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00:00:01 this morning's Bible portion is taken from Isaiah 52:3 um up to Isaiah 53:12 Isaiah 52:13 up to Isaiah 53:12 the suffering and glory of the servant see my servant will act wisely he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted just as there were many who were appalled him his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred Beyond human likeness so he will sprinkle many nations and Kings will shut their mouths because of him for they were not told they will see and what they have not
00:00:51 heard they will understand Isaiah 53 who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed he grew up before them 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 would desire him he was despised and rejected by mankind a man of suffering and familiar with pain like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised and we held him in low esteem surely he took our pain and bore
00:01:36 our suffering yet we considered him punished by God stricken by him and Afflicted but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities the punishment that brought us peace was on him and by his wounds we are healed we all like sheep have gone astray each of us has turned to our own way and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all he was oppressed and Afflicted yet he did not open his mouth he was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before it sharth his silent so he
00:02:20 did not open his mouth by oppression and judgment he was taken away yet who of his generation protested for he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people he was punished he was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death though he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin he will see his offspring and prolong his his days and
00:03:01 the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand after he has suffered he will see the light of life and be satisfied by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities therefore I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors for he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors this is the word of God thank you very much
00:03:47 Jesse the first thing people ask me when they come in the hall today hey how come a lot supper how how can you read Isaiah 53 and not do the Lord's Supper I may ask you so today as we go into this particular chapter and we do it with fear fear and trembling because it describes in intricate detail about our Lord and he did it for us so as we listen to his word let's meditate and have the meaning of his death sink in to us and as we take the Lord's Supper together let it be a response to what he
00:04:34 has done let's pray father Lord we ask go Lord that this day that you open up our ears and our hearts to your word from your Prophet that tells us why you came and what you did and how our lives should be patterned over your life your ministry and your future for us we pray this for Jesus sake amen uh the next week Elder yidan will be taking us in our journey through Isaiah after that Pastor palan will come with a mission message and an Lim will be taking us on an everlasting name from Isaiah 56 um where is the slide for Christmas
00:05:24 party I told you to marry it together please put it up why do we celebrate Christian festivals we are in the New Testament we don't celebrate all the seven festivals of the Old Testament but we do take the spirit of which they were actually given to us we celebrate the past and Thanksgiving we celebrate the uh okay here it is we've got the Christmas banquet on the 25th Christmas itself please buy tickets uh they available outside right now why do we do this can you have my previous slide we celebrate the past in
00:06:06 Thanksgiving and we celebrate in present what he has done and we anticipate the future if you look in the Old Testament Deuteronomy says you shall keep the feast so let's replace the word Feast with Christmas and you have gathered in the produce from your trashing floor and your wine press you shall rejoice in your Feast you your sons your daughters your male servants your female servants the levite the sjena the fatherless the Widow who are within your towns so when we celebrate Christmas we never do it
00:06:40 alone we do it generously sharing with the poor disenfranchised our neighbors and that's an opportunity for us buy tables invite people to come that they may share in the joy and glory of the Lord so I hope you guys purchase tickets or buy tables right to today we're going to look at peers for transgressions and this is the fourth of the servant songs if you look at Isaiah 53 it is a stunning passage it is the most widely quoted prophet in the New Testament all right uh poly who is a disciple of the Apostle
00:07:23 John describes it as the golden passional descri describing the the servant's death for us in the Old Testament Augustine called it the fourth gospel The Fifth Gospel and in fact if you remember in Acts chapter 8 the Ethiopian yunak was actually reading this particular chapter and he's wondering who is this and Philip came and told him we were with this person Jesus of Nazareth and that's how he came to know God on that day it is the root of gospel thinking and Theology and if you look at this particular passage you know that the
00:08:06 Jews read Isaiah 52 then they go to 54 they purposely avoid it because it points to the person of Jesus it's so powerful they don't read it so therefore as we we go through it you you remember what Isaiah said I am the Lord that is my name my glory I give to no other nor my praise to C Idols behold the former things have come to pass the things in the past the new things I now declare before they spring forth I tell you of them and the beauty of this is Isaiah is prophesying about the intricate details
