They acknowledge his wisdom, they acknowledge the things he taught, they acknowledge the miracles he did, and then they say this, is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. They were offended at any claim he ever made to be their Messiah. Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.
Maybe you have friends or family who respect Jesus. They say he was a great teacher, a brilliant leader, a humble servant. yet they stop short of worshiping him as God in the flesh. Why is that? Why do so many people to day reject Christ's true identity?
Well, that sort of unbelief is nothing new. Israel, God's own people, rejected their Messiah. For a sobering look at why the Jews rejected Jesus two thousand years ago and why that same unbelief persists to day, stay here as John MacArthur continues his study titled The Gospel According to God. And with the lesson now, here's John. The question that arises, and let's take this question as our entry point into the text of Isaiah 53.
Why did they reject Jesus Christ? Why? They will They will tell us why. They will tell God why. And the confession that they will make in the future, and that anyone who comes to Christ now must make.
is in verses 2 and 3. Three reasons are given here. Three reasons. They are confessed reasons. Number one, and they all have to do with the contempt they had for him.
Number one. He had a contemptible origin. He had a contemptible origin. He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground. We looked at Jesus.
What did we see? An insignificant family. Joseph, Mary. An insignificant town, Nazareth, way off the beaten track. Born in an insignificant place in an inn.
In a stable placed in a feed trough. And attending his birth, were shepherds who were the lowest people on the social ladder. No royal birth. No social status, no family nobility, no formal education, 30 years a carpenter in Nazareth. No connections with anybody who mattered.
With the elite, with the important. He's a sucker branch. He's irrelevant. Or he's like a root out of parched ground, as the Sun comes down in that part of the world and In the Middle East the the ground becomes parched and dry and As the ground shrinks because water evaporates out, some of the roots begin to come to the surface, dirty. Brown Roots and parched ground, not cared for.
That would be roots of a tree that nobody cares about. Because if they cared about it, they'd be watering it. Again, it's another way to say he's unnecessary, unwarranted, unwanted, unimpressive, no value, no more significant than a sucker branch or a dry root in a parched place that nobody cultivates, that nobody cares for, that nobody waters. Miserable beginnings. They even said things like: Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
He gained nothing. From his family origin. He gained nothing from his social status. He gained nothing from the economics of his family. He gained nothing.
From his followers. They weren't brilliant, they weren't educated, they weren't powerful, they weren't influential, they weren't important. There wasn't one rabbi, Pharisee, Sadducee, priest. Scribe? Nobody mattered.
They were a ragtag bunch of fisherman nobudies primarily. With a few other oddballs scattered in, like a tax collector. And a terrorist They had no position. They had no money. And they kind of joined up early with the thing in the back of their mind that they might sort of win the kingdom lottery.
If they hung around, there might be a big payoff. None of them had any achievement of any note. And the Jews looked at that and they said, wait a minute, this can't be the Messiah because Messiah is not going to enter like this. This doesn't fit the profile that's so highly developed over centuries. Among the Jews.
Of the glorious Arrival of Messiah In Mark chapter 6, He was in Nazareth, his hometown, where they all knew him. Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and people were astonished at what he said. Where did this man get these things? Maybe I can make the emphasis different. Where did this man get these things?
This nobody, this sucker branch, this Dry Root. Where does he get these things? And what is this wisdom given to him? And such miracles as these performed. They acknowledge his wisdom, they acknowledge the things he taught, they acknowledge the miracles he did, and then they say this.
Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. They were offended at any claim he ever made to be their Messiah. In spite of the power Miracle power.
that he displayed.
So they had contempt for his beginnings. contempt for his origin. Secondly, they had contempt for his life. For what he became. He had a contemptible adulthood he had a contemptible Life.
Go back to verse 2 again. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. They were big into appearance. That's why they picked Saul to be their first king, right? He was more handsome than everybody else and taller.
still seems to be a formula for success. But it was with them with Jesus. Wait a minute. Maybe he's not tall enough, handsome enough, stately enough, majestic. Again.
Not much progress from 1 Samuel 9 when they were picking Saul. Nothing royal about Jesus, nothing regal about Jesus, nothing elevated about Jesus. In fact, the idea that he was a king was so bizarre and so distasteful. They resented that so profoundly that when Pilate At the end of his proverbial rope, Having been blackmailed by the Jews in this issue with Jesus, he blackmailed and threatened that if he didn't crucify Jesus, they were going to tell Caesar and he wouldn't survive another report to Caesar. He knew that.
