Well, good morning everyone, Happy Resurrection Sunday.
What a great day to be together as a church family.
Take your Bibles turn to Isaiah chapter 52, Isaiah chapter 52.
That is page 650. If you don't have a Bible,
please take a Bible in the seat that's underneath of you and
that is our gift to you. You'll find us on page 650 there
in that scripture. I love Easter weekend.
It is my favorite weekend of the whole year.
I think it is the best, biggest weekend of the entire year.
I'm in fact, I think you could take all the big events that you
can think of in the course of a year, whether it's the Super
Bowl, the Olympics, the World Cup, the Masters golf
tournament, the Stanley Cup finals, the World Series,
whatever. And for those of you who aren't
sports fans, the Oscars will throw that in there too and just
put them all together in one big event.
And you would discover that this event this weekend is bigger and
better than all of those things combined.
Amen. Right today, as we gather
together to celebrate what happened 2000 years ago, we are
not just celebrating an event, we are celebrating the one who
made the event possible. That's what this is all about.
You know, one of the one of the beautiful and powerful parts of
the human experience are the opportunities where we get to
honor and celebrate other people.
And I don't mean it in a token kind of way of honouring and
celebrating other people. Like on Victoria Day, none of us
are thinking about Queen Victoria.
Let's be honest. I I mean genuinely honouring and
celebrating other people, the people that you love and care
for, the people who have made a difference in your life, the
people you respect for the accomplishments that they've
achieved in life, the people, the teams that you cheer for.
This baseball season's back. I'm so glad baseball season's
back. It was like purgatory for a
while there and we are now in a spot where, like I watched the
home opener of the Blue Jays and they played this video of last
year's team in the home opener and I had a tear in my eyes.
I thought about what a great team that was and just honoring
people like that. But today I want to put this
idea in front of you. There is nobody worth honoring
and celebrating more than Jesus. Of all the people that you will
ever celebrate and honor in your lifetime, every single one of
them pale in comparison to who Jesus is and what Jesus has
done. Of all the humans who have ever
lived on earth, who have ever made significant contributions
to humanity, there is one man who walked to walked the earth
2000 years ago, who stands head and shoulders above all the
rest. Now, if you're here today and
you're not a Christian and you're just kind of checking out
the Christian message in faith today, I want to welcome you.
We're so glad you're here and you might go.
Kirk, that's a bold claim when you think about all the people
who have done great things and all the people even from other
religions who have done good things in the world.
But I want you to know, I mean exactly what I said.
There's nobody like Jesus in this passage in Isaiah that
we're going to look at today is going to help us understand why
we say that now. Over the past few weeks as a
church family, we have been walking through this journey
that says there is one overarching story to the entire
Bible. And more particular than that,
it's not just one story. It is one person that the whole
of Scripture points us to, one person and his name is Jesus.
That the Bible made-up of 66 separate books combined is a 2
section called the Old Testament and the New Testament all have
one central person that they are talking about.
The Old Testament has 39 different individual books that
are written 400 or more years before Jesus was even born, but
they still talk about Jesus and point us to Jesus.
In fact, the book of Isaiah that we're going to look at today was
written 700 years before Jesus was born, and it still talks
about him. One of the ways that the Old
Testament talks about Jesus is through prophecies, messages
directly from God talking about future events.
And so some of the prophecies you'll see in the Old Testament
are a conversation about what's called the Messiah, the Messiah
who would come to rescue the world from sin.
And Jesus fulfills hundreds of those prophecies of the Messiah.
Another prophecy that shows up in Isaiah here is that one day
there's going to be a servant who's given a special assignment
by God. Look at Isaiah 52, verse 13,
where we see this servant show up.
He says, see, my servant will be successful.
He will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted.
God says that this servant is going to be wildly successful.
He's going to be so successful that kings will have to shut
their mouths because of him. That the success and power that
other people will have will be nothing compared to the success
of this servant. He will be celebrated.
He will be honored above all others.
