Look Upon Him — Erlo Stegen

God's Visitation and Jerusalem's Rejection

This week, we remember the Lord's passion. From today, where we remember where the Lord entered Jerusalem riding a donkey. Where they were calling out Hosanna, praising God. But a few days later, by Thursday in this week, they were already calling out, crucify him.

That's a typical picture of man. Today, he praises or he thanks you, and tomorrow he condemns you, or he may condemn you today, but tomorrow he will thank you. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he saw Jerusalem and he wept.

And he called out and he said, if only Jerusalem, you knew the time of your visitation. They called out Hosanna, that the Pharisees even said, let them keep quiet. And the Lord said, if they keep quiet, the stones, the rocks will call out.

But even though they were called out Hosanna, they didn't recognize the times. It was the time of their visitation in German, the time of him seeking to call them home. But they were blinded, their eyes were closed to the fact.

And Jesus called out, he cried, wept. And he said, you who don't recognize the time of your visitation, the time will come where you will be surrounded by your enemies. Jerusalem will be destroyed. Not one stone will be left upon another.

And it was only about 70 years later, the Roman general surrounded Jerusalem, besieged it. The inhabitants of Jerusalem eventually ate their own flesh, of their own children, drank their blood, just to try to survive, and the city was destroyed.

Do Not Despise God's Visitation

Take note when God visits you, don't despise it, because the end is terrible of those who don't respond to God's visitation. There are certain churches throughout the world that don't play any musical instruments during this week, because it's the week of the Lord's passion and they only start playing instruments again on the day of his resurrection.

The Lord's passion and they only start playing instruments again on the day of his resurrection. I even grew up in a home like that, where there was no musical instrument, didn't even listen to the radio, but that didn't help me, it was just a tradition.

But that is what the people of old said, that it's a week of mourning, of his passion, and we don't want anything worldly amongst us. Now, my message today is so long, I don't think I'll get through it, but I'll just read some verses.

Isaiah's Prophecy of the Suffering Servant

We'll read from Isaiah 52, from verse 13. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, so is this, it was marred more than any man and has four more than the sons of men.

Chapter 53, verse 1, who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form of comeliness when we see him, and when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. By his stripes we are healed. We'll stop reading there. Here we read about how the Lord was tormented and mocked.

The Lamb of God Led to the Slaughter

And his visit was mauled more than any man. These days I saw a photo in a newspaper of the leader of the opposition in Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai, how the police had beaten him up and you could see his face was all swollen and hurt.

But it says here that his face, the Lord's face, was mauled more than any man. His face was mauled. There was no healthy spot left on his whole body. He had been beaten terribly. His whole body was full of wounds and his face and the crown of thorns on his head.

It was a terrible sight and his face was full of a spittle with how they spat upon him. They treated him terribly. His back was like a ploughed field. His hands and his feet had been pierced by those nails.

It was a terrible sight. No one wanted to even look at him. He was the Lamb of God that had been led to the slaughter but he closed his mouth. They left him saying God had smitten him because of his own iniquity.

Yes, the Lord God Jehovah had smitten him severely but not because of his own sins but because of your sins and my sins. They mocked him, speaking all types of evil about him. They raised three crosses.

The two on either side of him were murderers and he was in the middle by that implying that this man in the middle is worse than those on either side of him. He was tormented not just physically but even in his spirit because he had to carry all our guilt to the point where even God forsook him.

He cried out, he said, oh my God why have you forsaken me? May God through his Holy Spirit in these days paint a picture of Jesus how and what he went through for your sake and my sake in these days. Because of our sins he became accursed because of us and he was nailed to that cursed cross.

Sin, the Cross, and Peace with God

People enjoy sin, they continue in their sin but they need to look at the cross to see what sin really means and how terrible it is. Let's never be like the people of Jerusalem calling out Hosanna, God save us, throwing palm branches before where he was going through and yet not even knowing what we're doing.

Palm branches in those eastern countries, they signified peace. Even to this day they decorate the churches in those parts with palm branches during this time. But then on Thursday they remove those branches.

So even those palm branches have a significance during this time that we can remember that that those palm branches they stand for peace, being peace with God and peace with our fellow men. And if you have hatred and grudges and jealousy and envy in your heart there's no peace between you and God and between you and your fellow men.

