The Bible Breakdown

Isaiah 53: The is What Our Freedom Costs

• Brandon Cannon • Episode 631

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Speaker 1:

Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Isaiah 53, and today's title is this is what Our Freedom Costs this is what our freedom costs. This is going to be a heavy chapter, but powerful, and I'm excited to share it with you. But before we do that, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us that five-star review and, as always, make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook, because the more we dig, the more we find. I want you to do me a favor today, and that is for the first time ever, unless you just really want to. I don't want you to open up your Bible today. Of course, if you want to, please do. But as I read this in a minute, I want you to use your imagination, because this chapter is so powerful and so illustrates what Jesus went through on the cross that for a long time, a lot of Jewish people who were not Christians, who didn't support Christianity, they tried to discredit Isaiah 53.

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There's some historical evidence that says that, before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, which you can look back and you can research and figure out all that information. Some of the earlier scrolls that they had of Isaiah was after the time of Jesus. They had some in other places, but the ones in white circulation were after the time of Jesus. And there were some scholars Jewish scholars, liberal scholars who said that they thought that Christians had inserted Isaiah 53 because it so explicitly describes what crucifixion is like, that they said there is no way. It is so pinpoint, accurate as to what happened to Jesus that there is no way that this could have been in the original copy Until the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. And they discovered some scrolls of Isaiah that were years and years and years and years before the life of Jesus, and Isaiah 53, word for word, was in there. And because of that there were so many people who just had to declare okay, there's something to this Jesus, because it so explicitly prophesies what was going to happen to Jesus. And you've got to understand too. This is like 300, 700 years, rather before the time of Jesus, when the idea of crucifixion had not been invented yet. They would have not had any idea how to figure out. Well, when the coming Messiah comes, how is this going to happen to him. How can one person endure all of this? There is no system, there is no thing that would create this much suffering. But the reality is is they were going to invent this thing called crucifixion, to which the word excruciating was invented to describe what happens to somebody when they're being crucified One of the worst ways to die that humans have ever been able to manage and if you're interested in such things, you should do some research on what the crucifixion is. And Jesus willingly went to the cross to be that sacrificial lamb for our salvation.

Speaker 1:

This chapter is so powerful that, now that you know the background behind it, I'm going to read it and I'm going to pray for us. I'm going to read our memory verse and we're going to be done. I really have nothing more to add to this other than the chapter. This is what our freedom cost. And I will say this last thing. That is why it breaks my heart when people think that when they get saved, they now have a free right just to go on sinning. Now, I'm not talking about people who are struggling with sin and people who are trying to find freedom. I mean the ones who then celebrate their sin hey, jesus has washed away all my sins. So I'm just going to sin all I want. When you read chapters like this and you see what our sin cost our Savior, I don't now sin because of what he did. I live free because of what he did. Let's read this together right now.

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Ready Isaiah 53, verse 1.

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Use our imagination.

Speaker 1:

Who has believed our message and to whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the Lord's presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected. A man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried, it was our sorrows that weighed him down and we thought his troubles were a punishment from God. But a punishment was for our own sins. But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so that we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

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All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.

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We have left God's path to follow our own.

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Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and, as a sheep is silent before its shearers, he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants and that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants and that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong and he had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal and he was put in a rich man's grave.

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But it was the Lord's good plan to crush him and to cause him grief. Yet his life is made an offering for sin. He will have had many descendants and he will enjoy a long life, and the Lord's good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied and because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him honors of a victorious soldier. Because he exposed himself to death, he was counted among the rebels and he bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels. Wow, that's what our freedom costs. But I will say this Hebrews chapter 12 says it was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross, even though he despised the shame. In other words, jesus didn't want to go to the cross, he didn't want to experience that, but he was willing to because of his great love for us.

Speaker 1:

Let's pray God. Thank you so much for taking my place, god, everything that you went through on the cross was mine. Every nail belonged to me. The crown of thorns belonged to me. The stripes on your back belonged to me. The spear in your side belonged to me. The mocking and the ridicule it all belonged to me, but you took it so that I could be set free. Thank you for the cross and, lord, I'm thankful as well that you didn't stay dead, but three days later you're alive and you live forevermore, and because you are alive, I can have life. Thank you. Today, in Jesus' name, we pray amen and we'll say this with me. Isaiah, chapter 12, verse two God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has given me victory. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Isaiah, chapter 54.

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Brandon Cannon

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