Now, if you're like most people, that word success brings a whole
bunch of images to your mind. All of us have an idea of what
we think success looks like. We think about the car someone
drives, the house someone lives in, how much money is in their
bank account. We think about success in terms
of achievements in life, the degree that you got, the career
that you built, all the things that you were able to accumulate
and accomplish over the course of your life.
And we define success through that lens.
But that is not at all what makes this servant a success.
In fact, it's quite the opposite of everything we would normally
think of in terms of success. Look at verse 14 of Isaiah 52.
Just as many were appalled at you, His appearance was so
disfigured, he did not look like a man, and his form did not
resemble a human being. You, you read that description
and there is nothing in that description that makes you go,
there's a successful person. I don't know any of us who have
looked at someone quite like this, where their appearance is
so disfigured they don't even look like a human.
And we thought to ourselves, I want to be just like that
person. So who?
Who is this servant exactly? Well, Isaiah doesn't tell us
exactly, but at least 6 passages in the New Testament tell us
that the servant being talked about is Jesus.
So what is it that makes Jesus such a success story?
What is it that makes Jesus worth honoring and celebrating
above all other people? We're going to look at that
today through this passage in Isaiah.
The first thing we're going to see is that Jesus does the work
that nobody else would or could do.
I, I don't know if you've ever seen like really crazy job
advertisements before. Like when you're going for an
entry level job and you read a job ad that says 10 years of
experience required for this entry level job.
That feels weird, right? And you're going like, why on
earth do I need 10 years of experience for an entry level
job? And how am I ever going to get
experience if I can't get into that job?
I read another ad this week for a job that that said this.
Join our team as a coffee ninja and become the caffeine packed
superhero our office needs. Now for those of you who don't
have the gift of interpretation, let me tell you what that's
actually saying. I'm too lazy to get my own
coffee and you're going to go and get it for me.
OK, what a terrible job advertisement.
Well, the first 9 verses of Isaiah chapter 53 reads a little
bit like the worst job advertisement in human history.
Look at verse one of Isaiah 53. This is the job requirements of
the Servant who has believed what we have heard?
To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed, who grew up
before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry
ground. He didn't have an impressive
form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that
we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by
men. He was a man of suffering who
knew what sickness was. He was like someone that people
turned away from. He was despised and we did not
value him. This is the beginning of the job
AD for the servant. What the servant.
The servant was going to be. God says the servant's going to
be a nobody. There's going to be nothing
impressive at all about the servant.
And here's how well the job of the servant's going to pay.
You're going to suffer. You're going to have people turn
away from you, despise you, reject you, betray you, and not
value you at all. Keep going.
Verse 4. Yet He himself bore our
sicknesses, and he carried our pains, but we in turn regarded
him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
He was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of
our iniquities. Punishment for our peace was on
Him, and we are healed by his wounds.
We all went astray like sheep. We've all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
This servant is going to be a substitute for every single
human, but, but not in a good way, every human who has ever
done anything to transgress to sin against God.
This servant is going to take their place for the punishment
that they deserve. In the place of other people,
this servant would face undeserved suffering and
rejection and divine punishment. He will be physically and
emotionally crushed. Keep going.
Verse 7 He was oppressed and afflicted that he did not open
his mouth. Like a lamb led to the
slaughter, and like a sheep silent before her shearers, He
did not open his mouth. He was taken away because of
oppression and judgement. And who considered his fate, for
he was cut off from the land of the living.
He was struck because of my people's rebellion.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich
man at his death because he had done no violence and had not
spoken deceitfully. This suffering servant would
have to live a life perfect in the eyes of God.
He's he's going to be oppressed. He's going to be treated all the
ways that we've talked about, but he's going to be willingly
and silently allowing that to happen to him.
He's not going to fight for his rights.
He's going to keep his mouth shut.
He's going to take it. And ultimately, this suffering
servant's going to be killed, cut off from the land of the
living. The closest thing he will ever
get to being rich on this earth is to be buried in a rich man's
tomb. Honestly, who signs up for that
job? Who, who?
