Well, I do invite you to turn tonight in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah chapter 53, and we're working our way through our confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and what we believe, and tonight we're on Lord's Day 15, Lord's Day 15. So let's do the question and answers first. You'll find that printed in your printouts there. And there's three question and answers, 37 through 39. I'll ask the question, and please respond with the answer. What do you understand by the word suffered? That during his whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ sustained in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race. This he did in order that, by his suffering as the only atoning sacrifice, he might deliver us, body and soul, from eternal condemnation and gain for us God's grace, righteousness, and eternal life. Why did he suffer under Pontius Pilate as judge? So that he, though innocent, might be condemned by an earthly judge and so free us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us. Is it significant that he was crucified instead of dying some other way? Yes. By this death, I am convinced that he shouldered the curse which lay on me since death by crucifixion was cursed by God. And this is now the word of the Lord, Isaiah 53. Who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the armor of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before it shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth by oppression and judgment. He was taken away and for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living stricken for the transgression of my people and they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see him be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many. He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. And there ends the reading of God's word. Well, tonight we come to Lord's Day 15 and this great truth that Jesus suffered for us, suffered for us. And maybe we've heard Isaiah 53 read so many times, we don't realize how remarkable it is that that was written some 600 years before the Messiah came and did this. So what a passage this is to consider in light of this great truth of Lord's Day 15 that he suffered for us. It's easy thing to say. It's an easy thing to read. Hard to really take into the heart and comprehend and really, really embrace and understand. Tonight I want to consider the ways that Christ suffered. And obviously we're just scratching the surface here. This chapter, it's hard to do justice to preaching because there's so many wonderful things that are said here, so many powerful things that are said. How do you do justice to this in a, well, you guys want a 20-minute sermon. So it's difficult. It's difficult to do it in a short amount of time. But tonight we're going to look at that with these things in mind. And I want you to think about his suffering a little bit. Obviously, we categorize it with the active and the passive obedience of jesus the act of obedience of jesus coming under the law and living under the law and fulfilling all righteousness for us and doing everything so that we would have a righteous life a righteous life imputed to us it's a wonderful truth we need that that's adam did not live that life we need a righteous life and we talk about the act of obedience in that way of fulfilling all righteousness for us. Think of everything that you've ever done and every sin and every departure and everything that's been against God's law. Think of the Son of God actively keeping the law in your place. That's why we call it substitutionary in every way, the whole life. We're also looking at his passive obedience when we look at his suffering for us, especially culminating in those hours on the cross, a whole life of suffering, and then becoming the curse and taking all the blows for us and the actual becoming the guilt offering, becoming everything that we need in taking those blows to remove the curse that is upon us because of sin. But in this way tonight, I'd like to notice a little bit of how Isaiah breaks it down. It's helpful to sort of see it from Isaiah 53, sort of, I guess, structurally, you might say, and to understand a little bit how Isaiah is looking at it. Again, I'm just taking a little bit of this particular passage. But you'll notice here he suffered by carrying our sorrows. It's one of the things that Isaiah really captures. Caring and bearing the sorrows that we have. And then, of course, by taking on our condemnation. And then I want to emphasize the last point in light of the last question by becoming our curse, which is really a remarkable truth. So we'll look first at this caring of our sorrows. The good news has always come to us in the Bible in a message of a suffering servant for us. This is the great part of Isaiah that we're reading and we consider here culminating in this suffering servant of Isaiah 53. Everything that we celebrate and the good news that comes to us of a Savior who would come and suffer for us and die for us. It's given with this great report that was announced so many years earlier and announced all throughout the Old Testament that Jesus would come and do this for us and gain for us and earn for us an inheritance in the age to come. That's really wonderful, isn't it? Suffering. I believe the apostle knew when he talked about this all throughout the New Testament that this would be a hard message for the Christian church. I believe he knew it would be hard for us to comprehend and think about. For the struggle of this present age, The struggle that we have had, the struggle when applying it to our times and in our place and living in the United States in 2020, and maybe that's changing a little bit, but it's been difficult for