God’s answer to a world that hates his son is a community of people who honor his son. Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick. And Colin, today we’re looking at a community of people who honor God’s son. Yes, and the wonderful thing is that that community was actually being formed on the very day that the Lord Jesus died. Alongside all these people who were mocking the Lord Jesus, there were women who loved him and stood by the cross and watched and worshipped. And then you have the soldiers who confessed that Jesus is the son of God. And then you have these men, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who come forward after the death of Jesus and honor him in his burial. So you already have the emerging of a community of people who love and worship the Lord Jesus Christ and honor him in the middle of a world that rejects him. And of course, the relevance of all of this to us is that we are called to be part of that community, to worship and honor the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever the world says about him. We who believe in him, worship him and honor him and love him. We’re going to continue the message of vindication. So join us, if you can, in Isaiah chapter 53 in verse 9. Here’s Colin. Now the first thing I want us to learn from the burial of Jesus is that Jesus is honored on earth by those who love him. Notice what Isaiah says, they made his grave with a rich man in his death. And the gospels tell us this story, that after all the mocking and spitting and despising and rejecting of Jesus that went into the crucifixion, there was a rich man who came forward and gave Jesus an honored burial. Matthew tells us that it was evening. And when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. In a world that despised and rejected Jesus, mocked him and spat on him, there was a rich man who esteemed him and loved him. And he was not alone. Matthew tells us, when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. And the also refers back to others who took their stand with Jesus on that day. Matthew specifically tells us about the women. There were also many women there, he says, looking on from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. Think about it, these women had stood at the foot of the cross as Jesus suffered and died over a period of six hours. They were there watching. They were there waiting. And they were there because they loved him. And these women were not alone in honoring Jesus. Matthew also tells us about the centurion and about his soldiers. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, truly, this was the Son of God. Now, notice that the centurion was not alone in honoring the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew says specifically, the centurion and those who were with him. When the soldiers had nailed Jesus to the cross, you remember Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And here we see how that prayer was answered. Before the day was done, the centurion and those who were with him were confessing faith in Jesus as the Son of God. So we have the soldiers, we have the women, we have Joseph of Arimathea, we have Nicodemus, and they’re all honoring Jesus. Now, do you see that God’s answer to a world that hates his Son is a community of people who honor his Son? And that community of those who love and honor his Son was already emerging even at the cross. Now, this is just one reason why our public gathering in person for worship every Sunday is of real importance. Christians are rightly concerned about the degree to which the Lord Jesus Christ is despised in the world. The world continues to despise and to reject Jesus. But do you see that God’s answer to a world that hates his Son is a community of people who love and honor his Son? And honoring Jesus is what we do together publicly every time we gather for worship. It’s really important. Our world doesn’t believe in Jesus, our world doesn’t care about him, but every time we gather for worship, we make an open and a public confession, we do believe in him. We do care about him. We are here to honor and exalt our Lord Jesus. So here’s what we learn from the burial of Jesus. That Jesus is honored on earth by believers who love him, and then secondly, that he is honored in heaven by the Father who vindicated him. Look at the second half of this verse, they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Now remember who it is that is speaking here. These are the words of God himself speaking through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah. And here, God himself is vindicating his own Son. God the Father is saying, my Son has done nothing wrong. He suffered as a substitute for the sins of others, sins that he did not commit. He laid down his life for his friends. My Son did no violence. There was no deceit in his mouth. So my Son will have an honored burial, and I will raise my Son on the third day to glory. Now what you have here then are two entirely different views of Jesus. The world despises him, consigns him to Gehenna. God the Father honors him, and exalts him to the highest place in heaven. And you see that very clearly in the message or sermon that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, where he says very directly, look, this Jesus who you crucified, God raised up, loosing him from the pangs of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. And you see, this is why Peter says you have to repent. You have to change your mind with regards to Jesus. You have to turn right around. Because in your rejection of Jesus, you are on a direct collision course with God himself. God is committed to the exaltation of his own dearly beloved Son. So you can’t walk away from Jesus without consequence. You just can’t. Jesus is honored in heaven by the Father who vindicated him. And those who honor Jesus will be welcomed into heaven. But those who resist him, well, they’re going to find that the Father resists them. So here’s what we’re learning from the burial of Jesus, that Jesus is honored on earth by believers who love him. And he is honored in heaven by the Father who vindicated him. