Who Will Believe?

Isaiah 53:1-3

Series on the Cross for Lent

INTRODUCTION:

Isaiah’s Prophecy of Christ that begins with Two Questions:

  1. “Who hath believed our report?”
  2. “To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”

 

Two questions that call for faith:

  1. Who will believe because God’s Word declares it?
  2. Who will believe in spite of the circumstances?

 

Why people would reject the coming Savior

 

I.                    THE TENDER PLANT  (v. 2)

A.     “He shall grow up before him like a tender plant”

B.     A prophecy of the coming Christ

C.    What a description of Jesus!

1.      The miracle of the incarnation

2.      His entrance into the world as a baby

3.      Growing up in a family

D.    Tenderness would always b a part of His life.

1.      He had time for little children

2.      Lepers and other outcasts came to Him.

3.      He received the broken, the sad, the sinful

E.     Tears revealed His tender heart.

 

 

II.                  THE ROOT OUT OF DRY GROUND

A.     “Like a root out of a dry ground”

B.     Israel seemed so unlikely to produce Him.

1.      Thy had stoned the prophets and refused their message.

2.      They had become subjects of the Roman Empire

3.      They had become outcasts among the nations

4.      But the Scriptures declared they would produce the Savior.

C.    When Jesus came, He was born of poor parents.

D.    He came out of Nazareth

1.      Even the Jews struggled with this

2.      Nothing good was expected out of Nazareth (John 1:46)

3.      No prophets had come out of that area  (John 7:52)

E.     Still, Jesus came from Nazareth and was the promised Savior.

 

III.                THE UNLOVELY CHRIST

A.     A surprising description of Christ.

B.     “He hath no form nor comeliness (majesty)”

1.      No splendid surroundings

2.      No regal pomp nor splendor

3.      The Jews were expecting a king…not a servant.

C.    “No beauty that we should desire him”

1.      Nothing showy about Christ.

2.      We still know nothing of His physical appearance.

D.    To understand this verse look before and after it.

1.      This is a scene from the cross (52:14 and 53:3-5)

2.      Nothing beautiful about the cross

3.      The nails, the thorns, the blood, the suffering

E.     On the cross He paid for our sins.

 

CONCLUSION:

Can you look at the crucified Jesus and believe?

 

Look at the cross and see a King?

Look at His suffering and see the Savior?

 

Has the Lord revealed His plan of redemption to you?

 

Will you accept this rejected Savior today?