Monday, December 8th Nehemiah 1

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Joel 1-3, Revelation 6

Today's scripture focus is Nehemiah 1

Nehemiah 1 English Standard Version (ESV)

Report from Jerusalem

1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.

Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”

Nehemiah's Prayer

4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord,let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”

Now I was cupbearer to the king.

Accompanying Ray Stedman sermon: Don't Despair - Begin to Repair
Accompanying David Legge sermon: The Man for the Hour
Accompanying Matt Chandler sermon: Empathy and Human Flourishing and Rebuilding With Prayer

The book of Nehemiah is, of course, about the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.  But it is so much more than that.  As Stedman points out:

This book is also the story of the restoring of a people from ruin and despair to a new walk with God. Jerusalem is not only an historic city which has for centuries been the center of the life of the nation of Israel (and, in fact, the center of the biblical record), it is also a symbolic city. Jerusalem is also used in a pictorial sense throughout the Scriptures. What it pictures is the place where God desires to dwell. When the city was first designated to King David as the place where God wanted him to build the temple, he was told that this was the place where God would dwell among his people. Jerusalem therefore, throughout the Old and New Testaments, has pictured the place where God seeks to dwell. However, it is only a picture -- it is not the actual place where God dwells for, according to the New Testament, man is to be the dwelling place of God. God seeks to dwell in the human spirit. That is the great secret that humanity has largely lost today, but which New Testament Christianity seeks to restore. The Apostle Paul's great statement in the letter to the Colossians is, "Christ in you, the hope of glory," (Colossians 1:27). This is God's provision and desire for man.

Jerusalem in ruins, therefore, is a picture of a life that has lost its defenses against attack and lies open to repeated hurt and misery. If you are at all acquainted with the world in which we live today, you will know that every time you turn your television on you are exposed to the hurt and misery of people whose walls have been broken down. Jerusalem in ruins is a vivid picture of their danger and despair. The book of Nehemiah depicts the way of recovery from breakdown and ruin to a condition of peace, security, restored order, and usefulness.
The book of Nehemiah is truly a step by step process of what to do if your life is in ruins.

The first step is seen in v4 - being willing to face the ruin in your life and bring it to God with a broken and contrite heart.

In Nehemiah's prayer he recognized the character of God, he repented of both personal and corporate sins (with no attempt to make excuses or shift blame), he reminded God of His promises (not because He needed reminding, but to remind him/us what God promised), and asked for help in the process of rebuilding.

And, of course, the only hope for change, the only hope to rebuild a ruined life, is not through our own self-will or effort or determination - but rather by the strength of God alone.

What I loved about Chandler's sermon is that he pointed out how intensely Nehemiah empathized with his people who were living in such horrible conditions - even while he was living in the lap of luxury, utterly removed from anything they were experiencing, and without Facebook to provide him pictures of the devastation.  He experienced intense compassion and was moved to do something about it.

Nehemiah's reaction is how God desires for us to react to the suffering around us.  If we want to truly love the body of Christ around us, we need to keep our own personal preferences secondary to God's, and focus on joy instead of the fleetingness of happiness. When we do life with that mindset, that is when compassion and empathy can flourish.

Chandler:  Our motivation for compassion and empathy can't be a drive-by guilting sermon. Our motivation for compassion, empathy, belonging, community, rebuilding walls, pouring ourselves out for others has to be the compassion we were shown in God rescuing us while we were sinners.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Nehemiah 2

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Amos 1-2, Revelation 7

Friday, December 5th Mark 16:9-20

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Hosea 9-10, Revelation 5

Today's scripture focus is Mark 16:9-20

Mark 16:9-20English Standard Version (ESV)

[Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9–20.]

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

9 [[Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

Jesus Appears to Two Disciples

12 After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

The Great Commission

14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, becausethey had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.]]

Accompanying John MacArthur sermon: The Fitting End to Mark's Gospel

These verses did not appear in the earliest manuscripts, but nothing in them contradicts other scripture.  In fact, it's mainly an amalgamation of other scripture.

