May we never get over the fact, the truth, that Jesus Christ came to this earth and died in our place. We should never get over that truth. We should never get bored with that truth or stop being in awe of that truth of what Christ has done for us because we know Apart from what Christ did, we would be hopeless. We would just be going through this life with no end, no hope, no real peace, no real joy. And so may we truly think, even through the sermon, about the amazing love of Christ. I found Isaiah 53. I was looking through the Bible this week a little bit and Thinking about how when we approach God's Word, as we heard a sermon last week on the Word, we look at it through at least three lenses, three different views. And I want to share those with you quickly by way of introduction. The first thing is we look at the Bible as literature. We read it literary. We read it as a book inspired by God, written by men. translated by other men, copied by other men, preserved by God, and we truly read it as words and verses, and we read it in context. We hope we do, right? We try to read it in context, and so we approach the Bible as what it is. It is a book. It's literature. We also see it through a second lens, and that lens is history. You see, we don't believe that the things in the Bible are just fairy tales or make believe. We believe this is true, that these things happened. They're a real part of history. And by the way, if I did not believe that the things in the Bible were truly a part of history, I would not stand up and preach the Bible, right? But it's true, and so I will preach it. We approach it theologically, which means theology is the study of God. So we approach it not just to understand the words and the sentences, not just because it's history, but even more importantly for us, we approach it because it is how we know God and love Him and learn from Him. And so this week, actually last Sunday after the sermon we heard, I was reading through the Gospel of Mark. And for no particular reason, I just thought, I'm going to read through a few chapters of Mark on Sunday afternoon. And something jumped out to me in that reading. And I'd already been thinking about my sermon for today. And as I'm reading through Mark, I noticed that Jesus in his life went through so much, so much suffering, so much pain, so much anguish, And that's not even, and I'm not even referring to the cross. Well before he even went to the cross, well before he was betrayed by Judas, Jesus suffered. And thinking on that, I was cross-referenced back to Isaiah 53. And that's gonna be our main text for today, Isaiah 53. As we think about the suffering of Christ, and the death of Christ today and the next week, Lord willing, the resurrection of Christ. So if you have Isaiah 53, find verse 3 and let me know by saying word. Before I read this, this is an Old Testament prophecy and it speaks about Christ and one way we know that is because the Old New Testament makes reference back to it on multiple occasions. In the Gospels, the most famous one is in Acts, when Philip comes upon this man, this eunuch, and he's reading Isaiah 53, and Philip goes to the man and says, let me see what you're reading, and Philip shares Christ through Isaiah 53. So we know this is speaking of our Lord. But it says this, 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 by his stripes, with his stripes we are healed. Look back at verse 3, that first line, is really the main point of the sermon today. He was despised and rejected of men. That word despised means to be treated with contempt or intense dislike. It means to consider someone as worthless or inferior or not worthy. It is to look down on someone. Most of us have probably at some point in our lives, I hate to say it, we've probably all despised someone at one point or another. whether it's to look on them with dislike or like they're inferior and I hate to say that but I mean sometimes I think we've probably all done that right like I'm better than him he don't have his life together and that's not how we should be but that's just life that's how we are sometimes but this is this idea of when it comes to Christ, the son of God, walking on earth, only doing good deeds, that yet he would still be despised and he'd still be rejected. And I want to go back even farther before Christ came because we know that Jesus Christ is God eternal. He's always existed. My seven-year-old Alden this week said, is she seven? Okay. My seven-year-old said at the table, Dad, And I don't remember how she asked it. When did Jesus start? Or something like that. When did God start? When did Jesus start? And I was like, great question, baby. I love that question. You know why? Because I can answer it. And so we tried to beat each other to answer it. She was in the kitchen. I was living room. Wait, wait, I got this one. He had no start, did he? He's eternal. He's always been. I said he's the first and the last. He's always existed. He always will have existed. Well, Jesus is God, right? Part of