us for we have all lived now in a lot of glory so that it doesn't seem that the glory to come is much better. It's hard to measure these things and to know these things. To preach the foolishness of the cross, To preach the foolishness of a cross in an age when they made giant statues, all of their heroes and all of their great ones with power and strength. Where did you ever see a suffering portrayal of a God? It was hard for a church to understand and appreciate the epitome of this and the struggle of this to actually go out and say, I know nothing among you except Christ and him crucified. to go out and to say, I knew nothing among you except our Savior impaled and hung on a cross for us was a shocking message in that culture. And you knew that. We've looked at that. The apostle knew this would be hard for people to think about. And as he wrote about these things often, he wanted to always encourage the church to think about the sufferings of Christ. And the times that he did that, he was often using Isaiah 53, wasn't he? Who has believed our report? Isn't it interesting that was in John 12 this morning? That for the issues, the issues that were crucial, that John raised, it's not that the nation of Israel didn't have that message. They always had this message. It's not that that message was never preached to them. They always had this message, and they had it right in Isaiah 53, didn't they? The clearest explanation. In fact, we want to study the sufferings of Christ. Notice where we're going. We're going back to Isaiah 53 and then looking at the cross and seeing the fulfillment. It's wonderful to do that and have the ability to do that. But it's interesting that the apostle stops and says in Romans 10, who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He was crying out because he knew it was a message that is not easily received. What is that message? Well, what a message it is. What a story it is. The citation was from Isaiah 53, the most messianic, the most Christ-centered passage in the Old Testament, all about the sufferings of Jesus. This is why you would say to any Orthodox Jew today, still, what do you do with Isaiah 53? Who do you think that is? Who do you think suffering there? What do you think Christians believe? It's a remarkable thing for us to grab Isaiah 53 and say, we have the fulfillment of that. You'll notice here, we're prompted in question 37, thinking here about caring sorrows and everything that Jesus did, that what do we understand by the word suffered? We're going through the Apostles' Creed here, and we confess that he suffered for us. What is the first thing that is raised here? And Heidelberg is absolutely right to note that this was not just a suffering that began when he entered into the garden. This was a suffering that he began to face right from conception, right from taking on a human nature, right from the beginning. His whole life was suffering, and Isaiah 53 captures that. Isaiah 53 captures that very profoundly and beautifully for us to understand the suffering life of the Messiah for us. You'll notice here, it's been properly observed, that this passage traces his life all the way from the cradle to the grave. And what a report it was. So much so that the thoughtfulness of the Ethiopian eunuch who sat there that day and was meditating on this. And think about it. A Gentile meditating on Isaiah 53. Meditating on Isaiah 53 stopped at Isaiah 53 and he couldn't get past. As he read it for the first time, he couldn't get past. The sufferings were so profound. Who would go through this? Who is this? And why would he do it? And what a question for a gospel preacher to come along like Philip and say, give it to me. I'd love people to ask a question like that. It's a great question. Notice where it begins when we look at the first question and answer here. He suffered his whole life. You'll notice verse 2 of Isaiah 53 where it says, For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him and no beauty that we should desire Him. It's a bad question to ask, but if you're the Son of God and you had all power and glory and you could come to this earth, what kind of form would you take? What kind of form would you take? That's asked from a selfish human being's point of view and a sinful point of view. I want you to notice this amazing language here. He grew up as a little tender twig. That's a little, that's an interesting way to describe the Messiah, isn't it? A twig that grows out of a tree trunk. Whoever goes to Sequoia National Park to look at twigs, you're going to go look at General Sherman, aren't you? You're going to look at the majesty and the beauty of the large trees. We're always looking for majesty. We're always looking for beauty. We're always looking for something magnificent. This is what we want to see. This is what we're after. He grew up as a root out of where? Dry ground. Does anyone ever stop and look down at this and say, wow, that's pretty? Of course not. Central Valley and Lemoore, you know, the roots that came up out of dry ground. That's the place you never want to buy land. This is exactly how your Messiah is being described. There's nothing admirable about him. There was nothing when he showed up on the face of this earth and we ever thought about the Messiah, the way he is characterized, is never what we would choose. He was born in lowly Bethlehem. Where could he have been born? Where could he have chosen to be born? He was a young boy running around the streets of Nazareth. And no one noticed him. What good came out of Nazareth, they said. No one ever regarded him as anything. He was an absolute nobody. That's what the Son of God, the one through whom everything was made, who upholds everything by the word of his power, when he came