MacArthur:  
verse 9 is taken right out of Luke 8:1 to 3. Verse 10 is taken from John 20, verse 18. Verse 12 is taken from Luke 24:13 to 32, the road to Emmaus account. Verse 13 is taken from Luke 24. Verse 14 is taken from Luke 24:36 to 38; verse 15 is taken from Matthew 28:19, you know that. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” That’s right out of Matthew 28:19. Verse 16 is taken right out of John 20:23 and verses 17 and 18, with all the signs and things, are drawn from a lot of sources.

Back in Matthew chapter 10, Mark chapter 6, Luke chapter 10, you remember the Lord gave to His Apostles the power to cast out demons and to do miracles. We see the same on Pentecost. We see the same going through the book of Acts. We’re told by Paul writing to the Corinthians that the signs of an Apostle were signs and wonders and mighty deeds. In the book of Acts, we know that Paul was saved from a snake bite at the end of the book of Acts, twenty-eighth chapter verses 3 to 6. We don’t have any illustration of drinking poison, we don’t know how that got thrown in. That doesn’t appear anywhere else in Scripture.

So what have we got here? We’ve got a patchwork collage that some early folks felt needed to be thrown together, all of which is scriptural with the exception of the kind of bizarre stuff about signs, in an attempt to help Mark get a better ending. Frankly, I think it’s a bad ending. We have all that information. It’s all kind of disjointed here. And I like Mark’s ending.

The last word that Mark wrote was the word “afraid, fear.” That’s kind of a key. They were afraid. Not in the sense that they were afraid for their lives or they were afraid of being harmed or that they were in danger. This is the word phobeofrom which we get phobia, which means an irrational experience. They’re literally experiencing bewilderment, amazement, astonishment, wonder. There are no human explanations. This thing ends in wonder....

This is absolutely consistent with how Mark ends everything. This is his pattern and this is the most amazing thing of all. He’s used this all the way along to punctuate absolutely everything. And he moves from one point of amazement to the next. So it ends where it ought to end. It’s not incomplete. It ends where he loves to end. It ends with amazement and wonder at the resurrection....

The story of Jesus is amazing. Isn’t every lesson amazing? Isn’t every word in the gospel of Mark amazing? Isn’t every miracle amazing? Isn’t every confrontation amazing? Isn’t every insight amazing? Isn’t everything about him stunning and overwhelming and why not end it all with the glory and wonder of the resurrection that proves He is the Son of God and we all walk away in amazement?

I’m amazed. I hope you are.
And that concludes our study on Mark!  See you next week as we dig in to Nehemiah.


Tomorrow's scripture focus: Nehemiah 1

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Hosea 11-12
Sunday's passage: Hosea 13-14
Monday's passage: Joel 1-3, Revelation 6

Thursday, December 4th Mark 16:1-8

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Hosea 7-8, Revelation 4

Today's scripture focus is Mark 16:1-8

Mark 16:1-8English Standard Version (ESV)

The Resurrection

16 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Accompanying John MacArthur sermon: Amazement at the Empty Tomb
Accompanying Robert Rayburn sermon: The Great Surprise

It is interesting to note that Mark names these women here, as well as at the crucifixion and burial.  These women saw Jesus did, saw Him buried, and saw the empty tomb.  They were witnesses.

Rayburn: The place of women as eyewitnesses of the resurrection has long been noted as a powerful argument for historicity of the Gospel’s accounts, for no one in that age inventing such a story and wanting it to be taken seriously would rest its credibility on the testimony of women....Judaism did not accept the testimony of women in court and so the early church would scarcely have placed them at the tomb unless their presence was a brute fact of history!

V9-20 do not appear in the most ancient manuscripts, so for all intents and purposes v8 is the end of Mark.

MacArthur: Mark ends his gospel with a blazing reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, gripping the souls of these women with wonder and astonishment.

Rayburn: what verse 8 underscores, with its account of the women’s bewilderment and fear, is the mystery, the dreadful, the awe-inspiring, the complacency-destroying, and the mind-shattering character of this historical event, the resurrection of Jesus. It is a warning to us not to sentimentalize this mighty event or to imagine that we really grasp the mighty power of God that brought it to pass. It is a warning not glibly and mindlessly to incorporate the resurrection into an otherwise predictable and ordinary view of life...

