This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Hi, this is Pastor Tom on our welcome you to day four, week
seven of our look to the book of Isaiah. We're still in our look at Isaiah
chapter 53. Yesterday we began a look at six of the ways that Jesus' death on
the cross meets the deepest longing of our soul.

And we talked yesterday about the fact that we long to know what's happening in
the world and God meets that longing through his wisdom. We long to know God and
God meets that longing through our humble acceptance of his love. And we long to
be forgiven and God meets that longing through Jesus' death for us on the cross.

A fourth longing of our soul that's met at the cross is we long to be loved,
Isaiah 53, 10. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him, to cause him to suffer.
And though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring
and prolong his days and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

Now just notice before we talk about the longing here that the servant in this
chapter is both priest and sacrifice. We talked in chapter 52 verse 15 about the
fact that he would sprinkle the nations. That's what a priest does.

And here he's the guilt offering, he is the sacrifice. And that is Jesus Christ.
He is the priest, but he's also the sacrifice.

We're talking about all that was accomplished by Jesus giving his life on the
cross. And one of the things that was accomplished, one of the longings that was
met was this longing to be loved. This longing to be loved is satisfied when you
trust what God says about you.

Notice he will see his offspring. You're his offspring, you are his son. You are
his daughter.

You are not God's son or daughter based on what you've done. You're in God's
family based on what God has done in your life through Jesus's death on the
cross. So now you can live in a relationship of love, of trust with your father.

Romans 8, 15 to 16 talks about this relationship. It says, "So you have not
received a spirit "that makes you fearful slaves. "Instead, you received God's
spirit "when he adopted you as his own children.

"Now we can call him Abba Father, "for his spirit joins with our spirit "to
affirm that we are God's children. " That's when the longing to be loved is most
met in our lives. It's great to be loved by your family.

It's great to be loved by the people in your neighborhood, the people at your
work. You can't guarantee whether they're going to love you or not. You can be
sure, you can be certain that God will never stop loving you.

Because his love is based on what Jesus did for you on the cross. It's based on
his gift that he's given to you. It's based on the very power and love of God.

So ask right now that this longing would be met in your life, that his spirit
would join with your spirit to affirm in your heart that you're God's son,
you're God's daughter. A fifth longing that's met in our lives at the cross is
we long to worship. We are made, every one of us are made to worship something.

If we're not careful, we end up worshiping lesser things. What you rely on for
your greatest identity is what you actually worship. Whatever you rely on for
your greatest sense of identity in life is what you worship.

So some people worship money because they get their sense of identity from how
much they have in their bank account. Other people worship relationships, what
people say about them. You can even worship clothes or a car.

That's where some people get their greatest sense of identity. We long to
worship but don't settle for worshiping lesser things. Jesus proved on the cross
that he is worthy of our worship.

Isaiah 53, 12, we keep coming back to this verse of God's glory in Isaiah 53.
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 he was
numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and he made
intercession for the transgressors.

Now notice it says there, beginning of verse 12, therefore I'm going to give him a
portion among the great. It's talked about what Jesus did on the cross that he's
going to give himself. Therefore he's going to get this portion among the great.

That therefore is repeated in Philippians chapter two when it talks about what
Jesus was doing on the cross. Philippians chapter two, verses nine to 11.
Therefore God elevated him to the place of highest honor, gave him the name
that's above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, the glory of God the Father.

We long to worship. So that longing is met right now in your heart when you say
Jesus Christ, you are Lord. You're the Lord that I need, not this thing, not
that person.

You're the place that I'm going to get my greatest deepest sense of identity. I
worship you. Sixth thing that we long for in our lives is we long for good news.

We live in a world that has too much bad news and we long for good news. It
feels like there should be more good news because we long for good news. The
great thing about good news isn't just knowing it, it's also sharing it.

The good news that you long for, we talked about this earlier this week, that we
build our lives on the promise of the good news. This longing for good news is
met in our lives not just by taking it in. It's very important to understand
this.

It's also met by sharing it with other people. The message of Isaiah 53 is a
message to share with others. In fact, one of the most familiar stories of
sharing the good news in all the Bible centers on Isaiah chapter 53.

You might remember this. It's over in Acts chapter eight. Acts chapter eight,
beginning in verse 26, you've got Philip, the evangelist, and the angel of the
Lord says to Philip, I want you to go south down to that desert road that runs
from Jerusalem to Gaza.

So he does it, he starts out, and as he's going down there, he meets a high
official, the treasurer of Ethiopia. He's a eunuch of great authority. He's one
that people across that known world would have known because of his power.

And he was going to Jerusalem, he was going to worship. So he was a worshiper of
the Hebrew God. And he'd gone up there to worship, he's now returning, and he's
reading the scriptures.

He's sitting in his carriage, and he's reading aloud. Philip's hearing this from
the book of Isaiah. And guess what he reads?

The Holy Spirit says to Philip, go over, walk alongside that carriage so you can
hear what he's reading. He runs over, and he hears him reading from the prophet
Isaiah. Philip hears it, and he says, do you understand what you're reading?

And the man says, how can I understand it unless somebody explains it to me? So
Philip comes up, and he looks at the passage that he's reading, and it was this
passage. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as the lamb is silent
before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.

He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants, for
his life was taken from the earth. So this official asks Philip, who's he
talking about?

Is the prophet talking about himself? Is the prophet talking about somebody
else? And Philip says, oh, he's talking about somebody else.

And he starts there, and he tells them about Jesus Christ. Who knows, there
might be somebody in your life that's having a hard time trusting in the truth
that Jesus Christ came to this earth and gave his life for us to meet these
deepest longing of our soul. It might just be that Isaiah 53 is a key that
unlocks their heart in some way.

Seeing that somebody prophesied 700 years before this happened that it was going to
happen, that might unlock in their heart, in their mind, the truth that God
loves them. As we've looked through Isaiah 53, we've reminded ourselves that our
deepest needs are met at the cross of Jesus Christ. Your deepest needs are met
by the power of the cross.

Let's pray together. Jesus, thank you. Thank you that you went to the cross.

That you willingly suffered, physically, emotionally, spiritually. You suffered
in taking all of our sins upon yourself, giving yourself, dying for, taking the
punishment for those sins. Thank you that that meets the deepest needs of our
lives.

Jesus, you understand us like no one else so you can meet our needs like no one
else. And that happened at the cross. Help us to see right now the love at the
cross and the power of the cross.

The love that you gave to us and the power that you have to change us. Thank
you. Thank you, Jesus, for the cross.

In your name we pray, amen. Tomorrow we're going to look together at Isaiah 55 and
the five things it tells us we have to do to experience God's comfort.