4-3-26 - Our Sorrows He Carried (Good Friday)

This evening. We're gonna be remembering our lord's

death. And We're going to be remembering our Lord's death. And as I was preparing for this, I was thinking there's there's so much to it. It's kind of hard to know what to say. And you kind of I also kind of feel like, well, I've already said that.

I think I've said that. So shall I just say the same thing again? I think I've said that. So shall I just say the same thing again? And I'm always looking for something that's helpful or new a new perspective to me anyway.

And I was thinking about the Good Friday sermons that I've preached over the years, and many of them, I think that some of it is that we would come away realizing our own sinfulness. And that's certainly necessary. And the songs that we've sung, and the scriptures that we've read up to this point, and the scriptures we're gonna read in the sermon text are based on, are meant to convince us of our sinfulness and our need of a savior. I want us to focus not so much on the theology of it, the heart of it, the heart of God behind it. It's one thing to be able to say theologically true statements about our own sinfulness, our own depravity, our need of salvation, Jesus righteousness, and all these types of things.

And all that's that's very true and necessary. But I think that one of the dangers that we face is that okay. So but where does that rubber where does the rubber of that reality meet the road of my life? And so what we're going to talk about this more this evening, rather, is how to bear up, and process through sorrows and griefs. Okay?

In Jesus death, he came and fulfilled his office as a priest. Instead of being a priest offering up animals as a sacrifice, he came and wolf was the priest and the sacrifice. He offered himself up. And priests do this work. Jesus did this work not just as a matter of duty and not just because, we needed him to.

To all sinners that he saved since then. And so this evening, what we're going to talk about is, Christ sympathizing with us. His sympathy doesn't discount the cost of our sins. It doesn't make his his death somehow, sentimental or trite or that type of thing. But But I think there's a danger in setting the weight of sin and the and the cost of redemption.

I think there's a way of setting that in opposition to his sympathy. And there's there's two passages we're going to focus on. Well, there's two passages I'm gonna read. And then there's really five verses or so we're gonna pull out of that and focus on. We're gonna be reading, all of Isaiah 53.

It's 12 verses long. The whole chapter. And then I'm gonna read, then we're gonna read Hebrews chapter four verses 14 to 16, which talks about Jesus being our high priest. And we're gonna we're gonna have that as our main text, Hebrews chapter four verses 14 to 16. But we're gonna come back to, verses three and four of Isaiah chapter 53 to to put together with what we see in Hebrews, or what we see with in Isaiah regarding his priestly work.

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs, he himself bore and our sorrows, he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

The chastening for our well-being fell upon him. And by his scourging, we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. And, caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before it's shears, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considers, that he was cut off out of the living, the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due.

His grave was assigned with wicked men. Yet he was a with a rich man in his death. Because he had done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring.

He will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, as he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong, because he has poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet, he himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.

And then in Hebrews chapter four starting in verse 14. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, and find grace to help in It

may be

You may be seated. I have a shorter amount of time this evening than I normally do on a Sunday morning. And we've read way more verses than we ever do on a Sunday morning. So my goal is not to keep you here for two and a half hours. What that means is there's just gonna be a couple of connections I'm wanting to make in these in these passages.

So starting in Hebrews four, Jesus who's our high priest is we're told there's a there's a double negative here. We do not have a high priest who cannot, which is to say we have a high priest who can. Okay? Our high priest Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses. A and a temptation and a sin?

Because Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses. He was tempted and always like as we are, yet without sin. And so there's these these multiple layers of things going on here. Sometimes, temptations, depending on what they are, are sin. And sometimes, they're not.

Sometimes, they're part of your weakness, our weakness, our humanity. Okay. You have a good heart. It's okay. You'll do better next time.

Says he sympathizes with our weaknesses. So what is the difference between or how do we define what a weakness is? They're not though many times they do lead to sin. Run into this problem that we are weak. Perseverance.

We lack strength in so many areas to be what we dream we can be. A And our weaknesses, our passage tells us, Jesus sympathizes with. I said in my introduction that we have to figure out how to live in and bear up under grief and sorrow in a fallen world. And my answer to you, this passage's answer to you, is not primarily theological. I like theology.