You're at enmity with God. Jesus said you must forgive one another so that our Heavenly Father will also forgive us. And the Lord says you've been forgiven thousands of pounds worth of debt but you fail to forgive someone who owes you just a few cents.

And God says if you do that neither will you be forgiven. The wounds of the Lord Jesus have not yet helped you. The blood of Jesus has not helped you and will not help you if you fail to forgive those that have sinned against you.

Examining the Heart During the Passion

So on this first day of the Lord's passion, search, test your heart and life whether there's not a root of bitterness in your heart and if it's there you need to repent. If there's any hatred, if there's any sign of hatred you haven't understood what the Lord's passion and crucifixion is about.

You also have a heart of stone and the death of the Lord Jesus hasn't meant anything in your life. And Jesus called out he called out because the inhabitants of Jerusalem didn't understand. They didn't recognize the time of their visitation.

May we receive that grace to recognize the time of the Lord's visitation that we'll understand what his death means to us. Now let us look at the Lord Jesus as he is on the cross. Everything. In verse three he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him.

He was despised and we did not esteem him. I'm amazed how Isaiah describes the Lord's crucifixion. When you read these words it's as if you're reading a report of someone who had stood by the cross and experienced the whole event.

And yet he had lived over 600 years before the crucifixion. But God had revealed to his prophetess servant the whole event, the whole crucifixion as if he had experienced it. He saw how he had been beaten, how he'd been forsaken, how he was smitten and how they'd mocked him.

He saw how they mocked him saying you could save others, save yourself, if you're the son of God get down from the cross. And they spoke all that evil of him. No one ever suffered like he suffered. No one even looked the way he did as after they had beaten him.

And as I said after that beaten him and done all those things to him there they put him in the cross between those two criminals thereby implying that he was even worse than they were. Implying that he was the worst murderer of them all.

But the bible says it was all like that because he carried our diseases, our sicknesses and he carried our sins. But we said like those people who stood by the cross they said well God has smitten him because of his own iniquity.

Christ Bearing the Guilt of Sin

But the word tells us that he was smitten. Yes God did smite him but it was because of our sins. We tell lies. Jesus took that guilt upon himself. Your immorality, drunkenness, your disrespect. And Jesus was prepared to take all that guilt, all that sin, our sin upon himself and God chose to smite him because of it.

And then we still say but sin is enjoyable. Why should we stop it? What's wrong with this? It's because we are blinded. We haven't yet seen Jesus on the cross. Jesus was bruised, he was beaten, smitten, mocked because of your sin.

He was hurt because of our transgressions. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed. And look how he was bruised because of your sin.

And you say sin is nice. I can't forsake sin. You must have a heart of stone and be a blighter than the blightest man in this world if you are not touched and moved by the lamb of God slaughtered on the cross for you.

And the Lord brought upon him all our iniquity. And then in verse 10 it even says yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief when you make a soul an offering for sin. Something I can't understand, that God in heaven, that it pleased him to bruise him, to bring his judgment down upon him.

No wonder he called out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus carried your guilt. He paid your debt. But it means nothing to you. You go with your friends, with the world, in all your worldly ways and you don't stand for the, you can't stand for the truth.

That's why I say may the Holy Spirit do something special in this week, that we will recognize him as he was, what he went through for our sakes. No man from the time of Adam right to the end of time will ever have gone through, or will ever go through what Jesus had to go through, the way he was smitten and beaten.

The Cost of Sin and the Preciousness of Christ

What he had to go through in spirit, soul and body. Jesus should be precious to us. Jesus should mean more to us than our father, our mother, our own child. He should be number one to us. Look at Jesus on the cross and realize what that means for us.

God's wrath was going to come down and was coming down upon sin and Jesus stood in the gap. He came and he said, let it be upon me. He carried that guilt for us and that punishment. And then even our diseases, he carried our sicknesses and what manner of diseases don't you get today?

All sorts and even today you get AIDS, where the flesh just rots away. Jesus carried all of that for us. No wonder there's a hell because one deserves a hell if one rejects such a salvation. But the worst sickness in this world can't be compared to the smallest sin.

Sin is 10 ,000 times worse because sickness kills your body. Sin kills your soul. It kills you for all eternity. If you don't repent of it, turn away from it, part with it, quit sin, break with it. So Jesus, the lamb of God, carried our sins.

Not his own, he had no sin, but he took our sin, your sin, my sin upon himself and it pleased God to smite him because of the fact that he took our sins upon himself. If you just see Jesus once on the cross, it will never be nice again for you to sin, to get into your car, to go and buy drugs or drink or to go and sin.