00:08:45 and the process of crucifixion 750 years before it happened and only God can do it your horoscope cannot do it your Almanac cannot do it only God imagine 750 years years ago if you came to church you'll be riding a horse and 750 years ago would you imagine a world will change so much you got people climbing out in space you will never imagine that so imagine Isaiah telling you I'm going to tell you things that will happen 750 years in the future the three characteristics of the suffering servant I want to share with
00:09:26 you today his suffering his substitution and salvation now who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed the arm of the Lord is his strength what is his strength if you look back the is the Paradox of power he talks about behold my servant shall act wisely he shall be lifted up and then as many were astonished he he was his parents was so M Beyond human semblance his form was beyond that of children of mankind and then his glory and so shall he sprinkle
00:10:00 many nations he goes on so the Paradox of power is Glory humiliation and Glory that's a pattern so he grew up before him like a young plant like a root on the ground in fact if you look at Isaiah 750 years before Jesus comes this is the past tense it's so certain that it is a perfect past so that Isaiah is so sure of the Fulfillment he like a young plant like a root out of ground and this basically emphasizes the vulnerability that when Jesus came as a young baby and he grew up as a young sh vulnerable transient
00:10:42 and imagine this is the god of the universe and he comes from that Glory right down to us being a vulnerable Shute out of a tree a root out of dry ground dry ground talks about the a SE background in the village of Nazareth born in Bethlehem a Dro out of the most difficult circumstances desolation deprivation he has no Majesty that we should look at him you look at him he's not 6'5 he's not the handsomest guy around in fact you probably walk past Jesus Christ they' be trying to reconstruct His Image you know historians and I
00:11:25 think they came up with funnyl looking guy but I guess that's right funnyl looking guy because if you look at him you would have walk right past him he doesn't strike you as a movie star all right ordinary and that is the side of his humiliation and he was despised and rejected by man a man of sorrow acquainted with grief and one from whom men hide their face he was despised we esteem him not if he walks this way you walk the other way and he actually look down on him and in fact instead of worshiping him imagine if if you were
00:12:00 walk to walk past any of us it's okay old guy nobody cares we're talking about the king of the universe the creator of the universe he comes and he expects you as his creation to look at him in awe and instead we despise him we reject him we think nothing of him right he's acquainted with grief men hide their face from him we esteem him not right so basically we look down on him and that causes pain indignation humiliation rejection do you know that if you were to look down on someone all right and and cause him to
00:12:42 be humiliated you run a CT scan on him and Mari you'll find that the areas in your brain that register pain actually start to light up right so when people reject you there is actual pain there's physical pain registered in the brain you know what the Cure if your your girlfriend jilted you panador they have found that if you took panador it works under pain center so the next time you have a breakup take panador it is true uh so so we Not only was he rejected and looked down he has borne our griefs carried our sorrows we
00:13:21 esteem him stricken and smitten God we actually thought he was a criminal we esteem him stricken Smitten by God if you look at the Matthew chapter 27 and those who passed by derided him saying you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days save yourself if you are the Son of God and come down from the cross so therefore they actually taunted him right now and he was innocent all right if you look in verse n he made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death though he had done no violence and there
00:13:58 was no deceit in his mouth he suffered being innocent that is the point completely innocent now that's Jesus suffering the next thing is substitution we always talk about Jesus saving us bringing us to heaven but the question is how and that's something we need to deal how how does Jesus D on the cross make a difference to me some people say Well it's moral and Augustine was the first person who said that and he said Jesus comes and shows us how he lives a perfect life and ethical life right obedience right up to the end of death
00:14:42 and so that because of that we are all inspired to live like Jesus and sacrifice ourselves but but is that the reason how Jesus saves us then they've got the ransom theory in third Century Oregon one of of the church fathers came up and said because we sin therefore the devil holds us as Ransom we belong to the devil and so Jesus had to come and pay with his life and pay Satan and then we are ransome but the problem with that is you are putting God at the mercy of Satan so that doesn't quite work
