew up he had no state form or majesty that you should look on him. He even describes him as someone with an appearance that you would not normally be attracted to what Isaiah is trying to put in your mind here is if you just look at him he doesn't look like much if you look at him he doesn't look like who he is it's easy for you to pass him by to miss him when he's passing because he doesn't look like what you're expecting. If I had time and I was really trying to preach this I would tell you that the Jesus whom God sent to us doesn't always match our expectation of him that's why he doesn't always answer your prayers like you want him to because he's not the Jesus of your expectation but he's the Jesus of your needs. So that's why he doesn't always line up with your picture of him even as he came to earth everyone in Israel every Jew every Pharisee every scribe had a picture of who the Messiah should be and Jesus was everything but that for that reason verse 3 tells us he was despised and forsaken of men I could spend all day right here John is the one who tells us in John 1 he came to his own but his own did not receive him his own rejected him Jesus walked a very lonely life there were times where disciples came to him but when he says I am true bread I am true food when he says follow me many left him many no longer regarded him he was one because he wasn't educated like the scribes and the Pharisees some people did not want to follow him he was one that had a crowd shouting crucify him crucify him he was despised and forsaken of men a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief i i i like Isaiah's description here because he's not just a man but he's a man that has felt pain a man that knows what it's like to experience difficulty and suffering this servant that God is sending even though he is rejected he he has experiences like me even though he's despised he has lived a life like me he is one from whom men hid their face one who people do not esteem but he's also the one who bore our griefs and sorrows he bore and carried the idea here in verse number four is not just that he took it on himself but firstly that he was able to heal you of your sickness he was able to heal you of your disease he was able to touch people we saw that in the miracles that he performed that he was able to touch a woman with an issue of blood and her issue is immediately healed he is able to touch lepers and heal them he's able to speak a word and people are raised from the dead we've seen what he could do he has taken on the things that trouble us the things that kill us the things that make us weak he was able to remove from us and put it on himself he carried it in him and even though he did that he was still despised and rejected I want to pause for a cause to say that this is not just what happened to him when he walked the sands of time but it's what we do to him even today. Where even though God has forgiven you of your sins he has sometimes healed you delivered you done great things in your life there are times you don't always live like the Christian he's called you to be there are times where even though God has done great things in your life that you could sing to God be the glory great things he has done you don't always acknowledge God and Christ in your life as you should there are moments where you turned your back on him there are moments where instead of confidently saying who you are and living who you are you hid who you are even though he proudly took your sins to the cross even though he did that he was despised and rejected we esteemed him as someone stricken smitten of God and afflicted this is Isaiah's way of saying when you looked at him when you particularly look at the cross people mocked him because he looked like a sinner he looked like a transgressor he looked like a criminal they they treated him as if he was in fact a criminal sometimes we treat God as if he's less than savior we live as if we forgot he is healer he's prayer answerer he's deliverer he's savior he's all that you need and then some more we don't always treat him as he is sometimes we see him as less we treat him as less that's the Jesus that went to the cross a Jesus who men looked at not recognizing he was salvation from God not realizing he was God in the flesh with them not realizing he was their answer not just from Rome but from sin he was everything that they need but he didn't look like what they wanted and so he's rejected but I'm thankful that even though they rejected him even though there was a cry saying we have no king but Caesar that he still stayed on the cross I wish I had a church see because let me get human for two seconds and tell you if it was me I might have been too much in my feelings to stay on that cross for you I I am taking on your sin your weight your punishment and you are here treating me like a common criminal if I had the power I was coming off and this is where we have to thank Jesus he's not using spite of being rejected in spite of being stricken he stayed he even prayed Father forgive them For they do not know what they are doing. And here he is on that cross. And verse 5 tells you why he's on that cross. He was pierced through for my transgressions, your transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell on him. I want to give you a vivid picture right here and say when you see the crown of thorns, that's his crushing. When you see the crown of thorns, that's his piercing, that's