Sin as Crucifying Christ Anew

And then you young person, you go and flirt around with girls and being immoral and not chaste and pure, you realize what you are doing. You are crucifying him anew and spitting into his face and fisting him.

And then you comfort yourself and say, nobody knows it. Nobody sees it. I do it behind closed doors. I do it in the bathroom. I smoke in the toilet. They don't know about it. What a fool you are. And what a fool the devil has made of you.

But then you look at people all over Africa, throughout the world, living in their sin, as if nothing has ever happened. They make the death of our Lord, his passion, his death to nothing. It means nothing to them.

Forsakenness, Judgment, and the Warning to Jerusalem

And then when they nailed him to the cross after he hung there for a while, he called out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And everyone said, well, this is the end. It's the end of it all. What's the darkest hour this world has ever witnessed?

Never there'll be a darker hour than that. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why? Because of my sin and your sin. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why? Because of my sin and your sin.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But if you don't recognize the significance of this event and make it something in your own life, then Jesus will mourn for you as he mourned for Jerusalem.

And we say, oh, I fear for you, what will come upon you and your family. The flames of hell will lick you while you're still here on this earth, before you even get there. And when the woman came, they wept, they cried.

And when he saw them, he said, daughters of Jerusalem, why do you weep for me? Weep for yourselves and for your children, for your children. We are your children. He says, don't weep for me. There's only one possibility that you'll meet up with something more severe than he met up.

And that will be eternity in hell. And because you side with your children, even though they do wrong, you even justify and excuse what they're doing, but you'll burn in hell with them. And they will accuse you for all eternity.

They'll accuse you for not having wept for them. Your child lives an immoral life and it has illegitimate children, brings them home to you. You assist the child. You help it. You help the child to live that immoral life.

It's obvious you haven't met up with the cross. You haven't seen the Lord Jesus hanging on the cross. May the Lord through his Holy Spirit in these days, draw a picture of the Lamb of God, how he was slaughtered for our sakes, because of our sins, that we will see him before our eyes.

The Suffering Servant's Triumph

And now I get to the last point. When the enemies of the Lord rejoiced saying, well, we've put an end to him, it's finished, it's all over, we've won the victory. There's rejoicing in hell. And then it says, behold, my servant will succeed.

In verse 13, chapter 52. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently and he shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. In 53 verse 1. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground.

Out of dry ground. The driest ground that there has ever been in this world, was Jesus on the cross when he cried out, I thirst, I thirst. And he was in that dry place for you. He has no form of comeliness.

And when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. But at that moment he arose and he overcame. He was in the midst of their celebrations. While they were still celebrating, it all came to a sudden end.

Just when they thought they'd overcome, the hero of heroes arose. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. 53 chapter. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied.

By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. Like a woman in labor, when that child is born, she forgets all the pain, all the difficulty, and she rejoices.

Yet a woman doesn't die, but he died, descended into hell, where your inheritance was. And he came and he took you out of that and lifted you out. Now may I ask you a personal question in closing. When Jesus looks at you today, is he satisfied?

Does he cry out, it's been worth it all? I don't regret that I went through that darkness, pain, agony, hell, being God forsaken. When he sees you, the pain is gone. But when he looks at the Christians, that he's satisfied.

I'm satisfied. It was worth it that I went through hell because of this person. If you have a mind to think and an ear to hear, may you hear that you won't end up having to be mourned for like Jerusalem, but may you see the Lord.

May he show you that picture and may you experience that what it meant when he died for us on the cross. And I can't believe that if you have stood at the bottom of the cross and have seen Jesus the way Isaiah saw him, that you'll ever be the same again.

The language you speak will be different from now on. Your spirit will be different. The life you live will be different. If not, your Christianity is nothing but spiritual handicap. But do you carry on with your grudge?

Prayer for the Holy Spirit to Reveal the Cross

With your hatred? I doubt that you've experienced him. In fact, I think you're a liar and you're just like your father, the devil. Let us stand up and pray. Lord Jesus, please send your Holy Spirit to paint a picture of you on the cross that will see you like the prophet Isaiah saw you.

That we can realize what you did for us. And then the question comes up, what have we done for you? Lord, may that work you've done go deep into our lives and that will cling to you right to the end. Amen.

Amen.