We have Resurrection Sunday in about a month, Easter Sunday, and there's several aspects to that. First is the suffering of Jesus Christ, and then the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and then the ascension of Jesus Christ. So to get our hearts ready, I want us to study one aspect of that today, and that's the suffering Savior. the suffering Savior. So let's look in Isaiah chapter 53. Let's start in verse 3. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers. He is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he hath done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt 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. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. And he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." Jesus suffered for our sakes. We all know this. We understand the crucifixion story. We've heard it many times. There's more to the suffering of Christ. We need to understand the true depths and the gravity of His suffering. It's not a quaint picture of a Savior looking kindly down on a cross with one bead of blood from a small thorn of crowns. He was a beaten and bloodied man. He was a tortured man. bearing the weight of sin upon His righteous shoulders. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was humiliated, mocked, despised, endured a mock trial of injustice. He was scourged and more. But ultimately God turned His face away from Jesus. But why did Jesus have to suffer to the extent that you see in Matthew chapter 27, where you hear the gruesome details of the crucifixion? Why did Jesus have to suffer the way that He did? And hearing of the suffering of Jesus is not easy. It's stomach turning when you really read the depths of what our Savior went through. The torment, the shame, the horrid details of a gruesome and brutal beating and an awful death. But in order for us to rightly understand the reason for such suffering, our story has to start at the very beginning. The very beginning of time. Genesis 1, verse 27, God made man in His image. In His own image, the image of the Creator. God walked with Adam in the Garden of Eden in a way that He does not walk on this earth today. It's a way that we cannot experience. There was a relationship between God and man. The perfect God and the man created in His image. But Adam was not satisfied with God. So he listened to deceit, and he broke the relationship that man had with God. Genesis chapter 3, God gave man dominion over the garden. He could eat of any of the fruit, save one. And Adam craved the created over the Creator. He craved that one fruit over the one who had made it. He craved that one piece of forbidden fruit over everything that God had blessed him with. And what is the lasting result of Adam's sin? It was death. Death for everyone. Death for mankind. Adam's sin, we're told in Romans chapter 5, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. There was death. There was a separation, a great divide. Something separated us from the relationship that we once had. A perfect relationship with a perfect Savior. It was a division. Sin brought this division. A division between complete holiness and eternal sinfulness. Romans chapter 3 references this in Isaiah chapter 59. You'll see it in Psalm chapter 14 and Romans chapter 3. But it says, "...your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear." We all, all of us, all mankind, are worthless sinners, because we have turned ourselves away from God. In our worthless and sinful nature, we cannot cross that divide. We cannot get there. We cannot bring back that relationship that Adam broke. It's out of our grasp. We cannot mend our brokenness. We can't heal our own evil hearts. This healing can only come from the source of everything that is good, everything that is holy, God Himself. Only He can span that gulf. Only He can span that great divide that separated us from God. Because there was that great divide, Christ must now suffer. But His suffering didn't just begin at the cross. His suffering began from His first moment on this earth. because He was in glory with God. Jesus Christ was there from all eternity. His hands created the very earth that He would condescend Himself to. So in order to bring us into a holy standing before God, Christ willingly humiliated Himself by coming to this earth. Philippians 2.7 says that He made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. The Creator Himself, in humility, condescended to come to this earth. He assumed our nature. even as a helpless baby. He wasn't born into luxury, we know that. We know he was born into a manger. But it's not the manger that you see at Christmas time with glowing lights and sweet animals bowing down. It was a barn. There was no room for anyone to sleep. They hadn't prepped the barn for the Savior to come and be born and tidied it up. There was no room for the Savior. He had to go be born where the animals lived, where the animals feed. His first breath, human breath, into this earth was not surrounded by his people worshiping him. It was the smell of a barn. He humiliated himself even at the very beginning by coming in the form of a servant to poor people. To be born in a barn, because His life from the very beginning until the very end was a life of suffering and perfectness. He had to grow up as each and everyone in this room has to grow up. Luke chapter 2, the end of that chapter, it tells us that He grew in stature and wisdom before all men. He went from being a baby, to being a toddler, to being a child, to being an adolescent, to being a teenager, to being an adult. He had to physically grow as we grow. The Creator, the One who made these bodies, had to grow in one of these bodies. He had to be trained by his parents. He obeyed his parents. He had to be taught by his parents. He more than likely learned the trade of his father Joseph, to be a carpenter, to learn with his hands. But in his life, from the very beginning and growing up when he starts his ministry, he is despised and rejected. The whole way. John chapter 1 verse 11 says, He came into His own and His own received Him not. And then He goes through His ministry. He does good for the people. And then He raises Lazarus from the dead. And that good deed that the Savior did in John chapter 11 calls the scribes and Pharisees to determine from that day forth to put Him to death. Even in His good deeds on this earth, He received scourging and mocking and the seeking after of His death. They did not love Him. He wasn't respected. He wasn't worshipped the way that the Savior, the