Why Jesus Died (eBook)

CHAPTER ONE

Why Would Anyone Believe in Jesus?

Isaiah 53 is arguably the greatest chapter in the Bible. Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) called it “the Bible in miniature, the Gospel at its essence”. It is the leading messianic text of the Old Testament and is referred to by the early church more than any other passage. It points to the person and mission of Jesus – his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession – more than any other Old Testament passage. It also lays the theological foundation for the Gospel like no other. It points both to the crucifixion and the atonement of Christ in a manner that sounds as though Isaiah 53 were written as history rather than prophecy. Indeed, it is as if Isaiah was an eye witness to what was going on between Good Friday and Easter – and even to Christ’s intercession!

And yet Isaiah 53 is prophecy – proclaiming with infallible accuracy seven hundred years in advance what Jesus would be like and what he would do. One of the greatest proofs of the divine inspiration of the Bible is prophecy. How could anybody know the future? Nobody knows the future. The devil does not know the future. Angels do not know the future. You and I do not know the future. But God knows the future – perfectly. And when, by the Holy Spirit, he gives information about the future to his chosen servants and it is written down, you can count on the reliability of that word. “Above all, you must understand,” said Peter, “that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20–21). Indeed, said Paul, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

An angel of the Lord said to Philip: “Go south to the road – the desert road – that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza” (Acts 8:26). Philip had no idea why he would be given directions like that, but he went. He came to a chariot where a man happened to be reading from Isaiah 53. The Holy Spirit told Philip to go to the chariot, and Philip asked the man in the chariot (an Ethiopian eunuch) if he understood what he was reading. The man replied: “How can I unless someone explains it to me?” Philip accepted an invitation to sit in the chariot to explain these words:

Then Philip, beginning with that very passage of Scripture, told the Ethiopian “the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35). I love the King James translation: Philip “preached unto him Jesus”. That verse represents the tip of the iceberg of how the early church felt about Isaiah 53. It was all about Jesus.

Most modern Jewish writers (sadly) refuse to see the Messiah in this passage, although their predecessors for some reason weren’t so biased. Many ancient rabbis understood Isaiah as referring to the promised Messiah. For example, the first-century rabbi Jonathan ben Uziel paraphrased his Targum (the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) to read: “My servant, the Messiah, will be great, who was bruised for our sins” (verse 5). That is the way the early church interpreted this passage. And yet the truth is that all attempts to explain Isaiah 53 as anything other than reference to the Messiah are palpable failures.

The name Jesus does not appear in Isaiah 53, but its recurring themes – vicarious suffering, total obedience, utter willingness to suffer, the guilt of the people of God, the Lord laying on him our iniquity, being cut off from the land of the living, being numbered with the transgressors, the divine approval – all point to Jesus of Nazareth and what he did by dying on the cross. Prophecy rarely refers to a person’s actual name in advance (as in 1 Kings 13:2 and Isaiah 45:1) but normally portrays the person or situation in a way that, once they have come to pass, leaves no doubt to the believer. This is a key: it is for the believer. Faith is a prerequisite in grasping prophecy in advance as well as seeing it clearly in its fulfillment. God never instructs his prophets to forecast the future in a way that removes the need for faith. Neither is the fulfillment of prophecy so definite that faith is no longer required. The exception to the latter would be the Second Coming of Jesus: “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen” (Revelation 1:7). There will be no doubting then! But all fulfilled prophecies in advance of the Last Day will require faith – which is partly why the Jews missed their Messiah. They needed a “sign” and no sign was given; only the prophet’s word (Matthew 12:39; cf. 1 Corinthians 1:22).

When I was the minister of Westminster Chapel in London we started a street ministry on Saturdays – called Pilot Lights – giving out Gospel tracts and talking about Jesus to passers-by in the streets of Victoria and Westminster. I did this in Buckingham Gate for the last twenty years of my ministry there. It so happened that, on the Saturday before I began my original sermons on Isaiah 53, we witnessed the most memorable conversion from our Pilot Light ministry. Charlie Stride, a London taxi driver, had been given my tract “What is Christianity?” by a member of the scheme the week before. He read it the same day and was “shaken rigid”, he said. Charlie drove to the Chapel the following Saturday to find answers to the questions he had about the pamphlet. He said he had read it again several times over the previous week. He asked me: “Are you the one who wrote this tract?” “Yes.” “I’ve never been so shaken in my whole life,” he said to me. He invited me to sit with him in the back seat of his taxi (which I was very pleased to do on that cold January day). “I’ve had a thousand people in the last thirty years giving me tracts like this. I don’t know why I didn’t tear this one up as I did the others. But it made me see I am afraid to die. I never thought I would believe in Hell until now.” It was a classic case of the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.

Two questions were on Charlie’s mind. His first question was about Jews: “Will Jews go to Hell if they don’t receive Jesus?” He asked this because many of his fellow taxi drivers were Jews. I replied: “I’m afraid that is true.” The other question was: “According to this tract, if I don’t do what it says for me to do then I am going to Hell – is that right?” I replied: “I’m afraid it is.” Instead of being offended (as people often are regarding such matters), he was in tears. Like a ripe fruit waiting to be plucked, he was yearning to know what to do next. I presented the same Gospel to him as will be unfolded in this book. He received it with his whole heart. It was a thrilling day for him of course, but I have to say it was also one of the sweetest moments of my twenty-five years in London. I later baptized Charlie; he became a member of the Chapel and was one of the most beloved people ever to pass our way. On the night of my farewell to the Chapel in 2002 he gave his testimony. Since our retirement he has gone to Heaven.

Isaiah’s opening word in this chapter raises the question: why believe in Jesus? “Who has believed our message?” You may want to ask: “Why would a Jew believe in Jesus?” But I ask: “Why would anyone believe in Jesus?” Indeed, why should they? There are actually two questions that open Isaiah 53:1) “Who has believed our message?”; and 2) “To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” That latter question implies that one needs a revelation in order for a person to believe the message.

A frequent question people often ask after their conversion is: “Why did I not see this before?” One of the most memorable converts from my old Lauderdale Manors Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was a man named George Bellamy. He was fifty when he was saved. After a church service sometime later I saw him looking at the sky with tears running down his face. I said: “Is there anything wrong, George?” “No,” he assured me. “I am only asking why I took so long to see all this.” I looked at him and said: “But, George, some people sadly never see what you have come to see. Instead of regretting the wasted years just be thankful that you have come to see this even at your age!”

The faith that saves is a gift of God. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8)....