Can we escape death? Is it possible to surmount death? Is there a way to live on after death? These are the great questions of human existence and the fact that men think so little about them is the index of how profoundly they trouble and disturb him. He has no answer so he will not ask the question.

The women at Jesus’ grave Easter morning were the first human beings actually to see the reality of eternal life break upon the world and it shattered them; it terrified them. Eventually of course it filled them with an unspeakable and inexpressible joy. But first it confused them and frightened them; they ran away from the tomb because they were so afraid of what they had encountered. Something so tremendous, something erupting into our life from another world, something so powerful as to conquer our greatest enemy, all of this was more than they could manage at the moment. Could it be true? They were afraid even to hope. All the fears of death they had ever felt deep within themselves, all the fears they had so manfully kept at bay all their lives finally, unbidden, rushing into their hearts.

Whatever you do, however you think about these things, you are not to domesticate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Life breaking into the history of this world of death is the greatest thing that has ever happened and you hardly begin to understand what it is. It answers the great question of human existence in the most dramatic and decisive way possible. Death is so terrifying a thing we can hardly bear to think about it. The conquest of death is something of such terrible power that we cannot really take it in. But the resurrection of Jesus Christ is as much a fact as is our soon coming death and that is far and away the most important thing any human being can know. You must face death to learn of the conquest of death and so many miss the latter because they are unwilling to face the former. Screw up your courage and look death and your death in the eye and then turn and look at the Lord Jesus Christ who conquered death to give you life.

“I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus once said, “he who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and the one who lives and believes in me, truth be told, will never die.”
The importance of the resurrection of Christ cannot be understated.

MacArthur:  Mark ends it, where Mark by the providences of the Holy Spirit intended to end it, in wonder, in awe, as anyone’s response should be to the resurrection of Christ.

The resurrection thus is established as a fact of history, as a fact of theology by the angelic testimony. It is the most important event in the life of Christ. It is the most important event in the history of the world. It is the most important event in your life and mine because it is by His resurrection that we are justified and that we will live forever. To deny the resurrection is to deny the testimony of the facts. To deny the testimony of the angels, to deny the testimony of the eyewitnesses, to deny the testimony of Scripture, and to deny the truth of God.


Tomorrow's scripture focus: Mark 16:9-20

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Hosea 9-10, Revelation 5

Wednesday, December 3rd Mark 15:42-47

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Hosea 5-6; Revelation 3

Today's scripture focus is Mark 15:42-47

Mark 15:42-47English Standard Version (ESV)

Jesus Is Buried

42 And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45 And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46 And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

Accompanying Robert Rayburn sermon: The Burial of Jesus

Rayburn:
Theologians speak of the work of Jesus Christ as being performed in two states or conditions: the state of humiliation and the state of exaltation. The state of humiliation consists of the Son of God taking to himself a human nature, his entering the world as a man, having been conceived in the womb of his virgin mother, his living in the world subject to all the miseries of life, his rejection by men, his suffering, and his death on the cross. In other words, the state of humiliation is all the Son of God endured for our salvation. His state of exaltation then begins with his resurrection from the dead, his ascension to the Right Hand of God, his session, that is his sitting at the Right Hand of God the Father ruling over all things for the church, his coming again, and his judging of the world. In other words, the state of exaltation is all he does as our Savior after his suffering has been concluded.
In many ways, Jesus' burial was a part of his humiliation.  His burial was important because it testified to His death, and, quite frankly, the hopelessness of His disciples.  Burial expresses the finality of death and the burial of Jesus was no different.

But His burial was also the beginning of His exaltation.  He was not buried in a common grave, but rather in a rich man's tomb.

Rayburn also points out the personhood of the dead.  Because of the resurrection of Jesus, and the promise of our own resurrection, dead people are still dead people.  Yes, our soul is absent from the body, but the body will still have a role to play.  Rayburn argues against cremation for this reason - something I had never even thought of before.  Of course, the bodies of believers who have been cremated will still be resurrected, but Rayburn says... Decomposition is not cremation in precisely the same way a miscarriage is not an abortion. We are to practice our faith as Joseph of Arimathea practiced his. We are to affirm by our actions both the personhood of the body and our conviction that that self-same body will live again as did Jesus’ body. When Paul speaks of these things he assumes both that the dead body in the grave is a human being a person himself or herself – he too uses personal pronouns to speak of buried bodies, “they who are in their graves” – and he also assumes that Christians will have buried their dead as they did in apostolic times and ever thereafter until our own lifetime.

