SPEAKER_00: As you can tell from the table in front, this is a communion Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: In a few minutes, we will take the bread and the cup together, and the bread reminds us, the scripture says, of the Lord's death.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we take the bread, we are proclaiming the Lord's death until he returns.
SPEAKER_00: Communion, as uh we refer to it, is a memorial.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us that Jesus was a real person.
SPEAKER_00: He's not a myth, not a legend.
SPEAKER_00: He's a real person who really lived.
SPEAKER_00: He's truly human and he truly dwelt among us, and he died a death.
SPEAKER_00: And the bread proclaims that death.
SPEAKER_00: When we break the bread with our hands or with our teeth, we are proclaiming that the Lord's body was broken for us.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, the bones in his body weren't broken.
SPEAKER_00: What we mean by that is his life was laid down.
SPEAKER_00: He died a death that we remember.
SPEAKER_00: This communion points back to his real death.
SPEAKER_00: Now, nothing so divides the world really as the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You look in the cross and you see the dividing line of human history.
SPEAKER_00: Even our calendar rolls to it and rolls out of it.
SPEAKER_00: The cross displays the love of God, it displays the sinfulness of man, it displays the brutality of the Roman Empire, that they would kill people like that, it displays the kindness of God, that he would save us.
SPEAKER_00: It displays the hideousness of sin, that that kind of death is what our sin demands.
SPEAKER_00: It's a real thing that Jesus died.
SPEAKER_00: And the bread reminds us continually that it's a he was a physical savior.
SPEAKER_00: You could touch him, John says, just as you can touch and handle the bread.
SPEAKER_00: But this is a New Testament celebration.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that exists for the church, communion does.
SPEAKER_00: There's also an Old Testament celebration of the death of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, it's not something commemorative like communion is.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, you didn't have bread.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, what you had was an arrow.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, you had prophecies that pointed forward.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, you have communion that points backwards to the Lord's death.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, you have prophecies that point forward to the Lord's death.
SPEAKER_00: At the center of both the New and the Old Testament is, of course, the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The focal point of Old Testament prophecy is the cross of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The focal point of New Testament worship is the cross of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned in my prayer, there's a six-story cross on the roof of this building.
SPEAKER_00: There's a cross above us.
SPEAKER_00: There's a cross in some of your Bibles around some of your necks.
SPEAKER_00: In our worship, there's a cross in all of our songs.
SPEAKER_00: There's a cross on our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it really is in an actual way the focal point of our worship.
SPEAKER_00: And that is true in the Old Testament as well.
SPEAKER_00: Although it wasn't as pronounced as the cross is in the New Testament, it is still a reality in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament is building forward towards the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to look at that this morning as we build forward towards the cross.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you kind of an outline here of building the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to look at four different passages, and I want to start in Genesis chapter 3 at the very beginning of your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis chapter 3 is kind of the first instruction.
SPEAKER_00: If you're going to build the cross from the Old Testament, Genesis chapter 3 is the first place you would go.
SPEAKER_00: Communion comes from the night the Lord was crucified.
SPEAKER_00: He took the bread and gave thanks for it and broke it.
SPEAKER_00: Now we now do that saying this is the Lord's body.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament has a similar function.
SPEAKER_00: The prophecies of the Old Testament declare this is the Lord and point forward to his cross.
SPEAKER_00: The cross comes from the Old Testament, and the first place you see it is Genesis 3, verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Genesis 1 is the creation of the world and all the animals according to their kind, and the world was good and perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 2 is kind of drilling down on the creation mandate that Adam and Eve are supposed to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
SPEAKER_00: There is no gospel in Genesis 1 and 2 because there is no sin in Genesis 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need the good news when there is no bad news and everything you have is perfect news.
SPEAKER_00: That's Genesis 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: But in Genesis 3, sin enters the world.
SPEAKER_00: You see that in verse 1 of Genesis chapter 3, the serpent, Satan, who had been cast out of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Satan desired to have dominion over the earth.
SPEAKER_00: He was exiled from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He took his war to the earth.
SPEAKER_00: He approaches Eve in the garden in verse 1 and says, Did God actually say to you?
SPEAKER_00: This is the first time in world history where God's word is questioned.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 1, everything God says just exists.