the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and Jesus is eternal. So the eternal Son of God, always existing, decided by God's plan 2,000 years ago to leave the glory of heaven and all they had and come to earth, which we like earth. It's where we live. It's what we're used to. But imagine God, who has everything perfectly imperfect affair would come and be a part of this. The Bible says he took on flesh and made himself a servant walking on this earth. And we know what that led to. And as a man who took on flesh, he was able to experience pain and suffering. And some of y'all know all these things probably, but it helped me to review myself this week on all the suffering Jesus experienced because he truly was despised by men. And I'm going to show you He was despised socially, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Every which way you could be scorned or disliked or threatened, he went through it. So I have a few to list here for you. First, even Jesus' family didn't believe in him. And I found this in Mark 3. In Mark 3, Jesus is teaching and the family shows up and they're like, hey, I'm kind of paraphrasing, hey, he's lost his mind. I'm sorry about our brother. I'm sorry about our family member. He's lost his mind. We'll pull him away. They didn't believe in it. This is Jesus, the son of God, teaching the word of life, the truth that everybody needed to hear. And they said, no, he's lost his mind. You know what Jesus said in that same chapter? He said, who is my family? He says, he who does the will of my father, that is my family. Jesus kind of reshaped what the true family is. His own family rejected him. John 7 talks about this, that his brothers, it says, not even his own brothers believed in him in John chapter 7. We know he was also rejected in his hometown. A famous line where Jesus said, a prophet is not without honor except in his own household. One time years ago, and they might hear this, so sorry if y'all hear this, but one of my family members is like, would you wanna come back and pastor our church? And I was like, no, I don't. And not that I don't love the people and my family, but I've seen this play out in church as well. I think it's kind of hard to pastor your family. I'm like, I've heard the stuff y'all say about the old pastors. I wonder what y'all say about me. But a lot of times in that situation, the people just see you as, they would just see me as little five-year-old Kelby, probably, right? That's who they knew when I was little. But again, if the Lord led, I'd do whatever, but I'm just saying, I was like, no. Jesus said, hey, even my own hometown rejects me. By the way, in that same text, and it's in Luke 4, when I say they rejected him, Luke 4 talks about them like, you know what, we should throw him off a cliff. I mean like, it's not just like, let's ignore Jesus, they are rejecting him outright. Well, the religious leaders, the Pharisees accused him of blasphemy, which is like the worst thing you can be accused of. He forgave sins, and he did all these things, and they said, no, you are a blasphemer. They say you can only do this by Satan. They accused Jesus of being controlled by a demon. In Mark 3, again, they conspired against him. He healed a man with a withered hand, and they conspired to kill him. I mean, people might be talking about you and I behind our backs, but Jesus had people conspiring behind his back to kill him. Again, they accused him of the demon possession. They threatened his life. Leaders almost stoned him. That's in John chapter 8 when he said this. He said, before Abraham was, I am. Which was really Jesus saying what? I'm him. I'm God. And they wanted to throw stones at him. Another place in John 7, they plot to arrest him. In John 9. After he raised Lazarus from the dead, the Sanhedrin council got together and they planned to arrest him. They planned against him. We keep going to the next one. Judas, who was supposed to be one of his guys, which we know the Judas story, but Judas betrayed him. We know he agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying in such deep distress over what he's about to go through that it was sweat drops of blood And his own disciples who he asked to pray with him, what were they doing? They took a nap. And he's there praying. He was arrested and mocked by the soldiers. They blindfolded him or they beat him. They mocked him. They called him a false king. I've even read that some of the things they were doing with the crown of thorns and the The robe and all these different things, like they were playing like a children's game with him as they mocked him. Oh, you call yourself a king? Look at you. This is God. Who, by the way, if he wanted to, could say the word and they would all drop dead, right? I mean, if he wanted to. But he took it, didn't he? In this time, he was abandoned by his disciples, and I didn't put it up here, but not only his disciples, but also a lot of his family also abandoned him at this time. Peter didn't abandon, he stayed nearby, then what'd he