Sermon Tone Analysis

*“From Weakness to Glory”*

 

If we were God and we were going to save the world, we would likely not write the same story that we know and read in the Bible.

You may or not be familiar with how the story goes.

In a nutshell, God creates a universe that is magnificent and perfect, and creatures that are perfect.

Then something tragic happens.

God’s prized and highest creatures (man and woman) turn their back on their Creator and taint the rest of creation.

You and I would likely throw our hands up in the air and immediately wipe everything out because */we/* had been offended.

But not God.

Though he is all-powerful and holy, he is also merciful and compassionate and he loves his people.

His plan takes another course.

Knowing that a holy God cannot tolerate this “sin” that has now been introduced into the world, he decides that he will mercifully keep his people and allow provisions to be made for their sin.

In fact, God had even hinted at an Ultimate Provision that would come in the future that would eradicate this problem once and for all.

And this is found in the opening pages of the Bible within the context of Adam and Eve’s first sin.

Throughout the Bible, God continued to allow these provisions (called sacrifices) that would temporarily deal with sin so that his people could continue in relationship with Him.

But all along, he told them of a future Messiah who would save them from their sins.

To be sure, the Old Testament spoke of One to come who would be a Prophet and King and Deliverer.

However, the people seemingly had a difficult time putting all of these together.

Consequently, many people missed Jesus when he came.

Let’s explore our message this morning in two points.

And as we consider these points, we will hear echoes of an ancient prophet that foretold of this coming Messiah.

In fact, we quoted his words at the outset of the service.

The prophet Isaiah penned his letter 700 years before Jesus Christ was born in our time and in our world.

We will also see how Paul supplements these thoughts in a couple of passages in his letter to the Romans and Philippians.

If you would like to reference these, please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 53.

When you get there put a bookmark or a finger there and turn also to Philippians 2. Other references, I will try to quote in their entirety if you would like to jot them down and investigate them later.

The first point is *He* *Came In Weakness.*

When Jesus first arrived on the scene, he did not come as the people expected.

After all, when you hear of a King who would come from the line of the great King David, you would expect that he would be born in a Kingdom for the world to see.

However, this King would come to a lowly town called Bethlehem to be born to insignificant parents, in a feeding trough, without any fanfare.

His birth was not celebrated by nobility with an extravagant festival, but by shepherds and foreigners huddled in a stable with the animals.

Jesus did not walk around with a glowing halo around his head like many artists have portrayed him.

He was not embraced by the royalty or even the religious leaders of his day.

Jesus’ followers were a ragtag group of ordinary folks.

And though Jesus was often surrounded by multitudes in times of great miracles, they often abandoned him at times of difficult teaching.

Not the things that you might expect surrounding a King.

This is the way Paul describes it in Philippians 2. He is encouraging his readers to imitate the humility that Jesus had in his coming to earth.

“*5* Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, *6* who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, *7* but */made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”/*

What Paul is saying is that true humility is found in Jesus.

Jesus is the Son of God who has existed for all eternity.

The Bible says that he has always existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit and was active in the creation of the universe.

Consider that Jesus was under no obligation to lift a finger to help out those he created and who had rebelled against him.

Consider also that he left a perfect environment to be born in the conditions that we already mentioned.

Jesus came to experience the trials and heartbreaks and temptations of this life for us.

This is divine humility.

He who had everything made himself nothing.

Isaiah likewise spoke of the manner and form to which this promised Messiah would appear.

In chapter 53, Isaiah writes “Who has believed what he has heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

*2 *For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

*3 *He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Isaiah says in verse 1 that not many would see him coming and believe that it is him.

“Who has believed what he has heard from us?”

He also says that he didn’t come in grand fashion as a “Superman,” but like a regular Joe.

Jesus’ apparel did not consist of royal robes.

Isaiah says that he had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.

The way to recognize his royalty was not through his appearance or clothing, but with the eyes of faith.

Paul goes on to say in Philippians 2.8 “*8* And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

The cross was the symbol of a curse.

It was the most horrendous and humiliating way to die.

The victims were often scourged and then hung on the cross to die in front of everyone.

They were ridiculed and mocked.

Why would Jesus do such a thing?

Why would he leave heaven for a cross?

Two reasons.

The events that we celebrate this reason are ultimately so that God would receive the recognition – or the glory.

It isn’t because we are so great and /worth /dying for but that */He is great/* and merciful.

Secondly, God loves us.

Paul said that God demonstrates his love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Why did he have to die?

Because the penalty for sin is death.

Because all are born into the world  with a sinful nature, there needed to be a payment for our sins.

A holy and just God cannot merely look away from sin, he must deal with it.

Jesus took it on himself… in our place.

The prophet Isaiah wrote “*4* Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

*5* But he was wounded */for our transgressions/*; he was crushed */for our iniquities/*; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

*6* 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.”

And he did this willingly.

Isaiah says that *7 *He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, *yet he opened not his mouth;* like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, *so he opened not his mouth*.

This is one of the most amazing things to me.

If you joined us on Friday, we watched a powerful portrayal of the last hours of the life of Jesus.

It began with Jesus sitting with his disciples celebrating the Last Supper.

It was here that Jesus announces that he would be betrayed by the one who dipped his bread with him.

And then Jesus tells Peter than he would deny him.

The next scene is the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus encounters his agonizing prayer as he anticipates his pending death.

Though Jesus had told his disciples to watch and pray, they prefer to sleep.

Jesus captors enter at this moment and seize Jesus and his “faithful” disciples flee.

From this point on Jesus encounters scorn and beatings at the hands of the Jewish religious elite.

They spit on him and strike him.

The same happens as he is handed over to the rulers Pilate and Herod.

At one point it really struck me as one of his opponents gets right in his face.

I thought, “if they only knew…” Can you imagine?

They got up in Jesus the Son of God’s face and mocked and ridiculed him.

He could have flicked them… He could have thought and the earth would have dissolved.

And yet he didn’t…

That wasn’t the mission.

*He Came in Weakness.

*Instead of wiping out his opponents, he let them have their way with him.

Isaiah 53.8 “*8* By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

*9 *And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

*10 *Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.”