Jesus Christ sanctified the grave for us, not the crematorium! He sanctified a reverent procedure in which the person is laid to a rest, a rest from which we know he or she will soon awake. No one can confess and embody that faith by cremating a human body, a human being!...

If the dead body were an it, you could by all means burn it up to save money. But it is not an it; it is a he or she. You cannot burn up God’s people!
Interesting food for thought.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Mark 16:1-8

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Hosea 7-8, Revelation 4

December 2 - Tuesday - Tiffany

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Hosea 3-4; Revelation 2

Today's scripture focus is Mark 15:33-41

 

The Death of Jesus

³³ And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. ³⁴ And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ³⁵ And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” ³⁶ And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” ³⁷ And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. ³⁸ And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. ³⁹ And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
⁴⁰ There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. ⁴¹ When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

When I was in grade school and middle school the churches around us always did a passion play. And my family always acted in it. Usually as villagers, townspeople, though my little brother was the crippled healed boy for several years, and in my last few years I got to be a temple servant and angel.
There is one year I will never forget.
Rain had been forecasted, but the sky was clear as the play began.
By the time we reached the crucifixion scene, a massive thunderstorm had moved in. And when the narration read of Christ's final breath, a huge bolt of lightening split the sky and the thunder was deafening.

Of course, we couldn't raise Jesus up in the huge metal bucket truck, so the play was called on account of weather.
But I will never forget standing in the market place, facing the cross, and seeing God's awesome storm roll in as we re-enacted his son's death.

How much more awesome, frightening, would it have been to be on the hill that day? To see that curtain split from TOP to bottom?

God mourned that day. His Son took all sin on himself, and God mourned the loss of His Son, and the world could not deny it.
 

 

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Mark 15:42-47

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Hosea 5-6; Revelation 3

Monday, December 1- by Pamela

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Revelation 1, Hosea 1-2

Today's scripture focus is Mark 15:22-32

²² And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). ²³ And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. ²⁴ And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. ²⁵ And it was the third hour^[a] when they crucified him. ²⁶ And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” ²⁷ And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left.^[b] 29 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, ³⁰ save yourself, and come down from the cross!” ³¹ So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. ³² Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

And they crucified him (verse 24) When they crucified him (verse 25) And with him they crucified two robbers (verse 27) The reality of what happened to Jesus echoes in this passage. Jesus was crucified.

The dictionary says:

cru•ci•fy (ˈkru səˌfaɪ) 

v.t. -fied, -fy•ing.

1. to put to death by nailing or binding the hands and feet to a cross.

2. to persecute or torment.

3. to subdue or repress (passion, sin, etc.).

4. to punish or criticize severely.

Jesus was crucified. He was put to death by being nailed to a cross. He was persecuted and tormented by the people who wanted him dead AND by the people who were dying with Him. He was bound and subdued by his position and ridiculed for it. He bore the punishment that he did nothing to deserve. And they crucified Him. 

MacArthur says:

Theirs is the epitome of blasphemy. It is the treatment of Jesus by the Jews, inaugurated by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court, a religious court, made up of the high priest and an equal number of scribes, the religious experts, elders, the wisest of the wise and chief priests, the very ones who were to intervene between men and God, it is that Sanhedrin that started the entire mocking abuse. It was they who first punched Him, slapped Him and spit in His face and mocked the idea that He could be the Son of God or the Messiah, or the King. Theirs is the severest apostasy, for they have defected from Holy Scripture. They have defected from the revelation of the Old Testament in which the details of Christ are prophesied so as to make the Christ who did appear recognizable to them for He, in fact, fulfilled all that the prophets anticipated. They have therefore rejected their own holy scriptures which they purport to uphold and to know. Theirs is a defection from God, theirs is a defection from Scripture, theirs is an apostasy from righteousness, theirs is an unparalleled, unequalled blasphemy. Here you see sin at its apex. They are mocking the Son of God, sneering at God Himself, spitting scorn is blasted on the face of their Creator and their Redeemer and their Savior. Blasphemy cannot exceed this.

