Spending most of my life as a teacher to young children, I remember greatly anticipating the Christmas holiday season. It was a time when I had the opportunity to incorporate the joy and anticipation of the birth of Jesus into my curriculum. Several things helped this happen; for instance, I taught in a rural school district where most families attended church, and the children often brought up the birth of Jesus. However, Easter was a little more difficult to incorporate; in fact, I found it nearly impossible, which was disheartening because I saw Easter as the season of hope.
Dwight L. Moody once stated, “This is the foundation upon which I have built all my hopes for time and for eternity; this is the source of my sweetest consolation; this is the sun that makes my day, and the star that guides my night.”
Pastor Tim shared on Easter Sunday five surprises from Isaiah 53. The biggest surprise for me was the reaction of God to Christ’s suffering. In all the times I had read Isaiah 53:10-12 and heard sermons on this Scripture, I missed this surprise.
Yet the Lord was pleased to crush Him severely.
When You make Him a restitution offering,
He will see His seed, He will prolong His days,
and by His hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.
He will see it out of His anguish,
and He will be satisfied with His knowledge.
My righteous Servant will justify many,
and He will carry their iniquities.
Therefore I will give Him the many as a portion,
and He will receive the mighty as spoil,
because He submitted Himself to death,
and was counted among the rebels;
yet He bore the sin of many
and interceded for the rebels.
According to Dr. Warren Wiersbe, “Isaiah explains the cross from God’s point of view. Even though Jesus was crucified by the hands of wicked men, His death was determined beforehand by God. Jesus was not a martyr, nor was His death an accident. He was God’s sacrifice for the sins of the world.”
Dwight L. Moody once stated, “This is the foundation upon which I have built all my hopes for time and for eternity; this is the source of my sweetest consolation; this is the sun that makes my day, and the star that guides my night.”
Pastor Tim shared on Easter Sunday five surprises from Isaiah 53. The biggest surprise for me was the reaction of God to Christ’s suffering. In all the times I had read Isaiah 53:10-12 and heard sermons on this Scripture, I missed this surprise.
Yet the Lord was pleased to crush Him severely.
When You make Him a restitution offering,
He will see His seed, He will prolong His days,
and by His hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.
He will see it out of His anguish,
and He will be satisfied with His knowledge.
My righteous Servant will justify many,
and He will carry their iniquities.
Therefore I will give Him the many as a portion,
and He will receive the mighty as spoil,
because He submitted Himself to death,
and was counted among the rebels;
yet He bore the sin of many
and interceded for the rebels.
According to Dr. Warren Wiersbe, “Isaiah explains the cross from God’s point of view. Even though Jesus was crucified by the hands of wicked men, His death was determined beforehand by God. Jesus was not a martyr, nor was His death an accident. He was God’s sacrifice for the sins of the world.”
The question you must ask yourself is, “Do I accept Jesus as my Savior?” In Jesus is our hope!
The portion of God’s plan from incarnation to atonement was complete. Why Jesus came to earth as a human and why He lived His life from birth to death was made known through the resurrection.
Men of Israel, listen to these words: This Jesus the Nazarene was a man pointed out to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through Him, just as you yourselves know. Though He was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail Him to a cross and kill Him. God raised Him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.
– Acts 2:22-24
There is our hope! Jesus couldn’t be held by death! He died as payment for our sins and rose again to conquer death. God’s desire for us to be in a relationship with Him was made possible. Now, each of us has a responsibility to recognize that we have a sin problem that can only be solved by believing in Jesus as the forgiver of sins. We can thereby grow in our relationship with Him. The question you must ask yourself is, “Do I accept Jesus as my Savior?” In Jesus is our hope!
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