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Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest

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questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search

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and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Metter, lead pastor

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of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth for the life

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we're searching for. So glad that you're with us in our expectant series today. I want to ask a

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question as we start today, and that is what exactly are we expecting? What do we expect of

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a Messiah? What are we expecting that God would bring into our lives? That's the real question

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that the Old Testament people had in that time. I want you to take your Bibles this morning and

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turn to Isaiah 53, perhaps one of the greatest chapters in the entire scripture that helps us

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expect a certain something out of a Messiah that is to come. As a matter of fact, the title of our

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message today is The God Who Intervenes. The God Who Intervenes. I always love that word,

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that God would intervene into our lives in some way and Old Testament Israel needed that. We need

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that in this day and time, the God Who Intervenes, Isaiah chapter 53. You know, like millions, as I

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was growing up, I used to watch a television show that later on became a series of movies called

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Superman. Any Superman fans in the room, would you raise your hand if you know what I'm talking

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about? Yeah, I know Superman's changed a little bit over the years, but really the storyline of

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Superman is intriguing. A baby born on another planet with supernatural powers somehow ends up

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on the planet Earth, living among family members that have no real idea of his power. And as he

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grows up and as he interacts with people around him, he realizes that he has the supernatural

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ability to intervene into their lives, to rescue them, to protect them, and he has that kind of

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mindset. As a matter of fact, in the old TV show, at the end of it all, we would hear the line

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consistently that Superman was all about the truth, justice, and the American way. You remember that?

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It changed over the years, of course, but that's exactly what we heard week in and week out. In

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2006, Superman Returns was a great movie that was put out and became very popular, the most popular

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movie of the year that year. And it was all about Superman intervening into yet another situation,

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and one great scene, Superman sees that the police are under attack by criminals, and these

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criminals have a Gatlin 58 caliber gun. This will appeal to all the guys in the room, a Gatlin gun.

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Think of that. That's the multiple barrels that go around in circles, and they spit out these huge

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bullets. 58 calibers are about like that. And of course, this criminal destroys all the police

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cars and is about to zero in on the police officers themselves, and Superman swoops in. And he bears

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his chest, something like this, and walks towards the Gatlin gun. And those 58 caliber bullets come

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and hit him on the chest, and he absorbs them, and they kind of bounce off. And as soon as the gun

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runs out of ammo and kind of burns up, then obviously the policemen are saved. But the

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criminal's not through, so he gets his large pistol, he comes out and holds it right to Superman's eye,

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and pulls the trigger. The bullet comes out in slow motion, not the Matrix, long before then. It

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comes out in slow motion, hits him in the eye, and then the bullet smashes to bluntness and falls to

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the ground. Superman watches the bullet fall to the ground and looks up at the criminal, and he's

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smiling because he's overcome the bullets. The criminal, of course, flees, and the day is saved.

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Our hero has come through. It's so real. It is just so real. Now in reality, we really do want a hero,

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and in reality, we really need one. God had prophesied of a Messiah hero to come, but what

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would he be like? And exactly what would he accomplish? That's Isaiah 53. From the very

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early stages of recognizing the Messiah to the very ending stages of what he accomplished on

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the planet, Isaiah 53 describes the Messiah hero that God sent to us. Well, Isaiah 53 it is. Let's

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stand together as we read God's word today. This prophecy calls us to look for a warrior, a rescuer.

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It calls us to look for an intervener and a hero that really does transform our lives. So Isaiah 53,

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12 verses, I'll read them all because they all describe this superhero. Verse one, who has

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believed our message? Out to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him

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like a tender shoot, speaking of the Messiah, and like a root out of the parched ground.

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He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be

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attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief,

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and like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised and we did not esteem him.

