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[0:00] Yeah, so Ethan keeps busy with ministry out there. They don't let you sit idle for very long, do they? He's out doing ministry on the streets, I don't know, 15, 20 hours a week, as well as doing office work.

[0:13] You know, you've got to plan and do all those kinds of things. So really grateful for that ministry and the opportunity it's provided him to minister to others in different ways, both the gospel and defending the life of unborn children.

[0:28] A few more announcements. Well, I guess before, we can go ahead and dismiss the kids. We always forget to do that. But I assume we're having the class today.

[0:38] I see him some nodding. Okay, so the kids can be dismissed. A few things before we get started, talk into our message. But Roger, thank you for sharing that today.

[0:49] That was a huge blessing. I mean, if you ignore my whole message, I'm sure that would have made the service for anybody. And I do want to say, if you have a testimony that you'd like to share at some point, just let me know.

[1:10] I know some people are not comfortable speaking in front of others, but maybe if we had a conversation up here, instead of just kind of trying to share on your own, if anybody would be interested in that, or if maybe we could record a testimony or something like that and share it with the congregation and you'd be interested in that, let me know.

[1:29] That would be, I think, a tremendous blessing to everybody here in the congregation. Yesterday, our family went to a family discipleship day, and it was such a tremendous blessing.

[1:41] Our friends at Craig's hosted it, and there were probably, what, 200 and some people there. Mom Gardeners were there as well, and had a special guest speaker. And it was just very inspiring to raise up our families for the Lord, and not just, and build good relationships.

[2:02] I think that was the big takeaway, is that relationships are the key to raising a good family. So we talked about both the fair and the John 3.16.

[2:18] So we'll meet. You'll lead up that kind of meeting, Lynette, but you're looking for somebody who might be interested in kind of leading that effort up. And so we'll see if that's something that we want to do this year. The fair is something I would love to do.

[2:31] So maybe we can kind of combine those and talk about both, if you'd like, if you're interested in those kinds of evangelistic efforts. We can talk about both of those after the service and meet in the back.

[2:45] I wanted to also say thank you for those who helped with the service yesterday. I know that was, I heard from Lynette. That was a friend of Lynette and Bill's that passed away, and their family and, I guess, friends.

[3:01] And so that was a tremendous blessing to them, and they send their thanks for all the people that were involved in preparing food and opening up the building and all those types of things. I'm glad that our church could be a help in that way.

[3:18] There's outside in the hallway, there's, you'll see it's a little bit different. We kind of set up some different tables. And there's a table, a smaller table that has a bunch of free stuff.

[3:31] So if you like free stuff, that's where all the free stuff is. There's books and a few other things that are available. We've kind of been cleaning out some different areas of the church, and so there's some little treasures in there.

[3:44] They're treasures to some people, maybe not everybody. And then let's see, there was one more. I just wanted to say, Bruce McConkie was here last week. We had a small service, as you can imagine.

[3:57] We had snow coming down in droves, but right at the time service started. So we had, I think, less than 30 people last week. But it was nice to have a small, intimate group.

[4:07] But Bruce was here, and he said he probably won't be in church for a while because of the treatments that he's doing. But he wanted to say thank you, and so I wanted to pass that on to all of you who weren't here last week.

[4:19] He wanted to say thank you for all of those who have sent cards and prepared meals and helped them out in so many ways. They really appreciate that. You know, all of us have experienced hard times, whether it's medical issues or other things, where it's just making a meal is hard to do.

[4:36] And so when people just pitch in and help kind of lift up our arms, that means a lot. So I wanted to pass that message along. I guess there's one more thing that I forgot.

[4:51] So there's a member of this church, Betty Fox. And I never knew Betty, not that I recall. But I guess she was a member here for a long time.

[5:02] Betty passed away Friday night, for those of you that didn't hear. And I guess she was sick for a while. But she passed away Friday night, if I'm recalling correctly.

[5:17] Pastor Marv called me and let me know. And I think a message will go out if you're on the one call thing about the details. But there will be a service this coming Friday, February 3rd.

[5:32] Yes, and I think it's 10 to 11. There will be a viewing and then a service, I think, at 11. Don't completely quote me on that. But Friday morning, and the details should be coming out.

[5:42] So if that's something. And it's going to be, I think, in Greenville. So keep your eyes out for that. If you have any questions, just call me or we can get you the details if you don't get it otherwise.

[5:59] Okay, I think that's it. Thanks again for the special music this morning. And it's just such a blessing. That song was so wonderful.