I like I like answers to questions. I like definitive absolute right and wrong. But when it comes to grief and sorrow, all of a sudden, our griefs and our sorrows aren't laid to rest by reason and logic alone. Somehow, that truth, the truth that's in that in this passage that's reasonable and logical, and that we can understand in our heads, has to work its way down into the soil of our hearts and and take root there. And as much as as husbands may want to comfort their wives with the truth, they find that many times that that's it's it's it's very difficult to apply that truth in a way that's an actual comfort.

Honestly, no. I'm not. I should be, and I want to be. But that truth, separate from other things, I it's it's it's not getting traction in my heart. Make that connection.

We live in a fallen world. And what that means is that we're all going to have our shares of grief and sorrow in this world. They will come and they will go. Sometimes they'll be acute. Sometimes they'll be chronic.

Sometimes they'll be small, and sometimes they will be overwhelming. But life in a fallen world means that we are going to have griefs and sorrows. And sometimes many of them. And sometimes a bunch of them stacked on top of each other. Taking our weakness and exploiting it to add to our multiply our weaknesses and to discourage us further.

In John chapter 16 in his gospel, he's speaking to his disciples about his resurrection. He's speaking to them about his his victory over the grave that it's coming. He says, you don't quite understand this stuff yet. That, he says, these things that I've just mentioned in brief, these things I have spoken to you so that in me, you may have peace. Overwhelmed by it.

Even if we saw it on the horizon, when it arrived, our weaknesses showed up and it was more than we could bear. And so simple knowledge that a hard day is coming or sorrows are coming, like, as a concept out there in the world, a theological truth doesn't help us when it actually lands on us. So Jesus said, in this world you'll have tribulation, but take courage. I've overcome the world. And so while we shouldn't be surprised, we are often overwhelmed.

And it's almost like the opposite of overwhelm or the thing that we want to get to. To get away from being overwhelmed is we just want to get kind of like numb to it. Stoic about it, indifferent toward it. Yeah. That happened.

Stinks. But that's not what Jesus told us in John 16. I don't have it on the path on the screen, but what I've read to you, he doesn't say, in this world, you have tribulation. Because I've overcome the world. Like, just grit your teeth and bear it, and eventually I'll come get you out of it.

That's not what he says. He says, take courage. Take courage. I've overcome the world. The things you're facing, the things you're dealing with, those

those things that take your legs

right out from underneath you, I've overcome those things. And so it's a hard balance for us to strike between taking courage and being vulnerable in the face of grief and sorrow, but not becoming calloused. Sympathy is a popular thing. I'm not gonna talk about sympathy and empathy and the differences between them, and what's good and what's bad and what's toxic and any of that. Sympathy is commended to us here in the in the in the most certain terms.

Jesus sympathizes with us. And so if we want to quibble about the edges of where, you know, where that stops and where it's appropriate, we can have that discussion some other time. It's academic. What the scripture tells us is that Jesus is not ashamed to sympathize with our weaknesses. That he's a high priest that we can go to.

That in in Isaiah will come to in a moment that he carries our sorrows. That he's acquainted with grief. And so this idea that Jesus not only sees them and saves us from our sins, but walks with us through those very things working in our hearts, is a truth that we need. And yet sympathy has been abused so much, as though as though sympathy has replaced it's like sympathy is the new payment for sin. Sympathy is not a payment for sin.

But sympathy is appropriate with for and it's hard to figure out. Believe in the depravity of man and the holiness of God. And that those who are depraved and have offended a holy God receive his sympathy. There's those the sinners who've done these things. Sort of a Gordy and not all tied up.

And we just go, I'll just stick with my theology. One of the problems is, when we struggle, we're left with no nowhere to stand, no no place to go to where we feel and are able to to take hold of the sympathy

that Jesus provides. We also

struggle to offer that same sympathy to others. And their weaknesses and they bug us. And when their weaknesses lead to to them sinning, we go see, it was all just a it was all just a of a it was all just a path to an end. Your weakness led you to sin. And so we're gonna deal with a sin, and we're gonna ignore the weakness.

Yet Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses without condemning our or condoning our sins. And we ought to do the same thing or strive to do the same thing with one another even when we've been sinned against. Jesus sympathizes with sinners, not just with weak broken people. And so his sympathy should be a comfort to us, but it often isn't much of a comfort, not as much as it should be. And here's one of the reasons why.

When you suffer, what question do you always want to ask? Why? Why? And we get out we get out our theological, you know, argument, like, Job did. Whatever you write in there, the inevitable then comes.