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Verse four, surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed

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him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he was pierced through for our transgressions. He

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was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging

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we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way,

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but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. He was suppressed and he was

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afflicted, and yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that was led to slaughter, and like a sheep

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that is silent before his shivers, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was

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taken away, and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living

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for the transgressions of my people to whom the stroke was due. His grave was assigned with wicked

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men, yet he was with a rich man in his death because he had done no violence, nor was there any

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deceit in his mouth. Verse 10, that the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he

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would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days,

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and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. As the result of the anguish of his soul,

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he that is God will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge the righteous one, my servant,

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will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a great

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portion of the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong because he poured out himself to

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death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he himself bore the scent of many and interceded

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for the transgressors. That's our Messiah superhero that Isaiah prophesies of hundreds of years before

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he came. Father in Jesus name help us see this, know this, understand this, value this, appreciate this,

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rejoice in this, our Messiah. We ask this in Jesus name, all God's people said, Amen. Please be seated.

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So who is this hero? God has promised us the Messiah, he's promised us one who intervenes

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into our lives, and Isaiah 53 gives us some clarity about what he would look like. Now keep

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in mind Isaiah's written hundreds of years before Christ actually came, and so the people of Israel

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were looking for their Messiah, a rescuer, they needed intervention, they needed someone, and God

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had promised them that, but Isaiah has given them the details of what it would be like, and the

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details are surprising, an unusual story, not the norm in most people's minds. So what does Isaiah 53

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say to us today about this Messiah hero that God sent? It says several things, but first of all,

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I want you to notice it says that he's a hero who is present with us. That's how this text begins.

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If you notice the first few verses, it talks about the fact that this Messiah is coming away that no

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one expects a king to come or an intervener to come. Notice the verses again, verses two and three,

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he grew up before him like a tender shoot. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon

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him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man

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of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised,

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and we did not esteem him. Now if you begin to walk through those words, you see it very obviously

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and very evidently this Messiah was going to come alongside us. He is someone who is just like us,

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just a normal person, just a normal child born into a home who was raised with everyone else.

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And the fact that he is with us and the fact that he's among us means he's going to experience

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everything we go through. It means that this Messiah will be fully present with us in every way.

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He was in that day and he is now. And we love this story. This storyline is incredible because we

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don't imagine an intervener, a rescuer, a warrior to be among us. But we do love the story. That's

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why everybody knows the name of Clark Kent, the mild-mannered reporter, right? Because we know

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that he turns into Superman and yet day by day we see him, we can reach out to him and touch him,

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and touch him, and he's one of us but he also has a great deal of resources that we don't have.

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So this Messiah is going to come and he's going to be with us. I know that you know this,

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but we value those who can be with us. We value the fact that they don't just call it in,

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that they don't just send something from a distance. We want someone to come to us when

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we're hurting. We want someone to go with us when we're afraid. We want someone that can weep with

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us when we have to weep and we do have to weep. We want someone that will come alongside us when

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we're lonely, when we're hurting and nobody else understands. We need somebody that can understand

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that. That's the kind of superhero that we need in the Messiah. And Isaiah says this is what it's

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going to be like. In 1995 a song came out that got a lot of attention at the time. Joan Osborne

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sang it. It was a song that was called What If God Was One Of Us. What if God was one of us,

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just a slob like one of us says the song, like a stranger on the bus trying to find his way home.

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That's a nose song now. Sometimes people heard that song and said well maybe that's a bit

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flippant about who God might be. But I think it's a little bit more than flippant. I think it's just

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transparent. We need a God who knows what it's like to just try to find our way home. Just what

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it's like to be a stranger on the bus. What it's like to be in need and be hurting. We need someone

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like that. So Isaiah says this Messiah will come and he's going to come up like a tender shoot.

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He's going to be in a place that you don't understand or don't know and don't expect him

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to be even though it's just right there where you are. God answers this prophecy in a powerful

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way by sending Jesus where he did and how he did. In other words this Messiah hero is going to be

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human. He's going to be near us. He's going to be vulnerable. He's going to be understanding,

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approachable, nearby, available. I want to tell you today that it's so important that we understand

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that God is all those things and he became all those things to us when Jesus came to fulfill

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this prophecy. You know the prophecy and the fulfillment of those prophecies. They fill the

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songs that we sing these days. For example Matthew chapter 1 verse 23, behold the virgin shall be with

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child and will bear a son and they will call his name Emmanuel which translated means God with us.

