FROM THE CROSS TO THRONE 1
Isa 53:1-9
ESV:Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
ESV:For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
ESV:He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
ESV:Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
ESV:But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
ESV:All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
ESV:He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
ESV:By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
ESV:And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Good morning and a happy easter to you, dear reader. I hope you had an excellent night rest. I welcome you to a brand new sunday morning, the very morning in which Christ rose from the dead, filled and loaded with God's blessing, mercies and favour just for you. Can you take a minute to thank him for this awesome ssuffer one that no other person agreed to pay but he did it just for you and I because he loves us so much. Even as the Holy Spirit laid this study series in my heart, a song followed which I will write down in the concluding part of this series. This easter morning I want to take out time to lay proper foundations for this powerful series, so you will partake of the current move of the Spirit of God and the significance of Christ's death and resurrection. One of the many things I have come to know about God is that he allows temptations and trials to come our way not primarily to make us fall or shamed or to see if we will fall but rather to confirm to what he already knows so we will know what he knows and trust him more. He is the all-knowing God, who knows the beginning from the end. They are countless proof of this fact throughout scripture. Look at the story of Job, God knew Job wasn't going to curse him but the devil wanted to prove otherwise. So God gave him permission so that he will see and know what He already knew. Same with the story of Abraham, God knew Abraham would sacrifice his son if necessary but there had to be a physical manifestation so we will understand when the scripture calls Abraham the father of faith. Since I believe you get what I am saying, let's cast our minds back at creation story. After God created man, he left him with instructions and everything necessary to follow those instructions. Thereafter the devil came and tempted the woman and the man in turn to eating the forbidden fruit. Now wait a minute, did you think that God wasn't aware of what was happening? Remember he is omnipresence, or do you think God didn't know that Adam was going to fall ? Remember he is also all-knowing. God knew Adam(humanity not just the man Adam) was going to fall prey to the devil but he had prepared a fail safe for mankind. 1 pet 1:19 tells us that the lamb (Jesus) was sacrificed before the foundation of the world. That means before God's Spirit began to hover over the face of the chaotic earth, he knew that man who he was going to create in his image and likeness was going to fall short of grace. So before doing anything he first sacrificed the lamb and shed his blood for mankind. 1 pet 1:19-20, makes us understand that the sacrifice at the cross was first done in the spirit before the beginning of times but in these last times or days, they had to be a physical manifestation because it would take time for man to fully understand his purpose (I.e the purpose of God) Col 1:15-20. So he had to reveal His plans in bits and pieces throughout history to his prophets, priests and even kings. So that we in these last days will look back and understand how they all point to the finished work of Christ. We see God telling us through Noah that just as lawlessness abounded and he used flood to destroy the earth, so in this last days lawlessness was going to abound but this time he is going to pour His Spirit upon mankind and there will be such a strong and sound teaching of His word that will take the devil by surprise and shatter his kingdom. With Abraham's story, He teaches us that the child of promise would surely come no matter how long they thought it would take. Just as Isaac came when man would have lost hope, when man already thought it was no longer humanly possible so Jesus would come. And truly Jesus came at a time in Israel's history when God was silent for 400 years. With Moses he teaches us the promise of a Messiah who would save his children from their afflictions, from the bondage of sin and its consequences if we just look up to him as the Israelites did when they looked up to the bronze serpent. Then through David, we see the heavenly council meeting where God promises to bring everything in subjection to Christ. Then Isaiah pressed more into the spiritual realm until he got His name "Emmanuel" and went on to give us a vivid description of His rigorous suffering and eventual death.
So we see that scriptures is intertwined and geared towards giving us a better understanding of God's plan for mankind and the finished work of Christ. If we begin to study scripture with the mindset of understanding His purpose and Will. We will be shocked at what he will unveil.
The foundation that I have laid and hope you learnt is that the crucifixion and shedding of the blood of Christ had already happened before the world was formed but it manifested in these last days to help us or bring us into the kingdom of God. This basic knowledge will help us as we journey through this series.
Join us again on tuesday as we look at what happened at the cross and its benefit for us. I hope you have been blessed by today's write-up, please do well to comment and share to your friends and groups. The world is in dire need of the word of God. Help us spread the Word. God bless you and do have a wonderful day. Shalom.
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