If all of these things are true, then why then why did you let this happen? Because in my judgment, these things don't follow. That is a common temptation. I don't I don't know anybody who's gone through sorrow, who hasn't at least had to wrestle mightily with those questions. And I've seen people wrestle with them and lose the right lose the fight, and come away with with a with a broken view of where God is, and with no comfort as a result.

Our logic asks those questions, and we say, here's how it makes sense to me. Why wouldn't it make more sense to remove the the need of comfort? Like, why don't we why don't we take away the thing that caused it to the suffering and the grief so that we wouldn't need comfort? Because everything goes the right way, as we count it. Death.

He did take away the cause of our grief, like the ultimate root cause of our grief.

He did take it away and satisfy it for all of his And satisfy it for all of his

And satisfy it for all of his and satisfy it for all of his people. And yet the effects of his death are still being worked out in a fallen world. They haven't all been realized yet. And they won't be all realized until we're perfected in glory. And so in this world, Jesus words are true.

You will have trouble. You will have tribulation. But take heart or take courage. I've overcome this world. Our sorrows are very real.

And it's also worth us noting they're temporary. They're temporary, which is the thing that is farthest away from your heart and your mind when you're in it. When they don't feel temporary, they feel so they feel as permanent as can be. The very definition of it. They are here and they will never leave.

That's not true. It would be true if Christ hadn't come and died. And so when Jesus says in John 16, I've overcome the world, he's saying, I've I have I have I have struck at the root and severed it, the cause of all your sorrow and grief. There is still a dying breath in our in this life of suffering. But it will be done away with.

And so our sorrows are real and they're temporary. So we ought to take courage. Here's another thing that happens when hardships come, sorrows and trials, griefs. We want we go looking for the good in it. Right?

Here comes Romans, just chucking right along. Right? God works all things for the good of those who seek him, who are called according to his purpose. And so we go on this we go on this this misery hunt, looking for the good in in the destruction. As if we could find if we could identify the good and put and and and say there it is, that somehow then our suffering wouldn't be suffering.

That's not how it works. And it doesn't work that way for a couple of reasons. One, our definition of good and our perspective on good versus what God's definition and perspective on good is, there's a there's a lot of room between them. We don't we don't know when, you know, when Jesus they came to Jesus and they said, good teacher. And he says, why do you call me good?

There's only one who's good who's God. And he was making a different argument about his about his deity. Say, you're calling me God. It's so bad if I call myself God. But he gets to the truth here that there is there is a vast difference between what we think as fallen men and women, how we define good and how God defines good.

And so when we, in our little grieving weak minds, go looking for good, we're we're we're struggling to find it. Because the only definition of good in our minds is the cause of my grief shouldn't have happened. That's actually what would be good. If we could just hit pause and rewind and then take a different path, that would be good. And so my contention is that it's not necessary for you to see the good in your suffering to be comforted.

But actually the pursuit of of all of the reasons, why, distraction to the comfort that's offered to you in Christ. It just sends you on a on a on a discouragement tour. Doctor or or or or through something, when does it encourage you? Well, you have cancer. That's tragic.

Go to the doctor and find out how you got cancer. Does that encourage you when you find out that the way you've eaten your entire life is what's caused it? Or that it's hereditary? Are you like, oh, I found the answer and now I'm comforted. No.

You still have cancer. The person's still gone. It's tragic. It's it's a it's a it's a it's a manifestation of sin and its effect in our world. Lining, is more sorrow and Instead, Jesus offers to sympathize with us, sympathize with us and our weaknesses.

He lost loved ones. When Lazarus died, he wept. He stood right there and wept. And we know that he stayed back until, like, Lazarus is sick, and he stayed away, and then Lazarus died. Right?

And everyone's like, what? You're gonna call him out of the tomb now? It's like, it's gonna be decayed. Jesus knows what that feels like. Jesus was sinned against.

There's a sense a very real sense in which we can say he's the only person who's ever walked the earth who didn't deserve to be sinned against. Who never did something that provoked who never sinned and provoked someone else to sin. Certainly, Jesus suffered and was falsely accused. He was tempted in every way as you and I are, and yet he, through all of it, was without a doubt. Sympathizing savior who knows our weaknesses and cares for us, in spite of them.

Roman that says that he who gave us his son, who freely gave us his son, will he not also freely give us all things in Christ Jesus? Is comfort not one of those things? Like, it's kind of a it's kind of a a twisted view of God to think that he would give us his son to pay for our sins, but he wouldn't, in the same way, give us comfort and our weaknesses. It's kind of broken. It's like it's like there's missing parts.