King, God of heaven come to earth should be worshipped. They tried to kill Him. And here's why. Because of righteousness. He walked righteously for us. He did not just come to this earth to live one day and die the next. He didn't come as a 33 year old man from heaven to earth. Go to the cross and die and return. He lived righteously from the babe in the manger to the Savior on the cross. All of His moments were righteous. All of his words were righteous. All of his thoughts were righteous. Even as a child, as a babe, as a toddler. Now I see the sin of toddlers, I've got plenty of them. We know that they have that natural sin nature. He lived righteously, in perfect righteousness. He lived this flawless righteousness for you and for me. In order to be a suitable sin offering, which He knew He was coming to earth to do, and to earn this righteousness for His people, He lived and walked righteously. Jesus was obligated to live an earthly life of perfection and complete righteousness. because nothing less would satisfy God. Jesus, as I said before, lived in glory. John 17, verse 5, He's talking to the Father about the glory that He once lived in before He came. Jesus Christ was not a natural man born and then God came down upon Him to make Him God. He was already God before He came to this earth as a babe. He lived in glory. He created it all. He ordained it. He watched over it. And then He came to this earth as a babe. He came here from glory to live as an humble man. He endured the same trials that you face. He faced temptations. The temptation in the wilderness. In Matthew chapter 4, He was hungry. He was tired. He was thirsty. He faced sadness and pain that we all face when someone you love dies. John chapter 11, He wept. Jesus wept. Why did He weep? Because He loved John. He was His friend. He cared for Him. He was dear to Him. He walked where we walk. He faced the same things that we face. What is the difference? He walked through the human experience with pure righteousness, untainted by the sin that defiles us. He was indeed the Lamb without blemish and without spot. From the babe in the manger to the man on the cross, there was no blemish, no guile found in His mouth, no evil in His heart. No evil came from His tongue. No evil in His mind. For all have His walk on this earth, from the babe in the manger to the man on the cross. Perfect righteousness. But He faced the same things that we face. And that we all fail. I have failed this week. We all have. Because we are prey to our sins. We sin. We falter. We repent, we go back to God. Jesus Christ never faltered. He never tripped and He never stumbled on this walk on earth. He was untainted completely by sin. And because He was untainted by sin, He must suffer. Because one who is tainted by sin could never appease a righteous wrath of God. Because he was perfect, he suffered. And he came to this earth for that purpose. To live righteously so that he could suffer. for us. Think of that. All the glory that he had before. He willingly came down to be perfect through every trial so that he could suffer for people who despise, who hate, who continually turn for him like the sheep with no shepherd. He willingly did that. He was betrayed by one apostle. He was denied by another apostle. He was baselessly arrested. He was mocked at his trial. He was falsely accused for things that he did not do. And yet, he did not open his mouth, as Isaiah 53 prophesied he would not do. He did not speak to the accusers. He was hated. He was despised by all the leaders of the people. The face of our Savior was spat upon. The Son of God who willingly came to this earth for our salvation was slapped by the very hands that He created. His beard was painfully ripped from His face. That was not enough. Even after Pilate had declared that there was no fault in Jesus, he was shamefully taken and he was tortured. He wasn't just whipped a bit. He was tortured as no man should be tortured. His back was shamefully torn bare. They beat him so hard that the flesh was torn from his back. They scourged him with a brutal beating that laid open his bare flesh. He was traumatized. He was tortured. And then his tired and beaten body was taken away from the scourger, and then insult upon insult was laid upon the Savior. His already beaten body had a piercing crown of thorns, not placed on his head, but beaten onto his scalp so it would not fall off. There wasn't one little trail of blood. He was pouring blood from his head. And then His already laid open bare back had a piece of fabric meant to mock Him placed upon His open, gaping, bleeding, raw flesh. After such agony, our Lord was forced to carry the very symbol of shame that He was to be nailed upon the cross. He dragged this heavy instrument of death, already exhausted, already torn, already beaten. He'd been kept up all night through multiple mock trials. He is exhausted because he's in a physical body like you and I. He's worn out. but He did something that we could not do. He willingly, willingly walked to the hill of Golgotha, the place of the skull, so that He could die for you. They didn't drag Him up the hill. He walked the hill willingly, bearing His own cross of shame, because He purposed to come to this earth to do just that for you and I. And then when He was up there, the precious hands of the Savior, the One who created this very earth, were agonizingly nailed, pierced through to the cross. The blessed feet of our Savior that walked this earth were pierced through to attach Him to a rough and wooden cross. And then as His body was lifted up and dropped down, that cross dropped down with a jar that would jolt His body, with every breath, every breath, His raw back rubbed up and down upon that wooden cross, just to get an agonizing breath. Because He determined to do it for you and I. Because He, only He, could endure such shame. Only He could endure such mocking. Only He could endure such agony and it be worth something. You and I would just be dead men on a cross. And that's all we would have been. Accomplishing nothing. But Jesus determined to come to this earth for one purpose. To divide a gap. that we willingly created through the sin of Adam. Pain upon pain and shame upon shame upon the Savior. But through all of this, no suffering was so great as the next that He must endure for you and I willingly. The Father turning His face away as the weight of our sins covered the Messiah. The Son became sin. He didn't just carry our sins, each and every one. He carried our very nature of sin upon His holy and perfect shoulders for