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I think that's my favorite name for the Messiah, Emmanuel. God with us. It means that God is not

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far off. It means he's not distant. It means we didn't have to try to figure out a way to get to

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God. We didn't have to climb some mountain or somehow reach some other level of understanding

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or human knowledge in some way but rather that God came to us. He came to meet us where we were,

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right where we were. God with us is his name, Emmanuel. That ought to mean the world to you.

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It ought to mean the world to you when you're in a crowd. It ought to mean the world to you when

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you're all by yourself. God with us. So these words about the Messiah tell us first of all

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that he's going to be among us. Then there's John chapter 1 verse 14. I love John 1. I say it all

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the time. You probably get tired of hearing me talk about John chapter 1 but verse 14 is so real to

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us that word became flesh. Look at that next line. Say it with me. And dwelt among us. Say it again.

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And dwelt among us. In other words, this Messiah hero is going to come. He's going to literally

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put on human flesh, take on human form and he's going to dwell right there with us and he feels

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what we feel. He knows what we know and he knows us. So often today this generation is said to need

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to know that someone sees them, that someone hears them, that someone is aware of them. But this

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Messiah comes, this Messiah hero comes and he knows us all. He sees us all. There's not a moment

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where he doesn't know you, doesn't see you, he's not aware of you. Isaiah said this is what the

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Messiah will look like. This is what the superhero is. He is first of all among us and present with

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us. Secondly, he's a hero that stands before us. By the time you get to verse 4 and 5, you see him

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standing before us. I'm going to read these two verses. I'm going to emphasize the words that

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you'll see emphasized on the screen because it's important to see the actions of this Messiah.

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Not just what was heaped on him but exactly what he did as it was. Notice the words.

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Our griefs he himself bore, our sorrows he carried, smitten of God and afflicted,

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pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. The chastening of our well-being

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fell upon him and by his scourging we are healed. That's the counterpart of the superman thing.

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It's the real deal of the superman thing where superman bears his chest and goes towards that

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gatling gun and those bullets come and bounce off his chest. He absorbs everything intended for

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someone else and yet survives it all. This is what the Messiah is going to do. He's going to handle

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everything thrown his way that is directed to us. Everything that's meant for us he's going to

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absorb. Everything that is the penalty of sin, the result of sin, the consequence of sin,

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our Messiah hero is going to bear all of that on our behalf. He bore that for you. He carried that

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for you. He was smitten and afflicted for you. He was pierced and crushed and chastened and scourged

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for you. That's what this Messiah will do. The cross of Jesus Christ showed that this Messiah

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was the Messiah of prophecy and that he fulfilled all of these words in that one moment on the cross

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when he died. You know the four gospels, the four accounts of the good news of Jesus Christ that we

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read so frequently about the life and times of Jesus. All of them culminate with this moment at

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the cross and all of them point to one man who died on the cross who willingly laid his life

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down as a Messiah hero. No one took it from him. No one could have taken it from him. He was God in

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the flesh and that he laid his life down on the cross and absorbed all those words that we talked

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about in that prophecy. He bore it all, carried it all. He was smitten and afflicted, pierced through,

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crushed and chastened and scourged all in our place, all for us. And all the bullets and arrows

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that were meant for you and all the bullets and arrows that sin and Satan sent your way are

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absorbed by the shield of this righteous man named Jesus Christ. I'm a Messiah hero who absorbs it all

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for us. It's true. It's what he did. It's worth rejoicing in because only he could have done it.

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We should never have been able to do it. We could not endure this ourselves. We have no protection.

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We have no help. Sin and its ravages undoes us. It destroys us. It alienates us. It separates us.

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But Jesus stands before us absorbing all the weight of sin in himself. But even more than that,

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this prophecy says that Jesus bears the weight of the sin of all mankind. Not just you and not just me,

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but all mankind. Now you say, well, that's a lot of people. There are what? Seven billion people in

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the world? But think about all that have lived before now and all that will live after now.