part of his suffering. But it's suffering for us. This is the weight of sin, the effect of sin, the consequence of sin that you see when you see the thorns, when you look at his side and see that it's pierced. This is the weight and the consequence that he bears because we lied, we stole, we sinned, we broke God's commandment. But he took the punishment. He beaten with many stripes. And we say that so casually, so gladly, that by his stripes we are healed. But every now and then you ought to groan and say, by his stripes, because he was beaten, because he was scourged, because they crucified him. I'm now healed. There should be a holy reverence when you say that. The cross should remind us of where we were supposed to be. Every time you think about it, every time you sing it, every time it's alluded to in scripture, it should cause you to think about that should have been me. Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross is a song that says, I want to have my mind stayed there because if my mind stays there, it reminds me that what Jesus did at the cross not only freed me, but happened because of me. If there was no sin and no me, there would be no cross for him to die on. So keep me near that cross, not just because in that cross is life, but because that cross reminds me that it should have been me, but he took my place. At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burdens of my heart rolled away, began by saying, Alas, and did my savior bleed, and did my sovereign, my king, died because he decided to go to the cross in my place for such a womb as I. I know, I know your songbook says such a one. But the author who penned it penned it properly and said such a womb as I. But we don't like to call ourselves not nice things. And so you sing a nice song now. You've made the song cute. It's no longer for such a womb as I you now say for such a one. But the one here that we're singing about is a wretch, uh, a one full of sin, a one who needed saving. That's a womb. For a womb such as I, he went to the cross. That's a tax. Verse 7 says, for six, all of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us have turned his own way, and this makes me slow down, it makes me get bothered inside because this is not just true of Jesus before he went to the cross, this is still true after the cross. Where before the cross, I lived the way I wanted to, I lived the way I thought was right, I justified all my actions based on me. But the truth is there's still some me in me. So that now, even though he died, even though he took my place and I should now be living for him as a living sacrifice, there are still times and moments in my life where what I do is for me. Where what I do is because it makes me feel good, not necessarily because it pleases him, not necessarily because it's right to do. Right doesn't always feel good. Okay, let me let me let me pause for a cause because you're looking real strange. It could just be me, but I know there are times in my life where doing right doesn't always feel right. I don't always feel like being the bigger person, I don't always feel like having to always, in spite of how my wife acts, be a good husband. That's the right thing to do. But sometimes I would just like to shake her a little bit. Just shake her and hope some sense drops in and all the nonsense drops out. But every now and then, instead of shaking her, God calls me to love her and pray for her. I don't want to pray, I I I I want you something else. Doing right doesn't always feel right. And when God calls me to do right and to be right, there are times where even though he has done so much for me, and if he did nothing else but going to the cross, he did enough. But there are times where even though he has done so much for me, I still think of me and not him. And like a sheep, I go my own way, I do my own thing. And so all of us like sheep, we have gone astray, we have turned to our own way, but the Lord has caused our sins, our iniquity. Every time you did your own thing, God placed that on him. God put it on his back and laid him on that tree. He caused the iniquity of us to fall on him. And verse 7 says he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. There's a song that says he could have called 10,000 angels, but he did not open his mouth. He could have come off that cross anytime he wanted to. Nails were not strong enough to hold him there. Nails were not enough to keep him glued to that cross. It was his love for me that kept him there. And he took those nails, he took, he took that beating, he took the spear in his side on a good Friday for me. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, he said nothing. Even when he was on trial, he did not defend himself, he said nothing, and he went to a cross to pay a price he didn't have to pay because he loved a person like me, a person like you. What's also interesting is as Isaiah brings up the image of a lamb here. Many of us normally think of the Passover Lamb. So we think of Jesus as the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. He's the Passover lamb that we sprinkled his blood on the lintels of our heart, and death has now passed over. And that is true, but he's also like another lamb in Scripture, and I want you to see this because I think this is where Isaiah is drawing from the most. Meet me in Leviticus chapter number 16. Leviticus chapter number 16, and I will pick up from about verse 20. Leviticus 16, verse number 