[6:09] And it ties in to the message. So we're going to get back started. We have been talking about the man, Jesus Christ. Who is the person of Jesus Christ?

[6:21] And I'll go ahead and read. I was going to have somebody read again, but I forgot to ask somebody to do that. But if you turn to Mark chapter 8, verse 27 and 29.

[6:34] Jesus asked his disciples a question. Mark 8, chapter 27. Now Jesus and his disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea Philippi.

[6:47] And on the road, he asked his disciples, saying to them, Who do men say that I am? So they answered, John the Baptist. But some say Elijah.

[6:59] And others say one of the prophets, one of the other prophets. And he said to them, But what about you? Who do you say that I am? And Peter answered and said to him, You are the Christ.

[7:15] Then I wanted to turn to another passage, a couple books over in the Gospel of John. So if you turn over there, we're going to read the first chapter, or from the first chapter of John.

[7:32] And this tells us about John the Baptist and his ministry. We'll start in chapter 1, verse 19. Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you?

[7:50] There's a lot of questions about, you know, who these people were. He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then?

[8:02] Are you Elijah? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. They said, Are you the prophet? And he answered, No. Then he said to them, Then they said to him, Who are you that we may give an answer to those who sent us?

[8:20] What do you say about yourself? And he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, making straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.

[8:31] Now those who were sent from the Pharisees, Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees, and they asked him, saying, Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?

[8:45] John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there stands one among you, whom you do not know. It is he who is coming after me. Sorry, it is he who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.

[9:03] These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. And it says this in verse 29, The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him, and he said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

[9:21] People thought that John the Baptist might be the Christ, but he was clear with them, I'm not him. But that day, at the Jordan River, he saw the Christ.

[9:36] He saw Jesus. And he said something that is interesting to me, that is unique in all of the Gospels. And he said, Behold, here is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

[9:52] If you do a Bible search or use a concordance and look for that word Lamb in all of the Gospels, you'll only find it here.

[10:03] In all the Gospels about the life of Jesus, this is the only place where you'll see anyone refer to Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. We've talked over the last few weeks, this is our third week, in talking about the person of Jesus Christ, about Jesus being divine, deity.

[10:24] God the Son. The Son of God, but also God the Son. Last week, we talked about the humanity of Christ. That even though, from eternity past, God has been invisible, visible.

[10:40] Yet, 2,000 years ago, God made himself visible. He took on flesh and became as we are. And just how amazing and incredible it is that God would do that.

[10:54] But Jesus is God the Son. He is, as he referred to himself, more than any other title, Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man. It seemed to be his favorite title to refer to himself, the Son of Man.

[11:10] But today, I want to talk about what John revealed that day on the Jordan River. He says, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

[11:25] You know, there's lots of prophecy in the Old Testament about a man who would come one day and make things better.

[11:37] The title for that man was called The Messiah. And the prophets of old wrote many, many things about that Messiah. He was expected, he was considered and thought of as the hope of Israel, to save Israel from all of their enemies and their oppressors.

[11:56] I have just a few scriptures to share, but in the Old Testament, it was common for everyone to know. In fact, as we read through those messengers from the Pharisees asking John who he was, they were asking him, are you the Christ, the one the prophets have spoken of?

[12:16] Or maybe you're Elijah because the prophets spoke of one coming as Elijah too. Or maybe you're that other prophet, the unnamed one that the prophets have spoken of that is going to come.

[12:28] Which one are you? And he later tells them, I'm the one of the prophet that said the one crying in the wilderness. So the Jews knew about these future events that were going to happen.

[12:43] And the most prominent, the most looked forward to person was that one they called the Messiah or the anointed one. In the book of 2 Samuel chapter 7, God speaks to David.

[12:58] David, king of Israel. And he says this, we'll just read one verse, 2 Samuel chapter 7, verse 16. He's speaking to David about his kingdom and how he is going to establish his kingdom.

[13:14] Remember before, David, Saul was king. And God took the kingdom away from Saul. But he gave it to another, he gave it to David. And he made a promise to David.

[13:28] And he said this, and this was the, this is the crux of the promise. 2 Samuel 7, 16. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you.

[13:40] Your throne shall be established forever. He says, you know, as he's talking to David, you know, with Saul, I took it away. He says, with you, even if your descendants go off in sin, I'll bring punishment, but I'm, I'm going to make a promise to you that I'm going to establish your throne forever.

[14:05] The throne of your kingdom. Later on, there was a man named Daniel. And Daniel had many visions. and one of his visions was about this future kingdom.