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Now do you think about the billions upon billions and billions of people that have lived and died

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and have sinned and have been separated from God. And the Bible says that this Messiah hero bore the

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sins of all of us on himself. I think it'd be important for us to take a moment and appreciate

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that in this sense. You know what the weight of sin is like in your life, don't you? I know what

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the weight of sin is like in my life. I know what it's like to sin and feel that conviction. I know

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what it's like to feel weighty because of it. I know what it's like to be paralyzed by doing the

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wrong thing with regret, paralyzed with remorse, paralyzed with the idea that why did I do that?

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How did I get myself in that situation? In Psalm chapter 38, David is talking about the weight of

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sin. I think it's so specific, so clear in a graphic way about the weight of sin. Listen to

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this in Psalm 38 verse one. Oh Lord, rebuke me not in your wrath and chasten me not in your

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wasted me not in your burning anger for your arrows have sunk deep into me and your hand has

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pressed down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. There's no

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health in my bones because of my sin. Listen to verse four. For my iniquities are gone over my

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head as a heavy burden they weigh too much for me. Here's a guy that cares about his relationship

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with God but is aware of the results of sin in his life. He's saying this has gone over my head,

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it's too big for me and it's weighted me down and God's hand is heavy on me. I'm pressed by this.

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I can't deal with this anymore. That's the weight of the sin of one man. What about the weight of

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the sin of the whole world? Multiply that by billions upon billions upon billions. Can you

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imagine that for just a moment? As you imagine that, I want you to also realize that the prophet was

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foretelling a Messiah that was big enough, strong enough, powerful enough and willing to bear

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just that, the sin of the whole world. I'm going to ask you to pause for just a moment.

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Then I'm going to ask you to say after feeling the weight of that, thank God for a Messiah that

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would bear the weight of the sin of the whole world. Would you join me in just rejoicing

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that he even does that? Wow. Wow. Then you get to verse six. Verse six says,

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all of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way,

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but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. It's huge.

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It's huge. That's Isaiah saying, that's what he came to do.

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Now, you know, I love to share the gospel. I love to talk about verse six of Isaiah 53.

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I love to show people what that looks like. Often I use a phone to do that.

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You've seen this before. I'm going to pull out my phone again. I'm going to tell you that,

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that for you to see this, I want you to let this hand for a moment, represent God.

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And then let this hand right here represent you. I'm going to put a phone on my hand here.

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This is my phone. Let's just let this phone represent the record book of sin in your life.

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By the way, if I had your phone, it would record the record book of sin in your life.

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I'd know a lot about your phone if you gave me the password.

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But God knows the password of our lives. He knows our thoughts, our actions, what we do,

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what we say, what we think. That's on me. That's on you. And the weight of that is on me.

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And the result of that is on me. And the reality is our sin separates us from this holy God,

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who loves us, but is holy. Now, just a moment, for a moment, let's just see this hand now as

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representing Jesus Christ. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's the Christmas story

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right there from here to here. That's the Christmas story. The virgin is with child,

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and she bears a son, and his name shall be Emmanuel, God with us. And so he lived

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next to us, among us, God with us. The Bible tells us that in doing that, Jesus lived a perfect life,

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and then he laid his life down on the cross to die for our sins. And that moment that Jesus died for

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our sins, God saw him as an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of all of the world, your sin and mine.

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And he was satisfied with the sacrifice of Jesus. The Bible says in Isaiah 53, 6, what we've talked

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about. All of we have, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us to our own way. Now watch me.

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But the Lord laid on him the sin of his soul. Where does that leave my sin? On Jesus. Where does

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that leave me? Free from that sin, forgiven from that sin. Jesus was buried, rose again the third

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day, stands at the right hand of God the Father, and you can have a relationship with him through

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faith in Jesus Christ. Now you can clap. Now you can clap right now. You can do that.

