You take your Bibles now and turn to Isaiah chapter 53. I have preached from Isaiah 53 many times in this pulpit. Always, I believe, during the Lenten season, maybe Advent, but never any other time. So tonight we turn there shortly after Christmas and we read the first six verses. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him, He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray. Each one of us has turned to his own way and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. And then if you would turn in your Bibles to John chapter 1, the Gospel of John. I'm reading just a few verses in the Gospel of John. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. And then verse 10. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband's will, but born of God. Thus far the reading of God's word this evening. You know when you're a guest pastor, It's always difficult to know what to preach. And so I suggested to Elder Faber that I would just follow up on some of the Heidelberg Catechism sermons that Pastor Voss had been preaching. Now, I must admit that I was rather sorry I did that afterwards, because I found out where he was at. And I realized that the subject matter would have to deal with Jesus' suffering. And I said, oh boy, we just finished Christmas. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. And everything about Christmas was upbeat and joyful and now I've got to preach on Jesus' suffering and we hardly have the ringing of the angels out of our ears. And then someone might be thinking, well, that's what happens when you're a Calvinist. They know how to rain on your party. It's always doom and gloom. And I think there was a young man in one of our Christian high schools, not this one here. One of our Christian high schools who also thought we ought to be a little more upbeat about our faith. And he decided to paint a mural on the back of the high school chapel. It was a huge picture of Jesus, and Jesus was laughing. And they thought, what a wonderful thing, what an upbeat thing to be able to leave chapel and see Jesus laughing. What about it, children? Don't you think it would be nice if we had a big picture of Jesus up there and a picture of Him laughing? And maybe the first thing you would say, but Pastor Kaminga, my parents said we should not draw pictures of Jesus. We should not have pictures of Jesus in the church or in our Sunday school papers. Well, that's true, isn't it? But if we could, you know, I mean, if we could, Wouldn't it be neat to have a picture of Jesus laughing when we left this church tonight? But you see, the problem is the Bible never speaks about Jesus laughing. Never once. It speaks about him crying. It speaks about him hungry. But never laughing. And when I started to think about that, I thought, well, there are places where it talks about Jesus rejoicing. It does that, for example, in Luke chapter 10, verse 21. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent and has revealed them unto babes. So it does talk about Jesus rejoicing. But that's not quite the same as laughing, is it? Because you can look in your concordance and that exact same word is found in 1 Peter 1, verse 6. There Peter has just talked to his persecuted friends about the inheritance that they have in heaven, kept there for them by God. incorruptible and undefiled and it cannot fade away. And he says to them, in this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a season you are in heaviness of heart because of persecution. So there can be rejoicing in persecution and in sorrow and in trouble. But as far as laughing goes, never once in the whole Bible do we have a phrase that Jesus laughed. And we say, well, he was like us in all things. He must have laughed. We could think that, and maybe he did, but it never says that in the Bible. It tells us that he cried, it tells us that he had tears, it tells us that he was angry, it tells us that he was afraid, it tells us that he was hungry, but never that he laughed. And Isaiah describes him as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And John says he comes to his own and they reject him, the very ones that he had made. And isn't it striking when you go to the Apostles' Creed that when it's talking about Jesus and the things that we confess about Jesus, that it says that we believe that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and the very next word is suffered. And so, when you think about what the Christian church understood to be the very summary of the life and the work of Jesus Christ, He is born and He suffers. That's an amazing thing, isn't it? He is born and He suffered. That's how the church summarized what we should confess about Jesus Christ. And I really don't want to be a Christmas a scrooge or a killjoy. But when you think about that, then you really have to say it's really not proper, is it, to sing happy birthday to Jesus. He was born and he suffered. That's the whole summary of Jesus' life in the Apostles' Creed. I have a quote of the Heidelberg Catechism that we read earlier this evening in the back of your outline. It says, what do you understand by the word suffered when it comes to your confession regarding Jesus? And it says that during his whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ suffered, sustained in body and soul, the anger of God against the sin of the whole human race. that during his whole life he suffered. That's the summary of Jesus' life. Suffering. Born, suffered. Psalm 88, 15, as I said, he said, from my youth I was under the threat of death. So, you think about that summary of Jesus' life as being one of suffering, And then you think about the evidence of that suffering. It begins right away, doesn't it? It begins right away at his birth. He's born in a manger. The one who owned the cattle upon a thousand hills cannot find one crummy room in one crummy little town in this whole world of his. He's born in a manger. Born, suffered. And