[14:24] And it says this in Daniel chapter 7, verse 13 and 14. I was watching in the night visions and behold, one, like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven.

[14:38] He came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

[14:56] His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom, the one which shall never be destroyed. And that is so clear.

[15:09] So, the Israelites during the time of Jesus were familiar, and these are just two prophecies that speak of this coming Messiah, this deliverer. The Jews had been taken away into captivity, scattered across the lands of the Roman Empire at that time and the Babylonian Empire and the Assyrians.

[15:35] and they had been promised that in the future God would restore to them a kingdom and set a king who would bring that about and who would rule not just Israel but the whole earth and they were looking forward to that day.

[15:56] But as you read through the scriptures when Jesus came through the gospels, you sense a very, a lot of confusion about who Jesus was.

[16:11] Most Israelites knew that a king was coming. But Jesus didn't seem like a king. They certainly, they certainly didn't seem to expect this Messiah or the Messiah that was spoken of to suffer in any way or die.

[16:36] In fact, let's turn to Luke chapter 18. If you've got your Bibles, Luke chapter 18. And when Jesus was with his disciples, he spoke to them.

[16:49] Remember, Jesus had asked them, who do you say I am? And it was Peter, right, that the scriptures say, or Jesus said, God has revealed this to you that I am the Messiah.

[17:02] But for a while, they didn't really know who he was. I'm sure from in the beginning. Luke 18, chapter 31. Then he took the twelve aside and said to them, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.

[17:23] For he will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge him and kill him and the third day he will rise again.

[17:37] And verse 34 says this, But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them and they did not know the things which were spoken.

[17:49] You know, there was a time when there's two accounts. one speaks of, I think it's James and John, right? The sons of thunder. And one account says it was their mother and the other says it was them.

[18:01] Probably both, right? They were asking, Jesus, when you come into your kingdom, because they knew this was the Christ, the Messiah, who was going to establish a throne on the earth.

[18:13] When you come into your kingdom, will you let James and John sit at your right and left hand? They knew that Jesus was going to establish a kingdom.

[18:27] And, of course, Jesus said, well, that's not up to me. But, Jesus also spoke of the twelve apostles and said that you will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

[18:45] It was clear, and they understood that, right? They understood that Jesus was a king. But, here, when Jesus said, I've got to go to Jerusalem and I've got to die, that was confusing.

[18:58] They had no idea what he was talking about. Because, looking back in the Old Testament scriptures, they didn't really see it. Even after his resurrection, let's turn to Luke chapter 24.

[19:14] After this had been accomplished and he had died and he had rose again, he met, this is the road to Emmaus, he met some of his disciples on the road and he didn't reveal himself to them.

[19:30] To them, he was just a stranger. But, as he was talking to them, he said this in Luke 24, verse 25. Then he said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken.

[19:45] Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

[20:00] will skip down. Later he reveals, they realize, we've been walking with Jesus this whole time and then later he appears to some of his other disciples and we go to verse 44.

[20:15] He again says something similar. Then he said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.

[20:30] And he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. Then he said to them, Thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.

[20:47] You know, these Jews, these disciples and most of the Jews didn't really put these things together. They knew there was a Messiah, a conquering king coming.

[20:58] But this whole thing of him suffering and dying, it was obscured. It was hidden. You know, I like to think of the messianic prophecy specifically in the Old Testament as kind of like a puzzle.

[21:14] Has anybody ever had a puzzle that they found maybe in a sack or in a Ziploc bag and you lost the box?

[21:26] But you still have all the puzzle pieces, right? And you pull out the puzzle and you want to put it together. But has anybody ever tried to put a puzzle together without the picture on the front of the box? Yeah.

[21:39] You just give up in the beginning, right? Just no way. I'm not going to do it. Some of us are more up for the challenge. But it's so difficult, right, without a picture to reference to know where all the pieces go.

[21:53] And each individual piece, you know, has a few different colors on it. Some of them are easier. They might have a little word or a letter from a word like on a sign. And those are pretty easy to put together.

[22:05] So as you put this puzzle together, there are a few things that seem to fit really well. And you can put that part of the puzzle together. But other parts of the puzzle, it's just blue sky, right, or a forest of trees, or green grass.

[22:22] And trying to put those pieces together is just, it's way too difficult. And that's how I think the Old Testament prophecies are.

[22:33] There are all these foreshadowings and hints about things that were going to happen in the future, and some of them weren't even clear that they were about the future.