here, nobody thought about him. Nobody regarded him. In the words, the report is despicting God's servant having a status, hard, lowly life. And you start to begin to think about all the struggles with identity. And I'll come back to this in a minute in our culture today. And struggles of young people with identity all trying to make ourselves something and find our way and be something and be something great. We carry a lot of burdens because of that and a lot of sorrows. The thing that's captured in Isaiah 53 when we think about a whole life of suffering of the Messiah is he's carrying this by becoming this for us with no status, absolutely no status for you. There was no esteeming of him. How many would love if they could put their kid on the Hollywood scene and make millions? They would groom their children for that. How many would love to see that success and they all say, that's just what we would love to see, a name for ourselves. The text goes on. He has no form or comeliness, nothing about beauty in him that we would ever desire him. Some say that's really not talking about physical, and I completely disagree. That's, of course, talking about physical. That's the only description of Jesus, aside from the resurrected Jesus in Revelation 1, that we get in the Bible. Did you know that? In his humanity, in his humbled state, this is it. This is all you get. This is all the Bible gives. You wonder why we're making images. I might come back to that. When Saul was chosen to be king in Israel, you know what the human nature wants. This is what they wanted. There was not a more handsome person than he among all the children of Israel. From his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the people. Even David was considered a man of form. He was handsome and rugged. Jesus. It literally reads, he had no stately form or splendor. There was no appearance that you would desire him. He was a Jewish man. He had dark hair, black hair, probably had a very dark beard, probably very short. You'd never want him. At least especially if you're an American. We know the obsession with beauty. In fact, Greeks and Romans made it a prerequisite for someone to have a position of status, that they have form, they be something, that they look like something. I remember every time I was ever introduced to an image of Jesus, it would have never been this, and it never was this. It was always a man, beautiful and handsome, long flowing, blonde hair. chiseled abs. It was ridiculous. What a life, just to start. What a choice of a life. Humiliation. In utter humiliation, he came when he was born, running from his birth for his death. Who has ever been born and had to run and have somebody carry you to another land because people want to kill you because you're already a threat and what have you done? From total obscurity he came. From total nothingness in Bethlehem and Judea. This is why Jesus is still not even that attractive today to people. Imagine what we could do if we preached him the way we wanted to preach him. Imagine what we could accomplish, we think. If we could make it something other than this. That's what Corinth hated. That's what Corinth fell into all the problems over. This is what Jesus had to do to come here and to lead the most humble, obedient. And I emphasize humility here. I think that's the overarching first thing of caring sorrows has everything to do with becoming a humble servant. He was humble. His actions were so... Have you ever met somebody whose actions were so righteous and so pure and so holy you couldn't be around them? this is what drove everyone nuts about him he was he was he was so righteous he was so pure everything he did was so right and people couldn't stand it especially if they had ulterior motives in the kingdom of god and this is what philippians is saying to us this is what the new testament is saying to us in philippians chapter 2 that even though he was in the form of god he did not count equality with god something to be grasped in other words he's equal with god in all of the splendor and in all of the glory but in the incarnation when he took on a human nature he made a choice there was a divine choice made think about this a divine choice to make himself purposely nothing to us humility taking on the form of a servant i think they were looking right at isaiah 53 when the apostle was saying this. He took the form of a servant for us. Being born in the likeness of men, humbling himself the whole way, aiming the whole way to the cross. So I said we've never really read the birth narratives correctly. When he was put in the manger, that was a little picture of him being put in a coffin. Luke picks that up already from the beginning. He was wrapped in grave clothes. This is where he was headed. The eternal son of God would do this. And I think you see that it's not what we relate to. I said a minute ago, we grow up wanting to be something and we are driven by a name and success. It's always been this from the beginning. Look what's built into us. Look what we want. Look what we're walking after. We want money. We want success. We want status. We want homes. We want everything in life that would make us great. And you'll notice here that in a sense, it's really remarkable when you think of it in this way, that the very action of coming under the law and fulfilling all righteousness was, as he stood back in the place of the first Adam, in our place, what he had to do was come completely contrary to all of that for you. You see that? He had to completely become a servant in humility keeping the law because everything that we listen to in the garden and everything that we live is all about us making a name for us. And all about us making our glory. And all about us making it