Pierced for a purpose
Isaiah 53:1
This Good Friday I would like to share a message entitle “Pierced for a Purpose. “
We are going to read 5 verses:
1 – Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 – He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 – He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 – Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 – But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
The Bible also says in Psalms 22:16 –
For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet
That purpose of Jesus being crucified was for our transgressions, it was for our iniquities, it was for our peace and it was for our healing.
The book of Isaiah is describing all that Jesus went through when He was crucified on the cross of Calvary on that Good Friday.
Crucifixion
What is crucifixion? A medical doctor provides a physical description:
The cross is placed on the ground and the exhausted man is quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood. The one doing the crucifying feels for the depression at the front of the wrist.
He drives a heavy, square wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and movement. The cross is then lifted into place.
The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed. The victim is now crucified.
As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain–the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves.
As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of his feet.
As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breathe. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled.
He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen.
Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation(as fik si ation), searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber.
Then another agony begins: a deep, crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. It is now almost over–the loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level–the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues–the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. He can feel the chill of death creeping through his tissues. . .Finally he can allow his body to die.
WOW all this the Bible records in Matthew 15:24 in the words of “and they crucified Him.”
It all happened about 2,000 years ago when God stepped out of heaven, came down to earth, and took the earthly human form of Jesus Christ.
Why did Jesus go through all of this?
Jesus endured all this pain and suffering so that you and I might be forgiven.
Hebrews 2:17
For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
How many are thankful for the precious blood of Jesus?
If it wasn’t for that precious blood that was shed on the cross of Calvary all of us would be dead in our sins.
The Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
The Bible says that the wages of sin is death – Romans 6:23
So, no matter how good you and I think we are and no matter how good we try to be, we still fall short because the Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.
On this Good Friday I would like to point out how Jesus died for our sins and what looked like a bad Friday, turned out to be a good Friday.
1. When they crucified Him – they nailed His hands to the cross.
When they nailed His hands to the Cross – We can look at it like this.
Every sin that our hands led us into doing before we got saved, has been covered with the Blood.
Think about all the sins that you and I may have committed with our hands before we got saved, it has all been washed in the blood.
Just in case we forgot, but there are many sins that are hands can lead us into, but I will just name a few:
– robbing
– smoking
– fighting
– drinking
– dealing drugs
– stealing
Thank God for the Blood of Jesus and the nails in His Hands that washes all of our sins away.
Here is a little illustration for you.
Jesus hands are still open to a dying world
A Christian young man, shown around a work plant in an industrial town in Great Britain,
turned to thank the manager who had guided him around, and gratefully to shake his hand.
He was surprised to find his guides hand soft, limp and flabby.
Seeing his look of surprise, the manager said,
You must excuse my hand. When I was an apprentice I had an accident,
a nail was driven through it and I have never been able to close it since.
Immediately expressing, as well as to show sympathy, the young Christian said, May I shake hands with you again, sir? And may I tell you something?
Nearly 2000 years ago one left the glory of heaven and came as a child to earth.
His people crucified Him, and nails were driven through His hands.
Like you, He has never closed them since but stretches them out to a needy world.
Jesus covers every sin that I have ever committed with these hands.
2. They nailed His feet to the cross.
When we think about them nailing His feet to the cross. One can think of all the places that our feet led us to, that we shouldn’t have been.
You and I both know that before we got saved our feet may have taken us places that we shouldn’t have been.
Come on Somebody!!!
– to the bottle store
– to the drug spot (pale pos)
– from bunking school
– running from the police
– To the club
Hello Somebody…
There are many sins that you and I have used our feet for – but thank God for the nail in His feet and the precious blood that was shed on the Cross of Calvary for our sins.
Is there anybody else that is thankful for the nail in His feet that covered the sins you and I have committed because of where our feet have taken us to?
I know now we are in the house of God but thank God for the precious Blood of the Lamb.
He shed His blood that we might be forgiven – not condemned.
3. They put a crown of thorns on His head.
The third piercing that I am grateful for is the crown of thorns.
I like to look at this as representing every wrong that thought or imagination that I have thought before I got saved to be under the blood.
See not only did they pierce His hands, not only did they pierce His feet, but they also put a crown of thorns on His head.
How many know our thoughts needed some sanctification?
Well let me put it like this how many know our thoughts need sanctification?