[22:43] There are prophecies that people call, theologians I guess, would call dual fulfillment prophecies. They talk about one person, but they're kind of odd. Because they talk about one person, but they say strange things about that king, or whoever it was that it's speaking of.

[23:01] Things that don't really seem to make sense in the natural world. So they're kind of odd. They point to something. Is there something else there? It's talking about this king, but maybe there's something else there.

[23:15] There's these puzzle pieces throughout the scriptures. Some of them, like the ones about the coming king, they're easy to fit in the puzzle. You know where they go, and they start to build a picture. But others, you try to find places for those pieces, and it's hard to do.

[23:34] Some people may figure little bits and pieces out, and others, it's just a big mystery. I want to turn to Acts chapter 8, and it's an account about a man, a Jewish man, who had been dispersed to the nation of Ethiopia.

[23:56] And he had gained a title there. He was a eunuch, and had some kind of office prestige.

[24:09] Eunuchs, many times were made that way so that they could serve royalty. And this was a eunuch who had traveled to Jerusalem because he was a Jew, but he lived in Ethiopia.

[24:24] He had been dispersed, maybe his family generations before had been dispersed through the persecution or the captivity and found his way to Ethiopia.

[24:40] But he made probably regular trips to Israel and Jerusalem. And this was after the resurrection, and Philip, the evangelist, we call him Philip the evangelist, entered the scene.

[24:52] We'll look at Acts chapter 8, verse 26. Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

[25:08] This is desert. So he arose and he went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship.

[25:24] He was returning and sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake the chariot. So Philip ran to him and he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah.

[25:39] And he said, do you understand what you're reading? And the man responded, he said, how can I unless someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.

[25:53] And the place in the scriptures which he read was this. This is from Isaiah chapter 53. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before its shear is silent.

[26:06] So he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, his justice was taken away. And who will declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth.

[26:20] So the eunuch answered Philip and he said, I ask you of whom does the prophet say this? Is it of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning at this scripture he preached Jesus to him.

[26:40] This was obviously a Jew who had, it sounds like, a fair bit of wealth. He had access to the scriptures. He had his own scroll here that he could read. He was a student of the scriptures reading Isaiah the prophet.

[26:57] And he read this from what we know today or what we have today is Isaiah chapter 53 what we call a passage about the suffering servant.

[27:09] But he didn't know who this man was. He asked him, he said, is this Isaiah talking about himself or is he talking about some other man? A lot of times we think we kind of know who it's talking about today, don't we?

[27:25] It's talking about Jesus. And we think, well, it was just obvious to everybody back then. But it wasn't obvious. As you read through the scriptures, maybe some people might have thought, oh well, this is the Messiah.

[27:38] But most people didn't. They didn't really connect this whole passage with the Messiah. The Messiah was a conquering king, somebody who would come and establish rule.

[27:48] not somebody who would suffer. But if we look, especially going back to the puzzle illustration, this was a puzzle piece or puzzle pieces from Isaiah 53 that this Ethiopian eunuch didn't know where it fit.

[28:11] Where does this fit into the puzzle? Who is this man that this scripture is talking about? And Philip, who gained access to the front cover of that puzzle, he says, I can tell you, I can tell you what the picture looks like, where the pieces fit.

[28:33] I think a lot of prophecy is like that. It's not meant, some things I think are meant for us to look into the future and see with a little bit of clarity, but so much of it is for us when something happens, when God brings something to pass, it's so that we can look back and say, it's all clear.

[28:51] God had this planned all along. It wasn't something that just came out of nowhere. God had this plan and he didn't necessarily want us to know all the details, but he gave us enough to know that this is him doing this.

[29:08] And so, Philip says to him, or he says, Philip opened his mouth after this question was asked, and isn't this great? Don't you wish that somebody would ask you that question?

[29:20] You know, well, what is this that the Bible is talking about? And Philip has this great opportunity, right, this evangelistic opportunity to tell him about Jesus. But it says, beginning at this scripture, he preached Jesus to him.

[29:34] So I want to share maybe what Philip might have said or might have preached to this Ethiopian eunuch. He might have said, I want to tell you about a man, just a ruddy carpenter from Nazareth that came out of nowhere, what, three, four years ago?

[29:58] And he came preaching. He came speaking with authority about sin and righteousness and judgment and about the kingdom that was coming.

[30:09] And when he spoke, the words that he spoke, they burned in our hearts. And then he performed miracles, healing people, signs and wonders, multiplying bread and fish.

[30:29] And many of us wondered and we didn't know who he was. And then finally some of us realized, this is the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah that the prophet spoke of.

