WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:03.680 Isaiah fifty-three, verses one through six. 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:07.040 Who has believed what he has heard from us? 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:10.400 And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:16.239 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:22.160 He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:27.920 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:34.560 And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:38.640 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried out sorrows. 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:43.600 Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:46.560 But he was pierced for our transgressions. 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:49.119 He was crushed for our iniquities. 00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:52.320 Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:55.039 And with his wounds we are healed. 00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:58.640 All we like sheep have gone astray. 00:00:59.200 --> 00:01:02.640 We have turned everyone to his own way. 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:06.000 And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:07.200 This is the Word of God. 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:08.319 Please be seated. 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:10.239 Good evening. 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:15.120 Welcome to Redemption Church Denver. 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:18.000 Thank you for joining us on this Good Friday. 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:24.319 Today we gather together to remember the death of Jesus on the cross. 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:33.680 This day in Holy Week, Jesus was denied by his friends, and he was beaten and tortured. 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:45.840 He was mocked and ridiculed, and he was laid on perhaps the most terrible torture device ever created, and he was nailed to it and lifted up. 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:48.400 And then at around 3 p.m. 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:53.599 on this day, he cried out that it is finished. 00:01:54.719 --> 00:02:01.280 Today we're gathered together to remember that what Jesus did is finished. 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:08.479 If you drive away from here and you're trying to get on to 25, you're gonna have to drive down park. 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:15.439 And if you do that during a Rockies game, you won't be able to leave, as we were talking about earlier. 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:21.039 But there's a uh sign there on the side of the Denver Rescue Mission that you'll drive by. 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:28.240 And it's this great like Jesus people 70s neon sign that says Jesus Saves. 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:30.080 Has everybody seen the sign? 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:31.919 Denver Rescue Mission? 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:33.599 Well, I recommend checking it out. 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:35.520 It's probably the best sign in Denver. 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:38.879 It just says Jesus saves, and it's in the shape of a cross. 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:51.280 Uh Jesus is the horizontal part, and then they they saved money on S's because the middle S in Jesus is the first S in saves and it drops down and it forms the shape of a cross. 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:56.159 And it's probably the most true sign in our city. 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:04.159 Those two words, Jesus saves, in the shape of a cross. 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:07.680 It's about as theologically accurate as you can get. 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:17.599 And yet, many of us, I think, we read those words and we almost immediately start to twist them into something else. 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:25.360 We see Jesus saves, and then what we hear is Jesus made it an opportunity for me to save myself. 00:03:25.759 --> 00:03:34.719 We read Jesus saves, and what we hear is Jesus gets me in the front door of my faith, but really I'm the one who keeps me there. 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:39.439 The pressure's still on me to make this thing happen. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:46.960 We see Jesus saves, and what then what we hear is, you know, the reality is God helps those who help themselves. 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:52.639 And so we read Jesus saves, and we would say, Do I believe that Jesus saves? 00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:54.879 And we'd say, Yes, of course, I'm a Christian. 00:03:55.039 --> 00:03:57.520 Christians believe that Jesus saves. 00:03:57.680 --> 00:03:58.879 If you're not a Christian, welcome. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:00.560 This is Good Friday. 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:21.439 Of course I believe that Jesus saves, and yet in the moments where we find ourselves in sin, when we become acquainted with the depths of who we really are, all of a sudden we stand before our God with this incredible insecurity and we forget those words. 00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:25.199 It is Jesus who saves. 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:28.639 Jesus is our hope. 00:04:28.879 --> 00:04:30.720 Jesus does the saving. 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:35.360 We look at those words and they become easy to miss. 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:45.120 And that makes sense because if we were to see the act of Jesus saving, I don't think we would know what we were looking at. 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:55.199 If we were to have been there 2,000 years ago and seen Jesus nailed to the cross and raised up, we would have looked past it and thought, that is no savior. 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:57.680 I know what saviors look like. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.319 It looks like the Avengers or something. 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:07.360 A savior has got to be someone who's stronger than me, because if I need to be rescued, I'm not looking to someone who's weaker than me. 00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:16.399 Well, today we are going to create our own Jesus saves signs on the piece of paper that's under the chair that you're sitting in. 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:18.639 I'm just kidding. 