do? Deny him three times. Are you the one being with Jesus? No. I mean, that's Jesus' guy, right? That's one of the guys, and he denies him. He goes through trials. These trials were unjust. I mean, he has the Jewish trial, the Roman trial, all these various trials where he is accused and humiliated. Again, I'm kind of skimming through some of these, paraphrasing some of this, but he is struck, he is spit on, falsely accused. We also, I don't want to forget Mark 15, where they can choose, do you want to set Jesus free or this criminal Barabbas? And what's the crowd say? Give us Barabbas, crucify him. They flogged Jesus. placed a crown of thorns on his head, ridiculed him. He experienced a brutal beating. This week, I was standing by my door outside my classroom, just standing there doing my job, and this seventh grade girl walks up and tears come down her face. And that's not normal. I'm like, well, hey, you all right? Everything okay? And she said, I just watched Jesus on the cross. It's a public school. I'm like, what are you talking about? Well, Bible class, they showed us Jesus being beaten and the thorns on his head and crucifixion. And I was like, I'm glad they're showing you all that. But she was in tears. And I said, you should be in tears. I says, thinking about what Christ has done for us should move us. And it should move us, honestly, just reading about it. But I remember, and I'm sure some of you do too, when The Passion of the Christ came out at the theaters, and we went and saw it at the theaters, and just to see it on the big screen, right? And all that he went through in that movie. And I think the movie probably paled in comparison to what really happened. That should move us. And we're gonna see why in a minute. He carried the cross. I'll talk more about that in a second as well. He was mocked at the cross. People would pass by and say, hey, why don't you save yourself? The other criminal on the other cross, right? Get yourself down and get us down too. From the early part of his ministry until the end of his life, Jesus was really killed and mocked. And it was everybody. Finally, spiritual darkness, Matthew 27. You remember this? Jesus is on the cross and he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Possibly the worst of all these other sufferings, don't you think? Why did he say to his father, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Well, we know what happens in that moment, right, is that he was taking on our sin, and in some spiritual sense, some spiritual anguish of God looking away or however you want to say it, he felt the fullness of that sin. We sang it earlier, all my sin for your grace, what a glorious exchange. And as he said those words and went through spiritual anguish, spiritual darkness, he was taking my sin and your sin. So, every type of person despised Christ. Family, friend, and foe, and even sometimes strangers that didn't have a real dog in the fight would despise him. He was despised and rejected of men. They rejected him even though, even his own people, right? Even the Jewish people. Even the Roman soldiers, all the various groups despised and rejected him. Not only that, he experienced every type of pain. Social, mental, emotional, physical, spiritual. He experienced all types of threats and schemes and plots. Isaiah 53 is clear this morning. Jesus was despised and rejected of men. And I'm gonna get in a minute to why that's really important, but I wanna give you a side application here. Everything we go through in this life, we can look at the suffering of Christ as a helper for us. Scripture says later in the New Testament that he went through all these things yet without sin. Now we know that we do sin and we are sinners but seeing the suffering that he experienced we can say our Lord did this already. Our Lord's been through this and so Lord help me walk through this suffering. Help me walk through this when people are plotting behind my back or when things are going wrong in my life whether it's spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, So we can look to Christ as our great example when we go through tough times. So we've seen the suffering of Christ, now look at the death of Christ. Back in Isaiah 53, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Verse five, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. and by his stripes we are healed. We know Jesus was nailed to the cross between two thieves, stripped of his clothing, mocked, eventually pierced in the side, and gave up his life for us. I found this actually on I think Friday afternoon. And I want to share this with you. This is one of those things kind of from a medical doctor perspective. But it said Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane as he prayed has such extreme stress that he had this blood in his sweat. And he became this kind of situation likely, according to this medical doctor, would make your skin very sensitive. So that everything he's going through in the rest of this would be such an excruciating