Who puts their hand up and says, like, I want to be that servant
who does that? I'll tell you who Jesus Jesus is
the one who says yes to his Father and says yes, I will be
this suffering servant. Only Jesus could live up to
this. Everything described here in
Isaiah 53 is pointing us towards Jesus.
In the book of Acts in the New Testament, Philip is telling an
Ethiopian about Jesus and he starts by talking about Jesus by
quoting from Isaiah 53. He quotes Isaiah 53 by saying he
was led like a sheep to slaughter.
In first Peter chapter 2 Peter's writing about Jesus and he
quotes Isaiah 53 by saying he did not commit sin and no deceit
was found in his mouth. In Matthew Chapter 7, after
Jesus heals the mother-in-law of Peter, Matthew writes this that
Jesus was healing so that what was spoken through the prophet
Isaiah might be fulfilled, that he himself took our weaknesses
and carried our diseases. Everything that Isaiah says is
the job of the suffering servant.
Jesus lived it and Jesus fulfilled it.
But why? Why would Jesus be willing to
have his body beaten and battered to such a degree that
he would not even look like a human being?
Why in the world would he be willing to be crushed by God?
That's what verse 10 tells us happens.
The Lord was pleased to crush him severely.
When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed,
He will prolong his days, and by his hand the Lord's pleasure
will be accomplished. Here's why Jesus became a
suffering servant so that you could be forgiven.
That's why he's called a guilt offering.
Here in verse 10. The Old Testament guilt offering
was all about repaying damages in order to fix a relationship.
So imagine you invite someone into your home and when you
invite them into your home out of the goodness of your heart
and your love and care for them, but then they turn around and
they start to destroy your home. They start to do things that
leave a mark and leave destruction and you know it's
going to cost and you're everything in you is like you
need to repay me for the damage you've done to my house.
Every single sin that you and I have committed in our lifetime
is offensive to God because it scars and destroys everything in
his good creation. But Jesus doesn't go for
revenge. Instead, Jesus pays the damages
for you so that you could be forgiven by God.
Like, think about a time when someone did something to really
hurt or offend you. I mean really hurt or offend
you. Now ask yourself this question.
To what lengths would you be willing to go so that the other
person could be forgiven for what they did?
There's a lot of lengths that as humans, there's a there's all
kinds of things we will do when people hurt us.
There are all kinds of ways and lengths that we will go
sometimes to get even with that person.
There's a lot of anger we will have.
There's a lot of emotions that will come out.
There are all kinds of ways we will live to tear the other
person down. Sometimes we don't just respond
outwardly. Sometimes we carry that
ourselves and it turns into bitterness and in our own hearts
and lives, but we're still carrying this, this sense of
they've done something to hurt me and harm me and they owe me
something. Here's what I know of all the
people I've ever met in my life, including myself, who've ever
had that happen to them. I don't know many people who
would put themselves through the kind of shame and pain that
Jesus goes through in order to forgive the one who's offended
them. But that's Jesus.
That's what he does for you. He he doesn't ignore the damages
that you and I owe him for our sin.
Instead, Jesus absorbs that himself so that you and I could
be forgiven and reconciled to God.
And it's not just a token. I forgive you like we make kids
say when we're making them apologize to each other.
The the very end of verse 5 in Isaiah 53 tells us this
punishment for our peace was on Him and we are healed by His
wounds. Those two words, peace and
healing, they tell you just how great and extensive this
forgiveness is, that everything that has been broken between you
and God as a result of your sin can be healed, that you can be
reconciled to God instead of being an enemy of God.
But the debt that you owe God for the sins that you've
committed, they are paid in full by Jesus.
They never need to be held against you again to such a
degree that your complete healing is guaranteed, whether
it's in this life or the next, that there's going to be a
restoring of wholeness to your life.
Every part of your life that's been damaged and destroyed by
sin can have new life breathed into it.