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:20.240 No one looked. 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:30.639 We're going to create these Jesus Save signs in bright neon in our hearts. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:41.040 And we're going to do that by walking through and looking at the very words themselves in Scripture that describe how it is that Jesus saves. 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:55.519 So that when you find yourself in those moments of deep insecurity before your God, and you need to preach to your soul that it is not you who does the saving, but Jesus who does the saving, you will be able to. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:06:00.800 We're going to make that shine, su that sign shine bright in our hearts today. 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:06.399 We're going to do that by marching through the first six verses of Isaiah chapter 63. 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:08.800 We're going to look at the words themselves. 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:14.800 Here are what the words say that show us how Jesus saves on Good Friday. 00:06:16.319 --> 00:06:18.399 So let's begin. 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:21.600 Here's what we would have seen. 00:06:22.079 --> 00:06:25.360 This is Isaiah 53, verses 1 through 2. 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:28.879 It says, Who has believed what he has heard from us? 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:32.639 And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:38.720 For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:50.480 Here's what I mean in saying, if you were to have seen Jesus saving, you would have missed it. 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:53.120 Because it's what the very text says here. 00:06:53.279 --> 00:06:56.399 Look, who has even believed what they've heard from us? 00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:00.399 This is what Isaiah says of this future coming Savior. 00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:05.680 Who has believed to whom has the arm of the Lord been shown? 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:09.439 Who could see this arm of the Lord who would do the rescuing? 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:12.319 And verse 2 begins to explain why. 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:17.199 Why is it that we wouldn't be able to see them, that we wouldn't be able to understand the rescuing? 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:20.000 It's because he grew up before him. 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:23.759 Like a young plant, a root out of dry ground. 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:27.279 There was no form, there was no majesty to this man. 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:32.399 There was nothing that we would have beholden as great or as glorious. 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:36.560 If we were to have looked at Jesus, we would have overlooked him. 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:42.720 And yet, this scripture refers to him as the arm of the Lord. 00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:55.040 The arm of the Lord is a phrase that was used just two chapters earlier to describe God Himself when he parts the Red Sea so that the Israelites are able to make their way through. 00:07:55.360 --> 00:07:57.600 Who has seen the arm of the Lord? 00:07:57.759 --> 00:07:59.199 You wouldn't have seen him. 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:12.160 And here is this confusing image that the Scripture uses that it's bringing us into, 800 years before Jesus came on the scene, says, He grew up before him. 00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:16.720 How does God grow up before God? 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:21.759 How is God having no majesty that we should look at him? 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:25.759 How is God someone that we would walk past and not desire? 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:27.600 How could this possibly be? 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:30.879 Why is the first verse two questions? 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:40.799 Because who can fit in their mind this concept that God himself would be someone so ordinary we would overlook him? 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:49.039 And then it's not just that he is ordinary and so we miss him because he's an ordinary man, this arm of the Lord. 00:08:49.279 --> 00:09:05.840 But as Isaiah 53, 3 continues, we didn't just miss him, but he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces. 00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:09.200 He was despised and we esteemed him not. 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:45.200 When we looked at him, we would have seen someone who was marked by sadness and grief. 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:48.240 They're just sad. 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:50.720 They're just grieved. 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:54.639 That is what we would have seen. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:58.080 This is the arm of the Lord. 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:06.720 Somehow, this man marked by sadness is the arm of the Lord. 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:10.240 Why would we miss it? 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:15.440 Why would we miss our Savior? 00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:20.320 It's because we don't know what we need to be saved. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:27.919 We think that there are all sorts of opposites of this that will be our salvation. 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:40.720 We think that it's not the sadness that could possibly see us through, but we we must fight to get a happiness immediately now in any way, and that will become my salvation. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:56.639 We think it's not a weakness that needs to be demonstrated in order for us to be saved, but it's some strength that we can put our hope in, some strength we could gather for ourselves, some security we could muster of our own accord. 00:10:57.519 --> 00:11:00.240 But that's not what we really needed. 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:03.279 When we saw Jesus, here's what we would have thought. 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:06.320 In Isaiah 53, verses 4, it continues. 00:11:19.919 --> 00:11:32.240 What that means is Jesus is on the cross, writhing in pain, stripped naked, wearing a crown of thorns, mocked and abused, and when we walk by, do you know what we would consider? 