[30:42] This is him who's going to come and establish a kingdom on the earth, the kingdom of David. But then we were all shocked and surprised when the authorities, they came after him and they took him and they captured him.

[31:01] And they imprisoned him and they mocked him and they ridiculed him and they beat him and they gave him stripes and they put thorns on his head. And then they put him up on a cross, a Roman cross and they crucified and killed him.

[31:17] And we had no idea what to think. This is our king. Then three days later some women went to his tomb and they found it empty and they came to us and they said, Christ isn't there.

[31:35] he's risen and we could barely believe it. And Jesus himself, this man came to us and he showed himself to us that he was alive and that he was risen from the grave by the power of God.

[31:54] This is the story of Jesus. But is that story found anywhere in the Old Testament scriptures? the Messiah was supposed to be a king who rules and reigns?

[32:09] But let's turn to Isaiah 53 and see what it was that this Ethiopian was reading.

[32:32] Isaiah 53. Who has believed our report? you know, when Jesus rose from the dead, how many people believed what they heard?

[32:50] Very few, right? They had to see him and they did. He showed himself to so many. Hundreds, the Bible says. Who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

[33:04] For he shall grow up before him. He shall grow up before who? The Lord as a tender plant, as a babe, as a child, and as a root out of dry ground.

[33:18] He has no form or comeliness, and when we see him, there was no beauty. You know, a poor carpenter doesn't come in splendor.

[33:29] there was no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

[33:44] And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. And he was despised, and we did not esteem him. surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

[34:00] Yet we esteemed him to be stricken and smitten by God and afflicted. but he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was upon him.

[34:19] And by his stripes we are healed, and all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

[34:35] He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Isn't it interesting how silent Jesus was when he was being beaten and mocked and ridiculed?

[34:48] He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare his generation?

[35:04] For he was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people he was stricken, and they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death.

[35:19] Jesus was buried in a rich man's tomb, but he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

[35:29] death. Jesus was accused, but he had never done anything wrong. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief.

[35:42] 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.

[35:53] And we'll end there. But you can see in this scripture, as we read this, and we look back in the gospels and the story of Jesus, it's so clear.

[36:05] But to this Ethiopian eunuch, it wasn't clear. Who is this guy? What are all these details about? But the Bible says, the scriptures here say that Philip started with Isaiah 5-3.

[36:23] He started there. But I can imagine that he kept on preaching. Saying it's just not Isaiah that talked about this man who was coming.

[36:38] You remember back in Genesis when God said to Adam and Eve that there was someone, the seed of the woman, whose heel would be bruised.

[36:51] That was Jesus. Remember Abraham when he took his son Isaac and God asked him to take Isaac and to offer him as a sacrifice. And at the last minute God says, wait.

[37:05] And what did God say? He said, I have provided a sacrifice for you. This man Jesus, he's the one that God has provided as the alternative sacrifice.

[37:20] Remember the Passover in Exodus? Jesus, when our people were leaving Egypt and the angel of death was going to come and God asked our people to slaughter a lamb and put the blood on the covering of the doorpost that we might be saved from the angel of death.

[37:45] That was talking about Jesus, this man that I just told you about. Jesus is the Passover lamb. Remember when Moses said, Moses gave a message from God that he would raise up a prophet like himself, like Moses, and that we should listen to him in that day?

[38:09] He was talking about Jesus. And remember when Moses lifted up that pole in the wilderness with the serpent on it, and all who looked on that pole, remember, they were all healed?

[38:19] that was Jesus. And remember when Daniel spoke of the Messiah? And there's that interesting verse where he says that the Messiah would be cut off, which means killed, but not for himself.

[38:40] That was confusing to all of us, but now it's clear. The Messiah, he would be cut off, but not for himself, not for his own sins, for somebody else's.

[38:54] Remember the prophet Isaiah, who spoke about someone who would be pierced, and that we would mourn him just like a firstborn son. Remember in the Psalms where David wrote of some man whose soul would not remain in hell and whose body would not become corrupt in the grave?

[39:18] That's this man Jesus. Also David spoke of in the Psalms of another man who would be forsaken of God, whose hands and feet would be pierced, and whose garments would be divided by those who mocked him.

[39:37] That was speaking about Jesus. Jesus. And then we read here in Isaiah 53 about some man who would be despised and he would be rejected by men, and they would consider him to be stricken by God and afflicted.

[39:56] But this man would be wounded not for his own sins, but for our sins. And that the stripes that he received on his back would bring healing to us.