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That's what verse 6 says. Think about it with me for just a moment. Our salvation depends completely

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on heroic action of this Messiah, lifting the weight of sin off of us. Completely. It does not

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rest on your church attendance or your baptism or your doing good or your sincerity of heart.

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It rests on Jesus Christ's sacrifice. The Messiah, hero, who died on the cross for you. That's what

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your salvation rests on. When you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that's what gives you

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the salvation and the forgiveness. He's the intervener. He's the forgiver. And only him.

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Don't look for it anywhere else. Look for it only in him. It's Superman lifting the massive

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vehicle off of us. It's Superman keeping the tottering skyscraper from falling on us.

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And when we look at the cross, we're so used to the cross as being something so sad, so undeserved,

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so unjust because Jesus was so perfect and it is. But it's also heroic. It's heroic because we

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deserve to be on that cross. It's supernatural. And it's impossible for anyone but the infinite God

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who came as Messiah to perform this for us. But he did come and he did perform it and it is

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available to us. That's just the truth of this prophecy fulfilled in Christ. It is who he is.

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It is what he was at the cross and it is who he is today for you. Now listen to this question. I

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have a question for you. It's very important. Do you think for one moment, that the Messiah,

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He who died on the cross for you and for the sins of all of mankind, who absorbed all the blows of

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sin and death for you, would abandon you in your current situation? He would not. He would not.

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He is among us. He also stands before us in your everyday situation. Listen.

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Salvation is not just about eternity. It's about living with Christ now. It's about his help now.

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Not just at the day of judgment, but now, day in, day out, his enabling grace, his strengthening

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grace, his protective grace. It's Superman. It's Messiah, hero standing in front of us doing what

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only he can do. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15 gives us a great verse that reminds us of that truth.

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It says, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,

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but one who has been tempted in all ways as we are, in all things as we are, yet without sin.

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This high priest, this Messiah, hero, understands everything we've gone through. Now Christ never

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sinned, but in his humanity, he took upon himself the consequences of sin. He dealt with the result

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of sin. He handled all the blows of those that sinned against him, that hated him, that reviled

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him, that persecuted him. He handled the sin of the whole world while he hung on the cross,

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so that he can today stand before us to take the bullets of sin and separation for us here and now.

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And he stands before us to rescue us, Superman-style and greater than that, every single day from day

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to day. He knows what grief is because he's gone through grief. He understands loneliness

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because he's been lonely. He knows what it's like to be abandoned and to be betrayed

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because all those things have happened to him. He knows what it means to be rejected and spat

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upon because he was. He was mocked in our place and he absorbs all that for you. And he stands

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before you as your Messiah, hero, when all those arrows come your way and all those arrows come

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your way and all those bullets come your way, your Messiah Jesus stands in front of you and before you

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and for you. That's who he is. That's who he is. You're not sure if you believe that? Then look at

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the life of Jesus on the earth when he ministered for those three years. He protects the woman

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caught in adultery. He raises the man named Lazarus who died of a sickness. He healed the

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paralytic. They went to Peter's mother-in-law and healed her of her fever. He turns around a

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discouraged disciple named Peter after the crucifixion. He shields a doubting Thomas from

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further despair and further disbelief by appearing to him in a room. He accepts and inspires a

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rejected woman at the well one day. Why is he doing this? He's doing this because this is who he is,

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because he intervenes into people's lives. He stands before us. He's a friend of sinners. He's

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an advocate for the desperate and hurting. I know this. There have been times in my life where I

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could only, out of frustration, being at the end of a road of a situation, not understanding what's

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going on around me, in grief and despair, there have been times when I could only put my face in

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my hands and weep. I can tell you in times like that, he's been very near me and very real.

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I can tell you in times like that, he's intervened and he's worked in powerful ways and things that

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I could never do. But I walk away from those moments of despair and grief and loneliness and

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all things I feel like I've absorbed and I realize there's someone greater than me that's

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absorbed them all and he stands with me in the middle of it all. And the God who did not ignore

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me when he died on the cross to pay for my sins will not ignore me now when I come to him and say,

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Lord, I need you. I need you now. He's there. He's the God who intervenes. He's the God who stands

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before us. How do you do that pastor? I mean, how do you really have that happen in your life? Let

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me tell you three things that are very simple. First of all, acknowledge that he's with you.