he is hardly in this world and Herod is after him to kill him and they have to flee to Egypt. And he is in Egypt as a sojourner, as a fugitive. No happy birthday to Jesus. Herod was after him right away. And of course he's born in a sinful world, isn't he? He is born in a world that's under the curse of God. The very things that God told Adam about sweat and tears and weeds and toil are the very things that Jesus Himself would endure as the Son of Mary. He was born and He suffered. We don't know much about His early life. The Scripture is almost silent about it except what it tells us in Luke chapter 2. In Luke chapter 2, you'll remember, It's that story about Jesus when they went to Jerusalem. We were told, beginning at verse 41, how his parents went to Jerusalem once a year to celebrate the Passover. And when Jesus was 12 years old, it was a special time to go to Jerusalem because he was going to make profession of faith. He was going to do his bar mitzvah. And he was going to prepare for that. So that was a very, very special occasion for Jesus to go to Jerusalem with his parents. And children, you remember that story, how his parents are already on the way home and they look for Jesus and they can't find him. And they are upset about that. They're anxious about that because Jesus is nowhere to be found. And so they go back to the city and they start looking for Jesus. And where did they find him? They find him in the temple, didn't they? They found him in a catechism class. And he's really into it because he is not only listening, but he is asking questions. These are things that concern him. And then in verse 48, his parents, it seems, scold him because they said, we've been searching all over for you. We've been anxiously searching all over for you. And then in verse 49, he seems surprised and he says, why were you searching for me? Didn't you know where I would be? Didn't you know I had to be about my father's business? I wouldn't be in the zoo. I wouldn't be hanging out with my friends. We came to Jerusalem for the Passover and for preparation for my bar mitzvah. Why were you searching for me? They hadn't come for fun and picnics. They had come for Jesus' instruction, for His preparation as an adult in the tribe, in the land of Israel. I had to be about my father's business in my father's house, he says in verse 49. How soon Jesus recognized his calling is unknown to us, but certainly at age 12 he knew what he had to do. He knew he had a calling from God. And then we read in verse 51 that he went with them and was obedient to them. Obedient to sinful parents. Obedient to sinful parents because God commanded it. It is hard for us to imagine what it would be like to be a sinless child in a sinful world, obeying sinful parents. Maybe some of you teenagers can get just a little feel of it if you've ever stood up for what you believe to be right and what you believe to be Christian. And your friends begin to tease you, and to mock you, and to diss you, and to taunt you, and to say, what are you, some kind of goody-goody? You think you're better than us? And the problem is that they're your fellow church members, your Christian school friends. And they're the very ones that try to undermine your integrity, what you know to be right. One can hardly imagine how many times that would have to happen with Jesus as he grew up Because, after all, he was like us, but he was without sin. And then to live in that sinful world, in a sinful family, where he might have been teased, and where there was fighting. How challenging it would be, how terrible it would be, what kind of suffering it would be. To be a holy child in a sinful world. born, suffered as a child, but also, of course, as a man. We know that as a man that he was, he began as a carpenter. He was known as the carpenter. Once again, can you imagine a perfect businessman or a perfect working man in a sinful world? What that had to be like? I remember when I was going to college and working nights in a factory. There's a man there that they taunted and teased and ridiculed because he wanted to give an honest hour's work for an honest hour's pay, and his production was much higher than everybody else who made their coffee break into a lunch hour and so on. And he found that his lunches were thrown in the garbage along with his clothes. They raided his locker. They taunted him. They put scrap in his scrap barrel to make it look like he had more scrap, more waste than anybody else. They sabotaged the equipment because he was just trying to be godly about his job. What kind of suffering would Jesus have to undergo as a sinless person in a sinful world with sinful people? Even his brothers scorned him. John chapter 7 or 8, they mocked him about his being a prophet. You're a prophet? Then you better go to Jerusalem. That's where prophets go. That's when he's 30 years old. They're still mocking him. They taunted him. His own father apparently died. Mary is alone, you know, later on in life. If Jesus wept at the funeral of Lazarus, how much more did he weep at the death of his father and the sorrow of his mother? He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, the Scriptures tell us. The Apostles' Creed summarizes it, born, suffered. Not only why the things that he suffered, by the things that were done to him, by the teasing, by the sickness, by the loneliness and the pain and these things, but also suffered by what he saw. These people who were his neighbors, many of them were going to hell because they would not open themselves to the light of the world. And he knew that. Think of a parent, for example, who has a child that is wayward, who is making stupid decisions. And they do everything to try and correct him, but this child goes on in a sinful, stubborn way. A marriage that will never work out and decisions that have consequences the rest of that person's life. And they are on a spiritual path that leads to hell. And the agony of the parents for that child. This is the agony of Jesus, the suffering of Jesus as well. He sees Jerusalem and he knows that Jerusalem is undergoing a punishment greater than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. And he weeps for them. He weeps for Jerusalem. That was his life. It was a life of sorrow. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Born, suffered. John says he comes to his own. They receive him not. To the ones that he had called out of Egypt, to the ones that he had led through the wilderness with the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. to the ones that he had fed manna from heaven, to the ones that he had destroyed the Amalekites and the Midianites and the Philistines and destroyed thousands of them in order that Israel might have that land. He is the one that all of the Old Testament pictured and prophesied about and longed for and looked for. He is the great prophet that would be greater than Moses and the priest that would be greater than Melchizedek and the king that would be greater than David and it is he that Abraham looked for, longed for. He comes to his own. They receive him not. What a tragedy. And if you are here tonight and living in unbelief and rebellion, you are part of that tragedy too, you know. But he comes to his own, and his own receive him not. He speaks to them about the truth of God, he warns them about the way of sin, and he tells the Pharisees that they're making sons of hell twice as bad as they are. And he heals their sick, and he raises the dead, and he makes the blind to see, and the deaf to hear, and they taunt him, and they ridicule him, and they vilify him. You're a Samaritan! They're demon-possessed. The Son of God. Demon-possessed. You just shudder when you think about that. He comes to his own and they receive him not. They eat his bread. They flock to him. And then they cry. Away with him! Crucify him! To hell with Jesus! That's what it meant, children, when you crucified someone, when you hung them on a tree, meant let the curses of God, let the curses of hell be upon him. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and of course it is there, finally, where the very worst, the deepest of his sufferings would happen. In that darkness on the cross that depicted hell itself, it is not the devil now who is scorning him. It is not his people that are rejecting him, but it is his Father. It is God who is laying upon him the iniquity of us all and all of our iniquity. There's a song that goes, none of the ransomed ever knew how deep where the waters crossed, nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through, ere He found the sheep that was lost." How do you plumb the depths? We can begin to understand just a bit about Jesus suffering all of His life. How do you plumb the depths of the blackness of hell that Jesus is suffering for all of God's people? How do you ever understand the cry from hell, which is, my Father, why have you forsaken me? Suffered for us. That was the purpose of it all, wasn't it? All of the suffering from the birth, from his birth to the grave was all for his people. The lifetime of suffering finally is finished on the cross. Finally it is done. Finally it is enough. That which we deserved is finally fully taken up by Jesus. He absorbs it all. All of our sins. The iniquity of us all and all of our iniquity. What a Savior. What a wonderful Savior. There's no price he would not pay. No, no, no, no, no, no. No gutter he would not go through. No sacrifice he would not make. No death he would not die. No punishment he would not take. For the sake of his people. For the sake of his church. For the sake of you and me. In order that we might live and become sons of God. Sometimes pastors, quite often, have to counsel people because they are uncertain of their salvation. They think about their sin. They think about their life. Even as they get older, they wonder, where is this close walk with God that I so desired and I ought to have after all of these years? They struggle with their faith. And they wonder whether they've committed the unpardonable sin. And the pastor has to remind them that it is not their love for Jesus that is saving them, but it is Jesus' love for them. Should we, can we, may we ever be afraid to confess our sins to Jesus and to be assured that the promises that He makes, that God makes, that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us and to cleanse us from sin, from all iniquity. He was born, He suffered, and He did that so you might live. And today, His arms that were once stretched out on the cross continue to remain open. And He calls each of us by saying, Come unto Me, all ye that labor, and I will give you rest, because I have taken your life I have taken your suffering. I have taken your death. I have taken your hell. I not only suffered your hell, but I lived that perfect life that you want to live, you ought to live, but have not lived. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And him that cometh, I will in no wise cast out. It's good to think about the suffering of Jesus again, isn't it? Because in thinking about the suffering of Jesus, we think about his love. A love that will not let us go. A love that not only came from heaven to earth, but from earth to the cross, and from the cross to hell. To make us not only forgiven, but to make us sons of the living God. To God be the glory. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the blessings that you give us because of Jesus. We thank you for your utmost patience with us, Lord Jesus. We thank you for your suffering, for the obedient life that you live doing what we have never done. to live, to keep the law, to keep it perfectly, and to take our sins upon you. Lord Jesus, may it never be that we would ever be ashamed of you, the living Lord and loving Savior. Now we can leave and fill with joy because we have a suffering Savior who suffered in our place. Amen.