Communion Message
(It pleased the Lord)
June 24-25, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

There is a portion of Scripture found in the ancient text of Isaiah which foretells the coming of Christ. It's the great messianic portion of prophecy. Isaiah writes - 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 inequities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked--but with the rich at His death, because He had been no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; and to put Him to grief.

Now I've read that portion over and over again, 'yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him'. For now we approach the place of pleasure, the place of God's pleasure. At first, this seems utterly impossible, unthinkable, incredible, preposterous for every apparent detail would indicate the very opposite. Is there not every sign of the displeasure of His wrath, the thunder above, the quaking earth beneath, the darkness and the flashing lightning? Then too, is God like men who delight in the sufferings of another? Was it sheer delight with Him to view the viciousness of evil men as they handed out unspeakable treatment to His only begotten Son? Come solemnly down Highway 53 in the province of Isaiah and you will arrive at the place of pleasure, for here we are told it pleased the Lord to bruise Him and to put Him to grief.

I know you don't understand it, at least I hope you don't, because I don't understand it. But my soul is subdued and my heart veritably melts as the myth/fact looms upon the horizon of divine revelation. We cannot be mistaken. The truth silhouettes itself against the black background of that awful site, the cross. And surely the text demands both careful and prayerful attention, for in verse 9 it tells us that His deeds and His words were beyond reproach. He has done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it says it pleased the Lord, He found pleasure, in bruising Him.

Now does this word 'pleased' denote a state of ecstasy at the sorrowful expense of another? Definitely not. What then does it mean? Perhaps an illustration will furnish us with a hint. It's a meeting and the moderator or the chairman of the meeting asks in parliamentary parlance, what is the pleasure of the assembly? Two or more matters are being before them and it's incumbent upon the people to choose, and their choice indicates their pleasure or their preference or their decision. So it is here, all known facts establish this case, either the Son must die or a sin will reign. And when we read it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, we find that God preferred to see His Son die rather than to see sin prevail. One begins to sense something of God's holiness when one sees the unspeakable aversion and hatred with which God regards sin.

What is this bruising? The answer necessitates the special guidance of the Spirit of God. We must stay very close to Him if we're going to fathom its depths, for you see there is another term that appears frequently in the text. He was smitten. He was afflicted by God. And there's that word 'grief' that appears three times in this brief text. In verse 3 He is acquainted with grief, that is contact. The acquaintanceship was an experiential character and at the grave of Lazarus He groaned in the Spirit and was troubled. Jesus knew something of grief. He understood it. Verse 4, we read, surely He has borne our griefs. Now this is concern, it's more than that, and it led to more than that, it moved Him to do something about it. He was concerned about every heartache, every problem, and every one of our needs.

Throw all your anxiety, Peter writes, on Him for His concern is about you. And in verse 10 we come to the climax of His grief, wherein our text it says it pleased the Lord to bruise Him and put Him to grief. Abraham was about to put his only begotten son to death when an angel from heaven called unto him to stay his hand, but here at the cross no angel speaks. Heaven is not only silent, but darkened, and closed; and the fullness of divine wrath, the judgment, with which each of us deserve - it was poured out on the Savior. He suffers and dies alone. Now the well must be drilled before it yields its water. The mine must be dug before it yields its nuggets, and the nut must be cracked before it yields its kernel, and the myrrh must be to crushed before it yields its sweetness; and thus, the Son of God must be bruised and brought to grief before heaven can bestow its blessing.

Now the efficacy and the satisfaction of Christ's work on the cross result in several notable promises from the Father as found in our text. Namely, in verse 10 we read, it was the pleasure of the Lord, or the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. That is, through the nail pierced hand of the Savior shall precede the unspeakable riches of God's provision. Now do you see why it pleased the Lord to bruise Him? To perceive His preference is to praise His matchless name. His way is always right. His way is always the best way. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him, but they are all now in the hands of the conquering Savior for delivery to those who trust in Him. It is though the Father had said, Son, thou didst finish the work which I gave Thee to do. Now I commit to Thy hand the pleasure of dispensing heaven's riches to the needy people of earth, all of the pleasure of God.

It's a word that Isaiah uses. It's hard for us to grapple. It pleased, it was His preference, He made the choice. It was determined. It was His will to bruise His Son, and I've suggested that it's a word that's often used as parliamentary parlance. And I try to put myself in the scene, but I can't. I just know that in the eons of eternity past the Trinity made a decision, and that decision was that the Son would become the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Now if I could have been present I wouldn't have voted for that, none of us would, to see our son hang on a cruel cross. But His ways are different than ours, and it was the pleasure of God to choose the way that makes this moment possible for us. In His divine choice His Son was bruised for me, and that decision was made at the foundations of the world. And so you and I today participate in an experience at communion that was decided upon as a decision by almighty God; that in the fullness of time He would send His Son, and His Son would die on that cross for all of us. That was His choice. It pleased Him to do that for us. That's amazing, absolutely amazing.

Let's kneel and pray, shall we? Lord Jesus we struggle week after week to seek, to comprehend the depth and the mystery, the wonder, and the majesty of redemption. But we come in our contemplations to a point where we are left speechless to imagine that You in ages past, O God, before the foundations of the world would choose to send Your Son to a cross - it's beyond us. But here we are 2000 years after Calvary kneeling in adoration and wonder and love with the emblems of the cross still in our hands. Where You said this bread is likened unto Your body. For it was in Your body You became the substitute for us. You took our sins and You died for our trespasses so that we could live. And with this cup You tell us every Sunday how much You love us, its height, its depth, its width, its length is measured in blood. You gave Your life for us, and all we can do to say thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. Thank you for loving us dear Jesus and dying for us, becoming our Savior, thank you very much. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?