Today I’d like to share my Good Friday message I gave last weekend, focusing on Isaiah 53. It is interesting to note that chapters 40-55 of Isaiah have to do with what God will do in the future, yet Isaiah was written over 700 years before Christ even enters the scene. Many scholars contend that this is the best single chapter in the Bible to explain what will happen in Jesus’ crucifixion.
“Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God,
stricken by Him, and afflicted. But 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. 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.” – Isaiah 53:4-6
Do you see the significance of this? The crucifixion was all about us. Jesus did it for us, and He did it voluntarily – for you and for me.