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By faith. Just acknowledge God, I know you're there. I don't see you. I mean, I feel you. I

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don't hear you, but I know you're there by your own promise and you're a promise keeping God.

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You are there by faith. I know you're there. Secondly, ask him to help you.

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Lord, I need you to absorb the pain for me. I need you to somehow give me strength. I need

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you to help heal me right now. But I'm going through a tough time. You have not because you

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ask not, so ask. And ask your Messiah, a hero, to come alongside you. It's what he does. And thirdly,

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trust him. Trust him that he will. And then get up and move forward knowing he's with you, knowing

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that's what he does, knowing that he's promised and he has fulfilled his promises to you. And

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walk by faith with your Messiah hero. Otherwise, you're going to do that on your own. You're going

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to forget who's with you. Forget what he does. Jesus is your Messiah hero, absorbing life's

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hardest shots directed your way. That he wants to come alongside you. The story of Jesus begins with

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Jesus being among us. And the story of Jesus continues with him being within us.

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And so now he's within you and is always ready to help you.

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So Jesus is a Messiah hero who is present with us. He stands before us. But finally,

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and the most important thing, is that he is sufficient for us. I mean, it doesn't really

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matter if he's with us. It doesn't matter if he stands before us if he's not able,

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if he's not competent, if he's not sufficient for all the things we're talking about. I mean,

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this is pretty attractive to have a Messiah hero, isn't it? It's pretty attractive to have someone

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die for your sins and take the penalty and punishment for sin. But is he sufficient?

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And Isaiah says, this Messiah will be so sufficient, he will absolutely please God the Father

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on your behalf. He will satisfy God on your behalf. Let's look at what it says in verse 10 and 11.

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But the Lord was pleased to crush him. And this is the only way to understand this verse, by the

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way. Why else would a heavenly Father be pleased to crush his Son? He was pleased to crush him.

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He was pleased to crush him, put him to grief, if he would render himself as a guilt offering.

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As a result of the anguish of his soul, Jesus' soul, he, God, will see it and be satisfied.

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So everything we've said so far about the Messiah is good and wonderful. But if our Messiah hero is

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not sufficient to satisfy sin's penalty and God's holiness, it's all in vain. Just like if Superman

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can't really lift up the car or if Superman can't keep the bullet from hurting us and penetrating us.

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If God's not strong enough, if Jesus is not strong enough to lift it all and to protect us all,

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it's all just a fantasy Messiah. It's all just words that are hopeless and worthless. It's all

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just a religious make believe God. But the reality is Isaiah said that this Messiah fully satisfies

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God and is therefore sufficient to protect us and give us what he promised.

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Notice that Jesus is sufficient because of his perfect life.

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When people talk about Jesus, they don't talk about any sin he committed. They talk about his

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perfection. The fact that he did all things to please the Father, one of those statements that

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Jesus made is, I always do what's pleasing to the Father. And we all know how hard that is,

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how difficult that is, how we sometimes want to do what's pleasing to the Father but don't.

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But Jesus demonstrated that he could do that. He demonstrated the truth. Jesus demonstrated love

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and acceptance to the impoverished. He confronted the very face of evil and the temptations in the

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wilderness. Everything Satan could throw at him, he absorbed and dealt with, yet did not sin.

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He lived his life in complete obedience to the Father and was in every way a perfect lamb without

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blemish to be offered as a sacrifice on our behalf. That's what we've been talking about.

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Jesus is also sufficient because of his perfect sacrifice, because of the fact he did give himself.

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He was a sufficient guilt offering for sin. That's what Isaiah 53 talks about.

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And that's why I love the word sufficiency. That's why I use it a lot. Because sufficiency simply

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means that he is competent, he is able, he has the authority to do what he promised that he would do.