00:15:25 out the other reason why evangelicals think the cross works is that Christ died on the cross and defeated the principalities and powers and that's correct but how does he defeat it by dying that theory doesn't answer it and what about the satisfaction Theory the satisfaction Theory put for by Anam years ago in the 12th century was that God is totally holy and just and if you sin against him therefore the balance of justice is affected and Jesus came to balance the Justice because if you don't punish
00:16:03 mankind who is unjust God but that doesn't quite answer all the questions look at the passage he was pierced for what our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities these words mean death we crushed and pierced on him was the chastisement that brought us peace which me issue of penalty issue of punishment and by his wounds we were healed so basically what happens that his death effects a cure from the consequences of sin and this is passage very important to understand because a lot of people have Twisted this passage
00:16:48 what they've done is that they've take a healing service and they claim this verse that says Ah by his stripes by his wounds you you are healed so therefore your cancer goes away and you can carry on your life that is not right you are ripping the passage apart if you look in the old the New Testament he himself bore our sins on his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness and he quotes Isaiah 53 by his wounds you have been healed that refers to our spiritual death by
00:17:26 oppression and judgment he was taken away as for his generation who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living stricken for the transgressions of his people again cut out which is die why because of the sin of his people and we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all every single one of us this passage singles all we all sin in our unique way your sin is different from my sin so it's easy for me to judge you for your sin but myself
00:18:06 known it we tend to do that but the Isaiah says everyone sins in his own way and the lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all and and and when he was laid on Jesus Christ he didn't protest he was oppressed Afflicted yet he opened not his mouth imagine you I would to oppress any one of you the first you not fair like a lamb that's led to the slaughter right he was willingly given in fact if you look at the life of Jesus Christ during the time of his passion he never once fought and protested he said some
00:18:50 words but he never defended himself he was willing to be a substitute verses 10 to 11 yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him he has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for Guilt so that's a reason why was he killed why was he suffering he was killed because an offering for sin what does this mean in fact if you look in the Old Testament you the New Testament you look that in Revelations 13 and those who dwell on Earth will worship it the the Beast everyone whose name was not been written before the
00:19:25 foundation of the world in the Book of Life In the Land who was slain which means what does this mean which means before the foundation of world there's a book of life and the Book of Life I hope your names are there is The Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain which means before the foundation of world God knew that his son would die that's the marvelous thing this is the most beautiful Act of Love which God had planned even before for the Advent of sin that means god knew sin was going to come in the world and God knew his
00:20:03 son was going to be slain right and and he was numbered with the transgressors he bore the sin of many and he made intercession for the transgressors remember him on on the cross and you know what he said forgive them for they know not what they do exact details and and this is a language of substitution in langu substitution you you in the Old Testament you you get the goat you put your hands on the goat and all the sin of the people of Israel the transgressions Zing it goes onto the goat and the Goat walks off into the
00:20:42 Wilderness to be eaten and to die and this is the language of substitution so if you look at Isaiah 53 it tells you that Jesus is that sacrificial animal but Hebrews tells us these sacrifices a reminder of sin every year it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away the sin they just basically form a shadow that actually looks for fulfillment in Jesus Christ and he's the perfect substitute you know why because he was perfect they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death who's the rich
00:21:19 man Joseph right Aria his his his uh tomb though he had done no violence and there's no deceit in his mouth Romans 3 says there is no distinction all have sined and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation for his blood to be received by faith so what did Jesus Christ do on the cross the word is propitiate which means allay God's Wrath satisfy God's justice that's why he had to die
00:22:00 RSV will use another word to translate that called expiate which is cleansing cancelling purging analan that is what happened on the cross and Jesus said I'm the Good Shepherd I know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me I know the father I lay down my life for the Sheep so basically why did Jesus die on the cross Jesus died in our place to take our punishment the theological term is called penal substitution when he died yes there's a ransom but not paid to Satan but to set the record straight there's satisfaction
