Strathalbyn Church of Christ

Back about this time in 2018 there was a news article with the title “Trebes supermarket shooting: Policeman who traded places with hostage dies in hospital”.

A French policeman Arnaud Beltrame swapped himself for a hostage held by a gunman during a deadly siege of a supermarket in the southern French town of Trebes.

After taking the place of the female hostage, Mr Beltrame was then shot by the attacker. Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said in a tweet, that France would “never forget his heroism, his bravery, his sacrifice”.

Yes it is heroic that one man should die for another person.

Good Friday is approaching and so I’d like to think with you about the cross of Christ by looking at what the prophet Isaiah tells us - how another man died for us all. So let’s go back to the prophecy and think about what it says. I’ve titled it - “The Cross foretold”.

It begins with this words” “Behold, my servant shall prosper” And so this prophecy of Isaiah, given 750 years before Christ, is about a certain servant of God - “my servant”, God says. It goes on to describe how this servant suffers - “he was oppressed and he was afflicted,” and “he poured out his soul to death”. Who was he? Who was this servant of God who suffered and then prospered?

Jewish scholars have traditionally said that the suffering servant described by Isaiah represents, in a kind of corporate personality, the nation of Israel suffering for God (the LORD). But that explanation is not convincing because in this prophecy of Isaiah we find that this suffering servant is suffering ‘for my people’. Let me read “He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of my people.” How can my people suffer for my people? Again, consider these words, ‘he was wounded for our transgressions.” And at the end of the reading we hear about “the righteous one, my servant”.

And so, we can conclude that he must be a person, a chosen servant of the LORD. And this is confirmed by what we read in the New Testament, in the Acts of the Apostles, ch8 : 27-35.
“A man in charge of all the treasure of the queen of the Ethiopians had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, and seated in his chariot was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip “Go up and join this chariot”. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked “Do you understand what you are reading? “And he said “How can I, unless someone guides me?”
And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this: “As a sheep before its shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken up from the earth” And the man said to Philip, “About whom, pray dies the prophet say this, about himself about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus” !

And so, the suffering servant of God prophesied about in Isaiah, is Jesus himself.
Coming back to Isaiah, let’s ask What was this servant like? What did he do and what was done to him? What is the result?

O.K. What was this servant of God like? How is he described? As far as his physical appearance goes, he is described in these terms: ‘ his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men’.

The last memory the Romans and Jews had of Jesus was of a disfigured, agonised human form. His head was scarred; his hands, feet, side were pierced; and his back was in ribbons. Again, his physical appearance is described as follows: “he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” And so Jesus didn’t look anything out of the ordinary, he wasn’t extra handsome. People didn’t take particular notice of his appearance.

But he is here described in other ways too. “He was despised and rejected by men.” - so he knew the loneliness and pain of personal rejection, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”. So he knew sadness first hand, “and as one from whom men hide their faces.”

So he knew the cold shoulder of others. How else is this suffering servant of God described? “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.”

Jesus made no answer when Herod questioned him at some length. Jesus was silent before the high priest, and he made no answer when he was accused by the chief priests and elders.

And when Pilate said to Jesus “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” Jesus gave Pilate no answer, “not even to a single charge, so that the governor wondered greatly.”

And so Jesus controlled his tongue; and when he was on the cross, he didn’t hit back with even one word. There was no condemning, or angry word, no cursing. “He was oppressed, and was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.”

In the N.T. James, in his letter says, “if anyone makes no mistakes in what he says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.”

Finally Isaiah describes the servant as “righteous”. “the righteous one, my servant”. Indeed the testimony of one of the men crucified with Jesus was “this man has done nothing wrong”; and even Pilate’s wife called Jesus “a good man”; and the Roman Centurion said, “Truly, this man was the Son of God.”

Now let’s think about what he did, and what was done to him. “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.”

And so, ours were the griefs and sorrows, and he bore them, took them up, Ours were the transgressions, and he was wounded for them, pierced for them. Ours were the iniquities, and he was bruised for them, crushed for them. Here then we have the supreme example of the innocent suffering for the guilty. And this was necessary because as Isaiah says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way.” That’s why things get into a mess throughout the world - everyone turns to his/her own way rather than the Shepherd’s or God’s way. And someone one sang, “I did it my way”! “And the LORD laid upon him the iniquity of us all.”
In other words, although we went our own way, (the LORD) God loaded all the penalties and guilt and shame and pain of our going our own way, on his servant Jesus. That’s at the heart of the cross.

We won’t appreciate that though, until we are prepared to admit “I did it my way.” But whoever will admit that will find God’s mercy.

Did he deserve it? No - we did - but he died in our place.

So who was responsible for the death of Jesus?

We can look at the Cross 2 ways: we can see it as the rejection of the Lord by the human race; but we can also see it as the plan, the purpose of God. “Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief.” Or as John in his gospel puts it “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son.” Or as Peter preaching to the crowd at Pentecost - “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”

Now to close. What is the result? What is coming out of all this?

“upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.”

In short, the result is our wholeness, our peace, our healing, at the expense of his chastisement, his punishment, and his stripes, his wounds. “he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days”, and “he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied”.

A woman goes through agony and pain to bring a new life to birth. Afterwards the woman is satisfied its all worth it. Jesus ‘will see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.” By his agony Jesus has brought many to new birth, spiritual birth. And its all worthwhile to him. “He shall see his offspring” because God raised him.

What else is the result of all this? “the righteous one, my servant, will make many to be accounted righteous.” And so through the death of Christ we who believe in him, are accounted righteous in God’s sight, we are accounted among the good people - not because we are good, but because Jesus died that we might be forgiven,he died to make us good. He was counted a transgressor that we might be counted righteous.

There’s a further result. “Behold my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.” “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong.” In other words, because this servant of God did what he did, God exalts him and gives him a place with the great and strong.

Our Jesus has been exalted, he has the rank and title above all others. Jesus is “Lord”; because he went to the very bottom, God the Father exalted him to the very top.

Let’s finish with these two questions in Isaiah. “Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Whoever hears and believes this report of Jesus the Son of God dying on the cross for our sins, then the arm of the Lord will be revealed in that person’s life - that is, that person will know the power of God to save.

It is heroic one man should die for another. But it is great grace that the Son of God should die for all who turned to their own way!
“I owed a debt I could not pay. He paid a debt he did not owe.”

The power of the Lord to save is experienced by the person who believes in Jesus dying for him, for her. That is the beginning of a new kind of life a life lived out every day in the light of the cross. The secret of that life is not just to say, “He died for me”, but to add, “And I died with him” I died with Jesus Christ on the cross, and his risen life is mine as well!

Brothers and sisters, the working out of this new life is seen particularly in our self-giving love.

In the disturbing times in which we now find ourselves, may God’s Spirit guide us as to how we can show love to our brothers and sisters in Christ and to others inspite of our not being able to gather and mix together as we normally could. May God work to grow us in trust in Him and love to others.

Let us pray