They blackmailed him, and his pound of flesh, his vengeance, his get-back of those Jews was to slap on the top of the cross of Jesus, this is Jesus of Nazareth. King of the Jews. That was Pilate's vengeance. Because he knew that was the most objectionable claim that Jesus made. Though he displayed divine power and divine wisdom and divine truth and divine grace and holiness, they saw nothing of royal beauty in him, nothing attractive about him.
They had scorned for the beginning, his origin. They had scorned for the middle, his life. And thirdly, he had a contemptible end. He had a contemptible end. For that, you go to verse 3.
He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we didn't esteem him. His end is in view here. In the opening two lines. They had not only contempt for his beginnings and and his life, but especially his death.
Now remember. They didn't think they needed somebody to die for their sins. They were into self-righteousness. They were going to please God by being good and religious and doing works. And here comes this Messiah.
This one who claims to be the Messiah and the King. And instead of being triumphant, instead of his career ending in glory and majesty and triumph and victory and elevation and exaltation. He's despised, forsaken of men. It all ends in sorrow and grief. They could have looked at the death of Jesus with all its horrors.
And they could have said, you know, this is the sacrifice we've been waiting for. This is the sacrifice that is pictured. When Abraham finds a ram in the thicket to substitute for his son, pulls the knife back from killing Isaac and kills the ram instead. This is the fulfillment of killing the Passover lamb and putting the blood on the doorpost and the lintel and escaping the wrath of God because a lamb has been sacrificed. This is the final sacrifice, the only true saving sacrifice pictured in the millions of sacrifices that.
They made day after day after day as animals were slaughtered through all their history. They could have done that, but they didn't see themselves as sinful, and they didn't need a sacrifice, and they didn't need an atonement, and they didn't need a savior.
So when they saw their Self-proclaimed Messiah being a man of sorrows and grief. Is life ending the way it ended? It was despicable. They rejected him, so they reject him now because they rejected him then. They rejected Jesus because they rejected Jesus.
He was despised. Strong term. means to treat with disdain. They treated him with disdain, and they still do. They still do.
The Hebrew word for Jesus is Yeshua. Yes, sure. The rabbis through the years have changed that name. by dropping the final A. And they call him Yeshu.
Yeshu is an acrostic, meaning let his name be blotted out.
So you will see in rabbinic writings Yes, shoe. Let him be blotted out. Which is the contemporary way of saying, We will not have this man to reign over us, which is what they said when they screamed for his crucifixion. He is called by the rabbis the transgressor. He is called by the rabbis the Talui, the hanged one.
Cursed is whoever's hanged on a tree. Rabbis called his gospel Avon Gila John. Instead of the evangel, like the evangelist writing the true story, which means the sinful writing. They have generations of scorn for Jesus. to one degree or another, of course.
So he was despised. Says it at the beginning of verse 3, says it at the end of verse 3. Twice he was despised. That continues. And then it says he was forsaken of men.
I want you to look at that. That's maybe not as simple as it looks. Forsaken of men, not in a general sense, that would be ben adam. Ben Adam, that means men in general. This is Ben Ish.
What that means is lords, rulers, leaders, prominent people.
So what what does the populace say? Look. Contemptible beginning, contemptible life. Contemptible end in which no important people affirmed him. We look to our leaders.
And they were the ones crying for his blood. In John 7, There is an important testimony to this effect. In John 7, well, you could pick it up, say at verse 45, the officers come to the chief priests and they say, Why don't you have Jesus? We sent you to get him, take him captive, bring him to us.
So these officers, temple police, Say, well, never has a man spoken the way this man speaks. We don't know what to do with him. We were just. shocked by his Teaching. And the Pharisees answered, and they said, This, You've not also been led astray, have you?
Get this. No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in him. John 7:48. Nobody important believed in him.
So, when the Jews look back from a future time, they're going to say, look, We looked at the beginning of his life, the middle of his life, the end of his life, and there was nothing about it that made him. Attractive and it didn't fit our picture. And then his death is so horrendous. He is rejected, he is despised, nobody important. Takes his side.
What are we supposed to do? We follow our leaders. None of the power elite were close to him. None of them supported him. None of them believed in him.
A few who should have believed in him backed off because the price was too high. And there were a few secret disciples who showed up. Later. But the people of rank were not impressed. Chief men of his nation, the ones who towered above the multitude.
And it was a hierarchy. It was a stiff and resolute hierarchy. The people were way down here, and the rulers had the power and the authority. And the great men drew back from him. He had none of the people of distinction on his side.