[40:09] That our sins would be laid upon him. That he would be slaughtered as a sheep without raising his voice in protest. That he would be buried with the wicked, yet he would be innocent of any wrongdoing.

[40:23] That he would be bruised not just by men, but by the Lord. And that his soul would be made an offering for sin. Isaiah was speaking about Jesus.

[40:34] Jesus. And you know how every year we go to the temple to make these sacrifices? To sacrifice sheeps and bulls and goats?

[40:51] That was all about Jesus. This man, Jesus, was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

[41:03] looking back, it's all clear. To them, it wasn't. It was clouded in mystery.

[41:14] But looking back, all of these scriptures from the Psalms, from Moses, from the prophets, it paints a clear picture. We see that reference picture on the puzzle.

[41:26] And we know where all the pieces go. It's clear to us now. I think the Jews were so focused, and you can imagine, right, you can sympathize, they were so focused on someone who was coming to deliver them.

[41:41] And they had been oppressed and they had been taken captive. And this man, even the Ethiopian eunuch, though he had a position of power, right, he was somebody's servant. He was a servant of a foreigner. He wasn't even a servant of a Jew.

[41:53] He was a servant of a foreign power who probably worshipped white false gods. And they were looking for somebody who would come and establish that throne of David in Israel again.

[42:06] And because they were so focused on being saved from their enemies, they missed this important part of the plan of God. And I think people today do the same thing.

[42:20] You know, we have lots of troubles in this life. Money troubles, health problems, their social problems. And so we're looking for the rich uncle who will leave us an inheritance to solve all of our financial problems, right?

[42:39] Or the miracle worker who will give us that cure to solve our physical ailments. Or that dynamic leader who will take political power and solve all the social problems that we're experiencing.

[42:52] Or maybe even that superhero superhero, we love our superhero movies, don't we? Our stories who will come and save us.

[43:04] And you know what? God is all those things. And next week we'll actually be talking about Jesus as the coming king who will restore justice to the earth.

[43:17] God is all but you know that wasn't our greatest need. We didn't need, our greatest need was not saving from external enemies.

[43:29] what we needed saving from was ourselves. From the hatred and rage that's in our hearts, from the lust and perversion, from the drunkenness and debauchery that would fill our souls, from the selfishness and idolatry, from that corruption and darkness that was living in our own hearts.

[44:01] What the Bible calls sin and guilt and shame, we needed an atonement, a sacrifice. And the blood of bulls and goats had been shed for hundreds and hundreds of years.

[44:16] But they weren't sufficient. They weren't enough. We needed a perfect and spotless lamb.

[44:27] we needed God himself, our creator, to humble himself. The immortal God, the one who cannot die, to take on immortality or to take on mortality so that he could bleed and he could suffer and he could die for us.

[44:53] that was our greatest need. I'll end with this. This is the scripture that comes to mind in Romans 5, 6.

[45:07] For when we were still without strength, in due time, Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah, the coming king, he died for the ungodly.

[45:20] for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

[45:39] He brought the cure that Israel wasn't looking for, that we weren't looking for, but he brought it anyway. God is good to us, isn't he?

[46:01] Let's finish off that last hymn that we sang. What was it called? I Sing Praises to Your Name. Let's grab our hymnals and we'll finish with that one.

[46:13] Let's finish with that one. We'll do this acapella, see if I can get the key right.

[46:33] Number five. Number five in the hymnals. Let's finish with the hymnals. I sing praises to Your Name.

[46:46] O Lord, praises to Your Name. O Lord, for Your name is great and greatly to be praised.

[47:03] I sing praises to Your Name. O Lord, praises to Your Name. O Lord, for Your Name is great and greatly to be praised.

[47:24] How about this? I give glory to the Lamb. I give glory to the Lamb. O Lord, glory to the Lamb. Glory to the Lamb.

[47:36] O Lord, for Your Lord, for Your name is great and greatly to be praised.

[47:52] O Lord, glory to the Lamb. O Lord, for Your name is great and greatly to be praised.

[48:09] praise. Take the opportunity today to tell the Lord how much you love Him and thank Him for all that He did for us. Let's pray.

[48:19] Father, thank You so much. We weren't looking for it. We were invested in ourselves, looking for somebody to rescue us in other ways. But You came with our greatest need to offer a sacrifice, to offer Yourself for us.

[48:37] We are eternally grateful and want to remember to thank You each and every day for that precious gift that You gave to us. May we, Father, be a light to others to let others know that they can have that same gift as well.

[48:54]  In Jesus' name, Amen.