00:22:45 of Justice Christ is the Victor he inspires us to live but the main central point of why he died was to pay for our sin because he is a just and holy God and so therefore he could can't let sin skap by now suffering substitution the last part is salvation and this part is very easy it was the will of Lord to crush him it's not an accident he put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for Guilt he shall see his offspring he shall prolong his days this talks about Resurrection the will of the Lord shall prosper in
00:23:24 his hands so it's ultimately God's plan all along it's all planned out and what did he achieve out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant make many to be accounted righteous he shall bear their by bearing your sin he makes you righteous that's what he did therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death right so this is the the passage of which we have to meditate on today we
00:24:04 all know it how do you actually apply it what difference does it make let me challenge you to say the first thing is that when you read this passage we need to take it in and use it and the first thing that we do is that we need to enjoy a greater peace you see we like sheep have gone astray each one to his own way we each sin in our individual way there's and and this difficult thing about the sin there are some sins that we always do if you think back very carefully you don't do all the sins there's a particular sin
00:24:44 which you are vulnerable to which you are going to fall in each time and and you stray in this most painful way and every time you come back to the Lord so I forgive by my sin I I I confess and I'm still oh same old and you feel like giving up as if it will never work out so so when you come to God today you say God please accept me you know why because I'm doing my very best to live my Christian life and you know what we're saying we're saying that that that God will accept me today because of my efforts to live the
00:25:19 best Christian Life have you ever thought about that I have gone many times please accept me but that doesn't work you know why you won't get the peace because how hard you try you know you can try even harder so it's a bottomless pit please accept me because I believe in you I repented of my sin I'm devoted to serving as an Asher as a deacon as an elder I'm I'm doing all that but you know why that doesn't bring any peace because no matter how dedicated you are you could be more faithful you could be more
00:25:57 repentant and remorseful you could be more devoted isn't it and it's not enough and that's a problem you know Martin Luther 500 years ago had the same issue he actually was a dedicated Monk and at lightning storm one day the lightning nearly hit him he fell off his horse and he out of Terror he says he prayed to St an and said look you know after I will be a monk so he becomes a monk because he being a monk is a good Christian and he start to pray every day and he was grappled with sin in his life and in fact if you look at
00:26:38 him some of us have difficulty coming once a month for prayer meeting he has 6 hours of prayer every day and the six hours is only of confession because every time he confess he's thinking of new ways to sin again and he's got be setting in the same seat again and again and again and he can't get rid of it right and in fact the first time he had let Mass if you know Catholic they have mass and they they convert the bread into the actual Body of Christ his father was sitting right there in front
00:27:11 of him he had a nervous breakdown because he couldn't believe that he could be holy enough to tra to change the bread into the body of Christ and then once he went to Rome and he went to the arch B of St John the Lin and these got these steps you know these steps were transported by the knights from Jerusalem and they were the very steps that Jesus walked up to panus pilate before he was condemn so what they did they they dismantle the steps and bring it to this church and if you were to climb up these steps then you
00:27:53 would win enough Merit that will actually lessen the years of purgatory for your relatives so he actually climbed up these steps for the sake of his grandfather because he wanted him to spend less time in purgatory at the top of the steps you know what he said he says I don't know whether it's true or not and then the verse sprang to his mind the just shall live by his faith from habac and that got bartin Luther thinking you see Isaiah says the lord has laid on his him the iniquity of us all which means
00:28:32 today all your sins every single bit of it no matter how hard you try your besetting sins the characteristic sins are actually laid on Christ already already so therefore we have been justified by faith we at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ the trouble is we don't believe it we don't live it and we still think that we need to do a lot of other things in order that God will look at us and say Well done good and faithful servant my righteous servant you see when Christ died on the cross the last thing he ever said was it
00:29:19 is finished and sometimes the way we live our lives we live as if it's not finished he do halfway I do the other halfway and and in fact the first church actually made a lot of mistakes on that they they translated the word metan Noah which is which is uh Greek for change of mind into Penance which means you have to do something instead of repenting you're actually doing penants you go to confession you do Mas you buy indulgences you see the beautiful thing about Christianity that's different from