in life. And it's been an anti-God religion. Look how he's come. Why do you think he's coming like this? Why do you think he's stepping in this place like this? Because he has to fulfill all righteousness, carrying our sorrows, living this kind of way because we don't, and that's why he's calling his people when they've been redeemed to become what? Servants. Make yourself nothing. Have this mind that's in you that was in Christ Jesus be in you now. It's a whole change of look of life. It's hard, isn't it? It's not what we do. It's not what we do. So from the conception, he was taking on everything that that epitomized humility no outward glory uh his human nature veiling that glory you know that because of the transfiguration when even just for a moment he had to help his disciples who were weak and discouraged and they were able to see the glory just a glimpse of it for a moment and said whoa who is this but what they saw was an ordinary man at least outwardly not loved by the world And you'll notice here that that humility earned him the complete rejection and suffering by the world's hands, coming under the law. How did people respond to his presence? Verse 3, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. A purely righteous life. Verse 3 says he was despised and forsaken. It means totally vacated, abandoned, isolated, empty, a man of pains, acquainted with sicknesses, really equating with sin. That's why the Apostle Paul said, though he was not sinful in his human nature, he became sin, taking on our sins. Think about all the griefs and all the sins and all the struggles that we have and all the sorrows and all the sicknesses and everything that burdens us in this life and everything that stresses us out. Think of all these things he's carrying. That's why he's called a man of sorrows. And he's carrying it for all of you. What are you facing? He's there standing in your place in complete humility, bearing it all and carrying it for you. You look how he was treated in the Gospels. Isn't this just evidence of Isaiah 53? We've been studying. I don't need to get into it. They called him a wine-bibber. They said, you're a fool. You're a drunkard. He took on all kinds of shame. Look, the man sits with prostitutes and sinners. That's what this guy is. Nothing but a wine... He took nothing but ridicule. But it's not just that he was despised and rejected. He was taking something for us. And that's what I said. In the second, you'll notice here, question 38. He's taking the condemnation for you. Why did he suffer under Pontius Pilate as judge? So that he, though innocent, might be condemned by an earthly judge and so free us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us. You just can't pass over a statement like that lightly. You know what was to fall on you? The severe judgment of God. What do you think he's doing when he's on this earth? What do you think he's bearing? What do you think he's facing? Luther used to say, when you ever read in the Gospels about the punch in the face, or the crown set on his head, or the whips and the scourging, And the beatings and the mockery, every time you read that, you need to say, that was my crown. That was my whip. That was my fist that should have hit me. All of that was meant for me. And that's what he's doing. That's what we're studying. You think of the cross. And I said this morning that, you know, before the cross, if you ever study the cross events, it is a picture of the final judgment day. You ever thought about the events as the way that the gospel writers portray them? He's taken and handcuffed. He releases his own. They carry him off in our place. It should be us. He says, let them go. Take me. They take him. They question him. They can't find anything wrong. And he closes his mouth. none of you would do that none of you would do that even if you're wrong he closed his mouth he could have stopped it he could have called the angels down from heaven he could have said come now save me none of it and he takes the whips and he takes the beatings and then he's put on a crown and a robe and he's put on a judgment seat and a judge takes his seat. You think those are just empty facts? That should be you. It's a little representation of what you deserve. For the greater judge had taken his seat and the greater judge was giving the blows to his son. The father loved the son, I have to say. Because the father's often attacked in our day for being a bloodthirsty God. He loved his son. He never stopped loving his son. He did this for you. And now you understand Isaiah 53, verse 5. He was wounded for your transgressions. He was struck down, listen, crushed, shattered, pierced through. Pierced right through him a sword. which was the sword of the wrath of God. You know, the love you have for your children. So profound, isn't it? Like I said, coming into this sermon, it's hard to even begin to know how to preach this and get anywhere with it. You hope that by the power of the Holy Spirit, it leaves us kind of awestruck tonight. Putting him through the most accursed death on the cross to tell the whole world, think about this. This one is the one who became accursed. He was, verse 5, chastised for our peace. Luther translates this beautifully. The punishment was laid upon him so that we might have peace. That's Romans 5. Having been justified by faith, you have peace. Why was he doing it? The Heidelberg's so beautiful, isn't it? I mean, he was doing it to obtain for us, listen, the grace of God, righteousness, a perfect life for you, and eternal life because he's removing the curse and giving you everything is what the Heidelberg is saying. Notice in 37, he did this that by his suffering as the only atoning sacrifice, he might set you free. You're free