Tag: Gospel

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The Gospel According to Isaiah 53: Predictions about His Life- Prediction #4- His experience will be like ours. (53:4)

On By Ben JenningsIn DevotionalLeave a comment

(4)  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

Isaiah 53:4

Explanation:

Each one of these predictions could be a sermon in themselves in regard to how Jesus fulfilled them. In the first part of verse 4 we are told that he would bear our griefs, and carry our sorrows. Certainly, this applies to the sin that He would bare on the cross at some level.

It also speaks to His human experience. We see Jesus humbling Himself and experiencing all that we face as humans ourselves. As we already noted he lived in a body. He had relationships. He was betrayed. He felt pain, joy, sickness, and the transcendent. The writer of Hebrews put it this way: 

(15)  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4:15

The world was cursed by sin and the effects of sin.  Sin when it is finished brings forth death. Because Jesus lived in a sin cursed world He dealt with all the effects of sin that you and I deal with as well. Do you remember when Jesus went to see Lazarus after he died?  He stood near the tomb knowing He was about to raise him from the dead, and seeing the weeping and wailing of the family and the mourners He wept as well. 

Application:

What a privilege to know that there is nothing that I can take to Jesus in prayer that He hasn’t experienced. He knows what you are going through. He cares about what we go through. He died so that the sin of curse could be broken, and we can be redeemed.

Response:

Lord, thank You for taking our experience and knowing what it means to be us. Thank you for dying for us. Amen

gati

The Gospel According to Isaiah 53: Prediction #3- His appearance will not be notable. (53:2)

On By Ben JenningsIn DevotionalLeave a comment

(2)  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

Isaiah 53:2

Explanation:

The prophet goes on to talk about what would not be notable about this servant who we know to be Jesus Christ. What was notable about Jesus was not his physical appearance. He had two feet, two hands, a nose, armpits and hair. He grew. He aged. This prediction tells us that he was not particularly attractive. As we read the accounts of Jesus in the New Testament this is substantiated.

When he was being betrayed, he had to be pointed out by Judas through a kiss.  He looked to those guards like every other man there.

When the woman at the well met him, she wasn’t struck that He was the Messiah by his appearance. He had to tell her that He was the Messiah.

(25)  The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. (26)  Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

John 4:25-26

What was notable about Jesus to this woman?

(28)  The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, (29)  Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? (30)  Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.

John 4:28-30

The Word He revealed to her, the truth that He gave to her, and the way that He treated her was what impacted her, not his appearance.

Application:

A principle in scripture that helps us understand how God views things is expressed in 1 Samuel 16:7.

(7)  But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

1 Samuel 16:7

Jesus did not emphasize the external over the internal and neither should we. Who we are on the inside should be primary, and it should affect the outside. As God regenerates us, and begins to change us it is always from the inside out.

Response:

Lord, help me to not worry about the external more than internal. Amen.

gati

The Gospel According to Isaiah 53: Prediction about Jesus Life #2- His coming will be notable. (53:1-2)

On By Ben JenningsIn DevotionalLeave a comment

(1)  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? (2)  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground:

Isiah 53:1-2

Explanation:

Verse 2 emphasizes both the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ. What does the expression “tender plant” mean? Dr. John Phillips tells a story about a gardener who helped him understand what a “tender plant” is. The gardener pointed out that “all plants are catalogued in one of three ways: they are hardy, half-hardy or tender. A hardy plant is one native to the area.  It will take ready root because it feels at home there. A half-hardy plant is not native to the area, but it comes from a place that is similar.  It will readily grow where it is planted because it finds the climate, the type of soil, the temperature, and the weather similar to what it has been used to. A tender plant, however, well, that’s another story.  It comes from quite a different place.  It does not find the soil in its new location congenial, nor does it like the climate.  It really belongs somewhere else.  It is an exotic plant from far, far away.” 

Isaiah says our Lord was on earth as a tender plant.  He comes here from far, far away.  He was not a native of this planet of ours.  His nature was not like ours because He was God in flesh.  He had no sin nature, but rather He was absolutely holy.