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And if you look at Isaiah's prophecy here and the promises, it promises that the Messiah would

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please God and satisfy God fully in making this offering for our sin. Now do you remember what

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Jesus' dying words were? Jesus, as he was dying, said, it is finished. It's a commercial word,

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and it means paid in full. It means that he came to lay his life down, to pay for sin on our behalf,

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to please the Holy God and our Father. And he said as he died, paid in full. I live my life in a

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perfect way. I live my life down as a perfect, without blemish sacrifice. This price of the weight

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of the sin of mankind has been paid in full. That's what he did. He said it's enough.

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But the most miraculous thing, as though there was something more miraculous than that,

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is that he didn't just come to live a perfect life and die to give the perfect sacrifice.

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And it's not just that he died and rose again the third day. All those are amazing and incredible.

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But that he satisfied the righteous wrath and the indignation of a Holy God against the sin of

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mankind. His greatest feat, his greatest act was paying that debt, and he did it.

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Our hero, our hero did what we were unable to do in paying the debt of sin to God,

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your sin and the sins of all of mankind. A couple of years ago, we entered into an agreement with

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an organization in this area. We took a special offering in order to remove the debt, the

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insurmountable debt of people who had medical bills and couldn't pay them. So our church gathered,

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we explained the need, we realized that we could intervene on their behalf. They would never know

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really who we were, but these people had medical debt that they had to have because they needed

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treatment, but they couldn't pay. And so they would be writing small checks to the organization,

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the hospital, or whatever company it was that secured that debt from them, and they knew they

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would never pay it off in their lifetime, but they just kept paying as much as they could.

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And through this organization, we were able to take the money that we gave and apply it

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to their debt, and it freed people from the debt. And they received a letter in the mail.

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This letter in the mail said, all of the people who had medical bills and couldn't pay,

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all of your medical debt to such and such an organization has been paid in full

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without writing more checks. And we got to see videos of people as they read those letters.

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And boy, I'm telling you, what an incredible thing to watch, people who thought their debt would

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never be paid for, a debt they could never possibly, possibly take care of, be paid for

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on their behalf by people they didn't even know. What a moment of rejoicing. Some of them stood

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up and shouted. Some of them clapped. All of them wanted to write letters to the organization that

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did that, which in this case was us. It was a privilege to be able to take care of debt

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that people could never pay on their own by people who may never meet them. Well, I take that

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scenario, and I want to multiply that a million times. And I want to say that's exactly what your

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Messiah, He wrote it for you. You did not know what He was doing. You did not know what it involved,

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but He got on that cross and paid for the debt of our sin, the sin of all mankind, and sets you free

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in a way that you could never set yourself free. That's what He accomplished on the cross. That's

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what this Messiah came to do. And the Bible says that God was pleased by that. In fact, when you

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go back and look at your verses that we've just read, God sees it. That is the sacrifice of Jesus

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and is satisfied. When God sees it, the sacrifice of Jesus, when He sees you, it means it's completely

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satisfied. And every time God looks at you, He looks at you through the sacrifice of Jesus,

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through the blood that your Messiah, He wrote shed on your behalf, and He just sees that payment,

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that blood. And when He sees you, He doesn't see you in your sin. He doesn't see you in your

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inability to keep the loss. He sees you through Jesus. Let me tell you what that means. It doesn't

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mean that we are no longer concerned about sin. No, the truth is we are more concerned about sin

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because we know we're forgiven of that, and we want to please the one that forgave us of that sin.

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But what it does say is that when God sees us through the act, the loving, merciful act of Jesus

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Christ on the cross, He sees that sacrifice and He is fully satisfied. Here's what I want you to do.

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Accept the sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf. Rest on the sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf.

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Appreciate the sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf. Rejoice in the sacrifice of Jesus

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for your life. And realize this, I can never be enough. I can never do enough that Jesus

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is enough, and Jesus did enough for God to be satisfied. His sufficiency makes me complete.

