Why Did Jesus Have to Die? · Resources

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Summary

It is Good Friday, and Kent Keller turns to Isaiah 53 — a portrait of a pierced and scourged servant written roughly 700 years before Jesus was born, and 150 years before Rome invented the cross. The perfect suffering servant offers the perfect sacrifice, becomes the perfect substitute, and accomplishes the perfect salvation.

Sermon Outline

1. 1

   The Weight of That First Friday ▶ 0:00

   A welcome that explains the quotation marks we quietly put around the word "good" — the aim tonight is not guilt but sobriety.

2. 2

   The Seven Words, the Readings and the Hymns ▶ 1:20

   The service moves through the seven words from the cross, with confession, assurance of pardon, and the old hymns between them.

3. 3

   Uncle John and the Thanksgiving Prayer ▶ 18:25

   Garrison Keillor's family squirmed every year, because they knew the moment Uncle John mentioned the cross he would start to cry.

4. 4

   The Decoder Key: It All Points to Jesus ▶ 20:42

   The Old Testament points ahead, the Gospels point at his earthly life, the letters point back and ahead again. Sixty-six books, one subject.

5. 5

   Isaiah 53, Seven Centuries Early ▶ 22:36

   One of at least forty-eight messianic prophecies, and to Kent the most compelling of them all.

6. 6

   Perfect Servant, Sacrifice, Substitute, Salvation ▶ 27:04

   The sentence the whole message hangs on, said twice so it lands, before he walks the passage a verse at a time.

7. 7

   A Carpenter's Son from a Backwater Town ▶ 28:34

   Nazareth had maybe three hundred people in it. Despised and rejected says more about our eyes than about him.

8. 8

   Yom Kippur and the Two Goats ▶ 30:23

   Leviticus 16: one goat is killed to pay for sin, the other is driven outside the camp carrying it away. Jesus is both — and he dies outside the city wall.

9. 9

   Pierced, Before Crucifixion Was Invented ▶ 34:42

   Isaiah writes about a servant pierced and scourged about 150 years before the Romans devised the cross.

10. 10

    Sheep Are Not the Rocket Scientists ▶ 36:52

    Being called the sheep of his pasture is not a compliment — and admitting that is the only way we ever learn we need a shepherd.

11. 11

    He Did Not Open His Mouth ▶ 38:45

    The witnesses could not agree, and Pilate offered him the chance. He could have walked away, and he stayed.

12. 12

    The Hawk, the Ewe and the Lamb ▶ 46:12

    An Australian pastor scares off a hawk, rolls over a dead sheep, and finds a lamb alive underneath — sheltered by her body, covered in her blood.

Key Points

• All of Scripture points to Jesus — the Hebrew Scriptures ahead to the Messiah, the four Gospels at his earthly life, the letters back at his first coming and ahead to his second.
• Isaiah described a servant pierced and scourged some 650 to 700 years before Jesus was born, and about 150 years before crucifixion existed.
• The Day of Atonement needed two goats — one to pay for sin and one to carry it outside the camp. Jesus is both, and he is crucified outside the city wall.
• Nothing you have suffered is foreign to Jesus; he does not address the human condition as an outsider.
• The peace Isaiah names is shalom — not merely the absence of conflict but full peace between God and man.
• Jesus could have talked his way off that cross. The witnesses contradicted each other, and he said nothing.
• He takes our sin and we receive his righteousness — that is the exchange the cross accomplishes.

Quotable Moments