pain. And Jesus knew in this moment of agony in the garden, that he's about to experience what he's going to experience. He knew he's going to experience something very, very terrible. The crown of thorns, some of y'all have seen this or heard this. They were probably a couple of inches long, razor sharp, one to two inches long. Imagine that. Some of y'all have seen those. I don't think we have one here, but my last church, we had a crown of thorns sitting there. Imagine that placed into your head. Extreme pain of nerves. Surely this would have caused dizziness and nausea because of the blood loss. They also made him carry his cross. Some estimate that cross may have been around 300 pounds. Some estimate he must have carried it 600 yards, six football fields. We know he had help at some point. He fell and had help. Likely Jesus was going through severe dehydration. Likely his energy was very low. Open wounds rubbing against the rough wood. Likely falling on frequent occasions. Imagine carrying that cross that far after all the pain you'd already been through. nails through his hands and feet. The spikes would have likely been five to seven inches long, nailed through his wrists, probably the feeling of electric shock running through your body, into his feet. Why did Jesus do all this? Whipped, beaten, hanging there on the cross where he's losing his breath, he has to pull himself up to breathe, losing his breath, his arms stretch longer than they should be stretched out, going through all this pain and suffering. Why did he do all this and why did he finally die? Verse five, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. Look at verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he opened 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 had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Verse 10, 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, and he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Stop there. He did these things for us. But let me give you four specific reasons why. Why did he suffer? Why did he die? This is our application. First, Jesus died to fulfill God's sovereign plan. We knew he had to die. Isaiah 53 and other passages said that he would come and he would lay down his life. And so it had to be, it had to be to fulfill God's prophecy. It had to be to fulfill God's plan. And by the way, if you don't know this, and I think most of us might know this, but this is not just a plan God thought up 2000 years ago. It's not just a plan God thought up in the book of Exodus. This has been God's eternal plan since forever before there was time. It's God's eternal plan that the father would send the son, the son would come and die. And then the spirit would come and lead us to him. Well, Leviticus 17, Hebrews 9 says, they point us to the fact that without blood there is no forgiveness of sin. And so God made these Old Testament people sacrifice animals, right, and do these different sacrifices that we read and go, why do they do all these things? All those sacrifices were a picture to a greater sacrifice who would one day come. And aren't you glad we don't have to sacrifice animals? That'd be terrible if you had to get up this morning before church and go out in your yard and pick your very best whatever and slaughter it as a sacrifice. We don't have to do that. Christ came and was the sacrifice for all, for us. And so, to fulfill God's plan, the perfect Lamb of God, John 1, had to come and lay down his life. It couldn't be a blemished lamb, by the way. It had to be a perfect lamb. And Jesus was that. No sin, no faults, perfection. The one person who did not deserve that death took it. Pretty amazing, right? And all of us who do deserve it, as we trust in Him, we're made free and right. God's gospel story that I'm just sharing with you right now is pretty amazing. Why did Jesus die? To show God's grace for his people. On the front of our house, we have an American flag. And it just hangs out the front of the house. Y'all got, everybody got a flag on your house or beside your house? Yeah. I have a neighbor that has like the flagpole on the ground, you know, amazing looking flag. And we like it. We're patriotic. We're Americans, you know, you know, it was there when we bought the house and we just left it. It's a good symbol, right? It's a good display. I mean, I would argue, for us, the two greatest symbols for us is this cross behind me and the flag, right? Our God and our country. You know, this one first, right? But we have these symbols. And the cross, of course, which back then was a symbol of shame and death, and now we wear it as a necklace or a t-shirt, on a t-shirt. But the cross has become the symbol and the suffering and death of Christ has become the symbol of how God shows his grace toward his people. And Ephesians 1, 6, it says that the cross and the death of Christ showed the glory, the greatness of the glory of the grace of God. A bunch of G words. The greatness of the glory of his grace is shown in his salvation. And so when