Text:\u00a0 Isaiah 53:5<\/p>\n
This is a very special time of year\u2026For a pastor, it is also humbling time of year.\u00a0 I feel like the cook working in the kitchen with the finest ingredients who just can\u2019t seem to make it all come together.\u00a0 I feel like the carpenter with the best wood who finishes the project but it didn\u2019t quite come out the way he wanted it to.\u00a0 I feel like a batter swinging for the seats with the pitch he\u2019s been waiting for, but who only manages to get a single.<\/p>\n
This verse of God\u2019s Word is a good example.\u00a0\u00a0 In my heart, I know, this Word of prophecy says so much to us who live in it\u2019s fulfillment.\u00a0 But I never quite seem able to get my arms around it all. I never quite seem able to get my heart around it all.\u00a0 But how can we?\u00a0 It\u2019s like trying to scoop out the ocean.\u00a0 Except the ocean is God\u2019s grace for us in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
So once again tonight we\u2019re here to face the cross and see something so profound and wonderful.<\/p>\n
Facing the Cross,<\/b> I see:
\nI. My punishment
\nII. My peace<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>When you care about someone, it\u2019s hard to see them suffer.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve been at the bedside of someone you love and seen them struggle, you know how hard it is. If you\u2019ve been with someone who has suffered a terrible loss, you know how hard it is.\u00a0 You wish you could do something to take the pain away, but often we can\u2019t.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to see someone suffer.<\/p>\n
This verse has us remembering that tonight.\u00a0 It pointed far ahead to one who would be despised and rejected, led like a lamb to the slaughter, pierced and crushed, cut off from the land of the living<\/span>.\u00a0 \u00a0It pointed to the cross of our dear Savior.<\/p>\n We start tonight by taking that hard look at Jesus\u2019 cross.\u00a0 He was pierced<\/span>\u2026, Isaiah writes.\u00a0 Right away a picture comes to mind.\u00a0 We think of the point of the nails pressed against his hands and feet We think of the hammer coming down again and again to drive those nails into the wood.<\/p>\n But Jesus suffering did not begin or end there.\u00a0 The night before, they beat him and spit on him.\u00a0 That morning the soldiers ripped into his back again and again with a scourge of jagged pieces of bone.\u00a0 And they pressed that crown of thorns onto his head. He was pierced<\/span>. Think about that.\u00a0 Facing the cross, that would be so hard to see.<\/p>\n Yet his physical suffering was nothing compared to the torment of Jesus\u2019 soul.\u00a0 For Isaiah says, he was crushed\u2026<\/span>\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t crushed by men.\u00a0 He was crushed by his Father.\u00a0 The full weight of God\u2019s righteous anger came crashing down on Jesus\u2019 soul.\u00a0 And during that time, Jesus suffered the worst aspect of hell.\u00a0 He was abandoned and rejected by God the Father.\u00a0 How hard it must have been to hear his anguished words of hopelessness.\u00a0 My God, my God why have you forsaken<\/span>.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to even think of that today.<\/p>\n But what makes facing the cross<\/b> really hard is this. When we take to heart the reason for Jesus\u2019 suffering.\u00a0 He was pierced for OUR transgressions.\u00a0 He was crushed for OUR iniquities<\/span>. So facing the cross I see MY punishment.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I see what God thinks of MY sin.\u00a0 For how easy it for us or the people around us to make light of our sins. Comedians invite us to laugh at those things.\u00a0 \u00a0But look at Jesus languishing on that cross and you know different.<\/p>\n You know, sometimes I\u2019ve heard Billy Graham say.\u00a0 If you were the only one to ever live, Jesus would have died for you. \u00a0Well there\u2019s another way to look at that.\u00a0 If I was the only one, Jesus still would have had to suffer and die for me.\u00a0 The cross shows me how terribly my sin offends my God.\u00a0 For there at the cross, I see my punishment.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s hard to face, hard to consider.\u00a0 Maybe that\u2019s why attendance on Good Friday is not near as good as Easter.\u00a0 There\u2019s that painful reminder.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I deserve.\u00a0 What Christ suffered in my place.<\/p>\n But this Word of God is not meant to send you home tonight weighed down with guilt.\u00a0 It\u2019s not meant to shake a finger in your face and say, look what you did to Jesus.<\/i>\u00a0 No, no.\u00a0 This is where the Spirit leads us in this Word.\u00a0 Look what God did for you.\u00a0 Look how much he loves you and me.\u00a0 See that in Jesus.\u00a0 For facing the cross this Word helps me to see my peace<\/b>.<\/p>\n People yearn for peace.\u00a0 In a war torn land like the Mideast or Mexico with its drug lords most people want peace.\u00a0 They want to live in a place where they can live and thrive, not fear for their families.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We yearn for peace too from the things that trouble our hearts and our lives.\u00a0 We try to carve out a little peace for ourselves from time to time.\u00a0 Maybe a day out on the river fishing.\u00a0 Maybe some time sailing or just reading your favorite book.\u00a0 We try to carve out a little peace for ourselves.<\/p>\n But even if we don\u2019t bring the cell phone, something always seems to intrude.\u00a0 Something gone wrong, something to worry about.\u00a0 Some kind of reminder that this world is a fallen place and I am a fallen human being surrounded by people like me who one day will die.\u00a0 We yearn for peace and yet it eludes us.<\/p>\n But now go back to the night before Jesus died\u00a0 He said this to his disciples.\u00a0 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.\u00a0 I do not give to you as the world gives.\u00a0 Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Peace?\u00a0 Jesus is about to die?\u00a0 What kind of peace is that?<\/p>\n Jesus brings a different kind of peace.\u00a0 In fact, that peace is ours because he died.\u00a0 The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.<\/span> \u00a0So there at the cross I see my punishment<\/b>.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the good stuff. That punishment brought me peace.\u00a0 It brought me healing from something that threatened my eternity.\u00a0 And it starts with this. You know \u00a0that guilt that stood between God and me.\u00a0 It\u2019s forgiven.\u00a0 I\u2019m forgiven.\u00a0 And now through faith in Jesus we have peace with the most important person in the universe.\u00a0 The one who made us.\u00a0 The One we will stand before on Judgment Day.\u00a0 We have the peace of knowing that He is our Father and we are his dear children.<\/p>\n Well what does that peace look like in our lives?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean that you won\u2019t have any troubles.\u00a0 Jesus said you will, some even because you follow him. \u00a0So what does it mean?\u00a0 It means that nothing can separate you from God\u2019s love, not even death.\u00a0 It means that he will make all things work for our good. It means that excluding the things we need to repent of and change, we can look this life in the eye and say what a woman said long ago.\u00a0 Her son had died. Her heart was breaking and yet in the Lord she could say. \u00a0Everything is all right.<\/span><\/p>\n You don\u2019t need a lot of money to be able to say that.\u00a0 In fact, many people who have lots of money can\u2019t.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need to be young and healthy and beautiful to say that.\u00a0 Many who are, can\u2019t.\u00a0 But facing the cross you and I can. \u00a0We have peace with God through Christ Jesus our Lord.<\/span> \u00a0It doesn\u2019t get any better than that.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Isaiah 53:5 This is a very special time of year\u2026For a pastor, it is also humbling time of year.\u00a0 I feel like the cook working in the kitchen with the finest ingredients who just can\u2019t seem to make it all come together.\u00a0 I feel like the carpenter with the best wood who finishes the project but it didn\u2019t quite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}