us. He became the very nature of sin for us, and the Father turned His face away. Jesus had always been in that face-to-face relationship as the triune God, and God turned His face away from the sin that covered the Savior. And then in Matthew 27 we hear the agonizing cry, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And there in that moment, the precious Savior was experiencing the very hell meant for you and for me. It's not just a fiery pit. It's the separation from God that is held. And Jesus experienced that in that moment when God turned His face from the perfect Savior. He experienced what we deserve. What we have justly earned for ourselves. He experienced willingly for us. That is where you and I belonged. and what we justly deserve for each of our deeds, our due rewards for all of the multitude of our sins and for our very nature of sin. But Jesus willingly took it upon Himself. And as Philippians 2 verse 8 says, humbling Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And then in complete control, He yielded up the ghost. Why? Why did He have to suffer to such extent? Why must it have been so? Why did the righteous Messiah lay down His life for us? 1 Peter 3.18 tells us the answer. that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. He died to bring you back across the great divide that we could never cross. There is no other way into the presence of God. No way into which the great divide could ever be crossed. That divide once caused by Adam's sin was spanned. The separation of a once and beautiful relationship was restored. The enmity between God and man was appeased. And God adopted His enemies as His children. That is why Jesus must suffer. So that you could cross a divide you never could cross on your own. So that you who do not deserve it, the enemy of God, could now be an heir with Jesus Christ. That is why He must suffer. But why was it so gruesome? Why was it so terrible? Because, dear saints, our sins are that terrible. The very thing that separated us from God through Adam was that great, and that gruesome, and that terrible. Because the created chose the creation over the Creator. Our due reward for our sins is death, as Romans 6.23 says. The wages of sin is death. When you go to work, you get paid. When you sin, you die. That's what we deserve. That's what we earned. That is our wage. Our due just reward is death. But our sin deserves nothing less than the suffering and shame that Christ bore. Because without such suffering, there could not now be such rejoicing. Without such suffering, there would not be such glorification. Without such suffering, there would not be peace. Without such suffering, there could be no crossing of that divide. Without such suffering, our sins would not be covered. And without His blood, we would not be clean. Without His blood, we would not be now whiter than snow. Without His death, we could not be made alive. He has made the sick whole, the dead alive, and the wounded mended. I admit I haven't read much in Isaiah chapter 53. So we're going to take a couple of those verses Summing up Isaiah 53, all of our griefs, all of our sorrows, all that deserved a just condemnation, He carried them. We turn from Him, beginning with Adam and continuing into each and every life that has breath. Verse 3 says, He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. We hid from God because we did not love God. We hid from God because we hate what is good. And we love our sin. You and I, we have turned from God like sheep with no shepherd. In verse 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. done our own thing, what we saw was right in our own eyes. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. We go blindly and willingly into our own traps and snares. We willingly go down the wrong paths because we love ourselves, we love darkness, we love everything but God. Until Jesus opens our eyes. Until we see His beauty. We love to water in our filth. Because we transgressed, He was wounded. Because of our iniquities he was bruised, and because he bore God's chastisement, we now have peace. Verse 10, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make a soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, and he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Because we have sinned, He received our stripes. And by His stripes, we have been healed. Because He bore our very sin, we now have something that we could not have before. An intercession to the God of all holiness. So what was the result of his suffering? The satisfaction of God's anger and wrath against our sins. Ephesians 5.2 calls it the sacrifice of Christ. The sweet smelling savor in the nostrils of God. We could not now approach His throne without that. Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior, the Christ, is now our mediator. That's what it accomplished for us. We have no more need for a high priest to enter the Holy of Holies on our behalf. No more need for a man to approach God on the behalf of the people. No more veil to separate us. No more need for a priest to enter year after year to spill blood after blood, endless amounts, on our behalf. There's no more need for it! Because Jesus' blood was effective. The lamb's blood that was always sacrificed was not effective, so it had to be done again year after year. But the blood of Jesus was effective. It only had to be shed that one time. Jesus, the final and perfect sin sacrifice, satisfied once and for all, all the wrath of God. And that sacrifice tore into that dividing curtain that separates you and I from the very presence of God. By one man, Adam, sin entered into the earth. But by one man, Jesus, we have the gift of eternal righteousness. Romans 5.17. We can approach the throne of God now. There is no divine, nothing to separate us, no veil between us. Because Jesus Christ is at His right hand, interceding for us on our behalf. We can pray directly to God. You can call out to the name of God, and you know something? He will hear. His ears are not turned from you. His eyes are not blind to you, because He sees you and He hears you through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So why did Jesus have to suffer? So that now we, dear saints, may freely and boldly, without pause or hesitation, approach the very throne of God. Yes, it was a costly sacrifice. But what it accomplished brings the riches of God's blessings upon poor and needy sinners, of which we are. So I call to you today, look to Christ. Rest and delight in what His death accomplished for you. Let's pray. Holy Father, Lord,