we see the cross and we think about why he had to die, the Bible says, but God commends his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It's his showing of grace. Number three, why did he die? I think this is the big one. To bear the penalty for sin. I just read Romans 5 to you. Jesus said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me in Matthew 27? Bearing our guilt, the separation from God that we deserve, he bore that, he took that on himself. He became the substitutionary atonement, the sacrificial lamb. And God looked down and saw the perfect son of God who gave his life and God looked and says, I accept that offering. I want you to think about that for a second. What if Simon Peter would have been the one? Let's say the story happened completely different. I just made this up as I was kind of thinking about this this week. We're in the garden and all of a sudden Simon Peter steps up and says, no, Jesus, you stay here. I'm going to go through the trials. I'm going to be crucified. I'm going to suffer. And they take Simon Peter and they put him on that cross and he's crucified. And God looks down and says what? That sacrifice is not good enough. Why? Simon Peter's like me and you. He's a sinner. And you can put anybody in that spot. Whoever you think's the greatest person who ever lived, the most godly person who's ever lived except for Christ, you put them on that cross, God looks down, and his wrath is not satisfied. His justice is not satisfied. It had to be Jesus on that cross. First Peter 2 talks about that. All our sin for his grace, what a glorious exchange. Finally, he died to defeat evil and death. Through his suffering, Colossians 2, he disarmed Satan. Hebrews 2, he destroyed God's, I'm sorry, destroyed death's power. And the instrument of shame became the instrument of salvation. And we're gonna talk more about this one next week. I hope you'll be back for next week as we talk about the resurrection. But in his death, and you can imagine Satan like, yes, this one who I hate is dead. And what Satan doesn't know is three days later, right, it's gonna be, as the kids say, GG's. It's gonna be wrapped, it's gonna be a wrap. He is disarmed in the resurrection of Christ. So these are just four reasons why Jesus died. I actually had a longer list of other things, but I narrowed it down to four. I want you to look at Isaiah 53. Kendall's going to put it up there for us. I saw a preacher do this years ago, so I'm stealing this from him. As you look at Isaiah 53, 4, and 5, on the screen there, Put your name in those blanks. Make it personal. So I could say, surely he has borne Kelby's griefs and carried Kelby's sorrows. Put your own name in there. Yet I esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, but he was pierced for my transgressions. He was crushed for my iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought me peace, and by his wounds I am healed. I've tried to give just the gospel today, and I hope if you're here and you don't know Christ, that you would turn from sin and turn to Christ. He did all the work. That's the great thing about the gospel we preach, right? He did all the work. Don't be that guy or lady or girl or boy who says, if I'll just be a good person, maybe God will let me in heaven one day. That's not how you get there. But I think that's how most people think and I also think that's how many Christians think or church goers think. I'll go to church and be a good person. I'll be a little bit better than my brother or my neighbor. Surely God will let me in. look past some of the things I've done, and my good outweighs my bad, and God'll do like this, and oh, I'll be good. That's not at all what the Bible teaches. As a matter of fact, the Bible says if that's your mentality, I'll just be good, you know, then you're very far away from actually the truth. Because you're depending on yourself. You're staking your eternity on yourself. The Bible says, You can be the best person who ever lived and you're still a sinner who falls short of God's glory. But it also says this, God sent his son that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Don't let this message go by about Christ suffering and dying for our sins. Don't let it go by without knowing today that you truly have trusted in him. I'm quoting some lyrics from a song here. It says, you heard your children then, in the Old Testament, you hear your children now, you are the same God. You answer prayers back then and you will answer now, you are the same God. You were providing then, you are providing now, you are the same God. You freed the captives then and you're freeing hearts now. You are the same God. You moved in power back then. You move in power now. You are the same God. You were a savior then. and you are a savior now. You are the same God. Jesus, who defeated evil and death, who died for your sin, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will save you, and he will help you, and he will guide you. You are, Lord, you are the same God. Let's pray.