Like, if you would give his son to die, which is what we're remembering to tonight, why would we then think, like, that he would then withhold the comfort that that he that that we need men. Says he was he was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. And so Isaiah, many years before Jesus would come, prophesied about what Jesus would be like.

And he says he would suffer. He would be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And his his sorrow and his suffering would be so intense, so intense, you and you don't want to look at them because it's so, it's so palpable. And you're like I don't want to, I don't want to touch that. I see it.

JESUS went through that kind of grief. That's what, that's what Isaiah Sarra. He was Saw Amanda Sorrows and acquainted with griefs, like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised. He was rejected of men.

That intense feeling of loneliness, of of all by yourself. Jesus has felt that. He's felt that. And he didn't feel it for the fun of it. And he didn't feel it in some theoretical way.

He really did feel it. He had mockers, and he had he had scatterers as he was dying, you know? Those ones who hid their face from him and despised him, think Peter. In his humanity, when he was here, he's been there. And because he's been there, he's able to sympathize with you and your weakness.

And those are the kinds of things that really expose our weakness, aren't they? Death. Passage aims at Jesus coming into this world is prophesied to do it in Isaiah. He's spoken about it after the fact in Hebrews, is that he's coming to take possession of a people through his death and resurrection. They're now going to be mine, and I'm going to be theirs.

Them, and they're going to be in me, and we are together, we're going to be one. And so our griefs and our sorrows, he bore them. He carried them. And to carry our griefs, he has to carry us. Because they're not separate from us.

He carries us along. It's like going on a long walk with a baby. They make little contraptions to carry them that are uncomfortable most of the time. And you take them because you want to go to the place. What that means is, at some point, they're going to be on your chest or on your back somewhere, and you're going to be just carrying along all their whining and complaining.

Not like, oh, look, isn't that beautiful? This is so wonderful. I'm so glad mom and dad decided to miss my nap time for this. But you carry them along with all of their griefs and all of their sorrows. Why do you do it?

Because you couldn't get a babysitter. Your

kids?

Whether they can see or perceive or understand any of the beauty or the fulfillment or the adventure that you're going on question we have forgotten our sorrows? Why? And isn't it isn't the best medicine you can give your kids in that moment is to reassure them of your love for them. We're going to be and we're going to show them to you when you're younger, or older rather, not younger. Right?

That's how God carries us. When he carries our carries us along, carries our griefs and our sorrows, he's literally picking us up and carrying us. And so that's

the

And it's not something you're going to take a hold of. I realize I talk about theological stuff so much. We're gonna talk about about these heart. And then it's like, but then here comes some of the steal out theology. And it's like, isn't this like the big bait and switch?

You keep telling me you're gonna give my heart all these perfect answers. And then you just came back in with all these Bible verts. In our weakness that God's going to walk with us and carry us along. And so when we feel all alone, like Jesus did in the garden when he was praying and his disciples were sleeping, He actually was alone in that moment except for with his father. He was had his father, and he was conversing with his father.

And so the comfort that we the the real palpable comfort that we seek and yearn for in the midst of suffering, we have access to by faith. Okay? If you want some if if we were if we were if what you're craving is someone to say, here's how you can get over your hardships, and here's how you can, like, here's some helpful hacks

to, like, sort it all out. I don't have a lot of I

don't have a lot of I don't have a to, like, sort it all out. I don't have that. And part of the reason I don't have that is because the Bible doesn't have that. What the Bible offers to us is Jesus Christ. His body as a payment for our sins, and his spirit as a comfort in our grief.

Who dwells in us, and who walks with us, and who's not ashamed of us, and who carries us along in our weaknesses. I kind of feel like when you read the book of Job, you look at a guy whose life was really comfortable and ideal for the time. Pretty ideal. Until all the tragedy. Then it wasn't ideal.

Then it was like awful. And it's like, why did the why did the why did Job's apple cart get upset? Like, the apple cart of his life. Why did God just upend it? Things he says as just being sinful.