from this. People always come up to me as a pastor, Pastor, am I going to have to stand in front of the judgment seat and give account for every sin I've ever done? And the answer is, when you look at the cross and you look at everything that Jesus suffered, there is no way the Father is raising our sins so as to put us back under condemnation. There is absolutely no way. He didn't put his son through this to hold it out against you again. that's the power of this. He achieved a righteous life for you by suffering and set us free, body and soul, listen, from, listen to what Heidelberg's saying, eternal condemnation. There is no condemnation. That's the Romans, it's the basis of Romans 8. And to gain for us, notice that's a merit, it's a working for us, God's grace, righteousness, and life. He achieved it. not only giving us a righteous life so that when God looks at us he sees the righteous life of his son but then he actually became the curse and took away the penalty that's the last question and answer there does it have a special meaning that Christ was crucified and did not die in a different way yes I'm assured there's an assurance aspect on the fact that he went to the cross the assurance aspect is he took upon himself the curse which lay on me for a crucified one was cursed by God. You know that on that day, if you don't have Jesus, there is this judgment to come. There is a judgment day coming. And then the things that happened on that judgment day happened to those who have no forgiveness. They are cursed by God. But the beauty of this truth is that's why we proclaim Jesus. He became that in our place. He became the curse. the curse. And that's real justice. It's real justice. I think Isaiah captures this. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to a slaughter, like a sheep before it shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth by oppression and judgment, he was taken away. Hear that? And as for his generation, who considered that he was, here's here's the language of curse cut off out of the land you'll see that's what that's what should happen to us stricken for the transgression of my people and they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth you know i um it was john rainbow preaching years ago on the atonement and uh he showed me something in that sermon that I've never forgotten when he was preaching on Matthew chapter 25 and he was actually preaching on definite atonement, limited atonement. He was a fine preacher. And I remember he took us to Matthew 25. He says, I want you to notice here the two ways the Lord speaks on judgment day. In Matthew 25. Really important. Listen to Matthew chapter 25. Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Now, what does he say to those on his right? Then he will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. you got the biggest problem that you need to come out of being cursed. And if you don't have someone who becomes the curse, that's the end game. That's what's going to happen. But notice he doesn't speak to his people that way. He can't speak to his people that way. Because when you're in Jesus and you've believed, everything Isaiah 53 is saying was that he became that curse for you. So you'll never hear that. The only way you'll ever stand is to embrace this Savior by faith. It may go against the grain in every way to proclaim messages that drive us to Christ and Him crucified and raised, but it's the ultimate need of your soul, the ultimate preparation for glory and the answer to everything else in life. It's important tonight to say, as we've looked at a passage like this, You know, when we are pulled away in this life by everything that wants to make everything other issue the most important issue of life. You know, we're living that right now. I think I've said this before. Our whole culture has their issues and the most important issues and the things they're trying to solve and the endless problems that are in front of us. You just had dealt for you and preached to you the most in the history of human civilization important issue that could ever be addressed. And when we have a Savior like this who's done that, it should do something for us, as I said this morning. What did Peter say when he spoke about these things? Peter says, be filled with true joy, joy inexpressible and fullness of joy, knowing that he has bore our sins in his body on the tree. i hope this helps us tonight to have some brief grasp of what it means that he suffered for us peter goes on to say something really helpful what do we do with all of it what do you do with all of that we don't just sit and gaze on it in amazement as much as we should but peter says this and it's another sermon and i think we'll get there in the third part of the catechism, therefore since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. I think that's a good place to stop. Let's thank the Lord tonight. Heavenly Father, thank you for teaching us these things. We're humbled that you would give your Son to do this for us. And we say thank you. And we say thank you for so great a salvation and so great a sacrifice that was made. Well, if this matters that much, and you love us that much, then may we take that basic call seriously to arm ourselves with the same mind of the one who suffered for us in the flesh. And that we ought to live the rest of our time not in sins and the lust of men, but in your will. Thank you for removing the judgment from us. Thank you for clearing us. Thank you for giving us a righteousness by which we can stand. And now, O Lord, as we go forward, may we live in the joy of that unspeakable comfort and may it show in the way that we thank you this week and every week of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.