Jesus Lifted Up by Brett Hickey, sermon #998 2 of 5
Jesus Lifted Up
Welcome to Let the Bible Speak. Jesus says in John 12:31-36, “‘Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.’ This He said, signifying by what death He would die. The people answered Him, ‘We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up'? Who is this Son of Man?’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.’ These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.” We probe this passage and Jesus Lifted Up, after our song…
Are you fighting discouragement today? No matter how positive and upbeat you may be, we all go through dark and difficult times. Unless we fight ferociously against it, despair will get the better of us. How can we more effectively wage this war?
My earliest recollections of worship were attending church with my grandparents in El Centro, CA. We had a hymn book with over 650 songs, but usually a song was chosen from a list of about twenty. You could memorize the songs by their numbers. 229--Victory in Jesus; 455—I’ll Live in Glory; 343—It Won’t be Very Long; and 365—Home of the Soul. I appreciate all of those, but one seems to continue grow in meaning than the others for me: 68 Count Your Blessings.
When you are down, do you ever stop and enumerate your blessings? If you need divine assistance in recognizing your blessings and overcoming discouragement, explore Ephesians 1 on being a member of the body of Christ; Psalm 23 on having the Lord as your Shepherd and Psalm 119 on enjoying the blessings that attend the word of God. As a Christian, if you target any of these and meditate on them, they will help bring you through the Valley of Despair.
This morning, though, let’s consider Romans 8:16-18, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
When you weigh some of the trials and difficulties that you have had to endure and perhaps even are presently enduring, you may question the point of your existence, but the Spirit says the joys, blessings, and glory that will be revealed FAR surpass, in a positive way, the burdens you bear. Does it sound too good to be true? Imagine the old-fashioned balancing scales. Make two lists. Label one column “problems” and the other “blessings.” Under the “problems” side write down your top ten worries, troubles, sicknesses, and injustices. Now go to the other side and write four words: “Jesus died for me.” Now, do you even need to continue the list? I don’t! I see the scales tipping abruptly with that one item. We are stopping to consider just how much we value in Jesus. Is the death of Christ and all it accomplished on your behalf what matters most in your life? In the final analysis, does anything else matter?
The world has been captivated by many different events: the first walk on the moon, the assignation of John F. Kennedy, the O. J. Simpson trial, the tragedy of 9/11, the Super Bowl, the countdown on New Years’ eve. But stop and consider that no event has captured the imagination of all cultures as has the crucifixion of Christ. Jesus predicted in John 12:32, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself." (arms up) Who could have projected such a response to a mere three to three and a half year ministry of a poor, humble, itinerant preacher (unlicensed by the Sanhedrin board of rabbis)? But, here we are, nearly two thousand years where men and women of every racial background, culture, and economic condition are drawn to Jesus by His sacrificial death on their behalf.
According to the Princeton Religion Research Center, “On a nationwide telephone survey taken by the Gallup Poll in March 1989, a sample of 500 adults was read a list of eight prominent figures in history (Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Leonardo da Vinci, John Wayne, Napoleon, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, and Jesus Christ) and asked to name those they would most like to spend a day with. Nearly two in three (63%) named Jesus Christ as the person they most would like to meet on that memorable day.” Impressive, considering how very secularized our society has become in recent decades. Again, Jesus said, “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me.”
Yes, our preaching should center on the cross, but that’s not Jesus’ point here. By “lifted up”, Jesus meant the fact of the cross itself. John 12:33, “This He said, signifying by what death He would die.” Imagine, Jesus the carpenter, knowing ahead of time about the events of His final hours on earth. Every hammer’s blow, like a dripping faucet, was a painful reminder that it “behooved Christ to suffer” – that He who created the tree must one day be nailed to one.
The cross stops all of us in our tracks – even the angels. I like to think of the angels as the heavenly insiders. What could we possibly have over them? But Peter tells us that even the angels were captivated by this chain of events. 1 Peter 1:12, “things which angels desire to look into.” Only the most calloused and detached could shrug his shoulders at “Jesus…lifted up.”
To the hardened Jews the cross was “Yesterdays news,” but to the church it was and is the story that never grows old and the foundation of the greatest, most successful institution of all time – the church of Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:16-18). Truly, “for those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.”
“If I be lifted up, I will draw all people unto myself.” Jesus lifted up is a source of strength amidst the struggles and strife of the Christian life. Hebrews 12:1-2, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” There is certainly joy set before us as well that enables us to endure. Isn’t this what the apostle Paul was alluding to in Romans 8:18? “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Similarly, we read in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
We were lifted up from the watery grave of baptism and where the world only sees water, we see blood; we see Jesus lifted up on the cross and lifted up from the grave. At baptism we were given crimson-colored glasses. If you filter your troubles and triumphs through the blood of Jesus you can have the peace, rest, humility and meekness that the Lord supplies.