Still true today in the world. Still true. The works, the power of Jesus was attributed to Satan. It was the leaders who said he does what he does by the powers of hell. Beelzebub, Satan.
And so they persecuted and martyred his followers. They called the apostles apostates and said they were worse than the heathen. And in those early years, a prayer developed, and it went like this. Meg The followers of Jesus be suddenly destroyed without hope and blotted out of the Book of Life. Such was the depth of the rejection and the scorn.
And he ended up a man of sorrows, verse 3. and acquainted with grief, You just look at his life. And it's just sad. That can't be the Messiah. Rather than inflict suffering, rather than inflicting grief on the enemies of Israel and the nations, as the prophets say he was going to do, he is himself a man of sorrows, literally pains, but not external pains, sorrow of heart in all its forms, would be the Hebrew.
of that word And then he was acquainted with grief, grief of soul. He was a sad person. He was sad on the inside. You might look at it this way: they saw him as pathetic. Pathetic.
Deep sadness. He cries, he weeps. There's no account anywhere in the New Testament that he ever laughed. Where is their great leader? Triumphant, victorious.
Full of joy. Excitement, enthusiasm. Who is this? Man who's brokenhearted, weeping, sad. suffering pain.
And of course on top of that there was the actual pain. And that was so bad. Verse 3 says that he was like one from whom men hide their face. By the time he got to the cross, he was marred more than any man, verse 14 says of chapter 52. The crown of thorns crushed on his head.
Blood running down his body, flies cloaking him in his nakedness, hanging in the open sun on the cross. nails through his hands, marks from the lashing and the whipping. spit dried on his face and his body. Bruises from punches in the face. and beatings with sticks.
The reality of his suffering just doesn't fit the picture of Messiah.
Now remember, They didn't need, they didn't think. A Savior. And Jesus said, I can't do anything with you because I didn't come to call the righteous. to repentance. He is totally objectionable.
So He's like one from whom men hide their face, someone so grotesque.
So deformed.
so ugly, so objectionable that you don't even turn to look. It's too embarrassing, it's too shameful, it's too ugly, it's too horrible, it's too unforgettable. You don't want that image in your face. That's the ongoing attitude of Israel. Toward Jesus.
He's hideous. to them. as a messiah. despicable.
So End of verse. Three. He was despised. And we did not esteem him. That's a very benign phrase, that last one, we did not esteem him in English.
What it means is, we considered him nothing. We considered him non-existent. That's the ultimate scorn. He is a nobody. to us.
That's the historic view. Of Jesus. From Jewish people. I thank the Lord that many Jewish people, one by one, are coming to Christ through all this church age. and seeing him for who he really is.
And isn't it good news that someday the nation will turn? and see him and make this confession. I know some people may say, well, this sounds like it's kind of anti-Jewish. No? This isn't a Gentile confession.
This is a confession of the Jews in the future day when they look back and realize what they had done. This is not a Gentile Assessment. of Jewish unbelief. This is a Jewish assessment. This is a repentance.
These are words which the nation will speak. in their broken-hearted confession. of the worst sin imaginable of rejecting Christ. And these are words that you need to speak. If you have been rejecting Jesus Christ.
You need to say these same words now. Jew or Gentile, whoever you are.
so that a fountain of cleansing can be opened to you. Until the time That they believe in the future and maybe the near future. We want to say this, Romans 1:16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to all. Who believed to the Jew? First end To the Gentile.
I want to close in the last minute or two by having you turn to Acts 3. Acts chapter 3. Verse 17. This is um Peter's sermon. After the sermon at Pentecost, in the days of the early Church.
Such a great sermon. Oh, verse 13, Peter says, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, your God, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. You disowned the holy and righteous one. You asked for a murder to be granted to you, Barabbas. You put to death the Prince of Life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.
And on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man they had just healed, whom you see and know. And the faith which comes through him has given him the perfect health in the presence of you all. He says, You've rejected, you take the responsibility for rejecting. and putting to death the Prince of Life. And then verse 17, so important.
Now, brethren, he speaks to these Jews as his brothers. I know that you acted in ignorance just as your rulers did. I know. But the things which God announced before by the mouth of all the prophets, That his Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled. Where do you think he's going with that?
Isaiah 53, very likely. Therefore, repent and return. Is that not good news? You just killed the Prince of Life. And God is telling you, repent and return.
And when you do, Your sin. will be wiped away. That is literally what Jesus said when he was dying on the cross. Father, what? Forgive them.
