In our previous message we had a
reminder from Isaiah 53 of what Jesus has done for us. I don’t think we can
ever read that chapter enough, since it is essentially a summary of the gospel
message.
Who
was this man that was ‘despised and rejected, crushed for our iniquities and
whom we have not esteemed’ as Isaiah put it? One revelation of who He really is,
we find in John 1:1-5, 14: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were
made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the
light of men. The
light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. The
Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the
glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Then we read in Colossians 1:15-20: “He
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or
authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all
things hold together. And
he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn
from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
For God was pleased to have all his
fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether
things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on
the cross.”
Wow, this crushed, rejected,
despised, afflicted and oppressed man is actually the origin of everything that
exists. Can you see the picture? I am going to try and create an image for us.
Imagine a man builds this unique and
precious object. To him it is so precious, that he will defend it with his
life. A ruthless enemy comes and tries to steal this object from this man, but
the enemy consists of a cruel leader and a whole gang of equally brutal
henchmen. Alone this man stands up against this gang, bleeding as he defends
this precious object that this gang tries to steal.
This precious object is us and the
earth that comes along with us. I want to remind us that Jesus created groups
of things on each day of creation, but that He spent one whole day just to
create man. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and
let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the
livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the
ground,’”(Genesis 1:26). Jesus also spoke
everything else into being, but “the Lord God formed the man
from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and the man became a living being,” (Genesis 2:7). Can you picture the
loving hands moulding man and then gently breathing the breath of life into
him, standing back in expectation as man sits up, looking around him in awe of
what he sees? Can you imagine the expectation in Jesus’ heart as He started to
build a relationship with man? He probably spent most of the sixth day getting
acquainted with man.
But then... can you imagine the hurt
in His heart as man continuously rejected Him whilst the ruthless enemy, Satan,
tried to steal man - this precious creation of Jesus. For ages the battle went
on and in the end Jesus took the ultimate step in defence of His precious
creation – He died. The thief thought he had obtained this precious object that
he for so long tried to steal, but because Jesus was without sin, death could
not hold Him.
We have no idea how much Jesus suffered
as pointed out by Isaiah. The gospels don’t reflect exactly how much Jesus had suffered,
but Psalm 22 does. I therefore want to direct you to three earlier blogs of
mine about Psalm 22, which reflect a bit more of what this ruler of the
universe suffered for His precious creation: ‘Let Him Touch Your heart’ http://bibbytes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/let-him-touch-your-heart.html, ‘Oh, the Agony’ http://bibbytes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/o-agony.html and ‘Oh, the Agony
(Part Two)’ http://bibbytes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/o-agony-part-two.html.
Lord, how dare I treat you with
disrespect after what you, the Greatest Authority in the entire universe, have
done in defence of me?
Thank you Lord that your Word went
out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you
empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which
you sent it.
Please pass this on if you think others may
benefit by it.
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