Good Friday – Isaiah 53

Speaker: Pr. Michael Koh (2nd April 2021)

Topic: Good Friday – Isaiah 53

 

Isaiah 53:1-12

Christ experienced the spirit of rejection and the consequences of sin on our behalf. We are rejected by that which we admire/which is good, and that makes rejection much more painful.

 

“We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.” - C.S. Lewis

 

Example - You feel so close to a movie star when you meet him in person (like you know him), but he doesn’t know you. Something about us wanting to project ourselves into a world we are not part of.

In the same way, some of us find it hard to praise God or to identify with psalms of praise to God. We seem like outsiders to the greatness of God, but Christ invited us in at the price of own His life.

• He was rejected but decided to take upon Himself all the rejection and indifference - so that that gap will be broken.

• Isaiah 53:8 – “he was cut off out of the land of the living” - He had to be cut off from heaven to take upon Himself all of our sin and maladies, so that beauty and God will not be indifferent to us

• God made a breakthrough into us, to break our rejection, from God to us and cause a covenant to be made

• Psalm 65:4 - “Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts!” God was not satisfied in being admired, He wanted to bring us into the circle, through a covenant with us

• In order to draw us in, He had to carry upon Himself all our sin and conditions, the very burden of rejection that was upon us, on the cross

 

What did he do to break the rejection?

• He carried all our burdens, shame, sin. God meant every single burden and sorrow. Only God can do that.

• Jesus carried every single specific burden in real time, upon that cross (what we are going through and have been going through). All the reasons we've been rejected was carried upon Him. He invites us into the family.

• My sin, your sin, the fullness of pain, disease and disease personality was carried upon Him.

 

Let’s take the time to thank Him for carrying upon Himself - every of our burden, fear, rejection, and pain. He died on the cross and bore our burdens.

 

Many times we pray that the terrible things we experience be taken away

• Paul asked God to remove his thorn, but Jesus said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9)

• God comes under the thorn with His grace, and overcomes the pain, and stops the robbing that the devil intended, turning it into replenishing

• On the cross, God’s grace was unleashed to us Jesus told the thief next to him that on that day, he will be with Him in paradise.

• He meant that on that day itself he can be brought back to the circle of God’s love, where he’ll be completely accepted by God.

• He had to make the covenant in His blood, the cost was His blood, so that we will never be rejected by God

 

He defeated every power you are experiencing right now, because of that we can have communion.

• John 6:32-37 – we will have to eat it and experience the good of it

• Like looking at pictures of food we can't eat, is how Jesus doesn’t want us to know this intellectually, but He wanted us to "eat" of Him, because He was given for us.

• How do we eat it? We give ourselves time to wait upon the Lord, to make every of these promises and truths real to us. To allow that which we’ve heard to become something we feel and a conviction that changes our lives.

 

Closing

As we take communion together, I invite you to give your life to Jesus. When we say, "I’m crucified to Christ”, we crucify our own desires and agendas. Yet not I but Christ who lives in me.

 

Galatians 2:20 - I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 

Be it a burden He has carried or a shame you have experienced, bring it before the Lord. Let Him drop into your heart a conviction. Pr. Michael Koh: Good Friday (Psalm 53), 2 Apr 2021

 

Reflection Questions

Self-Reflection

1. Think about how Jesus has carried your every burden, fear, pain and rejection on the cross. Take some time to thank Him for that.

2. With that, what is God speaking to you regarding your current situations?

 

Group Discussion

1. Share your personal experience of a "thorn" (suffering) that hasn't been removed. How have you experienced God's grace in that?

2. Reflecting on how Christ has brought us into His circle of love, are there people that God wants your group to include into your "circle of love"? Who are they and how can you include them?

 

Optional group activity: To partake the Holy Communion together.