And one might ask the question at this point, “How does God hold back? How does God restrain Himself for this is His beloved Son, the Son of His love in whom He is well pleased?” Shouldn’t such blasphemy be instantly responded to by God? Wouldn’t we expect that these people carrying out this sneering scorn at the expense of the blessed Son of God would be instantly annihilated and catapulted into hell? Shouldn’t fire fall from heaven and burn them up? Shouldn’t the ground open and swallow them whole into Sheol? Shouldn’t they be hit by God out of heaven and eaten by worms and died? You would expect our God, true and holy, to do that to these merciless, compassionless, wicked, sarcastic blasphemers of His beloved adored, magnificent, perfect Son. What is God doing? It appears as if He’s doing nothing.

Why does God do nothing? Probably the same reason he appears to do nothing today. We experience inexplicable hardship. Bad things. Sad things. Things that just do not make sense and it appears that God is silent. However, we know that everything is revealed in His time.

Verse 25 says, “It was the third hour when they crucified Him.” Nine in the morning. Now remember, this has happened so fast, hasn’t it? It was Thursday night, they were still in the upper room and they sang a hymn and they went out. And they went to the familiar Mount of Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane owned by a believer in the city where they frequently went and they were there praying, or at least Jesus was praying while the disciples were sleeping. Judas shows up with a huge entourage that could have been as large as a thousand people, because they feared reprisals if the Jews knew they were going to arrest the one that they had been hailing all week. They arrest Jesus. Judas discloses himself. And that’s all sometime in the early hours of Friday morning. He’s arrested. He’s taken before Annas for an indictment. They couldn’t find one. He’s taken before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin for a trial. There is still no crime. But they decide they’re going to kill Him anyway. They…they send Him to Pilate. Pilate sends Him to Herod. He comes back, there’s a mock trial in the daylight to give some legitimacy to it for the Jews. Six different phases of His trial, three with the Jews, three with the Gentiles, all that has happened and they have Him on the cross by nine in the morning. What’s the hurry?

From their viewpoint, I’ll tell you what the hurry is. They don’t want the crowd to turn. What’s the Romans’ hurry? Well they’re ready. This is what they do. Bring it on. But God is really in charge of all of this because it is in the plan of God that Jesus will die at three, or around three in the afternoon at the very moment when they’re slaughtering all the Passover lambs. He will be the one true Lamb.

Jesus is the One. True. Lamb. The sacrifice for our sin. The one who endured unimaginable suffering for us. He was crucified for our sin and for our redemption for that sin. We are part of the "they". We are the reason Jesus had to die.

And here, dear friends, is the answer to the questions that I posed at the beginning. The question that I posed at the beginning is why doesn’t God come down and kill these sinners? Answer: because God was pleased to kill His Son for those sinners. That’s Isaiah 53, “It pleased God to crush Him.” It pleased God.

You mean it pleased God to crush the Son in whom He was well-pleased? Yes. God was pleased to crush Him, this is Isaiah 53:10, putting Him to grief. Why? Because He would render Himself a guilt offering and He would live to see His offspring.

In other words, the whole purpose of redemption was for God to give to Christ a redeemed humanity, an offspring. People saved out of every generation of history, that was to be God’s gift of love to His Son, a redeemed people who would spend forever with Him, loving Him, serving Him, praising Him, honoring Him, reflecting His glory throughout all eternity. That’s the Father’s love gift to the Son. In order for the Father to be able to give that gift to the Son, the Son had to bear the punishment for those who make up that gift on the cross. So, it pleased the Father to crush the one who pleased Him so that He could forgive the ones who displeased Him. Not just for their sake, but for the Son’s sake, so that He could give them to the son as His eternal inheritance. And the evidence of the meaning of the cross is there. He became sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, Paul says. Peter says, “He bore in His own body our sins on the tree.” Paul says, “He took the curse for us.”

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Mark 15:33-41

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage is Revelation 2, Hosea 3-4