Children’s Message – Picking the fruit.  Pictures of Jesus.

 

 

Isaiah 53:11-12  After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

 

 

            “I wish I didn’t have to do this, but…” you say when you see an unpleasant task ahead.  But you know what the end result will be.  Maybe it is a mess caused by a clogged drain or broken fixture.  You know that when you are done, you will have things in good shape and better than what they were before.  You will be able to look back at the fruits of your labors.

 

            In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed hard, “Father, if it is your will remove this cup from me.”  Jesus knew that the next eighteen hours were going to be…”Hell.”  He knew he was about to be forsaken not by his people, but by his own father, by God himself.  Being forsaken by God is hell.  Suffering and dying for the sins of all people is hell.  It is a suffering we cannot imagine.  It is a suffering Jesus explains as weeping, gnashing of teeth, an unquenchable fire as if every cell in your body is suffering intense burns continually.  Remember the rich man crying to Abraham and Lazrarus for just the slightest relief of a drop of water on the tip of his tongue?  Jesus obeys his father’s will and satisfies your need by going forward as an uncomplaining lamb because he knows what the end result is.

 

            In these last two verses of Isaiah 53, the results, the fruit of Jesus’ work is revealed.  He will see the light …and be satisfied.  V. 11  Light is good.  Light is life.  Jesus will see God’s goodness and life again in the resurrection and forever as he sits on his heavenly throne again.  But there is something of greater significance to you and me than that.  Jesus’ satisfaction is not for himself, but for all of his brothers and sisters who believe in him.

 

            The chief doctrine, the most important teaching of the Christian faith is this, “…my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.”  From Adam and Eve on, all people have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.  The wages of this sin is death.  But now, won by Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, all believers now have God’s greatest gift, forgiveness of all sins and eternal life in his kingdom.  When Jesus stands before you at judgment, you are acquitted.  You are set free from the conviction and sentence you deserve.  You are given the ultimate freedom from sin and death and temptation in the eternal life God gives in Jesus.

 

            God rewarded Jesus well because he permitted himself such travail.  After his death he experienced the greatest joy imaginable, seeing all believers brought back to be with him.  What he did was worth every bit of what he went through.

 

            Jesus revealed all of this to his disciples following the resurrection, “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms….This is what is written:  The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day…”  [Luke 24:44b, 46a]  Now that you and I know this, we have the fruit of Jesus’ work.  We have this word recorded for us to hear and to believe.  We have baptism that not only shows us how God’s forgiveness works, but does it as those simple waters wash away all sin.  We have our Lord’s body and blood given to us to keep us remembering his death and what it accomplished for us then and every day of our lives.  There is nothing we need to do but believe to be saved.  God had had enough of our fruitless sacrifices.  They accomplish nothing. In Jesus, his one sacrifice brings perfect satisfaction.  To kill a plant, you need to kill its root.  Jesus removes sin at its very roots as he defeats Satan’s strongest power, death.

 

            Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong.  In Philippians 2, Paul reminds us that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow.  Jesus’ name is above all names.  People are not defeated before Christ, but Satan is.  No temptation or maneuver the devil does can keep a believer from Christ.  Whether it be riches, power, authority, or the complete absence of any and all of these, God will deny Satan of anyone of any station in life.  All who believe and are baptized will be saved.

 

            Jesus is the first fruits.  He is the taste of all that is to come.  The fruit is the glory of Israel, the salvation of all believers.  You are believers in Jesus.  You are the fruit of his suffering and death as you make up his body, the church.  You have already received the fruit of that suffering and death.  You have the joyous eternal life of the resurrection with him.             Amen.