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:35.519 We would consider he deserves it. 00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:39.039 He's smitten by God. 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:49.039 We would stand next to him like Job's friends, and we would say, Do you know why you're in so much pain and suffering and turmoil? 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:54.159 It's because God has rejected you, because you deserve to be rejected by God. 00:11:54.559 --> 00:11:57.039 Do you know why we come up with those reasons? 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:12.399 We come up with those reasons because instead of facing a type of sin that exists in us that requires a salvation, we'd rather have reasons that provide us with an explanation. 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:18.320 This week, on Wednesday, uh all the schools in Denver were shut down. 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:22.320 My wife's a teacher, and so she got a day off, but it wasn't a happy day off. 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:32.639 The schools were shut down because a woman flew from Florida who had an infatuation with the Columbine shooting, and she had an intention to reenact it. 00:12:32.879 --> 00:12:37.679 And so the FBI recommended that all the schools in our city be shut down on Wednesday. 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:39.840 This happened on Wednesday. 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:49.840 And what happens, I noticed in our conversations when an event like that takes place is we all become armchair sociologists. 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:54.639 And we start to say, here's the reason she was acting that way. 00:12:54.879 --> 00:13:01.600 She was acting that way because of these terrible trends in our culture, and she was acting that way because of this isolation that she was experiencing. 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:16.240 She was acting that way because there's not enough policy in place or gun laws in place, or we have these reasons that we heap on to a moment like that because and then the Christian comes along and says something like, you know what the problem is? 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:26.720 There's a depth of sin and evil in our hearts that no policy could fix, that no intervention could assuage. 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:30.639 We need to be saved. 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:35.039 This can't be explained away. 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:38.879 We actually need a rescuer. 00:13:40.960 --> 00:13:51.519 And so when we offer these explanations and we look up at Jesus and we say, I know why you're there, what we're saying is, my life doesn't deserve that type of punishment. 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:56.399 My life hasn't earned that type of writhing on the cross. 00:13:56.559 --> 00:14:03.039 We look up at Jesus and we see, we say, You deserve it because you're getting it, and that's not mine. 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:07.759 And yet, here's what the scripture says. 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:11.360 Early in that verse, it flips it right away. 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:17.279 It says, Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we saw him wrongly. 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:25.840 If the scripture would correct our vision of what was happening to Jesus on the cross, we wouldn't try and create a distance from that suffering. 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:32.080 Because we look and we see him writhing in pain and we say, That's not his grief. 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:34.080 That's mine. 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:38.639 That's not his suffering he's experiencing. 00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:40.080 That's mine. 00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:43.759 That's not his sickness he's enduring. 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:45.759 That's mine. 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:52.320 In Isaiah 53, 5, it continues on. 00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:55.759 But he was pierced for our transgressions. 00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:59.600 He was crushed for our iniquities. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.759 Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:07.679 And with his wounds we are healed. 00:15:10.399 --> 00:15:13.200 There are two words in here that are important to see. 00:15:14.639 --> 00:15:17.840 Transgressions, that means willful rebellion. 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:23.679 That means that there are wrongs that we commit that we commit intentionally. 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:28.320 And then this word iniquities. 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:32.799 And that's a reference to our bent nature. 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:37.519 As humans, there's a twistedness in us. 00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:48.480 When the spear goes in Jesus' side and he is pierced, that's for our transgressions. 00:15:50.720 --> 00:15:56.879 When he's crushed in a long, slow, painful death, that's for our bent nature. 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:00.639 This is what we see on Good Friday. 00:16:01.279 --> 00:16:03.519 This is the news of the cross. 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:13.039 And then finally, in verse six, we see this verse that brings the whole story together. 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:16.320 It says, All we like sheep have gone astray. 00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:23.039 We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:27.919 There's this parallel that you can trace throughout all these verses. 00:16:28.240 --> 00:16:32.639 Because the dynamic is we and him. 00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:38.639 We have all gone astray. 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:45.360 We collectively have all gone astray. 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:54.480 That means we create cultures, we create family systems, we create governmental systems of oppression and evil. 00:16:54.720 --> 00:16:57.679 We, all of us together have done this. 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:05.359 And then each of us, every one has gone astray. 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:10.720 We have all fled, we have all ran away from our good shepherd. 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:16.000 We have all turned to God and said, You will not be God of me, I will be God of me. 00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:20.319 And here is the good news of the gospel. 