Understandest thou what thou readest? (Part 2)

Two thousand years ago a man who was seeking for God was reading in the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah. God sent another man to preach Jesus to him out of this Old Testament passage:

“And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.”

(Acts 8:30-35)

Today, once again, I am also going to preach unto you Jesus from the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah.

Verse 6:

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

There are two great, indisputable, universal truths here:

Truth #1: We have all gone astray, going our own ways.

“But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”

(Galatians 3:22)

“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

(Proverbs 16:25)

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.”

(Isaiah 55:8)

When I was young, my ways and thoughts seemed good in my own eyes, but God confronted me with the fact that they were not good in his eyes. God gave me a plain choice: either I was going to continue in my own ways (the end of which would have been my death), or I was going to humble myself and submit to God’s ways (the end of which is eternal life). I had to reject my own thinking and accept his:

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”

(II Corinthians 10:5)

Truth #2: Christ took the iniquity of all of us upon himself.

“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”

(I Peter 2:24)

Verse 7:

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”

“Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly.”

(Matthew 27:13-14)

Verse 8:

“He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.”

“When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.”

(John 19:13)

Verse 9:

“And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.”

“When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.”

(Matthew 27:57-60)

I have preached unto you Jesus. What will you do with him?