20 tells us, as you turn there, there's a special day in Hebrew called Yom Kippur in our Bibles. It's called the Day of Atonement. It's the day where you would get two lambs, and the priest, the high priest, would kill one that was perfect, that was innocent, and he would bring it into the holy of holies, and he would place the blood on the mercy seat, and that blood would cover the sins of everyone. But there was another lamb that was also there. This lamb is the one we're going to read about in verse 20 of Leviticus 16, and it says, When he finishes atoning for the holy place and for the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel, and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins, and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away in the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. Look at verse 22. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land, and he shall release the goat in a wilderness. Just in case you didn't know, in that time a young sheep as well as a young goat is referred to as a lamb. Just quick notice. And so some Bibles have lamb, some Bibles have goat, but they're all referring to the same thing. What I want you to see is in this text, there are two. There's one that dies innocent, and his blood is able to cleanse, but that's only because the sins were placed on the other one, and he was sent out in the wilderness to die. Jesus is like both lambs, he's the innocent lamb who shed his blood so you can be free, but he's also the lamb that bore our sins and was sent outside of the city to die. Like the second lamb God placed on him every one of your sins, every one of my sins. So when Isaiah says he bore our iniquities, he bore our sins, he also has this in mind because Jesus has our sins placed on him and is then sent outside of the city into the wilderness to die. If you need some help for that, Second Corinthians 5 21 says, God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Jesus became like a sinner in the death that he died, was treated like a sinner in the death that he died. He was treated the way a sinner was supposed to. So he became like a sinner in the death that he died. Every time you look at the cross, this is what you should see. A king that came but was rejected, a king that saved, but people despised, one from God who healed, who saved, who delivered, but was not chosen. One who was able to take the consequences of our actions, one who was able to take the penalty of our action and bear it in himself on that cross. And so he hangs on that cross, full of shame, full of iniquity, so that we could be redeemed. And while that is emotive, that's not the word I want to end on, because even as he hangs on that cross just before he drew his last breath, he said, It is finished. And I don't know about you, but when I first heard it is finished, I thought it was Jesus acknowledging defeat. I thought it was him mourning where he was, but it wasn't. It is finished, was him announcing, I've accomplished it. It is finished, it's him saying, I took the sins and I was able to be a sacrifice. I accomplished what God set out to do. I'll be back. It is finished, is God saying you're free, you're delivered, you're redeemed. It is finished, is saying no sin, no weapon, no devil, no person, no thing could get in the way of God's salvation in your life. It is finished, says there's nothing separating you from the love of God. He went to the cross, he took your sins, but you end up saying, even on Friday, not just Sunday. Oh, y'all miss that come here, church. You could shout on the grave being empty on Sunday, but you also need to be able to celebrate that it happened because of Friday. I want to run, but I didn't mic myself, so I can't run. Friday was sad and victorious at the same time. It was sad because he had to go through this despicable, shameful act that he didn't deserve. But even as he went through it, he was able to shout, It is finished, I have conquered. There is nothing separating you from the love of God. There is nothing that could cause you now to miss out on your blessings. There is no one bigger, badder, stronger, more powerful than me who has accomplished what God set out for me to do in the cross. It is now finished. I'm yours. Heaven is yours, blessings is yours, glory is yours, it's finished. So you look at the cross and you see your sin, but you should also see your salvation. This is a time to reflect and remember that almost 2,000 years ago. Preacher, why do you say almost 2000 years ago? It's 2026. I'm I'm glad you know what year it is. Um, that's good. He went to the cross AD 33. It's really about AD 29, 80 30, but let me sixty traditional year, AD 33, which means that when it becomes 2033, it'll be 2,000 years. So it's almost 2,000 years, not yet 2,000 years. Almost 2,000 years ago, a man was born of a virgin sent by God. He lived and he died, but he rose again so that I now could be a child of God and have hope of glory in heaven. Around this time, he is now entering into Jerusalem, preparing in himself to go to a cross that he didn't deserve. Let's be sorrowful that the cross happened while at the same time glory in that cross, for it was at the cross, at the cross, where we first saw the light and the burdens of our hearts rolled away. The suffering servant bore in himself our iniquities, and by his stripes we are now healed. Thank God for the cross. Thank God for Jesus. Thank God for Good Friday as we stand and sing.