That's part of what we remember and reflect on during the Easter
season. It's what the story of Good
Friday and the death of Jesus on the cross is all about.
This intense, brutal, sadistic suffering that Jesus endured on
the cross as he's fulfilling the job of the suffering servant for
you and me. Jesus did the work that nobody
else would or could do there. There's nothing about this that
makes him a success story in our eyes.
There's nothing if we saw Jesus on the cross that would make us
go. That's a guy I want to
celebrate, but thank God that's not where the story ends.
See, the second reason why Jesus is different than everybody else
is because Jesus conquers the one thing that no other human
can conquer. Look at verse 11 of Isaiah 53.
After his anguish, He will see light and be satisfied by His
knowledge. My righteous servant will
justify many, and He will carry their iniquities.
After all the pain and suffering is done, after being completely
crushed, after seeing his life taken away from him, the
suffering servant will see light again and be satisfied.
The servant would conquer death. All the way back here in Isaiah
53, God is prophesying and saying that one day this
suffering servant who would die, He would open his eyes again and
be brought back to life. You know, there've been a lot of
people over the years who have done some death defying things.
I think the craziest thing I've ever witnessed is the story of
Felix Baumgartner. You may not know that name, but
you probably know this story. Back in 2012, Felix Baumgartner
thought it would be a great idea to go to the edge of space 24
miles above the Earth and jump and free fall down to the earth.
And so that's what he did. He, he, he was, it was sponsored
by Red Bull. So I'm assuming he was high on
Red Bull when he did it. And he he got to, he got to the
edge of space, got pulled, walked out the edge of a capsule
that had carried him up there. And he jumps.
And there's this video of Kim diving down towards the Earth in
real time. And at one point, he just loses
complete control. And you can see his body
spinning and spinning and spinning out of control.
And I'm mesmerized in a very morbid kind of way, thinking
this guy's going to spot her all over the ground right on TV.
And and then just as he gets closer to the ground, he pulls
the parrot, he regains control, pulls the parachute and lands
safely. And you think to yourself, man,
if a guy can survive that, he can survive anything.
Until last year, when he decided to go paragliding.
Last year, a guy who could defy death by jumping 24 miles above
the earth goes paragliding, loses control of the paraglider,
ends up in a tragic accident, and dies.
Death is the harsh truth that faces every human being.
You can defy death many times. Some of you have stories where
you've got 9 lives. You you can defy death many
times in your life, but you cannot deny death.
It will come calling. And while death came calling for
Jesus, death did not have the final say.
Jesus conquered what no other human can conquer.
On the third day after your body is dead, you are starting to
bloat up really good. You are releasing gases you've
never released before in your life.
You stinketh. OK, That's what's happening on
the third day after you're dead. For Jesus, He opened his eyes
and he got up out of the grave. The grave did its worst and it
failed. Jesus is alive and I wish, I
wish I had the right words to try and help us really grasp
just how big and significant this is.
If you're here today and you are new to the Christian story,
here's the most simple way that I can put it for you.
Because death did not get the final say for Jesus, it does not
need to get the final say for any human.
The resurrection of Jesus is the great hope that shows eternal
life is possible for anyone. For those of you who've heard
this story over and over again over the course of your entire
life, man, I've been praying that God, through the power of
the Holy Spirit, would help all of us to have our sense of awe
reignited for exactly what happened when Jesus rose from
the dead. This is so much bigger than any
rags to riches story. This is so much more miraculous
than the Leafs winning the Stanley Cup next year, or at
all. This is so much more life
altering and life giving than anything else has the potential
to be. When Jesus rose from the dead,
it was the beginning of God restoring the world to what it
was intended to be. Martin Luther put it this way.
He said the cross is the victory and the resurrection is the
triumph. The resurrection is the public
display of the victory. You know, one of the things I
love to do is I love to watch the facial reactions of people
and their body language in significant moments in their
life when they've had a significant achievement in life.
There's just something about seeing the sense of joy, the
sense of satisfaction that people have when they've
accomplished something great. Like think about a graduate at a
graduation ceremony. They, they're walking across
that stage to get their degree or their diploma.