Not only did our thoughts need sanctification, they still do.
Romans 8:7
the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
Before we got saved you and I had some thoughts that needed to be cleansed such as:
– thoughts of hatred
– thoughts of pride
– thoughts of anger
– thoughts of jealousy
– thoughts of robbing, stealing, murder, un forgiveness and whatever else you and I can think of.
You and I can probably think about thoughts that we used to think and all we can say is I am thankful for the blood of Jesus?
We all needed our thoughts to be cleansed.
Now I know you are in Church, and we might not want to admit it, but we still need to keep our thoughts under subjection.
I don’t know about you, but I can be in the middle of praising God and a thought can just come out of nowhere and I am like where did that come from?
Sometimes I can be facing a situation and my mind will give me options on what to do in that situation.
Someone just cut you off on the N1 highway and now you have options:
Should I:
1. get mad
2. go off on them
3. Scale them out
4. or stay in the spirit
Come on somebody.
You and I need our minds to be cleansed daily – that is why I am thankful for the crown of thorns and the precious blood that Jesus shed – because it washes us from all sin.
Tell your neighbor He covered my mind.
4. They pierced Him in His side.
The next wound that I am grateful for is the wound to his side.
I personally like to look at this wound as the blood covering every sin that I did because of the people that I hung out with.
The people that were by my side, who helped me to do things that I shouldn’t have been doing.
You know that group of friends we had that caused us to do things that we shouldn’t have done.
You know them peer pressure sins – That is why you and I need to be careful who we have by our side. We need to be careful who we run with.
There is a saying that says – Tell me who you hang out with, and I will tell you who you are.
Whether it be friends, family members, your gang, or your party crew. I am sure most of us have hung out with people who encouraged us to do things that we shouldn’t have been doing.
Thank God that the blood of Jesus covers those sins also.
Last but not least
5. They whipped Him on His back.
Just before Jesus was crucified, Pilot caused Jesus to be beaten horribly by a Roman “scourging team” usually administered to a condemned man.
This brutal whipping was usually done with a leather whip, into which were fastened embedded shards of glass or metal, designed to tear the skin and induce incredible bleeding and excruciating pain.
Many men died just from this beating alone.
Imagine that every time the whip hit Him on His back the metal and the glass would rip a piece of His flesh off of His body.
Thank you, Jesus, for your precious blood that was shed.
We can look at the whipping of His back to represent everything that you and I carried throughout life or maybe carrying today.
All the guilt, the shame, the condemnation, un forgiveness and the list goes on.
Jesus took those burdens on His back so that you and I wouldn’t have to carry them.
See all the burdens that you and I carry can be given over to Jesus because He took the responsibility of those burdens when He carried the cross and took the beating on His back.
Today you might be here, on this beautiful Good Friday, and you might be carrying
1. Guilt
2. Shame
3. Un forgiveness
4. Hatred
5. Condemnation
6. A heavy load of anger
7. whatever it maybe you can give it over to Jesus and let the blood of Jesus wash you white as snow.
Jesus took our sin but gave us His Righteousness.
You don’t have to carry it anymore – Jesus carried the load of the cross and said we can cast all of our cares on Him…
Quote: We are made righteous
This is the whole truth of justification stated simply: our sins were on Jesus, and His righteousness is on us. And, “As Christ was not made sin by any sin inherent in him, so neither are we made righteous by any righteousness inherent in us, but by the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.” (Poole)
Today if you are here on this Good Friday, you can be forgiven of every one of your sins.
All you have to do is accept the work that Jesus did on the cross of Calvary, and He will cleanse us by His Blood.
The Bible says in Romans 5:8-9
Romans 5:8
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:9
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
When the bible says we can be justified.
You can look at Justified as ‘Just If I’d’ Never Sinned.
God will see us as ‘Just If I’d’ Never sinned.
The good news of the Good Friday is because of the Cross of Calvary you and I can walk in forgiveness. What looked like a bad Friday, turned out to be a good Friday.
I would like everyone to stand…
If you are here and you say I need the forgiveness of Jesus and I want to accept what God has done for me on the cross of calvary, then I would like to pray for you.
Maybe you are watching, and you are saved, but you are walking in condemnation. The Bible says there is now therefore no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.
I would like to pray for you this morning.
The Blood of Jesus removes all guilt and shame.
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