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message Vindication, part of our series called The Gospel According to Isaiah. And if you ever miss one of our broadcasts, you can always catch up or go back and listen again online. Go to openthebible.org.uk. You can also find our messages as podcasts. Go to your favorite podcast site, search for Open the Bible UK, look for the purple banner, subscribe if you want to receive regular updates. It’s a great way to stay in touch with Colin’s teaching. Back to the message now. Here’s Colin. Now, let’s come to some direct applications of all of this for ourselves today. I want to point out three applications from the burial of Jesus. And the first is simply this, don’t hide your faith in Jesus. Notice what we’re told here, that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews. Notice this man that he has faith in Jesus, but it’s never been brought out into the open. It’s a secret. It’s a private thing for him. That’s all it is. Mark tells us that after the death of Jesus, Joseph took courage. He got courage. And he went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. The death of Jesus put courage into this man. Here he is, a member of the ruling council that has condemned Jesus to death. He’s not consented with the decision, he voted against it. But now he feels after the death of Jesus that he must come out into the open and he must identify himself fully as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nicodemus did exactly the same. Early in the ministry of Jesus, you might remember, he came to Jesus at night. And that clearly indicates that he wanted to keep it all secret. He didn’t want other people to know that he had an interest in Jesus and that he honored and esteemed him. Nicodemus was drawn to Jesus, but he wanted to keep it all private until Jesus died on the cross. And then he felt that he too must come out into the open. Now, I want to speak in this moment to the person who has considered Jesus. You may have come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You’re drawn to him, but you kept it all private. Jesus stood with you openly on the cross. He publicly bore your sin. He identified himself openly with you as one of his people. And now in the light of the cross, you must identify yourself openly with him. That’s why Peter said on the day of Pentecost, you repent and be baptized. Don’t hide your faith in Jesus. It has to be more than simply a change of heart that remains private within you. You have to confess your faith openly. On the cross, Jesus identified fully with you. In baptism, you identify yourself fully with him. Don’t hide your faith in Jesus. And then we learn from this remarkable story that we must devote what we have to Jesus. Again, look at what Joseph did. He took the body and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. Now think about this. Here’s Joseph, and he’s planned his own funeral. He’s got it all organized. He’s picked a spot for his own burial. It’s in a beautiful garden, and he has paid for a tomb to be hewn out of the rock. Would have been a very expensive project, and Joseph no doubt had intended this lavish tomb for himself. But he gave it to Jesus. And of course, that was the best thing he could possibly have done with it. Look at what you have and ask yourself the question, how could this be used for Jesus? Do you have a home? How could your home be used for Jesus? Do you have money? How could your money be used for Jesus? Do you have gifts and talents? How can your gifts and talents be used for Jesus? Do you have available time? How can your available time be used for Jesus? Devote what you have to Jesus. It comes directly out of this story that we’re looking at today. And then a third and last application, just very briefly, trust Jesus and follow his example. Now Isaiah says that Jesus had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. And in the New Testament, Peter picks up these words from the prophet Isaiah and says, he committed no sin, neither was any deceit found in his mouth. Now I looked up the word deceit and to practice deceit is very simply to mislead another person. It is to pretend one thing in order to cover up another. We see that in our world all the time, don’t we? Pretending one thing in order to cover up another. That’s what deceit is. So the Bible speaks about the deceitfulness of sin. In other words, sin misleads, it deceives, it pretends one thing in order to cover up another. You see, it promises much, but it delivers something entirely different. And the