Isaiah describes Him being like a “root out of a dry ground”. Imagine walking through the most barren dessert, as parched as anyone you have ever seen in any movie depicting such things, and there right in the middle of a sand dune you see a gigantic, bright green watermelon connected to a vine coming out of the ground. That would blow your mind.  You may even be tempted to consider it a mirage.

In terms of Israel’s history this is exactly what Jesus’ coming was like. The prediction is that He would be like a “root out of dry ground”. God had not spoken.  There had been no new revelation from God for 400 years.In terms of God working and revealing like He had, it was a time of desert.Jesus’ coming, like all that we celebrate with Christmas and Easter, was quite extraordinary. There was no new Word from God for hundreds of years, and then the Word made flesh, dwelling among us. Like a watermelon in the desert- like a root out of dry ground- he showed up and changed everything.

Hebrews, which we will be studying in the weeks to come, states it this way:

(1)  God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets (2)  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Hebrews 1:1-2

Application:

When we get saved God regenerates our hearts. The Bible says that those who are in Christ are a new creation. We ought to be different from the world in the way we think, act, and live. When we get saved our new home and our new, first citizenship is in heaven.  We live for a new city and a new country. That means that like Jesus, we are no longer of this world, though we are in this world. We are missionaries, realizing that we are still on the earth to proclaim Christ to those around us.

Response

Lord, please help me to not love this world system, and to make sure that I identify myself as a citizen of heaven first and foremost.

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Isaiah- Week 10- Day 1

On By Ben JenningsIn DevotionalLeave a comment

The People of the Mission

(1)  Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.

(6)  And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. 

(Isaiah 49:1, 6)

Explanation:

This week’s passage is Isaiah 49:1-7, and it is an incredible passage. It may be helpful to read all seven verses before jumping into the ones that we are highlighting today.

To understand this passage, you must understand four different parties that are referenced in the passage.   

1. Servant.  (v.1,3)

This is the speaker right at the beginning.  Notice all the personal pronouns in verse 1.

(1)  Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. 

More will be revealed about him as we read, and it will become clear that this is the Messiah.

2. Gentiles (v.1,6)

The Servant calls out to the “isles” and to the “people, from afar”.  He calls on them to listen, but to what?  He wants them to know about what “the Lord” has called Him to do.  He includes them in on the contents of a conversation between Him and the Lord, letting Him know that God has always had a plan to include the Gentiles in His plan of salvation.  In verse 6, the Lord tells the servant, “I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” 

3. The Lord (v.1)

The Lord is God, the Father, and is referenced throughout the passage.  He is the owner of the mission that He is calling the servant to do. 

4. Israel/Jacob (v.3, 5)

There is another group included in this passage.  The narrator of the passage is called both “servant” and “Israel” in verse three.  Yet, this naming of the servant as Israel is a reference to this Servant as an ideal Israel.  Why do we say this?  Because this servant is called to “bring Jacob again to him, though Israel be not gathered…” in verse 5.  In verse 6 the servant is called “to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel.”  Israel is distinct from the Gentiles, and the servant has a mission to both the Jew and the Gentile.

Now that you know who the players are in this passage you get a context.  The servant calls on the gentiles to listen to an incredible conversation between the Lord and His servant.  Included in the context of this conversation are details about the mission of God to restore Israel and save the gentiles from every nation, tribe and tongue.

Application:

God planned out His mission by which you and I can be saved before we were ever born.  The prophet Isaiah was writing this passage some 700 years before the coming of Christ.  As you hear this passage you will see the detail to which God foretold how His mission would come to pass in the person of Jesus Christ.  This is not the earliest foretelling of the details of God’s mission, but it certainly is a foretelling.  It is His mission.  He owns it.

God keeps His promises.  God does not forsake Israel or replace Israel with the nations.  His mission includes keeping all of His promises to Israel and to the nations.  If Israel can trust God, so can we.

God includes everyone in His mission.  He owns it.  His Son purchased it.  His mission is to Jew and Gentile.  Every nation, tribe and tongue are included in who needs salvation.  It’s as large as the whole world, and as applicable as every individual who ever lived.

Response:

Are you part of the mission field, or are you a missionary?