And as they're walking across all those years of hard work and
you just see it in them. You're like, man, they just, you
can see how grateful they are to get to this point and the joy in
their face. You think about athletes when
they win a medal at the Olympics or when their team wins a
championship and the sheer sense of satisfaction and joy that
they have. Yeah, I, I think about a bride
and a groom on a wedding day. And there's just something
amazing to watch a bride and a groom on a wedding day as the
bride is walking down the aisle and the groom is at the front
looking and watching his bride walk down the aisle.
And you just see the sense of joy on their face and
satisfaction of going, yes, we're here.
We're finally making it. And and and the thing that we
see when we see people have that sense of satisfaction over
accomplishing something big. Jesus is no different.
He's he's human as well. Isaiah says in verse 11 that he
will see light and be satisfied. Like imagine Jesus inside the
tomb before the stone is rolled away.
Those first moments where breath starts to return to his lungs
and his eyes start to flicker a little bit as he's waking up
after sleeping for a few days. And then there's the moment
where his eyes come alive and he's fully alert and he knows
exactly what's going on. I'm trying to imagine what it
must have been like for Jesus in that moment.
Hebrews chapter 12 tells us that one of the reasons Jesus endured
all the suffering on the cross is because of the joy that was
set before him. That there was something on the
other side of the suffering that kept Jesus focused and kept him
going. That there was a dream and a
desire so great he was willing to fulfill the role of the
suffering servant. And finally in that tomb on that
day, as life starts to come back into his body, Jesus knows he's
conquered everything, standing in the way of that joy being
realized. What was it like for Jesus on
that day? What was it like for him to be
fully satisfied with all of his work?
What did his face and his body language communicate?
And we don't know exactly. The Bible doesn't say, but we do
know this. What Jesus accomplished was so
great that God Himself declares Jesus to be the King of kings.
Look at verse 12 of Isaiah 53. Therefore I will give him the
many as a portion, and he will receive the mightiest spoil,
because he willingly submitted to death and was counted among
the rebels, yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the
rebels. Notice the change of language
here in verse 12. God is now speaking.
God says I will give him the many as a portion and receive
the mightiest spoil. God saying, because Jesus
fulfilled the role of the suffering servant, because Jesus
conquered the grave, God now speaks and he says to Jesus, you
are the king who's won the spoils of war.
You are the king who's going to receive the rewards of victory.
Philippians tells us that God has highly exalted Jesus and
given him a name above all other names.
Part of the reason why we should honor and celebrate Jesus above
every other human being is because God himself honors and
celebrates his Son above all others.
One of the things that's fascinating when you study human
history is the love affair that humans have with power.
Throughout all of human history, there are so many people who
have aspired to be powerful. Even today we see it, whether
it's in the world of politics or business, whether it's in
relationships or in your workplace, there are people who
are continuing to pursue power and control all over the place.
But here's what God is saying in Isaiah 53.
The most powerful people in the world will fall silent before
Jesus because they will realize that they are in the presence of
someone who is stronger than the strong.
There are a lot of powerful people I know, and I know that
they can create some difficulties and challenges, and
many of you are experiencing that right now.
A lot of people who are making life sometimes difficult or
painful, but they're using their power to do that.
And here's what God has to say about all that.
Jesus is the king of all kings. I don't care who it is.
You can insert the name of any politician, any business leader,
any person in your life who thinks that they are all that.
And in the eyes of God, they are like little kids compared to the
power of Jesus. None of them could do what the
suffering servant did. None of them can carry the sins
of the entire world and defeat death.
And one day the Bible tells us that no matter who they are,
every single knee will bow, every single tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus is the King of all kings,
and while the mighty will fall before the king, there's another
group of people who show up in this in this verse, the many who
are given as a portion. I said a minute ago that Jesus
endured the suffering of the cross for the joy that was set
before him. You know what part of that joy
was? It's you.