Bible also speaks about the deceitfulness of riches. In other words, money misleads, it promises security. Oh, if I have this amount of money, I’m going to have security and I’m going to have happiness. But you see, it cannot deliver on what it promises, it misleads. That’s why it takes great wisdom to be able to withstand the deceitfulness of sin. Sin’s almost promising you something, but it won’t actually deliver. And it takes great wisdom to see through the deceitfulness of riches. But you see, what Isaiah is saying here and what Peter says in the New Testament, there is no deceit whatever in Jesus. He will never mislead. He never pretends one thing in order to cover up another. He will deliver on every word he has spoken and on every promise he has made. You can trust the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no deceit in his mouth. But when we trust him, we must also follow him. And after quoting the words of Isaiah, Peter immediately applies the words of this verse that we’re looking at today to us. That’s why I want to end here today. Quoting Isaiah chapter 53, Peter goes on to say, whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. My friends, there isn’t anyone in this service today that doesn’t want to love life and to see good days. We all want that. And here in the Bible, the Apostle Peter is telling us how to go after it. Here’s how you go after loving life and seeing good days. You keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. In other words, you’re done with a double life. You’re done with pretending one thing in order to cover up another. You turn from evil and do good. You seek peace and you pursue it. That’s a powerful way to wrap up today’s message, which was called Vindication. You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and an in-depth look at Isaiah chapter 53 in our series, The Gospel According to Isaiah. Remember if you ever miss one of our broadcasts, you can always catch up or go back and listen again by going online. Go to our website, that’s openthebible.org.uk, and you can download any of the previously broadcast messages. You can also find the messages as podcasts. That’s a great way of catching up with Pastor Colin Smith’s teaching at any time at your convenience. To find a podcast, go to your favorite podcast site, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any of the others. Search for Open the Bible UK. Look for the purple banner and subscribe to the podcast if you want to receive regular updates. Also on our website and as podcast, you can find Open the Bible Daily. This is a series of short two to three minute reflections written by Pastor Colin Smith and read in the UK by Sue MacLeish. There’s a new Open the Bible Daily every day of the month. Again, subscribe to the podcast if you want to receive regular updates or simply go to the website, click on the menu item Resources, then Open the Bible Daily. You’ll see a list of the recent Open the Bible Dailies up to the present days. When you find the one you want to listen to, click on the link Listen Now. This will open the text of the Open the Bible Daily so you can read the text at the same time as listening to Sue MacLeish reading it. Open the Bible is supported by our listeners, that’s people just like you. And this month, if you’re able to begin a new donation to Open the Bible in the amount of five pounds or more, we’d love to thank you by sending you a copy of a book. It’s called Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer. Colin, give us a taste of what’s in this book. Well, it’s really all about what God does in bringing people to faith in himself and what he calls us to do, the responsibility that he’s given to us. And these two things work together. One way that I find quite helpful to think about this is if you think of a surgeon and he’s performing an operation, there are certain tools that are in his hand. The instruments become the means by which the surgery is performed. But it’s the hand of the surgeon himself that uses these instruments and actually gets the work done. And God uses us as instruments, our praying, our sharing the gospel. It’s a trust that he’s given to us. And we are instruments in the Redeemer’s hand. And that’s a very wonderful privilege. But the really good news is that we are in the Redeemer’s hand, that it’s the Lord who actually does the work and by his grace. On the one hand, we learn that we have a great privilege and we have a great work that God has called us to do. And on the other hand, we learn that we have tremendous hope because it is God who’s actually doing the work in and through us. This book’s a wonderful encouragement. I’ve gone back to it year after year and just found it to be refreshing as a reminder to me that I have great privilege in being trusted with the word of the gospel as every believer is. And yet it is God who uses the word of the gospel to save people. And he does it by his own power and by his marvelous grace. You can find full details of this offer and you can give online as well at our website that’s openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and for Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick and I hope you’ll be able to join us again soon. Could it possibly be God’s will that his son Jesus should suffer and die on a cross? Find out next time on Open the Bible.