00:29:54 any other religion it is based on a finished work there's nothing you can do to add to that work to make you more acceptable to God or less acceptable to God it's hard to grasp this in our brains Martin Luther concluded God does not need your good works but your neighbor does and that is an astonishing work it's not that good works are no good but the good works that you do today no matter how hard you try will never bring you to heaven they have got no merit but your neighbor needs your good works you see it's what you do but how
00:30:30 you live but how you live is determined by who you trust so whole issue about the gospel is about trust if you have faith in your Idols Philippians Paul says their end is their destruction the God is their belly the glory in their shame and their minds are set on Earthly things then you wake up in the morning the first thing you think about is your job because you have an idol the first thing you think is about something else because your faith is in your Idols if your faith is in Christ Our citizenship is in heaven from
00:31:02 whom we await the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ will transform our lowly bodies to be his glorious Body by the power that enables him to subject even all things to himself that is the vision we have and we live our lives based on that reality based on their Outlook which means you plant your feet on that one stump that will never wither away you put your hopes your dreams your Ambitions your emotions your values your priorities there it is an attitude it is a change met Noah is a change of your mind instead of focusing
00:31:39 on all those other things which are Idols we change it and focus on the purpose of living on that one Jesus Christ and that will bring us peace number two if you look at Isaiah 53 it should Inspire us to you deeper repentance you know why don't we repent why why is our repentance shallow well shallow because we are we are focused on so many other things we basically mourn but we our mourning is momentary just a little while maybe come to service come up here people pray for you cry cry a bit then
00:32:16 go home a lot of people is like that no it doesn't last or maybe we put all our righteous Deeds no I I I gave 10% I helped that person out against our evil deeds and you put them together it's not so bad 50% and so therefore we don't feel the repentance or or hey I'm not the only one who took extra helping I cheated the guy the whole church did it I'm not the only why who who who did that wrong deed because what we are trying to do is we're we're looking at everybody else so The Benchmark is everybody else The
00:32:54 Benchmark is never Jesus Christ you know so therefore if the Benchmark is never Jesus Christ is your neighbor the neighbor is just as sinful as you right so therefore we don't reach repentance and and and lastly your accomplishments we seem to think that the more things we accomplish for God they actually compensate for our sin because we serve the Lord we preached the sermon we sang the the the song we we went to Alpha we were facilitated right so therefore that will diminish my culpability you see those are things
00:33:28 that cause us not to repent see modern day preachers love to tell us that Jesus will meet our needs Martin Luther will tell you why you need Jesus and we've been distracted by why we need Jesus in fact William Perkins uh Old English preacher he says the greatest repentance incentive repentance that every man must be settled without a doubt that he was the man that crucified Christ you must see today the beautiful words with Isaiah writes pierc for whose transgression yours if you look at how Jesus
00:34:14 suffered this is a tiny picture I don't think even looks like him it's worse because Isaiah says they were astonished his appearance of be so M Beyond human semblance his form be beyond that of the children which me he look inhuman have you ever seen someone who been so beaten up that he doesn't look like a human being and you look at it who did it the Roman gods did it pilate did it Herod did it today you did it whenever you have sinned don't look at everybody else look at the picture of Jesus Christ and in your heart decide
00:34:56 that you are the one in your sins put him on the cross every single sin you've had in your life the one today tomorrow are the ones that inflicted that blow onto his face so that he did not look like a human being and when you do that it brings you to deeper repentance that's the Benchmark you see I've been crucified with Christ it's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me you see the
00:35:33 person who loved you you go and punch his face that's exactly what the cross is saying your sins beat him so badly that he could not be recognized and if you look at that it is the love that he has given to us that brings us impetus to deeper repentance Isaac watt's famous song My richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on All My Pride When I Survey the Wondrous Cross and I pray that that will be your experience as we Survey the Wondrous Cross as we take the Lord's Supper my last point is that not
00:36:13 you get a deeper peace a deeper repentance we need to think about embracing servanthood and suffering one Peter says for to this you have been called because Christ for you leaving you an example so that you might follow his steps you know you go to Jerusalem every Easter somebody will be carrying the cross and and the pilgrims will come and there are 14 stations in this called the Via Delarosa the way of suffering and for you it's only Easter 14 stations but that's not what Peter says Peter says Christianity is the way of