You were part of that joy. The King of all Kings loves you.
This whole story is the overwhelming, glorious reality
that the one who deserves the most honor and the most
celebration also loves you. So to the person who's here
today, who's made a train wreck out of their life and you think
there is no hope, I want you to know the King of Kings loves you
and came for you. To the person who's here today
who is sinned and they know they've sinned and they don't
know how to get out of the sin that they keep committing, I
want you to know the King of all Kings came for you to forgive
you and set you free from the power of sin.
To the person who's living with fear and anxiety over what might
happen today or tomorrow because the world is so unpredictable
right now, I want you to know the King of All Kings knows
exactly what's going on. He is ultimately in control and
he loves you. You don't have anything to be
afraid of. To the person who's lived their
entire life on the margins and been undervalued, struggling to
make it, the King of all kings knows what it's like to live a
life where nobody wants them. And he loves you.
Everything Jesus goes through is because of his willingness to
say yes to His Father and because of his love for you.
He came to rescue you from the power of sin.
He came to give you the hope of eternal life.
You are not forgiven because you can do anything to earn God's
forgiveness. Jesus paid the price.
You can't pay God back. You can't have the hope of
eternal life by eating healthier and exercising more.
Being good enough won't give you eternal life because you'll
never be good enough. Jesus says He's the resurrection
and the life, and whoever believes in him will never die.
But the only way to have eternal life is to put your life in the
hands of the one who conquered death, the King of Heaven.
He willingly left heaven to come to this earth to live amongst
rebels in order to save rebels from their sin.
What kind of a king does that? If you're here today and you're
you're not yet a believer in Jesus, I just want to ask you
this question. What will you do with this kind
of love of a king? The King of kings loves you and
he's calling you by name and saying, follow me.
Trust me with your life. I want to invite you to put your
faith and hope in Jesus today. And to all of us who already
believe in Jesus, listen, you're the prize he's won.
You're the prize he's won. You are the many that have been
given to him as a portion for the victory that he accomplished
on the cross and through his resurrection.
There are a lot of people worth honoring and celebrating in
life, but none of them compared to Jesus.
How will you make sure that your life honors and celebrates his
life? In just a few minutes we're
going to have a group of people who are going to come and
they're going to be baptized. And every one of those people
who are coming to be baptized today, that's what they are
doing. They are saying I have put my
faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of my sins to be
reconciled and restored to God. I have put my life into the
hands of Jesus, and now I want my life to live in such a way
that I want to honor him and celebrate him with my life.
For those of us who've already been baptized and we're already
believers in Jesus, how are you honoring and celebrating Jesus?
I don't just mean here today, but beyond here.
You know, we talk about the people that we want to honour
and celebrate. It's one of the ways we honour
and celebrate people. You, you think about this week,
how many times you've talked about people that you admire or
respect, Co worker, your favorite sports team, people
who've invented something. We talk about those people
because we want to honour and celebrate them.
How often do you talk about Jesus outside of this building?
There are there is there are millions of people all around us
who need to know that of all the people we honor and celebrate in
our culture, as amazing as it is to honor and celebrate those
people, none of them compared to Jesus.
We need to be a people that talk about Jesus like he's worth
honoring and celebrating if we really believe that is true.
One of the ways that we also honor and celebrate Jesus is by
singing. So I'm going to ask you to
stand. The Christian faith has always
been a singing faith. And I'm going to ask you to do
something. Some of you have come to church
and you have not sung a song in a long time, if ever, because
you're like, I don't want anybody around me to hear it.
Today's your day to step out in faith and be active in singing.
Jesus is the king. Jesus is worth honoring and
celebrating. Jesus is worth singing about.
If there's anybody, anybody worth your affections and your
attention, If there's anybody worth you cheering and singing
out loud for, it's Jesus. So as we come together and we
sing this song, if you believe that Jesus is worth honoring and
celebrating, if you believe that Jesus is your living hope, sing
like you believe it's true. Let's sing this song together,
Church.