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And His sufficiency makes you complete. In Colossians 2, there's a great series of

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statements about what Jesus did on the cross. Colossians 1 and 2 are all about what He did

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there. That's the conclusion of that narrative of Jesus on the cross and all of the accomplished

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spiritual way. Paul comes to Colossians chapter 2 verse 10, and here's what it says.

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Out in Him you have been made, what's that word? Complete. And He is the head over all rule and

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authority. Now I want you to take a step back and look at that. Jesus has all rule and authority.

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The authority to declare, the rule and the power to declare things as they are. At the end of the

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day, and He has declared through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that in Him, in Christ,

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you have been made complete. You can't earn it. You can't make God love you anymore or any less.

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You can't do any more for God or less for God to secure this because Jesus has already secured

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all of it for you, and in Him you have been made complete. And what that means is that our Messiah

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has come and accomplished all of this so that you would be complete before God. God has pronounced

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you complete and forgiven and justified, and He's the head over all rule and authority. It is

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indisputable, and He has declared to you that if you put your faith and trust and confidence in

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Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. What a Messiah. What a hero. What a salvation. And it's all found

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in Jesus Christ. Now most of you know that when Superman is not actually facing a battle,

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he's doing something else. What's he doing? He's flying out, hands outstretched like this,

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over the city, looking right and left for situations into which to intervene. How many of

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you remember that Superman? You know the one that was out of shape. He didn't really have abs, right?

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That old Tommy costume, I mean that was a real mess, a messed up thing. That's what he did.

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When he wasn't rescuing someone, he was looking for someone to rescue. He was looking for some

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situation to intervene into. Flying over the city, watching for anything that needs rescuing.

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Now we've been talking about not just this fascist Superman, but this Messiah hero.

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You know what he's doing when he's not battling, something like the cross?

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He's walking within those who follow him with you every day, facing all the things you face

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by giving you power to live with. He's in you. He's completely sufficient for all that you need.

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He is your Messiah hero that came to live with you. Now that's what makes this such a different

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story. He came and he did all that he did. He rose again on the cross. He came to the cross

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again on the third day, ascended into heaven, and he's coming back for us again. But in the meantime,

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he's with us every step of the way. So that means I walk in a different way because of this Messiah

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hero. I live in a different way because of this Messiah hero. And I've already said it, first of

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all acknowledge him. Lord, you are obviously my Messiah hero. Secondly, ask him to absorb all the

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heartbreak difficulty you're going through, whatever that is, just like he absorbs your sin.

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And number three, trust him to do it and walk with him with an awareness that he helps you

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every step of the way. Our God who intervenes. How many of you need intervening right now? How

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many of you need a God to intervene into your life, into your relationships, into your situations?

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Some of you in this room need a God to intervene between your sin and a holy God because you've

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never trusted him for salvation. Here's my invitation to you today. Number one, before you

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leave this room, stop by a decision station and tell them this. Tell them, I need a God who

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intervenes into my life. I need a God who can help me with my sin and forgive my sin. And we will

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talk with you, we will walk with you through what it means to make a decision to follow Christ. I

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can't wait for you to stop and have that conversation. It'll be a life-changing conversation.

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Secondly, I invite you who are our guests, if you don't have that kind of decision in a moment,

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then take a moment and stop by our guest reception area. I'll be in that room, love to meet you,

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love to talk to you about the church that this God builds called the Church of Jesus Christ and our

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church here. Love to talk with you about that. Thirdly, as you leave today, consider that you are

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an inviter of friends and others to come and join us from week to week to hear the word of God,

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but also tonight to celebrate with us this Messiah hero. You've heard all the dates and times.

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We'll have some information for you to hand out when you leave today. But today, do something.

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Do something in response to this Messiah hero who did everything for you. Would you stand with me?

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Will you bow with me in a word of prayer? Father, I am so grateful that we have a Messiah hero,

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so grateful that you sent your son Jesus, so grateful for his sufficiency for every area of

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our lives. And Lord, just as we trust you for our salvation, we're going to trust you

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for the grace we need day by day, moment by moment, for the healing and help we need.

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Walk with us. Thank you so much. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.