5th Sunday in Lent: Date: March 29, 2020
– THE SERMON: Isaiah 53:10-11
Theme: Our Acceptable Sacrifice
I. The Pleasure of the LORD Prospered
II. The LORD was Satisfied
SERMON TEXT: Isaiah 53:10-11
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
( Pastor Theodore Barthels )
Bulletin: Read Bulletin
Sermon: Read Sermon
THE ORDER OF SERVICE: p. 5 (248:1-3)
HYMNS: 390; 154; 157; 151:1
Sermon
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
2100 16th Street SW
Austin, MN 55912-1749
Pastor Ted Barthels
Sermon preached on
March 29, 2020
5th Sunday in Lent
Passion History Lesson: Trial before Pontius Pilate
Hymns: 390; 154; 157; 151:1
Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sermon Text: Isaiah 53:10-11
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities. (NKJV)
This is the Word of God.
Sanctify us, oh Lord, through Your truth. Your Word is truth. Amen.
In Christ Jesus, God our Savior, dear fellow Redeemed:
INTRO: That’s Acceptable.
Is that a high standard? Perhaps among us we might regard that judgment upon our work as being rather disappointing. Your boss reviews that project you were assigned and one that has required a great deal of effort over an extended period of time, and all he says to you after all that effort is, “That’s acceptable.” Maybe you are relieved if you were afraid that your efforts fell short because the project was beyond your ability. On the other hand after a concerted effort and what you thought was a real success, you might be a bit disappointed with a simple judgment of “That’s acceptable.”
But now place this in a different setting. The One judging the work is the almighty God who made heaven and earth. He is the holy God who sees sin as a violation of all that He is! Sin makes mankind UNacceptable for Him. Now, through the Prophet Isaiah we receive insight into God’s estimation of the work, of the life mission of His Servant. This is where our text takes us in our meditation upon Jesus’ passion as it was prophetically revealed through Isaiah. Now in this context it is absolutely exhilarating for us to hear that in the suffering and death of Christ we see —
THEME: Our Acceptable Sacrifice.
When Isaiah takes us to this review of the Servant’s mission we learn that in His mission, in His sacrifice —
I. The Pleasure of the LORD Prospered.
Again we need to see this from the proper perspective. From man’s point of view we run into the objection that arises from man’s sense of justice and reason. The way man constructs justice in his imagination Jesus’ crucifixion is some kind of grotesque and vile thing, this gospel of a crucified Savior. The god mankind would conjure up from their imagination is one who overlooks sin, a sort of kindly and slightly muddled and confused old grandfather. The God revealed to us in Holy Scripture where alone we find the true revelation of God, is holy and righteous and just in all His ways.
Since the God of the Bible is just, sin must therefore be paid for. “The wages of sin is death,” (Romans 6:23) but God in His grace does not desire the death of the sinner: “ ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” (Ezekiel 33:11) “The Lord is … not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance!” (2 Peter 3:9)
Keeping in mind what the Lord reveals about Himself as the Holy God, consider what our text tells us.
Isaiah 53:10 “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.”
God sent His Son into the world, He sent His Son that the pleasure of the Lord might be fulfilled through Him. The pleasure of the Lord was and is our deliverance from the death and condemnation our sin deserves. However, since sin must be paid for, God Himself in the form of Man, who came into the world as our brother, this Servant of the Lord, was put to grief. Man had to be punished, and the Son of Man was punished in our place. It pleased God to punish His Son in our place. His chosen Servant stepped forward and willingly bore the curse of God upon His soul as an offering for sin. His soul, – Jesus’ soul – was presented to God as our offering for sin, and so Jesus was cursed by God. And the pleasure of the Lord prospered in Jesus’ hand.
What Jesus did through His sufferings and death was acceptable to God. How can we be sure? Isaiah tells us that Jesus would see His seed. Here it is important to understand that while Jesus did not have physical children He did have His spiritual children, and we are among His spiritual children. Jesus would be blessed to see His progeny. Jesus died for us on the cross but the Lord prolonged His days. He rose again and He lives to see those who are saved.
The evidence was made clear that the pleasure of the Lord, the salvation of sinners, prospered by that mission of salvation which God placed in the hand of His Servant, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To us it may all sound like an exercise in understatement. In actuality it is a magnificent declaration of good news that it can be said:
II. The LORD was Satisfied.
And so Isaiah wrote:
Isaiah 53:12 “He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.”
The anguish which Christ endured in His passion, in His crucifixion, the pain of body and of soul, the outpouring of His holy precious blood, it was sufficient. He paid the price for our sins. God was satisfied!
Are you sure? Can we be sure that this includes you and me, and not just others, some select few? Can I, a sinner, come to God with the absolute assurance that in Christ my debt was paid and I need not ever fear the wrath of God coming down upon me for crimes that I have done? The answer presented to us in these words of our text is “Yes, absolutely YES!” God is satisfied.
On the basis of what Jesus endured there is justification for many. In English we immediately think that says “many,” but not “all.” The proper understanding of this use of the word “many” means “the masses out there.” It does mean “all.” God backs that truth up again and again in Holy Scripture. Consider the words of Isaiah recorded a few chapters before our text where once again Isaiah was writing of the mission of the Servant of the LORD. “Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6).
What Jesus accomplished was big, really BIG! To think of it as the payment for the sins of one nation, or even a few nations in the history of the world, that is thinking way too small! The price Jesus paid, the price paid out in the holy, precious blood of the Son of God was enough to bring forgiveness, life, and salvation to the ends of the earth. This is our confidence for a life of faith, even when we are confronted by our sin now. Remember the wondrous words written for our comfort and assurance by the Apostle John. “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” (1 John 2:1-2)
God is satisfied! Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, and for the sins of the whole world. Jesus satisfied divine justice in making full payment for the sins of the world and the wrath of God on account of sin has been placated. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)
“Thou, ah! Thou hast taken on Thee. Bonds and stripes, a cruel rod;
Pain and scorn were heaped upon Thee, O Thou sinless Son of God!
Thus didst Thou my soul deliver From the bonds of sin forever.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be, Dearest Jesus unto Thee.
(The Lutheran Hymnal 151:2)
AMEN.
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Amen.
(Romans15:13)