SPEAKER_00: Light, and there's light.
SPEAKER_00: Earth, earth.
SPEAKER_00: Animals, fish, everything.
SPEAKER_00: He says it and it's there.
SPEAKER_00: And now you get to Genesis 3, and there's a question mark after it for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: Did God really say?
SPEAKER_00: Now Adam and Eve don't recognize who they're talking to.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know the devil.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know he's been cast out of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know anything about him.
SPEAKER_00: In a sense, this is like the encounter in Job chapter 1 where the devil goes to war against Job.
SPEAKER_00: Job doesn't know why this is happening to him.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know the scene behind the curtain that God and the devil were talking to each other and this playing out in front of him.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know that.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, Adam and Eve don't know what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: They have a talking serpent in front of them who's asking them a question about God's word.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know who this is.
SPEAKER_00: But they agree to question God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Eve, in fact, even changes God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And then they agree to go along with the devil who tells them to eat the fruit and they eat it, and the moment they eat it, they die, exactly like God said they would.
SPEAKER_00: Unlike what the devil said, the devil is a liar, of course.
SPEAKER_00: He lied from the beginning, right here.
SPEAKER_00: The devil said, You won't die.
SPEAKER_00: They ate the fruit and they died spiritually at that moment.
SPEAKER_00: They were spiritually dead.
SPEAKER_00: They hid from God, which is insane hiding from God.
SPEAKER_00: They hadn't read the book of Jonah yet.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know you can't hide from God.
SPEAKER_00: But they try it, and God finds them, and now God brings them grace.
SPEAKER_00: So this is the first insight into the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It comes, of course, with law, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh God said to the serpent, Because you've done this, cursed are you.
SPEAKER_00: So God responds to sin by cursing the devil.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to curse the earth, he's going to make childbirth difficult and painful, work uh difficult and painful, all that's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: He starts with cursing the devil through the serpent, but he responds right away with the curse.
SPEAKER_00: Right away, he responds with the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That's verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: I'll put enmity between you and the woman speaking to the devil.
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be a war between the children of God and the children of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no, there's no mixture between darkness and light.
SPEAKER_00: There's no partnership between Christ and Blyle.
SPEAKER_00: There's no, you know, Jesus and Satan aren't on the same team.
SPEAKER_00: That's this point right here.
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be a warfare throughout all of mankind's existence between people who serve sin and people who serve the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: I'll put between your offspring and her offspring.
SPEAKER_00: War.
SPEAKER_00: Enmity.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the word offspring here is interesting.
SPEAKER_00: It's the seed.
SPEAKER_00: It's those who worship the devil through living a life filled with sin.
SPEAKER_00: They're called the children of the devil here.
SPEAKER_00: It's not very politically correct, but that's what God calls them.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a relationship with God through Christ, you're a child of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: And her offspring, her, not Adam and Eve, her offspring.
SPEAKER_00: This is the prophecy of the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: The word offspring is the word seed.
SPEAKER_00: There will be a seed from Eve who will defeat the devil.
SPEAKER_00: That's the end of the middle of verse 15 there.
SPEAKER_00: He shall bruise your head.
SPEAKER_00: The word bruise there is really a word for crush.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the devil's going to have his head bashed in by this offspring of Eve.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first prophecy of the Savior: that there will be a human being.
SPEAKER_00: Eve makes people.
SPEAKER_00: She's a human, she will make a human.
SPEAKER_00: This is after Genesis 1, remember?
SPEAKER_00: Cows make cows, dogs make dogs, people make people.
SPEAKER_00: The Savior will be from Eve.
SPEAKER_00: The Savior will be a human being, and he will win.
SPEAKER_00: He will save people from their sin by crushing the devil's head.
SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty powerful gospel prophecy, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: But then it ends somewhat enigmatically here.
SPEAKER_00: You, speaking of the devil, shall bruise his heel.
SPEAKER_00: And this is your first window here into the cross.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as the Savior is introduced, in the very verse that introduces the Savior to the world, you get this prophecy of the cross, that the Savior will be struck.
SPEAKER_00: This virgin-born human being who will defeat the devil by crushing his head.