And they are. But what was first on display was first, Job had, like, this much strength. And so we read in, like, I think it was in chapter three where it's, like, Job didn't sin and it is and then it just sort of, like, his weakness, and he just kind of devolves into accusing God. And Job was

blessed because by

And Job was blessed because by God because he received it. And he never would have chosen that path, nor do nor would we choose our paths if that if they have suffering and sorrows. We would always take the other way. Even if it meant unfaithfulness to God, we would often be tempted to choose unfaithfulness if it meant ease. And so I think oftentimes it's God's kindness that he takes away our ease and our comforts to to confirm to us, I'm the one constant.

I'm the one steady. I'm the one reliable in in all of in all of creation. I'm the only thing that you can rely on and count on. You can't rely on your health. You can't rely on your intellect.

You can't rely on your money. You can't rely on your government. You can't rely on your spouse. You can't rely on your parents. I can't rely on my spouse.

Not for things that only God can give you. No. You can't. Your husband is not God. Your wife is not God.

Your parents, your kids, your joy. If your joy is all tied up in your kids, you're gonna be really disappointed at points in your life. So we just walk around angry and sullen and just dejected all the time? No. Not if our hope is in God and we've we've tapped into that reservoir.

So we have to find a way to tap into that reservoir. We have to ask God and plead with him to to open it up to us and give to open it up to us and give us access to it. So that we can have comfort. Remember when Jesus asked Peter, are you gonna leave me too? Do you think Jesus was being tempted when he asked that question?

Was there any temptation in him asking that question? Or may may we praise this way. If you were asking that question, what temptations would you have been facing in that moment? Despair? Depression?

Yeah, Peter, that same guy who denied and who walked on the water and who's done all this wonderful and terrible stuff. What did Peter say? Where else am I going to do? God of all comfort. And And so the other thing I'll point out to you in Isaiah and then and then I want to close by reading the last few verses.

There's a couple of there's two places in verses three and four where it describes our disposition toward him. At the end of verse three, it says, we did not esteem him. Recognize him. We didn't recognize him. For what he is and what he's given to us.

Instead, it says, at the end of verse four, yet we ourselves, we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. And that's why we've gone away from him. It's because we've gone instead of you being instead of you walking with me through the sorrow, I want a God who doesn't take me through sorrow. But there's only one God. Grief.

And he's overcome death. And there's nowhere else for you to turn, where you will find help and hope. And so my expectation to us, to all of us, is to turn to him and to wait on him and to and to plead for his mercies and his comforts. As long as our hearts are broken, you don't have to act like there's something wrong with your weaknesses. You don't have to you don't have to act like there's something wrong with your weaknesses.

You aren't going to find a solution for that. But you can find comfort for that. Injustice, right? And it reads you verse verses nine through 12 of Isaiah and then we'll be this is chapter 53. We've read it once.

We'll read it. And Yet he was with a rich man in his death because he had done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, and one thing I'll say, we've been we've read a little in Leviticus lately, that rendering of a guilt offering is like the burning of the fat. Take all the fat out of the animal, all the visceral fat and all and the and the kidneys and the and the fat tail if it's off of a goat and all this stuff and and burn it.

Render it. Think beef tallow. Right? Like like burn it all up. If he will render himself as a guilt offering, like, if he will go through that fire, he, the father, will see his, the sons, prolong his, the sons, days.

And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. As the result as a result of the anguish of his soul, he the father will see it. I'm adding father and son. Right? Because it's all he, he, his, him, he, his, all these pronouns.

He the father will see it and be satisfied. Many. Right? Justification is his death as an acceptable sacrifice, satisfied satisfying the wrath of God against us. He will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great. This one who's drawn all the griefs and sorrows of the world. Booty with the strong. And the question is, who are the strong who are the strong We're talking this whole time about our weaknesses. But who are the strong The straw are those who've put their faith in Jesus Christ and those who've come to him and look to him to to just carry him through it because they they can't get their feet because his power is perfected in our weakness.

He will divide the booty with the strong because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Sins of many, and he interceded for the transgressors. And so, brothers and sisters, you have Jesus Christ offered to you in the gospel and in these passages, not just as a sacrifice for your sins. Yes, that and a sympathizer with your weaknesses. So draw near to him.

There's no there's no like, you can medicate yourself, but you won't find any real help and hope. You'll just have fears and sorrows and eventually bitterness. And I don't want that for you. I don't want that for me. And so our work is to live by faith.

Jesus came and died. And if you're a Christian, you believe that. Turn to him in your griefs. And you don't have to be ashamed of being weak because he sympathizes with the weak. Alright?

We love strength in our society, and Jesus sympathizes with the weak. And so come to him. Let's

pray.