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:29.039 That sin, that iniquity, that transgression, God laid upon Jesus. 00:17:31.200 --> 00:17:39.279 So that because Jesus went to the cross, the punishment for your sin in Christ, you will never see. 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:46.400 So that when you look at the cross, you see, Jesus saved me. 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:55.759 I've seen it in the words because there was a punishment that I deserved, that I deserved to get and to bear and to feel in myself. 00:17:55.920 --> 00:18:05.599 And instead, I could see Jesus on the cross, and he was sorrowful and he was hurt, and he was beaten and abused, and that was my sorrow. 00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:07.759 That was my hurt. 00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:13.359 He was bearing the wrath that I deserved. 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:19.359 Here's the situation that God had himself in. 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:24.880 God is perfectly just. 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:30.799 And that means we do not worship the type of God that just winks at wrongdoing. 00:18:31.839 --> 00:18:42.720 We do not worship the type of God that sees evil committed against his creatures and says, you know what, I'll just pretend it didn't happen and I'll look the other way. 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:45.759 Our God is perfectly just. 00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:56.960 And so that means that any sin against something that holy deserves the punishment of being removed from that holy thing. 00:18:57.279 --> 00:19:00.720 When that holy thing is God, that means death. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:04.480 The very wrath of God. 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:18.720 And so how does a God like that, who is perfectly just, restore a relationship with people like us who have rebelled against him? 00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:40.240 Well, he has concocted this plan in eternity past with his very son, who is also God, that he himself, in his love, would become so humble as to the point of becoming a man and a man who would die bearing our sins on him. 00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:52.799 So that he made him to be sin, who had never sinned before, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:56.079 That's what we see on Good Friday. 00:19:56.400 --> 00:19:58.640 There's this verse that I couldn't leave out. 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:03.279 And this is from what's called the Mount Everest of Scripture. 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:05.279 This is Romans chapter 3. 00:20:05.440 --> 00:20:10.960 And it's one of the final verses in this section in Romans chapter 3, and it's Romans 3, verse 26. 00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:15.680 It says this Why did Jesus die? 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:33.920 It was to show his righteousness, that is God's righteousness, at the present time, so that he, that's God, might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 00:20:35.200 --> 00:20:37.039 Here's our hope. 00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:40.720 In Jesus, God remains just. 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:44.160 Justice is demonstrated. 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:49.920 And God is the one who justifies us in his sight. 00:20:50.960 --> 00:21:05.519 So that when your conscience stands to accuse you of the sins that have plagued your life, you can stand up against it and say, It is not because of me that I can come before the Lord. 00:21:05.759 --> 00:21:08.480 It is not because of me that I can call God my Father. 00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:16.079 It is not because of me that I have confidence that He'll treat me like a son and hear my prayers and draw close to me and comfort me. 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:22.960 It is not because of me that all of the promises that God has offered to his people throughout the ages are yes. 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:29.039 It is not because of me that I stand before God like a prince in his presence. 00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:43.119 It is not because of me that at any time I, the sinful thing, can walk behind the veil into the Holy of Holies and stand in the presence of the Maker of the universe and enjoy fellowship with him like a family. 00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:47.599 It is only because of Jesus. 00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:56.400 And so when I stumble, when I fall, I preach to myself. 00:21:57.839 --> 00:22:00.079 Jesus saves. 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:03.599 I've seen the cross. 00:22:04.240 --> 00:22:05.920 That was not for nothing. 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:09.039 That was not to accomplish part of it. 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:10.960 That was to cover it all. 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:13.440 So with that, let's pray. 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:24.240 Father, we come before you to look at this message plainly. 00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:29.359 To remember you on the cross. 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:34.319 That you went to the cross willingly. 00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:38.000 How deep your love must be for us. 00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:46.799 To leave the throne room of God, to become a man, to be tortured and ridiculed and humiliated. 00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:51.599 Lord, when you bear our grief, that means you grieve. 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:53.920 When you bear our sadness, that means you were sad. 00:22:54.079 --> 00:23:01.039 When you bore the wrath of God, it means that the Father turned his face away and that the world went dark. 00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:07.119 Father Jesus, because you saw that, we will never have to. 00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:12.880 What type of righteousness is that? 00:23:15.599 --> 00:23:20.160 That looks at his obedience to God and knows that Lord will turn his face away. 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:26.319 Father, and yet you attribute that same righteousness to us in Christ. 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:33.440 Lord, I pray you would work in our hearts today, settle into our minds, that Jesus saves. 00:23:34.319 --> 00:23:36.319 That would be the bedrock of our faith. 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:37.519 In Jesus' name. 00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:38.480 Amen.