SPEAKER_00: He himself will be struck.
SPEAKER_00: Now, right away you're seeing he's going to be struck in the foot.
SPEAKER_00: This makes sense if you're dealing with a snake.
SPEAKER_00: You know, a snake can't slap you.
SPEAKER_00: A snake can't punch.
SPEAKER_00: A snake doesn't have, starting in verse 15 anyway, a snake doesn't have arms.
SPEAKER_00: He can't punch you or fight you or scratch you or claw you.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have legs.
SPEAKER_00: He can't run after you.
SPEAKER_00: He can't trip you.
SPEAKER_00: Snakes can do two things.
SPEAKER_00: They can coil up and they can pounce to bite.
SPEAKER_00: That's what a snake can do.
SPEAKER_00: That's how a snake attacks.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in Albuquerque.
SPEAKER_00: We had rattlesnakes.
SPEAKER_00: They minded their own business.
SPEAKER_00: They were not patrolling the yard, you know.
SPEAKER_00: They'd curl up under a cactus, leave them alone.
SPEAKER_00: And so, I mean, you hardly ever saw them.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be looking for them to see them.
SPEAKER_00: I moved to Virginia.
SPEAKER_00: This is not rattlesnake country, so I'm thinking, hey, no snakes here.
SPEAKER_00: Moving to Virginia.
SPEAKER_00: There's like snake patrol in my backyard.
SPEAKER_00: There's always snakes back there.
SPEAKER_00: No arms, no legs, just wrapping themselves up and jumping.
SPEAKER_00: We have the black snakes here in our yard anyway that will rattle the tails in the leaf to make them sound like a rattlesnake.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the worst of all the worlds.
SPEAKER_00: What can it do?
SPEAKER_00: It can't shoot you.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have a trigger finger.
SPEAKER_00: It can jump and it can bite.
SPEAKER_00: It strikes you.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what's going to happen to the savior.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to be bitten, struck by the serpent in the heel, which makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: If it's a snake attacking, that's where you would get bit by a snake in the heel.
SPEAKER_00: What's interesting about this is there's no doubt who wins.
SPEAKER_00: You know, would you if the war, one side gets their head bashed in and the other gets a bite on his heel, which would you rather be?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously the savior is victorious.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, in his victory, he is struck.
SPEAKER_00: Very snake-like language there.
SPEAKER_00: He'll be struck in his heel.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get more information than that.
SPEAKER_00: That's all you get in Genesis 3.
SPEAKER_00: The Savior is introduced, and he will be struck.
SPEAKER_00: The next prophecy of the cross is Numbers chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: You can turn over there.
SPEAKER_00: Numbers 21, if you're using the Pew Bible, by the way, that's page 129.
SPEAKER_00: 129 in the Pew Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Numbers 21 is our next piece of the puzzle here if we're building the cross from scratch.
SPEAKER_00: And I guess there's other verses we could have looked at, like the sacrifice of Isaac.
SPEAKER_00: But in my mind, when I think of the components of the cross, I go from Genesis 3 to Numbers 21.
SPEAKER_00: This is the war between Israel and the Canaanites.
SPEAKER_00: The Canaanites were surrounding Israel and attacking them.
SPEAKER_00: Israel's in the wilderness wanderings here.
SPEAKER_00: Because they doubted God, they're sentenced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until they all die off.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what's happening right now.
SPEAKER_00: They're walking around and they're dying, groups at a time.
SPEAKER_00: The Canaanites are an implement of God's justice here.
SPEAKER_00: The Canaanites are attacking Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And Israel does something unusual in verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: They vowed a vow to Yahweh and said, if you'll give us this people, we'll devote their cities to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: They tell Yahweh, if you give us victory, we'll worship you.
SPEAKER_00: Devote to destruction is kind of a religious terminology in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: It means it's devoted to worship here, and they'll destroy them out of fidelity to God.
SPEAKER_00: They're not going to plunder them.
SPEAKER_00: This is a classic, classic Israelite vow right here.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites often say this kind of thing in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: God, if you answer my prayer, I will worship you for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_00: Do they ever keep the deal?
SPEAKER_00: And the same is true here.
SPEAKER_00: So God, verse 3 listens, it says in DSV, says, Yahweh heeded the voice of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He listens to them, answers their prayer, gives them victory over the Canaanites.
SPEAKER_00: The very next verse.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites were going around the land of Eden, and the people became impatient on the way.
SPEAKER_00: So God, if you answer my prayer and give me victory, I'll worship you the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_00: The next verse, they're getting impatient with God.
SPEAKER_00: They spoke against God and Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
SPEAKER_00: For there's no food and there's no water, and we loathe this worthless food.
SPEAKER_00: What are they complaining about?
SPEAKER_00: Mana.
SPEAKER_00: Just let that sink in for a second.
SPEAKER_00: They're in the desert, and God's giving them food every day out of the grounds.
SPEAKER_00: They just prayed, God, if you answer my prayer, I'll worship you forever and ever, amen.
SPEAKER_00: God answers their prayer, and the next moment they're complaining against God because they're sick of manna, a miraculous food that comes out of the ground.
SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely insane.
SPEAKER_00: And this, you can make fun of the Israelites all day long in these kind of verses right here.
SPEAKER_00: But you recognize this is every one of us, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: God, if you answer my prayer and you get me out of this trouble at school or out of work or whatever, then I will follow you and believe you forever.
SPEAKER_00: And God answers your prayer, and you're driving home and you're stuck in traffic, and you're like, ah, I thought you were the God of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: We grumble and we complain.
SPEAKER_00: Your flight is delayed, and you have a miracle of a plane flying around the world, but you're like, come on, God, I prayed about this.
SPEAKER_00: 15 minutes late.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't complain about mana.
SPEAKER_00: I guess it's the same food every day for 40 years, you know.
SPEAKER_00: You run out of recipes.
SPEAKER_00: Manana pot pie.
SPEAKER_00: And they've had it and they complain to God.
SPEAKER_00: And so God judges them by attacking them.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6 with fiery snakes.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what fiery means there.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they were shooting venom or if they were actually on fire.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00: But they are on the attack.
SPEAKER_00: And the Israelites are running for their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, they ran to Moses, who, by the way, in verse 5 they were complaining against.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 7, they go to him and they say, We've sinned, for we've spoken against Yahweh and against you.
SPEAKER_00: So the Israelites accidentally and ironically discovered the doctrine of a mediator.
SPEAKER_00: They can't pray to God themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They see they were just complaining about.
SPEAKER_00: So they're pushing Moses forward.
SPEAKER_00: Like Moses, God listens to you, and we like you, and so do something.
SPEAKER_00: This is the doctrine of a mediator.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, the Savior will be a mediator.
SPEAKER_00: He will be the go-between between God and man, but it's not Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Moses has played this role before, too, by the way, many, many times.
SPEAKER_00: He's great at it because he loves God and he actually likes the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: Not a lot of people check both of those boxes.
SPEAKER_00: They say, We've sinned, help us.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses, the end of verse 7, is so tender.
SPEAKER_00: Moses prayed for the people.
SPEAKER_00: And Yahweh said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it up on a pole.
SPEAKER_00: This is the second component of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: What you learn from this passage is that the Savior will be lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: From Genesis 3, you learn that the Savior will be struck, and from Numbers 21, you learn that the Savior will be lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is supposed to make this serpent.
SPEAKER_00: A bronze serpent.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how long it takes to make something out of bronze, but the quickest thing you can make out of bronze is probably a serpent.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you think back to kindergarten, you need to make something with clay.
SPEAKER_00: A worm.
SPEAKER_00: Done.
SPEAKER_00: Bronze serpent.
SPEAKER_00: And he's supposed to lift it up on a pole so that everybody could see.
SPEAKER_00: It had to be high because wherever there's a lot of Israelites here, and they're running every which way, and wherever they are, they need to be able to see it.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot going on in this passage about the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, notice that the serpent is an image of the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: In that, we know the Savior from Genesis 3 is going to be a human being, not a snake, so we know that.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to crush a snake.
SPEAKER_00: He isn't a snake.
SPEAKER_00: But in this passage here, it's a good representation of him because the Savior will take on the form of the one inducing judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Right now it is snakes bringing the judgment, and the Savior will take on the image of that to bring the wrath on himself.
SPEAKER_00: And this is exactly what happens with the cross.
SPEAKER_00: We are cursed because of Adam's sin.
SPEAKER_00: Adam brought us into sin.
SPEAKER_00: His federal headship over us makes us guilty of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now we sin ourselves as well, but we stand condemned because of Adam's sin.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus comes in the form and likeness of Adam.
SPEAKER_00: He comes in sinful flesh.
SPEAKER_00: He never sinned, of course, but he took on the likeness of sinful flesh.
SPEAKER_00: He takes on the image of that which is cursed to deliver us from the curse.
SPEAKER_00: More than that, he's lifted up then.
SPEAKER_00: And I've seen people run from snakes, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Some people just jump back or walk around.
SPEAKER_00: I once saw a lady who saw a snake at work and she went in and got in her car and drove home.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, nope, nope, and nope.
SPEAKER_00: See you next Monday.
SPEAKER_00: These people are running for their lives, and they have to stop and turn and look to the very image of what they're being cursed by.
SPEAKER_00: This is a remarkable amount of faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's repentance.
SPEAKER_00: You're turning from your sin and you're trusting God in the middle of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: You don't say, God, take away the judgment, and then I'll think about trusting you.
SPEAKER_00: No, the judgment is taken away by you turning and facing what you deserve.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens here.
SPEAKER_00: But the point that the New Testament makes about this passage is more than all that.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament uses this passage to point to the cross, that the Savior had to be lifted up so that everybody could see him.
SPEAKER_00: It's a prophecy of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He will be lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus comes, the Savior comes, he will be descended from Eve, he will be born as a virgin, he will be struck, and in his striking he will be lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: So whoever looks at him and puts their faith in him will not perish, but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: The third component of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 53, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: You can turn there if you're in your Pew Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's page 613.
SPEAKER_00: We'll start in the end of Isaiah 52.
SPEAKER_00: Page 613 in the Pew Bible.
SPEAKER_00: This is the fourth of the suffering servant songs.
SPEAKER_00: There are four songs in the book of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: That's known as they're all known as the suffering servant songs.
SPEAKER_00: At the start of the songs, you wonder who is the servant.
SPEAKER_00: Some people even say the servant could be Israel, the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're reading Isaiah, if you're familiar with Isaiah, the servant is not Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Israel is apostate at this point.
SPEAKER_00: They're in open rebellion against God.
SPEAKER_00: They're not identified with God, they're identified as the enemies of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so God raises up a new servant.
SPEAKER_00: Israel was supposed to be the servant, but Israel's gone to war against God.
SPEAKER_00: So God raises up a new servant through Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He will be an Israelite, but he will be an individual known as my servant.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 52, verse 13 says, My servant will act wisely.
SPEAKER_00: He will be high and lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: Again, a reference to the cross, a reference from Numbers 21, that the Savior will be lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: It's not Philippians 2 style, high and lifted up, like one day every tongue will confess and every knee will bow.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what high and lifted up means here.
SPEAKER_00: It's not ascension, he'll go to heaven kind of lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: No, what Isaiah means here is the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He will be lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: And you know that because of the next verse, people who see him lifted up on the cross, they will be astonished at him.
SPEAKER_00: That word for astonished is like flabbergasted, appalled.
SPEAKER_00: Would be a better translation, really.
SPEAKER_00: The people were appalled at him.
SPEAKER_00: His appearance was so marred beyond any human assemblance.
SPEAKER_00: This is talking about his death.
SPEAKER_00: He died a physically brutal death.
SPEAKER_00: So much so that he was physically disfigured.
SPEAKER_00: His form was beyond that of the child children of mankind.
SPEAKER_00: The Hebrew here even uses kind of these neutral adjectives, not even masculine, they're indefinite adjectives.
SPEAKER_00: It was beyond the form of any.
SPEAKER_00: Thing imaginable.
SPEAKER_00: People will look at Jesus on the cross and they're not even referring to him with the masculine pronouns at this point.
SPEAKER_00: It's just it.
SPEAKER_00: It is so marred what they see there on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't even look like a human, or it doesn't even look like a human anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Beyond the form of the children of mankind.
SPEAKER_00: You've got splattering blood in verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: He will sprinkle many nations.
SPEAKER_00: He's taking the blood that comes from high and lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: Now you wonder as you're reading this, without knowing the New Testament yet, how can somebody localized be lifted up and brutally beaten so that his blood sprinkles nations?
SPEAKER_00: And of course, knowing the New Testament we understand that.
SPEAKER_00: But it's it's here for you to read.
SPEAKER_00: He's lifted up, his blood will have power.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to silence Kings chapter 53, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: You see that he really is a human being.
SPEAKER_00: He grew up before him like a young plant.
SPEAKER_00: This is a true human born like a root out of dry ground, a prophecy of Nazareth, you know, where he's from.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to grow up in Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing comes from Nazareth, but Jesus does, like a root from dry ground.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing special about the way he looks, especially in his death.
SPEAKER_00: He had no form or majesty that we would look at him, no beauty that we should desire him.
SPEAKER_00: I think, well, this might be generally true.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's making a statement about the way he dies.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing beautiful in his death there.
SPEAKER_00: He is despised and rejected by men.
SPEAKER_00: He's a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
SPEAKER_00: People are hiding their faces from him, verse 3 says.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Jesus' death was unusual.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of people died on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The Romans killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people on the crosses every year.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, Jesus' death was unusual.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of people died on the cross, but how many of them were shopped back and forth between governors and rulers in some kind of sham trial?
SPEAKER_00: How many of them were betrayed by their own people, delivered over to a king who knew they were innocent but didn't want to stand up to the crowd, shopped over to another governor who also knew he was innocent, but didn't care, wanted to make the first king look bad.
SPEAKER_00: That's what went down in his death.
SPEAKER_00: But even beyond those circumstances, he's lifted up on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Darkness covers the earth.
SPEAKER_00: The sun wouldn't illuminate the cross.
SPEAKER_00: People resurrected from the grave at his crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: That never happened before.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is a very unusual death.
SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah zeroes in on it by saying people didn't even want to look at this.
SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't even look at it.
SPEAKER_00: It was such a miscarriage of justice, and they all knew it.
SPEAKER_00: But they despised him.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 lets you know, it's a substitution.
SPEAKER_00: He bore our griefs, he carried our sorrows.
SPEAKER_00: So he's doing this because of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point here.
SPEAKER_00: He himself was sinless.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody else could say.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 could only be true about a sinless person.
SPEAKER_00: What he's dying for his own sinlessness, but our sin.
SPEAKER_00: Smitten by God.
SPEAKER_00: That's an unusual, surprising turn, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: This innocent person, a sinless person being brutally killed, but it's God who's striking him.
SPEAKER_00: And then you get to verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: He was wounded for our transgressions.
SPEAKER_00: That word wounded is the word for pierced, literally means run through.
SPEAKER_00: Wounded is a fine translation because piercing your flesh would wound you.
SPEAKER_00: It's just not specific to the kind of death that Jesus will die.
SPEAKER_00: He will be pierced.
SPEAKER_00: His flesh will be wounded.
SPEAKER_00: It will be pierced through.
SPEAKER_00: The other Old Testament usages of this word mean pierced through.
SPEAKER_00: He's pierced, but for our transgressions.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're not even left with a generic understanding of what it means that he's pierced, because there are other Old Testament passages that describe this.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 22, for example, verse 16, says he is pierced in his hands and his feet.
SPEAKER_00: And the Hebrew in Psalm 22, verse 16, is very unusual too.
SPEAKER_00: It literally means the lion will encircle his hands and his feet.
SPEAKER_00: And David's describing the image of his hands and feet being pierced as that of a lion pacing around it.
SPEAKER_00: If you've seen a lion pace or circle potential prey, that's what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: And David says the Savior will have his hands and his feet encircled as if by a lion.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't come through in the English.
SPEAKER_00: The English just translates it pierced.
SPEAKER_00: But that's what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: His hands and his feet will be pierced.
SPEAKER_00: So he'll be struck by the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Generically, Genesis 3, the devil's going to strike him.
SPEAKER_00: In his striking, Numbers 21, he'll be lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: In his lifting up, his hands and his feet will be pierced, Isaiah 53.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, stay in Isaiah 53 for a second.
SPEAKER_00: The story doesn't end there.
SPEAKER_00: You know this.
SPEAKER_00: By oppression and judgment, he was taken away.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 8, he was taken away by oppression.
SPEAKER_00: This is an unjust act.
SPEAKER_00: As he's taken away in verse 8 from the land of the living, stricken by God is the implication for the transgression of my people.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a substitution there.
SPEAKER_00: God strikes him, he dies as a substitute.
SPEAKER_00: If it was only for himself, it would be an injustice.
SPEAKER_00: He really goes to the grave, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: He's buried, he goes to the grave with the wicked.
SPEAKER_00: Although, verse 9 says, He himself was sinless.
SPEAKER_00: He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
SPEAKER_00: That can never be said of any one of you.
SPEAKER_00: But it was true of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: How can an innocent, sinless person die and be buried?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10 lets you know it was Yahweh's will to crush him.
SPEAKER_00: God did this.
SPEAKER_00: It was the will of God from eternity past to do this to his son.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 11 lets you know the why.
SPEAKER_00: Out of the anguish of his soul, he will see and be satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will make many to be accounted righteous.
SPEAKER_00: So what's going to happen here is going to resurrect from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection, I skipped it, but it's in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to resurrect from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 11, he's going to apply this forgiveness to the people for whom he died.
SPEAKER_00: Out of the anguish of his soul, he will be satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: And by his knowledge, what's in his head, many people will be accounted righteous.
SPEAKER_00: That's judicial knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus will credit righteousness to people that he was thinking of in his knowledge when he died his death.
SPEAKER_00: This is the instrument of salvation here.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus understands who he's dying for, and he's not dying a potential salvation.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing about atonement that is potential here.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't die on the cross saying some people someday might accept this.
SPEAKER_00: No, he dies on the cross, and it is by his own knowledge, his own desire, his own will.
SPEAKER_00: Look at all the words that is used.
SPEAKER_00: It is his own soul, it is his own knowledge that he will make many be counted righteous.
SPEAKER_00: He will credit righteousness to those for whom he died.
SPEAKER_00: Another way of saying it, just think about how he died.
SPEAKER_00: He did not die a stress-induced death.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't overworked.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have a heart attack.
SPEAKER_00: He died with a mutilation that exceeds anything that could be imagined as a substitute for sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happened to him.
SPEAKER_00: And those whom he had in his mind, he will attribute righteousness to.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he does.
SPEAKER_00: All of his suffering is exclusively self-imposed by the outpouring of his own soul for those of whom he had knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: The word those he had knowledge are many, it says in verse 11, they'll be actually made righteous.
SPEAKER_00: That should be tremendously encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: That his righteousness is accomplished on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Atonement is actually completed on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty good picture of the cross, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Pierced in the hands and feet while you're lifted up, struck by the devil as a substitutionary death by the will of God, bearing the sins from many.
SPEAKER_00: But there's one more passage I want you to go to.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Pew Bibles, that's page 799.
SPEAKER_00: It can be kind of a tricky book to find.
SPEAKER_00: You've got the serpent in the garden who will strike him.
SPEAKER_00: You've got the serpent on the pole who represents the one who will give you forgiveness by being lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: You have the feet pierced.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we've been able to build so far.
SPEAKER_00: But one more step in the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah 12 is speaking of the end time judgment, the end of the tribulation.
SPEAKER_00: God's going to pour his wrath out in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Particularly, he's going to bring all the nations to go to war against Israel.
SPEAKER_00: But in that moment, Israel's going to repent.
SPEAKER_00: This is described in detail in Zechariah 14.
SPEAKER_00: When they repent, they will come to faith and be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah 12 gives you a little picture of that.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9, on that day I will destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: God will deliver them.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 10, 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 pierced, they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child.
SPEAKER_00: So this is the next and really final component of the cross here.
SPEAKER_00: This is the plot twist that you were not expecting.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that in the cross the Savior will be lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that, that he'll be struck and he'll be lifted up, and you understand that in the cross, his hands and feet will be pierced.
SPEAKER_00: You've got all that.
SPEAKER_00: But what you probably weren't expecting is what Zechariah 12 adds, that the Savior will be God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's going to throw everybody for a loop.
SPEAKER_00: They get to Zechariah chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: They will look upon me, Yahweh, him who they pierced.
SPEAKER_00: You think, but in Isaiah 53, the Savior's stricken by God.
SPEAKER_00: He's a human who is stricken by God.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah?
SPEAKER_00: It's Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: How can both be true?
SPEAKER_00: How can he be a human being, a descendant from Eve, struck by the devil, lifted up on a cross, and hands and feet pierced, and then in Zechariah 12, it's Yahweh himself.
SPEAKER_00: And you know it's not two different people.
SPEAKER_00: They're using the same language, the barring language here.
SPEAKER_00: They'll look upon me, on him whom they pierced, is the middle of this verse.
SPEAKER_00: Piercing, that's it's not the exact same word used in Isaiah, but it's pretty close.
SPEAKER_00: It's the concept from Psalm 22.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: He is Yahweh Himself.
SPEAKER_00: How can that be?
SPEAKER_00: Because for a mediator to be accepted, he has to be put forward by both parties.
SPEAKER_00: He has to be truly God and truly man.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah chapter 13 is going to describe the mediator as the person at God's right hand.
SPEAKER_00: He's Yahweh, because who's at Yahweh's right hand if not Yahweh himself?
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh doesn't have a counselor.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't need a counselor.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows the mind of God except the Spirit of God who is in him?
SPEAKER_00: God will be the Savior by sending his son.
SPEAKER_00: When you take all this together, you get a picture of the cross from the ground up.
SPEAKER_00: This should be tremendously encouraging to you.
SPEAKER_00: The cross was not plan B for God.
SPEAKER_00: This was not kind of some ad hoc thing that God put together after sin entered the world that God scrambles and tries to think about what he can do.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is something that God designed before he made the world.
SPEAKER_00: This was in his mind.
SPEAKER_00: And the pieces of the cross, like pieces of wood, are inserted into the world at various stages.
SPEAKER_00: If you think of the four verses we went through, did you notice something about them?
SPEAKER_00: They're all very far apart.
SPEAKER_00: You covered the whole Old Testament here.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis is the very beginning of creation.
SPEAKER_00: Numbers is the wilderness wanderings before Israel got even to the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah is the end of Israel's time in the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah is the end of the Old Testament, the end of exile.
SPEAKER_00: This is the entire history of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Each era of that history gives you one more piece of the cross to put together.
SPEAKER_00: So when you arrive at communion, you arrive at the New Testament at the Lord's table, you can set your eyes on the cross, you can lift your head and look at Calvary, and you can see what God designed before time.
SPEAKER_00: The perfect plan to take away our sin.
SPEAKER_00: God, we're grateful that you designed the cross from before creation.
SPEAKER_00: It reveals your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Your heart to seek and to save.
SPEAKER_00: We know, of course, the cross is not the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: The cross is empty, but so is the grave.
SPEAKER_00: Through your death and resurrection, you have made the many righteous.
SPEAKER_00: We know this is not a potential salvation one day, but that your atonement was real.
SPEAKER_00: It takes away our sin.
SPEAKER_00: You count us righteous because you are truly God.
SPEAKER_00: You are the judge.
SPEAKER_00: It is you who will resurrect people from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: It was you who will sit in judgment over them.
SPEAKER_00: It is you that will separate the sheep from the goats.
SPEAKER_00: It is you who will apply your blood to sprinkle many nations.
SPEAKER_00: It is you who will draw people to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: It is you who is nailed up on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: It was you whom the Son turned away.
SPEAKER_00: It was you who declared it is finished.
SPEAKER_00: You are the author of this plan and you are the recipient of this plan.
SPEAKER_00: You were the terms of this plan and you met the terms.
SPEAKER_00: You wrote it and you kept it, and now you apply it.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, to Calvary.
SPEAKER_00: But even before that, so before time, where this was your plan.
SPEAKER_00: This didn't just happen.
SPEAKER_00: You happened it.
SPEAKER_00: You did this.
SPEAKER_00: And so we give you thanks for our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Christ we pray.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.