00:36:58 suffering the way of the Cross we are to carry that cross right Romans the Philip the spirit Bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children then a then AES of God and fellow AES with Christ provided we suffer with him in order that we may glorify with him the Via doosa is our path and we live in a kind of Christianity that that this is very alien you know why because we live in a society where the lifespan is different Roman times of 25 years Medieval Times is 33 years 1900 is 55 years today in
00:37:39 Malaysia 75.2 so you don't see death we hide death very carefully make sure we don't attend any funeral party we go Fellowship we go but we don't attend funerals infant mortality Roman times 25% did not survive the first year 50% died before 10 years of age Medieval Times infant mortality 50% 1900 16.5 today even Malaysia 0.5 so we don't see suffering and Timothy Keller writes which which is true for Western Society is true of us in KL within the Western secular view of Life suffering is seen as Interruption
00:38:19 of the freedom to live as make you happiest the circumstance that cause suffering And the emotions that go with it must be removed and minimize or managed that's why modern Christianity is all about removing your pain right so which in in our Horizons our work career business everything else it does not include suffering is an interruption to our careers suffering is Interruption to that beautiful vision and dream of Life which we've all bought into see we have a plan the only sacrifice of suffering is unemployed
00:38:58 lack of promotion lack opportunities that's our suffering it's not about via delar Roa but we live in the world of suffering is it look at this video some poor Indian woman walking on Jalan Masjid Nara mid India sorry remind me never walked there and then she falls inside we live in we don't even know where she is today but we know she's not alive we we live in a world full of suffering uh one of the most beautiful young ladies Emma actually follows the the uh the Dutch composer and and Orchestra all around the world
00:39:39 singing beautiful voice backstage they stick a tube into her stomach her stomach is paralyzed and this actually a death sentence and what keeps her alive is the fluids going through his St we try to ignore the pain but backstage is a reality and we live a world where we suppress all this and if you have suffering you either fail in your faith or you God is failing you as God that's how we tend to interpret it and then we even we suffer we suffer to to gain something this Mohamad Bazi 2011 he got so fed up with his
00:40:16 government he set himself on fire and as a result of his sacrifice people revolted against the Moroccan dictator and overthrew him and that Lit the fires of the Arab Spring all one by one all the dictators fell but if you read the newspapers today new dictator is there hardly 14 years whatever he burned himself for a new dictator comes it is actually pointless suffering Keller writes suffering is the heart of the Christian faith is not the only way Christ it is not only the the way Christ became like
00:40:58 and redeemed us but it is one of the main ways we become like him and experience his Redemption and that means our suffering despite its painfulness is also filled with purpose and usefulness it's not purposeless it is not random because of what Christ has done on the cross every bit of suffering which the world sees as pointless actually has a point for us on the cross we suffer by giving up letting go of self-interest we accept rejection and persecution just like Jesus Christ did and if we think Christianity is a great
00:41:40 worship session with music that's not the power because Taylor swi can do it better than you it's a fact no matter how good our our worship is great our Kim Sings like an angel but it's never going to be as good as Taylor Swift if you can gain political power you think that's the answer you see the cross makes a difference when everybody runs from the fire and the fire run man runs towards the fire and when you run towards the fire people set up oh yes there's something different about these people
00:42:17 that's what the cross means Oswell Sanders tells a story in India of a man who was a evangelist he went and and basically preached in this Village and everybody laughed at him and ignored him and he being traveled through many many villages he was so tired he fell asleep and the tree and then he woke up you know what happened a huge crowd gathered around him he says better tell us more about your Jesus you know why when he fell asleep the villagers came and saw his feet were full of blisters and because they were filled
00:42:52 with blisters they wondering what is mad fellow will do and suffer so much to come and tell us about this we better listen you see it's what we do when we instead of running away from the fire the fire B runs towards the fire I got a request from East Malaysia from Roomba and we're talking about this gentleman who's standing there and and is basically sharing the gospel and uh his name is Roy Lee and you know you complain about the traffic jam in fact in gamma we afraid to have it physical you know why people
00:43:27 say traffic jam in KL terrible Wednesday they won't come you you see the picture of the road that's 5 hours on the motorbike 5 hours on a motorbike and he goes and and Roomba is asking for how much for a month for him 600 ring and he travels 5 hours on that motorbike which is going to die soon if you look at the kind of motorbike that makes people sit up and see that the Christianity is real that Isaiah 53 Is Not Just an Illusion or a concept it is a reality that pulsates to the life of Christians let