They don't know what they're doing. You're ignorant. You did it in unbelief. Repent, return, that your sins may be wiped away. And then what will happen?
When you turn and you repent and your sins are wiped away, the times of refreshing will come. That's the kingdom. That's the kingdom. Because he will send Jesus, the Christ, appointed to you. That's his second coming to establish his kingdom.
Heaven must receive him now until the period of the restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient time. The kingdom, again, the promised Abrahamic covenant, Davidic covenant, the prophets reiterated, salvation and all the kingdom promises. They will come when Christ returns. Christ will return in the times of restitution, the times of restoration, the times of refreshing, when you repent. When you repent.
Verse 24, he says, All the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and his successors onward announce these days, the kingdom days. And you are still the sons of the prophets, and the covenant which God made with your father, saying to Abraham, In your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. For you first. God raised up his servant. That's Isaiah 53's title for him.
and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. You killed the Messiah, but God is not finished with you. The day will come when he turns you from your sins. and sends his son to set up His kingdom and fulfill his prowess. God's not through with Israel, folks.
Keep your eye on Israel. Their salvation is assured. By the promise of God. In the meantime, Salvation is open to all who call upon him. Uh You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.
Today we continued John's study titled The Gospel According to God.
Well, friend, clearly Isaiah fifty three has a lot to say about Jesus and his death on the cross. In fact, you may be wondering, does that chapter contain enough about the Gospel to bring a person to saving faith? Here is how John answered that question in our studio some years ago. If We had only The Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, or Matthew, Mark, and Luke, or Matthew. and no other gospel.
If we had the story of Christ, And none of the epistles. we could still explain the sacrifice of Christ Completely out of Isaiah 53. Yeah, in fact, I think Isaiah 53 probably gives the clearest, most definitive account of. The doctrine of substitutionary atonement anywhere in Scripture? It does, no question.
And that's supported by the fact that. most of our familiar expressions As we talk about the substitutionary work of Christ, come not from the New Testament, but come from Isaiah 53. Everybody knows he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. That's 700 years before Christ ever appeared. I like to think of Isaiah 53 as the first gospel.
Because if you go back to the beginning of the chapter and even into chapter 52, back to where chapter 52 ends. You have the incarnation, then you have the life of Christ, you have the work of Christ, you have the rejection of Christ, you have the trial of Christ, you have the death of Christ, you have the burial of Christ, you have the resurrection of Christ, you have the exaltation of Christ. You have an explanation of all the significance of the application of his atoning work. Yeah, even the doctrine of justification is there. That's absolutely right.
All the way to the glorification of Christ, and even the saints who are glorified with him at the end of Isaiah 53. That's why I like to think of it as the first gospel, and Matthew would, on those terms, be the second. Yeah, so every essential point of gospel truth is either implied or Explained in Isaiah 53. Yeah, and when you Compare Isaiah 53 with the full record of the New Testament Gospels and all the epistles that explain the significance of Christ's life, death, resurrection, exaltation. It is in perfect agreement.
There is nothing that differs in any sense from the detailed record of the Gospels. Or the explanation of the significance of Christ's death and resurrection by the epistles.
So 700 years before any of it happened, it is indicated what exactly will happen and explained the same way. That's right, friend, and those amazing truths and so much more about Christ's work described in Isaiah 53 are unpacked in detail in John's book called The Gospel According to God. This book will not only strengthen your love for Christ, it also will build your confidence in God's Word as you see Jesus' sacrifice on the cross clearly prophesied centuries before he was even born. Order your copy of The Gospel According to God when you get in touch today. To order by phone, call 80055 Grace during normal business hours that's weekdays from 7.30 to 4 o'clock Pacific time.
or purchase the Gospel according to God at our website anytime, that address is gty.org. The Gospel According to God costs $13.50 and shipping is free. Again, to order the gospel according to God, call 855 grace. That number, by the way, translates to 800-554-7223. or you can shop online at gty.org.
Also, keep in mind you can download John's current study in MP3 and transcript format. The Gospel According to God audio series is available at no cost to you, along with more than 3,600 other sermons, at gty.org. You'll also find numerous other Bible study tools at our website, including blog articles, daily devotionals, and much more. Explore all that's available to you for free at gty.org.
Now for the entire Grace DU staff, I'm Phil Johnson with a question. How exactly did people receive eternal life before Jesus came? Get answers from the Old Testament book of Isaiah as we continue John MacArthur's current study, the gospel according to God. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time. on Brace to You.
