Jesus Is Mocked

 Mark 15: 16 - 20

 

Jesus Is Mocked

“And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor's headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion.  And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him.   And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!”   And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him.   And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.”

The prophet Isaiah came about in the eighth-century B.C., he anticipated Messiah’s coming with remarkable clarity.  That should not be a surprise in that we are told in 2 Peter 1:20-21, “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.   For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 

 

 Now shall we explore Isaiah 53:1 – 10, “Who has believed what he has heard from us?  And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.   But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds, 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; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.  By oppression and judgment, he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?  And 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.  Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”  

 

The Holy Spirit directed Isaiah’s thoughts about 700 years before Christ came to earth, and it all took place, and it is still taking place as people reject our Lord’s gift of forgiveness and grace, could it be they have no understanding of what their redemption cost God the Father, to take His full wrath out for your sin and mine on His only Son, who has never known sin.  

 

You may be like one I know well who was raised in the church, heard the message of God’s love, had parents that had received Christ, but he was going to wait till he had all the fun the world could offer.  One night in Victoria, Texas in a hotel room, I opened a Bible to Romans 10:9-10, and the Spirit of God said very clearly, Bob tonight is your last chance to receive my offer.  This is what Romans 10:9-10, states; “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.   For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”  That night, I entered into Christ and He entered into me, and yet it has taken many mentors and teachers training me in how to allow Jesus to do it all for me.  I often fall back on my own ability, and it never works out.  

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice