1          “Cry loudly, do not hold back; Raise your voice like a trumpet, and declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins. ^[1]

This is day one of our 21 days of fasting in preparation for our annual convocation. We will focus our devotions on Isaiah, chapter 58. What does one do during a fast? Do they simply push back from the table and sit quietly while others enjoy their meal? Do they act pious and uber spiritual? What do they do? In the day in which Isaiah was writing as the prophet of God, Israel celebrated many fasts. It was a regular part of their religious experience. The problem, however, was that their fasting had become little more than an empty ritual when it was intended to be a time of returning to God through confession. But it was not just for them alone. It was for the household of faith. Isaiah, therefore, admonishes Israel to be boisterous in their challenge to their community to change their ways.

Fasting in the church today has become equally perfunctory, if there is fasting at all. Some cannot fast because of medical and health issues, but others have twisted motives for their fasting. This is the time to intentionally seek to draw closer to God, and not for you alone, but for the entire household of faith. So, on this first day of our fasting, let us not be silent, or even quiet, in our confession and our admonition to return to the Lord. Let us instead be sincere in our conversation with the Lord about ourselves, those we love, and the community of which we are a part.

Dear God and Father of us all. I surrender my appetite to you today and for the next twenty days as a sacrifice. My earnest desire is to draw closer to you. I freely confess my transgressions and sins and ask for your forgiveness. Help me crucify my flesh and maintain my focus on You and Your Word. May the transformation I experience endure far beyond the end of this fast. May it bring lasting change that causes my heart, mind, body, and soul to reflect You. I ask this in the mighty name of Jesus! Amen.

^[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Is 58:1.

Acts 20:17-24

Romans 8:5-16

            So much of our lives are lived in, by and through knee jerk reactions. We tend to look at a set of circumstances and then decide how best to navigate through them. We make determinations about life and death issues based on perceptions of what provides the best opportunity to be positioned for success. We have been taught this way of thinking in school and at home. We have been so thoroughly indoctrinated into this way of thinking that we almost cannot help ourselves. We use this process in most every situation. Considerations about education are made considering what field will provide the most money and the greatest opportunity for advancement. We tend to choose mates according to who will fit the best into our vision for the future. Even ministry is subjected to the filter of choice. We have the right to choose our path in life. Choice is the one thing God does not take from us. But we forget that our wisdom is weak and flawed. We forget our wisdom is not God’s wisdom. So, we make choices but much of the time end up making the wrong choices because our flesh instead of the Spirit of God led us.

            The Apostle Paul had a hugely successful ministry among the Gentiles, especially in the province of Asia. Everywhere he traveled people, Jews and Gentiles alike, came to faith in Jesus. But everywhere he went he also encountered intense persecution from the Jews who opposed him and his message. Now he has made up his mind to travel back to Jerusalem, back to the seat of Jewish authority. He knows, however, that the reception he is likely to receive will not be a good one. Repeatedly he is warned about what waits for him there and still he is determined to go. Why would he choose to go where he knows trouble and hardship waits? The answer lies not in his choosing but in the Holy Spirit’s compelling. Paul tells the elders from Ephesus that he is compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. In other translations the word compelled is not used but rather ‘bound’. The sense of the Greek is that he has been tied up, bound by the Spirit so that he has no choice but to go. What a stark difference from our manner of making decisions. Here is an aspect of the Holy Spirit that we often ignore. We want the ecstatic benefits of the Spirit but not the direction. What we need is to be compelled. What does it mean to be compelled by the Spirit?

1. Our minds are attuned to the Spirit. (Romans 8:5-7)

2. Our bodies are attuned to the Spirit. (Romans 8:9-11)

3. Our wills are attuned to the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25) There is a sense in which the Spirit is always out ahead of us. We must keep up. We must stay in sync.

4. Our spirits are attuned to the Spirit. (Romans 8:12-16)

When the Spirit compels us, we like Paul, will find ourselves always in a state of being constrained or propelled. When the Spirit moves, we move. When the Spirit stops, we stop. Like the cloud in the wilderness, we are completely submitted to His leading. Paul was compelled to go to Jerusalem. He had no choice. What compels us today?

Jeremiah 4:3

Hosea 10:12

I want to speak specifically to believers this morning! I want to speak to you because you, me, we are the body of Christ. We are married to Him. We are no longer the bride but His wife. We are past the newly wed stage where more is expected of us. I want to speak to the body of Christ because we are in a very dangerous place where we have been lulled to sleep and are about to be overtaken by sin. I want to speak to the body of Christ this morning because something has happened to her where she is no longer satisfied with Jesus. Rather than calling people to repentance we have sought to help them live with their sin. Some that were once running a good race have fallen by the wayside and no one seems to really care.

            How did it happen that what was once acknowledged as sin and immoral is not moral and normal so much so that people boldly call themselves believers, and even worse than that, leaders all the while thumbing their noses at God. I have often said that the world behaving in this manner does not surprise be because they have yet to some to the truth of the gospel. No. I am concerned about Christ’s body, and I wondered: how did it happened? I did not have to look far for man answer, for the answer. It is right in the Word of God. The hearts of those who call themselves believe have become hardened, what the Bible in two places refers to as fallow ground.

Now “Fallow ground is ground that has been plowed and readied for sowing but then is withheld and allowed to lie useless and unproductive. God, through His prophets, had to rebuke His people not only because they had left their prepared ground unused, but because they were sowing their seed on thorn-choked ground. That is, they were turning to idols and forsaking God. The word “fallow” occurs one other time in the Bible and to the same effect.” Note the ground was plowed and ready for planting but then nothing more was done. In farming this is a useful strategy because it gives the ground time to rest, generally about a year, before it is planted again. But when the imagery is used to describe the human heart, it indicated a most dangerous condition from which many do not recover. The greater problem is that the heart, unlike the field, becomes hardened almost without notice, and here is how.

1. Neglect – If one leaves a plowed field idle for a long period of time it will be overtaken by weeds, thorns, and thistles. Salvation represents a field that has been plowed. O what joy over one. But what happens if nothing else happens?

2. Wrong Influence – There is much talk today about being a social media influencer. People are making mounds of money influencing people to all sorts of things. I intentionally did not say bad influence because the influence may not be bad for someone else, just for you.

3. Misplaced Priorities – There are so many things that place demands on our time. It can be difficult to navigate them. What shall I make the priority in my life? Should it be the job that provides my livelihood and gives me money? Family? My recreational pursuits? My interests? What?

I told you earlier that the heart, unlike a field, becomes hardened almost without notice. So, how do you know if your hard has hardened?

• Your heart is lukewarm and indifferent to God and spiritual matters. You have left your first love.
• Prayer, Bible study, church attendance, and fellowship with other believers have fallen by the wayside.
• You are no longer mindful of your witness, or you don’t care.
• The concern for others’ spiritual condition is no longer on your radar.
• You do not recognize blessings and fail to give praise to God
• Your priorities are no longer God’s order of priorities.
• To you, God is no longer greater than the devil that is in the world.
• You have more doubts and unbelief than you have faith.
• You no longer possess the joy of the Lord.

But there is good news! When the heart has been plowed and cleared, it will be fertile for sowing and reaping a good crop once again. Paul prayed for the Philippians: May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God (NLT). He told the Galatians if they quit walking in flesh and began walking in the Spirit, they would bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).            Plowing the fallow ground is a process and, repentance and restoration is a process. God in His loving grace and mercy sent Christ to bear our sins on the cross and grant us forgiveness. God is patient and kind and ready to forgive and help every one of His children who is willing to repent and return to Him. In his famous psalm of repentance, David prayed: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.” God gave David what he sought. And He will do so for us.

1 Corinthians 1:21-25

There is so much stacked up against us that it seems at times that even with our hearts right with God we cannot not accomplish all God has placed in our hearts. If you have ever felt as though something was missing, it is not that something is missing but, more to the point, we are missing something. What are we missing? God’s divine resources. But that begs another question: how do we receive them?

If we are going to receive the divine resources that we need to accomplish all that God places in our hearts, we must learn how to touch the Lord and tap those resources. Learning how to touch the Lord requires knowing His address. Those who worship idols must know the name and address of their god so they can go and worship it directly. “When we become Christians not only do we need to retrain our thought life through thinking positively, thinking in terms of miracles and developing an orientation to success; we also need to be aware of our source of power and enablement” (Chou, 127).

We find the address of God through the person of Jesus, and since Jesus has been resurrected to the right hand of the throne of God, we have the Holy Spirit (John 15-20). Through the Holy Spirit God the Father and God the Son dwell in us (2 Cor. 1:21-22). God’s address is my address!

“God never works without coming through our thinking, our vision, and our faith. We are the channel” (Chou, 135). That has implications: we have all the responsibility. If we do not develop our way of believing to cooperate with God, God will be limited. God is as large as we allow Him and as small as we confine him; we must re-educate our hearts to cooperate with God; and we must be first cleansed of the sins of the flesh. There are four sins of the flesh we must conquer.

1. The sin of hatred. Hatred will prevent God from flowing freely through our hearts (Matthew 6:14-15). You conquer hatred through forgiveness. The best way to forgive is to bless. Bless their spirit, soul, body, and life. The ability to bless will bring healing. The inability to bless will bring destruction.

2. The Sin of Fear. Too many people live under fear (2 Timothy 1:7). It is our responsibility to get rid of fear. Fear provides an open channel for the devil. Fear is negative faith. If a person has a specific fear, then the power of destruction begins to flow. Focusing on our circumstances brings fear. Avoid sensual knowledge and live by revelation.

3. The Sin of Inferiority. Many people live with inferiority complexes (1 Timothy 1:15-16). An inferiority complex is very destructive. Those who suffer from it must let themselves be reconstructed by the love of God. We do that by building them up in the love of Jesus Christ and imparting faith to them. We tell them nothing is impossible to those who believe. We must heal, train & pull them up.

4. The Sin of Guilt (Hebrews 10:22). If someone suffers from guilt, God can never flow through them. Coming to the Lord and allowing Him to cleanse us will enable one to get rid of their guilt. Guilt is one of the devises used by the devil to enslave us. Jesus has redeemed us from our guilt and shame.

Once we effectively get rid of the sins of the flesh the entire orientation of our thinking will begin to change and we will be able to touch the Lord and tap into His resources. Once we have access, once we have tapped in, we will have the assurance that our physical needs will be taken care of, God will give us rest, direction, and grace. God will show us how to escape temptation, help us when we are hurting, save us, give us peace, and point us to the truth. You might think you can accomplish all of this on your own, but your enemy knows that you cannot and counts on your persistence in trying.

Get out of the mindset that engaging in worship is enough to touch God and fully tap into His resources. Elevate the vision God has given you for your life and charge your faith. Go to Jesus! He dwells in us with all power and authority. He dwells in us, and His resources are found in us! That God dwells in us with all His resources, power and authority means we can talk and pray to Him any time; we can touch and tap His resources through prayer and faith; when we cry aloud God listens; when we speak softly, God listens; and when we meditate, God hears.

Isaiah 53:7-9

John 15:13

If you are familiar with the OT background of prescribed animal sacrifices, you will note that the crucifixion of Jesus was very different. Hebrews 10 tells us, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The sacrifice of Jesus was the sacrifice of a human, not an animal. But not just a human, but a perfect person who had lived life fulfilling all righteousness – so by active obedience, God could impute to redeemed sinners such as us His righteousness. Not just a perfect human, but the very Son of God who could experience the eternal wrath of God for all of those whom He intended to save.

But what really stands out in our passage this morning that makes the sacrifice of Christ so unique is his willing, voluntary, silent submission to that act of sacrifice – knowing full well the entirety of what was involved. The slaughtered lamb did not choose its death. The slaughtered lamb did not understand what lay ahead of it as it blindly followed the rest of the flock to the butcher’s knife. But our Lord Jesus, the precious Lamb of God, set his face resolutely to go to Jerusalem, fully understanding what lay ahead on the cross. Not just the experience of a violent, barbaric, grotesque, publicly humiliating death … but the unleashing of the full wrath of God against him because he died in our place to pay the penalty for sins that we deserved to pay. He would cry out, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me”

This is just a little of what Jesus endured for you and me, and to a contemporary society, it makes absolutely no sense. How and why would an innocent person willingly die for something they did not do? It is not just. It is not fair. Consequently, it is difficult to understand or for that matter accept. Yet, he endured it all for you and me. Isaiah foretells us three things Jesus would do.

1. He willingly laid down his life (vs. 8). He was made answerable. There was a debt to be paid that was answerable by His suffering and death.

2. He silently submitted (vs. 8). The word “oppress” is one that means He was pressed or harassed to the point of being totally weary and fatigued, and yet He did not respond because He allowed Himself to be oppressed and because it was the Father’s will.

3. His innocence was vindicated in His burial (vs. 9). Even though Christ would die with the wicked, God would not allow Him to be buried with the wicked.

Jesus endured the most horrific suffering imaginable to humanity, and He did it for you and me. It was not something he had to do. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked the Father to remove the assignment but submitted in obedience. When He was arrested, He went quietly. He did not protest even a little bit. When they scourged him, He didn’t retaliate. When the soldiers put the crown of thorns on His head, He didn’t curse at them. When they drove the nails in His hands and feet, He didn’t threaten them. When the bystanders spat at Him, He didn’t spit back. When they swore at him, He didn’t swear back. Though no one spoke up for Him and no one came to defend Him, still He endured because He knew it would be the means by which salvation would reach to the end of the earth and how the arm of the Lord would be revealed.

            What would you do, innocently accused, sentenced to death, maltreated in the worst of ways? What would you do if everything was against you, and nothing was in your favor? Such was the not the case for Jesus. He knew what was coming. He knew the grave could not hold Him and death could not contain Him.

Isaiah 53:4-6

What did Jesus do for you and me? Most believers will answer that question in ways one would expect. When asked one might say, “He saved my soul!” They might say, “He came to give me abundant life.” Or “He proclaimed good news to me.” Or “He came to bring me out of darkness into the marvelous light.” None of these responses are wrong. Jesus came and did all of those things, but these are mostly learned spiritual or theological responses, and in this post pandemic world, they are insufficient because they fail to get to the nitty gritty of where most people live today.

Most people today, even if they have grown up in church but have held it at arm’s distance, want answers with which they can actively identify. There is a generation who need Jesus today that are simply not going to respond to evangelistic approaches that impacted and brought generations to faith before them. Their lives are more complex. Their options are far greater and the external stimuli they receive from social media and all other forms of media are plethora.

The testimony of my and how I came to faith in Jesus is not their testimony. They don’t live like I lived. Their lives are far more chaotic than mine ever was. In truth, I often do not understand what they do, how they do it, and why; and it does not really matter what I think because it is their reality. So, the question, “what did Jesus do for me?”, takes on greater relevance and urgency because of the complexity of their lives and we have an answer. What has He done?

1. He took our wounds, pains, hurts, and sorrow (Isaiah 53:4)!

Griefs – pains of the body (Isaiah 53:4a)

Sorrows – pains of the mind Isaiah 53:4b)

2. He took our infirmities, so as to remove them (Isaiah 43:5a)!

Pierced or bruised – crushing inward and outward suffering

Carried my burden

3. He took our punishment upon Him (Isaiah 53:6b)! “The innocent was punished as if guilty, that the guilty might be rewarded as if This verse could be said of no mere martyr.”

None of this did He have to do! He was guilty of no crime. He was innocent of all charges. He was never sick, yet he carried our sickness. He was tempted just as we are but never yielded. Why would He do it? He knew where we would be and with what we would have to contend. He knew how virulent our enemy would be and the temptations we would face. He did it because He loved us and loves us still.

What has Jesus done? What did He do? One ministry says “He gets us! He was mocked by elites, betrayed by friends, imprisoned by politicians, killed by authorities and He forgave them all!” He knew isolation, anger, rejection and anxiety too, and He can help you!

What’s He done? I cannot talk about you, but I can tell you what He did for me! He removed the fog of my confusion. He shined the light of His glory into the darkness of my situation. He removed the shame of my past and showed me the promise of my future. He washed my garments that were nasty and dirty from until they were spotless and clean.

What’s He done? He removed loneliness and despair. He healed sick bodies despite the doctor’s scary diagnosis. When you should have died, he said you shall live. When you were confused about who you were He removed your doubts and condemned the lies of the enemy.

It may not be sufficient for some to recall the sacrifice He made for me and for you, but none of what He has done, is doing and will do is possible without it. One songwriter put it this way:

See on the hill of Calvary                                           What He’s done
My Savior bled for me                                                What He’s done
My Jesus set me free                                                  All the glory and the honor to the Son
And look at the wounds that give me life                   My sins are forgiven
Grace flowing from His side                                      My future is Heaven
No greater sacrifice                                                    I praise God for what He’s done

Sing for the freedom He has won                               What He’s done
Even death is dead and done                                      What He’s done
His life has overcome                                                 All the glory and the honor to the Son
Speak, say the Name above all names                        My sins are forgiven
Over every broken place                                             My future is Heaven
He is risen from the grave                                          I praise God for what He’s done

Now on a throne of majesty                                       What He’s done
The Father’s will complete                                         What He’s done
He reigns in victory                                                    All the glory and the honor to the Son
Sing hallelujah to the King                                         My sins are forgiven
He is worthy to receive                                               My future is Heaven
All the worship we can bring                                     I praise God for what He’s done

What’s He done for you? I cannot help but tell it because I know that what He’s done for me He can do the same thing for you. My flaws did not disqualify me. My sin was wiped clean, never to be brought up again. I am a new being, a new creature, living in a new reality. I may have done what they said I did, but that is not me. You may have done what they said you did, but a decision for Jesus today will make you brand new, uncommon, something and someone never seen before. That’s what He’s done.

Isaiah 53:1-3

            Who is this Jesus we sing about, talk about, and to whom we pray? For all the centuries that have passed since His birth, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus is still controversial today. Even in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian people are quick to thank God, call on angels, but the name of Jesus is despised and Jesus Himself is still rejected. People are not interested in knowing Jesus today rationalizing that to do so is to participate in a religion that is a dead thing and something they do not want. But Christianity is not ultimately about participating in a religion but rather it is about having a relationship with the person Jesus which, because He is alive and living, is a living thing.

            I feel led to preach this series because the past couple of years, while in a pandemic, has yanked the cover off a Church that promotes, protects, and invites people into membership in a religion that is, as Bishop Jackson emphasized, a headless horseman. But Jesus is the head and is still the answer for the world today. As the songwriter put it, “Oh, it is Jesus! Yes, it is Jesus! It’s Jesus in my soul. For I have touched the hem of His garment, and His blood has made me whole!” So, I want to present and re-present Jesus to a people who have become disconnected from Him, who think He is no longer relevant, or that have become complacent remaining at home scrolling across their electronic devices having their ears pricked but not their souls touched.

1. It was foretold that people would not believe in Him (vs. 1). The Jews heard repeatedly that Messiah was coming but could not receive Him because they were looking for one with a sword of violence.
2. He did not have an appearance we associate with leadership, fame, and fortune (vs. 2). People are drawn to those they elect to office at times because they look the part. Saul was King of Israel, the first king, and was handsome, a whole head taller than other men and yet God ended up rejecting him as king in favor of David.

3. He was and is able to empathize with us regardless of what we suffer (vs. 3). There is no sorrow with which He is unfamiliar, including disease, even though He had none.

“Who is this Jesus Christ? He is, history will record, the most captivating, the most influential person who ever lived. The most studied, the most examined, the most written about, sung about, discussed person ever. He is the only One who can produce forgiveness, who can bring true peace, joy in this life, eternal blessing in the life to come. He is the only One who can take you to heaven.

He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to God but by me.” That is either the illusion of a madman, the powerful deception of a clever liar, or the truth, and no other options exist. When the media and elite educators search for the true Jesus, and it shows up in books and television, inevitably, they fail to find Him. The Jesus they come up with is some Jesus of their own invention or the invention of others – or even worse, the invention of demons. The reason they look and never find the real Jesus is they never look in the place where He’s revealed. They fail to look at the Bible and take the Bible as absolutely, unequivocally true. But it is. The Bible is true.

Let the record stand. There never has been anybody like Jesus, no one. No one even close. He is the master of everything. He is the master of hungry crowds. He is the master of the sick. He is the master of the sinful. He is the master of demons and Satan. He is the master of nature. He is the master of angry Pharisees. He is the master of clever theologians whom He confounds. He is the master of a Roman governor. He is the master of Herod, a puppet king. He is the master of Himself, struggling in the midnight of His passion on the Mount of Olives, fighting sweat, blood, and tears and who comes forth triumphant and victorious in dedication to His Father’s will. In the terrible agony of the cross, He is the master of everything. All around Him, there is fury. All around Him, there is chaos. But He is calm. He has the mastery of His own heart and mind and tongue and will. Even there at the cross, He pauses to forgive a penitent thief and opens the doors of paradise for him that very day.

No one ever lived like Him and what He said lays claims on every life. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, but by me.” “The Son of man,” He said, “has power on earth to forgive sins. Whoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in heaven.” He said, “Whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” He said, “I am the light of the world,” “I am the bread of life,” “I am the resurrection and the life.” These are the unambiguous claims that Jesus made.

Let me sum it up this way: If God became human, we would expect Him to have a miraculous entrance into this world, wouldn’t we? And He did, born of a virgin. If God became a human, we would expect Him to be sinless and live a holy life, and He did. Pilate could not find a fault in Him, Satan could not find a fault in Him because He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He was without sin. If God became a human, we would expect that His words would be the clearest, truest, purest, most authoritative ever spoken, and they were.

If God became a human, we would expect Him to manifest supernatural power, and He did. If God became a human, we would expect Him to have a universal and permanent influence on the world, and He does. If God became a human, we would expect Him to accomplish His purpose, and He has. So, who is this man? He is God!