One thousand years before Jesus showed up, Isaiah SAW Him.  How he saw Him, I cannot comprehend.  But he saw Him.

And he described Him.  He knew His ancestors, and His countenance, and His purpose.  And he knew that He would be a sacrifice for all of us.

And he wrote as if he knew Him.

Isaiah 53  Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  2 He grew up 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 should desire him.  3 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.  4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.  5But 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.  6 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.  7 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 its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.  8 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 transgression of my people he was punished.  9 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.  10 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 days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

How can this be?

How could Isaiah know Jesus before Jesus?  And yet, he did.  And he knew Him with great faith.

He knew that He would be a healer of men, that He would redeem prostitutes, that He would cast out demons, and that He would forgive sin.  (Verse 4)

He knew that He would be arrested and accused yet be silent before His accusers.  (Verse 7)

He knew that the sin of the world would be placed upon Him, that He would die for that sin, and that He would be crucified.  

(Verse 5)

He knew that His execution would be between two thieves AND that Joseph of Arimathea would buy a grave plot for Him that would be suited for the noble.  (Verse 9)

And … He knew that this was God’s plan all along.  All along!  (Verse 10)

This is just one of many.  Men from different eras, in different countries, who spoke different languages.  They were different races, lived in different cultures, and lived in incredibly diverse economic conditions.  Yet … they knew Him.

And they knew that He was coming to redeem—to save—to do something that NO ONE ELSE could do.

Your eternity, and the eternity of all you love, stands in the balance.  He is not only the hope of nations, He is the hope of individuals.  He is not only the King of the world, He is the One who has come to be your counselor, your advocate, your defender and redeemer.  He has a mother’s love and father’s heart.  And He has one, and only one, focus.

YOU.

John 1 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

Be a child today.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J