Jesus was lifted up on the cross so your spirits could be lifted up, so you’d have an unsurpassed reason for living and hope in dying. Jesus was lifted up so one day you’d be lifted up with Him to that heavenly city.
Assembling around the Lord’s table today, we see Jesus lifted up in the bread and a cup of the fruit of the vine, uncorrupted, unchanged in the Lord’s house for twenty centuries.
“If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me.” Part of me, out of curiosity, wishes I was there when Jesus was lifted up so I could get the full effect. Video presentations of the crucifixion are powerfully moving, but what was it like for those who witnessed history’s greatest act of love in person. Of course, there is a part of me that is glad I was spared. The image in my mind is vivid enough. As one gospel song puts it, “I see my sin and what it cost when I see the cross.”
For sure, Jesus lifted up was more complicated than the Roman soldiers, Pilate or even the Jewish rulers could have realized. What does “Jesus lifted up” mean to you? To the Jews, Jesus lifted up meant extinguishing the greatest threat to their system, their security, and their authority. To Pilate, Jesus lifted up meant political survival. To the Roman soldiers, Jesus lifted up merely meant another day at work. And they were all duped by the devil who himself was caught in his craftiness, in the web he himself had spun. The apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:8, “which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
And while Jesus was lifted up, He said in Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." We know Jesus part in the cross, but I think at times we lose sight of what the Father endured when Jesus was lifted up. How does the Father figure into all of this? We remember the outburst of pure emotion when Jesus cries out with a loud voice (Matthew 27:46), "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
Jesus was like a lamb before shearers opening not his mouth (Isaiah 53). Jesus says so little, in fact, leading up to and through the agonies of the cross that we sometimes call them the Seven Words. But now, the Father says even less. Try reading Isaiah 53 like you have never made the connection to the cross. Empathize with the ignorance of the eunuch of Acts 8.
Years ago I remember lying in bed with Joey when he was a boy reading to him from this great prophetic chapter. About half way through, Joey asked, “Who is he, dad?” I said, “Let me finish and I’ll tell you.” I read a few more verses and he asked, “Is it God?” “Well, yes, Joey,” I said, “it’s about Jesus.”
So what does Isaiah tell us about the Father? Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.” Have you ever pondered that? How could King Jesus be bruised and as a result the Father be pleased? Jesus bruised, the Father pleased?
The verse is both frightening and comforting. You know, some religious folks are just sure that “God is too loving and forgiving to punish anyone, to torment any of His creatures eternally.” Of course, that’s only the wisdom of man and it is exposed right here. Listen, if as part of God’s plan it pleased God to bruise His sinless Son – to allow His only begotten son to be beaten and bruised, tortured and tormented hour after hour – don’t think for a moment that the unconverted and impenitent, the unbelieving and disobedient will be spared God’s wrath.
Isaiah 53:10 is more reassuring to me, though, than it is frightening. How great is God’s love! I’m reminded of another song in that Sacred Selections songbook. Number 225 – The Love of God, 3rd verse.
Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.
Now, I love my fellowman. I grieve over men dying in sin, but I can’t do and I can’t feel, as a father, what our heavenly Father did and felt. I could not be pleased if I was the father and it was my son on the cross! My love is limited while His love is infinite. Hopefully, my love is growing while His love is ever constant.
Don’t misunderstand: when Isaiah said, “It pleased the Lord to bruise him,” he was still speaking of the most painful of all Divine experiences. So, how and why was God pleased to bruise His son? Certainly not because Jesus had it coming. He never did anything wrong. It was not because the Father liked to reward faithfulness with flogging or sinless perfection with punishment. Look back at Isaiah 53:5, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” Personalize it. Jesus was wounded for Brett’s transgressions, bruised for Brett’s iniquities. God chose to adopt and those adopted would be His own sons and daughters, despite our flaws and failings.
How did it please the Lord to bruise him? How could this be? You see, after we sinned, God could preserve His holiness in one of two ways: 1) by tormenting sinful man for eternity; or, 2) by torturing to death the eternal Word in human flesh. True, the latter outweighted the just penalty for man’s sin, but there was no other payment sufficient, and so the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit were willing to redeem us at the awful, inflated price, and so the deed was done and it pleased the Lord. Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to drive this truth home in Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.”
When we ponder the cross, we point our finger at the Roman soldiers who drove the nails, at Pilate who tried to wash his hands of Jesus, at the Jewish leaders who orchestrated the shameful crime, and at Judas who sold him out. They deserve the scorn, but Jesus had to die because of MY sin. Jesus was not dragged, kicking and screaming, but as “the lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Satan did not catch God by surprise in some last minute stunt. No, as Peter put it in Acts 2:23, “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death…” See, there is God’s part and man’s part in the crucifixion just as there is God’s part (grace) in the plan of salvation and man’s part (obedient faith).