00:44:10 me ask you a question all got funeral how many of you go with would go to the party put your hands up ah you know it's a trick question right isn't it so all of you will go to the funeral right oh the sin of hypocrisy is so rif in this church oh it's a fact you know Elders have no choice but to go to funeral you think I like her isn't it but we are hypocrites isn't it look at the wisdom of scripture the wisdom of scripture says it's better to go to the house of mour than to go to the house of feasting for it is the end
00:44:54 of all mankind and the living will late to Heart sorrow is better than laughter for by sadness of the face the Heart Is Made glad the heart of the wise is in the house of the morning but the heart of the idle fo is in the house of the m so the next time FBC has a funeral we'll know who are the wise in fact it's true it's so hard to get people to play guitar even for our funeral it's a fact because this the you see what what what the the the preacher in Ecclesia saying that there's something there's a date in your
00:45:39 life brothers and sisters that's inevitable one the date is death you can never run and yet we don't think about it going to a funeral makes us think about this reality in our life and makes us prepare so we when we ever we go to suffer Corinthians says blessed be God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies and of all God of all Comforts who Comfort Us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are now in any infliction you see I mean so the the suffering that we have which
00:46:17 the non-Christian will think is random and purposeless is actually redeemed and and when we go through the suffering we don't have a high priest that doesn't haven't gone through your suffering he's gone through all your suffering and even worse and in fact there somebody who was complaining uh uh and he said to the pastor I lost my son you know how it feels where is God when I lost my son and RC sproll look at this man in the face God was exactly where he was when he lost his son did you know on the
00:46:55 cross the worst thing in the world is said you have to bury your son do you know that you rather bury yourself than bury your son I'm I'm every parent will tell you that but the father God experienced because of the Trinity he is the pain of the son dying and the pain of the father letting the son die and being the one that meets out that punishment and that's a double suffering which we will never experience and so you don't tell me whatever pain you went through that God doesn't understand God understands and
00:47:28 more let me end this the most valuable diamond in the world it's cool diamond 105.6 carats and the British stole it from the Indians it's such a valuable Diamond you know why they keep it the Tower of London surrounded by an army of gods you know that when and then the poor Indians got to go to pay money to to see their own Diamond that's the best you admire the British for that right maybe in difficult times now they should consider selling it back Corinthians says we have this treasure in Jars of Clay to show that
00:48:15 the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us I want you to think about this last verse The Treasure of the Gospel of Jesus Christ death is so enormous more than the five carrots you and I would have thought that kind of treasure we better hide inside Tower of London and have an army of gods and instead God puts that treasure that gospel into Jars of Clay you and I sinful weak ordinary fragile replaceable vessels that suffer and break or when those jars break the light of the Gospel shines out and touches the world so when you're
00:49:10 suffering the world looks at you how come this common fragile ordinary person hangs on to the gospel hangs on his faith stands by his trust in his Lord Jesus Christ and this transforms the world it's not the power of the state it's not how well you sing it's how well you suffer for him so we're going to partake of the Lord's Supper when we play this music background music take out your elements with us and we need to meditate on what Isaiah 53 means means to us that it'll bring us greater peace
00:50:01 because we don't have to try so hard anymore we just lay it at the feet of Jesus he's done it a deeper repentance because every single one of your sins put him there and be willing to walk the road that he walked when you take these elements you know what you're saying you're saying Jesus you walk on the Via Delarosa I'm willing to walk with you if you are not willing to walk with him please don't take because you'll be a hypocrite however difficult it is but but but you don't walk alone you walk
00:50:43 with him every single step when when when when Shadrach mishak Abednego were thrown into the F fire they weren't there alone there was another person that was Jesus and Jesus is going to be with you in that furnace in your life together father Lord we we are all and words cannot describe emotions that dwell up from this act done 2,000 years ago and because what of what you have done we can't imagine what would happen 750 years from now except to know as before and as today and as in the future Jesus you will reign you will
00:51:34 reign supreme and oh Lord as your people how beautiful are the feet that bring the sound of good news and the love of our King how beautiful the hands that serve the wine and the bread and the sons of the Earth how beautiful how beautiful at this song invites us into that picture that we with Jesus Christ as earn vessels surrounded by the glory of his majesty and love we are part of that picture so may God's people depart with that Vision in your hearts never to forget it we ask this for Jesus sake
00:52:21 amen those who would like us to pray with you uh our elders on hand and and pastors to minister during this time
